Blood from Stone [AU]

[Smith Family]

"No." Kyle shakes his head. "No I'll not leave and no you're not the hero. Right now, you're the maiden in need of rescue. I'm sorry that I'm not a knight but..." He shrugs. "Hopefully a father will suffice."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Rescue?" 

Now she gives a bitter laugh. "Don't you understand? I'm finally doing the right thing. I'm finally trying to do right by my family."

[Smith Family]

"No, you're giving up. Instead of staying and doing the work of fixing your mistakes, you're trying to run." His eyes open so he can glare at her. "You're giving up on your family and dumping your dross on us to sort out. You have no right to do that to us."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I had hoped..." she begins, swallowing as she turns slightly away. "I had hoped you would understand."

[Smith Family]

"Well, I don't. I have trouble understanding why my daughter, whom I love, would see to revisit the worst pain our family has ever suffered on us again."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Because it's better, far better, than what I'm doing now!" she snaps. "Look at how I've harmed you already, Kyle! Look at what my presence does! Look at what I did to Liz, if you will see nothing else!"

[Smith Family]

"Then stop lying! Tear the bandage off and let us heal!"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"And what will your wife say when she finds out I've been lying to her for longer than we've been mother and daughter, the entire time we've known each other? When she finds out you knew about it and lied to her to cover it up? When she finds out not only did I fail Mel, I almost got Will killed, because I was too stupid and arrogant to give her up when it mattered? When she finds out I destroy everything I touch, when she finds out my entire life has been nothing but lies since I was old enough to know how to shape them? When she finds out I'm a thrice-cursed drow assassin?!" Her voice rises, becoming shrill as she grows more frantic. 

[Smith Family]

Kyle winces at that last shout but squares his stance and gives her a mulish look. "Cindy, we're not so fool as that. We knew you were hiding your life long before you ever even considered of a mask. True, we thought you some merchant's daughter, but really, your play at being a common girl were... Well."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Fine, even if you don't count my parentage, I've been lying since the day Mel vanished."

[Smith Family]

"I can't entirely blame you for not telling us at first. Doubt you really had a plan for what you were doing." He sighs, rubbing a hand over his close cropped hair. "Not an easy topic to bring up. But yes have. And that's been a weakness in our family. So... fix it. Tell the truth. It'll hurt. Jaina won't soon forgive either of us. I see a lot of tavern meals and cold, quiet nights. But it'll get better, eventually. If you leave... it'll urt just as much. More probably. And it won't get better."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"It gets better," she says quietly, her voice scraped raw. "Never all the way, but nothing heals all the way. Everything scars. But Mel... There are whole months sometimes I don't think of her. And you have a babe on the way. That will help."

[Smith Family]

"Jaina and I were planning to ask you to stand as godmother, along with Seli." Kyle sighs a little. 

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I can't. I don't know what I'd do if I put that babe in danger."

[Smith Family]

"Save them. You'd save them. Ciren's warmth, Cindy. Will might have been put in danger because of you, but he was also saved because of you. And if- if you'd been who you are now when Mel was taken, you'd have brought her back. I know you would have."