for the love of a daughter [caitlyn]

[Moses Hephaestion Calmer]

[Caitlyn Calmer]

As she walked down the street that led to her apartment, Caitlyn wasn't really all there. Fortunately for her, she lived a few blocks away from Marisol, the clothing store that she worked for, so there wasn't really much to pay attention too. She was vaguely aware of the fact that, especially these days, it was very dangerous to be out on the streets, any streets, alone, but honestly, Caitlyn couldn't bring herself to be too bothered by that lately. She knew that when she found herself at the mercy of a bunch of soulless Death Eaters, intent on killing her because of who her parents were, she would be a little more than 'bothered'. At the moment though, it didn't matter.

If Caitlyn thought her life was pointless and without direction before, when she used to watch Isaac talk about how much he wanted to be an Auror, and everyone around her do the same about their respective goals, she often felt left out, because she honestly had no idea where she wanted to be five years from now. And now, here she was, with a dead mother, a dead brother, and a Head-Auror-Turned-Serial-Killer for a father who was nowhere to be found, and she was more lost than ever. Her family, as dysfunctional as it was, was the only thing that she knew would be there, the only thing that wasn't supposed to change. And now it wasn't. She had thought that since she had already lost her mother before she could even walk, life would cut her some slack, and lay off dishing out too many twists and turns, but she was dead wrong.

Caitlyn turned the doorknob to her apartment, pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind. She should focus on making something for dinner....and ice cream. Ice cream was always a good thing to focus on. She smiled softly to herself, mentally chuckling at how silly everything seemed to be these days. Caitlyn dropped her purse on the kitchen counter, and reached for a bottle of butterbeer, before she started on dinner.

[Moses Hephaestion Calmer]

[Caitlyn Calmer]

Caitlyn was mentally going through everything she had to do by this time tomorrow. It helped to do that; not much can surprise her then, or at least, she hoped so. However, she was all too familiar with the fact that life never really worked out that way. The way she saw it, at least she did try to keep things the way they're supposed to. She lifted the can to her lips, taking a long swig, and gently made to put it down. The bottle never reached the kitchen counter; instead, it fell on the floor, just as she gasped out loud.

Caitlyn found herself where the butterbeer was supposed to be, looking up at her attacker's unfamiliar eyes. It wasn't until he spoke that she realised they were familiar, incredibly so. Caitlyn was at a loss for words at first, before she managed to whisper, confusion, surprise, and a hint of fear, in her voice, "Dad?! What are you doing?"

If she hadn't glanced down briefly, Caitlyn was sure she wouldn't have felt that wand, her wand, as her father held it lightly against her. She didn't want to think about what this meant; this was just her dad, playing a trick on her. He was probably using some Auror training technique, something to teach her how to handle herself in this situation. She couldn't let her mind put everything into context for her, with what had happened the last few months, because that would mean that this man wasn't the same man who tucked her into bed at night when she was young. That would mean that this wasn't the man who told her time and time again to stay away from all boys who weren't Isaac. That would mean that he was a stranger to her; he was a murderer, no different from the very same people who took away her mother years ago.

[Moses Hephaestion Calmer]

[/i] enough to be born, dammit."

Moses dug the wand into her throat then, his hold on her small waist tightening as though he were trying to snap her in two, "I never meant for any of my children to ache like I used to ache every single day... I never meant for Isaac to die. I never meant for Riley's death... But it happened because I was too arrogant to fix it." Moses never once turned his gaze from her, she was really a spitting image of her mother. But the pain, the fear in her eyes as she glanced up at him... That was never supposed to be. Fear and pain were things he used to protect her from, he would have died protecting his daughter.

Too late, always too late. He was going to put an end to her fearful slumber, he was ending his reign of shame. "I'm going to fix this, Caitlyn. I'm going to fix you."[/ul]

[Caitlyn Calmer]

Although every single biological alarm was going through her head, telling her that she should find a way to get out of here, to escape this situation, Caitlyn couldn't tear her eyes away from her father's startling blue ones, as they bore deep into her soul. She tried to find something, anything, that she recognized there; it was like staring at an empty space, an abyss, and she hated it. She hated that she knew who he was, yet she didn't feel like she did. She felt like she was in the hands of a stranger, like she wasn't safe, and she wasn't supposed to feel that way when it was her freaking father. This was the man who was always trying to protect her and her brother, for as long as she could remember. She shouldn't be scared of him, but she was. She was terrified.

As he spoke about her mother, Caitlyn wanted to shut her eyes tight and block the sound of his voice from her ears. She didn't want to know, she didn't want to hear this; unlike Isaac, she had always preferred not knowing. While at times she had wished everyone wasn't always trying to protect her, she didn't have the thirst for information that Isaac did. But despite that, she couldn't look away from her dad's eyes, she couldn't stop hearing him, and she couldn't stop herself from analyzing what he was saying. She couldn't prevent herself from understanding it.

Tears began to form in her eyes, as she tried to shake her head and talk some sense into her father, "Dad...you can't do this...you don't want to." Caitlyn somehow managed to will herself to move, but she didn't push her father away; she knew it would be pointless, as he was stronger than her, and she didn't want to. He wasn't supposed to be the person she was running from. Caitlyn reached to place her hand on his wrist softly, and spoke, "Daddy, please...just...let's talk. I miss you. I need you."

[Moses Hephaestion Calmer]

[Caitlyn Calmer]

At first when her father pulled her close, Caitlyn thought maybe there was still a trace of the man she used to call 'Daddy', and she let him hold her, as she cried. She had never felt so scared and vulnerable, and the fact that this was when she was feeling it, when it was her own father that she was scared of, it made everything a thousand times worse. She didn't want to be scared of him, but fear with seeping into her heart, despite all her attempts at blocking it. Her father's words, although they assured her at first, turned darker and she couldn't help but sib harder as she understood what he meant.

But the talking seemed to work....or at least, that was what Caitlyn thought. It delayed him this far, didn't it? Maybe there was still hope; maybe she could still try to reach down and find her father. She knew there was still a part of him that would never even consider something like this; she just didn't know how far down he was.

Caitlyn didn't pull away completely, she just put enough space between the two of them so that she could look into his eyes, as she spoke, "But don't you see, Dad, there's nothing to end. I'm fine, nobody's going to destroy me." She grasped his other hand, and continued pleading, "Please, I just need you to come back, I just need to see my father again, because I know he'd never hurt me. You said you'd always be there, Daddy, that you'd always keep me safe." Caitlyn knew that she could always try to run, and she wanted to. She didn't want to die; she didn't want it all to end. But she could never fight her own father, she could never even consider protecting herself from him. He was the one person who would never hurt her; she couldn't pit herself against him, she simply couldn't let herself do that. "Please don't do this."

[Isaac Calmer]

[Caitlyn Calmer]

Caitlyn could see that it was hopeless. Just looking up at her father's eyes, searching them, she could almost see when the switch went off, when there was finally nothing left of the man she knew. And even as she realised that she owed this man nothing, that he wasn't the father she loved and who cherished her, even though she knew he was basically a stranger in his body, she resigned herself to her fate. There was no point in fighting; it would lead her nowhere. Even if she could somehow muster the courage and will to try and fight against the very man who always vowed to protect her, she was nowhere near him when it came to dueling or even old school muggle combat. She would lose anyways, so why put herself in that place?

Caitlyn's eyes were shut tight, as her father lifted his wand. She heard him utter the very beginnings of the two words she had been taught to avoid at all costs, and found herself wondering if her mother had died a similar way. Had Aline fought, or did she just give in like her daughter was? Did she cry and beg for her life? Did she call out for her husband to save her, or did she try to do it herself? In essence, was her mother a coward like Caitlyn was being right now, or was she stronger? As the thought occured to her, Caitlyn heard the sound of footsteps, and then her father yelping in pain. She opened her eyes reluctantly, and was shocked to find yet another person she thought she would never see again.

Caitlyn's eyes went back and forth from her father's bloody body, lying on the floor, to her supposedly-dead brother. Finally, she launched herself at Isaac, hugging him tightly and sobbing, before she asked, "What are you doing here? You're....you're supposed to be dead, dammit!"

[Isaac Calmer]

[Caitlyn Calmer]

Caitlyn wasn't really fully aware of what was going on, now that she was sure nobody was trying to kill her. It all felt surreal, like it was just a dream, where her wish was granted, and she did get to see her brother and father, but everything just went horribly wrong. It had to be; there was no other way to make sense of this, not without nearly losing her mind and her faith in the world. How could she not, when she was just about to be killed by her own father? The thought made her sob even harder, as Isaac led her out of the kitchen. For now, she wasn't even too bothered by the fact that he was here; she was just relieved that she didn't have to go through this alone, if it turned out to be real. She didn't think she could handle it and keep her wits, if this was going to be her reality.

Caitlyn wasn't really listening to what Isaac was saying, just enough to register it, but she was still trying to get a grip on what had just happened. That was until he lifted his sleeve and showed her the one thing she never thought she would see on his body, on any Calmer's body. A dark mark. Caitlyn stopped crying, and simply stared at it; she heard Isaac talk about loving someone too much, and some other stuff, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the mark. What if her father had one of those? She didn't really get a chance to look....what if he wasn't acting out of his own accord? What if he was Imperius'd or something? That had to be it! It just had to. But what about her brother? He was admitting the very opposite of an Imperius.

Caitlyn looked up at Isaac, as if seeing him for the first time, and said, "You're an idiot." At first, her tone was quiet, almost defeated, but she was just so overwhelmed right now, that she found herself pulling away from Isaac, then proceeding to punch every bit of him that she could reach, as useless as that was because she simply sucked at it, and saying, "How could you just leave?! And join them?! What the hell were you thinking? We all . . . we just . . . we were devastated. You just left! You asshole!"