Pointe to Pointe

If only the elder of the two had x-ray vision, she’d peek over her sister’s body and examining the wounds for herself. She’d sustained injuries in the past but all were activity related. Nothing to be compared to what Aubrey sure endure. Alex, herself, didn’t know half of them all. She’d always been kept in the dark and it was through no control of her own. Paul had made damn sure one daughter would be spared of all that could be and it wasn’t as if Alex had volunteered for the love or protection. She’d just always naively assumed he cared for all tree of his daughters in the same way, even if the pair did spend more time together. 

A moment passed. Maybe two, when the taller smoothed over the surface of her face. If she didn’t look so much like their father, she’d bear an eerily semblance to the one that so-called mothered them. Piercing green eyes, defensive and calculating with features set like stone not to be bothered with. “Despite what you may think, I’m not that heartless. It’s easier for you and Amelia to point the finger of someone to blame, just like mother.” She could sting too. “Just because my life has kept me insanely busy doesn’t mean I never stopped caring, which I always have. Don’t you dare try to assume otherwise unless you’re the one standing in my shoes, Aubrey.” Alex wanted to cut off any of this being turned on her, not giving her the chance, her hand was up again in a shushing manner. “I won’t repeat myself after this. I love you and care for you. I’ll worry and always care and love you and I need no other reason than that.” The anxiety was palpable as it virbiratedoff the smaller woman there right in the entrance way. “If you’ve made me come just to tell me how this is all my fault somehow, again, I should just leave.” It was like her way of inviting this news to be released. Now or never.

Aubrey felt like she was going to choke on her own breath when her sister compared her to their mother, the hurt that it cased her radiating across her sharp features. “How dare you.” She hissed, tears welling up in her eyes not even half a second after the comment had reached her ears. To hear she was in any way like that abhorrent woman was the biggest insult anyone could ever throw at her, so to hear it was from her own sisters lips was about as bad as it could get. “I’m nothing like that woman, i’ve never been anything like her.” She brushed a tear off her cheek swiftly, sniffing as an attempt to keep her steely resolve on her face although that had already failed. 

Waiting until Alex was finished her eyes stayed on her sister steadily, lips trembling slightly as she took some calming breaths. It was clear what the other meant by her words, she either had to tell the woman what was going on or she was going to walk out that door and the dancer would have lost her chance. It was too big a risk to run, at the end of the day her sister needed to know what was going on, why their mother had lost it so compleatly last time they’d been in the same room. “I’m pregnant.” She whispered under her breath, barely audible so she wasn’t even sure if it could be heard, waiting for a moment Aubrey just stared at the floor resolutely, not wanting to meet the others. “I’m four months pregnant.”

If her lips could purse any tighter they’d disappear. Frustrated with the younger woman before her. It was always about frustration in that family. About that time, she was thinking of taking a Xanax before news of their mother’s recent horrifics hit her ears. She could never be fully angry or even irritated when her little sister had just been at the bad end of an abusive temper. Again. Pushing aside the few memories she was aware of it, she made it a point to focus on the present. On Aubrey. “Did you go to the doctors?! How did you even get home? When was this?” Alex took a step closer and reached out but hesitated. Frozen in what was a force field of years of misunderstanding and resentment she didn’t know quite how to pierce.

Slowly, she curled the slender digits back into her palm and lowered her hand. Feeling shame wash over her next. “No, I— I haven’t thought of all that. I haven’t had the time to think of much about anything.” Except work. In such a fast paced life, Alexandra had learned it was best to keep most of your focus on that priority, even before the different aspects of people she loved lives. She hadn’t even seen her nephew in person yet. Just impersonal announcement photos. “What did you go for there, then, in the first place?” Whatever it was, it was clear by the reaction she was told that it wasn’t something menial. 

Aubrey could tell her sister wasn’t happy with her, it ran through every single part  of the woman’s face, she couldn’t help it though anytime their parents were the subject of conversation she found herself becoming as antagonistic as possible. If she found it so easy to get along with their father, and to some degree their mother, the dancer wasn’t going to make talking about them easy if she could help it. “Leo took me to the hospital after he’d checked me over, making sure to stitch up all the gashes I was covered in.” She hissed pointedly, eyebrows knitting together slightly as she looked at the older woman. Not pulling any punches at this point, the woman had hurt her a lot, so she was going to show her that. She was  going to talk about it, what she’d had done to her. 

The woman just watched as the hand came towards her, waiting for it to be retracted when Alex realized that the action wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She would no be placated that easily, not now, not when they were having this conversation. “No, you haven’t thought about anyone but yourself.” Maybe that was harsh, she worked hard, they all three did, but sometimes the youngest was sore that the two older Quinn’s didn’t take the time to check she was okay, protect her. Maybe she was just hormonal today. Who knows. She was getting emotional by this pound, chest tightening and heart pounding as she worked up the nerve to tell her why she’d been over there. “Why....why do you even care anyway.” She just sighed.