Work Text:
Cassandra Goth - Late Spring, Year Two - Pleasantview
Cassie looked around the backyard, carefully surveying the decor. Everything was in place, ready for the next day's celebration. She'd opted to have her wedding in the family garden just like her mother before her had. It had always been the perfect place for a wedding—beautiful in the spring with all the flowers that Bella had planted, still blooming years after her death, like magic.
Cassie's smile dropped and she sighed. She had never imagined being here, at this moment in her life, without her mother to guide her. Though she loved Don, a small part of her wondered if she was making the wrong decision still. Bella would have told her that love was the only thing that mattered and that everything else would fall into place. She would have looked her daughter up and down, straightened Cassie's sleeves, and told her that if she hadn't been sure, she wouldn't have said yes in the first place.
But it felt wrong, not because of her future husband, but to do this without Bella.
She hadn't even considered him seriously until she'd gone to him one day, begging answers from him about her mother's disappearance. He'd helped her, despite the fact that everyone, including Cassandra herself, believed him to be responsible. He'd helped her search—to clear his own name or out of kindness—Cassie was inclined to believe the latter due to everything else that transpired. How he'd held her when she'd cried after finding nothing of noteworthiness—on his front lawn, for everyone to see.
She had been at his home all night trying to wrap her head around her mother's disappearance, and the rendezvous had ended in the morning--with her storming out his front door wearing last night's clothes, in a screaming match where she'd accused him of lying about it all—covering it all up; accusing him of all the terrible things people whispered about him involving her mother's disappearance.
Still he'd followed her outside—even when she could see she'd hurt him, she'd chosen violence over not having the answers. And for once in her life, she'd seen Don Lothario with no witty comments or charm to cover up his true feelings. She'd known immediately she should take back everything she'd said, but she couldn't manage to reel in her grief— so she hadn't even tried. He'd let her scream at him for long enough to get the everyone’s attention.
It wasn't until he'd grabbed her wrist in a feeble attempt to calm her down that she'd realized he legitimately cared for her. At a single touch, she'd crumpled to the ground in tears and he'd followed her down--sitting on the dirty pavement while their neighbors stood by and gawked.
Now, three years later, she straightened decorations in her backyard and made sure everything was perfect for tomorrow, for all the same neighbors to see—for a wedding she hadn't pictured in her wildest dreams.
The only thing missing was her mother.