A/N: I tried to make this make as much sense as possible. I had this idea from the get go, but it kinda got lost in the transaction because of damn writer's block but here it is…pay attention now. enjoy
"Ow! Shit, Serena!" Abbie hisses, immediately flinching away.
"Will you please hold still?" Serena responds firmly as she continues to apply the peroxide treatment to the cuts on Abbie's face. "I still can't believe that you did that."
"She jumped me first!"
"We should have just left as soon as she started talking to you. You should've just walked away."
Abbie gently grabs Serena's wrist and waits until the blonde looks her in the eyes. "She hurt you before, and I didn't want to stand there and just let her hurt you again." She says softly before placing a light kiss to the back of Serena's hand. "I love you Serena. I was only looking out for you."
Serena is silent for a moment before she sighs heavily and returns the peroxide to the first aid kit and exchanges it for some antibacterial ointment. "I know you do…I just…I just hated seeing you get into trouble on my account. You're very lucky that the manager of the restaurant didn't have you arrested and that she just made sure you're no longer allowed to come back."
"Believe it or not this is my first restaurant banning." The brunette responds with a wide grin before her face turns serious. "I'm really sorry that I ended up embarrassing you like that. Like I said, Olivia hurt you and I just…well, I just didn't want to stand by and do nothing and just let you end up getting hurt again. Seeing you hurting because of her killed me inside Serena. I just…I just want to protect you. That's all."
"You really are a mess, you know that?" Serena whispers quietly as she places bandages over Abbie's cuts. She is silent for another moment before she leans forward and gently presses their lips together in a light kiss. "I don't think I've ever met someone who has cared about me as much as you have."
Abbie smiles and pulls Serena back in for another kiss, this one being much deeper and much more passionate than the previous. "I know that I am far from perfect, and I know that I have a continuously growing list of faults, but I promise that I'm going to do right by you, okay? I promise you that I will never, ever, hurt you the way that she did. I know it'll be hard for you at first, but I just want you to know up front that I'll always treat you like you're supposed to be treated; like a princess."
A weak smile flits across Serena's features as she becomes well aware of the tears that are now flowing freely down her cheeks. "I really don't see how you can love me this way, especially after the way that I treated you. Abbie I-I don't deserve it."
"If there's anyone who doesn't deserve anything, it's me who doesn't deserve you. I know that we might have had our falling outs in the past, but this is the present. I can think of countless reasons as to why I love you and we would be here all night and on into the morning. I don't care about what happened in the past, all I care about is having you in my arms in the present; right now. I just want to love you…if you'll let me."
"I don't know if it's too soon to ask this but…I really want for you to make love to me. Properly…the right way. The way it's supposed to be."
Abbie simply stands up and scoops Serena into her arms, bridal style, before she sets about carrying her up the stairs towards her bedroom ; gladly prepared to fulfill the request that was just asked of her.
The Following Day
"These were some of Mother's things." Alex states, nodding towards the box that she has brought with her to the park. She and Kim are seated on a blanket underneath the trees in a lightly wooded area, just open enough but at the same time, just discrete enough to carry on about their meeting. The serene setting also does a little bit to ease the tension away from the situation. "You can look at them if you would like."
Kim simply nods her head in response, though she makes absolutely no move to reach into the box. For some odd reason, she feels like she doesn't particularly have the right to touch any of her mother's things, so she just simply continues to sit and stare at the box with her hands resting in her lap.
Alex senses this and she sighs quietly before she reaches into the box and pulls out a slightly dusty picture frame. She blows the excess dust from the picture before she hands it over to the woman in front of her. "This was her…this was Mom."
Kim hesitantly accepts the photo and a tiny gasp escapes her lips as she stares down at it. Her fingers lightly trace the picture of the beautiful, blonde haired woman smiling lovingly at the camera. For almost all her life she has imagined what her mother would look like and she is relieved that it turns out she is more beautiful than she could have ever imagined.
"She really liked art too." Alex begins again, pulling what looks to be a sketch book from the box. "She was really good at painting and her sketches were amazing. It's almost as if anything and everything that she drew came to life right off the page."
"She was very talented." Kim says quietly, as she continues to slowly flip through the sketch book, taking in every last one of the precise, detailed, artistic sketches. She pauses when she comes across the elaborate sketch of what looks to be a mother bird nurturing her younglings in the nest. She doesn't know why but this particular sketch sticks with her. "I really like this one."
Alex angles her head and smiles when she sees which sketch Kim is referring to. "I really like that one too. It's so real and I'm pretty sure there's a deeper meaning to it than just the birds. It's almost as if I can hear her speaking to me whenever I look at it."
Kim nods in agreement before she tilts her head slightly as she notices a red leather book towards the bottom of the box. "What's that one there?" she asks curiously, pointing towards the book.
Alex frowns but raises her eyebrows as her eyes follow Kim's finger. "Oh that. I'm not entirely sure what that is. It belonged to Mother, I know that much, but I have never once looked at it or opened it. I don't know why I haven't, but just something inside me told me not to. At least not yet."
"Can I…?" Kim inquires, gently taking the book from the box when Alex nods her head in response. She hesitates for a moment before she opens the book and she is immediately greeted with old beige pages filled with writing. Her eyes dance over the intricate cursive writing before something catches her glance. "It's a diary."
"Is it?" Alex responds, angling her head once again to see. "What does it say?"
Kim blinks for a moment before she takes a deep breath and begins to read their mother's handwriting.
"March 3.
Today, I found out that I am pregnant and to say that I am shocked is a complete understatement. I think that I have to say that I am more afraid than anything else. I am afraid of how Victor will react when if finds out. No. If he finds out. He can't find out. There is no telling of what he will do to me if he finds out. The reason it would be bad if he found out is because I know that this baby isn't his. I know this baby is David's. I have not yet thought out how I am going to tell David that I am pregnant with his child, but I really do need to come up with something fast because I am rapidly running out of options. Having an abortion is completely out of the question. I refuse to give up my child, but at the same time, I really don't know what I am going to do. I pray that my guardian angel will show me the way."
Kim finishes reading the page and the two fall into a quiet silence. Her lips purse tightly for a moment before she flips ahead several pages in the diary before settling on another page.
"December 28,
I don't know how I managed to make it this far, but I did. My running away from Victor was most definitely not easy, but I somehow managed to pull it off. David and I ran away to Arkansas, because it was far enough away from Victor that I could carry out my pregnancy without his knowledge. It kills me that I had to just run away like this and leave my girls with him. More specifically Alexandra. I feel that Rachel is already a lost cause in Victor's terms, but Alexandra is still small child. I just hope she knows that I didn't leave her for good and I will come back for her.
The real reason I am writing this is because today, I gave birth to a very beautiful baby girl. David and I have decided that we are going to name her Kimberly. Kimberly Ann Greylek. It has such a nice sound to it. And nothing pleases me more than the fact that she does not have to share a name with that bastard that is my husband. But Kimberly is a very beautiful baby. She has not cried once since I have given birth to her and her eyes are just as wide as can be as if she's just waiting to explore the world. It kills me to think that I won't be able to take her back with me, but I can't let Victor find out about her. There is no telling of what he will do to her if he does. But she'll be safe with David. I know he'll take good care of her."
At this, Alex looks up to see Kim physically struggling against her tears. She has never once seen the other woman like this and to say that it almost scares her is a little bit of an understatement in itself. She notices that Kim's hands are begins to shake almost violently and she then reaches out to lightly pry the diary from her fingers.
Flipping to the last entry in the journal, Alex takes a much needed deep breath of her own as she begins to read.
"June 22,
Kimberly is starting to babble, and when I say that she babbles endlessly, she really does babble endlessly. I have managed to set up a schedule to sneak away from Victor to go and see Kimberly, because I just have to see my child. David tells me that she practically throws a fit whenever I have to leave her and it takes him hours to get her to calm down. It kills me inside to know that my baby girl is in pain.
But there is something I am going to do about it. I can no longer stay with Victor. I can no longer deal with his verbal and emotional abuse and the way that he treats me like I am inferior to him. It tires me out every single day to have to wake up and deal with him and I just can't do it any longer. I can't continue to be trapped in this loveless marriage. But I have a plan. My plan is to run away, but this time, I'm going to take Alexandra with me. I'm not going to stay here and let her be subjected to Victor's ways. He says that he wants to 'breed our daughters into proper Cabots' like they are some kind of animal species. He has already gotten to Rachel and as much as it kills me, there is little to nothing that I can do about her, but there is still time for Alexandra.
I plan to take her away from this place and we will run off to be with David. David loves me and he says that he would want nothing more than for me to be with him officially and forever. I feel safe whenever I am with him. Not the fear and the constant stress that I feel whenever I am around Victor. David is kind, caring, and compassionate, and I know that he will treat Alexandra like one of his own.
I know that Alexandra will just love Kimberly. She always rambles on and on about wanting to be a big sister and I know that she will be a really good big sister to Kimberly. I know that my girls will take good care of each other. Now I just have to get away from Victor.
Then I'll be free."
Alex finds her own tears flowing down her cheeks as she finishes reading the entry. She sets the diary down on the blanket and she looks up to find Kim seated with her knees tucked to her chest as her eyes and face are beat red in color. "Kim, honey, are you alright?" she asks gently, not really getting a response. She hesitates for a moment before she hangs her head and begins to fiddle with her fingers, trying to come up with something to lighten the moment. "I didn't know that I was older than you…"
"I graduated early." The brunette croaks in response as she keeps her eyes trained on the ground. I skipped the seventh grade, and then the tenth by the time I was in high school. I graduated as a senior when I was supposed to be a sophomore."
"That doesn't make any sense." Alex trails off shaking her head. "If you're a child prodigy, then you have all of the resources and intellect to be promoted. You have enough skill to be Abbie's boss."
Kim sighs at this before she shakes her head and wipes her eyes. "When I arrived at the DA's office, everyone looked at me with a sideways glance because of my age. Liz and I came to an agreement that she would not look at me like I was as you say 'a child prodigy' because that's not what I wanted. I didn't want special treatment. I wanted to be like everyone else and I wanted to earn my position."
Alex blinks rapidly as she purses her lips together. "But you were so bitter…"
"It was to sell the deception. The only people who knew about it were Liz, Abbie, and I. When Abbie 'fired me' I blackmailed your ignorant sister into believing that she could give me my job back, but I just needed something out of her to continue on with my searches. I told her I needed her DNA for a case she thinks she got me my job back. It's all very complicated, but in time it will make sense. So yes, I have an IQ of 142 and I continue to do a job that I love because I get to be treated like a normal person."
"That's so selfless of you." Alex states, still in complete shock. "You're basically a genius but you're here slumming it with rest of us because you love what you do. That's…selfless."
"I have my moments." Kim responds with a shrug of her own before she ducks her head. "I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this. I know people would start treating me differently if they knew."
A small smile crosses Alex's features as she reaches over and lightly grasps her sister's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."
Kim smiles in response, but her smile immediately fades when something dawns on her. "Alex, when is that last journal entry dated?"
"June 22. Why?"
"Mom died on the morning of June 24. I saw it from the medical report."
Alex is silent for a long moment before she shakes her head. "That doesn't make any sense…she…she didn't write about being sick at all and she had made plans for us to run away together and leave father behind but…"
"But she died." Kim finishes off as a frown plays at her features. "She had a plan to run away and she didn't talk about being sick at all and she died two days later. Alex I…" she stops abruptly before she looks up with wide fearful eyes.
"Your father...I think he killed our mother."
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