In Two Minds

Visits With The Mother

After her, all too brief visit with Joseph Quinn felt a pull, a need to see her childhood home again. The old familiar street still looked almost the same as it had done when she was a small child, playing games on the street with her friends.

The patch of greenery now covered in a blanket of soft delicate snow had been their spot for trouble, star pitcher she never had to worry about the boys not wanting her in their team, they all fought to have her in their team. Later, of course, she realized her immense talent was because of the powers she had held since birth.

The house had changed a lot her mother had wiped every single trace of her husband from the house after what had happened with Joseph, she had been ruthless in her pursuit of eradicating him from their lives, it hadn't worked Quinn had still felt a bond with her father, maybe if she had listened to her mother things would have been different.

The cracked sidewalk where she had tripped and hurt her knee after they had just moved into the house was long gone, replaced with a shiny new one. How do you mourn a sidewalk? The loss was acute to her.

"Are you going to stand out here all day like some creepy stalker, or are you coming in?" The unmistakable brisk tone of her mother's voice made her jump, turning her head to the door she saw the woman had gone back inside but the door was slightly ajar.

"This is a surprise Quinn, what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Adeline Kane stood stiffly by the chair a fair roaring behind her, giving her an orange outline that almost made her look demonic in appearance.

From the moment Quinn had come out mother and daughter had not gotten along, Adeline had refused to believe her daughter was anything but normal, she could handle the superpowers it seemed just not that her daughter would never be attracted to a man.

When Quinn had begun a relationship with Sara Lance that had been the final nail in the coffin for them, the woman had never been her mother's favorite person so learning that her only daughter was with her in a couple was something she could not tolerate.

"I was just visiting Joe and decided to take a look at the old house." Quinn stood awkwardly, the blaze of the fire irritating her eyes as she looked at the woman who had given birth to her, the same blue/green eyes as her own stared back at her.

"Just a flying stop then?" The older woman huffed, impatiently crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, I have a job waiting that I need to get to."

"The ever important Quinn Wilson." Adeline scoffed. "Your brother worries about you." It was a small task but Quinn knew that it cost the woman a lot to say it.

"I know but I know how to take care of myself."

"I'll tell that to him the next time he has another anxiety attack over you." The older woman shrugged as though it were nothing.

"This is all because of that Lance woman I told you she was trouble and I was proved right, look at you a stranger in your own home among your own family."

The truth of her words hurt, they acted like salt to her already sore wounds.

"We have been over this before Mom, can we just forget it now?"

"And you know she was brought back from the dead? Did she come looking for you?" Quinn lowered her head so her mother couldn't see the tears that rose to her eyes. No, she hadn't.

"So you ditched us all for a woman who couldn't have given a shit about you, and still you abandon us and what for?" Adeline Kane was a fierce intimidating woman, physically strong from her years in the military she stood tall and strong, Quinn remembered her friend's mothers had been soft and petite such a contrast to her Amazonian mother.

"Whether or not Sara truly cared for me is not the issue Mom, what is, is that I cared for her and when she died it all but killed me." The thought that Sara had not truly cared for her drilled a hole so deep in her heart that she swore there was nothing left anymore of the organ.

Adeline rolled her eyes at her daughter's dramatic words. Is this really my daughter?

"So what are you doing going to chase after that creature again?"

Quinn shook her head. "No, I have a job I need to be at I told you, I don't intend to chase after anyone ever."

Adeline took in the younger woman as she stood there uncertain before her, eyes slightly red and bloodshot.

"I think today I am proud of you Quinn."

Quinn's head shot up at her mother's words.

"Your father is an awful man but he and I tried to install in you the value of self-respect forever chasing someone who runs from you does not give you self-respect, nor does it give you their love."

"You go and find someone who actually cares and loves you."

xxxx

Taking one last glance at the house and the street, Quinn gave a slightly sad smile pulled up her jacket collar about her to keep herself warm and walked away out in the falling white snow, ready to start her new mission and a new challenge.