A Bet To Lose, Chapter 22 free porn video

Everyone important to Leslie showed up at the hospital Monday morning, which was kind of awkward for everyone involved. Of course her parents wanted to spend time with her, her friends realized. Of course her friends wanted to spend time with her, her parents realized. Leslie was happy that she had so many people who wanted to be with her, especially after being stuck in isolation for so long, but before she could really spend time with any of them, after all the hellos and hugs and hopes that it wasn't too horrible of an experience, it was time to go to the physical therapy center. Under normal circumstances, Mindy would have said something to Leslie about privacy, that some of this might be embarrassing at the least and that her friends were going to see her do a lot more things than just the simple swimming, but the four of them were actually wearing the bespoke, glittery pink, Team Leslie T-shirts - one of them a boy in pigtails! - that other staff members had, through the grapevine, told her about. They obviously didn't care about being embarrassed, so why should Leslie? Hot spicy Jesus did Mindy wish she'd had friends willing to do that when it was her turn. Of course, Leslie's parents were there too, and Mindy had helped a few underage children, usually boys, who didn't really want to do things in front of their mothers, but Leslie was comfortable with the idea. Leslie's psychological circumstances were the best they would possibly be, but what Mindy had to tell the girl was taxing to any child's psyche. She began the lecture before she began any kind of therapy; Leslie would have to exercise just enough, know what certain things felt like, understand the differences between different types of pain, and always, always be careful for rhabdomyolysis, a term that Leslie already knew but hadn't really thought about for a long time. This wasn't the advice she was expecting. She was expecting to undergo grueling training, to be told 'Try your hardest. Fight through the pain. Keep going no matter what.' Instead, the advice she got was 'Pace yourself. Try exactly as hard as you need to, but no harder and no easier.' Difficult advice for a fourteen-year-old to follow, especially one who just wanted to be done with all this, and she was relieved when Mindy finished the lecture and went on to taking off the hospital robe she'd come in with and dipping her swimsuit-clad body into a pool not much bigger than Susie's hot tub. Robert looked at the group, thinking of things to say but keeping quiet. He and his wife had been talking about how attending all these therapy sessions was a big commitment for kids their age, right after Willa had made another formalized agreement with Caroline's father, similar to the one they had regarding Leslie being driven to the YMCA. (Willa had even offered money, but Caroline had refused to accept it.) It wasn't something that most teenagers would even consider doing every day, let alone making full uniforms for it, but these kids were clearly very, very different. Willa decided to say what she was thinking, speaking in a low whisper as Mindy went through range-of-motion exercises with each one of her daughter's limbs, one joint at a time. "She might have to come here for months. Are you going to keep being here the whole time?" The question was open-ended on purpose; any other way might have been taken as insulting. Susie's reply was the aristocratic one, using a tone she had never taken with an adult. "You're talking like this is a commitment that we have to do rather than something we want to do and will want to do tomorrow and the day after that until she doesn't need it anymore." Neither one of Leslie's parents knew quite how to reply to that. The four of them were just so unusual - no, the five of them, she had to remind herself, and she was happy for her daughter. They didn't pay full attention - it would have been weird if they did - but they did pay attention. They'd come to cheer her on, but there just wasn't much to cheer. No grueling activities, no swimming laps. Just a girl in a rather large tank of water, specifically for people with muscular dystrophies, having her limbs and body moved around while she was asked to do specific motions. But Zoe, most importantly, was by far the most attentive of them, and whenever Leslie made some small sound of pain, Zoe was always watching with sympathy. It was over before the allotted hour was up, Mindy told her that she would only be doing that one session that day, and the therapist took the tired, subtly weird-feeling girl off to a small, private room to change into normal clothes, the first she'd worn in a long time. But how could she consider any clothes normal when she couldn't put them on herself and there was a diaper under them? Normal would have been what she'd had when she was eight, being able to just do things without needing help, and this time, she wouldn't have crazy parents to deal with. "So, where are we going?" Willa asked in Leslie's direction when they were all back together. "I was going to suggest going out to eat, but with things the way they are and her coming off that immune thing, I'm not sure where to go," Robert said. "Was thinking about going home and watching movies. Leslie, it's your day, what do you want to do?" Leslie, put on the spot, had a very hard time choosing between her friends and parents. "My place," Susie rescued her with. "We'll make breakfast and we've got a big screen for movies." Leslie immediately agreed, surprised that she'd even suggested it; they all were, even Richard, as it was where they went to do things that their parents would not approve of. But, to Susie, it was simply her house, and hospitality was one of her ways of demonstrating that she was in charge of everything around her, and so she gave her address to Leslie's parents with a big smile on her face. "All right, well, I have to get home at eleven, so we do have time, but only if we get going now. Let's get a head start on breakfast," Caroline said, hustling to her car. Zoe chose to hang back and ride with Leslie instead, which surprised no one. Zoe marveled at how so much easier it was to get Leslie, wheelchair and all, into the car when half the car was designed for it, and then Robert easily transferred her into a built-in, central seat that looked surprisingly like a child's car seat. Where had - oh, right! How had she forgotten? That was the thing Caroline's shop had done, that was how they'd all met in the first place! "So, Leslie, did you manage to keep busy while you were in there?" Robert broke the ice with after getting into the driver's seat. "Yeah, I had a lot of... help," Leslie replied slowly. She sounded like she was embarrassed by the question. Of course she was, and both of her parents realized that they probably shouldn't have let Zoe in the car if he was going to ask such questions, but just the way that Leslie was - or wasn't - replying told them everything. Being stuck in that room had only been tolerable because she'd been able to talk to her friends the whole time, and of course a 14-year-old needed support from her friends and girlfriend more than she needed it from Mom and Dad. That was how teenagers were, and both Willa and Robert had dealt with the fallout from parents - and teenagers - who had not understood that fact. Leslie and Zoe talked in somewhat hushed tones there in the spacious back, but neither one of Leslie's parents even needed to overhear to know exactly what they were saying: They'd missed each other so much, they didn't even want to admit that they were missing each other because the other one would have felt bad about it, and they never, ever wanted to be separated for that long ever again. They grew quiet after a while, just enjoying being together. "Hey, Susie wants to know if either of you have any food allergies," Zoe asked when they were halfway there, looking up from her phone. "We don't, but it's good that she's asking," Willa said, watching the GPS to make sure her husband was making the correct turns. "Yeah, she's used to feeding people," Zoe replied, and that sent Leslie into a giggling fit, she knew she shouldn't be laughing in there with her parents in the car, but the sudden mental image of Richard and Susie feeding her parents through strapped pacifiers was just too funny. Her parents, fortunately, took it as an in-joke that they'd never get. "At least she can cook," Willa said. "One girl in my Home Economics class tried to cook an egg without cracking it first." "Oh my God!" Zoe shouted, laughing, and Leslie was already giddy with laughter. "Did it explode?" "No, the teacher got to it before that happened. She was saying 'it'll crack on its own', I can't even imagine what she was thinking." "Now imagine the teacher trying to stop it over a Zoom call," Robert said, but that rather killed the mood. "And Leslie, whenever you get the chance, try to pay attention to Susie's cooking. If this gives you enough independence to cook for yourself, you might want to start feeding people the way she does." He could never have guessed why she found that absolutely hilarious. But it was rather to his surprise that Caroline was the one who opened the door as he wheeled Leslie in, offering greetings and pleasantries, as both Susie and Richard were in the kitchen. Willa was shocked that a man like Majid would leave Susie in a house this large all by herself, and she flatly boggled at the inside in much the same way as all of Susie's friends did. There was a sense to the place, a positive but weird feeling that Willa felt hard to define. Robert just wondered how on earth Susie kept the place clean. They heard a hiss from the living room, and Whiskers, sitting up on the couch, expressed his disapproval at the unfamiliar smells suddenly intruding into his territory, and the group chuckled at the mad cat. Willa and Robert watched Susie and Richard in the kitchen, amazed at how well they were doing. God, how many times did she and her husband get in each other's way when they were trying to cook together? Susie's kitchen was large and lavishly equipped, but both of the adults were still impressed. They also both noticed that the teens, except Susie, were very slightly nervous, but that much was to be expected. This was their private hang- out spot, and teenagers tend not to like it when adults find their way into those, like interlopers invading a sacred temple. It almost felt like they expected the adults to find some dirty secret, and even their daughter seemed to be worried that they might find something incriminating if they went looking for it, but neither one of them could have even imagined what it would be. Alcohol, drugs? No, certainly not something like that. Used condoms? These kids were smarter than to leave things like that lying around. At any rate, if there was something incriminating somewhere in the house, neither one of them wanted to know what it was, and they thanked Richard profusely as he perfectly scraped pancakes onto each of their plates with a plastic spatula. His behavior was actually a little bit uncanny. Overpoliteness, overwillingness to please, was often a sign of something much worse going on, and there were a lot of girls and even a few boys that they'd encountered over the years who were so apologetic, so desperate to be perfect in everything and please all the adults around them, that it was very obvious that they'd be seriously hurt if they weren't. They figured that it must just be his 'girl side' expressing itself in the most outwardly feminine activities he could partake in, as obviously no one there had any power over him. Richard received the adults' thanks and smiled, knowing that his princess was proud of him for being a good host. Robert let himself relax. His wife and daughter were having a pleasant morning, and there wasn't any reason he shouldn't be having one too. This was all just so utterly rare for him, that he was able to be somewhere that the children didn't have severe psychological issues; in fact, he figured that they were probably better put-together mentally than he was. He'd been at his job too long, he'd just seen too much shit, and the comparison made him feel like he and his wife were being given a personal reward for taking care of his adoptive daughter. Other than the nervousness at having an adult in their sanctum, that was exactly what they were doing. Willa suddenly understood the feeling she'd had earlier. Often, she could figure out the nature of what was wrong with a family just by walking into their house. Too many crucifixes on the walls, trash strewn around, hoarding, weird smells, some things carefully taken care of but others totally neglected. She was feeling the exact opposite of that. She figured that this was what a church was actually supposed to be like, and if she were religious, she would have thought of Susie's house as under divine protection. It was with that attitude that they kept going for the rest of the day. There was just a lot to do there, for all of them. Willa and Robert almost wished they'd brought their swimsuits, to make use of Susie's pool, but their daughter was in no condition to swim anyway. Susie's rec room was a nice place, although neither of the adults had any experience at anything down there, although they did make use of the old-school foosball table. They did watch a movie together, and Robert and Willa didn't mind their daughter snuggling with her girlfriend. It was so tender, so pure, the two of them not really wanting to talk much in front of Leslie's parents but not needing to. Robert and Willa found a place to talk quietly, leaving the girls on a couch together, and came to an agreement. After dinner - another meal cooked by the group - it was time to go, but to Zoe's surprise, Leslie's parents offered to leave her with them. "Listen," Willa said to Zoe in a tone of extreme seriousness. "For the next few days at least, we actually need you to look after her. She can't be left alone, and I need you to make sure that she isn't urinating anything red. If anything happens, if she starts breathing funny or becomes incoherent or anything, you call 911, you get her to the hospital. She'd still be there right now if it weren't for COVID. Is this something you can do?" Zoe agreed immediately, reflexively, but she didn't understand right away why her parents didn't do it themselves. Leslie was horribly embarrassed, but the doctor had already told her this exact thing before she'd left the hospital that morning, it made sense, and the idea of Zoe looking after her even more than usual was strangely comforting. "Susie, can she stay here, is that all right with you?" "Of course, no problem," Susie immediately replied. Zoe suddenly got it. Leslie's parents knew that the two of them would be sleeping in the same bed, and that's exactly what they wanted. Being closely intimate as they slept would let Zoe know if her girlfriend was having breathing trouble or some other medical problem. Leslie's parents bid their goodbyes, reminded her to take her pills - they left the whole supply - and left for home. "I just want to know why all of you were acting so nervous, at least at first," Susie said the moment they'd gone. "Susie, you brought her parents to the place where you and Ricky have baby bondage sex!" Zoe leaned in and said, as if someone were around to overhear her, and Leslie started laughing. "This is my house, Zoe, not an S&M dungeon," Susie pointed out, annoyed. "Not just an S&M dungeon," Richard interjected, smirking. Susie turned to him, annoyed, and said the first thing that came to mind. "Ricky, I will put you over my knee." "See what I mean?" Richard replied with an even bigger smirk, and by this point, Zoe was laughing with her hand over her face and Leslie was almost in tears from laughter. "I know it's your house, but still!" Zoe jumped in with before the two of them could go any further. "I just wish Whiskers liked them." "He was only grumpy because his food dish was empty. And you're only grumpy because you had to be separated for five days," Susie said. Zoe made as if to argue, then she just sighed and decided not to. "You're right, I am." The concept of embarrassment had basically died, so she just said what she was really thinking, right there in front of all of them. "Leslie, I just wish I could hug you and make everything okay." It was so utterly childish, but that was the world she wished for, where now that she had the therapy done, all Zoe would have to do was give her a long hug until her muscles worked properly. "We've been doing that," Leslie reminded her, and they laughed. "Are you going to keep wearing those?" she asked. The other three were still in their Team Leslie outfits. Susie sat next to her with a very serious expression. "Every day you have therapy until you can walk by yourself. Your mom asked the same thing. We'll keep doing this as long as you need it. We are here. We will stay here." Zoe called her mother and told her everything that Willa had told her, that Leslie could not be left alone and that she'd have to be with her at night, and Heather did not object, just as long as she got to spend time with her children sometimes as well. There was a firmness in Zoe's voice, a protectiveness, the same protectiveness that Leslie's friends had always had for her from the very first. Maybe, when this was all over, Leslie would be the one doing the protecting. The group did exactly as they said they would do over the next couple of days, although Caroline had a different attitude about it than the rest of them. They had taken on going to Leslie's therapy sessions as a willing obligation. Caroline saw them as an opportunity to relax, to just watch what was basically a documentary, although her job really was starting to wind down, just as her father had known it would. She knew what her friends were doing without her, although she was surprised when Richard asked to be dropped off at his own house on Wednesday. It made sense, though. Despite their relationship, Susie wouldn't monopolize all his time, and he had exercises to do, games to play, and things to learn by himself. Zoe, on the other hand, had absolutely no reason to be anywhere other than Susie's house with Leslie, and everything she wanted to interact with was on her phone or Susie's systems. Thursday's morning session was the usual, with Leslie's parents at work but her friends there as Team Leslie, but she felt good and bad at the same time and had no idea how to express it. There was more pain and weakness than usual, but there was always a little bit of the former and lots of the latter, and there was a strange sensation as well. She just felt weird, almost poisoned somehow, but she'd received experimental therapy, of course she felt weird. She certainly didn't want to tell Mindy anything misleading. Figuring that this was probably supposed to happen, she continued going through the motions, bending her arms and kicking her legs in the water and smiling when Mindy told her that she was doing better than she had a few days ago and that they'd be taking strength measurements next week. And she got to spend time with Caroline again, finally. Her father had taken a look at what needed to be finished that day, considered who else would be coming in, and just told Caroline that she'd be better off spending time with her friends instead. Caroline hadn't complained one bit. At least this time her friends didn't wear their Team Leslie outfits all day. That would have been weird. Instead, they wore their normal clothes - normal for them, of course. Susie in her rich girl clothes, the three other girls in T-shirts and jean shorts, and Richard in a pretty dress and heels, keeping the house clean like a good boy while the girls watched a chick flick together. But Leslie was just so tired for some reason, and her eyes kept drooping shut during the movie. Everything was weird and hurt, and she knew she should have cared more about that, but she just wanted to sleep. "Hey, you all right?" Zoe got her attention with. "This is the good part." "I'm fine, just tired," Leslie replied, slurring her words a bit, and Zoe suddenly got suspicious. "I need to see something," she said quickly, pulling down her jeans to check her diaper, which she could tell was somewhat damp. The inside of it was somewhat pink, and Zoe knew damn well that it wasn't menstruation. "You need to get to the hospital now," Zoe shouted immediately, her own voice strangled in terror and panic, fishing out her phone from her pocket to call 911. "Don't call the ambulance, I can get there quicker than it'll be here and back," Caroline said. "Can you-" But Richard was already there, he'd already kicked off his heels and put one arm around Leslie's upper body and the other around her legs, and one swift motion later, he'd simply picked her up. In a sudden flash of insight, he realized where all his extra food was going and that all the workouts he'd been doing really had been getting easier for him. His growing body, now pumped full of adrenaline, simply didn't care one way or another that he dressed like a girl. He walked outside on the hot concrete barefoot, caring neither about the sharp pain in his feet nor the ache in his arms, and Susie quickly grabbed his socks and sneakers and ran out after the group. Zoe's paralysis and terror had broken, and she was busy calling Leslie's mother, trying desperately to stay coherent, as she rushed to the car with the rest of them. Caroline opened the back door and Richard's spine protested as he put Leslie in. (It was only then that he realized that Leslie's pants were still down.) Richard rubbed his feet with his socks before putting them on in the car, and Susie was calling Dr. Bonesnapp with Leslie's phone, telling him in a surprisingly calm voice what had happened and that they were on their way to the ER. Caroline was driving faster than usual, but she didn't break any traffic laws too severely, and she knew exactly where she was going. Zoe took a moment to pull Leslie's pants back up and watched her breathing, the all-too-weak rise and fall of her chest, and wondered if she should try to force more oxygen into her lungs. "Breathe, Leslie!" she settled on saying. "Just focus on breathing, you have to breathe!" Leslie tried to make herself wake up all the way, to make herself think, to make herself breathe. She felt even more floaty, weird, hurty. She knew in the abstract that there were things going on, that she was in serious rhabdo at the least, that she was being taken to the hospital and that this was an emergency, but she didn't really perceive it fully, she wasn't panicking because she didn't feel any panic. Right, breathe, she had to do what Zoe told her, she had to focus on breathing and nothing else, she had to stay alive. Her heart was beating, and she was breathing, so she was alive. Caroline pulled up right next to the door and pushed open the swinging entrance door; Richard was carrying Leslie through it a few seconds later. A pigtailed boy wearing a dress, carrying a prepubescent girl, wasn't even the weirdest thing that the emergency room's desk nurse had seen that week, and Dr. Bonesnapp was already at the entrance, next to two nurses (one of them a surprisingly burly man) and a stretcher that they had been about to push out the door. Richard, not wasting a movement, immediately laid Leslie down on it, and the medical team took over at once. He had expected talking, but there was no time for talking, Susie had already done all the talking on the way there. Within seconds, Leslie was being wheeled down the hall with an oxygen mask over her face and then she was gone, leaving the group in a mostly empty emergency room with only the desk nurse and the door guard, a uniformed police officer, for company. Susie, still holding Leslie's phone, gave it to the desk nurse to pass it on. Zoe, beside herself with fear and grief, sat down heavily on one of the seats. "Friends and family can't wait in here," the desk nurse called out, apologetic but firm. Oh, that was why the place was empty. "You'll have to leave. It's because of the pandemic, sorry." "What?! No, no, I need to stay here, I need to be here," Zoe sobbed, as her friends started motioning for her to get up. "If her condition changes, we'll call," the desk nurse said, and the officer at the door was moving towards them. "She's in good hands, Zoe. There's nothing we can do here. Let's go," Susie said, and Caroline was pushing her to her feet, and she realized that she was making a scene - not uncommon in an emergency room, nothing they hadn't seen before - and, sobbing, she let her other friends and brother guide her out the door that the officer had generously opened for her. They sat in the car together - in their usual positions, only with one of their number not there - and Caroline didn't start it right away. She, too, was emotional, although she had done a good job of hiding it. "They have oxygen in ambulances," she said. "Probably should have just called." "She was breathing, Caroline. You got her here really quick," Susie replied. "She's not going to die, she's not going to be brain damaged or something either. She won't!" Susie's tone was so forceful, so harsh, that it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself. Caroline looked around, put the car in gear, and started driving back to Susie's place. Where else was there to go? "Just take me home," Zoe said. "Wait, no, don't, I need to be with you, with a car, if they call... we can't just stay in the parking lot, can we?" "Zoe! She's got at least two doctors, a physical therapist, and a whole bunch of nurses," Susie snapped. "She'll be fine. There's no reason to sit here. There's nothing left to do. Someone will call, maybe even her." Zoe, unable to argue, just sobbed instead. Richard made a series of frustrated noises. His mind, too, was in chaos the whole way back, and not because his spine still hurt a little bit. Targetless, his anger, his power, thrashed around his mind like a trapped animal, and his fists were clenched. He wanted someone to kill and there was no one to kill. He still did not believe in God, but he prayed anyway as he had before, sending a wish out into the universe and hoping but not believing that something was listening to him or that he could change the flow of reality by force of will alone. ('Satan, are you there? It's me, Richard.') "Can you take her upstairs?" Susie asked Caroline. "I need to talk to Ricky." Understanding completely, Caroline guided the completely pliant Zoe up the stairs. "Why are you upset?" she asked him firmly. "Because I can't do anything," Richard said through half-clenched teeth. "You did everything you could," Susie told him. "Say it!" "I did everything I could," Richard repeated. "You said that wrong, how do you address me?" Susie asked sharply. "I did everything I could, Your Highness." "And is there anything else you can do about her right now?" Susie's voice was even more forceful. "No, Your Highness." "That's right. Now you are going to put your heels back on, finish your chores, and make food for Whiskers. I am going to go talk to your sister." She lightly slapped him on the butt to get him going. "Yes, Your Highness," Richard replied, swapping his socks and sneakers for his heels and mincing to finish his chores like a good sissy, feeling very, very grateful that she was dominating him, taking his choices away. But what choices? She was right: he'd done everything he could. There was nothing Susie could do about this either, but there was something she could do about him, so she was doing that instead. Zoe was sitting on the bed where she'd spent time with Leslie, crying as Caroline put her arm around her, looking up at Susie as she walked in the door. "Why didn't I see it sooner?" Zoe asked. "She was so messed up, and it was hours..." "You did see it!" Susie said sharply, causing both Zoe and Caroline to look up. "You were the one who told us. You saw it, you knew it, and you caught it. If you weren't paying attention, she'd still be here, getting worse. You did what you could, Zoe." "Susie isn't wrong," Caroline said. "We all did what we could. I drove, Susie called the doctor, Ricky grabbed her - he's getting strong, by the way - and you sounded the alarm. She's at the hospital. There's nothing more for us to do for her." "But is there something we can do for you?" Susie asked gently, and Zoe realized what she could do, what they did, what she needed. "Baby me," Zoe said suddenly, to Susie's surprise. She'd thought that Richard would be the one asking for it, but it was his sister instead. She definitely needed two sets of that stuff. "I'm helpless right now anyway, right?" She pulled her phone out of her pocket. "I don't even want to look at this thing right now! Go get that prom dress you have here," Susie had forgotten all about that. "and just... baby me. The whole thing. Let me out if somebody says something about her, oh, and make sure Ricky tells Mom what's going on." Susie patted her gently on the shoulder. "You got it. Caroline, you want to help?" "No problemo." The two of them got to work. Richard's mind was still roiling somewhat as he did his chores, but at least he didn't have his mother to contend with anymore, at all, in general. It was a very simple and brief conversation: Leslie was in the hospital, they were waiting for news, and Zoe needed time alone. Heather completely understood and offered best wishes, to all of them, before hanging up and returning to work. He had just finished pulling the clothes out of the dryer when Caroline called out, "Hey, I've gotta go pee, can one of you look after her?" "I'll do it," Richard called back, not sure quite what he was volunteering for. Look after who? He blinked in surprise when he saw who was there. Zoe was lying on the bed in that pink prom dress she'd despised so much, her bootied feet (the booties were a bit big on her) poking out from the fabric. He was certain that she was thickly diapered underneath. The mittens were on her hands with her arms holding a plushie, the same one Caroline had hugged before, and she had the pacifier strapped to her mouth, the fleece wrapped around her head (no goggles), and the noise- canceling headphones on. "Just tell her if there's anything about Leslie," Caroline said, and Richard sat where Caroline had been sitting. This was one of those 'my life has totally changed' moments for Richard. He was sitting right next to his helplessly babified sister as she hugged a plushie and suckled on her pacifier, insensate to the world, and all he could really worry about was whether or not her girlfriend was going to be okay. And Zoe, as well. He leaned over and gently brushed his sister's hair with his fingers, seeing a smile behind the pacifier. He couldn't blame her for wanting this, for wanting to just completely turn off for a while because she couldn't deal with anything. He would have been in an even worse state if something had happened to Susie. Her phone went off, startling Richard, and he picked it up. It was Willa with a text: 'Leslie is in stable condition. She's asleep, on oxygen and fluids. She will be okay. Thank you so much for this.' Richard tapped on his sister, unwinding the fleece around her head and showing her the text. Zoe, surprised to see him there but not caring that much, held out her mittens and he took them off and handed her the phone. She slowly tapped out, not sure what to say, 'Please tell me if she gets better. I'm so worried I can't think.' She really couldn't think of anything else, so she just hit send, and after a 'Will do.' in reply, she put the phone back on the table and held out her hands again. He put her back in the mittens and wrapped the fleece around her head again, making sure not to catch her hair in it. "Thank you, Ricky," she quietly mumbled around the pacifier, cuddling the plushie again, feeling safe knowing that her girly yet surprisingly strong brother was watching over her. She stayed that way for the rest of the day. Her friends, taking turns being with her, changed her diapers (lifting up the poofy dress to do so) twice, and they fed her through the pacifier right there on the bed, a hearty, blended vegetable soup followed by a delicious milkshake and some water. She was only released twice, once to reply to another text (no change), and then again to reply to yet another text (still no change, but they were giving her a good prognosis) and to make a call to her own mother. Heather was fine with Zoe sleeping over yet again; she was just worried that Zoe was in a bad state, as her voice was still audibly upset even after so many hours, but Zoe reassured her that she would be fine and thanked her, genuinely thanked her, for caring. Once the conversation was over, she'd put the plugged-in headphones back on her own head, strapped the pacifier right back in her own mouth, and held out her hands for the mittens again. She would have to take a shower eventually, at least - no, a bath, one of those long baths. But that was tomorrow, that was some other time, that wasn't right then, she was unable to walk and in her enormous dress and hugging a plushie with her mittens right then. Just a sweet, helpless baby, looked after by all her friends, until she had a really good reason to be a big girl again. Richard had heard once that people often had sex after scary situations, but he'd never before experienced that himself. He did then, as Susie found a time when Caroline was looking after Zoe to order him straight into her room, and he found that he was entirely ready to go and so was she, and they made desperate, passionate love, kissing each other everywhere and holding each other close for half an hour, each of them so very glad that the other was okay, and Susie fell asleep in Richard's arms and he didn't want to wake her up. Caroline didn't, either. Instead, she told her dad what was going on and that she really wanted to stay with the group because they were all seriously worked up over this. The man did not object. Leslie woke up half-delerious very late at night, looking around a softly lit hospital room with bleary eyes. Her head was on a pillow and something with tubes had been strapped to her face. Wires led from her chest to a heart monitor, which was showing a steady pulse. An IV tube snaked into her left arm. And she could not move. She briefly wondered if she had been medically paralyzed with some sort of drug, but of course they wouldn't have dared. The IV in her wrist was probably just saline and maybe light painkillers, she figured, and thing going over her mouth was simply giving her added oxygen. (It wasn't a real ventilator; that would have likely ruptured something.) She wasn't restrained. She wasn't drugged. She simply couldn't move. She managed to look to the right. Her phone was right there, within easy reach - if she could move her arm. She tried, very hard, and suddenly a stab of screeching agony erupted from her right pectoral and she felt like she was having a terrible cramp or even a seizure. She'd barely moved her arm at all. Leslie cried, taking short breaths against the artificial airflow, her eyes closed because the simple act of keeping them open was too much. Mindy had specifically warned about this exact thing, done everything she could to prevent it, given Leslie advice to prevent it, and it had happened anyway. Just like last week, everyone was trying to help her; no one was trying to hurt her. And yet there she was, severely hurt anyway. What if this was permanent? What if oxygen masks and near-total paralysis were going to be with her for the rest of her short life? A vision came to her: She would say goodbye to Zoe and then ask Richard to kill her, and he'd gently clasp her jaw shut while his fingers pinched her nose closed, and her suffering would be no more. Not sure whether she was dreaming or not, she fell back asleep.