By: Jade Unicorn
E-mail: tenryu@excite.com
Website: http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/tigerwolf
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters ABC does.
Summary: Colby begins to feel like she doesn't belong in Pine Valley and does something about it.
Rating: Probably a PG13 for this chapter, but it will progress up to an R for later issues. I have plans....
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Colby stood at the door listening to the same argument for the hundredth time. She wanted to run in the middle of her parents and scream to make them stop. Though she didn't know what they were really arguing about, she did hear her name come up several times.
Adam caught sight of his blonde haired daughter and stopped his words completely. He grinned lovingly at his little girl before saying, "Hey sweetie. What are you doing?"
Liza turned her head when she saw Adam's mood change. She knew that it had to be Colby, mother's instinct. "Is something wrong baby?" She scooped her daughter up in her arms.
"Why are you fighting all the time?" Colby asked in pure innocence but still not shielding that she was angry.
"Oh honey, we're not fighting. We're just..." Adam searched for his words.
Liza finished for him, "Discussing."
"Yeah, that's what adults do, discuss." Adam added in. "Oh that reminds me, look what I bought you." Adam rummaged through his desk, producing a coloring book. "I know how your last one got ruined in the rain so I bought you a new one."
With open arms, Colby received her gift with a big smile. Liza laughed at her innocence wishing that everybody could be that happy with a book.
"Thank you Daddy." Colby hugged his neck then hugged her mother. Liza sat her child down and watched as she ran off to color in her new book.
There was silence in the room. Neither person knew what to say. It always seem to happen like this, they would get into an argument but then someone, usually Colby, would interrupt them and they would feel bad for having gotten mad at each other in the first place.
"That was nice of you replacing her book." Was all Liza could think to break this silence that was killing them.
"I know how much she likes to make us pictures and she was so heartbroken that her favorite book got ruined. I hate seeing her upset."
"Me too." Liza wrapped her arms around her waist and walked out of the room.
Adam ran his hand through his hair thinking about his next move on Liza.
Inside her room, Colby stared at the book. She was just as good at faking happiness as Liza and Adam was. It must have been a Chandler gene or something. Slinging the book, Colby thought to herself what have I done to make them fight all the time? Maybe I should just leave. Maybe that would make things better...
Colby retreated to the only place that she had anymore, the corner of her room. A large dresser sat up against the wall, which she used to rest her head on as she pulled her knees up to her chest. Tears flowed silently as she stared off and pretended that she was somewhere else other than here.
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Adam held the torn shirt in his hands as proof. Staring in disbelief, she didn't want to think that she could have actually done something like that without remembering it. After questioning it a few times, she came to the same conclusion that Adam had the tumor was back. Her anger flared when Adam made a comment that she might end up hurting Colby.
"No, I would never hurt Colby I love her. I love her more than anything in this world you know that Adam." Tears threatened to fall from her eyes but she didn't let them.
"I know you do, but with actions like this, who knows what you're capable of." He rationalized.
The little girl walked out of the room unseen as usual. Lately she had been abandoned or pushed off onto the maids or Mia. Which was nice and all, she did love Mia. But she was craving the love and attention that her parents once gave her, back when they were still in love. What she didn't understand was why all of the sudden her parents were making up lies and intentionally hurting each other. And it was all in her namesake.
Clutching her teddy bear close to her body, Colby walked towards the stairs to go to her room. Stealthily Mia came up behind her niece. In one movement she grabbed her up causing her to scream in surprise.
"Aunt Mia!" She giggled as she felt hands tickling her stomach.
Liza and Adam ran at the sound of hearing their baby girl scream. They were relieved to see that it was just Mia playing with the girl. Liza watched as her sister tickled Colby to the ground.
"Stop!" Colby laughed.
"Okay, okay." Mia leaned back to give the girl some breathing room. But just as Colby was calming down and sitting up, Mia began her second assault on the helpless girl. Liza came over to help in this playful attack.
"Daddy, help!" She called out.
Adam grabbed Liza in the one spot that he knew she was ticklish at making her let go of Colby. Liza fell back laughing as the game switched over to her. Colby managed to wiggle her way out of Mia's arms to jump on her mother. Liza was laid out on her back on the cold tile while Colby tried to get her back.
Adam snatched up his daughter to growl into her belly, a common thing with parents. [(Which is something that I never really understood in the first place but it seems to fit.)] This was how it was suppose to be. Everybody was supposed to be happy. And everybody was supposed to be spending all their time with her.
"Mr. Chandler? I'm here for our appointment." Trey's voice drifted into their tight little circle.
Adam stopped his ministrations from Colby and sat her back down on the ground. He became serious as he acknowledged Trey's being there, soon leaving to speak with him privately. Liza straightened up, fixed her clothes back into place, and excused herself from the room.
Mia pushed herself off the floor and took Colby's hand; "Let's get a snack."
And just like that everything was back to normal. Her parents were off doing their own things, separately; she was stuck with Mia and feeling alone and cold inside. She was barely five years old and this is how she felt. The outlook for her life was not looking too good.
It was the makings of an estranged child who, in order to forget all the fights at home, goes partying every night, breaks the rules, gets involved with the wrong crowd, and either ends up dead or pregnant. Sad but probably true. Everyday Colby wanted less to do with her family. She spent her time held up in her room drawing pictures of the fantasy world she wished she lived in. Her corner of her room, her hiding place, was being visited more often and for longer periods.
How was she going to make things right again? Could she make things right again? Or was this how her life was destined to be, a movie of the week special?
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Stuart held onto her hand as they walked the halls. This place smelled of death to her, not that she knew what death really was. People glanced up as they headed towards the certain wing of the hospital. A man stopped Stuart to ask him a question. Colby was standing there looking towards an end of the hospital that looked different from the one she usually visits her mother on.
He was so caught up in this stranger that he didn't notice when she started walking off. She hid carefully behind a chair when she saw a door open into a patient's room. Once the doctor was gone, Colby went up to the door. It took all of her strength to open the heavy door but she did it.
There on the bed was a woman that Colby didn't recognize. The woman was strapped down to the bed but she wasn't moving. She seemed to be staring off into space. Timidly Colby climbed up into the chair that sat beside of the woman.
"Hi." Colby said looking into this woman's face for any sign of life.
She blinked and seemed to be focusing in on Colby's face. "Hello." Was all she said.
"My name is Colby Chandler. What's yours?"
The woman looked at her like she was contemplating what her name was. "Vanessa."
"Hello Vanessa, why are here? My mommy is here because she's sick. Are you sick?"
Vanessa seen that there was no fear or anger in this girl's eyes. Unlike whenever David, Leo, or Greenlee was there. All they held was anger towards her. But this child was too young to know what hate was. Colby had an innocence about her that made her sweet. "Yes I am sick. Are you visiting your mommy?" She nodded her head. "Why are you alone?"
"Cause..." She wasn't sure why she was alone. She just shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm sure they're worried about you."
Colby shook her head. "They're too busy fighting."
Vanessa knew that there were problems whenever Adam Chandler was involved. But she never figured that a child would see the kinds of problems he caused. It was surprising to see the anger that did arise in Colby's eyes as she spoke of her parents.
Meanwhile Stuart was scared because he couldn't find Colby. He feared going to see Liza knowing that he'd have to tell her that he lost her daughter. Liza was a forgiving person, just not this forgiving. Stuart searched for a few minutes before deciding to go see Liza.
Pushing open the door he saw her sitting up in the bed reading from a magazine. She smiled up at him.
"Hello Stuart."
"Hiya Liza." He looked nervous.
"Is something wrong Stuart?" She sat aside the magazine to focus on him.
"Um...Liza you're going to be mad at me." She waited for him to continue. "I can't find Colby."
"What?" She threw back the covers, attempting to get out of the bed.
"I-I'm really sorry Liza. I-I didn't mean to." His tears started to get watery.
Liza calmed down a bit, she knew that it wasn't his fault. She just hoped that Colby wasn't hurt. The door opened revealing a nurse holding onto Colby's hand. She guided the young girl into the room.
"I found her out in the hall. She said she got lost." The nurse picked up Colby and sat her in her mother's open arms.
"You know that you're not supposed to walk off without somebody with you." Liza gently scolded.
"I'm sorry Mama."
In the back of Colby's mind was Vanessa. She wanted to know more about this woman and why this woman was sick. Vanessa paid more attention to Colby than anybody had in weeks. It was a nice feeling to have someone pay attention to her without them leaving for more important things.
It was Colby's choice to walk out of Vanessa's room. She could see the woman was tired and she felt that she should leave to give her rest. Sitting here now looking at her mother, Colby wondered why her parents fought all the time. There was nothing to be fought over, or so she thought. She had always assumed that her parents had a perfect marriage. But she was young and naive too.
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The darkness covered the entire room. Two eyes shone out from the corner, glistening with tears. Moonlight crept in from the window, only placing a small amount of light into the small bedroom. Toys, clothes, furniture, and whatever else she could grab a hold of was thrown about the room. Anger, as much as could possibly fill her at this young age, was still in her deep. And anger was the cause of this destruction in her room.
All she wanted to do right now was pack up her things and leave. But how, and where would she go to? She didn't know anybody. She didn't even know that there was a world beyond Pine Valley's walls. Her life was sort of sheltered; someone always monitored her. Except for now. Right now she had managed to hide away from people all day long.
This was a rare day that no one bothered her much. Normally there was always a maid or her parents or Mia there in her face wanting to make sure that she was okay. But today she hid in various parts of the house. It had been a long while since somebody had came up to check on her. That was a good thing to her. She wanted the time alone, why she didn't know. All she did know was that she didn't feel like she could stand being in front of their lying faces.
The door opened slowly making it creak loudly into the silenced room. Her sniffling stopped as she watched and waited to see who it was. The silhouette of a female entered the room.
"Colby Chandler?" The woman whispered. The light flicked on showing the stranger the destruction of the room. "Oh goodness. Colby?"
"What do you want?" Colby stuck her head out from the corner to see who it was that was invading her room.
"Hi, Colby, remember me?" It was Vanessa.
"What do you want?" She asked more fiercely.
"I'm here to take you away." Colby stood up, watching Vanessa take a seat on the bed. "You said that you didn't want to be the cause of your parents fighting anymore. So I thought that we could go away together. There are not many people in this town that's willing to speak to me but you did."
"Where would we go?" She kept things hypothetical for now until she had been giving her decision.
"Somewhere out of the country. I know that you're parents wouldn't let me take you so they would send the police after me and you would just be back here again."
Colby seemed to have made up her mind. She searched through the closet and found a suitcase. She picked up some clothes and stuck them inside. A teddy bear that was a gift from her parents on her last birthday was lying in the middle of the floor. Grabbing it, she put it inside the case also.
"We'll by you some more things when we get to where we're going." Vanessa stroked her hair.
"Let's go before they find out." Colby took one last look around the room that she had spent her life so far in.
Vanessa took her hand and they walked out of the room. It took them about twenty minutes to get out of the house without someone noticing, but they did. A cab waited down the block from the Chandler mansion for Vanessa and Colby. The girls climbed inside of it and shut the door to their past hoping to make a new life together, make something better than what they had been given.
To Be Continued...
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