13. A Clean Slate (Full Chapter)

*Sorry about the cliffhanger :3 Here's the rest, thanku for all the comments you left on the sneak peek! hope this is okay ^_^*

"What about hospitals? Have you checked an of those yet?" Mama Samuels smiled hopefully as she handed Safaree and Jelani a drink each.

"That's a good idea actually, gimme a sec." His eyes were wide with realisation that they hadn't even thought of that yet. Carefully standing he took his drink with him into the corridor as he called around.

"You'll find her soon, I just know it." She gave SB a rub on his forearm before disappearing back into the kitchen. He hoped she was right, who know what kind of trouble she could have got into. Jelani was only gone a matter of minutes before he returned with a newfound grace of relief about him causing Safaree to perk up a little. They hadn't slept for all the searching they did the previous night.

"Any news?"

"Queens Hospital Center, all they got is her name." He was hurriedly throwing his shoes on as he spoke whilst Safaree stood up quickly and skulled his drink.

"They say what she was in for?"

"Nah, just that they had someone with that name. We gotta ask at reception and they gonna give us the floor and room number." Quickly following his lead Jelani finished his drink as Safaree let his Mother know that they were heading out.

They were there in no time, slamming their doors shut before rushing inside. It was pretty busy but they managed to push through the endless queues off people and to the front desk.

"We're lookin' for Onika Maraj? I called earlier, you said she was here." His mouth was dry with worry as the female worker entered her details into the computer. Safaree was standing to the side of him with a similar look of concern on his face.

"She's in room 306, which is on the third floor. If you take the elevator you wanna take a right and keep going. You'll see it." She carried on chewing her gum as she pointed towards the elevators. They didn't take a second to think before thanking her and heading straight to her room. Wondering what to expect when they opened her door.

Before Jelani got chance to push down on the handle he was stopped by Safaree.

"Dude, look at the ward name." His voice was low as Jelani did as he said. His mouth instantly went dry.

"Obstetrics and Gynaecology." He read it aloud and looked back at SB's face before they entered. Slowly pushing the door open they both walked in silently, it was definitely her although it was a task trying to recognise her as she lay cushioned by pillows, sleeping comfortably on her side.

"Oh my God Nicki." Safaree watched Jelani's reaction as he smoothed his hand over his mouth. His words came out as a whisper, probably due to the shock of seeing her in such a state. "The hell happened to you?" Sitting himself on a chair near her bedside he leant forward and watched her for a while. She looked like a shell of the person she used to be. SB was about to start talking when they heard the door open as a robust looking nurse entered.

"Excuse me? Can I help you?" It wasn't a nice question she was asking but more of a request as to why they were there.

"This is my sister, we were told we could come up."

"And you?" Her attention turned back to Safaree since she was satisfied with Jelani's response.

"I'm a close friend."

"Well visitin' hours are almost up and I have to change Onika's dressin' now so I'mma have to ask y'all to leave."

"Wait, please. We don't even know what's wrong with her. Is she okay?"

Her face and tone softened considerably as she sanitised her hands after closing the door quietly. "She was admitted about two days ago with nothin' on her but a few coins. We're just lucky she woke and was able to tell us her name."

"Well what's wrong with her?" Safaree moved in closer to be involved with the conversation as the Nurse began to check over Nicki.

"She said she was mugged and that's why she assumed she was in hospital but she was dehydrated and suffering exhaustion-"

"So why is she on this ward?"

"Sorry sir, what was your name again?"

"Jelani."

"Okay Jelani, I need you to know that your sister is goin' to be absolutely fine. We moved her to this ward once we found out she was pregnant-"

"Oh my God." His hands repeated the earlier movement as they ran down his face. "And you know for sure? That she's pregnant?" With their eyes locked on to her she felt the uncomfortable feeling coming as she readied herself to talk, this time more sympathetically.

"Onika lost the baby yesterday. She miscarried." There was a faint gushing sound as he exhaled and his head dropped. "We put it down to foetal distress consistent with her current state of health, I'm so sorry." She could tell that there was a fraction of relief in their faces but mostly worry, concern and sadness. Honestly she felt really bad for them having to find out all of this at once. "Look, I'mma let y'all stay a little longer if you want. But you have to stay quiet and leave the room whilst I change her dressing. I'll call you back through when I'm done, she'll be awake by then too." She saw them both look at one another before they thanked her and left the room, still in shock.

"I can't believe all this."

"I know it's prolly a lot to take in as a brother but at least we found her and she's safe. All we gotta do now is get her home." Safaree spoke encouragingly and rested a spread out palm on Jelani's shoulder.

"Thanks man." He was silent again only for a few minutes. "Like she hadn't already been through enough, now this."

"It's cruel is what it is. But it's happened, we just gotta be there for her. No matter what."

***

It had been around twenty minutes before they both stood again seeing the Nurse exiting her room and making her way over to them, they met her halfway.

"Alright, I'm all done for now but I'll be comin' in to check on her every so often and later on this evenin' we've got a specialist callin' in to assess her."

"Assess her? For what?"

"Look, Safaree is it?" He nodded in response. "Safaree, you need to understand that these last few weeks have not been easy for her and now with all of this to cope with too I just think it would benefit her to be looked at by a psychologist. A lot of times with distressing or traumatic experiences such as the ones Onika's been through can lead to more illness." She made sure to keep looking at the both of them as she talked, every word she spoke they were absorbing.

"You mean depression?"

"It's a possibility, a high one at that. But that's why Dr Mullholland is going to come and see her. For now though, she's awake and waiting. I told her you were here." She smiled sweetly and urged them to go in before leaving. Truthfully Safaree was half expecting her to start throwing a fit and screaming as soon as she lay eyes on him but it was in fact quite the opposite. They entered nervously, not knowing how she was going to behave but both rushed to her side seeing her already in floods of tears.

"Oh my God." Her cries were muffled in Jelani's shirt as he embraced her instantly.

"Hey, it's okay. We're here now." Looking on at the siblings he waited out the silence hearing only her random intake of air as she continued to cry. Slowly pulling away Jelani let her sink back into the pillows as she wiped her face.

"How did you find me?"

"Actually, if it wasn't for SB we wouldn't have." Safaree looked at him hearing his name and then back to Nicki as she slowly turned to face his way.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me Nic, I woulda carried on searchin' 'til the end for you."

They sat and talked for ages, understandably she was in tears for the most part as she told them what happened and how she was feeling. It felt good to be venting everything since the last few weeks it had all been cooped up inside her with nobody to talk to. The hardest part for Jelani was trying to understand what kind of pressure she was under that was so bad she had to turn to prostitution at nineteen. And the one thing still plaguing Safaree's mind was the baby. What if it had been his? That'd be their second child had they both made it into the world.

"Lara told me that you know."

"About the baby?" Jelani took her small hand in his as he spoke.

"Yeah." She looked down, feeling Safaree's gaze on her before his voice made her look back at him.

"Did you know who the Father was?" She only shook her head no in response. There was a short silence before Lara opened the door.

"Everythin' okay in here?" She received a nod and a smile from Jelani as she pulled out Nicki's chart.

"When can I be discharged?"

"Actually I can probably sort out out some discharge forms for you now if you want and as soon as Dr Mullholland has seen to you I'ont see why you can't leave tonight. That sound okay?" They all nodded as Nicki sighed out of relief and lay back into the pillows some more.

"Look Nic, me and SB was talkin' out there. We think it'd be best if you went to live with him for a while. I'm so far away and with the kids and Kyla it'd just be too stressful for you to move in with all that." He kept eye contact with her tired face before she broke the connection and looked at Safaree. For a moment he thought she was going to refuse and dig her heels into the ground but she didn't.

"And that's okay with your Mom and Stef? What about when you move back home after the weddin'?"

"Stef left me." He looked down briefly before adjusting his hat.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She started playing awkwardly with the hospital tag on her wrist.

"Don't be. Lookin' back I have no idea what the hell I was thinkin'." He laughed a little only just seeing how dumb he'd been. "I got my own place in New York now so you can stay with me as long as you want and need."

"You sure?" She squinted a little. "It'll only be temporary and as soon-"

"Nicki." She stopped talking instantly and looked up at him. "It's fine, like I said you can stay as long as you need."

"Thanks." Giving him a small smile he returned the sweet gesture as Jelani took that moment to go and get them something to drink, giving them some time alone. They were both shocked at how well she was holding herself together given the fact that she'd lost another baby but it had completely torn her to pieces on the inside, another gaping hole to go with the three others already pierced through her fragile heart.

...

*I know it's short but I'm working on trying to make my chapters longer! I always struggle with trying to keep it flowing when I do long chapters. Anyway I hope this was okay for you all, thanku for all the comments on the previous post! ^_^ *