Ashleigh stared at the building. It was, unmistakably, a house.
Covered in various grey stones and dark wood. Lights with a soft orange glow at different places all around it.
There were three levels that she could see. The first had no windows and two large, paneled doors that faced the path leading up to it.
Alongside the first floor was a large, wide staircase leading to the entrance of the second floor. Double doors, dark wood with frosted glass panels. Directly above the windowless first floor, there were three windows. Each was large enough that she and Caleb could stand side by side within them.
Above the second floor was a third. This one was smaller than the others, but that was not the only difference. This one, Ashleigh recognized.
It was strange. She had only ever been on the inside, she didn’t quite know how she recognized it from looking at the outside, but she did.
And so did Caleb.
“That’s….”
Ashleigh heard Caleb whisper in disbelief. She turned to see him staring up at the third floor. His chest rose and fell in quick breaths.
“So…” Fiona’s voice called out from behind him, “are you surprised?”
Ashleigh looked past him at Fiona, who smiled back at her.
“That’s…!” Caleb shouted.
Ashleigh’s chest squeezed as she felt his confusion, heartache, and relief.
Fiona smiled and stepped toward Caleb.
“There was no saving the tree,” she said sadly.
She looked past Caleb, catching Ashleigh’s eyes.
“But this much, I could do.”
Ashleigh took a sharp breath in. She closed her eyes at the familiar sting of her tears and dropped down into a squatting position as her legs almost gave out on her.
She thought Fiona had destroyed it. She thought that she had thrown it all away.
Ashleigh held her head in her hands. She took slow, deep breaths. But the pain in her chest was intense, and the voices in her mory were too loud.
‘I’m surprised you haven’t taken it down already.’
Ashleigh grimaced at the sound of her own voice.
‘Actually, I’m surprised you didn’t burn it for the vigil.’
How could she ever say that? How could she think it?
Ashleigh moved her hands away from her face and looked up at the top floor. Her heart ached as she thought of all the mories she and Caleb had shared there. Of the future they had each dread of.
“How?” Caleb finally asked. He turned back to look up at the remains of his sanctuary. “I thought you said it was destroyed. I saw the hole in the ground…”
Fiona stepped up beside him, smiled, and took his hand.
“The tree was dying. If I had left it all alone, the house would have been destroyed,” Fiona began. “But instead, I had a team remove the tree and then pull apart the house, piece by piece, before it was completely rotted.”
She took a deep breath and looked up at the house.
“I wasn’t sure I could put it back together. The main structure was designed to be housed in and supported by that tree… but we found a way after many designs and a little restructuring.”
Caleb took a deep breath and let out a soft chuckle.
“This is…” he began, but he couldn’t finish his sentence.
The day he visited the crater left by his old sanctuary was one of the worst days of Caleb’s life. So many changes and so many endings. He had been sure that he could keep his eyes on the future, that he could overco anything he had lost with ease. But that day, as he stared into that empty hole, he had been shaken to his core.
Now, as he looked up at that top floor, he felt sothing inside of him. A glow, a warmth, a bloom.
It wasn’t his treehouse. It wasn’t his secret refuge where he could hide from the things that overwheld him.
It was different, it was changed, just like everything else. But, sohow, it felt like he had found his anchor point.
“Why didn’t you tell ?” Ashleigh asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
She looked back at Fiona, tears running down her eyes with a pained look on her face.
Caleb lowered his eyes at the mournful sound in her voice. Only now did he notice how impacted Ashleigh appeared to be by the revelation. He moved to go to her, but Fiona squeezed his hand and pulled him back.
He hesitated, looking at his wife hunched down on the ground. He swallowed and nodded to his mother, trusting that this needed to be handled between them.
Fiona let go of Caleb’s hand, walked forward, and reached out to Ashleigh.
Ashleigh swallowed and took Fiona’s hand, rising to her feet. They looked into each other's eyes. One was filled with raw emotion. The other was calm, at peace.
“I won’t lie,” Fiona began, a gentle smile on her lips, “the night I told you about the tree, I was quite angry at your response.”
Ashleigh lowered her gaze and nodded.
“I don’t bla you,” she whispered.
“Good,” Fiona said, “because I had planned to tell you I wanted to find a way to preserve the house, but in my childish anger, I didn’t want to share anything with you after you left.”
Fiona looked up at the top floor.
“It took weeks to pull it apart and months to find a way to put it back together,” she continued. “By that ti, you were burying yourself in missions, and Galen and I were struggling to keep Sumr from imploding…”
She took a deep breath.
“But I wasn’t ready to let go of my son, or you, or the future you could have together,” Fiona said. “I designed this place for whenever you found him and brought him back to us.”
Ashleigh swallowed.
“No longer a secret base, it was ant to be a ho,” Fiona smiled. “Private enough to create a space outside the pack, but still keeping you connected. Large enough for the two of you and… anyone else that ca along.”
Behind them, Caleb let out a soft chuckle as he heard his mother’s wish for a grandchild.
“The main structure was finished a few weeks before Galen beca Alpha,” Fiona said. “When everything was done, I did plan to tell you. But until then, I didn’t want to add any pressure on you, Ashleigh.”
Ashleigh took a deep breath.
“Then Galen beca Alpha…” Fiona sighed. “Well, after that, I let the house go. I assud I would never finish it, so there was no longer any reason to tell you anything.”
Ashleigh understood Fiona’s reasoning.
Ashleigh had hurt many people in all her angry and bitter comnts. It wasn’t a surprise anymore that there were things that no one wanted to share with her, not when she had made it so clear that she didn’t care.
“I am sorry,” Fiona said, touching Ashleigh’s shoulder. “Even if we couldn’t understand each other, couldn’t grieve, or hope in the sa way… I wish I had been clearer in how I felt… that I could have let you know that you weren’t alone, even when you thought you were.”
Ashleigh took in a shaky breath and pulled Fiona into a tight embrace.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “For everything…”
Fiona chuckled and patted Ashleigh’s back gently.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “We’ll get through it together this ti.”
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