After the surgery, Bec woke up to a beeping noise. She slowly sat up, seeing Luke sitting on one of the chairs, looking down at the ground. She felt the bandages on what used to be her left arm, and took a deep breath. "Well, at least I'm alive." She said to herself, and she saw Emily, Joel, and Moriah walk in. "I-is she... Is Bec alright?" Emily questioned, looking towards Luke.

"I think I'm okay. Hi, Emily!" Rebecca said with a smile.

Emily's eyes filled with joy, nearly screaming at the top of her lungs.  "SHE'S OKAY!"  She turned her eyes to the nurse who was giving a look of disapproval. Emily cleared her throat.  "I mean..  she's okay." Moriah smiled, then walked over to Bec's bed, and tripped on the way over.  "Oops!"  She steadied herself again, standing straight and tall.  Emily looked at Moriah and laughed.  "Smooth move, Mom."  Her eyes widened after she realized what she said, and Emily slapped her hand over her mouth, and looked down. " Sorry... Mo- Moriah."

Moriah looked at Emily, surprised. She spoke in a soft voice.  "Y-you called me..  mom?"  Her eyes flickered with tears.

Emily's mumbled under her breath. "What's wrong with me?!" She blushed. Moriah walked to Emily, and hugged her. "I'm honored to be called your mom, honestly." Emily looked down, embarrassed. "S-sorry."

Moriah held Emily's hands. "You did nothing wrong, sweetie.. You're an amazing girl, it's wonderful to be called your mom." She smiled at Emily.

Emily's mind was filled with memories of her old family before she met the Smallbones, and she frowned a bit. "I never really accepted that my parents were gone... the night they... passed..." She looked up at Rebecca, and tried to change the subject. "Soooo.... Can you eat? Because... Well..." She held up a bag of oreos. "I kinda snuck these in." Emily laughed sheepishly.

"I did... until my parents abandoned me. And yeah, they can... Thanks for coming, Em, you're a true friend."

Emily blushed, then held up the bag again. "Oreo?" She offered a second time.

Joel laughed, took a couple of oreos and then put one in his mouth. "I'll buy you another bag."

"Oh! Moriah," Joel grabbed her arm. "I need to talk to you."

"Sure, um... if it's important, we might have to leave the room. "  Moriah said quietly, looking at all the faces around the room. "Yeah... let's go."  Joel said with a nod, and they walked to the other room.

When they left, Luke put on Joel's cheap sunglasses, leaned back against the wall, and folded his arms. "Sup..." Moriah came back in the room, and snapped a picture of Luke, giggled, then ran out the room. Emily smiled, then looked at Luke's hair. "So... did ya find your hair products yet?" She laughed. "Yep!" Luke grinned, and chuckled. Emily groaned. "Darn it!" She paused, then started to grin evilly. "Guess this means extreme measures..."

Moriah looked at Joel with a worried face. "What's wrong?" Joel whispered to Moriah. "What if we actually... and I mean literally, adopt Emily? I-I mean.. if she wants anyway." Moriah's face lit up. "That's GREAT!" Then, her smile faded. "But, Joel, we're gonna be on tour a lot." Joel frowned. "Th-... that's true... If only there was some other way..." Moriah looked down at there feet. "I really want to adopt her, but she still misses her parents.. I love her so dearly, but does she want us?"

Luke took the sunglasses off and looked directly at Emily wide-eyed. "Oh, please no!!" Emily smirked. "Yeah... not scared of you, Lukey.... Not scared of anything." Luke fell to his knees. "please.... I'm BEGGING you!" Emily started to laugh really hard. "I-I was blu-bluffing, weirdo!" Luke let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness!"

Moriah's face lit up again. "We can home-school her! And bring her on tours!" Then her smile faded away. "But... then again, we go on separate tours..." Joel frowned a bit. "Um... what if she swapped tours with us?" She shrugged. "Maybe..."

Joel paused, then stared at the ground, feeling as if all hope was lost.  "Maybe we should let it sit for a while until one of us gets an idea... right now we all should probably be by Rebecca."   Moriah agreed with him, also disappointed. "Yeah, let's go..."

o_p     To be continued....