Daria: Winter Is Coming A Family In Motion: Part Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the property rights to either Daria or to A Game of Thrones. Characters, plot, background and details belong to their respective creators. This work is written for recreation and ego gratification, and the author neither expects nor deserves financial compensation for this work, although positive reviews would be nice. Those readers interested in finding out more about Daria and/or A Game of Thrones should seek out the creator's official books and videos.

Daria: Winter Is Coming*Daria: Winter Is Coming*Daria: Winter Is Coming

Breeze hit the REWIND and PLAY buttons to listen to her daughter's message again.

"Mom, I'm calling to let you know that I'm taking a bus to Lawndale, Maryland. I learned from Dad's Mom that he's very sick and that he's in hospice care. I haven't seen or talked to him or Rikka since the divorce and I want to see and talk to Dad while I still can. I'm calling from the bus station. By the time you get this message I'll be on my way.

"I'll call you from Maryland.

"Love you."

"Damn it!" she said. What in Hell was Jade thinking? This was so unlike her. Angry and fearful about her daughter's safety she decided that she'd start calling around to see if she could get some leads.

Her first call was to Melanie in Harrisburg. Melanie's room mate picked up the phone and told her that she was out. Breeze wanted more information, but the only thing that the girl told her was that she'd taken an overnight bag and had gone out of town.

What the Hell, she thought. Were both of them in this together?

Her next move was to try and remember what she could about her ex-husband's family. She knew that Ben's sister lived somewhere in Florida but didn't remember where. The last she remembered, his younger brother lived someplace in Texas. She suspected that he'd moved; Jade was acting like an idiot but she doubted that she'd go to someplace like Lawndale if Ben didn't have family there. She called directory assistance for Lawndale, Maryland and asked for Jacob Morgendorffer's telephone number. To her consternation, the operator told her home telephone number was unlisted, although there was a listing for Morgendorffer Consulting. There was another Morgendorffer living in a nearby town called Oakwood: a Gudrun Morgendorffer. She called that number and was brusquely told that they weren't related and that she wasn't a messaging service.

There was one more possibility. She remembered that Ben's mother lived in Coalton. She called directory assistance, got the phone number of a Ruth Morgendorffer, and asked the operator to put her through.

She was relieved when someone picked up the phone. Her relief turned to chagrin when the old woman told her that she'd broken Ben's heart when she took her daughters away and that she wouldn't tell her a damn thing. The old woman then hung up. Breeze tried to call back but got a busy signal: she suspected that the old woman had taken the receiver off the hook so she couldn't get through.

Breeze found herself at a momentary standstill. She decided that the next thing she should do is call the local police and file a missing persons report. She called and got the desk officer. The desk officer listened to her story and told her that it was too early for her to file a Missing Persons Report and that she should call back in the morning if she hadn't heard from her daughter by then. He then wished her a good night and then hung up.

There was little else to do except wait by the phone and hope that one of her daughters would call her. She meant to stay awake by the phone in case somebody called and sat down in a padded chair with her cordless phone. Exhaustion overcame her and she fell asleep.

She started dreaming. She found herself in a barren landscape under a cloudy sky. There was a man standing there, tall, imposing, with dark hair and blue eyes that looked so much like little Rikka's. The man was dressed in medieval clothing, trousers, a long-sleeved coat, and a yellow surcoat on top of that. He turned around and Breeze saw that his yellow surcoat had a crowned black stag woven into it. The man looked at her and frowned in disapproval.

For some reason she knew that this was not only a vision, but it would be a vision not only with sight but with sound. She opened her mouth to speak, but the man first pointed his finger at her, then, raising his palm and pushing his hand away from his, then spoke in a deep, accented baritone "You. Woman. Stop!". She was so startled by her dream that she woke up.

Her telephone rang before her dream could resolve itself. It was Melanie.

"Melanie!" she shouted. "Where the hell are you? Have you seen Jade?"

"Hi, Mom," said Melanie. She sounded tired but firm. "We're in Lawndale. We're going to Uncle Jake's house. Good night." Her older daughter hung up before she could reply.

-(((O-O)))—

The downstairs phone rang just after Jake and Helen had turned in for the night. Jake picked up the phone, fearing the worst.

"Hello?" he said.

"Hi, Uncle Jake!" said the voice of Ben's stepdaughter Melanie. The college girl sounded like she was in good spirits.

"Hi, how are you?" said Jake. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Melanie said reassuringly. "The reason I'm calling is that both Jade and I came down to see Dad. We're at the bus station and we were wondering if we could spend the night with you."

"Jakey, what's up?" Helen said sleepily. Jake told her that both of Breeze's daughters were in town. Helen suspected that there'd be trouble from Breeze when she found out. In the meantime, there were two teenaged girls at the bus station in a strange town that needed someplace to spend the night. Helen decided that even if they weren't quite cousins, they were family anyway.

"Melanie's at the bus station with her sister," said Jake. "I'll have to get dressed and go down there."

"Jakey, tell them to come over here and that we'll reimburse for cab fare," she said.

-(((O-O)))—

Daria heard the commotion when she got up for a potty break. Her Mom was downstairs with someone. That was unusual. Quinn had already called it a night when Daria turned in.

"Hi, welcome to our house," she said to the new arrivals. "Melanie, it's good to see you again: you're looking well. And you're Jade. Good to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Morgendorffer," said another voice.

"The girls are upstairs; I think they're asleep. Rikka's still in Daria's room. If you're sleepy, you can use the upstairs guest room. We'll talk in the morning, and we'll try to get you to the hospice to see Ben." Melanie and Jade had a quiet conversation with Helen, then started upstairs.

Melanie was surprised to see Daria in the upstairs hallway.

"Hey, Daria," she said.

"Hey, Melanie," said Daria. "And you're Jade. How do you do?"

"This is Daria," Melanie said to Jade.

She turned to Daria. "Do you want to talk?" she said.

"No, I'm planning to go back to sleep," said Daria. "We can pick it up in the morning." Her eyes felt a little scratchy and her throat felt a little sore. She hoped it didn't mean what she thought it might.

-(((O-O)))—

Breeze awoke early the next morning in a bad mood. Not one but both of her daughters had taken off for Lawndale to see Ben. She'd excised Ben Morgendorffer from her life and theirs, kept them free from his negative influence for over two years, and the first thing both of them did was to run off to see him.

Her divorce with Ben had been unpleasant. She'd usually gotten what she wanted in her previous breakups: the guys would pack up their bags, move out, and she and her daughters would move on. Not this time: Ben had taken her to court and fought her for custody of little Rikka. His attorney had not only asked hard, probing questions about her marriage with Ben, but also her previous marriages and relationships. Still, she thought she'd made her case: she was a mother, she already had two daughters, and she had experience raising children. She was shocked when the state court granted him Myrcia's custody.

All three girls were present in the courtroom when the judge granted the divorce. They cried as they got ready to leave at the end of the trial and had promised each other that they'd stay in touch. Melanie and Jade had tearfully said goodbye to Ben and Rikka. Rikka, though, had angrily glared at her and told her that she hated her and that the divorce was her fault. Breeze had been shocked and wondered how he'd gotten to the little girl.

She turned the light on and walked over to her desk. Since her search by phone had gotten such poor results, Breeze decided to continue her pursuit of her wayward daughters on-line. She realized that she knew nothing about Lawndale except that it existed. However, there were a couple of clunky search-engines that might spit out the names and addresses of any hospitals and hospices in or near Lawndale. She found listings for hospitals but came up short for hospices. The one listing she found gave her the name of a hospice, but they weren't open on Saturday until after 10:00 AM. She called the number but only got a recording saying that the number she dialed was no longer in service.

By now she decided that she was awake enough to have some coffee. She thought to brew some but when she looked in her pantry she discovered that she was out. Well, a trip to the store wouldn't slow her down that much, she thought grimly. She got dressed, went down to her car, put her key in the ignition, and her car wouldn't start.

-(((O-O)))-

Rikka woke up before Daria, put on her bathrobe, then stepped out to splash water on her face, then get ready to go to the hospice. She was surprised to see a strange girl in the hall. The stranger turned around and her face lit up with delight.

"Rikka?" she said.

"Jade?" said Rikka. The two girls launched themselves at each other then embraced.

"I missed you, kid!" said Jade. "It's been so long." They continued to hold onto each other, half-afraid that they'd wake up and find that they'd been imagining their reunion.

"When did you get here?" said Rikka.

"Late last night," said Jade. "I decided to sneak out of Mom's house and caught a bus for Harrisburg. I ran into Mel at the bus station and we then rode the bus down to Lawndale. We got here after midnight."

"I missed you, too," said Rikka, blinking tears away from her eyes.

"Here, let me look at you," said Jade. "I haven't seen you since the divorce." She backed up and looked at the young girl she'd come to think of as a sister in all but name.

Rikka had grown since Jade had last seen her. She was still kid-sized but was already crowding five feet. Her eyes were as blue as ever and her hair was still coal-black. Jade had seen pictures of Rikka's other half-brothers and half-sisters and the Baratheon look was definitely there. She didn't know much about Robert Baratheon except that he'd been a king and that he'd been a big man. How tall are you going to be, kid, she wondered.

"Still playing with dolls?" she asked.

"Not so much these days," said Rikka. "Not doing so much with dollhouses either. We couldn't fit one in our old place in Vegas, although Uncle Jake has offered to help me build one if I want one."

"Still running?" said Jade. Rikka had begun running for fun before the divorce and drove Mom crazy when she ran out of sight.

"When I can," said Rikka. "Daria's friend Jane has offered to take me running with her when I get bigger."

Jade smiled in response.

"Have you ever been roller-skating?" said Rikka.

"I did a little," said Jade.

"I want to learn," said Rikka. "I saw a roller derby game on Uncle Jake's TV and thought it was so cool."

Neither girl talked about Breeze. Jade was certain that her Mom knew that they were in Lawndale by now and would do her best to try to track them down. She hoped she could get to the hospice to see and talk to Dad before Mom got down to Lawndale.

-(((O-O)))—

Jade and Rikka went downstairs. Uncle Jake and Aunt Helen were down in the kitchen, as was a sleepy-looking Quinn. Melanie introduced Quinn to her younger sister and Helen invited them to join them for breakfast.

Aunt Helen asked Jade about the village and Jade told her that it was OK, but she'd liked some of the other places where she'd lived better. She was a senior in school and had applied to a state university for admission. She didn't currently have a boyfriend, but she told her new aunt that she thought that high school was overrated and that she looked forward to getting out.

Not like Daria, thought Helen. Jade wasn't enjoying her high school either, but wasn't as down about it as her eldest daughter.

Jade asked Uncle Jade about how Dad was doing and saw the pain in his eyes.

"I-, I-," he began. He took a breath. "Damnit, I can't sugar-coat it. Ben's very sick. He's still conscious but I don't know how much longer he's going to last."

"He's still conscious-and lucid," said Helen. "I know he'll be thrilled to see you. We're going to be setting off for the hospice in an hour or two. You can join us. I'll only be there for a little bit this morning. I have an important errand to run: I'll rejoin you afterwards."

"Thanks, Aunt Helen," said Jade, blinking away a tear. The thought of her Dad being in a hospice hurt.

"Have you talked to your mother?" said Helen.

Jade knew what that meant. "No, I didn't ask her permission before I set off. I did tell her that I was coming to Lawndale, but I didn't give her any phone numbers or addresses."

"I see," said Helen. "How far is your town from Lawndale?"

"I'm not sure," said Melanie, butting in. "I think it's under two hours by car. The bus takes longer."

"However long it takes for your mother to get down here," said Helen. "We'll do our best to make sure that you get to visit Ben even if she tries to interfere."

-(((O-O)))-

Author's Note: Like most of my Daria stories, this is a period piece. It's set in 1999, before internet search engines became what they are today.