Chapter Fifty-Six
Apprehension continued to strengthen for Nicky, the lump that was swallowed by Lorna was loud enough for Nicky's ear to pick up on. She tightened her grasp on the phone in her hand and took in a long, profound, breath. The absence of a response from the girl on the other end of the phone had her fearing the worst. Her heart-rate climbed dramatically as her mind swarmed with possible reasons Lorna might be at the hospital. Legs became restless, switching positions multiple times in the span of a few minutes. A couple of times her mouth opened but no words found their way out of it.
The same was repeated by Lorna on the other line; she opened her mouth to respond but couldn't form the proper sentence to speak. Her eyes shifted onto the clock and saw there was only forty minutes left until the nurse would be back with those test results. Lungs pushed a sharp breath up and through her throat. She looked down at her lap, noticing how neither leg had been sat still since she and Franny came back to the waiting room twenty minutes earlier. "Uh, erm, I'm just visiting Franny and she got some soap opera on the TV—real loud, that's probably what ya heard. It's a hospital scene is all, hon."
That was sufficient cause for Nicky's concern to help bring words back to her. She shook her head rather violently, standing up abruptly from her chair and pacing back and forth around the width of the porch. A hand was brought up and placed on the corner of her forehead. "Be real with me, kid. You know I'm not buyin' that, yeah?" She tried to keep her voice calm but the frustration was rather intense. So intense that she felt as if the frustration was moving through her veins instead of blood.
"I am being real, hon," Lorna frantically said back, desperate for the older girl to drop the subject.
She was in no frame of mind to delve any further into it at that moment. The day seemed to be piling everything onto her, she deemed. Her mind could hardly process it all at once, let alone form coherent explanations to share with her already worrying girlfriend. A sigh expelled. Nicky spent way too much of her time worrying for her; she wanted none of it. Nicky didn't deserve or need that kind of worry in her life, Lorna acknowledged.
However, before Lorna could elaborate or say anything else, Franny grabbed a hold of the phone from her hand and brought it to her own ear and mouth so she could inform Nicky of what was really going on. She sat watching this train wreck long enough that she couldn't resist from intervening any longer. Her eyes fell on those of her sister's, who stared back at her in shock of such unexpected actions. Franny recoiled her shoulders albeit the stern look she gave the younger brunette.
"Nicky, this is Franny," the older brown-haired woman first greeted, holding a free hand in Lorna's face across from her to halt her from trying to grab at the phone.
She drew in a breath of air to prepare herself for what she planned on saying. Of course, she realized Lorna wouldn't be too pleased with her but she figured it was the least she could do for Nicky—seeing as the girl still had qualms around her after finding out about the abuse of Mr. Morello. Plus, it was time Lorna stopped leaving her own girlfriend in the dark when it came to the happenings of her own life. Franny sighed, using her hand to pat comfortingly over her sister's shoulder. "Lorna and I are at the hospital—we're just getting tested to see if either of us are candidates to donate some a our liver to our dad," she rolled her eyes at the last part, still disgruntled over the whole debacle.
Nicky's pacing sped up at the disclosure. Worry morphed into anger. Candidates to donate a liver to their father? The repetition of Franny's comment caused her teeth to grit together in a fury. Why should that fucking man have any part of either of them when all he did was abuse the hell out of them, especially Lorna? Her mind swirled with infuriating queries. She shook her head copiously, balling both of her hands into fists at her sides. How she longed to pound someone's face in at that particular point in time.
She swallowed thickly, trying to smooth the anger down. Anger wouldn't fix things, she had to remind herself. A statement she knew Red would likely say to her if she were sitting out there with her right now. She brought a hand up to her forehead and used it to slick back her hair. Inhaling slowly, she let a deep breath of air to soak up into her mouth and the nostrils of her nose. "But why? I hope to god Lorna's not a match. And even if she is, why should she have to give any part of her to that man? He fucking hurt her. He deserves to rot for that."
The older brunette's head nodded in agreement with the words of her sister's girlfriend. Their father deserved nothing but to lay in that damn hospital bed and rot until he succumbed to the failing liver inside of him. He was an evil, demented, good-for-nothing excuse of a pitiful man. Franny squeezed her eyes shut momentarily and took a small breath in. "She's not giving him anything regardless of the results, I won't let her. But his doctor pretty much ordered that we got the blood test to see. We should be getting the results within the next hour—I thought ya might wanna be here with Lorna for that, I know how close the two a ya are," her shoulders subtly bounced up in a shrug.
A sigh escaped Nicky and her pacing gradually lessened. Despite still slightly feeling unsure of Franny after the events of the last week, this encounter diminished some of that sensation. Maybe Franny wasn't entirely at fault, she thought. No, she scolded silently, the only one truly at fault was their piece of shit, sorry excuse, father. He was the only reason for the current predicament going on in Lorna's life. And boy did she hope neither sister were matches for him. That he would be forced to suffer until the hour of his painful death. "Uh thanks, Franny, for letting me know what's actually going on. Course' I'll come down and be there with her—lemme just go tell my ma and I'll be on my way."
Once the phone call ended, Lorna ragefully snatched the phone from her sister's hands and gave her a rather dark glare. The last thing she wanted was Nicky fraying over her. And now, thanks to her sister, that was more than likely exactly what poor Nicky was doing. "The hell was that for, Fran? I never gave ya permission to snatch my phone and blab to my girlfriend," anger seethed through her teeth, eyes wide with fury. She pushed up on the handles of her chair to roughly jolt herself up from it.
"Lorn, ya gotta stop keeping things from her. It's a real bad cycle with you—why can't ya just let your girlfriend be there for ya? It's obvious she wants to be so why are you not letting her?" The irritation in Franny's voice matched the intensity of anger that was in Lorna's. She mirrored the shorter girl's movements, getting up from her seat as well, and walked directly in front of her—using her hands to grasp onto her shoulders so she couldn't escape.
Swallowing nervously, Lorna bit down on her bottom lip and shifted her eyes away from the blue ones of her sister. The close proximity only intensified the apprehension that slowly consumed her. "That's not what any a this is about, Fran," teeth still gritted from the unrelenting anger. Anger that Franny would have the audacity to snatch her phone and do what she did. "Nicky's always worrying for me and I didn't want to make her any more worried right now and you just ruined that. I hope you're happy, Franny."
A sigh tumbled up out of the taller woman's larynx. She framed both of her hands soothingly around the pale cheeks of her sister and peered intently into her eyes. "Hon, lyin' to her isn't going to make her worry any less. Your intentions are good but ya gotta stop lying about everything. Nicky's your girlfriend—you need to be honest with her. Relationships aren't built on lies, Lorn. Maybe this is something to bring up with your therapist on Wednesday, yeah? She could help ya open up to the people who care about you," Franny softly, carefully, suggested.
"Okay, Nicky, hold up," Red firmly commanded after not being able to fully comprehend what was said with how fast the words spewed from her daughter's mouth. Her teacup was placed on a coaster on the end-table right beside the chair she occupied and the reading glasses on her face were pushed up on her nose by her thumb. She squinted them slightly as she looked the young redhead over precisely. "Why are you going to the hospital? You need to slow down and talk so I can actually hear what you're saying, honey."
A heaping huff of air grunted out through Nicky's mouth. Her legs restlessly shifted as she sat on the edge of the cushion on the couch adjacent to Red's armchair. Rage was still bubbling beneath her skin as the phone conversation with Franny played on a loop in her mind. How she longed to clock Mr. Morello in the head with a one ton brick right then and there. She sucked her lower lip inward and averted her eyes onto the Russian matron across from her.
"Lorna's sister said the two of them are there waiting to get the results of some blood test some asshat of a doctor made them get to see if either are matches for donating a liver to their garbage can of a father," she muttered through grinding teeth.
Saying it aloud once more only made the anger stronger. Lorna had been through enough, she thought, she didn't need to deal with this shit on top of everything else. She shook her head spitefully while kicking her feet at the ground. Secretly wishing the ground was her girlfriend's father's head she was kicking.
The anger on her daughter's face wasn't missed by Red's vastly attentive eyes. She frowned and reached a hand over to cup around one of her cheeks. The tips of her fingers stroked soothingly up and down the length of it. "I'll come with you, darling. You're too angry to operate a vehicle, anyway," she softly pointed out, bringing her other hand over to frame around the other side of Nicky's cheek. She brought her face closer to her own and pressed a motherly kiss atop her head.
Nicky nodded after the embrace had been released and followed Mrs. Reznikov out to her car. Once both of them were fastened in their seats and Red had backed out of the driveway, Nicky turned her head to peer her mother figure over methodically. A sigh escaped and she swallowed down an uneasy lump that had formed. "Ma, I'm real worried about the kid."
Coming to a stop sign just down the street from her house, Red slightly shifted her head to return the young teen's gaze. Eyebrows arched over two concerned eyes. "Who, Lorna?" Nicky's nod ignited a small pang to sit on her own chest. She reached a free hand over to place on top of one of Nicky's, stroking it warmly with her thumb. "It'll be okay, honey. Whatever happens, Lorna will have all of us there with her. That father of hers, though, he shouldn't even be allowed to have her liver, after what he did to her. That's messed up." Her head shook distastefully at the thought.
By the time the pair of them made it to the hospital and up the elevator to the waiting area where Franny had informed them they were, it didn't take long for Nicky to catch sight of the two brunettes and even less time it took for her eyes to observe the tears falling from her girlfriend's precious ones. Instantly her heart sank and she frisked her way over, quickly pulling Lorna up from her chair and onto to her chest for a warm, protective, cuddle. Lips rested atop her head and hands found their way through dark waves of hair.
"Why are ya crying, baby? What's wrong?" The questions spilled softly from her mouth as she gently swayed back and forth with Lorna still in her arms. She reluctantly lifted Lorna's head from her chest so that she could look her lovingly in the eyes, brushing a few loose strands of hair away from them. Lips pressed onto her forehead.
A hard swallow. Brown eyes shifted downwards, trying to suck back in all of the tears but there were too many. She sighed, feet twitching uneasily against the floor underneath them. The nurse had just stopped by with the results seconds before Nicky and Red's arrival; the words still rung through Lorna's ears. Luck was not something in her pocket, that much was for certain. "The nurse," her voice quivered slightly, eyes gazing at nothing in particular. "She was just here and she—I'm a match, Nicky. My dad's life is in my hands."
Nicky's eyes closed as she took in her girlfriend's comment. Her bottom lip sucked underneath the top one. She shook her head harshly. Why was everything always seemingly stacked against her sweet Lorna? The question tore through her mind. Arms tightened around Lorna's waist—a waist that suddenly appeared much smaller in her arms. She shook away the thought, now wasn't the time to be pondering over that. A big breath of air came in through her open mouth.
"You don't have to give that man a damn thing, ya hear me? Just cause you're a match, that doesn't mean he's entitled to have anything from you. Babe don't think like that. The only hands your dad's life is in his own—he did this all on his own. You had absolutely no part in any of this, Lorna. We'll figure this out, kid, together," words murmured tenderly into the brunette's ear, breath warmly trickled on its flesh.
Lorna's legs trembled as she stood in Nicky's embrace. It felt like the walls were caving in on her. Her breathing gradually grew heavier and all she could do to calm herself was squeeze her eyes tightly shut. She swallowed a build up of saliva and tried to stop all the incessant thoughts from running rabid through her mind. "Nicky, if I don't—if I don't give him any a my liver, he'll die. I-I don't, if he dies…that means I-I won't have any parents. I'd be an orphan, Nicky. And his death, that—it would be my fault for—"
"No," Nicky rapidly interjected before she could finish her sentence. She cupped a hand around Lorna's cheek and gazed sternly into her eyes. "You're not at fault for a damn thing, Lorna. Don't you dare play the blame game on yourself. Don't you dare put any of this on yourself," her tone was firm but not louder than a whisper, she curled a strand of hair behind the ear she whispered into. "If he dies, it's his fault. He has a bad liver from the alcohol he chose to overconsume, baby, not from anything you did. You've done nothing—absolutely nothing wrong."
A pause was taken so Nicky could catch her breath. She sucked in the air around her and let it slowly inhale through her nose. The palms of her hands brushed tenderly along the flesh of the cheeks they framed around; she leaned closer to rest their foreheads against each other. "You don't owe your dad anything, doll, please know that. He hurt you. He fucking hurt you. You have no obligation to donate a thing to that man, okay?" Mouth pressed up warmly upon the tip of Lorna's nose. Nuzzling it in a comforting manner.
"But I could save him, Nicky. I could save him and if I don't, I'd be self—"
"Stop it, Lorna. Stop it right now. You're not selfish. You're not even fucking close to being selfish. You were abused by him; he put his hands on you, he fucking chased you with a gun. You are not the selfish one, baby, your dad is."
Despite the intensity of the sternness oozing from Nicky's voice, Lorna felt a form of comfort and security come over her suddenly after hearing all that was said. There certainly might have been some part of her that craved the care and affection that Nicky so effortlessly gave to her; a part of her, on a subconscious level, didn't completely believe that she was entirely undeserving of it. But that part of her was so miniscule that it had hardly any bearing on any decisions Lorna made.
A deep, slow, breath was inhaled through Lorna's nose. She lifted a hand up to her forehead and mindlessly rubbed at one of her temples. Another shovel worth of dirt piled onto her grave with this incident, the thought ran through her mind. Tears had since ceased and now all that remained were a few spaced out sniffles. It was just her luck that she'd be the one to test as a perfect match for their father. Of course she would. Of fucking course. She snuffled slightly and shook her head bitterly.
Distress steadily morphed into madness. As if her body was being consumed by the budding anger. She gritted her teeth roughly together, grinding them until the only sound that roared through her ears was the clinging of her teeth against each other.
Standing a few feet back from the pair, Red watched with a hefty bout of concern etched on her face. Something clearly wasn't entirely okay, that much she was able to figure out by the tears and shaking coming from Lorna. The sight must have meant those test results Nicky had mentioned earlier had not gone in any of their favors. No one but Mr. Morello's favor, she shook her head bitterly at the thought. That man deserved no redemption for his life, Red deemed, not when he believed abusing his own daughter was acceptable.
Her eyes shifted onto the taller brunette, who'd sat in one of the chairs a toddler boy on her lap—who seemed blissfully unaware of what was going on or where they were even at—and she decided to have a seat beside her. The woman had to be Lorna's sister, she presumed as she slid into the unoccupied chair on the other side of her. The little boy looked up from his handful of toys when he heard her sit down and Red returned the stare with a friendly smile. She always had enjoyed being around children, it naturally brought out her motherly affection. Reminded her of when her own kids were young.
"Hi there," she softly greeted, "what's your name?"
Marco innately curved his lower lip inward and moved closer to his mother, tucking his head slightly beneath her chin but was still able to look at the woman who'd spoken to him. He eyed her up and down, using his free hand to hold onto the arm of his mom with. "Me Marco," he quietly mumbled, moving his eyes up onto the spikey red-hair that stood up from Mrs. Reznikov's scalp. "Fire," he pointed a tiny finger in direction of her hair, a faint smile forming from his lips. "You hair is fire. I like fire, fire makes fire truck go beep beep real loud."
A warm chuckle escaped from Red's throat at the little boy's innocent comment. Instinctively she lifted a hand up to her head and ran it through her thick red hair. That wasn't the first time a child had taken an interest in her hair. The shade of red it was influenced the attention of others rather instantly, especially children and students at the school. "I do have a unique red color of hair, huh? I am glad you approve of my fire hair, Marco. What a sweet little fellow you are."
Tuning into the conversation between her son and the Russian lady beside her, Franny forced a smile to her face despite not feeling in the slightest of mood to. A hand she tousled through Marco's deep brown curls. "He's still tryna work on talking better at preschool with his teacher," she informed the older woman, grateful for the temporary distraction from all that currently was going on. "I'm his mom, Franny. Who are you?" Eyes peered her over intently, she hadn't really been paying attention to the commotion since hearing the results of the blood test just fifteen minutes earlier.
"I'm Red," the Russian woman responded, reaching a hand out to shake Franny's with. When the other obliged and repeated her motions, she gave a sad smile to her with a quick shake of hands. "I'm here with Nicky for Lorna, she told me what was happening. I work at their school; I'm the nurse there. You're Lorna's older sister, yes?"
A lump had been swallowed down. Franny nodded, shifting her legs so that the opposite one crossed over the other. Both of her arms wrapped around the tiny frame of son, hugging him closer to her body. She was grateful that he was too young to really have a grasp on what was going on around them right now; his innocence was too precious to have ruined so soon, she thought. "That's correct," the words came out in a rather subdued tone.
Infuriation began seeping through each vein that ran through her body. Her eyes shut out of the hopes that it would somehow lessen the infuriating sensation which coursed through her. It did nothing of the sort. She sighed boisterously, biting down on her tongue so that none of the anger escaped her. Not with a toddler in her presence or the fact that they were in a public hospital. A place that needed to remain calm and quiet so that patients could heal. Patients, she mentally repeated, patients like her fucking father. The anger intensified with the revelation. Her father didn't deserve to heal in a calm, quiet, environment. Not one bit, she determined with gritted teeth.
Red observed her the entire time and easily noticed the building madness. It formed a pressure in her chest. She swallowed uneasily, and turned a bit in her seat so she could properly focus on Franny. A hand innately reached over to place comfortingly over the brunette's. "You seem really tense. Would you like to talk about what's going on? I can lend an ear. Sometimes it's good to just vent, you know?"
The gesture was kind enough to ease some of the boiling rage in Franny. She took the moment to let in a slow, deep, breath of air and then exhaled. Her eyes deterred down to her son, she swallowed, and gave a nod. "Sure, I think that's a real good idea. Lemme just get Marco situated with a juice and CD player real quick," Franny told her before setting Marco on the vacant chair on the other side of hers and rummaged through her purse for the items she'd just mentioned.
Once Marco's ears were covered with the headphones connected to her CD player, Franny returned her focus on the older woman sitting to the left of her. One hand naturally reached up to massage around a temple, a nervous habit that she appeared to do a lot of lately. She swallowed a bout of air and looked back at Red. Eyebrows arched over her eyes. "I'm sure ya heard about our dad, yeah?" She watched as the other nodded her acknowledgement. Franny nodded back and felt a sigh burst through her windpipe. "Well, thanks to him Lorna's stuck with a foster family and he had the damn nerves to basically demand for me and her to get our blood tested to see if either of us are candidates to donate a part of our liver to him."
Anger started up once more. Franny sucked in her lower lip much like her son had done moments ago. She shook her head out of spite. Spite towards her father. A father who, now, certainly hadn't deserved the title father. After the pain and suffering he caused their whole family, most specifically Lorna, Mr. Morello might as well have been a dead-beat father at that point. Because, clearly, a real father wouldn't find it okay to put his hands on his children. Not at all. And that same father would never hound his daughters for their organs. Teeth grinded together the more her mind spun with thoughts.
"That's what Nicky was telling me, about the whole blood test thing," Red bobbed her head up and down in congruency with what came from her mouth.
The anger she noted coming from Franny was matched with what she felt bubbling beneath the surface of her own skin. And with good reason, too, she believed. It wasn't right for their father to be asking either girl for a part of their bodies, even more so after what he'd done to them. If anything, Mr. Morello should be begging for the forgiveness of his two daughters. She shook her head at her ponderous mind. "Did the results come back? They must have because Lorna seems to be troubled over something," her voice softly pointed out, eyes momentarily shifting onto the younger brunette who now was slightly more together than when she and Nicky first arrived.
Franny silently grumbled at such a query. Still rather disturbed by the results that were given to them by the same doctor who'd been waiting on their father, hand and foot, for the past week. "That's exactly why Lorn's upset. I tell ya that girl ain't got no luck," Franny muttered distastefully, head shaking, eyes peering where her sister sat. "She's a perfect match, the doctor said. A perfect fucking match. But I'll be damned if that ass of a doctor even thinks about convincing Lorna to take part in any transplant surgery bullshit. Lorna would cave too easily and I'm not having it. I just fucking wish our brotha was here. He always has a way of getting Lorna to see the truth in things. And he sure as hell wouldn't let our dad have any of her liver, either."
Curving an intrigued eyebrow, Red peered thoughtfully at the brunette. There was another Morello sibling? She placed a thumb on the bottom of her chin, trying to recall if Lorna had ever mentioned the brother before. "I had no clue you two had a brother. Where's he at? How come he isn't here with you? Oh, god, he's not—"
"He's not dead. Mikey's in the military," Franny was quick to chime in and ease away whatever thought must have gone through Red's mind at that time. A sigh escaped her, however, at not knowing how or if he'd hear about what was happening with their father. There was no way that she knew of to contact Mikey; he had to find out about this somehow, she thought. It was their dad for crying out loud. Mikey needed to know and be there with them.
Nodding, Red crossed a leg over the other and shifted in her seat to get more comfortable. "Oh, no wonder he's not here then. What branch is he in? My ex husband was in the navy many years ago, in Russia actually. That's where we met."
Franny pursed a small smile. Her shoulders recoiled, however, not familiar with the terminology. She didn't know shit about the military and what branches it did or didn't have. All she knew was that her brother enlisted in it the second he got out of high school. A decision she still wasn't sure she was fond over. "Um, I think the army. I don't really know. He joined right after he graduated. And I don't know how to get in contact with him about all this shit," she frantically acclaimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
"The only one who knows how to get in touch with him is our fuckin' dad. And I have a feeling he ain't gonna reach out because he would never want Mikey to know all the damn abuse he's caused." The comment was added once Franny took in several breaths of air. Though none calmed her frantic mind. She grinded down on her teeth, unsure of how to move forward. How to make things better again for her sister.
"Therapy," Lorna mumbled, eyes peering into the mug of coffee that was cradled in her hands. "I have therapy on Wednesday. Therapy," the words repeated through a muttered voice. Time had long gone by since she'd been sitting in the cold, sterile, waiting room of the hospital. Since her life took yet another spiraling turn. "Therapy. Therapy on Wednesday," she nodded her head and finally brought the shaky mug up to her lips for a sip. Therapy was only a day away. Maybe the appointment would help her figure things out with the liver transplant and her father.
Stood over along the counter of the kitchen, by the coffee pot, Nicky and Red watched the young teen with identical miens of concern upon their faces. Upon their arrival back home a mere half hour ago—Franny believing it was in Lorna's best interest to spend the night there with them after the events of the evening—Lorna had sat mumbling to herself at the kitchen table with the coffee cup shaking ever-so-lightly in her hands.
The two gradually turned their heads so that they were gazing into each other's eyes and Nicky sighed. Seeing Lorna like that wasn't something she was fond of. It appeared to her that she was in some sort of trance or rather a psychosis? She squinted her eyes and placed a hand on Red's shoulder, pulling slightly on it. "What do we do, ma? She doesn't look too good. And she's acting strange…like she's broken or something," she whispered to keep Lorna from being able to hear.
Red narrowed her eyes slightly at her daughter. The last comment could have been kept in her head, she thought, or at least worded differently. However, she refrained from delving into it over a thing so miniscule. Not when she, too, was worried for the young girl occupying her kitchen table. She wrapped a loving arm around Nicky's shoulder, giving it a tender squeeze and inhaled a sharp breath of air. In all honesty, she wasn't entirely sure what there was for them to do to help Lorna. The behavior she was displaying wasn't anything either of them had ever witnessed before.
She ran a hand softly through Nicky's thick curls and felt a sigh push through. "I think we should just let Lorna have some time to think. She's probably feeling overwhelmed right now with everything that's happening. We don't want to bombard her or make her feel suffocated by constantly pestering her. We'll just give her an hour or so to herself. She will be okay, honey."
