014/Violate
Title: Cyanide & Happiness
Prompt Number/Prompt: 014/Violate
Character/Fandom: Cordelia Pryce/Original
Word Count: 536
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): sibling abuse
Summary: A small background on Cordelia and her sister's relationship with each other.
For Cordelia, things are about to go from bad ... to worse.
Violate: To break; To do harm to
From the time she was born, Cordelia had always looked up to her older sister. She wanted to do everything she did. It didn't have to be better or even just as good. She just wanted her sister to like her. That was all. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't. That's how it always was. Sometimes her sister liked her and sometimes she didn't.
Cordelia remembers the first time she realized this. It was the end of may and her sister and mother had come down to stay for the summer vacation. She had just turned six and couldn't wait to show her sister her new present: a good 'ol fashioned tire swing. The tree was an oak, tall and massive in size. It had been her favorite tree. She remembered begging her sister to push her in the swing. Her sister condoned her childish behavior. She remembered swinging higher and higher, her joyous laughter echoing under the branches.
The next thing she remembered was waking up in the hospital, her father crying above her. She had somehow fallen off, they said, broken her leg and knocked herself unconcious. The doctors asked if someone had hurt her because they reasoned that her leg was broken funny. She said no. She had just been swinging. They asked her again but she gave them the same answer. They gave up and sent her home. Later, Cordelia remembers asking her sister what happened. Her sister told her she didn't know. She had been inside.
After, Cordelia wonders if maybe she had been mistaken. Had her sister really been there or had she just imagined it? And if hadn't imagined it, why would her sister lie about not being there?
The summer went by and Cordelia's hospital visits became frequent: Bruises, scrapes, broken bones, sprains. The doctors knew her face by heart and she knew the hospital inside and out. She learned to hate the hospital. The smell, the looks, the endless times of waking up and not knowing where she was.
But as worried as she was, her father worried more. Once home and bandaged from the hospital, she would sit in her father's lap and promise him over and over that she would be more careful. Her mother would sit on the couch and complain about how wild she was and how good it would be if she were in the city. Her sister would smile and pet her head, reassuring her that tomorrow would be better. And no matter how many times it happened, Cordelia would never say a word. Summer came to an end and her sister went back to the city with her mother and while she dreaded the next summer, she also dreaded a year without an older sister.
Years later and nothings changed. Cordelia's learned how to hide the bruises and she's learned how to make up excuses. She knows her sister is wrong and she knows she shouldn't do the things she does but she's her sister and she loves her. It wasn't her sister's fault.
It was just who her sister was.