HEAL

21 -- ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

Harrison agreed that Laurent and Evelyn should fly to Las Vegas, they could be helpful with information about Marcus, Larry and Charlie.  Apart from the fact that they were threatening to kill people if they didn't get to go.  Harrison would rather that energy were channeled in the right direction, used to help rather than hinder, he thought.  Laurent only lived 20 minutes from L.A.X., so he agreed to meet Evelyn at the airport, so she could go home and pack quickly.  Graham had told Evelyn what had happened in Maddie's office, and his involvement in all of this.  All of it. The truth, at last.  He thought that keeping his wife and his daughter in the dark would be sparing them somehow, and spare them everything.  Anything. 

"When Laurent and I get back, and God knows when that will be, because I'm not leaving without Charlie, and he's not leaving without Larry, you'd better be gone, Graham."  

"Gone ..... I don't .... "

"As in packed and moved out.  I don't care where you go, or what you do.  You put our daughter in danger, not once, but twice !  She's still in danger, you do realise that, don't you ?!  How do you ..... how could ..... "  She couldn't even finish her sentence, she was that angry.  She glared at her husband, still moving quickly around their bedroom, pulling clothes off of hangers, throwing them in a case.  Striding to the bathroom, glass bottles chinking on a shelf as she quickly selected which ones she needed to take with her, throwing them into a bag too.  Graham stood, arms limp at his sides, just watching as his wife fell apart in front of him.  She was doing a bloody good job at hiding it though, and you would never have known from her outward appearance.  

"Evelyn, I didn't know !  You think I would've put Charlie .... "  She spun around to face him, in his face now too, spitting out her words.

"You knew what he was like.  You knew what he was, IS, capable of.  You think he's changed, just because time has passed ?  Served his time, he's a "social worker" now ?"  She threw parentheses into the air with her fingers to emphasize what a moot point that was.  She carried on packing.  "And apart from Charlie, what about Larry ?  And Laurent ?  Neither of them deserve this either."

"Well ..... "  She stopped briefly to look at him, her head slightly cocked on one side, 

"Well ?  You think they do ?  After what Larry has been through, Laurent putting his life on hold to care for his brother.  How do they deserve this, Graham, tell me."

"They were lovers" he says, as if this revelation should stop her in her tracks, make her reconsider everything.  Evelyn doesn't stop what she's doing, she doesn't even raise an eyebrow.  

"And who's indisputable, verifiable knowledge is this according to ?"  She zips up her case, throwing on a sweatshirt, pulling her long auburn hair up into a ponytail.  "Oh, please don't tell me, let me guess.  Marcus."  She glares at Graham, eyebrows raised in question, the first time she has been still tonight.

"You know what ?  I really don't care.  Good for them, they are lovely young men, and I love them both.  As long as Larry doesn't hurt Charlie, I really don't care.  And I really, sincerely believe that he wouldn't, not intentionally, and neither would Laurent.  And that's more than I can say for her own father."  She pulled her case off of the bed, patting herself, checking she had everything she needed, and flew down the stairs.  Graham stood, statue like, rooted to the same spot he had been in for the last ten minutes.  Evelyn's voice drifted up the stairs from just inside the front door. 

"Gone, Graham, I mean it.  I'll let you know how Charlie is, although you don't even deserve to know that."  He heard the jingle of her keys, and the slam of the front door, her footsteps as she got into the car, then as it drove away.