Just a quick correction, in the last update, I mention Mean Joe Green as a linebacker...as a Miami Dolphin fan I should know better. He actually was a defensive lineman. Small detail, true, but an import one. I should know better. Also, I keep spelling "Pittsburg", It's actually Pittsburgh. Again a small detail mistake but one I shouldn't be making! Huge thanks to Biglefty for the help in catching these mistakes, it helps when I go to my editing when I do go mainstream with this series. Thanks!
CJT
Chapter 54
"Jack, how are you?" the Bishop asked embracing him.
"Not good sir," Jack admitted with a tired sigh.
"What can I do to help?" the Bishop offered sitting in a chair next to Jack.
"I need...guidance," Jack told him softly.
"I'm here," the fatherly man said putting his hand on Jack's shoulder.
"I lost a member of my church...there in my church," Jack told him carefully. Just mentioning it brought the full vision of her to his mind and he struggled to keep himself together.
"I heard,"
"I can't stop thinking of her," Jack said putting his face in his hands.
"I think that is quite normal, don't you?" the Bishop asked.
"Dan," Jack sat up and blew a heavy breath out. "I'm seeing her in my dreams."
"Again, quite normal," Dan told him gently.
"I'm seeing her when I'm awake as well," Jack admitted knowing how that sounded.
"Jesus Jack," Dan said shaking his head. "The woman died in your arms! If you weren't troubled by that? Oh my God, I would be worried!" Dan got up and walked around his big wood desk and pulled out a card.
Coming back around he handed the card to Jack and the priest looked at it.
"That is Father Sybian Woundi," Dan told him tapping at the card. "He is a psychiatrist and he deals with these types of things."
"I'm lost Dan," Jack admitted with a cracking voice. "I think I should leave the church."
"Jack, Jack, Jack," the Bishop shook his head. "No, I'm not going to allow that right now. I need you to talk to Sybian, I need you to work on yourself. I know you have been through a lot...Jack, prayer isn't the only thing you need. You have been through a traumatic experience. Seminary doesn't prepare you for what you went through."
"Dan," Jack wanted to admit all to him. To confess his sins of not only his dream but his feelings for her.
"Jack," Dan said softly, interrupting his intention. "Wait...right now you are lost...but God will guide you. If, and I mean if, your destiny lies outside the church then I will handle the details."
Jack nodded as he held the card. He didn't have much faith in anything right now. God? He was not taking his calls evidently. If He was, He would have saved Livy. Instead God took her and left him with the monumental guilt he was suffering.
***
Marylyn sat at the table, the bible open in front of her. Krista and her husband were at work, Trevor had gone out with friends. Alone in the quiet of the house she stared at her coffee cup and thought of it all. Her husband's heart attack. Her daughter's suicide. Her impending divorce. It all weighed in on her, crushing her. She got up and dumped her coffee in the sink and looked out into the back yard.
The sorrow of all that had happened these last few days weighed her down, her sleep wouldn't come and when she attempted to contact and talk to Rev. Sellers he was always busy. She needed his guidance. She needed his help and comfort.
She picked up her keys and walked out to her car. Driving to the hospital she didn't know what she was going to say to him. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. Krista had gone to talk to him but she said he wasn't up to talking yet so she didn't broach the subject of going home. She didn't know that was a lie. Krista didn't have the nerve to tell her that Alex was adamant that she wouldn't help her mother at all. That she was content to let her parents' marriage fail. That it wouldn't be broached until Al was better.
While she was out and seeing how she was going in that direction, she thought it might be a good idea just to check on the house and make sure the doors were locked and the windows were shut. She knew Al would be in the hospital for weeks so it was best to make sure everything was secure.
Pulling in she got out slowly and walked up to the door, her key in hand. The doorknob turned in her hand easily and it caused her to frown. She must have forgotten to lock it when she left, so she patted herself mentally on the back for a good decision to come check on the house. Something she was wondering if she could make now a days.
Opening the door she almost ran into him.
"Gavin," she said her mouth going dry. "What are you doing here?"
"Marylyn," Gavin attempted to smile at her. "Al offered to let us stay here instead of the hotel."
"Oh," she nodded. "I didn't know." She looked around apprehensively.
"She's gone to the store," he told her about Alex, reading her fear easily. "It's just me and Nora." It was fairly obvious she didn't want to lock horns with her youngest daughter today. Or maybe any day.
"Oh," Marylyn nodded. "I just came by to make sure the house was locked up."
"How are you?" Gavin asked her. She looked up at him shocked at his kind demeanor. She expected him to be standoffish or maybe even mean, but he wasn't.
"Not well," Marylyn admitted. "How is Al?"
"He's doing better," Gavin told her. "The tests are coming back better...still not out of the woods, but it looks better."
"So he is going to be ok?" Marylyn asked.
"Yes," Gavin said resolutely. "Time. It fixes a lot of things." The double reference was not lost on her.
Nora came downstairs and saw her grandmother and froze on the stairs.
"Hello baby," Marylyn attempted. Nora said nothing, she glared at her then turned and ran up the stairs, stomping her feet loudly to express her feelings. Marylyn brought a quaking hand to her lips. She bowed her head and let the tears that were blurring her vision come out.
Gavin took the woman gently into his arms and held her. She was shocked, she was expecting coldness, but Gavin was anything but.
"C'mon," he nudged. "Let's go outside and talk for a bit."
She let him guide her out and towards the rockers she and Al had used on many occasions on warm summer nights.
"You must think I'm a horrible person," she began after they sat down.
"No," Gavin shrugged. "I really hardly know you at all."
"I'm sure your opinion of me isn't all that great!" she coughed out a laugh to mask her sadness.
"Marylyn," Gavin began slowly. "How about I just reserve judgement for a while?"
"How is Alex?" she asked him.
"Devastated," he admitted.
"Is this my fault?" she blurted out with her tears. Gavin looked at her for a moment before answering. But the moment seemed like an eternity to Marylyn.
"There is enough blame to go around," he told her gently. She couldn't think about Livy without breaking down in tears and Al was tough to talk about as well. So she shifted her conversation to something that wasn't so painful.
"When will you give Nora back to Don?" she asked him sitting up and wiping her eyes.
"What?" he asked her.
"Don, her father, when are you going to let him take her?"
"I guess you haven't heard," he said, caution in his voice. "Livy's will stated Alex is to have custody of Nora."
"What?" she gasped. "Over the biological father?"
"He lost all rights to her when he sighed her over for the house," Gavin explained.
"She belongs with her family," Marylyn told him firmly.
She could only imagine what the church would say when they heard that not only was Don, a fellow church member, not going to get custody of his own daughter but he was losing her to a woman living in sin in the devil's lair! What would they say about her when she would be powerless to stop Alex from taking her, as there was no way Alex would listen to her mother!
"She is with family," Gavin said coolly, his eyes narrowing on Marylyn. "She is with Alex."
"I meant she should be with her father," she tried to justify catching the tone he was talking to her with. It was obvious he was on board with Alex keeping Nora. There was no division in them. Something she found surprising and a little refreshing as there was always some sort of bickering or division amongst her other daughters and their spouses.
Just then a silver Mercedes SUV pulled up and Marylyn swallowed hard. Alex's cold angry eyes leveled her from the driver's seat. She sat there in her car for a moment before getting out, debating on what to do. The first thought was to put the car in reverse and back out, call Gavin and tell him she would return when the bitch had left. She looked to Gavin and his eyes warned her not to start anything. She got out of the car, expressing her mood with an angry slam of the door.
She walked up with a resolute purpose, her eyes focused on the door of the house.
"Alex," her mother said softly stopping her. Alex didn't look at her, instead she stood staring at the door. She was afraid to look at her mother, the concern she would not be able to control her temper if she had to talk to her mother. "How are you going to work visitation for Don?"
"I'm not," Alex said still staring at the door. The words snapping off her tongue letting her mother know this conversation should be kept to a minimum if she was smart.
"Alex," her mother tried. "This family has been ripped apart enough."
"Yeah?" Alex snapped. "And just who is to blame for that?"
"You can't blame all of this on me!" Marylyn barked standing up. Alex head turned slowly. It reminded Gavin of Linda Blair in
the Exorcist
