A/N: Thanks again for the reviews, and please keep them coming! They are my joy in the midst of this boredom! I just got done reading this really descriptive book, so I hope you don't mind all my explaining and long paragraphs.
"Yeah, Grandma, can you believe it?" A still-on-cloud-nine Riley toned to her grandmother later that evening. Dinner had long since finished and the sophomore was now laying on her bed backwards, her feet lodged on a crook in her creamy white headboard. Her cell phone was perched between her shoulder and ear as she played with a long strand of hair, listening to the reassuring sound of her mother's mother. She'd just explained her letter from Butterfield to her, and her grandma could tell how excited she was about it.
"That's great, sweetheart." The older, more experienced woman praised her favorite grandchild. She knew you weren't supposed to have favorites, but Riley had always been special to her. "I always knew you were a smart cookie."
"Grandma…" She pretended to not like the praise, but she always basked in it. Riley had always cared what her dear grandmother thought as a child, and depended on her for guidance since her mom was decidedly out of the loop. The teenager never understood how someone so self-centered and vile could come from such a wonderful lady. Once, her grandmother had told her that her daughter wasn't cut out to be on mom, but that she was sure glad she'd had Riley. In fact, Laura had been considering getting an abortion when there was no word of Nick in the following weeks, but she'd talked her out of it. There was a child growing inside of her, and that was the most precious, important thing in the world. If Laura couldn't take care of her, she would see to it that Riley was in good hands in her own home. When her own daughter had died in that terrible car crash, it had broken her heart that Riley had to move away. She would've gladly taken the child into her home, as well as her friend Allison, but the court had been very clear in its decision. Riley belonged with her biological father.
Audrey had been very reluctant to let her darling granddaughter into the hands of a stranger – especially one that had left her daughter in such shambles. She never knew the whole story until Riley had recounted it on one of her visits. At the time, it seemed as though this Stokes fellow had taken advantage of her Laura. Audrey knew Laura really asked for it. She didn't deny that she was a promiscuous girl, and brought home a different guy every week, but leave her Laura pregnant and alone? Audrey didn't often curse someone, but oh how she had cursed that Nick Stokes. Left without a word, never returned Laura's phone calls, never stopped by to see how she was doing. What a low-life. All she could do was dry Laura's tears and assure her everything would be okay. They would help her raise the baby, and she wouldn't have to be alone. And they'd done pretty well, Audrey thought, for the most part. Laura ended up marrying some other guy – a guy she never really did like that much, but he seemed to make her daughter happy. It wasn't until about a year ago Audrey had found out that feeling about that jerk had been well-founded. What he'd done to Riley was despicable. And she hadn't even noticed! Had she missed the signs that Riley was going through this terrible turmoil silently? Perhaps they had been in plain sight and this was God's way of punishing her for not knowing. Taken her daughter away, and having her precious grandchild sent far off.
That day. That terrible day. If not for the sake of her granddaughter, Audrey would have been a total wreck. But she had to be there for Riley during her time of need. Her mother was dead, and though the worst thing in life is having to experience the death of your own child, the look in Riley's eyes had just been heartbreaking. The look of a child robbed of knowing her mother as a woman, and not just as a helpless child. Riley would never know her mother truly; would never get to call her on Sunday mornings from her own home, or seek her out for advice. Not that Laura would give very good advice anyway, but Riley needed to figure that out for herself. Now her granddaughter's last memory of her mother was a fight they'd had earlier the day she died. About something stupid she'd thought too – about not wanting to spend the day with her stepfather. Riley had used profanity towards her mother, and she'd slapped her. Not the first time that had happened, but it was always a shock and quite literally a slap in the face for the poor girl's self-worth. And that was it – Laura and her husband and ridden off never to be seen alive again.
That asshole named Stokes had turned out not to be such a prick after all. After putting their rough start aside, Riley seemed to adore him from what Audrey could tell. Always described as a hard-ass, Nick seemed to control her granddaughter in a way Laura and her husband never could. She supposed it was something to do with respect. Nick respected her, and in time, Riley came to respect him. Sometimes, Riley would call her up complaining about an argument with her father, or about how harshly and unfairly he treated her. But somehow Audrey could always sense Nick was doing good for her. He kept her in line, and didn't let her slack off on her school work like Laura had. He made her go to bed at a decent hour and keep good friends. Quite literally, Nick was the father she'd never had, and had always needed. Last year she'd finally gotten to meet the famous Nick Stokes, and never in her life had she felt more comfortable leaving her granddaughter with someone. Riley was in good hands. However, there was still something selfish inside Audrey that mad her want Riley back in Tucson. Back where she thought Riley belonged. Was it possible to belong in two places? Riley was adjusting well to her new life in Las Vegas (huh – what a town to raise a kid in, eh?), but whenever she came home to visit, Audrey could just tell she was bursting at the seams with happiness. Riley loved Tucson. She loved her grandparents and her friends there. Why was life always so hard?
Much of this history passed through Audrey's head in mere seconds as her granddaughter went on about her possible future. "It's supposed to be really hard though. I'm kinda scared."
"Nonsense, Riley." Audrey chided her gently. "You were always the smartest kid in your class but you always had mediocre effort. When you actually try at something, you're good at it!"
"Yeah, but now I hardly have a life." Riley countered, thinking of how much time she had to spend cooped up in her room looking over textbooks, taking notes, losing her mind. "Dad doesn't let me do anything until my homework's done, and by that time there's only like an hour left before bedtime, which he won't back down on."
"You poor thing." Audrey mocked her, thinking Nick's rules were quite impressive and just what her granddaughter had always needed. "Your mom always knew you were smart. Smarter than she was, and she didn't know what to do with you. You know I love your mother, but she didn't have a clue what to do with those brains of yours. Guess they came from your dad." She chuckled. "And he knows what to do with you."
As if on cue, Nick knocked on his daughter's door and moments later, it opened. He was already in a t-shirt and pj pants, glasses perched on his face after taken his contacts out. Riley glanced at her alarm clock and saw that it was 9:30. Bedtime.
"Hold on, Grandma." She told her and then moved the phone away from her mouth. Riley tilted her head back so she could talk to her father. "Dad, can I talk to Grandma a little longer?"
Nick walked in further towards her desk to check to make sure her homework was all done. Not that she was stupid enough to try to pull one over on him any more in that department. All five of her assignments were checked off in her notebook and a word document still sat open on her laptop, indicating she had indeed been working on her Butterfield essay.
"Sure, baby. Just don't stay up too much longer." He told his teenager as he walked towards her bed. Nick knew Riley's relationship with her grandmother was a special one, and how could he ever deny Audrey from talking to her when she'd been snatched hundreds of miles away?
"Thanks, Dad." Riley told him as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"We're goin' to bed. Love you." He declared as he walked back towards her bedroom door. Riley told him she loved him also and soon he was gone, climbing the stairs to tuck in for the night.
"I'm back, Grandma." Riley said into the phone. "I need to go to bed in a few minutes."
"Okay, sweetheart. Sorry if I'm keeping you. I just miss you so much." Audrey confessed a bit selfishly, she thought to herself. She didn't need to make Riley feel guilty. Her week with her granddaughter had been a special one, and made her realize just what she was missing out on not having her around.
"I miss you too, Grandma." Riley agreed a bit sadly as she began to play with the strings on her black lounge pants. Others' emotions were still a scary thing for her. They had never served her well in the past. "I loved coming back for Spring Break."
"I did too, peanut." She rubbed at her tired, old eyes and wondered if she should suggest her next sentence or not. The hell with it. "You know, Ry. You could always come back for a little while this summer, if you're not too busy. We'd love to have you for a little longer, and summer break's a perfect time."
Truthfully, that sounded absolutely wonderful to Riley. She ached for her past life sometimes – just absolutely ached. To spend a month or two in Tucson over the summer would be pure heaven. She had a tendency to get in trouble over the summers because she was so bored. Maybe Nick and Sara would actually like the idea of not having to deal with her summertime antics.
"Wow, really?" Riley checked hopefully. "That would be so awesome."
Audrey breathed a sigh of relief, afraid that her granddaughter would've shrugged it off. She assumed she had some extracurricular camp to go to, or would be too excited about getting her driver's license and putting to use to come visit her old grandmother.
"Well, I'm glad you think so." Audrey smiled. "You can always talk to your dad about it and see what he thinks. I wouldn't want to impose."
"No, Grandma. I'll ask him sometime. That'd be cool." She smiled and felt her heart lighten at the possibility. How nice it would be – if she found out she got accepted to Butterfield, and could spend the whole summer in Tucson as kind of a celebration. One last hoorah before the rigorous junior year of high school began. She'd been told by friends junior year was the hardest for some reason. And what if she was in the hardest school in the county? Riley thought she had written her death wish.
The granddaughter and grandmother wrapped up their conversation with wishes of wellness and I love yous. Riley clicked her phone off and tossed it over towards her desk to find in the morning. Allowing herself a nice cat stretch, she smirked to herself at the conversation she'd just had with her grandmother. She smiled as she forced herself off the bed to go brush her teeth and perform her nightly skin ritual to maintain her pimple-free complexion. As she dabbed her face, she could distinctly hear the sound of Sara giggling upstairs. Riley rolled her eyes, trying to block out any idea of what they were doing up there. She, for one, was glad that she had a downstairs bedroom.
Riley climbed into her sheets moments later and clicked her alarm clock on for a bewildering six a.m. She then hit the radio button to listen to her favorite alternative rock station – her nightly ritual to get to sleep. It had been a habit ever since she was a little girl because it helped drown out the noises of her mother and stepfather's stupid squabbles and sometimes their subsequent make-ups. Riley had seen and heard a lot from a young age – most of what she had told to her counselor when she was feeling commutative, and a couple of select things to Nick and Sara.
Slowly, the fifteen year old with a bright future began drifting off into sleep, her body preparing itself for yet another day of algebraic equations, John Steinbeck, and World History. Barf.
CSI CSI CSI CSI CSI
Hours later, a timid Carly Stokes found the floor of her room with her painted toes, noting that the moonlight still shone through her second-story window. She didn't have an alarm clock in her room, but she knew it must be the middle of the night, not just a few minutes before she was supposed to get up. There was no sign of the coming dawn, only the faint sound of the thousands of tiny creatures that called the outside home, chirping and clicking their nighttime songs – normally their sounds went unnoticed by Carly as she slept through the night until her mom or dad woke her up, but not this evening. Another nightmare had disturbed her gentle seven-year-old sleep. It was that one again where she was at bat during a softball game, and the whole school was there watching, and she messed up. And then her parents had been so embarrassed by her performance, that they got up and left. Even Riley and Nolan! They left her! So for the third time that week, she carefully tiptoed across her bedroom and found the brass doorknob, hearing the floorboards creek. Funny how she never even noticed the sound during the daytime – only when she was trying to find her way to her parents' room in the middle of the night to find comfort without disturbing them. She didn't even need them to hug her and kiss her and tell her everything was alright – just to be surrounded by them, and their warm, reassuring bodies. All she needed was to just be there with them, since they had left her in her dream.
Carly made her way slowly across the hallway – past Nolan's closed door to where she needed to be. She hoped they wouldn't be mad at her – her mommy and daddy always acted nice about it, wanting to coax her back to sleep gently, but she always wondered if she annoyed them. There was a rule in this house that none of the kids got to sleep in their bed unless there was some extenuating circumstance – like the one time Carly had a high fever when she was four, and her mommy would bring a cool cloth to the bed and rub her tummy soothingly. The little girl swallowed as she found the door in the near darkness, and reached out for the handle. She turned it slowly, and her heart dropped in disappointment when she felt it catch in the lock. They didn't want her disturbing them tonight – so much that they had locked the door to keep her out.
Carly tried again, as if to make sure she wasn't mistaken, jiggling the stuck handle several more times in earnest. Still, the door didn't budge. One time, when she had accidentally locked herself in the bathroom when she was really little, her daddy had pushed in the door. Knocked it right in and saved her! Carly decided to give it a shot because she was so desperate to feel herself curled up safely between her mother and father, right where she belonged. She took a step back and rammed her tiny body into the door, but the only thing that resulted was her smacking her cheek against the wood. Carly sank to the floor and felt tears threatening to spill over her eyelashes. She held onto that doorknob in hopes it would magically turn as she gave in to her horrible fear of being without her parents. It had happened to Riley! Well, her mother was gone anyway. What if she never saw her mommy or daddy again?
From inside the bedroom, Sara stirred at the sounds coming from outside the door. She listened intently for a few moments, and looked down at her husband, who was still fast asleep. Sara had never been a deep sleeper. She guessed it was a side effect of her childhood. As she listened closer, she could tell it was her daughter Carly outside that door. The poor thing was pulling hard on the doorknob, which they had purposely locked that night to seal the promise of having no interruptions during their love making. Sara quickly slipped on her nightgown, threw off the covers, and rushed over to the door. She unlocked it as fast as she could to find her youngest daughter, looking quite pitiful and distressed, on the hallway carpet on her knees crying. And not just regular, scraped-my-knee crying. It was desperate sobbing. Carly seemed surprised, but relieved to see her, as Sara bent down to tend to her child. She threw herself into Sara's arms, weeping in pure relief, and what else, Sara didn't know. The kid was acting like she had been hurt or wronged in some way. She was near hysterical at the moment, so Sara decided to save the questions for later as she hugged Carly tight and rubbed her back.
"Baby, it's okay." Sara assured her gently. "Mommy's here. It's alright."
It was one of the more rewarding things about being a mother – to calm a crying, distraught child, back to a place of solace and composure. However, this time, Sara was truly puzzled. Already twice this week, Carly had come to them similarly during the night. Their door had never been locked, but before she had climbed right up onto their bed at two in the morning, and snuggled herself in like she belonged there. Like she was the missing piece of a trio. Tonight, when faced with a locked door, the kid had broken down like she hadn't done since she was three.
Carly choked on her sobs, which had since woken up Nick, still laying in his pj pants. He watched curiously from his spot on the bed as his wife comforted their distraught little one. Her temperament lately had just been off the wall. Carly had always been such a calm child, and happy. This crying, sputtering little girl was not one he was too familiar with. Sara carefully stood up, taking Carly up with her, and exchanged a worried look with her husband on their way over to the bed. Carly held on tight and kept her face buried in her mom's shoulder as she was carried to that destination she desperately wanted. Nick turned over as Sara set their girl in the middle of the bed. Her crying had now dissipated down to a few sorrowful moans and sniffles as Nick pulled the covers over her and Sara settled in.
Carly rubbed at her eyes as she felt her father pat her stomach reassuringly. "What's wrong, baby girl?" He asked gently a few moments later, after his wife shared a confused look with him and a raised shoulder.
She didn't answer for a few moments, leaving her parents' ears straining at her troubled little sounds and whimpers. "I had a…I had a bad dream and then I got scared." She reported.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Nick apologized gently as he kissed her temple. "Well you're safe now. Nothing's gonna hurt you."
Carly didn't say anything else, just looked back and forth occasionally between her two beloved parents as she both settled in facing her. The nighttime was an altering state of mind, and the confusion of the experience wouldn't be given as much thought until the morning, when they were wide awake. For now, the two parents just clasped their hands together, joining over their daughter's stomach as she closed her wet eyes. Tomorrow. Tomorrow they would get to the bottom of it, or at least try to scratch the surface.