Janine and Serena

When Janine awoke, it was in the wee hours of the morning. Soft light emanating from the fluorescent bar above her bed. Her head felt like it had been packed with cotton balls, aching slightly behind her left eye socket and her mouth felt dry. She needed to pee. Reaching down toward her privates, she found the catheter had been removed. There was a plastic IV tube taped to the back of her right hand connected to a plastic bag hanging from a mobile stand.

Swinging her legs of the side of the bed, she pushed herself to standing, reaching out and taking the IV stand in her hand to steady her wobbly knees.

Lina stirred, eyes blinking, seeing her daughter trying to get up from the bed. “Oh Janine, what do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

“I have to pee,” Janine answered directly.

Getting up from the chair, Lina walked over to her daughter, “Let me help you,” she offered.

Janine shook her head, “It’s okay, I can do it,” she replied, moving toward the bathroom in her private room.

Sitting on the toilet emptying her bladder, there was only a vague recollection of the discussion earlier, snapshots like a Kodak slideshow. Tess, her mother, her sister. Tom. They talked about Tom. Where was he? Was he safe? She didn’t know.

Dabbing herself, she paused to wash her hands then returned to the room, “Tom?” she inquired.

Lina raised a hand, “Relax, we know where he is,” she said.

“Is he okay?”

“He safe for now,” assured Lina. “The nurse that received you found him and took him home. Tess went over there last night.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Janine returned to the bed. “Jessica knows about him, doesn’t she?”

Lina nodded slowly.

Janine shook her head. “She probably after going after him,” lamented Janine, pulling the blankets back over her legs.

“Your sister is sitting with your father right now. Don’t fuss about her chasing after Tom,” Lina said, sitting on the edge of the bed beside Janine.

“She always does that, tries to take what is mine,” complained Janine, reclining back.

Lina laughed softly, “Tom is his own person,” she reminded.

Janine shook her head, “No, he is mine,” she asserted, closing her eyes and drifting off.

The following morning when she awoke, Lina was in the room conversing with another woman dressed in sharp business attire, skirt, blouse, jacket, black shoes. Janine knew who she was, Serena Hall, one of the family attorneys. Aside from her long dark hair almost raven black, flawless skin, pretty face, great ass, she was brilliant. Not quite thirty, she had already established a professional reputation as an absolute legal shark. Janine had seen her on one previous occasion but never really interacted with her before, but just looking at her she understood why it was no secret she was one of her father’s favorites.

Seeing Janine awake, “How are you feeling?” Serena asked, warm smile on her face.

“Okay,” Janine replied, “Thanks for asking.”

“The police are requesting a statement from us regarding the accident yesterday. I’ve told them that I will take the statement from you when you are alert and that your faculties have been fully restored,” she explained.

“The police?”

Serena put a hand on Janine’s lower leg, “Standard stuff when there is motor vehicle accident, nothing really to worry about,” she assured.

“So let me be blunt. Is there anything in your system I should know about? Alcohol, drugs?” she asked.

Janine shook her head.

Serena looked at Lina, “Could you excuse us for a moment?” she asked politely.

“Of course, I’ll go check on Francis,” Lina agreed, exiting the room and leaving the two women alone together.

“Now, just girl to girl, is there anything you need to tell me? As my client, anything you tell me is in the strictest confidence and protected by law,” she said, “But I do need you to be honest.”

Janine chuckled, shaking her head again.

Serena arched an eyebrow, “What was the laugh about?”

Should she tell her about Tom? No. Too many people already knew about him already. “Nothing,” Janine replied.

Serena smiled, a very disarming expression, “Please, I’ve been doing this for a while now and I can tell when someone is hiding something,” she stated, a very astute intelligence burning in the depths of her soft blue eyes.

Tell her what? That there was a tiny little man stimulating her pussy while she was showing off her new car to her father? Not likely. The lawyer might know there was something being withheld, but she wouldn’t get it Janine. She shook her head.

Serena held Janine’s eyes a moment longer. “Attorney client privilege exists,” she reminded. “Confidential, just me and you. Not your mother, your father, just us,” she explained.

Janine looked away and shrugged.

Serena knew there was something there, something the girl wasn’t saying. “If there is nothing in your system, I’ll give them permission to test the blood they’ve already taken then?” she said, cocking her head slightly to one side.

Janine nodded.

“I’ve had some of our investigators to the scene of the accident to gather any relevant data from there. Again, pretty much just a formality,” she assured.

Over the course of the next hour, they prepared a statement to give to the authorities and provided consent for the testing of Janine’s blood to eliminate the notion of alcohol or substances in her system.

Preliminary reports were suggestive of speed as causative, though she was sure she could find a way to mitigate around it, as long as there were no other surprises. The girl was definitely hiding something, the question was what. The police report confirmed she was driving. But was she? Was she protecting daddy? She didn’t like it. If things were as they appeared to be, why the evasiveness? What could she possibly be hiding? Not booze, not drugs, then what? Why had Lina Lindholm made a personal request for information regarding the ER nurse?

There was definitely an undercurrent of something going on that she was being excluded from and she meant to find out what it was.