The Love of Lady Dimitrescu X Female Reader || One-Shots

The Price of Grief Part 4

"Mother? Mother!"

Alcina set down her knife on the cutting board. "Cassandra?"

"I hurt myself!" Lifting her finger to her, Cassandra's lip jutted out. "I fell out of the tree and got a big sliver in me!"

"Oh, no. That's not good." Sympathetic to her pain, Alcina guided her middle child to a chair at the kitchen table, having her sit in it. She then hurried to the bathroom, retrieving her pair of tweezers from her accessory kit. Once she returned, she found Bela and Daniela crowding Cassandra, trying to see her wound.

"Let me see it!" Daniela said. "I wanna see how big it is!"

Bela laughed at her. "It's not that big, Dani. There's nothing to see."

"Here I come," their mother announced. She knelt at her child's level. "Let me see your finger, dear."

Jerking her injured hand away, Cassandra shook her head out of fear. "No! I don't want you to use those metal things!"

"They're tweezers, and you wouldn't want me to use my fingernails, Cass." Her mother rubbed her lap, smiling at her. "Please trust me? It'll sting a little, but then you'll feel much better once it's out."

"Come on, Cassie!" A five-year-old Daniela encouraged her sister. "Mommy will take the pain away, and then we can go back outside to play!"

Cassandra squeezed her eyes shut, keeping them that way until this torturous ordeal ended. "Okay, I'm ready. Just pull it out! I can take it!"

"There's my brave girl." Alcina took her wrist gently, turning her finger toward the light so she could see the piece of wood better. Luckily for her, it was protruding out far enough for her to snatch it. Her daughter let out a whine when she extracted it with the tweezers. "You did it!"

"Yay!" Daniela cheered, clapping her tiny hands. "Mommy fixes everything!"

"Let's go!" Bela motioned for her sisters to follow her as she ran out of the house. Daniela went after her, shouting at Cassandra to catch up.

Cassandra watched her mother cover her minor cut with a Pikachu band-aid. "Can I go now?"

"You may." Her mother stood, heading to the bathroom to throw the trash away and to put the tweezers back. "Be more careful, Cassandra. We don't want you hurting yourself."

"I will!" With those words, she sprang off the chair, darting through the living room until she screeched to an abrupt halt. The brunette child spun around to dash back to her mother. "Wait! Mother?" Her feet propelled her towards the bathroom, where she found her mother. Cassandra clung to her mother's long leg, hugging it with all her might. "I love you! You're the best!"

"Aw." Her mother's heart swelled with warmth as she rested her hand on her child's head, beaming down at her with unconditional love. "I love you, too, my little Cassie."

__________________________

At the self-checkout machine, you were paying with cash when Cassandra snuck up from behind you to tap your shoulder. "Mom? I'm going to walk home."

After securing your wallet back inside your purse, you swiveled to face her. "What? Why?"

Her arms hung listlessly at her sides, her posture slackened. "I just want to. Here are the light bulbs." She handed you the boxes you needed from the list.

"Cass?" Your eyes darted around the store in search of your wife. "Where's your mother? I thought you two were together?"

She offered you an indifferent shrug. "She's probably in the car. Can I go now?"