Patience

17

December 27, 2019

Tori didn't think eighteen days ago that she would've found a whole entire family but she did and she smiled when Lindsey and Stevie appeared in the doorway. 

"Hey, I'm almost done here." She smiles casting her eyes up at her parents.

"Whose..." The girl in the chair tries to open her eyes. 

"NO! It's my parents they're taking me to lunch. Keep your eyes closed I don't want to jack up your eyeliner." Tori scolds.

When she finishes she rubs the girl's shoulder and she stares in the mirror. 

"Oh wow coming in here and seeing all of the pretty girls and even you, I didn't think I'd even have a chance as a model but you...wow." She admires herself in the mirror.

"Well, thanks for the compliment. I get it from my mother, as for the modeling thing. Everyone is beautiful in their own way. Don't judge by what you see. Head right through that door and Lucinda will help you with clothing." Tori instructs taking off her black apron 

"Oh, cute outfit by the way." She smiles.

"Thanks, good luck." Tori waves tossing a strand of hair back. 

Today she's dressed in a black skirt that falls about mid-thigh with a little silver zipper on the front. Tucked into the skirt is a black tanktop with three tiny buttons on the front and since it's winter she's paired it with a black long cardigan that ends in the same place as her skirt and a pair of black tights. Her "signature" black suede velvet boots on her feet. Her hair is another story. It was a bad-ish hair morning. The top half of her hair is a disaster but the bottom half is perfectly fine so she threw it up into a half up half down bun. 

"It's cute but it's kind of short." Lindsey looks her up and down scowling. 

"Stop it." Stevie wacks his chest.

"I'm just saying. Come on, how long do you have for lunch?" Lindsey questions.

"Oh, I took a half a personal day. I'm done." Tori explains throwing her black pea coat over her shoulder.

"Perfect, I don't have to rush lunch, let's go get our blood drawn first." Lindsey motions with his head. 

***

Sitting in the doctor's office, Stevie's personal primary physician's to be exact Tori is bobbing her knees and twisting the butterfly ring. 

"Stop it, you're driving me nuts." Stevie places her hands on Tori's thighs. The family had decided that they'd get their blood drawn as soon as possible because Stevie and Tori, even though she won't admit it wanted to know as soon as possible. So before Stevie flies to Nashville on the 29th they were getting the test done. 

"I'm sorry it's just...i'm so close to finding out my biological parents but if it turns out not to be you guys then I'm back to square one and that scares the shit out of me." Tori shrugs. 

"Tori you are our daughter. I saw your birth certificate and it's identical to the one we started to sign before we gave you up." Lindsey explains.

"But there are like a million Stephanie's in the world and I can't make out the last half of my father's name it could be Lincoln for all I know." She bites her thumb. 

"STEPHANIE, LINDSEY, AND TORI!"  A nurse calls. 

The three of them follow the nurse back to the room and they all sprawl out. Tori takes the seat on the bed, Stevie grabs the chair, and Lindsey leans against the counter. It's tense in the room until the knock comes and an older man walks in.

"Hello, Stephanie." He shakes her hand.

"Hi, Doctor Peterman." She smiles.

"You must be Tori?" Dr. Peterman holds his hand out.

"Yeah. Tori Cryderman." She nods taking it.

"And Lindsey, it's been a while." He shakes Lindsey's hand. "So we're here to determine parentage is that right?" 

"Yes." Tori nods. 

"Alright, so basically what we do is we take a swab from the child, and then each of the parents. It's nothing bad it's just a swab of the cheek then we're going to draw some blood. We always like to perform two tests is simply that with the swab tests there's always the chance that we don't get enough Saliva to gather a decent reading of genetic material. So how do we want to do this?" Dr. Peterman questions.

"What do you mean?" Lindsey asks.

"I can do this two ways. The first is to take a swab from each of you and then a blood sample from each of you. Or I can start with Tori, get a swab and some blood from her, then move to Stephanie, and Lindsey. Or I can even start with the blood and then the swabs." The doctor explains.

"Whatever works for you." Tori shrugs off her sweater to reveal her arms.

"I'll just take samples from each of you." The doctor goes towards Tori and brings his table of supplies with him. 

"My veins suck, I do drink a lot of water, it's just even with all the water I drink normally the doctors have to dig. You have to use the Basilic Vein on my right arm." She holds it out for him.

"Wow, you know your veins." He smiles.

"I was always good in Anatomy and Physiology. Had I been able to afford it I would've gone to school to become a nurse but I couldn't so I ended up doing makeup and I'm content with it for now." She tells him as he disinfects her arm. 

"Well you're still young so you can always go back." He smiles poking her arm with the needle. 

She winces briefly at the poke but she watches none the less. And after the swab, the doctor moves to Lindsey, who looks at the doctor and says, "My veins suck too. You have to use the same vein as you used for her." 

After Lindsey and Stevie get their DNA taken the doctor lets them go and as they're walking out of the office, Lindsey simply wraps his arm around Tori's shoulder and kisses her head, Tori leaves hers plastered to his shoulder. 

"Lindsey, can we have Mexican for lunch?" She asks.

"We can. There's this Jose's joint a couple blocks away." He smiles.

"I don't think I've ever been there." She shakes her head. 

"Me either." Stevie places her hand on his free shoulder.