A Beacon of Hope

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 38 (Storm of Information)

Tori paced the living room floor while trying to curb her anxiety levels, the phone calls from Trina last night did nothing to relieve the stress she was feeling. Her friends were over trying to comfort them, but they weren't a big help.

She wringed her hands together and looked towards the door with a heavy heart. She prayed that Trina would walk in at any minute, safe. There had been something on the news about a gang related shootout that occurred on the freeway, so the fact alone that Trina had called from a motel room in another town was highly distressing. "I'm sure your sister's fine," Jade assured her. Tori shot her a stern, worried look.

It was one thing that she would say that, but it was another to hear it from the one person that never shut up about the possibility of Trina's abandoning her. "I can't shake the feeling something's not right, Jade. You don't understand, if something happened to her-"

The doorknob rattled and Tori quickly turned and held her breath. Andre shut off the playlist he had on in an attempt to soothe her with music, and the rest studied the door with her. As it cracked open, she saw the flash of her sister's brown hair and released her tense breath.

Trina stepped in slowly, her face red with tears and her hand was firmly grasping onto a motorcycle helmet. Fear shot back into Tori's heart in an instant and she ran up to her sister. "Oh my god, Trina, are you okay!" Trina leaned back with a slight smile.

"I'm fine." Trina took a deep breath and her eyes flicked to the friends before returning to Tori's gaze. "I need to talk to you, though. It's important." Tori felt her stomach clench and nodded as her body started to tremble. Whenever Trina said in such a serious tone that she needed to talk, she knew her sister meant business. "Everything's okay though, it's just that there's a couple of things…"

"O-Okay." Tori felt her hand on her back and let her guide her towards the stairs. Trina stopped and looked to the friends, pointing at Jade.

"Jade, stick around by the way." Jade's eyebrows rose and the others looked to her with great concern. "There's something I need to discuss with you as well."

After reaching her bedroom, Tori sat down and stared at her sister with a furrowed brow. Trina had taken a seat at the desk, her legs and arms were crossed and her eyes held a mournful look. What was more telling than even her pose was the silence and the slow ascension and descending of her chest. A lump formed in Tori's throat as she glanced to the neon alarm clock beside Trina.

For five minutes Trina held this pose, and with each passing second Tori's nervousness grew. Tired of the silence, Tori blurted out one of her recent fears. "You're not leaving me are you?" Trina furrowed her brow and an indent appeared in the middle of her forehead.

"Of course not." Trina looked to the door and frowned. "Jade's sister never left her either." Tori's heart stopped and her lips parted, but the tension in her chest kept her from saying much. "So you can put that fear to rest. I'm just trying to think of how to say what I need to." She didn't want Trina to be soft on her, she could take whatever the woman had to tell her.

"Don't spare my feelings like you always do, then. Tell me what happened last night and why you seem so…You look hurt. Or sad."

"I'm not hurt." Trina unfolded her arms and leaned her head back, sighing heavily. "There's so much that I don't know where to begin. You know, Jesse probably will be going away." Her heart sank at the words, but she had a feeling he wouldn't be around forever. "His mother's up in New York and I think she has been looking for him." Tori bowed her head and wiped her clammy hands off on her pants. "That's not all that's waiting for him up there either."

"What else?"

"Sasha's alive." Tori gasped out and threw her head up. Her heart skipped a beat and her face grew red. "It turns out Clint had a hand in faking her death." Her eyebrows closed inwards and her lips clamped shut. She knew there was some good in the man, but why had he done that to Sasha? Why was it necessary.

Her sister's eyes looked to be searching her soul and reading her thoughts. Trina shut her eyelids and exhaled. "Another thing, Clint Argon is our father." Within an instant all that surrounded her vanished and her heart shot up to her throat as her limbs grew numb. She remembered how the man scared off Danny, and she connected the dots in her mind. "Jesse's dad Ralph made some serious threats."

"Such as?" Her mind went back to what the man told her some time ago and she moved her hand up to cover her mouth. "Oh my god. Clint told me at school that one time…someone threatened his family." Trina's eyebrow rose and she felt a strain of guilt over having kept the run-in from her. "He was at school donating money, I saw him and asked him some questions. I know you said it was dangerous, but I didn't feel it at the time!" Her words were quick and rushed together. The calmness in Trina's eyes was alarming, but reassuring at the same time.

"That's good I suppose. Ralph told him to kill Jesse and Sasha or else he was going to attack us. Evidently he faked Sasha's death so Ralph would think she was dead. Now Ralph is dead."

"What happened?"

"Ralph confronted us last night. Clint showed up with his bikers and got me out of there as the bikers shot Ralph down." Tori's hand rested over her chest. Her heart was beating out rapid pulses and creating a painful sensation in her chest. "We rode out to Charming so we could get away from Ralph's supporters. There, I learned the truth."

"Truth? What truth?"

Trina's face tightened and her hands clenched on the sides of her arms. "Our family was destroyed by a woman who hates our parents. Forced drugs into our father's system that made him violent and drove our mother away. She's the threat to our mom and to us, our dad didn't threaten mom-but trying to get her away from that woman came across that way. So, mom's still afraid of him and he's too proud to try and fix things. Though he's more or less afraid of Gemma."

"Gemma?"

"The woman in question."

Tori felt a strain in her chest and clenched her eyes shut as her head began to pound. This was too much to take in, but she was glad to hear it in a sense. However, the fact that fear is what destroyed their family was something she couldn't stomach. "Why did Gemma hate them so much, Trina?"

"Gemma was married to our dad's brother. Apparently she or Clay, one of the two, killed him and covered it up. Mom found out the truth and Gemma spent years trying to kill them-I think she wanted to drug dad up to the point that he was responsible for murdering his wife and kids, but it didn't turn out that way."

"No…"

She honestly didn't want to hear anymore. Her fingers quivered and her eyes grew misty while she looked at Trina with a heavy heart. Trina wasn't saying it, but Tori could sense the apprehension. It was very likely that as long as Gemma were still around or an influence, their family couldn't be together. Trina and their father had to have run into Gemma, which meant it was known that he was a part of their life in one form or another.

"There's another thing." Trina breathed in slowly and looked to the right. There was an annoyed emotion that flickered on her face. Tori raised her eyebrows as Trina uncrossed her legs and started to stand up. "There's a chance our dad may plan on sending money."

"What?"

"I told him I didn't want that help, that I wanted to provide, but he looked like he wasn't going to buy into that. He wants you to be able to go to Sherwood if that's what you want, and he wants both of us to be able to get into a good college."

Tori flashed a smile just as Trina slouched and shook her head. Their mom said the same thing in one of their letters, but Trina was always adamant about refusing money offers. "So I'm guessing our dad's the one you get the stubborn attitude from?"

Trina scoffed and flung her hair over her shoulder. "You might possibly say that." Her heart began to relax and a pleasant feeling swept over her like a cleansing wave. "I don't know what he'd be able provide. If anything."

"Something is better than nothing, Trina."

"Yeah, and besides, it'll be good to have something anyway. I guess." Certainly it wasn't a form of child support, but if he could send money then they'd have a chance at something more than what they do have. "He says he's got to take care of a few things first." It also wasn't buying their forgiveness, since it seemed that was something the man wasn't looking for. She had to speculate though, since he was a leader of a gang, he probably had a good amount of money saved away.

"What do we tell mom, Trina?"

"I don't know. She's still terrified of him." Trina curled a finger over her chin and exhaled sharply. "If you ask me, that Gemma woman is a worse threat." Trina chuckled absently and shook her head. "You know, they never filed for divorce."

Tori's jaw fell and she stifled a sudden urge to laugh. "So they're still legally married?"

"Apparently mom either forgot or she just didn't want to go through the process of divorce, and our dad didn't want to burden her."

"So what's the issue, she's afraid and he feels guilty?"

"Probably. I'm going to have to be careful in our next letter to mom." Trina whisked her hand from her chin with a gruff sigh. "Our mother, by the way, is Alexis Ortiz." Tori froze and her mouth hung open like a fish while she attempted to process the news.

"She's our mother? You mean-"

"Yeah. Our dad went to jail because Seth attacked her at the dojo and told her he was to blame." Tori clenched her teeth and looked to the television in her room. Last night she watched the news report for anything else she could find out, and the police had raided a mansion and saved a bunch of people.

"Last night the police caught a bunch of gang members led by someone named Seth, is that the same person?"

"Yes. He was also working with Jesse's father." Trina turned to the door and folded her arms back across her chest. "Now, speaking of Seth, there's some more work I have to do. Come with?"

"Sure…" She needed to distract her mind from the tornado of thoughts in her head now anyway, it was all too much for her to bear. As she hopped off the bed, she hurried next to Trina and reached out to take her sister's hand. Trina smiled at her and raised her eyebrows up.

"Yes?"

"Thank you for telling me everything. I know it was probably hard, so…I appreciate you telling me." Trina hugged her gently and rubbed her back.

"I love you lil' sis."

"Love you too." Maybe one day they could have a relationship with their parents, but no matter what happened, the two of them would always have each other.

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