Chapter Twelve
"Shut up and try my new parts."
The Graverobber knew his relationship with Livvy was a weird, slightly incestuous brother/sister kind of thing. He did favors for her and she did the same for him. The only constants in his life were drugs and Livvy. He was comfortable with that. It worked for him. He didn't really believe in friendship but he knew whatever arrangement he had with Livvy was pretty close to it. They didn't have sex, except that once and he only slightly regretted not being able to remember it. She got on his case about hygiene and he got on her case about wanting to bang single dads. That was just how their dynamic worked. So he was a little startled when a few days after Christmas she gripped his jacket collar, backed him up against the freezer section of the morgue and started to kiss him.
At first it was all about instinct. An attractive woman was kissing him and he didn't mind returning the favor. He wrapped an arm around her waist and a hand at the base of her neck. He drank up the flavor of her lips, recognizing the sting of hard liquor. The Graverobber moved his hand to feel the muscles in her shoulder. They were extremely tense. He began to absorb the frustration of her body and even though the blood in his head was beginning to head in a more southern direction, he knew what this was about now. He hooked his arm under her knees and lifted her up bridal style. Livvy let out a startled shriek, clutching at his shoulders.
"I appreciate the offer, Livvy," the Graverobber said casually as he carried her out of the morgue and upstairs to her living quarters. "Really I do. Scalpel Sluts might know what they're doing but there's nothing like swapping spit with an innocent."
"I'm not an innocent," she slurred. He chuckled knowingly. She'd been sober enough to know how to kiss but speaking was getting to be a problem.
"Some people are always innocent when it comes to sex. You could kill a thousand people but you'll always taste like sincerity to a guy. That's just how you tick." He proceeded into her bathroom, dumped her in the shower then turned it on full blast. And ice cold.
"Fuck! Son of a bitch!" Livvy cursed at him, spitting water out of her mouth.
"You'll feel better once you've sobered up," he informed her. He blocked the exit of the shower so she couldn't get out. She also wasn't nearly stable enough to fight him so that left her trembling under the fall of icy water. Livvy glowered at him.
"I will not feel better. I will feel as wound up as frustrated as before, no thanks to you." The Graverobber just shrugged.
"Sorry, babe, but any longer and you'd be moaning some other guy's name." Her eyes flamed with denial.
"I would not."
"Oh, yes, you would. You've been edgy since you had that nice little Christmas gathering with your adopted family." Livvy's scowl deepened.
"They're not my family. They're just friends. And I've only been edgy because you keep saying ridiculous things about me and Nathan."
"Right," he replied skeptically. "You and Nathan are just friends. That explains why you got drunk and came onto me. You've decided we'd make the perfect couple, is that it?"
"Hardly," she muttered. "I was just a little wound up."
"I'm going to give you some advice, Livvy. If you're smart, you'll take it to heart. The next time you see Nathan, kiss him like you were kissing me downstairs. I guarantee you'll be a lot happier." She leaned against the wall of the shower, her mismatched eyes brooding.
"He's still in love with his wife." The Graverobber lifted a brow.
"The wife that's been dead for sixteen years?" Livvy nodded unhappily. He just smirked.
"That's because she was the last woman he slept with, Livvy. Bang him a few times and he won't even remember his own name, much less some dead girl's."
"You're an ass," she snapped at him. He grinned and leaned toward her.
"Feel like kissing me again?" She splashed water at his face but she grinned back. Even if he was an ass, she couldn't stay mad at him. "Ah, good. You're cured. For a minute I was afraid we'd have to settle down and have a couple kids."
"Oh, yeah, that'd be great. 'Gather round, children. Daddy's going to teach you how to do drugs'," Livvy muttered, reaching over to turn the shower off. "Like that'd ever happen."
"Your designer heart still beats with common blood."
"Livvy, you're going to love what dad got me for Christmas." Olivia stared down at the beaming teenager, confusion plain on her face. Shilo had never opened the door for her before today. She opened her mouth to ask but Shilo cut her off. "Dad had to go to work early today. He said he would be busy for a long time so it's just us." Olivia realized the kid was watching her face for any trace of disappointment so she painted an easy smile on her face. Inside, she wasn't sure what she was feeling.
"I'm sure we'll be able to find things to do. Oh, and Happy New Years," she said lightly, stepping into the house. "Now, what did your dad get you?"
"Happy New Year to you, too. Just wait till you see it!" Shilo grinned and ran up the stairs. Olivia shook her head indulgently, closing and locking the front door. She could barely remember when she had that kind of energy. Youth was wasted on the young, or so they said. At least Shilo hadn't made a big deal of New Years. Olivia wasn't particularly excited by the holiday since it meant January had begun. This January would be particularly painful. Her birthdays were never fun but she dreaded this one even more. She was going to be thirty. She was getting old.
She guiltily peeled off her coat and exposed bare shoulders. She'd wanted to conduct a little experiment with Nathan. She knew his brain temporarily shut of when she wore skirts, long or short, but she wanted to know what other types of clothing might be dangerous. Today she was wearing black pants and a black cinched corset that left her shoulders and a lot of her chest bare. It had the strange talent of showing off a ridiculous amount of skin but no breast.
Olivia wasn't doing this to deliberately torture Nathan. She just wanted to know what clothes not to wear for future reference. If she found out early, she wouldn't make the same mistake again. That was all. She told herself that as she headed up the stairs and even inside her head it sounded like a weak excuse. Olivia was going to have to admit she wasn't fooling anybody. Hell, earlier that week she'd been so frustrated she'd tried to seduce the Graverobber of all people. She was in bad shape, no doubt about it. The problem was she couldn't decide if she wanted to move forward in her relationship with Nathan. Things were going so well now that they were friends. Wouldn't it be tempting fate if she tried for more?
As Olivia turned the corner into the hallway, a bright flash went off. She stumbled and blinked, colorful spots dotting her vision. "Got you on film!" Shilo said with a satisfied grin. Olivia smiled weakly.
"Oh, great. I'm sure that picture was flattering."
"Don't be embarrassed. You always look pretty." The snap-happy teen took another quick picture while Olivia mentally damned Nathan to hell. He had no idea what he'd unleashed when he gave this kid a camera.
"I do not always look pretty, Shilo. You can take my word for that," she murmured flatly, covering her face with her hand as she went into Shilo's room. Another surprise waited for her there. The place had changed since she'd last been there. A long table had been added. There sat the display case Olivia had given Shilo and the book on bugs was open, as if it had only just been abandoned. She couldn't help but smile a little at that. Of course, Shilo snapped a picture before she could hide it. "Okay, Shilo, you know I love you but if you keep impersonating the paparazzi, something bad will happen to your camera." Shilo bashfully lowered the camera.
"Dad said it would get on your nerves," she mumbled. "I just wanted to have some pictures of you in my room. There are so many pictures of my mother around, I thought it would be good to balance things out a little." Olivia cleared her throat. If Shilo went around replacing Marni's pictures with her own, Nathan could very well have a heart attack.
"You should probably talk with your father about that one. But, you know, I haven't got any pictures of you where I live. Maybe you could take a picture of the two of us together?" Shilo perked up at that.
"That'd be great! Come on, we'll do it by the window." Olivia let Shilo have fun planning the picture. She tried several different poses with the two of them but eventually she settled for just sitting on the window seat, smiling at the camera. Olivia put an arm around Shilo, then turned her head to the right so most of the left side of her face could be seen. When she looked at this picture she wanted to think about all the good times with Shilo, not what lay under the curtain of hair on the right side of her face.
The flash went off and Olivia let out a relieved sigh. Hopefully that marked the end of Shilo's need for photographic evidence that Olivia existed. "Maybe we could do another one downstairs by the fireplace?" Or not.
"Uh, Shilo-"
"I'm pushing my luck, aren't I?" Shilo guessed. "I'm sorry. We can do something else if you want. Oh, hey, you should see the book dad got me. It looks like something you'd enjoy." She put the camera on her desk then went to her bookshelf, skimming her fingers over the titles until she found the one she wanted. "The Hobbit."
"No! Really?" Olivia went to see for herself. There in Shilo's hands was a very old, very enjoyable book that Olivia hadn't seen in years. "This was one of my mother's favorites," she murmured. For once there wasn't any pain as she recalled the woman who raised her, just fondness. "She read it all the time but she lost it. They don't print it anymore and she couldn't afford one of the older copies." Shilo passed the old novel to Olivia who cradled it in her hands like it was a newborn. "She'd read this to me when I was sick. It always made me want to live in the Shire." The Shire was a green, verdant place that was the total opposite of where Olivia currently lived. Dreams didn't always come true. In fact, it was far more common for them to never be realized.
"It sounds like a nice place," Shilo noted quietly. "Could you… could you tell me about it?" She saw the interest in the teen's eyes and the trust. There was no way to deny that Shilo had absolute trust in her. It was the kind of trust a child had in a parent. Olivia felt something wrap its fingers carefully around her heart. She thought it might be hope.
"I can do better than that," she said, flipping open the book to the first page. "Unless you're too old for someone to read to you, that is." Shilo quickly shook her head.
"No, I'm not too old. Go ahead." Olivia held the book open in her hands and waited for Shilo to take a seat. Reading aloud was only as interesting as the reader made it. Olivia had every intention of making this an interesting experience.
There had to be something of her mother in her.
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
"Dear Marni, I am so sorry. Can you forgive me for this?"
By the time Nathan came home it was past midnight and he was having trouble remembering the last time he'd been so deeply exhausted. A family of four had been repossessed. Most of their organs were GeneCo property and it had taken hours to remove them all. His eyes were tired, although not half as much as his soul. He'd begun to think of Olivia as he worked now. It made it nearly impossible to be only the Repo Man with his victims. He kept flashing back to all those years ago when he'd killed a widow and left her daughter for dead.
It had been one of his first repossessions and he hadn't been as smooth as he was today. Now he knew how to insure his victims were alone. He remembered it vividly because the woman had begged him to kill her. After he'd thrown the kid who would one day become his daughter's best friend through a glass door, her mother had thrown herself in front of him and begged to be repossessed. She promised to be quiet, to stay still as long as he didn't hurt her daughter. She'd asked to die so Olivia could live.
Now he wanted the woman he'd scarred for life.
Nathan had denied it for as long as he could but Christmas had forced him to admit just how badly he wanted to be a man again, not just a father. He'd started the day with every intention of being respectful and staying at a distance. Then she'd taken off her jacket. It had been so many years since he'd seen a grown woman in an elegant dress smiling in his direction. He had come so close to kissing her and he still cursed himself for ruining it. But at least he knew that she wanted him, too.
He slowly climbed the stairs, wanting to check on Shilo before he let his body collapse. Olivia must have left some time ago and he wanted to be sure his daughter was all right. He needed to see her for selfish reasons as well. He needed to look at something clean. She was the one thing in his life that he hadn't destroyed in one way or another. Weakened, yes, but she was better off that way.
Nathan quietly opened Shilo's door, which he was leaving unlocked more and more often, and peeked inside. It turned out that Olivia hadn't left after all. Shilo and Olivia were both sound asleep, looking exactly like a mother and daughter shoulder after spending a long day together. Olivia held a book limply in her right hand while her left was curled around Shilo's shoulder. His daughter was nestled against the woman who had so completely invaded their lives. For a moment his legs felt weak and he had to lean against the doorframe to keep from collapsing.
He realized that he had more than a daughter to come home to now. Olivia would be there, too, if he let her. Nathan could put his family back together. She would never be Marni and that was all right. Shilo loved her. Nathan wasn't far from that either, if he was honest. He liked the way she laughed and treated him like a normal human being. She wasn't afraid of him. On the contrary, she challenged him. Olivia Stewart was his second chance at a happy life and he hadn't even figured it out until now. There were times that he doubted his own intelligence.
The idea of leaving her there with Shilo was tempting but Nathan decided against it. He had a hunch that Olivia would try to slip out in the morning without a word. He needed to talk to her. His only option was to put her in his room and he would just sleep in his armchair instead. His reasons were good. Besides Shilo's room, his room was the only one without cobwebs and he could talk to Olivia in the morning without waking his daughter. There were other, deeper reasons, such as having the scent of her hair on his pillow. Nathan tried not to think too hard about that. He separated the two bodies, knowing just how deeply Shilo slept. Olivia, however, was a much lighter sleeper. Her eyelids began to flicker when he lifted her into his arms.
"Nathan?" she mumbled sleepily. Her blue eye was fogged with sleep. "You're back early."
"It's late, not early," he corrected softly as he carried her out of Shilo's room and down the hall.
"Then I… I should go home." She didn't say it with much conviction. Already she'd pressed closer to his chest, relaxing into his touch. He just shook his head.
"It's too late for that." Nathan began to ease the door to his room open, taking extra care not to jostle the woman in his arms. For once he didn't look longingly at one of Marni's portraits in the hall. He had eyes only for Olivia and his thoughts were filled with plans to convince her that this house could be her home, too.
For once, he had hope.