Mike's request was approved with a dateline of 6 pm.

On her tippy toes, Amani stood up to the urge of hugging Mike and instead impatiently glanced at him and the officer working on her ankle monitor, adjusting the survey. Amani walked out of the living room, ignoring the insults from her stepmother; a regular. It had been the routine since she found herself home over twenty hours ago. The woman had made it her mission to trop in wherever Amani was every few hours, yell, scream, and sometimes lunge at her only to be pulled back by her relatives.

Amani was sick. A need to be away from that toxic atmosphere.

From the word go, Amani chewed her fingers all through their toe-curling journey to the hospital, bouncing inside and out. It was the longest she had gone without contact with her family.

Mike and an officer guided her from prying eyes till they were at the door; their clue to stay back.

If Amani was eager to see her family, her feet proved otherwise, gumming to the floor while her fisted hand froze mid-air. Dread filled her stomach, the state she could walk in to find her family too harsh for her withering heart to picture. What if they weren't alright? She might as well drink that bleach she ignored in her bathroom.

"They are eager to see you," Mike reassured.

It was all she needed to hear, counting down from three and pushing the door open to the white room. All eyes flew to her, muscles tensing and freezing.

Amani wanted to feel what she was feeling forever; contentment, home. She bypassed the door, letting it slowly creak, and sprinted to Nadeen, wrapping arms around her fowler body and pulling the girl into her chest.

The steady sound in the room ceased, footsteps closing in on them.

"Aman." The lady sharing a few features with the siblings and more with their mother, Hanne, called out, tightening her lips and securing a hand on Amani's shoulder.

Amani hummed as she pulled out of the hug, clutching Nadeen's palms and nodding at the teary girl. "Shhh. Don't cry."

To avoid breaking down, she whipped to the side, waving Walid over. "Come here, big head." Hanne initiated greetings, and Amani ignored her condolences. "How's mommy doing?" She ruffled Walid's hair, flushing his head into her chest before releasing and clutching his hand.

"They put her through surgery again," Hanne explained after a while.

"What surgery?" Amani asked, releasing Nadeen and Walid's hands to turn to her aunt who hugged the half-folded blanket to her chest and looked down.

"She went into cardiac arrest, but the surgery was successful."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Hanne nodded, sticking an arm towards the door. "She will be awake soon, she is in the next room. Her vitals are sound. We just need to pray and wait."

Talk about praying, Amani had not prayed for the last three days. Why would she? She felt too sinful. But for her mother, she would. So, she spent her pending hours praying or holding Nadeen's hands and assured the girl that their mother was going to be fine.

Mommy's indifference to consciousness only had tingles running through Amani's spine, keeping her on her toes and housing her fingers in her mouth as she continued to chew them. The appeal was a once-in-a-lifetime acquiesce. Mommy needed to wake up before 6, she needed time with her mother.

Nearing the time, Mike pushed open Mommy's room to find Amani pacing. He commanded her over and she stepped out of the room. When he read the time, his voice lowered as if he was scared.

"Can you try another appeal?"

Mike shook his head, "They hardly gave this one. Besides, it'll be seventy-two hours very soon, your results should i-"

She placed a palm out, letting him know she understood. "Just seek more time for me, please. She'll wake-"

A voice cut her off, announcing her mother's awakening. Amani sprinted to the door, pushing past Hanne into the monotonous room, disinfectants at peak but all she could focus on were her mother's smile and the steady beeps from the ventilator.

"Mommy!" She threw her legs, gently embracing the woman in her supine position.

Mommy although weak, rose a hand to her daughter's back, patting it once. The position lasted for minutes until Amani let out a sob, sliding away from her mother into the chair. She buried her face between her arms, resting them beside her mother's abdomen and letting her worries out.

"What does your name mean, Aman?" Mommy demanded in a raucous tone over half an hour later.

The Words Amani never envisaged dazed her, cutting through her tears and lifting her head from between her arms. They shared eye contact, minds syncing while the empty spot in their hearts expanded.

Amani foresaw her mother's words, the woman's eyes glossy and lips trembling and that had her shake her head. "No, Mommy."

"This is all on me—"

"No."

"Do not suffer for what I did." Mommy fueled Amani's tears as she laced her weak fingers on Amani's wet cheek.

"Dan Allah ki dena fadan haka."

Meanwhile, Muhammad led a pack of colleagues into the hospital, ceasing activities without lifting a finger down a bursting hallway to a less officious hallway.

There, Mike stood at his sight, setting aside what he was doing to walk up to the cop.

"What is this?" Mike demanded, walking backward as the crew walked forward.

Muhammad headed to the door he was almost certain to find who he came for.

"The court approved. My client is allowed to be here until six."

"It's six twenty-four, counselor," Muhammad said, gluing erect as Mike stood between him and the door to Mommy's hospital room. "Step aside before I am forced to arrest you for contempt of law."

"Please, my client's mother just woke up. Do not barge in."

"Your client is a felon," Muhammad's tone surged to a firm one, his shoulders sticking out, "Let me do my job."

Alternatives ceased. Mike couldn't afford to be a felon while protecting one, he plead subtleness before stepping aside.

Muhammad had intentions of doing his worse, knocking out of respect and placing two fingers out to halt his team. If he had intended to go rogue on her, the lamentable state he kicked into had him slowing down, clenching his jaw.

Mommy noticed him while Amani held her hands harder. "Protect yourself, protect Nadeen and Wali-" she began in a low voice from the other end and Amani disagreed, shaking her head.

"You are all they have and I brought this upon us."

Muhammad cleared his throat, "Step away from the patient and walk to me."

His demand went ignored, Amani wailing at her mother's vague words. He could barely hear them.

"Step away and walk to me with your hands in the air."

Mike who pushed passed the colleagues demanded, "What is going on?"

The steady beeping sounds began to fall off the rails.

"Step away, Amani."

Out of her damn mind, Amani squeezed her mother's hands as she presented her glossy and raging eyes to Muhammad. "If you don't have anything to say, get out!" She lifted her mother's palms to her blazing forehead, "I am not leaving you."

"Amani Saad, we have discovered evidence warranting me to arrest you on the suspicion of the murder of your father and attempted murder of your mother. Anything you say may be given in evidence." Muhammad rose fingers to his back, signaling a colleague in.

"On what grounds?" Mike moved to stand below the detective, getting in his face...chest. "What evidence?"

Muhammad looked down, "The murder weapon," he turned to the man inching towards a terror-stricken Amani. "Arrest her."

A scream left past Amani, the ventilator alarm sounding off as the beeps surged up. "No-no-no-no-no!" She hit the man's hand away while Mike yelled at Muhammad.

"No-don't-do not tou-mom-Please!" Amani shrieked, watching her mother begin to convulse as a medical team rushed in, routing to their convulsing patient and urging a struggling Amani and the officer grasping her arm and a handcuff out. "My mum-don't do this! Mommy!"

Her plea, bitter tears, and roars fell on deaf ears, the man who she recognized as one of the officers the lab technicians forced her to go naked in front of pushed her forward, painfully grasping her upper arm and forcing her out.

A kid bypassed the pack of men, rushing to Amani and encircling his arms around her waist, "Don't go!" Amani yanked out of the officer's grip, almost losing balance as she fell to her knees, embracing her brother while shrieking his name.

"Why are they taking you?" The kid asked into her shoulders, soaking her with tears and mucus. He rose eyes to men either staring at them or looking away. He looked down, tightening his arms around her as she sobbed violently, fisting his shirt and hiding her face in his shoulder. "Why do they keep taking you?"

The kid's innocence made her hide further, her throat dry and her breathing clotted. She couldn't breathe.

The room scattered when a female kid hollered from the end of the hall, standing on wobbly legs and reaching the scene with decreased senses.

"What..a-are..they-doing to you, Aman?" Nadeen's question broke the hall, Muhammad sensing another scene before he stepped on, clapping his hands and barking,

"Get that kid away from her, do not allow the other one close and cuff her. Let's move."

The hall scattered into action. Hanne held off Nadeen to prevent the girl from punching any colleague that laid a finger on her. Another colleague yanked Walid away, and the one behind Amani was left with no choice but to push her to her chest, owing to her attempt at sprinting along with Walid whose cries competed with Nadeen's.

"Don't hurt them!" Amani yelled. Her yell earned her an unforeseeable bash to the floor, her temple and head connecting with the tilled floor, sending sustained, elevated streaks of pain from the area of assault. Proliferating misery. "Wait!" She struggled against the knees digging into the shells of her spine and abdomen, releasing a firework of strain throughout her body.

Amani's last images were the medical team trooping in and out of mommy's room, Nadeen's agape features; her screams hunting Amani and Walid's unprolific struggle as a colleague finally lifted him, ejecting him from the scene.