Memories Are Made Of This

Disclaimer: If I owned The 4400...it would not be over. Don’t even get me started.

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It had been a long day for both of the Skouris girls, and dinner passed in a welcomed, if somewhat awkward silence. Maia went voluntarily to bed not much later, and Diana promised herself she would talk to Maia in the morning. If something didn’t come up.

She tossed and turned in her bed, her body tired but her brain anoyingly busy. Eventually she fell into an exhausted sleep, her body twisted amongst the bedclothes.

'I'm sure it will clear up soon Maia. And if it doesn't, we'll just have a picnic in the car.'

'No, mommy, I want to go outside and play!'

'Oh, no. You're gonna get all wet sweetie. Maybe later.'

'Please?' Maia looked hopefully out the window. 'It’s a very light shower. Please? I won’t get wet.'

Maia punctuated this with a last-resort pout.

'Okay.'

Maia grinned widely. 'Yay!'

'But for just a minute.'

‘Okay'

'And I want you to come right back.'

‘I promise.'

Diana opened the door of the car and Maia slipped out.

'Have fun' she called as she watched Maia happily skipping towards the edge of the forest, heading towards the path.

'I will' Maia called back, and Diana took a book of of the glove compartment.

ooo

In her apartment, Diana turned over in bed, breathing heavily.

ooo

Looking up from her book, Diana checked her watch again. She had read the same paragraph over 5 times, her mind too focused on Maia to take anything in. It had been half an hour... she knew 8 year olds had very little sense of time... but surely Maia realised her 5 minutes was up long ago.

Diana got out of the car and walked through the light drizzle to the start of the path. She peered into the gloomy forest.

‘Maia?’

Her call echoed eerily, and she shivered in the chilly mist, unerved by an odd sensation that something wasn’t quite right.

ooo

Diana twisted and turned violently in her bed, sweat beading on her forhead.

ooo

‘Ma’m... you need to calm down.’

A police officer was standing before her, his hand on her shoulder.

‘But my kid! She can’t have just... disapeared! You have to keep looking. It’s getting dark, she’ll be cold... scared...’

‘Ma’m...you have to understand. It’s only a very small section forest, and we’ve searched it for over 8 hours. We have to start acting on the very likley possibility that someone has taken her from the path. There are no rivers she can have fallen in to, no steep drops - it’s a subburban recreational park. Ms Skouris... your daughter is not here.’

Diana began to hyperventilate, as the officer turned to his partner.

‘Put out the call, Dave. We have a missing child.'

ooo

Diana awoke with a cry that was part scream, part choke. She bolted out of bed and into her bathroom, where she was violently sick. Breathing heavily, she gulped water from the tap and was heading back through the door as Maia came rushing in.

‘Mom...?!’

Maia’s eyes were wide and she looked scared to ask any questions. She knew something bad was up. Something that had been coming for a while.

Diana put her hand to her mouth, and sank to the floor.

‘Maia... I’m going to ask you some questions, and I need for you to tell me the truth, okay. Don’t worry about what will happen if you tell me these things. I really need to know. Don’t be scared, okay. We can figure this out. I just have to know.'

Maia nodded, hugging herself tightly.

‘Maia, when you were born...were you premature? Were you born early?’

Maia nodded again. ‘My... my mother said I almost died.’

Diana swallowed, willing herself to go on. She didn’t want to know, and yet she did.

‘Do you remember...did your mom ever tell you about a dog - at a playground, when you were young?’

Maia looked up now, unsure.

‘It.. it never affected me. We had Lemon.. and I was never afraid of him, even after it happened. My father... he was always impressed how well I coped... I was never afraid of dogs. My mother though... she was very wary of dogs after. She didn’t like me to get to close... even Lemon, she always watched him around me. She said she had never been so scared, not ever in her life. Apart ... apart from...’

Diana finished for her.

‘Apart from the day you were born.’

Maia nodded somberly.

‘Mom?’ She began tearfully. ‘How did you know about the folder? It’s the same, isn’t it. How you know about these things, and how you know about the folder?’

It was Diana’s turn to nod in agreement, and she rose to sit on the bed.

‘Mommy...? Mommy, I’m...I’m scared.’

The last word disolved into a sob, and Diana felt utter devastation at the distress she was causing her daughter.

‘Maia...’ She opened her arms, feeling a gut wrenching hope that the mother daughter bond wasn’t broken, that one thing she could still be certian of. She needed for that bind to still work, to help Maia through this... she needed it to still be intact.

‘Maia... I’m sorry.’

After a moment’s hesistation, Maia overcame the fear that they were different now, and flew into her mother’s arms. And Diana was wrapping her arms around her daughter as tightly as she could, and the bind was still there, and Maia was relieved to discover she still felt safe in her mother’s embrace.

The two considered their feelings as they sat there. It was okay, they were still mother and daughter, nothing had changed. But the fear was there.. that something was trying to change it for them.

Not wanting to let Maia go, scared to break the bind, Diana leaned over to the nightstand, one arm still around her daughter, and grabbed her cell.

Pressing the speedial, she waited for him to answer as Maia rested quietly against her chest.

‘Tom... It’s me. There’s something big going on here... bigger than I think we’re prepared for.’

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I am SO sorry for the massive delay, 2008 has just started off with more of a mad rush than I anticipated! But as long as there are readers and reviewers, then I will finish the story. I want to know how it ends as much as you!