~ oOo ~
Here's your Pinky Promises fix, all you addicts out there ;)
Such a big compliment to receive messages about your
withdrawals - I must be doing something right!
So I have some news...I'm sick, and I'm going away to Crufts
Dog Show for the weekend, so I'll be MIA without my computer.
I plan to try and get at least partway through the next chapter,
but it will still need to be sent to SunflowerFran who has kindly
agreed to take over beta duties for me, so I'll update asap and
set a more realistic update schedule than the every-other-daily
one we've gotten used to
SORRY!
I'm loving all your theories and how much you adore Edward
and Marley - I do too! Keep 'em coming, they'll make this cold
of death feel better (I hope!)
Thank you so much for all of your support, it truly does mean
the world to me!
~ oOo ~
Summary: When two little girls were allowed to walk
home from school one bright spring day nobody could've
predicted the events that followed. The way two families
were torn apart by the vendetta of a deranged man.
Nearly twelve years on, we'll watch as the two girls stolen
away from their homes at eight years old fight to take
back their lives. If only it were as simple as escaping. AU
Pinky Promises
Chapter Eleven
As Riley watched over the reconnecting family later that day, his eyes shone with relief.
Until now he'd only ever seen either twelve-year-old photos of Scarlett and Rosalie, or blurred candids taken by his undercover duo when nobody was looking. To see the girls up close, in high definition, wreaked havoc on his thoughts and emotions. He was normally immovable and able to stay distanced. Not this time.
When it had been revealed that the girls weren't who they claimed to be, who Smith claimed them to be, Riley had wanted to yank them from the ranch immediately, especially when further searches didn't uncover any hospital, schooling, or identification records for them. But he'd waited.
A couple of weeks later during an all-nighter at the office he'd delved into the missing person's records from further afield, purely on a whim. It was those few minutes of out-of-character deviation from the plan that had resulted in the girls' real identities being discovered.
Now, watching two dads reunited with their long-lost daughters, watching Scarlett reconnect with her baby girl and introduce her properly to her Pawpaw, Uncle Peter, and Uncle Edward, Riley couldn't help but be glad of his lack of wife and family. If he'd had a wife, children, waiting at home for him perhaps this group of people wouldn't have been sitting their together. Maybe Charlie and Peter would still have been in England with their broken hearts, broken families, and broken faith. It was easy to see how shattered they'd become simply by looking at them. In every single movement Charlie or Peter made their pain was tangible, like extra limbs or clouds of mist surrounding them.
However, as much as their pain was easy to see, so was the growing joy building within them. It grew and grew as the seconds passed. Riley gazed at Charlie, Scarlett, Peter, and Rosalie, Marley nestled in her mother's lap, Edward perched on the end table teasing the little girl with the stalk of the flower he'd gifted her, Riley felt his decision to remain an eternal bachelor was the right one. After all, all of this, it might not have been possible if he'd been distracted by thoughts of returning home to his own family, had they existed.
Outcomes such as this one were the exact reason he put his heart, soul, and life into the FBI, and they were the reason he'd continue to do so.
~ oOo ~
"How's Archie? And Pippa and Heidi?" Rosalie rasped a short while later, her throat sore from the smoke and all the crying she'd done.
Charlie and Peter shared a meaningful look, Edward avoiding her gaze. Peter nodded imperceptibly when the girls looked at one another. Edward removed his cap to tug at his hair before setting it backwards on Marley's head. She bounced with a laugh, twisting it right.
"Waiting to hear from us, and you," Charlie began, squeezing Scarlett's shoulder without thinking. She snuggled into his side, clinging to his black t-shirt with the hand not holding Marley at the waist. "Archie has…" Tears sprang to Charlie's eyes, cutting him off. The thought of Scarlett and Rosalie only now hearing about Archie's sons was gut-wrenching in the extreme. They should have been their the night he, Carl-Roman, was born and named after them. There should be pictures of them holding him on the mantle alongside the ones of Charlie and Peter holding them, photos of them playing together as they grew.
Just like there should have been all those things for Marley. Pictures of her with her uncle, her honorary aunts in Pippa and Heidi. But they'd never get that time back.
"Has…what?"
Charlie snapped back to the present with a bang. His eyes fell to Scarlett, raised to his face with curiosity and trepidation. He could feel Peter, Rosalie, and Edward's eyes on him, too.
"Baby girl," Scarlett blinked owlishly when her dad cupped her cheek tenderly in a large, slightly rough hand. "Archie has two sons. His eldest is six, and the youngest, Chase, is five-months old. Champ, the oldest, he's called—" Too choked up at the sight of Scarlett's shock, Charlie trailed off and let Edward finish, cradling Scarlett to him to comfort her the only way he knew how. By humming a quiet tune he'd hummed many a time when she was a baby.
The same song she hummed to Marley whenever she got upset.
"His name is Carl-Roman, after you two," Edward murmured.
Scarlett and Rosalie were dumbstruck. Trying to take in the knowledge that Archie, their big brother, was a dad. Two little boys' dad. They tried to absorb the news that somewhere in England there was a little boy named after them who shared blood with Scarlett and a family with Rosalie.
It was a difficult task to handle on top of everything else vying for space in their minds, so tears were the only thing they could manage for the moment.
When she regained a handle on her emotions Rosalie inhaled, pulling back to look at her dad's face. Still, after hours of being able to see him, touch him, smell his familiar aftershave, she couldn't believe it was really him. All those years of coming to believe that their families must have given up were hard to push away, to forget. Years of Christmases, birthdays, and other holidays were fighting against his snarled words and beliefs both she and Scarlett had held to their chest since it had become obvious they were going to have to get themselves free. It would take a long time for the girls to regain their trust in everyone, to trust that their families never had given up. And they never would have.
"Dad…" Rosalie breathed. Peter met her gaze and a handsome grin overtook his face, five o' clock shadowed jaw giving away the fact that he'd gone more than a few days without shaving.
"You have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that, honey."
"It feels good to say it, Dad," she whispered in reply, resting her head against his shoulder while inhaling a lungful of the aftershave he'd always used. It was calming, gentle, and familiar. Of course, he didn't know that it had been over twelve years since either of them had uttered the word 'Dad'. It had been a coping mechanism, something to keep them from falling apart. Keeping their two lives separate.
As she settled down to listen to the quiet conversations going on around her, Rosalie watched Charlie's hand run soothing circles on Scarlett's shoulder, allowing her eyes to drift shut. She kept everything out except the soft voices nearby and the sound of her dad's heartbeat at her ear. Knowing this was the beginning of the end, Rosalie felt more happiness than she had in a long time.
Nobody anticipated the way Scarlett's mind would soon revolt against her.
~ oOo ~
The next three days passed in a mess of tears, bone-crushing hugs, and men treading on eggshells.
For Scarlett, the shock of being rescued wore off on the first night. It left debilitating panic attacks, nightmares, and a fear of many innocent noises.
Rosalie did better. She managed to keep her calm by reminding herself often of her dad, Charlie, and Edward's presence. Of course, every time she saw her pseudo sister lose her composure it brought hot tears to her own eyes as well as sending the entire house into a tailspin, Charlie and Edward in particular.
Marley was petrified of her mommy's nightmares, and took to refusing to sleep unless Edward was holding her. With Scarlett's permission, she began sleeping on a loveseat the agents moved into Edward's room, though most nights he woke in the morning to find her burrowed down by his feet at the foot of the bed, beneath the duvet.
It was agonizing to watch Scarlett break down simply from hearing too-loud footsteps on the stairs, or at the sight of a man moving too quickly in the corner of her always-alert gaze, and know there wasn't a thing they could do to make it better.
It was only made worse by the lack of knowledge on why she was acting this way.
Neither Scarlett nor Rosalie could bring themselves to taint this perfect reunion by talking about the things they'd experienced in the past twelve years.
After the first day of closeness touch became unbearable for Scarlett as flashbacks of rough hands grabbing at her repeatedly took over, haunting the little rest she did get while adding a layer of exhausted panic to her threadbare nerves. At night the agents stationed in and around the house struggled to remain stoic in the wake of Scarlett's terrified screams echoing throughout the dark hours. Rosalie, who refused to stay in any room other than the one Scarlett used, got to her feet each night to let Charlie in, hopelessly aware of her uselessness in the face of Scarlett's night terrors. For a girl who'd spent years leaning on her for support, it was pure torture seeing Scarlett broken. Seeing her crumble under the weight while nobody could do anything but hope the next night would be different.
That the next night would be the one she managed more than an hour of sleep.
That the next night Scarlett would be able to rest without demons pushing her to the brink.
As the twenty-fourth, fifth, and sixth of April passed the group by, Riley realized she needed more help than they could give her. A phone call was made, a plane ticket was booked, and on the afternoon of the twenty-seventh, an FBI psychologist, a specialist in treating victims of abduction, would arrive.
~ oOo ~
The night before the psychologist was due to arrive, the nightly routine altered ever-so-slightly.
Scarlett's nightmare didn't wake the entire house followed by her blood-curdling screams. No, instead, she managed to wake herself before the true agony began, silently calming her breaths until they were quiet enough for her to leave the room and pad on socked feet down the stairs.
Hugging slender arms around her waist, Scarlett stared forlornly out of the front window, blue-green eyes glowing in the moonlight that filtered through the drapes. There were only seven other occupied houses on the street, though many other sat empty, so a visual scan of the driveways and surrounding pavements yielded little information that she didn't already know – they were in the middle of nowhere.
In the swath of navy material dotted with pinprick silver dots Scarlett could see two constellations, the small amount she remembered from Archie's astrology phase having stuck with her for all this time.
"Arch…" Her brother's name sent a pang of longing through Scarlett's weak body. His face was a poorly constructed guess at what he'd look like. It had been twelve years, his teenage years long-gone and in their place, fatherhood. She still couldn't imagine her goofy, fun-loving, immature-at-times big brother as a dad to two little boys.
But then, Charlie had admitted Archie was struggling with the reality that she was a mother. So she supposed they all had things to adjust to.
It seemed like a whole other world, thinking about her brother back home, one in which she had no idea how to act, think, even be. Life hadn't been normal for such a long time that Scarlett was having a lot of trouble adjusting to being an ordinary twenty-one-year old. It was something she'd never been, something she hadn't seen since her time with Archie and his girlfriends, so it was hard to reconcile herself and Rosalie with the feisty, playful, flirty girls of her memories. Hard to reconcile their easy happiness with the weariness she felt dragging her body down with every breath.
Pulling her from melancholy clutches, Scarlett's highly-tuned hearing picked up the clinking of a glass on the metal tap in the tiny kitchen at the back of the house. It was closely followed by the squeak of the tank as the tap was turned off, then the sound of bare feet on the linoleum. The slow, heavy gait alerted her to who it was before they even made the doorway. She spun cautiously, the tiniest of smiles tugging her lips from their grimace.
Shocked emerald green eyes shot to hers, the hand holding a glass of water to his lips slowly lowering. "Scarlett? What are you doing up?"
The ominous ticking of the clock hanging lopsidedly on the wall was the only noise in the room for an endless second.
"Couldn't sleep," she finally murmured, unable to remove her eyes from the adorable sight of Edward cradling Marley against his bare chest, her head pillowed against his shoulder, one arm draped around him, the other snuggling Mister Eddie between their bodies. She was fast asleep, snoring quietly. Contentedly.
Warmth spread through her body, washing away the lingering chill left behind by her most recent nightmare until all Scarlett could feel was the comfortable calm accompanying Edward's presence. In the still, silent night it was all-too-easy to feel complacent, but she forced herself not to succumb to the strong torrents of relaxation Edward always exuded, something she could only assume was linked to the memory of being cradled in his arms as he and Riley rescued her and Rosalie from the fire.
Just the quick flicker of a flame in her mind's eye sent a shudder down Scarlett's spine. Heat licked up her slender frame to scorch the part of her mind that hadn't yet started to heal or process everything that had happened in the last few days, leaving her heart racing, body trembling.
"Hey, are you ok?"
Before Scarlett could protest, not that she's sure she would, Edward had crossed the shabby expanse of carpet, set his drink down, and was looping his long, free arm around her shoulder, enveloping her against his warm chest beside Marley. A tremor ran through her as his hand came up to gently stroke through her curly locks, mussed by sleep but not something she was bothered about in the wake of her nightmare. It was even less of a concern now as sobs began to wrack her body so hard her teeth chattered.
"It's all right, I've got you. I've got you."
They rocked side-to-side gently, Edward's caress from the crown of Scarlett's head down to the middle of her back where her hair ended soothing both of them in equal measure.
Only when Scarlett took a small step back, as calm as she felt she'd get, did Edward cease his stroking.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"No problem. You ok now?"
Scarlett nodded, then shook her head with a sigh. "Yes? No? I don't know?" She met his eyes, seeing nothing but gentle encouragement waiting there. It was different to the sympathy in the eyes of the agents, the expectation in her father's, and the confusion in Marley's whenever she saw her mommy having a panic attack.
"I thought this would all feel…different. Happier, easier, less painful. I didn't expect to feel so scared all the time. I didn't expect to be so exhausted, twenty-four-seven. I mean, I want to spend time with all of you because I've missed you all so much," Scarlett trailed off with a long breath, tipping her head back and letting her eyes fall closed. "But all I want to do is curl up and sleep."
Edward stared at Scarlett, so familiar in so many ways, but unfamiliar in more. His eyes swept over the yellow handprints around her swan like neck, the stark white bandage at her temple, and the way the clothes she'd been given hung off her body despite being a crazily small size. Her eyes were underscored by black bags, cheeks hollow and smiles wan even when they were genuine.
"Come sit with me? I could use a rest. This little one sure is a fidget."
"You're telling me. We've shared a bed with her since she was born. She's always been a sleep-fidgeter."
Edward took a seat on the couch, careful not to jostle Marley against his chest, and patted the spot beside him with a small smile. It was lopsided and spread to his eyes, vivid even in the dim light filtering through the room from the moon. Scarlett hesitated, but he could see the moment she surrendered. She was too tired not to, he could see that, too. Her weight barely registered when she sat, curling her legs beneath her and settling with a few inches of space between his thigh and her knees. Her half-lidded eyes were already fighting a losing battle, so Edward wasn't surprised when, after only a minute or two of humming a nonsensical tune, she slowly tipped forwards until her face rested against his shoulder right beside Marley's, their soft puffs of breath mingling but thankfully not tickling him. He settled in and got comfy with the girls sleeping against him, his heart full and content knowing Scarlett was resting and safe.
~ oOo ~
The FBIs favored vehicle, a black SUV with tinted windows, pulled up outside the safe house the following afternoon amidst a cloud of dust. From her crouched position with her knees tucked into her chest on an armchair in the corner of the living area, Scarlett flinched at the muffled sound of a car door closing outside, her eyes squeezed tightly shut as she listened to two pairs of footsteps getting closer. An agent had gone outside to meet the new arrival walking leisurely up the path, neon pink rucksack in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. As soon as the click of the front door echoed through the house Scarlett's eyes flew open and trained themselves on the door to the hallway. Rosalie wasn't far away, sitting on the sofa nearby next to Edward and Marley. The little girl had brought her portable DVD player downstairs, and was watching Spongebob while munching on some cooled toaster waffles, happy to be on Edward's lap with her mommy close by.
Rosalie's wasn't comfortable, by any means, but she shoved away her hatred of the idea of a stranger in the house for Scarlett's sake. It was obvious she needed this extra help.
"Good afternoon Miss Winters. Riley Lawrence."
After Riley had introduced himself he let Megan Winters into the room that Scarlett, Rosalie, Edward, and Marley currently occupied. Both Charlie and Peter were outside smoking, hating that they needed a break but taking one anyway from the atmosphere surrounding the girls. They were also following Riley's request to give them a little space to get used to Megan without their presence.
"Miss Winters, this is Rosalie Hale," he paused, nodding at Rosalie reassuringly, before settling his eyes on Scarlett in the corner, "and this is Scarlett Swan. Edward here is a family friend, and the little lady on his lap is Scarlett's daughter, Marley."
Still engrossed in her cartoons, Marley hadn't even noticed Megan's entrance. Edward turned her slightly so she'd be less likely to. The longer they could keep her distracted, the better. If she had a meltdown they weren't sure how Scarlett would react.
"A shrink." Three sets of shocked eyes flew to the blonde in the corner following her words, spoken through gritted teeth. The fourth set of eyes, soft blues belonging to Megan Winters, gazed kindly at the young woman. She took in the young woman tucked into a ball on the chair, black jogging bottom-clad legs tightly pressed to her chest, the dark purple hoodie she wore far too baggy on what she'd been warned was an incredibly slight frame.
For a few long moments nobody seemed to know what to say, simply watching Megan watching Scarlett, who stared over her left shoulder at the wall. "I've heard a lot about you both. I'm looking forward to getting to know you a little better." Leaving it there, she turned to Riley. "Will I be staying here, or at a hotel?"
Riley got himself together enough to tell her she had a room ready upstairs, leading her up there once she'd grabbed her back from the floor where the other agent had left it. Rosalie stood to make her way to Scarlett as soon as their footsteps hit the stairs.
"Hey, it's just me," Rosalie whispered, curling into the gap she created for her. The girls clasped their hands together tightly. "Are you ok?"
Scarlett's answering nod was slow, a breath hissing out through her teeth as she forced herself to relax. Her muscles hurt with the force she'd clenched them. It's just Rosalie. Just Rose.
The pair stayed together in that small chair for hours. Rosalie was the first to move, when she needed to use the bathroom, and Scarlett followed shortly after, laying rigid in the twin bed beside Rosalie's until she woke the entire household with her petrified wails forty-five minutes later.
Charlie reached the girls' room first, Peter seconds behind him while Megan emerged just as Rosalie opened the door. She stepped into her dad's arms to accept his freely offered comfort. Megan took in the way she visibly shuddered at Peter's touch, choosing to fight her fear in order to stay close to him, a man she wholeheartedly loved. The sight was one that warmed her.
The sight of Scarlett was considerably different. Muffled sobs and whimpers escaped her room in waves as she fought whatever attacked her in her dreams. Peering inside, she saw Charlie hovering near the bed unsurely. It was clear he didn't know what to do with himself, and who could blame him. Though all of his instincts told him to hold his daughter close after her nightmare, he knew it would do more harm than good. At this point any contact with anyone other than Rosalie seemed to send Scarlett into a spiraling tunnel of panic, made worse by the fact that she desperately wanted human touch to comfort her despite not being able to withstand it.
Megan had enough experience to know Scarlett was probably aware of Charlie's harmlessness, however, her recent trauma coupled with what she suspected was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stopped her from being able to control the way her mind and body reacted.
Seeing Scarlett tucked tight into the fetal position on the twin bed, anxious dad on his knees at her side while everybody else hovered outside the room, Megan was confident Riley had done the right thing by calling her out.
"Charlie? Please could you come here a moment?" She murmured quietly, offering the man a reassuring half-smile when he glanced towards her. Seconds later he joined the crowd in the hall, harrowed eyes still fixed upon his daughter.
His words were a plea. "What do I do? How can I help her?"
"I think, right now, the best thing for her is somebody as neutral as possible. Is there any one person she reacts to well? Apart from you, Rosalie. You can't be her only comfort blanket, it isn't safe or healthy for either of you. And at the moment it doesn't seem that she recognizes you when she's in the throes of a nightmare, does it?"
Rosalie frowned, upset she couldn't help, but shook her head. "No, she doesn't react at all to me when she's like this. I always used to be able to help her with nightmares, but this is something different."
Megan nodded, like she'd expected as much. "All right." Her eyes fell upon Edward then, leaning in the doorway to his room with a sad look on his face. He'd thought the previous night had been a turning point. It was the first full night's sleep she'd had, curled into his shoulder on the sofa. And yet here they were again.
"Edward, how do you feel about trying to get through to her? You say she slept well with you in the room last night."
All eyes suddenly on him, Edward's ears flushed scarlet. "Uh, well yeah. I didn't do anything special though, and she wasn't having a nightmare. Do you think it will help, though?"
Megan nodded, "I do."
"Then yeah, sure. As long as it's ok with you, Chuck."
Charlie shrugged sadly. "I just want her to be happy. Whatever it takes, son. Just help her if you can." With that, he walked dejectedly down the hall to the room he shared with Peter. His friend followed him after giving Rosalie one last squeeze.
Megan watched as Edward moved to perch on the edge of the bed, reaching out a hand to stroke the hair away from her face. It was dampened by sweat, her body writhing in the sheets.
"Hey, Bella Bean, it's me, Edward. Can you hear me?"
It took a moment or two, but Scarlett's cries did settle a little. Megan narrowed her eyes.
"There you go. It's just me, see?"
"Ed-Edward?"
Edward nodded, stroking her hair. "Yeah, Edward. It's just me. It was just a dream, Bella, just a dream. You're safe."
Megan mentally made a note of the fact that every time Edward called Scarlett 'Bella', it seemed to calm her. She rolled, swiftly tucking her body as close to Edward as possible. He looked back to Megan in question.
This was an odd situation, and for a moment she questioned her suggestion – to send Edward in. But it was helping.
Scarlett's sobs tapered into huffs of exhausted breath, the odd sniffle punctuating them here and there. She'd curled herself around Edward, one fist tight in the material of his red plaid pajama pants, the other white-knuckling the covers.
"What do I do, Megan?"
Before Megan could get even a syllable out, Scarlett tightened her hold.
"Stay with me? Please? Just until I fall asleep."
There was no way Edward could have turned down her request, her tone laced with a plea he knew she wouldn't push if he said he wanted to go back to his room. With no immediate rebuttal from Megan in the doorway, he careful nudged her so she let him swing his long legs up onto the bed and recline against the headboard. She adjusted her position accordingly and wound up wound around the side of his body like a vine, relaxing with a final shudder.
With Edward's assurance that he'd call on her if he needed to, Megan returned to the bedroom she'd been given at the end of the hall to settle in for a restless night, going over what she'd do the following morning to get Scarlett and Rosalie on the long road to recovery. It was an incredibly daunting task, by far the most challenging she'd been given in her career.
The memory of Scarlett's grief-stricken face as she fought her sleep-demons was fresh in Megan's mind as she drifted off into a fitful sleep, knowing her first decision of the day was going to cause ructions in the house. Nobody was going to like it, least of all Scarlett.
Even just in the hours since Megan had arrived, Scarlett had repeatedly vomited, and shown all the symptoms linked to after effects of a head injury. She was obviously very poorly, and nobody seemed to be able to explain it. Her fear would be a huge hurdle to overcome but Megan was increasingly concerned about her, and knew tomorrow would be a difficult day when she voiced her professional opinion.
Scarlett needed to go to the hospital.