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Post by leandra on Jun 20, 2008 19:10:53 GMT -5
She laughed when he said how Australia was great, it sure was. "I would love to go back one day, but the truth is, I don't get on with my mother, in fact I pretty much hate her, and my father whom I adore, well he's in Los Angeles" she explained a little about her family background.
She listened to him laugh and say it was all right when she said she was being a wuss. Then when he mentioned about not everybody being strong like Claire having a baby on her own. She nodded her head in agreement. "I guess we can't" she replied with a small smile, "But then Claire wasn't exactly alone" she said and then wished she could back track on her words.
"What I mean is, with the rest of the survivors, we sort of became a surrogate family" she said, covering her little slip up, at least hoping she had anyway. It wasn't in her place to talk about Charlie.
He was right, the media attention was not helping her situation any at all. "You're right" she sighed. "It doesn't help having a mother you hate who runs or at least did run a brothel and is now in a prison cell in Australia and it doesn't help when you have an unrequited love on a guy you met while stranded on an Island, and it thirdly doesn't help when you try to fool yourself you like another guy to get over your unrequited love" she let out another sigh. God, the poor young man, she had just basically spilled out everything which was bothering her.
"I'm really sorry...you didn't need to hear that" she said in a quiet voice, "I'm Leandra by the way" she said gently with a small smile through her tears.
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Post by tom on Jun 20, 2008 20:48:07 GMT -5
He sighed as he cast a glance down to his backpack with the paints inside it. That's what he gave up Claire for and he didn't even know if it made him happy any more.
When he heard about the survivors being a surrogate family to Claire and Aaron a look of relief passed over his face. "That's great." He said with a smile, "that's really great, I'm glad for her.... and the baby."
He wondered if the child looked like him, but it wasn't something you could ask. He was actually drifting off thinking about this while the woman was talking. He snapped back to reality when she said her name. "Oh. Leandra. I'm Thomas." He stuck a hand out for her to shake.
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Post by leandra on Jun 20, 2008 21:18:07 GMT -5
He seemed pleased that Claire wasn't exactly alone on the Island with baby Aaron which was good.
"Yes it was good for them. I'm not saying it was easy, because it was far from easy, having to compromise for a lot of things, but they got through it with the help of the other survivors" she replied softly. He seemed to zone out when she was talking of her problems, but then she could hardly blame him, she had basically rambled it all out and he probably couldn't be bothered listening. Or he was too busy thinking about what he had given up.
He had heard her giving him her name though, and he told her his name and extended his hand. So she took his hand and shook it warmly, "Well I'm very pleased to meet you Thomas" she said with a smile. She really hoped that if he managed to find Claire or get in touch with her, that she would at least listen to him.
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Post by tom on Jun 20, 2008 21:26:19 GMT -5
"Always good to meet another Aussie" he said with a small smile, then seemed to zone out again for a second before saying something else.
"And the baby... there we no complications? With delivery or anything?" He was concerned about it, anything that might have happened to it in extraodinary circumstances like crashing on an island and actually surviving.
"How well did you know Claire?" He asked, "She didn't ever... mention me did she?"
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Post by leandra on Jun 20, 2008 21:36:31 GMT -5
Leandra had to agree "Yes it is always good to meet a fellow Aussie" she smiled, "Somehow it doesn't make you feel like you're quite so far from home" she continued.
When he asked about complications with the delivery of the baby, Leandra wasn't sure what to tell him. As far as she was aware there were no complications with the actual birth, but she didn't think she should tell him about Ethan taking her for tests because pregnant woman die on the Island. He probably wouldn't understand the mystery of the place. So she just smiled and replied with "I wasn't around Claire much, but there were no complications with the birth as far as I'm aware"
"I knew Claire, but I didn't spend a lot of time with her, and she didn't mention you, at least she never mentioned you to me at all" she explained gently.
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Post by tom on Jun 20, 2008 21:42:30 GMT -5
"Oh" Thomas said quietly when he heard that Claire hadn't mentioned him. He took his cell phone out of his pocket and flipped it open again, wondering if Claire was going to get back to him. "You don't happen to know where she's staying do you?" Thomas asked meekly. He needed to find her, and he didn't want to wait around all day to do so.
He sighed and leant down to pick up his backpack and put it on his lap. He had a picture of Claire to finish painting later. "I just really need to find her, and the baby. I haven't seen that baby... since..." He didn't finish that. He hadn't seen the baby ever. He hadn't seen Claire since he walked out on her. And now he didn't know what to do to get her back.
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Post by leandra on Jun 21, 2008 18:46:21 GMT -5
She noticed how sad he seemed when she said she hadn't seen Claire recently, she felt bad, and wished she could have said she had seen her, but she couldn't lie. He then asked if she knew where she was staying. She wasn't sure she should say, because, well because if Claire didn't want to see him, and he said Leah had told him, well Claire might get upset with her. But at the same time, he had to see his son. She smiled softly.
"Well, I don't know if she'll still be there, some have checked out now, but all the survivors have been staying at The Roosevelt Hotel, you could try" she said kindly. Hoping that it wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass.
She listened as he said how he needed to find Claire and the baby, and how he almost said he hadn't seen the baby since and couldn't finish the sentence because of course he hadn't seen his child at all. She really did feel sorry for him, and really hoped that Claire would forgive him enough to at least let him see his child.
"I'm sure it will be fine" she said softly, hoping that her words would be true.
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Post by tom on Jun 21, 2008 18:56:57 GMT -5
"The Roosevelt, thanks" he repeated it and confined it to memory. He wondered how she was going to react when he showed up, she'd probably throw some things at him, tell him to leave but he'd have to insist that it is his baby too and he has a right to see it.
"So do you know this place pretty well?" he asked concerning L.A. "I still don't know anywhere. Used to live in Sydney myself, but that was in the suburbs and this is hardly the Sydney suburbs." Maybe he could get someone to show him a few places around the town, after all Aussies should stick together.
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Post by leandra on Jun 21, 2008 19:28:51 GMT -5
"Your welcome" she replied with a smile when he thanked her for giving him the name of the place where Claire was staying, if she was indeed still there. She still hoped it wouldn't come back to bite her, because giving out somewhere somebody stays isn't really the done thing.
"I don't really know Los Angeles too well to be honest, I've only been here since we all got saved, I only know my father works in one of the high profile banks, I'm not even sure of the name of it to be honest" she began, "I only really know where The Roosevelt Hotel is and The Stone Pony bar, but that's it for the moment" if he was looking for someone to show him around, well she wouldn't be the best person. But two Aussie's together trying to find their way around could be fun, if they were going to get lost, they may as well get lost together she thought with a little laugh to herself.
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Post by tom on Jun 21, 2008 19:47:07 GMT -5
"Yeah, it's pretty crazy here" he looked around the park again. "I mean parks back home actually... actually has wildlife, you know?" He let out a chuckle, "I guess it's just the painter in me to be drawn to more natural scenes. We just take for granted some things, sometimes." He added that last statement partially about Claire. He'd taken her for granted. He'd taken his whole situation with her for granted. But he was still convinced he'd be a terrible father.
"So what did you do in the 'real world'?" He asked, L.A. was not the real world, neither was the island they'd spent the last months on. "You modelled right?" He asked, remembering those still life models from art class and thinking she'd be quite good at it.
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Post by leandra on Jun 21, 2008 20:20:04 GMT -5
She nodded her head in agreement, "Yes it's pretty crazy here, but I hope to set up home with my father soon, meaning, I hope to move in with him soon. I could have done it sooner, but I wanted to stay around the hotel for a while with the other survivors first"
Because they had become such a close family, she wanted to spend some more time with them, before she started to make a life of her own away from it all. Not that she would every be completely away from it. She'd have the memories, and worst of all, there would always be the newspaper reports about it. The only good thing to come out of it, was all the friends she had made on that Island, especially Desmond. Desmond her 'brother' by all accounts in her eyes, that's what he was to her.
"Well being a bit of an artist myself in my spare time, I understand about scenery and wildlife. I always enjoyed painting in the Sydney Harbour Park" she replied with a smile. It was good that they had something in common to talk about she thought. Okay, so painting wasn't what she did for a living, so all these famous painters, she wasn't up on them too much, but they could still talk about painting in general.
"Oh I know about being taken for granted" she said a little disgruntled, thinking back to her mother and what she did to make Leah do the accounts for her. "Sometimes I still can't believe what my mother did to make me do the accounts at her brothel" she spat the last word out. Because she knew she would forever be known for that. It was amazing what reporters could dig up on people.
The real world. Meaning Sydney of course. She blushed when he mentioned about modeling, because that was something she had never done. "Oh... no, not me" she began with a little laugh. "I've never modeled, I'm just an accountant" she said gently, giving a light shrug, "But thanks for saying such a nice sentiment" she finished.
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Post by tom on Jun 21, 2008 20:33:41 GMT -5
Thomas started at her after her outburst. "Huh? Brothel?" He had finally caught on to what he was saying.
Seems he wasn't the only one caught in a bad situation. "Sorry" he told her with a frown, "I guess parents aren't worth the trouble they put us through." Me included, He told himself.
If he wasn't well and truly scared off taking up his post as father to Aaron, he was now. He dropped his head to his hand, his elbow resting on his knee and sighed. "I just don't know if I can do this Leandra." He turned and looked at her with scared eyes. "I don't know if I can see Claire again. What if I screw up? My father wasn't even in my life... what if I just screw this up like he did?"
He ran both hands through his hair, his eyes wide with fear. "I'm just not the father type, you know? Aaron would be better off without me."
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Post by leandra on Jun 21, 2008 20:54:55 GMT -5
Leah just realised what she had blurted out when Thomas was shocked at her shouting. She blushed furiously. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to come out. My mother, well she begged me to do the accounts for her brothel which I wanted nothing to do with. But she said if I didn't do them, she'd phone my father and say I was very ill so as to force him to come back to Australia from Los Angeles" she explained rambling slightly. "I hate her for it, especially when I just happened to be there when there was a police raid on the place" she continued with a sad smile.
"But my father, I adore my father, and I couldn't let her do it to him, which is why I reluctantly agreed, but, well most people associate me with the god damned place and I hate it" she explained some more. The poor young man, she thought, his ears must truly be burning from everything she was saying.
Her heart went out to Thomas when he put his head in his hand and started talking about not being able to do it, not being able to see Claire. She tentatively put her arms around his shoulders in a gentle re-assuring way. "Thomas, it could be that you would be the opposite of your father. That often happens in life. My mother had an affair while with my father, and I swore if I ever married, or settled with someone I truly loved, I'd never do that" she explained. "So, maybe because your father wasn't around, you will make sure you're a good father, and you won't know until you at least give it a try" she tried to explain more in gentle tones.
"And as for not being good for Aaron, why don't you let Aaron decide that?" she asked him gently.
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Post by tom on Jun 21, 2008 21:08:22 GMT -5
"It's always one parent that's screwed up" he said when she was telling her story.
He relaxed as she put an arm around him, he just needed to get his head around the whole parenting thing. "We always say we'll never turn out like our parents," he started, a frown forming, "but we always do. It's an unbreakable cycle, Cla-Leandra."
"Do I really want to put Aaron in that position? He already has his surrogate family from the island. He doesn't need me."
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Post by leandra on Jun 21, 2008 23:36:51 GMT -5
Thomas was breaking Leah's heart with his sadness when talking about Claire and Aaron. Even when he almost called her Claire it didn't phase her in the slightest.
"Not everybody turns out like their parents though, I haven't turned out like either of mine, well I suppose I do have my father's personality" she said gently, still keeping her arm around him.
"Well maybe you'll be the one to break that cycle" she said quietly. "I remember a friend of mine back in Australia who thought the very same thing you are now, that she wouldn't make a good mother because her own mother abandoned her. But my friend is such a good mother, and her little girl just adores her" she said telling him the story of an old friend of hers. Hoping that it might make him think different about things.
Again her heart lurched sadly when he spoke of Aaron not needing him because of his surrogate family. "Thomas, a child always needs its parents no matter how many other 'family members' it may have looking out for it" she said gently. She squeezed his shoulders tightly. "Come on Thomas, chin up, you can get through this. You just need to go and see Claire, I bet once you see Aaron, all these fears you have will just disappear" she said gently.
She thought some more, and wondered if she should offer to go with him when he tried looking for Claire. Would it be a good thing to suggest? Would Claire be annoyed with her for telling him where she might be? If she was indeed still at the hotel. She decided it was worth the risk.
"Look I'm not even sure Claire still has a room at the hotel, but if you like I could come with you to see her?" she asked with a smile.
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