Author's Note:
This was supposed to be a fluffy little piece about a girl's night in, but then Nora remembered that her mom was gone. There is some discussion about parent/child relationships, and some conversation around Nora missing her mom. It does end on a happier note.
I may also have been incredibly vague where it comes to Haydn. Writing extensively about very small children is still difficult for me.
The weekend after the absolute disaster that is Nora's first period, she gets her father to agree to host a girl's night in their apartment. She borrows his phone to ask both Caitlin and Iris over herself, promising that both her father and Len will be kicked out until morning.
She doesn't tell Caitlin or Iris about inviting Lisa, and she definitely doesn't tell them about Sera or Haydn. They know she's invited other girls over, but she hadn't explained who.
She isn't unaware of the difference of opinions between her father's family and Len's. It's impossible to think they could instantly be this cohesive unit. She's only eleven but she's not stupid.
But she knows that both sides are her family, for better or worse. Even if her dad and Len don't know that yet.
And well, the only woman in Haydn and Sera's life is Lisa. Nora had nine years with her mom. She had nine years knowing what it was like to have someone like that in her life, and once she found her dad, she got Caitlin and Iris. And then she got Lisa too.
So maybe it's the wrong way to go about it, surprising them with each other. But, Nora thinks that Hadyn and Sera need more than just Lisa, who tolerates them more than anything. And she loves Lisa, she does. But she thinks that maybe Lisa needs other women beside criminals to talk to.
And, well, maybe they can all benefit.
Besides, this year she's totally getting everyone at her birthday party. She deserves it.
-x-
Caitlin shows up first, a little shy when she walks inside. She's got a bag over her shoulder-probably a change of clothes-and her hair is still a little wet from the shower.
"Thanks for inviting me over, Nor." Caitlin tells her, sitting down on the couch Len had bought them a few weeks ago.
"You okay with her if I head out early?" Her father asks Caitlin.
"Of course. Get out of here."
Her father leaves, presumably to meet up somewhere with Len. Nora thinks it's stupid that they're still acting like Len doesn't live here when they're around other people, but she's not about to tell anyone that.
Nora's only met Haydn and Sera once before, and Haydn had been asleep for most of it. Len had paid Sera twenty dollars to babysit, and when her dad got home, Nora winked at her and got him to give her another fifteen.
Sera wasn't much older than Nora was-almost sixteen if Nora remembered right-but she spoke two languages and was taking dual credit classes at the high school. She was mostly quiet, but she and Nora had talked about books for an entire hour that night.
But she liked her, and Haydn was adorable.
They're the ones who show up next. Their father knocks on the door and Caitlin totally freezes when she opens the door.
"What are you doing here?" Caitlin manages to ask, though Nora's pretty sure she just wants to hide.
Even if she didn't know that Mick was a criminal, Nora thinks she might've wanted to hide anyway. He's big and muscular, and there's totally grease on his face.
"Dropping my girls off, you gotta problem with that?" He asks her, and then Sera steps out from behind him with Haydn in her arms.
"Da, you can go now. We'll be fine with Nora and her friend," Sera tells him, and Mick instantly looks about a foot smaller. It's kind of adorable and terrifying.
"Call me if you need anything, Sare," he says, and then he turns away from Caitlin without saying anything else.
"Love you, Dada!" Haydn yells after him, spitting out a mouthful of Sera's hair.
"So... I'm Caitlin" Caitlin manages awkwardly, letting them inside. Sera puts Haydn down, and the little girl immediately puts her hands in the air in front of Caitlin, no questions asked.
"Sera Rory. My sister's name is Haydn. She wants you to pick her up." Sera replies as she put Haydn's diaper bag down and then took off her backpack.
"So... That was your dad who dropped you off?" Caitlin asks curiously, though she does bend over to pick the toddler up.
"Yeah, he's our Da. Are you one of Nora's dad's friends?"
Caitlin nods, and Nora laughs when Haydn mimics her.
The ten minutes between then and when Iris shows up is a little awkward, but Nora thinks it'll be okay.
Iris shows up with a box of nail polish and a grocery bag full of snacks, and immediately latches onto Haydn. Haydn likes the attention, though she babbles more than talks for the most part.
It's easier when Iris is there. Sera and Caitlin start talking about her biochemistry class and Iris talks to her while they play with Haydn. It's nice, even if it's not exactly what she'd planned.
Lisa shows up half an hour late, but she's carrying a mountain of takeout boxes and what looks like two dozen cupcakes. She greets Caitlin with a stilted "Snow," "Snart," conversation that doesn't actually seem to bother either of them overly much.
They settle into eat as a group easily enough, though Haydn abandons Iris for her sister as soon as she realizes that Sera has food.
After they eat, Lisa and Caitlin retreat to the kitchen together presumably to wash the dishes but possibly to threaten each other. Nora can't tell what they're saying from the other side of the apartment, but she's not bothered by it much anyway.
Sera puts Haydn to bed in Nora's bedroom, though Nora helps her set up the playpen that Len had stashed in her closet after the last time they'd been over.
They paint each other's nails, and Caitlin doesn't even complain when Nora manages to basically drench her left hand in sky blue.
They talk about boys a little, though Nora doesn't really have an interest in them (or girls for that matter) quite yet. It takes Sera a little to warm up to everyone, but Lisa gets her to admit there's a boy in her study hall that she has a crush on.
"His name is Peeta," she says, smiling, "he gave me bread once."
It takes them an absurdly long time before Iris realizes she's talking about the boy from The Hunger Games as if she was Katniss. Nora, at least, has the excuse of not having seen them with the series still on her to-read list.
It's fun, once they all relax. It's a good night, and Nora thinks it's going to make things easier afterward.
Sera talks a little, after a while, about her mom when asked.
"She's thirty four, I think? I've never spent a lot of time with her. She left me and Da when I was really little. Da doesn't talk about her a lot, but he still loves her. She comes by every few years, promises she's going to stay. And then she's usually gone within a few days."
Nora sees something in Iris's face that she doesn't recognize when Sera talks about her, something that makes her want to hug her.
But she doesn't.
"Last time she came back like eight months after she left-dropped off Haydn like two days after she was born and she hasn't been back since. We had to take Haydn to the hospital, never seen Da so scared."
Nora and Sera are ushered to bed a little after eleven, but neither one of them mind. Nora falls asleep first, listening to Iris, Caitlin and Lisa taking turns reading from Prince Caspian.
She wakes up in the middle of the night to quiet voices. She can't make out most of the words, too foggy with sleep, but she does hear one thing that Iris tells Sera, whose face is a little wet and red. "If you need to talk about anything, even if it's not about her, you can call me. Okay, Sare?"
She isn't aware of falling back asleep until Lisa is waking her up in the morning for breakfast before everyone leaves.
It's nice, being in an apartment full of girls. Not that she doesn't love being home with just her dad and Len, because she does.
She just misses it, sometimes. Her mom, even her dreadful aunt Hera.
If asked, Nora would freely admit to being honestly surprised that all three women are still there for breakfast. Lisa spending time with Iris and Caitlin could have been a disaster-probably should have been.
But they're even more relaxed than they'd been last night, which gives Nora the distinct impression that they'd probably stayed up way later drinking wine and talking.
Not that Nora has any idea what they were actually doing-she's only ever seen wine in movies. Her mom never drank, and she hadn't had many friends.
She thinks her mom was probably lonely a lot of the time.
She kind of wishes her mom could have this too, even if she's aware that she probably wouldn't have met her dad until she was eighteen if her mom was still alive.
"You okay, Nora?" Sera asks her, and Nora looks up from her plate of chocolate chip pancakes to see everyone but Haydn watching her.
"I'm okay... This was fun." It's not a lie, not really. It was fun, and she is okay. Nora's not sure they believe her, so she admits it, "I just wish my mom could be here too."
She doesn't end up finishing her breakfast, though she tries. She hates that her mood has ruined the morning, but she can't seem to stop missing her.
And she can't seem to stop feeling guilty that she's living with her dad now, too.
Mick picks Sera and Haydn up first, just after Iris finishes braiding Haydn's hair for her. Sera gives her a tight hug before she leaves, and Nora returns it a little tighter.
Iris heads home when they leave, and Nora suspects she's going to talk to him once they're downstairs about whatever she and Sera talked about in the middle of the night.
Caitlin and Lisa are cleaning up from breakfast while Nora breaks the playpen back down, so she's not sure which one of them sees her crying first. But they both end up pulling her over to her bed and sitting on either side of her.
"You wanna talk about it, bug?" Lisa asks her, brushing her hair behind her ear when it falls in front of her face.
"I miss my mom," Nora says, squeezing her blanket with both hands as tight as she can manage.
"It's okay to miss her. My mom died when I was your age too. I still miss her," Caitlin says, and Nora can feel her hand gently rubbing her back.
"But I like it here better! I love living with Dad and Len and spending time with you guys. I shouldn't... it's not fair to Mom if I-"
"Hey, stop it. There is nothing wrong with how you feel, okay?" Lisa's voice is a little angry at first, but she softens, "I never met your mom, but I bet all she ever wanted was for you to be happy."
"But I..."
"She's right, Nora. You can be sad and miss your mom all you want, there's nothing wrong with that. But you shouldn't feel guilty for being happy here."
There's a click as the front door unlocks, and Nora doesn't look up to see if it's Len or her dad coming in. She doesn't want them to know.
"Lenny, can you give us a minute yet?" Lisa asks, her voice a little loud in Nora's ears. She sniffles a little, which she's pretty sure Len is going to notice.
"What's wrong, Lise?"
"It's..." Caitlin starts to answer for her, hesitating a moment while she shares a look with Lisa, "it's a girl thing."
"Barry, why don't we pick up some groceries?" Len says, and Nora can hear her dad protesting just a minute before the front door shuts again.
Once it does, Nora loses it completely.
She feels like she's a little kid again, sobbing loud and hard into Caitlin's chest. She doesn't even remember moving, and whatever they're saying goes a little fuzzy.
She hasn't cried like this in a long time, not since her mom died.
"It's going to be okay," one of them tells her, and Nora's not sure it matters who.
She doesn't remember falling asleep, and when she wakes up she feels exhausted. But she feels better somehow too.
Her dad and Len are cheating at Phase Ten on the kitchen table when she stumbles out of her bedroom, and Lisa is sleeping on the couch covered in a blanket covered in Frozen characters that Nora has never seen before.
"Can you get me a glass of water?" She asks her dad, not even bothering to ask before she pushes her way into Len's lap and rests her head on his chest.
"You feeling any better, Nora?" Her dad asks quietly, and he looks worried. He hands her a cup and she almost spills it.
"Yeah. Did Caitlin go home?"
"While you were sleeping. Did you have fun last night?"
"It was awesome," Nora admits, taking another drink of her water.
"Good. Mick said Sera had a lot of fun too," Len says as she sets the now empty cup on the table in front of them.
"I love you both. Ve-ry much," Nora says then, swallowing hard at the end as she tries not to cry again.
"We love you too, Princess," Len says, squeezing her tight.
"Very much, Nora," her dad finishes, kissing her forehead.
"Yep, and don't think we didn't notice your unsubtle plotting to make us one big happy family. But I think it's working," Lisa says suddenly, and Nora looks over to see her standing just behind her dad, wrapped in a blanket, Kristoff's face pulled across her chest.
"I take after my Len," Nora says, breaking into a smile.
Lisa's laugh is worth it.