Maura, My Daughter
Chapter 2
Note: Thank you for all your reviews and follows. A couple of things, what happened to Maura while she was held captive will be told in later chapters. I rushed the rescue part for a reason. Regarding Constance, I am not sure yet if I will bring her into the story or not. I want this story to be more about Hope and Maura and a bit of Cailin and Jane.
Present time…
Hope looked around the room, it was finally quiet. All day long, for the past three days, people have been in and out of the room visiting Maura. Her colleagues, people from charities she helps out and the nurses and doctors checking her vital signs. Flowers and gift baskets arrive every day. She smiles as she sees her younger daughter Cailin curled up in a chair, sleeping. She had been going straight to the hospital after her classes were over and although she had repeatedly told her to go home and be more comfortable there, Cailin said "How can I be comfortable and sleep knowing that Maura is unconscious." Cailin added "I seem to only find peace when I'm in the hospital, knowing that she is still breathing."
She was so happy to know that Cailin and Maura had gotten close since the trial. Cailin stays over Maura's house once a week. Cailin calls it "Sisters bonding time." When the doctors told her that they had found a kidney for a transplant, she knew it was Maura's. She didn't argue anymore. She didn't want to die. And she realized that her anger towards Maura was unfair. Maura was the victim in all this. It broke her heart and she saw the pain in Maura's eyes that night when their mother said Maura was not her daughter and Cailin was her only daughter. That moment, when he mother was pulling her away out the door, she wanted to reach out to her. She saw the same longing she had growing up for her mother reflected back to her. She felt so guilty for what she had said to Maura. Despite all the hurtful things she said, Maura still saved her life.
Hope closed her eyes as she held Maura's hand. Her mind drifted off to a time when she first met Maura. She remembered being taken aback by Maura, when she saw her face. Here was a certain familiarity about Maura the moment they met. A kinship she later told her. And her face, she was a younger version of her, same eyes, same smile but with a hint of her father when she was angry or worried. She was a combination of her and Paddy but with no trace on evilness.
She remembered the day Maura told her about what Paddy had done to Captain Cavanaugh's wife and son. She couldn't believe it. The man that she had loved for so long lied to her and killed a woman and a child to hang on to his power. She had never seen Maura so angry and when Maura told her that she will testify, she knew what she had to do. She could not let her daughter down again. Not this time. She can't keep protecting Paddy anymore. That night, she went home and thought about just running away. But that is what she has been doing for the past 35 years. The night Maura told her she was the daughter she thought died at birth she put her wall up by denying she was her daughter and ran away. She could still recall the words she said to Maura and up to this day, guilt still finds her and it cuts her like a knife that she said those words to Maura. She ran from the truth that night and she is running again. But she remembered what Maura said to her "I had this stupid little girl fantasy that when we met, you'd be everything that you are but you'd want me." She made the decision that she can never and will never let Maura down again. She wants Maura in her life.
So she testified. And in the hallway, after her testimony, she cried. She had just helped put away the love of her life away. She couldn't look Paddy in the eye because no matter how bad Paddy was, she still loved the man. But when she saw Maura, how proud she was of her, that she kept her word, she knew that she had done the right thing. This was the closure they both needed.
Maura came over that night and they talked. They really talked. Maura asked her if she hated Paddy. Hope told her, "Hating him would mean hating you. Wishing he never existed means wishing you never existed. A life without you for 35 years was unbearable. Going to your grave every year never got easier. I helped save women and children all over the world hoping I could erase your loss and the pain, hoping it could make up for the mistakes I made. But you were not and will never be a mistake. "
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