EPISODE 278
Written by: Bre L. Drew
February 26, 2024
Last Time on Town and Country
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Despite being an hour late, Martha permitted Murray to meet SJ while the young boy broke the ice between him and the father he never met. Although Martha is still skeptical of her ex's intentions regarding their son,
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Tricia was disappointed when she discovered Jolene had left with Wade back to Bakersfield. It was then that she expressed her vulnerability to Sean about the situation.
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Dr. Grier informed Lenny that her blood test results revealed an abnormal amount of white blood cells, indicating the possibility of cancer, which requires a bone marrow biopsy.
LOCKHART LAKE COTTAGE
Filled with indescribable apprehension of what today is, Lynn Lockhart stares out the kitchen window of the cottage where she resides with her twin sister and mother. In a few hours, she will be having a biopsy to determine whether or not she has cancer. And in a way, it still doesn't feel real to her, which is why she hadn't told her family about it, knowing they would worry, and she didn't need that until she got the results.
About five minutes later, she can see the headlights of the black Volvo SUV pulling into the front of the house.
She exhales before departing the kitchen as she grabs her coat and tote bag from the bottom step of the staircase. While walking into the foyer, the doorbell rings, which she goes to obtain and lets Elijah Barker in the cottage.
"You all set?" her boyfriend asks her.
He is wearing a gray bomber hoodie jacket over a brown thermal Henley shirt and dark blue jeans.
"Yeah," she exhales.
"So, this procedure you're having, is it serious?"
The farmhand hadn't told him what type of procedure it was, only telling him she needed him to take her and pick her up because she couldn't get behind the wheel and didn't want to burden him.
Lenny runs her hand through her wavy, long blonde hair. "Kinda, but Dr. Grier says it's safe, so that's something," she downplays.
Elijah sees a look of uneasiness on his girlfriend's face, which he recognizes from knowing her all of her life, first as best friends and now lovers, that she is holding something back.
"Lynn, what's really going on?" Elijah asks wholeheartedly.
Lenny's lips start to quiver, as she can't keep this from him anymore. "Dr. Grier thinks I might have cancer, so I have to have a bone marrow biopsy."
The confession makes Elijah unable to speak as he tries to grasp what he has just been told.
FRANKLIN FARM: MAIN HOUSE
The potent aroma of brewed caffeine permeates the air in the kitchen of the main house on Franklin Farm this winter morning while Sarah Lynn Saunders bends down to give Otis his food. The black and white border collie puppy sits up from his spot on the floor to the bowl, where he yips a few times before he starts eating.
"That's a good boy," the widow says while petting the animal, then rises to her full height, going over to the table where Louise Saunders Lockhart is sitting.
"Now, are you sure that you don't want any more coffee, sweetheart?" the older woman asks while sitting down.
Louise gestures to her mug. "I'm still working my way through this cup, but thanks anyway, Mom."
"So, how are things going?"
Louise knows her mother is referring to what is occurring between her and Sean as they are on the long-winding road to reconciliation.
"In the same place we've been for months, the waiting game of dissolution of marriage."
Sarah Lynn can hear the frustration in her daughter's tone as it relates to her situation with her former husband and his wife.
"This might be a bizarre theory," she notes.
"And what kind of theory would that be?"
"You don't think Tricia would purposely uphold the divorce because she wants to make another go at it with Sean, do you?"
"I wouldn't put it past her," a third voice chimes in, causing the blonde woman to notice Martha Saunders entering the room.
The single mother just returned from dropping off her son at kindergarten when she overheard her mother and sister talking.
"I didn't know this was a public forum," Louise states sarcastically.
Martha casually gazes at the dog finishing his food as she grabs a mug from the cabinet and takes it over to the coffee maker.
Due to the considerable age gap between them and their opposing personalities, the sisters have never been relatively close to one another.
"All I'm saying is that you know firsthand how she can be," the younger woman concludes.
Louise consumes her beverage, mulling over what her sister said about Tricia and resisting doubts about her coming in between her and Sean like she did years ago when she had an affair with him, resulting in the end of their marriage.
WHEELER BUILDING: APT # 424
Sean Lockhart walks off the elevator onto the fourth floor of the Wheeler Building, where he technically still resides. But he has been staying at the Hotel Cliffe to give his wife some space. As he moves closer to the apartment, he can't help but feel more like a visitor due to the current state of his marriage, mainly due to his involvement with his ex-wife rather than his present one.
Although he wanted to come by to check on Tricia to see how she was doing since her mother decided to go back with her husband to California, he knew that she wasn't keen on it due to her stepfather's history of domestic violence against her mother.
When he gets to the door, he takes a second before considering knocking, then proceeds to use his key. As he enters, he welcomes the warmth from the heat, which means Tricia is home since they don't leave it on when both aren't here.
While closing the door, he appears toward the kitchen, where he sees Tricia Lockhart carefully sipping from a bottle of lemon-flavored mineral water.
Even in her casual attire of a long-sleeve black button-down shirt and light blue denim jeans and her medium brown hair in a messy bun, he still sees in her the beauty that attracted him to her all those years ago when he was still married to Louise.
The tension between them keeps them from instantaneously greeting each other until Sean breaks the silence.
"Hi,"
The cafe manager places the bottle on the counter. "I wasn't expecting to see you today."
"Well, I wanted to see how you were doing."
Tricia folds her arms onto her chest and flashes him a look of astonishment. "So, what did I do to warrant you checking up on me?"
"I know I deserve that, but I wanted to know how you are doing since Jolene left."
"I guess I can be grateful for the note she wrote me and the text she sent me when she made it to Bakersfield. I guess other than that, I'm hanging in there."
Despite the informality in her voice, Sean detects her vulnerability in her tone, as she has been somewhat growing closer to Jolene after all these years.
"I know things between us aren't copacetic, but I'm always here if you need me," Sean advises.
Tricia nods modestly, unsure of his level of sincerity. "Since you're here, I might as well give you this."
The brunette saunters to their bedroom.
"Once I get a storage shed, I'll be by to pick up the rest of my things!" he calls out.
He figures she had packed some of his belongings in boxes, although he does need to sort that out as he is determined to reunite with Louise.
LOCKHART LAKE COTTAGE
It is a rare occasion that someone is able to render Elijah speechless, but the announcement that the love of his life may have a life-altering disease made him do that, as he is now listening to her explain this conclusion.
"I took your advice about going to the doctor for the flu, or so I thought it was, but my lymph nodes are swollen, and then she took some blood, and now I have to have a huge needle in me to find out whether or not I have cancer... I have never been this freaked out in my life," she confesses.
Elijah had noticed his girlfriend hadn't been feeling well last year, with her having flu symptoms, including fatigue and aches.
Standing behind her, he places his hand on her back. "Maybe it's something else; you can't be sure until you have the test.
How are your parents and Tanner taking this?"
Lenny is the one who is quiet, quickly indicating the answer for him.
"You haven't told them, haven't you?"
"You're the first person I told. Anyway, it might not even be serious."
A part of Elijah wants to go on about stressing his girlfriend; she should tell her family to have more of a support system, realizing she doesn't need that right now.
"So, she thinks it might be something entirely else?"
"Yeah, Dr. Grier said it could be anemia," she says lowly.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm not leaving your side. So, I'm going to wait in the hospital until you are done with the biopsy."
Lenny holds back her tears while she puts on her coat. "You don't have to do that."
Elijah digs his hands into his jacket pockets. "But I am," he says certaintly.
"Besides, I don't have classes today; you know I'm here for you no matter what."
He then bends down to plant a firm but tender kiss on her forehead.
"Thank you," she remarks.
She does feel somewhat better about finally telling someone about what she's going through at the moment.
"You ready?"
"I guess so," she says while gripping the strap of her bag.
Elijah throws his arm around her as they walk out of the door.
FRANKLIN FARM: MAIN HOUSE
Immediately, Sarah Lynn decides to put an end to any more squabbling between her two daughters, wishing they would get along better, though she doesn't feel like pointing that out to them right this second.
"On a lighter note, I heard from my precious grandson that the meeting between him and his father went well."
Martha takes a hearty sip of her coffee, adjusting her reply to be suitable without explicit language.
"What you don't know is that Murray showed up an hour late without a call or text. But other than that, it went okay, and SJ was the one who started the conversation with him."
"What was his excuse for showing up so late?" Louise asks while the singer takes a seat across from her sister.
"Business, but I told him if he does anything like that again, he will have me to answer too."
"Martha, he could've done better, but give him some grace; besides, this is not about you but SJ, and he deserves to get to know his father." Sarah Lynn points this out verbally.
Louise detects reluctance on the part of her sister by the rotation of her eyes after what their mother said.
"Maybe, but I'm still going to be the one to answer my son's questions one day as to why wasn't Daddy around when I was a baby or why did he wait so long to reach out to me?"
"Well, that sounds like that's going to be a conversation you and Murray need to have with him; you shouldn't be doing that alone." Louise notes.
Martha doesn't conceal her misgivings about it.
"As someone whose own father came and went out of their life, I'm telling you. SJ will be appreciative anytime he gets to see Murray, so don't let those things get in the way of that," the Saunders matriarch counsels.
Those observations made the sisters exchange similar glances. Knowing that their maternal grandfather, Garrett, was in and out of the lives of their mother, aunts, and uncle when they were growing up, now it makes sense as to why she's adamant about having her grandson get to know Murray.
This time, Martha changed the topic of the conversation.
"How's Lenny?"
"She says she's doing better, but I told her she could stay home so she wouldn't overdo things."
"I wonder where she gets that from?" Sarah Lynn verbalizes, which makes Martha chuckle, and Louise silently concedes she's referring to her.
WHEELER BUILDING: APT # 424
It's only seconds later when Tricia returns, although she doesn't have anything remotely looking like a box in her hands. Still, something is behind her back she's holding.
"I haven't gotten storage yet, but once I do, I will get my stuff out of here. After all, I put you through. You deserve to keep the apartment, and if you need help with the rent,"
But she shakes her head at what he's saying.
"I appreciate you trying to smooth things over, but I can afford my own way; this is something we can't put off any longer."
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As Sean was about to question her further, she pulled out a small stack of papers behind her back, and it didn't take long for Daniel to comprehend what they were, as he had seen them once before.
"After everything that has happened and is still going on with my mother and that asshole, she calls a husband. I realize there is no hope for us anymore. So, I went to the courthouse and filed. I think we both can agree; we need to be free/"
Sean holds onto the documents, observing their names in print and irreconcilable differences.
"Uh, I'll return these to you after I sign them."
He clears his throat.
Tricia attempts to hold back her emotions, knowing that even though she still loves this man, she knows she can't spend the rest of her life in a three-way marriage.
"Do whatever you want with them, but at the end of the day, this marriage is over."
Sean gives a slight head movement as he walks toward the door. "And I come by another day to get my stuff."
He exits the apartment feeling more like a visitor, with the papers in his hand, as he takes off down the hallway to the elevator.
RADCLIFFE RECIEVING HOSPITAL
Elijah sits in one of the chairs in the waiting room on the hematology and oncology floor at Radcliffe Receiving Hospital. The unit is reserved, albeit the ringing of the phones that the desk clerk answer or occasional foot traffic from the nurses and other members of staff,
At various intervals, he raises his head at the flat-screen television on the wall situated on HGTV as Married to Real Estate is on at a reasonably low volume.
Usually, watching people go all gung-ho on television wouldn't entertain him, though he needs something to inhabit his mind as either outcome seems to outweigh the rest of his thoughts.
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***
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Lenny is now in a loose-fitting patient gown, lying on the table in the exam room with a white sheet covering her legs while the hematologist and the nurses do last-minute prepping.
Soon, the baritone voice of the Hispanic doctor in his late fifties with salt and pepper hair gets her attention while her mind is elsewhere.
"Now, Lynn, we're doing the aspiration and the biopsy, which is a bone marrow exam; it will specify what's going on and then determine the best course of treatment."
Lenny rocks her head to verify she understands.
"Do you have any questions before we start?" The physician surveys.
"No," she says in a whisper.
"Okay," he says. "We can begin," he notifies the nurses.
Right away, one of the female nurses places the sterile drape over the area that the hematologist marked her earlier, where they will be collecting the samples from her back.
Lenny can feel the cold sensation of the antiseptic swabs hitting her skin in a circular motion.
Soon, the hematologist injects a syringe of lidocaine into the area, which will reduce her discomfort during the exam.
Part of her wishes to be put to sleep during this and hopefully wake up from this long nightmare, but she knows it would be pathetic to wish for something that isn't.
"Okay, Lynn, we're starting the exam," the doctor tells her.
She grimaces through the sharp pain of the needle inserted into the bone.
Lenny closes her eyes, reminding herself that this is halfway through and that in six months, this will be just a thing she went through.
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END OF EPISODE
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ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY
A family comes together.
Lynn takes the initiative.
Jacques finds out about his immigration status.
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