Chapter 3: The Dreams Unfold

 

The first day at her new home, Hannah remained in her room with either Rick or Evelyn at her side.  Her room was full of toys, all the things a little girl would like, but the only thing she did was to rock the porcelain brown haired doll her momma had gotten for her.  Now Evie was with her, setting up the mini china tea set she had gotten her.

 

“Would you like to have a tea Party?”  Evelyn asked, catching Hannah’s attention.  For a moment the little girl just watched, then walked over to the little table, and sat down in one of the chairs.  As a child, Evelyn had played tea party with all her little dolls, and soon Hannah caught on, and Evie even got a smile or two from her.  As they were playing, someone knocked at the door, and for the time being, the fun was over.  Hannah got up and went into Evie’s arms.

 

“Come in,”  Evie called out softly, holding her new daughter close.  Victoria did so.

 

“Dad said to ask if you wanted a rest, but I told him Hannah most likely won’t play with me,”  she informed.  This time Hannah lifted her head away and looked at her new cousin, still in her mother’s arms, where she felt the most protected.

 

“You may join us if you would like, but Rick and I will stay with her for a few days, for as long as it takes for her to get used to us,”  Evie said, amazed that she had warmed to her so quickly.  Victoria sat down and for a little bit Hannah stayed where she was.  Then as they played, Hannah slowly got used to her cousin, and returned to her seat.

 

~*~*~

 

While Evelyn and Victoria played with Hannah, Rick made the necessary call to Dr. Brigman’s office, and set up an appointment for him to meet with Hannah.  The Doctor agreed to see her the very next day, and as Rick got off the phone he ran his hand through his hair, not looking forward to that appointment.

 

“Hey dad,”  Alex said, noticing his father’s troubled look.

 

“Hey pal, so how are my grandkids.  You know I still can’t get used to you and Megan being parents, and me being a grandpa,”  Rick said chuckling.  Alex gave him the O’Connell grin, as his Uncle had deemed it.

 

“Yeah I know, I’m 20, she’s 21, and both of us are still in school, well eventually we will go back, but right now both of us want to be with the boys,”  Alex said.  His age, and Megan’s were not all that uncommon for a newly married couple.  A few of their friends had been married longer, but the fact that his own parents had met much later in life, made it seem strange.

 

“Age doesn’t make a bit of difference,”  Rick said as the two of them settled in the parlor.

 

“Yeah mum keeps telling us that.  What made you frown a moment ago?”  he asked.  Rick sighed.

 

“Well I have to take Hannah to see Doc Brigman tomorrow. The medics both in Germany and here say she is all right, but I trust him more than I do them,” Rick said.  Alex nodded.

 

“So how does it feel to be a dad again, I mean, well you know.”  It was Rick’s turn to grin.

 

“Yeah I know, well it’s different.  I don’t know what hell she was put through.  Nights she hardly sleeps, which is one of the reasons I want doc to see her.

 

“Does it make you mad that I didn’t fight?”  Alex asked.  When he had turned 18, even before that, he had thought about fighting, but both of his parents had told him to continue his education.

 

“No son, I’m glad you didn’t have to go through that.  Compared to this war and the last.  This one was far worse.  There are things we did that I’m not sure I will ever tell your mother,”  Rick said.  That was news, his parents always talked about everything, and he looked up as Evelyn came downstairs carrying Hannah.

 

“What things?”  Evie asked frowning.  Rick looked up, and the sadness in his eyes spoke volumes on how the war had affected her husband.  Victoria had followed, and Hannah reluctantly went with her, and Alex followed, leaving his parents to talk.

 

“Evie, I’m not sure I can tell you,”  he said.  She had settled beside him, and when she leaned against him, he felt the weight of all he had been through lifted.  He told her about the time they had captured a Nazi solider, a high ranking officer, and how they had tortured him to get information off of him.

 

“We were no better than they were,”  Rick said as he held her tighter.  Evelyn lifted her head and wrapped her arm around his neck pulling his head down.  She kissed him gently, and he let her kiss wash all the bad memories away.  They would have continued but they heard a scream, followed by barking.

 

“Max,”  Rick said forgetting that the camps had German Shepherds trained to attack the prisoners.  Rick made it to the kitchen in seven steps and found Hannah in Alex’s arms crying while Victoria let Max outside.

 

“It’s okay he just wanted to say hi,”  Alex tried.  She pushed away from him, and when Alex put her down she ran to Rick.

 

“I’m sorry dad,”  he said.

 

“I know son, I’ll tell you later, but keep Max at your house for a while,” he said, then carried her out.  Feeling really bad, Alex decided to go find Megan, and upstairs in their part of the house, Jonathan’s old room, he found her awake sitting on the bed talking to their boys.

 

“Here is your daddy,”  she said as Alex sat beside her, and gathered her in his arms.  Megan eased away.

 

“What?”  she asked.

 

“I managed to scare the hell out of my sister.  I let Max in, she was doing great, but when I let him in, she freaked out.  How could people hurt kids like her?”  Alex asked reaching out to hold Josh’s hand. 

 

“I know.  I can’t imagine what it was like.  How is your dad?”  she asked.

 

“Better now that he’s home.  Megan, I think maybe for a while at least we need to stay here.  Dad has been through as much as Hannah, and I think we should try to help out.  I know we have the boys...”  Megan silenced him with a tender kiss.

 

“We will stay,”  she said.  Rick and Evie had been like parents to her after all she had gone through with her abusive father, and in a way she felt connected to Hannah, having gone through such things.

 

~*~*~

 

Night fell, and Hannah was exhausted.  Except for the bad time with Max, her day had gone well.  She had warmed up to pretty much everyone, though only if she was with Rick or Evie, any other time she cried.  Now it was bathtime, something Rick had only managed to give her while she was asleep, giving sponge baths.  Evie however refused to do it that way, and now it was just she and Hannah.

 

“No, hurt,”  Hannah said huddled by the toilet as Evelyn turned off the water.

 

“Hannah, no one in this house will ever hurt you again.  We all love you very much,”  Evie said kneeling next to her.

 

“Bad hot in there,”  she said. 

 

“No it’s not hot, here,”  Evelyn said as she got up, and got a cup of the water.  Hannah felt, and realized it wasn’t hot.  She let Evelyn get her out of the dress she had on, and Evie had to keep from crying.  Hannah’s stomach and her backside were covered in all sorts of scars, some burn marks, some scars Evie didn’t know where they had come from.  Rick had told her, but she hadn’t realized how bad.  She got Hannah in the water, and got her clean, moving slow so she wouldn’t frighten her.  Once she was all clean, Evelyn lifted her out and wrapped her in a warm towel, then carried her into her bedroom.  Rick was there waiting with a clean nightgown, and once she was ready for bed both of them put her down.

 

“Noo, don’t leave me,”  she said holding to Evelyn’s hand.

 

“Hannah, no one is ever going to hurt you again, daddy and I promise,”  Evie said.  She sighed and Evelyn sat down and began to sing to her.  Try as she might, Hannah couldn’t keep her eyes open, and sleep soon found her, a sound sleep that only Evelyn’s lullaby could bring.

 

~*~*~

 

Even though she was free from the bad place, as she called it, Hannah was not free of the dreams which haunted her when sleep came.  She had been born into that camp, though she didn’t know that, she had known it all the days of her life, and even so, the terrible things done to her and those around her had frightened her.  In her dreams, she relived the torture she was put through, like the time they had  put her in a net and lowered her into boiling water, not all the way just enough to touch her bottom, and kept her there for a long time.  In her bed she began to thrash about, remembering another time when she and some other children had been put in a pin, and the German Shepherds, like the one Alex had, chased them.  Her hand had been bitten, and on her stomach and neck.

 

“Nooo,”  she screamed shaking her head, then sat up out of breath, and cried, which brought both Rick and Evie.

 

“Dogs hurt me,”  she said as Rick held her.

 

“What did they do honey?”  he asked.

 

“Bit me, dogs bit me, here,”  she said lifting her nightgown, and showing Rick and Evie the scars.  Both of them were horrified, and both decided to take her to bed with them so that if anymore of her dreams were to occur they would be there for her.

 

~*~*~

 

Time for the visit to Dr. Brigman had arrived, and Rick had explained to Hannah what would happen, but when they arrived she fought him screaming and kicking as he tried to get her out of the car.  Evelyn finally climbed in the back with her, and Rick did too, both sitting with her while she cried.

 

“You said never hurt me again,”  she sobbed into Evelyn’s side.  Evie closed her eyes wishing she would have found a different way to say things.  Now they had to figure out a way to convince her that this was not going to be bad.

 

“Hannah, will you come in and I will let him show you what he is going to do on me?”  Evie asked.  She thought for a moment then slowly nodded her head.  Getting her to trust them was the key, and both of them were willing to work at that for the rest of her life if they needed to do so.  Once inside the Doctors office, they were called back into one of the rooms.  Hannah held tight to her father’s neck as the Doctor walked in.  Knowing that she had been through a great deal from what Rick had told him, Dr. Brigman started off by giving her a lollipop, and just talked to her showing her different instruments.

 

“This one lets me listen to your heart beat,”  he said showing her his stethoscope.  He let Hannah hold it, and even let her hear his heart beat which brought a smile to her face.

 

“Do you mind if I hear your heart beat?”  he asked.  She let him ,while holding both Rick and Evie’s hands.

 

“Good.  Hannah, you have a strong heart beat, which is what I like to hear,”  he said.  Again she smiled at him.  The next part was a little more difficult.

 

“Now Hannah, your daddy says you have a lot of hurt places on you.  Will you let me see...”  before he could finish, Hannah turned her face against Evelyn’s side holding tight.

 

“Dr. Brigman, I hurt my arm, will you look,”  Evie said showing him her arm.  Hannah watched as the Doctor looked at it, and put some medicine on it.  Evie thanked him, then Hannah let him see her hand, which was disfigured from where the dog had almost chewed it off.

 

“Well I don’t see any infection, which is good.  If you want me to I can fix that,”  he said gently.  He managed the rest of her exam, and asked her a few questions, finding that amazingly she had never been raped, which was a good sign.

 

“Now, I do need to do a smallpox Vaccine on her,”  he said having noticed that she didn’t have one.  Rick nodded and lifted her onto his lap.

 

“Hannah, this is going to sting.  He is going to give you a shot, which will keep you from getting sick,”  Rick said.  She let him do that until he actually started then began to struggle and scream.  Once it was over she got another Lolly, which helped her calm down, then it was time for her to go home.

 

“I shouldn’t need to see her again unless she becomes ill,”  Dr. Brigman informed.  After thanking him, Rick and Evelyn took their daughter and headed home.

 

~*~*~

 

While they were gone, Alex, Megan, Jonathan and Victoria had engaged in a nice game of Bridge.  In their little basket bed, Josh and Jake were both sound asleep, and the house was how it should be.

 

“So Uncle when are you going back to Egypt?”  Alex asked looking up from his hand.

 

“Pretty soon.  The Museum still needs me, and someone has school to make up.”  Victoria just huffed and set her hand of cards down winning the game.

 

“If I wouldn’t know better young lady, I’d say you have been playing this for longer than today,” Jonathan said.

 

“Oh daddy, don’t be so cautious, No one in my school likes that kind of thing,”  she said getting up.

 

“May I please go into town?”  she asked walking over to him, and kissing his nose.  Jonathan was a softy where his daughter was concerned, and let her go.  Quickly Victoria slipped on her shoes, then went to the front entry and put on her coat, and as she opened the door she ran into her Aunt, Uncle and cousin, who was asleep in Rick’s arms.

 

“Hi, bye,”  she said rushing out.

 

“I think that will be her, in a few years,”  Rick said softly.  Evie smiled, and hoped that with their love Hannah would become that confident.  As of this moment she was quite frightened, and for good reason.  After taking her coat off, Evie gently took Hannah from Rick’s arms, though as gentle as she was, she still woke her.

 

“It’s all right baby, were home.”

 

“May I have a glass of milk?”  she asked.

 

“You sure may,”  Evie said kissing her forehead.  While Evelyn took her to the kitchen to get her milk, Rick hung their coats up, then went in the Parlor where he found Megan Alex and his two grandson’s who were now awake.

 

“Well lets see if I can figure this out,”  Rick said as he walked over to the couch.  He looked at both the boys who looked very much alike.

 

“I think Megan has Jake, and Alex has Josh,”  Rick said.

 

“Good guess dad, so who do you want?”  Alex asked as Josh started to get fussy.  Having just had a time with Hannah, Rick opted to hold Jake who was asleep, and who snuggled against him.  As he settled down Hannah walked out of the kitchen, and when she saw Rick with the baby she ran to him.

 

“You need to hold me,”  she said.  Evie who had come out after her came to the rescue.

 

“Hannah, daddy still loves you, he hasn’t had time to see the babies,”  Evie explained as she knelt down.

 

“But I need him,”  she said, her lip trembling.  Rick had been the first person to reach her after all the abuse she had been through, and Hannah wasn’t ready to share him.  Loving her as he did, he stood and took Jake back to Megan, then lifted Hannah into his arms, deciding that she needed a nap.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

In her bed, Rick sat against two of Hannah’s pillows with his daughter resting against his left side as he read to her from Peter Pan.  Books were new to her, and she listened without breathing a word.

 

“Peter Pan real?”  she asked yawning.

 

“Only in this book,”  Rick said as he turned the page.  It was that next page which got her to sleep, and once she was comfortable, Rick left her to have time alone.  In their room, he found Evelyn sitting at her vanity combing out her hair.  He walked up behind her and lay both his hands on her shoulder beginning a gently massage.

 

“I miss you,”  Rick said as he leaned in and kissed her neck.

 

“I’ve missed you,”  she replied tilting her head to the right to give him access to the sweet flesh he found there.  Rick sucked in that flesh, nipping it, tasting her sweetness, quickly becoming aroused when someone knocked at their door.

 

“Yes,”  Rick all but growled.

 

“Hannah’s awake, do you want us to see if she will go outside to see the horses?”  Megan asked.

 

“Please,”  Rick called out.  He rested his head on Evie’s shoulder waiting for any news that she wasn’t going to go with them.  When none came, he went back to what he had been doing, lost in the sweet rapture which was their love.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Not sure how Megan managed to talk Hannah into going outside, Alex watched them picking wild flowers by the fence which kept the horses in the field.  He sat on the blanket they had spread out letting the boys stretch.

 

“Well guys, what do you think, hmm. I got you two and a sister all in one month,”  Alex said leaning in to kiss first Jacob and then Josh.  When he straightened, Hannah walked over and surprised her brother when she sat in his lap.

 

“Alex, we pick flowers for momma,”  she informed watching Megan take a ribbon from her hair and tie it around the bouquet of daisies.

 

“She will like that,”  he said carefully wrapping his arm around her.  Megan smiled at them, and Alex winked.  He felt special, because Hannah was actually letting them be a part of her life.

 

“Where Max go?”  she asked.

 

“Oh he’s in the barn,”  Alex said.

 

“He not bite me?”  she asked.

 

“No way, he loves kids.  He tries to give Josh and Jake kisses ever chance he gets.”  She sighed.

 

“Dogs in old home hurted us.  We get in a place, and they growled and barked, then they chase us.  I got bite on my hand, and bled, momma wash it off, but my hand bad now,”  she said showing both of them.  Megan took it and kissed it, and Alex did the same.   Both of them, like Rick and Evie had been,  were horrified to hear what she had to say, but at the same time both of them were willing to listen.  After a few minutes of silence she stood up.

 

“Go see Max now?”  she asked.

 

“Are you sure?”  Alex asked.  She nodded, and Alex held her as both of them went to the barn.  When they arrived, Max sat when Alex told him and though it took a little bit, Hannah finally pet him, and found out that not all dogs were mean.

 

~*~*~

 

Another night came, and Hannah’s dreams kept her awake.  Finally unable to sleep, she slipped out of her bed, and walked down the hall to her parents room.  The door which was usually shut was open wide, and quietly Hannah walked over to her parents bed, and climbed on, laying on the bottom between them.  She put her thumb in her mouth and with them there felt safe, and sleep soon found her.