W...w...what? Another Franco-spawn! Watcher save us! Unless he's dying. Ooh, I hope so. I don't know why but I love watching him suffer.
There are always Franco-spawn!
You do get to watch him suffer a bit. On his own behalf. No kids as his Snowflake Day gift.
He can't be dying! He's an immortal! What have you got up your sleeve, Trip?
That was beautiful with Tay giving his son the perfect engagement ring. Nothing else would do. I love it.
Who let Bryant in? That's what I want to know! Coming in, stealing a little girl's present!
Arm hair.
You gotta impress the richest family in Twinbrook somehow!
The unlocked door did. Or a watcher who invited him for giggles. I dunno, I did this almost a year ago.
Always with the cliffhangers.
Why of course! Please contact me when I don't have them. I might not be well then.
Chapter 100: Selfie
“This is Dr. Villalobos, from the emergency department at Twinbrook Foundation Hospital, and I’m calling on behalf of Mr. Franco Revere Waverly.”
Tegan’s heart almost stopped and almost gave Dr. Villalobos another job that night, but she stayed alive. Still, time slowed down to a halt, during the longest second of Tegan’s long life. Sound became static and white noise. Even the snowflakes suspended themselves in the air. The world thudded with the sound of one single heartbeat from Tegan in slow motion.
She ran away from her ailing grandpa for what was, in the grand scheme of eternity, a petty romantic moment. Whatever he could have been saved from might have been killing him. That lone heartbeat of hers could have been one he lost.
“Is this Tegan?”
She shook herself to something resembling her senses. “Please, please, please tell me he’s okay. I don’t want to lose my grandpa.”
“We’ll assess the situation when you come over. He asked for me to call you.”
Without even coming back home to grab a coat, Tegan ran across the street in her formal heels and straight to the waiting room, to Dr. Villalobos standing by the entrance of the wing.
“I think we need to sit down for this,” the doctor said. “Especially because you’re wearing heels tonight.”
Dr. Villalobos sat down with a stern pout, though Tegan didn’t know her well enough to judge if that was her resting face or not. The hospital, short-staffed on Snowflake Day, whirred with only the ambient noise of the hiss from oxygen cannulas and fluorescent lights.
“The nurses have everyone taken care of, so I guess I can relay the news to someone who will pay me well,” the doctor said. “But I do have to be serious about this.” Tegan started to sob.
“Look, honey, don’t cry,” she said. “I may have made things sound a lot worse over the phone.”
“He’s alive?” Tegan asked.
“Alive, and probably could have been worse. It was assault. He ended up with a broken nose and sprained ankle, widespread bruising, and we’re awaiting the results from radiology over his CAT scan. He blacked out during the fight and we need to rule out any brain damage or concussions. However, he’s conscious now and has been for a while, and should be wrapping up the CAT scan.”
“Do you think he’ll be okay?”
“We know that you guys are a little different,” Dr. Villalobos said. “I’ll talk physical therapy options with him before he checks out. Walking on that ankle is not a good idea, but I know he’ll do it. However, whatever is keeping him alive at such an age might have some magic after all. I think he’ll have a good quality of life after this.”
“That’s…that’s a lot better.”
“I’ll let you in once he’s back from the scan. I’d bet he wants to see you too.”
Tegan waited for twenty minutes with her nose in the latest issue of
Time that they had (still about a month old), relieved but still anxious. Ambrosia could heal brain damage and broken bones, for all she knew, but if he merely fell, there would be no second party to blame. Assault threw someone else into the picture, and the only possible man in the picture held revenge in his deep green eyes.
Dr. Villalobos came out again, looking calm and happy. “He’s ready now. I’ll escort you down, but he’s stable right now and I gotta go elsewhere. Nurse Leblanc is an impatient woman.”
They walked past curtained-off rooms with patients moaning in pain. Tegan broke out into a cold sweat at first, until she was assured that they were of no concern to her, and that Franco was at the end of the hall.
“I gave you the run down, but he still looks rough.”
Paging Dr. Villalobos was announced through the hall.
Paging Dr. Villalobos to 112C.“Christ, Kelly, it’s just gonna be a prescription for Vicodin,” the doctor muttered. “I think I can leave you alone now.”
“Thanks, doctor,” Tegan said. Dr. Villalobos smiled at her back.
She took a deep breath and prepared herself for a battered Franco. She prepared herself for the beeps that tracked his vitals, for IV lines and bandages and ghastly, unbandaged injuries. The more she thought about who did that to him, the worse the end image evolved. Only one man had so little of a heart as to assault an elder who insulted his fashion sense.
She peered in from behind the curtain. An awake Franco tried to wave hello, but winced with soreness and pain. Even in all of that, he greeted her. “Peapod! I knew you’d come for your dear grandpa.”
“I did. I can’t look at this,” she said. “I watched a lot of gross stuff in anatomy. But, I can’t look at you this way.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said.
“You sure? It looked pretty bad.”
“You just saw a glimpse. I’m better than that.”
Tegan turned around to face him fully, still shocked at his bruised face.
“You look horrible!” Tegan exclaimed. As much as she knew who did that, it was still wrong to assume. “Who did this to you?”
“I’ve never been so ashamed in a person, and I really hope I’ve seen the worst the world has to offer this undying old man. Oh Tegan, you can probably guess by now. I’m just happy that it wasn’t you instead.”
She pulled up a chair from the corner to his bedside and fought back tears. “I…I never thought he’d stoop so low. I really never did.”
Tegan clasped his hand and stared into both his hazel eyes and the bruises across his cheeks. “I can barely do this. But, I need to. I want to bring this to the police and get him taken care of before any of us are next.”
“It’s tougher than you might think. To everyone and whatever lawyer would work with him, it was a manly fight between men. I mean, we all have a rough history with Bryant, and I provoked him a big. That’s not a crime, and he can walk free and we’re all in danger until he does something worse. I don’t want to fathom that either.”
“I want to try!” she cried.
“It’s not useless, but there’s just too big of a chance that it will be a waste,” Franco said. “But I admire your passion for this. It’s something I wish I had. I’ll give you the story.”
Almost immediately after Tegan and Hephaestus left, Annette washed off her best carving knives and started a roux for the gravy. Dinner approached, and while guests mostly indulged in a variety of hot drinks and conversation, Franco checked to make sure that his tie was on right and that his eyeliner was staying put and not running.
All of that stayed put throughout the party. His door’s lock was not. Any male visitor was unwelcome in Franco’s bedroom regardless (women were another story…), and when it turned out that Bryant Moreno, the loathsome party crasher and thief of little girls’ gifts, stood right behind Franco, shooing him away was not enough. Bryant kicked the door and closed it, enabling the locking mechanism.
“We didn’t even invite you to walk on our sidewalks. Please leave me and all of us alone,” he said, with a snarl in his voice. “You’ve done enough damage here already.”
“Oh Franco, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” Bryant said. “I deserve the best and Tegan is just that, in spite of also being a fat cheater who left me for her step-uncle.”
He was livid. “Don’t you say a word about her.”
“You want this to be a war, you old geezer?” he taunted. “I can make this a war.”
“To be honest, I doubt you even get honors on whatever version of
Generic Sniper Game you’re playing now.” Franco, expecting a verbal battle, hit the wall. Bryant pinned him against it, keep an arm against Franco’s neck to keep him put.
“I will win this war. And I’m going to marry your granddaughter, and father her children, and have what’s mine, no matter what some goblins past their prime have to say.” He shook his fist in Franco’s face. “I’m not backing down. I’m gonna win.”
“Not a chance.”
“Fine, we’re playing that way?” Bryant asked. “I’m gonna deal with this like a man.” He tackled Franco to the floor, still pinning him down with his weight. A clenched fist hovered above Franco’s line of vision.
“I can get off you if you back down about this. But if you don’t, you’ll be out cold all because you couldn’t say yes,” Bryant said, in an angered stutter. “I want this.”
Franco’s face semi-froze as a violent young man’s threats gained some basis. Still, he wasn’t going to be the one to back down in the face of Bryant.
“Well, no one does,” he said, exasperated. One hard punch to the nose knocked Franco out. Their fight gained some attention from the party, and according to Annette’s recount from after he woke up and the paramedics were on their way, Keon Whelohff, a stocky young fairy, ended up breaking the locked door off its hinges and scaring Bryant away.
“I knew I always liked that kid,” Franco said, before falling half-asleep as the paramedics took him away for assessment.
He ended his story. “And he broke my glasses, my only pair! Now I won’t be able to drive for weeks. I’m doomed until then.”
“That was because of the breakup, wasn’t it? It had to have been.” Tegan sighed, unable to bear the sight of Franco’s injuries for any longer. “I…I can’t believe that I let this happen!”
“You? Peapod, if you didn’t let this happen, you’d be lying here right now. You’d let something happen.”
It was never successful to try and convince Tegan that she did no wrong. She broke down sobbing in her seat, having allowed such a thing to happen. If only she wasn’t so selfish and interested in her own safety and happiness! It would be a bold but small sacrifice for the sake of the family. Worse, he could go for Hephaestus next, and snap her slender lover in two (as unseemly as it was; she never gauged Bryant to be much of a strongman).
“He’s gonna hurt Heph next, I know it,” Tegan said. Franco did his best, through the sprained ankle, to reposition himself to kneel on the bed and be at the right level to comfort Tegan.
“Honey, none of us would let that happen to him,” he said.
“I can’t risk it, though. I’d go through a marriage to Bryant before hurting Heph.”
“Don’t say that, and wouldn’t that hurt him and all of us anyways? He’d have to live here for the rest of his days too, and that would be awful enough to make me prefer living with your grandma Pansy. Let alone what it would do to you.”
She got up from her seat and sighed more. Her adult birthday was fast-approaching, and the nonsense with Bryant came crashing into the household again, all after she thought she came out of it with a spine too! “I wish I knew how to get rid of him, if getting him for assault won’t work.”
“As I said, we can try. You know, I’ll try anything now just to get rid of him and his ghastly clothing,” said Franco.
“I’ll go to the police as soon as I can, then I’ll talk if they won’t.”
“That’s good. Can you hand me
Elle? I think there’s a recent issue on the end table.”
“For the fashion and not just for the pretty women?” Tegan asked, with a chuckle.
“Why not both? Give your injured old man a treat.”
Getting the images back from the radiology department took longer than anticipated, or the back pain case got more complicated. It meant more signing off for Dr. Villalobos to do, and that Franco wasn’t cleared for discharge. However, he taught Tegan everything he knew that was also in
Elle, even if she didn’t connect with why he thought that the models were “worthy of his unlocked bedroom.” She knew what he meant and laughed, however. And Dr. Villalobos melted when she saw the two, even though she wheeled in something that made Franco grumble more.
“Alright, we can’t let you out on your feet, but get in,” she said. “The scans came back and nothing immediately came up. We’ll do some follow-up later, but you’re set for now. Also, do you mind listening to an idea?” The both of them nodded.
“Alright. Matt, the tech who was taking your x-rays, said that you were acting grumpy for the entire time.”
“Oh, he’s always like that,” Tegan said.
“Yeah, but apparently you missed dinner with your family?” Dr. Villalobos said. The both of them nodded again. “Why don’t I have someone prepare something for you? It won’t be like home if you have the great Annette Waverly cooking your holiday meal, but I think the two of you deserve something. I think we still have someone in the cafeteria and some leftover turkey.”
“Sounds great,” Tegan said. Franco was grumpy about not being able to walk.
“You can walk and re-injure your ankle once you leave,” the doctor said. “But not on my watch. Shouldn’t you be happy? You’re alive and ready for a meal and discharge. You don’t even need a bariatric wheelchair.”
Franco eventually gave in, but not without crossing his arms and muttering something about how cheeky Dr. Villalobos was for finding a new way to call him fat.
She led Franco and Tegan into a clean room, unoccupied because at least a few people in Twinbrook would rather die than eat their holiday meal in a hospital on Snowflake Day. Dr. Villalobos told them to wait while she got something hot for them.
“You know,” Franco said. “Bryant has a lot of evil in him, but I want to say that depriving us from eating mum’s fresh turkey is one of the evilest thing that man has done.”
“It’s good the next day,” Tegan muttered. “I’m just beside myself grandpa, over this whole thing.”
“As am I, Peapod.”
“Should I still get fitted for my wedding dress?”
“Absolutely. Make sure to take me. I want you to look even better than your mother did. And certainly for Heph to wear something nicer than your dad did.”
“I remember those wedding photos. I think daddy looked great. Very violet.”
“I’ll get a tie for Heph anyways, if he doesn’t have one. You know that Annette and I will do anything to make the perfect wedding for you. It’s just your mum that we have to convince.”
“I can always talk with her about it,” Tegan said. “It’s…it’s something I wanted to avoid with her. You know that I love mum, I care about her opinions, and she’s just so wonderful! And very violent about things. But, you know, I want to get through to her unless I want to spend eternity hating her. I don’t want to hate. Imagine hating your own mother!”
Franco just nodded at that point. They eventually got into talking about food, and how they missed the pies that everyone brought, and cousin Rachael’s famous roasted squash, and every goodie they looked forward too.
“Hopefully I didn’t bring down the party too much,” he said. “I wanted everyone to eat. Mum didn’t slave over the turkey just for it to go to the starving kids in Strangetown.”
“Please, she wouldn’t do that. Now, me, that’s my job,” Tegan said. They both shared a laugh, until a door opened and Dr. Villalobos carried out a plate.
“It’s not Waverly-fare, but it’s the least I can do.” She got out the other plate and both of them thanked her for going above and beyond her job that night.
Franco, in spite of always finicking about the food he was served, even occasionally Annette’s, chowed down the lukewarm turkey slices and mashed potatoes that surely came from a box. A big man had to eat. Tegan pushed around the stuffing on the plate and shrugged.
“Don’t fret over this,” was the last thing he told her at the table. When the plates were cleared, he got his regular clothes back on, checked out, and insisted that he could walk as long as he limped.
“Oh, god, I stepped on that wrong,” he said, outside of the hospital. He would have stumbled if it wasn’t for Tegan hoisting him up until they got to the parking lot. A few cars waited, but none of them were theirs, and Annette wasn’t there to make them theirs. Tegan called for a taxi and found her way through her contacts list to find the family members who needed to know that Franco lived.
“Peapod, can we do just one thing?” Franco asked.
“Sure, gramps.”
“I know you don’t like technology, but I want a photo of us tonight on my phone. Whenever I’m feeling down, which you know is a lot, I want to remind myself that I’ve been through worse. And, you know, you’ve been through it too.”
“I’m not beaten up, though,” Tegan said.
“Well, I never had to kiss Bryant.”
That was enough to get Tegan to smile that night, with Franco putting on a grin and an arm around her bare shoulders.
“Not bad for a broken nose, gramps,” Tegan said.
“Everything looks better when I’m dressed my best. Hopefully, I’ll look nicer in time for your wedding.”
“We’ll see how it goes. I can’t wait.” Tegan then got out her phone. “I think everyone else knows. Everyone but Heph. I’ll call him, and see where he is because I left him so suddenly.”
She dialed his number and waited for the response.
“Hi. Just wanted to tell you that I’m at the hospital right now. It’s…it’s Franco. Or it was, because he’s checked out and fine now. It was assault. He just took a selfie with a bruised face and a broken nose.”
Word Count for this chapter:
3,048Word Count so far:
202,563And a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow
Freedomlanders Americans.
