Now You See Me

Twenty: Nostalgia

"Mum?" I stepped inside my room and stared at the luggage stacked at the end of my bed. None of it was mine. "Why is all this here?"

Mum came up beside me and reached up to brush some hair from my face, her lower lip quivering. She'd been crying on and off all morning, so often that I'd almost forgotten why. After I'd woken up in Leia's office and told her everything, the sorceress had set to what she called 'research', and Mum hadn't stopped fussing over me for one minute. It had been nice while I was still recovering from shock and in a panic about Chris, but after Leia's confidence had spread a little and calmed me, it started to get grating.

"I'm staying here for a while," she said. "I can't lose you again, Damien. I won't sleep at night if I leave you here alone."

I opened my mouth to argue that I wouldn't be alone, but at the sight of tears welling again in her eyes I quickly shut it and embraced her instead.

"I just want you to be safe again," she murmured against my chest. "You've been through so much already."

I led her to the bed and sat us both down on it, and we sat there for a while in companionable silence.

"Mum?" I asked, as my heel caught the edge of my photo album. I'd shoved it under the bed after Marilyn found it, inexplicably afraid of it as well as her. "What happened to Dad?"

She stiffened, and then sighed. "We divorced when you were seven. He was...neglectful. He wasn't what you needed as a father figure, never treating you as he should, so...I cut him off."

"For me?" I said.

"There were other factors," Mum replied. "But you deserved better than he gave. It was best for both of us." She smiled, linking her fingers with mine. "You were such a gorgeous little child, Damien. So adorable."

I felt a dull heat rush to my cheeks and I looked away, clearing my throat. Mum just laughed at me.

"You were the best thing that ever happened to me, sweetheart," she continued in a more serious tone. "And I'll do anything to make all this easier for you. Anything. Remember that."

I opened my mouth to reply, but I was already crying. She hugged me, hushing me and stroking my hair, rocking us gently side to side, and I welcomed back a strong rush of affection that I hadn't even realised I'd forgotten.

-

"Hi, Damien."

I looked up from what was swilling in the bottom of my sick bucket and saw Courtney stood in the doorway to Leia's office. Her hair was up in a gently curled side ponytail and she was wearing less makeup than she usually did. She was in a light flouncy summer dress that she kept fiddling with, as if it made her uncomfortable.

"Hey, Courtney," I groaned, resisting the urge to barf again as Leia drained my blood into a vial and stoppered it. "You look nice."

She blushed, and faked being disparaging. "If you say that too much, Damien, I'm going to stop believing you."

"I'll bear that in mind," I said, and then hacked again as Leia pulled out the needle that had been stuck in the crook of my arm. The sorceress rolled her eyes, but seemed to have learned that telling me off for it only led to her repeating herself.

"Oh dear," Courtney murmured, drifting across the room and taking the seat that Mum had vacated a little while earlier to have dinner. Her feet were bare, and she curled them under her chair as if scared I would see them. She seemed completely ill at ease next to me, like she was worried I would notice something she didn't want me to.