Chapter 43 – Lucy
The night itself dragged, as I'm sure it did for the girls too. I couldn't settle down and catch some sleep as my brain was running all over the place, from confidence that Ella and Crystal to do this, to fear that two people I barely know we're going to run rampant in my brain to try and fix something we didn't know if I had, to just plain terror as I wondered if there was a way they could mess up and ruin the bond between Jason and myself. Throughout the night, I kept texting Jason my fears and he replied loyally, keeping his phone on vibrate to wake him up whenever I replied.
I sat watching the clock until it stuck half eight, the time we all agreed that we'd get moving if we were awake. I don't know how, but when I was double checking the time on my messages there were half an hour intervals, or even an hour in some places, where I didn't reply so I must have fell asleep here and there. Jason had gone from trying to reassure me, telling me it'll be all okay and we'll have to wait and see and he'll be there the second I wake up no matter what the doctors tell him, to trying to distract me talking all thing babies. Over the last two and a bit weeks, he had become a resident babysitter for Lily and had got some adorable photos of him and the toddler and was sending me them. It didn't take too many brain cells to work out Jason would be parent of the year. But whatever Jason did, it calmed me down enough to let me sleep for a while.
As if by magic, the entire house came to life at eight thirty exactly. All four of us emerged from our bedrooms in pyjama sets, hair going everywhere as we fell into the kitchen.
'Morning brews, everyone?' Ella asked, in a tight fitting black vest top and fluffy loose bottoms which had cartoon hedgehogs on. Her hair was tied back in a pony tail, and with her face clear of any make up – not that she needed any - her freckles were more prominent than ever and it explained how Lily ended up with freckles too. However, I think everyone was trying not to mention the slight bump the black shirt had revealed.
'Of course, always need a cuppa,' Crystal said, standing next to her.
'White coffee, two sugars – hot chocolate for you ma'am,' she poked Sky's nose as Sky frowned at her, 'and tea with one sugar, am I right?' Ella asked me and I nodded.
'One sugar?' Crystal asked in mock shock.
'God you can tell she's British,' Sky added.
'Dude, you can tell we're all British – we're putting the kettle on,'
'I still find it weird American's don't have kettles in their kitchen,' Crystal shook her head.
'They don't have kettles,' I whispered in shocked.
'They do, but it's just rare. They don't appreciate warm beverages like we do,' Ella added.
'What if they want tea or coffee?'
'Tea isn't popular in America, I know, it's bloody awful,' Ella joked with me when seeing my shocked face, 'however, most places have like espresso machines or coffee machines or they just heat water over the oven. So caveman,'
'Well, I hear those boiling water taps are big in America now,' Crystal said, nodding. 'The flat Xav and I are renting for now has one – it's incredible. No waiting for the kettle to boil,'
'I like the wait for the boil, it brings so much more meaning to tea, don't you think? You can talk, have a good gossip –'
'Bloody hell, how British are Joe and yourself? Incredible. I honestly would not be surprised if you make Lily have tea too,' Sky said.
'She has had lukewarm tea once or twice – she loves the stuff,'
'Lukewarm?' Crystal asked in mock horror.
'You've met Lily, right? The hyperactive slightly clumsy kid? You're trusting her with scorching water?' Ella said.
'Good point,'
'Lily's adorable,' I said softly and Ella smiled at me. 'Do you ever regret having her?'
'Hell no. She is everything to Joe and me. However, I do regret not having a c-section. Seriously three days in labour kills you off.' Ella simply joked.
'You go to go to hospital this time around?' Crystal asked and Ella shrugged.
'Not if I can help it, but you know what Joe's like,' Ella said as the kettle clicked off. She turned around, pouring the water into four cups, mixing in the coffee and hot chocolate powder and waiting for the tea to brew. I watched her in silence as she continued to make the brews.
'When does Lily go to preschool?' Sky asked.
'September, or the September after, it depends. She's on the borderline between two preschool years, so they'll take us in for a day and see how she acts and make a decision if she's mature enough for school from September and if not, she'll be put in the year after.' Ella said.
'God, you're going to need several boxes of tissues for when she leaves for school,' Crystal said, rubbing her back.
'I'm going to be a bloody mess, I'll tell you that for free,'
'Joe's probably already made plans for you to stay in, have coffee, be a shoulder to cry on,'
'He'll act like it's another day.' Ella said, gesturing to the cups. She picked up her one, and my tea and passed it over to me before heading into the lounge. She sat down on the edge of the sofa and I sat down on the edge of the day.
'A brick has more emotions than he does,'
'He cried more than Lily did when she was born, I'll let him off,' Ella simply said, taking a sip of the beverage. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I frowned, leaning forward and putting my cup down on the side before pulling out my phone from my dressing gown pocket. I unlocked my phone, seeing a message from Jason waiting for me.
Hey beautiful, how are you doing? We, er, we tracked down the man we thought was behind your abduction and found him on the National Database, and when we looked into family of him. We think it might be your Dad – I know you mentioned that Lucy was a name given to you after what happened to your mother, and that tallies up and your actual birth date is on here too and it's similar to mine. We think your Dad did do all of this to you and the girls as well as the others who was kidnapped, and all the others who was murdered before the kidnaps.
I sighed deeply as my hands started to shake and the world started to collapse around me again.
'What is it?' Ella asked and I just handed her my phone. I watched silently as she read it frowning before she realised something and her emotions completely shut off. I watched her as she handed my phone to Crystal, who sat next to me and her and Sky read it as Ella hugged me to her side as I tried to keep my tears back.
'I'm so sorry,' I whispered, hugging Ella back and talking into her boob slightly.
'Er, what for?' Ella asked.
'My Dad...'
'Why are you apologising for your Dad's behaviour? Like, if your Dad was... you know... not a prick and he was drunk dancing at your wedding, then you apologise. But you don't know your Dad, he was a fucking arsehole to you, Luce, he is not your father in any way shape or form. You don't apologise for him,' Ella explained.
'I'm still related to him genetically,'
'My biological father was a farmer – does it look like I belong on a farm?' Ella joked.
'With those freckles it does,' Crystal joked and I felt Ella's hand lift from my back to give her the finger.
'Don't ever apologise for what happened before you busted your ass out of Kingdom, and Michael and I picked you up, don't bother –'
'It was you who picked me up?' I asked in shock, wondering how I never put two and two together. The girl who picked me up looked identical to Ella, apart from a bit slimmer in the face and the girl who was hugging me was extremely confident and had a bit more on top from having a child. Apart from that, they were identical.
'Yup, Michael was teaching me how to drive and took me there to show exactly where it was – Maui had a vacant idea the person we were looking for was in there but we had no idea the scale of what. We thought it was just him, you and your brother living quietly. We were about to drive off when we saw you fall three floors, and thankfully we got you in before they started shooting at the car,'
'They were shooting at the car?'
'They were following us for about seven miles, but you were unconscious by this part. You woke up when we got on the motorway,' Ella explained.
'I... thank you,'
'You'd do the same for me – hopefully. Probably better with your incredible driving.' Ella said shaking her head.
'You don't care that my Dad is one of the worst people you'll have seen in the Savant world?'
'Jason didn't say a name, did he?'
'Luman Carnes,' I whispered and the name had the same effect on Ella as it did when I told Jason when we were duck feeding.
'Oh...' was all that Ella said. 'Well, you're Dad's dickhead, doesn't mean you have to be.' Ella simply said, but I had a feeling she was holding back a lot of comments to try and gloss over the subject. As I was about it interject, Crystal butted in.
'So, we're gunna sit and have a cup of tea all day or get back to our family?' Crystal said, downing the rest of her coffee.
'This is why you pee like a race horse,' Ella said, taking another sip of her hot chocolate. 'Fine, let's give this a go,'
About three hours later, we were all ready to go. We had got dressed, went down the shops and brought three scented candles and some brunch and but the time we cooked it all up and ate it, we had time to talk through what we were doing. I had got a rough idea what to do; Ella had already taken a sneak peek into Crystal brain to see what she could, and had led to some comments along the lines of "Put some more clothes on my brother, oh my God not them please Crystal," so I guess they were joking around. Crystal then snooped around Ella's brain, making comments about Lily being her favourite niece and some more casual banter, but after lunch both girls think they knew what they were doing.
'So, you're going to go into our brains?' I asked Crystal dubiously but she just nodded.
'Basically, we're going to go in there and support each other as Crystal will make the bond slightly stronger, and I'll freeze the mask off like you can freeze warts off.' Ella said and wrinkled her nose. 'Delightful image,'
'And that should remove it,'
'If we do it at the same time, yes,' Crystal said.
'But we haven't had our Disney night in!' Sky protested.
'Let's do it when we're back and we're all safe,' Ella said and Sky nodded.
'As long as we can watch Hercules,' She said and I smiled slightly. I had only watched Disney films when I was removed from Kingdom, and Hercules was one of my favourites. We didn't know how well this would work, if it would work at all, or if we would wake up back here because one of us tried to attack our Soulfinder's again. But it was worth a go. We never mentioned what we had left at home; there was no mention of school or work, no mentions of any of the boys and no mention of Lily either. We had all managed to keep in touch with our partners though as the girls were fine contacting them, but we never talked about it to each other.
It had got to a stage that even our nearest and dearest were forbidden words – all because of me.
