DEMONS
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Danny/Mary
Disclaimer: See Ch 1.
Chapter 2
As she sat in her rental car outside Baltimore Regional Medical Center, Mary tried desperately to get her emotions under control. She had been driving around for hours trying to work up the nerve to confront someone she thought she'd never see again. Tears slid down her cheeks as she looked at the letter again.
My Dear Mary,
I'm sorry it has been so long. I know you've grown into a beautiful young woman and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for not being there. I remembered how much you always liked this and I wanted you to have it. I'm very sick and the doctors say I may not have much longer.
Love always,
Momma
The letter went on to give her mother's contact information and the hospital where she had been admitted, but it was not the words that had sent Mary into an emotional tailspin, it was the item she now held in her hand. Encased in a small glass globe, Radio City Music Hall stood out brightly behind a blanket of falling snow. Mary could not stop her tears as she remembered its significance.
As a small child, Mary had been fascinated with the beautiful snow globe. Her mother kept it on a high shelf in her bedroom and forbade Mary from ever going near it. Not understanding her mother's reasons, she succumbed to her childish curiosity one day and climbed up to retrieve it. When Kathleen Connell found her standing on a chair near the bookcase precariously reaching for the object, she yanked her young daughter by the hair and locked her in the closet. Mary screamed for hours, terrified as she sat alone in the dark room, but her mother never responded. After what seemed like an eternity her father opened the door. Mary clung to him as--in one of his rare moments of compassion--he carried her to bed, careful of the Jack Daniels bottle that lay empty beside his wife's sleeping form.
After that incident, Mary became the perfect child. She tried her best to be as pleasing as possible. She never talked back, never spoke out of turn and always did what she was told. By the time she was four she was completely self-sufficient. The only time she allowed herself to truly act like a child was when she was with the McCoys. It didn't change much at home, but that never stopped Mary from trying to make her mother happy.
Mary never understood why her mother hated her. Kathleen Connell was cold and distant and did nothing to hide her disgust and contempt for her young daughter. She always said Mary was too needy, too clingy and did nothing but whine. In reality Mary was just desperate for love and affection, something that was severely lacking in the Connell household.
Mary remembered with perfect clarity the day she first realized there was something wrong with her family. She'd always thought the yelling and punishments her mother inflicted were normal, but as she spent more time with the McCoys, she realized those things did not go on in every home.
One day when they were five, she and Danny had been playing in the backyard when his mom called them in for a snack. Mary wiped her feet on the mat, but somehow when she walked into the house a trace of mud made its way onto the carpet. While Danny ran into the kitchen, oblivious to Mary's distress, she frantically searched for something to clean up the mess. That's where Connie McCoy found her a few minutes later--her face red from crying and scrubbing at the carpet with her sock.
"Mary, sweetie, what are you doing?" Mrs. McCoy asked as she gently stilled Mary's hands.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. It was an accident. I'll clean it up. I swear I will. Please don't be mad at me," Mary choked out between sobs.
Mary didn't know it then, but thinking back she realized she wasn't the only one who figured it out that day. The look on Connie McCoy's face had been one of horror and heartbreak.
She immediately scooped the tiny girl in her arms and headed for the bathroom.
"Mommy, what's wrong with Mary?"
"Nothing, sweetie. Can you sit at the table and eat your cookies until I get back?"
"I want to go with Mary."
"Not right now, baby. I promise Mary's okay and I'll be back in just a few minutes."
Danny didn't look convinced, but he did as his mom said.
Once in the bathroom, Mrs. McCoy wiped Mary's face with a cool washcloth and smoothed her long red hair away from her face. Once her sobs quieted to only an occasional hiccup she carried her to the bedroom. Sitting in the large rocker Larry had made for her when Danny was born, Connie cradled the little girl close to her chest and began humming a quiet tune as she gently rocked her to sleep.
Mary woke later that day wrapped in a soft blanket on top of the McCoy's bed. Danny was asleep beside her, his small hand holding hers even in slumber. She left the bedroom and tiptoed into the kitchen where the sound of arguing made her stop short.
"Larry, you didn't see her today. She was hysterical over a little mud on the floor."
"Honey, I know you're concerned, but what can we do? She doesn't have any bruises that I've seen …"
"Bruises! You want to wait until they beat her before we do anything?"
"Connie, you know that's not what I meant. It's just we don't have any proof. If we confront them they may never let her come over again."
"What are we supposed to do, Larry?"
"All we can do is love her. We'll keep her with us as much as possible and try to give her everything she's obviously not getting at home."
It was at that moment Larry noticed the little redhead peeking around the corner.
"Hey, sweetie," he said as he scooped her up, "Did you have a nice nap."
Mary nodded her head before asking, "Do I have to go home now?"
"I'll call your mommy and see if it's okay if you stay for dinner. Would you like that?"
Mary's only reply was another tentative nod.
"Why don't you go wake up Danny," Larry asked as he kissed her head and set her down.
Mary ran excitedly from the room to wake her best friend as Connie McCoy wearily dialed the Connell's number.
It was obvious to Mary now that her mother blamed her for everything that had gone wrong in her life. Kathleen had been a Vegas showgirl with dreams of being a Rockette when Frank Connell waltzed into the Flamingo and swept her off her feet. She was pregnant within a year and her dreams of moving to New York ended. It wasn't long after Mary was born that she turned to pills and alcohol and the real abuse began. Though the abuse some times escalated into physical violence, the emotional and mental toll it took on Mary was much worse than the bruises her mother left on her body.
When her father's abuse began at the age of thirteen, Mary found the courage to tell her mother. She could still hear the woman's eerily calm voice in her head.
"You shouldn't tell such lies, Mary."
"It's not a lie, momma, I swear. Please tell me what to do?"
"You're a big girl now and sometimes big girls just have to deal with things."
The thought of her mother's words still haunted Mary. Two weeks later she came home from school to an empty house. Her mother was gone, leaving nothing but her signature on divorce papers served on Frank the next day. After that Mary became locked inside a different kind of hell, one that would take years and a determined Danny McCoy to rescue her from.
Now Mary was the determined one. She had to put an end to the pain from her past before it consumed her. No matter how hard she had tried to overcome it, the fear her mother had left her with all those years ago had not gone away. With a shaky breath and a look of resolve she headed into the hospital.