A/N: Happy Oct. 1! I found time to edit but not to write, so you get an update in lieu of an angsty one-shot.
"You don't need to sound like you expect the phone to bite you, even with all that ghost stuff you and that husband of yours get up to."
Maddie blinked. "Alicia," she said, more for Jazz and Vlad's benefit than anything else, "I didn't realize you'd gotten yourself a phone." Last Maddie had checked, Alicia hadn't had a landline, and Spittoon was a notorious dead spot when it came to cell service. Not even all the farms had been connected on a party line when she'd been growing up.
Sure, she'd given Alicia her cell phone number, just in case, but Alicia had never used it before. Typically, if she called the house and didn't get an answer, she'd just leave a message. Maddie had never needed to get back to her about anything urgent. Letters and surprise visits had always been sufficient.
"I didn't. Calling from the general store, like always."
That…was even more unexpected. Not that Alicia had made trip, as she certainly had in the past and it wasn't terribly far from her place, but…. Maddie checked her watch. "It's only 8:30. I didn't think Johnson's opened till ten?"
"You think I ain't never done a favour for Dottie?"
Maddie frowned. If Alicia was calling in favours…. Alicia was the sort of person who hoarded owed favours. She hated being in other people's debt but enjoyed having something to call on in case she was ever in a pinch, though Maddie could count the number of times Alicia had admitted to being in a tight spot on one hand. More often, Alicia dug in her heels and found a way to deal with the problem herself, even if her solution wasn't ideal and often when said solution was more time-consuming than asking for help.
If Alicia was calling in a favour now, then it must be some sort of emergency.
That wasn't indicated by her tone, though, which sounded about the same as it always did. No trace of panic, though there wouldn't be even if it did merit that. This was Alicia, after all. Even as kids, she'd been quicker to anger than Maddie, but she kept a level head.
"What's happened?" Maddie asked. Alicia appreciated straightforwardness. "You're not calling just to chat." She was tempted to say she couldn't do this right now, that a second family emergency could wait, that her son was missing and trying to help a girl who might be dying because of Maddie, and that was more important than whatever Alicia had to say—
But this was Alicia, and she wouldn't have dug out the number for Maddie's cell phone on a whim, and she certainly wouldn't have called in a favour if the situation weren't dire.
"You need to get down here."
That wasn't an answer, let alone one Maddie might have expected. "I can't. Believe me, I want to support you in whatever you're going through right now, but—"
"You think this is about me?"
Maddie didn't know how to answer that.
"I wouldn't be calling if this were about me."
That…was all too likely to be true.
"What's going on?" Maddie didn't know why she was whispering, especially when Jazz and Vlad were going to listen in regardless.
"I figure you've got one chance to make amends with your son," was Alicia's blunt response. Maddie's gasp alerted the others, but she waved off their questions. "I don't know what you've done to your kids. I don't approve of it. If I were told the truth from them, I probably wouldn't even be calling you right now. Kids don't run for no reason. And if they had good reason, you know darn well I'm protecting them, even if it means protecting them from you."
Maddie couldn't find her voice.
"I figure you can come here and explain to me what you say is going on. And then I can tell them what you said and ask them for their side of things again. And then I'll think about whether or not you should get a chance to talk to them and see if your son agrees with me, and then I'll tell you what we decided."
It wasn't a guarantee, but it was so much more than she'd had before.
Danny and Danielle weren't necessarily staying with Alicia right now—if she were calling in favours, they could be housed anywhere in the county, something she'd know Maddie knew—but even if they were, trying to circumvent Alicia's terms to see them would be foolish.
Her sister had always been very good at making booby traps, and sneaking around wouldn't exactly help Maddie's case.
"Okay." There was nothing else to say. "I'll catch the first flight I can. I'll—"
"Just come alone," Alicia interrupted. "Now's not the time for Jack to barge in with nothing more than enthusiasm."
And an apology, Maddie wanted to say. Always an apology. But Jack wasn't the one who needed to apologize—not yet, at least; she had to do so first—and she gained nothing from defending Jack now. Alicia knew his character nearly as well as Maddie did; she already knew what Maddie could say about him.
"All right." She'd make her own apologies to Jack later. "Thank you."
Alicia, being Alicia, hung up the phone without any sort of ceremony, including a goodbye. Maddie listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before hanging up herself. She met Jazz's eyes and then Vlad's and said, "I have to go to Alicia's."
"Now?"
"What happened?"
The questions were voiced at the same time, so Maddie shook her head instead of answering them. "Jazz, please put aside your differences with Vlad long enough to work with him until this is over. You two can continue to check the tracking device." The tracking device that was no longer necessary. Probably. Hopefully. If Danny refused to see her, if he hadn't known of Alicia's call and this spooked him into running again…. "Keep me informed of any updates from Sam and Tucker and Jack. I'll take a Fenton Phone with me, but I'll only have it tuned to your channel to minimize distractions."
"Daniel's still missing," Vlad said, and there was something in his voice that Maddie couldn't quite place. Reproach? Suspicion? "Surely no family emergency is more important than this one. I always got the impression that Alicia was quite self-sufficient."
Vlad had never met Alicia, but he'd heard stories. "She is," Maddie agreed, "which is why, if she needs me there, I know that I have to go."
Jazz's lips were pursed, and Maddie wondered if she suspected the truth, but she didn't ask. She wouldn't, not in front of Vlad. Maddie hadn't thought she'd have reason to be grateful for Jazz's mistrust in him now.
Alicia was right. Danny, regardless of whether he agreed to see her, didn't need her to bring an overprotective sister down on him, nor an enthusiastic and loving father, nor an old family friend who'd spent practically their entire relationship pretending to be his enemy in order to prepare him.
"I can fly you in the helicopter," Vlad offered, but Maddie shook her head.
"No; it's best if you work with Jazz. I'll take Air Grits. They go right over Spittoon, and there's time for me to catch the next flight."
"Mom," Jazz started, and then she bit her lip as if second guessing herself. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
She wasn't, really. It would be different if she knew for certain that Alicia had had Danny's blessing to call, but…. "I have to, honey." She pulled Jazz into a hug and whispered, "Hold down the fort here for me, okay? I love you." She didn't say that often enough.
"Of course," Jazz said as she returned the hug. "Love you, too."
It was a relief Jazz could still say those words and—presumably—mean them.
Maddie wasn't sure Danny could, but she'd find out soon enough.
Maddie had time to shower and change into casual clothes before leaving for the airport.
She didn't bother packing a bag.
The trip was as uneventful as ever, though she wasn't sure if the queasy feeling in her stomach was due to the horrendous turbulence or the knowledge of what was coming. She misjudged her leap from the plane, landing nearer to Johnson's General Store than Alicia's cabin, but that was just as well. The usual crew was chewing tobacco out front, and Jasper spat out a wad before standing and nodding at her. "I'll let Alicia know you're here," he said.
Maddie didn't protest or ask how much any of them knew of the situation. She simply folded up her parachute, took it in to Johnson's—they'd get a finder's fee for returning it to Air Grits—and sat on the sun-warmed steps to wait, wondering if she was already too late. Perhaps she should've taken up Vlad's offer of a helicopter after all. It wouldn't have been hard to direct him to Spittoon. Then again, she wasn't sure how far his helicopter could travel without needing to refuel, and—
"What on earth did you do now, Maddie?"
Maddie jumped, not sure how long she'd been lost in her thoughts. Jasper had already returned to his usual spot, and Alicia was towering over her. She climbed to her feet. "Not here."
Alicia didn't move. "I ain't taking you to those kids till they agree that that's what I should do."
"I know, I just…." Maddie took a deep breath. "They're safe, at least?"
"Currently safe from you, yeah."
The words hurt. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one you need to be saying that to."
"I know. I…. I hope they'll listen to me."
"We'll see." Alicia glanced over at the guys who were, in Maddie's opinion, doing an awful job of pretending they weren't listening. None of them had hit the spittoon even once during her short conversation with Alicia. "Let's head to the back forty. We can check the crop while you talk."
Maddie bit her tongue instead of arguing and followed. The farm wasn't Alicia's—she had a garden beyond the rhubarb patch but not fields of crops—but Maddie wouldn't be surprised if Alicia helped out. Most people around here helped each other out when they needed it. It wasn't a mentality Maddie had ever intentionally drifted from—hunting down the ghosts that came through Amity Park had been helping the people—but she wasn't fool enough to insist that she was still the same person she'd once been.
Alicia would call her out in a heartbeat if she tried.
Alicia didn't start the conversation, and after a few minutes, Maddie decided she didn't want to be wrapped in this silence any longer. They'd be far enough away from listening ears now. "Does Danny know you called?"
"He does now."
Maddie winced. He hadn't before, then. "And he's okay with that?"
"That was one thing I didn't give him a choice about."
"Why? Why call me at all?" Another thought struck her. "What did they tell you?"
"That's something I might answer after I hear things from you." Alicia glanced over her shoulder. "I wanted to see your face when you told me. Your tells haven't changed."
That explained Alicia's insistence on phoning and asking her here before getting an explanation, at least, but…. "I didn't know what I was doing."
Maddie didn't need to meet her sister's eye as she said it to know the look that would be on her face.
"Should you have?"
"Of course not! We had hypotheses that needed testing, but we hadn't had a chance to test them, that's the point, and—" Alicia stopped and looked over at Maddie as she drew level, her argument dying on her tongue at the look on Alicia's face. There was more than just disappointment reflected in her furrowed brow, more than just controlled anger causing her mouth to twist like that. "What?"
"What happened to that sister of mine who cried whenever a bird flew into the window and never flew away again?"
Maddie frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"You used to have compassion. Empathy."
Her insides were twisting again. "I still do."
Alicia raised an eyebrow. "Do you now." It wasn't a question. "That's not the impression I get from the kids."
"I didn't know what I was doing," Maddie repeated, but it sounded like a hollow excuse now. "I didn't."
"But you should have."
"I just said—"
"You should have. You would've, once. But then you went off to college and made some questionable friends and a questionable career choice, and you aren't as smart as you used to be."
"That's uncalled for."
"Is it? The Maddie I grew up with would've used her head a bit more than it sounds like you've been doing lately."
Maddie sighed. "Look, I know you don't believe in ghosts—"
"Didn't. I believe in something near enough now. I'm not fool enough to ignore the evidence right in front of my eyes."
At some point in the walk, Alicia had snagged the head of some fescue grass and was bending the stem around her fingers. She always liked to be doing something. Maddie supposed she should be grateful Alicia hadn't decided to pull out her pocketknife instead and pick up a branch to start sharpening stakes for later use.
"I didn't know there were any ghosts that weren't ghosts," Maddie said. "It shouldn't be possible for a human to have ghost-like abilities, at least not long term, and a complete transformation is unheard of." She swallowed. "Was unheard of."
"You try to keep an open mind to the possibility?"
Maddie frowned. "We've seen humans with ghost-like abilities in the short-term, when a ghost virus swept through Casper High, but—" She broke off, seeing the unamused look on Alicia's face, and thought of what Danny and Danielle might have already told her.
I'm human, too.
She must know that Danielle had tried to tell Maddie the truth. That she hadn't listened. That she'd kept going regardless—
"Ghosts lie." It was a feeble claim even to her own ears.
"Do they? Every word? Or about the same as any human might?"
Maddie swallowed. "I didn't know," she repeated. "I thought I was just studying a ghost. I— I wouldn't have gone as far as I did if I'd known."
"Really."
Maddie knew that tone. Alicia sounded just like their mother once had whenever they had come up with some sorry excuse or wild tale to try to avoid trouble. They had never come out better after hearing it.
She doubted that outcome was going to change, even if she was now hearing it from her sister instead.
"Seems to me your curiosity got the better of you and you kept going even after you should've stopped."
"You're not being fair. You know my scientific study requires me to form a hypothesis and then attempt to disprove it."
"Last I heard, scientific study also requires you to keep an open mind. Not to mention not creating experiments designed to give you the results you want because you can find yourself a pretty little reason to ignore something that's contrary to what you expect."
Maddie ran a hand through her hair. "Look," she said, "you don't know the whole story. You need to understand where I was coming from."
"Well, then by all means, why don't you tell me where you're coming from," Alicia said as she crossed her arms. "You can see just how much that makes me think you shouldn't be let near those kids again, trying to defend yourself now."
"I'm not trying to excuse what I did," Maddie said, though that wasn't entirely true. Any lessening of this guilt inside would be a boon, though it wasn't one she deserved. "I just need you to understand what I knew when everything started." Alicia nodded and then started walking again, and Maddie kept pace with her as she explained.
Over twenty years of research into ghosts and the Ghost Zone, each new discovery painting a worse picture. Lies and manipulation, all-consuming obsessions, either emotionless or fuelled solely by negative emotions. Routine attacks, an attempt to expand territory with no value for human life. Now that Alicia was listening, Maddie tried to tell her everything.
And then she got to her successful hunt, the way she'd subdued the phantom, and she couldn't—
Danielle's pleading voice struck differently now.
If I show you, will you stop?
Maddie hadn't stopped.
She hadn't given Danielle a chance to show her.
She hadn't listened.
By the time they reached the edge of the field, Maddie was crying, and she couldn't stop. She hadn't known, but Alicia was right; she should have known, if only she'd listened, if only she'd stopped to consider the consequences of her beliefs being wrong, if only—
"It was a mistake," she whispered, her voice cracking on the word. When Alicia offered her a packet of tissues before turning back to the field, she took it gratefully. "You—you know I couldn't have done that to another human if I'd— You know I couldn't."
"But you did." Alicia's voice wasn't as harsh as it could've been, more matter of fact than scathing. Maddie wasn't sure if it was a blessing or not that Alicia wasn't looking at her. Instead, Alicia resolutely picked open the florets of a wheat head she'd snagged, checking—if Maddie didn't miss her guess—for the telltale orange specks of wheat midge. "You did, and you can't take that back. So what do you plan to do now?"
Maddie sniffed, wiped at her nose with one of the tissues, and immediately needed another. "I want to help them. To fix this."
"How?"
That was the problem, wasn't it? Maddie still wasn't sure how, even if Danny and Danielle did decide to give her the chance. "I just need to talk to them—"
Alicia looked up at her then and dropped the head of wheat to the ground. "Talking's fine, but sometimes talk's just talk. What are you actually planning to do?"
"I still need to apologize first. They…. I don't expect them to forgive me, at least not right away if they do, but I have to apologize."
"How?"
"By apologizing," Maddie said, but then she realized that's not what Alicia meant. Saying sorry wouldn't be enough, at least not in Alicia's opinion, and her sister wasn't often wrong. She took a slow breath and tried to collect her thoughts. "I'd leave all my weapons behind. I've already done that, of course, but…. I'd talk to Jack and declare an official, indefinite truce with Phantom. I'd…. I'd start listening. Actually listening, not just dismissing whatever's said on the assumption of ignorance."
Alicia merely looked at her, waiting. Maddie tried not to wilt under the steady gaze. Alicia had always been good at cards, far better than Maddie, who couldn't keep her emotions off her face.
"Jack and I would do what we could to help." She didn't need to ask Jack to be confident in that. "Danny's enthusiasm is admirable, but he can't do all this himself, and keeping Amity Park safe is what we do. What we try to do. And Danielle…." She swallowed.
Danielle was the centre of everything. Maddie didn't quite understand how, though she knew there must be more to the story than Vlad had said or Jazz had guessed. Danielle might take her lead from Danny, but more likely, he'd leave this up to her. In the brief moment Maddie had seen them together, there had been a level of trust and care and love that she hadn't been able to fathom at the time.
"If Danielle tells me any part of her story," Maddie said slowly, "I'd welcome it, but even if she doesn't, if she needs a home, if she was really out there on her own— If she wanted to come back with us, she could. I know Jack wouldn't object. If…if Danny will come back with her, she might be more comfortable. I just…. I don't know if that offer would make it worse. I don't…. I wouldn't experiment on them. I'd help them, if they're willing to accept my help, to try to understand what happened, but I wouldn't…." She realized she was twisting a lock of hair around her finger and stopped, purposefully reaching for another tissue to hold on to instead. She'd need it soon enough. "There must be someone she could talk to—we could all talk to—that doesn't end with me—" Locked up. Imprisoned. "I'd walk away from my research entirely if that's what it took."
Alicia gave a non-committal hum.
Maddie remembered how she'd thought Vlad had walked away from his research—and how he hadn't. "I'd at least refocus. General studies of ectoplasmic properties should help them, and I don't have to break it down to its components to do that." It was an option, certainly, and would increase the accuracy of certain tests, but she didn't have to pursue the ones which required that. "I…. I'd need to talk to Vlad. He's studied this already."
Alicia huffed, but she'd never been a fan of Vlad when Maddie had talked about him and Jack in their college days. Maddie knew that while Alicia thought Maddie would do quite well on her own, she'd made it clear she figured that if Maddie were making a choice between those two, she'd made the right one. Jack's bumbling apology last year hadn't dissuaded Alicia from that notion.
"You show 'em you're willing to listen before you do that."
Maddie's brow furrowed. "What makes you say that?"
"Some of what the kids haven't said in so many words." Alicia turned back to the field, walking in past the headland while Maddie hovered at the edge.
Maddie used the time for what it was and tried to collect herself. She'd had time on the plane, but she'd been too consumed with worry to sort anything out. Now that she knew Danny and Danielle were safe, it felt like she had time to breathe, to take in everything she'd learned, to parse through what Jazz had said and what she hadn't—
And what Vlad had said and what he hadn't.
At some point, Maddie dropped to sit cross-legged on the ground, head in her hands as she tried to absorb all of this. When Alicia came back, she wasn't sure it had been enough time, but the stiffness in her body had her checking her watch and realizing exactly how much time had passed. She was less than graceful for a few steps once she was back on her feet, but she caught up to Alicia as she started to head back—to the general store, judging by her trajectory, rather than her house.
"Do you…do you think Danny will hear me out?" Maddie asked once it was plain that Alicia was content to let the silence stretch. "If I promise him I'll listen?"
"Might. Might not. I don't plan on nudging him one way or the other on that. I only ever planned to nudge you."
"And will Danielle—? Is she—? She'll recover?"
Alicia didn't answer right away. Then, "Physically. I reckon everything else'll take a lot longer."
Maddie let out a shaky breath. "I'd like to at least talk to Danny, even if Danielle never wants to see me again."
"People would like a lot of things. I'd like it if we hadn't ever needed to have this conversation, but we don't always get what we'd like. I'd also like it if you didn't keep asking for things I said I couldn't promise you you'd get."
"Alicia—"
"Maddie." Her tone was mocking.
"Please. You know I'm trying."
Alicia sighed, reaching out for Maddie's arm and pulling her to a stop. "I know. I want to make sure you understand the situation. If they don't want to see you, they won't be seeing you. If Danny wants to see you, he'll see you. I'll be there if he wants, but only if that's what he wants. He's old enough to make that decision for himself, and I shouldn't need to tell you again that I don't plan on pushing him. And another thing you should know? If they don't want to see you now, it doesn't necessarily mean they won't want to see you ever, you got that? But they've gotta make the call on that change, not you or Jack."
Maddie swallowed. "What if Danny won't come home?"
"That's a question for him, not me."
"The authorities wouldn't see it that way."
"Are you really planning on dragging the authorities into this?"
Maddie winced. "No, but there would be questions if he didn't return to Amity Park. Even his school records—"
"I'd take care of it."
"You don't have those kinds of connections."
"You don't know what kind of connections I have anymore. Right now, it seems to me that those two are safer with me than they are with you. You might rightly regret what's done, but you can't undo it. You might be ready to try to make amends and forge a new path forward, but they might not be. They might need time. And if they need it, I'll make sure they get it."
Maddie stared at her sister. Alicia had never wanted kids, but Maddie was certain Alicia would give up whatever she could for those two kids right now. She really did trust herself with them more than she trusted Maddie.
Maddie supposed she shouldn't be surprised.
She wouldn't trust someone who'd done what she'd done, either.
"Trauma isn't something you can just get over. You can't bury it and ignore it or snap your fingers and expect it to go away because you want it to. Whatever you're expecting with them—both of them, not just Danielle—isn't what you're gonna get, and accepting that is one of the first things you need to do." Alicia hesitated before adding, "All of this isn't something you're going to be able to get over right away, either."
Maddie clenched her hands, feeling her fingernails digging into her palms since she wasn't wearing her usual protective gloves. "I'm not expecting that."
"You're acting like you're expecting it. You act like you can see your side, see my side, even understand a bit of their side, but you're compartmentalizing again. You can't just keep putting all the things you don't want to think about into a box and not look at it."
That box had once been real—Maddie had kept it on her side of the bed, tucked up between the headboard and the wall—and Alicia no doubt remembered how well that had ended for Maddie once it had been uncovered.
From the sounds of it, she was anticipating a similar fallout.
"I'm not against you unless I need to be," Alicia said. "You know that, right?"
Maddie knew. Whenever she'd needed her sister, Alicia had been there. Maddie had tried to do the same for her, though she hadn't always succeeded. This situation was different from any in the past, of course. Alicia wouldn't stand beside Maddie and stare down the other side; she'd stand where she felt she needed to stand once she talked it over with Danny, whether between Maddie and the kids or beside them. Maddie could understand that. She wouldn't have it any other way. She trusted her sister and her judgement.
Maddie nodded.
"Good. Now, let's get you over to Margie's and get some hot food in you while you wait to see how things shake out. I'll come talk to you after I talk to the kids."
Maddie hadn't eaten at Margie's diner in years, but she doubted the food had changed. Chances were, there was still a roadkill special. Not actual roadkill, of course. It was Margie's way of using up whatever meat was about to turn if it didn't get eaten. At least, that's what Maddie hoped it was. She'd never had it, though it was something Alicia would pointedly order whenever they were out together simply so she could watch Maddie's face as she tore into the mystery meat and claim that it tasted just like possum.
Still, renovation and interior design wasn't something that happened in Spittoon short of something needing to be rebuilt for whatever reason. If there had been anything from a break-in to a fire, she'd have heard about it. The diner would be unchanged. She'd walk through the doors, smell the same smells and see the same sights, sit down at one of the tables with two chairs, pick up the card that served as a menu at the side of the table propped between the napkins and the salt and pepper shakers, and order the same thing she always ordered anyway.
It would feel like she'd never left.
Maybe she shouldn't have.
"Just trust me." Alicia's hand fell on Maddie's shoulder and she steered her back along the path. "I'll be back to let you know the decision as soon as I can."
What was she going to do if Danny refused to speak with her? What was she going to tell Jack and Jazz? What if she'd cut through their family ties—
"Don't go borrowing trouble," Alicia snapped. Maddie blinked, and her sister continued. "I know that expression of yours, and you've worry enough without everything you can't control. Get something in your stomach. Sit in on coffee row. Ask Johnny when it's supposed to rain and listen to him forecast based on which joint hurts and how much before he gets into an argument with George. Place a bet on who'll grow this year's prize pumpkin or which one of Frank's lot will calve first next spring. Get your mind off the situation and let me do what I need to do."
Maddie forced a smile onto her face, though from Alicia's raised eyebrow, she wasn't fooled. "What if I win any of those bets?"
"I'll collect for you when the time comes."
"And you don't think leaving me alone with my thoughts will cause me more worry?"
"Not if you open your mouth and ask Eugene how he's doing, I won't. That man can still talk your ear off, and he's always in Margie's at this time with the rest of them." She pulled some money from her pocket and handed it to Maddie. "Here, my treat."
"I can't—"
"You can. Or you can sit tied in a chair in my rhubarb patch with Jasper and the rest of them watching you. Your choice."
Maddie's eyes narrowed, but she took the money; she could always tuck it away somewhere in Alicia's house before she went home. "You don't want to distract me. You want me somewhere the others can keep an eye on me."
"You think I can't kill two birds with one stone?"
Maddie knew Alicia could, both literally and figuratively. She'd seen her do it more than once, though it wasn't always with birds, and it wasn't always with stones. "Can you be back within the hour, at least?"
"I'll be back when I'm back." That was Alicia, evasive as always. "Margie's will be a lot more comfortable than the rhubarb patch this time of year."
"I'll go to Margie's." The gossip from Johnson's would've already reached whoever was gathered there, but she could smile and pretend that she had come for a surprise visit. Most everyone would know the lie for what it was, but they wouldn't know the whole truth and they wouldn't straight up ask for it till she was gone, and that's all that Maddie cared about at the moment.
Better to inspire another betting pool than have everyone in town looking at her sideways after hearing about what she'd done.
Besides, there was no sense in arguing with Alicia. Maddie had never had much luck winning those arguments when they were kids, even though they were both the same brand of stubborn. Not to mention, with the way the day was going, she shouldn't turn down the chance to have a decent meal. If she did get the opportunity to talk to Danny, food would be the last thing on her mind.
"Thank you," Maddie whispered. From the corner of her eye, she caught Alicia's lips twitching into a smile.
"Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and you'll find a path through this," was all Alicia said in response.
Maddie didn't miss the fact that Alicia had said a path and not the path. Whatever happened next, things might not turn out the way Maddie wanted. The way she hoped they would. She had to accept that, to do her best, to hope that things would circle back in the future if they didn't go well.
Until Alicia brought back word from Danny and Danielle, all Maddie could do—or rather, all Maddie should do—was wait.
Maddie hadn't brought anything with her that might circumvent that waiting, but that had been deliberate.
As much as she wanted to talk to her son, she didn't want to do it when he wasn't expecting her.
She might not know what news Alicia would return with, but she knew there would be news, and that was infinitely preferable to the uncertainty and ambiguity of before.
This time, the waiting would almost be bearable.
