Mrs Hansen || A Lloyd Hansen Story

Family Feud.

Lloyd repeatedly strokes Rebecca's while she sleeps, her face buried into his chest.
He notes the streaks of red that stain her golden locks. His mind wanders back, fixated on her fear filled eyes as she trembled in his arms.

"How long has she been asleep?" Royce's voice comes around the door, Lloyd hadn't noticed him standing there.

He glances at his watch, "about an hour."

Juliette brushed past quietly, simpering down at Rebecca whilst replacing the empty bag of fluids.

"She hasn't slept this long since she woke up from the anaesthetic." She whispers to Lloyd.

Lloyd sweeps his thumb across her relaxed pout, "she can't sleep on her back. She sleeps on her side with the duvet bunched between her legs, she doesn't share covers." The corners of his mouth twitch.

"Well she seems content now." The nurse winks softly, dipping her head back down to scribble on Rebecca's medical chart.

Royce sits at the table by the window sipping coffee out of a polystyrene cup, "how did she do with the walking?" He turns to Juliette, curling his lip at the sight of Lloyd resting his cheek on top of Rebecca's head. 

"We're giving her another day, she was tired and overwhelmed." She silently moves around the bed to lift back Rebecca's shirt, slowly lifting the fabric to check the stitches. Despite her best efforts the movement stirred Lloyd, his eyes snap down to the wound.

"She gives up too easily, you have to push her." Royce snaps, "if we wait for her to decide then we'll be here forever."

"You obviously don't know a single thing about Rebecca then." Lloyd claps back, furious that her own father would write her off as a quitter, "don't ever take her kindness as weakness. She's the strongest person I know."

"'kindness'" Royce scoffs, shaking is head as he rises to his feet, "stupidity more like, she'd have to be to stupid to have even considered being with you, or any of her previous' for that matter."

Royce circles around the bed glancing at his sleeping daughter, he looked at the pins sticking out of her thigh and shook his head. He felt so helpless, so disappointed that she hadn't listened to his concerns about Lloyd. She had been so blinded by his flashy lifestyle, he wasn't even sure she truly loved him. And anything she did love was purely materialistic.

***

"Becca, darling. Please don't marry this man." Royce pushed back her veil, "your mother and I, we want you to be happy of course we do. We just don't... he's not a good guy."

Tears well in Rebecca's eyes, "daddy, why are you doing this? I'm about to walk down the aisle to say 'I do' to the man I love. This is the happiest day of my life, why are you shitting on it?" Her hands tremble as she reaches for her bouquet.

"I can't walk you down the aisle to him, I can't place your hand in his." Royce looks down at his feet.

Rebecca holds back a painful sob, fluffing out her big white dress. She wanted to get on her knees and beg him not to do this, plead against the spectacle he would create.  But she didn't have it in her. Why bother? She was about to start a new family, with Lloyd.

"Then don't, I'll go by myself."

A knock comes at the door and McKenna appears, concern hidden in her brow, "everything okay in here, Lloyds starting to sweat a little." She chuckles nervously.

"Dandy." Rebecca storms out without so much a glance back at her father.

She stood at the top of the aisle with McKenna and Hazel by her side, "where's your dad?" Hazel whispered.