Donovan Plot - Part Five - Finale
OOC: Cowritten by the Donovans and Sammy Meeks
Dahlia, Liam who was holding a limp Gia who was injured and sickly looking, and Bartley’s portkey landed them in the middle of a yard late into the evening. Thankfully the street was empty of people so they weren’t likely seen. They would have looked rather strange being completely soaked when the sky was clear of any clouds, but Dahlia thought nothing of it as she ran up the front steps and began to bang on the front door. Liam shifted Gia’s weight in his arms and followed with Bartley close behind, his wand out just in case they were followed. Dahlia only hoped that the Gia’s friend and her family would be awake to hear them.
The door was old, and its locks turned over loudly. When it opened, Sammy stood on the other side. She was in her pajamas - Batman boxer shorts and a loose Batman cutoff with a short cape attached by velcro at the shoulders - but had not been in bed yet, just lounging in her living room. Any sleepiness she might have felt, however, was immediately sapped from her by the jarring sight outside. “Wha-?” she started to question, but the shot of boosted fight-or-flight panic adrenaline told her that maybe she ought to sort out her priorities. Questions later, help now. She gestured the ensemble into her home, stepping back to allow them in. “Mom! Mama!” she shrieked. “Emergency!”
Sammy shut the door behind their surprise visitors and led them into the living room. Their house was fairly big but seemingly shrunk by the clutter, but the living room at least offered enough furniture for everybody, including a decently sized couch Gia could be laid on. Her mothers rushed into the room a moment later, clad in robes of the same coloration and pattern that didn’t seem to fit either quite right. In a less serious moment, Sammy might have chuckled at them, as, in their haste, it seemed they had grabbed each other’s.
“What the hell’s going on?” demanded Cheryl Jones, her short brown hair falling in her face, all styling product gone by this hour. It was then that she noticed Gia. “Oh my God.” Her voice was immediately more somber. Afraid. Sammy’s mothers happened to both like their daughter’s best friend.
“What happened?” inquired Lauren Meeks, her question far softer than her wife’s. “And… and what can we do?” If it was a magical injury, sickness, or… whatever, she didn’t know how they could be much help, but certainly they would try.
Dahlia was too stricken with fear and desperation to notice her daughter's friend nightwear, but both Liam and Bartley were alert enough to notice the odd outfit. They exchanged a look behind Dahlia's back but remained quiet as Dahlia led them into the house as Sammy ushered them inside.
Inside, Liam moved around the others and gently placed Gia onto the couch. Her eyes fluttered beneath their lids as she struggled to regain consciousness. Liam had watched her these last couple of years and he knew she was stronger than she seemed. It would be a long recovery process after the torture she had endured, but she would do it. "Bartley, she's coming around again." Liam said, pulling his cousin's attention back to the injured girl. The Irishman turned away from the women and crouched down beside the sofa to tend to the girl.
Distraught, Dahlia's shaking form moved towards the two women. Sobs escaped her as she attempted to speak but was finding it difficult to explain. How did she ask these women to trust her and keep her daughter safe? How did she explain the circumstances to which had brought them here in the first place? "Please." Dahlia started. "Please, I need to keep her somewhere safe for for a few days." She tried to explain, her accent thick from her emotions, making her English even more disjointed than usual.
Gia let out a strangled cry as she came around and the pain hit her. Dahlia rushed to her daughter's side, forcing the men out of the way. She spoke quietly into Gia's ear to calm her. "Mana, Mana..." Gia muttered, her eyes rolling again as her consciousness ebbed away again. "Don't hurt him." She mumbled as she struggled to stay awake. Her gaunt body tired and in pain. "Save... save him..." And then she was out again.
"We have to go." Liam said to Dahlia. They had already wasted too much time. Dahlia nodded, kissed her daughter, and stood up.
"I promise to explain when I return." Dahlia stated. "Bartley will stay with you and look after her. He's a Healer." Dahlia took Lauren's hand into her own, the cold rain had seeped deep into her, making her body shiver and her hands frozen. "We will return as quickly as we can. I know I am asking for so much, but you are the only people I know in this country who I can trust."
The cold was contagious, and Lauren felt her skin rise into goosebumps against the hand pressed to hers. Her brown eyes glanced down at their joined hands, then back up. “Of course,” she answered weakly. She wanted answers even if they were things she wouldn’t understand, but she knew enough to recognize that there were more pressing matters than her personal comprehension of a situation that until now wasn’t any of her business. She squeezed Dahlia’s hand and then released it. “Go.” Beside them, Cheryl nodded, silently expressing her complete agreement.
Dahlia gave them a small appreciated smile, but it didn't reach very far. She turned and walked back to the sofa where her daughter lay and kissed her once again. "I'll bring Jax home. I love you." Dahlia whispered before turning to Bartley, "Please, do what you can for her. Keep her safe." Tears welled up in her eyes again, so she quickly turned away and took Liam's awaiting hand. Without another word, they apparated away.
"Ladies, I'll need your help." The Irishman said, addressing the three women in the room. "I need a change of clothes and blankets for her. We have to warm her up so that she doesn't catch pneumonia or anything else." He pulled out a tiny bag from his pocket and used his wand to enlarge it back to it's original size. From it, he pulled out some bottles. "I'll also have to check her for additional wounds and stop the bleeding. You do not have to stay in the room when I do that if it makes you uncomfortable." He advised, his green eyes shifting towards the youngest female as he said that before shifting back to the others.
They were off. Lauren hurried into Sammy’s room to grab a selection of clothes, which would certainly be a bit big on the smaller girl but would do, while Cheryl ran into Ethan’s currently unused room to grab the blankets off his bed. They returned to the living room at about the same time.“This one is electric,” Cheryl announced as she unfurled it. She paused. “Uh, that means it plugs into the wall and heats up,” she clarified for good measure. “If that’s not enough, I think there may be more in the attic.”
Meanwhile, as the initial shock began to wear off, Sammy had the time to be suddenly and very deeply scared. She leaned against the arm of the couch, slowly sliding down until she was seated on the floor. Gia’s limp arm hung down beside her, and Sammy took a soft hold of her hand, ideally as a comfort to both of them. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered.
Bartley apologized to Gia as he used his wand to cut open her wet shirt and pants to remove them. Although he had done this at the hospital as a Healer, he felt a bit strange doing this in the living room with an unconscious relative. At least the friend had stayed in the room, making him feel less strange. It didn’t take long for the women to return. He thanked them for the items, but returned to look Gia over. Her body was already bruising from the fall, but he was more concerned by the multiple gashes that were in various processes of healing. “Oyi, Lass, what horrors have you been through?” He asked her as he pulled out bruising salve. She had clearly been starved for the time that she had been locked away and tortured. Her ribs stuck out against the bruising skin and her face gaunt from malnourishment.
He asked for additional help in sitting her up and putting the salve on her, but it didn’t take long before he had finished applying, had the deep scratching wrapped up in fresh gauze, and had her back into warm clothes and wrapped in a blanket. He pointed her wand at her to awaken her. Her blue eyes stared confusedly around for a moment. “Here Lass, drink this, it’ll help your body heal.” Bartley stated, putting a potion to her lips for her to drink. She gagged, but swallowed it. “Rest now.” He replied and stood up to let the girls have a moment.
“Hey, you,” Sammy said softly. She scooted up from the floor to sit on the edge of the couch, faintly wondering how, after seeing her like this, she would ever be able to leave Gia’s side again. Realistically, whatever she had been through, Sammy wouldn’t have been able to stop, but every instinct in her body screamed at her for not having the opportunity to try. “If you were wondering, you’re in my living room now. You’re… you’re safe.”
Everything hurt. Everything. And everything was so confusing. The last thing she remembered was being in the cold rain and hearing voices. Her Mana. She remembered her Mana…
She realized after a moment that someone was holding her hand and talking to her, Gia turned to see Sammy beside her and her heart jumped. Why was Sammy here? Was she taken too? Were they going to hurt her too? But her fear quickly diminished as Sammy assured her that she was safe and in her living room. Her eyes darted about again and recognized the room was, in fact, Sammy’s living room. “Jax?” She croaked, her throat raw and her voice barely above a whisper.
Sammy hesitated. “I haven’t seen him,” she said. “Your mom brought you here. Some guys were with her. One of them - Barlet? I forgot already - he’s around here somewhere. The other one left with your mom. Maybe they went to get Jax?” She paused again, biting her lip. “She said she’d explain when she got back, so… I don’t even know what’s going.”
Gia did not know who Sammy was referring to by ‘men’ that her mother had with her, but since she was now safely in Sammy’s house, the men must have been on the their side. She laid back against the couch and closed her eyes. It felt like a terrible nightmare, but the pain she was feeling, she knew that it had all happened. “Bad things… terrible things…” Tears leaked out of her eyes. She didn’t understand any of it, but she at least knew now why they had always been running. Quite suddenly, Gia began to sob. It hurt to cry and because of the pain, she cried harder.
For a brief moment, Sammy only blinked in surprise as Gia burst into forceful tears. She hadn’t given any answers, either, and the whole thing was just so ominous. Sammy recognized that getting the full story came second to letting her friend try to deal with the situation, but she couldn’t help but wonder what on earth was going on. Was this the sort of thing that magic brought on? With that thought in mind, for perhaps the first time, she felt grateful for her Muggleborn lineage. “Hey, hey,” she said softly. “It’s.. it’s gonna be okay. Whatever it is, your mom’s gonna take care of it, okay? Everything’s gonna be fine.” She had no evidence to offer, no reason for Gia to believe it other than trusting her, but she felt it deep in her heart. Everything always worked out in the end. It had to.
Gia appreciated Sammy’s words, but she wasn’t sure if anything would ever be okay again. She knew now why her mother had kept them in hiding for so long. She knew how evil people could be. She had felt evil, heard it, and seen it. Her body showed what could be done by evil. No, she didn’t think it would ever be okay again.
______
It took three days before Dahlia returned with Liam. Jax was not with them, but Dahlia quickly reassured her daughter that he was safely back in Ireland recuperating. Gia hadn’t said much in the three days, mostly she had slept and had nightmares and cried.
“Thank you all for taking care of Gia while we took dealt with Jax…” Dahlia sighed. “I owe you an explanation.” And explain she did. She spoke of her dead husband’s uncle who stole from dark wizards. She spoke of her husband’s death and Jax’s bite (with his permission). She spoke of how she had to hide her children from their families in order to keep them safe. She spoke of how, even after all this time, they were still pursued and that resulted in her children’s kidnapping. Dahlia also advised that those responsible have been arrested and were likely to be sent to Azkaban, the worst Magical Prison they had.
“They have been through a great ordeal, one that I failed to protect them from.” Dahlia sighed again. After all of this time, everything she had done had been for nothing. “It seems that the media has been informed of all of this and our story leaked. I have decided to bring Gia back to Ireland with me and her uncle. They...need their family now and some time to really understand everything that has happened.”
“For how long?” Gia asked. “School starts in a few days.”
Dahlia looked at her daughter, carefully considering how to respond to her. “For a long while at least. I think it’s best if you remain with the Donovans and finish school with a tutor.” Gia opened her mouth to protest but Dahlia stopped her. “Jax’s story is out, he will not return to Sonora. We can discuss you going back to Sonora after some time, but for now, we shall say our goodbyes to these wonderful people.”
Despite the excitement of Gia’s mom’s return and the incredible story she told, Sammy had been fighting to stay awake thus far. She hadn’t done much sleeping at all over the last three days, too worried and confused. However, this suggestion - this proposed goodbye of startling potential permanency - eliminated all risk of dozing off. “You’re not coming back?!” she gasped. Sammy wasn’t a crier, especially when her moms were around, so she did her best to push down all rising liquid protest, but her efforts were not entirely successful, as some resilience little rebel droplets made their way to the surface, without her truly realizing it. Guilt flooded over her for the difficulty of the previous school year, of her relative and lingering distance from Jax for much of it. “B-but I… you… I don’t…” Sammy stopped herself and took a deep breath. It seemed Dahlia’s mind was already made up, anyway. “I’m gonna miss you guys. Can we visit each other over breaks or something?”
Fat tears fell from Gia’s eyes when her mother told her that they would be leaving Sonora. Sonora was her home too and it meant that she may never see Sammy or Laila or Chuck or Sutton or Joella ever again! She shook her head at her mother, but Dahlia ignored her and answered Sammy’s question, “Yes of course, you and your family will always be welcomed. We’ll make sure that you see each other during the holiday.” Dahlia had no intention of separating her children from their friends permanently, but they needed time to process and to heal without being in the spotlight.
Gia hugged Sammy. It was tight and painful to hug her, but she didn’t care. “I love you.” She said, kissing her friend on the cheek through her tears. She quickly let her go though because if she held on longer it would be impossible to let go.
“It’s not the end, my love, just a different story.” Her mother stated. She thanked the two women once again and with a heavy heart, took her daughter away.