"Mom's gonna love this!"
Elizabeth was excited as she prepared to wrap the small box containing the gift for her mother. She had been saving her money for weeks to buy it, and then there was the seemingly endless wait for Mother's Day to deal with. But now the big day was finally here, and Elizabeth was eager to see the look on her mother's face when she received her gift.
At last the gift was wrapped as best as her five-year-old hands could manage. Elizabeth clutched the package close to her chest as she hurried down the stairs to the living room, where her mother was sitting on the expensive couch, talking to someone on her cell phone.
Elizabeth sighed. Her mother was almost always on the phone during the rare moments she and Daddy were home. Still, the little girl approached her mother until she stood directly in front of her. Triumphantly, she held out her gift.
"Happy Mother's Day, Mom!"
Her mother acted as if she didn't hear her and continued her conversation on the phone. Elizabeth reached out and gently tapped her mother's shoulder, trying once again to get her attention. Her mother responded with a wave of her hand, trying to get her daughter to leave her alone. Elizabeth waited for several more minutes, but her mother was still on the phone. Not willing to wait any longer, the little girl grabbed her mother's arm and began to tug on it.
Elizabeth's mother slammed her phone on to the arm of the couch and turned to face her daughter, clearly annoyed at being interrupted once again.
"Can't you see I'm busy, Elizabeth?" she snapped.
Elizabeth cowered like a culprit before her angry mother. "I'm sorry, Mom. I just wanted to-"
Her mother pointed toward the door. "Go."
"But -"
"Just go, Lizzie!"
Disappointed, Elizabeth placed the gift on the coffee table in front of the couch and scooted out of the room as her mother picked up her phone to continue her conversation. Every once in a while the little girl would peek around the corner into the living room, cautiously hoping her mother would see the gift and open it when she got off the phone. Whenever that was.
But the gift remained on the table, unopened and untouched, for the rest of the day. Even when Elizabeth's parents left for Italy the next day, the gift was still there.
Elizabeth cried as she curled herself up into a ball in the corner of her room. For all she knew, her gift would remain on that table forever.
Ashe sat at the small kitchen table in one of the Deadlock gang's many hideouts, holding a warm cup of tea in both hands. She closed her eyes in an attempt to fight back her tears as that painful childhood memory played in her head for probably the ten millionth time. Every year she remembered that small gift sitting on that damned coffee table. Alone, rejected, and forgotten, just like its giver.
Even after the Deadlock leader became a mother herself, Mother's Day wasn't any more pleasant for Ashe to deal with. Oh, she loved her daughter and all, would gladly do anything for that precious little pipsqueak. But every damned year on this god-damned day, seeing her little girl in all her childish innocence, clinging to her with that simple naive trust small children often have for their caretakers, would cause something within the bandit's icy heart to break, and that childhood memory of maternal rejection would become even more painful than it ever was before little Natalie came along.
Sensing their boss's need for personal space, B.O.B. and Peyote would take Natalie for the day to give Ashe time to "unwind", as Peyote put it. They'd usually take her down to the river to swim or fish, or to the nearest small town store to get a treat like candy or ice cream. This year there was a fair with a petting zoo and pony rides, as well as the usual junk fairs often had. Diamond and Hudsy were already planning to go when Peyote announced that she, B.O.B., and Natalie would be coming, too.
"Awww, Peyote, do we hafta let the kid come, too?" Diamond protested.
"You know it's that time of year again," Peyote told him.
Diamond and Hudsy looked at each other, knowing exactly what their fellow Deadlocker was talking about, and didn't protest any further.
Ashe placed her now lukewarm cup of tea on its saucer and pressed a hand against her forehead. Peyote had suggested she make herself a cup of tea and take a hot bath or take a walk down to the river. The desert was now teeming with blooming flowers after a recent storm, so a walk sounded nice. The Deadlock leader was about to get up from the table when she felt a smaller hand grab her own.
"Wha-?" Ashe turned her head swiftly to the side to find her three-year-old daughter standing next to her, holding what appeared to be a small square-shaped box, no doubt acquired during the outing at the fair. The child carefully placed the box in her mother's lap and took a step back, smiling expectantly.
Ashe just sat there, stunned and not knowing what to do or say next. Feeling that familiar lump rising in her throat, she took a deep breath to compose herself and carefully opened the box to reveal the gift within.
Nestled in a bed of tissue paper within the box was a small teacup and saucer, both decorated with a picture of a sunflower. Of course, the outlaw thought to herself, remembering that sunflowers were Natalie's favorite. A sunflower from my little sunflower... Ashe carefully placed the gift on the table and pulled her daughter into her lap, holding her close as the tears that had been building up within her all day were unleashed.
"Why ya cwyin', Momma?" Natalie asked, confused by her mother's reaction to her gift. Weren't people supposed to be happy when you gave them a present?
"I'm sorry, pumpkin," her mother replied. She sat the small girl upright in her lap so that the two of them were making eye contact. "I'm just so happy ya got me a present, and sometimes people cry when they're happy. Especially when they haven't been very happy for awhile."
Natalie seemed satisfied by her mother's explanation. "Okay."
As she continued to hold her sweet little girl close to her chest, Ashe's mind began to drift down memory lane once more. It still hurt to remember that awful memory from her childhood, but this time it made her all the more determined to make sure little Natalie Dakota Ashe-Cyrus knew she was loved, accepted, and valued. The pain of rejection by her own family was something her child would never know, the Deadlock leader silently promised herself and her daughter.
"Natalie?" Peyote hurried through the halls of the building that made up the main living space of the gang's hideout in search of the toddler she agreed to look after for the day. When she reached the entrance of the living room, the dark-haired, bronze-skinned woman found Natalie sitting in Ashe's lap, locked in her mother's embrace. Worried that her boss might not be ready to take her daughter back, Peyote was about proceed toward the two when she felt a large, metallic hand on her shoulder.
"B.O.B?" Peyote turned to face the huge Omnic butler who interrupted her. His calm, steady gaze told her there was nothing to worry about, and it was best mother and daughter were left alone for the time being. Peyote nodded, understanding.
"Gotcha."
As she turned to follow B.O.B. out of the room, Peyote glanced over her shoulder to watch Ashe and Natalie one more time. A smile crept across her face as she witnessed the tender scene between a mother and her daughter.
"Happy Mother's Day, Ashe."