A/N: Thank you for all the kind words! Now I feel like I should explain Papa Legba a little, because in this fic he's not as much a solid being as he is a personification of death. He's a figure of speech of sorts, like the Grim Reaper. Thought I should mention it since this differs from both the show and the original legends. Anyway, enjoy!
It was a late night of March. Cordelia was in the living room reading, while Misty sat on the floor, playing with a new plant she had brought in from the greenhouse. She said it needed some space of its own, so she placed it on the floor and spent hours just looking at it and fidgeting with the leaves. Her mere presence soothed Cordelia's troubled mind and she took to reading in the peace it gave her. She needed the distraction today. It had been an exceptionally bad day at work for her mom. She knew this, because Fiona was in the process of getting very drunk. She had started during dinner and the speed, at which she emptied her glasses of wine, told Cordelia that today was going to be one of those days.
Now she was somewhere upstairs. Cordelia knew she wouldn't be wandering off into town today. She had drunken her first glasses so fast she couldn't be bothered to go out. The haze was settling in too quickly.
Cordelia tried to work through the turmoil of her mom knocking things over and stumbling around on the second floor. She wanted to tell Delphine to go help her, but Delphine was nowhere to be found. Cordelia knew she had daughters and one of them still worked for her old employer, so she figured she was there. And it had to be critical for her to go to Spalding. She considered asking Misty to tell him, but thought it too silly to go through with. She convinced herself that he was probably watching her anyway. She believed he always was.
Cordelia bent down over her book and tried to ignore the noise. Misty was in another world, gazing at her plant, not one bit bothered. Cordelia envied her ability to shut the world out.
A loud crash ripped through the silence and this time it was so loud, it couldn't be ignored. It couldn't just be something getting knocked over. Cordelia jumped out of her chair and ran towards the staircase.
She stopped dead halfway through the hallway.
Fiona lay at the bottom, moaning in pain. There was blood on her forehead and as she clumsily reached for her head, red smeared out into her hair blonde, ruffled hair. A large vase, which must be the source of the noise, rolled around on the next level, threatening to tumble down after her. Earth and broken green were spread out on the stairs.
"Mommy!"
Cordelia ran to her, but she stopped a feet short, afraid to touch her. Fiona only groaned and fought to turn onto her back. Cordelia stared in horror at her right wrist. Wrists were not supposed to bend in that angle. An icy cold sense of dread started to spread from her stomach out into every corner of her being.
"Mommy, you're hurt!"
Fiona's eyes sought, tried to zoom in on Cordelia's face and it took much too long. The blood ran down in a single line over her cheekbone until she smeared this out too, leaving a gruesome amount of red on her pale face. She tried to move herself, but as soon as she put pressure on her broken wrist, the arm flinched away and she cried out. She almost fell down, but Cordelia reached forward to catch her. She felt her mom's body tremble with shock and adrenaline.
"I fell down, I… That goddamn plant." Her voice was slurred and she still wasn't able to focus. Her good hand clutched at Cordelia's and the tight grip frightened her. Out the corner of her eye, she found Spalding. He was standing there, tripping, looking at Cordelia as if begging her to do something. The tears burned in her throat and she struggled to think through it.
Misty came to stand beside Cordelia, a silent but comforting shadow. A small hand reached into hers and Cordelia turned towards her. Through her own eyes, blurred with tears, she saw that Misty's had no trace of fright. She had on a concentrated expression as her eyes quickly scanned Fiona, before meeting Cordelia's again.
"Misty, can you help her?"
The girl looked up at her, asking. They had promised not to tell Cordelia's mom.
"I mean it. Please heal her?"
Misty nodded. She let go of Cordelia's hand and took a careful step towards Fiona, who shied away from her intense gaze.
"Mommy, please don't move. Misty can help."
"Don't be stupid, girl, I need at hos-" She stopped talking as soon as Misty's little hand touched her face. Her eyes widened. Cordelia knew that she would feel a supernatural warmth blossom under Misty's touch and she tried to calm herself. Wipe away the tears. Misty would save her.
It took only a second to heal the head injury. Cordelia could even see the haze clear from her mom's eyes, just a little. She didn't say a word, when Misty let go of her and picked up the fractured arm.
With her gaze dead focused, Misty made a snap movement of her hands and Fiona screamed out, as the wrist popped back into its correct position. Cordelia gasped and took a step back. She had never seen Misty heal bones before. Fiona's chest heaved and she tried to pull her arm back, but either she was too weak or Misty was too strong. The girl didn't even flinch, but kept up her strange contact with the broken body part, even as her own body started to waver. The more energy Fiona regained, the less Misty seemed to have. For a moment her eyes fluttered and Cordelia thought she was going to faint. Cordelia skipped over and rested a hand at Misty's back and one at her arm to keep her upright. She felt oddly cold, Cordelia noticed, but she continued to stare at the wrist, until Fiona relaxed her shoulders and sighed. Then Misty loosened her grip and stumbled back into Cordelia's embrace.
Fiona pulled her hand back with a violent rush.
"Don't ever do that again!" She hissed at Misty, who backed out of Cordelia's loose embrace, but didn't say a word. She looked exhausted, but she kept eye contact. "Christ, what are you?"
Misty bowed her head and Cordelia thought she looked sad. "Just me, Mrs. Goode."
Fiona stared from one girl to the other with wild eyes.
"Somebody explain this to me!"
"Misty's a healer", Cordelia said in a quiet voice. "She healed me in the forest the first day I met her."
"You knew about this?" Fiona's expression was pure incredulity. She send Misty another appalled look, before she pierced Cordelia to the spot. "You knew and you didn't tell me?"
A lump gathered in Cordelia's throat, as she held her mom's furious stare. Misty came to her side again and took her hand. She felt stronger again. Cordelia bowed her head and looked at the floor.
"I was afraid you would sent her away", she admitted in a whisper.
"Trust me, I'm debating it!" Fiona got up then – clumsy still but more secure on her feet, as the fog of alcohol seemed to have lifted – and looked around the room, mumbling something about a kennel. When she started walking, panic caught Cordelia and she threw herself at her mom, fisting her hands in her dress.
"No mommy, please! She's my best friend! Mommy, please don't send her away!"
Fiona yanked her dress free.
"Not this mommy, mommy, mommy, you're driving me insane!" She stopped then and looked down at her daughter's tear soaked face. "Leave me alone now, I have to think. Spalding!"
The mute butler stepped out of the shadows that same moment, as if he had just been waiting for her to recover and summon him – or, Cordelia thought irrationally amidst her desperation, to devour his defenseless prey, when no one saw it. She shook the thought away.
"Get me an aspirin and a glass of water. And a phone."
"Please…"
Fiona shot her another glance and Cordelia silenced her prayer. Then FIona looked at Misty, who stood silent by Cordelia's side, staring right back, and finally back to Spalding.
"Get the phone. I need to call Myrtle."
O0O
Fiona sat in her chair in the living room with a diet soda – she had packed the liquor away for now – in her hands, waiting for Myrtle to be done tugging the girls in. She couldn't wrap her head around the incident with the stairs a couple of days ago. She was used to dealing with crisis, hell her goddamn job centered around it, but this… She had even went as far as paying her sister's plane ticket, just to get her here in a rush. Crazy as she was, Myrtle had a better handle on… oddities. Magic. She couldn't make herself say the word out loud. But was it that?
She recalled the sense of heat under her skin. Soothing, but out of this world. She had no other word for it.
Her daughter had called her a healer. She had made Cordelia tell her about every scrap the strange orphan had ever healed, made her explain it over and over, until her voice grew hoarse, but Fiona still didn't get it.
Myrtle finally entered the living room. She had on a quiet smile, which stifled as soon as she saw Fiona's face. She sat down on the couch to her left and settled in, as if for a story. Fiona supposed it was. One crazier than all those goddamn kiddie goodnight stories and the most insane part was that this one was true.
"Now will you tell me why you went out of your way to get me here in a blink? You know I love seeing the girls, but I have a job."
"I'm sure they can live without you for three days", Fiona snapped. She wanted to say more, but stopped herself. It would be so much easier to pick a fight, but she had to tell. She couldn't be alone with this… thing. This child.
"Something happened the other day… I fell down the stairs-"
"Oh Lord, please tell me you were not drinking with Cordelia in the house!"
"Not the point Myrtle! Now shut up, this is important. I fell down and I hit my head and my wrist was… I was sure it was broken. It bend like…" Fiona felt her wrist as she explained, watched it as if afraid the spell would be over as soon as she talked about it. It had bent in such an awful direction. "And then that little thing. That kid! She touched my face and I felt this strange warmth and then it stopped hurting. Myrtle, she popped my wrist back into place! It hurt like a slap of Papa Legba, but then that warmth again and it was gone! I know it sounds insane, but I'm telling you it's true. And Cordelia, she has known it the whole time! I'm not even sure, if I understand what happened and I don't know what to do with it!"
Myrtle carefully adjusted her glasses before looking at Fiona again.
"I think we best keep it to ourselves. For the sake of the child."
Fiona stared at her. "You know?"
"Yes sister, I know. They showed me the first time I met Misty."
Fiona couldn't sit down anymore. She flicked her wrist at Delphine, who disappeared and came back moments later with a glass of wine. Fiona had made a silent promise to cut back on the drinking, but this was too much for her to handle sober. Myrtle opened her mouth to speak, but Fiona silenced her with another wave of her hand and drank half the glass, before she felt calm enough to face the room again.
"Do you realize you're leading on a dangerous route here?"
Fiona ignored the question. "Why would she tell you and not me?" She demanded instead.
Myrtle rolled her eyes. It was not something she did often; it was a gesture almost exclusively reserved for Fiona and she hated sharing.
"Why, I don't know sister, let's evaluate your reaction, shall we? I have a vague suspicion that has something to do with it."
"Don't play clever. We both know you're not."
"Cleverness is many things, Fiona. I may not have your talent for manipulation or know what to say to win a case, but I know your daughter and I know you. You don't handle things, you cannot understand, very well."
"Oh and you understand it?" Fiona walked to the window, too agitated to look at Myrtle. Hearing her voice so calm, so full of superiority for getting her daughter's attention the most was threatening to pull her apart at the seems.
"I can't say that I do. But I accept it. And you need to do the same, if you want to keep them both."
"Who says I do?" Fiona spun around, so fast a drop of wine jumped from the glass. "Who says I want that little witch child? I never did, I only did it-"
"For Cordelia. Yes. Because this is her only friend and you know it."
"Can't you take her?"
Myrtle laughed. She was the only one Fiona knew who could laugh and sound sad at the same time. Fiona resisted the urge to throw her glass in frustration.
"Take Misty with me? Darling, I live in New York. In a broom closet, remember? My late husband didn't leave me quite as much as one could have hoped. I have no resources to care for a child. She is an extraordinary girl, but she can't survive on adoration alone. And it would be cruel to separate the girls now. Don't you see how close they are? One moves, so does the other. Keep them together sister, it's what's best."
Fiona scowled and sat down again. Took a sip of wine. Myrtle leaned back into the chair, relaxed now that she knew she had won. Fiona remembered the desperate look on Cordelia's face at the thought of losing Misty.
"So you'll keep her here?"
Fiona nodded without a word.
"Good. Now, Delphine?" Myrtle turned her head as the maid came in. She didn't look as sour today, Fiona noticed. Maybe she just enjoyed watching Fiona lose. "I would like a glass of whatever my sister's drinking. She can't possibly have emptied it already!"
O0O
Misty was out in the garden, when he came running by. She sat by the greenhouse, counting flowers – Cordelia had told her how to add up the yellow ones with the white ones and she liked math better, when she could do it outside – when a shadow tumbled by. He was running away, from what she didn't know, but the fear shone from his body. Misty craned her neck to follow him. He was outside the perimeter of their house. Misty didn't know the neighbors, apart from what their faces looked like, but she didn't believe any of them could inspire this amount of terror in anyone.
As she watched him, he lost his balance and tumbled to the ground. He fell behind their neatly cut hedge and Misty could no longer see him. But she could hear him cry out.
He was hurt.
Misty got up. Pain called to her like a siren calls a man to the waters. She could not ignore it. Cordelia could sometimes steal her focus, which was how she had kept Misty from using her ability in Fiona's presence before, but Cordelia was not home from school yet. She would be very soon, but for once, Misty had something else on her mind.
She went around the house and out on the street. She was rarely here alone, but she knew the surroundings well enough to find him.
The man was barely conscious. He lay with one arm stretch out in front of him, as if this arm had broken away under him, when he tried to break his fall. He whimpered in a thin voice and his eyes were barely open. Misty saw his injuries next. A nasty cut over his shoulder and blood all over his shoes, as if their insides were flooded. There was a rough looking wound on his forehead too and it's mirror on the pavement. His eyes were wild with fear as he watched her come closer.
Misty crouched down in front of him. "It's okay. I'm here." This was what Cordelia usually told her, when she was scared of the foreign things at night. Misty mimicked her words and stroked the man's face with soft, gentle fingers. He closed his eyes and stopped whimpering. Misty noticed how his blood looked so dark. Yet when she picked it up with her fingers, it looked just as red as her own did. Maybe it was because his skin was so dark. Misty had never met a man with such dark skin before. And his hair was black, short and much more curly than her own. And that was saying something.
She laid a hand over his curly hair and felt the texture of it for a moment, before the energy started surging through her. By then she felt only that and her mind zoned in on the wound in the man's head. It was deep; she could feel it. There was something underneath, which she couldn't reach. It was another wound, but it worked differently; the energy in her wouldn't touch it.
She had to leave it. His scalp was intact again and she moved on to the cut in his shoulder. This gave her no trouble.
The man had fallen unconscious and he didn't move, when Misty pulled his blood soaked shoe off to gain access to the last injury.
Misty froze in shock. There were two toes missing.
She felt her hands shake as she put the shoe down. It looked so wrong. A man doesn't just loose the two middle toes. Misty knew that much. She stared at the tortured foot. She couldn't grow toes back. She placed a hand to stop the bleeding, but that was all she could do.
This was how Cordelia found her.
"Misty!"
Misty heard her from a distance and looked up to see her run over. She was pale and her eyes darted from her to the unconscious man on the ground. They teared up as she watched him. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I saw him fall and I heard him screamin', so I tried to help him. Delia, why is his toes missin'?"
"I don't know", she said with a shaking voice. "I'll go get help, stay here with him!"
Misty sat down by him, waiting for Cordelia. His breathing was even and Misty knew that apart from what had happened to his head, which wouldn't let her fix it, he was okay now.
Cordelia came back moments later with Spalding.
"Mom isn't home yet and I can't find Delphine. Spalding, what should we do?" Cordelia looked up at him. He returned her gaze, but remained immobile. Then he looked at Misty, down at the man and up at her again. She understood his question.
"Okay I think. But I can't fix his head." She looked at Cordelia, who shook in her small frame and her eyes kept returning to his abused foot. "Inside?" Misty asked.
Cordelia tore her eyes away and nodded. "Spalding, can you carry him?"
Spalding nodded and moved closer to hike the man up on his shoulders. They started walking in a morbid parade towards the house.
"Delia?" Misty took her hand and pulled at her, so she would look somewhere other than at the foot, dangling on a lifeless leg down Spalding's back.
"Yes?" Her voice was a mere whisper.
"Why does his skin look different? And his hair?"
Cordelia finally looked at her, with wonder it seemed. Then her eyebrows lifted, as if she realized something.
"Oh he's just a black person. Some people are. Queenie, that girl I talk to sometimes, she's black too. We live in a white neighborhood, so of course you couldn't know that. We should get you out of the house more."
Misty nodded in understanding and looked at him again. Particularly his head, which rolled on Spalding's shoulder. "I hope he's gonna be okay."
Inside Cordelia directed Spalding to the couch, where they lay him down and Cordelia got him a glass of water. She also found a little bucket and a towel to wash his forehead.
He woke when she did so, and with a jolt. His eyes darted open, he sat up and looked around with confusion painted on his face.
"Where am I?" He asked.
"At the Goode house", Cordelia answered him in a polite, cautious voice. Misty could hear that she was still scared. "My name is Cordelia. What's yours?"
"It's… um… M- I…" He stopped himself and reached for his head, rubbing his forehead. Misty wasn't surprised, when he said: "I don't remember. My head is... It hurts, did I hit it?"
Cordelia looked at Misty and so did the man. Misty nodded.
Just then, Delphine came in from the kitchen. She froze in the doorway and stared at the new guest with wide eyes.
"Heavens! What is happening here?"
Cordelia started explaining everything in a rush and the man listened just as carefully as Delphine did. Misty couldn't decide which of the three looked most shocked.
"What do we do, Delphine? We need to call the hospital-"
"No!" She shook her head. "No, child, let me handle it. I believe I've seen this man before, when I visit my daughter, you see. I'll get him home, maybe that'll help jog his memory. If not I'll make sure his family calls for help."
"I don't know, Delphine. Maybe I should call my mom."
"Miss Cordelia, as the adult present, I must insist. Your mother has no time to deal with this, be sure of that! I'll get him home." All the while they talked, the man looked back and forth between them, misery becoming more and more clear on his face. Misty felt sorry for him, because she knew that what was in his head was hard to fix.
"I would like to get home, if you can show me, miss?" He said to Delphine. Her face pulled into a strange grimace and she gave him a tight nod.
"Spalding, help me support him", Delphine told Spalding, who shuffled forward to help the man to his feet. He hooked an arm around Spalding's shoulder and tried to walk, but the missing toes disrupted his balance.
"Thank you", he said and turned his head to Cordelia, as they reached the door. "I meant to say thank you for helping me. I hope I didn't scare you."
"It's quite alright. Get better", Cordelia told him. Misty waved as they left the house.
O0O
"Put him down here, Spalding", Delphine commanded. They were at the back of the house. The man dragged from Spalding's shoulder and whimpered on about who to ask first, when he got home and how did Delphine know him and could she help him figure everything out. Delphine didn't answer, but kept behind them both.
Spalding was a wonderful tool, she found. He had no will and he could be ordered around by anyone. She had him leading the vile thing in front of her and when they were safe from all eyes, Delphine was free to pick up one of the large rocks, which they used to block off the hedge, and smack the negro over the head. She used force, as she had learned this one could withstand a lot.
The vile thing tumbled to the ground yet again and Delphine winced at the sight. Maybe she should skin him and use him as a rug. The attic was horribly impersonal. And the he surely wouldn't run away again then.
"Now Spalding, haul him up the stairs and be sure not to make noise. And", she said this close to his face. "If you try to tell on me to your precious Fiona, I will cut something off you too. And her."
His dull eyes came to life at that. The white of them became much too visible and he shook his head violently. A promise to keep quiet.
"Good. Get hauling."
He did as he was told, sending her disgusted looks, that she held no regard for. Delphine was ecstatic. She had managed to avoid a disaster. Had the Madame been home, surely he would have gone to the hospital and they would find out. It was another miracle that the vile thing had lost his memory and couldn't tell Miss Cordelia and her filthy little friend, what he had been running from.
She shoved Spalding out of the door, as soon as he had hanged the body, where it had run from. A nice, sturdy wooden wall with tight bands to fasten his arms and torso. She made sure they were extra tight this time. She shoved a piece of cloth in his mouth and the movement woke him up.
The haze of confusion lifted far quicker this time. As if his body remembered, what his mind couldn't. He started screaming, but the cloth muffled the sound.
"Now, Mason", Delphine said with a wide smile on her face. The negro stared back at her with panic rising like tears in his eyes. "Where were we?"
