Chapter Text
~o~
“Hi, I’m here, sorry I’m late, my flight was delayed,” Tess Mercer hollered, closing the front door behind her and dropping down her bag. “Mama?” she called, hearing silence in return. She walked through to the kitchen and smiled as she stopped on the porch. Sarah Mercer was out in the garden, dead heading the fading roses that were in neat rows at the perimeter of the back porch, a tall glass of what she assumed was ginger beer and bourbon was on the table. Tess took a sip – yep, definitely bourbon, and actually quite nice.
“Tess!” Sarah exclaimed when she saw her titian haired daughter watching her. She shed her gloves and ascended the steps. “How are you? Good flight?”
Tess was a little taken aback by her mother’s cheerfulness. She swallowed and nodded, letting herself be hugged by the strawberry blond. Their relationship was strained, awkward. Tess had learned to stand on her own a long time ago. She’d had to. Tess was ten when Sarah Mercer walked out on her and her father, and she only returned the year before she was accepted into Harvard. Despite the distant years, she felt a sense of duty and a fervent desire to be loved by the woman. She imagined every child probably felt the very same thing.
“It was uneventful. Merry Christmas.” Tess said as she extracted herself from her mother’s arms. “Mama, you’ve really fixed the place up.” She commented on the tidy garden that looked out to the bayou, complete with its own jetty extending into the water. She remembered long childhood summers swimming and running wild with no shoes on.
Sarah nodded. “Come inside, dear, I’ll make you a drink.”
Tess nodded, following back into the house. It was so different now. With her husband gone, Sarah had been free to clean the house, repaint and decorate. It was lovely now. Not to Tess’ taste, but it was still pleasant. “Watcha havin’ hun? Ramos Gin Fizz or Bourbon Milk Punch?”
Tess contemplated. She had vague memories of Bourbon Milk Punches being used in her childhood to knock her out after nightmares or when she couldn’t sleep for storms, parties or sugar highs. “Nah I’ll have a Vieux Carré, thanks.” She chose, examining the collection of bottles. She noted that her Louisiana accent was already creeping back over her speech pattern.
"Cheers.” They clinked glasses and drank in silence. Mama, why did you leave me? Tess wanted to ask but in the time it took to sum up the courage to ask, she was interrupted by the door knocker rapping against wood. She swivelled to look to the front door, “are we expecting anyone?” Sarah shook her head.
Tess put her drink down and went to answer the door, gasping in surprise when she saw three people standing on her doorstep; Oliver Queen, Lois Lane. and Clark Kent -who was holding a ham.
“Hi Mercy,” Oliver said, giving her a dashing love-me-give-me-what-I-want smile.
Tess glanced briefly towards the kitchen and then back at the uninvited guests. “What the hell are you three doing here?”
“Seriously, Tess, you live in the hardest-to-find-house ever! We got lost four times and that was just coming up the driveway.” Lois exclaimed dramatically, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder.
“No, really. What the hell are you doing here?” Tess repeated in a whisper.
Clark stepped forward, pressing the bag of ham into Tess’ hands. “Well, we decided it wasn’t fair for you to be stuck by yourself for Christmas. We’ve decided to join you. And I got you a ham.”
“Merry Christmas!” Oliver kissed her cheek as he stepped past her. The place where his lips hit her skin flared with sparkles.
Tess closed her eyes briefly to avoid them seeing her response to his touch, then opened them again and gave a scolding glare to her friends. They knew she wasn’t spending Christmas alone. They were all just so nosy that they followed her home for Christmas when the Kent family Christmas plans fell through.
“Tess? Who’s at the door?” Sarah asked as she appeared behind Tess.
“Hi Mrs. Mercer,” said Clark. “I bought a ham.”
Sarah gave a puzzled expression that mirrored Tess’ perfectly. “Well, isn’t that lovely? Thank you. And please, come in. Tess just arrived herself, so I didn’t know we were expecting company.”
“Well, Tess invited us,” Lois said.
“I didn’t, actually,” Tess countered.
Lois looked meaningfully at the red head. “Come on, it’s Christmas, Tess.”
“My mother always said it was rude to show up empty handed. I thought since you’d be having extra for Christmas, we should bring food. We have plenty.”
Tess rolled her eyes slightly at Clark who was still going on about the damned ham.
“Yeah, I practically bought out Macy’s entire stock of festive hampers,” said Oliver with a smile. He was clearly finding the bright side in the situation.
“And you didn’t see the irony of showing up, unannounced and uninvited to Christmas at my house. With my mother?” she asked Clark, her voice reaching the deadly tones that usually came into play before she fired or murdered someone.
Sarah put her hand on Tess’ arm. “It’s fine, baby girl. It’s Christmas after all.” Sarah smiled at Lois, who grinned back.
Tess took a deep breath. “You know, I’m going to call you all a cab.”
“We have a car.”
“You have a car?! Good, get in it!”
“Tess, why don’ cha eva tell me how gorgeous your friends are? I’m Sarah,” she said, grinning at Clark. “…and bless my soul, Oliver darling, I haven’t seen you in years!” she exclaimed, enveloping Oliver in a warm hug.
Tess downed another drink as Oliver kissed the back of Sarah’s hand, saying something corny about Sarah and Tess still looking more like sisters than mother and daughter.
“Seriously, what’s with the accent? You’ve never had an accent in Smallville,” Lois asked, questioning Tess’s southern inflection on her words.
Oliver stepped forward, preventing the redhead from drawling out an insult by slinging an arm around her shoulders and holding her there mostly by sheer force. “Yeah, she lost it years ago when she moved to Boston for college. It only comes out a little bit when she’s at home, or when she’s had a little too much to drink.”
“Oh.” Lois smiled. “Cool.”
Tess wrenched herself out of Oliver’s grip, took a deep breath and motioned with her arms, as if herding the lot of them together and pushing them towards a room off the hallway. “Okay. You know what. I’ll play along.” She said, closing the door behind her. The group looked around.
“Wow, is this your room?” Lois asked, taking in the teenage décor of posters of photographs wedged into the mirror between frame and glass.
“So since it’s Christmas, I’ll be kind and let you all stay, but you have to chip in and help with the preparations. You may not mention Luthorcorp, Watchtower or what I did with the sweater she sent me last year, comprende??”
“Yes, Tess.” They echoed dutifully.
“Good. Now sit there and shut up while I go talk to my mother. Maybe this will all be a horrible dream and I’ll wake up and find I haven’t left Metropolis yet.” And she slammed the door with force.
Outside in the corridor, Tess shut her eyes tightly and took a deep breath. She wouldn’t have minded if it had been just Oliver who had shown up, though she’s never tell him that. She would have played up her annoyance at his presence for the fun of winding him up a bit, but she would have loved to spend time with him. There was still so much unfinished business between them.
She heard a burst of laughter from behind her closed bedroom door and looked at it with undisguised longing. She wished she could be a part of their friendship flawlessly, not her current awkward, unappreciated and suspicious lingering on the outskirts. She hated Oliver’s disappointment, Clark’s tentative mistrust and Lois’ contempt. She even hated Chloe Sullivan for disappearing in that moment and lumping all the responsibility and headaches onto her.
“Tess?” she heard her mother call and pushed herself back into the real world, trying to dispel all the darkness out of her heart. “Coming mama.”
She found Sarah in the kitchen. “Honey, I need some help. We have three days 'til Christmas and I need to get the food prepared so that we’ll have an easier time.”
Tess nodded. “I’m sorry about them. I don’t even know how they got our address. I bet you ten bucks it was all Oliver’s evil plan.” She glared darkly at the toaster.
“Oliver? Oh he’s so cute, Tess. Why the hell did you ever leave him?”
Tess coughed. “Why did I leave him? Why did I leave him??” she started laughing maniacally. "You have no idea how happy I am now.” She deadpanned. “We were… a long time ago.”
“Well, I think you were silly to let him go. Is he single? I’ll put the mistletoe over the back door, alright, you remember that?” she winked and gave Tess’ a sharp rap on her hip as she passed her.
“Mother, you’re impossible.” Tess muttered. “You really have no idea, do you, what my life is like?”
Sarah turned and looked back at her daughter. “No. But you could talk me, honey.”
Tess sniffed and shook her head, “You wouldn’t understand. You wouldn’t care. You didn’t care when I was growing up so why would now be any different.” She didn’t give Sarah a chance to counter her as she continued talking, “Anyway. I’ll go get our guests to help with dinner. We’ll do it, you can rest. And then I’ll sort out where everyone can sleep.”
Tess stepped past her and returned to her bedroom, but not before she got a flash of the hurt in Sarah Mercer’s green eyes and felt guilty in response.
TBC!