Anna’s Homecoming

Adriens tears soaked the thin gown Anna's lithe body swam in as he held onto her as if she was his lifeline. He sniffed pathetically, and wiped his running nose with his sleeve.

"I thought we lost you,"Madeline sobbed into Paul's shoulder, creating a nice sized puddle on his shirt and the floor, "I love you so much my sweet angel." She couldn't take it anymore and adrien released the girl just in time to not be crush by a mother hen. She was playing with her soft auburn hair, twirling it around her fingers and frantically kissing her head, like she would die if she didn't get every inch.

"Oh what the heck!" Paul said, throwing his hands up. He joined in on it, earning a grown from Anna. But the relief was clear as day on everyone's face.

"If you ever do that again, I will bring you back and kill you personally." Adrien whispered in her ear, once Madeline let go, tickling it with his minty breath. Anna's mom was back to hugging her husband.

"Noted." Anna retorted, letting out a breathy laugh. She looked to her parents. "I love you guys." They both returned it and they sat in a comfy silence for a while until a nurse came in.

"Hey mom, hey dad! So I just need you both to step outside to sign some papers to get this beautiful girl out!" She said upbeat, shooting a gentle look to Anna. She turned on her heel and the parents followed her out. She always found it weird that Nurses and Doctors called the parents "Mom and Dad." They weren't their parents, but she supposed that it was because she was young.

"So Anna..ready to go?" The nurse shook Anna from her thoughts. Anna nodded gratefully and stood up.

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Her neon pink duffle bag hung heavy on her shoulder, and her black adidas clicked against the tiles hospital floor as they left the room that she had resided in for 5 long months. As they all passed, they waved to nurses who had braided her hair and talked to her and was just generally kind.

Anna not-so-sneakily snatched a lollipop and a Dora the Explorer sticker from the front desk while the desk nurse pretended not to notice, viewing her magazine with little interest. She mentally thanked her and snickered, turning back and jogging to her original route. She stuck the sticker over her breast and popped the blue raspberry sucker into her mouth, biting it like a psycho to get rid of the evidence faster and quickly threw it into the trash can by the front.

She flashed back to when she was 10 and her parents didn't allow her to get a sticker nor a lollipop. Let's just say she wasn't happy. What? She needed some compensation for getting a flu shot! To her parents credit though, she got McDonald's on the way back home.

They walked out the automatic sliding main doors. They stopped suddenly, jumping back to avoid being run over by an ambulance zooming by like a cheetah, with shining lights and all that jazz.

The door flew open so fast that Anna actually flinched despite being far away from the vehicle. The back of the truck shook a bit as they carried a young boy out. Everyone was just standing and staring at this point.

Multiple doctors filed out of the doors just as fast, just by the look of them, they looked like they had seen too much death. She felt a pang in her heart. People really needed to start appreciating doctors and nurse more..

       "Leo Carter, 14, hit by car. Bpm thready, possible spinal injury!" An EMT yelled urgently at the doctors, rushing a pale, bruised and bloody boy into the doors of another entrance. She gasped at the sight of him. His arm, leg, and neck was splinted and his back was on a board. His left eye looked swollen and she could faintly see the tiny trickles of blood running out of his mouth. He left her view.

Poor boy.., she thought, turning to look at the ground, her hair getting into her face.

A hand slipped around her shoulder and squeezed it. She looked up at the owner of the hand and saw her dad staring at her with a protective and worried gaze. She wondered if he thought about her in that position. She unconsciously pressed closer to his body, he felt like safety. She grabbed her moms hand too and looked into the eyes of Adrien.

Adrien had arranged to sleep over at Anna's, only because he promised to let her sleep and they're wasn't anything taxing going on. Even with that, they were hesitant, but Anna convinced them. Anna rolled her eyes after they agreed. She was fine. They were just overreacting. And although they did that, she was blessed to have such good parents to look after her.

Recent events were placed into the back of her mind as they all made it to the black Toyota, glittering like a chandelier in the sun. The seats were hot and the belt buckles even more so, but it felt like heaven compared to the air conditioned building, which she had been in while sporting a particularly thin gown that was backless. She felt her cheeks heat up a little at that, she was sure her blue polka dotted undies were not a pleasing sight.

Her eyes closed as the car moved to what she pegged as home, Adriens rough hands interlacing with her soft ones. Her parents smiled in the front seat. They're such a cute couple, Madeline mouthed to Paul, even if they don't know it yet. Anna and Adrien weren't a couple, no, they were just friends. Friends that held hands and said I love you. She fell asleep to the rocking of the car and the soft, melancholy tune of Before you go by Lewis Capaldi.