At first, it seemed her story had no affect on Olivia. Lita pressed her lips together and watched the scout with a critical eye. How could she have gotten what Liv was feeling so off the mark? Was it so dissimilar to what she felt, what she still feels all the time when she thinks about that day? Lita was about to fire back at her for the perceived smart-alecky way she retorted her "you're welcome" when Olivia opened her mouth to speak again. Lita expected some flippant quip or dismissive remark but to her ultimate surprise and horror, Olivia started to cry. In earnest. The poor girl was hunched over, wracked with sobs.
"Oh, shit," Lita swore to herself. What had she done? What was she supposed to do? Lita was barely equipped to deal with her own turbulent emotions, let alone someone else's. She was frozen, struck dumb with the intensity of Olivia's reaction. Obviously it had triggered something buried deep within the younger woman and now Lita half-wished they had talked about Mrs. Lungren. Except, hadn't her intention been to get Olivia to open up? To let go of that hostility and give up what was really troubling her? And what was this talk about Maizie? That comment had seemingly come out of left field. So even if the slightly hysterical, sad sobs coming from the younger women made Lita feel supremely uncomfortable and unsure how to proceed, she had opened this can of worms and was determined to set it to rights.
Lita stood and, figuring it was what a normal person would do when someone was crying, went over and sat on the bed next to Olivia.
"There, there," Lita said stiffly, trying to pacify her patient as best she could manage. She patted the girl's shoulder awkwardly, the gesture of comfort foreign and ungainly. Lita knew Olivia's ribs were probably screaming the way she was bent over like she was. She gently corrected her posture to alleviate the discomfort; it wasn't a hug or something similarly maudlin to comfort the girl, but it was what Lita knew.
"Now, what is this about Maizie?" Lita asked, shifting on the bed. "Are you two not friends anymore?" As far as she knew, Liv and Maizie were besties. Lita couldn't say she'd been paying particular attention to their friendship lately but now that she looked back on the interactions between them she had been privy to, maybe there was something different there? Lita had no way of knowing what Liv's attack by Las Nahuales and this crying jag all had in common and how, inexplicably, Maizie Wolfe found herself at the center of it but she was determined to find out.