TO THE WOLVES
CHAPTER THREE !

A DEEP SIGH PULLED from Francesca's chest as she finally stepped foot into her apartment. The day had been absolutely exhausting, after dealing with the Roy family and then heading back to work, all she wanted to do was change into a pair of comfortable pyjamas, curl up into bed with her face buried into her pillow and pass out.

After a solid forty minutes later, Frankie had showered, (really scrubbed hard at her skin to rid herself of the feeling of disgust at her husband) gotten changed into her most comfortable pair of flannel pyjamas and had just gotten into bed, the thick duvet pooled in her lap, when her phone rang.

She'd initially planned on not answering, especially when she'd seen that it was Roman calling her but her curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to know why he was calling her instead of just coming home.

            Her tongue darted out, running along her bottom lip as she lifted the device up to her ear. "I'm still mad at yo—"

"Frankie." Roman croaked from the other end of the phone. He sounded...numb.

Frankie sat up in bed in an instant. "Roman?" She uttered, her voice filled with concern. It wasn't very often that she heard Roman sound vulnerable, so she was automatically on edge. "Hey, is everything okay?"

"My dad—he uh, he's in the hospital. He passed out in the helicopter."

Her breath caught in her throat. Don't get her wrong, Frankie hated Logan Roy but that didn't mean she wanted him dead. (That was a lie, she was just too afraid to admit it to herself.) "Is he gonna be okay? What did the doctors say?" She questioned as pushed aside the duvet and began to shove on the nearest pair of shoes.

Roman scoffed. "Fuck all. The stupid fucks don't know what they're doing clearly." As he spoke, Frankie could hear clearly the sound of his dress shoes stomping along the tiled floors of the hospital. He was pacing.

After a brief moment of silence on his end, the Roy man mumbled down the phone, "Frankie?"

The woman halted her movement, momentarily perched on the edge of her bed with one running shoe on and one shoe off. "Yeah?" She softly replied.

"Can you—will you come to the hospital?" He didn't want to sound weak, didn't want to sound as though he needed her by his side during this ordeal but fuck did he want her by his side. He needed her comforting words. He needed her to tell him that everything was gonna be okay.

She nodded even though he couldn't see her. "I'm already on my way."

She quickly rushed to the front door and grabbed her coat from the rack before throwing it on. With her keys in hand, she opened up the door, slammed it shut and locked it before running down to the elevator.

"I'm sorry." Roman weakly muttered, his voice becoming muffled as he nervously bit on the nail of his thumb. If Frankie hadn't been focused on hearing every little thing from his end of the phone, she probably wouldn't have caught the apology.

She internally sighed. As the elevator doors opened up on the bottom floor, she stepped out while replying to her husband. "I'll be there soon, okay?"

            It was obvious what he was apologising for but she didn't want to discuss it on the phone. Roman muttered something else, though he was too far away from the phone at that point for her to hear him clearly. Before she got a chance to question him, the brown eyed man hung up.

            Her driver had gone home for the night so instead of calling him up and asking him to come back, she chose to hail a cab instead. A yellow taxi cab pulled up along the pavement to which the blonde hopped in and requested to be brought to Bellevue Hospital. The faint sound of some random 80's song played on the radio as the two sat in silence. The quiet allowed Frankie the chance to catch her bearings, give her a moment to breathe before she headed into the shit show that was ahead of her.

            After the cab pulled up outside the hospital, Frankie tossed him a couple of 10 dollar bills, mumbling keep the change before practically sprinting inside and up to the reception.

            "Excuse me, I'm looking for Logan Roy's room. He was brought in earlier today." She uttered, words falling from her lips in a rush.

The woman at reception, a brunette in blue scrubs, glanced up at her for a split second before sighing. "I'm sorry, only family is allowe—"

"I'm his daughter in law." Frankie snapped back. She quickly reigned in her frustration, realising that the woman probably thought she was reporter or someone with no boundaries. Her eyes filled with regret. "Sorry."

Seemingly understanding the stress that was seeping from every single one of Francesca's pores, the receptionist nodded her head. "It's okay." She replied to the blonde before turning to her computer and doing a quick search. "Okay, it looks like he's in one of our private suites. It's on the 30th floor."

Frankie sent her a quick smile of appreciation. "Thank you."

She arrived on the 30th floor in only a few minutes. The Rhodes woman quickly began to walk through the hallways, glancing in every window she could until she found the room Logan was being kept in. After passing maybe 5 or 6 different rooms, the gods above graced her with some luck. Tucked inside the room, sitting with his head in his hands was her husband. A haggard breath fell past her lips as she pushed open the door, alerting Roman to her presence.

Roman's head shot up at the slight creak of the hospital room door. The soft golden glow of the lamp in the corner of the room cascading across his face, lighting up and putting his bloodshot eyes on display.

Though he was upset over his father's health issues, the man couldn't help but snort at his wife's appearance. "What the fuck are you wearing?" He sputtered out, his words filled with laughter.

Frankie glanced down at herself, just now remembering that she'd been wearing her flannel pyjamas when Roman had called. She'd been so determined to get to the hospital and be by his side in support that she'd completely forgotten to change before she'd left the apartment.

"I rushed over here so fuck you." Frankie jokingly muttered back to the brown eyed man. A quick glance around the room allowed her to see that apart from Marcia sitting by Logan's bedside, Roman was the only one of the man's children that was there. "How is he?"

Roman shrugged. He watched as Frankie crossed the room and sat down on the couch beside him. "No clue. Marcie isn't letting anyone talk to his doctors. Not that they've any clue what they're talking about anyway. Useless fucks."

"Christ." She wondered why Marcia wasn't allowing them to talk to their fathers doctor. Surely, she'd understand that they were worried. Her gaze darted over to Logan's unconscious body in the room next to them before moving back to her husband. "You doing okay?"

            Roman scoffed at the notion. His hands slapped against his legs as he shrugged and replied, "Me? I'm great. I mean, I'm not the one laying up in a hospital bed. Nope, that's him." He held up his hand and flourished it around for emphasis then pointed at his father in the other room.

            Frankie had witnessed this from Roman far too many times. From when they were kids and he pretended that his father hitting him for ordering lobster hadn't hurt to when she'd visited him at St. Andrews and he'd told her to fuck off to ignore how much he missed home. His attempt to use humour to cover up how he truly felt was completely transparent. It was obvious to the blonde just how deeply his father's waning health hurt him.

            "Rome." She spoke his name softly. Her hand reached out and placed itself upon his shoulder.

Roman swiftly lifted his own hand to grab at hers, interlocking their fingers before laying his cheek against the soft, flat surface of the back of her hand. "What?"

"He's gonna be okay."

            "How would you know? You don't even like him." Roman sulked. He released his hold of Frankie's hand as shifted himself across the couch until he was pressed right up against her, welcoming the comfort and warmth that her pyjama clad body provided.

She wasn't about to argue with him over that. She wasn't about to lie. "Because whether I like it or not, your dad's a stubborn son of a bitch who's gonna outlive us all. No matter what life throws at him, he always seemed to come out the other side unscathed."

            "Like a cockroach." Roman chuckled. What better way to console yourself on grief then to compare your ailing father to a cockroach.

            A soft smile grew on Roman's lips when his head wobbled from the bout of laughter that rumbled through the blonde's body. "Yeah, like a cockroach." She repeated, her words coming out broken as she bit at her bottom lip, fighting against her desire to continue laughing.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

            FRANKIE HAD FOUND OUT after a couple hours at the hospital that Logan had been moved to a private room about an hour before she'd arrived. Shiv had returned to the room after her first hour, muttering under breath about not being allowed to make any decisions in regards to her dads medical care. The redhead had barely noticed her sister in law due to how pissed off she'd been.

            All of his exposed emotions had seemingly made Roman very tired as he'd fallen asleep not long after Frankie had shown up. Her very presence had calmed his usual erratic behaviour and lulled him into a slumber. Soft and gentle breaths had been filling up the silence of the room. The man had naturally shifted in his sleep, moving from where he had been resting against her shoulder to laying his head in her lap.

            Moments like these were the best. These were moments when Frankie was able to be affectionate with her husband without the fear of him recoiling away. For the last few hours, the woman had been alternating between running her fingers through his hair and brushing her thumb along the crease that appeared along his eyebrows every time he seemed upset.

            At one point, Roman had burrowed his face into her stomach and thought it was certainly not the time to be thinking it, Frankie had imagined this exact reaction from him if she'd ever become pregnant. She wished for the chance to have that reaction so desperately. The fact that she was in a hospital certainly did nothing to quell that desire.

            Roman woke up about ten minutes prior just in time before everyone came back. An unattractive yawn escaped past his lips as he rubbed at his eyes, while his older brother Connor, Connor's girlfriend Will plus Shiv and her boyfriend Tom returned.

"Hey, have you seen this?" Kendall asked in annoyance as he pushed open the door to the private suite. He held up his phone, waving it around for everyone to see what he was talking about.

Willa sat up straight at the sight of the man, her eyes swirling with pity. "I'm so sorry about your father."

"Thank you." Kendall replied with a sigh before motioning to the door behind him with his thumb. "Would you give us a minute?"

She stood up immediately, her head nodding in understanding as she smoothed out her dress and began to make her way out of the room to give them some privacy.

"Thanks Willa." Connor called out after her with a soft smile, watching her as she walked away.

"Tom, would you mind?" Kendall inquired with another motion towards the door, asking him to follow behind Willa out of the room.

Tom looked upset at the suggestion. "Come on, I'm not the same as her. Plus, what about Frankie?" He mumbled the last part to Kendall, though he underestimated how quiet the room was. She'd heard him clearly.

Frankie raised a brow at this. "What about Frankie?" She questioned, fixing a glare upon the man.

The Wambgans man practically choked on his own saliva at the glare being sent his way. His tongue began to feel like lead as he tried to talk himself out of it. "You're—you know, you're not—"

She didn't need to hear whatever bullshit excuse that Tom was cooking up in his head. "Put a ring on Shiv's finger and then we can talk, alright dickhead?"

Roman remained silent during the interaction, his arms crossed and a smirk pulling at his lips. He knew that Frankie could handle herself especially against someone insignificant like Tom Wambsgans. His sister sure knew how to pick 'em.

She was literally married into that family and yet Tom thought that she shouldn't be there. If it hadn't been for her whispering into Shiv's ear all those years ago, Tom would have never gotten the chance to talk to her much less be working at Waystar and cozying up alongside the redhead at night.

"Vaulter's running a story about how the company's in turmoil." The eldest of Logan's children from his second marriage explained.

"Don't we own him?" Shiv stated with a sigh. She grabbed at Kendall's phone to read the headline. A laugh of disbelief fell from her lips. "Shitshow at the fuck factory?"

            "Yeah. Uncertainty, discord. That is not a good story." Kendall's eyes darted around the room, desperation pooling within his irises. "Family gets behind other member of family' that's a good story."

            Shiv crossed her arms and reclined back against the back of one of the one-seater couches. "Oh, fuck them. I mean, when Jobs was dying, Apple didn't say anything."

A series of wrinkles appeared along Kendall's forehead as he raised his eyebrows at how cavalier his sister was being. "We're in a hospital, Shiv. Everyone knows. We can't just prop him up and wave his hand and say he's fine like they did in The Politburo or Weekend at fuckin' Bernie's."

Roman chuckled heartily at the idea. "I like the sound of that, though."

Kendall released a haggard sigh as he clenched his eyes shut for a second. "Look, you can't put a value on a human life, except in our case you rather precisely can because when trading opens tomorrow, we're gonna drop like a stone." He explained to the room. "The only question is, what's the bottom?"

There was a pause as everyone took in his words. Kendall saw this as his best opportunity to suggestion himself again. "I think I'm the best option."

            The Wambsgans man quickly rose up from his chair as many sets of eyes followed along with his movement.

"I just want to say that, uh, if you if you need me to—go get sandwiches or coffee, or step up from Regional Parks and uh, run North America, I can and I will." If Tom could have gotten on his knees and puckered up, he would have planted a big fat kiss upon Kendall's rear. That's how much of a kiss-ass he was. "And that's just an offer on the table—"

"Fuck off, Tom." Kendall uttered in complete contempt for the kiss-ass, cutting him off from attempting to worm his way further up the corporate ladder.

A look of serious offence marred itself across Shiv's face. "Fuck you, Kendall. Don't talk to Tom like that."

Tom held up a hand, waving off Shiv's defence. "It's okay. It's fine." He softly spoke while backing up and retaking his seat.

"I was about to be announced. I mean, how can I not be the logical choice?" Frankie believed that he was making a good point. Yes, their dad had chosen to forgo the announcement but only a day ago, Kendall had been his number one pick.

"Because you were about to be announced, Ken, then you weren't." Shiv rebuked his statement. She had him there. Maybe choosing Kendall wasn't the best decision. "I mean, the only thing we know for certain, like for absolute certain tonight is that dad didn't want you running the company. So if there's a list of seven billion people on this planet that dad would choose to be boss, we know you would be last."

"Dad fired you, man." Roman simply stated with a shrug.

Kendall disagreed. His head shook from side to side as he denied Roman's words. "No, he did not fire me. He said it was just gonna take a little longer."

"But he said that to be nice." Roman continued. His face lacked any kindness as he spoke, digging deep into Kendall's insecurities. "What I think he meant to say was that he wished mom had gave birth to a can opener because at least then it would useful."

"Rome." The Rhodes woman uttered, staring over at her husband with a sigh.

            Kendall spun on his head and moved to the other side of the room. His head hung low, the man unable to look at his younger brother. "You're a dick."

            "Too far?" Roman asked the room, not that he actually cared. He'd said what he'd said.

            Shiv and Kendall then proceeded to go back and forth with one another, snipping at each other with no holding back. The man practically begged for any reason as to why he shouldn't be the one to become interim CEO.

            Shiv scoffed at her brother's insistence that she answer him. When she noticed that Kendall wasn't for letting up, she then asked, "Oh, you want me to actually say?"

            "Yes I do."

Frankie, who didn't want things to get ugly, decided to speak up. With as neutral a tone as possible, she said, "Shiv, maybe you shouldn't actu—"

Shiv began her rant of all of Kendall's failings, choosing to ignore her sister in law's suggestion. "You lack killer instinct. You're wet, you're green, you're intellectually insecure."

"Bullshit." Despite Kendall's interruption, Shiv continued to lay into her brother. "You have addiction issues and—"

"That's enough!" Kendall snapped.

Shiv paused a brief moment, taking in her brothers facial expression before deciding to speak again. "I don't think all that. I'm just trying to be dads voice."

A wry laugh from Roman grabbed their attention causing them to turn to face him. "Bravo. It was an excellent impression." He complimented with a smirk.

Connor held up one of his hand and shook it about as if he was waving a white flag. "I just wanna say, I'm not getting involved."

"Good."

"But Shiv's right." Connor continued, getting involved despite literally just saying he wasn't going to. He held up his hands. "I'm not saying I would make a better CEO, that's unsaid—"

Kendall cut Connor off with a sigh. "It's not unsaid when you say it."

The eldest of the Roy siblings shook his head. (Clearly not understanding.) "No, I'm saying I'm not saying it. So in fact, it is unsaid."

"Hey, pal, why don't you go help Willa with her homework?" Kendall spat out at his older brother. He couldn't listen to Connor's useless babble in that moment.

            Connor's jaw dropped at the attitude. "Ouch. Asshole. Listen why don't you decide everything. I don't care, I just observe. I'm a UN white helmet, alright?"

            No one choose to even bother attempting respond to Connor. Instead they all remained quiet until Kendall sighed heavily. "Guys, who else are you gonna get?"

"I think Shiv would be great." Tom announced, obnoxiously pointing over at her. Frankie had to bite down hard on her lips to stop the snicker that fought to escape. "That's what I think."

            "Thanks, honey. But—no way." The redhead shook her head. Even if she did want to be CEO, she couldn't without at least some experience in the company.

            Kendall's brows furrowed at the idiotic suggestion. "I mean, she doesn't work in the company and has no experience of the company and the markets would freak and Frankie would literally be a better choice than Shiv, but apart from that, I agree with you."

"I mean, we have options."

Kendall grabbed at the collar of his shirt and pulled it hard. His voice was dripping with spite as he replied, "Sure. You could all ask for morphine so you can stay in your painless fucking fantasy world where the orchids dance and the company is run by a magical fucking unicorn."

He then scoffed, uttering, "Fuck your options." as he spun on his heel and escaped the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

A silence fell across the room at Kendall's absence. The truth was none of them knew who the best choice to take over was. Kendall was a logical choice, seeing as how Logan had been ready to name him as successor before fucking him over, but maybe the others could be capable as well. No one would know if they weren't given the chance.

            "Well, if we're floating the idea of our significant other taking over, I think Roman would be great." Frankie jested at Tom with a grin, enjoying the rouge that bloomed across his cheeks. "That's how dumb you sounded."

            Tom sent her a tight-lipped smile, ignoring the cackle from Roman at his wife's sarcasm. "Thank you, Frankie."

            "You're very welcome."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

jamielee's thoughts.
chapter three. not proofread.
i just finished the final episode and I am floored by how good it was. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time but the ending killed me. anyway hope you enjoyed :)