It All Comes Crashing Down
Abbie was just coming on the job for her shift after her latest wedding dress fitting when she noticed him. Once she did, she immediately went to the charge nurse.
"Please tell me that isn't Lestat LeGragne in room 26."
"The infamous playboy himself," Cheryl nodded. "He was just transferred here from Banff. He was in a skiing accident and is a bit too complicated to take care of what with the drug and alcohol withdrawal. He needs to be on telemetry for a while, that's why he's here. And actually, he's your patient tonight."
"Oh no. No, no, no," the woman whimpered, instantly regretting not calling out this Wednesday afternoon like normal.
The charge nurse looked at her trembling form strangely. "Everything alright, Abbie?"
"I have to… I need to… Hold on," she said in a panic, dashing to the bathroom.
"Hello." She couldn't help her shiver of pleasure at his usual deep voice. Tyr always sounded so sensual, so masculine when he spoke… The fact that he was hers still amazed her, even after all these months.
"Hello?" he asked, sounding annoyed. She blinked as she realized that she was daydreaming and about to get hung up on.
"We have a problem," Abhaya said without preamble. "Lestat is on the unit."
"What?" Tyr shouted, sounding furious.
"Skiing accident in Banff. I'm supposed to be his nurse tonight. I don't know what to do, Honeybear! What if he recognizes me? What if he calls my parents?" She gulped. "I have to-"
"No."
"Tyr, you know what will happen next if he gets my family involved in this. I have to-"
"No, Bliss. You're not leaving. Act like everything is normal. I'm on my way." He hung up before she could protest. Abbie took a deep breath and looked into her own panicked eyes. Lestat here, in her hospital. Of all the rotten luck! But if she ran, Anasazi would chase her down. Wasn't that why she'd called him in the first place? To eliminate that option altogether? With a heavy sigh, she went to the nursing station and got to work. By the time Tyr arrived on the unit to work as a float for the night, she was jittery but in better control of her nerves. She led him away from the other nurses for a talk.
"I shouldn't have called, Tyr. I-" He wrapped her in his arms without a word and she relaxed into his embrace with a grateful sigh. Since when had he become her rock? Since when had she become such a child about her problems? Abbie had always been able to save herself against her family. She'd had no choice. Now she was leaning on this sexual powerhouse, depending on him.
"I love you, Abhaya Brecknor. You do realize that, right?" He searched her beautiful brown eyes and smiled at what he found there. "No one - especially not some lowlife cretin - is going to take you away from me."
"That's not what I'm worried about, Honeybear," she growled in frustration. "I don't want to be dragged back into my parents' games. I… I don't know what will happen if he recognizes me!"
"Nothing," her arrogant fiance shrugged.
"Nothing?"
He sighed, rubbing her shoulders. "Abhaya, you are an adult. You have every right to say 'no'. Your parents can't make you do anything anymore. Not to mention the fact that you belong to me. You are mine and I will not give you up. So, nothing will happen if he recognizes you."
"You underestimate their power and influence."
"You forget where you are now," he smirked. "This is my playground. Your parents have no power or influence here. Just relax, my love." She stared deep into his chocolate brown eyes, desperate to trust.
"I… I don't know how to believe that, Tyr. No one has ever given a damn about me before! If it wasn't the staff or my brothers trying to get information out of me to curry favor with my parents, it was my parents using me like a useless pawn in their personal-"
"Little did they know that they'd birthed a Queen who was destined to leave their chess board," he hugged her again. "Baby, I don't expect you to believe me all at once. Trust takes time. And that time starts now. Just know that I'm here for you. Trust that I'm not going to leave you to deal with this on your own. Now, it's just about time to get Report on your patients for the night. Go on. Leave this with me." Giving him a doubtful look, Abbie rushed off to meet her partner nurse and hear about the day nurses' shift.
"Hello. My name is Abbie. I'll be your nurse tonight.". The nervous woman looked over her tied up patient and breathed in a sigh of relief. Rich or no, he was still out of his head and withdrawing from both drugs and alcohol. It would take time for him to recognize her: it certainly wouldn't be happening tonight. Still, she couldn't help it if she was a little brusque with him that night and a little quicker to leave the swearing, violent man to his own devices than her other patients. He looked right through her when she was in the room. She liked that best of all.
"Get your fat ass over here and untie me, bitch! Untie me right now or I'll sue you for everything you own!"
"I don't think so, Mr. LaGragne," Abbie growled at the man, coming to her fellow nurse's defence. After two weeks of this kind of behavior, she - like all the nurses on the unit - was fed up with him. "We have zero tolerance for abuse here - verbal or otherwise. You may come from America, but you are in our playground now. And all the money and influence in the world is not going to get you out of those restraints while you continue to be a danger to yourself or us."
"How dare you talk to me that way! Do you know who I am?"
"Of course. You're a bully and a fraud." Lestat growled, seeming to really look at the nurse for the first time. But as always, there was no flair of recognition. It made her feel smug. "Think about this while you continue to be unpleasant. It's been half a month and no one has come to visit you. No one has searched for you, no one has claimed you. No one seems to care that you've disappeared out of your life. Your Board continues to be as corrupt as ever. Your family and sycophants continue to party without you to lead the charge. The party has gone on without you. What does that say about the life you lead?" Lestat looked as if he would have been less shocked if she'd physically struck him. Then his face contorted into rage.
"Listen here, you vile-"
"No, you listen. Listen to the sound of silence. Come on, Gladys. You can get his vital signs later once the medication has taken effect." With that, Abhaya dragged her friend and coworker out of the room, closing the door behind her.
"Wow, Abbie! You're so brave! Aren't you afraid that he'll sue you or something? He's rich and powerful."
"He's scum," she said vehemently. "He's also formed. Don't worry about me. He can't hurt me anymore." She walked away confidently, leaving her friend confused.
Another two weeks and Lestat LaGragne was almost completely sober. He'd been released from his restraints, and security no longer had to be called several times a day to keep him on the unit. He was finally accepting physiotherapy for his broken leg and talking to the Addictions department about his problems. In short, he was a broken man. All due to one fearless nurse and the team that rallied behind her. She had talked back to him, flouting his threats to sue or have her killed for her defiance. Like the rest of the unit, she logged the death threats and other threats, carefully documenting everything he said so that she would have evidence of his abuse. And there was abuse. Lestat was a petty, vicious man. But her fearlessness, her refusal to be cowed by him inspired the whole multidisciplinary team to ignore his bile and treat him like any other patient, something that the stubborn man had never experienced.
"You're nothing. You know that, right?" he said almost sweetly to Abhaya when she came in with his medication around dinner time. Instead of stopping or even acknowledging his insult, the woman simply held out his meds and a cup of ice water with a raised eyebrow. After staring her down for a while, he grumbled and took his pills. "Stupid cunt. You don't even-"
"I have people that care about me, Mr. LaGragne. People who love me. If I were to disappear for a month, someone would notice. So who's 'nothing'? Who's the real 'cunt' here?" He reddened and looked away, his normal response when she put him in his place lately.
"Nobody speaks to me like that!" he growled.
"Then it pleases me to be the first," she quoted the original Transformers movie with a shrug.
"What did you say?" Abbie looked into his eyes, seeing the recognition there that she'd been waiting for since he'd arrived in her life again suddenly. She simply glared at him.
"Crystal?" the selfish man gasped, taking in the differences between the woman who was promised to him seven years ago and this walking tub of lard before him. What the hell happened? This was his bride-to-be? This is what he was supposed to bind himself to and add to his fortune? He growled and shook his head shortly, pushing himself off his bed. "What have you done to yourself? You are supposed to be my wife. I can't be seen with some fat slob-"
"You have me mistaken for someone else," she said forcefully. "I would never consent to marry a selfish, self-centered bastard like you. 'Be your wife'? I'd sooner be dead. Anyone with sense would."
"The Darcy patriarch agreed to-"
"Do I look like I'm a Darcy?" she asked quietly, staring at the floor. She looked up and the fury and hatred in those eyes was enough to cause him to fall back onto his bed. "I have charting to do. Enjoy your dinner." She left the room quickly after that, but not before he could get in a parting shot.
"I'll tell your mother."
Hand on the doorknob, Abbie took a deep breath and tossed her retort over her shoulder. "What are you, five? And what exactly is she going to do about this? I have nothing to do with those evil people. Choose your threats more carefully." She walked out of the room without looking back. Lestat watched her go, noting that she all but threw herself into the arms of one of her coworkers. He didn't hear what was said, but the dark-skinned man wrapped her in his arms and glared over her shoulder at her opponent. The two men glared at each other as Tyr rubbed soothing circles on his woman's back. Oh, Lestat knew who that interfering asshole was. Tyr Anasazi watched over his fiancée with something akin to obsession since he'd become aware of the nurses and doctors on the unit. Probably even before that. If she was on the unit working, then so was he. And now the multi-millionaire understood why. Crystal Darcy was worth millions herself. Worth millions and missing these last seven years. But she was still technically engaged to him and Lestat intended to collect.
When the woman stirred in his arms, Tyr broke off the glare to smile at her. Whatever he was saying to her, his Crystal giggled happily. Then he lifted her left hand to his lips and kissed the ring there before sending her off to do whatever she was doing. One more glare and her protector was gone. So… she wanted to play that way, did she? Tricky little vixen. He would expose her as soon as he was able. He would expose her to the world and claim what was rightfully his.
Abbie came into his room belligerently a few hours later that night, carrying yet more meds for him. "It's time for your night meds and I need another set of vital signs from you."
"Why don't we stop playing these games, Crystal-"
"Abbie." He shook his head with a fond smile, a smile that grew to a full out grin at her glare.
"No matter what, you are the missing heiress to the Darcy fortune. My fiancée."
The woman grabbed his arm and did his blood pressure, growling as she did. "I legally severed all attachments to the Darcy's and their fortune when I left at age eighteen. There is no fortune, no me, to claim. Marry me and you get me and that's all. That's why our engagement - an engagement I never agreed to - was severed when Crystal Darcy died seven years ago this Spring. I will never go back to that life. And you have no power over me. Now take your damn medicine so that I can get out of your room. Or do I need to call security?" She smirked and it was the same smirk he remembered from their last disastrous conversation, the one where she swore that she would never be his. He took his pills, but grabbed her hand when she went to leave.
"You think I will allow you to embarrass me by marrying another man and screwing me out of the Darcy fortune-"
"Are you deaf and stupid? I renounced my claim on the Darcy fortune when I left. And I will marry who I please. I'm not beholden to you!"
"You belong to me, Crystal. I do not give up what's mine."
"Well, considering that I am legally no longer Crystal, you don't have a claim on me." She yanked her hand away and left. Lestat watched her go, noting the way her hips swished as she walked. Fat or no, she hadn't lost her swagger since he'd known her. This could be interesting; he'd never fucked a fat chick before.
Tyr showed up around ten-thirty, but Lestat had expected that.
"Save your breath, Anasazi. She's mine. As soon as I get out of here, I'm going to claim her for myself." He smiled darkly at that pleasant thought, waiting for the younger man to protest his words, denying his claim on her. He was therefore surprised by his laughter.
"You think it's going to be that easy?" Tyr asked playfully. Lestat watched him in shock, growing more and more angry as the chuckles continued. "You're even more delusional than I thought you were."
"You son of a-"
"You never had her heart, Lestat. You're nothing but a bad memory chased away by my touch, my kiss. The only thing you're interested in is her money, and that's gone since she disowned herself and legally left her name behind. The woman you're looking for is essentially dead."
"She's not-"
"I've had my lawyers go through her paperwork, looking for loopholes. There are none. Crystal Lily Darcy no longer exists. She died giving Abhaya Tamika Lorraine Brecknor her freedom. Whether you understand it or not, she gave up her right to her parents' money when she severed her relationship with them. You'll only embarrass yourself trying to claim a dead woman for yourself. "
"Hmph! She's pretty spry for a dead woman," Lestat said snidely.
"You still don't get it," his opponent said with something like pity in his eyes along with the contempt. "The lady has made her choice. Feel free to humiliate yourself going after an unwilling woman. I believe I'm going to enjoy watching her put you in your place.". He sauntered out of the room at that, looking as if he didn't have a care in the world. LaGrange could only fume impotently as his rival left. Over the next few weeks, Lestat tried everything he could think of to get the stubborn girl to admit that she was a Darcy and therefore belonged to him. But Abhaya seemed to revel in the fact that she wasn't. She wouldn't even acknowledge her real name in front of her coworkers.
"Crystal, I know you don't want to-"
"Who?" Both she and her student nurse asked, blank looks on their faces. At his glare, both healthcare providers left the room with a roll of their eyes.
"What do you think that was about, Abbie?"
"Probably some underlying brain damage from all the drug use. He seems to think that I'm someone else lately." He growled, having to give it to her. The woman was an excellent actress. She was so good that people started believing that he was having a relapse in his recovery to his annoyance. Lestat was forced to stop calling her by her given name altogether so that the doctors would stop trying to give him calming meds for what they assumed was his dementia. Instead, he turned up the charm on his female doctor and nurses to try and get out of the hospital sooner. Being completely sober was a new experience for him.
"Lestat, why do you insist on calling Abbie 'Crystal'?"
The man looked over the Social Worker for this unit and cursed silently. If he answered truthfully, he would look like a madman!
"She just reminds me of someone I once knew."
"Ah, well, we've all had that case of mistaken identity. But holding onto that mistaken identity… She has a name. It would be like us calling you by another name."
"Of course."
"You have some way to get back to America? The doctor is releasing you tomorrow."
"Yes. I have to admit that I thought about suing the whole of Alberta Health Services for wrongful detainment when I first sobered up," he said smugly, his smile full-blown at Eric's heartfelt gulp. "But luckily for you all, cooler heads have prevailed. You people have helped me. More importantly, you have brought me something precious, something I've been searching for for years. I am no longer interested in revenge." The Social Worker looked him over with a mixture of heady relief and skepticism.
"At the risk of sounding ungrateful, what are you interested in?" Lestat smiled mysteriously at the man, standing with the fluid grace that had earned him a reputation as a multi-millionaire playboy. Eric rolled his eyes but took the hint. He left the room, intent on documenting that the man wasn't planning to sue.
The end is in sight, people! Turne in for the thrilling conclusion :D