Weathering the Storm
"Mr Largo, I'm afraid we have bad news. We can't allow you to replace your face again; the amount of blood you lose whenever you change your face is substantial enough for you to have to have a blood transfusion. However, Mr Largo you have an incredibly rare blood type, just as your mother did. Due to the rarity of this blood type, we had very few blood donations of that type and now we have limited amounts of the blood left and this must be kept for emergency surgery purposes. I'm afraid you won't be able to have another surgery after this one, we only have one other person on record that has the same type of blood as you and she has yet to donate blood!" The man looked at the physician coldly, his eyes under the woman's face attached to his own shrewd and calculating, before sparkling with a manic glint as he said in a high voice laced with an Italian accent "No matter, give me this person's address, I'm sure I will be able to convince them to donate some blood to me." The physician gulped and said "Well actually Mr Largo, patients have complete confidentiality, I'm not legally allowed to give you the person's information." The man's face once again became steely and he said in a cold tone "Then I suggest you do it illegally and just don't get caught, might I remind you which family I come from and how much we donate to this hospital! You wouldn't like to lose our patronage would you? I'm not sure your superiors would be best pleased with you, if you managed to lose your highest paying donor would they?" The physician nodded and then said "Well Mr Largo, I can't physically give you the information but I' rather forgetful and I wouldn't put it past me to have accidentally left the person's personal file with their name and address open on my computer screen while I go and quickly grab a glass of water, but I assume you understand I can't physically give you the information." Pavi Largo grinned and said "Oh but of course, I completely understand, you seem a little croaky would you like me to wait while you get go a glass of water?" The physician smiled and said "Thank you Mr Largo, I would appreciate that!" He got up and exited the room, Pavi quickly circled the desk and copied down the name and address of the person with his matching blood type and swiftly left the room, perhaps he should have scrolled down and read the file a little closer, maybe then he would have realised exactly why they were on file in the first place.
Pavi Largo climbed into his limo and giving his chauffeur the address, reclined in his seat thinking over how he was going to convince the person to donate their blood. He couldn't live without his supply of faces; they just didn't last long enough, slowly rotting until he had to replace them. His own face horrifically scarred by his older brother in a fit of anger, he had taken to wearing another's face to hide his own, women's due to their beauty, men didn't seem to have the same appeal to him! His italian accent developing to cover the speech impediment developed when his brother head thrown acid in his face while he was in a temper. All he had was the person's name to go on, Storm Shadel, which didn't help him in the slightest. He pulled up to the building to find a tall apartment building, dark and dingy as everything was in the city but on one of the window sills grew a small window box in which sat a few bright coloured flowers, a welcome burst of colour in such a dull environment. There was a gate in the way with an intercom, he moved towards it and found the name Storm Shadel and pressed the button to call up. A voice crackled over the intercom, "Hello can I help you?" The voice was female but other than that Pavi could determine nothing else, swallowing he said "Yes my name is Pavi Largo, I wish to speak with you!" The voice came again "What would you like to discuss Mr Largo?"
"I wish to discuss medical issues Ms Shadel, could I possibly be allowed to talk to you face to face instead of via an intercom." A sigh came through the intercom along with some coughing before a buzzer sounded and the voice came again saying "Very well Mr Largo, come up to apartment C on the 3rd floor." Pavi made his way through the gate and through the doors up to the 3rd floor and knocked gently on the door of apartment C, he heard shuffling and when the door opened he was unprepared for what was behind it.
The door opened to reveal a young girl no more than 25 years old, around5,5, her skin was as pale as freshly fallen snow, her hair the colour of a ravens wing, shimmering a blue colour when the light hit it. She had the brightest green eyes he had ever seen and red lips that surely had stolen their colour from the rubies the sparkled in the ring situated on his little finger. Her hair was short, closely cropped in a pixie cute to her head, with silver streaks already starting to grow at her temples. She wore a thin teal blue skater style dress with off the shoulder cap sleeves, she looked up at him and said "Mr Largo, please come in, I was not expecting visitors so you'll have to excuse any mess and the size of my apartment." He was led through into a tiny kitchenette and living room with a small sofa with a coffee table at one end of the room. She offered him a seat before asking "What you like a cup of tea or coffee sir?" He declined and gestured for her to sit down, she gently sat beside him before saying "So Mr Largo, you said you wished to discuss a medical issue, what might that be per chance?" Pavi sighed unsure how to proceed, he had always been so confident and yet this young woman had thrown him completely off kilter, "Miss Shadel, I've come in regards to your blood type. You Miss Shadel, have an incredibly rare blood type the same as me, in fact in this city we are the only two people with this blood type on record. Unfortunately due to circumstances, the supply of our blood type in hospitals has depleted and I'm here in hope that you might be willing to donate some blood to the hospital once in a while so that we may replenish the stocks in case anything unfortunate happens and our blood type is required." The girl looked at him with a cool expression and simply said quite plainly "I may look young Mr Largo but I'm not that young or naïve, the reality is that with every time you replace your face, it can only last so long and every time you need a new one you require blood to replenish your own which you lose during surgery! You've depleted the stocks and now require my blood so that you may continue your quest for vanity. Well I'm sorry Mr Largo, you're wasting your time, please show yourself out!"
Pavi sat in shock, he had never expected the girl to have figured him out this quickly and definitely not to have refused him. His face turned stony and he said "You do realise that my father basically owns this city, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for him to have you turned out of this building, would you rather live on the streets than donate some blood?" Storm glared at him and then shrugged and simply said "Yes!" Pavi gaped at her, he honestly hadn't expected that, he simply sat there mouth wide open staring at her. She shook her head but soon was overtaken by a coughing fit, she grabbed a handkerchief and quickly pressed it to her mouth, once she had finished coughing a few minutes later, she was breathing heavily! She pulled the hankie away before throwing it into his lap, he glanced down to see the blood staining the white material, she shook her head and said in an icy tone "That's all the blood you'll ever get out of me, even if I was willing to give it, it's useless to you anyway." She quickly left the room as another coughing fit over took her, Pavi gently picked up the blood soaked material frowning, the girl was ill! He followed the sound of her coughing, it led him to another room, he gently pushed the door open to see Storm sat on a small bed not quite a double but not a single. Her dress was hitched up ad she was gently injecting something into the vein on her inner thigh, she finished doing so and placed the syringe to one side before looking up to see him staring at her. She sighed and said "I apologise for my outburst, it was discourteous of me but I'm afraid I cannot donate blood so you've wasted your time coming here." Pavi moved to stand before her, the room was tiny, the bed taking up most of the room, leaving only room for a small desk and wardrobe. He frowned and said "What's wrong with you?"
Storm sighed and said "I have Lymphangioleiomyomatosis, a severe case of it. I'm dying!" Pavi gently sat beside her on the bed and said "Is there nothing that can be done to help you?" Storm gave him a small smile and said "The only thing that will be able to help me is a lung transplant, but it's impossible for me." Pavi shook his head and said "But why?" She chuckled quietly and said "I can't afford it and with limited stocks of our blood, it's impossible at the moment." Pavi frowned at her and said "But with Geneco…." Storm quickly put a hand on his and said "Stop, I know you support your father's company, and it's great for those that can afford it, but for people like me who will never have the money, I would rather die here than wait for the repo-man to come and cut it out of me. See why threats won't work on me, I've no family, friends and I'm dying. There is no leverage against me! Look if I could donate blood for you, so you could live your life the way you wanted to make you happy, I would! Creating happiness has been the only thing I've love in life and I'd willingly give you my blood if it would do that for you, but my blood is useless I'm afraid. I'm sorry, it was nice to meet you Mr Largo." Pavi sighed and said "I'm sorry, I wish I had known the circumstances beforehand, I would never have come to ask you and bother you with this. I'll leave you in peace, it was a pleasure to meet you Miss Shadel" Pavi got up and showed himself out, letting himself have one last glance at the beautiful creature that was to be so cruelly snatched from this world so soon.
A Week Later
Storm found herself struggling to breathe, she knew her time was coming. She lay in bed, breathing heavily with intermittent coughing fits, soon her vision started to swim and fade. She didn't notice the loud banging sound and the people flocking into her apartment, the last image she saw was of people in white masks leaning over her calling her name.
Her eyes slowly flickered open, a bright white light enveloped her eyes, was this heaven? Had she finally been reprieved from the horror of her life? She groaned and gently shook her head, god no this couldn't be heaven she hurt too much to be dead. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the light, she looked around to find she was lay in a hospital bed. It took her a few minutes to adjust to this setting and to figure out how she got here, last thing she had known she was lying on her bed dying when people appeared in her vision, wait no… they wouldn't have, they couldn't have! She sat up quickly and pulled down the front of the hospital gown she was wearing to find the scar she was dreading to see. A surgical scar! Her breathing started to quicken and soon enough the machines around her, connected to her started to beep furiously. Tears sprang to her eyes and she began to scream, nurses began to flood into her room as she screamed! How could they have done this, she was down on record to never have surgery, to never have a transplant and they'd done it anyway! "No, no, no! Get it out of me, get it out of me! I won't have it in me, I won't wait for the repo-man to come and get it, kill me now. Get it out of me and fucking kill me before I do it myself!" She was clawing at her chest, desperately trying to get at the stitches as if to open them and rip out the organ herself! Genterns quickly swarmed her and held her down as she screamed, a doctor calmly entered the room and said "Miss Shadel, please calm down so that we may talk about this!"
"Talk about this, there is no talking about this! I can't pay, so I won't have it in me if I have to cut it out of me myself! Take it back!" The doctor shook his head and said "Miss Shadel, you don't have to pay for it, it's already been completely paid off! You will never have a repo-man come for you, as your debt is already cleared! Now will you please desist with your screaming, you have nothing to worry about!" That quickly shocked Storm out of her screaming, paid for? But how and who could have done this? She had no friends or family, so how was it already paid for? She had stopped struggling so she was released as she sat in bed silently thinking over how this could have happened. She was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't see the genterns or the doctor leave and almost missed the knock on her door. She absentmindedly called for them to come in and then looked up to find a man she didn't recognise walk into her room, he moved closer to her. He had scars covering his entire face as if he had been burned badly a long time ago, but he had grown into them. He was not hideous or a monster though he would no doubt never be the most handsome man in the world.
He moved closer until he could sit in the chair by her head and looking at her said "So Miss Shadel, how are you feeling now? You scared people with your little outburst earlier!" Storm stared at the man in shock, she knew who this man was, his Italian accent had given him away. "Pavi? Pavi Largo?" The man smiled gently and said "I guess I look a little different without the woman's mask in the way!" Storm nodded and said "What are you doing here? How did you know I was here?" Pavi looked at the floor and said "I'm the one who put you here!" Storm digested this piece of knowledge before staring at him in shock and said "You! You're the one who paid for my surgery; you got me the transplant and paid it off so I'd never have a repo-man coming after me!" Pavi nodded shyly and Storm looked at him incredulously "Why?" Pavi shrugged and said "Because you made me realised how selfish I was being, that one meeting with you managed to make me rethink my entire life. All I've ever done in my life is trying to make myself look the best I could while surrounding myself with faceless Genterns. I've had everything I ever wanted and yet one meeting with you turned that on its end. I came to you to try and force you to give me your blood so I could continue you my life of debauchery and selfishness instead you made me realise what a sham I was and it turned out to be other way around in the end. We didn't have enough blood to help you through so I helped out." He held out his arm to show a bandage over his elbow where a needle had clearly been, Storm glanced up at the blood bag above her head and said "That's your blood?" He nodded and said "I couldn't let you die because I was selfish bastard and I now have you to thank for helping me turn my life around. Though it's difficult to look in the mirror now!"
Storm gently reached over and took his hand and said "Thank you, you've done me a great service and when I'm well enough I'll donate my blood so that you can have surgery to get another face, though in my opinion you look much better like this. You're my hero Pavi, thank you!" Pavi smiled and said "I think I'll get used to this look eventually, it's time I stopped being so vain and helped my father out instead of just using up his money. Though he is going to wonder who I spent so much money on, so it would be my honour if I could bring you to the next opera we have so that I might introduce you to my father and maybe so I might get to know you a little better Miss Shadel, after all I believe you're my hero as well." Storm smiled at him and said "I love to go with you Pavi, and please call me Storm!" Pavi moved over to her and lifting her hand to his lips said "Storm, I can't wait to get to know you better, I hope this will be the beginnings of a wonderful friendship and who knows perhaps maybe a lot more!" Storm grinned and said "Well I've got a lifetime now, I'm sure we can find plenty things to talk about in that time." Pavi beamed and said "A lifetime sounds perfect!"
So this was my first Repo fic, please don't hate me if Pavi seems out of character, I just feel he has room for growth underneath his exterior. Please review but if you're going to flame please at least be civil about it.