Promise

Hey guys! Thank you for sticking with me and this story :) 1.52k reads?? Thank you so much! Your support is greatly appreciated <3 I know it's been quite a long time since I last updated this story...Needless to say, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
- lilacfrost021

***

Brendan paces around the waiting room, arms folded firmly against his chest. Hours drag on like days, and he feels that if his separation from May is extended any more, then he'll barge down her hospital door to see her himself.

Then, he reminds himself that I already waited this past year for her. I can wait longer.

He knows the desire is selfish, but something within him—a small voice, but a confident one—whispers that maybe, just maybe she wants to see him too. He knows she must; they were best friends after all. But he knows that her parents yearned to see her, that the poor folks had been kept up numerous nights mourning over their lost daughter, and now she has been found. He's glad that they have been reunited.
Currently, the Maple family resides in room 15 with their lost (but found) Champion.

"Brendan, we'll see her soon, dear," his mother says softly, offering a package of crackers to her son. "You need to eat."

Brendan runs a tired hand through his hatless hair, his chocolate curls running wild due to the rain. "Mom, I'm just worried—"

"I know you are. I know. We all...we're glad she's well," she says, exhaling as though the gesture pains her. "I was afraid that..."

Professor Birch rests a hand on his wife's hand and looks to his son. "We know May's important to you, Brendan, but you don't need to worry. She's fine now."

With so many people telling him she's fine, Brendan is prompted to find the true answer to the statement. Is she really fine? She's been absent from his life over the past year. How do these people define the word 'fine'? Is it a word to be plastered upon someone who isn't externally bad...but who possibly struggles with a burden within? Is it someone who's alive, but really not? He isn't sure if he even knows what it means. He isn't sure if he even knows her or if he has any right to make these assumptions about her. He doesn't even know if the caramel haired girl is the same one he knew a year ago. Whether she is or not, Brendan knows for sure that he loves her still. He always will.

***

Norman and Caroline eagerly but timidly open the door to an unknown fate.

They know that the door is a mere wall between them and their beloved daughter; their daughter who was lost but found, like a treasure. Oh, how they've missed her. They want to sprint into the room, squeeze her into their arms and never let go; but they quietly enter her presence as to not wake her from a possible slumber.

But she's awake.

Tears fly from the eyes of Caroline and from an unashamed Norman as they grasp onto their sad-smiling daughter.

"Oh, Archeus, my daughter!" She's enveloped by sweet embraces, sweet remedies to the scars across her body from her year of torment. May's eyes close, and she, at least for the moment, forgets the pain of her past.

Her mother cups May's cheek in her hand. "May, we've missed you more than you will ever know. We...we didn't know what happened to you, and..." The tears stream down Caroline's face, making her appear desperate and raw.