Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Sean has been chanting the same profanities inside his mind in the past few minutes, distress slowly overwhelming him in his current predicament. First, this unusual heavy storm that would surely cause inconvenience for the next days, then his daughter getting sick.
And the strange appearance of the woman who was the splitting image of Brianna –or Brianna being the splitting image of her –was the cherry on top. The perplexing situation was slowly driving him crazy.
He remembered taking a few seconds to recover from all the staring that he did; the deafening rain penetrating his temporarily-dulled senses and taking in the petite, shivering figure of the woman in front of him.
"I'm sorry, what's your name?" he asked distractedly.
"K-Katherina Ch-Charis," she answered, her lips now trembling with the cold.
His muddled brain was unable to take that, so he just shut his eyes momentarily, shook his head in frustration, and hastily removed his coat with one hand.
"I'm Sean. Listen," he panted, as he took a step towards her so she can put on the coat. "I have to go home as soon as possible, and judging your present state, you need the help you can get. I swear I am not a bad person. You have to trust me," he said in almost one breath, shuddering with the cold, too.
"I-I believe you," she answered.
"Come on," he breathed, pressing his side against hers as he fit themselves under the umbrella. It was already completely useless at that point for her, even with her bare feet, but anything to make her feel safe.
They arrived in his apartment in silence, their entrance alerting Nicole who exited Bree's bedroom. She was supposed to greet him when she caught sight of the woman behind him, and her jaw slacked with her face slowly dawning in realization. Sean didn't know if it was because of the woman's soaked and bare-footed state, her unearthly beauty, or the fact that she looked like the older replica of his child.
But as Nicole's surprised gaze went to him, he exactly knew what she was thinking. He sighed, subtly shaking his head, silently telling her not to ask any questions with his hard gaze.
"How's Bree?" he asked as he hastily removed his layers of clothing.
"Still sleeping, Mr. Lew. She was talking in her sleep, I couldn't wake her up," the baby-sitter said, furtively glancing at the soaked woman who was looking around the cozy apartment with interest.
Sean muttered a curse under his breath. "Nicole, another favour please?" he said as quietly as possible, trailing his gaze towards the stranger. "Can you prepare a bath for her? You can use my bathroom. I have fresh towels at the middle shelf. I –I'll leave some fresh clothes on the bed and please help her dress up, too," he paused. "I know it's not part of your job, but I promise I'll double the pay for tonight."
"It's no problem, Mr. Lew. But is she –?" the teenager started to ask.
"I wish I could tell you, but I...don't know. I really don't know," he breathed, helpless. "I have to go to Bree."
He entered Bree's room without giving his unexpected guest a glance. He would talk to her later; right now, his daughter is his first priority.
The room's temperature was already cool enough even without the airconditioning, considering the temperature outside was dropping by the hour, but Sean's skin glistened not because of the rain but because of the cold, clammy sweat erupting on his skin. The last time he had felt this distressed was when Bree was two, when one day she was suddenly vomiting, and was repelling everything she tried to eat or drink. Later on at the hospital, it was discovered she had mild food poisoning, and it was the first time Sean felt so scared in his life. From then on, he prepared every meal for Bree and always made sure the food was fresh and healthy every time they eat outside.
"Princess," he whispered, trying to wake Bree up, brushing her cheeks with his knuckles. "Princess, wake up," he said with a light shake.
Brianna's eyes fluttered open, and it took her a while before registering her dad's face, her thick brows furrowing, pink lips in a pout.
"Daddy? I don't feel so well, daddy," she said in a small whine, hiding her face on his thigh.
A painful tug pulled in his chest with her raspy voice, but he forced himself to give her a sad smile. "I know, baby. But you have to take your medicine for you to feel better."
"But it tastes yucky!" her voice was muffled.
"Please? For me?" Sean pleaded. Sometimes he is still at a loss on how to handle her. Sure, he was great with kids when he was younger but it didn't mean he could rear them that well.
Now, Brianna peeked an eye from his thigh before fully turning onto him. "Will I see mommy soon, daddy? I wanna feel her hugs, too," she suddenly asked out-of-the-blue.
He silently sucked in a breath, but schooled his features immediately. Again, he wondered how frequently Bree was thinking about her mother lately that she randomly asks questions about her and even dream about her.
His mind betrayed him to the woman who is now cleaning up in his bathroom, and how, for some odd reason, she made him think of the mother of his child. She uncannily looked like Brianna in that short moment he took a good look at her under his phone's light, but maybe, his mind was probably making up things because of some sort of desperation taking place in his guts. But if she is really the woman that he has been secretly looking for, wouldn't she have recognized him? Because he couldn't, due to that mysterious amnesia and his numerous trysts with many women back when he is in Japan.
"Do you want to?" he asked instead, still not ready to break his daughter's heart. Bree nodded gingerly. "Then, if you pray hard enough, then maybe God will answer your prayers. And oh, maybe if you drink your medicines, too. I heard God favors girls who listen to their daddies," he said, slightly smirking.
With that, little Bree forced herself to sit up and take the medicine. Sean helped her sleep again, but not after she prayed aloud, with tiny fists clasped tightly, for her to meet her mommy soon. He could only sigh but didn't say anything for the matter, and waited for her to fall asleep. He placed a cooling strip on her forehead, before kissing her curls and going out to check what was happening to the woman that he totally forgot the name of.
They were still in his bathroom when he entered his room, and so he set out to find some clothes he thought that would probably fit her and left it on his bed. He went back to Bree's bedroom to monitor on her until after a few minutes, Nicole's head peeked inside.
"Is everything okay?" He whispered as he approached the door.
Nicole nodded. "She's all cleaned up, Mr. Lew. I also gave her some tea; she was shivering so much, but she's now feeling better. She's in the kitchen right now," she said.
"Thank you, Nic. I'll add this to your pay. You may go now. Mrs. Larson will surely kick my ass for holding you up," he said, smiling at her weakly.
"No worries, at all, Mr. Lew!" she grinned, then paused, hesitant. "You should know though...she didn't have any underwear with her. She didn't have anything with her at all," she told him.
For some reason, Sean could feel heat coursing from the skin of his neck to his face at the information. He knew the teenager had good intentions of letting him know that, and now it made him wonder about the stranger in his kitchen all the more.
After Nicole left, he hesitantly approached the kitchen where she sat on a high stool, his mind running through a hundred questions and trying to piece everything that he wanted to ask her first. He paused for a while as she came into view, quietly sipping on her tea, gaze occasionally flitting to her surroundings with good-natured interest.
Under that yellow light coming from the lighting that hung over his kitchen island, he could now totally appreciate her features. Thick, neatly trimmed eyebrows sat above her clear eyes, surrounded with long, naturally curled lashes. Her cheeks were brightly flushed with a natural rose color, matching her cupid-bow lips. She was on the petite side; his old gray shirt drowning her by the shoulder and arms, and he wouldn't be surprised if his sweatpants sag on her hips –but he knew underneath that she was all woman. Not that it was the first thing he noticed when he met her earlier that evening.
He cleared his throat as he shook the thoughts away, making his presence known. He saw how her eyes lit up, a small smile gracing her lips.
Ah, shit. He cursed on how she even looked more beautiful with a smile. He made her way to her, sitting on the stool right across hers.
"Uh, hi."
"Hi," she said, chuckling slightly, her voice smooth and clear, now that they were out of the rain. "Thank you for letting me use your bathroom and lending me your clothes, Sean."
"You're welcome...sorry, what's your name again?" he asked distractedly.
"Katherina Charis."
Nope, it didn't ring a bell to him at all. He could only internally groan in frustration. "Is that your surname? Charis?"
She giggled. "No, it's what I'm called."
"That's quite a mouthful," he sighed, standing up and going around to pour himself a cup. "What's your surname?"
"I don't have one."
He sat back down in front of him, brows now furrowed. That's strange. "No surname," he said quietly, mostly to himself as he took a sip. "Can I call you KC then, to make it short?"
"I've never been called that short before, but sure," she said, laughing slightly.
"So KC...where are you from? And if you don't mind me asking, what happened back in that alley?"
Her bright, hazel eyes was staring right back at him. "I'm from a place called Coelum –"
Now, his frown has deepened more. "Where is that?"
"Well, to go there, you are to enter Italy," she said, chuckling. There it was again, the manner she was speaking.
Sean raised a brow, a sudden thought coming to him. "Are you from a noble family?"
Now, KC laughed, eyes crinkling into crescents, cheek dimples appearing, baring her pearly whites.
Fuck. That smile just did something to him.
"I wouldn't call it noble. So no, I'm not," she said, still laughing.
"What do you do?" he challenged.
"I've been taking care of a child for almost five years now," she said, smiling wistfully.
A kind of panic surge within Sean, and his gaze went directly to her left hand. He silently drew in a breath of relief; her left ring finger was bare. "Y-You have a child?"
She chuckled again, shaking her head. "No."
"So, just like a baby sitter?"
"I am more than a baby sitter or a nanny. They call me a custos from where I am from."
He nodded once, slowly churning in the information as he took another drink from his tea. He observed her secretly above the rim of his cup, willing his mind to remember something...anything. Her name, her face –it didn't stir any memory inside his mind, but he remembered, the moment he met her eyes that evening, a trickle of familiarity struck his chest. But it was only that –a certain familiarity; he has no clear memory.
And even with the absence of his memories, the details about this woman didn't add up.
"By any chance," he said, before he was able to stop himself. "Have you been to Japan?"
He didn't know why he had to ask. But after a lot of thinking during that challenging month almost five years ago, he was sure, whoever Bree's mother is, he met her back in Japan. He was sure with the timeline.
"I've been to a lot of places, Sean. So yeah, I've been to Japan, many times in the past ten years," she said, smiling at him, probably being patient with all his questioning.
Shit. That was still a possibility, but he didn't want to be annoying pressing her more questions about the times she had been to Japan. How awkward would it be to ask her – "Hey KC, do you remember hooking up with someone in Japan and getting pregnant from that hookup?" or "By any chance, are you the mother of my child?"
And a heavy feeling settled in his gut, squeezing the little hope in him before he could formulate anymore questions. He knew it still doesn't add up. She may have probably been in Japan at the same time as he did, but she didn't recognize him. Women, by nature, is just better at remembering a lot of things, especially those that are as important as getting pregnant from a one-time hookup. And KC didn't recognize him, nor his apartment building where she had supposedly left Bree on his doorstep.
It's not her, he told himself, and yet, he was still unconvinced. Or is his guts secretly hoping that it would be her? Maybe she just really looks like Bree.
"So –so what are you doing here in Forks?" he asked, pushing the disappointment at the back of his head.
This was the first time in the course of their conversation that KC took some time before answering, and it might be some tricks playing inside his head but he swore he saw her eyes glisten. But in the next second, she was only looking at him, sadness swirling in her gaze. "There is something I have to do here related to my work," she said quietly. "And maybe visiting the town is in the agenda, too," she said, now smiling at him, eyes now twinkling.
"But where are your things, KC?" he asked.
"Oh, that. The boys you saw me with...there were five of them. The three of them took my rucksack and ran away. The two boys stayed because they said they wanted to talk to me," she said sheepishly, lightly scratching her head, a weak smile on her lips.
"What?" he asked incredulously, head swimming with a lot of possibilities of what would happen if he hadn't passed by that alley and interfered on time. "You do know that they are gonna do something other than talk, right?"
"I was concerned with them getting my things, in all honesty. I wasn't afraid at them, Sean. I knew something bad won't happen. Then you came," she said so confidently, but it really didn't erase the worry he had.
There was then a pregnant silence between them, with only the sound of the unrelenting rain outside and the strong wind that whistled through the cracks and gaps within the apartment and the building itself.
Sean was already formulating in his head on how to offer help without sounding creepy, when a shrill shriek echoed throughout the apartment, making his blood run cold as he dropped his cup cluttering on the marble countertop. At one half a second, he met KC's equally shocked gaze, and at the next he was running towards Bree's bedroom, with KC closely behind him.
Brianna was crying, sobbing in her sleep, slightly trashing around her bed, fat tears running through her closed lids. With his heart in his throat, he cupped the little girl's face, pushing back her hair from her forehead.
"B-Baby. Baby, you're dreaming. Wake up," he said, shaking her gently for her to awake. But she continued to wail and trash around. "Brianna, wake up!"
His hands were starting to get cold, mind numbing on what to do, and even more so when Bree started crying out loud.
"Mommy! Don't leave me! Where are you, mommy!" she cried.
Sean blinked back the tears as he stared at her. "B-Bree, baby, wake up -!"
He was about to shake her again when he felt a hand on his shoulder. At this point tears were flowing on his face as he faced KC, who had a sad smile on, a sheen of tears in her eyes.
"May I?" she offered. Sean hesitated; mostly because he was still getting paralyzed by fear. "Trust me, I've done this plenty of times," she assured him.
Nodding once, he stood from the bed and watched as KC, her petite frame which was drowning in his clothes lied beside Brianna, and gently scooped her tiny body against hers, tucking her curly head against her chest. KC started rocking themselves, running her hand on her back soothingly up and down while humming a tune.
"It's alright. It's just a nightmare, love," she whispered in her ears. "You're going to be alright. I'm here."
Emotions struck Sean just then, looking at the image before him. First, because this was Bree's first nightmare and he had no freaking idea on how to handle that, and second, his daughter perfectly fit inside the strange woman's arms as much as KC looked like she was born to do this.
Or more like she had born Brianna to do this, his inner voice told him. He shook his head, pushing the thoughts away.
A minute passed and Bree's cries had subsided, now whimpering against KC's chest, and the woman continued to comfort her. Sean was about to offer to take her place when KC whispered, directed to him.
"It's alright. I can sleep with her. Is she sick?" she asked. Sean could only nod. "She will be alright, Sean." Somehow, those words comforted him. He watched her for a while, and noticed that her eyes were glistening with tears again. "She's beautiful. You're so blessed to have her," she said.
He is, definitely.
*****
It was the first time in a very long time that he had a good, deep sleep, despite how late his brain allowed him to sleep, and despite the muscle pain ticking on the side of his neck and shoulder. His eyes fluttered open, blinking the drowse off his lids and slowly took in his surroundings –the absence of the sound of the rain, and the pink on the walls of Bri –Brianna!
He jumped out from the arm chair by her window and scrambled on his feet to check on his daughter, only to be surprised with the reminder of last night. There, still on the bed, was Bree still tucked inside KC's arms, both were peacefully sleeping like angels.
So last night wasn't a dream? He couldn't help but ask himself, what with the weird appearance of a woman who looks like could be Bree's mother, but really isn't. But right at that moment, he could feel that familiarity tugging in him again, as well as confusion.
Why isn't it adding up?
He probably looked like a creep staring at KC's sleeping form, but he couldn't help but see the striking resemblance between her and his daughter. Knowing it will not get him anywhere at that point and wanting to give them more time to sleep, he decided to make some breakfast.
*
"What are you doing here?" Sean asked, rolling his eyes as he turned away from the door, letting in Julian who had a grin on.
"Just checking on you, man," he said, shrugging as he followed him to the kitchen. "And of course I wanna hear some deets on that date," he said, smirking.
"Where's Josh?" Sean sighed, deflecting any topic related to that date that felt it didn't happen due to more important circumstances.
"Of course I didn't tell him I'm coming here! Do you want Bree's mind to be corrupted by his mouth? You know he doesn't have filter –now gimme some of that," he said, getting his own mug and demanded for coffee. Sean glared at him but poured for him anyway.
"Speaking of, where's my girl?" Julian asked, sitting on the stool as he sipped on his hot drink.
"She was sick last night, and uh, she's still sleeping," Sean said, still contemplating on how to tell him about the woman who was sleeping on his daughter's bed.
"Aww. I hope princess gets better soon," he said, placing the mug on the countertop and rubbed his knuckles, smiling. "So tell me about your date. How did it go?" he asked rather excitedly, for someone who disapproved at the set up initially.
"She's nice," he said simply, not really wanting to delve into that topic as he placed his own drink on the table. "But...I have to tell you something –"
Right at that moment, their heads turned to the sound of footsteps against the floor.
Julian, who was in the middle of drinking his coffee, quickly registered the beautiful face, with her wild curls, her body draped with unmistakably his best friend's clothes, with little Bree sleepily rested on her hip, her arms around the woman's neck, her curls as wild as the older, her young face too similar to hers.
"Good morning," KC greeted with a small smile as she entered the kitchen.
And that was when the coffee Julian was drinking shot out of his nose, spluttering a good amount across the marble, followed by violent coughs wracking his chest.
"G-Good morning," Sean greeted, trying to remedy the situation as he slapped his best friend's back, ignoring the incredulous stares he was shooting his way. He knew he was saying through his gaze.
Dude, what the fuck?!
"Is he alright?" KC asked worriedly.
Julian was about to say something, but his eyes were watering and another bout of cough came over. He scrambled behind him to help himself a glass of water.
"God answered my prayers, daddy!" Bree then exclaimed cheerfully, bouncing on KC's hip. "Mommy is here!"
Right at that moment, Sean's eyes widened, meeting KC's equally surprised stare, with Bree oblivious at the meaning of the exchange.
Behind Sean, a gurgle was heard, then a spurt, and another violent coughing filled the kitchen.
To be continued.
*****
Author's Note
Edit: Sweet Creature is now published into a separate book.
I'm sorry if it's kind of boring. And urgh, sorry. I couldn't just help writing it longer than it should be.
Let me know your thoughts!
Thank you for reading! :)
-K