Les Sacrifices auront leurs Conséquences

5. Apprendre à le laisser aller

A.N. - I apologize ahead of time. Much of this chapter is filler. I was having an extremely difficult time figuring out what to do with it and I knew I needed to explain their arrival at the Hollis home somehow so...

"Laura, honey?" Sherman entered slowly, rapping his knuckles on the door as he pushed it open. When he finally entered all the way he found Laura curled up on the small couch, her knees tucked to her chest, staring into space with red puffy eyes and obvious tear streaks still present.

After Carmilla left the room she continued crying again, wanting so badly to make things right, but finding herself being held back. She knew she didn't have near as much of a reason to be angry. She wasn't the one who lost her sister to selfishness, she wasn't told to change, and she wasn't the one who was practically forced to do things and be part of something to keep a whimsical love.

It still hurt though. She still felt like she was lied to. She still felt like she was abandoned multiple times. She still felt like she was seen as the only one at fault and the words that had been slung through the air over the past few months still hung heavy on her. Laura knew that she was wrong for a lot of what she did, but she didn't know that at the time. She was too young. It wasn't her fault that she was too inexperienced to know better and to be held accountable for it in such an aggressive way was too much, especially when the person holding her accountable was guilty of so much themselves.

Sherman closed the door gently, going to sit down beside his daughter. He put a gentle hand on her knee to get her attention. "Laura, talk to me. Please." Laura ran a hand through her hair, releasing a shuddering sigh. "She abandoned me, dad. She abandoned me and she lied to me and she hurt me... How am I supposed to forgive that? I want her back so bad but..." She stopped, unable to find the words without crying again.

"Oh, Laura..." Sherman wrapped his arm around Laura, pulling her into his embrace. "I wish this was easier." He was quiet for a moment. "Let me tell you a story about your mom and I. When we were newly married, about a year before we had you, we had this huge fight. She got so mad at me. I thought she would never forgive me and I was pretty mad too. She ran out on me, jumping in the car and taking off. I had no idea where she went because we still lived in the city, too far for her to go to your grandparents and she didn't have many friends there. She was gone for a long time." He took a deep breath, recalling the memory with sorrow.

"I got a call, about 7 or 8 hours later that she had been in a car accident on the other side of the city." Laura lifted her head for a moment to look at him before tucking her head back in his chest. "I was still so angry at her for some of the stuff she said, but I called a cab and had him race to the hospital as fast as he could. When I got there, I found out that she was resting in a room in the ICU. She had been crying so hard that she didn't see a semi turn right in front of her. The doctor pulled me aside before I went upstairs to see her and told me that she had been pregnant. She was almost 3 months in, but the baby didn't survive the accident." He took a moment to breathe, the story making him emotional and a bit teary eyed.

"He said she had already been seeing an OB/GYN, but she hadn't told me yet. That made me even more angry. How could she be so reckless? How could she lie to me about that? I was tempted to not even go up to see her, but I knew that I still loved her and I was still her husband. I was angry for a long time, especially when we found out that we likely wouldn't have children because of the damage. Obviously, we got lucky with you." He poked her in the side lightly. "But it took me a long time to forgive her. That was the worst decision I ever made. To wait that long without forgiving her left a big hole. We were still dealing with it when she passed away because I waited too long."

Sherman pushed her up a little so that he could look her in the eyes. "Laura, the reason I'm telling you all this is that you need to let it go. I know Carmilla said some awful things and you felt abandoned, but you can't hold on to that. It'll kill you. You want her back right?" Laura nodded. "Then just let it go. Learn to forgive her. Talk to her about what hurt and figure out a way to avoid it in the future. You can't do this to her or to yourself, it's not fair to either of you." She nodded again, sniffling and sitting back up.

Pulling his arm back to give her space, he patted her knee. "Alright, go get cleaned up and then help me pack. We are leaving in a couple hours."

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Later that day, everyone was packed and ready to go. They unfortunately would have to leave Kirsch at the local hospital. Not only did they not have enough room in Sherman's car, which thankfully Bob had been able to dig out, but Kirsch was also still in pretty rough shape and needed a few more days under observation.

Perry, aside from sharing a few words with Sherman over the things that needed to happen for them to leave, was silent, not speaking to anyone.

LaFontaine, for much of the trip, sat behind Sherman, going over ideas for their laser eye and proper safety precautions that they would need. They deliberately avoided looking anywhere but the back of Sherman's head and out the side window.

Carmilla sat slouched, tucking herself behind both her seatmates, focusing all her energy on reading. She kept to herself, scowling at anyone who dare interrupt her unless it was Laura in the case that they might make some sort of peace.

Once Laura had navigated her father through the Styrian Alps and back to Einhörn, she resigned herself to listening to music and staring out the window. She would have slept since the trip was going to take them the rest of the day and likely all night, but every time she tried to fall asleep she would be immediately plagued with aggressive nightmares.

Normally, to get to Landeck, Sherman would have crossed the border into Germany for an hour to bypass country roads. However, that would have been almost impossible in the chaos in wake of the biblical proportioned plagues. This meant that their 7-hour trip was now closer to 14 hours with having to use backroads and avoid road damage and traffic. By the time they finally pulled up to the Hollis home in Landeck, the sun was starting to peek out, illuminating the many thunder clouds.

The crew quickly unloaded the cramped car, stretching their legs from the pain of sitting through the last 6-hour portion of the drive. LaFontaine and Perry were the first to make it up the stairs. After their fight that morning over the state of the hotel room there was no chance they would be staying in the same room, meaning that both spare rooms were now occupied. Laura, of course, went straight to her room with Carmilla following her just out of instinct. Before Carmilla could follow Laura in, however, a door was slammed in her face and a lock was thrown into place. This meant that Carmilla was out a room.

Sherman came up behind the dejected Carmilla, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Just give her time." He turned to the end of the hall, pointing at the last door. "There's some blankets and pillows in that closet, you can camp out in the den until things change or until Mrs. Perry arrives for the other two. Get some rest Carmilla." He smiled softly at her before retiring to his own room. Carmilla nodded, going to grab what she needed for the night and heading back downstairs.