Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Teen Wolf.
A/N: These are four stories about the early days in New York. Please note the self-harm warning. It's not in this chapter, but the third one. It will be addressed in future stories. Part 3 of Reconstruction.
When the gardeners were done with the landscaping, Laura found they had followed her most important request. A single bed turned and ready for planting, with four trellises waiting for the roses that Laura was going to plant.
Talia had loved roses, and the Hale house had never been a good place for roses, until Laura and her dad, mostly her dad, had located a place on the property where roses could grow and had built Talia a hidden garden filled with roses.
Laura remembered every summer thereafter, going to the hidden garden to tend the soil, and to steal blackberries from the nearby thicket, and listening to her mother tell her stories. Stories that had conveyed the history, traditions, and customs of the werewolves, not just the Hale Pack, but all werewolves.
They had spent hours a week in the garden, talking and tending the earth. Laura had confessed her first crush in that garden, and had cried when he broke her heart.
Now, Laura laid out new purchased gloves and tools before bringing out the tray of roses. She didn't have the space that Talia had, so she had picked four roses that would remind her of her mother. The first would eventually be trained to the trellis, a bright red Don Juan climbing rose, red, for courage and respect. Next were the two shrubs roses, the Carefree Beauty rose, a light pink for admiration, joy, and grace and the white Snowdrift rose, for humility and reverence. Finally, there was the English rose, Jean Giono, a yellow that could almost look orange, yellow for friendship, delight, remembrance, and welcome.
As she worked the mulch over the bed, Laura found herself having to stop often as the salt from her sweat stung her eyes.