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 70th cycle. Now cycle 71!

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

Rachel had to go out soon after breakfast, which left Sophie and her slowly dwindling hangover alone with the sulking and possibly packing Chloe. She knew her mother had said to leave it alone, to let Chloe come to them, and she was doing it, only it kept weighing on her. As it should. It was because of her that Chloe found out Rachel had not only looked for but found her long lost father, and that he'd come to see her being part of the workshop… only to walk away unseen before the end. She could try and say that it was her mother's fault, too, for actually instigating the search, but then that wasn't completely true. Her mother wouldn't have gone looking for Chloe's father at all if Sophie hadn't shown her the newspaper clipping that Chloe had shown her in confidence.

It would have gone nowhere if not for the fact that Sophie's mother and Chloe's father had known each other, had worked together in the past. Rachel had recognized the man as soon as her eyes had landed on the picture. How could they ignore a thing like that? Would Chloe have reacted differently if Rachel had still found her father in secret, but managed to reunite them in the end? Her mother had also said it wasn't them she was angry at, but since she didn't have her father there to yell at…

Taking up her courage, Sophie had gone to the plate her mother had left prepared and kept warm, taking it up the stairs and up to the closed door.

"I know you don't want to talk to me right now, and I'm not here to force you. I just figured you might be hungry, so I'll leave your plate right here and go back downstairs. You can come and take it whenever you feel like it."

She'd placed the plate on a nearby table, next to the vase and the two picture frames. She was silently returning to the staircase when she heard the door creak open. She looked back, and there was Chloe, looking at her. She went and took the plate before returning into her room. She left the door open. Sophie didn't know whether to be relieved or nervous. She walked in as Chloe sat cross-legged on the bed, taking her fork and starting at her breakfast.

"If my mother caught me eating on the bed, I think she might still ground me," Sophie tried to make a joke, which was immediately shown to be the wrong idea, getting her a glare from Chloe. "Sorry, I… never mind." She looked around the room. If she was actually planning to leave, as she'd said, she hadn't started packing. Sophie felt herself breathe a sigh of relief. "Look… please don't go. You've worked really hard for this, and you deserve to be in that workshop. If you never want to see either of us when this is over, I'll completely understand, and so will my mother. She'll be heartbroken, but that's… that's not something for you to worry about," she promised, realizing it might have sounded like she was trying to make Chloe feel guilty.

"I don't want that," Chloe finally spoke, and Sophie hesitated.

"You don't want… her to be heartbroken?" she had to guess.

"What do you think?" Chloe looked at her.

"No, right, of course you wouldn't want that, and… and that's good." She sighed once more, this time out of desperation. She tempted a few steps forward and, when Chloe didn't fight her on it, she took a seat at the foot of the bed. "I shouldn't have shown her the picture, I know," she confessed. "But I never imagined she would actually recognize him." They were quiet for a moment.

"Did they really work together?" Chloe finally asked, and Sophie quickly nodded back.

"I didn't remember it at first, but after she started talking about it, about him, I did remember him," she admitted, so not to keep anything from her. "I think after she knew who he was, my mother, she… she felt she had to at least try to get the two of you together again. It came from the right place, you know?"

"I know. She's a great person," Chloe was starting to sound more like the girl she really was, though there was still some sadness in her voice. "I just thought… I thought I could have him back," she went on, and there were tears in her eyes. "Just for a second, I thought I could, but he left again." Sophie took the plate away, putting it on the nightstand before moving to get her arm around the girl. Chloe gladly put her head to her shoulder.

She supposed she could sympathize with her, but it wasn't something she'd feel would be of any help to her. Sophie had been living without her father, too, ever since the accident that had claimed his life. She couldn't tell her how she'd been upset with him after he'd died, because he'd gone. It hadn't been his fault, not in anyway, but still she'd been young, and in her mind he had left her, and that had been maddening, something she couldn't comprehend.

"Were you really going to leave?" Sophie finally allowed herself to ask after a few minutes had gone by.

"Yes," Chloe told her, and Sophie closed her eyes.

"Are you still going to?" It took another minute more before Chloe was able to give an answer.

"I'll stay," she said, and Sophie almost heard an unspoken 'for now' in her tone. "I'm still kind of angry," she warned.

"I understand," Sophie assured her. "Do you want me to leave you alone?"

"Did you eat?" Chloe asked rather than answering.

"Not really, no." Chloe stood, picking up her plate.

"I should go and eat this downstairs, instead of here." It was as indirect of an invitation for joint breakfast as she'd had, but she would take it. They weren't completely out of the dark, but at least there was a hint of the sun returning.

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!