A Place To Call My Home

Chapter 12

She'll come back as fire

To burn all the liars

Leave a blanket of ash on the ground

Another few days passed and Diane continued to spend most of her time at the hospital. Alex was slowly becoming more alert, but she was still in pain. Piper had been released and was staying at Alex's apartment. Diane tried to encourage her to rest as much as possible, but Piper still went to the hospital every day. As Alex got better, Diane started spending nights at Alex's apartment to keep Piper company. She slept in Alex's office, while Piper slept in Alex's room. Nicky also spent as much time as she could with Piper, who was still deciding on whether to see the hospital psychiatrist.

Diane was just grateful that Alex was getting better, it had been the hardest week of her life. It was early evening and Diane was helping Alex with her dinner, she'd only just started sitting up again and it was proving to be painful. But Diane was glad to see Alex's attitude return, no matter how uncomfortable she was.

"I'm not an invalid mum, you don't need to sit here and feed me."

Diane just rolled her eyes and smiled, "Is that why you groan so loudly every time you move an inch?"

Alex managed her own smile and kept letting Diane help her with dinner. Diane told her she'd been spending the nights with Piper, and would keep staying once Alex got out. "I just wanna make sure you're okay Alex, you'll need help for a while, and Piper needs her own help."

"I just don't want you to turn your life upside-down because of this."

Diane was all too familiar with this side of Alex's personality, the push back, but she was not in the mood for it after the last week. "You're my daughter Alex, so yeah, when you nearly fucking die, it turns my life upside down." She saw the look in Alex's eyes change, and she knew she'd hit a nerve. "This week, Alex this week has been the worst week of my fucking life, you could have died, you could have fucking died. You're my only kid, we've always gotten through things together, but sometimes this week....sometimes I wasn't convinced...But the worst part is that I keep imagining you back here, because of your job. You are not allowed to die before me kid, don't you fucking dare..."

Diane tried to contain her emotions as she stared off into nothing. She didn't mean to say all those things, but she needed to get it off her chest, she needed Alex to understand. She felt Alex reach out and grab her hand, "I'm sorry mum, I didn't mean to scare you. I don't know why I just ran into that fucking house on my own, I wasn't thinking straight. I...I just did it, all I could think about was protecting her, I didn't care what happened to me. But she still got hurt anyway..."

"You need to start caring about what happens to you, you're no good to her if you keep getting hurt. And you need to talk to her about that night Alex, but don't push too hard, let her go at her own pace."

Diane could see the panic rise in Alex's eyes. They hadn't really spoken about the details of that night, or what happened after Alex lost consciousness. Diane felt it wasn't her right to tell that story, she wanted Piper to tell Alex when she was ready. Truthfully, she was worried about how Alex would react, that she'd run off and do something else crazy.

She heard the quiver in Alex's voice as she asked that inevitable question, "Did he rape her?"

Diane tried to give her daughter a reassuring look, but deep down she knew nothing would comfort her about this, "Alex, you and Piper need to talk to each other about that night."

Diane saw the change on Alex's face, that familiar look of pain, and leaned in gently to hug her. She felt Alex's tears roll onto her shoulder as she rubbed her back, trying to calm her down.