"Lona?" Elmer wiped at his eyes when he spotted her, not wanting her to see him like this, feeling totally humiliated that she had caught him but.... "Lona, just could you please go away right now, okay? I...."
"Elmer, what's the matter?" Lona hesitated for a moment, wondering
if Elmer was just pulling something to get her attention but she shook her
head a moment later, dismissing that notion. He seemed really upset about
something. She slipped into the closet quickly and closed the door behind
her. "Elmer?" It was pitch black in there but the darkness wasn't really
alarming, in fact was a bit cozy. She reached out, fumbling for a second
before resting her hand on his arm. "Elmer, sweetie, let me help you,
okay?"
"It's just...." Elmer wasn't sure how do say this, knowing that
Lona seeing him like this was just going to make her thing he was an even
bigger loser than she already suspected. And if he let her know his
problems.... She definitely wouldn't want to have anything to do with him
then. He didn't even want to have anything to do with himself at times.
"It's nothing really."
"Elmer, it didn't sound like nothing." Lona said gently. "Please,
let me help you, okay?" True, Elmer could drive her nuts at times but she
could tell now from the sad sound of his voice that he was genuinely
heartbroken over something.
"It's just...." Did Lona really mean it when she said she wanted to help him? After a moment, Elmer decided to risk it. "It's the thing with Hook. Isn't there something that we can do to help him?" he asked with a pleading tone in his voice, clearly hoping that Lona would have a different response than the one his father had given.
"Elmer...." What could she say? Elmer clearly was wanting to hear
that Hook had a chance but from what she had seen, Lona knew the odds were
practically zero. How could she break that to him gently, though? "Elmer,
you know if there's anything that we can do to help Hook we're going to do
it but with what Stegman did.... Miracles happen, honey, but it just
doesn't look good. I'm so sorry." She suddenly reached out, impulsively
drawing Elmer into an embrace, holding him tightly as he started to softly
cry once more.
"Hook wasn't so bad, you know." Elmer muttered. he felt terrible,
to be crying in Lona's arms like this, to be showing her how big a loser he
was but.... "I kind of thought that...." He tightened his grasp on Lona,
a bit afraid she would decide he was up to something and push him away but
at the same time needing something to hold onto, something to steady
himself with. It seemed like everything he touched kept slipping away from
him.
"Here. Let's sit down, okay?" Lona said gently, easing Elmer down to the floor and settling in beside him.
"Well, isn't this cozy." Hook muttered as he stepped through the
door and spotted the two there, Elmer resting his head on Lona's shoulder,
holding her tightly. He knew he needed to get up to Peter's room, to try
to find a way to fix this but hearing Elmer and Lona in a supply closet
together had definitely intrigued him.
"I kind of thought of Hook as...." Elmer didn't really know how to say this properly. Lona was his dad's friend, after all, and he didn't want this to get back to him but.... "Well, he was nice to me and everything, nicer than Edgar was sometimes and...."
"Your brother was a little temperamental, wasn't he?" Lona said gently as she thought back, recalling the other Traff. Funny, she supposed that once a person was dead, you tended to remember only the good things about them but now that she thought about Edgar, he had been more than a bit difficult, erratic, worse than Elmer.
"Edgar...." Elmer shook his head as he thought of his brother. He
didn't want to say anything bad about him. He was his brother after all,
and Elmer still missed him every time he thought about it but.... "He
could be really nice, you know. Like the big brothers you see on tv. It's
just that he could get to missing our mom so much sometimes. It wasn't
really bad for me because I never really knew her, not like he did but"
He stopped speaking for a moment as he thought of his mother and of the
fact that she apparently didn't want to even bother to know him. No,
definitely not something he wanted to think on.
Hook watched as Elmer struggled to figure out how to tell Lona what he was wanting to say. To be honest, it had slipped his mind completely that Elmer had had an older brother but now that he was reminded of it....
"Edgar wasn't really bad, though. I mean, he was just a kid. It's
not like he could know that he shouldn't do the stuff he did. And I guess
getting locked in the morgue was kind of cool when you think about it"
Elmer said with a shake of his head. "And he would do stuff with me and I
had to be really annoying because he was older and all." He felt his sobs
increasing along with his embarrassment that he was acting this way in
front of Lona.
"Elmer, it's alright." Lona whispered even as she was thinking.
Locked in the morgue? Elmer's brother locked him in the morgue? "Lots of
brothers and sisters have problems. That doesn't mean they don't love each
other."
"I did love him and I miss him and it's not that I'm saying Hook's
better than him or anything but...." Elmer paused before continuing.
"He's just nice all the time, though, even with the stupid stuff and.
And I know you didn't like the morgue thing but he helped me with that and
that's the kind of thing brothers are supposed to do and Edgar would never
do that even though he wasn't really bad but...." Elmer knew he was totally
babbling now but he just couldn't stop it just hurt so much.
"Elmer, sweetie, it's okay." Lona whispered, hugging him tight to her. "Honey, I'm so sorry. It's okay."
"I just.... I don't want him to die, Lona. I don't want to lose another brother. I just.... Isn't there something we can do to fix this?"
"Yeah, we're going to fix this, Elmer, whatever it his." Hook said
with a shake of his head. Honestly, he hadn't really thought very much
about Elmer as anything but the goofy, flirty resident but hearing him say
what he had.... "Listen, you know, my brother wasn't the greatest either.
If you might be interested, I think I can make an opening for a new little
brother, okay? And the thing with the head and Mona Klingerman, you don't
have to do it if you don't want to." Hook turned and started through the
door. He had to find someone to first figure out what was going on and
then figure out how in the world to fix this. There were too many people
dependent on him for him not to do whatever it took to repair what had
happened. As he passed through the door, he turned towards Elmer and spoke
once more. "Listen, why don't you just stay here with Lona for a little
while okay? I'm sure she's going to make you feel much, much better."