''Mary, you can give her the second and final dose of morphine in fifteen minutes. She needs more for the pain before she wakes up, which might be anytime now.'' I hear an unfamiliar female voice softly mutter, followed by different footsteps and the sound of a door opening. ''Visiting time will be over in ten minutes sir.''

''Alright,'' A male voice says, ''Thanks for everything, dr. Brown. I'm assuming she'll recover quickly?''

My father.

''She's okay for now. She has lost a lot of blood both before and during the surgery, but she's lucky that we found a blood donor with the same blood type right away. Your daughter is very lucky. None of her fatal organs gave up, her liver just got slightly grazed, but she will recover. However, she's still very weak and will have to stay here for about a week and a half, at least.'' The woman announces and exits the room afterwards.

''Brooklyn,'' My father begins and I can sense how close he is by the volume of his voice in my right ear.

I want to open my eyes and speak, but I can't. ''This was never going to happen if I'd let you do your internship somewhere else.'' He mutters and rubs the back of my hand.

''I took care of the situation. He will get punished for what he did to you. I will do everything in my power to get this added to his still ongoing case. He doesn't know what he has got coming.'' He audibly inhales sharply to continue. ''You should've never trusted him in the first place.''

Confusion taunts my mind as I try to open my eyes or speak up. I end up not being able to either of those. I try to move my fingers, but the feeling of complete numbness is slowly washing over me, making it an even harder task.

''He's a dangerous young man. I should have predicted he'd try to do such thing to you. I should have seen it coming. Especially because he knows you're my daughter. I knew it.'' He continues muttering even more incoherent words under his breath, but it becomes inaudible to me as my thoughts get caught in a whirlpool of puzzlement and sleepiness.

I can merely feel the touch of a few tears rolling down my cheek while heaviness spills all over my body and finally my mind, stopping me from my thoughts as I drift off into what seems like a never-ending state of deep sleep.

▀▀▀▀

"How about you listen to me or I'll hurt and scar this little crush of yours." Michael hisses, continuing to push the metal object harshly onto the skin of my bare stomach underneath my shirt.

"Michael, " Ethan hisses as he grabs his wrist, "You do not want to do this, trust me. "

This angers an already pissed off Michael more and I bite harshly into my lower lip, the iron-like flavor of my blood taking over my mouth.

''Back the fuck off.'' Michael snarls back and pushes the object even deeper. I can feel a few drops of blood running down my skin and squint my eyes at this point.

I take a deep breath, desperately trying to calm down slightly. Eventually, I open my eyes to see Ethan trying to move his hand closer to the object, which does even more damage to me because Michael just pushes it deeper. One simple and a little quicker movement and it won't take long for me to bleed out.

''P-please,'' I manage to speak while stuttering over my pleading words, ''Don't do it.''

''You don't get it, do you?'' He laughs, ''I have to do this. They're making me do this.''

"What are you saying?'' Ethan hisses while clenching his teeth, his frustration and anger growing. ''I'm going to warn you one more time Michael, let go off her, right now!''

''Keep your goddamn voice down.'' Michael lowers his voice. "I have to do this. " He says, breaking eye contact with the both of us while repeating this sentence several times, looking down at his hands.

I look at Ethan and mouth "get help" to him. He simply shakes his head, desperation filling his eyes.

"I'm not leaving you here. " He whispers and forcefully grabs Michael's hands in an attempt to remove the object from my skin. Michael immediately pushes into me and my mouth falls open, not a single sound coming out.

I close my eyes as an overwhelming pain slashes through me. The pain my mother once felt when all she wanted to do was helping others.

I fall to the ground and start coughing as my hands go to my stomach, desperately trying to somehow control the bleeding.

All I see is Michael quickly running away yelling words that are inaudible to me, my shirt getting soaked in a red and warm substance and Ethan kneeling down and screaming for help while desperately trying to reach his hand through the fence.

''You have to stay with me Brooklyn,'' he pleads, ''please. "

I try to speak up, but I end up coughing out even more blood. I manage to give him a sad smile and look at the devastated expression on his face, my sight soon followed by nothing but darkness.

"Brooks?" A worried female voice wakes me up from my sleep and finally the constant repeating nightmare of what overcame me.

I slowly let my eyes flutter open and see Lexi sitting next to my bed, her eyes glistening with tears.

"Brooklyn?" Her voice changes to a hopeful tone. "I'm so sorry for waking you up. I was just really worried. I've been crying for the past few days. I've—"

"It's, it's okay. " I interrupt her rambling with a broken, soft whisper. She brings my hand to her mouth and kisses the top of it, bringing it to her cheek while closing her eyes.

I weakly smile at the sight of her, thankful for having her in my life. Thankful for making it through and still being here.

"Do you remember what happened?" Lexi hesitantly asks.

I nod as I stare at the white wall in front of me. "I've been dreaming about it while being high on all these meds. " I reply, earning a light chuckle from her. "How long have I been here? "

"It's been almost a week. " She clarifies to my surprise, "But I'm sure it feels shorter to you. Trust me, you've been high all week." She dramatically pouts, hugging my arm and laying her head against it. "I'm pretty sure you do not remember any other thing I've said. I've been such a mess; you have no idea. "

"I don't remember anything from you. " I grin at her, trying to sit up a little. She helps me by adjusting my pillow and the bed itself and sits back into her chair next to it. "I remember my father mumbling things though. " I imply, thinking back to all the things he was saying while I just got out of surgery.

''He will get punished for what he did to you. I will do everything in my power to get this added to his still ongoing case.''

"I should have seen it coming. Especially because he knows you're my daughter. "

A curious expression washes of her facial features as she looks at me questionably. "Things like what?"

"He was saying stuff about how I shouldn't have trusted him. That he would do anything to get this added to his ongoing case. " I repeat my father's words as I slowly begin to realize who he was talking about. "It was almost as if he was talking about... about Ethan."

Lexi looks utterly confused at this point and opens her mouth to finally clarify the situation. "Who else would he be talking about Brooks? Did you, did you have memory loss?" She starts to panic.

"No, " I choke out, "Lexi hear me out. " I turn to her, "Ethan didn't do this to me. I don't even understand how people could even assume that. "

"I—" She begins, "I don't know. They're saying it got captured by the camera's and that there's a guard witness. "

Complete confusion and anger take over as I massage my temples, feeling a headache coming up. "That's impossible. The videos should actually prove my point. It was Michael. Ethan tried to stop him, but Michael kept saying he had to do it. "

Lexi looks even more confused than me and sits next to my knees on the bed, taking both my hands in hers. "Are you sure Brooklyn?"

I nod frantically, causing her worried features to smoothen out a little. "I believe you. There..." She inhales as she thinks about her following words, "I feel like this is part of a much huger case. "

"You're right. " I whisper, yet failing to see a connection that makes sense to me. "You have to go and talk to Cole. "

Lexi nods as she continues to listen to every word I speak.

"You have to ask him when Ethan's next court will be. They must have postponed it when this happened because the prosecutors probably had to gather and think about this added case and eventual proof. It's impossible to have proof against him in this situation, unless—" my eyes slightly widen and I chew on my bottom lip.

"unless they have tempered with it. " Lexi finishes my sentence. "What kind of motive would they even have? Who would ever think of doing such thing? What—"

"Do I even have to do with it all? " I conclude her sentence this time. "I don't know Lexi, I'm just as confused as you. " My voice comes out more broken than I intended it to and I gulp, trying to bite back a few stinging tears.

How could this all happen? Why was Ethan being blamed for this?

"I'm going to find out about this all. I'll be back as soon as I can. " Lexi begins, standing up next to me. "You have to rest. Let me deal with this. That's the least I could do for both you and Ethan. "

I look up at her, thanking her with a genuine yet worried smile.

"Do I need to know anything else?"

Nodding at this, I take ahold of her hand one last time. "Only ask Cole about this. Don't trust anyone else, please. Don't tell my father either. "

"Okay. " She takes in my last words, places a small peck on the top of my head and exits the hospital room, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out how it could come to this. One moment all was fine, now Ethan is once again being innocently blamed, on top of his already ongoing case.

I will do everything in my power to make sure the truth comes out. I'll get out of this hospitalbed to testify and prove his innocence if I have to. I will make sure whoever tempered with the footage, will get exposed.

I'll do it all for Ethan.

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

A/N; i hope you're all safe and taking care of yourselves during this pandemic <3

thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed.
please don't forget to vote & comment, i really enjoy reading every single one of them.

— lyra b.