Chapter 27 Home

                                    

                                          
The last week has been one of the longest weeks of my life. I am finally going home today, if my doctor signs off on it. The bruises are still very clear but does not hurt as much anymore and the pain meds have kept me asleep most of the time. I have not really talked to anyone since that first morning I woke up in the hospital because the meds made me so groggy. I called Leah but only after I missed at least 200 calls from her and the cops came to speak with me again. Jack and Michael are still missing, which scares the crap out of me but I have not been left alone since I woke up. Christian is almost always here but sometimes Luke or the others would force him to go get some rest and take his place for a while. My therapist sessions are private as well as daily but probably necessary, although I absolutely despise them. I also started doing some rehab for all my injuries but my doctors are forcing me to take it slow and I would have ignored them if it was not for the fact that I am under 24/7 surveillance and Christian almost lost his shit when I overdid it one day, making me promise not to do it again. I can not wait to see Leah, she promised to come by the house later today since the police did not allow any visitors other than my family and Christian's (because his parents are my lawyers), something about my safety and not taking chances on psychos like Jack and Michael. Leah did try to sneak in using a nurse's uniform but got taken down by one of the guards and almost spend a night in holding so we decided to rather wait it out. My new and improved social worker has given Joe and Ellie full custody for the foreseeable future and implemented a few new rules. I have to attend 3 therapy sessions each week (which is a bit excessive if you ask me but no one did), I have to show up for all my follow up doctor's appointments including my rehab sessions and she is popping in for surprise visits. I really hope she turns out to be as lazy as the previous one and forget about all the surprise visits before I turn 18. Getting dressed on my own is still not quite possible with all my injuries and with my broken leg and my arm in a sling I will be wheelchair bound for the next few weeks, which is something that I refuse to accept. I know I can still walk or at least hop on one leg instead of that, anything will be better than that but apparently it is something else that is not up to me so I have decided to take the wheelchair all the way to the car without making a big deal and then ditching it as soon as we get home. Home. That is the other thing I have been absolutely obsessing over. How will it even work moving back in to my childhood home and bedroom? Joe and Ellie have kept all my belongings safe and said that it never stopped being my room but I thought it might be weird moving back into a High School Musical themed room and agreed to let Ellie and the girls redecorate it for me when they offered. The thing is, now I do not know what to expect. When I used to dream about going back home I always saw my High School Musical themed room. Luckily they involved Leah in the redecorating (even if it was just to keep her from calling the hospital every five minutes). I just want to get out of here and get back to living my life or rather start living my new life. The team send me gifts and a card that everyone signed. "Ready to go, Kate?" One of my nurses asks me when she walks into my room. "I have been ready since yesterday," I say smiling back at her. Christian is still sleeping in the chair next to my bed and she goes to wake him so I can get dressed in private. "No, wait. Leave him. He stayed up all  last night watching movies with me when I couldn't sleep and if you wake him now he won't go back to sleep again until I do," I quickly stop her. "I don't mind him staying." She gives me a knowing nod and proceeds to getting my new set of clothes that aunt Ellie brought earlier. Getting them on proves to be a challenge on its own but when I am finally done the doctor walks in with the rest of my family short on his heel and a wheelchair in hand. I guess it is finally time. "I'll get Chris. He might actually go crazy on our asses if we just leave him here," Alice says jokingly. Joe helps me sit up in bed while Luke holds the chair close so I do not have to walk to far. The transition goes smoother than I expected. "Okay, can we please get out of here now?" I plead when they do not move quick enough. Hospitals are really, really not my thing. "You can drive with us and then the parents can all go together in the other car. What do you say dad?" Luke asks Joe. Christian tries taking my chair from Luke but Luke just pushes him away. "No, dude. She is my cousin and you've had your turn, what did mom say about sharing?" Luke tells Christian when he starts sulking. Alice and Emma just give a knowing smile. I am not sure who is driving but I really hope it is one of the boys because I can not imagine Alice or Emma actually passing driver's ed. They are both terrible with speed limits, if I remember correctly they even got us in trouble for almost flipping the country club's golf cart when we were 9. That used to be one of the scariest moments of my life but that was before I met Michael and Jack. "I'll drive," Christian says reading my mind. The drive back home flies by and when we reach the house it still feels surreal to me that I made it back, alive and kicking (barely but still). If it were not for the stabbing pain through my body and all the 'kids' driving on their own, I would have sworn we were arriving home after a day at school. Like in the good old days. Even the air smells better from here. I missed walking into this house. This is exactly what I needed to feel better. Home at last.