Our Home and Native Land

Talia hoped she was going to be able to sleep on the second flight. Despite the normally soothing sounds of her music, she didn't rest a wink. All she could think about was what awaited her when she got off the plane. It didn't matter what Cassie said to her, she knew they were going to tear her limb from limb. As they should. She started breathing quickly. She needed a bag she could cover her mouth with or else she'd hyperventilate. She wished they'd gotten off at the wrong airport. Then she could go back home and say she tried her best. That's all anyone could ask of her.

"How old are you going to be?" she managed to ask Cassie as they looked for her family.

"Um... twenty one." Cassie said while clearly distracted. "Not really a big deal for me I guess. Twenty one is only a thing in the States." She looked over at Talia. "Isn't it funny how little we know about each other, even though our lives have been so centered on each other? I don't even know how old you are. How old are you?"

A slight unsteadiness crept into her voice, and her heart was pounding in her chest in anticipation of the next step. She knew Talia was feeling worse. By the look on her face, Cassie wouldn't have been surprised if she just bolted and booked a ticket right back out of there. She could only imagine what she was thinking.

She reached out and took hold of Talia's hand and gave her a comforting smile.

Cassie beat Talia to it. Her follow up statement was going to be that typical, 'Oh, the big 21! You need to go party and stuff.' But apparently that wasn't a thing. She bit her lip. Cassie was right, though. She didn't know very much about the Canadian. And now here she was in Ontario about to meet her family. "I'm twenty three...and a half I suppose." It felt odd that Cassie was somewhat considerably younger than her. Just another thing to make her uncomfortable about the whole ordeal...that she had picked on someone younger than her. It only reinforced the thought that this was a bad idea. Instead of being alone in a familiar place, she was about to be alone in a cold and scary place. Probably.

But as Cassie reached out and held her hand, Talia looked back in her eyes. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen Cassie smile. If ever. It felt reassuring in a weird kind of way. For once, she felt certain that things were going to be different. The cycle of conflict that had trapped them was broken. Talia managed to smile back at Cassie. Even if everything in her life was in the garbage, at least now there was one glimmering light of hope throughout it all.

"I'm not going to cry, okay?" Cassie assured her. "That would be so uncool if I was just crying like a baby in front of my ex-rival. Not gonna do it."

A moment later, she spotted her family, standing watchful over the terminal, each one of them just like their picture. In the crowd, it became obvious that they really were below the waterline for height. Aside from the dark haired Nick, all of them would have to look up to ask for directions. Mom would have so stand on her toes just to have a conversation.

"Oh my goodness," Cassie exclaimed excitedly, and took off flat out, dragging Talia along behind her. "Hey!" She called out, and they saw her. "Hey!" She repeated, and then she was crying.

She collided with her dad and locked herself around his waist like she was made to fit. With a smile of equal parts contentment and relief, he hugged her back. Her mom was there, leaning her head against Cassie's, her eyes closed while she savored the moment. Nick hung back, but put a hand on Cassie's shoulder. Jacob, Bucky, was conspicuously detached. He stood with his arms folded, toggling between looking at Cassie and averting his eyes elsewhere into the crowd.

Dad pushed her back just enough that he could look into her big, green eyes. "I'm so proud of you," he said. He was nearly in tears himself as he gave his daughter another squeeze while tears ran down Cassie's face. The words were heavy with emotion, and the sound of them in that moment was something Cassie would never forget.

But they were all aware of Talia standing there, and so Cassie's dad separated himself from the rest and took a step toward the redhead. He looked her in the eye, and while his eyes were kind they were also convicting, unflinching, in a way that made you run through the list in your head to make sure you hadn't done anything wrong lately.

"Hello, Miss Wilson," he said, and stuck out his hand. "We're so glad you're here."

Cassie started dragging Talia along before she even saw the family. But as they got closer, the people suddenly resembled the pictures Cassie had shown her. And her stomach dropped. She knew this moment was coming but she never really came to terms with it. The image of her family closing in around Cassie in support would have been heartwarming to everyone else in the world. But not Talia. In her mind, it only showed just how hard they would come down on her.

When Cassie's father approached her, Talia thought was going to throw up. Being called "Miss" from an older person always made Talia feel like she had done something wrong. It was as if her parents raised their voice and called her by both first and last name. It finally settled in her head that she was all the way here in Canada. There was no turning back now. "Hi," was all she could muster and she slowly reached out to weakly shake the man's hand. That was really all she could do. She wasn't even sure what was expected of her on this trip.

She wasn't really even sure what she was doing here.

He could only smile at her timidity. How she must be feeling to have come all this way just to meet them.

"I'm Marc Elliot, Cassie's dad, and this is my wife Rachel." He said, and Rachel stepped forward to clasp Talia's hand in her's.

"Hi," she said with her sly, knowing smile that made one wonder what it was that she knew.

"This is our oldest, Nick," he said, and the taller, darker boy stepped in on cue. He engaged Talia with his strong gaze and firm handshake.

"And this is Bucky!" Cassie exclaimed, grabbing Jacob's wrists and flailing his arms around.

"And this is Jacob," said Rachel.

Jacob endured Cassie's affection and cracked a smile, but he kept his head turned and his eyes low. He quite obviously wasn't comfortable meeting her, didn't want to be there, didn't think it was a good idea, didn't see why they needed to make a thing out of it. His youthful face, normally so full of infectious cheer, wore his indignation in a way that still managed to be disarmingly adorable, not unlike a boy-Cassie.

"Say hello, Jacob."

"Hey."

"Please excuse him, he got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Rachel said sweetly. She exchanged looks with her son.

"Bags, guys," Marc said, and the boys quickly picked up Talia and Cassie's luggage. While the group began to head for the exit, he found his way alongside Talia. "On a scale from one to ten," he said just to her. "How awkward do you feel right now?"

Talia looked from person to person as they were introduced. She always waited for them to reach first before she shook their hand just to awkwardly holding her hand out. She forced a smile from one person to the next. Older Cassie. Bigger boy Cassie. Shorter boy Cassie. There were all these Cassies in front of her and she suddenly wished there was only one. One was enough. The hesitant greeting from Jacob represented exactly what she was expecting to receive from the Elliots. She ended up not saying anything in response, if only because she didn't want to make it anymore awkward with Jacob.

She didn't really need someone to get her luggage but one of the brothers picked it up for her. Talia wasn't about to deny or refuse anything with this many people around her. When she noticed Cassie's dad talking directly to her, she realized she needed to answer somehow. Unfortunately, that response came out as an awkward laugh in agreement. Embarrassed by the overreaction, Talia reached into her pocket to fiddle with her phone. "Yea...it's...definitely a ten." She checked the time on her phone and slid it back into her bag.

The redhead continued fishing around in her head for something to say. She didn't want everything to be awkward. She had worked so hard not to be in Japan. But this was different. She wasn't sure there really was anything she could say without it being awkward. "Thanks for having me," she finally added.

Marc nodded. "You're very welcome, but the pleasure is all ours." He glanced over at her with a disarmingly easy smile. "Though I hope that'll change, at least a little bit."

Rachel and the boys were busy with Cassie, walking a few steps ahead, and for the walk back to the car Marc was left to get acquainted with his new house-guest. "Please don't be intimidated by us. We all know about what happened in Japan, but the fact that you're here means everything is right in the world again. I'm just as proud of you as I am of Cassie, you know, it took a lot of courage to come stay with your old rival's family, especially when they're all ranked submission fighters." He laughed, as if there wasn't a thing wrong.

"Just so you know, while you're in our house, you're family. That means you have to follow the rules like everyone else. Don't worry, there are just a couple. We all eat together, and we all work. And don't mind Jake, he'll come around. There's nothing to be afraid of, I promise, we all love you already."

"Dad, what did you think of Taylor versus the giant girl?" Cassie turned around to ask.

Marc had been a big fan of Taylor as a wrestler from the very early on. They had met the year before when the family visited Japan, and Taylor found herself overwhelmed by Marc. She wasn't sure if it was okay to spend too much time with him, especially after in a friendly bit of sparring she accidentally bloodied his nose. Marc, whose own children were not even the slightest bit like Taylor, remarked to Rachel that she was "really something".

"It was amazing," he nodded thoughtfully. "I think it got a little out of control with the managers... But I'm really impressed with how she's improved, especially in areas she's not as comfortable with."

"Do you think I could ever beat someone like Iron Maiden?"

"Well, I don't know, Baby Bear, what do you think?"

"I think..." Cassie paused. "I don't really know what I could do."

Marc chuckled. "I think you can do anything you put your mind to."

"I think you'd be alright once you chewed through her calf." Jacob gave her hair a tug. "An Iron Maiden is still just a girl. Bears eat girls all the time."

"I think maybe drawing it out and making her work would pay off for her late in the match. There's no way a girl that size has any real cardio," Nick said.

"What do you think, Talia?" Marc asked, as they loaded into a large, white passenger van that had the Elliot's school logo painted on the side and set off for home.

Talia tried to force another smile to Marc when he tried to assure her of this trip. It may had been easy for them to forgive and trust and love...but Talia hadn't grown up in that environment. Even her experiences in Japan only served to further distance her from anything remotely close to what Cassie's family was like. She subconsciously ground her teeth together when Marc mentioned the ranked fighter bit. That was something she didn't know beforehand. She simply nodded to Marc when he mentioned the rules. She thought she was going to freak out. Nothing he really said was all that assertive or aggressive. It was just the realization of what she had gotten herself into.

As the Elliots discussed Taylor's match, Talia kept quiet like the awkward turtle of the group. She didn't want to interrupt anyone. Taylor wasn't exactly a happy topic for her after all. Unfortunately, though, Marc brought her into it. Talia hesitated but did get out an answer. "I think Cassie could win...she's good enough." It was a vague and agreeable answer. But it was also true that she had to think of things that way. Cassie had to be that good. That's the only reason she could have beaten her twice. Talia didn't lose as much as Cassie had won. "Everyone has a weak spot."

"True enough," Marc nodded. "And isn't that what makes all of it so interesting?"

For the ride home, the parents sat in the front seats, Cassie and Nick sat in the middle row, and that left Talia and Jacob stuck next to each other in the back. Jake pulled a gym back out from under his feet and crammed it on the seat between him and Talia. He turned away as if to stare out the window, but lacking one he was left without anywhere to direct his eyes. He fussed with his blonde hair so that his hand casually blocked his view of the redhead, but before long he couldn't help but sneak a glance over at her, hoping she wouldn't notice. Without any other escape, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.


Winter at the Elliot's humble ranch home was like a step sideways in time into a storybook. The snow cast a soft white blanket over Rachel's exquisite gardens like she had planned for it and incorporated it into the design. The driveway wound up a hill, through artfully arranged evergreen trees, to a one-car garage. The front of the house was wreathed with gardens waiting for the spring, and a carefully shoveled flagstone walkway led the way to the front door. The house itself, from the outside, was half-log cabin, half-wooden shingles painted off-white with country blue shutters around the windows.

Twenty years earlier, while Cassie was asleep in her crib, a tall fir tree that had stood a little too close to the house was struck by lightning and fell on the house. It demolished half of it, crashing through the ceiling and obliterating the bedrooms. Marc remembered grabbing his wife and carrying her under one arm out of the bedroom, dragging the blankets with them. Jacob, age three, was already standing in the hallway, terrified with tears on his cheeks. He found six-year-old Nick in Cassie's room, standing on Cassie's ExerSaucer and trying to reach into her in her crib. The tree had hit Cassie's room first, and the trunk lay across it halfway between the floor and the ceiling, and the bushy green branches kept Nick from being able to reach his sister.

Marc yanked him away from the tree as if it still threatened him, and he protested by shouting in his kindergarden voice "I'm trying to save Cassandra!"

Aside from some scratches from the pine needles and bits of the ceiling, none of them were hurt. The tree itself was immense and the house needed to be rebuilt, so Marc enlisted some help and set to work turning it and others like it into half a log cabin. He had said that the whole thing was nothing short of a miracle, and when Nick asked "Wouldn't it have been better if the tree didn't fall at all?" Marc just shook his head and said "You can't always help the trees, but you can help everything else."

The interior of the house was simple, rustic, and tidy, with many large windows that overlooked the yard and the woods. Rachel corralled the boys into the kitchen, saying "You boys get to work on dinner, us girls need our beauty rest." She led Talia, and Cassie followed, to a cozy living room filled with lots of pictures and trophies and comfortable furniture enough to seat twice as many as lived there. There was no TV to be found, but a large brick fireplace at one end. Rachel collapsed into one end of the couch, and Cassie flopped on the floor like she always had.

"Make yourself comfortable, Talia, they've got everything under control. Nicky's turned into quite a cook since he moved out. I wish he'd move back just so he could make dinner. Do you cook?"