Realistic or Modern A Mother's Return

[PunkPrince]

Eva nodded slowly as Janelle assured her that she was all right. The girl was clearly tense, but Eva didn't press her. She didn't want to upset Janelle any further than she clearly already was, fearing that she would ruin any possibility of a relationship between the two of them--if there was any at all. "I wasn't gone," Eva said. "Just different. We probably would have found each other sooner if I was...you know, actually looking. You all thought I was gone, but up until yesterday I thought my mother had been dead for over ten years." She sighed. "I wish I'd gotten to meet you sooner." She felt bad, having missed Janelle's life up until now.

Kennedy nodded as Halle mentioned her thrift store game with Eva. "She told me about that. She was actually better at sewing than I was when we first met. I had to rip out the seams and redo them constantly. My mom taught me to sew as a kid but I was impatient and had the attention span of a hamster. Eva taught me how to sew and I taught her to dance. I think it was a pretty fair trade." Her gaze glinted with affection as she glanced quickly toward her wife, but found Eva talking to her sister. Good. Maybe they'd get along well. Eva had so frequently lamented her lack of familial ties when they were young. Kennedy's weren't much better, but at least she'd had her mother.

Eva turned to look as her mother pulled out the old garment, a smile spreading across her face. It was old, and there were some mistakes in the stitching she would never make now, but just looking at it brought back fond memories of times she had often tried her best to bury in her attempts to cope. "I haven't seen that in years," she said softly. Halle hadn't worn it after she had gotten sick. and it had remained tucked in the closet until her disappearance. "I--I had no idea you'd kept it. I'll have to make you something new." She glanced back at Janelle. "And you too, if you'd like it."

 

[Tiny]

Janelle paused in her food prodding when she heard Eva mention the dead thing. Her eyes went wide as she finally looking at Eva head on instead of by her shoulders or the spot next to her head. “My mom made you think she was dead?” she said her voice petering out over the excitement over that shitty dress her mother was displaying so proudly. That would explain so much. Her mom was always so guilty and so obsessed over this whole missing son business. If it was because she’d told this awful lie, then that would be understandable about why she’d been consumed by this decade long endeavor.

Halle was smiling at Kennedy, pleased that Eva had mentioned some of the things that they’d done in her youth. She was telling Eva how she could never part with it, and some other pieces that she’d maintained over the years. She was saying how happy she would be to see some of Eva’s newer work, now that she was more practiced. It all sounded like roaring to Janelle’s ears.

Is this what her mother did? Grow tired of her families, make an excuse and disappear? Then look for them later when the guilt got to her? Janelle was fuming and her fingernails dug into her palms as she struggled to keep herself silent. Trying to wait for the rage to pass like a summer storm. But then Eva looked at her all soft and perfect and “you too, if you’d like it.”

“I don’t need you to make some shitty dress. If I want a dress, I can just buy one that’s actually nice.” Janelle spat with an anger that she could see that Eva probably didn’t deserve but she couldn’t be bothered to redirect.

“Janelle,” Halle chastised. “That was very unkind. Is something wrong?”

Janelle laughed hollowly. What wasn’t wrong? There were strangers in the house that her father had bought. Her mother was probably going to abandon her for them. How old had Eva been when her mother vanished like ghost? Surely not much older than Janelle was now if her mater was correct. Instead of saying any of that she just said, “I’m finished with dinner. Glad to meet you all, but I think I’m going to catch up on homework.”

Halle simply nodded, planning to go see her later once she’d had a time to cool off some. Janelle was clearly agitated, and she wondered, as she watched her daughter go to the kitchen to clear her plate, when that had happened. She’d seemed so eager and happy earlier but maybe something had happened to change that. She looked at the others apologetically, “I’m sorry about that. I’m not sure what that was about. It seems she might need some more time to adjust that I’d assumed.”

 

[PunkPrince]

"She didn't make me think she was dead," Eva told her, immediately regretting how she'd worded her previous explanation. "She got sick and had to go away for treatment and my dad told me she'd died and then dragged me halfway across the country so I wouldn't ask any questions. My dad is a real piece of--" She stopped as she realized Janelle had stopped listening to her, the girl's eyes darkening until she turned back to Eva and spat out a response.

“I don’t need you to make some shitty dress. If I want a dress, I can just buy one that’s actually nice.”

Eva immediately recoiled as though she'd been struck, but regained her composure almost immediately. It's not you she's mad at. She's just...mad. This was fair. The comment had stung, but Eva knew better than to take it to heart. She turned to look at her mother, about to assure her that it was fine and that she understood when Jupiter spoke, having sprung to their feet as Janelle spat out the nasty comment.

"Hey!" they barked, immediately flinching at the sound of their own voice. It had dropped slightly at their sudden snap, the resulting sound significantly deeper than the way they usually spoke. They had had to train their voice up for some time to sound as feminine as they usually did, but in instances of stress it would frequently drop. They might have faltered for a moment, but not now. They flew after Janelle before anyone could stop them, gaze crackling with anger. "What'd she ever do to you? She's trying to be nice to you!" Not that you deserve it, at this point.

Hugo immediately bolted from the room in terror, ducking into whatever bathroom was nearest and shutting the door behind him. Ronan's gaze flitted from his brother to his eldest sibling and back again. He chose to follow Jupiter into the kitchen, glancing anxiously from Jupiter, to Janelle, and back again as he grabbed his sibling's arm and attempted to pull them from the room. This attempt was pretty useless, since Jupiter was not only taller and generally just larger than Ronan in general, they also had muscle to resist him with whereas Ronan himself might as well have been built out of spaghetti. "Stop fighting!"

 

[Tiny]

Janelle had continued to walk into the kitchen when she heard Jupiter speak. She snorted derisively, who did this guy think he was? She threw her full plate of food out and was putting the dish in the sink when him and his brother came barreling in. Asking her what Eva had ever done to her like he had any right to an answer. She spun to address him head on.

“Listen, dude. You have no idea what’s even happening right now. I don’t buy you and your weird family’s ‘fake-nice’ BS. Clearly I was right not to trust it because look at you now!” she said matching his rage with her own.

Janelle had been itching for a fight for at least nine months. If this kid wanted to offer one, she was so ready for it. Her gaze went to Ronan’s cry for them to stop fighting. “Talk to your asshole brother here. He’s the one following me around, yelling at me in my freaking house!” she said throwing her thin arms out gesturing to Jupiter.

Halle’s eyes were like saucers. This evening had started out so well, but maybe everything about it was wrong. She should have had just Eva and Kennedy out to dinner with herself. The kids should have come later. Halle thought she’d been preparing Janelle for this meeting for nearly fifteen years but maybe she’d done a poor job of it. Now the kids were in the kitchen arguing save for one who was hiding in the guest bathroom.

Halle was out of her depth here. She should have planned it better. She should have given Janelle, Jupiter, Ronan, and Hugo more time to adjust. She should have…she should have…she should have…

 

[PunkPrince]

Jupiter's gaze narrowed as Janelle spoke. "They weren't being fake nice!" they snapped. "The only one faking being nice was you! And I'd still be being nice to you if you weren't being plain nasty to my mother! Who frankly, is a hell of a lot nicer than you seem to be!" Jupiter could be far nastier than they were being now, but they were trying to keep relatively civil, only for Eva's sake.

Ronan appeared behind them, and Jupiter quickly shrugged him off without a word. Ronan's gaze flickered at the word "brother" being used for Jupiter, but if Jupiter had been at all affected by it, they gave no response. Ronan started to respond with, "My sister--" a word that, while still not entirely accurate was worlds closer to what Jupiter was to him than brother could ever be. He didn't get to finish his retort before Kennedy entered the room behind them.

Eva stood beside her mother, the expression on her face nearly identical. This had been too much too fast. Especially for Hugo, who would now most definitely have to be coaxed out of the bathroom. Her gaze flitted to Kennedy, who pushed past her and strode wordlessly into the kitchen, grabbing Jupiter by the elbow and yanking them backward out of the kitchen. "What is the matter with you?" she hissed.
"Well maybe if she hadn't--"
"Maybe nothing," Kennedy said. "Eva can take care of herself. It's not your job to defend her against any unpleasant comment you hear. Take yourself outside until you've calmed yourself down." She looked back over her shoulder at Ronan, her expression softening a bit. "And you," she said. "Just...go. Go somewhere. Go check on Hugo."

Ronan obediently skittered off in the direction of the bathroom, and Jupiter cast a nasty glare over their shoulder at Janelle before striding towards the front door. They knew better than to fight with Kennedy. They wouldn't win. Jupiter stopped to look at Halle and Eva for a moment and then murmured, "Sorry," before slipping outside. They made a point not to apologize to Janelle. As far as things went, she didn't deserve one. If anything, she should be the one apologizing.

Eva looked toward her mother, and then back towards the kitchen doorway, swallowing thickly before she finally said, "I'm sorry about Jupiter. They--" She stopped. What could she say to make it better? "Never mind." She stared at the kitchen doorway for a few moments longer and then stepped forward, lingering in the entrance silently for a few seconds before speaking to her sister.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm sorry about Jupiter and I'm sorry if I upset you coming here. I won't bother you if you don't want me to. We don't have to be friends, and I don't want to interrupt your life by showing up out of nowhere. But I'll be around, if you change your mind." And with that she turned, and with a quick explanation to her wife and mother about where she was going, headed outside to check on Jupiter.

 

[Tiny]

Janelle laughed unkindly at Jupiter’s outburst. “Not sure how else I was meant to be when you all ambushed me at my house. And I’m sure your mom is every bit the ‘perfect innocent amazing do-no-wrong angel’ that everyone wants to portray her as! Newsflash, usually when people are actually that nice, they don’t need people saying it a million times over, they just are!”

She didn’t feel too badly about misgendering Jupiter. Maybe when their family had come in everyone should have lined up and said their pronouns, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Janelle never had to deal with all this different gender identity stuff before. Most of the people she met identified with the way that they looked. At least Eva looked feminine, Janelle couldn’t make heads or tails what Jupiter’s gender identity could be. She didn’t care to know them well enough to find out.

She watched amusedly as Kennedy pulled Jupiter out of the kitchen and reprimanded him. He looked at his and her mom to apologize in a way the was obviously a pointed dig at Janelle. When their eyes caught before he left, she gave him a sugary sweet smile and little wave before he’d stormed off. Or she’d stormed off, Ronan had said sister after all.

Halle looked over at Eva and felt helpless to fix the situation that they found themselves in. “You don’t need to apologize, star.” Halle said. She struggled for what else to say afterwards but decided to stay silent as Eva when to the kitchen. Hopefully she might mend things between her and Janelle. Halle looked over to Kennedy.

“I may have handled this poorly. I didn’t expect her to be so upset by all this. When we spoke earlier…anyway, I’m sorry for any undue stress this has put on your children.” She said to Kennedy. Halle felt so embarrassed and ashamed of what happened. If Janelle had just told her that she had a problem with this then she never would have had her be a part of it. She looked at her hands to see she was still gripping the garment tightly. She anxiously sat it down on a dining room chair and started playing with her wedding ring.

Janelle was surprised to see Eva come in. Even more surprised seeing her apologize. If Janelle wasn’t so proud, she might have returned the sentiment. She was silent as she spoke and thought of a million things to say in response.

‘I wish you’d stayed missing.’
‘Your kid is a douchenozzle.’
‘You’ve been disrupting my life since I was born.’

None of it seemed appropriate for the moment so she let it pass by in silence. Let her offer hang empty and unaddressed. It wasn’t like they could be friends anyway. Their was gap in age, in experiences with Halle, in personality, in stages of life. Janelle was too cruel. Eva was too nice.

With Eva off to check on her child, Halle went to the kitchen to check on hers.

 

[PunkPrince]

"It's all right," Kennedy assured her. "Jupiter isn't normally quite so...quick to snap." She finished the sentence, but the words didn't seem quite right. "And Hugo's always stressed. He would evaporate into thin air whenever someone unfamiliar looked at him if he could manage it. If all he's doing is hiding, then this...this is one of the better reactions from him. So long as he’s not loudly freaking out it’s best to leave him be. He’ll come out eventually. He’s a bit like a feral cat, that way." They had offered to let the boy stay home, but being alone often made Hugo just as anxious as being surrounded by strangers did. "It's not your fault."

Eva stepped outside. Jupiter was sitting on the front porch steps, their chin resting in their hand as they gazed blankly out at nothing. Their shoulders hunched slightly as Eva sat down next to them, a tiny, instinctive flinch. They were quiet for several seconds and then said, "I'm sorry. I really messed everything up."
Eva sighed and put an arm around Jupiter. "No, you didn't," she told them. "I have a feeling Janelle was already upset long before that outburst. This is new to her too. It's probably a lot to take in all at once, me showing up after fifteen years of her having my mother all to herself."

"Doesn't mean she has to be a total dick about it."
Eva looked over at them. "You weren't all that pleasant when you first met me, either," she reminded them, only earning an annoyed snort from Jupiter.

“And while I appreciate the sentiment, you don’t have to jump to my defense all the time,” Eva added. “I can look after myself. And aside from that; it’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.”
“But you were just trying to be nice to her!”
“And I’ll keep being nice to her until she comes around. And if she doesn’t, I’ll still be nice to her. Like it or not, she’s family now.”

Jupiter didn’t answer her. Eva reached out and pulled them into a tight hug before standing up again. “Now,” she started, “I’m going back inside. You’re welcome to join me after you’ve cooled off.” And then she disappeared back through the doorway.

 

[Tiny]

Halle walking into the kitchen to see Janelle hunched over and rapidly messaging someone on her cellphone. She frowned and cleared her throat until she had Janelle’s attention. “Am I interrupting something?” she asked curtly.

Janelle looked up at her mother, back to her phone to hit send on her most recent text, and back to her mom. “Nope, not at all. Just clearing up after our guests!” she said with faux-enthusiasm.

“Sunshine, why didn’t you tell me that this was going to be a problem? I wouldn’t have had them over if I thought that you were uncomfortable.” Halle said earnestly.

Janelle fought the urge to roll her eyes. Her mom had come home at an ungodly hour last night already planning on having Eva and her family over for dinner. She’d only even told Jan about it when she was in the middle of preparations. “I don’t have a problem with it.” She lied. “It just takes some getting used to, and I needed a break. I’d really would like to just get started on my homework, if that’s ok.”

For a moment Halle and Janelle just looked at each over before Halle nodded and Janelle took off upstairs to her room. Halle would give her some more time before trying to broach the subject again.

Halle took a minute to gather her composure. She still owed it to Eva and her family to put on a brave face in front of all this. It was the least she could do after what was such a negatively eventful evening. Halle walked out of the kitchen in time to see Eva entering the doorway.

“I think perhaps the next time we meet it should be privately. Janelle still seems to need time to adjust to all of this and I’m sure your own children might as well.” Halle said. If Eva even wanted to see her again after all this. If Eva didn’t see that letting Halle back into her life was more of disappointments that she couldn’t stop from happening.

Eva was so accommodating in everything it was too good to believe. How she could forgive Eva after everything was beyond Halle’s understanding. Her daughter was too good and that was a trait she inherited neither from Daniel nor herself.

 

[PunkPrince]

Eva stepped back inside, wordlessly moving to stand next to Kennedy as she reentered the house. She could hear her mother talking to Janelle in the kitchen, but made no move to say anything. She’d done enough, and Janelle was clearly not happy to have her there. To say anything now, no matter how much she might want to, would only make things worse, and that was the last thing she wanted after all of this. Janelle quickly flitted past them up the stairs. Eva’s eyes followed her for a moment before she turned back to her mother once more.

"I..yes, you're probably right," Eva agreed. It had been a bad idea to try and shove their families together so soon. Janelle clearly hadn't been ready for it, and after the fight that had broken out at dinner, it was clear that her own children hadn't been ready either. She should have given them more time to adjust to the idea and prepare themselves, Hugo especially. If she had, he might not be hiding in the bathroom. "We should probably be going."

The bathroom door creaked, and after a moment both Hugo and Ronan appeared in the entrance to the hallway. Hugo didn’t look up, his gaze glued to the floor and his shoulders hunched. He was still trembling slightly, shuffling his feet anxiously. Ronan stood next to him, looking up to the adults in the room for a moment before glancing toward the kitchen. It had quieted down, but he didn’t really have high hopes that it would stay that way for very long if they stuck around.

 

[Tiny]

Halle nodded at Eva’s works. They only confirmed what she’d already assumed. With a forced smile she said, “Alright. Let me pack you some food to take home with you.”

Halle hurried into the kitchen to prepare some to go Tuberwares filled to the bring with excess food. When she returned everyone looked about set to depart. She handed Kennedy a reusable shopping bag filled with food. “Here, it’s a little bit of everything. It would just go to waste here with only the two of us.” She laughed nervously.

“It was really lovely having you all over and getting to meet you properly.” She said earnestly. Upstairs she could hear loud pop music playing muffled only by Janelle’s closed door.

She was ready to say her goodbyes she remembered the photo album. Quickly she grabbed it of the coffee table and gave it to Eva. “I wasn’t able to introduce you to James before he passed.” She said trying to not get choked up about everything. “But I have these photos of him. It’s mostly a half-done wedding book but there’s some shots he took from his photojournalism traveling days.”

Already feeling herself getting teary, she held out the album to Eva hopefully.

 

[PunkPrince]

Halle vanished into the kitchen again, returning after a few minutes with a bag full of food, which she handed over to Kennedy. “Thank you,” Kennedy said, offering the woman a smile. “It was nice meeting you too. I’m sure the food will be gone in a day at our house.” She chuckled quietly, her gaze quickly flitting over to the twins. Ordinarily she might have made a joke about Hugo devouring everything, but not now. She turned to beckon the twins toward the doorway just as Halle held the photo album out to Eva.

For a moment Eva could only stare down at the photo album. She reached out to take it in her hands and then engulfed her mother in a tight hug. “I wish I could have met him,” she said. Thank you. So much. For everything.”

And she meant it. After everything her father had put her poor mother through, Halle deserved happiness. It seemed an unnecessarily cruel twist of fate for her to find someone who treated her right, someone who finally made her happy, just to have it snatched away again. And it wasn’t fair on Janelle either. Granted, she still had her mother, but the loss of a parent stung even when you still had one left. Eva knew that from experience.

 

[Tiny]

Halle merely nodded at Eva’s work, not trusting herself to speak without letting emotion through. After a moment she collected herself enough to say, “Have a safe trip home. I hope you enjoyed the food, again it was really lovely to meet you all.”

She said her goodbyes and watched as Eva’s large family left making her home feeling once again empty and too large. Quietly she hummed to herself as she went to work cleaning up after the dinner party. Dishes were washed, tables were cleaned, and floors were swept. It felt easier to tackle the work of cleaning over tackling the work of talking to Janelle.

Janelle had changed since her father’s death. This was expected, of course. Halle thought that she just needed to give the girl time to grieve over James. Halle herself hadn’t dealt with James’ death in the best of ways. She threw herself into finding Eva at the expense of all else. She retired from her nursing career after decades of dedicated work to fully invest herself in the search. She drew away from friends in life, good friends.

Janelle had become similarly withdrawn into herself. She either looked to be feeling no particular way at all or too happy. Almost falsely slow. As Halle walked by Janelle’s room that night before retiring to bed, she paused at the door. Tightly closed and faintly reverberating with pop music. She lingered for a few moments before continuing on to her own room. She closed the door tightly behind her.

 

[PunkPrince]

With a final goodbye to her mother, Eva followed her family out to the car for the silent drive home. They entered the house and the kids immediately went upstairs without a word and Kennedy set the bag of food down on the kitchen table.
"I'll take care of this," Kennedy said, leaning up to give Eva a quick kiss on the cheek. Eva nodded and headed towards the stairs, turning to look back at her wife.
"I'll be upstairs," Eva told her, the photo album under her arm. "I think it's best if I look through this alone." She turned and walked upstairs, slipping into the bedroom and settling cross-legged on the bed with the photo album in her lap.

She sat there for a few moments, staring down at the photo album and running her fingers across the cover before beginning to flip through it, a small smile settling on her face. The photos weren't much, but they showed what she had missed. People Eva should have met, things Eva should have been there for. And she would have been, had her father not ruined that for her. A time where her mother was happy, happier than Eva had ever seen her throughout her childhood. And then there was Janelle...Eva let out a quiet sigh and fell back against the pillows.

Janelle clearly hadn't been ready for Eva to suddenly appear in her life. Eva wouldn't expect her to be. But she did want Janelle to like her. She knew she couldn't force it. She just had to keep being nice to Janelle and hope she came around. She wanted the two of them to get along, but she couldn't expect that right now. Janelle probably felt like Eva was trying to take her mother away from her--the last thing Eva wanted to do. Janelle needed space, and Eva would give it to her for as long as she wanted it.

Eva remained that way for a while, lost in her own thoughts as she listened to the sounds of the house below her. Kennedy was still downstairs, though Eva assumed she had finished putting the food away by now. The twins and Jupiter were moving around down the hall, but if they were talking to each other she was unable to hear it. They were probably trying to be quiet for her sake. After some time she drifted off, not even waking again when Kennedy came to bed.