#reina005

The last person that Izzy is looking to see at the disco night is Reina. She had only just been in the hospital with Izzy in the waiting room with Wyatt and now, here she is, in the flesh, at a skating party. Leave it to Reina to always keep the shock factor for everyone. Izzy and Reina hadn’t been in step lately, considering the bad blood between them, so while Izzy’s better judgement tells her to keep away, she doesn’t listen. She glides over to where Reina is, stopping short on her skates. “Wow, leave it to you to like show up everyone even after all that stuff last month,” she says, waving it away as if anyone could forget. “But new month, new us right?” she asks. Izzy and Wyatt had an offer in on a house, they were together— Change was in the air.

It feels like a fucking lifetime has passed since the storm tore the town apart, but somehow it’s only been a few months. Construction on Rhea Thane’s home had been completed a few days ago, leaving the house back in tip top shape and ready to be put back on the market which had lead to Rowan and Reina being there today, cleaning things out. Rhea had been upset when they told her it was going back up for sale, sure that one of her kids would have changed their minds and decided they wanted to keep it. That hadn’t been the case, though. The house itself is bittersweet. There’s no denying the fact that it holds good memories --- Sunday evening dinners in the dining room, having one too many drinks in the backyard and singing to Dolly Parton with Reina and Rhea, Maddie had even taken her first steps in the living room. The house does hold good memories but the problem is that for every good one, there are just as many, if not more, bad ones. Rowan feels like Cronus Thane’s presence is still heavy in the home, his ghost still walking the halls with heavy footfalls and clenched fists, ready to come out swinging the minute they forget about him. 

The house itself is a trigger for all of them, even Reina who refuses to let it show or to acknowledge it. Rowan knows that, and that’s why she’s trying so hard not to lose her shit today. The house is slowly starting to empty out; keeping the basic necessities and impersonal things to keep it looking homey when people come to look at it, but all of the family pictures or the trinkets that had lined the shelves are gone now. Some of them in storage, some of them scattered between her home, Reina’s and Jeremiah’s and some of them cramped into the small room Rhea occupies across town in the long term care home. It’s just another nail in the coffin about how much everything has changed, how much it’s going to continue to change. Selfishly, this is when she wishes the hardest that Rhea would just snap out of this. Her mother in law had been the one to get her through all of her fertility issues in her twenties, always a hand to hold or someone steady to lean against when she felt like she was falling apart --- just like she feels now. But Rhea can’t be that person for her anymore -- or rather, not the way she had been before. Honestly, Rhea had been one of the first people Rowan told about all of this and that had been a surprisingly good day -- she had been lucid and understanding and her normal self, ready to stroke her daughter in law’s hair and give words of encouragement. Of course, when Rowan went back a few days later that entire encounter was completely gone, slipped between the older woman’s fingers like tiny grains of sand. 

Rowan is grateful for the moment that they did get to share, knowing it’s more than a lot of people could have asked for, more than she would’ve gotten had this happened a few more months down the road. But she can’t help but wish she had more --- that they all had more, honestly. Rhea Thane was -- is -- the glue that seems to hold every member of their family together, and Rowan knows that to lose her is going to be catastrophic. That thought takes root in her brain, burrowing so deep she can’t shake it even if she wanted to, reminding her how fucking alone she feels right now. “Excuse me,” she sighs quietly, keeping her words clipped as she makes a speedy exit from the room she and Reina are slowly but surely working their way through --- some kind of catch all room, a cross between an office for Cronus and a craft room for Rhea that makes her wonder if her in law’s had been fucking hoarders -- and bee-lining for the bathroom in an attempt to get a grip on herself. It’s only a few minutes later when someone knocks on the door. “Just a second. I just ---” her voice breaks, trailing off as she feels the familiar burn of tears behind her eyes, the constricting in her chest with the urge to hyperventilate. Pull yourself together. The door opens only a second later and Rowan shifts in her spot, sitting on the edge of the bathtub to wipe hastily at her eyes. “Jesus Christ, can’t a girl get some privacy around here?” It doesn’t hold the usual venom, instead a certain exhaustion lacing it and she’s not sure what she’s crying about now -- Rhea or the loss of a baby she never really had. Maybe both. “Just give me a minute, Reina. Please.” 

Maddox had agreed to be auctioned off for the school event in spite of the fact that he and Reina had been on the outs for the last two months. He’d gotten the suit that he and Reina picked out together out of the back of the closet for the event, knowing that it would never not be black tie when Reina could buy a gown for such events. Nervously, he packed everything he needed, praying that he didn’t forget anything. Sure, it wouldn’t be too hard to dip out and head back to his quiet house for whatever it may have been but he didn’t want to put strain an already awkward night. Backstage, Maddox got ready, staring in one of the mirrors trying once, twice, three times to tie his damned tie. He wasn’t sure if it was the nerves of going on stage or the idea that maybe Sutton wouldn’t win and Maddox would have to go on a date with some other woman he may or may not know. But both made his hands fumble over the silk tie repeatedly.