Rick and Kate Castle were sitting in the living room of their brownstone, watching an episode of Nebula Nine, when they heard a key in the lock of the front door. Hannah, their 16 year old daughter, was out on a date, but on weekends her curfew was midnight, and it was only 9 PM. Kate looked up as the door opened, Hannah's tear streaked face appeared, and she slammed the door. Oh no, Kate thought, this does not look good. Hannah and her boyfriend Mark had been having some issues lately, and that face looked like a break up face. The question was who dumped whom? She put a hand on Rick's chest, holding him back. Hannah did not need her dad's sense of humor and/or honor right now.
"Hannah?" Kate asked. "Is everything okay?"
"No!" Hannah answered. "Mark just dumped me! And I do NOT want to talk about it! I am going to my room," she said as she ran past her parents.
Rick made a move to get up. "No, babe, let her be. She needs some time alone. Trust me, I know," Kate said. Rick looked at Kate for a moment and sat back down. He went back to watching the episode with an unhappy look on his face. He hated for any of the kids to be sad; heck if Alexis had a fight with her husband, he wanted to go do something to Mike. No, the best thing for Hannah would be to let her cry a bit, and then Kate would go check on her. She turned to Rick and told him her plans. He still wasn't happy but he let it go.
After an hour had passed, Kate went upstairs with some supplies in hand. She gently knocked on Hannah's door. "Hannah, can I come in? It's just me."
"Okay, mom," came Hannah's scratchy voice. Kate was not surprised to see Hannah's tear streaked face or red eyes. She turned a rueful face to her mother when she saw the supplies – a supersized box of tissues, a big bottle of root beer, some chocolate ice cream, two spoons, two straws and two glasses. "Root beer floats? In my bedroom? Mother, I am shocked!" as a small grin appeared on her face.
"Well, what are rules except things to be broken? Even if the 'no messy food in your room' rule is mine. First rule of breakups is sugar makes everything better," Kate said as she put the supplies on the desk. She quickly spooned some ice cream into the glasses and then poured the root beer over it. She handed one to Hannah and took one for herself. "Do you want to talk about it? Or do you just want to drink your float and cry? Whatever you want, baby," Kate curbed her mama bear. She wanted to hurt Mark for hurting her baby.
"I want to talk a little, Mama," Hannah said. Kate's heart clinched a bit. Hannah hadn't called her "Mama" in years. "I knew Mark and I weren't getting along lately, but I really thought we could work it out. But he didn't want to deal with it. He just wanted to break up, end of story," Hannah said as a few tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes. Kate mopped up the tears with the tissue.
And with that, Hannah just started talking. Kate listened, comforted, nodded, and said all the right things to her little girl. When Hannah was talked and cried out, Kate gave her a big hug, wiped the last of the tears, and tucked her daughter in bed. She watched her sleep for a bit, then gathered up the supplies and went downstairs. The next few days would be hard, Kate knew. Being a teenager was tough, and being the parent of one was even tougher. She hurt when her kids hurt. But the love she felt for them was overwhelming, too. She'd do it all again in a heartbeat.