The Pearl of the of Sea

Chapter 36

    Tom slowly opens his eyes again and he's lying in a hospital bed, "Where am I?"
Steve puts his hand on Tom's forehead, "You're in the hospital, you fell down the stairs and hit your head. You had to be rushed to the hospital and get stitches."
Tom rubs his head and feels his stitches, "You know funny thing happened while I was knocked out, I was in heaven and mom was talking to me."
    "What do you mean mom was talking to you?" Steve scratches his head.
Tom smiles, "I saw her and she looked so good, she was happy up in heaven and she told me she wanted Neenah and Jeff to be together."
"She did?" Jeff responds.
Tom smiles, "Yes, I'm sorry that I acted like an asshole to you, Jeff. The important thing is if you make my sister happy that's all that matters."
Neenah hugs Tom, "Oh, thank you, Tom, you're the best brother any sister could ever ask for!"
Tom holds Neenah tight, "And you're the best sister any brother could ever ask for!"
Jeff walks up and hugs them, "So we can now all be a big happy family?"
Tom nods his head, "Yes, we can and I want to be your best man and you can be my best man."
Annemarie walks up to Tom, "So we're getting married?"
Tom touches her hand, "Yes, I want you to be my wife." He then turns to Jeff, "And I want Jeff to be my brother-in-law."
Annemarie grabs Tom and kisses him, "I would love to be your wife!"
Jeff then kisses Neenah, "And I would love for Tom to be my brother-in-law."
Tom goes to get up and he can't move his legs, "Well, I'm still paralyzed, in heaven I was able to walk."
Annemarie hugs him, "Maybe someday they'll find a cure for paralysis, but for now, I will still love you no matter what happens."
Tom lifts himself up and places himself in his wheelchair that's next to the bed, "Is it ok for me to leave the hospital?"
Steve looks towards the door, "The doctor said you would make a full recovery, you just passed out, luckily you didn't get any serious head trauma." Steve walks towards the door, "You stay there, I'll get the doctor."
"Sounds good to me." Tom watches Steve walk out of the room.
    As Steve is looking for the doctor he sees Mr. Noble and his wife trying to console their 13-year-old daughter as she looks at the cast on her arm. He sees that the daughter looks like a younger version of Mandy, so he says to himself as he watches them, "She looks just like Mandy when she was in middle school."
    Mr. Noble rubs his daughters back, "It's ok, Erica, you can still do softball next year."
    Erica cries and looks at her cast, "But we were going to be in the championship this year! Stupid drunk driver!"
    Mr. Noble hugs her, "I know, but you're alive and that's all that matters, we could have lost you."
    Erica puts her uninjured arm are around him, "I guess you're right Dad, thank God we're all alive." She looks over and happens to see Steve, "Dad, who is that man over there?"
Mr. Noble turns around and sees Steve eavesdropping on them, "Excuse me, sir, may I help you?"
Steve goes to walk away, "I'm sorry, you're daughter looks a lot like my wife who passed away recently."
Mr. Noble gets up and walks towards Steve, "What do you mean?"
Steve turns around, "My wife, her name was Mandy and she died of a drug overdose. When she was younger she was really good at softball. I met her when we were in middle school, but I didn't date her until high school." Steve looks over at Erica and back at Mr. Noble, "She was a great mother who sadly became addicted to prescription pain killers after she got an infection from her c-section. I miss her and wish she got the proper help."
Mr. Noble looks over at his wife and Erica who looked puzzled, "Can you please excuse us for a moment girls?" He pulls Steve to the side and whispers, "Hey, you're name wouldn't happen to be Steve would it?"
"Yeah, that's my name, why?"
"I don't know if you knew this, but you may have a stepdaughter, do you remember your wife being pregnant about 13 or 14 years ago?"
"No, but I remember she did put on weight a few years after our daughter Neenah was born, and then she lost it again."
Mr. Noble puts his hand on Steve's shoulder, "If I'm correct, Mandy must have wanted to hide the pregnancy from you, because she was raped."
Steve covers his mouth in shock, "Wait, what!?"
    Meanwhile, Jeff decides to hang out in the hospital lobby where he sees Michelle, who is standing there with her arms crossed, "So you guys were drinking?"
    Jeff walks up slowly to her, "Yes mom, Neenah, and I got drunk at Mike Sorrento's party."
    Michelle uncrosses her arms and puts her hands on her hips, "Did you drive while drunk?"
    Jeff shakes his head, "No, we walked to the hospital from Mike's house, he lives behind the nursing home that's next to the hospital."
"Well as long as you didn't drink and drive, then I'm not super angry, but I'm still a little disappointed that you're drinking underage."
    Jeff sits down on one of the chairs, "I think, Tom didn't want me to date Neenah because I was a rape baby."
    Michelle looks over at Jeff, "You told Tom that you were a rape baby!? Why!? That is not something you tell people, it's bad enough I told you!"
    "I kind of knew before you told me, these kids in school bullied me about it." He gets up, "I was hoping they were lying to get me upset!"
    Michelle hugs Jeff, "I love you, you know you mean everything to me!" she cries on his shoulder, "You made me a better person, I don't care how you got here, I needed you and will always need you."
    Jeff holds Michelle tighter, "I know, I just hate to believe that my father is evil, I want him to be like Steve Cashlin or Mr. Noble."
"But, unfortunately, he is not and that shouldn't matter."
Steve shows up in the lobby pushing Tom, "The doctor said it was ok for Tom to leave now."
Michelle lets go of Jeff, "Ok, well, I guess I'll see you guys later."
Steve walks away from Tom and towards Michelle, "We can talk for a bit if you want."
"Oh, ok, if you want."
Steve turns to his children and Annemarie, "Why don't you guys wait in the car for me, I have to talk to Jeff's mom a bit."
Neenah and Tom walk out of the hospital with Annemarie.
Michelle turns to Jeff, "Why don't you go with them too."
"Sure, see you in the car." Jeff walks out behind them.
Steve sits down and rubs his arm, "Mandy was raped a few years back and she had a baby, I met her tonight."
Michelle sits down, "What!? What do you mean!?"
"I have a stepdaughter, her name is Erica and she is beautiful like her mother was."
"Um...where did you meet her?"
"I ran into her here, she was with her adoptive parents, Nick and Gina. They helped Mandy deliver Erica, 13 years ago. Mandy told them she could not care for Erica like she should, so she gave her up to Nick and Gina to raise."
"I'm happy to hear she was adopted, hopefully, she's happy."
Steve looks down, "Yeah, they were very nice people, they seemed really grateful to have her in their life. They told me they had trouble conceiving and whenever they did conceive it would always end in a miscarriage."
"I'm glad to hear Erica is with good people."
Steve gets up, "Yeah, she seems happy, except they recently got in a car accident and Erica has to be out of softball for the rest of the season. She's really upset about it."
Michelle gets up, "At least she's alive, there's always next year."
Steve goes to walk out, "Yeah, true, not everyone gets a next year."
Michelle follows Steve out the door, "Life sure is a gift, many people seem to forget that."