Layla was not the type to loose her temper easy, so a few gunshots wouldn't scare her. She had a pretty rough childhood growing up in Twin Peaks, as an only child. She was mostly alone, looking after herself when her father was away for months transporting redwood logs to Canada. She never met her mother, died while giving birth thats what her daddy told her. There weren't many people to know her mother because she wasn't from town. Weirdly the night she gave birth it was her first one in Twin Peaks, arriving from Ontario by car.
In such a small city stories travel and linger on peoples minds for years but, most often the silence prevails. There was a backside to the story, one that her father has concealed during all her childhood. One day after classes, her teacher sat her down and began talking to tell her:
Layla dear, the night you were born I was doing a night shift at the local hospital downtown. You see, I used to work as a nurse the summer of 93, it was mandatory practice for my medicine studies back then, and I liked it. The personnel was lovely, I fancied chatting with the ambulance drivers, and that night was no exception. When I have arrived I stopped for a smoke near the main entrance, the concierge welcomed me and began to grumble about the snow. It was a cold winter, cold and calm, as most of our winters here. You see Layla, dear there's not much happening in this town so you can imagine how shocked I was by the scene that followed: As I was finishing my cigarette, a taxi pulled in big haste near the front entrance of the hospital. He brought a young woman around 25y old, in critical condition, with 3 gunshot wounds and visibly pregnant in her later months. She was immediately taken care of, intubated and placed in intensive care. The wounds were dreadful; one in her right shoulder one above her left knee and another in her hip, it caused her to loose too much blood.
Her vital signals were declined by the hour and around 2AM she went into a coma. The doctors did what they could to keep her alive, I was there all the time, in the emergency room, we constantly monitored the health of the foetus. And we applied the protocols by the book. We tried everything to save her, but at 03:00AM her heart stopped beating and the doctors decided to perform a cesarian immediately and save the baby.
It was a terrible night, that morning at the end of our shifts, we all gathered with Dr. Cooper in the saloon around a cup of coffee. We were all tired and broken for the loss of your mother, but the only thing that brought some light in our hearts was hearing your cry in the other room. It was meant to be like this.
Of course, the sherif started to look into it. Your father arrived a week later.. the sherif inquired your case, not much was found, they concluded it was robbery. I'm sure there's more to this story, you might want to talk with your father.
Layla was listening motionless, petrified. When she confronted her father, he has admitted and told the rest of the story which was more dreadful than she would have imagined. Drug smuggling business, where innocent people get killed, it was all for revenge, and revenge against her father who fucked up his awful dealings.
She left for New York the following day, with only a backpack, without telling good bye to anyone. Only 17 years old, but she knew she'd be better off away from all these horror stories and lies.
When She met George she was already living in NY for ten years and working in the bar where she was with him now, trying to understand his distress when all hell broke loose and the gunshots went off our in the street.
George: Get down, run, they're coming in
Layla: No, they're gone.
