This one is inspired by the angst of S4.8. Conrad tells Bess his fears for Harrison and after she leaves the room - she's affected. One of those moments. Yes I can write the sad stuff. I don't want to edit the death out of it. Hope you review.
Brenda
...
Wordlessly Elizabeth McCord entered her Georgetown townhouse. It was dark at the front of the house but she heard the cacophony of noise from the kitchen and family room and she could smell the Thai food and she knew her brood was home.
Home - where homework wasn't being done, where Jason had yet to take the garbage out and where her three children and her husband were bickering and carousing. She strode purposefully into the house only because she thought that if she stopped - she just might not make it and they would find her, folded in two, on the floor next to the balustrade.
They would worry that she was injured or sick. She was - but it wasn't for them to know. Only Henry and only after she could process it a little herself. Today she had heard her friend Conrad speak - and it had sucked the hope right out of her.
I'll get a call ... someone will tell me that my son is dead.
His words flat- unable to handle the emotions she knew would cut him in two.
Many people saw Conrad Dalton as a very strong man. Others found him cold and manipulative. Elizabeth knew it was all true - just as it was of her many compartments. The irony of being an outside the box thinker is that in order to be good at it- she had to store all of her history and lived life into tiny little boxes in her soul.
She had arrived. There was the crowd. She could see smiles, she could smell the blend of sharp chilies, feet, and the lavender candle Stevie would have lit to clean the air of the scent of five end-of -day McCords and their dinner. Every family had a scent and this was theirs. Occasionally it would irritate her and she would insist that everyone shower more frequently, and she would Febreze her couch; but today ...
Elizabeth cared about none of it. She heard the greetings of Mom and Babe, but could not reply. Instead she simply leaned over the couch and she left a kiss on Alison's raven head. She saw Jason, and she held back her tears as she tousled his hair quickly and as Henry shot her a look of concern she silenced him with a quick, deep kiss on his lips; followed by a caress of his cheek with her tired hand. She was tainted with the poison of the world. He was so pure and so perfect and she had touched him.
Stevie came over from behind the kitchen table and Elizabeth gave her a bone crunching hug. The hypocrisy affected her - but her humanity needed to express love to these people that she loved with every ounce of her being.
She ignored the calls and worried voices of "What's wrong with mom?; Laryngitis and Shut up dorks something must have happened. "
She toed off her heels to ground her self and headed upstairs shedding her clothing on the stairs. The red jacket landed with a thud, the white blouse had a button at the back. She wanted to snap it off. It occurred to her that the scent of her body at the end of a long day could be a contributing factor to the McCord's needing lavender candles but that was alright. She needed to feel connected to her family.
She sensed her husband behind her - gathering her items as quickly as she let them go. In her head she knew he was doing his part in their drama. She was grateful.
She lost the skirt in her bedroom and her black bra and panties found a home on the bathroom floor. Selfishly she knew they would make it to the hamper. Because he was like that for her.
She climbed into the glass shower and turned the water on full blast.
She cried for Harrison, for Miguel and their families. She wasn't sure she could a thank a God she didn't necessarily believe in.
There was Henry - the man in which she did. Perhaps that was where God lived.
She was grateful that addiction had not ruined her family. She cried for the Americans for whom it had. She vowed to keep her children away from opioids. She wouldn't sleep tonight. She would instead be grateful that Stephanie had not become part of Harrison's world. She would regret that he hadn't become more of a son to her. Perhaps she and Henry could have helped to alter that young man's life.
She cried for as long as their was hot water in the heater.
When she was ready she found her softest flannel pj pants folded on the counter and her yellow Peter Frampton t-shirt. She had married the kindest human on earth.
This was how they would fight evil - two parents dedicated to making the world safer.
Just so long as when one of them broke the other was there to hold out a helping hand.
They would make it.
End.