A Way Back To You

27| Family

Definition: A group of people who share DNA or a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit.

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Trigger warning: This book deals with mentions and implications of abuse, mainly physical but potentially sexual. While the latter is never descript, reader discretion is still advised.

Note: Discussion of SA mentioned at beginning of chapter. If you are uncomfortable, please skip. If you need to speak with someone, please dm me. You are not alone.

With Kaiko. Sunday, 9:31pm.

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Words were always a rather fascinating subject to Kaiko. For years, she'd wanted to be an English major, until she'd found her passion for the ocean, and even now, she found the way one could so easily change a person's entire viewpoint with as little as one sentence to be fascinating.

Tucked away in Nekton Hall while Will chatted with his father, Kaiko found herself pondering Maddy's words from earlier that day. She sipped at her cup of earl grey tea as she replayed the sentence in her mind. At the time, Kaiko had literally just finished explaining the answer to Ariana's question. Hearing Maddy's voice, she'd tuned back into their conversation right as she'd snapped at Fontaine, and the words she spoke were not at all what Kaiko had expected.

It was no secret that Maddy had gone through something. She was closed off, at best; at worst, she acted like everyone was out to get her. Maddy had no problem showing people that she wasn't comfortable. She created strict boundaries, she had trusted people who knew when to step in, she said herself that she saw a therapist. All of these things had long proved to Kaiko that there was a history to the young woman, and, more than likely, quite a dark one.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that something had happened, nor did it take a genius to figure out that Kaiko had been curious, at the time, to learn what it was which affected her even today. Perhaps even just a little too pushy for information.

Now, though, Kaiko wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

Most women feared precisely what Maddy had implied happening to them. Kaiko had read the statistics as a young woman; then, one in eight women experienced sexual assault. Now, the statistics were closer to one in three women. Kaiko had spent her entire life as a mother terrified that something like it would happen to her daughter. But to hear that it had more than likely happened in some form to the woman who her son was dating? That was difficult, at best, to wrap one's head around.

Kaiko had wondered if Maddy had told Ant since she said it. At the mall, it had been blurted and entirely unexpected. Kaiko knew Maddy hadn't intended to say anything, but the fact that she'd looked so horrified when she spoke had indicated that she hadn't expected to say it at all. Going back to Ant's apartment had answered her question; Maddy had written off her awkward disposition as being 'tired' which, though likely to be true, wasn't the obvious reason.

"Hey, Kaiko. Are you alright?" Will walked over to his wife with a small glass of wine in his hand. "You look......pensive."

"Good word." Kaiko laughed lightly. "I'm just thinking."

"Care to share with the class?" Will joked. "If you're plotting to kill someone, I can help."

"I'd ask who you've tested that theory on, but honestly, if I knew who to kill, I would." Kaiko muttered, taking a large sip of the wine. She grimaced slightly at the taste. "What is this?"