The Altercations With Purity

Save Me, Mommy

Casey laid down on the bed after Kevin left and drifted off to sleep. She hoped for an escape from her guilt, from her pain, but her dreams just intensified her feelings. She dreamt of  Clark, reaching towards her with blood staining his white shirt. She fell back to escape him, only to see  Claire's dad laying on the floor without a face. Casey moved away from him and closed her eyes. 

"Wake up, please wake up!!" She whispered to herself.

"Who are you talking to, Mommy?" Casey opened her eyes to see a boy, about four years old, standing in front of her. 

"Baylor." She breathed. He looked so much like Kevin. His eyes were the same vibrant blue and his brown hair resembled hers. He wore dinosaur pajamas, similar to a pair Hedwig owned. He was so beautiful. "Baylor, come here." Casey beckoned to him.

He walked over to her and she wrapped him in a tight embrace. "Mommy, you're hurting me." Baylor said, squirming against her.

 "I'm sorry, baby." She said, giving him another tight squeeze. 

"Mommy, please stop!!" Baylor cried. Casey let him go and saw that her beautiful baby was coved in blood. Casey tried to check out his wounds, but she felt an object in her hands that wasn't there before.

A belt, tightened so it matched a whip. "No, I wouldn't do that." She said. "I didn't do that!" She cried, dropping the belt on the floor. 

"Save me, Mommy." Baylor said. "Before it gets worse." 

And that's when Casey woke up. She sat up in the bed, sweat pouring down her face. Her breath in small gasp as she tried to calm herself down. She was so focused on what had just happened that she didn't even notice the Beast.

"Casey, you okay?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Casey nodded, not trusting her voice to speak just yet. It took all she had not to flinch at his touch. "Bad dream?" He asked. Casey nodded again and went to check on Baylor.

"He's fine. I've been listening to his heat beat while you've been sleeping." Casey let out a sigh of relief when she saw her sleeping child unharmed. "Do you want to talk about it?" Casey tore her gaze away from Baylor and went back to lay down on the bed. 

"No." She finally said. The Beast wrapped her in his arms so her forehead was resting against his chest.
"I'm sorry about earlier." He told her. "I was out of line." Casey didn't respond, she just kept herself pressed against him. She hated how much she loved laying down with him. Almost felt like old times, when their relationship first started. It felt like so long ago that they laid down in this same bed and talked about nothing and everything. But they weren't those same people anymore. At least, Casey wasn't.

"The world will hurt him eventually." Casey said into the Beast's chest. "We shouldn't hurt him too." Casey hated herself for saying that. She wished she was strong enough to curse him out for threatening their child. She wished she was brave enough to get on his face and yell at him. She wished that she didn't depend on his love so much that it hurt her. The Beast kissed the top of her head, but didn't speak.

"I'm sorry for what I said." Casey told him, the words feeling like acid in her mouth. The Beast knew she didn't mean it, but wasn't going to push the conversation. He couldn't function with her mad at him. 

"Emma made breakfast. It's in the office. You should go and eat something." The Beast broke their embrace and got off the bed to grab something from the desk. Casey sat up with him. 

"Wait, Emma's here?" She asked, surprised to hear that.

"Yes. She came hours before Baylor Chaos was born. She's the one who started the plan. Well, unintentionally." Casey got off the bed and went to the closet to see if there was a shirt for her to wear. 

"How big was this plan?" She asked, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer. 

"Not that big. Only a few casualties. Ask Elizabeth about it, she knows more than Emma did." Casey grabbed one of Dennis' plain black shirts and put that on. None of her old clothes would fit her now while she still had baby weight.

Casey kept on her scrub bottoms and quietly closed the closet door. The Beast closed the distance between them and handed her a baby monitor. "So you don't worry about him." He told her, sensing her anxiety about leaving Baylor alone. "I'm going to  give Dennis the light for a while, but we all will keep an ear out for him." Casey took the monitor and looped it to her pants. 

"Thank you." She said. 

The Beast kissed her head. "Of course."

Casey left Baylor alone with the Beast, scared out of her mind when she did. She made sure the baby monitor was on on both sides before she left and kept the device pressed to her ear as she walked away from the room. She wanted so much to trust him. She wanted that so much, yet she was so scared what would happen when she left. She tried to calm herself down as she walked to the office, knowing the Beast could hear her every heart beat. Just pretend. She told herself.

Casey opened the office door and was greeted with a giant bear hug. "Oh, it's so good to finally meet you!!" The girl squealed in her ear. Casey broke the embrace first time see who roped her into a hug. She had long black hair that brought out her blue eyes. Her tall slim figure was shown off by her outfit: a red tank top and black shorts. "I'm Elizabeth, the rook of the family." She introduced herself. "You already know Emma."

Casey turned to see her friend behind the office counter. "Hey." Emma said, moving to go over to Casey. Casey met her halfway and threw her arms around the girl's neck. 

"I'm so glad you got out." Casey whispered to her. 

"You too." Emma said simply. 

"Aww, a reunion! That's sweet!" Elizabeth chimed in, throwing her arms around both of them. The girls stayed like that for a moment before they all moved away from each other. Casey grabbed her plate from the counter and placed a couple of pancakes on there. Elizabeth handed her orange juice and Casey went to sit down on a new stool from behind the desk.

"Richards told me to tell you hi." Elizabeth informed Casey. 

"He's not here?" She asked, surprised that he didn't come in the hotel last night. 

"No." Elizabeth pouted. "He was supposed to come in, but chickened out. I've left him very angry messages." She said. 

Casey was disappointed that he wasn't there, she wanted to talk to him in private. Well, as private as they could, the Beast heard everything.

"He's scared." Casey told her. "He's been waiting to meet him for close to a year. He has too many unrealistic expectations." 

Elizabeth shrugged, still planning on giving Richards grief later. 

"So," Casey said, getting straight to business, "what the hell did I miss?"