Chapter Text
“Mommy-mommy-mommy-mommy-mommy!” Clutching a thick and heavy book, Cassie goes running as fast as her legs could carry her, down the long corridor and towards her front door. However, with the weight of the book in her arms, as well as the backpack that was slung over her shoulders, the task was beginning to get a little bit too awkward for her to continue.
Standing inside the apartment, Mabel could hear the excited shouts of her daughter, alongside her echoing footsteps, that were getting louder and louder with every second that passed. “Here we go.” she muttered to herself, as a knowing smile crept across her face. She headed on over to the front door and began to open it, ready for the whirlwind that was Cassie to make her appearance through the open door.
A blur of brown and olive green came streaking inside, the inevitable ‘thwump’ of the book falling to the wooden floor of the entryway hallway. “Mommy, you can't guess what I’ve found!” Cassie couldn't contain her excitement, even with being a little out of breath, as she bounced over towards Mabel. Her backpack fell off her shoulders, the biggest smile on her face.
“Oh, I’m sure I can guess.” Mabel’s eyes drifted over to the temporarily abandoned book, as she shut the door. “A book?” A beat, as she closed her eyes and playfully pressed the fingers of her left hand to the side of her temple, acting like a mystic at a fair. “Wait!” She opened her eyes to look down at her daughter with a smile. “Is it a true crime book? A murder perhaps?” Mabel knew her daughter so well, she knew even before Cassie had stepped through the threshold, why exactly she was so excited. It was always a toss up between it being murder or it being ice-cream and she had already had some ice-cream earlier today.
Cassie placed her hands on her hips, pretending that she was annoyed by being so transparent but Mabel knew she was just teasing. Also her eyes gave her away. “How did you know that?” A pout formed as she spoke, her voice rising several octaves.
“It’s a gift!” she deadpanned as she looked at Cassie, with the pout getting comically bigger.
Very quickly though, Cassie was unable to keep the joking going, as her excitement over her new find rippled from her. “Do you want to see?”
Mabel smiled and nodded, before crouching down a little and holding out her arms in the direction of her daughter. “I do but first, a hug? I missed you so much today.”
Cassie didn’t need to be told twice. As soon as she heard the words, she was there in Mabel’s arms, holding on as tight as she could, snuggled into her body. “I missed you too, Mami.”
Mabel gave Cassie one last loving squeeze before they eventually peeled away from one another and headed towards the kitchen to get something for both of them to drink. Soon enough, they found themselves sitting side by side on the sofa, Cassie picking the book up on the way there.
Once they got themselves comfortable, situated in their usual spot of Mabel on one side of the sofa and Cassie curled up by the side of her, feet up, it left very little room between them.
“So, Cass, first thing’s first, what’s this book about?” Mabel asked, tapping the cover atop Cassie’s lap, before adding. “Other than murder obviously.” She gave out a little chuckle at her small joke.
Cassie couldn’t help but halfheartedly rolled her eyes but her excitement bubbled up once more, that she dove right into explaining, barely taking enough time to breath. “Well…it’s about this lady who, her name is Miranda, a long time ago, got murdered but no one could work out who did it, or really even how it happened because there wasn’t any sign of a break in or anything to show that there was someone else there. It was a cold case for years–do you know what a cold case is?” She stopped her story for a moment, pulled herself away from Mabel and turned to face her.
Mabel had been listening, trying to keep up with the speed of which her daughter was talking. She nodded, confused slightly by the ask since Mabel was the person to teach her about such things in the first place. She simply replied with an “I do” and that was enough for Cassie to start on up again. Of course she knew.
“Yeah, I do too. So, she got murdered and it was unsolved for years and years but then one small clue, the people working on it, they didn’t think it was very important, so it got missed but that was the thing that helped solve the murder in the end. Do you know who helped solve it?” she paused but didn’t stop long enough for Mabel to ask before Cassie was off and explaining it all. “Her dog. I know! How can her dog help? He ate something he shouldn’t have - a button - and the button was from the killer. Nobody thought the dog had anything to do with the murder either, it was old, unwell and died a year later. It was enclaved -”
“Engraved.”
“Engraved, I know–” Cassie was annoyed a little by her mispronunciation but carried on. “–it was engraved with the killer’s initials: EJ. When we read this part, we couldn't think how it would get to be solved with this button. DNA would be gone after all that time but then I realized. The initials were a clue. His name was Edward James - Eddie for short.” Cassie bounced a little on the sofa as she mentioned his name. “He was a–hired–hand, a hired hand of Miranda’s ex-boyfriend and also a want to be assassin.” Mabel smiled at the mispronunciation. “I didn’t know assassins were real! Anyway, her ex-boyfriend, his name was Mark, he was very unhappy with Miranda because she ended things, so he hired Eddie to scare her but it turned very deadly instead.” Cassie continued to talk a million miles a second, going through the ins and outs of what she had read in a fairly nonlinear, mildly confusing way. She only stopped because she got out of breath from all the high energy speaking.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Mabel knew that true crime never scared Cassie or that, in a strange way, was a sort of passion of hers, then Mabel felt like she should be concerned by everything that Cassie had told her, the crime, her excitement, all of it. A lot of people would say Cassie was too young to be knowing anything related to murders, let alone reading books about them but Mabel wasn’t one of those people. She wasn’t worried about Cassie, she knew better. Cassie was Mabel’s daughter after all and anyway, she grew up in the Arconia, somewhere where murder was as much a part of its structure as the bricks, mortar and limestone that it’s made of.
“Wow! Well, this all is interesting. It sounds like it’s a perfect book for you.” Mabel didn't want to admit that it also piqued her own interest too. Maybe she'll borrow it afterwards to read herself.
Just as she was about to ask another question, she recalled something Cassie had said, a subtle change of pronoun, I to we, during her explanation of what she had been reading. Wait- we? Who was the we that Cassie mentioned? Mabel had a feeling she knew and if she was right, she, Mabel, was probably going to be in trouble.
“Wait. Hang on. What did you mean by we? As in this we who couldn’t work out about the button?” Mabel quickly twigged, yep, definitely in trouble. “Cassie, did you show Henry the book?”
Cassie was quick with a reply. “No I didn’t! Well, yes I did but it was only because I was sitting on the couch with the book–I had done my homework and when he finished after me, he wanted to know what I was reading. So I showed him.” Cassie paused before adding. “You always told me I should share my things and I was doing as I was told, Mommy. I really was.” She looked up at Mabel with the sweetest expression she could muster. “I know you told me that Uncle Will wanted Henry to be surrounded with as little to do with murder-related things as possible but I just got so excited to talk to someone about it that I forgot. I’m sorry Mami.”
Mabel knew she wasn’t in genuine trouble but she did promise Will, he was well meaning and slightly nervous with his asking, to try and keep his children away from one of their grandfather’s loves in life: real-life murder mysteries (his absolute first love was the theater) as much as possible. In fairness, Mabel didn’t think it unreasonable to be asked this, most parents wouldn’t want their children to be neck deep in a real-life murder, in book-form or in close proximity to the action but, it was also kind of difficult when you were living or at least connected to the Arconia and your children have their own minds on what they are or are not interested in. Their most common shared interest being murder (not committing it, thankfully!).
Mabel sighed and smiled lightly at Cassie before pulling her in for a hug. “It’s okay, sweetie.” She held her close, resting her cheek into her thick and curly, dark-brown hair. “Just I promised your Uncle Will we’d keep the murder talk down to a minimum.” Mabel gave Cassie another comforting squeeze, holding her in her arms as Mabel thought for a moment, wondering if she should say something or not, just to smooth things out if there were any bumps to sort out.
Eventually, she settled on what to do; Mabel planned on talking to Will at some point, just parent to parent, friend to friend. It was nothing major. All will be fine. ”Don’t worry about it, I’ll talk to him. Now-” She pulled back a little but kept Cassie close to her, as she moved on to asking something else. “Okay, so second question; where did you find it, the book?” Mabel had a feeling she knew that answer though. “Don’t tell me it was your Uncle Nollie who gave it to you to read?”
Cassie’s face dropped ever so slightly, feeling for a moment like she had caused Mabel to be angry towards one of her closest friends, instead of actually just joking. However, at seeing Mabel’s subtle smile and light expression, Cassie could tell all was okay, so she pretended to look bashful and smiled up towards Mabel instead. “Okay, so I won’t tell you it was Uncle Nollie who gave me it to read—and I won't tell you that Uncle Nollie also gave me three servings of ice cream today.” She paused before adding. “Triple Caramel Fudge!”
Mabel couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s a lot of triple caramel fudge!” A pause. “Did he really give you three servings?”
“Yep.” Cassie nodded viciously, chuckling as she moved.
“Well, it’s no wonder you ran all the way back from 10D. You’re on a sugar high.” Mabel gave Cassie a lighthearted eye-roll when saying this.
Cassie giggled, pulling away from Mabel. “I’m not on a sugar high, Mommy!” But she was obviously lying, Mabel could almost see her physically buzzing from all the sugar.
Thankfully, Oliver had called earlier to ask something minor and completely unconnected to, well anything else it seemed really, which was how Mabel ended up knowing to expect a hyper Cassie on her hands, even though he breezed past mentioning about the ice cream, saying he couldn't remember if it was one or maybe two bowls of the stuff, instead of the more realistic three bowls he gave her (and probably Henry too). What was more important (and the reason for the phone call) was, he wanted to know if Mabel had any size 11 high heels he could borrow.
Mabel had no idea why he thought she wore size 11 shoes (or owned any) but she quickly told him that she didn’t have anything that size for him to borrow. She knew she would have to remember to ask at a later date why he needed the high heels because she certainly knew at that moment that he was too preoccupied to answer any questions on the phone call. With a brief swapping of half-concentrating pleasantries, the call was ended and Mabel went back to her work.
Several hours later Cassie was running down the corridor, heading back home.
Mabel laughed alongside Cassie at her statement. “Are you sure about that?” She tipped her head ever so slightly in Cassie’s direction, eyebrows raised, seeing the signs all to clear of the sugar high.
Cassie giggled again. “I’m sure!”
“You...doubly sure?”
“I am!”
“You sticking with that?”
“Yes!” Cassie was beaming, she was laughing.
Mabel had been moving closer to Cassie with each new sentence but she pulled back to sit up straight, still looking over at her daughter. “Okay, well, as long as you’re telling the complete and honest truth, how about you help me make some more empalmes?” Mabel started to get up off the couch and turned to head to the kitchen.
Cassie nodded quickly, happily following Mabel, almost forgetting that she actually wasn’t telling the ‘complete and honest truth’. She stopped walking, not realizing that a few feet away, Mabel was expecting her to do this and was already beginning to turn back around towards Cassie. They looked at each other and they weren’t facing each other for longer than two seconds, before Cassie burst out laughing. “I lied Mommy! I have a sugar rush.” She bounced over, pausing her speaking whilst looking slightly mischievous, like she was contemplating whether to say something that flew through her mind. She gave a little giggle before continuing. “But it was worth it! Uncle Nollie always has the best ice cream!”
“I knew it!” Mabel exclaimed before jokingly tapping Cassie on the shoulder. “I mean about your sugar rush, I know he has the best ice-cream.” They started to laugh together, as Mabel wrapped her arm around Cassie’s shoulders, pulling her close. “Now that you’ve been honest with me, how about we make those empalmes?”
Looking up at Mabel, Cassie nodded excitedly, hooking her arm around her mom’s waist. “Yes please, Mommy! I love them so much.” She stretched out the word ‘so’ to get her point across on how much she loved them.
They made their way towards the kitchen side by side, before they separated and both began to get all the ingredients from their various spots in the kitchen and placed them all on the counter.
“So, did they like the empalmes?” Mabel asked as she was sorting out the tortillas and Cassie was mixing the previously prepared ingredients of the salsa together. She had sent some with Cassie to 10D that morning.
Cassie looked over at Mabel with a smile. “They did! Though–” She elongated the word for emphasis. “I nearly missed being able to have any when they got served up. They were gone so quickly.” She turned back to the salsa. “I had to fight with Henry for the last one.”
Mabel always felt warm whenever she heard good things, whether it was about her cooking, her art, anything really. She smiled a little at hearing of Cassie’s fighting spirit. “So, who won?”
Cassie moaned, not answering right away. “Henry.”
She couldn’t help but let a small laugh escape. “You know you shouldn’t be fighting over food, sweetie.”
“I know but he already had one more than me, so was just fair that I got to have the last one.”
“Cassie…you were right to make things fair but well, promise me that you won’t fight with Henry again. Even if you feel like he deserves it.”
A soft sigh. “I promise.”
“Okay, good.” Mabel had struggled at times to be the, let’s say grownup for the both of them. What that meant was, she struggled to instill certain life lessons to live by, when Mabel had always struggled to follow them her whole life, now she had to make sure someone else followed them. It was difficult but she certainly tried throughout Cassie’s young years. Lessons such as, to take the high road and not to react when someone annoyed or frustrated you. Combined with their mutual want for fairness and clarity (regardless of how much they’d actually experienced in life), they were just two peas in a pod. Well, mostly anyway.
Sometimes though, these little life lessons, they would in some form or another, backfire. A little like here.
Mabel didn’t want Cassie to fall out with any of her friends, especially when, like Mabel, she didn’t have a large group of friends to begin with. However, Mabel knew that this time was barely even a blip, it wasn't even really Cassie's fault to begin with. It felt to Mabel that that talk with Will would be imminent, parent to parent to discuss certain things out.
Anyway, she felt like she might laugh hearing about Cassie’s strong spirit, if she didn’t think it was a bad idea. Instead, she arched her neck over to look at the bowl Cassie was using, seeing that a lot of the ingredients were decorating the outer edge of the bowl. Mabel would clean it up before they ate. “Well, I think you’ve mixed everything together very well, sweetie. Why don’t you put it on the table in a sec but first, how about you help me with the grilling?”
Cassie nodded, smiling as she did. She loved to help with this part and Mabel knew that too. “Yes please!”
Once they were finished and Mabel had cleaned up the bowl, they sat themselves down at the dining table and begun to dig into their food. “So, these better than this mornings?” Mabel asked before taking a bite.
Cassie couldn’t answer as she had stuffed her mouth that little bit too full with empalme but she nodded vigorously to show her answer.
They enjoyed more than the one each, chatting and laughing between each mouthful. However, they both stopped talking when they were interrupted by Mabel's phone buzzing, signalling that she had just gotten a text. She didn’t usually have her phone at the table (or nearby to be honest) when they were eating together, however this time, it was in easy reach, situated behind her on their bookshelf. She looked over but shook her head, like she was getting rid of a thought. “I’ll answer it later.” she mumbled, mostly to herself, as they were both getting to their last bites of their empalmes. About a minute passed before her phone buzzed again.
Cassie looked up from her food, noticing her mom’s phone buzzing again and could see that Mabel was wondering who it was. “You can see who it is, Mommy.”
Mabel looked at her daughter, placing her hand on top of hers slightly. “You sure? You know I don’t like using the phone while we’re eating.” A pause, as she considered. “Okay, I’ll just take a peek.” She removed her hand before swiveling around and grabbed her phone. As she was turning back, her phone lit up once more, from her proximity to the screen. That’s when she saw who had texted and what. She rolled her eyes.
“Who is it?” Cassie was curious.
Mabel looked at the meme of what looked to be a vintage postcard of a blonde woman doing something like a cancan, wearing these bright red heels, swinging them high up into the air and across the bottom of the picture was a comment saying:
New Shoes.
It was followed by another text asking if she was sure she didn’t have suitable shoes he could borrow. “It’s your Uncle Nollie asking if I have particular high heels he can borrow.” Mabel suddenly was aware after speaking that Cassie was looking at her, so she looked up and was greeted by a very confused expression. Mabel chuckled slightly. “Oh, don’t ask!” She turned back to her phone before looking back up at Cassie. “I’ll explain later.” That seemed to be enough for Cassie to get back to eating.
Mabel texted back with a meme of her own, simply of a screenshot of Girl Cop from Girl Cop saying a one word line from the show:
No.
“Okay, that should work.” she muttered to herself.