The Hardest Part Is Letting Go Of Your Dreams

I wake up in a hospital bed, shirtless with my shoulder bandaged up, a morphine drip in the back of my hand and I feel like I'm flying. "Baby" Frank chokes out and I turn my head and smile at him. "Hey sexy" I greet him and he chuckles slightly and shakes his head. "Good painkillers huh?" He jokes and I nod my head, making him laugh again. "You're a fucking hero you know that, you almost gave your life for Ruby's" he chokes out, a few tears spilling from his eyes and I coo at him "Hey hey don't cry baby." Frank stands from the chair beside the bed and climbs over me, being careful of my shoulder as he lowers himself down and presses his body to mine. "I love you so fucking much and I'm sorry I left and let that happen to you." "It's ok baby, I don't blame you" I tell him, feeling my drug hazed mind clear. "Where is she?" I ask and he mumbles out "Asleep on the couch over there" and I turn my head to look over the other side of the room to see her. "Is she alright?" I ask and he pulls back and shrugs. "I dunno babe, she cried and screamed until she fell asleep." "Oh" I sigh out, hoping that when she wakes up she'll be ok. "Babe there's a policeman here who wants to get a statement from you and Ruby when you guys wake up. Do you wanna talk to him now?" I sigh before nodding my head and saying "Yeah let's get this over with." Frank climbs off the bed and leaves the room, coming back with a uniformed police officer. "Mr Way I'll have to ask you to leave the room" he tells Frank and Frank nods, shooting me a small reassuring smile and leaving the room. The officer takes a seat in the chair Frank was in and opens his note book. "Good afternoon Mr Way, I understand you've been through a lot today so I'll try to keep this brief, just tell me in as much detail as you can what happened." "Ok so my husband and I adopted Ruby and we made contact with her mother unknowingly through a play group and Ruby had a very strong reaction to her so we decided not to send her back to the play group but I guess the woman followed us because yesterday I took Ruby to the park alone and she was there, watching us and she started following us home so I felt threatened and went to my husbands store instead and she showed up there threatening us and saying we kidnapped her daughter. Then today she showed up at my apartment and when I went to close the door on her she had a man with her who I have a past with, Bert McCracken who was actually jailed because of what he did to me in the past, and he forced their way inside and threatened me with a knife because I wouldn't tell them where Ruby was. Then he stabbed and beat me until I guess I fell unconscious because when I woke up my husband was home and we found Ruby hiding in a cupboard." The officer nods and says "This ties in pretty consistently with the call your husband recorded on his phone. Mr Way that was a very smart idea calling and having the altercation documented. Do you know the identity of the woman?" I shake my head, "No, but Frank has a picture of her and the adoption agency would know, they handled Ruby being taken from her in the first place." The officer nods again and makes another note in his book. "Ok thank you Mr Way. We still need to speak with your daughter when we can and we will be speaking with the adoption agency but we have enough to issue a restraining order when we find the woman's identity against her and Mr McCracken. In the mean time I suggest you stay somewhere else for a few days until we catch up with them, for your own safety." I nod in agreement and just as the officer is about to leave the room Ruby stirs and sits up on the couch. "Daddy" she sobs out and jumps off the couch, running over and trying to climb up onto the bed. The officer helps her and she launches herself into my chest, making me hiss in pain. "Careful baby" I tell her and she pulls back, looking at the bandage on my shoulder and the cuts on my neck and cheek. "Owies daddy" she tells me, pointing at them and I nod, "Yeah baby daddy has big owies so we need to be careful of them ok?" Ruby nods and I guide her back down onto my chest carefully and cuddle her for a second. "Rubes baby this nice policeman would like to ask you some questions ok?" She sits up next to me and looks confused. "It's ok baby girl you just answer the questions ok, you can tell him whatever you think." She nods her head and smiles at him. "Hi" she chirps out and he smiles at her and says "Hello Ruby it's nice to meet you sweetie. Now can you remember what happened earlier when the lady came to your house?" Ruby nods and says "She yelled a lot and daddy yelled too and said bad words and Billy and I got scared so we hided." The officer looks confused and says "Who's Billy?" "Her teddy bear" I tell him and he nods and smiles. "Ok sweetheart thank you for talking to me. And you don't need to be scared now, we won't let her come near you again." Ruby nods and turns back to me. "She hurt you daddy?" I go to open my mouth and the officer stands up and says "Well thankyou for your time Mr Way. You'll be hearing from us." I nod and he leaves the room, Frank coming back in a few seconds later. "Hey sleepyhead" he greets Ruby before sitting beside us again and I reach out with my uninjured arm and grab his hand. Two days later I'm released from hospital and in that time Frank and Ruby stayed in a hotel, not game to go back home. The police contacted Frank and let him know that we have a restraining order and they are currently waiting to get a trial date, Bert and the woman potentially facing jail time for stalking and assaulting me. We decide to get out of the city for a few days and stay with Mikey who is happy to see us and tells us we can stay as long as we like. We've been there for two days when I wake up in the middle of the night, terrified from my nightmare and I launch myself out of bed, running from the room, desperate to see Ruby and make sure she's ok, having dreamed that Bert was in the house and when I reach the room she's sleeping in the bed is empty. I feel the breath leave my body and someone grabs my shoulder and I snap and scream, terrified, as I turn around and take a swing at them, punching them in the jaw. The man drops to the floor and lets out a deep groan before looking up at me and I see it's Frank. I snap out of my weird headspace and drop to my knees. "Oh god baby I'm so sorry" I start but he shakes his head. "No no my fault I shouldn't have grabbed you. Just take a breath and calm down baby it's alright." "Ruby..." I start, panicking again and he shakes his head. "She's in bed with Mikes, it's alright baby everything is fine I promise you." I nod and take a deep breath, Frank standing up and helping me off the floor, taking me back to bed where he pulls me into his chest and holds me close, pressing soft kisses in my hair until I fall asleep again.

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