Work Text:
Janine rings the doorbell at Melissa's row house at exactly five-thirty.
She shuffles from foot-to-foot, flexing her hand around the strap of her tote bag.
She sees the shadow of Melissa approaching the door, then opening it, sticking her head through the crack.
"Hey Janine, did I not text you to cancel? Well tha's alright, I'll just cancel now, so, bye-"
She goes to close her door, and Janine sticks her foot in the way.
"Ouch!"
"What the hell, Janine?" Melissa exclaims as Janine pushes in. "What're you doin'?"
"I know we just had a discussion about boundaries, but you look, well, dishevelled."
Melissa raises a brow, and Janine winces a little at the expression.
She's not wrong though; Melissa's hair is thrown into a lopsided ponytail, and she's wearing a pair of leggings and an extremely faded college jumper.
"Look, kid, I've got shit to-"
Janine hears someone retch, and Melissa utters a Sicilian curse, turning on her heel and running to the bathroom as Janine hears someone clatter down the stairs.
"Ma, is Dom still hurling?" she hears a voice yell.
Janine whips her head around to see a teenage girl jogging down the stairs.
Her hair is brown, in two long braids down her back, skin slightly bronzed, wearing a navy jumper and grey sweatpants, along with the boot version of Uggs.
Wait.
Ma?
The girl, who had approached the bathroom door, backed away, nose wrinkling.
"Yep, he's definitely still hurling."
"Um, hey?" Janine says, lifting a hand in hello.
"Hi," the girl says, "you must be Janine, right?"
"Yeah, I'm Janine Teagues, I work with your- your mom?"
"I know," the girl says brightly, seemingly unfazed by Janine's surprise at her existence. She reaches a hand out. "I'm Lucy Russo."
"You're Melissa's kid?"
"One of 'em."
Melissa appears a moment later, before Janine can ask another question.
"Listen, Lucy, I gotta bring Dom to the hospital, I think he's got appendicitis, but I'll get Barb to come over and keep you company, a'ight?"
"No, Ma, I'm comin' too."
"You have an exam and training tomorrow hon, you need to sleep."
"No, I need to come with you to make sure Dom's okay."
"Lucy-"
"Papà always says I'm as stubborn as you, and he's right!"
The two of them have a stand off for a few moments that feel like hours to Janine, standing in the middle, and Lucy crosses her arms over her chest.
"Ma, I'm goin', okay? You go without me and I'll take my bike there."
"Caru Diu, tu sì veru comu a mia," Melissa mutters.
Lucy grins. "You love me though."
Melissa rolls her eyes. "Go get Dom's crutches from his room while I get him in the car and call your dad, but if it gets too late, I'm sendin' you home."
"How?"
"Barbara."
"Um, Melissa," Janine says, and the woman turns and blinks in surprise that she's still there, "Barbara's out for dinner with Gerald and Gina tonight."
"Fuck."
"I can drive Lucy home?" Janine suggests. "I can come to the hospital to, get you guys anything you need."
Melissa eyes her for a second, and Janine's convinced she'll say "no", but instead a stilted "fine" comes out.
"You should probably drive us there too," Lucy pipes up. "Ma's road rage is a sight to behold, but I'd prefer we all get there in one piece."
"Get your brother's crutches, you!"
"Alright!" Lucy says, raising her hands in surrender. "I'm right, though."
She runs through the kitchen to a door beside the one to the bathroom as Melissa shakes her head. "God, that kid."
Another figure appears before Janine can ask any of the mounting questions she has; a boy who looks a but older than Lucy, who she presumes is Dom.
His hair is darker, almost black, shorn close to his skull, and he's slim, t-shirt loose and hoodie hanging from his frame - though he looks relatively healthy for a guy with appendicitis, so maybe it's a style?
A glint of metal catches Janine's eye, drawing her gaze to a brace laid over jogger, reaching his mid-thigh.
Her eyes flick back up, and guilt wriggles in her lungs when she realises Dom saw her looking.
"'s fine," he says, sweat at his brow, clutching his stomach, "everyone does it."
"Got the crutches!" Lucy exclaims.
"Let's go," Melissa says. "You better drive fast, Janine," she growls.
Janine's out the door with Lucy and Dom on her heels, Melissa locking the door and hurrying to the back to help Dom in.
"Ma, wait, I'll get in the back, you sit up front and call dad."
"Fine, make sure to strap him in, okay?"
"I know, I know."
"And keep an eye to see if he's seizing!"
"Why would he-?"
"Not the point, Janine, drive!"
So she does.
In a moment Melissa is on her phone as Janine drives to Temple University Hospital, and she hears the phone ring out, and pick up with a low, distant voice:
"Hey, Mel, what's up? I still have the kids this weekend, right?"
"Joe we're on the way to the hospital."
"What?" The panic in his voice is nauseating, and Janine presses a bit harder on the gas. "What's goin' on Mel?"
"It's Dom, I think he's got appendicitis," Melissa says - Janine catches her glancing back. "We're bringin' him to Temple-"
"Ma, he's seizing!"
"Janine, drive!"
The waiting room is cold; sterile. The floor is white linoleum, and the walls need a new coat of paint badly; grime collecting in some places, kids' doodles on others.
"He'll be alright," Janine says, entirely too aware she doesn't know that.
The doors they took him through have remained closed for a really long time, Melissa gone with him, refusing to be left behind.
"You don't know that," Lucy says, "but I think he'll be okay, too."
Janine turns her head to Lucy, who's staring straight ahead, eyes rimmed red.
"Sicilians, generally we're pessimistic people; but Dom's been through so much that if appendicitis gets him it'll be a joke."
She laughs, brittle.
Janine tenses her brows, needing desperately to soothe the hurt.
"You're mom said you had a test tomorrow? And training?"
"Yeah," Lucy looks to her with a tiny small, "AP Human Geography test and ice hockey training after school - gonna get into AP Global History from Human Geography in the next year or so, though; they don' really let freshman's do it."
"What's the test on?"
"Population and Migration," Lucy says with a shrug. "It's sorta common sense for the most part, but it's interestin', and bisnonna always used to say common sense ain't always that common."
The thickening in her accent makes Janine smile.
"Anything I could help quiz you on?"
"Nah," Lucy says, "I'm good, I studied with my friend Eden after school today in the library. Was gonna stay at hers, actually, but her littlest brother got chicken pox and the house is apparently a mess."
"Lucy!" a voice hollers.
A man, harried looking in a firefighters uniform, with a grey five o'clock shadow along his jaw, skids into the room.
"Through there, Dad," she says, pointing to the soluble doors, and he sprints through them.
"So that's Melissa's ex-husband?" Janine asks, before she can stop the words from falling out of her mouth.
So not the point right now, Janine.
But also, why does it seem like I know nothing about my friend? Co-worker, even? Instructor in culinary pursuits?
"Yep, good ol' Joseph Russo," Lucy says, "dear old Dad. The man with only a little bit of a plan."
"Sorry," Janine winces, "that was a super inappropriate question."
"It's fine; I don't really care." Lucy huffs out a sigh, looking at the ceiling. "He only stuck around for about four five years after I was born anyway; got with Nina a few years later, and the rest is history."
Janine shifts in her seat; Melissa would hate her knowing all this.
Lesser evil it is, then.
"So is it just you and Dom?"
Lucy grins for the first time since the hell started. "No, there's six of us in total."
"Six?!"
"Yeah." Lucy smirks, so reminiscent of Melissa that it warms Janine's chest. "First is Joseph, Joey for short, then Francesco, or Frankie, then the twins; Gianna and Giovanni, but everyone calls 'em Gia and Gio, and then it's Dom, then me. Dom's short for Dominic, and my name is Lucrezia, after my bisnonna."
"That's a big family."
"Nah, not really; Ma has eight siblings and dad has seven."
"What? Oh my God, I thought it was just Kristin Marie and her."
Lucy laughs. "Ma told me what ya did with Kristin Marie and the gnocchi; I cannot believe the nerve."
Janine's cheeks flush. "I just know I whish my sister and I were closer, but that's not the point; I overstepped."
"Ah," Lucy says, waving a dismissive hand, "in Sicilian families that's all ya do."
A little silence follows, that Lucy soon pierces.
"Dom was born really early," she says into the quiet, rain dropping in still water; rippling out into the world. "Like really early. Ma and Dad don't really talk about it much; it was really hard for 'em both. I think he was between twenty-four and twenty-six weeks. Somewhere about that. Has Cerebral Palsy. It's why his leg's in that brace. He's got epilepsy too; the fever was why we were worried he'd seize, and he did. He almost died when he was born; came really close all the time, but whenever he gets sick, it's some sort of nightmare where everyone is terrified he'll have to be put on a ventilator and pumped with drugs like when he was a baby."
Janine opens her mouth to respond, but Lucy stands abruptly.
"I'm gonna call my siblings, and get some coffee, you want some?"
"I can-"
"No it's fine-"
"It's what I'm here for, really-"
"No, Janine," Lucy says, "I need a walk alone."
Janine sits and watches her go, helpless all the while.
"Hey Janine!" Jacob calls out, his face illuminated purely by the light emanating from his phone. "I was just rewatching Avatar, what are you up to?"
"I'm at the hospital," Janine says, "with Melissa and her kids."
"What?" Jacob's eyes are comically huge. "Hospital? Melissa? Kids? What's going on, Janine?"
Janine sighs, looking at the ceiling and then back at her phone, where Jacob's panicked face resides.
"I went over to Melissa's house for a cooking lesson and met her two youngest kids of six."
"Six?" Jacob says, eyes bugging out of his head.
"Yeah, six; Lucy, the youngest, said it's Joey, I think, then Frankie, then Gia and Gio, then Dom - he has appendicitis, that's why we came in - and Lucy."
"Oh my God, how did we not know this?"
"I know, right? Like who hides their whole family? Who manages not to talk about their kids at all at work for the last, like, two and a half years?"
"That is wild," Jacob says, "I can't believe Melissa has a secret family."
"It's not a secret."
Janine jumps, her phone tumbling from her hands.
She lunges for it, banging her knee, then says: "gotta go" to Jacob.
"So. . . did you happen to notice that, or?"
"You mean you gossiping to Jacob about my personal life and then cracking your phone?"
"I cracked my phone- damnit!"
"Yeah, I noticed," Melissa says, rubbing a hand across her forehead.
Janine stands up, sheepish, wiping her unoccupied hands on her pants, after setting her phone aside.
"Look, Melissa, I'm sorry-"
"Nah, don't be, I figured you'd tell everybody you came across," Melissa says, sitting on one of the stupidly uncomfortable plastic chairs.
"How's Dom?"
"He'll be alright," Melissa says, "his dad's with him right now in recovery; only one allowed in at a time."
"And you let him?" Janine asks.
"Eh, we arm wrestled but he tickled me so he won."
Janine has nothing to say for that.
Melissa huffs out a breath. "I don't talk about my kids because I like to keep my personal life separate from my work life. I told you that. It's how you stop yourself gettin' burned out, how you stay intact working. Course, youse new kids made me merge shit and forget about all o'that. I voluntarily gave you cookin' lessons for God's sake."
Melissa lets out a small laugh.
Janine waits, taking a seat.
"I don't hide them, I just try an' keep those two parts of my life separate. Barbara and Mr. J and a lot of the other teacher know; I mean, Barbara's the one who delivered Lucy."
"What?"
Melissa waves a dismissive hand. "It was PECSA weekend; anything can happen. The point is, I wasn't tryin' to leave you out or anythin' by not telling ya; I just didn't really think to."
"But how come you like never talk about them?" Janine asks.
Melissa gives her a side eye. "Have you ever heard me talk about my personal life with youse?"
"That is a fair point," Janine says, nodding.
Melissa sighs, taking Janine's hand and giving it a little squeeze before letting go. "Look, for one time, and one time only, I'm gonna let you ask me anything you need to get off your chest, a'ight? I have veto power though."
"Really?"
Melissa rolls her eyes. "Yes, really, now shoot before I change my mind."
Janine takes a very quick moment to think, aware that Melissa might change her mind in a moment, and speaks.
"How old are your kids? What do they do? Did they go to Abbott? Why did Barbara deliver Lucy-?"
"Woah, one at a time kid," Melissa says, a weak chuckle following. "There's Joey, he's twenty-five, in his third year of Med school at Johns Hopkins, wants to be a paeds surgeon, do a subspecialty in neuro. Frankie's on his last year in Julliard for a Music Degree. Gia's in her second year at Drexel doing Joint Honours Gender Studies and Political Sciences as an undergrad for Law. Gio's in his second year at Drexel, too, for English teaching. Do-" Melissa's voice cracks, and she clears her throat. "Dom's a Junior, he wants to be a nurse. He's always said that they help the most. Lucy's a Freshman, as I'm sure she's told you, and she's talking about going to the Fire Academy after school. They all went to Abbott-"
"Oh my God! I remember you talking to her in the halls last year," Janine says, "I just thought she was one of the kids you gave some advice to, not your daughter."
Melissa nods. "Yeah, I get that; she looks more like her dad than me, in all fairness."
"She has your eyes though," Janine says, "not the colour, but the shape; plus the cheekbones, too."
Melissa nods, looking at her hands and then back up again at the wall across.
"So," Janine prods tentatively, "Lucy's birth?"
Melissa laughs. "Middle of the night, my water broke, and there wasn't enough time to get to a hospital." She shrugs.
"Oh my God, that's wild."
"Wild," Melissa echoes, shaking her head. She tilts her head at Janine.
Maybe it's obvious she's bursting with a question.
"Can I see pictures?"
"Of the birth?" Melissa asks, nose wrinkled.
"No, of you and your kids!"
Melissa takes out her phone, scrolling for a moment, then tapping.
"Here," she says, tilting her phone towards Janine. "Lucy's Middle School Graduation."
Lucy's at the centre, wearing a dark red dress under her gown. Melissa and Joe are behind her, the prior in a red dress, the latter with a red tie. In fact, everyone is wearing something red. Dom, who's beside Lucy with an arm around her shoulders, is wearing a white shirt and jeans, but has a maroon tie on. On Lucy's other side, there's a boy and girl, both young adults, who Janine presumes are the twins. Both have dark auburn hair and green eyes, the first with tousled wavy hair and square glasses, in a shirt and red jumper and pants, the latter with a blunt, slightly wavy bob wearing a red blouse and black skirt and boots. Beside Dom there are two other younger men. The first is a guy with curly dark hair and some facial hair and circular silver glasses. He's wearing jeans, a Henley, and a dark red blazer. Beside him a guy with a slight beard and brown hair, and rectangular unrimmed glasses, jeans and a crisp shirt and a crimson tie. He has Melissa's nose, but Joe's strong jaw.
"Who's who?"
"So, left to right," Melissa says, leaning over Janine's shoulder, "it's Joey, then Frankie, Dom and Lucy, then Gio and Gia."
Janine hesitates a moment, then asks the question that's been pressing at the seems of her mouth.
"Lucy. . . Lucy said that Dom's birth was a difficult one."
Melissa stills, and Janine can see the convulsion in her throat as she swallows, and the tension that greets her jaw like an old friend.
Guilt gnaws at Janine for saying anything, but the need to find, to fix, wins out.
"Look, I'm sorry if me bringing it up upset you, but sometimes talking about this stuff helps, you know?"
"I know," Melissa says, slow, eyes glued to the photo of her family. "I say it's stupid but I know."
"You can talk to me, you know?"
"Janine."
Her voice is sharp.
"I don't talk about that."
The barest tremble.
"I don't talk about Dom's birth. I don't talk about it. I do not mention it. I do not think about it. Well, I do think about it. Almost everyday, I think about. But I don't talk about it. I will never want to talk about it. Nobody talks about it. We don't talk about it-"
"Okay," Janine breaks in, seeing the white knuckles.
Melissa pulls her phone away, looking at the wall. "Look, I'm sorry, it's a rough subject."
"No, it's fine-"
"Ma?"
Lucy appears, one arm full of vending machine crap, the other balancing two takeaway coffee cups.
"Hey bambina," Melissa says, standing up.
"How's Dom?" Lucy asks as she awkwardly holds out one of the cups for Janine to take.
Janine grabs it from her carefully, then the sweets which she puts on the chair.
"He's fine, just in recovery now with your dad."
"Can I see him?" Lucy asks.
"Sorry, kid, but it's just one visitor at a time."
"Okay, then Papà can leave, Ma, I've gotta see him."
"Lucy. . ."
"Ma," Lucy says, "I need to see him."
Melissa sighs. "Look, I'll get him on the phone when he wakes up and you can talk to him, okay? I don't want you seein' him like that."
Lucy's jaw clenches like Melissa's does when she's annoyed.
"Fine," she forces out.
"You go home with Janine, a'ight? You need to sleep," Melissa says, pulling Lucy close and kissing the crown of her head.
"Fine," Lucy grits, pulling away and walking towards the exits.
Melissa sighs, rubbing at her forehead. "Thanks for taking her home, Janine."
"I'm sure it'll be fun," Janine says, leaning awkwardly to the side.
Melissa scoffs. "A moody teenager and you in a car with a lot of sugar? Sure, hon."
If there was a camera, Janine would've looked to it as she said: "Yeah. . ." as Melissa walked away.
The drive is mostly silent, Lucy aggressively chewing on jelly snakes and brooding to such an extent that the tension is almost unbearable.
By the time they get back, Lucy's eaten through the bag, and is onto the sour gummies, her coffee half-finished.
"You wanna come in?" Lucy asks.
"Um, sure, yeah, I'd love to keep you company."
They go inside together, Lucy with Melissa's keys.
"Do you want leftovers?" Lucy asks. "We got ziti and bolognese, lasagne, and, well, everything to be honest."
"I'll reheat the bolognese," Janine says, "and then we can have something to eat."
Lucy slumps into a chair. "I've eaten jellies. I'm good."
"You can't just have sugar for dinner."
"You sound like my Ma."
"I sound like an adult."
"Damn. Guess you're old."
Janine shakes her head, rooting out the food to reheat, then plating it up, taking some mozzarella out if the fridge.
"Let's eat!"
Janine digs in alongside Lucy, who huffs out a sigh.
They finish in silence, dishes going to the sink as someone bursts through the front door.
Or, rather, two someones.
"Don't push me Gia!"
"I didn't push you."
"Yes, you did."
"Oh my God-"
"Gia, Gio?" Lucy calls out.
The two come rushing into the kitchen.
"Ehi, soru picciridda chi succedi? Unni sunnu Mamma e Dom? Sunnu ancora ô spitali? Arrivàu papà? Sta beni? Non dissi a quali spitali jiri."
"They're still at the hospital," Lucy says. "I wasn't allowed to stick around. Dad showed up, but I told you that. Dom's fine, don't worry, he's in recovery."
"Who's that?" Gia asks, pointing at Janine.
"Oh, hi, I'm Janine," she says, giving a little wave. "I work with your mom."
"Oh, cool!" Gio says, reaching out a hand to shake. "I'm Gio, it's nice to meet you."
"Lucy said your name she knows who you are," Gia says, wrinkling her face.
God, she looks like Melissa.
"I was bein' polite! You should try it some time."
"Eh, shut up, Gio."
"It's nice to meet you both," Janine interjects. "Have you guys had dinner?"
"Yep," they say.
"Crap takeout pizza," Gia says.
"Very crap takeout pizza," Gio agrees.
"Well," Lucy says, "lucky for you two, I got jellies, chocolate, and crisps!"
"And crisps?!" Janine asks.
"Didn't have enough hands so I shoved it under my jumper," Lucy explains, shrugging.
"A Schemmenti-Russo Family Feast?" Gio asks, a twinkle in his eyes.
"Ft. Janine," Gia adds.
"Indeed," Lucy says, putting her hands together like a cartoon villain.
Melissa's kids are insane.
Amazing, well-raised, beautiful, hilarious and more adjectives, but insane.
Certifiably.
Turns out a Schemmenti-Russo Family Feast (ft. Janine) is exactly what you'd think, but somehow more extravagant.
Every sweet is dumped out into a different bowl on the centre table in the sitting room, and the first Rocky movie is playing loudly.
Popcorn has also been made, with various drinks poured (all nonalcoholic because Janine felt she should at least try to be a responsible adult) and Joey and Frankie taking part via Zoom, the prior with his girlfriend as of 2018 (Lucy might be a bit if a gossip) on-screen too - an artist called Arya who currently has a paint splatter streaked across her forehead.
Halfway through the movie, Melissa calls, and Janine slinks through the open-plan house to the backgarden.
It's freezing, but probably worth it.
"Hey, what's goin' on?" Melissa asks, voice crackling over the phone.
"Well, Gia and Gio came home, and all three of them are having what they called a Schemmenti-Russo Family Feast ft. Janine-"
"Ah, so a Rocky marathon, lots of crap food, and a Zoom with their other brothers?" Melissa asks, voice fond. "And no sleep in sight for Lucy?"
"Well, yeah," Janine says, "I'm sorry, she just point-blank refused, and she seems to be enjoying herself, I think it's calming her down-"
"Yeah, I know, I've decided I'm not gonna send her into school tomorrow anyways, she doesn't need to be stressed about a brother, a test, plus training. She needs a day off."
Janine blinks into the darkness.
She remembers when Ayesha had appendicitis and she had finals the next day; she had to take an ambulance with her to the hospital because their mom hadn't come home, and stay with her through the night, almost missing finals altogether.
She'd covered for her mom, then got given out to because the ambulance was pricey as heck with no health insurance.
"You're a good mom, Melissa."
A silence stretches, and she thinks she might have over-stepped.
But then-
"Thanks, Janine. I appreciate that." There's rustling in the background and she hears a sigh. "Look I gotta go, they brought a cot into Dom's room so I can sleep in here with him tonight. Don't try driving home so late, okay? Sleep on the couch or take my room. Don't want you crashin' into a lamppost; I don't need another reason for a stress ulcer."
Janine laughs, quiet and looking at her shoes.
"Bye, kid."
"Bye, Melissa."