Chapter 41 - A big Marshmallow?
AN: Of course you all get your wish. You'll see what I mean as you read. Also, I learned something new on the 100th play of TFATF. The first time that Tanner and Brian walk into Liz Taylor's house there's a wall with pictures all over it. If you watch close, or freeze frame on that wall of pictures, both Dom and Vince have mug shots on it. So I had to give Vince a bad boy past to match his bad boy looks. I couldn't help myself. :) Enjoy and Review.
"What do you think Le?" Nyssa asked. She figured Leon knew what she was talking about.
"I don't know Nyss. I really don't."
"He wasn't panicked though. You'd think he would be if he couldn't feel his legs wouldn't you?"
"I guess so." Leon still looked stressed out.
"Leon, why do you look so upset? Jesse's awake, and he's likely going to be fine. I'm so happy I could dance around or maybe explode." Nyssa admitted with a smile.
"Yeah, that's fine for you. And I am happy about Jesse. But now the whole team's gonna come down here to see Jesse, and we can't ask Jesse to lie about how and why he woke up so Dom and Vince are going to know I brought you down here even though you shouldn't be out of the house. Vince is gonna kick my ass." Leon frowned.
"No he's not." Nyssa blew a raspberry in the air. "I can control my Coyote, don't you worry." She didn't figure Vince would be too angry when he found out Jesse was awake and it was her talking to him that woke the boy up.
"I hope so." Leon didn't look convinced.
"You never believe me Leon. Everything I tell you lately you look sceptical." Nyssa looked up at him with laughter in her eyes. "When was the last time I was wrong?"
"I don't know, but things are going too well. If the last three weeks have taught me anything it's that nothing ever comes this easy to this team." Leon was sure that things couldn't go this well for ever.
"Well, maybe we've had our share of bad luck. Did you ever think of that? It has to end sometime."
"Yeah, ok, I'll give you that one, but V is still gonna kick my ass." Leon cringed. He knew Vince could easily take him, and he wasn't looking forward to it.
"Leon. Vince is a big marshmallow under the tough guy act he puts on. He'll be so happy about Jesse that he'll get over you taking me here in seconds. Besides, it's not like it was your idea. It was mine, and I tricked you into it. You know he knows how good I am at tricking people into stuff."
"Big marshmallow huh?" Leon didn't buy it. Of course Nyssa wasn't around for the time that Vince went to jail for armed robbery. Leon knew that Nyssa knew that Vince was into stuff he shouldn't be in, but just how mean and violent a temper her 'marshmallow' had had obviously been lost on her. Leon knew that Vince softened around Nyssa, but that was the exception not the norm. But Leon didn't figure that Vince would really beat him up, but he sure was in for a lecture and a half. Dom would try to referee, or get mad as Vince. That remained to be seen.
"Yeah, he's all soft and shit under that scruffy exterior." She grinned.
"Sure girl. Whatever you say." Leon sat down to await the doctor's verdict. When they still hadn't heard anything 30 minutes later he stood up and started to pace the room. Nyssa was reading an issue of Reader's Digest that had news in it that would have been current about 3 years ago. She was giggling away to herself. "What's so funny?" He gave up and asked.
"I'm reading the joke pages." She giggled again. Then she read him one of the jokes. He couldn't help it, he cracked up laughing too. "Now, sit down before you wear a hole through the floor. Pacing around isn't going to help us know anything faster."
"No, but I can't sit still while I worry."
"Go get a snack then, you're driving me insane." Nyssa tried to shoe him off with a hand gesture at the door.
"Now you know how I feel ¾ of the time I'm around you." Leon laughed.
"I'm not that annoying." Nyssa frowned.
"Yes you are. I've never met anyone as use to getting their own way as you, as spoiled as you." Leon smirked at her. He knew she wasn't going to be pleased he'd said those things.
"Yeah, well blame Vince. He made me this way. If he spoils me it's not my fault. And just because he gives me my way almost all the time isn't my fault either." She stuck her tongue out at Leon. The doctor picked that exact moment to join them in the waiting room.
Both Nyssa and Leon stood up and unconsciously grabbed for each other's hands to await the news.
"Are you two relatives of the young man?" The doctor opened with.
"Well, I am." Leon answered.
"How so?" The doctor asked.
"I'm his brother." Leon answered and Nyssa glanced at him in mild surprise. She hadn't known.
"Where are your parents?" The doctor sure was obsessed with finding out where a person's parents were, Nyssa thought, but didn't say anything.
"Our mom's are gone, we're half brothers I guess, but our dad is in jail." Leon answered and was about to ask a question of his own of the doctor when the other man spoke again.
"Are you guys some sort of group of kids who's parents are in jail?" He knew Nyssa's dad was also in prison.
"No, it's a strange coincidence." Nyssa answered with sarcasm. She wanted the doctor to get on with it.
"Jesse's over 21." Leon told the doctor.
"Ok. Well, I'd like to talk to you about your brother then. He really should only be getting visits from family right now." The doctor looked pointedly at Nyssa and was obviously waiting for her to leave the room.
Nyssa shot Leon a sad look and went to let go of his hand. Leon tightened his grip on her. Not only was Nyssa, and the whole team, his family, Jesse's family, he wasn't getting this type of news on his own. "Nyssa stays. We're a team. A family. Maybe not a conventional one, but family still. I'm not asking her to leave and neither are you."
Nyssa looked at Leon in shock. That was a lot of back bone for Leon to show. He normally went with the flow. Of course she realized he might be scared of what he was about to hear. She kept silent and waited for the two men to battle it out. It turned out not to be a battle at all.
"Fine, I understand." The doctor answered. He remembered back to all the people who'd been to visit the boy over the last week. They seemed closer then a lot of families he'd seen. The man in front of him now came twice a day without fail, which made sense now that he knew the man was the boy's brother. But the rough looking man with the shaggy hair came almost every day, the pretty man came just as much. The other two girls came all the time too, and the pretty one cried every day. The tough one almost looked worse while she tried to maintain the tough look and almost failed every time she saw the boy looking so still.
And the tall, dark, bald man. He was the one the doctor couldn't figure out. He was obviously the father figure of this group. They all looked to him for guidance. But he hardly came at all, and when he did he looked so desperate to escape that the doctor didn't know what to think. It was like the look that he saw on the faces of people who'd caused the harm to come to their own family. He didn't think the large man had shot his little friend, but he was obviously guilty over what had happened for some reason. But he couldn't deny this family, strange as they were, visits to their youngest team member.
"He must be the baby of your group huh?" The doctor asked. Leon gave a small laugh.
"In mentality maybe, but not in age. Nyssa here is the baby in age.
"They boy is older then her?" The doctor asked Leon.
"Yeah, by 2 years almost."
"Well." The doctor thought about that. It was surprising. He shook his head. "Anyhow, back to the young man's condition. He's awake, and there doesn't seem to be any lasting damage to his brain. He seems to be fine mentally." They knew it was serious but Leon and Nyssa shared a small smile at the though of Jesse being 'fine' mentally. The doctor continued. "And it also seems that he didn't suffer any lasting effects to his spinal cord either. He should regain full use of his legs. I didn't tell him about the possibility of paralysis because I don't want him to worry as it might hamper his progress. He's not out of the woods yet, because we can't let him out of bed to try to walk. Just because he has feeling in his limbs doesn't mean there wasn't nerve damage. But we'll just let him recover for now and worry about any damage that might be there as time goes on. I really feel at this point he'll make a full recovery."
"Yes!" Nyssa and Leon both exclaimed and hugged. The doctor smiled.
"So, can well call the rest of our team and tell them he's awake? Jesse really needs to see Dominic. He's worried that Dom is mad at him, which isn't the case at all and I think it'll really do him good to see that Dom still loves him." Nyssa stated. Leon hadn't known that Jesse was so worried about Dom being mad at him, since Jesse had told Nyssa while Leon was out of the room.
"Jesse thinks Dom is mad at him?" Leon asked in shock. "Why?"
"Because Dom hardly visited. I told him it was because of Dom's tough guy front and that he couldn't come down because he was scared he'd let on just how scared and upset he was and Jesse believed me I think, but the sooner Dom comes down and tells him that he isn't mad the better." Nyssa finished.
"You can bring everyone down to see him whenever you wish, but please just try to keep the topics happy at this point." The doctor told them. "And then I would like you to go home and rest as I told you when I let you out." The doctor frowned. "Maybe I'll wait around till your young man comes and have a talk with him."
"I didn't tell him I left the house Doc. I tricked Leon here into bringing me. And ultimately since my talking to Jesse is what woke him, can't we just agree that a power higher then all of us had a hand in bringing me down here? Besides, I'm fine. I'm practically back to normal." Nyssa told the doctor.
"Really? Let me see your incision." The doctor looked sceptical. Nyssa hauled up her shirt and then the waist of her pants down and showed him. It was totally closed over.
"See?" She said with a satisfied smirk.
"Yes, I do see. You can have those stitches out now." The doctor smiled at the look on her face.
"But that's not why I came down here." Nyssa whined and pouted.
"Oh come now, it takes a second, doesn't hurt and then you don't have to come back and have it done late." Nyssa followed the doctor to an empty room where he removed her stitches while Leon waited outside the room. She let out a few startled ouches but it wasn't too bad. She left the room rubbing her side.
"You ok?" Leon asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She pouted some more. "At least this should be good ammo for getting V to go easy." She figured it would work. Leon cringed.
"Let's hope."
"Did you call them yet?" Nyssa asked.
"Nope, wanted to wait for you."
"Well, I'm here now so call the garage. They should all be there." Leon took his cell phone off his belt and called DT. Dom answered.
"DT automotive, how can I help you?"
"Yo Dawg."
"Leon, where the hell are you? You were supposed to be back here like an hour ago."
"I'm still at the hospital." Leon answered, then heard the phone drop. "Dom?" He called.
Dom had dropped the phone then sat down. He thought he was about to get terrible news. He took a further second to compose himself and picked the phone back up. "Sorry Leon, I dropped the phone. What's going on?" Dom braced himself to hear that he had lost yet another loved one from his life.
"Jesse woke up." Leon told him excitedly. "And they think he's going to be completely fine."
"Really? That's great." Dom stated. That was better then great. It was the first really good news he'd gotten since Vince and Nyssa came home. "When can we see him?"
"As quick as you can all get here. But I have one thing to tell you and I don't figure you and Vince are gonna be too happy."
"What's that Leon?"
"I allowed Nyssa to trick me into bringing her down here to see Jesse. But it was her talking to him that finally brought him around so you guys can't be too mad." Leon sounded nervous.
"You got no worries from me man, anything that works is good with me. Vince on the other hand." Dom trailed off for a second. "You know how protective he is over Nyssa and it's only gotten worse since this shit. It's kinda strange to see Vince being soft and shit over some chick."
"Yeah, and Nyssa thinks he's a big marshmallow under the tough guy act." Leon laughed, shooting Nyssa a look while he talked on the phone.
"Well, we don't need to fill her in on how real the tough guy exterior is or how opposite of marshmallow he is." Dom said, but he did find the thoughts of anyone thinking their Vince was a softy funny.
"So, just prepare him for that if you think you can. How long do you think you'll be?"
"I just have to close up the garage here and collect Mia from the store. Maybe 20 minutes."
"See you then Dawg." Leon hung up and turned to Nyssa. "He said 20 minutes or so and they'll all be here."
Leon and Nyssa went to sit down in the waiting room and await the team.
AN: Of course you all get your wish. You'll see what I mean as you read. Also, I learned something new on the 100th play of TFATF. The first time that Tanner and Brian walk into Liz Taylor's house there's a wall with pictures all over it. If you watch close, or freeze frame on that wall of pictures, both Dom and Vince have mug shots on it. So I had to give Vince a bad boy past to match his bad boy looks. I couldn't help myself. :) Enjoy and Review.
"What do you think Le?" Nyssa asked. She figured Leon knew what she was talking about.
"I don't know Nyss. I really don't."
"He wasn't panicked though. You'd think he would be if he couldn't feel his legs wouldn't you?"
"I guess so." Leon still looked stressed out.
"Leon, why do you look so upset? Jesse's awake, and he's likely going to be fine. I'm so happy I could dance around or maybe explode." Nyssa admitted with a smile.
"Yeah, that's fine for you. And I am happy about Jesse. But now the whole team's gonna come down here to see Jesse, and we can't ask Jesse to lie about how and why he woke up so Dom and Vince are going to know I brought you down here even though you shouldn't be out of the house. Vince is gonna kick my ass." Leon frowned.
"No he's not." Nyssa blew a raspberry in the air. "I can control my Coyote, don't you worry." She didn't figure Vince would be too angry when he found out Jesse was awake and it was her talking to him that woke the boy up.
"I hope so." Leon didn't look convinced.
"You never believe me Leon. Everything I tell you lately you look sceptical." Nyssa looked up at him with laughter in her eyes. "When was the last time I was wrong?"
"I don't know, but things are going too well. If the last three weeks have taught me anything it's that nothing ever comes this easy to this team." Leon was sure that things couldn't go this well for ever.
"Well, maybe we've had our share of bad luck. Did you ever think of that? It has to end sometime."
"Yeah, ok, I'll give you that one, but V is still gonna kick my ass." Leon cringed. He knew Vince could easily take him, and he wasn't looking forward to it.
"Leon. Vince is a big marshmallow under the tough guy act he puts on. He'll be so happy about Jesse that he'll get over you taking me here in seconds. Besides, it's not like it was your idea. It was mine, and I tricked you into it. You know he knows how good I am at tricking people into stuff."
"Big marshmallow huh?" Leon didn't buy it. Of course Nyssa wasn't around for the time that Vince went to jail for armed robbery. Leon knew that Nyssa knew that Vince was into stuff he shouldn't be in, but just how mean and violent a temper her 'marshmallow' had had obviously been lost on her. Leon knew that Vince softened around Nyssa, but that was the exception not the norm. But Leon didn't figure that Vince would really beat him up, but he sure was in for a lecture and a half. Dom would try to referee, or get mad as Vince. That remained to be seen.
"Yeah, he's all soft and shit under that scruffy exterior." She grinned.
"Sure girl. Whatever you say." Leon sat down to await the doctor's verdict. When they still hadn't heard anything 30 minutes later he stood up and started to pace the room. Nyssa was reading an issue of Reader's Digest that had news in it that would have been current about 3 years ago. She was giggling away to herself. "What's so funny?" He gave up and asked.
"I'm reading the joke pages." She giggled again. Then she read him one of the jokes. He couldn't help it, he cracked up laughing too. "Now, sit down before you wear a hole through the floor. Pacing around isn't going to help us know anything faster."
"No, but I can't sit still while I worry."
"Go get a snack then, you're driving me insane." Nyssa tried to shoe him off with a hand gesture at the door.
"Now you know how I feel ¾ of the time I'm around you." Leon laughed.
"I'm not that annoying." Nyssa frowned.
"Yes you are. I've never met anyone as use to getting their own way as you, as spoiled as you." Leon smirked at her. He knew she wasn't going to be pleased he'd said those things.
"Yeah, well blame Vince. He made me this way. If he spoils me it's not my fault. And just because he gives me my way almost all the time isn't my fault either." She stuck her tongue out at Leon. The doctor picked that exact moment to join them in the waiting room.
Both Nyssa and Leon stood up and unconsciously grabbed for each other's hands to await the news.
"Are you two relatives of the young man?" The doctor opened with.
"Well, I am." Leon answered.
"How so?" The doctor asked.
"I'm his brother." Leon answered and Nyssa glanced at him in mild surprise. She hadn't known.
"Where are your parents?" The doctor sure was obsessed with finding out where a person's parents were, Nyssa thought, but didn't say anything.
"Our mom's are gone, we're half brothers I guess, but our dad is in jail." Leon answered and was about to ask a question of his own of the doctor when the other man spoke again.
"Are you guys some sort of group of kids who's parents are in jail?" He knew Nyssa's dad was also in prison.
"No, it's a strange coincidence." Nyssa answered with sarcasm. She wanted the doctor to get on with it.
"Jesse's over 21." Leon told the doctor.
"Ok. Well, I'd like to talk to you about your brother then. He really should only be getting visits from family right now." The doctor looked pointedly at Nyssa and was obviously waiting for her to leave the room.
Nyssa shot Leon a sad look and went to let go of his hand. Leon tightened his grip on her. Not only was Nyssa, and the whole team, his family, Jesse's family, he wasn't getting this type of news on his own. "Nyssa stays. We're a team. A family. Maybe not a conventional one, but family still. I'm not asking her to leave and neither are you."
Nyssa looked at Leon in shock. That was a lot of back bone for Leon to show. He normally went with the flow. Of course she realized he might be scared of what he was about to hear. She kept silent and waited for the two men to battle it out. It turned out not to be a battle at all.
"Fine, I understand." The doctor answered. He remembered back to all the people who'd been to visit the boy over the last week. They seemed closer then a lot of families he'd seen. The man in front of him now came twice a day without fail, which made sense now that he knew the man was the boy's brother. But the rough looking man with the shaggy hair came almost every day, the pretty man came just as much. The other two girls came all the time too, and the pretty one cried every day. The tough one almost looked worse while she tried to maintain the tough look and almost failed every time she saw the boy looking so still.
And the tall, dark, bald man. He was the one the doctor couldn't figure out. He was obviously the father figure of this group. They all looked to him for guidance. But he hardly came at all, and when he did he looked so desperate to escape that the doctor didn't know what to think. It was like the look that he saw on the faces of people who'd caused the harm to come to their own family. He didn't think the large man had shot his little friend, but he was obviously guilty over what had happened for some reason. But he couldn't deny this family, strange as they were, visits to their youngest team member.
"He must be the baby of your group huh?" The doctor asked. Leon gave a small laugh.
"In mentality maybe, but not in age. Nyssa here is the baby in age.
"They boy is older then her?" The doctor asked Leon.
"Yeah, by 2 years almost."
"Well." The doctor thought about that. It was surprising. He shook his head. "Anyhow, back to the young man's condition. He's awake, and there doesn't seem to be any lasting damage to his brain. He seems to be fine mentally." They knew it was serious but Leon and Nyssa shared a small smile at the though of Jesse being 'fine' mentally. The doctor continued. "And it also seems that he didn't suffer any lasting effects to his spinal cord either. He should regain full use of his legs. I didn't tell him about the possibility of paralysis because I don't want him to worry as it might hamper his progress. He's not out of the woods yet, because we can't let him out of bed to try to walk. Just because he has feeling in his limbs doesn't mean there wasn't nerve damage. But we'll just let him recover for now and worry about any damage that might be there as time goes on. I really feel at this point he'll make a full recovery."
"Yes!" Nyssa and Leon both exclaimed and hugged. The doctor smiled.
"So, can well call the rest of our team and tell them he's awake? Jesse really needs to see Dominic. He's worried that Dom is mad at him, which isn't the case at all and I think it'll really do him good to see that Dom still loves him." Nyssa stated. Leon hadn't known that Jesse was so worried about Dom being mad at him, since Jesse had told Nyssa while Leon was out of the room.
"Jesse thinks Dom is mad at him?" Leon asked in shock. "Why?"
"Because Dom hardly visited. I told him it was because of Dom's tough guy front and that he couldn't come down because he was scared he'd let on just how scared and upset he was and Jesse believed me I think, but the sooner Dom comes down and tells him that he isn't mad the better." Nyssa finished.
"You can bring everyone down to see him whenever you wish, but please just try to keep the topics happy at this point." The doctor told them. "And then I would like you to go home and rest as I told you when I let you out." The doctor frowned. "Maybe I'll wait around till your young man comes and have a talk with him."
"I didn't tell him I left the house Doc. I tricked Leon here into bringing me. And ultimately since my talking to Jesse is what woke him, can't we just agree that a power higher then all of us had a hand in bringing me down here? Besides, I'm fine. I'm practically back to normal." Nyssa told the doctor.
"Really? Let me see your incision." The doctor looked sceptical. Nyssa hauled up her shirt and then the waist of her pants down and showed him. It was totally closed over.
"See?" She said with a satisfied smirk.
"Yes, I do see. You can have those stitches out now." The doctor smiled at the look on her face.
"But that's not why I came down here." Nyssa whined and pouted.
"Oh come now, it takes a second, doesn't hurt and then you don't have to come back and have it done late." Nyssa followed the doctor to an empty room where he removed her stitches while Leon waited outside the room. She let out a few startled ouches but it wasn't too bad. She left the room rubbing her side.
"You ok?" Leon asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She pouted some more. "At least this should be good ammo for getting V to go easy." She figured it would work. Leon cringed.
"Let's hope."
"Did you call them yet?" Nyssa asked.
"Nope, wanted to wait for you."
"Well, I'm here now so call the garage. They should all be there." Leon took his cell phone off his belt and called DT. Dom answered.
"DT automotive, how can I help you?"
"Yo Dawg."
"Leon, where the hell are you? You were supposed to be back here like an hour ago."
"I'm still at the hospital." Leon answered, then heard the phone drop. "Dom?" He called.
Dom had dropped the phone then sat down. He thought he was about to get terrible news. He took a further second to compose himself and picked the phone back up. "Sorry Leon, I dropped the phone. What's going on?" Dom braced himself to hear that he had lost yet another loved one from his life.
"Jesse woke up." Leon told him excitedly. "And they think he's going to be completely fine."
"Really? That's great." Dom stated. That was better then great. It was the first really good news he'd gotten since Vince and Nyssa came home. "When can we see him?"
"As quick as you can all get here. But I have one thing to tell you and I don't figure you and Vince are gonna be too happy."
"What's that Leon?"
"I allowed Nyssa to trick me into bringing her down here to see Jesse. But it was her talking to him that finally brought him around so you guys can't be too mad." Leon sounded nervous.
"You got no worries from me man, anything that works is good with me. Vince on the other hand." Dom trailed off for a second. "You know how protective he is over Nyssa and it's only gotten worse since this shit. It's kinda strange to see Vince being soft and shit over some chick."
"Yeah, and Nyssa thinks he's a big marshmallow under the tough guy act." Leon laughed, shooting Nyssa a look while he talked on the phone.
"Well, we don't need to fill her in on how real the tough guy exterior is or how opposite of marshmallow he is." Dom said, but he did find the thoughts of anyone thinking their Vince was a softy funny.
"So, just prepare him for that if you think you can. How long do you think you'll be?"
"I just have to close up the garage here and collect Mia from the store. Maybe 20 minutes."
"See you then Dawg." Leon hung up and turned to Nyssa. "He said 20 minutes or so and they'll all be here."
Leon and Nyssa went to sit down in the waiting room and await the team.