Take A Walk (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 5 of The Hardships Saga)

Chapter Twenty-One

❝grief (pronounced ɡriːf or greef), noun
intense sorrow, especially caused by someone's death.❞

An hour passed. Two hours. Elle drifted in and out of sleep. Once, it was because the nurse had come in to administer her pills, then because she thought she heard Ivy, then because she had a nightmare about Frank.

Her mind was muddled when she woke up, but she saw familiar eyes looking at her. "What do you want?" she mumbled, looking at Ivy.

"Cassie's here," she said, sounding slightly hoarse. "She said she wants to see you."

"Why are you crying?" asked Elle suspiciously.

"Who said I was crying?" asked Ivy, back to her usual, cold self. "The psychologist is here. She wants to talk to you, and hopefully Cassie at the same time."

"Okay. But your eyes are red. Either you've been blazing, or you've been crying. As your client, I sure as hell hope you aren't blazing." Elle stood up, leaving for the room where she was allowed to see people, and saw Cassie standing inside the room. She was allowed inside?! She could have invited Drew! Finally spent some time with him again!

But no, it was better than she invited Cassie. Cassie knew details that would help get her acquitted. Drew didn't. She pushed aside everything she was feeling and hugged Cassie tightly, holding her close and kissing her cheek.

"I'm so glad you're here," breathed Elle.

"I'm glad you're okay," Cassie whispered back. "And that whoever hurt Gabriel didn't hurt you."

She pulled away. "You believe me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I- I don't know. No one else seems to."

"Well, they will when you're acquitted," said Cassie firmly. "The psychologist is here. Let's talk to her."

Elle's heart was racing when she walked with Cassie, seeing the psychologist... the one she'd seen before. "Wait. Julia?"

"Elle! I knew it was you! You told me your name was Eleanor, though," responded Julia with a smile, hugging her. "I'm so sorry about everything that's going on."

"I'm sorry I lied. And you've nothing to be sorry for."

"Alright. Let's get started with the session. We're gonna go into another room, and Elle, you're gonna lie down. Cassie, do you want to have your session at the same time as Elle, or later?"

"What do you prefer, Ellie?"

"Later," said Elle softly. She didn't want Cassie to bring up Frank. She didn't want to relive that.

"Alright, then." Julia lead Elle into a room, and Cassie watched on quietly as the door closed. Julia's short hair was sticking up at the back when she turned around. "Now, would you prefer to lie down, or sit?"

"Anything's fine."

"You seem a bit tired, how about you lie down, and then I'll make you a cup of tea. Or coffee, whichever you prefer."

"I like tea," said Elle softly.

"Good. Let's get started." As she turned the kettle on to boil some water, she turned around. "Now, do you want to tell me what happened that day? Everything up to the point where you don't remember?"

"Okay," said Elle. "W-Well... we asked Gabriel if we could go back home, and he said we could, because he had lied to us about killing our mother. And so there was nothing really stopping us if we didn't have that threat over us. Cassie went to Adrian's house to spend time with him and his little brother, and Gabriel... he asked me if I wanted to look at some photos. We were looking through photo albums and... that's the last thing I remember. After that, everything kinda goes fuzzy, and then it was dark and I saw something shiny, so I grabbed it, and at that moment, the lights turned on, Pa was there, and I was holding a knife. And Da..." She felt a sob rise up inside her. "F*ck. He's gone, isn't he? He's really gone?"