29 Gentle Words!

A few minutes later, the nurse returned with the doctor who had been looking after Kelvin for the past week.

"Honestly, there isn't anything that we can find wrong with your son Mrs. Jaeger, all his tests and exams came back with positive results, some even above the average; he's perfectly healthy and I'm ashamed to say that I really can't tell why he was asleep for those three days."

Isabel was glad to hear that there was nothing wrong with Kelvin and she lowered her head to kiss the top of his hair as the little boy laid there obediently while his sister played with his fingers.

"If you want to take him home, then I really have no reason to stop you. I would first need you to sign this release sheet and then Kelvin will be free to go."

"Thank you Dr. Toby."

Isabel smiled as she stretched her hand out to receive the clip board with the release sheet and Dr. Toby brought it to her since she couldn't very well move with the twins occupying her lap.

Once the form was filled out, Isabel gave it back then she hugged the silent little guy on her lap, mischievously kissing the corner of his mouth and making Kelvin's eyes go wide. She giggled.

"So, are you satisfied now, you're getting to go home."

"Will you be coming home with me?"

Isabel paused for a bit as she watched Kelvin who was looking up at her with his dark blues wide open.

Usually Kelvin wasn't like this; he was the stereotype of what people would call a 'good child': never crying, never complaining and never saying what it is they really want, always considering others first and honestly, the way he was before used to make Isabel's heart hurt. He had obviously changed since waking up yesterday, but Isabel was finding that this change made her heart hurt in a different way.

Lowering her head, Isabel bit playfully at Kelvin's neck. The unexpected attack caused the little boy to scream loudly as he broke into laughter.

"You naughty boy, are you doing this on purpose today? Acting all cute so suddenly."

"I am cute." Kelvin declared, lifting his chin slightly in that arrogant princely little way of his that made Isabel's heart itch.

"Cheeky." She tapped his nose and Kelvin laughed.

"I won't be coming home with you, Aunty Davi and I have to swing by the company for a short while to get some things done today. You and Nixy will go home with Aunty Kim, okay."

Kelvin pursed his lips, obviously dissatisfied, but he had acted willfully enough for one day and he knew he couldn't push it too far so he conceded on that point. Besides, he knew that Sunshine was probably the safest place in the world for his mother; he could relax if he knew that was where she was going.

"Okay, let's pack up your stuff and get out of here."

When Isabel said that, Kelvin immediately jumped from her lap and went over to one side of the bed where he pulled out the overnight bag Kim had packed and brought to the hospital the first day he had fainted; it was already fully packed.

"What?" Seeing his mother staring at him blankly, Kelvin tilted his head a way similar to what Isabel usually did and blinked his eyes innocently. "I told you that I wanted to go home."

Isabel blinked and looked over at Kim who had dropped her head into her hand, her shoulders shaking silently then she looked at Davina who was the first to burst into laughter before the other two women followed, dissolving into a mirthful mess.

A few minutes later, Isabel and Davina watched from the hospital's front steps as Kim's pearl blue civic drove away with Phoenix waving through the rear windshield. She waved all the way until the car reached the end of the stretch, then just before they turned the corner and disappeared from sight, Isabel saw a small hand reach up and pull Phoenix to sit down.

She chuckled then turned to Davina, narrowing her eyes as she looked at her friend.

Davina was dressed in her most common get up of suit pants and a long sleeved dress shirt and after sleeping, having something to eat and getting a good laugh earlier, she looked much better than she had when she first walked into the room earlier today though her hair was still a mess, but since it was short, it didn't look particularly terrible.

"What?" Feeling Isabel's gaze on her Davina glanced over and asked only to see Isabel shrug.

"Nothing much, it's just..." Isabel raised a finger and lightly touched at a large and jarring dark bruise on Davina's neck that had been hidden all along but suddenly became exposed when she turned her head and the shirt moved a bit.

Now, in all her life, Isabel had only had sex once: with Brycen when she conceived Kelvin and Phoenix and never again had she touched or been touched by a man, but she had lived almost to the age of forty in her last life, she knew a 'love bite' when she saw one and the one on Davina's neck was severe.

This wasn't as simple as a 'hickey', it was almost like a savage bite mark left behind by the brutal marking of a beast to declare their territory and tell others to back off. The bruise was dark but on looking closely Isabel could make out different shades of purple, blue and red clots under the skin. It made her scalp tingle just from looking at it, she couldn't even imagine being the one to have it.

Raising her eyes to look at Davina's now pale expression as she pulled up her shirt collar to hide the mark, out of the corner of her eye, Isabel caught sight of another bruise as Davina's shirt sleeve fell back slightly and the buttoned cuffs revealed her wrist. Those... those looked like binding marks!

Isabel was shaken to her core by that realization and her worry for her friend only increased.

"Davi, this---"

"Don't ask!"

Isabel was stunned by Davina's shout and she stood frozen for a while, watching as the other woman lowered her head, clutched her shirt collar with one hand while tugging her shirt sleeve with the next.

"Please Izzy, just don't ask."

The anger, sadness and humiliation that rolled off of Davina was thick and suffocating to the point that Isabel who was standing next to her had to step back to breathe properly. But in the next moment, once she had taken a deep breath she charged forward and pulled Davina into a hug, catching the other woman off guard.

"It's alright." Isabel patted Davina's back with one hand while she softly stroked her short hair with the other. "It's alright if you don't want to talk about it now... or ever, but just know that I'm here for you Davi. I'll always be here for you, no matter what, alright."

A warm hug, comforting touch and gentle words, they brought Davina to tears and she clutched the back of Isabel's cloak, burying her face into her shoulder as she cried.

However, what Davina didn't know was that contrary to the warmth of her words and actions, the temperature of Isabel's expression and in her eyes were freezing cold.

As she thought, she had neglected too many things in her past life for the sake of pursuing Brycen. There were a lot of things she didn't know about even though they concerned the people closest to her, but it was alright. She didn't know for now, but she had the hacker and investigator that would cultivate the largest and most efficient information network in all of A Country in the next eight years sitting right in her palm and he owed her big time from the last life.

Anything she wanted to know, she'd be able to find it out sooner or later, even if the person themselves didn't want her to know.

Hugging Davina until she was calm, Isabel offered her a tissue from her purse then waited for her to clean her face.

"Better?" she asked and Davina rolled her eyes.

"Hardly."

"If you have an attitude, then you're definitely better." Isabel grinned. "Come on, I'll drive."

Hearing Isabel say so as she turned on her heels and headed to where the black audi was parked on the side of the road, Davina shuddered and instantly made long strides to surpass her.

"No, that's okay. I'll drive."

That fifteen minute devil dash that Isabel had made out of the half an hour journey from Sunshine to Rickson the day Kelvin fainted still left her with half a head of grey. It was a miracle that they hadn't encountered any police on the way.

She wasn't willing to experience such 'thrills' again just yet.

How could Isabel not know what Davina was thinking, her eyes twinkled mirthfully as she watched her friend jog along in front of her, but as the wind blew and flung back Davina's collar, once more exposing that gruesome bruise on her neck, Isabel's smiling eyes took on a dull luster.