New fic: Four Corners, Part III
Four Corners
Fandom: Devil Wears Prada
Pairing: Andy/Miranda
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own the twins, Miranda, Andy, or anything remotely related to the Devil or Prada. Alas.
Notes: This was a great adventure, and my first attempt at present tense. Thanks to my beta Xander, and to all the other writers who have inspired me with their wonderful stories.
Part III.
---
Cassidy is trying to go back to sleep after waking herself up out of a bad dream. It was something about dogs and birds attacking her, which is strange, because she likes both kinds of animals a lot. So she tosses and turns for a few minutes, until she is startled nearly out of her bed by a big crash.
The sound of it is shocking, and reminds Cassidy of only one thing: the time that her mom and dad had a huge fight, and one of them threw something at the other. It was years ago, forever practically, but it strikes a cold fear in Cassidy’s heart.
She doesn’t even bother thinking about how crazy she is for doing what she’s about to do, but if her mom is throwing things at the wall, Cassidy wants to be prepared for the inevitable breakup, and the misery of another lost hope. In only a moment she stands in front of her mom’s bedroom door and pounds on the wood three times. She knocks hard, like she means it.
There is no response for a long time, which is probably only about thirty seconds. To Cassidy, this is an eternity. A light goes on under the door, and her mother opens it soon after. “Darling, did I wake you?”
“Mom, did you throw something at Andy? Are you fighting?”
Her mom looks like she can’t believe what Cassidy is asking. “Where on earth did you get that idea?”
Cassidy doesn’t want to elaborate, but she says, “You threw something at Dad once. It sounded like that.”
Mom’s face melts a little bit, her mouth falling at the corners. “Oh.” She looks over her shoulder behind the door, and Cassidy thinks she is waving or something at Andy. “Darling, it was an accident. Andrea was reaching across the side table for a glass of water and she knocked over the lamp.”
Cassidy raises her eyebrow. “Really?”
“Really.”
The sound of rustling sheets is audible, and Cassidy is silent until Andy stumbles into the doorway. She’s wearing a robe, and her hair is a total mess. “Hey, I’m fine. No one threw anything at me, or vice versa. Wanna see?”
Cassidy steps inside and glances across the room. The bed is made, even though Andy and her mom must have just gotten out of it. But instead of asking why, she looks over at the side table, and the lamp is on the floor next to it. She decides that her mom is telling the truth, because Andy doesn’t look like she’s been crying or has a black eye.
“Okay, sorry. I just-“ Cassidy doesn’t finish. She doesn’t want to say she was afraid. Or angry. She would have been both if her mom ruined this thing with Andy.
“It’s all right,” her mom says, and hugs her. “I’m sorry we woke you.”
The words are out of her mouth before she can bite them back. “I was already awake.”
Her mom strokes her hair softly. “Why, darling?”
She hesitates, but tells the truth. “I had a bad dream.”
“And then you heard the lamp,” her mom adds with a nod of her head. “Well.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure I can go back to sleep.” She hugs her mom again. “Good night. Night Andy.”
“I’ll tuck you in,” her mom says. “I’m sorry,” she tells Andy, “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
“Take your time. I’ll wait. Night, Cass.” Andy blows her a kiss.
Cassidy walks back to her bedroom. She slips under the covers, and to her surprise, her mom lies down next to her. She brushes a few strands of hair behind Cassidy’s ear. “Go to sleep, darling. Everything’s just fine.”
It’s warm lying next to her mom, and Cassidy nudges her head in closer. “Thanks, Mom. I love you,” she says, because she does not get a chance to say it enough.
“I love you, baby,” her mom whispers, and kisses her forehead.
Cassidy stays awake for a few minutes, listening to the thu-thump of her mother’s heart, and falls back to sleep without even noticing.
---
It is Sunday night, and Cassidy is in her room, procrastinating on her history timeline. How is she supposed to concentrate knowing that her mom is going to be a complete terror after two days of travel? The weather has been terrible in Milan, and their mom was scheduled to come home yesterday. Last night she got on the plane, sat on the runway for an hour, then had to go back to the hotel till this morning. Mom sounded bad on the phone then, but she was worse today calling from the airport, because it snowed again. “Next time, Miuccia comes to New York,” she’d grumbled. “This is a travesty. Have you finished your history project?”
Cassidy lied when she answered, “Almost.” Now she is worried about two things: that their mom will come home tired and angry, and that she will go nuts when she realizes Cassidy’s project isn’t anywhere near complete.
But Andy is here, and that eases a little of Cassidy’s anxiety. For some reason, Andy has started sticking up for both her and her sister, and what’s amazing is that their mom seems to accept this. Stephen did little in the way of disciplining them, mainly because he didn’t care. When he did, it amounted to telling them “no” a lot. He didn’t want to be their dad, or even their friend. He wanted to be their mom’s husband, or rather, have her be his wife. Wuss.
Andy is not like that, and she’s fun to be around. Their mom says it’s because Andy was their age not that long ago, which makes Caroline laugh. But Andy ignores her, and keeps pushing to have their mom go easy on them. What’s even weirder is that Cassidy finds herself wanting to be better at things because Andy thinks she can be. Most of the time now she finishes her homework on time or early, and she even goes to bed when their mom tells her to.
Janie says that this is reverse psychology. Cassidy doesn’t know what that is. But she got an A in math last semester, and Mom got her and Caroline backstage passes to “Wicked” as a reward. Now Cassidy wants to meet Miranda Cosgrove, and her ticket to ride is an A in history.
She spends twenty minutes trying to focus, and gets much more done in that short period of time than she expected. Glancing at the clock, she starts to worry again. Andy said an hour ago that the plane landed safely. What could be taking so long?
Cassidy completes the first two parts of her project in a rush, scribbling notes in her pad and typing on her Mac. The Powerpoint presentation comes together rapidly, and she is nearly finished when she hears the front door slam. Glancing at the clock, she discovers it’s just after 10pm. She races to the hall and slams into Caroline, who is as excited as she is.
“Mom’s home!” Caroline exclaims.
At this moment, Cassidy realizes that their free reign over the house is coming to a close. Andy has stayed with them the entire week, and it’s been pretty good. Andy made dinner the nights that Sara was off, and she even cooked a full breakfast Saturday morning. She said that her family did that every weekend back in Ohio, and she thought she might try to start the same tradition here. Cassidy ate every bite that Andy put on her plate, and she can hardly wait until next week.
But right now, Cassidy can’t wait to see her mom. They thunder down the first flight of stairs, and Cassidy bumps into her sister when she stops on the landing. She looks over a shoulder and sees her mom leaning against the front door in her big black cape, with Andy in her arms. She is smiling in what seems like relief, and presses her face into the crook of Andy’s neck. They murmur quietly, too softly for Cassidy to understand the words. It’s like when they talk in the bedroom at night, but this time, seeing her mom’s face, she knows that whatever they are saying is about love.
She understands why Caroline stopped on the landing. It’s a little strange to watch her mom hold someone that way, like she just can’t bear to let go. But it’s pleasant. New. Nice.
Her mom looks up, and her eyes widen in surprise and delight. As Cassidy waves, Andy turns to look over her shoulder. “Come down here you little sneaks,” Andy says with a grin.
Cassidy is hot on Caroline’s heels and in a flash they are in their mother’s arms. The coat she wears is cold, but their mom is warm beneath it, and they hug her tightly. Cassidy feels Andy’s hand in her hair, and she gets a little shiver of happiness from it.
“My girls,” their mom says. “I missed you.”
“Missed you too,” Cassidy says, and hears the echo of Caroline’s voice beneath her own.
They stand in the foyer for another minute until Andy asks, “Where’s your luggage?”
Mom sighs. “I asked one of the production assistants to bring it. I couldn’t stand to wait another moment in that airport. It should be here within the hour.”
“You must be exhausted,” Andy says.
“I’ve had better days. I’m glad it’s over. I wanted to be home again. Though I’m sure you two,” their mom pinches their cheeks gently, “had a marvelous time.”
Caroline shrugs. “We had fun with Andy. But I like it better with both of you here.”
Their mom blinks down at them, her red-rimmed eyes growing a little glassy. “Well,” she replies. “I agree.”
Andy leads their mom into the kitchen and makes her sit down at the counter. “Here,” she says, and sets out her version of comfort food: a thick slice of charred steak with a sprinkle of parsley, some salad, and a giant glass of red wine. Mom looks at it and sighs, slicing into it slowly. She sighs again as she chews, and Andy winks at Cassidy across the counter.
The three of them get on stools and sit with their mom as she talks non-stop about how horrible the flight was, how incompetent the airport staff was, and wasn’t it ridiculous that they even bothered getting on the plane the night before when it was perfectly clear that the weather was only getting worse?
When their mom was away, Andy explained that she believed their mom talked this way to let off steam. At work, there are consequences, but at home, it’s best to just let her talk and not worry about what she is saying. At home, Mom’s complaints are just words strung together, and once she says them, they dissipate into thin air.
Cassidy grins as she listens to her mother go on. The sound of her voice is soothing, even as she moans about freezing temperatures and endless meetings. But by the time the steak is gone, their mother is calmer. Since Cassidy is paying attention to this pattern now, she realizes that Andy might be right. Their mom quiets as she sips her wine, listening attentively as Caroline describes her week. Never once does she interrupt until Caroline is finished, and she even turns to Cassidy and asks, “How are you, darling?”
Cassidy stares, glancing at Andy who smiles serenely as she leans against their mother’s shoulder. “I’m okay.”
Her mom nods. “Good. Anything happen while I was gone?”
Cassidy leans forward and tells of how she won the mile run in gym, which was an especially sweet victory since her greatest competition, Sasha Seaver, came in fourth place. She talks about how much she still doesn’t like her science teacher, even though she got an A on the last two pop quizzes. Lastly, she asks if she can go to Danielle’s birthday party next weekend, because they’re going to Danielle’s dad’s house where they have a big screening room and a whole floor dedicated to video games.
Andy’s mouth drops open. “That’s outrageous! Talk about conspicuous consumption.”
Cassidy doesn’t understand exactly what that means, but she assumes from Andy’s tone that it’s gross.
“Now, now. Danielle’s father is a film producer. He doesn’t know any better.” She pats Andy’s leg. “Yes, you may go. Do you need to find her a present?”
“No, I’ve got that covered. She likes this bunch of books a whole lot so I got her the DVD of the movie.”
“What movie?” Andy asks.
“Anne of Something or other.”
Andy’s eyes are as wide as Cassidy has ever seen them. “Green Gables?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Have you not read those books?”
Cassidy shakes her head, and looks at Caroline, who shrugs. “No.”
“My god, you heathens. Two redheads who’ve never known the wonder of Anne Shirley. This summer, you two are all mine. We’re going to read the first three books in the series. The rest are okay, but the first three will change your life.” She claps her hands together in excitement.
Cassidy remains unconvinced. Other than Harry Potter, she doesn’t know why anybody would get so excited about a book.
Mom’s luggage arrives not long after that, and Andy goes upstairs while it’s loaded into the house. No one knows Andy stays here, or that she and Mom are a couple. Cassidy wonders what will happen when people find out, but she really doesn’t care. Compared to everything before she started coming around, things are different. Cassidy can’t remember her mom being like this before, unless she was when Dad was still living with them. But that was a long time ago, and Cassidy has forgotten.
Later they settle on the couch, the four of them smushed up together, because Mom wants to watch a few minutes of CNN. Cassidy knows that she will go to bed very late. She will be exhausted in the morning, and her teachers will complain when she doesn’t pay attention. That doesn’t bother her. Tonight she wants to stay close to her mom and her sister and Andy. For the first time in a long while she feels like one corner of a perfect square, and things are the way they’re supposed to be.
---
The next morning, Cassidy stares at her bedroom ceiling and smiles.
A two hour delay was called, because seven inches of snow fell during the night. In her heart of hearts, Cassidy knows that this delay will magically transform into a school cancellation. Her mom is staying home, and Andy is working for a few hours in the upstairs office that now belongs to her. Across the hall Caroline is Skyping with some friends from school, but Cassidy closed the door when she got too loud. She doesn’t want anything to prevent her from hearing the wonderful noise coming through the wall.
Her mother is singing to herself, and it is beautiful.
~end.