Endless Love

Chapter Seven

Sarah's POV

She had to stay in overnight for observation, and I stayed with her. We stayed cuddled up in the hospital bed.

"Mommy, can you grab my book from the chair please? I think I'm going to have a little read before I sleep"

"Of course, darling" I reached over and grabbed her book. I looked at the cover and saw it was my favourite book, The Goldfinch. I smiled at her

"How'd you like it so far?" I asked her

"Its really good. I love the character personalities, they're all really interesting people to have in one story. I see what you mean about Xandra though, she's so cool in a really weird way" she laughed "I'm dying for them to make it into a film so you can play her"

I laughed "I'm not sure I'm the first person they would cast for her, sweetheart. Although, it would be a dream come true"

She reached over and took the book from my hands, opening it to the last page she had read. We stayed silent for a few minutes, both reading our books. From the corner of my eye I saw her face twitch a little, like she was in pain and then she closed the book.

"What's up, pumpkin?"

"My wrist really hurts to hold the book up. I think it's too heavy a book for me to hold it at the moment. It's okay, I'll just go to sleep now." She smiled

I put my book down and grabbed the Goldfinch and opened it up

"Momma, what are you doing?" her face looked all confused

"Sssh now baby, time for a bedtime story" I stroked her face and began reading

She took my hand in hers and squeezed it hard as a thank you.

I read for a long time, before looking over at Grace and seeing that her eyelids were fully shut and her chest was moving slowly up and down. I snuggled down next to her and slept all the way to morning.

The next day, when we arrived home, I set the living room up for the two of us to watch movies all day. I grabbed some sweet and salty popcorn and added some Reece's too it – our favourite combination. I grabbed blankets and pillows for the couch and I shut all the curtains, leaving only the fairy lights on. It looked brilliant.

Walking to the kitchen, I took her by the hand and showed her into the living room

"Wow, Mommy this is wonderful. Thank you so much." She smiled wide at me and hugged me tight "Oh hey, umm please don't say no... buuuut I'm still planning on going to perform in the Nutcracker ballet tomorrow. I told them I was sick these two days and that was why I hadn't been to practice, they were fine with it and I told them I would be there tomorrow..." She waited cautiously for my response

"Of course you can. I'm never going to stop you doing things that mean the most to you. I'm just going to start helping with your eating, because it's not healthy, okay?" I replied

Again she hugged me and bounced up and down a little to signify her joy

When we finally sat on the couch I handed her the remote. She told me to close my eyes as she picked something. I heard her go to Netflix and I wondered what she would pick.

"Okay, when I say open your eyes you can't say no, okay?" she said

"Alright" I smirked thinking she had picked some soppy romance film. Instead when I opened them I saw she wanted to watch American Horror Story. "Baby..."

"No no no" she hushed me "You agreed. You've never let me watch anything you're in and I want to see some stuff. Everyone always tells me that you're good and the only thing I've seen you in is Birdbox and you die like pretty early on"

"Fine, what season though?" I asked

"Two, of course. You're the lead" she looked at me with admiration and pressed play "You know I have no idea what happens in this, and honestly it's so not cool. All my friends at school watch it and I never have because A) you never want to watch yourself with me, which I personally think is ridiculous because I reckon you're amazing, and B) you told Grandma not to let me watch it" she huffed

"That's because you were a baby then. Now you're a little bit older. Probably still not old enough, but basically old enough"

"Well thank God" she said

We spent the whole day watching the entire season. The episode where Lana gets raped was particularly hard for me to watch, considering my past but the rest was fine – just awkward to watch myself. Grace was engrossed from episode one and at the end of each episode would explode into chatter about what had happened and oh my god Dr Threadson though. I would laugh every time. At the end of the last episode, she turned to me

"You just shot your son in the head, lady" she raised her eyebrows

"Not my real son" I said and tickled her sides making her giggle

When she calmed down, she climbed onto my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck "Thank you for this, I really appreciate it, I really do. This is all I've ever wanted. Just you and me time, I love it so much"

I looked at her and looked at how little and innocent she was. Even at 13, she was tiny, height and weight. And although she looked exactly like me, she still had that baby-faced quality I had in my face until my later twenties. She was perfect

"I love you more than you'll ever know, Baby Bug. Now come on, lets get some dinner, I think I can smell Grandma cooking"

I took her by the hand and led her to the kitchen where she put some music on and we danced around stupidly until my mom finally told us to shut up and sit down because dinner was ready. Having my baby girl home and well was all I wanted, all of this extra stuff was just a massive bonus.