singled

~forty-eight~

By the time Casey's mom got here with Ben and Cayden- the medicine had knocked Casey out.

Cayden was a crying mess- and apparently had been for the past two hours.

I bounced her in my arms, trying to calm her as Ben and Calum talked about everything that happened- Calum trying to make sure Ben was mentally okay.

"Let's try something" Ashton spoke, taking Caydens crying body from me.

"Lift her shirt" Ashton spoke to me, nodding to Casey's sleeping body.

I slowly lifted her shirt, revealing her stomach.

Ashton laud Cayden on Casey's here stomach, holding her to make sure she didn't fall off

The crying slowly stopped, Caydens eyes soon closed- herself falling asleep.

"Skin on skin contact" Ashton grinned as we all watched.

"The bond between a mother and her baby" michael mumbled from the chair beside the bed.

I watched Casey's mom in the corner

I saw her wiping her tears

Today she got the news that her daughter tried to kill her other daughter.

Today she got the news that her daughter was under the influence of six different drugs, one being bath salts.

Today- her life crashed.

I walked to her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"I don't know where I went wrong" she cried into my chest as Calum also joined the hug.

"You didn't" I mumbled to her.

"We all start making our own decisions- she just made really bad ones" I mumbled.

"That wasn't Macey, Kathy- we all know that" cal whispered.

"That was the drugs- that was the people she was with, that was not your baby girl" he spoke to her.

"Whenever she gets out- we're getting her clean, we're making her go to church, we're making her apologize to Casey" she cried out.

God knows how long it will be before she gets out of prison.

"We'll handle that when it gets close." Cal told her.

Just as she stopped crying, I felt Ben wiggle his way into the hug, making her laugh lightly, her hand rubbing Ben's head softly.

"My babies" she whispered- glancing from Ben to Casey and Cayden.

We ended up carefully putting Cayden in one of the hospital baby beds.

We got several visits from police officers, lawyers, our bosses, child counselors for Ben, our interns- so many people who just stopped by to make sure everything was okay.

I looked to the eight of us in the room, smiling

Our family

One missing- but hopefully, she would be okay enough to join us again one day.