NOTE: wow it's been a long time since I've posted to this story. I've been experiencing real world fail and lost the desire to write anything for a while. But I have returned and hope to continue on with this. I know it's kinda short, and lacking in dialogue, but part 7 was growing alot, so I couldn't find a better place to cut it off. Words in italics are telepathic thoughts. Now let's get on with it.
The tension in the room is so thick that it could be cut with a knife. It is almost as suffocating as the feeling of awkwardness that has permeated the room.
Lara knows that her rejection of the hug had stung, but she wasn’t sure exactly how to react to a hug. Physical affection, or affection of any kind for that matter, is a foreign concept to the eleven-year-old. But as she stepped out of the hug, a small voice in her mind yells at her to step right back into it.
It’s not only the physical affection that is causing the awkwardness, but the whole situation could only be described as awkward. Afterall, who do you consult with on how to introduce yourself to the family that you didn’t know existed and they believed you to be dead?
She knows that these people are supposed to be her family, as she would have to be blind to not see the mirroring of her features in their faces. Especially the young girl, her little sister apparently, who is standing across the room looking as lost and confused as she feels.
Lara really can’t identify what she does feel, as she is still trying to recover from the seizure that she had had just minutes ago. But in the haze of her thoughts, she notes that her parents have gone into another room to possibly regroup from the situation.
Lara knows that her parents want to know what had happened to her over the years. But how can she explain the extent of the tortures she had been subjected to and exactly how she had managed to escape? And she certainly can’t explain what might be found in the rubble of the hell hole that she had broken out of.
Lara suspects that Clark doesn’t believe what she had said as to the cause of her “seizure”. Thankfully, she doesn’t think he had seen the scars on her scalp hidden under her braids. Those, along with the scar on her side, are among the few visible scars that she has. Her healing abilities had insured that most of her injuries had healed without leaving a visible scar.
As her mind clears, Lara begins to rethink the events of the day. In less than 24 hours of her breaking out of the one of Bureau 39’s labs, she had not only found her father, but also her mother and her younger sister. The more time that she has spent with the man that she knows to be her father, she is more she is beginning to doubt what she had been told about him, and her family in general.
She doubts that Clark would make up a name for her on the spot. It had been too easy for him to call her by the name; before he even knew who she really was. And he had said that she had been named for her grandmothers. While her knowledge of the customs of the ‘outside world’ is limited, she knows that the act of naming someone after a loved one is an act of honor.
Clark had said that she was ‘worth every effort’; despite her saying that she was nothing but trouble. Never before had anyone told her that she had any value beyond doing what she was ordered to do. He had even caught her before she could jump from the bridge; something that she knows no one else that has been in her life would have done.
And her mother had embraced her from almost the moment that she walked through the door. That is not the action of someone who possibly saw her as a monster. Lara knows that reaction too well, so she is able to discern the difference. And the fact that her parents had had another child after her: her little sister, Mariah, told Lara that her parents must have thought the mixing of alien genes with human’s didn’t always create a monster.
For a moment, Lara is envious of Mariah. As Lara is sure that Mariah hadn’t had to endure even half of the things that she had to before she was Mariah’s age. The selfish side of her wishes she had had a life like her sister has. When she had broken out of the lab, and during the precious reprieves from the tortures, all Lara could dream of was a life free of the pain of abuse, starvation, and the manipulation that Bureau 39 employees used to keep her under their control.
She knows that Bureau 39 is searching for her. Her ‘seizure’ was all the proof she needed to know that. It’s the reason why staying here, where there would be more casualties, is insane on her part. But she suspects that these people are not going to allow her to just walk out the door and disappear.
And the selfish part of her doesn’t want to leave. But she scolds herself that now is not the time to be selfish. Lara doesn’t want to think about what would happen to her family if Naomi and her cronies found her here with her family. Her parents would probably be killed. And her life, the one that she wouldn’t wish on anyone, would probably become a reality for her little sister. Even though Lara had only just met her parents and her sister, a surge of protective instincts rises in her and she will do anything to protect her family.
“Sissy, is that you?” Comes a quiet, almost timid, voice in Lara’s mind interrupting her thoughts on her need to leave. And while it is timid, the voice is not entirely unfamiliar; but one that Lara had heard occasionally during the precious reprieves from the abuse she had suffered. A voice that Lara wasn’t even certain had been real until now. Turning her attention to Mariah, Lara notices that she doesn’t look as lost as she did before. In fact, Mariah is very focused on Lara.
“Mya? You’re real?” Lara responds to the voice in her head, watching Mariah for any reaction.
She wasn’t disappointed as soon a smile formed on Mariah’s face before she crosses the room and clings to Lara with a strength that the seven-year-old shouldn’t possess.
And unlike when her mother had hugged her, Mariah’s hug almost causes Lara’s emotional defenses to crumble. The one source of companionship, that Lara had previously thought to being a sign of a fractured mind, is not only real but standing by her now. Her little sister had been the one to help her hold on to her sanity as the tortures she had been subjected to had increased.
"I knew you were real, Sissy. " the softly spoken words from Mariah pierces through Lara's thoughts, and she notices just how young Mariah sounds.
The protective instinct that had arisen in her for her little sister blazes hot and Lara knows that she will do what she has to in order to protect her little sister. The gulf between the sisters had never been wider, and Lara is determined that Mariah will not ever know what lies on the other side.
For Lara knows that she will have to place herself on the sacrificial alter for Mariah to ever be safe. To preserve her sister’s innocence and life, Lara is prepared to surrender herself to Bureau 39.
