Fallon walked beside Gina, on campus, and felt as if she was on cloud nine. Gina was a really good actress because she blended in so seamlessly that it was hard to tell she did not belong. Her bodyguard followed them but maintained a good distance and a few people between them.
They were just in time for first class of the day, Media Law. Fallon was able to introduce Gina to her 'crowd' before the professor walked in. Her crowd was basically her close friends on campus, Blaire, Elena and Tom. Thankfully Fallon didn't have any classes with Tom for that semester and was therefore able to avoid an awkward encounter. Blaire and Elena accepted welcomed Gina cheerfully and accepted Fallon's explanation that she was a friend from LA visiting her without question.
"Sanctity of Sources," the professor said, "Who can tell me why it is so important for journalists to protect their sources?"
Several people lifted up their hands and the debate began.
Fallon took out her laptop, recorder and notebooks and set them out on the table. Stealing a glance at Gina who was seated beside her, fascinated by the intense discussion, she opened the search engine and typed in his name.
Taylor Cahill.
She didn't expect to get any results, after all, the only thing that could link him to the internet was Gina and Gina had changed her surname to make sure there was no link. So it came as a bit of pleasant surprise when the screen filled with information about him all at once, plus numerous photos.
Fallon schemed through the articles, her surprise increasing with each scroll.
Son of the famed neurosurgeon Mark Cahill and his equally if not more famous plastic surgeon wife, Laurie Cahill...
Practically the country's medicine royalty...
Unusual path for the son as he chooses OB medicine although he was expected to follow in either parents footsteps...
Sole proprietors and owners of the Newlife hospital and all its affiliates...
The Cahills gay(?)/gender binary son opens a Newlife hospital branch in Miami with a special gender confirmation surgery unit.
Fallon clicked on the images and ogled him, photographed in crisp business like suits before hastily closing the search engines.
What was the point of Gina changing her name when they were already famous? Did he really own Newlife hospital Miami?
When the class came to an end three hours later, Fallon, Gina, Blaire and Elena went to grab to the cafeteria to get a drink. It was a good opportunity for Fallon to catch up on what she had missed over the weekend.
"What's up with you and Tom?" Blaire asked as she sipped her coffee.
"Nothing. Why? Did he say something?" Fallon asked hopefully.
"Did you guys break up? Because if you did you can totally tell us," said Blaire.
"He was behaving strangely yesterday, fidgety, as if he had something to hide," Elena said.
All three girls watched Fallon.
"We are had a fight on Friday," Fallon said, keeping it vague, "we both want different things."
"I thought you had already worked out all of that?" Elena asked.
"Yeah, but something else came up."
"Does he need a good kick in the balls? Cause I would totally do that," said Elena.
Fallon smiled. She knew Elena well enough to know the girl was capable of doing exactly that.
"No. We will just sort it out."
Blaire and Elena soon left to work on their project, leaving Fallon with Gina in the cafeteria and promising to meet up after that afternoon's class.
"You guys own Newlife hospital?" Fallon asked Gina in a whisper even though the nearest person was three tables away.
Gina twirled the straw in her iced tea nonchalantly, "My parents own it."
"And your brother owns the Miami branch?"
"Something like that. What is this about?" Gina studied her shrewdly.
"Just curious, I mean you became famous in 2008 aged 9; but your parents were already way famous before that which makes me think you didn't change your surname to protect their privacy."
Gina smiled, "Fine. You caught me. I am the screw up. Happy?"
"You? A screw up?"
Gina's eyes took on a sad far away look, "Every Cahill is in medicine, mom dad, uncles aunts cousins, literally everyone. In my family, kids start rapping anatomy way before kindergarten. Even those cousins who are total failures are pharmacists or shrinks. During family get together, all discussion topics revolve around new developments in the medical field, don't you see how out of place an actress is?"
"But you are not just any other actress,you are the biggest thing in Hollywood right now."
"Do you think that matters to a family of academia? We used to watch Oxytocin together with my parents and they would cringe so much every time I opened my mouth on the show."
"You were brilliant in Oxytocin! You played doctor Hamilton's genius daughter to perfection."
"You would think so, wouldn't you? But every time I would spew those lines, the lines that had taken me weeks to learn, my dad would go, 'sweetie that is not true'."
"But it is acting, it doesn't have to be true."
"It doesn't matter to them. They think it is very irresponsible of me to act. So isn't it understandable that I sought to distance myself from the name Cahill? I didn't want the media to catch on and dub me the 'stupid' Cahill."
Gina managed a pained smile, "Now, if you will excuse me, I need a minute."
"Of course."
Fallon pretended not to have noticed the tears glistening in Gina's eyes and let her head to the bathroom in peace.
No sooner had Gina left the table, than Fallon felt a shadow on her table, she looked up just in time to see Steve, Tom's twin brother sit unceremoniously in the chair previously occupied by Gina.
"Hello cupcake," Steve mocked.
Fallon looked around frantically, the cafeteria was mostly empty, except for a couple of first years at the farthest corner from her. Her table was also well hidden from the counter so none of the staff could see anything. She considered leaving there and then but she couldn't just leave Gina in the bathroom. Gina's bodyguard who had been hovering several tables away was nowhere to be seen. Fallon decided she will just have to brave it until Gina returned.
Steve was supposed to be Tom's identical twin, or mirror twin, whatever they called those twins who looked alike except that one was left handed and another right handed. Fallon called them opposite twins in her head because Steve was the total opposite of Tom in character. He shamelessly groped her under the table whenever they had dinner at Tom's place and had no trouble trying to seduce her whenever Tom was out of the room. Fallon did her best to avoid him at all costs.
"Tom says you are pregnant?"
"That's none of your fucking business and if you don't remove your hand from my thigh right now, I am going to scream."
He gave her a toothy grin and made no effort to remove his hand, on the contrary, he moved it a bit higher.
"We both know you are not going to scream Fallon. Tom says you got half a million dollars stashed somewhere?"
"I am not giving you cocaine money Steve."
"So you do have half a million dollars?"
"No."
Fallon glanced in the bathroom direction again, what was taking Gina so long? Why would Tom even tell Steve about the money? Steve was a junkie who would do anything for a fix.
"Are you sure?"
Fallon's heart skipped to her throat, the hand on her thigh had moved to her stomach, she could feel the cold metal of the well concealed pocket knife there.
"I don't have the money."
"Say that one more time and I will drive this knife through that precious baby of yours Fallon. I swear it."
Fallon knew he could. Drugs had turned him into a monster. A year ago, he had stabbed Tom over a hundred dollars, sixteen stitches later, Tom had the scar on the hollow of his shoulder to prove it. Fallon regretted not turning him in on that day. Why hadn't she? The same reason preventing her from screaming for help in that moment, Berin. He knew where they lived.
"What do you want?"
"Money."
"I don't have it here."
"Give me what you have now, the rest to be paid up in installments whenever I need it."
"I don't owe you!"
"You do now. Hurry up."
Fallon groped in her bag and took out her wallet, she emptied everything inside it on the table. It was a little less than fifty dollars."
He grabbed the money and her credit card, "Pin?" He asked greedily.
"8901," Fallon said.
"If you are lying bitch, if I find out you are fucking lying..."
"What's going on here?" Gina's voice rang with authority.
Steve immediately withdrew the the hand with the knife and smiled up at Gina, "Hi, I am Steve, Fal's friend."
Gina's bodyguard was now standing right behind her and Steve eyed him warily.
"Fallon? Are you okay?" Gina asked her eyes darting from Fallon to Steve.
Fallon nodded.
"Did I just see him pocket your credit card?"
"Er, actually it is mine. She had taken it by mistake from my brother's apartment, she is my brother's girlfriend."
"Let me see it," said Gina.
"Pardon?"
"The credit card you took from her, let me see it."
Fallon hurriedly stood up and gathered her things, "Actually Gina, it is not worth it. Let's just go."
Gina's eyes were hard as she glared at Steve, completely ignoring Fallon, "Give it back."
"Dude..."
Gina moved swifty, with true ballerina grace, she leaned down and grabbed Steve between Steve's legs, "I said. Give. It. The. Hell. Back." She said softly, as she maintained a steely grip.
Steve threw the credit card on the table.
"Did he take anything else?" Gina asked Fallon.
"No. Nothing, Gina please, just let him go."
Gina let go of him and gave him a dirty look, "Off you go Stephanie and I swear to God, if you come near her again, I will cut off your balls and serve them to your brother for breakfast."
Steve scurried away, but not before he gave Fallon a meaningful look.
Gina watched him go with disdain, "That little piece of shit! Did he hurt you? What the hell?"
Fallon was on the verge of tears, "I need a minute," she said as she rushed to the bathroom.
She was sweating profusely by the time she reached the bathroom. She rushed to the stall to relieve her tired bladder and just breathe in. However what she discovered terrified her to the core and caused her to forget about Steve immediately. She rushed out of the bathroom, panicked.
"I need to get to the hospital, ASAP," she told Gina.
"What? What's wrong? He did hurt you, didn't he? I knew it."
Fallon urgently grabbed onto Gina, "Gina please, I need to get to the hospital, and I need to talk to your brother. Can you get him on the phone right now?"
She must have had a terrified look on her face because Gina whipped out her phone immediately and began to place the call while at the same time steering her out of the cafeteria.
"What happened? You do have a doctor on campus, don't you?"
Fallon nodded, remembering that there was indeed a doctor on campus, she began to lead the way towards the sick bay.
"Hello? Taylor?...I don't give a fuck. Here, Fallon wants to talk to you."
Fallon grabbed the phone and increased her pace. His calm voice on the other end was like soothing balm.
"Fallon? Is something the matter?"
"Yes. I am bleeding. I think I am having a miscarriage," the words rushed out of Fallon's mouth in one whoosh. Beside her, she vaguely heard Gina gasp.
"Relax Fallon. Take a deep breath through your nose. Good girl. Now the bleeding, is it a lot?"
"I don't know," Fallon said, frightened.
"Can you feel it now? Is it like your period?"
"Er, no. I just went to the bathroom and saw blood on my underwear, I panicked."
"Alright, alright. Deep breath. Where are you right now?"
"Campus. We are headed to the doctor's."
"Is it very far from where you are?"
"No. We are almost there."
"Okay. Do not disconnect. When you arrive, let me speak to the doctor or nurse on duty yeah? Tell them I am your OB."