Damaged

Chapter 4

>>Bailee's POV<<

I woke up with a pain in my chest, each breath excruciating. I ignored the pain like I have many times prior, it only becoming an everyday routine for the past two weeks. Feeling a presence in the room, I felt three pairs of eyes on me. Since I hadn't moved a muscle I guess they believed I was still asleep. One little girl was laying beside me, her head resting beside mine on the pillow. One boy was sitting next to me, his hand holding mine while his thumb soothingly rubbed my knuckles. Lastly, a man sat at the bottom of the bed, his hand settled on my knee. I almost felt a little crowded, but these three people were family; My daughter, my ex-husband/bestfriend, and my doctor who doubled as another father to me. "Hi mommy," Aaliyah's sweet voice filled my ears sending a small smile onto my face. "Hi babygirl," I held her hand in mine giving it a light squeeze. "How you feeling, shawty?" Music to my ears, I love the name. "I can tell ya she feels like there is a pregnant obese elephant sitting on her chest." I heard Castro speak up in a serious way unlike his usual joking tone. "Not really, it's not that bad." I wasn't gonna lie and let on like I was in more pain than I really was. that's just unreasonable and uncalled for. "1-10?" I pondered the question for a minute deciding if the pain was a magnitude of a seven or eight. "7.5?" I smiled lopsidedly looking in Justin's direction. "You sleep alright last night, boo?" I finally fluttered my eyes open to see his caramel ones staring down lovingly at me. "Not as well as I would with you, but it was alright," He gave me a sly smirk. "Don't even, Daddy. You slept like a rock!" Aaliyah called him our causing me to laugh a little, making the pain intensify a small amount. "How would you know, little miss?" He provoked her farther sending a playful grin her way. "Because I got up about two this morning and had me some mac&cheese before going back to bed." Castro got a surprised-like glint in his eyes, "Really? That's what time your mommy got up and ate." She smiled down at me in the cutest way, "Yeah, I guess we just have that special of a connection." Something about what she said made me get emotional, feeling the sensation in the back of my throat signaling that tears may soon fall. "Who are you and what have you done with my little girl?" I smiled wide up at her before leaning over and kissing her cheek. "I'm right here, Mommy." Her gaze met mine as her eyes turned silver, 'Grandma, Grandpa, and Bubby visited me last night. They told me everything.' My eyes widen before I quickly recovered, 'Really sweetheart? I was going to tell you, but I wanted to wait until.. well you know when.' I looked down at our joined hands and looked back up to see tears forming in her eyes as well. I wiped the first one away and brought her back down to me so that she was laying beside me with her head resting on my chest, her face buried in the crook of my neck as she cried. It was a touchy subject that I never wanted to have to talk to her about, but she needed to know. Justin gazed down at me before running a hand through my hair and swiping his thumb across my cheek to rid of the single tear that slid from my left eye. He may not know what the crying was about but somehow, I knew he understood. He didn't ask why, he let us sit in silence as we held each other allowing the tears to flow freely without a care.

"Has Castro said anything to you?" I glanced over at him hoping he hasn't heard anything yet. "No, is there something I need to know?" I nodded, "I don't know if I can tell you or not without breaking down again." I diverted my vision to the ceiling, not able to look him in the eye. It was too hard. "Justin," I swallowed my pride and tried not to fall apart even though I knew it was inevitable, "they are giving me only three months to live." I wrapped my arms tighter around his torso and buried my face in his neck, not wanting to see his reaction. I'm already broken, I don't need to be shattered. I felt his heart stopping beating, missing six beats before it's speed picking up tremendously. I could tell by the way he held me and the way his body was shaking, he wasn't taking the news well. I felt his tears on my head as I tried to calm myself down. I knew that if I gave out one more time, it could very likely be the end of me. I heard my beating heart speed up on the monitor even though I couldn't feel it due to the morphine that would knock me into an unconscious state at any moment taking away all the pain and sending me into a deep, peaceful sleep. Of course, I would wake up in four hours if I didn't die while I roamed in dreamland, and of course the pain would soon come back to suffocate me. Justin's body slowly turned him on to his side as he stared down with depressed eyes and a worried expression. Castro then walked in and explained to Justin what I just told him and all the other loads of problems I have. I then felt far away from them both as their voices wavered and black clouds began rolling in slowly transforming my vision from a hospital room to a empty black void.