Fanfic: B&S episode 710: part 2/4
Season 7 - Episode 710 - Our house
By Marea67
About: Brothers & Sisters general
Rate: Can’t go higher than PG-13 as this American Television.
Disclaimer: Just escaping from reality here, not created for financial gain.
Summary: It’s my own season 7. Go with it! If you believe you can do better, write it yourself! I dare you!
*****
“Mr Walker?” Kevin recognizes the voice and turns around to meet the other lawyer.
“John Griffith." He acknowledges the presence of the other man. "What can I do for you?”
“How’s the case against those four boys, who wanted to hurt your niece, moving along?”
“Not. Of course, each of them is an angel, who didn’t know Paige’s drink got spiked.” Kevin answers.
“Naturally.” John nods. “It’s always like that. I’ve done too many of these cases, quite to my frustration. You do realize that your niece doesn’t have a strong case at the moment? No one saw who spiked her drink, she wasn’t raped or didn’t have a sign of abuse on her body.”
“There was intent….” Kevin says, wondering how John knows so much about this.
“I believe you, but intent is not same as actually performing the act.” John points out.
“I know that. But what am I supposed to do? Wait for the next time? Am I supposed to hope for a girl to actually get raped by those creeps, so I can prove this case?”
“No. It will drive you crazy. I know that there’s a lot of pressure on you to drop this case. What you need is for one of the boys to talk….”
“Like that’s going to happen…” Kevin replies sarcastically.
“You didn’t get this from me.” John says and he hands Kevin an envelope.
Kevin looks at the contents and gives John a puzzled look.
“You’re smart enough to make the connections. And you’re good enough a lawyer to make one of those guys talk.” John explains with confidence, before he walks away, leaving Kevin in deep thought.
*****
“Hey, Jordan!”
“Home already?” Jordan checks his watch. It’s only three o’clock.
“Yes. I still have some work to do, but I can do that at home. I heard Sarah is back too, so if she’ll join us again tomorrow at the office, it will free up my time even more.”
“That’s nice. I have some tests coming up and I’d like to study for them.” Jordan sighs. Tommy is about to follow him in, when a car stops in front of the house.
“Hi, Lindy!” Jordan greets, while a young woman walks up to him and hands him a bag.
“Will you please thank Scotty for borrowing these to me? He saved my life.”
“I’m sure he’d love to hear that.” Jordan laughs. “Tommy, this is Lindy Beckett, she lives a bit further up the road. Her daughter is two days older than Billy and her son is a month younger than Daniel. Lindy, this is Tommy Walker, is Kevin’s brother and Scotty’s brother-in-law.”
“Nice to meet you.” Lindy and Tommy shake hands. “I’m grateful to Scotty. He borrowed me several kitchen tools for our huge goodbye-party.”
“Goodbye-party?” Tommy asks.
“Yes, my husband and I are leaving for Africa, to work with a little charity-organization.”
“Africa?” Tommy repeats.
“Yes, we offer mostly medical help. I’m so looking forward to this. My husband and I dreamed about it for so long, but I got pregnant so ridiculously fast after we got married, that we first thought about postponing our plans until the kids were old enough.
But, last month we suddenly had this 'now or never’ feeling come over us…. We both felt that we just had to do it… So, over the last few weeks we’ve sold everything we could afford to miss. Made sure that there was enough money, so my mother could take care of our kidsin our absence and …. We’re leaving by the end of next month…”
“Wow! I’m amazed. I admire it when people make these kinds of decisions.” Tommy says, impressed with Lindy’s energy and enthusiasm.
“Yes. All that is really left to do, is sell the house.” She points at something further down the street.
“The one with the blue window-shutters?” Tommy asks.
“Yes! That’s the one.”
“I like that house, it always looks so … cheerful. Made for children… No offense.” He quickly adds the last two words when he realizes that he had sounded rather critical.
“I’m not offended. I’m glad that you see it that way, because it was supposed to be that way. We wanted to have a house that our kids would love to grow up in. Bright colors, cheerful, lots of flowers and not so incredibly sterile.”
“I’ve always wondered what the house looked like on the inside.” Tommy confesses.
“You and me both.” Jordan admits.
“Why don’t you have a look? I plan to sell it, so some word of mouth advertisement can’t hurt…” She laughs.
“Maybe I could get my roommates to move out, so I’d have the place to myself again.”
Tommy grins, knowing that Jordan couldn’t afford his place anymore if he would get rid of his flat-mates. He lost his job a while ago and, so far, he had been unable to get another. Tommy also knows that Jordan is their ‘baby-sitter’ to offer him a source of income without offending him.
When times had been tough on Scotty, Jordan had been there for him and now Scotty returns the favor and Tommy is more than willing to help Jordan as well. Especially now that he turns to be so great with Billy. Jordan makes that Tommy can go to work or anywhere else without worrying if his son is safe.
“I’d love to see the house.” Tommy says. “Are you coming along?” He asks Jordan.
“We’d have to take the kids as well. No. You go have a look on your own.” Jordan says. Tommy gets in Lindy’s car and they drive the remainder of the way and she pulls up at the house that Tommy had hoped for.
It looks nice on the outside. The garden is perhaps a little too ‘untamed’, but Tommy can imagine that Nora would love to organize it. Lindy puts both kids in their play-pen to have her hands free and she shows Tommy the kitchen. It’s not as big as the one at Kevin and Scotty’s house, but it’s big enough. A living-room. A study.
Up the stairs are five small rooms and a big master-bedroom, but in Tommy’s mind he’s breaking down the walls, creating a larger room for Elizabeth and one for Billy. He’d have to repaint quite a lot. Though he doesn’t mind all the bright colors, there’s just too much of them.
The many doors are each painted in a different color. Bright yellow, soft pink, lavender, mint green, … especially the fluorescent orange door makes Tommy shudder... and it starts to feel like a candy house.
“We want more kids than the two we have… That’s why we had more bedrooms than needed.”
“I see.” Tommy can see the potential. “When will you put it up for sale?”
“End of the week, when my husband has the time to put up the ‘for sale’-sign.”
“Would it be alright if I brought my brothers to come and have a look at this house? I’m interested in buying it.” Tommy hears the words come out of his mouth as if he has no control over them.
“Really? No. Yes. I mean, I’m fine with it if you want to see it again…” Lindy stammers.
“I like this house… I can imagine myself and my kids living here.” Tommy says, much to his own surprise.
“Well, in that case…. Let’s see if we can make a deal.” Lindy is still in shock.
*****
When Justin enters Café 429, Ryan is the first person he sees.
“Hey! You here?”
“Yes. Had to drop off some contracts for Kevin to read, but both he and Browne are working and Lena won't be in the office for another half hour, she told me to wait for her here.”
“I see. How are things going at Ojai?”
“It’s different from what it was before. It’s really Holly and Sarah’s company now and no longer William Walker’s.”
“So, you’re not missing the shadow of dad looking over your shoulder.”
“No. It’s really different. William Walker has become this stranger to me again. I feel so disconnected from him. And from my mother. It was too hard to see it at first, and it was so easy to blame it all on William Walker, but my mom wasn’t who I thought she was either. It guess it took a while to let it sink in, that I really don’t know who my parents were.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I had an easy solution for you…”
“There isn’t one. I’m just glad that I finally managed to sort out all these different feelings I had and that I could finally be able to look at you guys in a normal way, rather than blinded by hate.”
“And how are things between you and Lena?” Justin asks.
“We’re just good friends… She told me about Tommy. And you. And I can understand her feelings about not wanting to get involved with yet another Walker.” Ryan laughs, making it clear that there’s no hard feelings on his part towards either Justin or Tommy.
*****
“I’m not sure if this would do you any good. I’ve told him not to say a word to you.” Kevin looks at Greenway, the man who had spoken those words. He’s the lawyer of Eli, one of the boys, who had tried to drug Paige. Kevin merely gives Greenway his most condescending smile and slowly answers:
“I don’t even want him to say something to me. I have something to say to him.”
“Threats….” Greenway begins to say, but Kevin shakes his head.
“No threats.” Kevin promises. Greenway steps aside to let Kevin talk to Eli. Kevin sits down opposite of Eli, who looks scared but hostile.
Kevin doesn’t say anything at first, just looks at him as if he gathers his strength. He opens the envelope he had brought with him. He places a picture on the table, right in the middle of the space between Eli and himself. He sees a confused frown appear on Eli’s face, when he sees that it’s a picture of his youngest sister.
“Your sister Jennifer… Jenny, for short. Right?” Kevin asks. Eli nods dumbly.
“She’s 7 years old now. Very pretty and sweet. Your favorite sibling?… And a diabetic.... Just like Paige... Nine years from now, she’ll be sixteen, just like Paige is now, and she’ll fall in love with some guy… someone like Bradley… A
nd one night… She’ll go to a party….” Eli looks up at Kevin, his eyes are big. “Only this time, unlike with Paige, there isn’t an ex-boyfriend who knows that Jenny’s a diabetic. And there won’t be an paramedic, who happens to be her uncle, who knows her medical condition, just like Paige’s uncle just happened to be there….
This time, three days later, you’ll be attending your sister’s funeral.” Kevin wonders if he’s a bad person for enjoying the shock is Eli’s face … “How much solace will it give you to know that those boys who drugged her and raped her will go unpunished, because it was all just a joke? With no harm intended? And that all of them suddenly pretend not to remember, that they did this with the premeditation to inflict pain and humiliation? On your little sister?”
Eli’s eyes fill with tears.
“You think I’m cruel and mean?” Kevin places a picture of Paige at age 7 next to that of Jennifer. “This was Paige, at age 7, and she looked at the world with the same trust and hope as your sister does now. She was once my only, and therefore my favorite niece, just like Jenny is your favorite sister. Paige was once 7 years old and, one day, Jennifer will be sixteen…”
Kevin takes his picture of Paige back, but leaves the one from Jennifer where it is. He doesn’t give Eli a second look, but he just walks away.
“Mr Walker..” Greenway protests softly, but Kevin stops him angrily.
“Sue me if you think I was inappropriate. Bring me your best lawyer though. I’ll eat him raw.”
*****
“Hi, honey.” Sarah moves closer to give Paige a kiss, but Paige throws back her head and backs away from Sarah.
“I want to stay here. With dad. I don’t want to go back to your house.” Paige says.
“Paige, sweetie, I know…”
“You know nothing.” Paige shakes her head.
“…. You’ve been through a lot.” Sarah finishes her sentence “I’m sorry. I should have come home straightaway…
“No.”
“…. But,…” Sarah falls silent and she sees a cynical smile come to her daughter’s face.
“Yes, mom, finish that sentence. ‘But’ what?.... You can’t come up with anything, can you? That’s alright. You don’t have to. I’m not expecting you to. I didn’t you want there with me. I was too angry with myself and with you.
You see, I already suspected, rather quickly even, that Bradley wasn’t the great guy he presented himself to be. He was arrogant, possessive and not that smart. He was constantly pushing me into sleeping with him. And then he’d get all insulted when I didn’t want to…”
“You should have….” Sarah starts, but Paige cuts her off.
“I should have said something. Done something…. Yes!… But I didn’t. I didn’t want to disappoint you. You were so happy with this. And I would be oh so much better off with Bradley than with Mateo.” Paige’s voice becomes more shrill.
“You just couldn’t stand it, could you? To see me with a boyfriend and see that it would actually work. You just couldn’t admit to yourself that you had been wrong about Mateo. You had to manipulate me into working with Bradley…. You knew that I would be flattered by his interest in me…. And I was foolish enough to fall for it!”
There’s so much bitterness on Paige’s face that Sarah back away.
“Mateo doesn’t want me back…” Paige’s eyes fill with tears. “I asked him. But he wants me to work out how I feel about Bradley first…. He …. I think he’s falling in love with another girl.. and I can’t blame him. Helen is very nice…”
“I wish I could take away your pain…” Sarah sighs, tears coming to her eyes as well.
“You can’t. Mateo is right. I first have to work through this... I keep thinking of what could have happened. What if I hadn’t been able to reach Mateo? What if Mateo had just hung up on me? What if he would have been too late…?”
Paige can’t go on, she too choked up with tears.
“This will drive you crazy. You need help. You need to talk about this… I’ll get you the best psychiatrist and… ” Sarah starts to make a list in her head of who she should call and what she should do, but Paige shakes her head.
“If you would been here...” Paige emphasizes. “.. then you would have known that all that’s already been set in motion. I’ve talked with the police. And my school has offered me help. And the kids in my class are mostly on my side. Not all, but most of them. And there’s Mateo, and even Helen.”
“You’ve been talking about all this with Mateo possible new girlfriend?” Sarah feels confused.
“Yes. She’s as kind to me as Mateo has been. She’s so easy to talk to. She told that she lost a friend through a drugs overdose last year and … She says that talking to me, helps her to deal with what happened to her… We’re kind of helping each other?” Paige answers with a rather sheepish look on her face. “So, you see, I have help and I have people to talk to and I know that uncle Kevin is trying to get Bradley and his friends punished…. I don’t need you.”
The last few words cut through Sarah like a knife. Paige seems well aware of what it is exactly that she’s saying. Her words aren’t spoken in anger or disappointment or confusion. She’s just being very matter-of-factly about it and Sarah feels like she just lost her daughter….
*****
End of part 2/4
**** COMMERCIAL BREAK****
By Marea67
About: Brothers & Sisters general
Rate: Can’t go higher than PG-13 as this American Television.
Disclaimer: Just escaping from reality here, not created for financial gain.
Summary: It’s my own season 7. Go with it! If you believe you can do better, write it yourself! I dare you!
*****
“Mr Walker?” Kevin recognizes the voice and turns around to meet the other lawyer.
“John Griffith." He acknowledges the presence of the other man. "What can I do for you?”
“How’s the case against those four boys, who wanted to hurt your niece, moving along?”
“Not. Of course, each of them is an angel, who didn’t know Paige’s drink got spiked.” Kevin answers.
“Naturally.” John nods. “It’s always like that. I’ve done too many of these cases, quite to my frustration. You do realize that your niece doesn’t have a strong case at the moment? No one saw who spiked her drink, she wasn’t raped or didn’t have a sign of abuse on her body.”
“There was intent….” Kevin says, wondering how John knows so much about this.
“I believe you, but intent is not same as actually performing the act.” John points out.
“I know that. But what am I supposed to do? Wait for the next time? Am I supposed to hope for a girl to actually get raped by those creeps, so I can prove this case?”
“No. It will drive you crazy. I know that there’s a lot of pressure on you to drop this case. What you need is for one of the boys to talk….”
“Like that’s going to happen…” Kevin replies sarcastically.
“You didn’t get this from me.” John says and he hands Kevin an envelope.
Kevin looks at the contents and gives John a puzzled look.
“You’re smart enough to make the connections. And you’re good enough a lawyer to make one of those guys talk.” John explains with confidence, before he walks away, leaving Kevin in deep thought.
*****
“Hey, Jordan!”
“Home already?” Jordan checks his watch. It’s only three o’clock.
“Yes. I still have some work to do, but I can do that at home. I heard Sarah is back too, so if she’ll join us again tomorrow at the office, it will free up my time even more.”
“That’s nice. I have some tests coming up and I’d like to study for them.” Jordan sighs. Tommy is about to follow him in, when a car stops in front of the house.
“Hi, Lindy!” Jordan greets, while a young woman walks up to him and hands him a bag.
“Will you please thank Scotty for borrowing these to me? He saved my life.”
“I’m sure he’d love to hear that.” Jordan laughs. “Tommy, this is Lindy Beckett, she lives a bit further up the road. Her daughter is two days older than Billy and her son is a month younger than Daniel. Lindy, this is Tommy Walker, is Kevin’s brother and Scotty’s brother-in-law.”
“Nice to meet you.” Lindy and Tommy shake hands. “I’m grateful to Scotty. He borrowed me several kitchen tools for our huge goodbye-party.”
“Goodbye-party?” Tommy asks.
“Yes, my husband and I are leaving for Africa, to work with a little charity-organization.”
“Africa?” Tommy repeats.
“Yes, we offer mostly medical help. I’m so looking forward to this. My husband and I dreamed about it for so long, but I got pregnant so ridiculously fast after we got married, that we first thought about postponing our plans until the kids were old enough.
But, last month we suddenly had this 'now or never’ feeling come over us…. We both felt that we just had to do it… So, over the last few weeks we’ve sold everything we could afford to miss. Made sure that there was enough money, so my mother could take care of our kidsin our absence and …. We’re leaving by the end of next month…”
“Wow! I’m amazed. I admire it when people make these kinds of decisions.” Tommy says, impressed with Lindy’s energy and enthusiasm.
“Yes. All that is really left to do, is sell the house.” She points at something further down the street.
“The one with the blue window-shutters?” Tommy asks.
“Yes! That’s the one.”
“I like that house, it always looks so … cheerful. Made for children… No offense.” He quickly adds the last two words when he realizes that he had sounded rather critical.
“I’m not offended. I’m glad that you see it that way, because it was supposed to be that way. We wanted to have a house that our kids would love to grow up in. Bright colors, cheerful, lots of flowers and not so incredibly sterile.”
“I’ve always wondered what the house looked like on the inside.” Tommy confesses.
“You and me both.” Jordan admits.
“Why don’t you have a look? I plan to sell it, so some word of mouth advertisement can’t hurt…” She laughs.
“Maybe I could get my roommates to move out, so I’d have the place to myself again.”
Tommy grins, knowing that Jordan couldn’t afford his place anymore if he would get rid of his flat-mates. He lost his job a while ago and, so far, he had been unable to get another. Tommy also knows that Jordan is their ‘baby-sitter’ to offer him a source of income without offending him.
When times had been tough on Scotty, Jordan had been there for him and now Scotty returns the favor and Tommy is more than willing to help Jordan as well. Especially now that he turns to be so great with Billy. Jordan makes that Tommy can go to work or anywhere else without worrying if his son is safe.
“I’d love to see the house.” Tommy says. “Are you coming along?” He asks Jordan.
“We’d have to take the kids as well. No. You go have a look on your own.” Jordan says. Tommy gets in Lindy’s car and they drive the remainder of the way and she pulls up at the house that Tommy had hoped for.
It looks nice on the outside. The garden is perhaps a little too ‘untamed’, but Tommy can imagine that Nora would love to organize it. Lindy puts both kids in their play-pen to have her hands free and she shows Tommy the kitchen. It’s not as big as the one at Kevin and Scotty’s house, but it’s big enough. A living-room. A study.
Up the stairs are five small rooms and a big master-bedroom, but in Tommy’s mind he’s breaking down the walls, creating a larger room for Elizabeth and one for Billy. He’d have to repaint quite a lot. Though he doesn’t mind all the bright colors, there’s just too much of them.
The many doors are each painted in a different color. Bright yellow, soft pink, lavender, mint green, … especially the fluorescent orange door makes Tommy shudder... and it starts to feel like a candy house.
“We want more kids than the two we have… That’s why we had more bedrooms than needed.”
“I see.” Tommy can see the potential. “When will you put it up for sale?”
“End of the week, when my husband has the time to put up the ‘for sale’-sign.”
“Would it be alright if I brought my brothers to come and have a look at this house? I’m interested in buying it.” Tommy hears the words come out of his mouth as if he has no control over them.
“Really? No. Yes. I mean, I’m fine with it if you want to see it again…” Lindy stammers.
“I like this house… I can imagine myself and my kids living here.” Tommy says, much to his own surprise.
“Well, in that case…. Let’s see if we can make a deal.” Lindy is still in shock.
*****
When Justin enters Café 429, Ryan is the first person he sees.
“Hey! You here?”
“Yes. Had to drop off some contracts for Kevin to read, but both he and Browne are working and Lena won't be in the office for another half hour, she told me to wait for her here.”
“I see. How are things going at Ojai?”
“It’s different from what it was before. It’s really Holly and Sarah’s company now and no longer William Walker’s.”
“So, you’re not missing the shadow of dad looking over your shoulder.”
“No. It’s really different. William Walker has become this stranger to me again. I feel so disconnected from him. And from my mother. It was too hard to see it at first, and it was so easy to blame it all on William Walker, but my mom wasn’t who I thought she was either. It guess it took a while to let it sink in, that I really don’t know who my parents were.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I had an easy solution for you…”
“There isn’t one. I’m just glad that I finally managed to sort out all these different feelings I had and that I could finally be able to look at you guys in a normal way, rather than blinded by hate.”
“And how are things between you and Lena?” Justin asks.
“We’re just good friends… She told me about Tommy. And you. And I can understand her feelings about not wanting to get involved with yet another Walker.” Ryan laughs, making it clear that there’s no hard feelings on his part towards either Justin or Tommy.
*****
“I’m not sure if this would do you any good. I’ve told him not to say a word to you.” Kevin looks at Greenway, the man who had spoken those words. He’s the lawyer of Eli, one of the boys, who had tried to drug Paige. Kevin merely gives Greenway his most condescending smile and slowly answers:
“I don’t even want him to say something to me. I have something to say to him.”
“Threats….” Greenway begins to say, but Kevin shakes his head.
“No threats.” Kevin promises. Greenway steps aside to let Kevin talk to Eli. Kevin sits down opposite of Eli, who looks scared but hostile.
Kevin doesn’t say anything at first, just looks at him as if he gathers his strength. He opens the envelope he had brought with him. He places a picture on the table, right in the middle of the space between Eli and himself. He sees a confused frown appear on Eli’s face, when he sees that it’s a picture of his youngest sister.
“Your sister Jennifer… Jenny, for short. Right?” Kevin asks. Eli nods dumbly.
“She’s 7 years old now. Very pretty and sweet. Your favorite sibling?… And a diabetic.... Just like Paige... Nine years from now, she’ll be sixteen, just like Paige is now, and she’ll fall in love with some guy… someone like Bradley… A
nd one night… She’ll go to a party….” Eli looks up at Kevin, his eyes are big. “Only this time, unlike with Paige, there isn’t an ex-boyfriend who knows that Jenny’s a diabetic. And there won’t be an paramedic, who happens to be her uncle, who knows her medical condition, just like Paige’s uncle just happened to be there….
This time, three days later, you’ll be attending your sister’s funeral.” Kevin wonders if he’s a bad person for enjoying the shock is Eli’s face … “How much solace will it give you to know that those boys who drugged her and raped her will go unpunished, because it was all just a joke? With no harm intended? And that all of them suddenly pretend not to remember, that they did this with the premeditation to inflict pain and humiliation? On your little sister?”
Eli’s eyes fill with tears.
“You think I’m cruel and mean?” Kevin places a picture of Paige at age 7 next to that of Jennifer. “This was Paige, at age 7, and she looked at the world with the same trust and hope as your sister does now. She was once my only, and therefore my favorite niece, just like Jenny is your favorite sister. Paige was once 7 years old and, one day, Jennifer will be sixteen…”
Kevin takes his picture of Paige back, but leaves the one from Jennifer where it is. He doesn’t give Eli a second look, but he just walks away.
“Mr Walker..” Greenway protests softly, but Kevin stops him angrily.
“Sue me if you think I was inappropriate. Bring me your best lawyer though. I’ll eat him raw.”
*****
“Hi, honey.” Sarah moves closer to give Paige a kiss, but Paige throws back her head and backs away from Sarah.
“I want to stay here. With dad. I don’t want to go back to your house.” Paige says.
“Paige, sweetie, I know…”
“You know nothing.” Paige shakes her head.
“…. You’ve been through a lot.” Sarah finishes her sentence “I’m sorry. I should have come home straightaway…
“No.”
“…. But,…” Sarah falls silent and she sees a cynical smile come to her daughter’s face.
“Yes, mom, finish that sentence. ‘But’ what?.... You can’t come up with anything, can you? That’s alright. You don’t have to. I’m not expecting you to. I didn’t you want there with me. I was too angry with myself and with you.
You see, I already suspected, rather quickly even, that Bradley wasn’t the great guy he presented himself to be. He was arrogant, possessive and not that smart. He was constantly pushing me into sleeping with him. And then he’d get all insulted when I didn’t want to…”
“You should have….” Sarah starts, but Paige cuts her off.
“I should have said something. Done something…. Yes!… But I didn’t. I didn’t want to disappoint you. You were so happy with this. And I would be oh so much better off with Bradley than with Mateo.” Paige’s voice becomes more shrill.
“You just couldn’t stand it, could you? To see me with a boyfriend and see that it would actually work. You just couldn’t admit to yourself that you had been wrong about Mateo. You had to manipulate me into working with Bradley…. You knew that I would be flattered by his interest in me…. And I was foolish enough to fall for it!”
There’s so much bitterness on Paige’s face that Sarah back away.
“Mateo doesn’t want me back…” Paige’s eyes fill with tears. “I asked him. But he wants me to work out how I feel about Bradley first…. He …. I think he’s falling in love with another girl.. and I can’t blame him. Helen is very nice…”
“I wish I could take away your pain…” Sarah sighs, tears coming to her eyes as well.
“You can’t. Mateo is right. I first have to work through this... I keep thinking of what could have happened. What if I hadn’t been able to reach Mateo? What if Mateo had just hung up on me? What if he would have been too late…?”
Paige can’t go on, she too choked up with tears.
“This will drive you crazy. You need help. You need to talk about this… I’ll get you the best psychiatrist and… ” Sarah starts to make a list in her head of who she should call and what she should do, but Paige shakes her head.
“If you would been here...” Paige emphasizes. “.. then you would have known that all that’s already been set in motion. I’ve talked with the police. And my school has offered me help. And the kids in my class are mostly on my side. Not all, but most of them. And there’s Mateo, and even Helen.”
“You’ve been talking about all this with Mateo possible new girlfriend?” Sarah feels confused.
“Yes. She’s as kind to me as Mateo has been. She’s so easy to talk to. She told that she lost a friend through a drugs overdose last year and … She says that talking to me, helps her to deal with what happened to her… We’re kind of helping each other?” Paige answers with a rather sheepish look on her face. “So, you see, I have help and I have people to talk to and I know that uncle Kevin is trying to get Bradley and his friends punished…. I don’t need you.”
The last few words cut through Sarah like a knife. Paige seems well aware of what it is exactly that she’s saying. Her words aren’t spoken in anger or disappointment or confusion. She’s just being very matter-of-factly about it and Sarah feels like she just lost her daughter….
*****
End of part 2/4
**** COMMERCIAL BREAK****