Some Things Never Change

Moment of truth

The hardest part of it all was that they had to wait until Sara came home and then needed to act like everything was just fine. Both of them didn't want to frighten her but Stevie and Lindsey hadn't come up yet with an excuse why they needed Sara's saliva. What should they say?!

Finally, Stevie came up with a very lame explanation.

“Sara, darling, listen.”, she tried to stay cool but her inside was already turning again.

“What's up, mom?”

“Don't panic! It's all fine. But I went to a doctor and had a check-up. They needed my saliva to test a few things and I thought it'd be good, if we go and let yours test, as well.”

“What for?”

“Just to check, if everything is fine.”, Stevie said, trying hard to keep her voice under control.

Lindsey said nothing.

“Mom, are you alright? Are you ill?”, Sara sounded frightened.

Fuck! That was exactly what she had wanted to prevent.

“No, honey. I'm fine. Just a check-up, that's all!”, she lied, her eyes searching for Lindsey's help.

“I don't believe that! What's up? What happened when I was gone?!”, Sara was clearly panicking now.

Lindsey saw Stevie desperately trying to find the right words to calm Sara down again. He put an arm around the girl and tried to soothe things out.

“Sara, relax. It's all fine, really. We didn't want to frighten you. We just want to make sure both of you are...”

“Stop kidding me, Lindsey!”, Sara interrupted him, then fixing her eyes on her mother, “Mom, what is going on?! You can't fool me! I know you way too well for those kind of games!”

“Sara, it's nothing, really...”, Stevie said.

“Mom, stop fucking kidding me! I see it in your eyes!”, Sara freed herself out of Lindsey's embrace, took her mother by hand and pulled her into another room, closing the door behind them.

“What are you doing, Sara?”, Stevie asked. She knew she had no chance as soon as Sara tried to press the words out of her.

“Lindsey's trying to protect you! I can't deal with that, now! You're going to tell me, what is going on. RIGHT NOW!”

Stevie looked at her daughter and she couldn't say a word. She didn't want things to turn out like that. Lindsey and her had planned to get the results first, before telling Sara what was going on.

“Sara.. I...”

“Mom, please tell me. You're frightening me to death.”, Sara was tearing up.

“Oh no, Sara, don't! Please don't cry..”

“Just tell me.”

“I... I can't..”, Stevie said, she was crying now, too.

“Why not?”, Sara pleaded.

Stevie knew she had lost the battle by now. Sara was already panicking and lying to her daughter was no option as Sara was right, she always knew when her mother was trying to fool her.

Lindsey had started knocking at the door but Sara had locked it and ignored him.

Stevie was now sobbing, tears freely running down her cheeks, and Sara took her in her arms.

“Mom, don't. What's wrong? You know, you can tell me everything! We always used to do that. No secrets, remember?”

Stevie looked up at Sara, into those deep, brown eyes. She looks so much like me, she thought.