Sunday, 17th of September

It was very early in the morning when I had the worst waking up of my life. I hadn't been out for long after having troubles falling asleep when suddenly a sharp pain hit me in the lower back and pulled me out of my sleep. I had been warned that once the healing of my back starts, it would come with an unbearable amount of pain, but this was worse than anything I had expected.

I was sure my pained scream was heard throughout the whole house, and I felt bad for scaring the poor Alma whose sensitive ears were just inches from my face. She shot up and instinctively backed away while covering her naked body with the blanket, almost falling off the bed in that motion. My attempts to speak and call for help were suffocated by screaming and groaning, but luckily Alma knew what to do.

I couldn't keep my eyes open to follow her actions, but I could tell that after a moment of disoriented confusion, she grasped the situation and jumped off the bed. While my whole body was cramping up because of the pain, I heard Alma run through the room, probably over to my desk, where my painkillers were at. I could hear the drawer of my desk being slammed shut and then a door being opened.

I caught a glimpse of Alma sprinting out of the bathroom with a cup of water, splashing some of the liquid out on the ground in her hurry. While writhing in pain, I saw Alma running towards me with a worried expression on her face and tears in her eyes. She ripped open the pack and took out one of the pills, which sent chills all over my body. I knew I had to swallow that medication for the pain to disappear. Thus I closed my eyes, took that pill, and threw it into my mouth.

I was trying to get that thing down with all my might, but it was no help. Another painful wave spread through my body, pushing tears out of my eyes, and while trying to suppress the groans, I managed to say two words: "I... can't..."

"Please, you have to!" I opened my eyes and was looking at a pained Alma, her crying face telling me she was shedding tears out of worry for me. Seeing my Kitten being in pain because of me made me hate myself even more; how could I be of so little use that I couldn't even swallow a damn pill!?

I took the cup of water and poured it all down my throat, hoping that the pill would go down with it. When it entered my throat, I felt like throwing up but managed to control myself.

Shortly after I swallowed the pill, Mom also came in to check on me, which scared the naked Alma and made her hide behind the bed. As cute as it might have been, I was still in a lot of pain and couldn't appreciate Alma's adorableness. Quite a while passed until the radiating pain started to fade, with warmth spreading through my now relaxed body.

Alma hugged me, my muscles exhausted from cramping up because of the pain. My throat felt sore from screaming and groaning; even breathing felt painful. And this was just the beginning... I would need to take a pill every twelve hours for the next weeks, maybe even months.

Tuesday, 19th of September

It was already noon, and I was still lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. I didn't feel like doing anything, I just kept lying after waking up, without even putting on clothes or such. I wasn't motivated to do anything to begin with, and the painkillers made everything worse. They made me sleepy, but at the same time, I was still suffering from trouble with falling asleep.

To explain my listlessness, I told Alma that the painkillers were making me tired. There was no need to make her worry by telling her that I felt like the most useless person on the planet. That was making me sad enough, didn't want to trouble Alma with it.

The girl in question was sitting at my desk, drawing something "special." She didn't want to tell me what she was creating, but it was taking up a lot of time. Alma spent all her time, which she didn't spend with Lucy or me, on drawing; this one picture already took her two days. I was guessing that it might be a drawing of me, cause now and then I caught Alma staring at me. Whenever that was the case, she blushed and apologized.

"I think it's finished now..." started Alma while getting up from her chair. She took the paper and went over to me, before looking at it one last time, blushing, then handing it to me.

"I hope you li-" she started but was interrupted by her phone ringing. She looked at it for a moment before taking the call, saying "Hello? Y-Yes, this is Alma White...."

In my hands was an amazing drawing of Alma and me sleeping naked. I was lying on my back with Alma cuddling me from the side, her left arm and leg hiding my and her private parts. What made this picture very special was that Alma drew herself without all of her scars and wrote in very lovely handwriting "You make me feel whole again" on the page.

I was used to Alma making amazing stuff, but this was the very first time she drew herself beside me. I loved how this picture turned out, and I would probably frame it and hang it on the wall later. I wanted to tell Alma how I felt, so I started, "Alma this is amazing!"

But I was cut off by Alma still talking on the phone, "Y-Yes. ... Really!? T-Thank you very much! ... Yes, bye!"

Then she turned around to me and cheerfully said, "They found Mommy! We can visit her! She doesn't live far from here!"

Hearing that made me happy for Alma. She hadn't seen her mom in many years; until recently, she even thought she was dead. I could only assume how Alma was feeling right now. I responded, "That's great Kitten... want to go see her right now?"

Alma nodded and started to get dressed properly, as she was only wearing panties and a loose shirt until now. She then took out clothes for me to wear and threw them on the bed. Alma helped me put them on and moved me into my wheelchair; I didn't know if Alma was getting stronger or I just lost enough weight for her to lift me. After we fixed our hair and makeup, we went downstairs. Luckily, Mom stayed home this week because of me so she could drive us.

"Mom?" I yelled through the house, "Mom, they found out where Alma's mother lives, you need to drive us!"

Papers dropping to the ground were heard before Mom came out of my parents' office, almost yelling, "That's great Sweety! What are we waiting for then?"

Once we got into the car, Alma gave Mom the address, and we took off. The direction we were going in was known to us, we were driving in a police car on this street, just a few days ago. But instead of taking the exit to go to Tampa, we kept on going straight and got into some small city I had never seen before.

Mom followed the directions until we ended up in front of a rather old-looking apartment building. The color was washed off, and there were even some broken windows. But, people were living there, the laundry on some of the balconies proved that. I looked over to my Kitten, who was looking out of the window and seemed to be caught by the building. After silently looking for a moment, she started talking, "So... this is where Mommy lives..."

"Good luck in there, Alma... I hope you can reconnect with your mother," I responded. I wondered what her mother was like, from what I heard from Alma she seemed to be a nice person. I'd probably meet her one day.

"B-But... I want you to come with me... I want to introduce my girlfriend to Mommy," replied Alma. I didn't know if that was a good idea, Alma couldn't know if her mother would accept us after all. My worries probably showed on my face because she continued, "Pleeease..."

"Fine... I can't say no to you," I gave in and let Alma help me out of the car.

"Take your time you two, I will be waiting wherever I find a parking spot," said Mom and we started moving in the direction of the building. As we were getting closer, I was becoming nervous. For various reasons actually.

Not only was I meeting my girlfriend's mother for the first time, but my girlfriend would also be seeing her after multiple years. So many things could happen, and no one knew how the meeting would turn out. Alma must have felt terrified, and it was obvious that she was trying to hide that.

We entered the building and went to the door which was stated in the address given to us. Luckily it was on the ground floor because this building didn't have an elevator. The further we went, the stronger my nervousness was getting. Alma stepped in front of the door, which had the name Christina White on it, and was about to knock when she suddenly stopped. She took a deep breath and said, "T-Thank you for coming with me, my Love; I would have been too scared to come here alone."

"B-But... what if she doesn't accept... me. What if she doesn't approve of... us," I finally spoke my fears.

"S-She will... she has to... I lived without her for many years, i-if she doesn't approve of us, I know I can do that for many years more," replied Alma determined. When she finished that sentence, she knocked on the door, and we could hear someone walk on the other side of the door.

Just shortly after, the door opened and a woman with long reddish brown, almost red, hair was looking at us. She looked like she was in her early forties and it was obvious that she was Alma's mother. Their face had the same shape and, although differently colored, this woman's brown eyes looked very similar to Alma's light blue ones. At first, it was silent, but then Alma's mother broke the silence by quietly stuttering, "A-... Alma...?"

Alma seemed speechless and took some time to respond, but then after a while replied, "Y-Yes, Mommy..."

Paralyzed by the surprise, Alma's mother slowly moved closer. Then they fell into each other's arms, both crying tears of happiness and relief.

"T-This is real, right? This isn't just one of my dreams, you are here with me," spoke Alma's mom.

"Yes, I'm here," answered Alma while being hugged tightly by her mother. I could tell how happy both of them were just by looking at how they held each other.

"I'm... I'm so sorry for not being there for you... I missed so much of your life..." said Alma's mother. I could only imagine how it felt to miss many years of your own daughter's childhood... it must be a terrible feeling.

"I-It's okay... I'm so happy I got to see you again," sobbed Alma. After some more time of hugging, they parted, and Alma continued, "Mommy, I have to introduce you to someone."

"I was already wondering who this lovely lady might be. A friend of yours?" responded Alma's mother.

"N-Not exactly... Brea, this is my mom, Christina. Mommy, this is Brea, my... um..." Alma took a break while nervously fidgeting with her hands behind her back. She stepped closer to me and took my hand, then said, "Brea is... my girlfriend."

Christina had a confused expression and seemed speechless for a moment and then said, "So... you two... are a couple?"

Alma nodded while gripping my hand even tighter and her mom continued, "This... is really unexpected... b-but it's your decision, so as long as you are happy... I'm fine with it... I guess..."

Christina held her hand out for me to shake and spoke with a rather forced smile, "Hello, my name is Christina, nice to meet you. O-Oh and come on in the both of you."

I shook her hand and greeted back, but it was obvious that this situation wasn't easy for her. She went inside, and before we followed, I looked at Alma, who wasn't satisfied with her mother's reaction, and whispered, "Don't worry, she will get used to it. It could have been a lot worse."

Alma nodded, and we followed her mom into her apartment. As expected from the outside of the building, her home was very small and run-down. There were cracks in the walls and the furniture looked like it had been in use for decades. I was almost shocked by the difference of her apartment to the place I lived in.

After offering us coffee, she started asking Alma about how things had been in the last few years. Alma told her about what happened with her father, the story about her "friend" from high school, and, of course, a lot about my family and me.

She explained how I found her after she ran away, how I treated her better than anyone else did before, and how I got into this wheelchair because I saved her. Christina eagerly listened to Alma's stories and then said, "After hearing everything, I'm glad Alma has someone like you in her life, Brea. I'm sorry about my rather rude reaction before, but I was raised in a religious family, so this is a bit... unusual for me. But, of course, I love my daughter, and if she chooses you as her partner, I will support it."

Alma jumped up from her chair and hugged her mother tightly, saying, "Thank you... I was scared you wouldn't like Brea..."

"I'm sorry for making you feel that way. I want you to be happy, no matter who you choose," reassured Christina. That was also a massive relief for me, I wanted my mother-in-law to like me, after all.

Then Alma started talking again, while sitting back down in her chair, "Mommy, why didn't you change your surname back? You still have father's name..."

"Because of you, my Dear," answered Christina with a smile. Alma looked confused, so she explained, "You would still have your father's name, so I wanted to at least keep that one connection between us intact until you marry someone."

"I-I see... I wish I would have met you a long time ago... but father told me you had died when I was little..." responded Alma with a low voice.

Then Christina responded, obviously angry, "That son of a bitch... and here I was wondering why you never even called... I'm so sorry for leaving you with him, but no matter what I did, I couldn't convince the police that I was innocent."

"It's fine Mommy... I have a place to be now," Alma looked at me and smiled. Then she looked at the clock on her phone and said, "Oh Brea, we have been here for a long time already, we shouldn't make your mom wait any longer."

"You're probably right. Thank you so much for everything, Christina. Mom is waiting for us, so we have to go," I explained and got ready to leave.

"That's okay, I'm delighted you two came to visit me. Here Alma, take this," said Christina while handing Alma a small card, "My phone number is on there, call me anytime."

"Thanks, and goodbye, Mommy. I will visit you soon again," answered Alma before we went on our way home. We walked back in the direction of the car, both speaking how relieved we were about how things turned out.

When we got back into the car, Mom greeted us and asked us if everything went well. The whole drive home was spent with a cheerful Alma talking about her mother, and me starting to worry if Alma might not leave to live with her after all.