Shards

Author: Alec Star

Disclaimer: I don't own the concepts, I don't own the characters, I make no money, I make no sense and I get no sleep.

Summary: This is a series of scenes from Kara's childhood. It is also my first real attempt at 'reverse-engineering' a character, so please be gentle.

Spoilers: None really (there are references to a couple of things that were mentioned in 'Flesh and Bone', 'Valley of Darkness' and 'The Farm' but nothing specific seeing how all of these scenes take place long before the mini-series). Also I have to say that I started planning this before 'Resurrection Ship' aired so --just to be on the safe side-- let's say that it goes AU after 'Flight of the Phoenix' even when it comes to references to past events.

Warnings: Non-descriptive references to child abuse.

Rating: T (at least for now).

Additional notes: This was originally posted as a one-shot called 'Unanswered Prayers'. The story has been renamed and the original fic is now the first scene of the series. I'm going to try to update this on a weekly basis.

As always, feedback is deeply appreciated!

Scene 1: Unanswered Prayers
(Age: 7)

Kara was lying on her bed, as still as she could, wishing she could make herself invisible but knowing better than to try to hide. Down the hall her parents were arguing, again, and --as she did all too often-- she prayed to the Gods for silence... and she also prayed that she wouldn't come looking for her tonight. Unfortunately Kara knew all too well how slim the chances were that the Gods would actually listen to her prayers.

She knew what was going to happen, of course. After all, even though she was only seven years old, she had been listening to her parents going at it ever since she could remember. She knew that the fights always started the same way: her dad would come home and find that her mom had been drinking and --if she hadn't passed out yet-- they would start arguing about it, getting louder and louder. Soon enough she would hear something being thrown against the wall and then she would hear the front door being slammed shut as her father left... and then her mother would come staggering into her room. That was the part she dreaded the most.

Kara didn't really know what she'd done to make her mom so mad, just like she didn't know why the Gods never answered her prayers, though at times she thought maybe it was because her mother was right, maybe the Gods refused to answer because she deserved it. That was the only thing that made sense.

She had ruined her mother's life, she knew that much, but she didn't know how she'd ruined it. Sometimes she thought that if only she could figure out what it was that she'd done wrong, maybe she would be able to fix it. Unfortunately she didn't know, she could never really figure that one out and that meant that there was nothing she could do about it. That was the reason why she did the only thing that was left for her to do: she prayed to the Gods, even though she knew they wouldn't listen, she prayed even as she heard the front door being slammed shut and her mother's footsteps coming closer.