A/N: General disclaimers of I don't own anything to do with Finding Carter and all that jazz...blah...blah.
This plot bunny just wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it and it's just my mind trying to normalize the show and bring some realness to the dramatics the show provides.
"Mom?"
"Carter?"
"I'm…can you come pick me up?"
Carter scuffed her shoe on the loose gravel of the non-descript diner's parking and kept looking around with a wary eye. After a year spent being held hostage by Lori and always being on the move, she had cultivated a habit of keeping a constant eye on her surroundings. She wouldn't put it past Lori to show up out of the blue and try and take her away again. The sound of approaching sirens drew Carter out of her dark thoughts and she looked up with a hopeful grin as she saw a long line of law enforcement cars heading towards her. The second police car in the procession skidded to a stop two feet from Carter and Elizabeth leaped out of the car.
"Carter!"
Carter couldn't say anything because of the lump in throat but she did hug Elizabeth back when her birth mother hurried to embrace her. Carter's hands tightened into fists as her grip tightened on the back of Elizabeth's police jacket. Elizabeth held Carter to her even tighter if possible and tears ran down Carter's face behind her closed eyes. All other sounds, smells and sights faded into the background as mother and daughter had a long overdue heartfelt reunion.
"Um Detective Wilson? We need to run some tests real quick. Can I borrow your daughter for a moment?"
A new voice broke through the relieved haze in Carter's mind and she opened her eyes to see a young brown haired, brown-eyed woman standing next to them with a medical bag in hand. Even though she knew it was irrational and that this EMT wasn't Lori, the initial physical resemblance caused Carter to panic. When Elizabeth nodded and loosened her embrace on Carter, Carter held tighter.
"Carter what is it? Everything will be okay, I promise."
"Please don't go anywhere. Don't leave me alone."
Elizabeth's hands slid down from Carter's shoulders to her hands and she grasped Carter's right hand. She smiled warmly at Carter and led the way over to the back of the ambulance. Carter looked around the back of the ambulance before she sat on the edge of the back of the ambulance's floor and kept a tight hold of Elizabeth's hand. The young EMT kept her movements slow and steady underneath the watchful gaze of both Carter and Elizabeth. After the tests were done and the EMT cleared Carter to go home, Elizabeth hustled Carter into the backseat of the squad car the older woman arrived in. Despite the overwhelming need to have Elizabeth sit in the back with her, Carter put on a brave face and reminded herself that Lori couldn't try anything at the moment and Elizabeth was sitting right in front of her in the passenger seat.
"Let's go home Carter."
The familiar sight of the white, two-story house that had served as her home before the last year filled Carter with familiarity and warmth. The police car came to a stop just in front of her house and Elizabeth looked behind her seat to smile at Carter before getting out of the car. She opened the door for Carter and wrapped an arm around Carter's shoulders as mother and daughter walked up to their home. Carter slipped her hand into Elizabeth's and held onto Elizabeth's wrist with her other hand. Before Elizabeth could even open the door, it opened and Grant pulled her into a hug.
"Hey Elephant."
"Hey Armadillo."
Carter hugged Grant with her right arm but still kept a tight hold of Elizabeth's hand with her left hand. Grant let go after a moment and Carter looked up into the sorrowful blue eyes of her twin. Taylor sobbed and threw her arms around Carter in an emotional hug complete with blubbering and tears. Carter's eyes teared up as well and she hugged Taylor with one arm as well. The smell of book and ink along with a strong pair of arms wrapping around both girls let Carter know that her father, David, had embraced them as well.
"Welcome back Carter."
David's comment patched up some of the cracks on Carter's heart and his gruff, emotional tone made her smile. The family moved further into the house and Elizabeth shut the front door of the house. Carter sat down on the couch with Elizabeth on one side and Grant on the other. David leaned against the doorframe and Taylor sat on the arm of the couch next to Elizabeth. Silence hung over the room and Carter looked about to see if she could spot any changes in the room.
"No, there aren't any changes in the house Carter. No one really had the energy or desire to redecorate with you…not being here."
"So does that mean that we can start some of the remodeling tasks like painting the rooms a different color now that I'm home again?"
With the constant familiar comfort of being back in her home with her birth family around her Carter's confidence and sass began to return and she grinned at Elizabeth. Elizabeth rolled her eyes but patted Carter's knee and nodded. The doorbell rang and David excused himself to go answer it. The sound of a brief argument came back to the living room and a moment later a disgruntled David walked back in with his agent, Toby, following. Toby clapped his hands and made a gleeful noise at the sight of Carter.
"And the prodigal daughter returns yet again. Such a plot twist and Hallmark family moment."
"What are you doing here?"
Despite the shocked looks she was getting from her family at her cold tone Carter stood up and glared at Toby. A handful of hazy memories came back when she was on the lam with Lori and drugged up on pharmaceuticals. Toby took a step back at Carter's aggression and raised his hands in a placating gesture. He looked at Carter and then to David, almost like he was asking him to intervene. David stepped in between Carter and Toby and his expression willed Carter to explain. Carter spared a quick glance at her father but her gaze returned to an impressive glare when she turned her attentions back onto her father's agent.
"You make me sick and uncomfortable. I am asking you to leave."
"Carter I have no idea-"
"Toby why don't you just go for now? We'll talk later."
David stepped over to Toby and escorted him out of the room with a hand on the other man's elbow. There was the brief sound of Tony arguing but that ended a moment later when the sound of the front door opening and closing came back to the living room. David returned and looked at Carter. Carter had remained standing and at her father's look she began to pace. Unconsciously she grabbed her right forearm, just underneath the crease of her elbow and rubbed a certain spot.
"Carter what happened with Toby? Did he do something to you?"
David's gentle tone broke through Carter's dark reminiscing and she stopped pacing to look up at him. She shook her head, muttered under her breath and resumed pacing again. Elizabeth reached out and grasped Carter's hand which was still rubbing over the inside crease of her elbow. This brought Carter's attention to her actions and she immediately stopped rubbing her other arm and didn't meet Elizabeth's inquisitive gaze.
"He just…Toby isn't who…can I see my room?"
The maelstrom of emotions in Carter's body wanted to come out but every time she tried to bring them to words her tongue refused to work. She knew she needed to tell her family what had happened to her over the past year and she would but right now her emotions were overwhelming her. If Carter's sudden reluctance to talk created any awkwardness none of her family members showed it and Elizabeth smiled as she stood up.
"Of course. Come on."
"I'll get started on dinner. Chicken fingers and potato fries sound good Carter?"
Carter took Elizabeth's hand when her mother walked over to her and Carter smiled at Taylor. She nodded and Taylor left for the kitchen with a parting smile. Elizabeth tugged on Carter's hand and she led Carter up the stairs. Carter smiled at the pictures that still hung on the wall and she trailed her fingertips on each one as she passed them on her way up the stairs. Elizabeth opened Carter's bedroom door and stood in the doorway with Carter as Carter took it all in. Nothing had been moved and everything still sat right where Carter had left it.
"I'll let you reorient yourself and get familiar with all your things okay?"
Carter looked at Elizabeth and nodded. Elizabeth took a step back and squeezed Carter's hand one final time before letting go. She motioned down the stairs and smiled again.
"I'll be in the kitchen if you need me okay? I won't be far, I promise."
"Okay."
Elizabeth left and Carter's attention returned to her bedroom. She closed the door most of the way but left it open a crack and she walked across her room to make sure her window was locked shut. She closed the curtains and turned around with a happy little sigh. She turned on her music system and wiped her blackboard wall behind her bed clean. She needed to create new memories now and let out some of her troubled past year.
Elizabeth Wilson, hard working detective and now happy mother walked into her kitchen and fished the carton of ice cream out of the refrigerator. Taylor looked at her from cutting up potatoes and raised an eyebrow. Elizabeth grinned and shrugged her shoulders.
"I know it's bad form to have dessert before dinner but having a glass of wine before dinner would be even worse."
Taylor rolled her eyes and focused back on creating dinner. David looked up from setting the table and grinned at the sight of Elizabeth eating ice cream. He walked over to her and kissed her cheek.
"I see Carter finally let you go and out of her sight. She settling in okay upstairs?"
"Hey now, if one of my beautiful daughters wants the physical comfort of their mother I for one certainly won't deny them that. And yes, she is settling in okay."
David chuckled and took a few glasses down from the cupboard. He hesitated for a moment and Elizabeth knew her husband was thinking how to phrase his thoughts.
"You don't think Lori did anything to physically harm Carter do you?"
Elizabeth plopped her spoon down in the ice cream carton and sighed. The steady cadence of Taylor cutting up the potatoes faltered and stopped as she looked up at Elizabeth as well. Elizabeth's grip tightened on the ice cream carton until the cardboard caved in.
"Lori has many faults and is absolutely insane but no, I don't think she would physically abuse Carter. Mental and emotional abuse however…."
Elizabeth let her last comment hang in the air unfinished and it was with careful motions that Elizabeth put her ice cream back in the freezer. The light pattering of footsteps and Grant's voice broke the sudden tension in the kitchen and with a significant look from Elizabeth the kitchen atmosphere returned to normal.
"…we have our normal Skype call but nothing has happened yet."
"Seriously Armadillo, I've been gone a year and you still haven't had the guts to ask her out yet?"
Elizabeth smiled at the sight of Carter holding Grant in a headlock and ruffling his hair in some good-natured teasing. Elizabeth didn't know who Carter and Grant were talking about but it might warrant some motherly snooping if her son had some fluttering's in his love life. Carter walked away from Grant who was scowling at her and fixing his hair but Carter ignored him in favor of snagging a potato fry from the tray that Taylor had put on the island a moment earlier.
"Oh hot hot hot!"
Carter danced about fanning her mouth as the hot potato burned her mouth and everyone laughed. Carter swallowed gingerly and scowled at her family. Elizabeth smiled and led Carter to the kitchen table with an arm around her waist. She nudged her daughter into the middle of the curved booth seat and Carter pulled Taylor down to sit on her other side. The action surprised Taylor but Carter smiled and turned her attention onto the food out on the table.
"This looks awesome. Thanks Taylor."
"It really was nothing….but thank you."
Small chatter broke out amongst the family as the food was dished out and Elizabeth noticed how much food Carter put on her plate. Her brow furrowed and she made a mental note to have Carter get a physical by their family doctor as soon as possible. David kicked her foot under the table and when Elizabeth looked up her husband shook his head. Elizabeth sighed but nodded and focused back in on the conversation.
Later that night Carter tossed and turned in her bed as her sub-consciousness and dreams twisted together to create a fearsome nightmare. The sheets stuck to her and they were twisted into interesting shapes. The nightmare began to overtake Carter and small whimpers escaped her tightly closed lips. Her eyes moved rapidly underneath her eyelids and soon those whimpers turned into fearful spoken word.
"Carter? Wake up Carter it's just a nightmare."
Taylor stood next to her sister's bed, having heard Carter's nightmare from her room next door and came over to see what she could do. Despite the fact that something needed to be done, Carter was thrashing about in the throes of her nightmare and Taylor didn't know what to do. Taylor ran from Carter's room and almost ran into her parents who came to investigate the distressed sounds coming from Carter's room. Grant poked his head out of his room and Elizabeth motioned for him to go back inside of his room. Taylor stepped back as Elizabeth hurried past her and into Carter's room.
"Carter? Wake up sweetie, it's just a dream. Come on Carter, wake up."
Taylor walked back into Carter's room, behind her father and saw her mother leaning over Carter's bed and shaking Carter's shoulder. As if she had been electrocuted, Carter eyes shot open, wide and filled with fearful adrenaline. Her brown eyes were unfocused and Taylor sucked in a lungful of air when Carter's gaze left hers. Carter struck out at Elizabeth, simultaneously getting away from Elizabeth's hand and kicking her birth mother away with a kick to the stomach.
"Ooof!"
The scene unfolded too quickly for Taylor to react but David caught a disoriented Elizabeth and all attention returned to Carter. The troubled young woman sat curled up back against her headboard with her knees covering her front and one tearful eye peeking out from behind her legs. The anger that Taylor felt towards Carter lashing out against their mother dissipated and her heart went out to her sister. Their mother recovered and sat down on the edge of Carter's bed. Carter flinched and shrank down even more.
"It's okay Carter. I'm fine. Will you come here?"
Elizabeth didn't do soft and gentle very often and most of the time when she did it failed. This time however it appeared to work as Carter fell into Elizabeth's embrace and shook with silent sobs. David ushered Taylor through the joint bathroom and back into her room.
"Let's not overwhelm them right now okay? Try and get back to sleep."
As Taylor crawled back into her bed and pulled the covers over her, she wondered just what happened to Carter over the past year.
Twenty minutes had passed since Elizabeth had let go of Carter and left her room but Carter hadn't fallen back asleep. She didn't dare to close her eyes for the fear of her nightmares tormenting her again. Instead, she sat down at her desk and picked up a drab green fishing box. She opened it and smiled at the assortment of craft and jewelry materials and other odds and ends knick-knacks crammed into every nook and cranny of the box. With deliberate care, Carter pulled out a vast assortment of half-finished jewelry pieces and then opened the fishing box up all the way.
'Elizabeth'
'Taylor'
'Grant'
'David'
Four pieces of jewelry had tags wrapped around them with the names of her family on them and they were all in various degrees of completion. Carter picked up the one with Elizabeth's name on it and focused her complete attention on the simple, mundane tasks of braiding another section of the band of the bracelet. Lori had taught her how to make jewelry over the past year, as a way for Carter to keep busy and Carter took a liking to it enough that she could often sell her pieces for a nice price. In truth however, Carter now used it as a coping mechanism and since she wouldn't be getting anymore sleep tonight then she might as well be productive.
The next morning Carter felt like a zombie as she stumbled down the stairs in time to catch breakfast before school started. The dark circles underneath her eyes belied the small smile she had on her face and she waved hello to her family as she entered the kitchen. When no one said anything besides a smattering of good morning's and weird looks, Carter stopped getting her coffee ready.
"What?"
"Carter you don't look to good. What are you doing up this early? You could have had a lie in…"
Carter scrunched her nose and looked at Elizabeth who had moved to stand next to her from the other side of the island. Elizabeth steadied the coffee pot that was shaking in Carter's hand and Carter looked down at her sneakers.
"I just want to rip the band aid off. I want to get everyone staring at me and asking millions of questions all out of the way."
"Which you can do and I admire your courage for wanting to do it that way. However, why don't we ease into your second reunion and get the authorities on your side?"
Elizabeth poured Carter's cup of coffee, straight black, and handed it to Carter. Carter sighed and leaned back against the counter. Taylor set a piece of buttered toast on a napkin down next to Carter, squeezed her hand and left with Grant for school. David left with a hug and a kiss for both mother and daughter and soon only Elizabeth and Carter stood in the kitchen.
"I really don't want to have to suffer through an interrogation."
"That's fine but would you be willing to answer a couple perfunctory, basic questions down at the station?"
"Yeah…okay."
Carter drank her coffee in three large gulps, fished out a piece of gum from her school bag and looked up at Elizabeth expectantly while chewing the gum. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag from the island. Mother and daughter walked out to Elizabeth's car and for the first few minutes of the drive down to the station the car was silent except for the radio.
"So….anything new happen while I was gone?"
"Besides the drama and fallout you mean?"
Elizabeth snorted after asking her question and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she thought. As she did, Carter allowed herself to think about what her sudden disappearance did to everyone in her life but before she could delve too far into those thoughts Elizabeth raised a finger in an 'aha!' moment.
"That hole in the wall restaurant place you liked so much closed down and a McDonald's took its place."
"Aw man! Really? That's gross! Now where am I going to eat?"
During her first initial year Carter had scoured the city and the outskirts for dive locations with good food and excellent customer service. She had found such a place and had been a frequent customer up until her second kidnapping.
"Well Taylor was teaching you how to cook before…well, not too long ago. You could always pick that back up."
There was an awkward pause as Elizabeth stumbled on her word choice and Carter knew that her mother didn't want to mention the words 'kidnapping', 'departure' or 'leaving'.
"Yeah well maybe I can actually whip up something other than tuna fish and grilled cheese if Taylor still wants to teach me how to cook."
"That would be good. We're here."
Elizabeth parked the car and Carter followed her mother into the police station. Carter noticed how at ease her mother was in the precinct and she smiled as she liked seeing Elizabeth relaxed. Some of the other cops came over to greet them and make some small talk but the man Carter remembered to be the captain of the police force walked over. His expression was rather grim and he looked like he swallowed a lemon.
"Detective Wilson, that pain in my ass FBI agent is sitting in my office and wants to talk to you and your daughter. He has some questions and-"
"Captain, the FBI isn't trying to take over the case to catch Lori are they?"
The captain gave a short nod and Carter felt rooted to the spot. She heard her mother arguing with the captain but memories of her year with Lori flashed through her mind like a jumbled kaleidoscope. A tug on her hand made Carter look up into her mother's eyes and the multitude of images stopped just like that.
"Carter are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"All right. You just wait here a moment and I'll figure out what this FBI guy wants and then I'll come get you okay?"
Carter nodded and tucked a strand of her hair back behind her ear. She watched as Elizabeth walked away to the captain's office and very quickly the conversation between Elizabeth and the FBI turned heated. True to her word, a few moments later Elizabeth stormed back out and although she looked pissed, she stopped in front of Carter and sighed heavily.
"Special Agent Ames wants to ask you a few questions about Lori and try and get an idea of what Lori wants and where she is. However, he has asked to have this conversation be private and I'm not allowed in the room while he's asking you some questions."
"What? Why? I need you in there!"
The emotions welled up inside of Carter and she began to freak out. Elizabeth stopped the meltdown before it could happen by taking a firm but gentle hold of Carter's shoulders and simply looking back into Carter's eyes. It was almost like Elizabeth was trying to will some of her confidence and bravado into Carter and after several long moments Carter calmed down.
"There we go. You're strong Carter and just remember that you talk with what you're comfortable with. This man isn't interrogating you and you didn't do anything wrong. I'll be right here in the bullpen and nothing bad will happen. I promise."
"Okay."
A/N 2: Yeah there are a couple trigger warnings in this story but nothing too graphic. Go ahead and drop a review or PM me for any questions, comments and/or concerns.