NYC, 2015

There is a small explosion from the kitchen followed by cries of panic. Meg tilts her head to the side and pauses the movie. She looks up.

"That was nifty!" Lorne cries from the kitchen.

Meg gets up from the sofa and heads to ground zero, RC and Lorne are cleaning a pile of shattered red glass. The microwave is filled with more scattered pieces.

"What'd you do," Meg asks, slightly amused. RC and Lorne jump and turn around. They try to block her; she peers over, and they move.

"Nothing!" RC takes the lead, Lorne just smiles. Meg looks at the scattered class and the pile they have collected.

"What happened?" She nods at the red bits.

"Nothing," RC repeats, his voice firmer. Lorne still says nothing. Meg looks at him.

"What happened?" Lorne opens his mouth to speak, but RC elbows him hard in the ribs, and he doubles over.

"Nothing."

"The plate exploded in the microwave, didn't it?" Meg's smiles wider, she hates those red plates. They cannot be used in the microwave or be washed in the dish washer.

"Uh," RC looks down and scratches the back of his head and Lorne avoids looking at her at all costs.

"I hate those plates, I told your father I didn't want them, but he was going through a red phase and it was his credit card," Meg shakes her head. RC and Lorne pale and look rather ill.

"These are Papa's plates?" RC tries not to think of the horror of what punishment would befall him when his Papa found out.

"Explode them all, for all I care." Meg chuckles softly. RC and Lorne exchange looks.

"I won't tell," Meg smiles and boops her son's nose.

"You won't tell?" If there is only one thing on this Earth that RC fears, it's his father. Meg shakes her head.

She makes a motion of locking her lips with a key and winks. RC feels lighter and exhales.


2010, NYC

The stupid figurine shatters as soon as it touches the ground. Erik has no personal feelings towards them, but that stupid thing of porcelain was the last thing Meg had of her mother's and now it is shattered.

RC looks pitiful and cowers in horror, his uses his arms to protect himself. Erik cannot fix this, it is dead, that stupid figurine.

"What's this?" Meg asks as she looks at her cowering son and the broken bits of whatever on the ground. She looks at the open cabinet, the cowering boy, and the shattered whatever.

"Oh." Meg's voice is small, and she closes her eyes. RC makes pitiful noises.

"Meg," Erik touches her shoulder, she shakes her head. Meg is sentimental. Memories and moments and objects that represent those moments, bring her joy. For her to lose something, is akin to losing a piece of her soul.

A part of her just died.

"Meg," he pulls her close and she is not saying anything.

"She died years ago," Erik says softly, and Meg cries out and RC whimpers loudly.

"You still have those memories of her. You don't need that," he nods to the pieces," to honor her," Meg is vibrating.

"How many of those scarves have you kept?"

Meg covers her face with her hands, and she lets the flood loose. Stupid figurine, stupid boy. Stupid Madame Giry for turning her back on Meg and making her this blubbering thing.

Erik holds her close.

"That's not your mother," Erik says and kisses the top of her head.

"She died before we could," Meg buries her face into his chest and he pets the back of her head.

"You did nothing wrong."


2017, NYC

"Freak of nature! How'd you manage that?!"

The PlayStation 4 system just exploded. Meg drops the controller and stares at Erik, her mouth agape, he is equally as confused and shocked.

"I have nothing," he has no idea how that happened.

"Rezy is not going to like this," Meg bites her nails.

"What the actual fuck!" RC cries out as he enters the room and sees what his beloved game system was once.

Erik hands RC his credit card," go buy a Disney," Erik pushes RC along, who stares at the credit card and then nods along happily.