Tears:
Felicity walks into the house. Her husband is sitting on the couch with their four year old son and their ten year old daughter.
"Momma!"
"Hi Fletch," Felicity greets with a smile despite her aching feet and the headache that's starting to form behind her eyes. "Hi Nat." Her daughter barely looks up from her book.
She leans over the back of the couch and kisses Oliver's soft lips. She smiles against his lips and closes her eyes.
"Hi baby."
"Hi." She kicks off her heels and takes her coat off to hang it over the back of the armchair. "Where's the other one?"
"She's up in her room. I don't think she's having a great day. I couldn't get her to come out for dinner."
Felicity sighs, Charlotte has been having a difficult time with her transition into high school and she has been pulling away from both of them recently. Both Oliver and Felicity have tried to talk to her and have her confide in them but they haven't made any progress.
"I think maybe a little Momma time could help."
"I don't know about that. But it's worth a shot."
Felicity kisses him one last time before climbing the stairs. She knocks twice before she hears a quiet, "Yeah?"
She pushes the door open a little bit, peeking in to see Charlotte lying on her bed clutching her teddy bear; the thing has seen better days, he's missing an eye, his arm has been sewn on more than a few times and the fur is wearing out around his neck, but Thea gave it to her when she was born and she loves it more than anything. Felicity takes a moment to observe her daughter's features. Her eyes are downcast, her eyebrows knit together tightly the way she does when she's trying not to cry as she bites her lower lip.
"Hi my love how was your day?" Felicity asks, walking in and joining her daughter on her twin bed.
Charlotte sighs and allows herself to be wrapped in her mom's arms. She doesn't say anything she just takes a few deep breaths before tears start falling. She works herself up until she has a hard time breathing.
"Hey, hey, shh, shh," Felicity leans forward to look at her daughter's face but she buries it deeper into Felicity's neck, "baby, what's wrong? Talk to me."
With every sob Felicity feels like she is being stabbed in the heart. Eventually Charlotte is able to calm down. She takes a few shuddery breaths and sniffles.
"You're scaring me, what's going on?" She pulls her tighter and rocks them gently back and forth; the same way she soothed her when she was a baby.
"I don't want to tell you."
Charlotte is normally very tight lipped about her problems. She is friendly and kind, and will talk to anyone but when it comes to her own problems she tends to reserve her words for quiet moments like these.
"You know you can tell me anything, at least you used to."
"I'm embarrassed." She shrugs and pulls away from her mother, still avoiding eye contact.
"I'm not going to force you to tell me but I've told you some pretty cringe worthy stories from my past, so I wouldn't be embarrassed if I were you."
Felicity runs a hand over Charlotte's leg, the denim sagging on her skinny thigh.
"Something happened at school today," She pauses and shakes her head, readying herself to tell her mom, "I was standing at my locker when Davey Trusk walked up to me and asked me to go with him to the dance this Friday." As she continues a pit forms in Felicity's stomach as she starts to understand where this is going. "When I said yes, his friends came around the corner and started laughing." She breathes deeply again, forcing anymore tears that want to fall back into her eyes, "He did it on a dare."
Another sob escapes her.
"Oh no, oh baby, I'm so sorry."
She falls back into her mother's arms. Felicity runs her hand through her daughter's silky curls. She doesn't understand why the kids at school have chosen her as a target; she's beautiful, brilliant, polite, and courteous to everyone else's feelings; but maybe there's the problem. She isn't deserving of this ridicule and yet here she is again, consoling her daughter after another mean prank.
The world of mean girls and parties and dating is the world that she was dreading, since the day Charlotte was born. She tried everything in her power to keep her little girl from growing up and getting her heart broken. She and her husband both have what they consider a slightly overprotective nature within them. While she sits with Charlotte, listening to her tiny sniffles, watching her stiffen her jaw, trying to feign toughness, she wants to go over to that school and beat this kid up; better yet, she wants Oliver to beat this kid up.
"I don't want to show my face at school ever again."
"I know how you feel. I was picked on a lot when I was your age too."
"You were?" Charlotte's eyes widen, "Why? You're like so smart and pretty."
"Yeah, and that's why those kids are picking on you too. They don't want to believe someone like you exists."
Charlotte scoffs.
"I'm serious. Those kids don't have everything that you have and that makes them jealous."
"Yeah, I kind of feel bad for Davey."
These words take Felicity by surprise, "What? Why?"
"I heard his parents are splitting up. They're fighting for custody of him, it's pretty messy." She shrugs and cuddles further into her mother's side. "Maybe it's not his fault that he's such a jerk all the time."
Felicity is astounded by her daughter's sympathy for her bully. She has the ability to understand things that most adults can't comprehend. She kisses Charlotte's head and inhales, her shampoo smells like lavender and her perfume is a familiar floral scent. She smiles against Charlotte's hair as she speaks softly, her voice raspy from being tired.
"I know it's hard, to feel so different, but you need to know that you are so amazing. I wouldn't change anything about you, never in a million years."
"Thanks Momma."
"Anytime kiddo." Felicity kisses her temple three times, "I love you so so much."
"Love you more."
Felicity leans back and lies with her daughter for a while, listening to her breathing, occasionally saying an "I love you", or offering a little squeeze.
"Are you hungry? Dad mentioned you didn't go downstairs for dinner."
"A little."
"I'm gonna go grab something to eat. I'm starving." She over exaggerates to get a giggle from Charlotte, "We can eat up here tonight, just this once." She winks before leaving the room and walking down to the kitchen.
"I could kill him."
"I should have known you'd be listening." Felicity looks over her glasses at her husband who is standing in the doorway to the kitchen, his arms crossed, and his lips in a tight line.
"One pull of my bow and she would never have to see that little weasel's face ever again."
"Oliver,"
"I know, I know, I'm just saying she doesn't deserve this."
"I know that, more than anyone, but I also know that you can't put the fear of God into this kid and hope for the best. She's a warrior, she's your kid, and she will get through this just like she has gotten through everything else."
"That hardly seems fair."
"Tell me about it."
"What are you doing anyway?" Oliver asks, leaning on the counter, as Felicity takes the leftovers out of the refrigerator.
"Me and Charlie are having dinner upstairs tonight." She lowers her voice so her two younger children don't hear and beg to do it every day for the next month and a half.
"Well enjoy."
Oliver kisses her head and smiles, his warm smile, the smile that she has been wanting to see all day long. He breezes back into the living room, saying something to make his kids laugh and Felicity revels in the sound.
