A/N: You guys. This chapter just wouldn't cooperate. But I think I finally ironed it out.
One warning for this chapter-through flashbacks, Dolores reveals her reason for taking Ronnie and killing Lily. It's a twisted and convoluted tale, but it's meant to be. Remember, Dolores is not well, and her memories wouldn't entirely make sense to someone that is.
For my regular readers who may have gotten a lot of nonworking emails about updates from me this week-I want to give you guys an apology. There has been a sitewide issue for about a week now where people were getting updates on stories that wouldn't open. At first, I thought that it was just me, but apparently a lot of people were having the same trouble. The issue appears to be fixed now. Fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again. But I want to say this in case it does. There are two alternatives to read this story if there are problems again.
First, the upload problems didn't affect the android app, which updated within a few seconds of me posting the chapter (this is gonna sound really vain, but I subscribe to myself so that I can make sure the chapters are up and running). Second, I have an account on Archive of Our Own with the pen name AGJ1990. I always post the chapter there right after I post it here. If anyone starts getting email updates that don't work again, feel free to try one of those two options if you so please.
Thanks again! Hope everyone's doing well.
John Winchester was not a patient man.
He wanted to tear the entire town apart looking for Ronnie, but Dean convinced him otherwise. Dean's argument made sense. They were certain that Dolores had taken Ronnie, and as far as either of them could tell, there was nothing supernatural about her. She was just, in Dean's words, 'the craziest bitch he'd ever met'. The best way to find Ronnie seemed to be, at least for the moment, calling the police.
John was not fond of the local police. Some of the older veterans on the police force still believed that Bobby had been nothing but the town drunk. John knew that there had even been talk of investigating Bobby's death, even though it had been ruled accidental. No one at the station seemed to know what to do with the strange man who had moved into Bobby's house after his death, and John knew that doing anything even slightly out of the ordinary could trigger an investigation.
The idea came to him from an old business card he kept on the fridge. The sheriff. Jody Mills had been a friend of Bobby's, and John suspected she may have been more than that. Either way, she knew Gil well, and the two of them together were fighting as hard as they could to find Ronnie.
But there was a stumbling block.
Dolores had been found, and there was no sign she'd taken Ronnie.
"What do you mean you can't question her?"
"John, listen to me." Jody said. "We went to her house and we asked her if she'd seen Ronnie. She even gave us permission to search the house. There's no sign that she's there or that she's ever been there."
"Well, there wouldn't be!" John raised his voice, exasperated. "She's too smart to hide Ronnie there!"
"I'm sorry, John. I really am. I think she did it too, or at least had something to do with it. We just need more evidence to bring her in."
Gil, who had stepped outside to take a call, walked back in with a look of triumph on his face. "And I have it here."
"Gil, what are you talking about?" John asked.
Dean walked in immediately behind Gil. He'd gone outside with Lisa to give her the keys to the car to go pick up Ben from school. Lisa was reluctant to leave, but she and Dean had both decided to keep Ben at home. They didn't want to worry him unless and until there was something to worry about.
"That was the investigator at my office. I asked him to look into Dolores' release."
"What did he find out?" Jody asked.
"She never was released. Her paperwork from the hospital was completely fake. Even her lawyer seems to be fake. There's no record of a Matthew Klein graduating from a law school in South Dakota in the last twenty years."
"That sounds like plenty of evidence to me." Jody said. "Excuse me, gentlemen. I have an arrest warrant to get."
After Jody walked out the front door, an angry Dean rounded on Gil. "What the hell, man?"
"What, Dean?"
"How the hell did you not keep an eye on her grandmother? Why wasn't that at the top of your list?" Dean asked. "What the hell were you doing? I thought you cared about Ronnie."
John started to tell Dean to back down, but he didn't have to. Gil turned to Dean, leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. He was collecting his breath, reminding himself that Dean was scared and he needed to be calm. But the accusation that he hadn't taken care of Ronnie was too much, and it pushed him over the edge of his patience.
"You know what, Dean? You're right. I'm sorry."
A startled Dean looked to his dad, then back to Gil. "You're sorry? For what?"
"I'm sorry. You're right. I forgot that you were the one who picked Ronnie up from the hospital the day after her mother died. It was you who sat with her for three days trying to get her to open up about what happened. It was you who took her to every single home, telling her to just believe that this would be the last one. It was you that sat beside her bed every day for a week when she was seven hoping she wouldn't die because some bastard you thought you could trust beat her to an inch of her life. It was you who was with her at ten years old, when she swallowed a whole bottle of pills just so she could see who would be there if she woke up. It was you that got tired of seeing her crying for a family and getting hurt, so you look into adopting her yourself, only to be denied because of a stupid mistake you made years ago. I forgot that you went through all that trying to take care of Ronnie."
A thoroughly browbeaten Dean backed off. "I'm sorry, man."
"Don't ever question how I feel about that kid. I'm the only person that kid's had from the time she was seven until I dropped her off with your father. I'll give you a free pass this time because you're worried and you're upset, but if you do it again, I'll knock you flat on your ass, boy. And I have a feeling your father won't stop me. You understand me?"
Dean nodded and swallowed hard. "Yes, sir."
"Okay. Now I'm going back to my office. I'm going to hand Ronnie's picture around to the new social workers and tell them to call me if they see her. John, do you want me to go to the local news?"
"Yes." John said.
"Okay. I'll see what I can do about getting her picture circulated around town. Call me if you need me."
"Thanks, Gil. Thanks a lot."
"Of course. We'll find her, guys. We will."
Across town, Dolores was frantic. She was packing up everything she had, which was a pitifully small amount, and trying to leave town fast. As frantic as she was, her mind kept drifting to the look on the sheriff's face when she'd left. Of course she'd taken Ronnie! Did they think Dolores was stupid enough to keep the kid in her house once she'd taken her?
That's one advantage of being locked up in a crazy bin, Dolores thought. Everyone assumes you're stupid.
As smart as she felt she was, things had taken another turn. Dolores had underestimated Ronnie. She was no longer the shy, quiet child that Dolores remembered. Dolores had been told by her fellow escapee, who'd been a lawyer in his past life, that the second he'd grabbed Ronnie off the road that morning she'd started kicking and screaming and gave him an almost fifteen second fight before he could get her drugged and thrown in the back of the car. Dolores had paid Matt to leave and for his help and sent him on his way. Then the real trouble started.
Six Hours Earlier
It was time.
Time to finish what she'd started years earlier.
It was hard for anyone who knew the truth of what she'd done to believe, but Dolores loved her daughter. She'd been so proud of Lily growing up. She'd known that her daughter was going places, and that she'd eventually be someone of importance.
All that had changed when she met Eddie Dawes.
Eddie seemed like a nice person at first, but Dolores had always banned Lily from dating until she turned eighteen. Once she was in college and away from home, Dolores reasoned, Lily would just do what she wanted anyway, so there was no sense in telling her what to do after that. Until then, Dolores was in charge.
Lily's junior year had just finished. Dolores was basking in the hope of a promising senior year for her daughter. Her own senior year of high school had been taken away from her by her father, when she was forced to drop out in order to get a job and help raise her four much younger brothers after her mother's death. The memories of life after that, until Lily's birth, were devoid of any happiness for her, marked only by periods of deep depression and obligation to everyone but herself.
If she couldn't have the life she'd dreamed of, Dolores had decided, she'd give it to her daughter. But all that came crashing down with three words.
"Mom, I'm pregnant."
Dolores had gone crazy. Calling Lily a whore, yelling at her, screaming at her, generally getting out all the frustration she'd always felt at losing her own life as it should have been and now the prospect of Lily never having that life either. Lily contemplated giving Ronnie up for adoption, but out of frustration and anger, Dolores refused.
"You did what you did to have this baby, you'll do what you have to to raise it."
Lily had done her duty, and it had taken nearly four years for Dolores to find out how she'd done it. Lily's first arrest for prostitution had sent Dolores over the edge. She'd unsuccessfully tried to have Ronnie taken away from Lily, claiming that Lily's 'influence' would be bad for Ronnie. She next tried to have Eddie sue for custody, only to discover that he'd died in a car accident not long after Ronnie was born.
Realizing that she'd never be able to take Ronnie away from Lily, she decided to get a little devious.
Dolores sold her house and told Lily that she'd lost it. She was happy to find that Lily seemed to be as trusting as she always was, because she'd allowed Dolores to move in with only a few conditions. Dolores didn't have to pay any rent, but she had to watch Ronnie while Lily was out. She was expected to put Ronnie to bed, feed her breakfast in the morning, and put her on the bus to school. If she did all that, Lily promised, without complaining, then maybe 'we can actually get along for once, Mom'.
For a few months, things seemed perfectly normal for Lily, and Dolores was perfectly happy to let her think that. Living under the same roof as Lily gave Dolores unfettered access to try and change Lily's life. Try and turn her into the daughter that Dolores had always wanted. No matter how much Lily protested that she was fine with her life the way it was, Dolores would change it. Lily would become a respectable woman if it killed her.
In the end, it did.
The morning started off normally. Ronnie was in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and getting ready for school. The phone rang, and Dolores gave the good news to a delighted Ronnie. Though Ronnie loved kindergarten, the thought that she got to spend all day and night with her beloved Mommy was early Christmas for her.
Ronnie's presence in the house complicated Dolores' plan for that day, but only slightly. She'd decided to do it the night before. Another fight about what Lily called her 'job' had ended any hope Dolores had that Lily could be turned around. Dolores had given Ronnie a steady stream of milk that morning which had been dosed with Benadryl so she would sleep through whatever happened that day. After another argument in the morning, Dolores had left the house and come back an hour later. Lily and Ronnie were sleeping.
Dolores woke up Lily and gave her an ultimatum. Quit what you're doing and get a respectable job or go back to school. I'll watch Ronnie and you can hold your head up high. Dolores then saw a side of Lily she'd never seen before. Lily had crossed her arms over her chest and listened to Dolores' speech. She nodded in all the right places, said nothing, and made her mother think she was listening.
She was listening.
When Dolores finished talking, Lily had lifted her head up and gave her mother her response.
"Get out. Get out of my house and do not come back. I'm done."
Dolores saw red. She grabbed the knife that was on the counter and shoved it into Lily's stomach. Once she realized what she'd done, Dolores ran without really paying attention to where she was going. Six hours later, she'd come back and was shocked to find that Lily was still alive. Where before she hadn't known what she was doing, now she was perfectly clear.
In order to save Ronnie from the influence of her mother, she had to dispose of Lily. She sent Ronnie to bed, put two bullets into Lily's head, wrapped her up with a blanket, then went searching for Ronnie. Ten minutes later, after hearing sirens coming towards the house, Dolores gave up the search and ran from the house.
That had been her last free day. Two hours later, she was in police custody, and a week later, she was in a mental institution.
Now, Dolores decided, Ronnie had been away from her too long. She still loved and missed her mother and failed to see how destructive Lily's influence was. Ronnie had to be dealt with too. After she disposed of Ronnie, Dolores would take care of herself, and everything would be back the way it should be.
Dolores turned around and found a sleepy Ronnie starting to stir. She took a few seconds to recover, but when she did, she fought again. But Dolores had been prepared. She'd tied Ronnie to a kitchen chair and simply waited patiently until she calmed down.
"What are you doing?"
"Waiting for you to calm down, Veronica. Once you do, we'll talk."
"I don't want to talk to you. And you just lost any chance of being able to see me."
"No one will see you again. So don't worry about that."
"What are you talking about?" Ronnie asked. "You're crazy."
Dolores delivered a sharp slap to Ronnie's cheek, which immediately stilled the still squirming Ronnie. Ronnie had the good sense to at least look a little afraid.
"I am not crazy." Dolores said. "Apologize. Now."
Ronnie swallowed hard. Dolores could tell that Ronnie would much rather spit in her face than apologize. Dolores was prepared for that too. If Ronnie did spit in her face, Dolores would simply take care of it the way she would have done with Lily. Predictably, a second later, Ronnie was on the floor.
Fifteen seconds later, Dolores realized her mistake. Ronnie had spit in her face to distract her. The second she'd slapped Ronnie again, Ronnie had kicked her chair and loosened her feet enough that she was able to knock Dolores down. In the ensuing scuffle, Dolores managed to get in a few hits, but Ronnie managed more. As Dolores lay on the floor, certain that Ronnie had broken a rib, she delivered one final, stunning blow that made Ronnie stop in her tracks for a split second before running out the door.
"You think you're so special? That son of a bitch that took you in helped me escape! And he paid me to take you back! Even if you go back there, no one'll want you!"