To Riordanlover16- Oooh, Denise was always a controversial one, even back in Lou's past. I figured I'd drop her in the mix in this one XD No worries! Lou doesn't need a restraining order... :3 Never, NEVER, we don't like Denises here, no no no.
To valdeznation- Give me a minute, that's a long ass review XP Apologies if I miss anything, I have the reviews open on my phone and it is not the most compatible with me :/ Yes, Tobias does float, well done. Physics be damned, Lou can launch a toddler. Uhhh, trying to respond without spoilers... in order of what you said then- yeah sure ;) - yes yes dad jokes, getting sloppy, tut tut - yes, that is his baby, Bradley missed him! I have made a list of all those to look into, I'm intrigued (thank you!) - got to have the nice with the mean, it evens it out! Bradley needs his dada - I am learning so many swears from you, this is fantastic XD - the 'behaviour' is yes, partly interracial, but also partly bastard child - yes powers! Oooh, mystery O.o we're in January so he's... yeah, about four and half months old. Skinning the old bitch is a new one, I like that XD - the scooping water on the chest is something I used to do with my siblings when they were small, felt right to add it in :) - Bradley goes BBRRRRRRRR - also added those to the list, those dances. I know very little of Texas, outside of what I've seen on TV. Definitely need a cowboy hat, Leo is slacking - Bradley snuggles into him because he's perpetually warmer than everyone else :D - yellow brick coded? What's that? - Yes, they are a family! Warm and fuzzy, I love writing them! XD
It took most of the day for the city workers to get the power back on. Louisa's storm had been a merciless beast and pulled down many powerlines and trees. It was still going, carrying itself out to sea, leaving clear air crisp with unease in its wake.
Jessica and Harvey were not home until the following evening. Bleary eyed from sleeplessness, trembling from over-caffeination, light-headed from a diet found in a vending machine; they were a mess.
"Mother," Jessica said, turning a steely look on Louisa, "took a turn for the worse when we got her home. We had to take her to the hospital." Louisa said nothing, staring down at the dinner Leo had served up, his famous tacos. "They took her in to… scan her brain. She's still there." Louisa glanced up, expression guarded. "I'm not mad, Lou," Jessica said quietly. "Did you do something?"
"I don't know."
"Her nose was bleeding."
"I wasn't thinkin'. I'm…" She frowned, sentence unfinished in truth. She wasn't sorry, saw no reason to be sorry. Jessica slumped in her seat. Louisa pinched her taco together. "Do you… want me to go 'n' look? Check her over?"
"Smother her with a pillow, you mean?"
"No, I… she can't keep talkin' ta you like that. She can't talk ta Leo like that."
"I know."
"I don't know what I did."
"You said."
"I just wanted her to shut up."
"You and me both, but there's ways and means, Lou."
"The fuck there is. Bitch can't take a hint." Jessica opened her mouth to counter that. Not to argue, no, whatever retort working its way forward falling back. She had nothing.
Silence formed over the table, dinner eaten with only the crackle of the baby monitor to disturb them. Bradley was asleep, Storm watching over him. Louisa had spent all morning scrubbing storm-torn mud from her fur and hooves, picking clods from her feathers and detangling her mane and tail. She was now sulking in her nest, admitting defeat in the thrashing she claimed her bath had been.
Jessica insisted on helping Leo gather the plates. She washed up with a vigour that had him worried for his hands each time he took a dish from her to dry.
"Is there anything I can do?" he asked as he took the last plate, not daring to speak above a murmur. Jessica shook her head, leaning heavily on the sink edge. Leo hesitated.
"She's a horrible woman," Jessica told the faucet, eyes hard and faraway. Leo stood still, dutifully listening. "Always has been. Gods know why. For years I've tried to get away from her, even before Lou came along. She's just got worse and worse and…" She pushed a hand over her face, up over her eyes and into her hair, trailing suds from the sink.
She blinked, sighing. "I don't know… how I'm supposed to feel. I hate her. I hate her more than anything, but at the hospital… all the nurses were so nice, so concerned. Kept going on about how she's in the best hands and…" She waved a hand vaguely. "I wasn't listening, not really. I just kept thinking they wouldn't be so nice if they actually knew her and then I felt bad because… they were just doing their job."
Leo folded the tea towel, slowly, meticulously. Jessica straightened up. "I shouldn't be putting this on you," she said. "I'm sorry. After what happened with your mom, I shouldn't… I'm sorry." Leo bit his lip, the familiar stab of emotion finding new notches to dig into his heart.
"If I've learned anything from Lou," Leo said, laying his words steadily, but lightly enough for Jessica to dismiss if she wanted, "is that family is what you make it. She may be your mother, but was she ever really your mom?"
"No," Jessica said. "Never. She even… took my chance to be a mom from me, she took Lizzie away." She wiped her hands restlessly on her jeans. "We're better off without her. I'm dreading the call from the hospital. I don't know how I'm supposed to react." She gave a dry, humourless laugh. "It makes me sound awful, doesn't it? I want her to go away, I want her to leave us alone, I want nothing to do with her ever again, but if, when the hospital rings up to say she's… how am I supposed to react?"
"It doesn't make you sound awful," Leo shook his head. "If she's always been like that, like yesterday, then… that just makes you human."
"I'm still supposed to be sad."
"Says who?" Leo tipped his head. Jessica hunched her shoulders, glaring at the floor. She swore under her breath.
"Mom?" Jessica turned only her head, addressing Louisa in the doorway with an arched eyebrow. "I didn't want to upset you, I didn't mean to. I don't know what I did, if I… if I did do somethin', I don't know."
"I'm not blaming you, Lou."
"But if somethin' does happen to her—"
"She's old. She's miserable. She's cruel. You were just trying to protect us." Jessica glanced at Leo, forced a shadow of a smile. "Thanks, Leo. You're a good egg."
"An egg?" Leo puzzled.
"Yes. An egg. A good egg, but an egg." He looked to Louisa, who simply nodded.
"Thanks," he said.
Jessica made to leave. Louisa did not move, tipping her head back to meet her mother's gaze. Jessica lay her hands on her shoulders, digging her fingers in fractionally.
"Stop it. You only feel bad for me, not her."
"I hate her."
"So do I."
"Are you OK?"
"I will be, once I've had a shower and a good sleep."
"I really don't know what I did."
"If you did anything at all," Jessica added for her. She pressed a kiss to Louisa's forehead, lingering for a moment. "It's alright, Lou. I believe you. Now, shift out my way before I make you." Louisa shuffled around her, smiling nervously. Jessica squeezed her arm and ran for the bathroom before Harvey could take it.
Louisa looked to Leo, smile fading. She pushed the kitchen door closed. Leo folded his arms.
"Do I need to know?" he asked.
"Only if you want to."
"Is she really that bad?"
"'N' worse."
"Then I don't need to know."
"Didn't want ta leave ya out."
"You never have. I made chocolate cake for dessert."
"Made it?"
"Well, if you ignore all the packaging it came in, yes. I made it."
Nothing was ever said. Louisa had lengths to go to to protect her family, lengths that had new limits ever since she had saved Tobias. By silent agreement, she and Leo did not acknowledge these lengths and, by further silent agreement, Jessica and Harvey never asked.
The call from the hospital came two days later. Denise had suffered a stroke, quite severe. Despite the best efforts of the doctors, she hadn't made it.
Jessica hadn't said much to the kindly nurse on the phone. She and Harvey had gone to the hospital to sit with Denise in her final hours, a stint of humanity the old woman did not deserve. To the nurse, Jessica was grateful. To the people that knew her, she was coldly adamant.
"I need to see for myself," she had said, pulling on her sneakers. "I need this to be over."
No one had argued with her. Grief and bereavement had different forms for different people. Why shouldn't one of these forms take shape in reluctancy?
Leo sat cross-legged on the sofa, catching up on work emails. Mellie had threatened him with a timetable if he didn't keep up to date with his correspondence. Having been on the receiving end of her Nerf gun many a time, Leo buried himself in his inbox.
Bradley was sitting with him, propped up in the crook of Leo's elbow. He occasionally aimed a dribbly hand at the bright phone screen before him, only adding random letters and emojis twice— Leo was wise to his ways.
Storm was out for a flight, though banned from any further puddles. Louisa had seen her out after breakfast, falling into restlessness. She gave up on multiple drawings, tossed her sketchbook across the table with a huff. The television was sworn at, the stereo too quiet, too loud. The only thing that seemed to settle her nerves was movement. Pacing the apartment, using the doorframe reinforced by Leo's security as a pull-up bar, now counting herself through push-ups on the floor in front of Leo's couch.
"Twelve," Leo said. "Thirty-nine. Sixteen. Three. Eighty-eight."
"Oh, you bastard." Louisa puffed hair from her eyes. Leo grinned crookedly.
"Oh no," he deadpanned theatrically, "you'll have to start again. Such a shame." He pouted, tipping his head. Louisa swore at him again, curling her hands into fists and continuing the exercise on her knuckles. Leo sighed loudly. "Such a shame," he intoned, shaking his head without once taking his eyes from her arms, her shoulders. She could snap his neck, and every other bone in his body, and he would have no problem with that. None whatsoever.
Louisa squinted at him, mouth twitching bemusedly.
"Pervert."
"I know what I like."
"Uh huh."
"Bah!" Bradley declared, stretching for Leo's phone again. The pretty lights, the clicky-clacky sounds of the keyboard. "Aaaaahhhhh!"
"I do hope that's not attitude you're giving me, chiquito. We have a wavelength, remember?"
"Brrbb," Bradley said, a line of dribble down his chin. Leo kept the phone safely away, stroking Bradley's hair.
He cleared his inbox. Louisa found herself bored of push-ups, having lost count thanks to Leo's unhelpful input. She lay flat on the floor, on her front, wrinkling her nose as the mysterious underbelly of the couch.
"Ooh, a dollar."
"Dibs."
"Fuck off," she snorted. Leo lifted Bradley and swung his feet out, resting them on the small of her back. Louisa ignored him, finding a quarter and rubbing dust away with her thumb. On the coffee table, her phone buzzed. "Ugh, shoot me," she muttered into the carpet. "Who is it?" Leo leaned forward.
"Lizzie."
"Ugh, shoot me twice."
Another message appeared on screen. She gave him permission to answer with a flap of her hand. Leo had just picked it up when the screen lit up again.
"Uh oh, she's calling." He swiped the green button up. "Greetings and salutations, you have reached the Supreme Commander. How may I help you?"
"Where's Fish?"
"On the floor."
"What's she on the floor for?"
"What are you on the floor for, Lou?"
"Gravity." Louisa rolled onto her back, arm extended. Leo passed the phone over and she put it on speaker. "What you want?"
"Just got off the phone with Mom. Is the Old Crone really gone?"
"Yeah."
"Holy shit. Miracles do happen." Louisa gave a laugh, empty and short. Lizzie blew a raspberry. "Well, I don't plan funerals and I really don't plan funerals for her, so… how does March twentieth sound?"
"For what?"
"Your wedding! Gods above, do I have to do everything myself?"
"Oh shit, you got us a date?" Leo marvelled, sitting forward. Louisa lay the phone on her chest and held her hands up, opening and closing her fists twice. Leo handed Bradley over and she sat him on her stomach, smiling as he gurgled happily.
"I got three dates," Lizzie replied smugly. "March twentieth is the first one."
"Quick, tell Mellie," Louisa advised, "before she gives you more work."
"Who thought running a business would have so much work?" Leo grimaced, tapping away on his phone. Mellie replied within seconds, a burst of confetti emojis and hearts, followed by Don't worry, boss, I'll sort it.
Leo sent her a smiley face and threw his phone down beside him. Lizzie was still babbling away.
"Apparently I have to let you two have some… opinions on the whole thing," she grumbled, "so I suppose I can fly back over and help you set things up. I've booked vacation time for the end of February so don't go anywhere."
"You didn't say where you booked it," Louisa pointed out.
"Does it matter?"
"Uh, yeah, kinda."
"Can't you just wait and see? Oooh, you madam," she growled when Louisa whined a silly noise in protest. "I'll show you when I get there, I want you to see what I've got planned, want to surprise you."
"What happened to our opinions?"
"If they don't match my opinions they're not allowed. Ow, ow!" There was a clatter in the background. "Wooowwwwwww, that was uncalled for. She's throwing shoes at me! Stop throwing shoes at me! Fish, I'll have to talk to you later. This woman has declared war on me." Lizzie cut off, returning fire on her foster mother.
Louisa sighed, head thumping back on the carpet. Leo laughed.
"We've got a date, Lou!"
"Yeah, we do," she grinned. "What d'ya think, Bradley?" He smiled his exuberant smile, simply happy to hear her voice. Louisa bounced him twice, scooped him up and over her head. "Superbaby," she christened, tilting him this way and that. "Nyoom, nyoom!" Bradley flapped his arms and squealed delightedly.
Leo eyed a trail of drool, a dangerous dangle from the baby's chin. He decided not to comment on it, folding his arms across his knees.
"Lou?"
"Leo."
"All this, it's… not too fast for you, is it?"
"What's too fast? What? No, no it ain't. Where's this come from?" she demanded. Leo gestured vaguely.
"Stupid brain."
"Is it goin' too fast for you?"
"No, of course not! I was just… worried about you." She hummed irritably, studying him sidelong. Leo smiled sheepishly. "Can I not be worried about you? Is that not allowed? Don't give me that look, I want everything to be right."
"It is right."
"I can still worry."
"You can," she agreed, expression lightening into something almost haughty, "but you ain't allowed to on this occasion. Stop it." Leo started to say something and she twisted to bring her knee up and into his shin. Bradley laughed merrily at the inadvertent zoom this attack had provided. "You think I'd go along with all this if I didn't want to?"
"Well, no, obviously you wouldn't."
"Then stop it," she challenged. Leo met her gaze levelly.
"You stop it."
"That sounds like fightin' talk ta me, Valdez. Does it sound like fightin' talk to you, Bradley? Yes, he says yes it does. He says ya need ta square up."
"What if I don't want to be square up? What if I want to triangle up? Oval up? Fucking parallelogram up, what you gonna do then?"
"What the fuck is a pallallellogram?"
"Parallelogram," Leo corrected patiently. "Man, you really didn't finish school, did you?"
"Neither did you!"
"Yeah, but, of the two of us, I know what a parallelogram is. And I know how to say it." He stuck his tongue out. Louisa lowered Bradley onto her chest, where he happily started patting and poking her face. She fixated on Leo with a look of such seriousness, Leo dared not breathe nor look away.
She turned her nose up.
"I'm gonna leave you at the altar."
"You wouldn't do that."
"I would!"
"Noooo, I'm sorry!" Leo cried dramatically, calculatedly toppling from the sofa and sprawling across her sideways. She sat Bradley on his shoulders, a slobbery small hand pat-pat-patting on Leo's head.
"Fuck your pallalalalllaaallogram," she said. Leo snorted, hurriedly turning it into a theatrical sob when she hissed. "Fine. I won't leave ya at the altar."
"Oh, thank gods for that, I've got some serious abandonment issues."
"On one condition."
"Oooh, I know what your conditions are like." Leo narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her, discerning nothing from her features, her carefully blank gaze unwavering from his. "What do you want, my head? My spleen? My spine?"
"McDonalds."
"McDonalds?"
"I'm really hungry. Like, really hungry."
"I can get McDonalds," Leo grinned. "What do you want?" Her eyes widened and she grinned.
"Yes."
Leo blinked and she nodded once.
"Oh, dios bueno."
"Hey, hey, I saw your bank account. You've no excuse." He stuck his tongue out and she did too. "Feed me. Do ya reckon Lizzie will let us have McDonalds at the weddin'?"
"What, as our caterers?"
"Yeah."
"Can we serve Big Macs on parallelograms?"
"I'll serve your heard on a pallyleggogram if you keep givin' me shit." She poked him in the forehead, and again when he burst into laughter.
"How are you saying it worse?"
"Feed me!"
"I'm going, I'm going," he assured, scrambling to get up. Bradley cooed at him, hands grabbing clumsily at the air. Leo stooped to kiss the top of his head. For Louisa, he had to kiss his fingertips and then, with much squirming and ducking and weaving, tapped his fingers on her forehead. "Is this what it's always going to be like?" he asked.
"Yes," she sniffed. Leo grinned.
"March twentieth can't come fast enough."
"Neither can my food, now get."
Hey all, some good news! Until the 8th July (at midnight pacific time, for some reason) Eyes of Violet is free on Kindle! That's the first book of my upcoming series. It's free! FREE! Who doesn't love a freebie and, if you enjoy my stories here, you'll enjoy my stories there! Go go go, before the promotion ends! It's FREEEEEEEEEEEEE (y'all just gotta leave me some good reviews on there ;) )