nothingelsematters: (086)
Lorenzo Jérôme Chevalier ([personal profile] nothingelsematters) wrote in [community profile] muserevival2017-02-10 09:22 pm

Quote of the Day 019.

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
- Groucho Marx
mild triggering references

Some nights, having a sick baby could be really hard. For Lorenzo, it was the hardest part of parenting. When your baby cried because they were sick or in pain, it broke your heart if you had an ounce of decent parenting within you. Unfortunately, it was just a cross he had to bear. His little girl had been born with some health issues because her mother was a heavy drug user when she was pregnant. It seemed like such a battle back then. She had gone off her anti-psychotic medication for the sake of the pregnancy, yet continued trying to self-medication because staying clean with an untreated mental illness was too much of a demon to fight.

These days, when Lorenzo looked back on it all, it felt like someone else's memories. He was scarred from the ordeal, he knew that. He was scarred from Mara handing him the three week old infant and walking in front of a fast-moving bus right in front of him, taking her own life. Life had come a full circle and lapped itself since. He was now happily married to the love of his life. Lewis had adopted Holly as his own, and they had a content little family unit that Lorenzo cherished and never let a moment go by where he took any of it for granted.

Though, life still threw him some fucking nasty curveballs along the way. The most recent was learning his cousin was actually his twin brother via a scheme concocted by his mother who he was pretty sure had some level of brain damage from domestic violence, and most definitely Battered Person Syndrome. It was all a mindfuck. He was still trying to process it all, but he didn't think there was any point going off the rails and leaving the people he loved to deal with the mess. He didn't want Clint to think he was horrified at the thought they were fraternal twins and not cousins. Because he wasn't. All along, all through that, Lorenzo was a daddy first and foremost. That always came first. So, he had to keep his shit together for Holly as much as he could.

It wasn't a good night. Holly had a fever and seemed to have an upset stomach, but her medicine wasn't working to soothe it like it should be. She was crying her little heart out and the only way Lorenzo could calm her from distressed screaming was to nurse her and pace the apartment with her, rubbing her back and stroking her hair. Lewis wasn't home from work yet because he said he was would by the all-night pharmacy to get the script filled for one of the stronger medications Lorenzo like to ration usage with. She was still very young. He liked to try to combat it in other ways first. None of which were working that night.

It was about 9.30pm when his cell phone started to ring. It was right when Holly had began to settle with her head on his shoulder, her cries reduced to soft whimpers while her little hand was wrapped around the rose quartz pendant around his neck like it was a security blanket. The ring gave her a fright and she started to cry loudly again. Lorenzo caught himself before he swore harshly. She was at the age now where she was listening close to what everyone said and trying to repeat them. Their family - especially Clint - were all on high alert to watch their language because Holly had already gone and dropped and f-bomb in the bath one night, thanks to her uncle.

Lorenzo walked over to the coffee table, looking at the screen to see who was calling. He assumed it would be Lewis, checking something about the script but it was an unknown number. This late at night? He couldn't screen. Not after having lived through the ordeal of Lewis being kidnapped awhile back now. He was pretty sure he could never screen another call while his husband was at work again. The caller was just going to have to put up with a toddler bawling down the receiver as punishment for such a late call.

He shifted Holly to his hip and snatched the phone up. "Hi, yeah. Who is this? Don't you know the time?" he answered snappily. He hadn't slept at all the night before because Holly was grizzly. His patience was stretched.

"Lorenzo Chevalier?"

"Yeah. Who's this?" he repeated with a frown.

"This is Superintendent Malcolm Ewing. I'm calling from the prison your mother, Ellie-May Grace Chevalier, has been held."

Lorenzo stilled, hesitating. "H-Has been...?" he eventually asked.

"I apologize about calling you at this late hour, Mr Chevalier, and that this news has to be delivered to you via telephone but it's protocol to alert the designated emergency contact of prisoners as soon as possible." There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Your mother was murdered in an altercation with another inmate earlier this evening. Every attempt was made to resuscitate her, but unfortunately it was unsuccessful."

Lorenzo should be used to shock by now, but he dropped the phone and his legs felt like they were about to collapse out from under him. There was shrill ringing in his ears, and his vision was engulfed by a blinding white light. Luck was never something he felt he had on his side, but Lewis arrived home right at that moment. He was trying to call Lorenzo's name, but Lorenzo couldn't hear him. Lewis got to him in time to grab him and Holly before they hit the ground.

Shock could hit someone like a ton of bricks. Lorenzo could never have seen this coming, and it caused him to black out when his mind was, for that moment, incapable of processing this horrible news. Death was terrible, especially by murder, but sometimes being the one who was still living was so much more cruel.

lorenzo chivalier
- original character -