Page 12 of His Sunshine Baby

I hop onto the elevator, reaching the fifth floor a few seconds later. I’ve walked these corridors so often, I could get to my father’s room with my eyes closed. He is sharing the room with two other people. As a result, I always go in as quietly as possible and walk straight to his bed. He has the one closest to the window. No one is here today, but I still take small steps for some reason.

The flowers I brought earlier in the week look fine, I may have a couple more days before needing to buy a new bunch. I take a seat next to my dad’s bed and put my bag down. My dad looks the same, except that the nurses apparently shaved him earlier. I grab his large, warm hand and press it against my cheek, something he loved to do.

“Hi, Dad.”

He stays silent with his eyes closed, as usual. His heart monitor is still giving off a slow, rhythmic beeping.

“How are you today? Are you missing Mom? I miss her a lot. Do you dream of her, Daddy?”

The doctor told me patients in a coma can dream. I wonder what my dad would dream about. He probably misses Mom. And her cooking, he loved her cooking a lot. His motorcycle and hisold garage too. He taught me how to ride when I was fourteen, and always said he would buy me my first bike when I turned twenty. Sadly, he didn’t get the chance.

I just hope he doesn’t dream about their accident. I’d rather think he’s just having a long, peaceful sleep.

“I finished my last paper today. Economics. You always said I was too smart for you whenever you saw me doing my algebra when I was a kid. Remember? Now only one year to go with my studies, Dad.”

My parents didn’t get to go to university, and my dad didn’t even finish high school, yet they insisted I do if I could. I always wanted to please them and made sure that I got good grades, although they didn’t really care about my grades. They were proud whenever I was studying and consoled me if I was tired or sad about my results.

I always tell my dad about my studies, hoping he’s listening and proud of me. When the school topic is over, I tell him about how the pack is doing, about this morning’s training, and about Daniel and his experiments that make him crazy.

I get to last night, but I don’t tell my dad anything about Nathaniel. I just mention that Daniel and I had fun, and that’s it. I don’t usually tell Dad anything that might anger or sadden him, only happy things. My father is my only family left, and I’m so scared of losing him. I pray every day that he will wake up.

“You alright sweetie?”

Deborah, another nurse, just walked in. I smile at her. I used to cry every time I came to see my dad, but I’m a lot better now.

“I’m fine Debbie, thanks.”

“You’re such a good daughter, coming every day. Those two gentlemen’s families don’t even come once a week to see them. Your daddy is a lucky man, sweetie.”

I smile. That is one of the nicest things I’ve ever heard. All the nurses here are so nice. Deborah checks everyone’s vitals in the room before leaving.

Once she’s gone, I take out my headphones, give my dad one of the earpieces, and put on his favorite song,I’m A Believerby The Monkees. I take the other one to listen to it with him. I love that old song. I smile whenever I listen to it.

Whenever he put it on the old stereo in our house, Dad and I would dance around and sing loudly, making Mom laugh. He loved rock bands mostly but would listen to anything. My mom liked Latin songs more, it reminded her of her roots. Our house was the kind that had music on from sunrise to sunset. I miss the old days. I close my eyes and let my playlist shuffle through the list I made for him.

I doze off while listening to the music, and when I wake up, it’s almost 5:00 p.m. Crap, it’s that late already. Daniel sent me two texts, letting me know that it looks like he will have to stay at the lab for the night. I feel sorry for him, those experiments are really giving him a hard time lately. I don’t really get his biology stuff, but he’s so into his research, it’s not unusual for him to pull an all-nighter from time to time.

I say goodbye to Dad, taking my time before leaving. I hate leaving him in that hospital room day after day, but I’ve gotten used to it. When I’m about to start driving, someone suddenly mind-links me.

“Hey, Elena?”

“Chris? Something wrong?”

“Yeah. My dad is looking for you, and he’s not too happy.”

“Crap. Where is he?”

“At the Main House. Apparently, he heard about you going out last night. I didn’t understand everything, but he looks really angry, Elena.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

How did he learn about our escapade in the Velvet Moon territory? Did the young ones we caught yesterday talk? One of them probably blabbed about it. I growl nervously while driving, and my wolf is annoyed too. As more time passes, I have a hard time controlling her and her alpha instincts against my uncle Xavier. Werewolves are complicated creatures, and our relationships and society are even more complex. Especially between alphas.

I pull over in front of what we call the Main House. My uncle’s house is also the main gathering place for our pack. It’s a large, old, but richly decorated house. Iris is waiting for me outside, and she runs to me as soon as I get out of my car.

“I’m so sorry, Elena, I think he overheard me talking about the nightclub with Prue on the phone. I tried to calm him down but…”

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