Who: Laura & Caspian What: The beginning of the end When: Monday, March 18, evening Where Laura’s apartment Rating: Lowish - minor injury Status: Complete
Standing in the doorway to the tiny apartment’s only bedroom, Laura watched her daughter hurriedly toss her things into a bag. It felt like the room was spinning and she reached her hand out to grip the door frame to steady herself. This wasn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. She would wake up soon, and none of this would be real.
But it was reality. Suddenly, in the span of only a few short hours, Laura felt like her life was suddenly slipping away. It began simply enough. When Laura went to pick up Caitlyn from school, the teacher pulled her aside. She was concerned about Caitlyn’s performance on her latest tests. She wasn’t doing as well as she had been, as well as the teacher knew she could. Laura took this seriously, and on the way home tried to talk to her daughter about what she was going on and how she could help. But Caitlyn was upset almost immediately, angry that Laura had talked to the teacher ‘behind her back,’ angry that Laura thought something was wrong. Laura tried to calm the girl down, but all of her efforts failed and Caitlyn just became more and more upset at her mother. By the time they arrived home, the child was in a tizzy.
Trying to find a way to settle things down, Laura attempted to have them go about the day as usual. A snack and some downtime, followed by homework. But when the time came to focus on academics, Caitlyn became upset again. Confused and worried, Laura sat with her, trying to work through the problems with her, but her own lack of education was clear. Laura made the decision to keep Caitlyn home from dance that evening, to try to find out what was bothering Caitlyn so much, and to help her with the schoolwork problem. But that decision proved to be the wrong one. Furious now, because she so loved her class and her friends there, Caitlyn lashed out at Laura, throwing things and screaming. Laura reached out to hold her daughter, but emotions were running high and her hands were hotter than usual. Not enough to actually burn the girl, but definitely hot enough to startle both mother and daughter when Caitlyn cried out and reeled from the touch.
Without hesitation, Caitlyn ran for the phone, calling her father and begging him to come get her as soon as possible. She wanted to stay with him, for good, she didn’t want to stay with her mother any longer. Laura watched and listened in stunned horror, unable to intervene for fear of hurting her baby again.
When the little girl squeezed past her now, doing everything possible to avoid contact, Laura went numb. She couldn’t figure out what happened, and why, and how to fix this. Could she fix this? Or was this just the beginning of the end?
Hearing the knock on the door, Laura robotically moved to answer it, but Caitlyn got there first, tossing her arms around her father as she burst into tears.
Whenever certain numbers flashed across the screen of his phone Caspian debated whether or not to answer - not that he didn’t value receiving a call from Laura but most of the time when she called about something and had Caitlyn it wasn’t nearly as dire as she often made it out to be and he had to consider his priorities. Work nearly always came first. Caitlyn superseded anything that wasn’t a Chrysalis mission and fortune was with him that day when he decided he was at a point where he could answer the mobile when the call came in.
What he had not expected was his daughter on the other end of the line, inconsolable. His blue eyes widened with at first shock and confusion as he tried his best to make through the muddle of words she was saying. The crying wasn’t helping. Finally he soothed her enough to make some sense of what was wrong - something had happened between her and Laura and she needed to go, needed to get out. While part of him was in silent revelry at the idea that Caitlyn wanted to move in he knew that she couldn’t. The rational part of him knew that Laura needed her more than he thought he did.
“Stay put, darling. I’ll be there soon,” He assured the girl. The phone went into a pocket, he whispered into the ear of his second in command to take over charge of the affairs and Caspian was in the SUV before anyone there could blink.
Before too long the large, ebony SUV was idling in front of Laura’s building. He doubted this would take long but it would need to be resolved before any real decisions could be made. What he didn’t want was an eruption of high emotions. Laura could do damage even if she didn’t mean to. A few steps across the lobby to the elevator, a few more and he was down the hallway nearly frantic as he approached the door.
Knocking became nearly banging and then there was his daughter, eyes red and puffy from crying, throwing her arms around him. His hand went to her hair in effort to soothe her, those blue eyes lifted and found Laura’s dark ones with question.
Caitlyn was already begging to go, leaving Cas’s side only momentarily to grab the bag of her clothes and toys she’d packed herself. She seemed almost instantly soothed by her father’s presence, but it was clear she still had no plans on staying put. With a sniffle, the little girl said the three words that were like a bullet straight to Laura’s heart. “She hurt me.”
Across the room, Laura was shell shocked. She took a stumbling step backwards and shook her head frantically, her eyes flashing to Caspian with true fear. He was going to take her away, how could he not? “I… I didn’t… I didn’t mean…. I was just trying to…” None of the words came out clearly, so she just stopped herself.
Laura’s heart was not the only thing wounded by such an accusation. Tenderly, quickly he peered down at the young girl and gently he took her hands. The limbs were twisted, eyes searching for any scalds or scars - he knew Laura would never harm a hair on their daughter’s head but then again he ran with a rough crowd and he owed it to his daughter at least to do due diligence with an examination. “Where?”
Again his head lifted to Laura. Mixed emotions waged war within him but he knew Laura, he knew she would not hurt Caitlyn. Would she?
“Wait here, love,” came the soft command.
Caspian moved around his daughter and approached Laura, closing the distance between them quickly. “What happened?” He could’ve read their minds if he had chosen to, either of them, but memories weren’t always the truth. “Laura?"
On Caitlyn’s upper arms, there were faint pink marks, nearly faded now, warm but not even tender to the touch any longer. In a few more minutes it would be nothing more than a memory. But Laura knew she would never forget these moments. Her eyes filled with tears and she stepped back again, this time to protect either of them from her. A hand rose to her mouth to contain a sob.
Listening to her father, Caitlyn stayed across the room and watched her parents intently. She had never seen her mother cry before, and as upset as she was herself, the sight was bothersome.
When Caspian approached her, Laura backed up again quickly until she was against the wall. What was he going to do or say, she had no idea. She was less afraid of him and more afraid of what she might do to either of them. The two people she loved the most in the world, and now she was bound to lose them both for good, forever.
“Something happened at school… I was trying to help but she just got more upset. I just wanted to hold her and…” Shaking her head, Laura closed her eyes tight. The first and last time Caspian had seen Laura cry was when Caitlyn was born. That was the happiest day of her life, and now her tears fell for an entirely different reason.
Swallowing hard, she moved along the wall until she could escape the room, ducking into the kitchen.
The pink, fading marks had been noted. He would not stir up Caitlyn’s already high emotions and he would take her only long enough for her to calm down. Leaving her here would only make things worse for both of them, his daughter and Laura. Each of them needed time apart to recuperate and figure out what went awry.
He had stopped walking as soon as he saw Laura cower and duck away as if he had any mind to hurt her. That stung worse than she would ever know and he pivoted as she crept away into the kitchen. Caspian frowned. Laura had never been so timid when it came to such things, and seeing her slink away instead of dealing with a problem had him questioning her sanity just then.
There was no doubt he knew the risks, he loved her anyway and always had. A glance at Caitlyn. He would talk to her later about the school situation and get what he needed from her to better understand the situation as a whole.
Unwilling to fight infront of their daughter Caspian gave up. He turned and headed back toward the door. “Tell your Mum goodbye then,” he breathed loud enough for Laura to hear. His daughter had turned to leave and Cas caught her by the shoulder gently, “Caitlyn. This is no way to treat your Mum, do you understand me? You are mad with her, which is fine, but she loves you and wants the best for you. You owe her at least a goodbye. Do you understand?”
In the kitchen, Laura was pacing, trying to calm herself but only making things worse with the terrible thoughts running through her head. She heard his voice in the other room and she felt like the last of the breath left her body. They were leaving, he was taking her, and there was nothing she could do about it. Because Caitlyn wanted to go.
And now he wanted her to say goodbye? If her heart wasn’t broken already, this shattered it. How was she supposed to say goodbye to her daughter? She could barely handle it during visits, she didn’t think she could withstand this pain. Shaking her head, she rushed back into the living room but kept a safe distance. “Please don’t. Please. I’ll do anything. Anything. Just please don’t take her…”
Pleading, she looked from Cas to Caitlyn and back, tears falling fast down her face. “I know I’ve been terrible to both of you. I know I don’t deserve anything. Just please…” She didn’t know what else she could say or do, and a part of her knew that maybe this was for the best. For them anyway.
Seeing her mother a mess like this certainly didn’t make Caitlyn want to go to her any more than she had wanted to a few minutes ago. But now it wasn’t because of anger, but fear. So for now, she just stood beside her father, unsure of what to do or say.
He looked from one person to the other, studying the situation. Why was he always in the middle of something he couldn’t control and felt helpless to prevent? Kneeling down, Caspian beckoned Caitlyn toward him. She came, complying though her steps were light and her eyes were fixed upon her mother. When she was close Cas wrapped an arm around her. “Darling, you know that running from your problems is no way to solve them, don’t you?”
“Yes Da,” she replied, those eyes never leaving the woman against the wall.
“What happened, love? Will you tell me?”
Caitlyn sniffled. Afraid, she turned to her Da and talked to him. It was no surprise to anyone that Caitlyn knew he could read her mind. He used it as a chance to listen to her when they couldn’t communicate - just like now. She told him about school, about what happened and while he saw it from her perspective he knew that her reaction was based solely on her growing up and also being afraid to face the challenges at school. Being young was hard, he and Laura knew that.
“Alright then.” Caspian nodded, moving to stand up.
He fixed his gaze upon Laura again, “I need you to calm down, first of all. Take a breath. Listen to me for once and relax. You being like this is not helping her.” He was scared too, but not of Laura. Caitlyn was growing up, she was eight, and every year she got a year older he felt that much more disconnected from her.
Laura watched as father and daughter connected, feeling more of an outsider to them than ever before. She desperately wanted to know what Caitlyn said to him, but a part of her knew if her daughter wanted to tell her she would have. Caitlyn was growing up, she was a person of her own, and Laura had no say in it.
Raking a trembling hand back through her hair, she took a ragged breath. She listened to Cas, more than he knew. But relaxing wasn’t going to happen any time soon. She waited in silence for what was coming. She suddenly knew it didn’t matter how much she begged, this was out of her hands now.
”Save face, Laura. Your daughter deserves to see you fake it for her sake. Have you learned nothing?’
He left that in her mind seeing her state of being. Right now the best thing for both of them was to remove Caitlyn from the situation. He would take her to his place for a day or two to let things calm down and then she would come home. Maybe he and Nina would take her for ice cream after school to calm her ire. She was fragile, so was Laura.
Taking a breath of his own Cas turned to Caitlyn. “Say goodbye to your mother. We are leaving.”
“Goodbye mummy,” she said, words strained.
With that, Caspian turned and headed toward Caitlyn.
He could remember a time where he worshiped Laura, gave her everything she had wanted and now here they were fighting on polar opposites for the child who had taken his hand and whose footsteps would echo down the hallway.
Hearing his words in her mind, Laura looked to Caspian, her eyes truly meeting his for the first time in years. But she couldn’t believe what he was telling her, she was supposed to just wave and smile and watch her entire world fall apart?
And suddenly, she remembered something. Something she’d said to him years ago, in warning. And now it was true. I ruin things, Caspian. I burn them to the ground. That’s why I have no friends and no family. That is why I am the way I am. I don’t make things better, I.. Destroy them.
She couldn’t say goodbye to her daughter, she wouldn’t. But there was one thing she could do before they walked out of her life, possibly forever. Rushing to Caitlyn’s room, Laura looked around hurriedly before finding something and rushing back to them. Staying a careful distance, she reached out to hand over one of the girl’s favorite stuffed animals, one she had had since she was born. “Don’t forget this. I know sometimes it helps you sleep. I love you.”
But then they were walking away and Laura found herself left alone, crouching on the floor of the silent apartment.
That utterance in his mind caused him to pause. Caitlyn peered up at him. A sigh and into Laura’s mind he dropped a few words ”You are in charge of your own life. You hold the keys to your shackles, Laura. You are what you make yourself.” Some of that had been what he had first told her as well. She was in control of what she wanted to be. The shell of what she had become hurt him almost as much as the experience of her turning him away.
He loved her. He’d been ready to marry her and now here they were.
A step, and then another. He lead Caitlyn down the hallway to the elevator. They would leave Pengy behind, her penguin plush toy.
Over her shoulder Caitlyn peered at the open door at her mother before she followed her father into the elevator.
Turning, they both watched Laura as the doors to the elevator closed.
Laura knew this had to be a nightmare, it could not possibly be real. Caitlyn wouldn’t just walk away without a word, she wouldn’t just turn her back on her. But she did. And it caused something inside of Laura to break and die.
Standing slowly, she carefully placed the penguin on the table and stared after them as the doors closed. Leaving the apartment door open, she didn’t really care if anyone else came in. There was nothing left of value for anyone to take anyway. Turning, she moved into the bathroom, she was going to be sick.