Chapter 29
The days between Christmas and New Year's Eve were nice and quiet for the Beale-Mitchell household. The three took walks around the neighbourhood, went out to breakfast and bought toys and a bed for Jane. It seemed like everything was going well, the family was continuing to bond, and the adoption was continuing to progress. Chloe got a call from the lawyer a few days after Christmas letting her know that the court date would soon be known. The trio went out for dinner to celebrate, however Chloe noticed how Rory had started to eat less again. It started the day after Christmas, it was subtle, Rory just refusing breakfast, or only eating half of her dinner.
It was just after lunchtime on New Year's Eve, Rory was helping Chloe bake cookies for her sleepover that night. Georgia and Cassie weren't arriving until 4:30 p.m., so Rory had spent the day making sure everything was ready.
"Baby, you okay?" Chloe asked as she placed the trays in the oven.
Rory shrugged at her mother as she turned from the oven to look at her. "I don't know, I'm nervous I guess."
Chloe smiled sadly at the blonde, "about the sleepover?" Rory nodded. "Honey, it'll be fine. They're your friends, and we'll be here the whole time."
"What if I have a nightmare though?" Rory's eyes were wide with worry. Chloe cupped her face,
"Sweetheart, you haven't had a bad one in a while. If you do tonight, they'll understand baby. You'll have a good time okay? Don't stress." The red-head presses a kiss to Rory's forehead.
"I guess so" Rory smiled softly, Chloe smoothed her hair.
"I know so."
A few hours later, Rory was adjusting pillows and making sure all the movies were set on the coffee table that they had pushed to the side. They were planning on bringing out the blow up mattresses later once everyone was settled after the countdown to midnight.
"Rory! The door!" Beca calls out so that the teen could meet her friends. Rory runs to the front door,
"Hey guys!" she exclaims, hugging both girls and helping with their pillows and bags.
Chloe and Beca come out, Rory gestures to them. "These are my moms, Beca and Chloe."
The girls smile shyly at the women, Rory scoffs. "Since when are you shy George?" Georgia playfully hits the girl on the arm.
The girls head to the living room, Rory animatedly explaining the plans for the night. Chloe and Beca smiled as they wrapped their arms around each other.
"She's really come along way, hasn't she?" Beca said into Chloe's chest. Chloe nods and kisses her wife, leading her to another room to give the teenagers some privacy.
"Oh come on! You totally like him George!" Cassie squeals, Georgia rolls her eyes as Rory laughs.
"Leave the child alone Cass." She giggles, Georgia pokes her tongue out at both of her friends, before also falling into the pit of laughter.
"Girls! 15 minutes until the New Year!" Beca interrupts as she comes in with snacks and left-over pizza from dinner.
They all sat around telling their favourite memories of the past year, laughing and eating. Rory was the happiest she'd ever been, surrounded by her friends and her family.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
Chloe and Beca kiss, as the girls pop the confetti poppers Beca had bought – and that Chloe had thought she hid. Hugs were shared amongst the teenagers, and Rory and her mothers.
"Rory! Come look out here!" Rory pulled away from her mothers' embrace and ran towards her friends staring in awe out the window. The fireworks were clearly visible from the apartment.
"Wow." Was all Rory managed to say, she wanted to savor this moment. Savor the feeling of love that filled the entire room and consumed her heart.
The girls had ended up falling asleep in the early hours of the morning after the New Year's celebrations had died down and they had watched a movie or two. It was about 6 a.m. when Rory started tossing and turning.
The room was dark, Rory walked around, it felt strangely familiar.
"Hello?" she called out. Lights came on, spotlights, on two targets. Rory saw Beca and Chloe in one, bound and gagged.
"Mom! Mama!" she turned when she heard struggling from the other side of the room. Cassie and Georgia were in the same position, struggling to get free.
Rory's breathing picked up, No, this isn't happening.
"Hello Aurora, so glad you could make it." The blonde looked up. Her father was standing in front of her, a menacing look taking over his face.
"Please don't hurt them." Rory said weakly, the man laughed which made her jump.
"Choose."
"Choose what?!" Rory was crying now, her words coming through tears.
"Choose who you want to save."
"NO, I can't please god no!"
"NO, MOM, MAMA, NO!" Rory was screaming now, tears streaming out of her shut eyes. Georgia and Cassie slowly woke up, and were soon in alarm.
"DON'T HURT… NO… CASSIE GEORIA" Rory shot up, but was clearly still asleep, her eyes were darting around. Cassie and Georgia looked at each other, scared.
"What do we do?" Cassie whispered. Georgia shrugged.
"Wake her moms?" Cassie nodded and headed to find the master bedroom.
"Rory, come on, it's Georgia. Wake up!" Georgia was frightened of her friend's state, she tried to touch her, but the blonde started screaming again.
Soon Cassie came running back with Beca and Chloe, who sprung into action. Chloe moved the two scared teens away as Beca tried to get through to Rory, who was calming down somewhat.
"Good girl sweetheart, you're okay." Rory seemed to have woken up and was now just crying in her mother's arms.
"Mama" she said mournfully through tears.
"I'm right here baby girl, I'm right here." Beca stroked the girl's hair and continued to whisper comforting things to her.
"Chloe? Is Rory going to be okay?" Georgia asked, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. Chloe smiled softly, placing a hand on her daughter's friend.
"Yes honey, it was just a bad nightmare." Georgia looked down,
"I wish I could help her." Cassie nodded in agreement. Chloe looked sadly at the girls, knowing they could've done much to prevent it. She saw it was just going 7 a.m.
"Do you girls want something to eat? I think it'd be best if I took you home, so we could get in contact with your parents and then have something to eat before I take you?" the teens shrugged sadly.
"Girls, this isn't your fault. Rory just has a complicated past, which causes her to have nightmares every once and a while. She's very lucky to have friends like you." The red-head smiled sadly.
Cassie and Georgia ended up going home as it was hitting 9 a.m. Rory felt incredibly bad for ruining the sleepover, even though her moms and her friends assured her that she didn't. The women had convinced Rory to come back to bed with them to get some more sleep after being up so late the night before. The small teen was sandwiched between the two, with Beca's arm around her waist and Chloe's side pressing against her. She took a deep breath and convinced herself that it'd be okay to fall asleep again.
It wasn't long before Rory woke up from another nightmare, although this one was not as severe, and didn't have the power to wake up the women sleeping either side of her. She carefully slipped out of their embrace and walked quietly to her room. The girl opened her phone, to see a couple messages each from Cassie and Georgia. They were essentially the same, both hoping she was okay and to call them if she needed anything.
Rory threw her phone down on her bed and pressed her face into a pillow, willing herself not to cry again. She hated that she messed things up, and for some reason, despite the texts saying otherwise, Rory was convinced her friends hated her now. How could they not? She had ruined something they were looking forward to, she had a complete breakdown in front of them. How could they not hate her?
Despite her wishes, tears made their way down the porcelain skin. Rory whipped them away as fast as they were coming. She was angry, angry at herself, angry at the world for what happened to her. How could she have been having the best days of her life only moments ago? She got up and headed towards the bathroom, her anger clouding her judgement as she closed the door and began to look for her old friend.
She pulls out a razor, and skilfully snaps it so that the blades fall out. Her hands were shaking as she picked up one of the silver pieces. Rory looks at it, thinking, was she really going to do this? You have to, you have to be punished, how else are you going to learn how horrible you are?
The teen picks a place, on her lower stomach and presses down. Soon the red starts to bead at the small incision. She smiles through the tears still obscuring her vision, she felt so much relief she had to do it again. And again, and again and again. Soon her the small portion of her stomach was red and covered with a dozen small cuts. Rory starts to clean them as she's done so many times before, and then takes a shower, to ensure all evidence was removed. Chloe and Beca could never know about this.
After Rory cleaned herself up she sat in the living room, reading the second book in the Hunger games series. Beca and Chloe soon made their way down after waking up to an empty spot in the bed.
"Hey sweetheart" Chloe said as she kissed her daughters damp hair. "How're you doing?".
"I'm fine." Rory says, a little to aggressively. She takes a breath, "I mean, I'm okay. Better than earlier." Chloe looks at her doubtfully.
"Alright baby. I think we're going to spend the day chilling here. Beca's going to run to the grocery store later – is there anything you want?" Rory shook her head and went back to her book.
Beca was in the kitchen making coffee, even though it was nearly 1 o'clock in the afternoon.
"She doing okay?" she asks as she pours the hot water. Chloe nods,
"Yeah, I think she is. A bit closed off, but you know how she gets after nightmares, especially the bad ones." The red-head said, taking the mug of coffee gratefully.
"I'm going to go get dressed so I can go to the store, did Rory want anything?" Beca asked, sipping her drink.
"No, but could you get her some of that strawberry ice-cream she likes? Might cheer her up." Chloe said hopefully, Beca kissed her on the cheek.
"Sure babe, anything for our little one."
Beca soon left, Chloe decided to sit with Rory in the living room – that was still somewhat of a mess from the night before.
"You sure you're okay Rory? You know you can talk to us anytime, about anything." Chloe said, breaking the silence of the room. She sensed something was still off with her daughter, but she had no idea what.
"I know, I'm fine Mom." The girl said curtly, turning her back on the red-head, who was concerned at the regression. How did she suddenly become so closed off again?
Chloe let it go, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere at the moment. She turned on the t.v. and tried to focus on the show, distracting her from her worries. Every once and a while she'd turn to look at her daughter, who was engrossed in her book. For some reason, her gut feeling that something was wrong wouldn't go away. No matter how much she convinced herself that Rory was fine, a part of her just couldn't believe it.
