Time Child

Memories and Photos

"I don't know how it happened" said Cassie, her hands over her hips as she looked at her husband, her eyes were big and worried and she was trying her best not to pace around the room like she had been doing a few minutes ago; she knew it sometimes put people on edge.

"She didn't tell you?" he asked, he was sitting over the sofa, his elbows pressed over his knees as he looked at his wife. "Did she tell you anything else at least?"

"No," she shook her head "She didn't say anything else" she sighed "And I don't really think she knows how it happened either" she shrugged, she passed a hand over her face and then up to her hair, ruffling it as she took a deep breath. "She's a bit scared but she's not hurt"

The silence fell over the room heavily, settling over their shoulders as they looked at each other, no one really sure what to say after all they had just stepped into completely unknown territory, Cassie sighed and her hands dropped from her hips before she made her way towards one of the single chairs and sat down.

Since they had returned from the hospital, she had been feeling like her body weighted a ton, her feet dragging her from the car towards the house and then around the living room, and despite the way her body had felt, she had been unable to stop pacing around the living room up until now.

"I didn't even think this could happen" Cassie sighed into the silent house, tugging at her fingers of her left hand mindlessly "If I had known about this, that this was even a possibility, I... she looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry"

"This is not your fault" said the other man in the room, Cassie looked up at him, they looked at each other for a moment.

"Thank you, Mick" she smiled softly at him, and he gave her a gentle nod in response.

She remembered the conversation perfectly well, she had missed the beginning of it, but when she had been heading towards the stairs to get some water, she had heard her parents talking and she had stopped by the staircase to listen what they were saying; she had just known it had been about her, about what had happened to her, about what she had done.

She was eleven at the time; the first time it had happened.

Greta opened her eyes and the staircase of her house disappear, the voices of her father, her mother and her stepfather faded away, she wasn't eleven any more, she wasn't wearing her light green night gown, she wasn't eavesdropping, now she was laying down on Pines' bed, the silk sheets licking her skin deliciously as his hand traveled from her hip to her stomach, his fingers felt smooth and soft, unlike the skin she had become used to, no rough or calloused skin, and she didn't like it.

His forehead was pressed against the back of her head, her back towards his chest, and just like her, he was just wearing his underwear; she could feel his breath tickling her hair, ghosting over skin. His hand slid up her stomach, the tips of his fingers gracing the edge of her bra before the hand slid back down towards her hips, it had become a rhythmic movement, and she could almost count how many seconds it took him to go up and down.

And somehow, she wasn't sure why when she had closed her eyes tight, her mind had taken her to that day, the after math of what had happened; she didn't know, but she didn't care, she had always felt safe in the way her family managed to work things out even when Mick and Cassie didn't really get along.

Greta had never really been much like her mother, not only did they not look alike, but her mother had always seemed to have herself under control, always been able to work with a cold head, she had never allowed her emotions to drive her to act recklessly, and that had been why Greta had realized that she was so similar to her father; and it had been in her teen years that she had realized that her similarities to her father sometimes worried her mother endlessly.