Pre-War part 7
"You married my daughter?" Katherine questioned causing Olivia, who had been focused on the kids to turn to the two, her eyes going to Lewis who gave her a discreet nod to play along. He was doing this to save her from Davis and anything else that her mother had planned.
"Yes, it's just something that happened." The older Stewart daughter added, "I stopped him from marrying Kathy. I came to realize that I loved him and that I wanted him for myself."
"You know it's funny that you call her your daughter now." Lewis started, "You wanted nothing to do with her until you heard that we got married."
Helen, who was talking to her husband and his brothers which included Olivia's father, James, smiled proudly, she had to hand it to both her cousin and her niece, they both thought very quickly on their feet and could twist things to make things better.
"James, they aren't married, Liv wouldn't do that to you or to the family.' She started seeing the surprise in her brother-in-law's eye turn to anger, "She told us before we boarded the flight about what Katherine was doing to her and Marla. Lewis is just trying to save her. He is pushing her to join the Army Nursing Corps as well."
Furious, James turned to his brother and uncle who had joined them, "You want my 18-year-old daughter to join the Army Nursing Corp? Are you out of your goddamn minds?"
"No," Finn started keeping his eyes on the trio, "You know your daughter just as well as we do, you know she isn't going to want to stay home and do nothing not with her brothers and the men she cares about fighting. And she won't take the money she has rightfully earned from Granddad, and she won't take money from the Nixons.'
"They offered?" James was floored, he knew his twins were close to the Nixons, especially Olivia. But he never thought that they would offer to pay for her education. Helen nodded her head in agreement, she had a conversation with her aunt and uncle while Lewis and Olivia were getting ready for the rehearsal dinner a few nights prior. And Stanhope had expressed his hope that his son would end up with Olivia.
"They were going to offer it to her in person after the dinner, but Kathy struck her." She had all the Stewart men's attention then.
"That woman raised her hand at Liv?" Michael asked peering around her to look at his niece who was being scooped up into a hug by her twin.
"She has a nice cut on her cheek from the ring.' She motioned to her cheek, "Though she handled herself just fine today. She almost broke her wrist when Kathy went to strike Lewis after she stopped the wedding."
James looked at his daughter and then at his sister-in-law, there were a lot of things that they were going to have to talk about.
** "Olivia Stewart!" A voice came from the top of the stairs causing Olivia to pull away from her oldest brother who was inspecting the cut on her cheek. "Faith Anderson!" Olivia returned, moving around her brothers and going up the stairs to hug her friend.
When she had first come back to Charleston after the fiasco with Evie and Bill, she had tried to hold Alice at arm's length, so she didn't get hurt again. But the girl pushed through the walls and was a constant when she was struggling with Fredrick's care. Faith's dark eyes shot to where Lewis was at, hovering behind her friend, like another shadow.
"This is Lewis Nixon, he's Aunt Helen's cousin. I was at his wedding.' Faith looked between the two confused, "Why is he here with you then and not with his wife?" "It's a long story, Alice." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "That I can explain."
The taller girl studied her friend for a long moment before looking at Lewis, "It's nice to meet you, sir."
"Don't inflate his ego." Bobby teased from where he was standing hanging their laughing nephew upside down his ankles.
'It's already big enough." she agreed with a nod of her head. "You are getting me right here Liv. I am hurt." Lewis complained, covering his heart with his hands.
"Love you." She grinned before taking her friend's hand to take her upstairs to talk to her. "Better be glad of the fact that I love you too." He returned, if he had been with his family, he would have been as open with his affection towards Olivia. But her family was a whole different story.
** The next morning ** James knocked on the door that led to his daughter's bedroom, he had given her time to get settled and get some sleep, he had known that she hadn't been sleeping well and he wanted to talk to his brother and uncle about her joining the Nursing Corp.
"Come in." She called and he pushed the door open, Lewis was coming out of the adjoining bathroom, fidgeting with the tie and Olivia was sitting at the vanity examining the healing cut on her cheek.
"Good morning, Bean. Lewis." He greeted; he hadn't been pleased when Helen told him that Lewis had been sleeping with his daughter, but she hadn't woken up the whole house with her nightmares. She seemed at semi-peace, and he would take that. "Morning Daddy. Everything okay?' she asked, turning to look at him.
"We need to talk about what happened in Phoenix and the Nursing Corp.'
"I will leave you two to talk about that.' Lewis commented before dropping a kiss on Olivia's forehead. "Don't start drinking yet, okay? Need you kind of sane to keep the wicked witch away."
"Of course, sweetheart." He winked before nodding his head at James and slipping out of the room. "You and him huh?" James asked, "Last you told me you didn't want to date anymore." "I can't explain it, Daddy," she started, "other than you and my brothers, he makes me feel safe and brings out a different side to me."
"What about Bill?"
"You didn't like Bill either." She pointed out, "And I am not going to marry Lewis any time soon. If at all. Kathy was a lot like Katherine. I didn't want him to live through that like we did."
"He is a big boy Bean." James started, "But if it had to be between him and Bill, I would pick him. Yes, you and Bill make sense but you two would be so unhappy. This isn't what I wanted to talk to you about. The Army Nursing Corp." There was a sudden spark in her eye that made him think he made the right choice. "If you want to join, you can. Andrea and I had a talk about it last night with your uncle Finn, Michael, and Elizabeth Forbes."
"The General is here?"
"Hmm, there is talk of her and Finn getting married."
Olivia bit back the rude comment that she had built on her tongue, "That is going to go over real well with Marie and her family."
"Got that right. They want you to stay here and finish up your schooling at a faster pace, you can get it done quicker without the distraction of Bill or the family." Olivia nodded her head, she didn't want to admit that she had missed being in Charleston. As much as she loved South Philly, being with her younger siblings and around the neighborhood, she missed being there with her grandparents and great-grandparents. "Andie wants you to come home for Christmas though. She is dead set on it."
"I can do that. Just no snowball fights. I don't think I have ever properly warmed up from the time that Nicholas dumped all that snow down my back." James laughed, out of his kids, Olivia was the only one who had an aversion to the cold.
The others adapted quickly to it.
"Bobby is already enlisting isn't he?" She asked after a heartbeat, "After school?" James nodded his head, he hadn't wanted to let him join after losing Nicholas but he had no choice in the matter.
"Finish getting ready, we have to leave soon for mass and I am sure Katherine is going to want to yell some more at you."
"I would have to be the Queen of England to have her stop yellin' at me. But I doubt even that would stop her." She stood up from her chair and smirked, "Let me tell her I am joining the Nursing Corp." "Bean, I know this is hard on you but please, please don't cause a fight that ends up getting the cops called here."
Though James knew that it was nothing new for them to get called to the house when they had something like this going on and with Katherine being around. ** Lewis wasn't surprised when Olivia appeared next to him at the dining room table nor was he surprised when she picked up his coffee cup that held coffee and Vat .69.
"What's this I hear about you joining?" Bobby started before his sister rushed across the room and clapped her hand over his mouth.
"Robert, shut up! Katherine doesn't know yet. I am going to tell her when the time is right." He bit back the laughter that bubbled up quickly, he only hoped that he was there to see Katherine's reaction to it. If the blow-up was anything like the one from the night it would be a sight to see.
"Do you know what you are doing? Joining?' he dropped his voice so only she could hear him.
"Do you?' She returned, "They aren't sending nurses into active war zones yet, or if they ever will. I'll probably stay here or be sent to Pearl to help with the hospital there. I'm more worried about you, our brothers, Lewis, Bill, and the other boys in the neighborhood than I am about me going to a military hospital to help wounded soldiers."
"God help anyone that came between you and one of your soldiers." Lee, their middle brother, commented from the doorway. He along with Edward had an unsettling pit in his stomach at the thought of their younger sister joining the Nursing Corp, things were constantly changing, and she could be shipped out to the Pacific where their brothers Daniel and James were currently in the Pacific.
And that scared him and scared Bobby, but their father had been right, Olivia was going to do this whether they liked it or not and it was better for them to know where she was than her up and disappear into the night.