(I own only plot.)
Casper was four months old. Mara, Jasper and Trudy all doted on him. Everyone usually steered clear. One evening, Mara was holding her brother while her parents were in the kitchen. She kissed his tender forehead. "I love you, baby boy." She whispered.
He gurgled. Joy asked "Hey, Mara, could I hold your brother?"
"No! It's my job to protect him!" Mara defended, holding him closer.
Trudy called "Oh, sweetie, just let her hold him, he won't come to any harm."
"Mum!" Mara gasped.
"Come on, do as your mum says, Mara." Jasper told her.
Joy grinned and held out her arms. Mara sadly shoved her brother into Joy's arms and stormed out. Her mother made a noise of protest, but Mara was past caring now. She burrowed under her duvet and hid. Her father walked through the door and sat on her bed, resting a hand on her back. She snapped "Get lost, Jasper."
He softly rubbed her back. "Don't be like that, Mara. I don't like seeing you upset."
"Well, do as I said and get lost. I was happier before I knew I belonged to you and your evil wife. I was always content to be someone else's child!" She snapped. He sighed.
"Mara, that's hurtful. I know you didn't want to let Joy hold your brother. I understand you loving him, darling. I do. All three of us love him. But she only wanted to cuddle him. You're being unreasonable, baby girl."
"Oh, well. I don't care. Just go be with the people you love and stop wasting time on me." Mara snapped at her father.
"Listen, Mara, I don't like to hurt you or punish you. But you're not getting what you want by being rude. Just come downstairs and join your mum and me. we can talk it out."
"You mean give you and her some time to yell at me for wanting my brother safe? Whatever. Come on, I'll give you the satisfaction of being horrible to me for doing what you two should have. Forgive me for trying to give him the love you two aren't capable of!"
Jasper followed his daughter downstairs. Trudy looked at her, clinging to the baby. "Mara, sweetie..."
"Oh, cut it out! Just yell at me, get it over with!" Mara snapped. "I want this over with, so that I can get to my bed and think of ways to leave you all!"
Trudy softly whispered "Darling, I'm not going to yell at you. I want you to sit down here with me and tell me what hurt so much about giving her a cuddle with your brother."
"I just wanted to show him that someone wasn't going to parcel him off! So much for letting me love that poor creature. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I want nothing to do with you, your idiotic husband or your baby!" Mara snapped, slammed her hand down, waking Casper, who wailed, then she stormed out again.
Trudy was reduced to tears. "Oh, what did I do to her? Jasper, I need a hug." She sobbed.
He held her. "She'll come around, Trudy. You know she will."
Mara slipped out of the house. She walked to the stores, buying all manner of makeup, hairdye and short, black clothes. She made herself over. When her mother walked in, she almost had a heart attack. "Mara Isabel Choudhary! What on earth have you done to yourself?!"
Mara gave her the two finger signal. Trudy seized her by the ear and dragged her to the bathroom. She forced soap into Mara's mouth and poured water into her soapy mouth then forced her to spit. "Trudy, what?!" Mara yelled.
"You will not swear at me! And to think you did that to your lovely hair and skin! And those thin strips of leather! You're not wearing that out!"
Mara just slapped her. "I hate you!" She spat at her, then stormed out.
Trudy followed her and slapped her much harder. "You're grounded! For the next... forever! You're grounded forever! Understand me?"
Finally, Mara broke down and she couldn't take it. She started crying. She collapsed onto the ground, wailing. Trudy was confused. Mara sobbed "I'm sorry, Mum! I know I'm a rebellious, idiotic, useless daughter!"
Trudy's heart shattered. "Oh, baby, I'm sorry, too! You're not a useless idiotic daughter! I'm a useless idiotic mum! Oh, baby, I'm so, so, so sorry! Why did I ever start all of this? I hurt you, baby girl! I hit you! Oh, I'm so sorry, dearest. How can I ever apologise enough? You poor baby."
By then, Trudy was crying too, clinging to Mara. Mara sobbed into her mother's chest, crying hard. "Mum, this whole thing kicked off because I didn't want Joy to hold Casper. I was jealous of her, in case she was more special to him than me." Mara sobbed.
Trudy clung to her. "Aw, baby. Nobody will ever measure up to you! You've been a little mum to him since he was born. You've taken over night feeds, taking his bottles and feeding him. You're such a good sister, darling."
Mara sobbed "No, I'm not! No baby should have such a pathetic sister that even their parents don't want!"
Trudy sobbed out "No, darling! You're not a pathetic sister! And your daddy and I do want you, we just couldn't look after you when you were little, we had no money! Please don't feel like we don't want you."
"You may have wanted me then. And up to today. But now you've seen how terrible I am." Mara sobbed. "All you and Dad have done is be good to me and I've just thrown it all in your faces and started being the worst person alive!"
"No! Baby, no! You've not done that! Please don't say that. Oh, my baby. Here, is your cheek OK?"
"Yeah. I totally deserved that. Are you OK? You've suffered so much." Mara looked at her mother's tear-stained face, gently examining the skin.
Trudy just smiled, even though she was so upset. "You're the one suffering, my love. Baby girl, I'm so sorry for hurting you."
Mara hugged her. "No, Mum. I hurt you. It wasn't you who used a filthy gesture, it wasn't you who lashed out for no good reason, it wasn't you who started shouting her mouth off when someone was trying to be sweet."
"It was me who grounded my beautiful little girl, soaped her mouth, slapped her and screamed in her face and made her cry. Darling Mara, that's wrong. And you couldn't have known any better than what you did, darling. I know I don't know them and this is really not my place, but still. I don't think those people who raised you taught you right. They let you go about doing all of that and it went swimmingly."
"But you had a good reason for everything you did! If I ever had kids and they did all of that, I'd have punished them the first time around."
Sweet to the core, Trudy held her daughter close. "My darling, please never grow up. Don't have kids, don't get married, don't date, just stay with me and be my baby." She whispered.
"I'll do anything for you, Mum." Mara whispered, snuggling in. If there was one thing Mara wanted right then, it was to be her mother's angel. But she found herself saying "Mum?"
Trudy whispered "What is it, dearie?"
"I'm engaged to Jerome." Mara whispered.
A/N: OK, that turned out very angsty... Very sorry for the late update. Hope you like this. :). I'll see you all again soon. (POOF) BlackCat46 vanished.