As they walked through the main entrance of the hospital, Ceci kept close to her mother's side. Neither of them spoke, as Gloria guided her daughter down the hall, following the signs on the wall that pointed to the emergency room. It was where the ambulance would have brought Nicky and the other kids in the car. She knew that it was unlikely that they'd be allowed in to see Nicky, but she was hoping to offer support to Galina and Dmitri if she could, and she knew that Ceci felt better that they had come.
"Do you think they're going to let Nicky go home today?" Ceci asked dully. Gloria shrugged her shoulders helplessly and steered her to the back of the line of people waiting to speak to the triage nurse.
"Let's pray on it, shall we?" Gloria replied heavily. She didn't want to give her daughter false hope when nothing was clear. There was so much uncertainty regarding Nicky's case, and while Gloria hadn't received the impression that Nicky's injuries were serious enough to prevent her from recuperating at home, she wasn't naive enough to think that this would all be swept under the rug.
"I just want everything to work out for them," Ceci confessed quietly. "They're such a nice little family. Most people don't have that."
"Mmm." Gloria wasn't sure how to respond to that. She couldn't tell if her daughter was shading their own family with that remark or just entirely focused on how Nicky finally had found a place after all this time. It was terribly sad that that could be taken from her, although Gloria found it hard to be completely sympathetic when Nicky had done all of this to herself.
"Let's just be supportive and hope for the best," Gloria replied diplomatically. She stepped up to the desk and was about to give Nicky's name, when her daughter tugged on her sleeve to get her attention.
"Mom, Red's sitting right over there," Ceci pointed.
Gloria stepped out of line and turned her head to see Galina sitting in the back row of waiting room chairs looking pale and bothered. She kept wringing her hands together, fidgeting restlessly in her chair. She was speaking to a middle-aged woman writing in a file, but kept shooting anxious glances down the hallway to where Gloria guessed Nicky was probably admitted. She was too distracted to have noticed either Gloria or Ceci standing there, but as Gloria watched her any resentment she might have still been harbouring immediately dissolved. Galina didn't deserve any of this. All she had ever wanted to do was to give Nicky a home.
"Should we go over there?" Ceci asked.
"No," Gloria shook her head. "We don't want to interrupt. Let's just go have a seat and wait."
She placed her hand on the small of Ceci's back and guided her over to a pair of chairs a safe distance from where Galina was so that they'd be respecting her privacy. Nobody would like their parenting put under a microscope and Gloria knew very well just how painful it was to be judged on your capabilities as a mother.
She fumbled through her purse for lack of anything else to do. The inside of her blue deep handbag was a landfill of old receipts, coupons, and wrappers from snacks she'd eaten on the go. "Do you want a piece of gum?" she offered her daughter, loading her lap with a pile of rubbish as she continued to rummage through the purse. "I think I have a pack of it somewhere in here…"
"Sure," Ceci shrugged, glancing back over her shoulder at the two in the corner. "I feel so bad…"
"I do too," Gloria admitted. She pulled out a pack of cherry flavoured gum and unwrapped a stick for herself and popped it in her mouth.
"I have faith though," she reasoned, offering a stick of gum to her daughter. Ceci accepted. "No matter what happens, Galina Reznikov will not give up on that girl.
The panic, the guilt, and hysteria that she had sensed in Galina's voice when she'd called to tell her what had happened had been every bit as natural as if this was impacting a child of her own flesh and blood. There wasn't even a choice in the matter now. Whether being a mama to Nicky became a source of grief and pain was irrelevant. Galina would never be able to simply stop being Nicky's mother. Now they just had to hope that the legal system would agree.
"There she goes," Ceci whispered, and they both stiffened up as the social worker brushed past them, dropping a pen into the sensible bag she was holding her papers in. She did not go back down the hall to where Nicky was presumably receiving care, but right out the automatic doors and into the street.
As soon as she was gone, Gloria was up on her feet and walking back to where Galina was still seated. Their eyes met and before she could even speak a word, Galina had reached out to grip her hand with surprising strength.
"What do you need?" Gloria asked softly.
Galina shook her head. "I'm so sorry," she replied regrettably. "I should have listened to you before. Maybe I could have done something…"
"What do you need?" Gloria asked again, more firmly. She squeezed her hand back tightly, just as Ceci walked over and rested her head against her mother's shoulder.
"Do you want me to call Dmitri?" Gloria offered, ignoring the derisive scoff from her friend, she listed off a few more suggestions. "Do you want us to go see Nicky with you? Or would you like a ride home?"
"I can't go home," Galina replied irritably.
"Okay…" Gloria breathed.
"And I can't go back in there just yet," she shook her head. "I don't know what I'd say or do. I just need to sit here."
"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Gloria asked. She leaned her head gently against Ceci's before addressing her. "Why don't you go ask at the desk if Nicky can have a visitor?" she suggested.
"Ok," Ceci agreed, taking a step back from the two women.
Gloria took the seat beside Galina and continued holding her hand, as they watched Ceci walk over to speak to the nurse who then pointed her down the hall in the direction of Nicky's room. Galina let out a low sigh as she watched her disappear from sight.
"So, what's happening?" Gloria asked quietly, when she could take the silence no longer. "What did Nicky's caseworker say?"
"I need to get her a good lawyer," Galina said bluntly.
Gloria compressed her lips together. "Can you afford that?" she asked.
Galina shrugged. "What other choice is there?"
"Let her learn her lesson?" Gloria suggested seriously. "She could have killed somebody with her antics today."
Galina shook her head in rebukement. "Nicky wasn't driving the car," she objected.
"And that makes it that much better?" Gloria replied, raising one perfectly arched eyebrow. "She got into that car by her own volition. Nobody had a gun to her head. She could have killed herself…"
"Jesus, I know!" Galina exploded, pulling her hand out of Gloria's grasp in anger. "I don't need you to tell me how serious this is. I know that I fucked up. I should have been watching more closely. I should have known she was in trouble. And now she'll get taken away...and…"
"Is that for certain?" Gloria asked quietly, as Galina hiccupped back a sob and brushed her hand back through her hair.
"She violated probation," Galina said bitterly. "This was supposed to be her last chance and she blew it. I'm not sure even a lawyer will be able to clean up this mess but we have to try."
"And in the meantime?" Gloria pressed. "Do you get to take Nicky home while this is all figured out?"
"I don't know!" Galina said helplessly.
"You're the best thing that ever happened to that girl," Gloria tried to sound uplifting.
"Apparently not," Galina replied. "Or I would have stopped this from happening before it got this far. Now it's too late. We were supposed to be filing to adopt her and now all my focus has to be on keeping her out of jail."
XXX
Down the hall from the waiting area, Ceci found Nicky sitting up on the bed in a private room. She was wearing a hospital gown and had her legs pressed up to her chest, with her head resting on her knees. The clothes she had worn to school that morning were lying in a messy heap in the corner of the room. Nicky had needed five stitches in her forehead and had a bandage wrapped over the wound, that was mostly blocked by her hair.
"You don't look so bad," Ceci said encouragingly, as she stepped into the room.
Stabbing her chin more tightly into her knees, Nicky glared at her. "I have a headache," she replied.
"Poor you," Ceci said sarcastically.
"Not really," Nicky replied honestly, ignoring the jading. "At least the pain in my skull is making me feel alive right now. It gives me something to think about."
"Why don't you ask for a Tylenol and then think about how you're going to get yourself out of this mess instead?" Ceci said dully, stepping more deeply into the room. She perched herself up onto the foot of Nicky's bed and crossed her legs at the ankle.
"I don't get myself out of messes," Nicky shook her head. "I create messes. Ask anybody. I leave a path of mass destruction in my wake every time, without fail."
"Does that include Red's heart?" Ceci asked, turning to look Nicky directly in the eye. "Because I just saw her in the waiting area. My mom is sitting with her now. She's so upset."
Nicky hugged her legs against herself even more tightly. "She'll get over it," she muttered.
"You sure?" Ceci asked sharply.
"Well, she's going to have to," Nicky answered. "The police and my dragon lady case worker were all just in here to yell at me. Like I need any reminders about how badly I fucked up this time…"
"Why did you do it then?" Ceci asked, looking pained. "This...and all the other stuff you did that just never got reported. I thought you were happy living with the Reznikovs and going to school with me. Why did you have to ruin everything for yourself?"
"Because it's what I do," Nicky responded. "And eventually, you all will realize that I did you a big favour."
"I sincerely doubt that," Ceci replied.
"I just don't care about any of it anymore," Nicky said sadly.
"I don't believe that either," Ceci said angrily. "You need to stop talking like that and focus on how you can make this shitty situation better, because I'm not prepared to have to muddle through this life without you as my friend"
"But I'm not even a good friend!" Nicky exclaimed, falling back on the bed and staring up the ceiling in disbelief. "I made you lie for me and cover for me...I even stole from your mom for fucks sake!
"Well, thanks for finally admitting it," Ceci said shortly. "I expect you to return it, just so you know, but it still doesn't change things."
"I don't see how," Nicky said tiredly.
"You are my best friend in this city," Ceci told her. "Meeting you was the best thing that has happened to me since my mom forced me to come live here. If it wasn't for you, I probably would have run away a long time ago."
"You have too much sense to do that," Nicky said, with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Maybe," Ceci shrugged. "But I'm not exaggerating when I tell you how much your friendship has helped me. I've been really hurting...just like I know you have. Maybe it's my turn to support you."
"Well…" Nicky choked, signifying the first crack in her iron steel. "I'm sure I'll have a lot of support in Juvie. Those prison guards...they'll keep me on the straight and arrow."
"That's not funny," Ceci told her.
"Does it look like I'm laughing?" Nicky shot back up from the bed like a cannon, and there was fire in her eyes. "I don't know what else to do. I'm just stuck sitting in this room until they figure out what to do with me in the meantime."
"When is your trial?" asked Ceci.
"I have to go before the judge in two days," Nicky said, worry creeping into her tone despite how hard she tried to hold it back.
"Well, I'm going to be there," Ceci promised. "I'm not going to let them write you off just yet."
Thank you for reading and for the continued interest in this story. I know it's been a long time since I updated. I am back to work after maternity leave and busy juggling a full-time job with all the mom stuff. I'm going to hopefully plan to have the next chapter posted in about a week.
Thank you so much for the reviews wallscollide, Johanna-002, Guest, whenaspritemeetsaunicorn, galinareznikovlove, Guest, Juliette45, and Guest.
Also, thank you to the guest with the suggestion for flashbacks of how they all came to be. I really like that idea and will try to incorporate that into the story.
