Calls Me Home
"Are we there yet?" Logan piped up from the back seat of Quinn's Jeep the following afternoon, not for the first time since the family had left Tree Hill.
Clay smirked at his son through the rearview mirror, watching the eight-year-old squirm restlessly in amusement. "If we were there already, we wouldn't be on the highway, you dork," he pointed out. "Why are you so jumpy today, huh?"
"Surprises make me nervous," the eight-year-old confessed softly. "Look what happened last time, with the news about the baby." He pressed back against the sturdy leather of the car seat, as if ashamed of his words. "I'm still sorry I ran."
"Don't even go there, squirt," Clay interrupted firmly. "We shouldn't have sprung such a big thing on you so suddenly. I wish you wouldn't ever worry about losing us again because it's never gonna happen, but I get it."
"Mom was so excited, though," Logan sighed. "I guess it feels like I ruined the moment."
"You scared us by running, it would take a lot more than that to ruin such a big moment," Clay promised. "That's not an invitation to push the limit, just by the way."
Logan leaned forward with a faint smile and braced his hands on the passenger side headrest again; "I know," he said simply. With Clay's jacket wedged between her head and the window, Quinn had been fast asleep for the better part of the journey. "I also know why this trip is taking so long," he added decisively. "Mom is the fun one, total I Spy Queen."
"I resent that, Wolverine," Clay pouted. "You realize you just called me boring?"
"Just for that look on your face," Logan giggled mischievously. "Mom doesn't normally sleep on car journeys, it's weird."
"Shhh," Clay hissed, throwing Quinn an affectionate side-ways glance as she shifted in her sleep. "The alternative is a miserable journey with lots of queasiness, just let her sleep."
"That's another thing I don't like," Logan said seriously. "The baby makes Mom sick, it's not really fair."
"True," Clay agreed with a distracted nod as he focused on the road. "It's like I told you, bud, fair or not, this is just how it works. Your mom knows all her nausea will be worth it in the end, it means the baby is healthy."
Logan grinned when Quinn's mouth gradually fell open as she dozed. "Healthy is good," he said. "Seriously, are we there yet?"
"Almost," his father sighed in exasperation. "Instead of playing I Spy, you can probably figure out where we're going, you know. Christmas isn't the time for bad surprises. Stop worrying so much, you goof."
Meanwhile, at Atlanta's best psychiatric facility, Melissa and Bobby were guided down a seemingly endless, white-washed corridor by a friendly nurse. Fiercely independent though he was these days, Bobby clung firmly to his mother's hand as they passed a series of gloomy patients' quarters. Some doors had square panes of glass embedded in them, windows through which to observe the unfortunate souls occupying each room. "Your sister is one of the sanest people we have staying here," the chatty nurse told Melissa earnestly as she bustled around another corner. "Her residence here is pretty much voluntary at this point. She often says the lithium has an unpleasant numbing effect on her emotions, and avoiding a dose too often makes her a bit unstable; that's really nothing compared to some patients."
"I've heard that one before," Melissa said fervently, squeezing Bobby's hand reassuringly when a man with a wide-eyed, demented stare leered eerily through one glass panel at them. "If it's only about the meds at this point, it would be nice to have her come home again. I'm here to convince her of that," she explained shortly.
The young blonde nurse smiled reassuringly at her; "It might actually be good for her to give the world outside this place another try. I haven't worked here that long, but I heard she's been out before and got into a spot of trouble. Second time's the charm, maybe, who knows?"
"More like the third time's the charm," Melissa shuddered involuntarily. "The first time she was locked up was five years ago for delusional impersonation of a dead woman. She's been in and out of here many times since, but there are some things one never forgets."
The nurse had frozen in the act of unlocking Katie's room at that revelation, and too late, Melissa realized that even Bobby was staring up at her in vaguely horrified wonder. He had only been three years old on that fateful November day, after all. "Family is family, no matter what," she added, even as the memory surfaced forcefully. "We just really need her to come home."
November 2013 – Five Years Earlier
"What did you bring the kid for?" Kevin Riley frowned at his wife as she arrived at the police station with their three-year-old son in her arms.
"He's three years old, Kevin," she sighed at his typical, disapproving tone. "Mrs. Taylor, next door didn't answer my call, what did you expect me to do? Besides, your call sounded urgent."
"Crazy old lady needs her hearing checked," he grumbled, guiding her towards the holding cells at the back of the building. "Whatever, I thought our arrest today might interest you."
"Why's that?" Melissa asked, absently smiling at the policewoman guarding the cell they stopped in front of.
She carefully hoisted their sleeping son more comfortably into her arms as Kevin dismissed the other cop with a charming smile. Then he turned to her again and asked: "Did you notice the guy pacing out there?" Melissa shook her head, so he led her surreptitiously back down the corridor for a better view of the reception hall. The man Kevin nodded discreetly towards was now giving another policeman his statement. Beside him stood a tall brunette shooting him periodic glances of concern, and Melissa could see the couple's intertwined hands shaking even from this distance.
"What's his case?" Melissa asked, unable to determine what this had to do with her.
Curled against her shoulder, little Bobby began to stir just then, and Kevin scowled at the boy before responding: "That's Clay Evans. He's a local sports agent here in Tree Hill. He also became a widower about two years ago."
"Sounds rough." Melissa grimaced sympathetically. "What does that have to do with me?"
"A certain someone tossed her lithium in the trash and apparently started stalking him after a chance meeting at an Atlanta tennis convention," Kevin explained mysteriously. "Sound familiar?"
His smirk was decidedly unpleasant as he watched her put the pieces together. "Lithium…," she repeated slowly. Her naturally large brown eyes grew even more prominent in horror as the implication hit home. Kevin followed her closely as she lurched towards the holding cell and stared through the bars. "Katie?"
"That's not all," Kevin continued, coming up behind his wife as she gazed in shock at the dazed blonde in the cell. "Apparently, our Katie got so delusional after going off the medication that she went blonde to impersonate Mr. Evans' dead wife. We had to use a mild sedative to get her in the car. She was threatening to jump off the bridge at the pier."
"Oh God," Melissa whimpered, trembling so violently that even Bobby woke up properly and stared at her with his big, innocent eyes. "Do you have the key to the cell?" she asked Kevin urgently. "I'll talk to her; there has to be a way to get through the delusions."
"That's the real reason you're here," he said as he unlocked the cell. "We can't hand Katie into psychiatric care until we get her side of the story, and she won't talk."
"Kids aren't allowed in the holding cells," another cop hovering nearby reminded Kevin, and he grudgingly took the three-year-old from Melissa as she approached her sister.
"She'll talk soon enough," the brunette vowed as she knelt before Katie and carefully took her hand. "Right, honey? What happened out there?"
Her younger sister's dark blue eyes were eerily blank as she slowly looked up, and Melissa shivered. She could hear Kevin muttering to himself as their son began to squirm but kept her questioning gaze locked on Katie; "He called me Sara," she moaned, barely coherently. "He said he believed me. But he loves Sara, not Katie…I had to be Sara!"
"That's the late wife's name," Kevin cut in when Melissa stared at him with a baffled expression. "What did I tell you? She's totally lost her mind."
"Shut up," Melissa protested on her sister's behalf as Katie pressed her hands over her eyes. She turned to her sister again and lowered her voice tenderly; "Tanisha told Clay you threw your lithium away," she began hesitantly. "Why would you do that, Kate? You know how important it is to keep your moods stable."
"He obviously thinks I'm a freak no matter what," the blonde pointed out, scowling in Kevin's direction. Melissa followed her miserable gaze to find her husband returning the glare equally coldly.
As she watched, Bobby twisted around in his father's arms and reached towards the bars of the holding cell; "Auntie Kay," he babbled happily, straining against Kevin's frustrated grip.
"Put him down," Melissa instructed, facing her sister with a triumphant smile. "The ones that really matter will always be on your side, see? Come here." She dragged her sister off the metal bench in the cell and towards the bars that were keeping her from freedom.
"Hi, buddy." Katie's voice was choked as she caressed her nephew's tiny fingers through the bars. Her lips quivered as she leaned back into her sister's soothing touch; "I really screwed up, Mel," she said softly. "It's just…with the lithium, I feel so numb, you know? Without it, I apparently go crazy but taking it all the time it's like…I lose myself. You don't know what it's like to lose the feeling of knowing who you really are."
"You're wrong, sweetie," Melissa sighed, narrowing her eyes defiantly at Kevin's skeptical expression. Katie's head was bowed wearily against her shoulder now. "I think you're more likely to lose yourself without the medication because, without its mood-stabilizing effect, anything can happen. Besides, I know exactly who you are," she whispered with a faint smile as Katie looked up at her curiously.
"Oh really?" she pressed in disbelief, stroking Bobby's hands through the bars as if to keep hold of her reality.
"Yes, really," Melissa repeated, grateful that Kevin had finally given up scoffing at them and wandered off. "You're my sister, and that's the one thing you always will be, understand?" She affectionately squeezed her sister as Katie gazed wistfully at the toddler outside the cell. "I love you, and so does Bobby," she promised. "No matter what happens from here, we'll face it together."
"Thanks, Mel," Katie sighed as another policewoman came over to inform them it was time to leave. "I love you, too."
"Mom, are you worried Aunt Katie will refuse to come home?" Bobby asked tentatively, interrupting Melissa's internal war with her conscience.
"No," Melissa lied quickly. "She can never refuse you, baby." She met his hopeful gaze with difficulty as their escort unlocked Katie's room. "Aunt Katie's moods go up and down a lot, but she usually listened to me when that happened. You know when that changed?" Bobby ripped his gaze from the glass panel in Katie's room door and shook his head slowly, waiting expectantly for the answer. "When you were born," she said. "Tell her how much you need her, and she won't be able to say no, I promise."
"What about if Dad finds out we're here?" Bobby pressed. "He's going to freak out completely! You saw what happened to the Christmas angel."
"Yeah," she agreed softly, stroking his hair soothingly. They finally entered Katie's room, and the nurse backed away. "But we're not made of glass, okay?"
But Bobby ignored her; oblivious to Katie's wide-eyed shock at their sudden appearance, he flung himself on her lap and held tight. Melissa stared at her sister from the doorway, taking comfort in the return of her natural dark brown hair. "I need you, Kate," she said pleadingly, and that was that.
A / N I never thought I could write Crazy Katie in a sympathetic light, but I'm not giving up on this story. The updates may take a while, but I hope everyone enjoys it! xx