Sabrina ; The next generation

12

Allie

I grabbed Sabrina's bag from the backseat before slamming the door shut.

George was the first to enter the house, followed by Sabrina. Neither of them had spoken to each other for days.

George tried but when Sabrina refused to answer him, he stopped. Now he's waiting for her to come to him, once she's ready.

I locked the car and followed behind my youngest daughter and my husband. I shut the door and my eyes landed on George who was making his way down past the staircase, turning into the office.

He shut the door behind him, and then I looked at Sabrina. She sat on the chair in the corner of the entrance hall, taking off her shoes.

"Are you planning on talking to him anytime soon?" I asked, taking off my jacket. I hung it next to George's, and then slid off my shoes.

Sabrina didn't answer me.

"Bree, baby?" I asked, which caused her to lift her head and look at me. "Did you hear what I said?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Are you going to speak to your dad again anytime soon?" I asked, and Sabrina just shook her head, but then shrugged and stood up. "Bree, he didn't mean for this to happen."

"I don't care." Sabrina muttered, walking past me. I watched her walk upstairs, and then I walked to my husbands office.

"George—" I said as I opened the door and stepped inside. "—are you going to try and talk to her?"

George looked up for a moment, before he went back to what he was doing. Sorting papers into different folders.

"I'm going to do what she's told me one too many times. I'm gonna leave her alone."

I sighed and shut the door behind me.

"Baby, do you remember when Bree was three years old and you were teaching her how to ride a bike?"

George hummed in acknowledgment and after a moment of quiet, he sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking at me.

"We were both there with her, but when she fell and scraped her knee and I rushed over to comfort her, she was very set on wanting me to go away." I said with a small chuckle. "She wanted her dad's comfort."

"You can't compare these two situations, Allie." George said and stood up. "This isn't something as simple as a scraped knee, and she's not three years old anymore."

"I know."

"Our eighteen-year-old daughter has been in the hospital for the past week before of me." George said, pushing his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "If I hadn't confronted Tomas, this wouldn't have happened. She has every right to be angry with me."

I approached the desk where he stood, tilting my head. "You didn't know. You thought it would scare him to stay away."

"And it didn't. No, instead, he tracked our little girl down and attacked her."

"George..." I said softly, taking a few more steps towards him. "Go talk to her."

When he didn't respond, I walked closer and this time I pulled myself up to sit on his desk.

"Allie, you're sitting on the paperwork for the shop."

"I know." I nodded. "And I'm not moving my ass until you've gone and talked to our daughter."

George stared at me for a moment before taking one step towards me. He now stood between my legs.

He placed his hands under my thighs and pulled me to the edge of the desk.

"What are you—" I shrieked as George lifted me up, turned and dropped me in his desk chair, and then I broke into laughter, leaning against one armrest while throwing my legs over the other one. "...stop sulking, George."

"You know, angel... I'm not in the mood for any of this right now. You can go talk to Sabrina. I have work to do."

He was starting to get on my nerve. I got out of the chair and grabbed his arm, forcing him to face me.

He looked down at me with an expression that told me he was about to lose his temper and throw something to get his anger out.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself and go talk to her! You act like you're scared of her."

"Well, she is your daughter..."

"She's our daughter and she needs her family. I've talked to her and now you need to. She needs to know that you're there for her."

"Of course I'm there for her, but—"

"But you don't show it. She was raped, George. No matter how much it hurts that we couldn't stop it, we also can't go back and stop it from happening—"

George eyes widened slightly.

"But we could. Do you think Hermione still has that time turner?"

He tried to walk away but I grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back.

"We cannot go back in time to change it, George. First of all, you'll have to know the exact number of hours it's been since it happened because that's how many times you have to spin the time turner. Second of all, the legal time turners only allow you to travel back a certain amount of time. That's five hours. Third of all, you do not have any right to try and mess with the timeline like that. If Sabrina hadn't gone there, she wouldn't have ended up in rehab. She would most likely still be addicted to drugs."

He breathed heavily, shutting his eyes and then he sunk into his chair.

"I wish I could just lock her away from the world and keep her safe." He said. "And I wish I could take the pain and make it my own. I wish I could take away all of her pain so she can never feel it again."

"I know." I said, nodding while running my hand into his hair. "But we can't. She's her own person and she's going to feel a lot more pain throughout her life. We can't stop that from happening, but we can be there for her and help her through it."

-

Sabrina

I sat on the floor, back against the bed with my headphones on and my phone in my hand. I scrolled through Instagram while bopping my head along to the music.

A message from Naomi beeped into my phone, but I swiped it away, ignoring her.

Then someone removed my headphones and let them fall around my neck instead. I looked back to see my dad sit on my bed.

I looked away again, using one hand to pull my headphones back up, but my dad's voice stopped me.

"I know you're not talking to me right now, but just listen, okay?"

I thought about it for a moment before sighing, dropping my headphones around my neck again.

"I'm sorry, darling. I just wanted to protect you. I should've known it would put you at more risk. The problem is, I don't think things through when I'm angry."

I looked down at the floor, shutting my phone before silently putting it next to me.

"When I learned what he did to you, I just snapped." Dad said. "You've been through so much and I wish you could get a break."

Dad sighed when he realised I wasn't going to answer him. He moved off the bed and stood up.

"Don't be mad at Naomi." He said. "She was panicking. She found you there and she didn't know what to do. She did the right thing, calling me."

"That's not why I'm mad." I mumbled, and I could practically hear my dad freeze.

"No? Because she told us that it was Tomas and Ethan, then?" He asked. "You can't blame her for that."

"Don't tell me what I can and cannot do."

"Sabrina..." dad sighed. "If you were in her place, what would you have done? She's trying to keep you safe. We all are. I'm glad she told us. You may not be right now, but one day, you'll thank her for telling the truth."