BROKEN MIND, CH 3
šRead Chapter 2š
Now, CH 3
The minute Carla walked through the door, she leaned heavily against it. She had no idea what time it was but her body felt heavy and tense. Closing her eyes, Carla willed herself to just breathe. More often than not, she succeeded in leaving most of her work at work but the return of this Magic City Serial was tying her up in knots already.
"You too, huh?" Grayson muttered as she opened her eyes to see him offering her a nice tall glass of red grape juice. Since meeting him, she had sworn off all alcohol as a gesture of support for him. It wasn't hard, as she wasn't much of a drinker anyway. Instead, they had developed the ritual of wine glass full of grape juice. White for mildly troublesome days. Red for the harsher ones. Today was obviously a mutually red day. "The way you tore out of here this morning I had a feeling."
Just as she was about to tell him why, the phone rang. Grayson got it.
"Hello, Marsha" he said in an exaggerated voice.
Grayson turned to Carla who had enough energy to emphatically shake her head.
"She's right here, one second."
Her shoulders slumped as she gave her love the look of kill. She trudged to him grabbing the phone as he stepped back grinning and sipping.
"Hey Mom. No, no I haven't forgotten. It's just that now's not a good time. This is what I do and I'm not going to stop. Yes, Grayson is good about my work and schedule." Carla was silent as she listened to her mother talk about devoting herself to a family. She rolled her eyes trying to quell the ill feeling that bubbled as she heard her mother drone on about settling down and giving up her job. After the day she had, it was a little too much and she could hear her reserve fraying with every word. "Look, Ma, I gotta go. I know but it's been a day and I'll let you know when we have time."
She muttered a quick goodbye and hung up. Grayson watched Carla's shoulders bunch. Her body language after she spoke to her mother was always tense and while he always let it go, this time, he didn't.
He put his glass down and walked up behind her, his fingers massaging her shoulders. He could feel her body yield to his motions as he spoke gently. "In the two years we've been together, I've never met your parents. Why?"
She turned her head to him. His look wasn't accusatory, just curious. "Well, I haven't met yours either."
Grayson stopped his massage and put one arm around her shoulder and one around her waist, resting is chin on her shoulder. Carla placed each hand over his. "That's not exactly true. You spoke to my father on the phone when he told you to keep me in jail for a night to teach me a lesson. I think you've spoken to him a few times since then. For different reasons. You met Virgilia while working on finding my brother. Joan, you don't really want to meet and Quinn, well, she's across the Atlantic but you've spoken on the phone with her."
"Ok, Ok, I get your point."
He grinned as he planted a kiss on her cheek. Leaning back he grabbed his glass and took a swig of juice before speaking.
"Do you think that my past would bother them? That they wouldn't understand..."
Carla turned to him. "No, I know what you're trying to say and I'm not ashamed of you. I'm proud of you and what you've overcome. How you put your life back together. That's part of the reason I love you."
"So what's this about?"
She knew what Grayson was really asking without really asking and she still didn't have enough of an answer to understand it either.
"My family is just...my mother has this notion of a woman giving herself completely to a man, shutting herself off from all of her ambitions and goals just to focus on a marriage and kids...it's oppressive."
"I get that. She's from a different time when that was true. She felt she had to do that for her family. But, you're not her and we're not your parents. I'm not out to chain you to a kitchen with a big belly, apron and five kids screaming for attention."
Even though he loved the idea of Carla pregnant with their child, he knew she was on the fence about having that kind of family.
"On some level, I know that but...I just don't want my family to taint us. I love what we have and I don't want her to try to manipulate what we have."
"So you're not ready?" he said as he kissed her forehead.
"Not yet. Just let this be for us for a little while longer. Just you and me right now. Please."
"Okay," Grayson took another drink, finishing his juice.
"Besides, itĀ reallyĀ isn't a good time for us."
"Why?" he asked as he walked back to get more juice.
"The Magic City Serial is back, Gray." Grayson's stopped midstride and turned to her. His eyes were harder than she had seen them in a long time. "The victim he got this morning, she's basically brain dead. Her family is trying to make that decision of what to do right now."
Grayson felt his hackles rise as he remembered just what he nearly lost that night.
"Hey," she whispered walking up to him, kissing him. "I'm here."
His gaze softened. "I know. It's been two years and I guess a part of me hoped he'd crawled off and died somewhere."
"We all did but it's him. His signature is there but...it's like he's messing up. Making mistakes, priming himself. He's gotten sloppy."
Grayson frowned. "Serials don't usually forget. It's trained behavior, ritualistic. For many it's as sacred to them as praying and they don't typically forget. Maybe the damage you inflicted that night was more serious."
Carla stood back and thought about what Grayson said. Neither she nor Carl considered physical injury as part of the problem.
"That could explain a few things," she mused.
The phone rang.
Sighing with exasperation, Carla rolled her eyes. "God, I hope it's not Mom again," she muttered which made Grayson chuckle lightly as he finished his juice.
Carla picked up the phone. It was Carl.
"Ok, I'm on the way." She hung up and looked at Grayson. "We have a suspect in custody."
