[Kallile]

It had been a long time. Two years long, to be exact.

Madeline looked up at the darkening sky above her. It was early evening but the gathering clouds brought with them an eerie darkness that seemed to be following the young woman. Of course, she felt like it was she who was the true black cloud today.

The path she walked was all too familiar. She’d walked this path a lot when she had been pregnant—the nice little hidden house where…

She stopped dead in her tracks and closed her eyes. Reaching up to pull the green sunglasses off her face, she tucked them away in the pocket of her jacket. God, had it really been that long? She didn’t even know her daughters…or if Prudii was even still alive. She had to try though, had to see. She’d abandoned them for this long, there wasn’t another minute she could afford to waste.

Inhaling deeply and thrusting her other hand into a free pocket, she pressed forward. He wouldn’t understand, that much she already knew. But, she had come to realize, she didn’t know if she wanted him to accept it. It wasn’t acceptable after all, what mother did that? Bad ones.

”Dad always did say I’d be a lousy mom.” Maddi chided at herself as house came in sight.  Two years and it was all boiling down. She cast her gaze down at herself. She’d lost all the baby weight in that time—back to nearly her old size. Her hair was a little longer than before but still jet black and her attitude was…slightly more under wraps.

”Wonder if he’ll even want to remember me…” She sighed; gently putting a toe on the sidewalk leading up to the house. ”or even wants to.”

The walk felt like an eternity; just putting one foot in front of the other and hoping that eventually the walkway would stop it’s comical lengthening and just land her at the door already. Of course, the pit of her stomach churned at that thought. Maybe it was easier to stay gone, not disrupt anything he had worked to build in her wake.  Or…alternatively…to find another Clone in the house and have to learn that he was dead.

She fiddled with a loose thread in her pocket as she stared at the door. She could hear footsteps inside, a noise that made her swallow nervously. Plucking the thread she raised the hand that held it to knock.

A rumble of distant thunder sounded as her fists hand met the wooden structure. Here went everything.

(82)

[MillietheWarrior]

The distinct ‘chop, chop’ of the knife against the cutting board was a familiar and welcome sound. It helped him get his mind off other things. It seemed to drift far to often for his own liking nowadays. The meat was sliced easily, the sharpened cutlery in his hand making neat little slices, one of which he plucked form the board and tossed over his shoulder. A loud, audible ‘snap!’ accompanied the throw, and Prudii smiled faintly to himself. He knew Street would catch the meat with no problem. The leopard patterned Khimera purred contentedly and settled down heavily in the junction between kitchen and living room. Prudii never thought he’d have a pet living with him (even if it was his grandson’s) and momentarily, his mind drifted to wonder what she would think of it.

Prudii gave a low growl that would’ve done the giant cat in the archway justice, and quickly shook his head. Yeah right. It’d been two years since she’d up and left without a word. Prudii was a damn good tracker, but when Madeline wanted to disappear, then disappear she would. And she’d done so without hesitation once their children were old enough to waddle after him. Prudii’s eyes narrowed as the knife sliced through the meat too heavily and left a good sized dent in the cutting board. He shouldn’t be thinking about Madeline. Not at all. She’d left their family in the dust, and left behind two bewildered children who kept asking ‘where mommy was’ and a broken hearted husband who could only smile sadly and say ‘she’s on vacation for a while.’ Prudii’s gaze inadvertently strayed to the ring still fitted securely around his finger, but quickly shot back to the pot of boiling stew that he dumped the rest of the meat into.

Wiping his hands on a towel, Prudii turned to head back into the living room, when Street suddenly rose up form his relaxed position, a low growl shivering in his throat, and stared hard at the door. Prudii tensed, a dark frown deepening his face. His skin was still as dark as it had been, but there were more frown lines round his mouth, and his eyes no longer sparked with a barely suppressed devious nature. He hardly laughed, almost never smiled, and he had gray at the temples of his still pitch black hair. His body was in as good of shape as ever, but more well-worn and maybe a bit more tired than he used to be.

The shadows in his eyes spoke more in volume than any words he could ever utter, and although Prudii denied it vehemently when it came up in conversation with his brothers, he knew he was no more than a shadow of the man he used to be. Huh. Shadow of a man. Considering what his name meant, it was a touch ironic…in a heart-breaking, stab-you-in-the-back kind of way. Prudii carefully eased the blaster that hung in a holster beside the door into his hand, flipping off the safety and hearing the tell-tale click and charge of the weapon. He held it aloft, and reached for the knob. He wasn’t expecting any visitors, and his brothers and daughter always called ahead. Slowly, he pulled open the door, and promptly dropped the blaster in surprise. It discharged in a bolt of blue light, which shot forward and scorched the wall. Prudii didn’t so much as flinch as he stared down at a familiar head of hair he hadn’t seen for nearly two years.

And then he promptly slammed the door in her face.

[Kallile]

As the door opened and the blaster discharged, Maddi didn't so much as bat an eye. She had, to be truthful, fully expected there to be weaponry involved in this "happy reunion". She stared up as he stared down; she didn't dare say a word. While all Clones looked the same, there was a certain fire in Prudii's eyes that she had come to know well. Almost an aura about him really, because heck, she had given birth to his kids so she'd better damn well be able to tell him apart.

When she was sure it was in fact him that she was staring at her heart skipped. She waited for the yell, maybe even the punch, she was sure he'd been waiting to give her all this time. Instead she received a door to the face, left outside in the brewing storm. This concerned her more than anything he could have done. So, it was that bad, huh?

The Prudii she had left behind would have nearly throttled her to death for doing the things she had done. He would have sprung from the door, tackled her to the ground, and sat on top of her while he belittled her into a blubbering mess to hear the story of why she left. Yes, she'd expected an all-out war to play out on this stoop...but instead she was out here alone. And now thoroughly confused and shaken.

Of course in Madeline, those two elements often combined into rage and tonight was no different. She hadn't dragged herself here to not be able to have any closure. Hell, he should be begging her for closure.

"Oh Maddi, why did you do it, you bitch?"

Yeah, that's exactly what she should have been hearing after a little 'oh nice to see you again' style bloodshed. He should crave an answer from her. "Hell if he thinks I'm playing this game..." The lady scorned hissed under her breath. Gritting her teeth she raised her hand to knock again, only this time it wasn't so polite.

Oh no, she planned on beating down the door to force her little story down his throat.

(83)

[MillietheWarrior]

Prudii leaned against the door silently, staring at his booted feet. His eyes were blank, still astonished, still surprised to see her -- no, maybe that was wrong. He wasn’t surprised to see her, so much as he was surprised she had the gall to show her face around his home again. His. Home. Not ‘their’ home. His. He felt white hot anger coursing through his veins, but he didn’t know if he wanted to give her and idea of how much she’d hurt him. Badly. So badly, Prudii wondered if he’d even be able to face her without hating her. Without wanting to kick her into next week. A small part of him, a very small, minuscule, reasonable, endearing part of him said that he loved her.

That he’d always love her, no matter what. They’d been through way too much for him to just give up. But another, bigger part of him said that he should refuse to speak to her. Leave her on the front stoop. Let her deal with the mess she made. Tell her to get lost and kick her to the curb for good. She had absolutely no problem doing the same to you, right? She tossed you aside like the trash you were. Why should she think she can waltz back in like nothing happened? Prudii’s head abruptly bounced off the wood as a little fist banged furiously against it. His brows furrowed angrily, and he looked up in time to see Street gazing at him curiously, as if waiting for the command to maim and destroy.

Prudii waved the giant cat off to the sofa with a faint twitch of his hand, and abruptly turned around to the door. His hand hesitated on the doorknob, as if wondering whether or not he should open it. He didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing how angry she made him, and how much she’d absolutely hurt him when she left. Devastation was too weak a word for what he’d felt. Finally, after a few, painful, agonizing moments of indecision, Prudii rested his hand against the cool wood of the door, and leaned his forehead against it. When he spoke, his voice was low, not angry or furious as she might have expected. A strange kind of cool, detached calm washed over him, the kind he felt just before he stepped into battle.

But no amount of detachment could keep the pain from his voice. “What do you want, Madeline? I thought you made it clear when you left that I was nothing more than a piece of trash. All used up. You took what you wanted, Madeline, and left me with nothing but our children. What could you possibly want from me now? Haven’t you done enough? Haven’t you-” Prudii swallowed hard, and realized that the pain behind his eyes were tears. He quickly blinked them away, his voice rolling softly like the distant thunder. “-haven’t you hurt me enough yet?”

[Kallile]

She felt like she'd been out there for hours already pounding away on that damn door. The way it gave into her pummeling changed slightly a few times but Madeline was too busy in her own anger to notice it. Only when the voice on the other side sounded did she stop. Well, at least she knew for sure now that he hadn't been bested in battle yet.

"A talking door is the last thing I excepted to be dealing with." She remarked at the faceless voice hiding behind it. She was taken aback by one of his statement though. A piece of trash? Had she called him that? She didn't recall it, but then, much of what had been said and done during the worst period of her depression was a blur. "Well, that's one statement I wish had never left my mouth." This reply came out much gentler than the first as Maddi leaned forward to knock her forehead against the door and leave it there.

She honestly hadn't planned this far ahead. She thought she'd be fighting for her life right now, not literally and figuratively locked out and floundering for words. She wasn't her mother, dammit. She wasn't a good wordsmith, or at the very least she wasn't a polite one.

"I came to...offer closure I guess. For both of us. My head's clear now....and I wanted you to know exactly what was going on when I lef--abandoned all of you. Even if you don't want to hear it, I wanted to come here and tell it to you. I needed to come here and tell you."

She paused and twirled something on her left ring finger. "And I figured after all this time...you probably want your ring back. Give it to one of the girls or...something. Burn it maybe. I don't know."

The last thing he'd said stung much more than she expected it to. Sure, she had been the one who left, but facing the pain left in her wake was something she couldn't have fully prepared herself for. "No, you're right, I shouldn't be here to do this to you. I should have stayed ghosted. I'll leave...ring's on the doormat." She muttered as she pulled the purple Shoroni sapphire ring from it's place to set it gently down and turn to walk away.

(84)

[MillietheWarrior]

“Wishing doesn’t change things, Madeline,” Prudii mumbled through the door, letting his forehead rest against the cool wood and closing his eyes. He squeezed them shut, trying to reach for that calm detachment that had begun to elude him; he might not have felt white hot anger, but the pain was very real, and very acute.

“Closure probably should’ve come a lot sooner, you know. Walking out without an explanation is never, and was never the answer, Madeline. I don’t care how scared, or frightened, or freaked out you’ll probably say you were…that’s absolutely nothing compared to what Paige and Nia felt when you left. Do you know how difficult it is to lie to your daughters everyday, telling them that mommy really does love them, and she’ll be back soon; that she’s just on vacation and she didn’t leave forever, but knowing, in the back of your mind, that the reason she wasn’t there to tuck them in, or to read them bedtime stories, or to comfort them when they woke up in tears in the middle of the night was because you just didn’t know how to deal with being a mother?”

His hand twisted the knob, and the door swung open. His eyes were calm, level, shadowed with pain, and his face grim as he stared down at her. “Turn around and pick up the damn ring, Madeline. I will not bend down and pick up something that meant so much to me from the front of my stoop.” His eyes narrowed imperceptibly, but his face remained impassive. “And come inside. I won’t kill you, or maim you. Not until I hear your reasons. And they had better be good.” As he stepped aside and motioned to the living room, Street lifted his head form the couch.

A low growl rumbled in his chest, and Prudii made absolutely no move to stop him from snarling in Madeline’s direction. The giant cat slipped from the sofa, and quietly, and unobtrusively, glided across the room to stand at Prudii’s side, as though ready to leap in and defend the Null should things turn ugly. Prudii seemed at a loss; the hurt he’d felt on the day she’d left had come rushing back, and the pain was so intense, he could barely breathe. What did one do in this situation? None of his brothers had ever had this problem.

“I…just made dinner. You’re welcome to stay,” he said quietly, for once sounding completely unsure of himself. He doubted he’d ever sounded like that in his entire life. Maybe it would have been better if Maddi had stayed ‘ghosted.’

[Kallile]

The woman paused in her tracks, grinding her teeth together at the things he was telling her that she'd already told herself. She'd known in the pit of her soul that this was the worst idea ever, but here was was despite her own warnings. As dignified as possible she turned around and scooped up the ring, holding it in her hand rather than replacing it. At least right away. She wasn't quite sure where it belonged anymore. The only thing she was certain of in this moment was that she was a very, very unwelcome stranger here.

"Never pegged you the type for a cat...but it's better than the damn spider." She muttered as she followed him in, eyes on Street from the moment the growl sounded. The fanged beast was nothing compared to Prudii's words though. How would anything sound good enough for him? They had experienced the birth of their daughters entirely differently; on her end there were things Prudii just couldn't fathom. Or at least that's what she;d told herself all this time. How young and stupid she'd been for that train of thought.

"No, thanks, I will try not to disrupt your evening anymore than I already am. Plus, it'd probably suck to die on a full stomach." Though she said it in jest a part of her felt it might be true. The Null--with his short fuse--had been stewing on this for years. She'd probably never leave this house in one piece.

Folding her arms a little defensively she looked up at him with her shock-purple eyes. "You already knew I went into postpartum depression after the girls were born. We got meds, went about life..." She shook her head to shake away the few fleeting memories she had of her children.

"They never helped, not much. When you were there, things seemed easier--I felt like I could overcome it. But the instant you would get called on, the moment you would set foot out that door...Nothing I did felt right. The girls cried all the time and...and...Prudii...I wanted to go on a long, long walk and leave them somewhere for someone else to find. One the worst days I wanted to drop them into a river. I felt so helpless that all I could think of were ways to bring life back to normal, to get rid of those shrill little voices that I could never soothe. And when..."

She paused, looking behind to to make sure she did not miss the couch before slumping down into it and putting her head in her hands. She couldn't look at him for this part. When she began speaking again her voice was raspy with tears. "No one seemed to be able to help. Not mother, not my aunts, not the doctors or their meds....and when...when I found myself holding Virginia out of our bedroom window and honestly wanting to let her go..."

One hand moved to whisk away tears of the last real memory she had of her dark-haired daughter. Contemplating murder--what an excellent mother. "I couldn't stay--I was a danger to them. No matter what you think of me now, I was so afraid of what you would say if you knew I was halfway to killing one of our babies. So afraid of what your answer to help me would be. At the time the only thing I could think of was to disappear...and that's what I did. It took me a year and a hell of a lot of religions to get me through those feelings...

Bleary, tear soaked eyes finally rose to meet his face. "And it took me another to find the courage to come here and tell you why."

(85)

[MillietheWarrior]

“Things change, I suppose,” Prudii responded dryly, patting the giant beast lightly on top of it’s head. Street rumbled a sound that could have resembled a purr, his eyes never leaving Madeline’s form. He watched her sharply, like a predator watches prey, his two tails twitching quietly against the carpet. Prudii snapped his fingers and pointed across the room, opposite of the sofa. Without protest, the giant cat slid away and settled in a graceful heap in front of the fireplace and the roaring fire inside. Prudii made no move to leave the door, standing awkwardly beside it and staring hard at his boots as he listened to Madeline’s story. A small part of him refused to forgive her; it refused to take her excuses, and didn’t want to see the truth or the unbalance in them.

But another part of him wanted to gather her into his arms and show her how much he’d missed her. He was emotionally conflicted, something that hadn’t happened to him since he could remember, but seemed to occur only when Madeline was around. Her words frightened him, surprised him; he’d known about her depression, but he hadn’t thought it was so bad. She’d never let on about it, never said a word to him. But the question was; why? Did she think he’d have killed her? Hurt her? Who or what did she think he was? Maybe she really saw him as the monster he’d been created to be. Maybe she was like everyone else. His gaze sunk back to the floor, and when he spoke, his voice was no more than a hoarse whisper.

“I spent every day -- every single day, Madeline -- wondering what I’d done wrong. What had I done to drive you away? Was it because of what I was? I know you’d never been comfortable with my origins, my age, or anything about me. That’s all cured now, and I’m normal; I won’t age faster than you or anything, but I sometimes wish I did. I wish I was still going to die young, that it’d all be over in a couple of years. But I couldn’t do that to the girls and their families; I won’t make them go through it twice. I really am trash, I suppose. Nothing more than a failed experiment. I was never meant to love, to have a family, and yet, I defied that and did it anyway. It’s probably all my fault, somehow…”

He gasped for breath, his voice cracking and stuttering as he continued on. “You could have told me. You could have given me a clue as to how bad it was. I would’ve stayed, Madeline. I would’ve helped you through it. I-I had no idea it was so bad. You never even said a word, never let on about any of that. Why would you keep something like that from me?” He finally lifted his gaze, harsh, golden eyes focused on her and suddenly blurry with tears and pain. He quickly swiped his arm across his eyes, refusing to let the tears fall. “Do you think I’m so much of a monster that I’d have held any of that against you? That I wouldn’t have helped? I love…I cared about you, Madeline. More than you could ever have imagined. You and the children were my world, and when you left, you took a part of that with you. I was sure it was my fault, that I’d done something wrong, something to chase you away. Virginia turned into a horrible version of me and you and tried to destroy her life the only way she knew how. Paige just stopped talking to her, stopped being so happy, and lost herself in her books and her clothes. You hurt them, probably more than you hurt me. They loved you, Madeline, no matter what you might’ve done or thought about doing. They don’t care. They just wanted their mommy.”

Prudii took a deep, ragged breath, wobbling over to the armchair and sinking down slowly into it. He dropped his head into his hands, groaning behind them. “A part of me wants to forgive you, Madeline. I understand…I-I do. A part of me wants to hate you, to wring your neck and kick you out into the storm. But I can’t.” He croaked the last word like a dying man begging for water, and suddenly lifted his face, lined with edges of sorrow, and years of pain and worry, to watch her with steadily darkening eyes. “God help me, but I want to take you back. And I hate myself for it. I want you to stay, to be my wife again, to love me like you did. I don’t know if you could, or would, or if I could stand that kind of pain. But I want it. I do. I‘m just…I’m afraid you’ll leave again, and Madeline, I can’t take that twice. I can’t, and I won’t. You nearly killed me the first time you left; if you do it again…I won’t survive it.”

[Kallile]

Her eyes didn't move with Street, they only held their quivering gaze on Prudii. She couldn't judge his reaction like she used to be able to and that fact alone frightened her. She had just told him she had honest-to-God thought of killing one of their children. The way he stood, looking so uneasy, made her uneasy as well and she fidgeted at the edge of the couch.

"None of it is your fault." She whispered back. "You were always a model husband....so far as I'm concerned. I was the royal screw-up wife who wanted to kill her own babies." New tears brimmed her eyes but did not fall. She'd not told anyone about this in such a long time...and even then only her mother had known.

She gathered herself in a deep inhale and tried to push back the reemerging panic she had felt when she had realized how bad it was herself. "...I didn't know how to tell you. How could I have broken that to you at that time and made it sound alright? If it had been back then when all you knew them as were helpless infants...could you have pictured me dangling one out the window and not have hated me for it? Because I sure as hell hated myself a lot."

Her hands were clasped together now so tightly that she could feel the ring digging into both palms. "It wasn't you I was afraid of, Prudii. It was not knowing how to make myself better or if I would even get better. It was waking up every morning and aching when I watch you leave because I know there were just that many more hours I could hurt them. It was the thought of what your brothers would have done if they found out."

His proposal had her nearly dropping the ring she was trying to hard to embed into her hands. This was the last thing she had expected him to say, the last thing she expected to even be on his mind. She a long moment she could only stare at him slack jawed and weepy eyed in complete disbelief. "Prudii, I..."

She faltered for words. Here she was, having come here ready for a drag down knock out fight and instead she was sitting in a cozy living room with both of them on the brink of tears. Could she do this? Could she be a housewife again, face the daughters she had left? She had faced Prudii and lived...

"I'm not the same stupid girl I was when I left...and doing this here and now I sure as hell don't ever want to do it again. If you want me to stay--really, honestly want to give me a second chance...then I'm not going anywhere unless you ask me to."

(86)

[MillietheWarrior]

“You don’t seem to understand,” Prudii murmured, keeping his head down, and his gaze studiously away from her. “I’m an ARC trooper. I should have seen the signs. I shouldn’t have been so blind or ignorant or just plain stupid. I should’ve asked. I should’ve made you explain how bad it was so I could help you.” He took a deep, shuddering breath, and ran a hand through his hair. It was hard to take in, the idea that the love of his life had wanted to…to kill his children? No. She didn’t know what she was doing. Depression messed with the head, turned your thoughts against you, destroyed any semblance of who you thought you were or your rational thinking.

He couldn’t blame Madeline; only the depression. “It wasn’t all your fault, you know. Those kinds of things…you can’t…you can’t overcome them by yourself. I just wish you’d have told me, Madeline. I could’ve helped. I could’ve helped you get over it.” He lifted his head and watched her, carefully, his face and eyes shadowed with doubt and pain. He wished things could’ve been different, could’ve been fixed as easily as he thought they could. He wished she hadn’t kept it from her. “They would’ve helped you too, Madeline. We all would have. I just…wish…” He turned away, staring hard at the fire. No, he needed to stop wishing. It wouldn’t change anything.

“Madeline, I want you to know…I may never fully trust you again. I will always, always harbor the hurt you left me with, and I can forgive, but I can never, ever forget. I need you to know that before you accept anything I offer you. It’s going to take a long time for my heart…to heal. But everyone…everyone deserves a second chance, no-no matter who they are.” Prudii lifted his eyes, and then his hand, slowly unfurling it and reaching for her. “If you want to stay, I would welcome you back…as my wife, my friend, and my everything.”

[Kallile]

Madeline, too, was beginning to wish that Prudii would stop wishing. All the time she had spent away she had spent trying to tame her hair-trigger nature; it was what lead her to leave her family behind. So, amazingly enough, she held her tongue as she listen to him go on until finally she thought she might break under the pressure of 'what ifs'. "None of what I did was the right answer, I know that. But I can't take it back no matter how much I'd like to now--to have just...sucked in my fears and told you. To have rocked my girls to sleep at night. I'd give anything to redo things...but I can't. It doesn't matter how things could have been, this is how they are. We can only move forward from here."

The tears in her eyes had subsided, but the empty sorrow so unlike herself was still there. She rolled the ring over and over between thumb and index finger silently contemplating if she should replace it or if she would only be the death of Prudii in the end.

"I never expect you to forgive me, or to forget. Hell, I never expected to be sitting in your house having this conversation right now. I don't want to pretend like I did nothing, that I can just come back to open arms without repercussions. I came back because I'm long overdue to make amends with my family--if any can still be made." She looked to his hands reaching out for her and realized just how foreign the image was. The look on his face, the slow and tentative motions...she had crushed him more than she had ever imagined. And she hated seeing him look at her that way.

Slowly she got to her feet and replaced the ring to it's rightful place on her left ring finger. She sucked in a deep breath and reached out to hold his hands in hers. "I want to stay..." She whispered as tears began springing into her eyes again.

(87)

[MillietheWarrior]

“That’s right,” Prudii murmured, watching the ring turn around in her hands over and over again. He remembered getting the ring set, remembered chipping off the Shoroni sapphire himself. He remembered the night he gave it to her, the night they were married, the day his daughters were born. Prudii remembered everything with sparkling clarity thanks to his eidetic memory, but he didn’t need enhanced genes to remember everything about the woman in front of him and all they’d been through. “We’ll leave it in the past. It’s going to…take some time to work through and over all of this. But we’ve been through worse, right? I mean, it can’t be any harder than not dying after you’ve been shot by a sniper, right?”

As her hand lightly fell into his, Prudii curled his fingers around it, marveling at the memory of how soft her skin was, and what it felt like to hold her hand in his. He gave a sharp tug, pulling her towards him and into his lap. He wished they could start over and be like they used to be when they first met one another…maybe minus the temper flare ups. Madeline seemed so small, so tired when she looked at him that way, with tears in her eyes that didn’t look like they should be there. “You’ve missed a lot, you know,” he murmured, reaching up to wrap his arms around her. “Virginia got married. Can you imagine? I never thought I’d get rid of her, to be truthful.”

He chuckled lightly, closing his eyes and pretending everything was all right. “And she married an actor, no less. A rich boy. He’s softer than a marshmallow, but she’s trying to toughen him up a bit. I think he’s pretty tough already, considering he can handle her so well. And believe it or not, they have children. A little boy and girl. That Khimera over there is the boy’s pet, but Nia didn’t want him hanging around while they’re so small.” He took a deep, calming breath, feeling tears prick his eyes at everything she’d missed. Somehow, this was his fault. It had to be, no matter what she said. He closed his eyes against the pain, trying to occupy the silence with words.

“Paige has become a fashion designer; all over the place, that one. Last I heard, she was at some big show in Rome, and then Paris. She told me she’s got a thing going with her bodyguard; at least I don’t have to worry about looking after her on my own.” On his own. Nothing would be done on his own, not anymore, not unless she left again. A painful feeling restricted his chest, and Prudii sucked in a slow breath. “I don’t know how they’ll feel about this, Madeline. You hurt them…maybe more than me. Nia resented you. Hated you, I think. I don’t know about Paige; she never did anything but smile, but I know she was sad, even beneath the happiness. It’s going to take a lot to make them understand, especially Nia. You hurt her the most, Maddi. What are you going to say to her?”

[Kallile]

"Nothing could be worse than keeping your ass alive that night while fending off rabid spiders." Madeline concurred with a small smile as she allowed herself to be pulled into his lap. She watched his hand as it left hers to encircle her body as she shifted to drape an arm over his neck. For a moment she stared at his face so chiseled with years of sadness and worry. She wished this could really be a new beginning, that there were no other lives she's affected. Leaning into him she pressed her cheek to his collar bone and closed her eyes. Maybe if they stayed like this long enough, the world would forget everything that had happened.

However, that could never be so. Her face scrunched sadly. "I know." She breathed into his neck, eyes still closed. They weren't babies anymore. They were women...but that didn't make it any harder to hear that one was married. Especially Virginia. "How on earth did she land an actor?" She said with a half laugh--trying to hide the fact that her heart had just shattered some. She'd really missed everything. All the graduations, the birthdays, the dating, the wedding and the...

Her head snapped off of Prudii's shoulder with lightning speed and the old fire in her eyes sparked back to life. At first she wasn't sure how to respond to that; her mouth bobbed like a marionette without a ventriloquist. The words she finally settled on were: "Oh god, don't tell me I'm grandmother age already." What else could she say? Her baby was a married woman with kids. And she had stayed. At least, in the back of her mind, she might have done something good in making her daughter hate her so much she didn't want to do what she had done.

The fire quelled when she heard about Paige, the slight smile became smaller, but returned none the less. "I swear, that one should have been Kyrie's baby. They're identical twins born centuries apart." She paused, then frowned again. "Or...I guess they might be..."

It was her turn to heave a sigh, and she stared over at her grandsons' cat. "They'll hate it, Prudii, if they got anything from me. They'll fight it tooth and nail and we'll have to duke it out until we're too exhausted to fight about it anymore." She looked down at the ring he had given her so long ago as if it's murky depths might hold some mystic answer.

"What can be said about it? She might understand, being a mother now, but I doubt it. I'd...like to meet her without her...kids, though. I don't want what will probably be their only memory of me to be crying or screaming at their mom."

She brought her gaze back to Prudii, desperate to not think about it anymore...at least for a while. It had been a long enough evening. "I think dinner is getting cold. I can always go and grab some things for the night if you're sure you want me to stay here."

She didn't even dare to start thinking about sleeping arrangements just yet.

(88)

[MillietheWarrior]

“The spiders were rabid, Maddi. You just didn’t like them. You know that spider had babies, and it’s babies had babies. I bet one of it’s great, great, great, great, great grandchildren lives in this house too.” For a moment, a wicked gleam passed through his eyes, reminiscent of their old life together, but it quickly faded when his face sobered and fell. His arms tightened briefly around her, as if worried she’d slip away from him if he let go. Prudii sighed, long and slow, his breath brushing across the top of her head as he leaned back in his chair, cradling her to him like a long lost child. “You tell me. I don’t know how he puts up with her, or how they even got together, but they say opposites attract. They’re as opposite as can be. He sure does love her, I’ll give him that. And he’s a good father.”

Prudii grumbled grudgingly, looking more amused than annoyed. He liked Des, he really did, but he liked giving him a hard time even more. “Hate to break it to you, but apparently, we’re what the younger generation like to call ‘old.’ Yep, you’re a grandmother. And I’m a grandfather. Weird, isn’t it? I had liked to think, back when Paige and Nia were little, that you and I would have more kids. You think that’s out of the question someday?” The last words were soft, barely more than a whisper as they brushed across her cheek, and he pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. “Kyrie and Paige are working together, last I heard. Bit of a funny arrangement there, if you ask me, especially since Kyrie’s so much older than Paige.”

When Madeline’s gaze settled on him, the giant cat lifted his head, as if sensing her staring. It watched her steadily, it’s own bright, yellow eyes reflecting her gaze with a wary curiosity. “You should just give them time. Nia maybe more than Paige. I think she might understand a heck of a lot better than you think. She was more like you than you imagine; she literally ran away from Des when he proposed to her, and Des told me, though he made me promise never to say a word to Nia, that she was terrified when she found out she’d be a mother. She didn’t think she’d be a good one, but she is, Maddi. You should see her with her kids; she’s like a whole other person. It’s almost scarier than her temper tantrums. She’d like to see you again, I know she would. She’d want her children to know their grandma.”

He pulled a face at the word, realizing he really was older than he felt or thought at times. At her suggestion, his arms tightened again, and he rested his cheek on top of her head. “Couldn’t you just use my stuff? You can have one of my shirts and sweatpants…” He sounded like a lost child, confused and questioning why he was being left alone. In reality, he was afraid she wouldn’t come back; that she’d change her mind and think she was making a mistake. He didn’t want to let her go until he knew she’d come back to him.

[Kallile]

Madeline smiled at his defense of the spiders. She never would understand why he liked such hideous things, but then again he liked her. She'd been nothing but hideous in personality when they'd first met. Now here they sat, pretending to be a happy couple talking about their kids and grandkids even though they hadn't seen one another in years. Her eyes shot up to focus on him and give him a half-hearted glare. "My "squish on sight" policy is still very much active, I'll have you know."

Like that, the moment was gone. "I'm sorry I wasn't here to scare him more than you probably did. Nothing is scarier than a crazy mom." Though the words were ones expected to be found in jest, her tone was completely serious. Her daughter was a stranger married to a bigger stranger and together they had produced two new strangers. It was overwhelming. The last words he spoke made her stiffen slightly. "Prudii I...I wasn't even there to raise our first children together. I need to..to connect with them first before I think about that again. There is a lot I left behind me that needs fixed first...but 'someday' is a good timeframe, if that's what you want to hear."

Her gaze wasn't exactly one of hurt, but it was certainly one of fear. He really wanted her to mother more children for him even now, after all she'd done to him? She slumped down a little lower and hid her face back in the crook of his neck. "I know it will take time...I just hope I wasn't the reason she ran from her own wedding. That...that wasn't the example I wanted to leave them with..." A stray tear slipped from it's hiding place faster than Maddi could catch it and soaked quickly into Prudii's shirt. "At least Kyrie was there for them, she always was better at these things than me. At everything, really."

She didn't argue when she was held tighter and, in a most uncharacteristic fashion, relented quickly. "Yeah, I can do that. I only hope I don't fit them as well as you do." There was a small grin tacked onto the end of the statement. "Though you are going to have to let me go get them, unless you really want my mother to pay us a visit to drop them off..."

(8/89)