A big thank you to my beta and bestie cutelittlelumpofwool82! This chapter really needed her input. Thank you for all the well wishes and reviews. I feel better now.
Mary sits at her desk in the church office. It is hot in the small stuffy room, her only relief from the heat is the erratic bursts of air from the oscillating fan. Mary tries to concentrate on the ledger of numbers in front of her. But the numbers seemed blurry and jumbled up. Her mind dull from the heat and worry. Sheldon hadn't heard from his little girlfriend in days. She worries her big old mouth had caused problems. Well she knew Amy probably got a whupping and she felt bad about it. She hadn't wanted to get the girl in trouble. The phone rings and Mary is grateful for the distraction.
"First Baptist, Mary speaking." She answers brightly, talking on the phone her favorite part of her job. Most of the time it was elderly church members who just need someone to talk to. Mary is more than happy to hear about their grandchildren. Or jot down prayer requests.
"Mom?" She hears Sheldon's worried voice say. Immediately she knows something is wrong.
"What's wrong baby?" She asks nervously.
"I'm at the hospital with Amy. I just wanted to let you know I was here in case the truancy officer contacted you." He says worriedly.
"Sugar! Why are you there what happened?" She knew something felt off today.
"Amy wasn't at school, so I went to check on her at her house during lunch. Don't be angry, but I had to break in I needed to see if she was alright. When I found her she was hurt and locked in a closet downstairs." Sheldon rambles out.
"Oh god! Is she okay now?" Mary asks in shock.
"A little banged up a few bruised ribs. They want to keep her for awhile because she has a concussion and she is dehydrated. I am going to stay with her. I just wanted to let you know where I was." Sheldon replies.
"I am heading there now Shelly." Mary tells him.
"Alright. Amy is in room 314." He agrees.
"I'll be there soon." Mary says hanging up the phone.
Mary grabs her purse and locks up the church office. That was the good thing about her job the flexible hours. If she ever had to leave for family it was never even a question. She drives there as quickly as she can without breaking a traffic law. When she gets to Amy's room her heart sinks. The girl looks like a fragile china doll all propped up in her bed.
"Honey, did your mama do this to you?" Mary blurts out feeling sick with anger. She had not been happy at first either, but to do this over kids being kids?
"Yes." Amy croaks out and Mary's stomach aches with pain for the child.
"Over what she found out?" Amy just shakes her head yes. Mary was as christian as they came, but there was being a good christian. Then there was being an insane religious zealot.
"Oh honey, this is my fault. I feel so awful you must hate me right now." Mary says tears welling up in her eyes.
"It's not your fault. If it wasn't this it might have been something else. Mother has not been well for a while." Amy starts coughing from the effort of the sentence. Sheldon give Amy a sip of water from the cup beside her bed. She smiles gratefully to Sheldon afterwards.
"Honey has she done this before?" Mary asks worriedly. She knew Amy's mother was a little odd. Yet she would have never suspected she was capable of something like this. Amy shakes her head no and wipes the tears from her eyes. Mary notices her fingers are bandaged as well.
"No, she slapped me once a few months ago. The sin closet is nothing new, never for that long anyway. Doesn't everyone get that punishment at some point?" She asks and Mary shakes her head no sadly at the sheer thought of Amy thinking such a punishment was the norm.
"No honey, that is a very cruel and unusual punishment." Mary tells her softly. "Are they calling the authorities?" Mary asks Sheldon and he gives her a pained look. Amy starts getting upset trying to get out of bed.
"She doesn't want them too, but quite frankly I don't think she has a choice." Sheldon tells Mary as he tries to settle Amy back down by sitting on the bed with her and holding her hand as gently as he could.
"Don't call the cops on my mom! I deserved it, I knew I was sneaking around. I knew that she would be upset with me but I still did it. It's not that bad, honestly just a bump on the head. I don't even know if she did that! I could have just fainted." Amy defends even if the excuse is weak.
"Right, you fainted and your mother put you in the closet for safekeeping." Sheldon says frustratingly, wishing he could arrest her mother himself. With enough force to the head Amy, his Amy could have been… he didn't even want to think of the worst case scenario.
"Sheldon honey, could you give me and Amy a private moment?" Mary asks sensing Sheldon needed time to calm down.
"If you think I am leaving her side.." Sheldon begins but Amy touches his arm gently.
"It's okay." Amy tells him and he hesitates for a second, but kisses her hand and gets up to leave the room. But he doesn't go far as he closes the door and then slumps against it resting the back of his head against the cool wooden grain and taking a deep breath.
"Amy did your mama ever read you stories when you was little?" Mary asks softly.
"Sometimes, mostly bible stories. Although I read everything I could get my hands on when I got old enough." Amy replies.
"Just like Shelly no doubt! Boy would read my cookbooks when he ran out of other things. I used to prop him up on the kitchen counter make him tell me the better homes and gardens recipe for tuna casserole. Used to say I should try to market that as an invention a human cookbook! Tell him what you wanted and if he had read it, he remembered it." Mary says laughing at the memory of her little boy. "But I am going off on a tangent. There was this story in a book I used to read Missy. It was about a little girl and she lived with her mother in the woods. Her mama kept her in the woods because when the girl was just a baby, a fortune teller came and read her fortune. The fortune teller told her that one day a handsome prince would come and take her daughter far away. Now most moms would think this was a good fortune. However this scared the woman something fierce! All she ever wanted in the whole world was this baby girl, and ain't no one was going to take her away from her. So she took her baby girl to the woods where no prince would ever see her. Then as fate would have it one day when the girl was older she was a walking in the woods picking berries and she came upon a handsome prince. The prince fell immediately in love her. Begged her to marry him and come away to his castle. The girl was so pleased she ran home to tell her mother. Instead of the joy she hoped she would find from her mother her mother was furious. She locked her away in a box and kept her there for the rest of her life." Mary pauses getting ready to get to the moral of the story.
"Mary." Amy asks softly.
"Yes sugar?" Mary asks.
"That's an amalgamation of several fairy tales you are telling to me to prove a point correct?" Amy says with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Saw through that did you? Do you see what my point is?" Mary asks.
"You think my mother is highly overprotective because I am all she has. Yet you also don't see it as an excuse for her behavior." Amy replies.
"Very good. Do you see it as an excuse for her behavior?" Mary asks her and Amy thinks about it.
"Don't you think we should be punished too? You're also a highly conservative christian. Don't you feel like we should pay for our sins?" Amy asks curiously.
"Not like this baby, not like this.." Mary thinks shaking her head sadly. "Let me tell you the same thing I told Sheldon. When two people love each other, like I know you and Sheldon do. The act of physical love is a beautiful thing. God has to be a little okay with it for it's how his children are created right? Yes, maybe I would have preferred you to be married before ya'll joined together. But I will tell you a secret, I wasn't a virgin when I got married." Mary replies softly.
"You weren't?" Amy asks dumbfounded.
"No sugar, that ship had long since sailed. I was a bit of a wild one in my youth. I can tell you my first time was not with a boy who loved me half as much as Sheldon loves you. Amy even if I did think ya'll had sinned. No sin deserves to be punished like this, ever. You don't deserve this baby girl." Mary says starting to tear up.
"I guess I know that. My mother is all I have though. All I've ever had. My father died when I was very young. My mother is not in her right mind. I've been noticing the signs for awhile and have done nothing, but I have nowhere else to go." Amy says softly her voice cracking.
"Yes you do. You can stay with us." Mary tells her seriously.
"You would let me and Sheldon live together?" Amy asks curiously with tears in her eyes.
"Or maybe you could stay with Meemaw, she has more room and could always use the company." Mary tells her when they hear a knock at the door. "Come in." Mary says and two police officers walk into the room. Followed by Sheldon who is looking between them nervously.
"If you don't mind ma'am we would like to have a word with the girl." Says the oldest of the two officers.
"Alright Shelly, come on let's grab something to eat in the cafeteria." Mary says looking at him sternly when it looks like he might protest. He nods reassuringly to Amy and begrudgingly follows her out of the room. They say nothing until they board the elevator.
"You think they will take her away? Like to a foster home?" He asks nervously.
"Shelly her mother knocked her out and locked her in a closet. I would be very surprised if she was allowed to stay with her mother." Mary sighs, she does not want to tell him what she offered Amy just yet.
"I was worried about that." Sheldon sighs while getting in the cafeteria line with his mother. He places a wrapped sandwich and a square of green jell-o on his tray. Mary gets a plate from the salad bar and Sheldon crinkles his nose at her plate.
"What is wrong with my salad?" She asks wearily knowing he was about to tell her anyways.
"Where do I begin? First off getting a salad in an open bar in a HOSPITAL is just an open invitation for germs. You're much safer with pre-wrapped fare like this." He says holding up his cellophaned sandwich and you have both macaroni, and potato salad a gastronomic redundancy. Then last but not least your beets are touching your cottage cheese turning it pink." He states appallingly.
"Anything else before we pray?" Mary asks raising an eyebrow at him.
"I was going to touch on the fact that there is no lettuce in your salad, and I use the term "salad" loosely." He says making quotes around the word salad. "I find the lack of greenery in your salad disturbing." He tells her in his best Darth Vader voice.
"You know I don't like lettuce! It's rabbit food!" She laughs and shakes her head. Glad he is feeling better, at least enough to make jokes. "What was that Dark Mater?" She asks and he rolls his eyes.
"Darth Vader mother, I wish I was Darth Vader. I would like to force choke Amy's mother right now." He says lifting up his hand like he is imaging throttling her in his mind.
"You don't mean that." Mary says in a chiding tone. Knowing in her heart that her boy could never really hurt anyone.
"Don't I?" He asks raising his eyebrow at her. "Amy has been grounded a month for picking a different college. Then instead of just adding another month to her sentence she knocks her over the head and locks her in a closet for days. When I found her her fingernails were broken off from trying to claw her way out! I'll have to remember her in that state for the rest of my life.. No matter how much I'd love to forget. She had almost no voice from screaming almost an entire day trying to alert her neighbors. When I think of what could have happened? If that blow to her head had been harder? Or just a pinch to the left or the right? Amy may not be here at all." He says gruffly throwing down his sandwich that has begun to taste like sawdust.
"But she is here! And by god's grace and glory she is going to be okay!" Mary tells him and he still looks troubled.
"No thanks to me. It's my fault this happened to her." He sadly replies. Mary studies his clenched jaw. Empathy was never his strong suit. Previously she thought he may be lacking it completely. Yet it was clear he was feeling Amy's pain as hard as if it was happening to himself.
"Baby, you can't blame yourself. It's thanks to you she got out of there. You thought to check on her, you called the ambulance." Mary assures.
"I didn't call an ambulance." He tells her.
"Then how did she get here? She didn't look in any shape to drive." Mary asks curiously.
"I drove her. We have been practicing a little." Sheldon says offhandedly. Mary looks at him impressed, clearly he was growing up even more than she realized.
"See Shelly! You are a hero! You saved her!" Mary tells him.
"I won't be able to save her from being taken away. Amy won't be eighteen until December. She will have to go into a foster home, or go live with her aunt in Modesto. I won't get to see her again until college." He says sullenly.
"Or she could stay with us, or Meemaw until it is time for college." He looks up at her stunned unsure if he heard her correctly. "I mean, I am not condoning any hanky panky, but I don't want to see her on the streets. Or with that Mama of her's." Sheldon gets up so fast he seems like a blur. He wraps his arms around his mother and squeezed her tightly. Mary pats his shoulder grateful for the rare hug.
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Amy's head is throbbing and she is tired of answering the questions of the police officers. The memories of that night felt fuzzy and distorted. Like she was viewing them out of a bottle. Mostly it seemed she could only remember her heartbeats. It's flutter at talking with Sheldon, the quick anxious beats when her mother heard the news, then the thudding fear and feeling of dread when she woke up in the closet.
"You say you woke up in the closet." One of the police officers asks calmly. The officer is a tall dark haired woman who looks like she could kill a man with her bare hands. Yet her voice sounds like she could narrate a cartoon squirrel. Amy nods liking the woman.
"Does your mother lock you in there often?" The second officer asks a short portly dark haired man. His voice is deeper than you would think from his looks. They look like they could be a couple and it makes her smile.
"She called it the sin closet, it happened more often when I was younger. It was her way of putting me in time out." Amy explains.
"How long were you in the closet?" He asks.
"This time almost 36 hours." Amy croaks.
"Is that a normal amount of time for you to be locked in the closet?" Asks the woman officer.
"No, the longest I had ever been in before was an hour or two." Amy says picking at her blanket, her bandaged fingers hindering her dexterity.
"What did you do when you discovered you were locked in?" The man asks, and Amy almost laughs at the question. What did she do? She tried to get out of course.
"It was dark when I woke up, it was twilight when I went in. It was pitch black in there and no light was shining through the crack in the door. I knocked as hard as I could, screaming for my mother. I knocked and screamed until I fell asleep again. When I woke up again it was morning, I could see the light shining under the door. I knocked and screamed again and I saw her walk up to the door. Her feet paused at the door and I thought she was going to let me out. I begged her to, I apologized and begged to be let out. Instead she just walked away and went to work." Amy starts crying again at the memory of her mother walking away leaving her there. Amy was afraid she would die in there.
"What happened when she came back from work?" The woman asks.
"I had been trying all day to get out. Breaking of my fingernails trying to claw at this knothole on the door, trying to make it bigger. Then I tried to unscrew the doorknob using some dull scissors from a sewing kit that was in my pocket. All to no avail so I decided to conserve energy and sat very quiet and still. I thought if she saw how quiet and good I was being she would let me out. Or at least tell me when I could come out, bring me food, anything. I saw her feet walk by the door but she said nothing. Instead she went to her music room and played hymns all night long. Singing about being as pure as snow, and sinners being cast out." Amy rushes out.
"So twenty four hours at this point, no food, no water, no bathroom breaks?" The officer asks and Amy shakes her head.
"If Sheldon had not come I might still be there." Amy replies softly her voice cracking.
"Sheldon is your boyfriend, correct?" The officer asks not looking up from writing his notes.
"Yes." Amy replies with a hint of a smile.
"How did he know you were in there? Or that you needed to be rescued?" The officer asks curiously.
"Sheldon and I have been together almost eight months. I have called him everyday at 7:30 without fail. I pick him up for school at 7:45 every day. Sheldon needs things to be the same, to be scheduled. We even have our watches synced to tell the same time. So we never make each other late. When I was not showing up when he knew I should, he knew something was wrong." Amy replies.
"How did he get into the house?" Amy hesitates, technically what he had done was breaking and entering. The female police officer smiles kindly. "Don't worry, he's not in trouble." Something about her cherubic voice is reassuring so Amy forges on.
"There is a rose trellis by my window, I leave my window cracked so he can come in if he has a nightmare, or needs to talk. When I heard his voice I thought I was dreaming again. Then when I realized he was really in the house… "Amy trails off, seeing his face in the light after so many hours of darkness had been like seeing an angel. Sheldon was her white knight, her hero, her paladin.
"You're lucky he stopped by." The lady officer says feeling bad for this tiny pale girl. She had suffered such a great trauma but she was still trying to protect her mother. The door to her room opens and Sheldon walks back in.
"Here is the hero now, good job son." He says clapping Sheldon on the back. Sheldon cringes but does not tell him to move his hand.
"It looks like we have all we need for now. We will be in touch." The woman says and both the officers leave the room. Sheldon walks over to Amy's bed and sits in the chair beside her.
"Where's your mom?" She asks.
"She went home." He replies.
"Oh, I thought she would take you home." Amy says surprised.
"I'm not going home." He says firmly.
"Sheldon...You don't have to. I know places like this make you uncomfortable. You should of had your mom bring you back home. It's too far to walk, and I doubt you want to drive again."
"Amy I am staying in here as long as you are in here, and that's final." Sheldon says crossing his arms standing firm.
"What about school? I might not get out for a few days.?" Amy argues.
"I don't care about school, I have basically already graduated these last two weeks are a formality. You are more important to me. Amy what if you get a night terror? Who will be here to hold you and stroke your hair?" He says looking at her intensely. Amy smiles at him, her nights in the closet had been free of nightmares. Her brain in survival mode had switched to dreaming of him, the only place she felt safe.
"Alright you win, you can stay." Amy says and then winces as a pain shoots through her head.
"Amy, what happened ,are you okay?" He asks rushing to her side.
"Fine, just a headache." She tells him and he looks at her concerned."Come sit with me." She says scooting over and patting the space beside her.
"I don't want to get in trouble." He says nervously glancing at the door.
"Please?" She pouts poking out her bottom lip.
"Alright just for a little bit." He says his lanky frame fitting on the slim bed with ease. "Do you want me to sing to you? My mother always sang to me when I was sick." Amy nods her head and then rests it on his chest. Sheldon wraps his arm around her, careful not to mess with any wires.
"What are you going to sing to me?" She asks, instead of answering her he starts his song.
"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur, happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr." His voice is a rich tenor and even though the song is silly his voice still moves her. He repeats the song one more time and the combination if the vibrations from his chest and his soothing voice are making her sleepy.
"I like that song, thank you. My mother would have sang something like 'We are all washed clean, in his blood.' That song always scared me a little."
"I'm not letting you go back there." He says is voice almost angry.
"To my mother?" She asks looking up at him and he shakes his head. Amy wants to rebel against him for a moment. Tell him he had to right to 'let' her do anything. However she knows in her heart he is just scared, and tired, and just wants to protect her.
"Your mom said I could stay with you or Memaw until we leave for college in the fall." Amy tells him.
"Is that okay with you? To stay with Memaw for a little while. I just want to make sure you're safe." He says looking desperate.
"Yeah, it's fine." She says even though she is a little worried. People sometimes tended not to like her no matter what she did. She did not want to wear out her welcome in the Cooper clan. Can you sing to me again?" She asks looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.
"Fine one more time." He agrees and he sings her the song until she falls asleep on his chest.
I can see clearly now the angst is gone! Only fluffy stuff ahead… Time for some Summer loving!
If you are on tumblr check out fragileshamyhearts cover of "I Can't Help Falling in Love." Inspired by this story.