A mother's love.

Aracklion, Royal palace.

When Icy arrived at the royal palace the guards looked at her and asked her name. She gave it to them as well as her daughter's name. They checked her I.D. and when they saw the royal seal on her identity card they apologised to her for not letting her through immediately. She told the men that she would tell the king that they were just doing their duty and that she was glad that they did their job properly. When she walked in she smiled hoping they would in the future keep on doing that. Dawn was looking around the whole time amazed about the fact that she was going to live in a palace from now on. Icy didn't notice any of it since she was to busy thinking about how she was going to raise her little one. Dawn suddenly stopped making Icy look up to see Queen Muriel. The woman looked at Dawn and began to smile.

"So this is my granddaughter Dawn. She looks just like her mother, although she has her father's smile. You weren't exaggerating when you told me she looks a lot like you Icy. Hello Dawn, I 'm your grandmother Muriel." she said looking at the little girl who was trying to hide behind Icy's skirt. Icy just picked her up and she turned to her stepmother.

"Well what do you say honey?" Icy asked her daughter.

"Hello," she answered making Muriel laugh.

"Well give it time, Icy. She will learn how to greet a person. You on the other hand have learned a lot about etiquette. Who taught you?"

"A Solarian princess called Stella" Icy answered as she felt Dawn put her head on her shoulders. Muriel picked up on that and offered to show them their rooms. Icy thanked her and followed the queen to their rooms. As soon as they had arrived in Dawn's room she put the girl down on the bed who laid herself down and fell asleep. Muriel and Icy stayed for a while to watch her sleep for a while. A few minutes later they went out of the room.

"Icy you 'll be sleeping in the room across the hall. That way you will always be close to her at night. I also took the liberty to hire a nanny for when you are at school or busy taking care of your affairs. Now you don't have to do much but in the coming years you 'll have to take care of some of the diplomatic missions the Aracklion royal family takes care off."

"I see but diplomacy isn't exactly my strong suit at the moment." Icy said as she entered her room and almost fell back. She saw all kinds of clothes in her closet varying from ordinary clothes to ballroom dresses. She saw several tiaras lying on a display together with a lot of expensive jewelry.

"Is everything alright?" Muriel asked.

"Yes, Waw, Do I have to wear those?" Icy asked pointing at the collection of jewelry.

"On public occasions you will have to. Inside the palace walls you 're not obliged. Your cousin on the other hand, well once she is married she has to wear at least a tiara during the day. Once she goes back to Alfea to finish her studies she may leave it all behind." Muriel explained to Icy.

"Good thing you decide not to force me to wear tiaras all day because I 'm still getting used to the fact that I am a princess by birthright. It doesn't mean that I know how to be one. You will have to teach me a lot too. I don't want to embarrass the family by not doing the right things when I 'm in public." Icy told the woman who started to laugh.

"Don't worry I'll teach you as much as I can." Muriel said as she approached Icy. She then put her arms around Icy who embraced her too. This woman was not her mother and still she acted like a mother to her. Icy felt the lump in her throat and swallowed hard to keep it down but failed at it. Not being able anymore to hold back the tears she just cried in Muriel's arms. Muriel just held her in her arms while she comforted the young woman.

"Do you miss your mother?" Muriel asked.

"The reason I 'm crying is not because I miss my mother but it 's because of the way you treat me. You just take me in as if I 'm your child even though I 'm not. You give me all your love even more than my mum ever did and you make me feel at home here right away. For a moment I hated my mother for not doing that when I was still a kid. Maybe dad should have known about me and I could have had a better childhood living with you. I don't know you that well but I already know that no matter what you will always love me and for some reason I love you too." Icy answered while she tried to dry her tears.

"Why do you think such things about your mother?"

"She didn't fight Nosferatu as aunt Helen did. She just obeyed him and in the end I had to take her place in Nosferatu's hell while she enjoyed my body. Helen stalled until Bloom got rid of her. She could have taken over Darcy's body at any time but she hesitated because she couldn't bring herself to take her body and let Darcy's soul go to hell. My mother didn't care less she just took my body and..." At that point Icy couldn't say a thing anymore except crying while Muriel just kept caressing her. Now it became clear to Muriel what this girl had gone through in the past few years. She decided to take better care of Icy than all the people who had raised her. This girl wasn't just misguided but she was an emotional wreck by now. The young witch who was known to have an icy personality was now crying in her arms wetting her dress. All the stress of the past year and all the heartaches of the last seventeen years were now coming out.

"It 's alright honey, just let it all out. Maybe it is about time you let go off all the pain and talk to someone about it. One day you will feel a lot better about it." Muriel said "I have no place to be right now so if you want to talk about it you can tell me."

"Are you the family shrink?" Icy asked when she had regained some control over her tears.

"Well I do have a degree in psychology but I never used it." Muriel told making Icy laugh.

"Well there is one thing I never shared with anyone yet." Icy said as she unbuttoned her shirt. When she had taken it of she turned her back to Muriel who saw a big scar near the region where the backbone connects to the pelvis.

"Where did you get that?" Muriel asked.

"After mum died my father, stepfather actually, used to beat me up all the time when I did something he didn't like. One day however when I was thirteen we, Darcy and Stormy were in it too, had helped an old lady with cleaning her place. He was so furious that he grabbed me and pushed me up the wall. There was a spike that was coming out of the wall for a few centimetres and it entered my back. When I started to cry in pain because of it he said that I had to stop crying or he 'd give me a reason to cry. I tried hard not to scream in pain while I tried to get away from the wall but the spike didn't come loose. My dad heard me whimper only for a second and that was it for him so he came over to me and than he raped me. The scar you see would have been smaller if he had just pulled me off the spike. Instead he made it worse. In that most painful moment in my life I cursed my mother for leaving me behind with this brute." Darcy told her "A year later I killed him for what he had done to me. Darcy and Stormy never knew and I want to keep it that way. Even the police thought he died of natural causes. Little did they know that I slowly but surely killed him by making sure he ate the things he wasn't supposed to eat. Drink the things he wasn't allowed to drink. When he was finally gone we went to Cloud Tower where we studied hard to become the witches we were until six months ago. I met Sky in the summer before he went to Red Fountain and I immediately was attracted to him even though I never had any feelings for a man before. When we were together I wanted to become his wife some day and have his children. He never told me he was the prince of Aracklion and I never showed him my true face because I was afraid he wouldn't love me as a witch. Now I know why I was so attracted to him. I feel quite ashamed about the fact that I slept with him now but I still love him the way I loved him four years ago. I must sound crazy now and maybe I am."

"No you 're not crazy. What happened between you and Sky just happened and there was no way that you two could know that you were siblings. Besides the two of you now have a beautiful daughter who you love so much that I 'm a bit jealous of you. I always wished for a little girl but you know what happened in the past so now that my stepdaughter is finally home I will love you as if you were my own girl but I have to ask you, did your father rape you more than once?"

"It happened only once. I made sure it stayed that way. I also made sure that he would never hurt Darcy or Stormy. I 'm not a hundred percent sure I succeeded in the job but I know they have taken good care of my back when it was bleeding. Our bond was getting closer over the years but it never became as close as we are now. I have the feeling something has happened to them too in the past but they never talk about it just like I never talk about myself to them."

"Maybe you should tell them too some day. They might tell you if something has happened to them." Muriel suggested as she put her arms around her stepdaughter again. Suddenly they heard a knock on the door making Icy put on her shirt again asking whoever was at the door to wait for a moment. As soon as she was ready she asked whoever it was at the other end of the door in.

"Hey sis, how are you settling in?" Sky came in with a smile but one look at her face told him enough. Muriel just told her son that he didn't need to worry. He knew that some things would better left up to his mother so he didn't ask a thing.

"Icy where is our little one?" He asked.

"Oh, she is taking her nap in the room across the hall. Muriel thought it was better that I slept as close as possible to her." Icy told him.

"You may call me mum." Muriel said to Icy who smiled at her while forming the words with her lips. It had been a very long time that she had said it without feeling hurt. Sky then looked at his mother and started to smile too. He never dreamed of something like this happening. His mother accepted Icy as her own daughter and no one would ever be able to come between her and Icy any time soon.

"Hey brother, how is the wedding coming along. I heard that despite the change in power here you still have to marry my cousin Darcy." Icy teased him.

"Yes I still have to but you know I already made peace with it. The only thing is that now that Bloom is going to have a baby too I 'd rather marry her instead of Darcy. The people know about my indiscretions but still they want to let me get married to Darcy anyway."

"Maybe this is their way of punishing you for not keeping your pants up when you have to." Icy mocked making Muriel laugh.

"Yes my son, you should have known better after you had slept with Icy. You knocked her up and didn't learn from it. No, you had to do it all over again with Bloom. There are such little things called condoms available why didn't you get them?" Muriel reprimanded him.

"You 're right mum I should have thought about it twice." he said as he was leaving the room with a smile on his face. Muriel and Icy watched him leaving the room. Icy sighed as he closed the door. She was still as much in love with him as she was four years ago.

"He really has grown up to be a wonderful man." Muriel said as she looked at Icy who nodded in agreement.

"He sure has."

At the end of the day Icy was putting Dawn to bed who was too tired to even stay awake long enough to listen to her bedtime story. Icy laid down her book and marked the page where she stopped reading. She looked at her daughter for a while, tugged her in tight and left the room. Before she closed the door she took a last look at Dawn to make sure she was safe. She decided to go to her own room and sat down in the sofa with a book. Icy had never taken much time to read a book that didn't contain spells or curses. Now she was going to. She was about to finish the first chapter when she heard a knock on the door. She invited the person in.

"Hello Icy, I hope I 'm not disturbing you?" Muriel came in.

"No not at all, Muriel." Icy answered.

"Well I came to tell you that tomorrow we have asked the press to make an official picture of the royal family. I forgot all about it until Andrew reminded me of it. I was thinking about the clothes to wear for that occasion. I was thinking if we, I mean Dawn, you and I, would wear the same coloured dress we would look as a family. What about it?" Muriel asked.

"Well I hope I may still choose my style in clothing."

"Off course."

"Then what could be the problem? Did you have a particular colour in mind?" Icy asked.

"Well I noticed that Dawn likes clothes in a particular light shade of green. I don't know why but I thought that would be nice to wear."

"Yes, she loves to dress in green. It just happens that that particular colour is not in the collection of clothes in the closet."

"I know so I ordered a shop to show us some clothes tomorrow morning. We could choose a dress to your liking and I need one too." Muriel said as she sat down on the bed.

"What is it Muriel?" Icy asked as she watched the woman closely. She looked very sad making Icy stand up and walk over. The woman then began to cry. Icy just put her arms around her trying to comfort Muriel.

"What 's the matter?" Icy asked again.

"It 's just that all I wanted my daughter to be is there in you. Kind but a bit rebellious, loving but a little sarcastic, ..."

"I can be a pain in the ass too" Icy interrupted Muriel who started to laugh "you know mum,... you have no idea how good it feels to say mum for me, I never called my mother mum or mammy. I always said mother to her because she was not worthy to be called mum. Even though you 're my stepmother I would like to call you mum even if it feels strange to call you that."

"I would love it if you call me mum. I know I 'm not your mother but I hope I can fill her shoes for the time being."

"I hope you will be there for me when I need you the most. My mother sure wasn't. The one time she could have been there for me she didn't even try. She just wanted to take revenge on dad. The last thing I she thought before I took my body back was 'I don't want you to win'. She knew who I was and didn't want dad to win."

"She must have loved you at some point in her life."

"Yes she must have. I only wonder when. You just accept me, no questions asked."

"That 's what mothers do." Muriel said as they hugged. Icy could get used to being around this woman but some day she would have to marry and go away from here. Would she still love her then?