HUGH LAURIE!?!?!?!??!

"I--I understand," John replied quietly. "I have to ask you something though...do you know what has become of your older brother?"

Lumi looked up at him, with pity in her eyes. She swallowed. "You'd be happier not knowing," she told him. "Are you sure you want me to tell you?" She didn't want to tell him, but if he wanted to know that badly she wasn't going to keep it from him. She was just giving him the chance to not know.

"I do want to know," John replied. "No matter what it is." He thought maybe Rene was dead. Well he was dead, but his heart and brain still functioned.

"He's...he's in prison," Lumi told him, unable to look John in the face. She didn't want to see his reaction. "I don't know if you ever heard about the man attacking clio on Theodore Lane..."

John's eyes got wide and he couldn't help but stare at Lumi. "My son," he breathed. "Is that...serial killer?"

Lumi wished she could tell him that she was lying, that it was a sick joke, but she couldn't. "Yes," she whispered.

John swallowed the vomit that crept up his throat, and he allowed the hot tears to fall freely now. He buried his face in his hands, and wept quietly. He was sure Lumi felt awkward and uncomfortable, but he couldn't stop himself from crying. "It's all my fault," he cried quietly, mostly to himself.

Lumi sat there, as John expected, awkwardly and uncomfortably. But she couldn't blame him for crying. If she were him, she'd be crying too. So she let him cry. After a while, she hesitantly reached out and put a hand on his shoulder in an awkward, consoling gesture.

Eventually, John was able to control himself, and he looked up at Lumi with bloodshot puffy eyes. "Thank you," he whispered, thanking her for the awkward shoulder touch. "Lumi, I'm glad I got to meet you, and I'm glad that you're doing so well, maybe later on...you'll allow me to be a part of your family...but for now I understand why you wouldn't..."

Lumi didn't know what to say. Should she really let this man--who she had just met, who had abandoned her at an orphanage, who probably had a real family of his own now--into her life? Into her family? Did he really deserve that? Was it the right thing to do?

And to be honest, as angry as she was, she kind of wanted to get to know him too. Why? She didn't know. It was irrational. She should be furious, she should tell him to leave and never talk to her again. But this was her family history. There were things she had to know.

At the very least, she could give him a chance.

"John, I can't just...invite you into my family like that," she told him. "I mean, I don't even know you. So if you ever did want to meet them...well, I'd have to get to know you first." She cleared her throat and looked away.

"Well of course," John replied. "I'm just a stranger to you, but one day maybe I'll be a father instead." He smiled hopefully.

Lumi couldn't help but think, Don't get your hopes up, John, but at least she didn't say it out loud. Instead she changed the subject. "Well in order to get to know you, you need to tell me about yourself," she said. "What do you do? Do you have more family?" She asked as if she didn't care, but deep down she would be hurt if he had a new family.

"Well I own Mann Mannufacturers," John told her. "It's that business that builds apparments in Cuir, we're trying to expand, maybe start building here in Dahlin." He cleared his throat and took a sip of his coffee and spoke a little softer. "I do have a family, a wife named Joanna, and a son and daughter, Noel and Eileen..."

Yeah, that hurt. She shouldn't have asked. "Do they know...?" she asked in an unintentionally hoarse voice. She blinked back some tears. Even though it had happened years and years ago, she couldn't help but feel unwanted and resentful. He never came back for her, he instead just had a new family, and probably forgot about her up until now.

"No," John mumbled, shaking his head. "They do not know." What could he tell her, to explain to her why he didn't tell them about her? Why he didn't come back for her? Why he didn't look for her brother better? There was no way he could, no excuse, no story. Nothing.

Lumi shook her head and stood up, leaving her drink completely untouched. "I have to go," she said in an emotional voice. "Here," she haphazardly dug through her purse and pulled out a few dollars and dropped them on the table. "For the drink." She turned around and started walking away quickly.

John went to call out to her, but then thought better of it. Why would he expect anything else to happen? He abandoned her, he should expect this, an accept it.

He sighed sadly and payed for his own drink, then headed for home.

END