Thank you guys for reviewing the story! I was surprised by the turnout, actually. I'm sorry it's taken so long to update; it's senior year, and drawing to an end, and things have just been craazzyyy for the last like month with school and physical therapy lol. If anyone is still reading, enjoy. I will keep updating as long as I know at least one person is reading. Again, thanks for all the reviews. And I hope you like where I'm taking this!
To answer a couple of questions, no, Faith is not in place of Zack. She is his older sister; he is still dead.
Disclaimer: I don't own days and I probably never will unless my family comes into lots of money and can buy Corday Productions; but seeing as I'm going to college out of state, I shall stay poor. Sigh. Anyways, the only characters that I own are the ones that I make up. Everyone else is property of Corday productions, nbc, and whoever else owns days, haha.
Chapter Four
Hope looked questionably at her. "My blood?" She repeated aloud, as well s in her head.
"Yes," Faith nodded her head slowly. "I have a rare blood disease. Mi doctors back in Ireland have tried every treatment there is left to try, but the facts remain that the only way I will live is with a blood transfusion. And since mi blood type is so rare…" Faith trailed off.
Kayla stepped in, attempting to explain things to her brother and sister-in-law. "She has type O blood. She can donate to any blood group, but can only receive blood from her type and Rh factor. And she's right; without this transfusion she will die."
Hope looked over at Bo, nodding. Bo swallowed hard; they just found their daughter and without them, she would soon leave again. For good. "We'll do whatever we can"
Faith smiled in gratitude. "Thank ye; Ye won't be sorry"
"Of course we won't sweetie. You're our daughter… we've waited all these years to see you, and we've loved you forever. We won't stop now." Hope ran her slender fingers through her daughter's silky brunette hair. She couldn't help but notice how it matched her own.
"I'll round up the rest of the family so we can get as many people tested as possible." Kayla wrote down a couple of things on her niece's chart and then left the room, closing the thick wooden door behind her.
"So that is mi aunt?" Faith asked, looking after Kayla.
Bo nodded. "That is your Aunt Kayla. You also have an Aunt Kimberly, and an Uncle Roman. Steve is married to Kayla. They have one daughter Ste"- Bo began but was cut off.
"Stephanie." Faith beat him to it. "And Kimberly has Jeannie and Andrew. I have a brother, Shawn, who is married to Isabella; they have a daughter, Claire. I also have a younger brother, Zack, and a younger sister, Ciara"
Hope nodded, looking down at the baby sleeping in her arms. "This is Ciara." She smiled. "How do you know all of these things?"
Faith smiled through her wariness. "Oh mi dear mother, I know a lot of the family here in Salem. Aunt Colleen and I like to keep updated on everyone every now and then. She likes to know how her family is doing, and truth be told, so do I."
Hope smiled. "You're a pretty amazing kid, you know."
Faith nodded. "Thank you. That means a lot coming from ye."
"Since you seem to know so much about the family," Bo began, treading dangerous waters carefully, "would you happen to know what happened to your niece, Claire? She disappeared recently and we've all gone crazy trying to find her."
Faith sighed; she felt bad for them. They needed information and were so willing to help her, that she could not withstand their requests. "Claire is safe and sound back in Ireland with Aunt Colleen. She thinks she is just on a vacation."
"Why would you guys do that? Take an innocent child from her parents like that? I mean you seem nice enough" Bo fumed; had Colleen pressed her dark habits on his daughter so soon in life?
"Claire was in great danger of Stefano Dimera. The only true way to keep her safe was to take her in hiding, just like us"
"What are you hiding from?" Hope furrowed her eyebrows. Shawn walked into the room, overhearing the conversation.
"You know where my daughter is?!" He exclaimed hot-headedly. Faith nodded.
"Yes, and I promise to return her to you at once."
"Who the hell are you?!" Shawn moved towards the bed, ready to strangle the fragile young woman laying on it.
"I am Faith Lynn Brady, your sister" She eyed him coolly, standing her ground defensively.
Shawn stopped, looking at his parents. They nodded; a symbol that she'd been checked out. "Why do you have my daughter?" He licked his lips nervously.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by ye, Claire is safe in Ireland. Stefano Dimera had planned to take her and brainwash her. He wanted to raise her Dimera and all Dimera. Aunt Colleen caught wind of his plan and…well Aunt Colleen is not one to take things sitting down, so to speak."
"Would we ever have seen her again if you didn't need anything from us?" Bo asked in anger.
"Of course you would have!" Faith's thick Irish accent ran thick through her lips as anger seethed in her. "We're not cold hearted people, ye know!"
"Everybody just calm down" Hope stood, trying to smooth things over. She wanted answers just as much as everyone else, but she also couldn't bear the thought of her daughter leaving and never seeing her again.
Bo sighed and took his wife's hands. "You're right, Fancy Face. Why don't you and I step out here with Shawn and calm down for a bit? It'll give Faith a chance to rest." Hope nodded and the family stepped just outside the door.
---
At three p.m. the next day the entire Brady clan gathered to be tested for the newest and yet, oldest addition to their family.
Kayla got tested first, and then Steve and Stephanie. Caroline followed after, and surprisingly Victor and Philip showed up to be tested. Bo and Hope, who had already been tested the night before, watched proudly as their family each got tested, one member at a time. While the other members were being tested, Bo and Hope pulled Kayla aside.
"What is it?" Kayla asked in her usual concerned manner.
"What is it that caused this disease?" Hope asked, flat out. She would not make her way to the question, she just wanted to know. "And could this affect our other children? Should Shawn and Ciara get tested for this?"
Kayla sighed; she couldn't reveal the information to them. She wasn't supposed to, it was against all ethics. "You know I can't tell you anything except you have no reason to worry about the other children."
"Come on, sis…. I need to know what's really wrong with my daughter and why" Bo's eyes looked pleadingly into hers; Kayla could never say no to that look, and Bo absent-mindedly knew it.
"Faith got this disease after giving birth." Kayla sighed and spilled everything she knew.
"Giving birth?!" Hope exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
Kayla nodded. "By the progression of the disease, I'd say around 2 years ago."
"Why didn't she tell us?" Bo's usually warm expression was now cool and stone-like.
Kayla shrugged. "Maybe the baby didn't make it"
"Or maybe she doesn't plan on keeping us in her life." Bo stated flatly.
"Or maybe," Faith wasn't supposed to be out of bed; she wasn't supposed to hear the conversation. But she had and she had to defend herself. "I gave birth to two beautiful babies, a boy and a girl, and I was trying to wait for the right minute to tell ye all everything."
"Faith." Hope snapped her neck around and saw her daughter. "You shouldn't be out of bed."
"That bed is lumpier than a pile of rocks." She whined, determined to stay up.
"Regardless, you should follow doctor's orders." Hope gently took her daughter by the shoulders and led her back to bed. "Your aunt and Doctor Carver are trying everything they can to help you but if you don't listen to them, nothing is going to work, not even this transfusion." Hope sighed and, without realizing it, began to tuck Faith back into bed.
"Your mom's right. You need to stay in bed" Kayla came in, demanding her niece follow doctor's orders. She seemed nice enough, but sure had Bo's stubborn personality.
"I don't want to stay in bed. I want to feel the sun on mi skin. I want to feel the breeze in mi hair. I want… to eat a cheeseburger." Faith eyed the tray of food that had been sitting there since breakfast; the road kill, as she called it, was starting to rot.
"Tell you what, you get better and bring those kids of yours for a visit and you can have all the cheeseburgers you want." Hope promised. Bo watched from the doorway, and for a second was jealous of his wife. She and Faith had taken to one another so well so quickly and he wished for just a second that he could share some of what they already had. Why did he find it so hard letting her in? And why hadn't she tried harder to let herself in?
Faith looked up at her father's dazed expression, and for a second seemed to hear his thoughts. "Dad?" She called, a wide, inviting smiled which reminded him of his own plastered her face.
"I'm right here." He advanced toward her bed, and was surprised when she took his hand in hers. Her skin was smooth, just as he last remembered it. He smiled down; she was so grown up now. "Why didn't you tell us about the babies?" He asked cautiously.
Faith inhaled and let out a small moan. "The culture from Ireland is very different than the one here. In Ireland, having a child at a young age is not as uncommon and frowned upon as it is here. I didn't want to be a disappointment for ye right off. I wanted to, what ye call it; test my waters before I told ye that I am a young mother. I don't want you to hate mi."
"We could never hate you, Faith" Hope assured her. "We understand that your life there must be very different from here, and that what is acceptable there may not always be that here. We would never frown upon you. A child is a blessing, and we believe that no matter what. As long as you're happy and healthy, we're happy. Now, you seem to have the happy part down, so let's concentrate on making you healthy again." Hope flashed her smile and sat beside her daughter, taking her other hand. Bo nodded in agreement with his wife, and watched the door to the room, praying that outside they would find a suitable match for Faith. To be quite honest with himself, he hoped, deep down, that he was her donor. If anything it would bring them closer together in spirit.
