“We can stop and pick her up on the way to the hospital,” the paramedic said.“I’ll go let them know.We’ll leave in a few minutes.”
Once he had walked off, I turned my attention to Gage.
“I don’t know if there will be room in the ambulance for all of us,” I said softly, not wanting him to feel like he wasn’t wanted.“Would you be able to meet us at the hospital?I would really love to have you there with us if you—”
“Absolutely.I’ll let Patrick know what’s going on and see if he wants to ride over with me.”
He walked off, holding the phone to his ear as he let my brother know what was going on.
I breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful for the support we had.
He came back a few minutes later and smiled warmly at me.“It’s all taken care of.”
“I don’t know what I would do without you,” I said with a smile as I stared at the man I loved.
“That’s something we’ll never have to worry about.”
He squeezed my hand gently, making a silent promise that only our hearts understood.
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It was super late bythe time we got home from the hospital.Thankfully, everything with Daisy was fine, and they didn’t find anything of concern.She told the doctor that Joel had given her a pill to put under her tongue, which made her go to sleep.The doctor assured us that since her vitals were within normal ranges, he felt confident that whatever had been given to her was out of her system.We would continue to monitor her, and if anything out of the ordinary came up, we promised to take her back in.
I, on the other hand, had two cracked ribs and several bruises that hurt like a bitch.But there wasn’t any internal bleeding or signs of distress that we needed to worry about.The doctor did suggest that I have someone monitor me during the night, just to be on the safe side, since I’d hit my head so hard on the floor when I fell.
My dad offered to sleep in one of the other rooms so I could sleep in the room with my mom and Daisy.She had been shaken up, and rightfully so, given what happened, so she wanted to be as close to me as possible.While I was in a lot of pain and struggled to get comfortable, we both fell asleep quickly with her tucked in next to me.
By the time I woke up the next morning, my mom and Daisy were already up and in the living room.I climbed out of bed and pulled on a hoodie, a shiver running through me as I looked at the fresh-fallen snow outside.I opened the bedroom door and smiled as I walked down the hall and heard laughter.When I walked into the living room, everyone stopped what they were doing in the living room and stared.
Daisy jumped up and came running over, wrapping her arms around my stomach so tightly that she almost knocked me over.I didn’t want to let on to how much pain I was in because her hugs were worth it.I fell to my knees, wrapping my arms around her as I cried.While everything was technically alright, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about everything that had happened.
“I’m so sorry, mommy,” she sobbed.“I shouldn’t have gone with him at the store.You got hurt because of me.”
My heart broke hearing the sadness and worry in her voice.We had talked last night, but it was late, and I didn’t want her to stress over everything that happened, so I ended the conversation early.I knew we still needed to talk, but there wasn’t a need to rush through it.I wanted to go slow and take things at whatever speed she wanted to move at.
“It’s okay, baby.Everything is fine now.It’s not your fault.But in the future, please don’t do that again.”
“I won’t.I’m never leaving you ever again.”
I hugged her tighter, never wanting to let go.
“Do you think we can let your mommy up so I can fix her some breakfast?”my mom asked Daisy, rubbing her back and smiling at me.“I can’t remember the last time your mommy ate a full meal, and we know how important that is.”
I started to cry again, feeling the weight of everything as my mom hugged both of us.I was thankful to have my family with me because their support meant more to me than I had ever realized.
“You should eat breakfast,” Daisy said, pulling away and wiping my tears for me.“I already ate, so can I keep building my puzzle?”
“Sure,” I replied with a soft laugh and a sniffle.“Wait—where did you get a puzzle?”
“About that...”Patrick said, pulling his mouth tight like he always did when he was hiding something.“I might have given her a few things that we picked up at the store yesterday.”
“Yeah, me too,” Gage replied with an easy laugh.
“We didn’t go to the store, but we had stuff we brought as well,” my dad said.“Hope you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all,” I said with a laugh as I stood up and looked around the room, seeing just how many people loved my daughter.
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