Last update until Thursday, so I hope it'll keep you guys going :)
x x x x
Catherine jumped, startled by the intrusion to her thoughts. She flicked her eyes from the item of her musings – sitting inoffensively in the centre of the coffee table – to the phone trilling beside her.
Attempting to shake away the gut-wrenching pictures being conjured up in her head, she reached for the device with a trembling hand.
"Hello?" Even to her own ears, her voice sounded hollow.
"Hi mom!"
Lindsey. She actually sounded happy – something which, when teamed with the dark images in her mind, sent a chill down Catherine's spine.
"Lindsey, hi." She managed to squeak out, clearing her throat. "Where ... where are you guys?"
There was a muffling and she could faintly hear another familiar voice in the background answering Lindsey's query.
"Sara says we're about twenty miles outside of Vegas." Lindsey recited dutifully. "Are we still going to a see a show?"
"A show?" Cath repeated, dazed, as she reached out to pick up the item from the table. "Sure, why not?" She closed her fist around it, scrunching her eyes tight shut against the tears threatening to fall. Taking a deep breath, she opened them again and attempted to put on a happy voice. "I guess I'd better get ready, huh?"
"Yep. Don't be late." She could practically hear her daughter frown on the other end of the phone and bit back a sob.
"I won't." She promised, taking a deep shuddering breath. "Tell Sara to drive safe."
Hanging up and clutching the phone to her chest, she slowly unfurled her hand to stare at the little tub of pills she had extracted from Lindsey's bedroom.
X x x
"Sara?"
No response.
"Sara?"
Again, no response.
Catherine rolled across the dozing brunette, until she was pressed firmly against her shoulder.
"Sara?" She hissed, finally eliciting a murmured response.
"What's wrong?" The sleepy voice inquired half-heartedly.
"Are you asleep?" Cath asked, somewhat inanely.
"Yes."
She chewed on the inside of her cheek, refusing to give her girlfriend the satisfaction of avoiding this conversation.
"Are you planning on sleeping long?"
"Yes."
Cath rolled back onto her side of the bed, a sullen pout on her lips. After a moment of silence, she rolled back towards Sara again, her long hair falling in silky waves across the younger woman's coiled body.
"How long are you planning on sleeping?"
Sara finally emitted a resigned sigh as she flipped onto her back and stared up at her hopeful companion with badly disguised annoyance.
"What? What's wrong?"
Catherine pursed her lips.
"No, never mind." She decided at last, slumping back against the headboard.
Sara shuffled upright, clicking her lamp on and fixing Catherine with a firm glower.
"No, I'm up now." She pointed out, stifling a yawn. "And I won't get back to sleep until you tell me, so what is it?"
Catherine scrutinised her features, debating whether now was the best time to divulge her greatest fears given Sara's current mood.
"It's Lindsey." She admitted at last.
"Of course it is." Sara agreed, exhaling as she propped the pillows up behind her and made herself comfortable, anticipating a long conversation. "What about her?"
In answer to that increasingly complicated question, Cath reached into her bedside drawer and withdrew the tub of pills she had stashed there earlier.
Sara's mildly pissed off expression instantly melted into a mix of surprise and horror.
"Tell me those aren't hers." She almost begged, her dark eyes training on Catherine's face.
"They're not." Cath agreed, passing them from one hand to the other distractedly. "They're mine. But I found them under her mattress this afternoon."
Sara took the tub from her, narrowing her eyes to read the faded label.
"Diazepam."
"Yeah, I..." Catherine shifted, uncomfortable at having to explain this particular part of her sordid past to her girlfriend. "When Eddie and I first split up, I was finding it pretty hard to cope. He left me with no money, a kid to raise and a mortgage to pay. I got depressed, so I went to the doctor and..." She gestured feebly to the tablets.
"Wow." Sara frowned sadly. "I had no idea."
"Yeah, well." Cath shrugged. "You and I weren't that close back then. And I didn't exactly broadcast the fact at work."
"No, I guess not." Sara agreed softly. "So, how did Lindsey get them?"
"I don't know." Cath dragged a hand through her hair, sliding down the headboard and slumping heavily against Sara's shoulder. "I guess she found them in my bathroom. I'd forgotten they were even there – they're probably about five years out of date."
"Seven." Sara countered, scanning the label again. "And three months."
"Oh God!" Cath groaned again. Sara cracked the lip open, peering inside.
"Do you remember roughly how many were in here last time you took them?"
Catherine gave her a withering look, which pretty much summed up her answer.
"It was years ago, I haven't got a clue."
"Okay," Sara breathed, trying to think on her feet. "Well she seems fine; but assuming she has actually taken some, it's probably best to get her checked out just in case."
Cath nodded glumly; that thought had already crossed her mind more than once today. "I phoned Henry earlier – off the record. He said she should be fine but to take her to the doctors in the morning anyway."
"Okay." Sara pursed her lips. "Will it be easier on her if I'm not there?"
"I don't know." Catherine shook her head helplessly. "Sar ... She's been this bewildering, complex little problem for sixteen years. But I never thought I would miss something this big."
"Hey, this isn't your fault." Sara promised, catching the tears falling obliviously from her partner's blue eyes on the tip of her finger. "You're a great mom, Catherine."
"Yeah, right." The older woman scoffed. "Do you know what I said to her, sixteen years ago tonight? I promised that I wouldn't let her make the same mistakes as I made. And now she's..."
The end of the sentence never made it past her trembling lips, as she collapsed against Sara's chest in a fit of gasping, breathless sobs.
X x x
Sara was asleep, her arms protectively encasing Catherine's body, when the strawberry-blonde stirred. She slipped, careful not to disturb her partner, off the bed and snatched her bathrobe from the back of the door on her way out of the bedroom.
She squinted, letting her eyes adjust to the fading evening sun still illuminating the hallway. Like most of the graveyard shift, she had long since invested in a blackout blind for her bedroom; but it did make it easy to forget that, outside of that room, it was still daylight hours.
Shaking her tousled hair out, she padded towards Lindsey's room and nudged the door open.
They had dropped the teenager off at Nancy's on the way back from the theatre, saving them a journey later on. Though she still didn't know exactly what Sara had done, it had certainly had an effect. For the first time today, she had seen the hint of a smile on her child's face.
Catherine read rooms for a living, and she had spent more than enough time in other people's homes to identify the telltale signs of a teenager's bedroom. Stuffed toys, reminiscent of more innocent times; interspersed with smatterings of make-up, almost-adult clothes and more technology than the Apple Store.
Standing in the doorway to her daughter's bedroom now, she couldn't help but look at it through the eyes of a criminalist on the periphery of a crime scene.
And she couldn't ignore the chilling knowledge that, had she not found those pills when she did, it very nearly could have been one.