The next two weeks passed and I focused on school and work. Nothing really to say more there.
Saturday I got home walking through the back way into the house behind V who was solemn. I closed the backdoor behind us, and pulled off my coat. Fiona was giving Liam a drink in a red sippy cup, Debbie was at the wooden stand making a sandwich.
"Weddings not going to work." V announces dropping her golden piece onto the tabletop.
"Wedding?" I repeated in confusion.
"You missed a lot," Debbie's remarks spreading jelly and peanut butter on bread slices.
"What happened?" Fiona inquired.
"Mama wants a real priest," V replied walking into the kitchen to refill her travel cup.
"Sheila said she'd make your wedding dress, if you want," Debbie says with optimism. "Are you coming, Anna? Your purple dress would work."
"Yeah, Debs, I'm going." I replied sitting in one of the chairs at the table as Fiona shifted lasagna in a pan in of me.
"Eat," She instructed quietly with the Fiona look in her her eyes.
"Oh, that's nice, but what good is the dress if I don't have a priest?" V asked as she refills her cup, Lip walks in briskly toward the cupboard to the right side of V's head with Marcus slowing to a stop by the fridge.
I averted my eyes quickly away from him. My stomach went queasy, I needed to eat or I was going to get sick.
"You could hire an actor. Remember the guy who played Elmo at my birthday?"
"You remember that?"
"He took his head off," Debbie said in a tone like Fiona was supposed to know. "It was traumatizing…" Debbie says reminiscing.
"Think an actor could work?"
"You know what?" Lip says grabbing the bread bag, and opening it, "I can probably get Father Pete to do it, if Carl will help."
"What's it gonna cost me?"
"Uh, Karen and I use your place Friday night?"
V smiled at him, "Done."
"Father Pete?" Fiona repeated folding clothes.
"The groper, really?" I echoed finishing her inquiry.
"God willing," Lip says sarcastically. "We got hot dogs?"
Carl walked in with a goldfish in a plastic jar with a blue lip and put it in the microwave.
"Mm, no hot dogs." Fiona answered Lip.
Carl pressed buttons on the microwave and started it, he turned around nonchalantly. He glanced around the room swiftly to everyone looking at him except Liam who was too busy chewing on the corner of a book.
"What?" Carl asked.
"Take that out the microwave," Fiona demanded as she walked around the counter and opened the microwave, she put the jar on the counter. "What is wrong with you? Why would you do that?"
"Because!" Carl answered with some bass to his voice before walking out of the kitchen.
I walked around the counter to the fridge and Lip flicked the back of my neck before reaching in and grabbing a beer. I pulled out the bottle of juice as Lip and Marcus went up the back staircase upstairs. I sighed and grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured some juice.
"That was a very aggravated sigh. What's up with you?" V asks bumping her hip lightly with mine and leaned her back against the counter.
"Everyone is buddy buddy with Marcus again?"
"No," Debbie replies.
Fiona shrugs, "Marcus and Mandy are no longer together."
"Wasn't it like earlier this week when Mandy went for Ian?" V wonders aloud to Fi.
"What?" I asked blinking a few times.
"That's weird." Debbie comments.
"I was just going to say that." I remarked, I put my juice in the sink that I didn't drink and walked towards the door and pulled on my jacket.
"Where are you going?" Fiona frowned.
"To work." I said fixing my hood and opening the door.
"You just got back from work." Fiona objected.
"I'll see if they need me."
…
I had to run home to make it in time for Kev and Veronica's wedding the next day. I made it just in time to shower and get dressed. I dressed in my fitted sweater dress instead and a pair of Fiona's strappy heels, I put on some light makeup and earrings and a few single jangly brackets. I combed my thick, dark brown curly wavy hair and grabbed a travel perfume for dollar general and a jacket and left. I caught up to Fiona and V on the way to the Alibi Room.
…
Getting married in the Southside with true intentions was rare. Most marriages in the neighborhood was because of pregnancy and, well, just pregnancy. Witnessing Kev and V's wedding was different, the wedding was mostly because of Veronica's mother and her daddy's dying wishes but the love was genuine. The smiles on happy faces watching the union take place were so bright it put the current sun to shame. I hoped I would have my own wedding someday, I never really thought about weddings and marriage until right now watching Kevin and Veronica get 'married', I hoped that it would be as happy as this one.
The priest was optimistically enthusiastic, "May daily problems never cause you undue anxiety nor the desire for earthly possessions dominate your lives. But may your hearts' first desire be always the good things waiting for you in the life of heaven. Amen."
"Amen!"
"You may kiss the bride."
Whoops and hoots filled the bar with clapping and laughter of the happy union as Kev and V seal the deal with a passionate but appropriate kiss. It made me crawl in my skin and force smiles. I stayed in the back in a booth in my own miserable cloud to not interrupt the party. I left just before Frank smashed his glass into the brick corner of the window after witnessing Mandy lean against Ian and rest her head on his shoulder. I didn't leave, actually, I stopped a few feet away from the door and then I walked closer to the door and zipped up my jacket, I pulled the pack of cigarettes from my jacket pocket with three cigarettes in it. I asked Katie for some, she gave the rest of her pack since I had ascertained that I only wanted a couple, I didn't smoke like that. I smoked one of the cigarettes and walked down the block and back.
"What are you doing out here?" Fiona asks closing the Alibi door.
"Needed some air." I replied walking up to her.
"Are you okay?"
"I will be." I mumbled.
Fiona sighed and turned to me, "Savanna."
"I'm okay, Fi." I averted my gaze as I stood near her pulling out the cigarette pack again.
We turned to dull screeching of tires. It was Steve clear as day in a black Lexus driving fast to park in the alleyway at the end of the block. Fiona and I turned to the alibi door opening with a couple walking out and Marcus, I turned back to look over at Steve in a doctor coat. He got out of the car and opened the backdoor and pulled out a wedding cake, my stomach growled. Steve made his way over with the cake and Fiona met him halfway after handing me her lit cigarette, I put it on my lip and put the fresh cigarette back in the pack.
"Rule number 2. I drew first blood so that means I have to make amends first." Marcus says standing to my right flank.
I sighed and glared at the shops across the street. "We're not eight anymore, Marcus."
"But I remember us making these rules to last for life. No matter what we went through."
"You treated me like you treat very other girl in the Southside."
"You know how you said not to go over to the Milkovich's, well, I did."
I heaved a sigh, and craned my head back to flare up at him, "Really, Marcus?" I started walking away.
"What?" He asked, "Savanna." Marcus calls following after me. "It was stupid but I did and then I got caught up in Mandy's trap. Either be hunted for the rest of my life dumping Mandy or waiting until her interest wore off and well, she's 'dating' Ian."
"Ians gay."
"Yeah, I know." Marcus replies.
I huffed, "You're fucking stupid. Why couldn't you just be honest with me? We use to tell each other everything."
"You would have stabbed me."
I stared at him for a few brief seconds before I shrugged and sighed in confirmation at his reply. I turned back towards him, went to flick the cigarette at him and he stepped out of my aim.
"Fucking dumbass. Why would you go over there in the first place? You lied to me."
"I'm sorry."
"It's going to take more than just words Marcus."
"What about our pact?"
"We are not eight years old."
"So even though I fucked up and I am going by vows we made as kids, and you still don't want anything to do with me? What else do you want me to do?"
"I don't know, Marcus. Like you said, we made vows when we were kids." I said exhaling smoke from the cigarette and flicking it before turning on my heel and walking several feet away
"Savanna, you know that you are my girl no matter what we go through. That wasn't a lie." Marcus calls after me.
…
"Hey, hey, where are you going?" Fiona asks as I walked through the kitchen and looked around while still continuing in my path towards the living room.
"School, I gotta get there early because of Key Club."
"You're still in that?" Fiona asks following me to the living room.
"Yeah, the hours got cut down to four hours a week. I also have to stay after school so don't wait up about dinner."
"It's parent/teacher conferences tonight, isn't it?"
I nodded, "yup."
Fiona looked me up and down, she smiled, "You look good."
I looked down at my outfit, my retro pants, a long sleeve with a tank top under it and my Mary Jane platforms. I've been changing up my style recently. I smiled.
"Thank you." I replied and turned to leave the house through the front door, I closed the door.
"Wait," Fiona says and sprints into the kitchen and does something at the counter while instructing Carl and Ian. Fiona came sprinting back with a brown bag of lunch as I was pulling on my coat, she hands me the bag, "here."
"Thank you, Fi."
"Of course."
I opened the front door and walked out onto the porch with the chilly breeze prickling my legs. I sighed seeing Marcus sitting on the porch steps looking over at a rusty blue/grey older model Chevy truck. The floorboards creaked under my weight and the clicking of the door closing shut caught his attention. Marcus looked his shoulder at me and looked me up and down as he stood up and turned towards me. I looked over at the truck with an uneasy feeling pitting in my stomach I descended the stairs looking down at my feet and turning my head to the right.
"Those pants are pretty," Marcus comments on the retro striped pants I decided to wear to school this Monday morning. He strides to my side from waiting on the porch steps.
I don't like too many retro pants because of the colors, but these brown stripes with the different shades of tan with the red, it was a prize when I found them last week.
"Really?" I craned my head back to look up at
"What?"
"Why are you here?"
"I'm walking with you to school?"
"And since when do you sit on the stairs like a weirdo."
Marcus scoffed and rolled his eyes, he looked over his shoulder, "I was going to come in but then that truck pulled up. I haven't seen it before."
"This is Southside."
Marcus sighs, "Still."
"Well, I don't need a babysitter. I can walk to school on my own just fine."
"Anna, baby–"
I whirled to him and glared at him, my heart fluttered in my chest from the expression in his eyes, "Stop, Marcus. Don't. Please." Adurbtly I stepped around him and walked away.
The one thing I can't and won't let go of is that he lied to me. He's been my best friend for years and he lied to me, cheated. If he wanted to be in my life, he had to prove it, but right now, I don't know how long it would be that I would act like child and refuse to work this out, like I wanted to. I didn't want to talk to him right now. I didn't want anything to do with him right now, I don't know when this anger bubbling in my chest would calm enough to be reasonable.
I missed him though. I looked over my shoulder to see Marcus walking at his own pace behind me, not too close but not too far either. He was pulling his earbuds out and that iPod thing his mom bought him.
I walked the long way to school, risking the chance of being late. I wasn't too happy, and I wasn't too happy about everyone accepting Mandy and Marcus in their lives with the lies. I wished in those angry minutes of walking to school that I lived in a different house and didn't know the Gallaghers or Marcus.
…
Parents night had been a success and we had gotten a lot of signatures for food drives, volunteers for various organizations around Chicago. I couldn't go to the meeting with Carl's teacher and the elementary school principal but I saw them walking out of the office with relieved postures but Fiona and Lip were still tense. Carl's education has been saved but there was no sign of Frank.
I walked out the school about an hour after Fiona and the rest of them left, I fixed my backpack and jacket as I descended the staircase and walked in the direction of home. I looked up to movement to my left, I seen that truck from this morning and then I was sucker punched and everything went back.
…
My arm was shaken and some man growled an order at me, "Wake up. Wake up!"
I groaned and opened my eyes to an empty area under the highway and L's, my vision blurred into focus and I saw Marcus and Lip standing several feet away as I was lifted up.
"You get me Frank or our money, you get your pretty little girlfriend back. You don't get Frank or the money, we will take your girlfriend and sell her to lonely Arab men."
I don't believe I was hearing correctly. My vision blurred and swam. I couldn't focus like I wanted to.
"I will get you what you need."
"Good." I was shoved back into something and I heard the crinkling of tarp.
"Don't touch her." I heard Lip threaten.
My stomach churned and white stars flashed across my vision and I was unconscious again.
…
"Wake up, girl. Wake up, we have a funeral to attend to." One of them men from before says waking me by pulling on my arm and sliding me across a metal alloyed surface.
I stumbled and staggered as my feet in my shoes clumsily contacted the wet pavement from the melting snow and slush. I shivered in the clothes I wore on Monday, my jacket and backpack were gone, I don't even know what day it is but the sun is out and high in the sky, the breeze swept through the area with an icy vengeance. I staggered up the porch steps and into the house with my vision still blurring and my head was swimming.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy, little dove," One of the men with ice blue eyes says as he lifts me up from falling to the floor with violent swimming in my head.
White stars crossed my vision again with paranoid fear of what was going to happen in this house. I couldn't stay awake, why couldn't I stay awake?
I felt myself being dropped to the floor and some commotion with muffled, incoherent voices as melted into the floor and shivered on the floor.
"Yeah, there's nothing here worth taking. Unless you want the sixteen year old girl and the little girl. She's 11, 12…" a brief pause of silence and scattered whimpers. "Yeah, the other girl is ready to breed. Nah, she's cute but not really a looker. How about Frank? Any toes, fingers, you know, for proof?" Another brief pause of silence, "Okay. Keep his extremities."
"An you'll be going? We can get her back?"
"As soon as he's in the ground."
"What? No! Why?"
"Boss's orders. Stay with the scumbag till he's buried. And you can get your sister back."
A car alarm started going off.
"Damn it that's me." One man says, I opened my eyes to him, padding his pants pockets and my eyes closed again. "Get the girl."
My stomach churned and I was out again.
…
"You are free, little dove," The man with the blue eyes said waking up while cutting rope from around wrists.
"Long trip back to Milwaukee," the other slurred, swaying slightly in his stance.
I was sitting upright against the brick wall in the Alibi Room in a booth, I looked down at my wrist once the ropes were removed.
"Are you okay to drive?"
The man with brown eyes tossed keys to the man with blue eyes and the brown eyes man made a hand sign of a phone to Veronica who smiled at me and edged her chest outwards. The men walked away, I melted into the wall and my eyes closed. I heard the door close and lock and brief pause of silence.
"It's going to take more than that to put out the lights on Frank Gallagher!" Cheering whooping and hands smacking against wood, "Next rounds on me!"
"Savanna?"
I tried my eyes open to Marcus sliding into the booth, I shifted in his direction and he wrapped his arms around me.
"What happened?"
"Frank." Veronica answered grabbing my face as my eyes unfocused on her in a very pretty black dress. Veronica looked over her shoulder, "Water!" She turned back to me.
"What the fuck did they give her?" Fiona asks V as she rushed over with Steve.
"Chloroform," Steve answers making hand motions to Veronica to move aside. "We need Narcan or Nalmefene whatever we can get our hands on if we want to take care of this without going to the hospital." Steve says after shining a light in my eyes and probing my neck. He pushed a glass of water away from me,"No, no, no, no water. If she's suffering from chloroform toxicity the water will increase the toxicity, we need that medication to take care of this fast before…"
I went unconscious again.
…
"I swear he will not come in this house again," Fiona informs me about Frank several days later after puking and going through Steve's treatments. Fiona hasn't left my side and if I remembered correctly from in between consciousness that she was on the verge of losing her current part time job because she hasn't shown up due to my condition. Sometimes throughout the days of Fiona wasn't around I heard Debbie in my room with Liam, she would talking to him or reading, or venting about her day and all her thoughts that came a hundred miles in a minute. Last night I could've sworn I heard Lip and Ian murmuring to each other in here, I smelt Lips scent and had felt his hand around mine. But other than that, I couldn't remember much else.
Fiona pushed hair out of my face with a quivering hand, she looked like she hasn't slept in days. "Are you feeling okay? So you remember anything?"
I swallowed at the dry patch in my throat, "I'm okay…" I shook my head weakly, "No, not really. Just parents nights, and being knocked out about a block away from the school."
"Anything else?" Fiona asks in that motherly tone she picked up over the years, combing her fingers through my hair and smoothing it out.
"I remember Marcus and Lip… they talked to those guys, I think. I'm not sure, everything is in pieces like those puzzle pieces we lost years ago."
Fiona sighs, she checks my temperature, and drops her hand from my face, "It's okay… I'm just so glad you're home. We didn't stop looking for you."
"Tony almost called in the CIA," Carl says barging in the room and flipped onto my bed and sat on his knees as he grinned.
Fiona sighed and smiled a frown at him, "Careful, Carl."
"He didn't." I turned to Fiona.
Fiona shook her head, "Almost."
"Your boyfriend went nuts when Frank came over and said you were going to be human trafficked if we didn't help him get 6 thousand dollars."
"Alright, Carl, that's enough. Go play downstairs."
Carl groaned a sigh, "Fine. Whatever." And he trudged out of the room.
"My boyfriend? Marcus?"
Fiona nodded, "Yeah. But he didn't go nuts. He was worried. We had to stage Franks death to get you back."
"How long was I gone?"
"Almost three days." Fiona answers with a shaky release of breath.
I heaved a sigh, "Fucking Frank."
"Fucking Frank," Fiona echoed, gently squeezing my hand. "Get some rest, I'll check up on you when I get back from the store."
"Okay," I rolled over onto my side and pulled my blankets under my chin and closed my eyes, inhaling the fresh scents of my freshly washed comforter and the mixing scent of my sugar pomegranate candle Fiona was lighting when I woke up.
"Is she awake?"
I tilted my chin down to look over at my doorway hearing Marcus and his feet on the wood.
"Yeah, she's awake."
"Here, Fi," Marcus hands Fiona a Starbucks cup from a recycled tray, it was definitely coffee since it was the only thing she drank from Starbucks. "And there's McDonald's downstairs too. Breakfast sandwiches and hash browns."
"Thank you, Marcus."
"Anytime." Marcus nods to Fiona before walking into my room and looks down at me looking back at him with heavy eyelids.
Marcus closes the door but it doesn't click shut, he sits on the edge of my bed after placing the other coffee on my dresser and sighing. I pulled my arm from under my blanket and reached out to him, he looked at me and took my hand, squeezing my hand firmly and kissing my knuckles. He looked at me and I inched backwards to make space and I used my other arm to gesture for him to lay down with me. Before I could even lifted the blanket Marcus moving to lay beside me, he tossed the blanket over his legs and I shifted towards him. I felt my body instantly relax and melt into him and into the bed when he pulled me close to him and I wrapped my arm around him. Marcus sighs with a single arm wrapped tightly around my back and his hand pressing between my shoulder blades to mold my body against his. As he adjusted I managed to climb onto of him and tucked my head into the crook of his neck.
"I won't stay long," Marcus says, "I know you don't want me around you."
"You don't have to leave."
"What?"
"You can stay." I said, my heart beginning to flutter once I inhaled his scent coming off his neck, "I want you to stay." I lifted up to look at his face.
Marcus edged his head back to look at me, his dark brown eyes assessed my face, "You want me to stay?"
"Yes, I do," I pecked his jawline, smirking. "As long as you're not planning on fucking Mandy Milkovish again sometime soon."
Marcus hand on my left thigh trailed up to my ass and smacked it, "Mandy Milkovich?" Marcus grabs soft flesh on my ass, "I will never make that mistake again."
"Carl said you went nuts when Frank relayed the news."
Marcus scoffed, "Nuts? Nuts feels like an underrated word for how I felt."
"Why?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why did you and Lip talk to those guys?"
"Why wouldn't we? Anything could've happened to you if we hadn't. They were impatient and wanted their money."
"I feel like a schmuck."
"Why?"
"Because out of anything that could happen I allowed myself to get kidnapped."
Marcus looked at me for a few silence seconds, "I can't believe you're blaming yourself for this."
I shrugged, "Maybe if I talked to you that morning maybe I wouldn't have gotten kidnapped. Or if I left with Fiona."
"Anna… Frank got you kidnapped because he played mobsters. Whether or not if you left earlier or talked to me, we don't know if it still would've happened. You should be blaming Frank."
I sighed and laid back down on him, he enclosed his arms around me and we laid there for a while.
Marcus shifted into his side and gazed down at me, "I have many girlfriends and they don't last, I don't even consider them girlfriends. I wanted you to be my girlfriend but I fucked up–"
"Marcus, it's okay." I murmured, putting a hand on his chest.
"I didn't intend to hurt you."
"I know, I forgive you." I fell asleep not too long after that.
…
The sound of the door opening and closing grabbed everyone's (Fiona, Lip, Carl, Liam, Ian, Veronica, Marcus, Ethel, a temporary foster kid of Kev and Vs, Steve, and myself) attention away from the television screen. We all craned our necks to look at the door to see Debbie standing there.
"Debs, what's wrong?" Fiona asked as Debs glanced around the room and her eyes landed on me last.
She said nothing. She was shivered in her place, too stunned by something to respond.
"Honey, what happened?" Fiona asked, worriedly.
"Dad have one too many again?" Asked Lip.
"You just gotta ignore him when he's like that, Debs," Ian soothed as Debbie grew more anxious.
"Why do you always blame Dad first?" Debbie demanded, fidgeting with her fingers.
Fiona looked around the room. "Who else is there?"
Debbie mumbled, "She's over at Sheila's."
I frowned. "Who's over at Sheila's?"
"Monica." Debbie answered quietly.
A hush of silence fell over the room. The only noise that remained was from the television and Liam's babbling. Monica's back? Why is she back? Why is she at Sheilas?
"Who the hell is Monica?" Steve demanded, confused, curious, glancing at Fiona.
"Our mother," Lip replied, his voice uncharacteristically hollow.
Fiona rose from her seat to speak to Debbie only to be cut off by her sudden outburst.
"What do you care? You'll be living with Steve in the house he bought next door!" Debbie sobs before storming upstairs with whimpering cries.
Fiona turned to Steve for answers, he responded with a defeated, "Surprise."
Adurptly, Ian placed his drink down and stood up, striding straight for the door.
"I'm going to work."
"Ian wait!" Fiona called.
I leaned back in a chair next to Lip with Marcus sitting on the floor between my legs. I was too stunned to speak, or even think without going into a mental spiral over Mom.
…
Sheila was the first to spot us when we walked into her house. Her mouth formed a line as she addressed Frank and Moncia, standing next even a foot away from each other and glaring at each other, with a dip of her head.
"Perhaps we should make our exit and leave Monica for her apologies."
"Apologies?" Monica scoffed. "For walking out on this piece of shit?"
"No. For walking out on them." Shelia gestured to us standing in the front of the living room.
"Oh my God," cried Monica, her voice cracking. Veronica and Marcus stuck their heads out from the corner of the wall.
"It's alright. We're not one of yours. Just came to rubberneck." V says.
Sheila then reappeared, trying her best to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible.
"Would you like something to drink, Marcus?" She asked as she handed Lip a beer.
She had managed to convince the family to sit down, hoping that it would help lessen the tension.
"No thanks." Marcus replied with his arm around my waist as we stood near the stairs and whoever Moncia brought with her.
The woman nodded before heading back up the stairs.
"I missed you so much," admitted Monica, her eyes focused on Debbie and Carl sitting on the couch.
"Why didn't you take us with you?" Debbie inquired, disheartened.
"Because… I knew you'd be fine with Fiona." Monica answered after a brief moment of looking at Fiona.
Lip, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly rose from his chair and headed for the door. Marcus looked down at me and unwove his arm from me and followed Lip outside.
"This is fucking bullshit." I scoffed, shifting on my feet.
Monica turned to look at me behind the couch, she faltered slightly at my hardened glare, "Savanna, you must believe me, I never meant to hurt all of you. Frank almost rui–"
"It's all lies! And excuses! You never gave a shit."
"Hey! Back up!"
I glared at 'Bob', "Don't tell me what the fuck to do."
"You better watch your watch little girl." Bob threatened.
I walked up to her, glowering up at her, "Or what? You lumpy fat piece of licorice lard? What?! What are you going to do? I'd like to see you try."
"Savanna." Fiona echoed.
I stepped away and walked over to her and sat down at her feet, her ran her nails and fingers through my hair as Frank finally decided to jump into the conversation. My head was pounding by the time Lip, Ian and Marcus were walking through the front door.
"I can't believe you sucked me back in here for money!" Monica shouts at Frank as she follows him out of Sheila's kitchen and through the dining room.
"I did no such thing!" Frank defended as they walked into the living room. He turned towards her, "But since you're in town, why don't you sign up for this little thing and I'll cut you in."
Monica groaned in exasperation, "Fuck you, Frank!"
"Wait. You brought her back here?" Lip asked Frank.
Monica and Frank turned to Lip, Marcus and Ian, Monicas face lit up when she seen Ian and Marcus.
"Oh, Ian."
"Wait. Y-Y-You knew where she was the whole time?" Lip asked again.
Bob walks into the room, "Okay, look, this little reunion was bound to happen sooner or later, anyway. We were thinking about coming around to talk to you about something else."
"No, no. Not now."
"Yes, now! Yes, now!"
"Moni and I wanna take Liam to live with us."
Fiona stood up from the chair and I shuffled away to give her space and get back to my feet.
"What?" Fiona demanded.
"Over my dead body!" Frank objected standing up to face Bob.
"How about Moni signs whatever the hell it is you need, we get Liam?"
Frank didn't take long to respond, "Done," he said with a single confirming nod.
"No fucking way!" Fiona yelled. "You can't have Liam."
"Why the hell not? He's not even Franks."
"Fact is Liam is black. All you white folks scooping up black babies like fashion accessories have a rude awakening coming."
"Scooping up black babies?" I repeated, putting my hands on the back of the couch, glaring at Bob.
"I guess I've been a fashion accessory since I was six," Marcus mumbled, sarcastically.
"No. There will be a backlash if people don't stop underestimating the cultural importance of a black parent raising a black baby. Liam needs me and he's coming with us."
"No. Out of the fucking question, Roberta."
"Roberta and I wanna start a family of our own."
"Well, how about you finish this one first?"
"Taking Liam?" Debbie sobbed.
"Yes!" Bob yelled.
"No!" Fiona yelled back.
Marcus puts his hands on Debbie's shoulders and makes her sit back on the couch, "Liam's not going anywhere, Debs."
"No. Nobody's taking anyone anywhere."
"You don't get to abandon your kids and then show up one day to take your pick of the litter!"
Frank stood up, "Oh, now, that's not fair. Your mother's made mistakes, but she's here now. That's got to count for something."
"Shut up, Frank!" Fiona yelled and he went silent and sat back down in the armchair, "This isn't about you. This is about you. This about what you didn't do. It's about what I did. And you know what? I did a fucking great job. Debbie is class president, she's on the debate team going to nationals. And Lip, he's top of his class, he set the curve. Savanna tested out most of her classes, she's in key club helping hundreds of homeless and animals in need with food drives and volunteer work. Ian was promoted in ROTC and he tested out of English. And Carl made something blow up for his science fair. And you know what? They did it all, no thanks to you, because you weren't here." Fiona says shaking out of angry, grief and pride.
"And I appreciate that, Fiona, but I'm here now… and Liam belongs with me."
"He doesn't even know who you are."
"Liam calls Fiona mom, not you." I added quietly, that set Monica off.
"I'm his mother!" Monica yelled, my comment struck a nerve.
"You were my mother too!" Fiona yelled back.
Both Fiona and Monica started crying.
""Maybe I'll never be able to make things right with you… but there's still time with Liam…" I looked over at Liam trying to fit different sized Legos together as he babbled to himself. "And, Debbie and Carl…" Monica sat down on the coffee table in front of Debbie and Carl, "I am so sorry if I hurt you. Please. I love you so much. Please let me be your mommy again."
"No," I murmured, looking down at the back of Debbie and Carls head as Monica pleaded to them.
"Please."
Debbie made the first move to embrace Monica, Carl followed and Fiona physically deflated. Fiona started to walk away as Marcus pulled me away from the couch and wrapped his arms around my shoulders pulling close to him.
"You know what?" Fiona asked as she grabbed her coat, "you're right. You are their mother. And you're here now, so I'm done."
"Fi."
"I'm done with the school and the bills and the clinics." She pulled the house keys from her jacket and held them up and her hand dropped to her side again, "I'm done. They're all yours now, Mom. Good luck." Fiona dropped the keys on the stand next to the front wide windows of Sheila's front room and walked out of the house.
Debbie and Carl pulled away from Monica once the room felt the weight of Fiona's absence. Marcus and I left for his house not too long after that.