Perhaps One Day

tests and talks

There was a pause in the room, the only sound being Rora's quiet mumbling and her blocks clinking together.

Giada nodded, "Alright."

And so they went from there.

~~ Time skip because I'm not a doctor ~~

It's not that Giada was uncomfortable being here, but there were certainly better places she could think of being, like the couch; or her bed, or even the damn kitchen - she had always found a certain calmness in the kitchen, but being forced to be there took that all away.

The tests had gone smoothly, both for her and Rora, which she was thankful for. She didn't think she could handle more turbulence at the moment; everything from the past few days was just catching up to her, and she felt exhausted in all sense of the word.

The mother-daughter duo both had their blood drawn, and Rora reacted exactly how she expected; crying and holding onto her mother for dear life. But then she got handed a cookie by Rocco, and everything was fine.

When Giada had shown Rocco the few still healing wounds on her body, he looked about ready to kill someone. It frightened her, sure, but she knew that rage wasn't directed at her. She had seen the same look on the others when she came down for dinner the previous night. In a sense, it was nice to know that now there were other people who would be enraged on her behalf and not just Nuka.

Speaking of Nuka, the first thing she had done when she got back to her room last night was put his number into her contacts. She texted him, filling him in on everything that had happened. He responded immediately, literally not even a minute after she sent the first message. He made her promise that she would call him today so he could see her and Rora and "check up on my girls" as he put it. Whether or not she blushed when she read that, no one would know.

Now Giada, Rora, and Ambra were all sitting back upstairs in the living room with the rest of the family. Giada was sitting on the ground, leaning against the couch, talking to Rocco who was sitting across from her. All of her other immediate family was also sitting on the floor, wanting to learn more about the young duo. Of course, Viz was sitting right next to his twin, their dad sitting on her other side. Rora was in the middle of the circle, closer to her mother, still clearly wary about being surrounded by new people.

Everyone else, all the cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents were seated on the couches behind them; all-in-all, the room was very full.

Most of the conversation had been them telling her about the activities around town and the things that they wanted to show her. It was definitely something she was looking forward to, she wanted to bond with everyone, but especially with the women in the family since there weren't very many to begin with.

But now it was obvious that the conversation was taking a turn, one she wasn't sure she wanted to have in front of everyone. She knew they were concerned, she knew that. Viz had told her, Rocco had told her, and her mother had told her. She understood, but that didn't mean she was eager to have the conversation.

After a long moment of silence that was only filled with questioning glances between her family, she sighed and spoke up.

"You might as well ask what's on your mind now."

Their eyes focused on her for a moment, before going back to trading glances.

Eventually, her father spoke up from beside her. "Can we talk about your life in Greenland?" He looked down at his hands that were in his daughter's grasp, her fiddling with the rings on his fingers. He would admit that it made him feel nostalgic - she would always pull and tug on his fingers as a toddler, refusing to let him get any work done. Apparently, some things never change.

She just gave him a nod and muttered yeah, keeping her eyes on Rora.

"They made you do things for them around the house right?" This time it was uncle Remmi who asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much everything. Cook meals, give them beer or Whiskey; it depended on their mood which was pretty easy for me to decipher. I also paid the bills, boarded the windows they broke, dealt with whatever wounds they had, and did whatever else they asked. So- like I said- pretty much everything."

She looked up suddenly, toward her father whose hands she was still holding, "Do you pop your knuckles?"

"... Yeah, I do," he told her with a nod, his eyebrows furrowed a little. Where was she going with this?

A little smile made its way onto her face before it turned sheepish as she whispered, "Can I pop 'em?"

A surprised huff of air escaped him in lieu of a laugh, his lips turning up as he nodded and whispered back, "Of course you can." And he reveled in the dimpled little grin she gave him before turning her attention back to his hands.

"What did they ask you to do? If you're alright with telling us." 

She felt herself stiffen up and her fingers stalled.

It was silent, all eyes on her. Her form was still as stone, her breathing slow - perfectly timed like she was purposely pacing her breaths to keep herself calm.

"Jeg vil ikke sige det højt.," was all she said. Viz and Alessandro just looked at each other while the rest of the family's gazes flicked between the three of them wondering who the hell was going to translate what she just said.

It took a moment, but a soft voice broke her out of the intrusive touches that were invading her mind, "Hvad hvis jeg siger det højt, og du bare be- eller afkræfter det?" Alessandro asked

She just nodded her head, trying to force her thoughts back. She wanted them to get the confirmation she knew they longed for, but she didn't think she could handle saying it out loud.

Her father had wrapped his closest arm around her shoulders, hand cupping her bicep, gently prompting her to lean into his side, her head resting on his chest, knees curling up to her chest. He didn't like seeing her like this. He hated it, actually. Compared to how she was a moment ago, enraptured with the rings on his fingers, now she looked like a husk of herself. And god did he hate it.

Alessandro's careful voice came a few moments later, "Things... sexual things? For them?"

The only thing keeping her grounded at the moment was her father's thumb stroking her arm and Rora's weight as she climbed into her mother's lap.

"Yeah," she pretty much whispered. Federico looked up from his daughter and granddaughter and nodded to the rest of the family who hadn't heard her response. His eyes sought out his father's and found the older man already looking at him with a look on his face that promised retribution for what had been done to his only granddaughter.

None of the family should have been surprised. Malik had told them his suspicions from the very beginning of that phone call. And yet... hearing it confirmed by Giada herself. That brought a whole new level of rage onto every one of them.

"Was it for Pavel and Anya? Or were there others?" this time it was her eldest brother, Giovanni. God as fucked up as it sounded, he hoped it was other people. That the people who were supposed to be regarded as parental figures by Giada hadn't let her down that horrendously.

"Both. They were their Russian friends... their 'men' as Pavel would call them," the family stiffened a little at that, she noticed, "They would come to the house several times a week, sometimes just to hang out, get drunk, mess around. Other times they would have hours-long meetings." That was where she learned Russian, listening and serving those in the meetings for hours on end.

After all, why would they suspect the little girl they had groomed since childhood?

Meanwhile, Federico's train of thought was a little different:

'Men'.

Meetings.

Russian.

This was not looking good.