Ranger came running in and looked at Grant, frantic.
"I want to try you hugging Steph before I give her a sedative", he said. "She's pretty upset."
"What the hell happened?"
"Val called on Helen's phone, and Steph answered it. She didn't hide anything or hold anything back in front of her parents. It was bad, Ranger. Val said that her father embarrassed her because he was a mailman, said her parents were useless, that she hated Steph and should have killed her, that she wanted to marry you. Frank was crushed, Helen was in tears, and Steph begged them not to believe what Val says like she always does. Frank took Helen out of the room so that she could cry in private, and Steph rolled herself over to cry and knocked her legs. I would assume that she's in screaming agony."
"Okay." Ranger carefully crawled onto the bed and lay beside me. "Babe, Val is pure venom."
"She hurt Mom and Dad. It was bad, Ranger. Dad turned gray, and Mom started crying hard. They both looked shattered. I was worried that Dad was having a heart attack."
Kai walked in. "I heard that things aren't going well?"
"Grant, can you update Kai and then go make sure that Frank and Helen are okay? It would be a big shock to them", said Ranger.
"Absolutely", said Grant. He pulled Kai out into the hallway for a minute to explain what had happened.
As they talked, Ranger pulled me as carefully as he could into his body. "Talk to me, babe", he said. He kissed me on my head and smoothed his hand up and down my back as I shuddered in breaths.
"I can't breathe."
"Take slow and deep breaths. You're hyperventilating, and you need to slow it down."
I lifted my upper body slightly so that I could switch my head position and smell Ranger's scent, and I concentrated on breathing slowly. Ranger smoothly rubbed my back, and as I captured my breath again, Kai tiptoed into the room and sat on the window seat to observe and be close by if he was needed.
When I was breathing slowly again, Ranger kissed my forehead. "Okay, babe. Do I need to go and kick some ass?"
"Yes", I said, but I smiled when I said it.
"Tell me what she said."
"She told me that she hated me. She told me that she was embarrassed to be my sister and inferred that the only good thing about me was the ability to give her money, and she said that she deserved that money since she had put up with me for my whole life. She said that Dad was embarrassing and she was ashamed to tell people that her father was a mailman. She said that she was putting pressure on Mom, and she knew that I would eventually give in and give her money again just because I wouldn't want to upset Mom. She said the role of being a parent is to provide for their kids, and because she was their kid they should provide for her. I told her that Mom and Dad were living on their pension and their pension was supposed to cover Mom's and Dad's expenses, not Mom's, Dad's, Grandma's, Val's, Angie's, Mary Alice's, Lisa's, Victoria's and Edmund's. She didn't care. She doesn't think that she should have to look after Grandma. Apparently, Grandma is comparing her visit to Val's with her visits to our place. Grandma said that we wait on her more, and Val isn't waiting on her enough.
"But the really upsetting part wasn't that she regretted not killing me. It wasn't when she told me that burns are no big deal. It wasn't when she told me that I owed her because she'd spent her life putting up with me. It was when she told me that our parents were useless and that she was embarrassed of Dad. He has worked hard and Mom has worked hard all their lives. Dad had a good job, a job to be proud of, and he and Mom lived a good life, a life to be proud of. I told them afterwards that I was incredibly grateful that they were my parents. I don't know what Mom and Dad are going to do. Val crossed the line again."
"How do you feel about that?"
"Deep down guilty. I should have protected them from that. I should have taken it. They didn't deserve it."
"Did you?"
I sighed.
"Babe, don't let her get in your head again. You do not deserve to be treated like that any more than your parents deserve it. Now that she has started attacking your parents, do you see how upset I am hearing her say such horrible things to you? It's neither right nor fair, and I absolutely hate it. I have spent a lot of time on the heavy bag over Val."
"I feel like I should be giving her money just so that she doesn't turn her venom on Mom and Dad again. I feel like it is the only way to protect them."
"That's probably why she said it. If the three of you band together, maybe you'll be able to get through to Val that what she is doing isn't fair. Her behavior is atrocious, but unless your parents know what is really going on, they will continue to unwittingly encourage it."
"Do you think there is any way to pick up the pieces and put my family back together again?"
"I always find it amazing how families can forgive. Maybe not forget, but forgive and make something whole and new again. I think, if everyone wants to, that you will be able to put your family back together again. Both your mom and dad are forgiving people. So are you. I'm sure that something good will come of it. The question will be Val. She needs a wakeup call badly."
"I know."
"Perhaps tomorrow you and your parents can have a powwow about where to go from here. If you make decisions as a family, you will more likely be successful."
"Ranger? At the end of the call, Val said she didn't understand why I was successful and she wasn't, and she asked what I had that she didn't. You know what my dad did? He picked up the phone and told her that I had class, compassion and intelligence. And then he hung up on her. I was shocked. My parents always like it when everyone gets along, and Dad basically declared war."
"He's right, you know. You do have class, compassion and intelligence, and maybe being hung up on is exactly what she needs." I snorted. "How are your legs?"
I sighed. "It's worse than when they were first burned."
"Ouch. Okay, how about we get you ready for bed, ask Kai to assess your legs as they are redressed, and give you some morphine."
"Morphine sounds very good."
Ranger smiled and kissed me on my forehead. He carefully got out of the bed and turned to Kai as he came forward. "Do you want something to eat first?" said Kai.
"Honestly? The pain is so bad that I am barely keeping my stomach down as it is. I don't want to test it by eating anything."
"Fair enough."
About half an hour later, Ranger and Kai had prepared me for bed and Kai had given me a shot of morphine. "Tell Ranger when you need more during the night", he said.
"Okay."
"Are you feeling a little more comfortable?"
"Getting there. What did you see when you inspected my legs?"
"You disturbed the surface of a few spots, and knocked off the forming scabs. It might take you a couple of days to regain the steps that you took, but you'll get there. You'll just have to be patient with yourself."
"Oh boy", said Ranger with a smile. "Steph? She's never patient with herself."
I snorted and closed my eyes. "That morphine hitting you yet?" said Kai.
I smiled. "Yeah."
"Thank God", said Ranger. Grant came into the room. "How are Frank and Helen?" he said.
Grant smiled. "They are going to be okay. We talked for quite some time. They are feeling very guilty that Steph had to deal with that for the last five years but, more importantly, they feel particularly guilty that they were trying to get Steph to fund her sister again and had been putting pressure on her to do it."
"I know, and Steph had been purposely not telling them."
"I'm under the impression that they are feeling like they don't even know Steph, and they feel bad about that."
"Steph is a pretty private person. There aren't too many people who can honestly say that they know her. They know what they see, but they don't know her. If you two can stay with Steph for a few minutes, I will call in Helen and Frank and see if I can smooth the waters, and you two can go for dinner."
"Are you sure, Ranger?"
"Yeah. I'll grab something later."