This story is based after Claire gives Tess a check with the sufficient money she needs to pay the deposit of the café she always dreamed and spoke of since her return.
I wrote this Fic. After watching "More than One Way" Episode 18, Season two and episode 75 "Out of the Ashes" From season 4.
Authors note: I was always intrigue about Claire's resentment and Tess's shatter hopes when she returns home, just to be greet with a cold stare from her sister, but also the pain in Claire's eyes when she doesn't know what to do once her kid sister is there, in the ranch again; so here is the first part of this new story, hope you like it and tell me what you think.
Also in this story I had the help of "Slidell" my SVU beta from Fan in correcting the grammar and spelling. Thank you gal.
Thanks for reading.
--
Understanding You
Chapter 1
--
"Why do you keep doing this?"
"What?"
The question came without warning, but with such strong demand that it took a few seconds for Claire to respond.
"This!" Said Tess, waving the check in the air in a dramatic gesture.
Claire couldn't understand Tess's frustration. She had just handed her a check with sufficient funds so she could make the deposit on her "Café" and now she was acting like this.
"Why do you keep pushing me to go? Just now…This!" Tess said waving the check again in front of Claire, and flailing her arms on the air in a dramatic gesture.
"I…"
"If you want me gone so bad, you should just ask!" With that Tess stormed back into the house just to come out, almost instantly; walking the distance to her Beetle and driving off the ranch in a rush.
"Tess!"
An astonished Claire was left at the veranda, wondering what had just happened. Before she went about her business she collected the check Tess dropped to the floor before storming off.
"You should just ask her to stay, you know?" Meg's voice cut through her line of thoughts.
"What?" shaking her head in confusion Claire turned to Meg, standing in the door, her brow pinched in a confuse gesture.
"What did I do wrong? She's been talking about the Café business ever since she got here, about getting the money to buy it so she can return to the city; I just gave her what she wants." Claire defended before Meg could say anything.
"I don't have time for this. I need to get ready for that representative form Blood Lines; he'll be here this week."
With that Claire went about her things, leaving Meg in the same position Tess left her just moments ago.
"I swear these McLeod Women are going to be the death of me."
Walking back into the house; Meg went to the kitchen and got busy working on supper. About thirty minutes later, she saw Claire walking to the gate of the house; looking discreetly towards the parking place Tess's Beetle had been parked in since her return, and saw the look of disappointment that washed over her face, if only for a moment, before the stern look of determination that had been ingrained in her features since she was younger return.
Before she grabbed the sack of feed for the horses to walk off to the stables, she saw Claire turning her head to the gate of the house, stretching her neck a little; just to turn violently and go about her business.
Meg's mind wondered to the past, returning to a moment in time, when a similar scene played before her eyes; so many times, some many years back; but with a smaller version of Claire; a seven years old Claire, standing in the entrance of the house; keeping watch.
--
Meg could see the small but tall for her age child, stretching her neck into almost a painful position, balancing on her tiptoes to reach even higher, looking at the distance, searching the roads in hopes of the return of her sister.
She saw the hopeful look in the child's eyes the first days of Tees's departure. Then the frightened quiver on her lips as she pressed them together, when the weeks went by and the girl hadn't come back, as to not allowing a sound to escape them, the look in her eyes was changing, from hopeful to confused and then to sadness as the days went by.
"What are you doing Claire? Is getting late; c'mon inside the house now."
"I'm waiting for Tessie to come back, she should be here any minute."
"They'll be here when they get here, no sense for you to be wasting your time there."
"But what if she comes and I'm not here, I want to be the first thing she sees when she returns."
"Claire, Tess is not coming back if Ruth doesn't bring her back. She just needs time and when she is ready they'll be back, until then there is nothing we can do about it."
"But she's my sister; she needs to bring her back. Doesn't she knows Daddy misses them too much; just like me."
The statement cut through Meg's heart; how can you explain to a child, that sometimes adults make the stupidest mistakes? How can you explain in a way that wouldn't hurt the small child? How can you tell her; that her baby sister is not coming back any time soon, maybe never; she doesn't know so she opts for a lie.
"I don't know honey; But I'm sure Tess is thinking about you too and she misses you the same, come on now let's get back to the house, your dad is about to return."
That was one of the last times Meg, remembered Claire waiting at the gate with a hopeful look in her face; she did it a few more times before she stopped all together. But every time she'd return to the house after her vigils; the expression on her face changed little by little.
It changed from a happy face, full of expectation to a sad and drawn look, just to be replaced in time with the stern look that would stay for a long time in the lovely face of the child. Sometimes, Meg remembered seeing in Claire's eyes hope, sometimes her eyes betrayed what she was feeling but not telling; but in time she mastered the look as well, not much time later it was really hard to tell what the little girl was really feeling.
--
"Meg; You think she remembers when she comes home?"
Confused blue eyes, looked at eager blue ones, just to see in them a sadness she had not seen since the death of Prue McLeod, the mother of the child, asking the question.
"Remember what, Claire?"She asks softly, fixing the little PJs and stroking the long brownish hair of the child's face.
"Before she left, we played 'tea party' she promised that…that, if I play with her; we'll play 'Bush rangers' next. She would remember right?"
Meg felt her throat constrict and tears burning her eyes, for the child that it's becoming a lone and sad individual; a contrast image of the happy and care-free child she was one year prior.
"Maybe… yes, she would remember; I'm sure you are going to remind her of that." Meg attempted a hopeful smile to reassure the child, telling another lie to the then eight year old Claire.
They are in her room, she's just getting ready for bed, the last few hours, before dinner; she had been missing. Nobody knew where she was, until she walked into the house; explaining she had been in the shed, playing.
"She has to come back. She left her Tea Set in the shed, she loves the stupid thing." Claire assured Meg, and she could see that, a little sparkle of hope still lingered there, before she let the woman tuck her in for the night.
After that night, Meg remembered that was the last time Claire ever spoke of Tess.
--
"Meg!" Jack McLeod calls.
"Yes, what happened?"
"Have you seen the picture of the girls? I had it on top of my desk and now it's gone, did you move it?"
"What picture are you talking about? I haven't moved any picture, I hardly go into your office." Meg told the head of the house.
"It was the one we took, days before...days before Ruth went away, you remember, the girls… they where near the stables playing with water."
"Oh yes, yes I remember, but no I haven't seen that picture, maybe you took it to your room on one of those nights you don't remember."
Jack McLeod looked at Meg and felt ashamed, ashamed she has seen him with a few drinks in him, more than a few to be honest, but that was the only way to mitigate the pain of not having his little girl and the woman he loved by his side.
"Yeah! Maybe you are right. I'll look for it later." With that he went back to his office closing the door behind him, not aware of the child sitting on the stairs looking at him and the scene played just seconds before her eyes, as she wiped a tear from them.
Meg's was about to return to the kitchen when she saw Claire; sitting on the middle of the stairs, a guilty expression on her face.
That night after tucking her in, Meg fixed Claire's pillows. When she was fixing the extra pillow something caught her eye, when she lifted the pillow to see what it is, she found a picture frame tucked in under the pillow; turning it up she saw the two small children smiling at the camera.
Unconsciously a small hand slid over the sheets and held the picture frame in a strong grip, a small smile appeared on the sleeping face of the child.
--
Days before her eleventh birthday, Meg remembered Claire running to the gate full speed, at the sound of a Ute arriving at the house, expectation on her face; no one was supposed to be there; just to see disappointment invading her eyes when she saw Harry Ryan getting out of the Ute.
Shoulders bend eyes to the ground, Claire walked back to the back yard of the house, paying no attention to either Jack or Harry Ryan; who had brought her a present for her birthday; nor the Ryan boys hollering out to her.
That was the last time Claire ever returned to the gate, after that; not even when they were expecting an important package would she go near the gate, it was either she or Jack the ones coming to get or greet whom ever visited them. From that day on, the features on the small child had changed to those of the woman she was now.
--
Her thoughts are interrupted when Tess stomps into the kitchen, walking to the sink to get a glass of water.
"I don't understand her!"
-
-
Second chapter coming soon.