No Shame (Book 2 - No Regrets)

Chapter Fifty-Eight - Can't Quit Now

DOMINICK'S POV

"Are you certain that's what she meant?" Tyde asks. She sets down the t-shirt she has been folding. Her arm reaches out and picks up her phone.

"What else could she have meant?" I ask, lowering the volume on my phone. Mollie is curled up asleep in the spot next to me on the bed.

Tyde shrugs and sets her phone against the wall of the room. "I don't know, maybe she was just angry and got caught up in the moment." She drops the folded t-shirt into a suitcase.

"Who got caught up in the moment?" I hear Linkon ask in the background.

Tyde glances over at Linkon and then back at her screen. "Dominick, do you care if I tell him?"

"Doesn't bother me." I answer.

Tyde turns back to face Linkon whose off-camera. "Katie, she and Dominick had an argument."

"Where she basically called me a dead beat." I chime in.

"Possibly implied." Tyde corrects. "I was telling Dominick that I don't think that was the case. That maybe Katie got caught up in the moment or something." She adds.

Linkon leans over into the corner of the camera's view. "Yeah, I don't think K-tie would ever say anything like that." He says.

"None of us ever thought she'd behave this way." I argue.

Tyde shrugs as she nods in agreement. Linkon leans back out of the camera's view. "I don't know." He says. "I know she's acting out and all, icing everyone out" His voice getting louder as he walks away from the phone. "Are you sure there's nothing more to it?"

"Like what?" I ask.

"I don't know what it could be," Linkon walks back. He steps behind Tyde, back into the camera's view. "I just know that I've seen your sister's anger and resentment before, and that'd not what I saw at her party." He says as rubs his deodorant under his arms.  

  I let out a deep sigh, remembering the conversation Linkon and I had the following day after Katie's birthday party. Truthfully, I wasn't very interested in talking about Katie immediately after meeting with my newly-ex-girlfriend. I tried to change the subject or push the topic off for a later date. However, Linkon stubbornly kept pushing the matter until I eventually gave. Hearing about Katie having a breakdown in the driveway added to the guilt that already weighed on my heart.

"Did Mollie say anything about the open house today? Does she seem to like her teachers?" Tyde asks, moving the conversation along.

"She said about as much as she usually does, but I think so." I glance at Mollie's sleeping form and adjust my phone to place her in view of the camera.

Mollie's silence happened gradually, those of us around her the most didn't notice it happening. Then one day, it hit us, the realization that Mollie wasn't acting like herself. She wasn't talking nearly as much to us and hardly at all to anyone else. Tyde took Mollie to the pediatrician to get her ears and throat checked one week. I took Mollie to a specialist the next week. Both found Mollie to be perfectly healthy. There is no fluid or damage to her ears, her throat isn't sore or red, and nothing abnormal showed on the results from brain-scan.

Our next step was to take Mollie to see a speech pathologist. We were in the process of trying to find one when Mollie went in for her routine-monthly-appointment with Dr. Rogue. Tyde had informed Dr. Rogue of Mollie's newly silent and reserved nature before the appointment. At the beginning of the session, Dr. Rogue made attempts to get Mollie to speak. She asked Mollie simple yes-and-no questions, Mollie only responded by a shake of the head. That'd when Dr. Rogue moved on to coloring, one of Mollie's favorite activities to do at the sessions.

After her session with Mollie, Dr. Rogue and I went into her office to speak briefly. Tyde joined the meeting over the phone. Dr. Rogue explained Mollie's silence as a manifestation of her pre-existing anxieties, which have seemingly worsened. She advised Tyde and I, while also still working to get Mollie to use her voice, create a new method of communication with Mollie. One that not only we can understand but others.

Creating a new method of communication has been difficult with Mollie being as young as she is. Having her write what she wants to say on a dry-erase board or in a notebook clearly isn't possible. We still haven't completely figured out a method that will work for everyone else.

Tyde getting called away to deal with the Ape's mess didn't help. His, now-ex, girlfriend moved out suddenly, leaving both him and their son. She gave no indication when or even if she'd be in touch. Despite Ape, Tyde, and even Linkon's attempts to contact her, no one has been able to reach her. As far as everyone knows, she's left the state.

  Tyde's helping Ape out during the day by watching the baby while he's at work. Linkon, though not entirely keen to be around his father or half-brother, is there as an extra precaution for the night.

"I will call to talk with her in the morning." Tyde says. "I miss her so much." She adds.

"She misses you to." I say, readjusting my phone to how I had it previously. "How much longer do you think you'll be there?"

"A couple more days, at most. I didn't schedule to be out of the office and working remotely for too long." She answers. "Plus apparently he's found and hired a nanny, she'll be starting middle of this upcoming week."

"Are you going to stay and make sure everything goes..." I take a moment to find the word. "..smooth?"

  Tyde shrugs and scratches her exposed shoulder, "Probably not. Linkon's close enough on base to keep everything under control."

"Yes, I've been volunteered to handle orientation." Linkon says from off-camera.

"Do you know anything about this nanny?" I ask.

"Not much. She's early twenties, lives nearby, okay with being paid barely anything at all and working terrible hours. She also apparently has great references, but seeing as it's him who vetted her, I don't have the most confidence." Tyde answers.

I chuckle a bit at the comment, "Well, I hope everything does work out." I say. "Look forward to having you back. Mollie's missed you a lot."

Tyde smiles a little, "And I've missed her." She says. "And you as well."

We smile at each other.

"It's fine, I don't like me either." Linkon chimes in sarcastically.

***AUTHOR'S NOTE***

Writer's block to the maximum. Literally, my brain rushed to produce words/ideas. I'll come back to edit /rewrite.

Hope everyone is doing okay during these times.

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