Diana
Diana was in tears. Three of her children had made suicide attempts. Isaac was in England. Jessica hated her. Mackie was getting into all sorts of strife lately - Flight being the primary tool of his mischief. Zac was still seeing Faith, and blatently so. Zoe kept using her powers at inappropriate moments. And that was only the beginning.
Everything was piling up. Diana wished it could all go back to the way it was, when her kids loved and trusted her, and she could trust them. Oh, she loved them, truly she did, but it was just so hard...
Diana cried.
Jessica
Jess decided to trey and make peace with her mother.
"Mom, can we talk, please?" she said, gently, all the anger out of her voice.\
Diana
Diana dried her eyes, took a breath and thne opened the bedroom door.
"Sure, honey," she said. "Come in."
Jessica
"We need to work this through," she said, sitting on her mother's bed. "Listen, you're not a bad mother, but sometimes you judge people too quickly. And you make assumptions. And you don't mean to, but it hurts us," she said, slowly.
"We used to get along, Mom, why can't you understand where I'm coming from anymore?"
Diana
"Oh, honey, I try. I feel like I turned my back for five seconds one day and you all turned into different people."
The tears started falling down Diana's cheeks again.
"No one listens to me. No one seems to want me in their lives any more. I feel like I've become a burden and an embarrassment to you all."
Jessica
"Mom, it's not that we don't want you in our lives, it's just that you want us to be the same people we were, like, 5 years ago! We've all grown and changed. Life has kinda come and bit us on the ass in the bad luck department. But you gotta learn to adapt. So Zac has a girlfriend you don't approve of. Can you at least trust my judgement? You always have before. Get to know her mom, really. She's an amazing person. You can't judge her before you've truly gotten to know her." Jess said taking her mother's hands in her own.
"And maybe you don't like Adam, because of his appearances. But you should know that he is the sweetest, most polite person I've ever met before in my life. MOm, for the first time in almost two years I'm starting to feel again. I've been happy. You're not going to try and take that away, are you?'
Diana
"Jessica, it's not that I don't like Adam because of how he looks. I don't like him because if you feel the need to hide the fact that you're dating him from me, then he must be the kind of person you don't think I'll approve of. You never gave me a chance to get to know him. And Zac never gave me a chance to meet Julie - or any other girlfriends he may have had. At his first meeting with Faith - or at least the first one I know of - those two were eminating lust like you wouldn't believe, and I don't believe that a relationship founded on lust is going to either last or be healthy."
Diana sighed.
"I've only ever wanted you kids to be happy. Yet all of you at one point or another have felt the need to hide things from me - although in Zoe and Mackie's cases that's not exactly as big as a secret boyfriend or girlfriend. You have no idea how much it breaks my heart when you go behind my back."
Diana squeezed Jess's hands gently.
"But honey, I'm willing to give Adam a chance if you'll just me me a chance to actually get to know the boy and stop sneaking around. You'll understand when you're a mother it not a nice feeling to know your kids are sneaking around. You could be doing any sort of... of undesirable activity for all I know."
Jessica
Jess sighed. "Okay, Mom. How about I invite Adam over for supper? And There have been times when I haven't wanted you to know anything about my life. BUt mom, if you must know, I'll tell you. I've been through more in the past year, year and a half than most people go through in a lifetime. Do you know what it feels like to be eviscerated? I do. To be raped through every orifice in your body? I do. And I know you don't want to think about it, but, yeah. Mom. Owen did things to me you couldn't even imagine," Tears came to her eyes as she though about it. "He skinned me, cut me up. Beat me and totured me in ways you wouldn't imagine possible. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you this before, but I didn't want anybody to know. Mama, part of me still feels like I deserved it." Jess was truly crying by now. "But Adam? He makes me feel whole again. Like I actually deserve love."
Diana
"Oh, honey!"
Diana hugged her daughter warmly.
"Jess, never let anyone tell you that you don't deserve love. And no matter whatever might happen, I am always going to love you. I'm glad that you've found someone, and if he's been able to do this much for you, then I am more than happy to give him a second chance."
Jessica
"Mama, I'm sorry I've been so difficult. It's just, well, you jump to conclusions so quickly, don't you realize that? I wish you wouldn't judge people on appearances. YOu of all people should realize that people put up fronts, of what they want people to see, even emotionally." She hugged her mother again. "Just, don't make assumptions about us, mom, take the time and make the effort to get to kknow your children and their friends, okay?"
Diana
"Like I said, honey, I've been trying," Diana replied.
She sighed.
"Would you like to do something? Maybe make some cookies together like we used to?"
Jessica
"I'd like that mom." Jessi smiled. "And mom? There are a lot of things that happened to me over the past two years. I'm not ready to talk about them, yet, but someday, I promise, no more secrets."
Diana
Diana nodded.
"That's fine," she said.
And Diana headed down to the kitchen where she started pulling out the ingrediants for the cookies.