Blood from Stone [AU]

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Gods." 

That's all she can say, resting her forehead against the back of the door. 

[Smith Family]

Taking a gamble, Kyle slowly moves towards her. Unsuited in temperament and lacking training in stealth, his approach would be obvious even in her current state. "That's not... I didn't mean it as a... demand or... I trust you. You might fail but... you'd try." Even with all this, I trust you'd try. If someone burst in that door right this minute and shouted that Will was taken, that Liz was missing, you'd save them or break yourself trying. Almost despite himself, his eyes flick to the door as if to check it's not being wrenched open.

It is not.

[Coquette Blacquin]

"And look what my trying did to Liz," she whispers. "I can save people, but I can't be part of their family. I can't."

[Smith Family]

"Then don't do it alone. Let us in so we can help."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Letting you in is what caused all this! Thinking I could have a family, thinking I could put down the mask and be just a girl for a little while."

[Smith Family]

"No you didn't! You've never let us, let anyone, in! There's also just that reserve, at least one secret that matters. You have to commit, Cindy. I..." Kyle eyes drift down, a look of shame on his face. "I'm not much good at... talking. About emotions even more. No good at knowing the words or when to say them. I wasn't enough for you." He sighs. "And even with us, there were still secrets."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"If I could do it over, if I could go back in time... but I can't. It's broken now, Kyle, it's irrevocably broken, I can't fix this. All I can do is make it stop."

[Smith Family]

"Try anyway. Damnit Cindy, you owe us, owe yourself, that much. Just... try. Please."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I can't--" 

Her voice breaks, and she reaches up to wipe away tears. 

"I can't face... I can't imagine the look on Jaina's face.."

[Smith Family]

"I could tell her. Let her... shout and cry a bit. Before you have to see her. She'll- she'll want to talk to you about it, but I can... break the wave for you a bit."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"She won't want to talk to me," says Coquette, and now her voice is dull, flat, hopeless.

[Smith Family]

"You underestimate how much she loves you." His voice, which had been pleading and worried, gains an edge of reprimand. 

[Coquette Blacquin]

"She won't. Not after I... Not after I come clean." She takes a deep breath, then, letting it out slowly. "You're right," she admits. "I owe it to her to tell her. Then, when she hates me, then I can go, and it won't hurt her so badly."

[Smith Family]

"And if she doesn't? If, after she gets upset and cries and maybe shouts a bit, after that... if she still loves you, still calls you her daughter..."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"She won't. Who could love me? That's why I have to lie -- who would want the truth?"