Meeting the Mother

By Alasse Fefalas

Eve felt Flynn's clammy hand grip hers tighter as they walked through the heavy iron gates of the cemetery. She glanced at him. His face was tight - was that with worry? - and his expressive eyebrows frowning deeply.

"Flynn," she said as she stopped them in their tracks. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I can wait in the car."

"No! No no, please don't, " he answered quickly. The worry on his face had disappeared all of a sudden. Determination had replaced it. "I want to do this."

"Are you sure?" It was the fifth time she had asked that question today. It wasn't that she was reluctant to meet his mother (or her tombstone), she just wanted to make sure she wasn't going to come in between the bond between the mother and child.

Flynn relaxed his grip on her hand. With a smile, he brought it to his mouth and kissed it. "I'm sure the one other person my mother would like me to bring here is you, Eve."

Eve smiled and started walking again, letting him lead through the winding roads of the cemetery.

"So," she said after a little while. "No one else has been there?"

"Well, not no one." Flynn chuckled, saying, "mum was popular. She had friends from everywhere and they've been nice enough to come here after a few months to lay some flowers. But then again, it's been a few years... so I think I'm the only one who comes down here now."

"I meant with you, you idiot," she laughed as she gave him a nudge on his shoulder.

He grinned at her. "Well, I brought Judson and Charlene."

She gave him another nudge and shook her head. Flynn stopped walking and turned to face her.

"Well, after mum died, I dived headfirst into the job. In a way, it was to run away from the grief, I guess. No time for dating and definitely no time to bring another person here. The world needs me more."

"And yet, here I am," she said, a smile hanging on her lips.

"Yet here you are. The only person (well other than Charlene and Judson) that I would bring here to meet my mother. I'm glad I met you Eve, and that you never backed down from me turning you away again and again. I've never said this but... thank you for staying."

His voice had become small by the end. Placing a light kiss on her cheek, he let go of her hand and walked past her, to the grave behind. Eve turned around in surprise. Flynn bent down to place the carnations he had been carrying in front of the smooth marble marker.

"Hi, mum. I brought your favourite flowers." A sad note had entered his voice as he traced the name on the stone. "I told you you didn't have to worry about me."

"Hello Mrs Carsen," Eve said awkwardly as she stood beside his kneeling position. She had always hated cemeteries and had always tried to avoid visiting them. And she never had talked to a tombstone. "Flynn brought me here."

Flynn stood up and brushed his knees. "This is Eve. She's my Guardian."

She turned to him, eyebrow raised. "You told her about the Library?"

"Well, no. Not while she was alive."

"Oh."

He chuckled lightly. "The Library was one secret I could never have told anyone, not even my mother. She thought I stacked books and researched for a living. I had always wanted to tell her but I couldn't so I just let her think her son was working out, carrying books back to shelves."

"Oh, what an interesting life you lead," Eve said sarcastically, eliciting a laugh from him.

"You know, some days I wish my mother would be here to see me - to see us. Then maybe she wouldn't have tried to keep setting me up with other people, or my cousin!"

Her eyes widened. "Wait, your mum tried to set you up with your cousin?"

He nodded, remembering his thirty-second birthday party. "With my third cousin!"

Eve turned back to the marker and nodded her head appraisingly. "Well, Mrs Carsen, you're very interesting."

Flynn slowly tangled his fingers between hers. "I think if you had ever met her in real life, you might have had a shock."

She grinned at him. "Probably would be as confusing as the first day I met you."

"Probably." His eyes twinkled in amusement as he placed another kiss on the back of her hand. He turned back to the tombstone and touched it lightly. "Well, it was nice to see you again. Happy birthday mum."

Eve nodded slightly at the stone, making a silent promise to protect her son. "Happy birthday Mrs Carsen."

Fin.

A/N: A more sombre fic but this was how I've always imagined Flynn bringing Eve to meet his mother (in a non-AU way)! Thank you thelibrarianlovestoread for the prompt! Thanks for reading!