ADALENE

        he knew his wife. it didn’t matter if she was in a different body or not. the two had spent far too much time together for charlie not to know her regardless of the circumstances. he almost hummed in response. she was direct – which was something that he could appreciate but it seemed as if she was overreaching when it came to why he wanted her back in the first place. charlie wasn’t the same man before. he wasn’t the same father and he sure as hell wasn’t the same husband.

          “ i wanted you out of my head, darling. didn’t care how you got back. “ sure, it may have all been in his head. a grieving husband conjuring up his dead wife by his side to give him some sense of peace but that quickly turned into a nightmare. it was a long shot in hell to think that maybe if she were alive again that it would all just go away but it seemed to have worked in his favor. 

  “You missed me then?” because even if she was a mess, there would always be some part of her connected to him that she couldn’t escape from...-she wasn’t sure she wanted to but she did want to stay objective; getting on the wrong side of the ancestors wouldn’t be good for anyone, let alone her. Maybe in the long run she got the easy way out. To not have been left haunted by those she’d lost...she wouldn’t have been able to live with herself in his place. 

Eyes scanning his features for a moment before she let out an inaudible sigh. Some hesitation in reaching out to press a hand against his chest, merely ensuring this was all real. 

 “I’m not back because of you...-the ancestors wanted this.” Something she felt some need to make clear. She wasn’t sure what else to say, some profound need to be speechless because what was there to offer. 

           it had taken some time for the woman to convince him that she was, in fact, his mother, and even longer for him to sit down with her. luca had no idea what had happened with charlie a few nights ago, had he really brought her back? it didn’t seem so. if he thought about, the body change was certainly necessary, but he really tried not to. luca had simply stared at her for the longest time, she presented less of a threat than charlie, perhaps it was the species she’d chosen, or maybe it was all those pleasant dreams and childhood hope that fuelled him. 

“ what do you want me to say? ” he finally managed, it had been a long silence, but he’d truly been unable to offer anything. “ I wouldn’t be here at all, but you’re – ” not charlie. luca glanced away, her nickname for him had picked at an old wound, tore it open and reminded him of how painful his separation from his parents had been. “ I don’t know who you are, you’re just – a woman that tried to kill me. ”

  Something and yet with all the ENDLESS possibility she wasn’t truly sure what she wanted to hear; there wasn’t going to be pleasantries. This wasn’t some happy family reunion where all would be forgiven with a smile and a hug like all was forgotten or put away...she’d never be naive enough to imagine such an option but there had been hope none the less and then hurt when it all came crashing down (as it inevitably was always supposed to). “That can all be boiled down to one world, you’re hurting because i’m here and because of what I did...” there was a silent sigh, some need to let something out before she suffocated entirely. “A monster.” She added because it felt like the truth and if he needed it to be then even more so. “Maybe not the conventional kind but that makes me worse.”

“I understand it...-you can hate me, you can want me dead but talk to me Lu?” because that mattered even if in hindsight maybe it seemed like little did. “I mean you can’t just sit there all day.”