Will perched on her opposite side as Jemmy and Rachel came stumbling into the room next. Followed closely by Jax and Noah.
“Don’t let them take me back,” Ella cried grasping the front of my, well Remy’s, shirt.
“Back where Ella?” I asked with alarm. She never had a nightmare this bad. “I thought you had a great time at Nadia’s?” I said with some confusion, thinking that could be the only conclusion to her concerns.
“No, not Nadia’s,” she said trying to catch her breath between sobs. “I don’t want to go back to Heidi and Tom.”
I patted her back, breathing with relief. It was a simple nightmare. Nothing bad had happened to her at Nadia’s. That would have been my worst nightmare coming true. “You’re not going back, ever.” I stated emphatically.
“I adopted you, remember?” Will stated softly as he pushed her hair from her wet face. “We’re your new family and we won’t let them take you back.”
She shook her head. “It’s your fault,” she pointed around the room. “They won’t believe you.” She looked up at me earnestly. “Pops doesn’t have me. Pops won’t believe you. Jemmy is mean. Drake’s with that girl that lies. Noah won’t ever leave Stacey. Jaxson’s still with Tamara and they’ll tease you. Remy and Troy won’t talk to you and Jace is with that beautiful girl on television.” She was starting to worry me. We had put her to sleep long before that fashion show had started. Then she looked over at Rachel. A wisdom beyond her years entering her eyes. “Find her. She’ll know you’re not lying,” Rachel gasped. I was the only one who knew her true gift. “She’s going to be mean at first. She won’t mean it. She doesn’t know any better. Everyone’s mean to her too. She misses her brothers and dad.”
Rachel came to the end of the bed. “Ella, how do you know these things?” She said quietly, then she turned and looked at us. “I thought gifts rarely manifested before puberty.”
Will was frowning as he patted Ella’s hand. It was clear he trusted Rachel, now that Ella was adamant that she was someone to trust…in the future? “She’s a precog.” He explained to Rachel using his soft voice. “Ella, pumpkin, was this a nightmare?”
“No,” she said ardently. “This was just like when we played chess. I knew what piece you would move. I’m sorry if I cheated.” She looked over at me and looked ashamed through her tears. “I’m sorry I cheated, Blake. I thought I was just guessing well at first. I know you always say cheaters don’t win, but I did…a lot.”
An uneasy laugh went through the room.
I tweaked her nose. “It’s okay, this time,” I tried to act like I was bothered by her cheating, but her…vision disturbed me more. “What did you see, Ella?”
“I was still with Heidi. I was never adopted. I never got to be here. I never met Pops,” I had noticed she stopped calling her ‘mom’ as soon as we moved in here. I never bothered correcting her. Maybe it was vindictive of me, but I couldn’t blame her for disassociating herself from Heidi. “And Tom got out of jail. He had a good lawyer, but you were here. But not here. You didn’t live with Pops, you lived with someone else, a boy,” she wrinkled her nose in distaste. “He wasn’t nice. He was really cute, but he lies. He lies a lot. You tried to talk to the family, but they didn’t believe you. They can’t remember you.” She looked over at Rachel. “You don’t either,” she said sadly. “But you know she’s not lying. You know when everybody lies.” Rachel looked awed and freaked out all at once. “You need to fix this.” She looked at me intently, then a thought occurred to her. “The funny man,” she looked over at Will. “The nice funny man that gave me to you. He can help too.”
Will looked confused at first. “The Judge? Judge Myers? In the court room?”
She nodded, a wide smile crossing her face. “Him. He will know. He can help.”
I looked at Will with confusion and he mouthed later.
“Ella dear, would you like me to make you some hot chocolate, so you can get back to bed?” Drake said softly after Ella yawned wide.
“Where’s Jace?” Ella asked plaintively. “He helps me when my tummy’s upset.”
My eyebrows knitted and then it occurred to me. He had asked me long ago if he could help her when she was anxious. She almost had a panic attack when I hadn’t shown up for the court date and he had to calm her down. It had helped, and I knew he wouldn’t harm her.
“Jace isn’t here, sweetie,” I told her softly as a thought occurred to me. Maybe I could push comforting thoughts to her and calm her.
Drake left the room and I knew he was making her some hot chocolate. I started thinking of soothing thoughts and tried to push the feeling over to her, but I kept getting anxious. My head was spinning with the possibility that she had seen the future and it was confusing and daunting.
Finally, I just started speaking out loud. Hoping I could speak the comfort into her. “Ella, do you remember Mr. Rabbit?” I asked her softly. “You loved that ratty old thing.”
She smiled. “It was the first stuffed animal I got from you.” Then she frowned. “Heidi said she washed it and he fell apart.”
It was the first stuffed animal I bought her. I used to tuck it in with her every night as an infant when she went to bed. I didn’t know stuffed animals were dangerous in our beds back then, or even that my pillows and blankets could potentially be dangerous as well. At five she started calling me mama for some reason. I tried to discourage her, but Heidi had heard one day, and she had destroyed a lot of my stuff and Ella’s favorite rabbit when we were at school one day. Ella hadn’t slept well for days. It took her a while to get over him, no matter how many things I tried to replace it with, it hadn’t worked.
“Well he was pretty old,” I tried to say airily. I imagined him in my head. “He was light blue with spaghetti sauce stains on him because you took him everywhere with you. You chewed off his nose, so I sewed a new button nose on him.”
As I spoke I saw Mr. Rabbit appear, Ella exclaimed and grabbed him excitedly pulling him to her chest. I tried to touch him, in wonder, but he wasn’t there.
My gasp wasn’t the only one heard around the room.
I had casted an illusion.
Remy and I went back into my room after Ella had fallen asleep. “Can I wear this?” I asked him
, gesturing at his shirt I was wearing as I grabbed a pair of shorts.