How She Came Home

Chapter Fifty-Five

Friday evening Becca found herself restlessly pacing the length of the private jet as she cracked her knuckles and waited in anticipation of the landing. 

She wasn't sure why she was so nervous to take her new family to the sprawling mansion she'd grown up in, only that it was a different world to the life Becca had cultivated for herself in National City. 

A modest brownstone in a wealthier area and an expensive sports car weren't exactly out of reach for doctors or lawyers, and while they knew Becca was a CEO of a tech giant, seeing the extravagant display of wealth on the Armstrong estate was another thing entirely.

Not to mention that her mother would be there and Becca was still trying to work out how to feel comfortable in the place she'd been made to feel the exact opposite for the vast majority of her life. 

Even Mind's offer of Diazepam wasn't enticing as Becca left the other three women to relax after a day of work - Nun sleeping off a sixteen hour shift on a made up bed in the corner - and tried to guess at what her mother would say. 

Surely she wasn't going to keep Becca away from the company she'd worked hard to rebuild and rebrand over the past three years.

She didn't keep still until it was time for them to descend into L.A., snow providing low visibility and the anticipation of the frigid January weather an altogether disgruntling prospect as Becca buckled herself in and eyed the thick winter coat dispassionately. 

It was a stomach-lurching moment of unease for her and her fear of flying as the wheels touched down and she feared the tires wouldn't have enough traction to stop, before they eventually came to a gentle standstill on the private airstrip.

A car had been arranged to meet them there and Becca dragged on her warm coat and descended the steps before making her way into the back of the car. 

The heater smoothly blew out warm air and she watched snow fall beyond the window, the darkness of midnight giving the illuminated airstrip a ghostly grey quality to it. Their luggage was quickly loaded and Becca hesitated as the driver pulled away, glancing at Mind with a certain shyness to her wary look.

"Hey, um, the house is a lot to take in, so can you just... I don't know. Don't comment on it."

Giving her a bewildered look, Mind laughed, "what do you mean?"

"I mean what I said. Just don't be a dick about it."

Snorting, Mind rolled her eyes, "you're so cranky. I think you need to sleep more."

"I don't need to sleep more," Becca tightly replied, tense and brimming with nervous energy as she stared out the window, watching the freeway fly past.

They weren't heading into the city, they were heading away from it, a few miles out in the acres of land that was removed from the suburbs and any semblance of normal life, and it made Becca more tense as the anticipation of coming home grew with each mile. 

It was late so no one said much as they drove, the movements of the car lulling them all into a stupor, and Becca picked at invisible lint on her coat as she shifted restlessly, eager for it to be over.

Eventually, the car pulled up outside the gates and they were buzzed through, starting the long drive up to the house. The trees that overarched the long driveway were bare of leaves this early on in the year, and the headlights illuminated skeletal branches as Becca's agitation grew. 

It was one thing to come here alone, but it was another thing to introduce her new family to her childhood, a sort of meshing of two worlds that Becca wasn't sure would mix well - like oil and water.