Chapter 11
"What the hell was that?" Molly was doing anything but keeping her voice down as she and Kristina exited Sam's hospital room "...how dare she ask us to leave...we need to be in there too!"
Kristina linked her arm with Molly's in an attempt to lead her down the hallway "she needs to talk to him, Mol."
Molly pulled her arm from Kristina and stopped in the hallway. "Why aren't you more upset about this?"
"Not upset about what? About the fact that she asked us to leave? Or the fact that our sister may have cancer and our cousin is in a coma? I'm pissed over all of it, but standing here in the middle of a hospital screaming about it isn't going to solve anything." She grabbed Molly's arm once again and began walking toward the nurses station.
"I don't understand why she didn't want to tell us...why didn't she come to us for help instead of keeping it bottled up inside?"
"I don't know, Molly, I wish I had an answer for that question." The girls approached the desk, "Hey, Elizabeth, have you seen my Mom?"
"No, I haven't" Elizabeth answered but motioned to the elevator behind that had just opened. Kristina noticed the gesture and turned. She rolled her eyes wondering how she was going to stop the confrontation.
"Molly, is that you?" He asked as he stepped off. This was the last person that they needed see. Molly rolled her eyes and sighed heavily to the sound of his voice. Shit.
"Yeah, tis I, the unfortunate fruit of your loins. What do you want?" She finally turned around to face her biological father.
Ric put his eyebrows together at her comment, "You're not dating that Spinelli kid, are you?"
"Huh?"
"No, nothing. Nevermind. I didn't know that you were back in town, why didn't you call me? We could have had dinner or something."
Molly closed her eyes for a minute, "Could have had dinner? Let me ask you this, when was the last time that I let you know anything about what was going on in my life?"
He couldn't deny the hostility that Molly held for him no matter how hard he tried. So he chose to go with a different approach. "Hey Kristina, how are you?"
"Hi Ric, I'm fine, thank you." She answered.
He smiled to her, "Always so polite."
"Yeah, why can't I take after her, right?" Molly dug her heels in again.
"I didn't say that." He defended, he shook his head at how much she was like Alexis.
"You didn't have to...So what are you doing here?" Molly cut to the chase. She knew that Ric always had an agenda and she wasn't in the mood for his cat and mouse games.
"I just got back in town myself and I heard about Nikolas' accident."
"Oh give me a break, you don't care about Nik or this family. You've never been anything more than a sperm donor. You just want to know how you can use this situation to your benefit. Always trying to figure out what is in it for you."
Ric tried the hide the hurt in his eyes, but it stung like a bee. "Oh, I see that you've been talking to your sister, again."
"Leave my sisters out of this." This was not the time for him to instigate an argument, but he had a way of stirring up a bees nest with Molly.
"She poisoned your mind, Molly. She's turned you against me."
"Oh and you had nothing to do with that..."
Kristina saw the anger and hurt building up in Molly's eyes, "Molly..." She stepped between Molly and Ric slightly pushing her backwards causing Molly to look into her eyes. Kristina gave her a stern look and raised her eyebrows "Not here, Molly, Alright? Just...leave it alone."
Molly nodded and Kristina turned to Ric, "Ric, now is not a good time. Go away...Take your vindictive remarks to your brother and go have a pow wow with him about how you two are so godly and blame Mom and Sam for all your short comings as fathers."
"Girls," Jerry had interrupted, he had been watching them from the other side of the nurses station. He was amazed at how well both of them had handle Ric. Although he had only arrived near the end of the debacle, his girls made him very proud by the way that they handled themselves and Ric. But he could tell that Ric was about to turn ugly and it was time for him to step in. "You mother is in Nikolas' room, could you please go get her, we need to talk."
Molly turned to Ric and gave him a crooked smile, "Sure Daddy," she said with a slight raise of her eyebrows giving a slight twist to the knife that she just pushed into Ric's back.
Flashback:
"Suspended! Suspended!" Molly sat in the passenger seat of the car just listening to Ric's Rant.
"No matter how many times you say it, it isn't going to go away!" She muttered in defiant teenage tone.
"How do you expect to get into a good college with suspension for fighting on your record?" He asked as he looked over to see her slouched against the door holding her head up with her hand.
She rolled her eyes, "I'm going to buy my way in just like every other Lansing and Cassidine." He could have went off on her for that comment but he decided it was best to let it slide.
"What do you think your mother is going to say about this?"
"Ah...Way to go Molly, I'm proud of you!" She remarked with a smile.
"I said your mother, not Sam."
"That is what Mom would say, especially since the reason I was fighting was because I was standing up for someone who could do it on their own. I speak my mind and I stand up for what I believe in. Which isn't so bad of a trait, maybe you should try it sometime. And quit picking on Sam. We all know that you can't stand her and I believe the feeling is mutual."
"I'm not picking on Sam, I just wish that you would pick a more positive role model, than your con artist sister."
"You call it being a con artist, I call it being a surviver." Ric shot a glare at Molly. It never failed, she always saw the positive side in everyone. Everyone but him. She just wouldn't let him catch a break.
"You know, I really do know what all this is about," she continued. "You're ticked because Mom is happy."
"I'm not ticked that your Mom is happy, Molly."
"Yes you are, you've been ticked since the day that she married Dad."
That did it, "He is not your father, I am."
"Then why have you never acted like you're my father. How many birthdays have you forgotten. Remember my 10th birthday, Dad? Huh, you remember standing me up, because you were too busy following Uncle Sonny around? How about Christmas the next year...do you remember promising me that you were going to take me skiing over winter break? I'm still waiting for that trip. All my life you have lifted me up and let me fall. You have never been a father to me. And I am sick and tired of you blaming Mom and Sam for turning me against you. You managed to do that one all by yourself. My opinion of you is based solely on disappointments that you have set up for me."
That was a slap across the face if he ever had one. He had no words. He couldn't deny her accusations, they were true. He followed the same pattern with Molly has he followed with Alexis. Always putting Sonny first in that undying need to be important to his brother. And it cost him everything that ever had or ever wanted.
They finished the car ride to the lakehouse in silence. It's not that he didn't want to say something to her, he just didn't know what to say. She laid on it the line to him and he got the message loud and clear. When he pulled into the drive way, she didn't even give him time to put the car in park before jumping out of the car and running into the house. He slowly followed, carrying her backpack that she left in the car.
"Mom," he heard her yell from inside the house, "don't ever let him near me again."
As he approached the house, he overheard the conversation that quickly started. "Molly, calm down and tell me what happened," Alexis said.
"He's a jerk that's what happened and I'm not giving him any more chances." Alexis turned when she heard him clear is voice.
"Stay away from me." Molly yelled to him.
"Molly, go to your room, please. Let me talk to Ric." Her mother didn't have to ask her a second time. She gladly exited the room. But she didn't go to her bedroom. She stood just far enough out of sight to hear what was happening.
Alexis turned back to Ric, "What happened?"
"She got suspended from school, five days out."
Alexis closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh, "what did she do this time?"
"Fighting...I guess there was handicapped boy in the hallway who was being bullied by a couple of boys, she stepped in and threw her books at them, and told them that if they touched him, they were going to have to fight her. I guess the principal stepped in and turned them all into a no tolerance lesson for the school."
"God that girl is so much like her sister."
"Yeah, I more or less said the same thing."
"If I know you Ric, you said more not less." Ric just rolled his eyes, "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"She has made her feelings for me painfully obvious, so I think it's time that I take Sonny's lead and step out of the picture."
"Ric, I'm not going to interfere with your relationship with Molly, she's sixteen years old. She's old enough to determine on her own the kind of relationship that she want to have with you."
Ric closed his eyes and shook his head, "well, I think that is a decision that she made a long time ago. Take care of my girl, Alexis."
