Title: All Grown Up
Author: Chickiee-Dee
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own McLeod's Daughters or anything associated with it.
Summary: AU. Charlotte's a teenager, how has her life been affected by the absence of her mother?
Authors Notes: This is only my second attempt at a McLeod's Daughters fic. I mostly write Alias fics (if anyone's interested in reading them, I'd love to now what you think). If anyone wants to read my first McLeod's fic, its called 'Final Thoughts' and I'd appreciate feedback on that as well. I LOVE constructive criticism but any other comments are welcome. Um a huge favour I would love to ask any readers, I wrote an AU Alias fic called 'A Life Not Worth Living', its about suicide and depression and is rated R. You don't really need to know anything about Alias to read it, anyway it's a story that I'm incredibly proud of writing and I would really love to get some more feedback for it, so if people could R & R it'd be much appreciated (its only got an R rating for subject matter, my younger friends have read it and its suitable it'd be like an MA movie in Oz). Ok enough about that, I wanted to dedicate this fic in its entirety to my friend, Kimby, whose a huge McLeod's fan and was the one who gave me the idea for this in the first place. So here goes, I hope I do the idea justice and don't forget to review.
Chapter 1
Fifteen-year-old Charlotte McLeod stood in front of her new classmates. "Class we have a new student today, please say hello to Charlotte McLeod." A few people mumbled hello, while Charlotte stood there nervously twisting her hands. "Charlotte, would you like to tell us about yourself."
"Um," she began "My names Charlotte McLeod. I'm fifteen and I just moved back to Drovers Run, that's where I was born. I used to go to boarding school in Adelaide but I missed everyone at Drovers so I asked to come back here."
"Thank you Charlotte, would you please take a seat next to Tarlia over there." Charlotte nodded and sat next to a blonde haired girl.
The rest of the morning dragged on. At lunchtime, Charlotte was sitting under a tree outside when Tarlia approached her, "I'm Tarlia Jackson."
"Charlotte McLeod."
"Yeah I know."
"Sorry."
"That's ok. You like it here?"
"No, its weird, I thought that if I came back to Drovers then, I'd feel closer
to her, you know, but I just don't feel it. I feel so empty."
"Woah, back up closer to who?"
"Sorry, I do that sometimes. My mum. She was killed before I was a year old."
"Man, I'm sorry, how'd it happen, unless you don't wanna
tell me?"
"It's ok. Mum and Aunty Tess were driving and the Ute hit a bump in the road or
something and the Ute stopped, hanging off a cliff. Mum was stuck, Aunty Tess
only just managed to get me out before the Ute went over."
"That really sucks, so who raised you?"
"Aunty Tess was at first but after my first birthday I went to live with my Dad and half sisters, dad sent me to boarding school. I got sick of it and told him that I wanted to live at Drovers full time. Uncle Alex said I was just like mum, cept I'm going to school here, mum left school when she was fifteen and worked till she died."
"Your mum sounds like a great person."
"Yeah, that's what everyone tells me. I just wish I got a chance to know her." Tarlia nodded. "So your from Adelaide?"
"Yeah, I was in boarding school there, it sucked. The people were so annoying. It drove me nuts."
"And you came to Fisher?"
"Yeah, I wanted to live out at Drovers again. I don't really remember much about living there, and I haven't visited it much since I was little." Tarlia and Charlotte talked the rest of lunch and when the bell rang they went to their respective classrooms.
Tess came to pick Charlotte up after school. "Hey, how was your day?"
"Could've been more painful" Charlotte replied as she climbed into the ute "How bout yours?"
"Average, did the usual things, drenched some sheep, moved some cows, cleaned the yards, you know the usual." Charlotte nodded.
"Tell me about mum" Charlotte asked.
"Huh?"
"Tell me about mum."
"Your mother, well…" Tess began "She was a wonderful person. She loved you to death. Char, she would be so proud of you." Tears began to form in Charlottes eyes, she wiped them away and they continued their drive in silence.
When they arrived back at Drovers, Charlotte ran upstairs to her room. She dumped her bag on the floor and pulled her riding boots on before running out of the house again. "Where's she going in such a hurry?" Meg asked.
"I dunno" Tess replied. Meg shrugged her shoulders and continued to prepare dinner. Charlotte meanwhile had run up to the horse yards. After yelling a quick hello to Jodie, Stevie and Rose, who was visiting, she caught Phoenix and saddled her up. Charlotte quickly mounted and rode off. Tess came running up to the yards after Charlotte left "You guys seen Charlotte?" she asked.
"That would be her riding like a bat out of hell over there" Stevie replied, pointing to the figure in the distance. "There's no point in going after her, she can look after herself" Jodie told Tess.
"Yeah I guess there isn't, I'll be in the house if you want me. You guys can finish up for the day when your done there."
"Thanks Tess" Stevie replied.
Charlotte urged Phoenix to speed up as the wind rushed past her face, blowing her long red hair behind her. Charlotte had died her brown hair a golden red color last year and liked it so much, she kept it. She always thought it looked like the sunset over Drovers. She slowed Phoenix as she approached her destination. Claire's grave. She halted and dismounted, pulling the reins over Phoenix's head, allowing her to hold the horse while she sat. Charlotte sat in front of the grave, not knowing what to say. She felt numb. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she wiped them away roughly. After almost an hour of silence, she decided that she had better head home, Tess would be starting to get worried. She re mounted Phoenix and started back towards home.
It was almost dark when she arrived back at the homestead. She'd cooled Phoenix down and fed her before slowly walking back to the house. When she got there, Alex was in the kitchen "Hey kiddo" he said, hugging her tightly "Where you been?"
"Riding" she stated "I'm just going to do my homework." Charlotte headed up the stairs, shutting herself in her room. Alex watched as she retreated from the kitchen, "What's wrong with her?"
"I think she's still adjusting. It must be hard for her, growing up without Claire around" Meg said.
"Claire would have been so proud of her."
"Yeah she would've been" Meg agreed.
Charlotte didn't come downstairs until late that night, she'd tried to work on her homework, but found herself distracted. Frustrated, she left her room and went downstairs to eat something. She found everyone sitting in the dinning room talking and snuck past the door and into the kitchen to fix herself a snack. Once she'd had something to eat, she snuck back up to her room and climbed into bed, eventually drifting into a restless sleep.
A/N: What did people think? that was probably one of the shortest chapters I have written. But anyway, what did you think? was it good, bad, absolutely shocking? Review and let me know. LOL Alyce :D
