No party

[Lovely]

June 19, 2009
evening
Veinna Estate
follows: No promises


Scotty stared as the sting of the sudden slap lingered but Josie's presence and scent did not. She never walked out like that. He counted one-by-one for nearly ten minutes, expecting her to come back, turn around her point of view, or simply let it drop. She wasn't letting this drop and the concern that their daughter's malady was all too real began to chisel its way deeper. Scotty frowned, sinking slowly into a rounder slump over the desk until his forehead rested on his folded hands on the blotter where his fingers hovered over the appointment he'd scribbled down that was a single name - Kent - that had been underlined several times. His head rose, thinking he'd heard the door, but it was was still closed. Cursing under his breath he sat up, finished his drink and snagged the larger chip of ice with his tongue to help cool his own anger as he followed where Josie had gone, only to change direction and head toward Jaime's room. Enough was enough, he decided. He ushered himself in without knocking, hoping to find her in the act of diving back into her fakery, only to find her simply sitting there. He stopped at the doorway, wondering if she even noticed he'd come in.

Jaime had eaten her dinner without any interest, not even paying attention to what was on her plate though she cleaned it like a good little girl. When the family was excused she did as she had every night since they had sent Tripp away, she went straight to her room. The first week she'd spent in fits, crying, screaming, making daily visits to her father's office to beg him to allow Tripp to come back. Finally she'd realized he wasn't going to give in and she gave up.. on everything. She went through the motions but much of the time it was like there wasn't anyone inside, the light had gone out in her. Her eyes were dull, there were no cutting remarks, no tantrums, even the way she dressed had changed. Gone were the skimpy outfits, the lace, all the things that had made her Jaime. She sat in an arm chair, staring at the wall. She wore a long sleeve t-shirt that looked like it belonged to one of her brothers, jeans, white socks, her hair was down and her sneakers were off - those were the only changes since dinner. Her once tight jeans were now a little baggy, she was pale and looked exhausted even though she didn't do anything. She sat, she slept, she no longer shopped, socialized, worked, studied, read, or worked out and working out had always been something she loved and used to help get out her frustrations. Jaime heard the noise of the door and caught the scent of her father but there was no reaction to either for a few minutes, until he'd been standing there silently long enough for her to realize he wasn't going to walk back out. Jaime didn't look at him but said a quiet greeting. "Hello." Her voice was softer and lacked the fire and bite it once had.

"That's it? Just 'hello' is all you have to say to me? No 'Daddy, I think you're a... fill in the choice insult of the moment'?" He tried to tease with the usual banter, trying to spark the flame under her. His arms folded as he glanced at the time. "It's almost eight-thirty and you're still in your house clothes. Isn't there some party somewhere I'm supposed to try to talk you out of?"

She still didn't turn to look at him as she spoke another one word reply to his questions. "No." She had no insults to fling at him and honestly she didn't care enough to lash out at anyone, if there was a party she didn't know and she didn't care.

"No. I get no and that's all I get," he said, almost ready to start chuckling as hysterically as Jo had, humorlessly. He came in further and closed the door. "C'mon, sweetpea. I know you're not happy, but we can't always get what we want," he said, realizing wanting her to talk to him was just such a thing.

There was no sigh or eye rolling or stamping of her foot at his words but she did turn her head slightly as he came further into the room. "I know." That was the whole problem, wasn't it? She would never get what she wanted and needed.. nothing else mattered anymore. "I haven't asked for anything." She turned her attention back to the wall.

[Lovely]

"Today, no. That's true, but there's something, isn't there? Well I tell you what Daddy's going to do. He wants to make it all up to you, sweetpea. A big, bright party with lots of pretty flowers and cake. Heh, makes it sound like you're still my little girl, doesn't it? Well, you're my big girl now and I want you to have the best damned wedding ever. So... that's what we're going to do." He hoped the thought of flowers and every girl's dream day might break her spell a little, even though he hadn't let her know who the groom would be.

She was silent without any reaction to his words for several minutes, it might have seemed like she hadn't even heard him as she continued to stare at the wall. Even her scent remained unchanged, there was no emotion triggered by his idea. "I know I have to marry whoever I'm told to but I don't want any party or flowers or cake." She didn't protest, throw any fit, try to talk him out of it, demand anything, or beg him to change his mind. When she told him that she didn't want his party, she was indifferent, simply telling him she had no intrest in any of that.

"No par-... What do you mean, 'no party', honey? It's your wedding day. All of your friends and gossip and giggles and you get to have your hair done...? Well, you could anytime, but it's for -your- wedding." He still remembered his own wedding and how he hated the idea completely until he'd said 'I do'. He hoped that maybe there was a chance that she'd have the same revelation once it was done.

She stood up slowly and lifted the t-shirt over her head, taking it off one arm and letting it hang from the other. Her arms and torso were covered in bruises and marks from all the shots and samples the uncles had given or taken from her in the past couple of weeks as they tried to find out what was wrong with her. "My hair is falling out." She reached up to show him with a gentle tug and a small clump came away in her fingers. The indifference was there again, even with her hair caught in her fingers, it had once been something she took great pride in. She pulled her shirt back on and sank down into her chair. "I'll do whatever you tell me to."

What his brothers had done was just as inexcusable as it was necessary. The marks from their attempts made him ill and angry. She was nearly as limp as the hair she held out and let fall to the floor and he felt some part of himself dying just looking at her as she collapsed back in her chair. He shook his head and stood straighter. "A little spray or whatever, he won't even notice," Scotty said, looking at the jeans, the socks, the plain and drab outfit that was overall as lifeless as the rest of her. He couldn't believe he found himself wishing she had on something lowcut or highcut or cut in any fashion to accentuate her natural, graceful beauty. He felt the lump tightening in his throat as he heard Josie's voice threatening him with funeral arrangements. He wasn't going to let Jaime continue on like this, but he wasn't giving in, either. "Sweetpea, what I'm telling you to do is come back to this family and put some Veinna pride back on instead of...," he motioned to her outfit, trying to find something helpful. "At least some cashmere? For Daddy, honey?"

She glanced down at what she was wearing, she saw nothing wrong with the outfit she had on. "No. This is comfortable." She spoke softly, her hand ran lightly over her other arm and she shook her head slightly. "This is all I have left. Father." She didn't call him Daddy, which she did even when hurling insults or telling him she hated him.

She called him 'father' in a cold and disconnected way that made him feel as though he wasn't even in the room with her. He looked around at her things, some that she'd had since she'd been in pigtails. The girl that fought her younger siblings to keep them wasn't in the girl who sat in the chair in front of him. Scotty sighed and wished he'd had his drink with him. He was going to need another to wash the lump out of his throat that was becoming painful now. His eyes began to burn. "You have everything you ever needed, honey and anything else you're going to ever need. He's coming tomorrow at two."

[Lovely]

"What I need is not coming tomorrow at two." The voice that spoke was disconnected, pretty much monotone, with no passion in it. She was simply stating things, not saying them with any emotion. "Whoever he is.. he's not my soulmate. Material things and arranged marriages can't and won't fill the void of losing Tripp."

"You didn't lose something you didn't have, Jaime. He used you to get at this family and he's not coming back to hurt you anymore. Kent's a very nice man and he'll do everything he can to make you happy. That will make Daddy happy, too, sweetheart. You should get some sleep and you'll see it brighter in the morning, okay?"

"I had him.. for a year.. I had his babies and I had his love.. I know you don't believe it or understand it.. or accept it and you never will. You have mom.. you have no idea what it's like to lose that person who makes you complete. I wouldn't wish this on you.. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy now that I know what it feels like." She finally brought her gaze to him and it stayed there for more than a fleeting moment. Her eyes were empty but for the hint of the pain she'd burried so deep it took everything else with it. "I know you're trying to help.. but nothing makes it any brighter or better. I wish it did." She sighed and shook her head a little, her gaze went to the floor. She was basically emotionless but she wasn't playing games and her words were honest and sincere. "You'll warn.. this Kent about the marks? We don't want to frighten him.. you'll want to get him ear plugs.. they tell me I scream when I sleep."

"I'll warn him. Wil should know so he doesn't kill the boy," Scotty considered under his breath, becoming worried now for Kent's own safety and psychological health. He hadn't broken the news to him yet about Jaime's special traits or her bodyguard's and didn't think he'd have to so soon. "He'll know what he needs to know beforehand. Most of those should be healed before the big day. Richie will take a look at them, I'm sure."

"Warn him about the marks." She repeated softly, her head shook again and she realized that her father wasn't aware of how bad she'd gotten. Jaime wasn't surprised they hadn't told him the extent of things, probably hoping to have her 'fixed' before he knew. "Tyler and Aless have been at me daily.. this is better than what it was.. I tore myself up pretty badly a few times in my sleep.. They had to replace the chair and the table.. I guess I tore them up too." She gave a weak gesture to the two items she mentioned and told him of the horrors of her sleep and why Kent should be warned. It was like she was saying there was a crack in the sidewalk not talking of night terrors and hurting herself. "I haven't been healing quickly or well even with thier efforts."

He hadn't noticed that the items were replaced but stared at them as she explained the rest. Her deep feral side was taking over the survival instincts to keep her going but her human side seemed so very lost. He spoke now from some distant page he read in his mind, planning out loud for her. "Restraints if they have to... Aberto will try a different sedative to help you sleep, honey. The nightmares have to stop and the marks need to heal. And you have to want them to heal, okay? Do that for me? Kent will be here tomorrow and I want you to be kind, not scare him, okay?"

She couldn't promise him everything he asked for, she just didn't have it in her to want to heal - all she did want was to be left alone and to disappear into the chair she was sitting in. She didn't tell him that because she knew how he'd take it and she didn't have the enrgy to try to explain to him again how empty she was without Tripp. "I can't promise that I won't scare him, but I won't do anything to purposely try to scare him. I don't really think I scare anyone like this or can.. not that I want to anyway."

[Lovely]

Scotty nodded. He couldn't ask much more of her for fear she'd implode and leave a pile of dust on the chair. "Alright.. okay. You do that for Daddy. Don't scare the good boy away," he mumbled, swatting mentally at the tiny voice that told him the one he'd scared away needed to come back like Josie warned and hoped. "You try to put a smile on for him tomorrow. I'm going to find Aberto now to get you something to help you sleep so you're dazzling for him, okay?"

It was impossible for her to become dazzling in a single night from the place she was now, no matter what Aberto gave her to sleep. Jaime really didn't think she had to explain that to her father, he was smart enough to know it even though he hoped for such things. "Will we be eating lunch? If not you'll want to let Aberto know so they can adjust my daily shots and shakes." She had resigned herself to enduring the efforts of her uncles and the way she existed now until she finally withered away to the emptiness that replaced the pain which was slowly eating her away.

"After lunch, sweetheart. It's more of a tea and social. Think you could force yourself to endure a cookie?" The tone was a little sharper than he'd intended it to be, but his patience was thinning and the scotch was wearing off.

His sharper tone didn't seem to bother her at all and she simply nodded to his question. "Yes, I wasn't trying to be difficult. I apologize if you thought I was. They watch me eat.. they thought I wasn't eating or throwing it up after."

"Well he's not going to watch you eat or not eat, but Aberto probably will. You're not being difficult, you're just... you need to rest, okay? Get your pj's on and get comfy. Wil should be outside if you need anything else, okay?" He hoped she'd ask for something, anything, even a glass of warm milk.

"Wil is always outside." She scooched down in the chair a little, tipping her head back to rest against the cushion, her hands folded across her tummy and her eyes closed. She knew well that Wil couldn't bring her what she needed so she simply kept that to herself. "Good night, father."

"Don't...!" His voice raised and he paused, finding his hand pointing to her and threatening... threatening what? She wasn't being condescending, she acknowledged him albeit absently and now she was dismissing him. He harumphed and his shoulders fell, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. The room was filled with the stale scent of hollow apathy and it was making his own head spin. "Don't stay up too late, okay, Sweetpea? Alberto will be up soon." He turned and stopped at the doorway a moment, hoping she might try to stop him or challenge him.

Her eyes remained closed and she didn't so much as flinch or shift as his voice rose, he paused and finished and then she nodded slightly. She had planned to simply go to sleep where she was - with or without Aberto's sedatives. She didn't say anything else or try to challenge him in any manner, in fact during the whole interaction she'd been very compliant with everything, including the arranged marriage, the only thing she'd really objected to was the big party and hoopla - even that objection was mild. Her actions and reactions were so far from the girl she'd been just weeks before that most of her family was highly concerned about that alone.

[Lovely]

He slipped out the door, shutting it as quietly as the pent up aggravation would allow. It didn't rattle the walls, but it was clear he'd left her to her thoughts and moved quickly down the hall to find her uncle. Scotty returned to his office first, foregoing the ice in the glass he refilled from the half empty decanter. The glass was finished neatly but nearly spit back out in a ball of fire as his thoughts fumed and spiraled. He leaned on the desk and pulled the stopper to pour another glass, staring at the black console that would be used in a few short hours to confirm the appointment and summon his daughter's new fiancee. The intercom button came into focus and Scotty found himself pressing it and barking for Aberto to meet him in the office. He wasn't tracking anyone down tonight, he'd decided, topping his glass and stoppering the decanter again before sliding back into his chair. He always thought best in his chair, staring at the door Josie still had not come back through.

Aberto wasn't expecting to be barked at but obeyed the command from his brother, sighing as the intercom went silent again. He didn't bother replying but two minutes later he knocked on Scotty's office door, he did have an idea of what this might be about though he hoped it wasn't what he thought.

"Get your fuzzy butt in here. I need to talk to you," Scotty said, calling him in. He was sulking and curled down in his chair like a little boy ten sizes too small for it. He glanced up hoping Jo might be there with his brother, even though her scent was fading from the room and was not lingering near the door now.

Aberto was alone, Josie had not been anywhere near him since dinner and he was not aware of the disagreement between her and his brother or the fact that she'd moved out of thier bedroom. "Yeah, I got that with the barking and all." Aberto tried to kid a little as he gestured to the intercom and sank down into a chair on the other side of the desk from Scotty.

He looked across the desk at his brother like a man nearly defeated, but revving up like a bull pushing dirt with his hoof, only he didn't snort yet. "I want you and Richie working with Tyler, Alessandra and your full arsenal to heal those scratches by noon tomorrow. At least get the bruises looking less like bruises. She looks like the boys tried to tear her apart. If you can give a f*cking happy pill, do that, too."

Aberto sighed and his head dropped a little, his hand wiping over his face - it was exactly what he'd hoped it wasn't about. "Jaime." He said quietly and shook his head. "It's beyond my power to heal her Scotty. I have been working and giving her everything I have and can think up to try to make her better. Her body won't heal. Those bruises have had hours and days of attention."

"Make it heal," Scotty insisted quietly, folding his palms together in front of his face. "She has to at least look the part of the strong Veinna woman she is.. by tomorrow. Pull out your bag of tricks and make it happen. She's got to snap out of it. If it takes drugs, do it. If it takes a miracle, I want you, Richie, Mandy... Agnes and Henry if you have to... to get your asses in the chapel and pray all f*cking night, but she's on her feet tomorrow and back to being the sweet and sly girl we know."

"Scotty.. I suggest you start praying and pray hard. I can't heal what wont be healed. I can't even find anything wrong with her.. no reason at all why her body won't heal, why she loses a few pounds a week even though she eats anything we put in front of her, drinks three shakes a day, gets multiple shots.. I've been at this for weeks, putting it above my pregnant wife who is not feral but is having our first child who is feral. At first, I thought Jaime was faking it and if I poked her with enough needles eventually she'd get annoyed and show some spunk. Day after day, hours of tests and nothing.. she doesn't even flinch."

Scotty stared across the desk expecting Aberto to combust any second though he had no such talent to make it happen. "I suggest you listen harder. Multiple shots aren't enough, then give her more. Get the girls to cover her bruises and dress her in a few layers tomorrow. I'll forgive showing her off to her fiancee like a nun if I can keep her from looking like a corpse! If she has to be high to look happy, then get her revved and keep her revved. Her hair is falling out. Fix it or get her a goddamned wig. She is going to impress and not embarrass this family. Is that understood?"

[Lovely]

Aberto laughed and shook his head a little, his brother had finally turned into thier father. "So you don't care if she is a walking corpse as long as she doesn't look like one? Well perfect.. you don't need me at all. I don't do hair, make up or dresses.. get Jo to help you." He stood up and turned for the door. "By the way, she's already on a triple dose of 'happy pills'.."

"Don't you leave yet," Scotty warned. "If triple isn't working, triple it again. What I want... what I reaaaaally want you to do, is find something that makes her forget that bag of dogfood... that so-called father... that 'nothing' that has no business in her life or in any part of this family. Can you do that? Huh?"

He stopped, sighed and then slowly turned around to look back at Scotty. "That is also beyond my power unless you want to pretend we're several decades back in time when we could give daughters a labotomy if they didn't behave how we wanted them to."

"Don't tempt me," he pointed, sliding out of his chair and coming up to his brother to speak face-to-face. "Your suggestion, my idea. A block of some kind, anything, anyone we have out there that can..," he paused, his finger fiddling in air around his head. "Dig in there and keep her from thinking about it a while. I'd sic Rory on her, but it's not the animal in her misbehaving, it's the human being unreasonable."

"Scotty.. when you saw her.. did you touch her?" He didn't believe Scotty had, because he believed if Scotty had felt her pain he would understand what was happening. "This isn't her being unreasonable.. if anything she's behaving better than she ever has when it comes to doing obeying the rules."

"Not being unreasonable?" He laughed, clawing down his face with his fingertips as he growled at the ceiling. The redness in his eyes showed the exasperation he'd tried to hide, the feral senses in himself threatening to rip apart everything in the room any moment. "Aberto, -that- is not my daughter in that frail shell up there. She's not obeying the rules, she's doing nothing to disobey them. There's a difference and that's what's unreasonable. She IS defying every attempt I've made, that Jo's made, that you and Mandy have made and you tell me she's not being unreasonable? She's not healing because she doesn't f*cking want to... so MAKE her want to!"

Aberto's hand clenched into a fist and his nostrils flared with the frustrated sigh. "The one being unreasonable here is not your daughter, it's you. I can't cure a broken heart Scotty. No matter how much you hate the guy or how much I love his DNA.. none of it matters to your daughter who loves him. It's your decision to send him away and I'm not questioning it. But you can't just order Jaime not to hurt.. She's trying so hard not to hurt and to just survive.. I can't give her what she needs.. only you can. You said you won't and she's trying so hard not to feel that pain that she can't feel anything - no pill is ever going to cure that."

Scotty turned away to look for his scotch. He leaned on his desk, staring at the decanter a long moment before reaching to refill his glass. "Don't give her any more shots," he said softly, hoping that on some level it was a help, a respite from the damage he was causing her himself. He studied the amber in his glass that was darker without his usual ice. "Tell me what she sees in him, Aberto."

[Lovely]

Aberto sighed and rather than finishing his journey out, he stayed in the room with his brother. "Tell me what Josie sees in you.. what Corey sees in me.. It's not all about what we see on the outside Scotty.. she's just as feral as you and Jo only feline.. it's deeper than what most people feel or see in each other. You know that well enough being feral. It's raw, it's basic.. it a pull and a force of nature. She's very strong and like it or not so is Tripp.. He's her mate Scotty.. sending him away doesn't change that."

"It has to change because she's marrying someone else. It all changes tomorrow," Scotty explained, taking a sip of his drink as he slid back into his chair. He looked at his brother with slight disgust beneath his curiosity. "What about his DNA?"

"Seriously Scotty if you had to marry someone else tomorrow would it change at all that Jo is your mate?" He shook his head, knowing that Scott could hardly argue with such logic. "Marry her to who ever you want.. it won't change a damn thing... and you don't even want to know about his DNA.. you've seen your grandchildren and they couldn't be more perfect inside or out.. that's half his doing. I had dreams of litters from them.. he was an amazing edition to the gene pool." He cleared his throat and half chuckled. "I'm going to stop talking about him like that, now."

"I'm almost sorry I asked," he scoffed, opening his locked drawer for an unopened bottle. Skipping the decanter, he cracked the seal and poured directly to his glass. He held it up, offering his brother some as well. "Share a glass before I finish it off? I'm marrying her off to a sensible, bold, wealthy... sonofab*tch she couldn't care less about because she cares about nothing but that slime. Even if it's slime with good DNA, he hurt her. He hurt my girl, took something from her and bent her all the way around him in ways I don't want to even think about and I can't wash him out of her mind. He's a stain, Aberto."

Aberto kept most of his thoughts to himself about who he felt had hurt Jaime more in this equation. "Well I guess everything is all... planned out." He really had nothing he could say about Scotty's plans since this was the first he was hearing of it and he had no tests of this wealthy s.o.b. who would be joining the family. "No thanks." He waved off the drink, he wasn't interested in drinking to this news.

"A-yup," he said, popping the 'p' as he pouted a little more. "Planned out, decided and done. He might not have ... beautiful DNA for you, brother mine, but he's worthy of my daughter. Trust me."

"If you say so.. It's not my decision to make." Aberto shrugged and sighed, it wasn't the choice he would have made if it was up to him. He was also kind of put out that Scotty hadn't even consulted him about this guy he was marrying Jaime to. "If there is nothing else?" He rose up again, thinking it was best to leave Scotty to his drink.

"What else would there be? You can't help her and can't help me, so...," he shrugged, himself, and sat back with his glass, staring into nothingness now. Jo had told him much the same as Aberto and he was done listening. If they weren't listening to him, he had nothing more to say. His daughter wasn't going to settle for someone so beneath her... beneath them.

"Scotty you are the only one with the power to help your daughter. Tripp passed every test we gave him and did on him with flying colors. You're choosing to be stubborn and are blinded by your pride." Aberto delivered the words calmly and with a certain amount of sadness in his voice before he walked out the door, closing it behind him with a soft click.