Chapter 5 - Fatherly Strife
Lizzie hurriedly explained to the kids how to use the public entrance to the Ministry via the London underground. When they appeared in the fireplaces that lined the main corridor, Lizzie had to catch Ally's fall because she failed to realize in the commotion that it was her first trip using floo powder and the rush of it, without the slightest bit of warning, had knocked her half unconscious. Lizzie let her lean into her arm for most of the walk up.
"Teddy, can you take Annie back home, let your dad and Charlie know what happened, tell Charlie to come meet us here and see if he can bring Arthur... I'm going with Ally to find someone to talk to," Lizzie instructed. Teddy and Annie both disappeared into one of the fireplaces and Lizzie headed up the corridor with Allyssa in a hurry. It was nearly deserted.
Lizzie was an auror for a brief spell of time after the war, but surprisingly enough, hated it, despite it being her career ambition for so long. She worked alongside Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville, but her and Neville broke off around the same time.
Once they were in a lift, Lizzie rounded on Allyssa and tried to gauge what she was thinking and feeling considering the abrupt change of circumstances. "Ally, are you alright?" Lizzie asked cautiously. She shook her head and her face contorted in suppressed pain.
"Stupid bloody fucking question, I know... but I'm pretty sure my brother-in-law, Ron, is here and we're going to need as much information about your sister as possible, alright? Can you help us with that?" She asked. Ally nodded.
"Ok, and you're safe, I promise you're safe," she reassured her with a sympathetic, protective hug.
"Auror department," the voice in the lift said and Lizzie ushered her out into a familiar line of offices.
"Ron!" Lizzie shouted, her heart was starting to race as more time ticked on. Dudley surely knew by now, Charlie would be on his way, hopefully with others, and an onslaught of thoughts rushed through her mind.
Seamus poked his head out of his office and frowned at her. "Liz?" He asked and got up to approach her.
"Hi, Ron here?" She asked breathlessly. He leaned in for a hug and kiss on the cheek but noticed her urgency.
"He'll be back in a few minutes, stepped out for a bite. What's wrong?" Seamus asked. He looked at Ally.
"Not Annie," he said confused.
"My goddaughter, cousin's daughter, Allyssa. Ally, this is Seamus, classmate, former colleague, good friend," she left off former boyfriend but both had wedding bands and didn't like to bring that bit of history up.
"Listen, Charlie should be on his way, I really need your help. Can we sit somewhere to talk?" She asked. He gestured her into his office and they sat down.
"Ally's sister, Ivy, is missing. Ally got into Hogwarts. Ivy and the rest of the family are muggles. I took the kids in to get school supplies and when we went back to meet her mum, her sister, Ivy, had since disappeared..." Lizzie explained.
"Why didn't you alert the authorities?" He asked. She paused for a moment trying to collect the reasoning in a way he would understand it.
"Well, you know my upbringing, my cousin grew up in that church too, obviously," Lizzie started to explain. Seamus nodded.
"He met Janine after she had already had Ivy with her husband, Dennis Landry, same caliber of horrible as that man my uncle married me to... she was young, baby on hip, and Dudley, my cousin, while under the magical protections we gave them during the height of the war, ran away with her and her daughter. They've been under an alias ever since, they had Ally not long after I had Annie. I stayed with them when I...disappeared... besides the point, Janine, her mom, never initiated divorce proceedings. She wasn't quite eighteen yet at the time to do so, and then she didn't want to get in trouble for essentially kidnapping her daughter with Dudley, much less risk Dennis getting custody. If they get prosecuted for that, both girls lose their parents..." Lizzie explained. Seamus was following for the most part.
"You want our help to find her then?" He asked. "Any idea what happened?"
"She was working at her mum's coffee shop with her for most of the day. Janine said Ivy heard someone at the back door, went to check, and then she noticed after a bunch of customer commotion that she never came back," Lizzie continued.
"Any chance she ran away?" Seamus asked.
"I - don't think so," Lizzie said. "Ally, your dad has steered clear of the catholic church hasn't he, particularly the Cyprian Council?" Lizzie asked.
"Yeah, we go to holiday mass at one of the big churches on special occasions, but it's not one of the Cyprian Council churches. They wouldn't want to risk it, he still insists we worship at home though..." she said.
"He's... good to you both, right?" Seamus asked cautiously, glancing at Lizzie.
"Yeah, he's never laid a hand on us. I've heard a bit about what Ivy's dad did to my mum, and what Dudley's dad did to Lizzie, but they try to keep that hushed around us," she explained.
"Does she have a boyfriend, any reason to bolt?" Seamus asked.
"She's fifteen," Lizzie said.
"Your point being?" Seamus asked a little sharply, as if Lizzie was one to talk.
"No... um... Ivy doesn't like boys. She has a girlfriend named Sarah from school. But don't tell my parents that, please," she said.
"Would she have gone anywhere with Sarah?" Seamus asked.
"No, her and Sarah have been prepping to go to Oxford since they started high school. She wouldn't sabotage that, it's all she goes on about," Ally said. "It's her dad, I think it's her dad, Dennis. She's fifteen... he must have tracked her down," Ally said frantically.
"How would he have found her?" Lizzie asked.
"I've had suspicions she found him, she started asking mum a lot about him, but my dad shut it down every time. She wouldn't remember the abuse, she was too young," Ally explained.
Ron arrived back with food and was swiftly briefed, blind sighted by the abruptness. Charlie jogged in worried shortly thereafter as well, and Lizzie sent Ally home with him.
"I'm going to go talk to Finch-Fletchly's dad to see if he has any information on Cyprians in this area, Justin said years back his father was a lawyer and kept tabs on human trafficking cults," Lizzie explained.
"We'll set out. Let us know if you get any leads," Ron assured her.
Lizzie checked in to the barrister's office on the other side of the city, and asked the receptionist if Mr. Finch-Fletchly was available for a drop-in meeting, insisting that it was urgent, and was not above using magic to miraculously clear the man's schedule if she needed to. He came out of a client meeting ten minutes later and Lizzie introduced herself.
"Hi, I'm Lizzie Potter, we haven't ever met in person... but..." she said frantically.
"Hello!" He said enthusiastically. "Lovely to finally meet you, what an honor! What can I do for you?" He asked and gestured her into a small conference room. Justin had mentioned years ago when they were in school that his father was a litigator and recognized the church she grew up indoctrinated in as one of the ones his father followed for various civil abuses.
"The Cyprian Council, what's its status out here?" Lizzie asked, bypassing small talk. He gave her a grim look.
"Are you looking to press tort charges?" He asked. Lizzie shook her head.
"My cousin's daughter went missing earlier, we think the church or one of the members might be involved," she said.
"Missing persons should go through law enforcement..." he interjected. Lizzie explained the situation to him.
"I remember discussing this years ago with Miss Landry, but she didn't initiate any legal action. I'm so sorry, Lizzie," he said.
"Can you run public records or anything of the sorts on Dennis Landry or any close relations to him, and let me know if there are leads?" She asked. He nodded. "Thank you, please say hello to Justin for me next time you see him," she added politely.
Ministry and barristers, no police... Lizzie thought. She looked up and down the street hoping something else would come to mind. She'd spent a ton of time with Ivy when Ivy was about three years old, but knew very little about her overall since, nothing on a deeply personal level. Dudley was family she kept at arm's length for her own sanity, even though she did care a lot about the girls.
She could only come up with superficial things anybody would know. To her left she saw a line of young children in two-by-two line up coming down the sidewalk. They were following a nun at the front of the line. It wasn't a school day so this must be a boarding school or orphanage outing. Lizzie's shoulders tensed and she turned on spot to apparate. The Wool orphanage was now a resource center and non-denominational adoption agency by the name of Kellison International, an ode to her late classmate, Nadine. Lizzie rang the buzzer and paced a little before someone came on the intercom.
"Do you have an appointment?" A woman asked through the speaker. Lizzie pressed the button again.
"No, is Christopher Lupton available?" She asked.
"May I ask who is requesting a conference?" She asked.
Lizzie paused in thought. "My name is Lizzie Potter," she said with her heart pounding in the wake of her voice.
"Mr. Lupton isn't available, Ms. Potter. Would you like me to send along a message?"
"No... um... yes, could you ask him to send along any information he has on the Cyprian Council to Ethan Finch-Fletchly? He's a solicitor helping us with a missing person's case... I will try to touch base with him another time. Thank you."
Lizzie was extremely apprehensive about checking in with Janine and Dudley. She rapped on the door to their townhouse with her breath held tight in her chest and Dudley opened it. She couldn't read him, just pain and fear resonated. He stood like a gatekeeper at the door and finally conceded to let her inside without a word leaving his noticeably twitching lip.
"Did you find anything?" Janine asked with urgency when she saw Lizzie. Her eyes were profoundly swollen from crying.
"I have the auror department at our ministry looking for her. I spoke to Ethan Finch-Fletchly, he's the father of a former classmate and a solicitor here, you'll remember him. He is going to try to track down information on Dennis. Ally thinks it's Dennis, she's suspicions Ivy might have found or been in contact with him," Lizzie explained. She braved a glance at Dudley who seemed to be boiling. Janine shook her head.
"No, that's impossible..." she said quietly.
"Is there anything you can think of outside of that?" Lizzie asked.
"No - I - Unless it was a complete stranger..." Janine said, dumbfounded.
"Ally said she has a friend named, Sarah," Lizzie added.
"She's not allowed to see Sarah," Dudley said curtly. Lizzie narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.
"Why?" She asked. Janine had her fists balled up with intense resentment as she glared at Dudley. He glared back with a look of warning at his wife.
"A student teacher at their school caught them in a vacant office. The displays of affection they were engaged in wasn't acceptable," Dudley said.
"Would it still have been unacceptable if Sarah's name were Sean or Shane?" Lizzie asked a little reproachfully.
"Of course it would," Dudley hissed back.
"What if said boy was middle aged and poised to marry her, then no problem at all, right?" Lizzie snapped. Dudley made a forward move that made Lizzie impulsively take a step back.
"We still try to live by Christian principles, Lizzie. Not only did I flout the institution of marriage by robbing a man of his wife and child and helping her abort another... I have lived in sin with her for twelve years, my daughter is a witch, my stepdaughter is reportedly gay, now she is MISSING, and I can't help but think it's what we deserve for..." he ranted.
"Don't you dare say, HERESY! You think Janine and Ivy were better off with -" Lizzie started to say, outraged.
"OF COURSE NOT, BUT MY MOTIVE TO DO RIGHT DOESN'T MAKE WHAT WE DID RIGHT!" Dudley roared back. His voice at that level made her chest seize.
"I want Ally back here tonight, let us know of any leads, but go," he said through a clenched jaw. Lizzie glanced at Janine sympathetically, she could tell her nails were clawing into the skin of her elbows the way she held her own body supportively.
"Jen, do you want to come with me to get Allyssa?" Lizzie asked. Janine's eyes said yes, but Dudley seized Lizzie's arm and walked her to the door aggressively with a heavy gait.
Lizzie turned to face him as he unlatched the door. "I'm not bringing her home to you like this," she said, her eyes blazing, but her heart hammering. She glanced over his shoulder at Janine who shook her head in agreement that Ally shouldn't come home. Dudley's free hand slammed hard into the door, inches from Lizzie's face.
"God damn it! For a bloody hero you sure do jump out of your skin, don't you? I'M NOT MY FATHER, LIZZIE!" He yelled close to her face. Lizzie pressed her back to the wall, her wrist still locked in his grip. "You should know! YOU WERE THE LAST TO SEE HIM!" He shouted.
"Dudley, I'm not bringing Ally back here," Lizzie said with shake in her chest.
"I - HAVE - NEVER - HURT - MY - DAUGHTERS! AND I NEVER HURT YOU EITHER!" He screamed. His hand hit the door repeatedly to punctuate each word.
"Dudley, stop!" Janine yelled. She stood paralyzed in place at the exchange. Lizzie could almost see the trauma from her former husband's rage climb like raging fungus to the surface of her skin.
"When your mum took you to the hospital that night when we were attacked..." Lizzie said quietly. Dudley shook his head.
"Liz, stop," he breathed.
"He did this. He did exactly this and then..." her breath was uneven.
"LIZZIE, STOP," Dudley said with boiling reproach, knowing what his father did. He'd overheard him and Damien make humor from what they did to her. He knew that sealed their fate. He knew it was the straw that made her decide to kill him. "I want my girls back," he whispered and his voice cracked. His eyes were swelling around pent up anguish and fear and Lizzie was able to slip her wrist from his slackened grip.
"I promise I will find Ivy. But I can't bring Ally home to you like this, I won't. Dudley, I'm sorry this happened. But I -" she stopped as he wiped tears from his face and felt astonishingly sorry for him.
"Please go," he breathed with another pitiful break in his voice.
"Ok," Lizzie whispered. Janine nodded a silent reassurance and Lizzie left shaken to the core as she shut the door closed and sucked in a sharp breath of cool night air before apparating home.
"Made some tea," Remus said, with a saucer cup in his hand as he knocked on Teddy's door before opening it. Teddy quickly pulled a hand out of his cardigan pocket and clenched a hand around a slightly bleeding palm so his father wouldn't notice. His summer reading was sprawled out on his desk, but the essay he was supposed to write for Charms had doodles connecting various words and letters his father frowned down at.
"Not what is typically meant by creative writing," Remus said with a chuckle and sat backwards on the extra chair he pulled up to the desk.
"Yeah, the essay was chicken scratch anyway," Teddy said and reached for the cup of tea.
"Holding up alright? Charlie told me about what happened," he said. Teddy nodded.h
"I don't know Ivy very well, but I don't think she bolted," Teddy said. "Allyssa thinks it was her dad, not Dudley, I mean," he clarified.
Remus sighed. "Lizzie is..." he started to say.
"Going to unravel if she can't find her, I know..." Teddy said with apprehension.
"I was going to say she's bound to find her," Remus said. "Try not to worry. It's no help if we all unravel over it," he added.
Lizzie knocked on the doorframe a moment later and Remus could tell immediately she was distressed. He got up to greet her as Teddy hid a silver grooved object in his desk drawer that still had a layer of blood on it. He felt his hand go numb slowly and watched the lunar calendar on his wall tick closer to the full moon with a mixture of both reproach and trepidation. His mother stared back smiling at him from a photo on his desk and he ran a hand over his face shamefully.
Lizzie rounded the corner of the hallway out of sight of any of the kids and Remus followed. His hands barely hit her shoulders when she gasped for a breath she felt like she'd been holding for hours and started to feel the suppressed panic rise. Remus pulled her in for a tight hug. "You need something for nerves," he said into the top of her head. She nodded not wanting to be let go of. Every panic response in her body was still on fire and Remus hurried down the stairs for a draft of peace he was sure he had a bottle of somewhere.
"Mum, are you ok?" Lizzie looked to the door on her right to see James looking frightened, so she lied and nodded, wiping tears from her cheeks in a hurry.
"Yeah baby, go to bed, ok?" She followed him back into his room and tucked him in. Before she headed downstairs, she pushed open Annie's bedroom door and saw Ally curled up in a ball asleep on the trundle bed. Annie was on the main bed folding the new clothes and eating a bag of chocolates painfully slow. She looked up at her mother and then down at her cousin sympathetically.
"Any news?" She asked quietly. Lizzie nodded.
"No major leads, but we've got people on it..." Lizzie whispered.
"You look like you saw a ghost," Annie said. Lizzie's face contorted involuntarily in pain.
"Yeah honey, I sort of did," she breathed, seeing her uncle in her cousin's face could have stopped her heart. She stared at Ally sleeping with crippling apology.
"She said she saw the door of the back coffee shop when she picked up that omen book, and a man in a flannel and a beanie hat sitting at one of tables. Janine would have recognized her husband, wouldn't she? If he was in the shop?" Annie asked. Lizzie frowned and nodded.
"I don't know, Annie, I really don't. She has visions?" Lizzie asked. Annie nodded.
"You should get some sleep, we can talk more later," Lizzie said. Annie nodded as she left.
Remus had a potion bottle on the counter as Lizzie entered the kitchen. "Want to talk?" He asked apologetically.
Lizzie paused for a long moment after downing the contents. "They got Ivy," Lizzie said. "She doesn't even have a point of reference to what they're capable of... She'll be married to the highest bidder, she doesn't even like men, much less these sadistic fucks," Lizzie's voice dried out at the end of her sentence. "She just vanished like smoke. Ally claims to have had a vision. She thinks it's Ivy's father, Dennis. That poor girl had everything going for her. Dudley and Janine raised them to be independent on purpose and now Dudley is spiraling..." she continued.
"He's... It's like Vernon lives somewhere deep in his bones and he's only pretended to reconcile with the fact I killed him. Maybe he would have been able to if his mum hadn't done what she did..." she went on feeling the draft of peace ease her jumping nerves. "I was supposed to bring Ally back but I can't, I'm not sure I know what he's capable of. If I could have taken Janine I would... where's Charlie?" She asked. Remus was listening intently and didn't have much input except reassurance that she was doing everything possible.
"He's coming back anytime, he went to talk to Arthur about this and possibly Kingsley," he said. Lizzie nodded.
"I'm going to turn in then. Goodnight," she said, and squeezed his arm.
"Annie, honey, are you in there?" Charlie asked, rapping on the bathroom door hours later. He could hear someone heaving and crying on the other side.
"Go away, I'm fine," Annie choked. Charlie opened the door slowly and saw her on her knees in front of the toilet. He knelt next to her to feel her face, she was clammy and pale.
"I can't eat the chocolates anymore," she said, tears bubbling.
"It's- supposed to make you sick, but not this bad, honey, I'm sorry," he whispered apologetically.
"I don't want any of it anymore," she said angrily. He nodded and looked extremely sad.
"Annie, it's going to get worse before it gets better, but I promise it will get better. I'd never do this just to cause you pain," he said as he rang a towel in the sink and pressed it against her face.
"Can you tell me what it does?" He asked.
"I feel like I have memories that aren't mine. They're horrible. In my wildest imagination I couldn't dream up this insanity..." she said but heaved again even though nothing was left to throw up.
"Maybe I shouldn't go to school," she said. Her nerves were getting the best of her.
"That's out of the question, sweetheart, of course you're going to school. You won't be alone," he said, now concerned. She shook her head.
"I don't know..." she whispered. He kissed her temple and rubbed her back reassuringly.
"Do you need something to sleep?" He asked. She nodded. He had a calculating look and gave her a dreamless sleeping draft when she turned in for bed. She fell asleep in due course from the potion and he tucked her in wishing she was small again. His heart hurt badly for her but she slept peacefully and that was a comforting thought. Charlie hesitated with trepidation and pulled a needle syringe from his pocket and stuck it gently into the crook of her arm to disperse something into her bloodstream. She stirred slightly but he held her steady and stroked her hair comfortingly. His mouth trembled when he kissed the top of her head.
Lizzie was curled up in a tight position on the blanket when he climbed into bed. "Are you awake?" Charlie asked close to her ear. Lizzie nodded and he wrapped an arm tight around her body. "We'll find her," he whispered. Lizzie's face was swollen from reliving the conversation with Dudley earlier on repeat.
"Nobody else can die because of me," she breathed. Charlie turned her onto her back and looked down at her face.
"We're all alive because of you," he said, brushing hair from her eyes. Lizzie tried to roll away but he kept her on her back. "Look at me, we'll find her," he said reassuringly. "Can I get you something to sleep, or for anxiety? You're rigid, you can't keep yourself locked up in your own skin this tightly."
Lizzie scrunched her face in pain. "I already took something," she whispered. Her temples hurt and he seemed to know because he rubbed one side with his thumb until her face relaxed some. Lizzie ran hands under his shirt and pulled him close with her arms around his middle as he continued, his skin was warm. Hers did the same and he replaced his thumb with lips that went from her temple to her collar bone.
He reached for the hem of her knickers and she grabbed his fingers. "You want to stop?" He asked softly. Lizzie closed her eyes and shook her head no. She felt his mouth curl into a smile against her neck. "...didn't think so," he said, pulling them off a little more assertively than he started.
He sat up on his knees and pushed her legs apart around him before placing a hand on her abdomen. "Do you know what I miss?" He asked, running the hand up her chest and pulling her t-shirt over her head.
"That glow you had when you were..." he said with his eyes fixed on her body below him.
Lizzie shook her head and he smiled a little wickedly. "Charlie..." Lizzie breathed and he kissed her passionately almost deliberately preoccupying her mouth so she couldn't protest. "Charlie, not another baby, unless you want to lose your man bits," she said, coming up for air. Not only did she never want to be pregnant again, Draco's comment about her and Astoria never having business having children stayed with her. He laughed into her neck at the comment. Her hips protested, wanting him desperately, and he pushed her arms up over her head.
"You sure?" He asked hungrily.
"Yeah, I'm never doing that again, it's the most painful thing in human existence," she said.
"You've been relentlessly tortured and taken countless curses, I find that hard to believe," he said.
"All less painful than birth," she said and cracked a laugh. He was perplexed by this.
"Even with Jamie?" He asked, knowing she almost died with Annie, but he did everything to make it bearable for the second.
"Yeah, better than with Annie, but I still had thoughts of feeding you to a horntail," she said. He smirked a little and ran a hand apologetically over the scar along her abdomen she cut herself when she'd had her daughter. Lizzie suddenly found she couldn't move her arms and gripped the pillow case tight in her fists. "Suit yourself," he said with a smirk and kissed her mouth passionately before making his way down her abdomen. She squirmed around the sensation but his hands had her legs firmly in place. Her body relaxed around him and it was one of the few vulnerable positions she trusted, knowing release was the only way to break the charm his hands had effortlessly created. He could take her like this easily and get the baby he wanted, but wouldn't. He never asked for anything in return either, unless she initiated it. She curled into him after, finally able to find a shred of relief from the still pressing anxiety.
"Lizzie, honey wake up," Charlie said urgently. She could barely hear him over a pounding heart. It was still dark even though hours had passed, and she was on her stomach. He didn't know how to touch her when everything he'd tried made her flinch and tremble. Lizzie pushed her face deeper into the pillow now soaking wet with tears. She dug nails into her scalp in agony with a scream pressing so hard on the inside of her chest she couldn't breathe. But opening her mouth did nothing, her body swallowed it back into her stomach that was now writhing in pain and pressure.
"You need to breathe," Charlie said, stroking her head. She was trying to find his words in the haze she was in, trying to cling to him like a life raft out to sea, but he was slipping. Her body hurt like it had been beaten badly. Her skin was cold but also sweating profusely. She kept her eyes fixed on an object on the bookcase bringing herself back into her bedroom, with her husband, nothing was happening, her mind just couldn't differentiate. His hand moved to the curve of her waist and she wriggled away, curling into a ball he knew he couldn't approach until this episode was over.
She was reliving something too hazy to place. She was in a room with a cracking fire and waves on the shore could be heard in the distance. The hissing and cracking noise grew louder in her ears. Hands were pressing her down into the mattress and she was shaking in terror. She suddenly felt herself fall to the floor in Aberforth's loft, yelling involuntarily in raw pain. She pulled off her knickers and water was soaked everywhere as she begged under her breath that this wasn't happening. She wadded up a blanket and bit hard into it trying to bear down but only blood started to pool and her heart raced faster. Her pelvis felt like it broke and she used her elbows to crawl into the bed. The only person she needed was her mother and she used the stone to summon her but Lily was in helpless tears watching Lizzie suffer in pain. She looked into the mirror across from her on the wall and startled at the image of someone straddling her chest with hands pressed firmly on her protruding stomach. "Get off!" She yelled when a white-eyed doppelganger of herself smiled back into the reflection. "GET OFF!" She yelled again and Charlie tried to calm her down.
"I'm not going to hurt you, nobody is going to hurt you," he said, trying to release her hands from her scalp before she dug actual holes into it, unable to escape the confines of her own mind. He got each of her hands into each of his and her grip on each was tight enough to crush a rock.
"I cursed her..." she said breathlessly to herself as her face contorted in pain. "My fault..." she whispered.
"What?!" Charlie asked.
"I can't lose my baby. Mum, I can't lose my..." she trailed off. She started to breathe too ragged and Charlie desperately needed her to wake up. Her words weren't coherent but climbing. He placed a hand on her chest and felt her heart race too violently to not be lethal.
"Lizzie, honey, you need to wake up. WAKE UP!" he yelled, frantically. It wasn't going to work she'd spiraled too far out of control. He leaned forward and kissed her clammy forehead guiltily and then swung a hand hard at her face. At the crack of the slap, she froze and went silent. For a moment she was back in her bedroom with her husband. In the mirror she saw a hazy outline of her daughter.
Lizzie closed her eyes around an intense pain and was somewhere she didn't recognize. It was a small room with a bed half the size. She could see legs of someone standing beside the bed, but was unable to look up. Her vision wasn't clear. She felt clothes peel off her body and get discarded on the floor as she weakly protested to the best of any limited ability. She stared down at the pile trying to disassociate from hands now on her hips. Her eyes were fixed on the blouse with an embroidered coffee cup above the right shoulder hem.
"I got you," someone said quietly.
"I got you," Charlie said as Lizzie clutched his forearms and tried to lift herself up into a sitting position.
"Mum!" Annie shouted from the room down the hall. Charlie told Lizzie to stay put and headed to the bedroom. Allyssa was curled up in the corner and Rhiannon was in a similar position on her bed with her jaw fixed tight around the edge of her pillow.
"What happened?" Charlie asked. Annie was looking at Ally like they'd both witnessed something horrible. Then she looked up at her dad with saucer-sized eyes. It was clear to Charlie each of them had just experienced the same, or almost the same thing.