Disclaimer: I do not own these characters
Chapter 7 Accusations
As Lu stormed down the hall towards her office, her mind was a flurry of jumbled thoughts.
"Hey, Lu..." Lana was surprised to see her friend coming down the hall, surprised that she had left her son's side, even for a moment. "How's Marc...?"
"Not now, Lana." Lu said as she pushed past her. Lana watched in shocked silence as Lu opened the door to her office, speaking harshly to the young man who had been waiting there for her.
"Dana said you wanted to talk. Fine. We'll talk. In my office. Now." Bill glanced quickly at Lana, then went into Lu's office. Lu turned to face him, arms folded across her chest. Bill knew right then that that was not a good sign.
"Look, Lu. I know you don't want to talk to me. But you can't avoid it forever. We need to talk about what happened to Marc."
"I know what happened to Marc." Lu replied. "You allowed him to ride that stupid bike without a helmet."
"I did not allow him to do anything." Bill said in his own defense. "He left the house on his own. He know's better than to go without a helmet. I don't know why he wasn't wearing one."
"You know perfectly well how I feel about him riding the dirt bike, but you allow him to do it anyway. It's always been like that, hasn't it, Bill? You always allow him to do whatever he wants. You think you can make up for all the years you weren't there."
"That's not fair, Lu. You can't blame me for this."
"He was at your house. He was your responsibility. And now he..." Lu paused briefly, then continued. "Well, Diane should be happy now."
"Leave my wife out of this," Bill replied angrily.
"Marc has never been nothing but an inconvenience to her." Lu said.
"You can't blame Diane for this either, Lu. Maybe you should take a good look at yourself....see who is really to blame for this accident." Lu stared at him in disbelief as the reality of what he was saying hit her: he was blaming her for their son's accident.
"You can't honestly believe that I am to blame, Bill. I was here at the clinic all day. Marc was at your house, remember?"
"But why was he at my house?" Bill questioned. "What made him call me the other night and ask if he could spend a few days with me? Can you answer that?" Lu was silent for a moment. No, she couldn't answer that.
"You're his father. Is there anything wrong with a boy wanting to spend time with his dad?" Lu asked.
"Normally, no. But it's not like him to just call like that. And without even talking to you first. So maybe you would like to tell me what is going on with you."
"W...what do you mean?" Lu stammored, feeling her defenses melting away as the exhaustion threatened to take over.
"Marc was obviously upset with you about something. Maybe you should tell me what happened between the two of you before he called me." Bill could see that she was weakening, and at that moment, he could only think of hurting her the way she had hurt him by refusing to talk to him and blaming him for the accident.
"Come on, Lu. You did something. What was it?"
"I...I don't know. The past few days he's been kinda giving me the cold shoulder. I don't know why."
"And there's something else I've wanted to talk to you about." Bill said, knowing he might not get another chance to talk to her like this.
"What?" Lu asked, wanting nothing more than to run from her office and back to her son's room in ICU.
"We've always kept Marc's visits with me on a regular schedule. And whenever we've needed to change it, you've always given me several days notice. But lately, you've been sending him to me between scheduled visits and with hardly any notice at all." Bill replied.
"Does that bother you? I thought you would like to spend more time with your son."
"I do. I just don't like the thought of you pawning him off on me so you can spend the night with some new boy friend or something." Lu stared at him as she felt the anger rising within her.
"Pawning him off on you? Is that what you think? That I'm pawning him off on you? First of all, I don't pawn my son off on anyone. And second of all, I don't even know what you're talking about. I have never sent him to you just so I could spend the night with someone. Not that it's any of your business, but I don't even have a boy friend."
"Ok, then maybe you can explain to me why you sent him to me about a month ago with hardly any warning at all. There must have been a reason why you called one night and said you needed him to stay with me and you needed me to pick him up at school the next day. And you didn't even know how long you wanted him to stay with me. You just said that you would let me know. There must have been a guy involved in there somewhere." Lu felt the color drain from her face as she realized that he was referring to the days following her brutal rape. Needing to be alone to sort things out, she had sent Marc to stay with Bill. Bill was surprised when Lu suddenly went pale, and grabbed her desk for support. Not wanting to melt down in front of him, Lu took a deep breath. Bill saw her weakness, and decided to push her for answers. He knew something had been going on with her, and he was determined to find out what it was. After all, whatever it was, obviously affected their son.
"Come on, Lu. You might as well tell me the truth."
"I don't need to tell you anything." Lu said, heading towards the door. Bill grabbed her arm as she pushed past him.
"I know you, Lu. And I know that somewhere in this scenario there is a guy. And because of that guy, you didn't want Marc there." Lu pulled away from him, speaking angrily as she fought back tears.
"You wanna know everything? Ok, I'll tell you everything. Yes, there was a man involved. His name was Dr. Randolph Kilner. And he raped me. And after that, I was put on a leave of absence from the RWHC. Now why don't you just leave me alone and let me get back to my son?" Lu stormed out of her office, slamming the door shut behind her. Bill stared after her, trying to let her words sink in.
