JANE

"Mr. Peter your family is here to see you. I have talked to Dr. Arden, you are finally getting discharged," I smiled at the old man on the bed. His eyes sparked up with happiness, he held my hand tightly but said nothing. "You are a cancer survivor,"I kissed his hand and walked out of the room.

It was lunch time and my stomach was rumbling with hunger. I wanted to add a Hawaiian flavor to my diet today, so I quickly took out my phone and searched for the best dishes in Hawaii. I spotted one of the most mouth watering dishes on the site - The Huli Huli chicken. I smiled at the name of the dish while reading its description; This is the Hawaiian version of barbecued chicken with a Thai influence. The chicken is traditionally grilled. Huli Huli means "turn turn" in Hawaiian and refers to turning the chicken on the grill.

Following that, I motioned towards the exit, but my legs stopped moving right when my eyes landed on Emily. Her hands were wrapped around her knees and her head was bowed down. Emily was sitting on the stairs and her shoulders were shaking. I instantly walked towards her, she was weeping.

"Emily?" I asked in a confused tone. I was worried; for some reason, she reminded me of how I was when I was a little girl- sad and hopeless, the one who used to cry alone but allowed nobody to heal her pain.

"Emily?" I repeated, she looked up at me. Her eyes were swollen and a frown was pasted on her lips.

"What is wrong Emily?" I held her hand and wiped away the tears from her cheeks.

"J..ane, J..Ja..ne," she stuttered my name repeatedly as she wrapped her arms around me and burst into tears. I tightened my grip on her and rubbed her back to give her comfort.

"Shh, stop crying. I am here for you," I said while rocking the little girl in my arms.

"Mom is sick,"

"I know, but she is healing all because of you and your prayers,"

"No, she is still sick!" Emily shouted. "You don't get it, I heard the doctor talking to Ashton today!"

"Wait, what happened?" Recognition of the situation started dawning towards me and I rested my head on hers. I was scared myself.

"She went through a seizure, I am going to lose her, Jane. I will lose my mom," her voice was weak, she was crumbling.

"No, you will not lose her, shush stop crying," I was scared because I was not so sure myself anymore. Cancer is like life, unpredictable and horrendous; it is a sorcery which makes you collapse completely but when you collect your missing pieces and stand strong, it makes you fall hard on the ground until your soul is sucked out of your life. However, miracles can happen and people survive. They heal.

"Do you miss your parents? Do you call them every day?" She asked while sobbing on my scrubs. Emily's innocent question made me flinch, but this little girl needed me to open up in order to survive. I wanted her to feel alive.

"I miss mo... My parents passed away on the same day,"

"I am so sorry! Was it an accident?"

"Yes, it was." When those words left my mouth, the fire on the white gown started burning in my eyes. My mom's weak voice was drumming in my head, it became louder than ever and I felt as if the heat from the basement started touching my skin all over again. The dream I had last night was echoing in my head side by side. I shook those thoughts out my head and came back to the present all over again.

"But you will not lose your mom. Julia is sick, I know that you have accepted it, but what you need to realize is that she needs you to make her strong. Your mom is like liquid right now and you need to harden that liquid with your hopes rather than your tears, which will do no good to her."

"Really?"Emily pulled away from my arms and stared at me, her swollen eyes were finally shining.

"Yes," I smiled. "You can show her the light and make her so intensely happy. You can use the happiness as an armor to fight away her pain."

"You know what? Ashton was right." There was a radiance in her eyes, which left a trail of confusion around me. The adrenaline pumped through my blood as I heard his name.

"About what?"

"You really are Hope." Just as my eyes were fixed on her, I noticed that her eyes were finally dry. My heart started melting with her words and I felt like I was transforming into a liquid. Not the one I compared Emily's mom with; my solid chunks were melting into a soothing fluid, the one which was no longer ice cold. A blush crept up my cheeks and I bit my lips to hide the recurring smile.

"You don't have to hide your smile, it's okay, I won't tell Ashton. And I will also ignore the fact that you are blushing right now," Emily teased.

"I guess he was right about you too," I said while standing up, a mischievous grin was concealing my face.

"You really are a devil in disguise," I added.

"Sorry, not sorry," Emily started giggling like a typical little girl as she managed to speak.

"Have you eaten anything? I was just going out to have lunch."

***

After a few hours, we returned from the Koala Moa restaurant. Emily and I were getting along really well, I felt alive with her even though I was the one who was cheering her up the entire time. I was still afraid because I knew I had developed an attachment with all three of them- Ashton, Julia and Emily. Emotions and tenderness break you, they always do. It is a universal fact and I was taking risks. The sentiments I felt for the Anderson family were unbelievable yet so true, all of this was happening in front of my eyes. Nothing was Jane-like anymore. It was confusing because I never felt this way about my aunt, even though I had been living with her ever since I was six. All her calls went into my voicemail, I didn't even want to call her back and for some reason I felt no guilt for it.

"I am going to see Ashton now, I was mad at him and called him a liar. I feel bad about how I treated him." Emily frowned.

That makes the two of us; I have hurt him too.

It seemed almost as if my thoughts were too loud and from Emily's broken smile, it seemed as if she had heard it.

"Okay, I have some work to do. I will catch you up in a while, Em."

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned around, I felt bad for not going to meet him right away. He didn't deserve this, he always tried to bring life to my numb pieces. My broken eyes didn't have the courage to meet Ashton's green moss. Those emerald pieces were broken too and this time, I was too scared to even look into them.

What happens when two broken pieces collide? Do they break and burn each other into ashes or fall back into place?

Note:

1) Did you guys like this chapter? What do you guys think so far? Also, can you guys answer Jane's question below?(:

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4) A really horrendous incident took place in Pakistan yesterday and that is one reason why I am updating so late. I was depressed. All my prayers are with the dead and injured. It is sad. #prayforpakistan #prayforLahore

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