When Kat Came Back

Chapter 9

Ashlynn spent one more night in the hospital before the doctors were happy to release her.  For the time being, she was released into Patrick's custody. Patrick was happy with that. Ashlynn seemed resigned. Not unhappy exactly, but resigned. She knew the family she'd known her entire life was not her family. But now, this stranger, but someone she'd known of for so long, was not only her guardian but her brother. And he was famous. And so were his friends. Ashlynn was overwhelmed to the point that none of this seemed to be fazing her in any way.

"I guess, if you're staying with me, we should probably upgrade my hotel room to a suite, so you can have a bedroom," Patrick suggested. Ashlynn just looked at him.

The social worker met them at the hospital the morning Ashlynn was released, and drove her and Patrick to her house where she'd be able to pack her belongings. The social worker pulled up to the house and Ashlynn just stared at it.

"Ash?" Patrick asked. "Want to go in and get some of your stuff?"

Ashlynn didn't answer. She twisted the sleeves of her long sleeved shirt around her fingers.

"They're not in there. Karen isn't in there," Patrick tried to reassure her.

"I know," Ashlynn said quietly. "But I don't know if I want to go in there."

"How come?" Patrick said, sitting back down in the back seat with her.

"There's nothing there for me. None of it is mine. None of it belongs to me."

"Don't you have, like, a computer you want, or a stuffie? Clothes? There's got to be something you'd want to keep with you," Patrick said. He couldn't believe that there would truly be nothing that Ashlynn would want from even her room. "Nothing in your room?"

"Maybe," she said, looking again at the house. The social worker waited patiently for Ashlynn to get out of the car.

The social worker let them into the house and Ashlynn looked around. The last time she'd been in this house, she'd left for school, her dad pretending she didn't have a black eye and a bunch of bruises. The living room looked so empty, even though they rarely used the room.

Ashlynn looked into the kitchen and saw her mom's - no, Karen's - coffee cup on the sideboard, a pot of coffee left in the carafe beside it. The newspaper was on the table.  So was her dad - no, Brian's - coffee cup and a piece of stale toast.  They'd been eating breakfast when the police came?

Ashlynn turned away from the kitchen. Patrick followed silently behind her, wondering what was going through her mind as she looked around the house.

At the top of the stairs, Ashlynn pushed open a door into what was obviously her room.  It was decorated in pink, with a canopy bed. They certainly made it look like they had the perfect family, Patrick thought to himself.

Ashlynn pulled a duffle bag out from under her bed and started opening drawers in her dresser. She pulled out some t-shirts, underthings, some other stuff Patrick couldn't identify.  She moved to her closet and pulled out a few sweatshirts and jeans. Then, she went into her bathroom and gathered up her toiletries, including a box of tampons she held tight to.

"We have tampons in Illinois," he said. "Uh, unless you need them now."

"Yeah. I kind of do," Ashlynn said, putting the box under a pile of t-shirts in her bag.

On her desk was a laptop and she packed that into a blue backpack, into which she packed a power bar with the chargers plugged into it. She then went to a bookshelf and pulled out a ratty copy of 'Runaway Bunny'.

Patrick stared. The corners were completely chewed and bulged as though they'd been dipped in water.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.