Loco Parentis
Notes
nightchik requested (long ago, but in my defence there’s been crutches and a flood in the interim) a snippet about how Roy fell in love with Cheshire. This snippet contains… those two people? Suitable for uh… I’d let my mom or younger brother read it. But none of the younger cousins.
“Jade.”
The rush of warmth and aggravation at his voice is familiar. “Darling, how thoughtful of you to call. You know how I will enjoy finding out who leaked this number and making him regret–”
“Jade,” he says again, and she stops, because his voice– something is wrong, something is very–
“Is it–” she says, and isn’t sure if she can make herself say, “Is Lian…”
“She…” and Roy hesitates and she can feel her whole body violently trying to reject the moment two seconds in the future when he will tell her that her daughter is– “She’s safe,” says Roy finally. As if that were a terrible thing.
“Tell me,” she says. Her voice is steady but her hand makes a careless fluttering movement. Her hands never make careless movements.
She remembers when he could talk carelessly about his absurd American music for hours and make it seem engrossing. Now she listens to the faint hiss and crackle of a telephone line that’s bounced off several satellites. “She… We were… trying to crack a child slavery ring.” Her hand tightens on the phone and she’s pressing it against her face so hard that it hurts her jaw. She tries to make her hand relax, and fails. “We were… they were raping them. The kids. They… took her, they– They wanted to send us a message. They had her for…They had her for seven hours. Six and a half. I… Jade, I’m so sorry, I didn’t even know until I came home. Jade, I—”
She wants to say something to interrupt him, make him stop saying these terrible things, but she can’t make her voice work. A little choked sound comes out.
“Jade?” He sounds like the child he was when she met him.
“Ahhh!” she says, a little moan of pain, and then makes her voice obey her. “Was she– Tell me what they did to her.”
“She… She wasn’t… god. Not what you’re thinking. At least. But they, Chesh, they branded her. He branded– it’s– she’s so small and it’s huge, on her back and she has to sleep on her stomach because it hurts her, oh god. And she can’t sleep alone, she’s too afraid. We’re sleeping together in my bed.” He makes a little helpless sound like a laugh that is a sob and a prayer. “I just– I stay awake and watch her, you know because– Jade.”
She feels a flare of anger at Roy, for living his stupid dangerous life that put her daughter in such a position. But of course, she can hardly judge, can she? “Thank you for telling me, Roy.”
There’s a pause and then Roy says, “Michael Tanner. He’s in New York State. Transcor is moving him to Texas on the nineteenth.”
Jade stills her hand. “Thank you, Roy.”