Two days after the men left on their journey, Joseph Joestar called from Hong Kong. The connection was terrible, but he wanted to check on his daughter.
"We're alive!" Joseph yelled into the phone before Layla even said hello.
"I would hope so, Grandpa Joe," she returned, suspicious of why he would begin the call with that declaration. "What happened?"
"How's Holly?" he inquired, summarily ignoring her question.
Layla wanted to lecture him about being careful but did not since the line was so bad they might not be able to talk for long.
"I'll let you talk to her. I'm sure it will do her some good to hear your voice," she said, placing the phone to Holly's ear and holding it for her to speak into.
"Hey, Daddy," she sang into the phone pretending to be much stronger and more lively than she actually felt.
"Hi, sweetheart! How's my little girl?" he bellowed into the phone which he probably would have done even if the static was not almost deafening.
"I'm doing great," she lied like a trooper, smiling weakly up at her attentive nurse. Of course she did not want to add to her father's worry. She did not want him to know she slept most of the day and had fitful nights due to the high fever. She also vomited half of what she ate and drank making doing either an unpleasant and daunting chore.
"That's good to hear, my dear. I love you, Holly. Tell Layla I want to talk to her again," he said.
"Okay," she melodically replied, pushing the phone toward the woman. "Don't hang up. He wants to talk to you."
Layla gulped and pressed the receiver to her ear. She knew why he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to know how Holly is actually doing.
"Keep a smile on your face no matter what I ask or say," he ordered her, his tone serious.
"Yes, sir," she responded, sitting back on her heels as she remained in her kneeling position beside Holly who was already nodding off to sleep but struggling to stay awake.
"She's not doing well is she?" he inquired, his voice low and gravelly making it difficult for her to hear him through the awful connection.
"Fine, just fine," Layla merrily sang, adopting that lyrical way of speaking his wife and daughter used. She knew he would understand the meaning behind the glib phrase because every man knows when a woman says she is fine, she is anything but fine.
"I was afraid of that. Dammit," he grumbled. "We've had a minor complication."
Joseph Joestar never had a minor anything especially when it came to complications. He excelled at creating or getting himself into complex situations and difficult circumstances. Somehow he always managed to wiggle out of them too.
What the hell has that man gotten himself into now?, she wondered. Layla's belly clenched so severely with apprehension she felt queasy. She wanted to ask what the hell happened but did not. Her patient had not yet fallen asleep and would hear the panic in her voice. Therefore, she said nothing.
"Layla, are you there?" he hollered, hurting her ear and causing her to pull the phone away with a pained look on her face.
"What's wrong?" Holly asked, her eyes popping open wide.
"Nothing, nothing. This connection is terrible," she told the concerned woman which wasn't a complete lie. "I'm here. How are things there?" she asked Joseph, keeping her tone light and conversational. "Good I hope. Lots of sunshine and rainbows."
"Ha ha, smart ass, but I do appreciate you being understanding of what I'm getting at. Don't you dare say a word to Holly or her mother."
"Oh, my god," she gasped, pressing her shaking fingers to her forehead.
Her eyes flickered to her patient. Holly's eyes were closed, and she snored lightly. Layla exhaled in relief.
"What happened, Grandpa Joe?"
"We ran into a Stand user on the plane. We killed him but not before he murdered the pilots. The plane crashed," he confessed.
Pressing her hand against her abdomen, she willed herself not to be sick.
"My third plane crash as a matter of fact," he laughed uproariously.
"You idiot!" Layla screamed at him, gripping the phone handle with white knuckle intensity. "That's not funny!"
"Holy shit!" he shouted. "Hey, watch your tone!" he yelled at her over the crackling phone line. "If Holly should - "
"She's asleep. You better come back to us safe, Grandpa Joe," she ordered him.
"Jotaro says hi and sends his love to you," he told her to add a bit of levity to the conversation.
She could hear Jotaro in the background bellowing angrily at his grandfather. "Shut up, old man!"
"Ugh," she groaned, rolling her eyes.
"We will all come back safe...I promise," he assured her which allowed the muscles in her belly to loosen slightly as they started to ache.
There was a long ear drum shattering whine then a pop through the phone line followed by total silence. She thought she had lost the call entirely. Suddenly, clear as a bell, Joseph Joestar's voice came to her over the phone line.
"Layla, take care of my girl. And yourself. I love you both."
Hollow, empty air followed before the dial tone beeped in her ear. Layla reluctantly stood up to hang up the phone. She lay down on the futon she had placed beside Holly's. She had slept here last night to keep watch over her while the doctors slept. Now would be a good time for a nap.
~\..'../~
Three weeks later, a letter arrived at the Kujo house from Joseph. Layla told herself she needed to wait for Holly to awaken to open the letter and read it to her. While sitting beside the sleeping woman, she toyed with the envelope, tugging at the loose corners that had not been sealed completely.
Holly was sleeping more these days. Almost constantly. Layla could count on one hand the total number of hours she was conscious in a day and have fingers left over. When she was awake, Holly did not speak much because it took much of her waning strength.
After five minutes of turning and turning the envelope in her hands and tracing Grandpa Joe's handwriting on the front, Layla tucked the letter under the edge of the futon. She kept her hands busy by checking Holly's vitals and wiping down her fever reddened face.
As the nurse dragged the cloth along Holly's arms to cool her, she began to stir. Her blond eyelashes fluttered against her flushed and sweaty cheek then parted revealing her glassy and unfocused blue eyes.
"Hi there," Layla greeted her. She did ask her how she felt. Why ask an obvious question? Holly felt awful. She was dying after all. This thing is killing her.
Please hurry, Mr. Joestar, she begged silently hoping the letter contained good news.
Her eyes closed again and Layla thought Holly had drifted back off to sleep. She dipped the washcloth in the bowl of water with ice cubes floating in it.
"Hi," Holly returned breathily, giving her a small smile on trembling lips. Her tongue darted out to wet her chapped lips.
"Would like some water to drink?"
Holly nodded, her eyes opening then closing again as she smacked her dry lips.
Layla put down the cloth and grabbed the glass. Placing her forefinger over the end of the straw, she lifted the plastic tube out of the water to press it against Holly's lower lip. She lifted her finger and allowed a little of the water to trickle into the woman's mouth. Eyes on Holly's throat, she waited patiently for her to swallow then gave her a little more.
"That's enough," Holly whispered after being fed like a little bird two more straws full of water.
"Do you think you can eat something? The cook made some amazing chicken soup. Simmered the chicken all day yesterday to make the broth," she said, trying to make the plain dish sound interesting and appetizing.
"I can't," Holly rasped, catching Layla by the hand to keep her from moving as she tried to stand up. "Have you heard from Daddy?"
It made Layla's heart ache to hear how much Holly sounded like a scared little girl when she said those words. She knew, without a doubt, her daddy is doing his best to save his little girl - wherever that dork may presently be. She hoped to God he had not crashed another airplane.
"Oh, that reminds me," Layla announced with feigned excitement to lighten the stifling air closing in around her. "You received a letter from him today."
She pulled the letter out from under the edge of Holly's futon. Without waiting for her to ask, she ripped open the envelope and began reading. The beginning of the letter was addressed directly to her.
Dear Layla,
I am hoping we will return before this letter ever reaches you in Japan. If that is not the case, we have ran into another obstacle. Please keep the faith. I will save my little girl no matter what it takes.
She carefully folded the letter and pressed it against her heart, closing her eyes. Although he acted like a total doofus most of the time, Joseph Josestar could accomplish incredible things. He had escaped death many times before and so would his daughter.
Miss Suzi Q believed in him with all of her heart. She always had - she married the irrepressible goofball after all.
She straightened out the letter and began reading aloud.
"Dear Holly," she began. "We met an interesting man in Hong Kong. A French guy named Polnareff. He's a cocky loud mouthed pain the ass, but he seems to be a good man and has joined our little expedition."
Hmmm, he sounds remarkably like someone else we know, Layla thought, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
Somehow she had the feeling this Polnareff man is a Stand user as well, but he did not want Holly to know. This "little expedition" as he called it was turning into something of a guy's trip - which kind of frightened her considering two of the guys along for the journey. It was bound to be a wild ride indeed. She continued reading.
"We will soon be boarding a ship sent by the Speedwagon Foundation to travel to Singapore."
She assumed he did not want to take any chances with another plane. Three plane crashes in his life, and he managed to survive all of them - he had to be tempting fate at this point. Since he isn't a cat, he did not have the lives to spare. He had certainly worn out the three strikes and you are out rule. The man had skirted death far too many times.
There was even a funeral for him once. His family had presumed him to be dead after his first plane crash, drowned in the ocean where he landed. When Joseph showed up at his own funeral, his Grandmother Erina and mother proceeded to beat the crap out of him at his own graveside ceremony.
But it was not his fault they did not know he was not dead. Poor Suzi Q, his sweet and bubbly but air headed new wife had forgotten to send them a telegram to inform them he was alive and well. Oopsie. He had told her the story, more than once, and it was hilarious every time.
"I am not sure where we will be by the time this letter reaches you. Stay strong, Holly. See you soon. Love, Daddy."
When Layla folded the letter, she noticed Holly had fallen back to sleep. She sighed sadly, pressing her hand against the woman's red cheek. The fever had gone back up and refused to lower no matter what they did to help her.
"Please, hurry, Mr. Joestar," she begged. "I believe in you. All of you."
~\..'../~
A month had passed and so had Christmas. Needless to say, there was no celebration. They had not heard anything else from Joseph since the letter.
Miss Suzi had called a few times and asked about Holly. Layla lied through her teeth each time, not wanting her to know exactly how much her daughter's condition had devolved and continued to worsen. Although she felt like a complete asshole for not being truthful, she did not want Miss Suzi to worry any more than she already was about her ailing daughter.
Layla asked each time if she had heard from Grandpa Joe. Suzi Q had not heard from her husband either. She did not seem worried in the least about him or her grandson. Apparently she had grown accustomed to his life threatening shenanigans and knew he would come out unscathed - more or less. He did have a prosthetic hand after one of his near fatal encounters.
Layla dreaded the next phone call. Holly had abandoned eating entirely a week ago. Yesterday, Layla could not wake her up to sip water. Her sole source of fluid and nourishment now came from the IV bags pumping them into her body through the tube in her arm. Around midnight, she could no longer breath on her own and had to be intubated and hooked up to a ventilator.
The dedicated nurse remained by her side. The doctors tried to force Layla out of the room telling her she needed sleep and it would be impossible to get any real rest with the noise of the machines keeping Holly alive. One doctor even picked up her futon and moved it back to her room. She stubbornly grabbed it and brought it back. She would not leave Holly. Everyone else was fighting hard, doing their part to save her, and so would she.
Presently awake and never more than four feet away from her patient, Layla sat at the window in Holly's room. She stared outside, watching the fluffy snowflakes of an early and unexpected snow falling. The tiny ice crystals had not yet begun to take hold to form a white covering on the ground. They melted and disappeared into nothingness as they landed on the dry dead grass or the dirt patches of the yard.
The phone rang causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. One of the doctors was on his way to pick it up when she hopped to her feet and darted across the room. Almost knocking him down as she shouldered past him, she snatched the receiver off of the cradle.
"Hello," she said, her voice strained and tight.
"Layla? Is that you, dear?" Suzi Q asked, not recognizing her voice.
This is the call she had been dreading. She could no longer hide the truth about Holly's dire condition.
"Yes, ma'am," she croaked, clearing her throat.
Layla had been crying all morning and had just stopped a few minutes before the phone rang. The stress of worrying about Holly had overwhelmed her before she knew it. She worried Holly would die before the courageous men could find Dio. Her mind plagued her with thoughts they were dead already. She worried about Miss Suzi. What would happen to her if something happened to all of her family members? She thought and fretted and stewed until it all became too much.
"Layla, have you caught a cold? You really should be taking better care of yourself while taking care of Holly," she gently admonished the nurse. "She needs you and you won't be a bit of good to her if you fall ill."
The doctors had fussed at her many times about that as well. They even threatened to sedate her to make her sleep. Last night, they forced her out of the room and the locked the door while they were hooking up the ventilator. She went to take a bath and nearly drowned in the tub when she fell asleep. Had they already called Miss Suzi and told her what's going on?
"Have you heard from them? From Grandpa Joe? Jotaro?" She hated the raspy edge of pure panic in her voice.
"I have spoken with both of them recently as a matter of fact," Suzi Q replied, her voice as light as air. "They said they were fine, and Holly is fine...not to worry. Jotaro was being so sweet and reassuring, telling me not to worry. Which made me worry."
Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!, Layla screamed internally, the alarm bells ringing so loudly in her head they drowned out Suzi's voice. Ironic how Jotaro being nice is the tell tale sign something is horribly wrong.
"Roses and I will be coming to Japan," Suzi declared, breaking through the cacophony of hysteria in the nurse's head.
In her head Layla could picture Joseph Joestar's shocked face, his mouth forming a circle and his palms pressed to his cheeks. She could almost hear him holler at full and deafening volume, "OH, MY GOD!"
Her chest ached as the invisible hand of anxiety squeezed the air out of her lungs. She reminded herself to breath. Just breath. She pressed her back against the wall and slid down onto her behind.
The doctor she had threatened to tackle if he answered the phone bent over her, extending a white tablet and a glass of water to her. Without asking questions or stubbornly refusing, she picked up the pill from his outstretched palm and popped it into her mouth. After drinking the entire glass of water to wash the pill down her constricted throat, she felt like she could speak again.
"Layla? Are you there?" Suzi sweetly trilled into the phone.
Oh, how she loved that woman's limitless capacity for optimism and her joyful disposition as bright as the sun. She missed her warm smile that soothed the soul. Holly had that same smile and unique sing song voice. She missed it from her too.
"I...I'm h-here," she stammered, feeling her entire body shaking. "When will you arrive? I can arrange for a car to pick you up from the airport."
"I'll be there in three days. Everything has already been arranged. Don't you worry about me," she said.
Layla could hear the comforting smile in Suzi's voice which smoothed over her raw, jagged nerves. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, willing the tears not to come but they did anyway.
"Everything is going to be fine, my dear," Suzi assured her.
"I should be the one comforting you. Not the other way around. I-I'm s-sorry," Layla stuttered as the big fat tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped from her chin. "I should be stronger than this. It's my job to take care of all of you."
"You are strong. Oh, Layla, have you forgotten you're a member of this family too? This is hurting you just as much as it is any of us. You're also human. And knowing you, you've been trying to act superhuman. Take off your cape, dear. Cry. Have a drink. Eat a good meal. Get a good night's sleep. Will you do that? For my daughter's sake. She needs you to be well rested so you can continue to be strong."
Guilt and shame from her breakdown washed over her. She admired Miss Suzi Q. more in this moment than she ever had in the entire time she had known her.
"Yes, ma'am," she sighed, swiping at her tears with the back of her hand in annoyance. "I apologize. I know you're worried about Holly and Joseph and Jota - "
"I'm not worried," she interrupted Layla, issuing a pleasant chuckle. "I believe in Jojo. He will save our daughter. Jotaro is there helping him as well."
Is he? Is he really? Or is the lazy and stubborn ass a hindrance? ,her sarcastic inner voice questioned. Layla could not help but think Jotaro might have been one of those obstacles the men had come across, a stumbling block within their own ranks. She would not voice her concerns to his grandmother though.
"Jotaro needs you to believe in him too."
"I do." Layla sniffled. "I believe in both of them."
"That's what I wanted to hear!" Suzi exclaimed cheerfully making the young woman she regarded as her granddaughter laugh through her tears. "I will see you and Holly in three days. I have faith in you as well, my dear."
Author's Note: I did not bother writing about what the men are going through because that is well chronicled in the anime. I was not interested in writing a transcript of the anime. I did, however, want to show a little of what is going on from Holly's side of the situation through Layla's eyes which I hope I captured despite the brevity of the chapter.