Sweet and Innocent (Demi Lovato)

Chapter 25

Demi's POV

If I had known that it would storm so bad, I never would have agreed to go on that hike. With Lilly crying in the backseat and the three of us drenched, I feel as though this evening couldn't have gone any worse. Of course, many good memories can come from bad situations, I'm just not sure this is one of them.

We pull up to the hospital nearest to where we were, and Wilmer lifts Lilly out of the backseat to bring her inside. I'm sure that we look ridiculous, soaked to the core and running for the entrance. I just hope that the paparazzi don't get any pictures of us. They already have gotten some pictures of Lilly and I don't want her to be too big in the public eye.

We make it to the front desk of the hospital, a mess, and the receptionist looks at us like we're crazy, or maybe she's just surprised to see celebrities.

"What may I help you with?" she asks us.

"Um... our daughter fell and hurt her ankle," Wilmer says.

I smile hearing him say that Lilly's our daughter. The adoptions still aren't quite finalized, but to us, she's already our daughter.

"Okay. You can go wait in room 3 just down the hall for a doctor."

We walk to the room and Wilmer sits Lilly up on the table. It's basically the only emergency clinic around that's joined with a hospital, but it's good for our case.

"You said I'm your daughter," Lilly says.

I look up at her, surprised that she's speaking through her tears. "Of course you are."

We're interrupted by a doctor coming into the room. Lilly noticeably tenses up when she sees him. I know better than to ask for a female doctor, since the emergency clinic is quite busy, but I wish that Lilly didn't have to have someone work on her who she's scared of.

"What seems to be wrong?" the doctor asks.

"She fell and hurt her ankle," I say.

"Well, it doesn't appear to be broken, but we'll give her an x-ray just in case."

Wilmer and I are asked to leave the room for a minute while the doctor x-rays her ankle. It isn't broken, but with Lilly's tears, I can tell that she's in pain.

The doctor lifts her leg up onto the table. "It's just a sprain, so I would recommend using crutches for a week or so until swelling goes down and keeping her ankle compressed in a tensor band for at least double that."

I watch Lilly flinch slightly as he wraps her ankle up in a tensor band. Once her ankle is wrapped, the doctor leaves for a moment and returns with a pair of crutches.

"Do you know how to use these?" he asks her.

Lilly shakes her head, then the doctor proceeds to explain the crutches to her and adjusts the levels to her height. 

"Do you want to give it a try?" He holds the crutches up.

I can tell that she's hesitating, but nods anyway and carefully slides off the table onto her good foot. She slides the top of the crutches under her arms and attempts jumping. She almost falls, but catches herself just before I grab her.

"You'll get the hang of it yet," I assure her. "Can we bring her home?"

"Yeah. Just make sure she rests her ankle."

After another failed attempt of using the crutches, Wilmer picks Lilly up and I carry her crutches out to the car. This was not how this evening was supposed to go.

We make it back home around 9 pm and help Lilly figure out the crutches. She seems discouraged by her struggling, but I assure her that she's doing fine.

Wilmer and I put Lilly to bed once she starts yawning. She's had a rough day and she fell asleep before I even turned off her bedroom light.

"You might not want to look online," Wilmer says as we lay in bed later that night.

"Why?" I turn on my phone and immediately notice the reason. "We look horrible."

"I know. And the worst part is that everyone's assuming things about Lilly. I think it's time we tell the world what's up."

"I know that. I just really enjoyed the peace for a while. If we tell everyone, the world will go crazy." I turn my phone off and place it on the bedside table.

"Why don't you contact Scooter and ask him to set up an interview with someone we trust... that way it won't seem as intimidating," Wilmer suggests.

"Sounds good. I love you, you know?"

"I know. And I love you, too." He pauses for a moment. "I have a question for you."

"Oh, yeah? What is it?"

"Does it feel like she's our real daughter, to you?" he asks.

"It does. You know, I thought since she's older that it wouldn't feel as much like she's ours, but I love her so much and it really feels like she is our real daughter."

"Well, that's a good thing, because guess what came in the mail today." He holds up an envelope and I grab it out of his hand.

"Her adoption papers!" I squeal. "She's officially our daughter now, too!"

Wilmer smiles. "She always was, though."

"Definitely. I can't believe it. This feels so incredible!"