Don't Own AHS
A/N: Haven't been updating much, my apologies! Been out and about lately.
Roanoke update: Idk if it's the lack of an opening scene this season that makes me super grumpy about it? Or the feeling that not enough happens in every episode. I'm interested so far. Episode 3 left me with a ton of questions but I'm still gonna watch a bit more before I fully decide how much I like it.
PS. Sarah slaying in them jeans. *insert 'ok' hand emoji *
She deserves another emmy in them jeans alone.
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SEVEN
The New Beginning
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The boy woke with a start from a dream of a nun slapping his hands raw with a ruler. It had seemed like a nightmare but it was only a vague memory of his early childhood. He sat up, alarmed and somewhat confused, reaching over to the lamp on the nightstand. When the light flashed on, it revealed his new bedroom.
For a moment, he was relieved to have woken up in his new bedroom in his mother's house. He was afraid of waking up at the home with the other boys all crammed in the same room.
Unable to fall back to sleep, Johnny got up and made his way down the hall. He stopped outside Lana's bedroom and lifted his hand to knock upon the fine wood but resisted. He didn't want to bug her like a little child would. So he turned his back to the door and wandered down stairs.
Johnny went straight to the kitchen where he found the left overs in the fridge and sat at the kitchen island to eat them. He figured Lana wouldn't mind since she had said it was okay. So he ate them cold while he looked around the large kitchen, remembering that Lana had mentioned she wasn't one for cooking.
From what he knew, Lana wasn't the typical mother he had seen on TV. She wasn't some random housewife; she didn't cook or wore an apron half the time. She had an important job and wasn't tied down by stereotypical norms. The thought didn't bother the boy. He was just glad to be with her.
When he was finished, he washed his plate and continued to explore the rest of the house. In the living room he found expensive decorations and portraits of Lana with people Johnny didn't know but looked awfully important. Of course, Lana was a famous reporter; she knew a lot of people.
Johnny found the television set and plopped down in front of it. He turned the knob on and lowered the volume. He changed a couple of channels but all there was to watch was the flag followed by the National Anthem. He turned the television off and made his way back up stairs to bed.
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Lana and Johnny had breakfast together the following morning in the kitchen. He sat at the island while she stood across from him. There was silence between them and Lana didn't really to know what to say to him. She had already asked him how he had slept. She had woken up to find him still asleep in his room. He must have woken up in the middle of the night because the left overs had been finished. Lana smiled at the thought but she wished he had woken her. She didn't want him to feel alone in his first night home.
She watched him eat his pancakes for a moment, studying his features. Lana separated the ones that belonged to Oliver from the ones that belonged to her. She hadn't meant to but she couldn't help to do so. Alas, he was a handsome boy in her unbiased opinion.
"Would you like another?" She asked when he finished his first two pancakes.
"Yes, please." He answered.
"Coming right up." She smiled and took his plate to serve him another.
Pancakes weren't her specialty. Hell, nothing really was but so far Johnny hadn't complained about them. Truth be told, Lana's subpar cooking skills were the best food Johnny had in his entire life. Everything was better than the food at the home.
Lana served him the plate and placed it back in front of him. "So, I was hoping we could get you some new glasses today. I'll call the optometrist after breakfast to make you an appointment for later today. How's that sound?"
Johnny took a drink from his orange juice and set it down. "Good."
"Good." Lana confirmed.
She noted the bruise on Johnny's face was still present but would fade away in a couple of days.
"Maybe then we could stop by the department store and get you some clothes you like. I'm not sure what styles you like."
"Clothes?" Johnny asked a bit confused.
"Yes," Lana said, "Wouldn't you like some?"
Johnny shrugged, "I don't know. I've never bought any."
"Where do you get your clothes then?"
"From the older kids. Sometimes the nuns bring them." He answered.
Lana felt the need to hug the poor boy but she refrained from showing any indication that hand me downs were something to be ashamed of. As long as he had clothes on his back, that was all that mattered.
"Well, we'll get you some new ones." Lana stated, "Don't you worry."
She went around to collect his now empty plate and set her hand upon Johnny's face like she did the day on the playground where they first met. Her thumb brushed his cheek, just below his bruised eye. "First things first, let's get those eyes checked, hmm?"
Johnny nodded, his eyes on hers, still overwhelmed by the attention of his mother. Lana gave him a smile and dropped her hand from his face when the phone rang.
"Go ahead and watch TV, Johnny boy. I'll be right with you." She left the kitchen to answer the phone.
Johnny did as he was told and went to the living room to watch TV. This time he found channels broadcasting and picked a channel playing reruns of Bewitched. He sat on the sofa and watched the show but couldn't help to hear Lana's voice coming from her study.
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"Are you insane?" Lana's agent's voice boomed through the phone. "Can you imagine what this is going to do to your image?"
"I could care less about my image anymore." Lana sighed into the phone, keeping her voice down, "I knew you wouldn't approve."
"Of course I wouldn't. How is this going to make you look? Like a liar, Lana. A liar. You wrote in that book that your child was dead and now it turns out you've taken him out of foster care?"
"Claire, you knew the truth from the very beginning. I have never lied to you."
"Of course I did but your fans don't know. What are they going to think? That your child magically rose from the dead?"
Lana glanced towards the door where Johnny was just at the other side in the living room. She knew her book had lied about her child with Bloody Face. As far as the world knew, that child was dead. But what was she going to tell her readers? And most importantly, what was she going to tell Johnny? That Lana hadn't thought through.
"You've dug yourself a hole, Lana. You told the world the child was dead. What are you going to do?"
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Johnny could hear Lana's voice from behind her study's doors. She sounded a bit frazzled, as if she was arguing with someone. Curiosity caught the best of him and Johnny stood from the sofa and went to Lana's study, stopping at the door to knock and ask if everything was okay. He was somehow nervous that it was his social worker calling to take him back. It seemed silly but the fear was there.
He was about to knock when he heard Lana speak.
"People don't have to know. At least not right away." She paused, "I deserve some privacy in my life and my son does too."
Johnny grew confused, not sure what she meant but continued to listen.
On the other side of the door, Lana continued to argue with Claire.
"Sooner or later the truth is going to come out and it's going to bite you hard." She warned Lana. "I think it would have been best to leave things as they were…"
"You don't understand, Claire." Lana spoke softly, "You've never lived with that kind of regret."
"Regret or not. You have an image to uphold. What if people start questioning other things in your book?"
Lana grew a bit nervous and put her fingers to her temple, her head was beginning to ache with the stress of it all. She was really in a hole.
"I don't know. I'll find a way."
"You better." Claire warned.
"I always do, don't I?"
"It's what you're good at."
And with that, Lana hung up the phone. She then went to open the door and was surprised when she found Johnny standing there. He looked surprised and somewhat guilty. "Johnny? Is everything okay?"
He nodded. "Yeah."
Paranoid that he heard something, she placed her hands on his shoulders and walked him back to the living room. "How about you sit tight a bit longer? I'm gonna go make that call."
"Okay." He nodded and sat down, watching her retreat back into her office.
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Being out in the real world with Lana Winters was a surreal experience. Not because she was often recognized by people who watched her on TV because Johnny had never run errands with his mother before. It was an all new experience and one he found both exciting and boring.
The optometrist visit had been a dull affair for the most part. However, Johnny had never been to such a clean and fancy establishment before and was a bit nervous to meet with the doctor. However, the visit went well and Johnny stepped out of the office with a new pair of temporary glasses while his new ones arrived in a few weeks. Lana had let him pick out whichever frames he wanted and he went with a pair that was much similar to his old ones.
They had lunch out in the city. Johnny seemed pretty excited to Lana when the waiter asked him what he wanted to order. At first she seemed a bit confused and then realized it was something he had probably never done before. She let him pick what he wanted off the menu and then some. Johnny ate with much vigor, pleased with his choice of meal and Lana was glad for that.
"That bruise is looking much better." She commented.
Johnny didn't respond. He just continued to eat away at his plate.
"Do things like that often happen to you?" She hadn't wanted to ask but the words slipped out.
Johnny stopped eating and sat his fork down. He only shrugged.
Lana reached across the table to give his hand a light squeeze. "You can tell me these things, Johnny boy. I know it'll take time for you to fully trust me but you can."
"I know." He nodded. "Thanks."
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Johnny watched the world from the passenger window of the car while they made their way home. He still had so many questions to ask Lana but was hesitant. Of course he wanted a deeper answer of why she had given him up. She hadn't quite given him a decent response.
"Why do you live alone?" Johnny blurted out of nowhere.
Lana was a bit surprised but the question didn't offend her or take her by surprise. "I don't mind it." She answered.
"What about your family and stuff?"
Lana kept her eyes on the road, "It's just me."
The boy felt bad for asking and just glanced out the window again. "If my dad died…how come you didn't get married again?"
Lana looked at Johnny for a quick moment, "I knew you had a lot of questions but this one sure is something."
"Sorry." He muttered.
"Don't be." She put her eyes back on the road. "Before your—that man…I was with someone else."
"Where are they?"
Lana's hands gripped the wheel tightly, "They died a long time ago too."
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Later that night, Johnny wanted to wish Lana goodnight before he went to bed. He went downstairs and checked the kitchen but she was not there. Nor was she in the living room. The boy wandered towards the foyer in the direction of her study. He knocked on the door and when she didn't answer, he opened the door and stepped inside.
"Hello?" He called out, "M—Mom?" He was still nervous about calling her 'mom' but what else was he going to call her? She was his mother after all.
Lana was not in her office and Johnny thought about leaving to go find her upstairs but was pulled in by the mere sight of his mother's study. The walls were adorned with portraits of Lana with people he had seen on TV, portraits of her holding awards and certificates, portraits of old news clippings and of covers of books.
Johnny went around her desk to the book case behind it. On one of the middle shelves was a framed picture of Lana holding a red book and smiling at the camera. The book she was holding in the picture was posed right next to the frame.
Johnny looked over his shoulder and reached for the book. He brought it down into his hands and read the cover: Maniac by Lana Winters.
