by Martha Woods
At that statement her eyes widened, her fingers squeezing down around his, her features lighting up for a split second before reason won out. "I'm sorry I... I need to think. Alone."
Claire pulled out of his grasp, wordlessly walking out the door and leaving it to drift closed behind her. Christian stared after her, feeling a new feeling that he had never experienced before in his life.
Rejection.
He squeezed his hand closed, nails digging into his palms. He wasn't sure he liked this feeling much at all.
Chapter 2
In a no name motel in a no name town a young woman opened her eyes, blinking as the early morning sunlight shone in her vision like a vision from a thousand dying suns. Skylar Conway-Moore sat up slowly in bed, for the last few weeks having been in a perpetual state of exhaustion that no amount of sleep could have any hope of curing, feeling tired down to her very bones. Yet she still got up in the morning, no matter how much effort it took, no matter how much her heart hurt when she realized what she had needed to leave behind to get to where she was now.
Each morning was slowly getting better however, her strength growing every day and the amount of control she had over the very powers that had "Killed" her increasing with each practice session she had. As if she had sensed that Skylar was now awake, the front door to their room opened, a woman with fiery red hair and a seemingly permanent smirk strolling in with two cups of coffee and a plate of waffles, the latter of which were definitely for Skylar, needing all the heavy food she could get to make up for the stress her body had gone through delivering a baby and then immediately plunging into a fight.
Plus, the undeniable effort it must have taken to bring her back literally from the dead, it was likely going to take more than a few protein shakes to heal her body after that.
"You're finally awake, I was almost about to start worrying." Her mother chuckled as she took a sip of her coffee, sighing contently while she handed over the rest of the items. "Here, eat up kiddo. Since we're on the hunt you don't need to worry about your body image or anything like that."
"I don't worry about that..." Skylar grumbled while she took a bite of waffle, almost moaning at the syrup coating her tongue. "I wasn't worried about how I looked when I had a baby inside me, I'm not going to start worrying now."
"Well good, you take after me in terms of looks after all, if you had a problem I'm pretty sure I'd be pretty insulted." The older woman reached over and stole a piece of waffle, temptation getting the better of her. "Just be happy you weren't born into the Family, those muscle heads would've fallen all over themselves trying to get you interested in them."
Skylar chuckled at the image, still surprised at the ease of which she was slipping into a casual routine with this woman. Sure, she was her birth mother, there was definitely meaning in something like that, but a few weeks together and it was like they had never even been apart.
Of course, that was likely due to the fact that they had so far stayed away from any difficult to speak about subjects, chief among them being the entire circumstance surrounding her adoption. But such things would have to be spoken about sooner or later, and for the sake of their relationship it was for the best that they tackled them sooner.
That didn't mean that either of them were looking forward to it exactly.
"So..." Skylar started awkwardly, her mother looking over and raising an eyebrow.
"What's up?" She took note of the way that Skylar's eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, her bottom lip pinched between her teeth. "Jeez Skylar, you look like you're trying to tell me the square root of something, what's going on?"
She laughed, tension defusing in an instant. "It's nothing too bad I was just... I don't know what to call you."
"You... Don't know what to call me?"
"Yeah. I was thinking about Mom but... I don't know, it just feels strange to say."
The other woman hummed thoughtfully, "Probably because I'm not your mother, not really." She took another sip of her coffee, staring into the swirling liquid. "You had one who fed you, clothed you, took care of you. Basically, all the things that I didn't do. So yeah, I may have called myself your mother when we first met, but let's be one-hundred percent straight, I don't deserve to be called your mother. So don't think that you need to call me that."
"Then... What should I call you?" Skylar hadn't been expecting such a serious answer, she assumed it would just be another deflection like always. Maybe morning coffee made her sentimental.
"Call me Leila, most people that called me that are dead now anyway, it'd be nice to hear it again." Leila smiled at her, holding out her hand. Skylar laughed lightly when she shook it.
"Nice to meet you Leila, my name is Skylar Moore-Conway."
Leila flinched at the mention of the Moore name, sighing softly to herself, "I'm sure I've already said this but... I'm sorry about your father. I know what it's like to lose someone like that, it never gets any less painful. He was a good man."
Skylar chuckled, the sound wet from the tears she was swallowing back suddenly. "He was a degenerate gambler who ran away as soon as he could but... He was still my father, I still miss him." She perked her head up, suddenly needing to know the answer to one of the many questions she had. "Why him? I'm sure there must have been hundreds of other men and women you knew back then, why him?"
"Why Andrew? Because sure, he was as big of a gambler back then as he was now, but he had... An honesty about him. He didn't cheat on his wife like all the other boys I knew, and she didn't just want a kid as a status symbol like the other people in my life. They loved each other, and they wanted someone else to love, so I decided that I would be the one to give that to them." Leila looked wistful at the ancient memory. "I'd say I made the right choice, wouldn't you? You've grown up into a wonderful young woman, much more than you would have been if I'd taken care of you."
Skylar nodded, the memories of cooking with her mother coming first, then movie nights with her father on the times that he decided to come home from work rather than playing poker. The love that was obvious between them, the way that they extended to her like she was one of their own, because as far as they were concerned she was their own. It had not been a perfect family by any means, her mother's death had driven a schism between father and daughter that never truly healed, but it had been good. For all his faults, Andrew had been a caring father most of the time, and he tried his hardest to make sure she was ok at the end of the line. Skylar just wished that she could have him back, even for a second, just to tell him that she still loved him, that she always had, and always would.
"Why didn't you want me though?" Leila sighed at the question she knew had been inevitable. "I loved my parents, and I would do anything to have them back, but why didn't you want to be my mother?"
"Skylar..." She caught herself moving to take another piece of waffle, clenching her fist and wrapping it around her coffee cup. "There are so many reasons that would have made that a bad idea that I'm not even sure where to start. How about the fact that I'm in the Mafia? I don't know what you know about that life, but it's not exactly the healthiest environment to grow up in."
"How bad is it?" Skylar scooted closer. "What happens in a life like that?"
"You thought Sarconi was bad right? Well imagine knowing someone who's worse than he was, and imagine that this man is your uncle." Leila scoffed, shaking her head bitterly. "It's a life full of some of the worst people that you can ever imagine, and you have to greet those people at the fucking family reunion like you're glad to see them. It screwed me up, so I wasn't going to put you through that."
"I'm sure you could have protected me..."
"Protected you? Skylar I was eighteen, I couldn't even protect myself. If I could I wouldn't have needed all those bodyguards, powers or no. Which brings us to the second and third points." She started counting on her fingers. "One, I was eighteen, and was in no way responsible enough to care for a child, I was barely responsible enough to carry one to
term."
"What do you mean?"
"Come on Skylar, I was a member of a crime family that dealt in narcotics in one of the busiest cities in the world, you do the math. The most responsible thing I did was stop taking so much, and if that was my most responsible decision as a pregnant woman you can imagine what I would have been like as a mother." She raised another finger. "Two, my powers had just started to come in, and I had my hands full trying to figure out how to not kill everyone around me. I didn't want to add the risk of accidentally killing a baby on top of all that."
She threw her hands up. "But again, none of that matters because of one very important fact. Every time I stepped out in public, there was a risk of me being shot. I was not going to drag a baby into that mess as well. Even if I had control of my powers, even if I was strong enough and fast enough to defend you from whatever came at us, it still would have only taken one lucky shot for everything to come crashing down. So, I did the responsible thing, I found a couple who would take you in, who would love you, who would raise you to be a strong woman with absolutely no idea about where you came from." Leila clicked her tongue, swirling her coffee once more before downing the entire beverage. "Evidently that last part wasn't so successful, was it? The knowledge part, not the strong part, there's a ruined garage in a dead-end town that more than speaks for that."
Skylar understood where she was coming from, she really did. She understood the need to put someone else first, even if it's not necessarily what you might want, to do something even though you aren't ready for it, to push yourself through is not necessarily the right choice, especially when it came to having children. Even so, she couldn't help that niggling voice in the back of her skull, the one that kept fixating on the fact that she was given up, not any of the reasons why, just that one cold, simple fact.
It must have shown on her face because Leila stood up, stepping lightly over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Look, if there had been a single chance that raising you as my own could have worked out, I probably would have taken it. You were so beautiful when you were born, it was almost enough to make me change my mind. But then I thought about what could happen if things weren't fine, if someone took a shot at me, or kidnapped you, or did any number of horrible things." She stared off into the distance, her expression a million miles away. "Or worse yet, maybe nothing would have happened. Maybe you would have just ended up exactly like me, and that might have been worse. Trust me Skylar, giving you to that couple was the best thing for the both of us, I know it must hurt like you wouldn't believe right now, but eventually you'll see it's the truth. Because the truth always sucks."
That at least got Skylar to laugh, as brief and as embarrassing a snort as that turned out to be. "Your pep talks suck Leila."
"Yeah well, sue me. I'm a mobster, not a motivational speaker." She sat back down, tilting her head at her laughing daughter. "You really are a beautiful young woman Skylar, you definitely got all the good Manzano genes. Be glad you don't look like my father, old bastard was ugly as sin..."
"I'll take your word for it on that." Skylar swung her legs out of bed, padding over to the kitchen to make another cup of coffee. "Do you want anything while I'm over here? I need to learn what you like sooner or later."
"No it's... I'm fine, don't worry about me." Leila looked distracted, but Skylar didn't want to push. They'd made good progress today, no reason to ruin that. At least, for the next few minutes while she was making coffee, after that she wasn't sure she'd be able to control herself, she couldn't help her nature after all.
By the time her coffee was finished Leila had turned on the television, still on the lookout for any news regarding the events of one month ago or the current whereabouts of those involved. Given that neither were being reported on or even acknowledged at all, it was a very slow-going process.
"So no one's talking about what happened at all are they?"
Leila shook her head. "Your family has been very tight lipped about what happened, there would be too many questions otherwise. All that is known is that you and your father died tragically, and they are declining to make the details public, they want to keep it a family affair. Probably not even trying to keep secrets, I imagine it's just too painful for them to think about right now." She winced, suddenly aware of what that might sound like. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that... You're doing the right thing right now, this is what you need to do to keep them safe."
Skylar nodded, taking a sip of coffee that now tasted like ash in her mouth. "Screw it," She thought, "I may as well ask now."
Her mother looked over when she heard the click of the cup against the glass table, seeing Skylar sitting there with her legs crossed and her face focused. "What are we doing out here? Why are we travelling all around the country and... And doing nothing? Why can't I just go back to my family already?"
Leila considered lying, but that was a thought that only stuck around for a second before she thought better of it. If this was going to work they needed total trust between one another, there was no hope of success otherwise. Given that they'd already been travelling together for three weeks, it was important to start now rather than later, the clock was definitely ticking. "I'd been in town for about three days before you woke up, in that time I decided to do a little digging to find out what happened, who had been involved, where to go from there. I figured that if you didn't wake up I could still go and kill them myself, that was the least I could do." She looked up at her daughter. "Are you sure you want to know this?"
"We've been on the road for three weeks, and I haven't once managed to get a straight answer out of you, I need to know what we are doing out here."
"Alright. Well I first heard what had happened back when I was still in New York, I may have given you up, but I still kept tabs on you. I got the news that Sarconi was after you too late, if I had of known I would have sent him home with his feet dangling around his neck." She sighed, "Word reached me that you and Andrew had been killed, so I needed answers. I needed them for me, at that time I didn't know that you had any powers, I thought that you were just a normal human being and that you'd been killed like so many unfortunate human beings in history."
"What tipped you off otherwise?"
Leila smirked, and even though it was obviously full of pride the sight was still unnerving to Skylar. "Soon as I stepped foot in that garage I knew that things were not anything like they were saying it was. The fact that being's like us are so rare means that we have a very... unique footprint, and yours was all over that building. It didn't take long to piece together that they'd killed Andrew and that you massacred them in response, what wasn't certain was whether or not you would show up again. I made the decision right then and there to involve you in the rest of this."
Skylar groaned, "Involve me in the rest of what? Just tell me what we're doing here."
The clock ticked by while the two women were silent, the older of the two standing and grabbing her keys. "Let's go for a drive, I'll explain all of this on the way."
"Where are we going?"
"Just out for a drive. No reason that we can't get a little bonding time in on the side, is there?"
"I... Suppose so."
* * *
In the end they had driven to a nearby lake, the trees blowing in the wind and the surface of the water rippling were just what they needed to calm down. Skylar because she had always felt at home in nature, and Leila because she had grown up paranoid of surveillance devices, at least out here she could be sure no one was listening in.
"You know, I used to have an uncle who killed people for a living." Skylar turned around, seeing Leila toying idly with the leaves of a nearby bush. "He'd grab whoever it was he was supposed to kill, march them out into the forest and blow their brains out. Leave them for the animals to clean up." She walked over to where Skylar was sitting, patting down the ground before taking a seat. "That's what this is about, taking those people that hurt you and your family, marching them out into
the woods and killing them where they stand. That's why we're out here."
"So... Wait." Skylar's eyes widened. "You've taken me away from my family so that we can... what? Go on some cross-country murder spree and call it parental bonding?"
"No! Well, yes, but also no!" Leila took her hand, smiling when she didn't recoil away from her. "This is about protecting those people that you care about, about making sure that they're taken care of and no one will be coming after them before you go back."
"I don't... I don't understand."
"Alright, let me put it this way. If you went back to your family right now, just walked in the door, what do you think would happen?"
Skylar thought over all the possibilities, not able to help the bittersweet smile that stretched over her face at the thought of being able to see her husband and child once more. "Liam would hold me in his arms and never want to let me go, he'd kiss me so hard and for so long that I'd hardly be able to breath ever again. I'd go and see Abigail and break down when I see how fast she's growing, and we still wouldn't be able to believe that we actually created something as beautiful as her."
Leila grinned at the thought, happy to see that after the time they'd spent together that Skylar still had it in her to be that happy sometimes. It was enough to make her sorry to have to ruin the moment. "That sounds wonderful Skylar, it really does. How long do you think it would last?"
"I'm sorry?" Skylar tilted her head in confusion, mouth a flat line while she considered just what she could mean.
"How long do you think it would last? Because there is no way that the rest of those men that escaped your little horror show would stay out of your life. Those men and women that you killed that night were a family Skylar, a supremely messed up one granted, but a family nonetheless." Leila reached over, tracing a line across her palm. "We've already seen what you will do to protect your family, to avenge your family, why do you think that they'll do anything different?"
