Noah POV

"Noah!"

"Yeah?"

"She's vomiting up blood, what do we do?"

"I'm waking up mom and dad, we need to take her to the hospital"

I walk over to their room and open the door. I sit down on their bed and shake their feet, "wake up. Mom, dad, wake up" i say, in a normal speaking voice.

"What? What's wrong?" My dad asks, disoriented.

"There's a bit of an emergency, so I need you to listen while I explain"

"What happened? Is everyone okay?" My mom asks, awake now.

"Elle came over here about an hour ago. She had Brad with her and a black eye. Brad made us promise not to tell you, but I am telling you now. Their dad can home drunk last night and got abusive with Brad and Elle. I thought they were both fine given the circumstances, but a few minutes ago Elle started vomiting up blood. We need to take her to the hospital, and we're going need your help with the insurance and the paperwork and everything." I finish

"Mike hurt his kids?" My dad asks in disbelief

"Yes, Brad thought you wouldn't believe them because you're friends with their dad, that's why we didn't wake you earlier"

"Okay, we'll take Elle to the hospital"

"We'll be in the car in five minutes"

I go back to the bathroom.

"Dump out the waste basket and grab the hand towel" I tell Lee as I pick up Elle again.

Elles shaking in my arms and she's scarily pale.

"You're going to be okay. We're taking you to the hospital and everything's going to be fine" I say for her sake as much as for Lee's and my own.

Lee runs around me and opens the garage door and then the car door.

"Get in, I'll hand her to you"

Lee puts the wast basket and the towel in the car and slides in. I lay Elle down on the back seat, her head resting on Lee's lap. Mom and dad walk into the garage, hastily dressed.

"I'll follow with Brad" I tell them

"Okay, drive safe"

"You too"

I walk upstairs and quickly get dressed. Then I walk into Lee's room and sit down on the bed. I gently shake Brad's shoulder.

"Brad, wake up"

"What? What is it?"

"Elle had to go to the hospital, we're going to go too, okay?"

"What happened? Is she okay?"

"I'll explain everything on the way there, just grab your stuff"

Brad grabs his backpack and follows me out the door.

Once we're on the road I start explaining everything. How Elle started throwing up, how I had to tell my parents, how they didn't question the accusations, they just took care of Elle.

In ten minutes we're at the hospital and I'm finding parking. We go inside the ER and I see mom, dad, and Lee at the front desk talking to a nurse.

"How's Elle?" I ask

"They're taking care of her" dad says

"Do you know what happened to her, young man?" The nurse asks

"Her dad beat her" I say

"Anything more specific?" She asks again

"My dad came home drunk" Brad cuts in, "we got into a fight and he smacked me across the face. Elle stepped in between us and told me to go upstairs. When I came back down a few minutes later, she was on the ground, she wasn't moving. But I helped her up and we grabbed our stuff and bolted. By the time we got to their house, she seemed fine"

"Okay, thank you sweetheart"

"Is Elle going to be okay?" Brad asks

"They're taking good care of her"

We were directed to a waiting room and mom and dad went to go figure out all the paperwork.

The police came and talked to Brad and me. They needed to file a report because what happened was technically assault. Then CPS came and talked to Brad privately, then my parents. I think my parents were actually made emergency guardians of Elle and Brad after their mom died. If something ever happened to their dad, they didn't have any extended family or anything, just us. The CPS officer disappeared after talking to my parents, so I think everything's fine custody wise.

We were all sitting in the waiting room for hours before we were allowed to see Elle. Brad had fallen asleep, despite his best efforts, and was now dozing against Lee's shoulder. Mom and dad were talking quietly across from us about how they couldn't believe it, how they had never even seen Mike drunk before, how they missed Elle's mom. After a little bit dad asked if Lee or I knew how long this had been going on, if there had been any signs.

"A month or so back I saw she had a really bad bruise on her ribs, she said it was from a soccer game, that a girl had kneed her in the chest. I just figured I missed that at the game, you know. I had football practice, so I missed the first quarter." I admitted, "it looked pretty bad too. I told her she should get it checked out, it might be broken, but she just downed some Advil and went on like it was nothing."

"Yeah, a few months ago she came over with a black eye. She had covered it up with makeup, but we threw her in the pool and it washed off. She said she had run into a kitchen cabinet the night before," Lee added, "she's such a clutz, you know, it made sense. But now I'm not so sure."

A little while later a doctor came out and the CPS officer reappeared.

"Elle's awake, we can go in and see her after the CPS officer is done talking to her" dad informed us

"Does he really have to talk to her now?!" Lee asked upset, "as soon as she's woken up?"

"If she wants to stay with us after she's released from the hospital, then yes," dad says exhausted

A few minutes later the nurse says we can go in and see her.

The end.

Sorry for the crappy ending, I got bored with this story ?