I just want all of you AMAZING readers (who have given me the most AMAZING feedback! THANK YOU!) to know that I do not own anything, that the ages are a little jacked up because of the timeline I have started things at, and that I love you all for clicking the link that lead you to this crazy story. Thank all of you that reviewed and/or favorite-ed and/or followed my story.
Important-ish: I'm pretty sure some of you will hate me after this chapter...
Chapter 36: It's Worth A Try
Dinner had come and gone, and the girls were removing their make up and taking off their dressy clothes and putting on their pjs, as the guys were throwing on their pjs too. Nicolette bit her lip as she stood in front of her parents' room. She needed to call her dad, after their nightly phone call yesterday a pit of dread had followed her and she had been waiting very patiently to call him all day.
With a shaking fist, Nicolette knocked on the door.
Ana answered it, looking past her mom Nicolette could see her dad laying on the bed.
She had interrupted something.
"Can I use your cell mom? I need to call pa, our usual thing." Nicolette filled in, Ana nodded and grabbed her phone from the bedside table.
"Who are you calling?" Christian asked.
"Pa. It's our first time spending this time of year apart... I don't feel good about it." Nicolette answered. Christian nodded and Ana handed Nicolette the phone. Nicolette quickly typed in the number.
"Go on to your room." Ana assured, Nicolette sent her a smile and turned towards her bedroom.
Ring
Ring
Ring
Ring
Ring
"Hello?" A voice slurred.
"Daddy?" Nicolette asked, in all her years she could only remember one week where her father had drank a lot. The first week without her mom, for a whole week he didn't cook, clean, or take care of Nicolette in general. One of the old ladies in town noticed that Nicolette had been bringing a lot of pre-packaged lunches to school and figured it out pretty quickly, she ended up staging an intervention for her father and used Nicolette against him.
"Don't you worry 'bout me squirt. I'm going somewheres safe, now, ya hear?" Mike slurred again.
"Daddy, what are you talking about?" Nicolette asked, her heart started thumping. Surely he meant that he was heading over to McKenzie's place for the night.
"Daddy, where's McKenzie?" Nicolette asked.
"Oh, Squirt, she left me earlier this month. Somethin' 'bout feelin' sorry for myself. Don't worry 'bout me squirt. Christian'll take care of you." Mike started repeating himself.
"Daddy. Don't do anything, OK? I'm gonna call LeAnne and her parents will come over. Don't you worry, daddy." Nicolette begged.
"Nikki, I love you soooo much. Don't you worry 'bout me now. Stop worryin'. Christian n' Ana'll take care of you." Mike repeated.
"Daddy, stop. You're scaring me." Nicolette begged.
"Christian n' Ana'll take care of you, don't you worry 'bout me. I love you Nicolette Anne." The sound of a gun cocking came over the phone.
"DADDY! NO!"
"I love you, squirt."
BANG!
"DADDY!"
Crashing sounds came over the line as Christian, Elliot, Taylor and Carrick came bursting into the room finding a hysterical Nicolette clutching the phone.
"Nickki, what's wrong?" Christian asked.
"A gun... A gun went off... He was, he was saying he was sorry, that he loved me... He was drunk... A gunshot." Nicolette sobbed, Christian pulled her into his arms and held her tight, as he nodded at Taylor.
Ana came in quickly, she had obviously been told to stay back in case there was danger, and sandwiched Nicolette in a hug.
Thirty minutes later Nicolette had cried herself to sleep and was tucked into her bed, when Taylor called Christian out of her room- where he and Ana had been sitting.
Taylor, Carrick, Elliot and Christian were huddled in Carrick's office looking at one another.
"Taylor what'd you find out?" Christian asked.
"The body of Micheal Andrew Johnson was found at 1:21 a.m UTC; self inflicted, single gunshot wound to the right temple, his cell phone laying two feet from him. Last call was an incoming call to Ana's phone. He killed himself with Nicolette on the phone." Taylor answered.
Christian ran his hands threw his hair as his father and brother sighed deeply.
"What are we going to do?" Elliot asked.
"I don't know." Carrick answered.
"How will I tell Nicolette?" Christian asked.
"With love." Carrick answered.
Christian sighed again and stood.
"I'll see you guys in the morning." Christian nodded.
Carrick and Elliot shrugged.
...000... The Next Morning...000...
Nicolette woke up knowing that her father was dead. Knowing that she couldn't have done anything to stop it.
It seemed like the Greys were trying to ignore the fact that her adoptive father was gone. They opened stockings, presents and egged each other on as usual. Like they didn't want to talk about it if she didn't want to.
After opening her presents and stocking, Nicolette thanked everyone- not that any of them actually caught her attention, even the acceptance letter to Brown's Academy didn't make her smile a true smile.
Her father had the grace to allow her to leave with Taylor's attendance.
As Nicolette sat in the backseat, she felt Taylor's gaze on her.
"I'm sorry for your loss ma'am."
Was all he said.
"I'm sorry to. You should be with your daughter, not babysitting me." Nicolette croaked, Taylor shot her a nervous glance, before turning back to the road.
When they arrived at the new house, Nicolette went straight to her bedroom.
She was still in there when her parents came home.
And sat on the other side of the door as her mom and dad tried to convince her to come out.
Nicolette listened to Christian's threats of breaking down the door.
She lay on her side as Gail left food and water on her bedside table that she would barely touch.
She'd stare blankly at John Flynn as he tried to speak to her.
Finally after two days passed, Ana addressed Christian.
"Look, Christian, I know that you don't like him at all right now; but he is blowing up Nicolette's phone and he's really helped her in the past." Ana spoke.
"I don't care! I don't want him here!"
"He can help her! She isn't responding to Elliot, Kate, Mia, Grace, Carrick or us! Gail says that she picks up nearly a full plate every time she goes to bring her more food. Christian, Grace told us that our next step is to bring her to the hospital so she can get an IV. Please, one more try, but please let Max do it." Ana pleaded.
Christian shook his head.
"Fine."
Ana relax and opened the doors to the house.
"He's already here?" Christian hissed, Ana glared at her husband.
"She's in her room. Please, she won't eat, drink, sleep. She just lies there and stares at a wall." Ana spoke. Max nodded and opened the door to his girlfriend's room.
"Hey baby, you OK there?" Max asked. He could see why everyone's worried. Nicolette's eyes held the lost-broken-little-girl look that she had worn too much the past year. Max picked up a grape and held it to Nicolette's lips.
"Try it baby girl. It's OK, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." Max whispered.
Christian watched from the door as the guy that he hated for so long now took care of Nicolette. He whispered to her and held grapes to her mouth. Nicolette actually eating them.
For four hours Christian watched Max feed Nicolette slowly, helped her drink, and whispered to her.
When Max came up to Christian.
"Look, I know I'm not your favorite person in the world right now, but Nicolette doesn't need all of this. Right now she needs motivation to do something. If I could take her to my place and let her take care of the boys, she'll get better. She'll have a reason to move. Her entire day always led up to her dad's phone call. That was always something good that she could look forward to. Let her look forward to helping my brothers, you can have your people watch her closely- but she will get better. Let me help her get better." Max asked.
Christian sighed.
"It's worth a try."