Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 68th cycle. Now cycle 69!

"The Morning After"
(Older) Rachel, Sophie (OC), Chloe (OC)
Red series
(no series listing yet; sequel to Hiccups on the Bend)

Sophie would compare waking up the next morning to someone swinging a pick axe at a regular egg shell: it was a mess. It wasn't her first axe-versus-egg kind of morning, but this one felt different. There was something lingering in the back of her head, frightened and unwilling to show itself, not that she minded, as her thoughts were primarily focused on the splitting headache she was experiencing. And then there was a voice.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

"Mom?" she grunted.

"Did you get lost?" Rachel asked.

"What?" Sophie tried to open her eyes, which was quickly proven as a very bad idea, against the morning sunlight. Her senses were slowly adjusting though, and something felt like… Yes, this was definitely not her bed. In her misdirected crawl up to her room the night before, she had come into her mother's room instead of her own; she had slept in her mother's bed, fully dressed, never undoing the sheets but merely dragging a pillow under her head. Finally opening her eyes, she found her mother sat by the side of her own bed, staring down at her. "Hi," she tried to sound cheerful, but it came out guilty. "How was your flight?"

"Oh, you know how it is, why would I bore you with that, when it's obvious you have a much more interesting story to tell, don't you?"

"It's…" she shrugged innocently, "It's okay, you know… Nothing remarkable, I just…" she looked around, "I missed you," she nodded, tapping the pillow.

"I'm touched," Rachel shook her head.

"I'm sorry, alright, what can I say? You were my age once, don't tell me you never went out to a party or two, I've got it on good authority that you did, you were… maybe not… as inclined… but you did do, so… Yeah," she gave a solid nod, found it was a mistake, and put her head back on the pillow.

"Welcome back, Mom, would have sufficed," Rachel brushed hair from her daughter's face. "Why don't I make you two girls some breakfast? I don't think Chloe is up either, but then she slept in her room, unlike some people, so I don't know." At the mention of the other girl's name, there was a spark of memory in Sophie's head, a tiny thing that burned out almost as soon as it was lit, but there was a trail of smoke left behind… It felt like she'd done something she wasn't supposed to, and she couldn't figure out what. "What's the matter? Are you feeling sick? Because if you are, I'd appreciate it if you did that in the bathroom and not on my sheets."

"No, I… Breakfast sounds great."

"Maybe you'd like to shower and change first?"

"I can do that."

So she'd gone to shower, not particularly enjoying being pelted by the water at first but then standing and taking it with relief. Her head still pounded, but it was dulling out. Afterward she dressed, letting her dark hair leave traces of water on her shirt once she'd untangled it, and she headed out to join her mother downstairs. She'd only noticed that the door to Chloe's room was open when she picked up on their voices from below. No, just one voice. Chloe was talking, loudly so, or maybe that was the hangover messing with the volume.

"… looking for my father, I never asked you to!"

Now Sophie remembered, and she had half a mind to barricade herself in her room, but she knew she couldn't. This was her mess, too. So she continued down the stairs to go and join them.

"I wasn't going behind your back, you have to understand, once I saw who your father was, I knew there was… an opportunity for you," her mother was explaining.

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Chloe asked.

"I didn't want to get your hopes up in case things didn't pan out."

"Right, well, I guess they really didn't, did they?" Chloe returned. Sophie felt awful, walking into the kitchen where the two of them stood, her mother around the island, and Chloe just inside the door. Her mother looked to her when she spotted her, and Chloe turned.

"Chloe, I'm so sorry, I… I didn't mean for you to find out this way," she tried to tell her, but this only upset the redhead more.

"You both knew about all of this, that's the part that makes it worse. You knew, and you didn't say anything. I thought I could trust you, that you cared about me…"

"Of course we care about you, Chloe, why else do you think we tried to make things happen for you and your father?" Rachel tried to calm her down, but the girl only shook her head.

"It was a mistake, I shouldn't… I shouldn't have told you about it, then it wouldn't be… Maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead and go back to Indiana," she turned and stomped back up to her room. She didn't slam the door, but they still heard it shut. Sophie dragged her feet to go and sit at the kitchen table, resting her heavy head in her hands.

"I really made a mess, didn't I?"

"She just needs time to process everything," Rachel didn't sound worried.

"She's going to miss out on everything, the workshop, because of me," Sophie couldn't let herself off the hook so easily.

"She won't go back," Rachel remained confident. "For now let's just give her some space. It's not us she's upset at."

"Didn't sound like it to me," Sophie sighed, then hummed when her mother placed a cup of coffee in front of her.

"She's upset at her father, as she's been, as she should be. Right now she has to feel like he's abandoned her a second time. He got to see her again, and she didn't get to see him. I'd be pretty pissed off, too, if I was in her place."

"What can I do? How do I fix this?"

"You won't find a way. She'll give it to you. Just stay attentive, and when she's ready, she'll come to us again. Whatever needs to happen, we'll be there for her."

"I am never drinking again," Sophie sighed.

"Let's not be over dramatic here," Rachel nudged her daughter's cheek. "At least now it's out, as it should be. Now it's up to her to decide what comes next."

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts. In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!