Chapter 2: Reckoning

Sydney sighed, trying to erect a wall around her emotions as Vaughn rang the doorbell to her father's large home. Though it was night and the only light permeating the darkness was shining over the porch, she could almost see by memory the beautiful rolling landscape surrounding the property.

The door flung open and the internal light spilled onto the porch forcing her attention back up and into the gentle eyes of her father.

"Papa!" Noah shrieked, struggling his way out of Sydney's arms and attacking the elder man's leg - Jake doing the same on the other.

Jack Bristow gave them each a rich smile, passing one to his daughter before shaking Vaughn's hand and thanking him in a low voice. Michael tossed a nod in her direction before disappearing into the blackness of the driveway, the revving of an engine the only sound from his departure.

"Come in...your mother is waiting for you in the kitchen."

"But the boys need-"

"Yes...they need to get to bed. I'll take care of it." Cupping her cheek and brushing a kiss to her forehead, "I'm glad you're okay. We're going to take care of everything."

Working as hard as she could to keep up the walls she'd constructed on the front porch, though she was bound and sure that they would crumble the first moment her mother laid eyes on her. She blinked back the tears, watching Jack lift both of the children into his arms and carry them up the large staircase as she made her way toward the lit dining area.

Walking into the kitchen, she spotted her mother making tea at the stove while slicing up some sandwiches.

"Mom?" Sydney's voice was broken, and when Laura turned with tear streaks down her own cheeks, her daughter broke completely.

Rushing around the kitchen's island, mother enveloped daughter in a fit of sobbing, Laura pulling back to study the bluish purple abrasions marring Sydney's skin.

"We told you to leave him, Sydney!"

"I know," she sobbed.

"Why did you wait until now?" Her grasp of the young woman's cheeks was getting stronger, the maternal Bristow nearly shaking her with each word.

Unable to answer, Sydney merely fell into her mother's embrace and cried out her sadness, anger, and disappointment into her shoulder. A tiny voice from the kitchen's entryway made them break apart slowly, Sydney quickly wiping at her cheeks as she spotted her two year old. He looked even smaller with the blue footie pajamas on, his huge, soul-searching blue eyes staring her down.

"Need hugs, momma?"

Jack appeared behind him, hefting him up gently with a bit of tickling to his ribs.

"The boys wanted you to tuck them in, if you can."

Not trusting her voice, Sydney moved from the kitchen and traded spots with her father, Noah pushing his face into her neck and sticking his thumb into his mouth.

"As painful as it is for me to see her like that…I'm glad it finally got to be too much for her." Jack stated as he and his wife watched with until son and daughter disappeared up the steps.

Laura turned to peer up at her husband, brimming tears beginning tumbling. "Please tell me that you and Bill are going to take care of Rick? Please? He deserves to rot for what he's done to our little girl."

Jack's answer was silence as he steered his wife to the kitchen table. The teapot whistled its frustration as the water inside boiled, steam erupting from the spout as Laura pushed herself up to prepare the small, late dinner as they waited for Sydney to return.

…

"Momma?"

"Yes, Noah?"

"Daddy too?"

"No, baby; daddy…daddy isn't coming to grandma's and papa's. We're probably not going to see daddy for a long time."

"Owie." He reached his tiny hand up and poked at the dark bruise on his mother's cheekbone.

Sydney winced but pushed it away, Jake watching her from his own small bed across the room. "I'm sorry my boys, I am so sorry that daddy wasn't nice to you. But you won't have to worry about him okay? Mommy, grandma and papa are going to take care of him."

"Mommy, when can we go home?" Jake's simple question was probably the hardest she'd ever been asked.

"I don't – umm…I don't think we'll be able to go back home, sweetie."

"Can we get a new house?" He followed through, Sydney slightly relieved that he took the prospect of never seeing his things again so well.

"With a puppy?!" Noah sat up quickly, a large beaming smile on his face as Sydney laughed.

Jake saw the tension slowly begin to fade away from his mother's demeanor as she laughed along with his little brother.

"We'll talk about it. It's bedtime you two, we've had - a long week." Placing a kiss to each of their foreheads, lingering on her eldest son to check the long bruise the welt had turned into on his face. "Does it hurt really bad sweetie?"

"A little bit,"

"I'll get you something for it, I'm sure papa has something that will help. I'll be right back,"

He nodded and snuggled down into his pillow, Sydney checking one more time on a now slumbering Noah before flipping on the nightlight and leaving the room. She walked slowly down the wide hallway, pictures lining each side of all major family events. As an only child, most of them were of her accomplishments, but there were some that recounted her parents life, as well as her grandparents – before they had died.

One of her mom and dad standing in the foreground while a gorgeous piece of land lay stretched behind them. The picture directly below it shows them in the same exact position on the same spot with the large family home finally constructed behind them in a before and after glimpse.

There was a large one of her father sitting at his desk inside his Practice, the white lab coat and name tag each saying Dr. Jonathan D. Bristow.

There was every school picture of her from her kindergarten graduation up through college graduation in a long line as well as in order of events on the opposite wall, Sydney smiling at the changes in herself through time as she continued to take the trip down memory lane while moving farther down the hallway.

Stopping at one of her favorites, she picked it up and gently cradled it in one hand, the other tracing the radiant faces of her parents on their wedding day. Flicking her gaze over to the immediate right, the nostalgic smile quickly disappeared. Gently hanging the beloved wedding photo back onto its designated hook, she fingered the ornate wood framing the photo of her own wedding day.

She stood in Rick's arms, the flowing white dress her mother had made wafting around her legs. Her hair was styled atop her head with beautiful curls escaping from the bun on both sides, a large bouquet of tulips and sunflowers topping off the beautiful outdoor scene.

Rick looked strong and handsome in his black tuxedo, his eyes shining with a love and devotion she hadn't seen for over two years. Her own face held an abounding glow of care and tenderness as she leaned into his shoulder, their wedding bands shining in the light. Suddenly, the weight of the gold around her finger felt heavy and weighted, as if the brunt of her marriage was pressing not on her shoulders but on her left hand.

Her vision clouded…words of anger, hate, and betrayal beginning to filter into her happiest of thoughts. As she stared into the photograph, it seemed to taunt her with the blissful surroundings, the bright sun shining down on them in her parent's large garden. Everything began to get darker…even Rick himself began to change.

A muffled sob tore from her throat as she lifted the picture gingerly off its nail, the deep, decorated wood and polished glass heavy in her hands.

'This picture is fake…it…it hasn't been like that since that day,' she thought, her hands closing tight around the edges until her knuckles turned white. 'All of it was a lie.'

Turning suddenly, she hurled the memory against the far wall, the glass shattering noisily as she sunk to the floor of the hallway atop the ornate rug.

The tinkling sound of breaking glass made Jack and Laura run to the staircase, the sound of their daughter's wrenching cries making them take the two flights of stairs two at a time.

Dropping on his knees before his broken daughter, Jack engulfed her into his arms as she willingly cried into his chest. Their eyes scanned the hallway, seeing the discarded photograph lying amidst the sparkling clear rubble as the bedroom door to the left opened. Two frightened sets of eyes peeked out into the brightly lit hall, Jake holding onto Noah's hand as Laura quickly ushered them back into their room and closed the door behind her.

"What happened to mommy?" Jake asked, fighting against his grandmother's attempts at putting him back to bed.

"Your mommy was looking at a picture and she dropped it, it's no reason for you to be out of bed. Hop back in," her voice was soft yet commanding, and little Noah tugged on her pant leg to claim her attention.

"Me too?" he asked, pointing to the fluffy bed his older brother was climbing into.

The grandmother smiled and nodded, picking up and coddling the tiny boy before settling him in with his brother. "You boys go to sleep, okay? Your mommy will take good, good care of you."

"Who will take care of mommy?" Jake queried, curious about who would be looking out for his mother without his own daddy around.

"I will."

"Papa too?"

"Of course. Now…sleep time, darlings." She sat on the edge of the bed with them both, waiting and watching for them to fall back to sleep.

In the hallway, Sydney's crying had lessened and she'd more or less gone limp in her father's arms. He had tipped back onto his heels, pulling her with him until she'd nearly crawled up onto his lap, her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"I…I can't presume to tell you that you waited too long, or long enough, to leave him Sydney…or that it'll get easier now that you are no longer in that environment. It won't be easy – on your or on the children, but that's what your mother and I are here for." Pulling her back and cupping her swollen and red cheeks in his large, callused hands, he couldn't help but notice again the bruises marring her pale face. "Why don't you just get to bed, and we'll deal with everything tomorrow? I'm going to give you something to help you sleep soundly, because you're far too much like me in the respect that I know you'll stew all night over this." He tossed out a brief smile, his eyes still holding ample amounts of sympathy for his little girl.

"Daddy…I don't know what to do."

"I said we'll figure it out tomorrow. Come on," he ordered, his voice demanding her cooperation as he stood, pulling her with him. Securing an arm around her shoulders, they awkwardly walked down the steps and back into the kitchen, her mother's sandwiches and tea long forgotten in the disruption upstairs.

Sydney took a seat, lifting her paper napkin and wiping at the wetness of her cheeks before regarding her father with doe-like brown eyes. "Why does it hurt so much, dad? He…he doesn't really love me…and I don't have – have any desire to be with him af – after what he did to us," she paused, wiping her nose and blowing lightly into the napkin, "but why can't my anger and hate make the pain go away?"

For once, Dr. Jack Bristow was at a loss. He'd taken dozens of classes in Psychological Counseling; faced patients that had been in his daughter's situation; encountered the same questions from people that had been traumatically emotionally hurt – but he had no answer for the broken woman before him. Nothing was coming to mind.

"I…I think love is the emotion that bears the most understanding…but yet – we don't understand how comprehensive it is. Unconditional love I suppose can blind you from seeing who and what a person truly is or isn't."

"I'm not one of your patients dad, you don't have to be so scientific. It…it was more rhetorical than anything," she mustered up a small smile, wiping at the fresh tears on her cheeks as Jack let out a relieved chuckle.

Leaning across the table and pressing a kiss into her forehead, he left her alone in search of a sleeping aid. Sydney looked over at the clock seeing that it was just after three in the morning. She jumped as her back pocket vibrated, her cell phone chirping loudly in the silent kitchen.

Pulling it out of her pocket and looking at the screen, her heart plummeted into her stomach as her mother walked in. Seeing the sudden pallor of her daughter's face, "sweetie, are you okay? What is it?"

Sydney's phone continued to ring, her thumb hovering over the keypad.

"It's, Rick."

…