S2/02. Bad Blood

2.4 Diana Foster

Spring 1998, a supermarket in Easternrose Bay, San Myshuno

The last few days Diana had left work on the clock. She picked up her daughter on schedule, got groceries from the local supermarket, and was a lot less tired than before. No one in the hospital semed to care if she stayed longer or not so she decided to only stay longer if overtime was inevitable.

Admittedly, she'd initially kept her schedule because she'd hoped to run into Ben again. She hadn't seen him since he helped her with Martin. At least she hadn't run into that jerk either – and to be sure she left the building just right in time to catch the bus so he wouldn't have time to bother her even if he wanted to.

Diana hadn't fixed a day to meet with Ben again as she'd simply assumed they'd meet anyway, nor did she get the adress of the place he'd invited her to. Now she regretted it. She'd loved to make new friends, it was tiresome to be on her own all the time and Ben would've probably been a good start.
Anyway, she hadn't revived her social life – yet, but nevertheless she loved the unexpexted extra time she'd gained by trying to.

"What you'd like for dinner tonight?" She asked her daughter while they strolled down the aisle.

"Apaaaagu!" Lana pointed at the green sticks in one of the boxes.

"Yes, yes, that's asparagus," Diana confirmed, proud that her daughter knew such a complex word already; and liked to eat the vegetable too. "Do you want to eat asparagus?"
Lana nodded excitedly and Diana racked her brain how to cook it so it wouldn't taste like cardboard when she didn't have an open fire grill.

While she reached for a bunch she caught another hand instead.
Lana squealed joyfully at the sight of the other person.

It was Mae.
Of all people, Diana had to run right into her. 

That lying, cheating tramp who had no sense of loyalty or friendship!

"That's a good one," Mae said, "very fresh." She picked another bunch of asparagus and left.
Diana was taken aback. She'd expected to be trapped by Mae in an atempt to redeem herself and pull her to her side, but Mae hadn't even tried to start a conversation. She'd smiled, friendly, but Diana saw the sadness in her eyes.

It struck her deeply and she started to feel sorry about how she and her friends had treated the redhead.
"Coincidences do happen," Frank had said. Honestly, it seemed he was right and Mae leaving for San Myshuno on the same day as Rosa's husband wasn't more than that: a mere coincidence, not them running away together. Certainly Mae wouldn't shop in a cheap supermarket in the Bay if she'd really lived with a successful rock star!
Instead Mae might have to struggle too and Diana couldn't help but feel for the other woman.

"Mae!"
Diana had to go after her. "I know it's not gonna make up for what happened, but – I want you to know I'm sorry. We've all treated you like crap instead of listen to your side. I... I hope you can forgive me."

Mae was visibly surprised, but it wasn't long and her face lit up.
"I'd be happy if we could be friends again," she said.

"Me too!"
Diana was relieved. She always got along well with Mae and it'd be fun to hang out with her again. 

Lana seemed to agree, she started babbling to Mae and clapped her tiny hands in joy.

"Hello Lana," Mae greeted her, "are you helping your mommy to buy groceries? What a big girl you are!"

Lana giggled and nodded, hiding her face with her tiny palms. She'd always liked Mae too, who'd spared a minute to play with her every time she was around.

"I'm cooking dinner for friends today," Mae pointed at her shopping basket filled with fresh produce, "would you like to come too? We have to catch up. Tell me what got you here to San My!"

Diana remembered the heavenly buffet Mae had served at her wedding and some other mouthwatering treats she'd brought occasionally when they hung out. And Diana thought about her own attempts to cook healthy food that was also tasty – with rather underwhelming results.

"I'd love to, if it's not too much of a bother," she readily accepted.

"Not at all, I cook anyway," Mae smiled.

To Diana's surprise Mae's apartment was only a street further from her own. It was funny that they hadn't run into each other so far.

"The neighbors come over for dinner every Thursday night," Mae said as she opened the door. "We used to get take out, but recently I cook for us instead. The share on groceries is cheaper and I won't get rusty!"

 

"Oh – how much is it?" Diana asked. She was very embarrassed to have expected free food when the other woman was likely not much better off than she.

"You don't pay!" Mae waved it off. "I invited you both. We need to celebrate our restored friendship."

"Thanks... next time will be on me," Diana said. She'd hate to mooch off of someone, even though her budget was quite tight for the rest of the month.

Mae smiled. "How about coffee?"

Half an hour later Diana was on her second cup while her daughter was busy drawing and Mae prepared dinner.

Diana had told Mae all about her transfer to the San Myshuno University clinic and they'd moved on to talk about Mae's reasons to come to San Myshuno.
It had absolutely nothing to do with Rosa's husband. The redhead never made a secret of her knowing Francesco for a long time, though she hadn't ever talked much about their past. According to Rosa, neither did Francesco. Not that it mattered, Mae declared she had never reconnected with him in Oasis Springs and on that fateful wedding day, it'd been nothing but small talk between them either.
So far it was the same story Mae had told in Oasis Springs when no one believed her.
But today Mae spilled a few more details about her marriage to Herbert.

"It's just... sad when you got up before dawn to have his favorite cake ready for his birthday – and he oversleeps – though you woke him up! Then he just left with a slice of toast – no goodbye kiss, no 'have a nice day'... he barely even looked at me!" She complained. "Even Mariella was sad. She'd helped me with the cake, you know..."

Goodness, it was sad, Diana couldn't even imagine living in such a loveless relationship and inwardly applauded Mae for her decision to divorce that jerk.

"What's wrong with him?" She exclaimed. "He didn't deserve you if he couldn't appreciate what he got." Mae was so pretty, nice, and fun to be around. "And then he's going around telling that you cheated on him!"
The nerve.

"Well, that idea he didn't get by himself," Mae quipped.

The jab against Bedrock Strait wasn't lost on Diana.
"Okay but... at least Rosa's suspicion wasn't sooo far fetched," she said meekly, "her ex was barely ever home and you had some sort of history with him... though that's not a reason to blame you," she rushed to assure Mae before she'd unintentionally damage their freshly renewed friendship.
"Anyway, there must've been someone – a woman knows if a woman knows, right? He hasn't even called Rosa yet and she'd been worried sick about him!"
It'd been more than a month already, almost two since he'd dumped the poor woman.

Mae snorted. "Honestly, that sounds exactly like him – ditch everything and leave without even saying goodbye." She peppered the meat with unnecessary violence. "I bet it's nothing but his stupid. Music. Again."

Diana pricked her ears. 'Again'? Whenever Mae spoke of her past with Francesco it sounded so platonic, but Diana had always wondered if there had been more than that between those two. She didn't want to make wrong assumptions, but curiosity got the better of her.
"I get if you'd kept it to yourself to not add fuel to a burning fire but – just between us – before you married Herbert – were you and Rosa's ex ever...?" She asked hesitantly, making sure her question sounded as little accusing as possible.

Mae slammed down the pepper shaker and sighed dramatically.
"It was... complicated. We sorta... kinda... were in love, but it was never meant to last. But I got to know him very well and it seems he didn't change, married or not."

More like Mae was the only one in love since he dumped her so casually too, Diana thought. She wondered why it was always the nice and caring girls like them that were played by those selfish jerks, and she felt more connected to Mae than before.
She sighed.
"I'm starting to believe all men are crap."

And rock stars were probably the worst of them.

"A good reason not to date them," said a flippant voice behind Diana. A woman passed her, she was most likely Mae's roommate. She had a mad sense for fashion and a wicked smirk that flustered Diana a little.

"Hi Nia," Mae greeted her. "These are Diana and her daughter Lana; they'll stay for dinner today."

"Neat," Nia said as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"That Feng woman must've completely lost her mind," she continued and sat down at the table. "Can you believe –"
She suddenly stopped and twisted her perfectly made up lips in disgust.

 
"Didn't Kacey finally pick up her beast today?" She groaned as a big fluffy cat strolled around her legs.
Diana wondered how she could've missed it until now. It must have hid well. 

"Nope," Mae smirked, "but look, Oli likes you so much! We should keep him."

She snickered as the cat rubbed its head against the hand with which Nia tried to shoo him away.

Before Nia could retort the door bell rang and she went to open it, the cat in tow.

"His name is Oliver Twist," Mae giggled and returned to prepare the food. "He belonged to Nia's ex but she just left him here when they split up, the poor thing."

In that very moment Lana expressed very loudly that she had enough of drawing.
"Lana huuungry," she blared and slammed her tiny fists on the table.

"Oh no," Mae looked concerned, "it'll still take a while until food is done."

"It's fine," Diana said and rummaged for some cookies in her bag that were always there for emergencies like this.

"Here, for you, Lana." Mae brought her a glass of milk. "And hi guys," she said as she put it on the table. Diana turned around to see to whom else Mae talked to.

"Well well, new faces! Hi there!" Said a blonde guy with a smug smirk. "I'm Deandre. Did you move in recently? Do you need supply?"

"Seriously Dean," lamented a second guy, "the first thing you do when meeting someone new is selling your weed?! Sorry for that, new girl!" He smiled. "I'm Weston, by the way." He was cuter than the first guy and Diana wondered if he had a girlfriend.

"How else would I get new customers?" Deandre complained playfully, but Diana had to decline his offer. With a heavy heart – as a single mother with no one else to look after Lana she'd rather not consume.

However, she quickly got distracted by the third guy that arrived together with Nia.

"Hey – I know you!" He exclaimed. "This' your kid you'd told me about?"

"Ben – hi! Yeah, this is Lana," Diana almost tripped over her own words, it was such a surprise. But what a good one!

"Hi Lana, I'm Ben," he beamed at the girl.

Until now Lana had just warily watched the new arrivals while chewing on her cookies, but she dropped her guard at Ben's bright smile.
"Eat cookie. Then play 'pace ship," she said and held her milk-sogged, half-eaten cookie out to him.
"Woah, for me?" To Lana's delight, he played along and took her gift.

Diana had to laugh at his playful excitement.

"You know each other?" Mae asked.

"Ya, Diana did my cast!" Ben bit unfazed into the soggy cookie and showed off his bandage, which was already full with scribbles and a phone number that looked suspiciously like a sex hotline. His friends weren't so much different than hers in the Springs, Diana thought and grinned.

"And later he saved me from my persistent ex," she added and shortly summarized the event.

"Wow, what a hero," Deandre teased, and Diana could've sworn Ben turned a shade darker. Instead of a reply he picked up the impatiently jumping Lana.
"So what are we playing?" He asked.

The door bell rang again.

Soon the apartment was filled with other tenants of the building. It was lively and loud, and Diana felt right at home again. As the new girl in the party, she was quickly surrounded by people wanting to get to know her and she took the chance to meet all of them while her daughter alternated between pestering Ben and the cat, who both didn't really mind it.

Diana was as happy as she hadn't been since she'd moved to San Myshuno.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's note:

Deandre Blanton (left) was donated by haswh and Weston Overstreet (right) was donated by AudreyFlyd.
You can read Audrey's story here! haswh did not write anything (yet?)
Thank you very much 🖤

S2/01. Trash Talk

1.3 Frank Cage
Spring 1998, Frank's home, Oasis Springs

Linda’s confession bothered Frank all the way home. He wouldn't have thought either Linda or Mae were the type to have an affair with a married man. Both women seemed as if they had a good head on their shoulders and strong principles. Still, he'd have been less surprised if it’d been Mae instead of Linda.

Linda, in particular, never seemed to be a very passionate person- at least not sexually passionate. Yes- she’d had a boyfriend, but they were so sterile with each other, Frank had never clocked them as lovers. He was floored that Linda would ignore all reason and act purely on physical desire.
Or that she had physical desires. 

At all. 

Frank shook his head, amused at how blind he’d been.
Linda seemed alien sometimes, but she was human, too.
Of course she must have feelings and desires, and Frank would be the last to blame her, God knows he’d made his own mistakes too.

Maybe it was how cold Linda was about the whole thing that bothered him. It made him wonder if he'd ever really known her – or if he actually wanted to know her that well.
Frank stopped and took a deep breath.

  

Maybe he’d taken it worse than it was.
Linda's affair must have been a while ago, probably even before they met, before she dated this Brian guy. Maybe she was just trying to justify it to herself – justify it to him.
Damn.
He hadn't held back on her, either. He never would, always spoke his mind.
Of course she would be defensive.
And who knew? Maybe she was ashamed to admit she’d fallen for one of those jerks.
Maybe she’d just made a mistake and learned from it?
Frank hoped that wasn’t wishful thinking.

  

Diana was already at his house, dressing her daughter for bed before she'd leave for the night shift.
Lana squealed when she saw Frank and wrestled herself out of her mother's grip to jump into his arms.
The little girl was the result of another asshole taking advantage of careless women – like Diana.

But Frank's frustration faded quickly as Lana bounced in his arms and demanded attention.
"Pace ship! Fwuuuuuuuu!" she babbled. 

Her mother sighed in discontentment. "Great- now she's all riled up again. You have to stop tossing her all around the moment she sees you." 

Frank couldn't help the wide grin spreading on his face. "If you be a good girl now," he said conspiratorially to his niece, "we’ll play space ship when mommy's gone – but shhh," he put his finger on his lips. Lana giggled and covered her mouth with her tiny palms.
Diana dramatically rolled her eyes. "I give up." 

A few minutes later, Lana was tucked into bed on the promise of playing with Frank later, but there was no doubt she'd be fast asleep before Diana left.

"What's wrong, did Marcus not get the position?" Diana asked while she poured herself another cup of coffee. She still had half an hour before work.

"What? No, that's still up in the air," Frank said.

Diana sat down and just looked at him. With those inquisitive eyes. Of course she’d noticed his bad mood when he got in. Frank sighed inwardly. It was about time he said something to her too.

"It's shitty how you're all treating Linda," he said,then told her about the scene with Dina.
Diana laughed, it was gloating and ugly, but she stopped quickly when she noticed he didn't find it amusing at all. 

"Oh come on," she huffed. "I’m shocked you're still seeing Linda after what her sister did to Rosa. I couldn't believe it when Mae crapped on their friendship like that."

Frank didn’t remember Rosa and Mae ever being friends, she’d always treated the redhead with hostility. Not as if that mattered now.

"I can't believe you’re still hooked up on Rosa's bullshit," he retorted. "Are you that desperate for some gossip?"

Diana glared at him. "What other explanation do you have then?" she shot back.

"I dunno – coincidences do happen, y'know."

And they were back to that discussion again. Frank about had enough.
At last, he noticed a glimmer of doubt in Diana's eyes. She'd hopefully come to her senses soon. 

"At least leave Linda out of this mess," he said firmly.

Diana shifted uncomfortably. "Do you like her so much?" she asked, a much softer tone than before. "Aren't you worried she'll do the same to you as Mae did to Herbert?"

"What?"
Now it was Frank's turn to laugh.

"Hey, we're all worried about you," Diana complained. 

"Oh man... you all got this wrong." Frank grinned. "Linda and I are just friends, that’s it." Though he wasn't too sure, honestly. If she was only a friend, he probably wouldn't have been so freaked out by her affair. And her cold reasoning. Okay, yes, he’d grown pretty protective of her over time, but he never wanted to date her. And Linda sure hadn’t shown any interest of that kind either.
Frank was content, and it was probably better like that. No need to complicate things.

Diana didn't look very convinced - God knows, maybe his attention for Linda was suspicious after all. "It's not every day you can find someone as excited as her about finding water on Europa," he explained, "and the possibility that it may be much more common in the universe than we thought."

As expected, Diana rolled her eyes and finally dropped the subject.

Frank smirked. No one wanted to talk to nerds except other nerds, because they wouldn't stop talking about nerdy stuff.

"Fine," she said. "Just don't get burned.” 
Frank tousled her hair in response. 

Diana stayed quiet for a while. She took another sip of coffee, then leaned onto him.

"I'll miss being here," she said. 

Right. In just about two weeks she'd move to San Myshuno to continue her work education in the university clinic where she'd have much better opportunities than in the small local hospital she worked now. She was thrilled when she got accepted at first, but the closer the moving date came, the more her excitement cooled down and was overshadowed by worries.

"You won't have time to miss it with all the new stuff you're gonna learn," Frank assured her.

Diana pulled a face.

Frank would miss her too, for sure. He wished she could stay at least another two months, until he had to leave for his own mission to Sixam.

"Hey, you're gonna be fine. You're a big girl now," he said, not hiding the pride in his voice. She'd come so far and gained so much confidence since she'd moved here. He was sure moving back to San Myshuno would not set her back again.

 She groaned. "As long as I don't run into them."
"San My is huge," Frank said. "It's unlikely you'll run into the Wolves. If they even still exist. Or into Martin. Or anyone else you don't wanna see."

Baby trouble

17.3 Frank Cage

Autumn 1997, Frank's place

Frank was surprised Mae came over, after all. She had told him that she had to visit some other friends today. And she even brought the girl.

Mariella had asked for Bella, before even saying hello.

Frank liked her, too.

"Over here! Lana is playing with her now!", he led his new guests in the yard, where some of his friends had gathered already.

Diana sat down on the floor, watching her daughter to not go overboard with the small dog. 

"Careful, Sweety!", she said, "Bella is still little."

Lana babbled happily, while trying to get a grip on the excited puppy, that jumped around like crazy.

"Awwww, she's so cute!", Mariella cried out, bending over it.

Lana cried out her discontent about the disturbance.

"Oh, hello, you two!", Diana greeted them, standing up.

"The dog isn't seriously called Bella?", Mae laughed.

"Yep, exactly like our grand countess!", Diana confirmed, laughing and picking up her now whining daugher.

"Can't help it if the grand countess has a dog name", Frank grinned.

Mariella wasn't interested in that. "Where did you get the puppy, Frank?", she asked, holding it already. "I want one too!"

"I found her last week in a box on the street. She was starved...", he told her.

Mariella made a pitying noise.

"Frank always had a thing for the lost puppies!", Diana teased him. "But I never thought he would actually bring one home!"

Frank just wanted to reply, when Rosa interupted him. "Frank? Could you come a sec?", she said in her sweetest voice.

"Sounds like trouble", he thought, sighed, and turned towards her.

"What is it?", he resigned.

"Why did you let her in?", Rosa hissed at him.

Not that again...

"Mae? She's cool", he said casually.

He wasn't in the mood to discuss who he was friends with, and who not.

"Frank... I hate her!", she went on, in a low voice. "I'm worried what will happen if Francesco meets her again!"

"Didn't you say he said Mae doesn't mean anything to him?", he asked her.

And that guy wasn't around here, ever, anyhow.

"Even so... I know she will go after him as soon as she has a chance!", she went on.

"Come on... she just got happily married!"

Ever since Rosa had that idea with that stupid song, she went nuts only on the sight of Mae.

Frank didn't know why he still kept trying to talk some sense into her.

Maybe a different approach would help.

"And why are you even still married to that guy if you trust him so little? Does he jump on any woman that offer herself to him?", he asked her.

"Of course I trust him! Just not her!", Rosa insisted.

Nope, didn't work.

"If you trust him, you should not worry about it! Look... if he wants to cheat on you, he doesn't need Mae for that."

"...This is really not helpful, Frank!", she pressed out.

He guessed so, but he really didn't care anymore.

Problems...

6.1 Diana Foster

Summer 1996, caravan park

Lana had cried the whole night again. Diana tried to feed her, nurse her, checked her diapers and changed them when necessary. But Lana only stayed calm when her mother held her.

Diana felt exhausted. Even though her daughter had been so quiet after birth, she became now quite needy. She rocked the baby again in her arms and humming a tune, hoping that she would finally fall asleep.

Eventually Lana did. Diana threw herself on the bed, trying to get a few hours of rest. She felt it impossible to find time to learn for the entry test.

She knew she needed to get a decently payed job, so she could support her daughter when she grew up.

Maybe she would have to think of a plan B, but not now.

Diana fell asleep.