The Thing About Timing (The Becoming of Elliott Goode)

Chapter 26

Cordelia had been pestering Elliott for days to call her, each time the girl coming up with excuses as to why she couldn't, which was driving the supreme crazy. While Cordelia avoided offers for phone calls and facetimes when Elliott first left, due to her not being able to even think of the girl without crying, she now was desperate to hear Elliott's voice and see her face, a hole being left in her heart. She tried to fill it with work, avoiding the rest of the girls and shacking up in her study, but each day that Elliott was gone left her more and more empty until seeing her baby was the only thing she could think about.

"I'm at the park, I don't have Wi-Fi." Elliott sent her after about the 50th plea from the supreme. She wasn't purposely avoiding her, Cordelia just had poor timing. Every time she wanted to talk Elliott was either not at home or she was listening to the screaming match downstairs, she couldn't risk Cordelia hearing it and throwing a fit, so she made excuses. Luckily her foster father hadn't had any outbursts toward her yet, but she did have a close call the previous night when she got in between him and the girls, and she knew her luck wouldn't last very long. Up until this point her only communication with any of the witches had been through text, although she did manage to give David a call one night after her foster parents had gone out.

"I don't care; we have unlimited data." Cordelia responded, making the girl sigh. She wasn't getting out of this, and her phone lit up only a moment later with an incoming facetime call, which she answered. "Hey baby!" Cordelia said, doing her best to seem happy as her eyes welled up from seeing the girl on screen, "How are you?"

Elliott playfully rolled her eyes and looked away from the camera, watching the girls out of the corner of her eye. "I'm ok, how are you? How is everyone?"

"Everyone's hanging in there, missing you. How is your foster family?" Cordelia asked.

"I miss everyone too. They're ok, the girls are sweet. They beg me to take them to the park every day, so I think I might have created a monster." Elliott joked, "Have you heard anything about the judge?"

"Not yet, I should be hearing soon." Cordelia said before she noticed Elliott wincing at something in the distance, "What?"

"Uh, Cora fell. I have to go check on her, I'll talk to you soon ok?" Elliott said quickly, already standing up.

"Ok, goodbye I love-" Cordelia said as the call finished, cutting her off.

The supreme sat there for a moment, looking at the empty screen. This was supposed to make her feel better, but it only made her feel worse. Something about Elliott was off, but Cordelia couldn't put her finger on what exactly. The conversation was quick, but it seemed normal, or as normal as it could be considering the circumstances. Elliott just seemed so distant, always turning the conversation away from herself, which wasn't unusual, but for some reason this time it hit differently. While Cordelia didn't expect the girl to be a complete mess like she was, she wasn't expecting Elliott to seem this ok either, which only made the supreme more worried. She mentally kicked herself for being upset that Elliott was fine, it was selfish of her to want the girl to be more broken up about it. She should've been happy that Elliott was doing so well, that she was safe, but Cordelia could physically feel the girl slipping away, and she wasn't ok with that, not even a little bit.

She was roused from her thoughts by a knock on her door. "Come in." She said quietly, trying to look busy as Misty peeked her head around the door.

"Hey, ya comin' down for dinner?" Misty asked quietly. Practically no one had seen the supreme since the night Elliott had left. She wouldn't come downstairs for dinner, she wouldn't talk to anyone, not even Misty, it was worrying to say the least.

"Oh, I can't, I have a ton of work to do." Cordelia said quickly, shuffling some papers.

"Dee you've been up here workin' for days. Take a break." Misty said, eyeing the older witch. She knew what Cordelia was doing, and it wasn't going to work, not if she could help it.