Through His Eyes

XVI

Tia woke up at around 4 in the afternoon as Dean was packing up his ring gear for the arena tonight. Sleepily, Tia wrestled one of her legs from the blanket and unconsciously rubbed her foot against his pelvis. Dean lurched forward, tensing. Gently, he grabbed her foot and put her leg back under the covers. She was going to be the death of him, he just knew it.
"Tia," Dean whispered, shaking her a little. "Tia, wake up."
"Hm?" Tia mumbled. "But I'm sleepy."
"I know, but we have to go to work tonight," Dean explained. "I need you up."
"Can I just stay here?" Tia asked.
"No," Dean said. "I don't feel comfortable leaving you here and it's quite a drive from here to the arena."
Tia pouted. "Come on, Dean," she whined. "I'm a big girl."
"I know that," Dean said, leaning over to kiss her. "But I need you with me."
Tia sighed, opening her eyes. She was looking in his direction and Dean got a sad pang in his chest for Tia. If only she could actually see him.
"How'd you lose your sight?" Dean asked out of nowhere.
Tia jumped a little, startled. "What?"
"How'd you go blind?" Dean repeated. "What happened?"
Tia sighed and blinked slowly. "My mom," she said quietly. "My real one."
Dean leaned back. It made sense. Tia inherited none of the traits from the man or woman he saw Monday night.
"She was ingesting all of these bad things while she was pregnant with me that caused me to go blind. She did it out of spite because she hated my biological dad, who adored the fact of having a baby, for getting her pregnant. It wasn't even like he did it on purpose. The condom broke and they didn't know until it was too late."
Dean clenched his fists. He wasn't one to lay a finger on a female, but there were firsts for everything and it's not like her mom wasn't getting what was coming to her.
"What happened after you were born?" Dean wanted to know.
"When my mom was going into labor," Tia explained. "she took herself to the hospital not bothering to call my dad. They were expecting me a week later. My mom and I were released three days later and she ran away to Austin where she gave me up for adoption. My dad is looking for me, or at least he was." She paused to swallow. "I had been living in the orphanage for three months before Mr. and Mrs. Martin adopted me."
"Damn, Tia," Dean muttered.
"Yeah," Tia agreed. "Damn."
He reached over and caressed her knee with his thumb. "I'm so sorry, Tia," he whispered. "Are there ever times when you hate her, your real mom, I mean, to a point where you want to go and find her just to hurt her?"
Tia shook her head, surprising Dean. "She already did the damage," Tia stated with so much resignation in her voice, it brought tears to Dean's eyes. "I can't hold this grudge against her because then I can't get on with my life. But don't worry, she'll get what's coming to her. It may have already happened."