Without A Smile: Chapter 10
Bella gets off the bus at the stop a couple doors down from the Home for Fallen Heroes and takes a deep breath. The last few times she had been here things didn't look so good for her foster father, and she felt guilty for not wanting to visit today. Well, she wants to see him, but doesn't want to witness another day of his struggling to breathe.
"Hey Jimmy," she calls to the man behind the front desk as she opens walks through the door. It is one of those beautifully warm September days and the door is propped open. Bella can see Jimmy leaning into the fan on his desk as he wipes a bead of sweat from his rotund face with a brown bandana.
"It's a good day Miss Bella," Jimmy says to her with a grin and a wink, and just like that Bella's spirits lift. She knows Jimmy is talking about Liam and hopefully that means the pneumonia is passing.
"That's great to hear Jimmy. How are you doing?"
"Not too bad Miss Bella. Not too bad at all." He says as he waves a prosthetic arm around in the air. "The weather is fine and my maker decided I'm allowed to stick around and enjoy it."
Jimmy is always talking about his maker. Bella isn't much of a believer but she likes to think that if there is a God, Jimmy has a direct line to him because he certainly talks like they are the best of friends.
"You go on up and see Liam now. He knows you've been worried."
"Thanks Jimmy," Bella says over her shoulder as she takes the stairs up to the second floor.
The Home for Fallen Heroes is a three-story apartment building that was transformed into something like a nursing home about 20 years ago. It isn't really named the Home for Fallen Heroes (some people call it 'Shot Cops'), but that's what it has been dubbed because it's residents are all men, and the occasional woman, who have been hurt in the line of service. Liam O'Riley, Bella's foster father, was a police officer who was shot two days before retirement by a disgruntled ex-con. Liam likes to joke that if he didn't have Bella his life would be like a country song: lost his wife, lost his dog, and lost his truck.
Orphaned at age four when her father drowned while fishing, Bella spent the majority of her youth in foster homes. Bella doesn't remember having a mother and assumes she must have died when Bella was younger because she doesn't remember anything about her. Bella met Rosalie at a foster home when she was seven and Rosalie was nine. The woman they lived with only took in foster kids for the money, so they were left alone a lot in a house full of kids of various ages. When Bella was 11 and Rosalie 13, the foster mother's current boyfriend tried something with Rosalie that resulted in his broken nose and the kids being split up into different foster homes (that one was closed down). Bella was shuffled around through the system for a while, luckily remaining in the same school as Rosalie. They eventually ended up back at the same group home.
Bella was 15 when Liam and Maggie O'Riley came into the group home looking for an older girl. Rosalie was about to age-out of the system. She already had a full scholarship to the local university, and had been working part-time for years to save money to live in residence. While Rosalie felt like her life was finally about to begin, Bella felt more like the world was ending. Living in the group home without her best friend was about the worst thing she could think of at the time.
Never having children of their own Liam and Maggie were looking for an older girl to foster, one who might be able to help out around the house because Maggie, a former music teacher and jazz singer, was having health problems. Liam was a police officer at the time and recalled working with Bella's father when Charles Swan was a young deputy.
For a couple years things were as close to wonderful as Bella could imagine. Then Maggie's emphysema got the better of her and she died when when Bella was in her first year of university. A couple years later Liam was shot in the line of duty confining him to a wheelchair. Between Liam's retirement fund and Bella's financial contribution he is able to live in The Home for Fallen Heroes and be take well care of, but it makes for a tight financial situation for the both of them.
"Hey sweet pea," Bella hears Liam's slow slur as she walks into the room.
"Hiya handsome," she says and then gives him a kiss on the forehead. It's nice to see him sitting up in his chair today. The last couple times he had been mostly lying on the bed attached to oxygen. When he was shot, the bullet pierced his spine leaving most of him paralysed, this also creates breathing problems for him when he has a cold. He has the use of his right arm and most of the right side of his face, and even though everything is still a struggle for him he can feed himself and make jokes – the two things he assures Bella are all he needs.
"You allowed to go outside for a while today Liam?" Bella asks. "It's warm enough out so you shouldn't get a chill."
When he agrees Bella pushes him toward the elevator and then out the wheelchair exit.
Together they sit under his favourite tree, Bella unwraps Kraft caramels and pops them in his mouth while she tells him how the production is going. She knows he probably shouldn't eat the chewy candy, but they are his weakness and she justifies it by thinking they help to keep the right side of his jaw strong.
"How's work?" Liam asks when he indicates he's had enough of his favourite sugary goodness.
"Oh, you know...," Bella pauses trying to think of how work is exactly. "Good."
Liam thinks to himself that he might be a cripple but he isn't an idiot, and even an idiot would notice the hesitation in his Bella's voice.
"What does good mean? You seem out of sorts." He pierces Bella with his cop stare and she laughs at him.
"Good means... good? My boss has been acting a little strange, and I'm not sure how to feel about it."
"Strange? He not being nice to you? I still have friends on the force you know." Liam grins at her. He says that any time he suspects someone might be treating her unfairly even though he knows how stubborn and independent she is and would kill him if he actually called his buddies.
"Ha. No." She shakes her head with a small sigh. "If anything the strangeness is due to his being nicer than usual. Not that he wasn't nice before," Bella is quick to interject when she sees Liam's expression. "Now though he keeps talking to me, like he's trying to get to know me." She decides to leave out the bit about the blinds not sure how her foster father would react to that piece of information.
"Stop the press, Bella! Trying to get to know you? I'll definitely call the guys on the force and have him checked out." He winks at her with his good right eye. "You know sweet pea, it's okay to let people know how wonderful you are. Adult people. Maybe even men-people. Not just the kids you spend all your time with."
"I know Dad," she says and although she doesn't call him dad often it makes Liam feel 10 feet tall every time she does. Liam and Maggie wanted to adopt Bella, but it never happened. Liam was never more than a Chreaster Catholic but he thinks he might ask Jimmy to put in a good word with his beloved Maker to help Bella find someone she cares enough about to let in. Liam misses his Maggie something fierce and worries that Bella might never have the same thing.
It's just," she pauses and then starts again. "At the end of the day," another pause. She isn't sure she what she's trying to say.
"You're another day older, and that's all you can say for the life of the poor." Liam sing-slurs at her.
Bella eyes her foster father who is grinning at her.
"Exactly."
A/N: I don't own Twilight or Les Miserables, nor do I infringe. I'm only borrowing and playing around a bit.
Thanks to my awesome Beta Darcysmom who has made me discover that I am the queen of run-on sentences. I continued to tinker after her edits so all mistakes are mine.
Thanks to everyone who has commented and followed. I'm in awe of the response. Next chapter will post later this week.
So how is everyone feeling now that we have met Liam?