changes

It didn't set well with Ellie...what Kyle had said about Amanda and Elliot. How could she?

Granted, when Ellie did break up with Elliot, he did half way act like a stalker the rest of the summer. She was sure he'd even bugged Amanda about her. She guessed. But she didn't think Amanda ever liked him. Had she just felt sorry for him?

She wasn't going to think about it. There were other things on her mind. One of those being Lon, but she wanted to see if she could find Leia, somehow. It was beginning to sink in that she wasn't much good on catching up with people. Yet, it always came back to the theory, there was only so much you could do. After digging around in her stuff, she finally found Leia's home phone number, how could she have forgotten it? She knew Leia's cell number well, but that one didn't work. She was afraid her parents had moved away. Luckily, she got ahold of Leia's Mom.

"Oh, how are you?" Her mother sounded happy enough to hear from her. Ellie was shocked. She told her about taking summer classes. "How's Leia?" Ellie finally got too.

"You haven't heard, have you?"

Ellie immediately knew it was bad news.

"She was in a motorcycle accident," Her mother told her. "Thank God, she remembered our phone number. We were so close to changing phones. You know, just cell phones. We were going to get rid of the house phone and then out of the blue I get a phone call from a hospital in Florida."

Ellie wished she'd just get to what happened, but her mother wasn't like that.

"I hadn't heard from her in over two years, you know." Her mother went on about her running away and how they had hoped to hear from her, somehow, but never did. "I was such a wreck, and then she finally gets in a wreck. Leia had a brain injury."

"What happen?" Ellie cringed when she heard the news.

"I have a feeling there is more to it than just a wreck. I think her boyfriend had to be abusive too, but when we found her at that hospital.... It didn't look good. I'm surprised she made it. But I got my baby back and that guy's not going anywhere near her."

"Is she home with you?" Ellie felt awful that she hadn't found out sooner. It had only happened a month or so ago. Leia couldn't walk, her speech was bad. Leia's Mom told her she was in a Quality Living facility now.

Finally Ellie told her she'd be sure to visit her if that was all right. "Could I bring her anything?"

"She still likes music and those posters she can color with markers." Her mother told her.

After Ellie got off the phone with her, she sat down a bit shaky. This visit was going to be harder than she expected. Leia was always at her best. She couldn't imagine her in this state. Maybe she could get Kyle to go with her to see Leia.