Life, Death, and Time - A Books Of Beginning Collection

Oneshot: Clash Of The Matriarchs

Background: Rafe is alive, though he doesn't show up too much in this, but the fact that he's alive is important. Post Black Reckoning, the Wibberly family has been reunited for three weeks.

Content: Family Drama. Arguing. Kate-Centric. Angst. Straight up angst. Why am I like this?

Perhaps, there was a universe out there where the Wibberly family, upon being reunited, came together shakily but for good. Perhaps there was a world where Richard and Clare had the patience to say the right things, where Michael and Emma were more willing to open up. Perhaps there was a reality where nothing got in the way, and Kate and Clare Wibberly got along over their shared motherly qualities and fierce devotion to their family. 

This was not that universe. 

Those thoughts ran through Kate Wibberly's head as anger rushed within her, filling her veins. She was not an angry person by nature, rather, she was actually a very patient and thoughtful one, but certain things managed to infuriate her - injustice, prejudice, and people who did harm to her loved ones, mostly - but also the current behavior of her mother and father. 

It wasn't that they didn't care - they did, Kate knew that with her whole heart. It was just that they didn't know their children, after so much time spent away. Between all the horrors the family had been through and the fact that ten years ago Richard and Clare had been raising a baby, a toddler, and a pre-schooler, they were overprotective and didn't seem to know how to handle the two teens and one pre-teen they now had. It was driving their children absolutely mad. 

Fierce Emma and intellectual Michael didn't always have much in common, but both weren't the best at opening up, though they had recently grown better at it. Still, their slow pace was frustrating for their parents, especially Clare, who was caring but impatient, and desperate to forge the sort of deep connection with her children that she had missed out on for ten years. To make the situation even more complicated, the two youngest Wibberlys actually did have that parent-child bond that was so craved, but not yet with either Richard or Clare, but rather, with their older sister who raised them. Kate knew that it hurt her parents that she knew her siblings' needs better than them, that she preferred to handle things herself, that they came to her rather than them when they had a problem. She knew why they felt the way they did, but that didn't mean it wasn't awful to have her own mother jealous of her.

If the struggle to fix a broken family wasn't enough, there was also the ever present tension between the Wibberlys and their former enemy, Rafe, who also happened to be the boy Kate loved. 

Michael and Emma understandably didn't trust him, but they knew what he meant to Kate, and what he sacrificed for her, and accepted that he was a part of her life, and that she could make her own choices regarding him. They didn't quite like him so to speak, but they had shown willingness to talk to him, which had surprised both their sister and Rafe himself. Richard simply decided that there was too much going on for him to deal with, and was ignoring Kate's interactions with the former Dire Magnus for the time being, aside from one short conversation where he warned her to be careful and she said she knew what she was doing. He seemed to be of the mind that the best way to not get overwhelmed was to pretend the conflict wasn't happening, very much like Michael would sometimes do at his most desperate. 

Clare, well, she was hostile. Kate knew that, she knew why, and she understood her mother's feelings. The woman had every right to be skeptical and angry, both Kate and Rafe agreed on that. The problem lie in the fact that Clare wasn't just expressing her aggression, she was actively doubting Kate's judgement. Through the past three weeks, the eldest Wibberly sibling had been confronted by her mother four - now five - times, being told that Rafe was dangerous and that she should be staying away from him. Kate knew that it came from a place of concern, not maliciousness, but she felt patronized, like she couldn't make her own choices about who to associate with, and guilty, for worrying her family. A part of her was even angered by the fact that after everything that had happened, it still seemed impossible for her to be with the boy she loved.