Two Sides Of Life
Chapter 4
Last Time…
With all of the girls free, they made their way to the door. Alex leading as she had a gun, and Emily had the other gun standing close to Alison. Pulling the door open, Alex was stopped abruptly causing Spencer, who was right behind her speaking to Aria to run into her back, by the sight that greeted her, or more specifically the person.
Spencer, who was whispering to Aria hadn't noticed that Alex abruptly stopped and slammed into her back. Turning from Aria, she looked questioningly at Alex. She noticed Alex tensed up just as she backed up pushing Spencer back as well as the person that was right outside the door came into view.
"Well well well, I've been looking for you for three years. Never would've thought I'd find you almost twenty years in the past." Spencer knew that voice. All of the five did. It was hers. The woman came into view for them all. The five gasped almost exactly in unison. The woman looked exactly like Spencer, just more aged, twenty-three more years aged to be exact.
"Someone want to explain? Because this is crazy!" Hanna exclaimed amazed being the first to break out her shock.
"Spence, that's-that's you." Aria stammered and swallowed.
"Yes it is." The older Spencer smirked. She lifted her hand to show them a gun as she clicked the safety off. "No smart moves. I just want a simple word with my daughter here." She gestured towards Alex.
"Not happening." Alex refused. "Whatever you want, save it and go back to 2039." Alex suggested. Older Spencer tisked and shook her head.
"Now you've certainly gained a backbone since I last saw you. I mean before you were just a sarcastic smartass that didn't care for rules now?" She paused as her smirk dropped. "Now you're just another one of my regrets." Her smirk came back.
"Just now? Really? Thought I always was." Alex quipped dryly. Older Spencer obviously wasn't in the mood for remarks as she raised the gun and placed the pistols barrel against the outer side of Alex's upper left arm, the grazed arm. She pushed the side of the barrel against the graze and Spencer could see Alex's jaw momentarily clench in pain.
"Stop. You're hurting her." Spencer demanded to her older counterpart. Older Spencer glanced at her.
"That's the point. You're too naïve to see the problems she's caused me. You would be the same, you are the same." Older Spencer looked back at Alex just to time to get hit by Alex's fist and propelled backwards. Alex hadn't moved other than for the punch, she didn't continue even as her mother stalked forward and grabbed the collar of her shirt and swinging her to slam back first onto the wall. "You will never strike me again." She warned lowly and harshly. Alex swallowed, she had gone up against some of the worst of the worst in the past three years working with the CIA, she had had guns pointed or aimed at her time and time again and never faltered, she had gotten out of impossible situations before but all of that seemed to be forgotten when at the mercy of her mother again. The mother that made her life a living hell until she was sixteen. None of that pain was forgotten. It never totally would be. But Alex had stopped being helpless the day she made that deal over three years ago. That was how she found the strength to push her mother away from her.
"I'm not your punching bag anymore. You can't threaten me and think I'm going to cower. Because I'm not. I'm not that scared little kid anymore."
"We'll see about that. Because from what I just saw in your eyes, I would say you still have some of that kid in you. I saw that fear. Don't get comfortable Alex. I know what you were planning, and I'm not about to let you do it. Remember that." And with that she turned and left without another word. Alex's eyes followed her as if making sure she wasn't going to come back. When she knew she wasn't she finally released the breathe she didn't know she was holding and turned back to the five to see them all staring. All wide eyed.
"What?" Alex demanded. They all exchanged looks but it was Emily that spoke.
"What was that?" She questioned quietly.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Alex snapped. None of the five looked convinced. Sighing, Alex continued, "I'll explain later." She promised. "Let's just get out of this hellhole first, okay?" The five exchanged looks before they all nodded in agreement.
It was less than a hour later that they were all back in Spencer's barn standing and sitting around the kitchen island.
"Now, care to explain?" Alison started after they sat there for at least five minutes in a tense silence.
"Not preferably." Alex retorted, looking down for a second before looking back up. "But I realize I don't exactly have a choice in it. So I'll put it simply, my mother and I… don't get along."
"Seems like a bit of an understatement." Emily commented when Hanna and Alison snorted at the wording.
"It's… very complicated." Alex sighed.
"How is it complicated?" Aria squinted. "It looked pretty self-explanatory. She-" she was cut off.
"Was looking for you." Alison interjected cutting Aria off when she spotted the pained look on Spencer's face. They all knew what Aria was going to say. They all had some idea of the relationship between Alex and the older Spencer and it didn't look good. Alex's eyes shifted to Spencer who was looking down at the counter top. Knowing she wasn't going to look up, Alex gaze moved to pass over the group one by one.
"She was looking for me for a specific reason. And it wasn't to catch up." Alex admitted. This garnered Spencer attention enough to make her look up.
"Which is?" Hanna prompted loudly.
"Before I was dragged back here by my sister, I was working on a plan." Alex stopped and looked down not meeting their eyes knowing what she was about to say next was not something she wanted to say let alone see their reactions for. "It was to counter A.D's plan. Who at the time, I didn't know was my sister." She paused, this was it. "My theory always was that A.D was what started to twisted my mother. But when I was going over hospitals records of my mothers, to let it be said, that may not be the case." She swallowed.
"Okay I'm lost." Aria declared. "What does any of that mean? Why would Spenc- Older Spencer-" she corrected quickly. "be looking for you?"
"My original plan was to kill A.D, as a way to stop all of this… but after seeing the records, it wouldn't change anything." Alex answered just as cryptically.
"What the hell do these records say that has you so vague about it?" Alison wondered. Emily sent her a look. All of them, including Spencer, were were watching her waiting for the answer that would change everything.
Alex tilted her head before reaching into her inner jacket pocket that she retrieved from lair, and pulled out a packet of folded papers. She didn't unfold them, but merely looked them before handing them specifically to Alison. Alison looked questioningly at her, curious why she didn't unfold it and put it in front of all of the girls.
"You'll understand when you read it." Alex promised. The other four looked between Alison and Alex incredibly confused. Alison frowned slightly before taking a preparing breathe and unfolded the stack of at least ten papers. Her eyes flicked to the top of the first page and widened. She glanced at Alex for confirmation and when she nodded Alison looked back down at the paper in stunned silence. She continued to read the first paper, her eyes pausing every now and then and when she finished she refused to look up at Alex.
"Is-is this t-true?" Alison's voice shook. When Alex nodded, Alison looked up and met her eyes, it was clear Alison's eyes held unshed tears. "H-how could nobody have found out about it?" She shook her head in disbelief. The other four looked bewildered and even a bit horrified that whatever was just on the first page could've made Alison respond like that. Emily had only managed to spot the top of the page which had a CIA logo and header.
"I was seven and didn't understand. My sister wasn't home, she only five so it wouldn't have mattered but… I was too young to really understand it. When she told me to lie and say I saw nothing, I did it without hesitation. She said it was better that way, that a mugger did it. But, if there's one lie that I've told and regretted, it's that one. I did what she said and the cops were none the wiser. In fact the only way I could actually have that report is because of my time in the CIA. That was how I found out the truth." Alex explained. Alison nodded before moving that paper to the back of the packet in her hands and started on the second.
Alison seemed to pale by the second as her eyes halted barely a third down the second page. It was all because of nineteen words. Intermittent Explosive Disorder caused by Possible Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Via Child Birth And Death. See Hospital Record Below.
"We need to do this in private." Alison demanded and pulled Alex around the island and into Spencer's bedroom leaving the four girls stunned and confused. Alison swallowed deeply as her eyes trailed down to the papers once she shut the door and sat on the bed.
Date – August 17th 2020
Patient – Spencer Cavanaugh nee Hastings
Ward – Delivery & Maternity
Summary – Patient was giving birth to twins. The first was a girl, later named Alexandra Cavanaugh, born at 3:53pm on the 17th of August, but as the girl was being pulled the remainder of the way out, there was a snag. Her umbilical cord seemed to be 'stuck' for lack of a better word. By the time it was cut, the second baby, a boy, was on his way. Unfortunately, when removed, he wasn't breathing and his body held a blue tint. Oxygen was given only to be met with saddening results. The boy could not be revived. Cause of death was umbilical cord strangulation. No obvious reasoning other than in previous evidence in ultrasound and pictures the boy was meant and ready to come out first. Maybe if he had, he would be alive? No sure answer.
Child #2
Name - Quest Cavanaugh – Twin(Not Identical)
Gender – Male
Time of Arrival – 3:55pm
Time of Death - 3:57pm
Cause of Death – Umbilical Cord Strangulation
Child #1
Name – Alexandra Cavanaugh – Twin(Not Identical)
Gender – Female
Time of Arrival – 3:53pm
Alive
Alison looked up and met Alex's eyes. Everything fell into place for Alison. A.D wasn't the start of Spencer's descent. It was this event. An event she believed was Alex's fault. "She thought it was your fault, didn't she?" Alison questioned softly. Alex nodded slowly and sighed.
"In some ways, she was right. It was my fault." Alex conceded. Alison shook her head vehemently.
"No." She denied fiercely surprising everyone as they were still all in the dark. "You didn't mean to do it. It wasn't like it was planned murder. It was something that nobody could've predicted would've happen, a tragedy yes, but not your fault." Alison pressed.
"She believed it was." Alex chuckled darkly and humorlessly. She gestured to the papers in Alison's hands when she continued. "That's how it all started. How and why she came to hate me. My father, well, he was just as devastated. He tried to keep it together for her, to help her but she didn't want it. Instead she sunk and sunk further into herself or more accurately her work. And if she wasn't at work? She was at a bar, or hungover. She hit rock bottom when I was seven. DUI."
"Let me guess, disbarred?" Alison wondered trying to fill in the pieces with all of the new information. Alex shook her head, shocking Alison. She knew a DUI was grounds for disbarment.
"Nearly. Next page." Alex directed. Alison looked at the third page. To say what she saw shocked her to say the least. It was an unfiled police report of Spencer's DUI. It was all filled out but not filed.
"Why was it never filed?" Alison questioned.
"Let's just say, my mother had a knack for getting what she wanted. One way or another. And she certainly didn't want this to go on record. So poof! Away it went. My father still found out. He threatened to take me away, hell he threatened to get my sister taken away. And as I said, my mother always gets what she wants. And she wanted us."
"Why though? Why want you? Seems like all she did was hate you." Alison pointed out. Alex nodded in understanding. Alison's question was valid and something she herself used to wonder… before she learned everything.
"That was exactly why she kept me around. I didn't know at the time, hell never knew I was supposed to have a twin that died. I mean aside from the fact that having her kids taken away wouldn't look good for her reputation. Me being around? It gave her someone to hate, to blame, and to punish. You can't blame nature or unexplainable tragedy, and everyone wants something or someone to blame when problem arise. It seemed accurate to her." Alex explained.
"When did she develop the IED?" Alison wondered as she skimmed the rest of the pages. It seemed most of them were nothing compared to the bombshells the first three dropped.
"Her first outburst was actually her killing my father. After that, it spiraled and she became… more harsh. She became someone I grew to hate. And until I was sixteen and arrested, she was my warden more than my mom. I was happy when I was arrested. I didn't fight it, I wanted to go. So yeah, my sister was right, I did abandon her for myself, but I had my reasons. She suffered but she had Wren to help protect her, she didn't get half of the hate and punishment I got." Alex finished talking just when Alison started on the last page. It was the page Alex knew Alison would want the most, the ones the others would definitely be seeing after.
"That's A.D." Alison mumbled in awe of the information on the page. Alex nodded.
"That's A.D." Alex repeated.
It was nearly ten minutes later when they were about to leave the room that Alison grabbed Alex's arm and stopped her. Alex looked at her questioningly.
"Why show me this? Why not the entire group? Or Spencer?" Alison asked curious. Alex seemed to hesitate before she met Alison's eyes.
"I am going to tell them. But you had to be first. I needed to see your reaction to see how much they could handle. And I choose you because out all of you, and I wasn't particularly close with any of you, you're the only one that always knew what was happening. You helped me a few times when I really needed it. You also taught me to lie just as well as you could, and how to sneak out. So in all honesty, without you? I wouldn't be living the life I live know, the life I've grown to appreciate and become accustomed to. And as weird as it sounds, given what I do, happy with it." Alex admitted honestly. Alison's eyes softened.
"I helped you because of my own mother, didn't I?" Alison realized.
"Kind of. You know how to help me because of it, but you helped me because you know what it was like to having an unloving mother. Granted, mine was basically hell and way worse, but you still made the effort for me. That's why I wanted to repay the favor by telling you all of this and…" She trialed off suddenly unsure.
"And what?" Alison asked concerned having picked up on her unsureness.
"Exactly how much do you know how your pregnancy?"
They left the bedroom to rejoin the group ten minutes later. After having been gone for a half hour, the four were all sitting on the couch talking when Alex and Alison sat back down among the group.
"Finally!" Hanna was the first to blurt out. "Thought you were going to make us wait all night. Now can you tell us whatever the hell that was about?" She exclaimed before demanding. Alison looked at Alex who nodded. Alison handed her the papers back and Alex looked at them, silently for a moment. Before she started with the last paper.
"Meet A.D." she announced as she slide the paper in front of the girls. "My younger half-sister by about two years, Avery Kingston."