Caryn was sitting in the living room, finishing up a session with a costumer. She's been in business for few weeks now and had a couple, so she was getting a hang of it.
"Thank you, ma'am. I hope you're right..." A young teen said on other side of the line, that made the woman smile.
"I can assure you, child, I wouldn't be doing that if I didn't know what I'm talking about. I wish you the best."
With that, the call ended, when Caryn let out a sigh. The time was closing to five PM. Filbrick was down in the shop, also finishing up for the day. Shermie was long back from school and watching some cartoons, doing some work on project, he was asked to do.
Through still, Mabel wasn't home. Shermie said he assumed she went out with some friends, but something was still tugging inside of her stomach, like something was wrong.
And then, the phone started rining, startling the woman, but she quickly sighed out, realizing what it was. Caryn picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Pines?" It was Mabel's homeroom teacher.
"Mrs. Quinn?" Caryn asked, sitting down, as Shermie looked up, now interested too. "What can I help you? Did something happen at school?"
"No, no. Everything is fine, but I want to ask. Has Mabel made it home okay?"
"Made it home? What do you mean?" Caryn raised an eyebrow. Did she get sick? No, it didn't seem like it, as the girl seemed to be fine in the morning...
"She didn't look well at the class, so I suggested her to go to nurse office. She didn't come back, so I assumed she went home." The teacher explained.
"I see..." Caryn said, her nerves starting to raise, as shocked at Shermie, who now stood by her side "When was it?"
"It was around lunch break, when I came to her about it. She said she had trouble sleeping this night" The woman said on the other side, picking up on the concerned voice of her student's mother. "You mean she's still not home?"
"No... or she was here, but went out later on. Let me check."
Caryn set the phone on the table and, after leaving Shermie with the phone, went downstairs to Filbrick. Her face already showed worry, but she really hoped that her son's claim that his sister was out with her friends was true.
"Filbrick?" The man looked over to his wife, to notice her concerned face. He frowned. "Has Mabel came home, while I was out earlier today? Around lunch, maybe?"
"No... why?"
Caryn felt her heart sinking into her stomach.
"She... she didn't come..?" Caryn whispered to herself. "But... if she never came... and she wasn't at school, since then... Where's Mabel!?"
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Later on this day, police officers and Pauline White were on the Pines' place to take statements from the family. Caryn seemed like she was on edge from crying, holding onto Shermie for dear life, while Filbrick sat next to them, trying to keep his typical stone face, but it was obvious that he was nervous as well.
"I assure you, Mrs. Pines, we'll do everything, we can to find her." One of the officers said, writing down details about Mabel, but, from the look of his face, they already were signing it off to be unsolvable case.
"I'll show you out." Filbrick said, standing up. "Sherman, it's getting late. Go to bed, please."
"Yes, father..." The boy said softly, before leaving the room. And soon enough, the rest of men left, Pauline sighed, standing up.
"I'm sorry..." Caryn whispered, wiping away the tears off her face. "I'm sorry, I wasn't there to prevent this..."
Mabel... where was she? Was she still safe? Was she hurt? Was she..?
Oh... she couldn't even think of that! The woman choked on a sob. She might not have had biological connection to Mabel, but she loved the girl as her own daughter nonetheless.
And it didn't even matter if she was hers or not... Mabel was still so young... merely a child, still just stepping into life and already having to face so many obstacles, not even an adult could face and come out fine. Losing her family, getting amnesia and now being kidnapped?
Caryn didn't even care if it was Mabel's biological family, who's taken her. They still should've let her let them know! The girl just only turned thirteen and was still confused like heck, for Moses' sake!
Why couldn't she just have a happy life? How many more hardships the poor dear will have to face..?
"Mrs. Pines..." Pauline said softly.
The agent sighed, as she sat back down, wrapping an arm around the other woman, letting her know it was okay to break now.
Sure, she wasn't very close with her care dependant's foster mother, if was at all, but she could genuinely see how well amd comfortable Mabel felt with the family. She genuinely hoped the girl was safe and would be able to be back with her family.
"It's alright... stuff like this happens all the time..." Pauline comforted Caryn, not knowing any words. "There wae nothing you could do..."
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The tension hanged over the Pines household for over two weeks. But it wouldn't be fair not to mentioning that whole Glass Shards was on edge during that time. Constant police visits, people whispering among each other, worry for their own children and paranoia covered the town like a thick blanket, that showed no sign of going away anytime soon.
A lot of children were temporarily taken out of school for their safety and had their homework provided through their friends.
That included Shermie, who's, with Caryn with her eyes constantly on her reminding child. Filbrick did his best to provide for his family, while also looking out for anyone, who'd try to cause any more trouble for their, already unstable, family.
That's how they spend nearly three weeks, until one rainy night, Shermie wasn't woken up by some noise outside.
The boy wanted to see, who it was, but, after what happened to his sister, he was too scared too, so he decided to come, get Caryn and Filbrick first.
With soft, small footsteps following to his parents' room and to their bed, a tiny hand reached over Caryn's shoulder.
"Mommy... Mommy, wake up..." The boy whispered, knowing that his mom wasn't able to sleep properly since Mabel went missing.
And, just like it, Caryn slowly opened her eye to see her son.
"Mmm... Shermie..?" She grumbled, rubbing her face. "My light, you know, you can just climb over us, if you want to sleep with us..."
Despite that kids of his age didn't unusually sleep in same bed as their parents... Filbrick and Caryn allowed Shermie to do so, with how delicate and stressful this situation was. Especially for somebody so young as Shermie...
"No, Mommy..." Shermie said softly, playing with his hands nervously. "There's something's going on at the door... listen, you can hear that even here..."
Caryn sat up and listened into the stillness of the night. And, indeed, there was some noise in distance. It was hesitant, mixed with rain, but still determined... knocks. Knocking on the outside door.
The woman frowned, before waking up her husband.
"Filbrick... somebody's at the shop's entrance..."
Filbrick didn't waste time. With his trusty gun from the pawns shop, he lead his wife downstairs, after hiding Shermie in their room if something went wrong.
They approached the door, where they could make out the knocks. By the sound of it, that somebody was either a frail woman or a child, with how light and small the knocking was.
But when they opened the door, there was a real surprise...
"Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad..." Mabel cracked an awkward smile. "I'm home..."
YOU ARE READING
Our Mother : Mabel Pines
Fanfiction(Heavily inspired by Mamá Mira/Papá Bruno reverse) She appeared out of blue. She didn't remember, where she came form. She didn't remember who she was, other than her name. All, she knew that she wanted to find her brother and go back home. But it l...
