Work Text:
Accurate Conception
Blanche was staring straight ahead, unblinking and silent as she watched the wipers on the wind shield of her car sway back and forth methodically, clearing away the small droplets of rain that had started pelting down.
Rebecca was starting to regret waving the cab driver away from his spot parked outside her mother's house, opting to let the older woman take her to the airport herself.
“I hope my flight doesn't get cancelled,” the younger woman mused as she caught her mother glance up into the visor mirror.
“Ah, it shouldn't. It's only spittin'. It'll quit by the time we get there. Even if it decided not to, it's not like you wouldn't have a place to stay for a couple extra days if you needed.”
“You'd really be okay with that?” Rebecca half smiled, brow raised questioningly.
“Honey, of course I would! I said sorry, didn't I?”
“You didn't exactly say it, Mama, Dorothy said it for you.”
“So? Becky you know how I am with these kinda things,” Blanche huffed.
“Apologies? Admitting you were being a selfish ass?”
“Rebecca Devereaux, you better mind your tongue!”
“Well! It's not exactly a lie, how else am I supposed to put it?”
“You're right.” Blanche turned her daughter's words over and over in her head before responding, pulled her car slowly over to the shoulder of the road.
“Mama, what're you doin'? I'm gonna miss my plane!”
“No you will not,” she promised, turning in the driver's seat to be face to face with her child. “But you're right. There are times I lie awake at night and feel as though I fell incredibly short as a mother. I'm not always the most selfless person, I know that.”
“Mama...” Becky let out a breath, raked pale fingers through her tight curls. “You were not a terrible mother. There were times I didn't like you, but I'm sure you felt that way about me sometimes, too. It don't mean I didn't love you. I'm still here, ain't I? I like to think I turned out all right.
“I may not have a man or be married, but I don't think I – or anyone really needs that to be happy. My life can be different from yours and still be worth living, can't it? I can be whole on my own, and I'd like to think I can still make a good mother.”
“No,” Blanche said softly, looking down at the pattern on her pants, tracing it with a forefinger. “You'd make a great one.”
She smiled into the visor mirror, took in her daughter's misty eyes and slowly put the car back into gear.
“I can call you in the middle of the night, right?”
Blanche laughed heavily in spite of herself. “Darlin' you can call me anytime you want. And trust me, you will.”
“I'm excited, but I'm scared, too.”
“Good,” Blanche nodded. “That's how it should be.”
“I'm gonna need you.”
Blanche couldn't help thinking that in that moment, her grown daughter sounded no different than she had as a vulnerable little five year old in the darkness of her room, rudely shaken awake by the terrors of a bad dream.
“You have me, Rebecca. You will always have me, as long as I'm here. You hear me?”
The young woman nodded silently, her mother removing one hand from the steering wheel and reaching behind her to entwine their fingers.
“I thought you were gonna help me pick out baby names?” Becky piped up after a while.
“Right! Well, we still got time,” Blanche shrugged. She felt stupid having forgotten, but was determined to make the most of their last minutes together. “You have any you like?”
“Just two so far,” Rebecca smiled, her mother nodding expectantly, encouraging her to continue.
“Blake and Brooklyn.”
“Ooh, I love Blake,” Blanche squealed. “That's cute.”
“I think so too.”
The vehicle came to a halt, two generations of Deveraux women sat together, embracing the other's differences, loving each other more than they ever had in spite of them. The bond between mother and child would only get stronger.
“We're here,” Blanche spoke up reluctantly, pulling herself from her reverie.
“I see that. You not comin' to the gate to see me off?”
“Do you want me to?” Blanche questioned.
“Of course.”
“You gotta promise me somethin' first, child.”
“Sure, Mama, what is it?”
“If I see you off don't you dare wait so long to come back.”
“Deal,” Rebecca laughed, half opening her door. “Now you gotta get on outta this car and hug me properly.”