Playing With Fire

Chapter 59: Love Revolver

Chris:

The elevator doors opened on the second floor of Cedars Sanai children's ward. The walls were coated in a fluorescent yellow, with hand drawn butterflies, birds, trees and other harmless nature giving the ward a real childlike feel to it, however that didn't falter the fact that behind each closed door laid a parent's worst nightmare in form of an innocent child, visibly harmed and my little girl just happened to be one of them. My mind was a trip on 100.

I hurried down the hallway in a rush until I found the room Jeniece was staying in, number 7032. No hesitation I entered the room and immediately spotted her laying asleep in the barred hospital bed. Accompanying the room was Jen who was sat in the chair right next to her, Mr and Mrs Cantese opposite. From what I could see she had her right arm wrapped up in a cast and a visible knot on her forehead. What eased me a little was the regulated machine beeping at a steady pace, reassuring me she was breathing. As I walked further in, Jens father stood up from his seat in a protective manor causing mines and his wife's attention to shift onto him. He glared savagely at me and I glanced over at him. Not knowing, nor understanding why this man was bracing up as if he was gonna do something, I shook my head and just ignored him. I didn't have time for this fool or his antics today. "Jenny" I called as I approached her, She hadn't even noticed I'd came in until I called her; she was completely zoned out and by the redness of her eyes I could tell she had been up crying.

"Finally your here" her voice croaked as she stood up and wiped the remainder tears from her eyes

"Yeah your mom's called me. What happened?" I questioned, she sniffed again this time sighed.

"You know how we always be telling her to stop sliding down the banisters on the stairs" she began explaining, "Well she wasn't listening again and she must have lost her balance when trying to climb over the balcony so she fell right from the top over to the bottom and landed on her arm" I winced and then looked down at Niecey; the way Jens stairs in her apartment were designed were so that the top balcony overlooked her living room area. It weren't crazily big or nothing, but the steps leading up to them were high so the fall from the top of the banister to the floor was high, especially for a 4 year old. This was something Jen and I was always telling her about, she had this bad habit of instead of walking down the stairs, just quickly sliding down the banisters. It was something I knew she'd learnt from my nephews Deshaun and Cairo when she went to my Mama's house; they were boys so they were always attempting to do dumb stuff like that on the stairs.

"She is gonna be aight though right? She didn't hit her head or nothing like that?"

"No she just broke her arm and bruised a little, but the doctor said in the morning when she wakes up she'll probably be in a lot of pain from the fall so they want to keep her overnight just to make sure she hasn't got a concussion or anything like that"

"Damn" I sighed putting my head down. It would be the one day I decided not to go over there that something like this happens.

"So where were you if you weren't you at home with your family at quarter to 1 in the morning Christopher?" Jens dad suddenly questioned me. I looked up again and felt myself begin to tense up at the simple fact that he was even talking to me; questioning my ass as if he was at work or something. Jen sensed it too; she knew I couldn't stand her pops it had been that way since I was 15 years old. I hated this dude to the point every time I saw him I just wanted to lay his ass out one good time. I didn't want this nigga to speak to me, look at me, none of that shit. It was bad enough he was my daughter's grandfather but he was also a cop, so I had to deal with his whack ass questioning approach every time I saw him.

"Man ain't nobody trying to talk to you" 'I said over my shoulder not even bothering to turn around.

"I don't care who you're trying to speak to, I'm talking to you and I want to know why my daughter has to ring me up in the middle of the night crying for help instead of her boyfriend whose supposed to be there!" The rise in his voice caused Jeniece to slightly twitch in her sleep. I turned around to face him but Jen gently grabbed hold of my arm quickly stopping me from saying anything to him.