LOVE, LEIA (letters to tom) • Tom Holland au •

TWENTY FOUR

Leia's first day went by more smoothly than she had expected. She made a couple of new friends, or acquaintances— as she preferred to call it. There were a few guys who'd hit on her, which was new because that doesn't happen very often to her back to when she was in New York. It was flattering and it boosted her confidence, but she only had one boy in mind. She'd simply turn them down by saying "I have a boyfriend", even though she and Tom never made anything official.

Suffice to say, Leia was in a better mood. Everything was going well for her and she couldn't possibly be any happier. That was until school had ended, before it all went downhill for her.

It started after her last class had come to an end, when she was waiting for her dad to arrive and pick her up, which he claimed he would be doing earlier that day through text. A minute of waiting turned to thirty, and an hour to three. She came to a realization that he was probably not coming so she found her way home by herself. It was hard of course, since she wasn't too familiar with the way, but she managed.

She got home with a frown on her face, upset— thinking that her father had forgotten about her because he was busy once again. But that wasn't the case. The house was empty, she was expecting to finally meet her father's wife and her half siblings, but no one seemed to be home.

Walking around the mansion and making her way to the kitchen, Leia was confused, even Keliana was nowhere insight, and knowing Keliana, that should say something.

A piece of white cloth placed on top of the kitchen counter caught her eye as she recognized it from earlier that day as her father's handkerchief, only that this time ot was different. Blood stained the former spotless cloth, making her eyes widen in shock as she recalled her father coughing quite vigorously.

She clutched the handkerchief in her hand, calling out loudly for anyone who could possibly be home.

"Jimmy!" she called out thrice before finally hearing the old man's footsteps rushing through the hallways.

"yes, miss Leia? I'm sorry, I didn't know you were home" he apologized immediately, taking in the young lady's look of worry.

"where's everyone?" she asked, not even bothering to correct the old man when he called her by 'miss', she had important things to worry about anyway.

A frown took over her face once more when Jimmy gave her a look of distraught, unsure of how to tell the oblivious one about the events that had recently happened.

"Mr. Cravalho was rushed to the hospital again earlier today, miss. I'm sorry you weren't informed right away. I was told that they'd tell you once you've arrived from New York bu-"

"take me to him" Leia cut him off, emotionally unprepared to hear the rest of the information he was bringing her

It felt like forever before she'd finally gotten to see her father, the rest of his family accompanying him. They all looked surprised once she arrived, as if they weren't expecting to see her there. Which pissed Leia off to an extreme, were they planning on not telling her at all?

"how is he?" she asked firstly, directing the question towards Keliana, as she was the only one she knew.

"he's currently unstable, but the doctors stated that we should expect him to at least be responsive later tonight" she explained, not filling in the missing details that Leia was dying to know.

"well?" Leia panicked, glancing hopefully at everyone in the room, waiting for an explanation. "isn't anyone going to tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Leia? Can I have a word, please?" Keliana asked, excusing the both of them as they exited the room

She led Leia outside towards the hospital cafeteria, the both of them taking a seat across each other.

"dad has stage four terminal lung cancer, Leia." Keliana stated, pausing to check on Leia's reaction, which she found extremely hard to read. "he has multiple lung tumors. The doctors claim that he has only about two weeks at most to live"

"since when?" was Leia's short reply

"a few weeks before I went to see you back at New York. But he was only at stage three then, I was going to tell you but he begged— where are you going?" Keliana was frantic when Leia got up, her face was emotionless, which made Keli worry even more.

"I'm going to go and call my mother. Let me know when you've all grown enough balls to stop keeping secrets from me" Leia sent her sister a glare before completely exiting the hospital.