And as I watch, you start to grow up, all I can do is hold you tight, knowing

Vivian wasn’t the only one trying to enjoy their night, after a very stressful and confusing day.

In fact, out of the people currently living in the hotel, she didn’t even crack the top three in terms of how confusing and emotionally-overwhelming her day had been.

No, that honor belonged to Carly, her sister, and, of course, her reanimated daughter.

The three of them had spent all day trying to figure out how they were going to make this complicated new family dynamic work. And that had not been an easy task.

Luckily, everyone had given them plenty of space to try and iron out the issues facing them. They definitely needed as much.

Morning

The morning had gone pretty much identically to how breakfast had ended. After everyone was shooed away to keep them from overwhelming Emmy with all sorts of questions about her new way of living, Carly and Marley guided the young girl to somewhere a little more private.

The only place they could think of off the top of their heads, though, was the Garden Suite.

“Wow…” Emmy looked around, amazed at the small little jungle she was standing in. If she hadn’t just walked in from the hallway, she would have never known she was even inside.

“It’s pretty amazing, right?” Marley’s eyes were shining with excitement. “I don’t know how Dakota did it, but this place, it’s like the lights are specifically tuned to mimic the sunlight! That along with the wallpaper, you really think you’re in a garden, don’t you?”

“Um…” Emmy gave Marley an awkward look, not sure what to say to the sudden exclamation from the older woman.

She was still trying to get to know her family. With her memories in as much of a jumble as they were, this was easier said than done. But from what she’d figured out about Marley up until now, she thought that she was the more composed one, at least compared to her mother, who was emotionally overwhelmed for obvious reasons.

But Marley had a few eccentricities of her own- not that Emmy knew the word “eccentricity”.

There were a lot of words she didn’t know. And a lot of words she did. Both things raised some questions, due to Emmy’s lack of any formal education, at least as far she could remember anyway. Regardless, she smiled politely at her aunt.

“Sorry… I’m rambling, aren’t I?” Marley asked sheepishly, scratching her head. She wasn’t used to being the social one. That was more of her sister’s thing, if she was being honest. But she didn’t really have a choice in the matter, because at the moment her sister was…

“Uwaaah… Emmy… Emmy, you’re… waaaaaah…”

Carly had her arms wrapped tightly around her daughter’s shoulders, practically burying her face in her neck. She clung to Emmy so hard she nearly knocked her over, and it was all Emmy could do to stay standing.

“…It’s okay, mom,” Emmy said, patting her awkwardly on the arm. “You don’t have to cry… I get it, I feel the same way.”

It all seemed so weird. Emmy had no memories of her mother. The natural memories that were supposed to form over the course of her life, they weren’t there. None of her memories really were. But she knew that she loved her mother. She could feel it, implicitly.

As strange as it should have felt to refer to a woman she had never met before as her mother, Emmy knew on an instinctual level that was who Carly was. It felt as natural to call her that as it did to refer to herself by her own name.

And it made her smile just as much.

Carly pulled back (by, like, a hair) and looked into Emmy’s eyes. She did a good job of keeping her composure, maintaining a smile for about three seconds before she started blubbering again.

“I’b sowwie… bud… it’sh jusht… you’re heeeerreeee…” Carly wailed.

“Let’s… get her over to the bed,” Marley suggested, guiding the two of them over to the bed and helping pry Carly off of the poor girl.

“It’s okay, mom,” Emmy said again as they finally parted. She looked into Carly’s eyes and saw nothing but love glistening there, among the tears. It warmed her heart. “I’m here. You can let me go, I’m not gonna disappear or anything.”

Emmy couldn’t even imagine how Carly must feel right now. She really couldn’t. This was all so new to her. None of it made sense.

Marley couldn’t imagine it either, and she’d lived it. She remembered how broken her sister had been by Emmy’s stillbirth. The way she cried and cried and cried, the way she clung to the blanket she’d picked out for her little girl for weeks after it had happened, as if she couldn’t accept that Emmy was really gone.

But now she was back. In a miracle no one had expected, Emmy was back. And now Carly was a wreck all over again, but for a much more joyous reason.

It was the kind of thing that made Marley smile from ear to ear.

“She’s not always like this, is she?” Emmy asked quietly. Her voice quivered with worry. The few tangible memories she had, if they could be called tangible, were of her bond to her mother in the womb. They were faint, and shadowy, but she could still feel Carly’s love even now.

It crushed her to think that her mother had been hung up about her like this, crying her eyes out for all these years.

Marley’s smile was tight, but sympathetic.

“…It comes and goes,” she admitted with a mournful expression. She patted Emmy on the shoulder and sat down next to her sister, patting the empty spot on the bed between the two of them. Emmy sat dow hesitantly and looked at her aunt.

But Marley looked right past her, at Carly, instead.

“…Most of the time, she’s the life of the party,” Marley assured her reborn niece. “Always smiling, always happy to try new things. Adventurous to a fault, I would say. And that’s even after… what happened.”

Her voice took on a somber tone.

“But sometimes… she has her bad days,” Marley quietly added, looking down. Those were the days Marley hated most. When something seized her sister’s heart, and sent her spiraling back to that dark time. She’d gotten better over the years, but it was an unavoidable fact. Marley assumed she would never truly be rid of those painful thoughts; they would always be there in the back of her sister’s mind, working away at her.

“…But maybe now… maybe she really can feel better,” Marley said, voicing her thoughts out loud without meaning to.

She gasped and turned to Emmy. “Uh, no… no pressure or anything,” she said, shaking her head. “She’s happy just to have you here.”

Emmy smiled slightly. It was a shaky, hesitant smile, the kind of smile someone would have when they had absolutely no idea of what the future might hold, or their place in it, but were looking forward to it all the same.

She stood up and turned to her mother. Carly raised her head to look at her, wiping away her tears frantically.

“S-sorry,” she stammered. “I just-”

“We’re going to be fine, mom,” Emmy assured her. She had no way of knowing whether or not that would be true, but she wanted to give Carly comfort in this tough time. She took her mother’s hands into hers. “I’m right here. I promise, we’ll make up for all the time we missed.”

Carly blinked furiously for a couple seconds.

Then she burst into tears again.

“EMMMMMMYYYYYYYY…!”

Marley sighed with a smile on her face and shook her head.

Afternoon

It wasn’t until past lunchtime that Carly was in any condition to hold a conversation with her daughter, or even get out of bed. She took a considerable amount of time accepting the reality that her daughter really was… alive.

She still felt like she was in a dream, for the most part. But she got up, smiled, and suggested they head out to lunch.

Marley and Emmy couldn’t agree more.

“There’s so much I want you to try!” Carly gushed as they strolled through the Shopping District. “We could get ramen, love that, or steaks, Dani loves steak. Or maybe something lighter? Are you a vegetarian? We can find somewhere trendy and casual, I bet, this place has everything! Your generation likes trendy stuff, right?”

Emmy laughed a little. “Mom… I don’t think that’s how it works,” she said, shaking her head. “I also don’t think I’m a vegetarian.” She shrugged awkwardly. “How would I know, right?”

Carly blushed and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, uh… I guess you’ve got a point there,” she admitted, scratching her head. “So, what do you want to eat? We can get literally anything! What’s your favorite food?”

Emmy just giggled again.

Marley lightly poked her sister with her elbow. “That’s what she was trying to say,” she helpfully offered. “She doesn’t know if she has a favorite food. She hasn’t ever actually eaten anything before, remember?”

Carly’s face twisted with shock as she realized. “Oh gosh! I totally forgot!” She slapped the sides of her face. “I know! We might be able to get some formula somewhere if we look hard enough-”

“I’m not a baby!” Emmy burst out laughing. “Mom! I’m not going to drink baby formula.”

Carly blinked rapidly and then her face turned red. “R-right… no, of course not, you’re not a baby, of course not…”

She kept smiling, but the flicker of sadness in her eyes didn’t go overlooked.

Marley wanted to say something, but what could she say right now? What could she say to make her sister feel better.

“…I’m sorry,” Carly said quietly, looking into her daughter’s eyes. “I wanted to do that stuff for you. Give you your formula… and change your diapers… play peekaboo… and… and buy you little stuffed animals to fill up your crib so it was like you were living… living in a miniature little zoo… I just-I… hic… uuu… uaagh…”

Carly shook like a leaf as tears streamed down her face. All those missed opportunities. The life they should have led. They were dreams and regrets she’d carried with her for years and years.

What am I doing? She chastised herself, trying desperately to stop the tears. Emmy is… Emmy is right here… I shouldn’t… I don’t… she’s here… she’s alive… so why… why can’t I stop crying? Why can’t I just be happy?!

She was supposed to be happy. This was everything she wanted. Emmy back in her life. Her daughter, brought back from the dead. And yet, instead of celebrating that, instead of the overwhelming happiness she should have felt, happiness eclipsing everything, she just kept crying. And not happy tears, either, those had already been shed. Now she was crying tears of sadness and loss.

“Carly…” Marley bit her lip. She looked at Emmy discretely and her heart ached at the pain she saw on the young woman’s face. Emmy shouldn’t have to face something like this. The sight of her mother bawling due to their past tragedy… how could she deal with that?

How could anyone?

Marley **** herself to be the one to say it.

“Carly… it’s okay to cry,” she said, patting her sister on the shoulder.

Carly looked at her, snot streaming down her face. “Bud… bud she’s wight here…” Carly sniffled. “I should be habby! So why am I… so saaaaddd!?”

She hated this. “I’b sowwy Ebby! I wub youuuu!” Carly wailed. “I’b nod sad, I’b habby! I sweeeaaar! Weawwy!”

But she was sad. That was the horrible part. Her daughter had been brought back to life, but she was still sad!

How awful was that?

“Rrrgh…” Marley’s chest churned with pain. Finally she grabbed her sister by the shoulders and gave her a good shaking.

“Eh!?” Emmy gasped in surprise. She’d been frozen due to not knowing how to react to the sudden outpouring of grief from her mother, but Marley’s actions had snapped her out of it. “Aunt Marley!? What are you doing?!”

Marley ignored her. This was for Carly. “It’s alright for you to be sad!” She cried, stunning both women, and herself a little as well.

Carly looked at her like she was crazy. She wanted to yell, but her throat was raw from all the crying.

“You lost something!” Marley snapped. “It’s okay to cry about that! This isn’t like with me, where we got a nice happy set of memories of a family life growing up together. You lost that time, Carly. You’re never going to get it back. You’re never going to hold your little baby Emmy in your arms again, and that’s breaking your heart! And it should! It should break your heart! So cry! Cry as much as you can, because you need to accept that pain, if you ever want to really have a relationship with your daughter again! Okay?!”

She turned Carly around so she was facing her daughter. Emmy looked at them both in surprise.

“Emmy is right there,” Marley said, giving her sister a shake. “She’s not a little baby anymore. She’s a teenager. A grown woman. But she’s still your daughter. She still needs her mother. This isn’t normal, none of this is. But just because you can’t have your baby back… that doesn’t mean Emmy isn’t the most wonderful thing that ever happened to us, does it?”

Carly trembled as she looked at Emmy’s shaky smile. She tore herself out of her sister’s arms and threw herself onto her daughter, hugging her for all she was worth.

That caused the dam to break. The tears started flowing from Emmy as well, and the two women hugged each other.

Marley watched them empty the emotions they’d been building up all day, and smiled. She was still starving, but this was far more important than stuffing her face.

Evening

“Okay… so lunch was kind of a bust. But dinner, everyone loves dinner, right?” Marley asked hopefully. She was the only one still holding it together. Carly and Emmy weren’t blubbering anymore, which was good. And Carly wasn’t holding onto Emmy like she would disappear if she took her eyes off her, which was another improvement.

But Marley could still feel some tension in the air.

“I need food,” Carly said, rubbing her stomach. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Emmy said with a laugh. “I haven’t eaten since… ever.”

Marley smiled. Seeing them laugh like that was wonderful. And Carly being hungry was a good sign. Whenever her sister lapsed into one of her states of depression, it was like her whole body shut down. She wouldn’t eat anything, she hardly slept, she just mumbled away like she was caught in a wild delirium.

So for Carly to actually say she was hungry and suggest they get food (unlike lunch, which had been Marley’s idea) was a hopeful sign that she was actually moving forward.

“If you’ve never eaten anything, Emmy, we need to do something special,” Marley insisted. “You only get one first meal, after all.”

“Marley knows what she’s talking about,” Carly said, nodding in agreement. “Back when she was a slime girl, she had the opportunity to have her first meal, and she completely devoured it!”

“Wait, what?” Emmy looked at Marley in shock. “Slime… girl? Is that some saying that I don’t know about because I don’t know pop culture? …But I know what pop culture is… strange…”

Carly shook her head. “No, she was literally made out of slime,” she clarified.

Emmy looked at both of them like they were absolutely crazy.

“…Right…”

“It’s a long story,” Marley laughed. “We’ll talk about it later, over dinner. So what do you want to eat? Like we said, we can get anything!”

“Well… I have a lot of references to food in my brain, even if I don’t remember eating anything,” Emmy said, thinking about all the knowledge that had been downloaded into her skull. “What about pizza? That seems like it looks pretty good, and we can put anything we want onto it!”

Carly shook her head. “No, no pizza. That’s bad for you. Let’s eat something healthy instead.”

Marley sighed. “Okay, stop right there. Don’t do that.”

“What?” Carly exclaimed defensively. “I’m just worried about my daughter’s health! What’s wrong with that!?”

Marley gave her a wary stare. “You know exactly what’s wrong with that,” she said with a scowl. “Emmy can make her own choices.”

“Well… fine. ONE slice of pizza. But not too greasy!” Carly said, putting her foot down. “I’m still her mother, after all.”

“You love greasy food,” Marley replied.

“Well… that’s different.”

“Why?”

“…Because I’m her mother and I said so.”

Marley wanted to scream. But she was stopped by the sound of Emmy bursting into laughter.

“You guys…” Emmy snickered and shook her head. “This is just… too much! Wow…”

“Wh-what? Is everything okay? I’m just thinking of you, Emmy!” Carly said defensively.

Emmy wiped her tears away and shook her head. “It’s okay, mom, I love you too. But this is my first meal,” she reminded the other woman. “Don’t you think it’s okay if we make an exception this one time? Please? Just to celebrate? I mean, technically it IS my birthday.”

Carly frowned. “Your birthday is- never mind.” Her smile returned and she shook her head. “You’re right, you should be able to eat whatever you want!”

Marley sighed in relief. For a second there, she was terrified that Carly’s overprotectiveness of her daughter would lead her to start going against all of her free-spirited beliefs. But she should have known that Carly was a flexible woman, even if she was going a little deep in her feelings for her daughter- not that Marley could blame her in the slightest.

“I’m excited to try out the pizza,” Emmy said as her mother and aunt led her down the street. “It’ll be my first time.”

“Pizza’s just the start,” Carly said, her eyes sparkling. “There are so many other great foods that I’m just dying to show you, sweetheart. You’ll love them.”

It was still a dream. One she found hard to believe. After finally accepting that her daughter was dead, she had come back to her.

They had missed so much time together. Carly vowed not to let another second slip by that could be spent making her daughter’s life as wonderful as possible.