Marisa Selwyn (a_singing_cat) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2012-02-03 00:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-08-30 |
At the end of it all who am I living for?
Who: Marisa and several NPCs
When: Evening
Where: UofM Hospital
Marisa was pretty sure that she hadn't slept. There was a brief bit of time that she'd lost between last night and now, but that didn't mean she'd slept. It certainly hadn't been restful if she had. How could it have been? The chairs weren't comfortable here in any sense of the word and there wasn't a chance she was going to shift. The Marsh's weren't her biggest fan to start with, but if they actually saw her as a leopard? They'd probably freak and call the police. Who couldn't really do anything to her. Marisa wasn't breaking any laws just by staying here and being worried about her son. She may not have had sole custody like she deserved -- not yet -- but she still had some rights. Pretty much any mother out there should have the right to stay in the hospital if their son was hovering in uncertain conditions since he'd been thrown through a storefront window thanks to some racists with access to bombs. Racists was the right word wasn't it? Marisa was a theater major, okay, she hadn't ever been the best with knowing what words worked where. She knew what sounded the best and that was about it.
That wasn't really helping her here with the Marsh's. They weren't listening to her. Every time that she opened her mouth Mrs. Marsh, whose name Marisa had known but she hated using or even thinking it, would interrupt her. More than once with the same statement about how Jacob would probably be fine if Marisa hadn't let herself be distracted by 'that scruffy man'. Marisa stopped even trying to tell her that Julian hadn't been there when it happened. She'd been texting him, yes, but Jacob's hand had also been firmly held in hers while they walked. How could she have been expected to do anything else? There hadn't been an advance warning that the street was suddenly going to turn into a scene from a disaster movie. It hadn't been on the flyers and Marisa sure as hell wasn't clairvoyant so she didn't know what was coming. No one had. She liked to think that if anyone had known about this that they'd have said something to someone. Something, anything, just so that so many people didn't end up hurt like they had. But of course, all of that didn't matter to Mr. and Mrs. Marsh. All that mattered to them was that Jacob had been with Marisa when it happened.
So, of course, that meant it was all her fault.
Marisa had sat there in the hard plastic chair at the corner of the room, red-rimmed eyes fixed on Jacob, determined to ignore everything that her ex-in-laws were saying about her. Why did they even need to say a thing about her? Wasn't it bad enough that their grandson was lying there in the hospital bed with tubes attached, blood dripping and his heart beat being measured on a monitor? Marisa thought it was. Her attention was on him, not on them. If her attention had gone anywhere else then it would have been to the previous day and the fact that Julian had kissed her. No, no focusing on Julian. Jacob's the important thing here.
"Hey." The voice caught Marisa by surprise, but it was a welcome relief and change from what else she had been hearing all day. She turned and gave a tired smile to her mom before reaching up to squeeze her tightly. "How's Jacob?"
"Stable," Marisa replied, turning back to face him. She kept her hand in her mom's though, not caring what anyone might say about that. If there was ever a time when a girl needed to cling to her mom then it was when she was going through something rough. That was right now. She definitely couldn't go over and get some comfort from Mrs. Marsh. Woman would probably stab her as soon as smile at her. "He hasn't woken up yet, though, they're not sure when he's going to. I mean sure, he's healing faster than any other kid will, but he's still so little." Marisa wasn't going to cry again, not here. The tears could just stop forming.
Felicity moved closer to the bed and reached out to smooth back a curly piece of Jacob's hair. "You'll be just fine," she told him. "Strong blood does that." Mrs. Marsh snorted and while Marisa glared at her, wishing that she wouldn't do that with Felicity there, Felicity ignored her completely. "Selwyn's are tough like that."
"Animals," was the hissed declaration from Mrs. Marsh.
"Excuse me?" Felicity turned, eyes narrowed and Marisa took a deep breath. She'd seen her mother's temper from up-close more than once and their being were's tended to be a sensitive subject for her. Which Marisa understood even better now than when she had been a kid. "I don't know your name or really much about you - but I've heard about that son of yours and I don't think that you have any room to be talking about what other people are or aren't. Especially when one of them happens to be your grandson."
Mrs. Marsh flared up. "My Timothy-"
"Is an ass," Felicity finished for her. "Who stabbed my Marisa because she wanted to see her son. Now. If all you're going to do is sit in that corner making snide comments and noises while we try to think good thoughts about Jacob getting better than I think you'd better go get something to eat. Hating takes up a lot of energy." Mrs. Marsh sputtered, but it looked like she wasn't used to be talked to that way. It took a minute before she made a 'hrumph!' noise and stalked out of the room with her husband on her heels.
Marisa let out the breath she had been holding and sagged back into the chair. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to say anything to get her out of here."
"I do, because I wanted her gone inside of five minutes." Felicity settled herself on the end of the bed and let the worry finally show on her face. "Are you okay, Marisa? You look exhausted and I know you didn't come home last night."
A shrug. "I'll sleep later. When I actually know that he's going to be okay."
Felicity nodded and reached back out for her hand. "I'll stay with you for a bit. Keep that harridan out of your hair."
"I'm just scared," Marisa confessed, feeling the tears that she had denied earlier starting to well up all over again. "What if it's too much? What if he's not okay? I don't know what I'd do, mom, I really don't."
"Shhh." Felicity grabbed a chair and pulled it over so that she could reach out and gather Marisa into a hug, squeezing her tightly while the woman cried into her shoulder. "It's going to be okay, Risa, it will." The words didn't really help, but she kept saying them over and over while she stroked her daughter's hair and then she started to hum the same song she had when she'd been little. For some reason that actually helped Marisa start to calm down. Ever since she'd gotten to the hospital yesterday she hadn't really been able to let it out, but with her mom there she could. It'd only be better if her sister was too, but she doubted that Cass was going to come back to Scarlet Oak over this. She'd moved back to New York for a reason and the last time that they'd talked she hadn't been able to completely understand Marisa going back. The whole son thing made sense, sure, but Scarlet Oak? Didn't. They'd always been really different.
Marisa's cries had stopped several minutes before her mother tried to say anything again. "Did I mention that I'm glad you're-"
"Mommy?"
Everything else stopped mattering. Marisa pulled free of Felicity and moved to the side of the bed in an instant, hand resting on Jacob's while she looked at his bleary, but open, eyes. "I'm here, sweetie."
"What happened?"
"Something bad. You got hurt, but don't worry. You're in the hospital and you've being taken good care of." She smoothed back his hair, carefully avoiding the bandaged spot, and gave a teary smile. "But you're awake now! That's really good. Grandma Felicity's here too. She was worried about you."
Felicity peeked over Marisa's shoulder and waved at Jacob, who tried to smile back. "My other grandma?"
Marisa's smile only faltered a little. It wasn't Jacob's fault that his paternal side of the family was, so far as she was concerned, full of bigoted losers. "Her and grandpa Marsh stepped out for a little bit, but they'll be back soon to check on you. How you feeling?"
Jacob shrugged his small shoulders. "Tired. Hungry. My head really hurts and my arm doesn't move right."
"It's in a cast, it got broken. But don't worry, you'll be fine soon. We heal really fast."
"'cause we're cats?"
Marisa and Felicity both smiled and chimed back, "Because we're cats." Then Felicity continued with, "I'm going to get a nurse."
Jacob immediately tensed. "Are they gonna give me a shot?"
"I don't think so, baby," Marisa assured him, still stroking his curly hair gently. She didn't want to stop touching him now that he was awake. She was terrified that he'd fall asleep again and not wake up this time. "But if they do then you'll be a brave big boy and take it, won't you?" Jacob sniffled, his bottom lip trembling, but he still nodded. "That's my guy."
And she didn't have anything else to say until the nurse and doctor came in, but even then she moved aside and stayed silent, just glad that Jacob was awake. That was always a good sign. He was going to be okay.
Maybe tomorrow she'd be able to start thinking about other things again; like classes starting up or what it meant that Julian had kissed her. If Jacob was still okay. It was funny how she hadn't realized until the explosion just how central he'd become to her life. When his small hand reached for her she moved without even thinking about it, taking the small palm in her own with a reassuring smile. Marisa really didn't think that she'd be able to handle losing him.