CHAPTER 21
"Mahesh! Mahesh!" The four friends heard an extremely loud women's voice calling through the airport.
"Haven't heard that in a while…" Bug muttered under his breath before putting on a big smile. "Mom! Dad!" He said, very enthusiastically. "How've you been?"
"Fine, fine." The woman said, throwing her arms around Bug. She then held him at arms length, looking him over. "You look well." She observed, pulling him back into a hug. Bug's father patted him on the back.
"Are you going to introduce us Mahesh?" He asked politely and much quieter than his wife had been. Bug looked a bit embarrassed for a minute before he finally answered.
"Yes, sorry Dad." He apologized. "This is my Mother," He said gesturing to the woman, "And my father." He concluded with a pat on his fathers shoulder. "This is Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, Dr. Nigel Townsend and Lily Lebowski." He told his parents, gesturing to each of his friends in turn, and then taking hold of Lily's hand. Neither of Bug's parents said anything for a moment. Bug assumed it was because they were taken aback by his holding Lily's hand. He guessed they didn't expect him to have a girlfriend if he hadn't mentioned it on the phone to them before.
"Uh, do you all work at the morgue?" Bug's father stammered, regaining some composure. Bug observed that he mostly directed the question towards Lily, because she was the only one that wasn't a doctor. He hoped his mother wouldn't say anything that would embarrass him, noticing her unusual quietness. He knew she was preparing to say something, and that likely meant embarrassment on his part.
"Yes, we do." Jordan answered with a smile, obviously noticing the questions direction to Lily as well. "Nigel and I are medical examiners like…your son, and Lily is resident grief councilor." They all noticed Jordan pause before saying 'your son'. Bug assumed it was because she didn't know whether to call him Mahesh, which he was glad she had never called him before, or to call him Bug.
"I see." Bug's father said with a forced smile. Things were awkward, uncomfortable… Nigel and Jordan couldn't understand Bug's worry about his mother… she had barley spoken a word. They soon decided they shouldn't have thought that. It must have been a jinx. Almost as soon as the thought ran through their minds… Bug's mother started talking.
"Oh Mahesh!" She gushed, "I can't believe it's been this long since we've last seen you! We have so much to tell you… How about we go home? Start off our nice, quiet, family week?" She suggested, hinting that he wouldn't be spending much time with his co-workers after work as long as she was here. She wanted to spend time with her son… not his co-workers at the morgue he worked at. She didn't understand why he had to work at a morgue anyway… there had to be some more productive things he could be doing with his education…
"Actually Mom," Bug started, surprising his Mom greatly. She had never heard her Mahesh question anything she had said before… "Jordan and Nigel were going to introduce you to one of our other close friends…" His mother noticed that he was holding hands with one of the girls again. They were both beautiful girls… was Mahesh dating her? She couldn't see it… but she half hoped he was. He needed to settle down with a pretty girl and start a family, but the two of them together didn't seem quite right to her… something was missing, she just wasn't sure what it was yet.
"Where are you going to be, Mahesh?" She asked him, glancing between him and Lily.
"I… well…" Bug stammered, not knowing how his Mom would feel about him and Lily going on a date.
"He's going on a date with Lily." Jordan cut in with a smirk. She didn't see why Bug was so afraid of his mother. She was no expert… but she knew if her Mom was around, they'd be close… not afraid of each other. But Jordan knew she wasn't anything remotely like Bug… so she decided to let the situation go. She just needed to make this week as easy on Bug and Lily as it could be.
"Oh, I see." Bug's mother replied. Bug just nodded throwing several grateful smiles in Jordan's direction. "Well, will I be seeing you at all this week, Mahesh?" His mother demanded.
"Yes Mom! Of course!" Bug reassured her.
"So, Mrs. Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy…" Jordan started before being cut off by Bug's mother. If she was impressed that Jordan could pronounce her last name, she didn't show it, and Jordan didn't expect her to.
"Please, call me Shyama, and my husband Alok." Jordan just continued as if she'd never been interrupted. Bug hoped the two women wouldn't get into too many arguments this week… they were both so stubborn… he didn't know who would win most of them… it would be close.
"Do you want to get going? We want to introduce you to our friend Woodrow Hoyt, we call him Woody. He's a detective… he was recently hospitalized… he's a good friend of Bug's and he'd want to meet you." Jordan told her.
"Fine, let's get going. I'll see you later Mahesh." She told him with a kiss on the cheek, separating him and Lily once again. "And you too… sorry, I can't remember the name." She told Lily with a bit of a smirk. She remembered Lily's name… she just wanted to test her. If she could put up with her and Alok for a week and still be with Mahesh… she would accept Lily.
"Lily."
"Yes, see you later too Lily." She nodded before stalking away, leaving the entire pile of luggage behind her.
"Sorry about that." Alok apologized. "You know the way she is Mahesh… wanting to spend every single second with you until we fly back. She'll come around eventually."
"That's alright Dad, see you later." Bug said, giving his Dad a hug.
"Yes. Nice meeting you Ms. Lebowski." He said with a smile and a nod. He grabbed most of the luggage, Nigel taking the remains and the two men and Jordan headed across the airport trying to keep Shyama in view.
"Sorry about that Lily." Bug apologized as soon as everyone had left. Lily took hold of his hand again.
"It's fine." She told him with a smile.
"You sure? My mom can get pretty mean… that isn't even close to what we'll see before the week ends…"
"Bug, seriously. I can handle it. Besides… you're letting me pretend to be Jake's fiancée to help him out… and I love you." She told him with a shy smile. Every time she said it she was flooded with happiness, but felt shy at the same time. She knew it was silly to feel shy around Bug. She'd known him for what seemed like forever…they'd been friends for a long time, through so much together.
"I love you too." Bug said feeling equally as shy and happy. He put his arm around Lily's waist as they walked towards the airport parking lot.
----
At the hospital, Woody was getting impatient, and worried. He knew he shouldn't be… but maybe they'd gone too fast… maybe she wasn't going to come and see him. She should have been there already because her shift was over an hour ago. She was probably just working late… or went home first. It was nothing. She'd be here. Just on queue, the nurse knocked on the door. "Detective Hoyt, you have some visitors. It's your girlfriend and some friends." She told him with a laugh. He smiled, loving how they always referred to Jordan as his girlfriend… well she was now, he hoped, but even before they had made up. "I'm assuming it's alright for them to come in?"
"Yes, yes. Thank you!" He told her. She nodded and smiled as she left to go get them. He wondered who came with her. Probably Lily, Bug and Nigel, he though. Who else would be there?
"Woody!" Jordan exclaimed as she entered the room, rushing over to his bedside and giving him a big hug.
"Hey Jo!" he told her, planting a kiss on her cheek. She sat down on the bed next to him.
"You guys coming in?" She asked.
"Yep." Woody heard Nigel say from outside the room. Then he entered, two strangers in tow. One was a larger woman, the other a smaller man. The man looked friendly, the woman looked fierce. He hadn't the slightest clue who they were. "Evening Woodrow, you look well." Nigel smiled.
"Thanks Nige, so do you." He told him.
"And who are your friends?" He asked in a casual but demanding tone.
"Oh, yes!" Jordan said, jumping up. "Sorry about that… This," She said gesturing to the man, "Is Alok Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy."
"Oh, you're Bug's parents." Woody exclaimed.
"We're Mahesh's parents…" The woman told him, with a strange look, "I'm Shyama Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy." She walked over to the bed and shook his hand.
"Nice meeting you Mrs. Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy, call me Woody. He told her with a polite boy scout smile.
"Call me Shyama." She told him with a fake smile. She didn't understand her son's friends. There was Jordan, who seemed like she was trouble, Woody, who seemed too polite to be real, Nigel who seemed fairly normal compared to the rest of the bunch, and Lily who was obviously hiding something judging by her quietness. Then there was Mahesh, or 'Bug' as Woody had referred to him as. What kind of name was Bug? A nickname because his full name was an embarrassment to him, no doubt. She would reprimand him for that later… right now he was on a date. She was happy he was on a date… but with his Lily? She didn't seem his type at all. He should be going out with a nice girl from our community. He should come back home with us…
"Shyama?" Jordan's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "You okay?"
"Yes, quite fine thanks." Shyama answered with a shake of her head.
"Good to hear." Nigel piped in. Shyama didn't understand why they were there.
"What are we doing here anyway?" Shyama asked abruptly. She didn't fly all the way to Boston to spend time with Mahesh's friends… she wanted to spend time with Mahesh.
"We're visiting Woodrow. We haven't seen him in a while… well Jordan saw him this morning, but I haven't, and we were planning on coming to visit him tonight." Nigel answered her.
"That's fine, but why are Alok and I here?"
"Did you have somewhere else you needed to be?" Jordan asked with a mock tone.
"Yes, in fact I do. I should be spending time with my son." Shyama shot back.
"So you're angry because Bug is with Lily and not you?" Jordan retorted.
"I'm not angry!" Shyama practically shouted. Nigel and Alok slowly, discretely made their way to the opposite side of the room, Woody wishing he could do the same. "I don't care how much time he spends with that girl…"
"Her name is Lily." Jordan interrupted her. Shyama's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. She had not been challenged like this in a while… she wasn't used to getting so worked up, but it looked as if she was going to have to get used to it this week as long as Jordan was around.
"I don't care how much time he spends with Lily but I am his mother, and I have come all the way to Boston to spend time with him… I would think he'd have enough respect for me to at least entertain me the first night I'm here."
"Well I'd think you'd have enough respect for Bug that you'd call more than a few hours before you arrive in Boston to let him know you're coming. Did it occur to you he might have had plans for the week? Or do you count on him being so intimidated by you that he'll drop everything and spend every second with you?" Jordan shot back.
"You have no right to say that!" Was the only reply Shyama could come up with for the comment.
"I think I do." Jordan told her, not dropping eye contact. So Bug wasn't completely lying when he said his Mother was a bit like Jordan… they were right when they assumed Jordan could handle her.
"Maybe we should go Shyama." Alok suggested quietly. He knew his wife would be in a mad mood for the rest of the night. She always was like an argument like this… but she had never lost an argument before… he didn't know how she'd react to this. Jordan was quite a skilled arguer. Shyama didn't reply, just stalked quickly out of the room eyes fixated on the floor the whole time. Alok waited until she had left before apologizing. "I'm sorry about Shyama…"
"It's fine, no worries." Jordan told him with a smile. "I'm sorry for picking the fight."
"No, no, it's not your fault at all…" Alok reassured her. "I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow at some point…" Alok rushed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
"Well, Bug's parents seem nice." Nigel commented as soon as Alok had left the room.
"Jordan!" Woody exclaimed, half laughing, half trying to be serious. "What was that?" He looked at Jordan, then Nigel, and all three burst out laughing.
"Bug was certainly right about his mother, wasn't he now?" Nigel asked.
"You got that right. She was asking for it though… It's obvious she doesn't like Lily… and me of course." Jordan observed.
"Oh well. It doesn't really matter anyway." Woody reassured her.
"I know. I hope she doesn't keep arguing like that. It will get boring by the end of the week." Jordan laughed.
"Not for the rest of us!" Nigel added. "Well should I fill you two in on detective Jake Fredrick?"
"What about him?" Woody asked.
"Oh… Nigel looked into him…" Jordan started.
"I found some things that don't exactly bring me comfort…" Nigel told his two friends with a shake of his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out several pieces of paper. "Let me explain…"
----
"How do you think things are going with your Mom?" Lily asked Bug. The two were in Lily's apartment sitting comfortably on the couch.
"Oh, probably fine but I wouldn't be surprised if she and Jordan have killed each other yet, though." Bug replied. He didn't really want to think about his parents, he just wanted to concentrate on him and Lily. Lily's head was resting on his shoulder and they were just relaxing.
"I don't think she likes me." Lily told him with a bit of a laugh.
"Well… she'll have to." Bug told her pulling her a bit closer to him.
"Good." Lily smiled. "I didn't want her to get in the way of us. Do you want to know what Garrett told me today?" She asked sitting up and looking right into his eyes.
"You saw Dr. Macy today?" Bug asked excitedly. He was beginning to believe the man had disappeared off the face of the earth. He had been unreachable since he had been fired from the morgue. Even Nigel hadn't been able to find him.
"Yep! It's only been a week since he left the morgue… but it feels like forever doesn't it?"
"Definitely." Bug agreed. "So where did you see him?"
"Well, I was in my office trying to reach him and he called me." Lily told him. Bug looked surprised and she giggled. "I was really surprised. He said he needed to see me and tell me something, so we met at the coffee shop we went to last night."
"How's he doing?"
"Oh, he's doing alright… as well as he can under this situation. I'm going to explain it to you now." Bug nodded and she continued, trying to keep from laughing at the look of curious excitement and anticipation on his face. This was going to be much more enjoyable than telling Jordan and Nigel, Jordan especially. She'd be pretty mad that Garrett didn't go to her… but she'd have to get over it and help. "Garrett went home after he left us at the hospital that night. He wasn't sure what to do, he was very angry at Slokum for firing him, Riggs for shooting Woody… he was in pretty bad shape by the sounds of it. He went out to some bar to try and make himself feel better. When he was there, before he'd even had a drink, some woman that was sitting near him was in quite a distressed state. He asked her what was wrong and she started crying. Being Garrett, he comforted her, got her some water and asked if she wanted to talk about. She said she did, but not there because it wasn't safe. He took out for a drive and she told him lots of stuff. The most important thing being that she knew Slokum was working with two detectives to conspire some plan. Garrett wouldn't tell me exactly what it was… he didn't go into details… he said if I knew, I wouldn't be able to go back to the morgue until this was all over, and he didn't know when that would be. All I know for certain is that Slokum is bad news, and not just because he's a grumpy old man. When I told Garrett about Jake Fredrick he said he though Jake might be one of the detectives Slokum's working with. Garrett knew there was a double homicide coming in, and he said it had something to do with Slokum… he thinks he planned it. Since Jake came in with it… he thinks that's reason to believe Jake's involved. Maybe he has other proof, but he didn't tell me about it. But he told me there was a lot he wasn't telling me… he couldn't tell me." The expression on Bug's face was no longer excited, but still very curious, and concerned. Bug could tell Lily was upset at the thought that Dr. Macy could get hurt, killed even. Who knew how much information he was withholding? And why wasn't he going to the police? Bug decided to stop asking himself questions either he or Lily knew the answer to, and pulled Lily into a tight hug,
"He'll be alright Lily." Bug reassured her. "Don't worry. He wouldn't have told you if it wasn't safe, you know that."
"Yeah… I guess." Lily replied. She didn't know why she was so scared for Garrett… he wasn't in any immediate danger… but if Slokum caught wind of them knowing and he looked into it and found out Garrett knew almost everything… who knows what he'd do to protect whatever he was protecting.
"Don't worry. Garrett knows how to take care of himself. He'll be fine." Bug reassured Lily still holding her tightly in his arms. He really hoped Garrett was going to be okay… they needed to find out Nigel's information right away to see if it went with Lily's… why had his parents picked the worst possible time to come?