Chapter Text
A five-hour drive on a random Tuesday was not something Kendra would have decided to do on her own, but here she was behind the wheel of the car anyway. The car was one of Vanessa's, but Elise was the one sitting in the passenger seat. She, as well as some others, had been staying at Fablehaven recently, helping out around the preserve and taking some of the weight off of grandma and grandpa Sorenson and Dale's shoulders. The preserve hadn't had a full staff since before Patton's time, and it was working as a well oiled machine now that it had one again.
Elise had been invited to a family reunion ("unexpectedly", she had said to Kendra, "since I haven't seen so many of them in years." Kendra thought that that was the point of family reunions, but didn't think it was worth mentioning). The reunion was taking place in Rochester. It had been so long since Kendra had been to the city she had grown up in. She had changed enough to not be recognized, or at least she hoped so. Kendra's hair was shorter than she had ever had it, just falling on her shoulders. She was a bit taller, though not much, and she held herself much differently than she had in the pictures from middle and high school. Elise had asked if Seth wanted to go, but he had declined.
"five hours?" he whined when she had brought up the drive, "what would I even do?" Kendra was kind of glad he hadn't come along—Elise was much more fun to road trip with than her brother.
They reached Rochester at three in the afternoon. They had switched places halfway through the long drive, with Elise now manning the wheel, letting Kendra's eyes roll over the now familiar landscape. The city had changed without her, new buildings replacing old, different restaurants on the same old stretch of highway.
And then, "Elise! wait, turn here!"
"Whoa!" Elise exclaimed, turning maybe a bit too sharply onto the road that Kendra was wildly pointing towards. "Are you ok? Where's the fire?"
"I'll be quick," Kendra reassured, "here! stop, I'm getting out!" Elise slowed, stopping on the side of the road while Kendra jumped out and ran to the gate of the cemetary.
The last time she had been here was when she thought grandma and grandpa Larson had died. Kendra vaguely remembered which way the bodies of their stingbulbs lay, and she wound through the rows of headstones in that general direction. The grave she stopped in front of, however, didn't have either of her grandparent's names on it. Footsteps in the grass behind her made Kendra startle, but it was just Elise.
"I have a couple of hours till I need to be at my family thing. do you need to talk about anything? or, I know a good coffee shop not too far from here," Elise said, looking from Kendra to the headstone. When Kendra looked up at Elise, her feelings finally caught up to her. As if they had hit her in the back of the head with a brick, she felt tears start to fall from her eyes.
"Whoa! Kendra, are you ok?" Elise worried, bringing Kendra into a hug. Kendra didn't totally know why she was crying. She was alive and well, and so was pretty much all of her family. It had been years since she had been kidnapped by Torina, and kidnapped might be a strong word for it. It hadn't been that bad! She didn't even remember most of what happened! (best not to think too hard about that, a small part of her reminded herself).
But, "I," she sniffled, "I never really got to come back. I'm ok now, everyone's ok, and I love Fablehaven and all of the magic, but sometimes I miss my old life. And *hic* they… they took me and faked my death and…" Elise hugged her tighter, rubbing her back as Kendra tried to stop crying.
"I think I know some of what you mean," Elise said. "I mean, I didn't have to do a lot of the things you did," she continued, "but I've been a knight of the dawn for so much of my life, and I've missed out on so many things I could have been doing if I had had a normal life. I wasn't much older than you were when I became a knight too, and I wish I hadn't had to be. But at least I wasn't, like, kidnapped."
Though they had been friends for a few years at this point and they were both now living and working at Fablehaven, Kendra really didn't know a lot about Elise. She had never heard the story of how Elise had learned about and gotten involved in the magical world, but she had always assumed that she had been at least in her twenties. Pulling away, Kendra wiped her eyes, composing herself.
"Thanks," she said sheepishly. Elise smiled at her, though with a bit of sadness still in her expression before she caught sight of something over Kendra's shoulder.
"Hey, that's my little cousin!" she said with new excitement in her voice.
"Who?" Kendra asked, turning around to look. The cemetery wasn't empty, but there weren't many people—as expected for a random Tuesday afternoon.
"That girl there, with the flowers," Elise pointed, and Kendra saw a teenager about her age walking up the gravel road and holding a small bunch of flowers. As the girl turned to walk their direction, Kendra saw her down turned face. There was no way this could be who she thought it was. Kendra swiftly turned back around as Elise waved at her cousin, calling out.
"Alyssa!" There was no fucking way. Kendra stiffly turned back around as Alyssa approached, hoping she had changed enough not to be recognized. Or, better yet, for this Alyssa to just be a freaky doppelganger of her old friend.
"Elise! its been a while," she said when she finally stopped in front of them, "I assume you're here for the reunion?"
"guilty," Elise said. "I finally had some time off work." Alyssa smiled, then looked at Kendra.
"Do I know you? you look awfully familiar…"
"This is my friend M—"
"Mary," Kendra cut her off. If this really was Alyssa, using her real middle name as an alias would tip her off. "I have one of those faces, ahaha," she said, nerves showing a bit more than she would have liked. Alyssa didn't seem entirely convinced, but she held out her hand to shake, and Kendra took it.
"I'm Alyssa."
"nice to meet you, Alyssa."
"So, how do you two know each other?" Alyssa asked, nodding toward Elise. Kendra was absolutely not prepared. Thankfully, Elise saved her.
"We met through work, and she was planning on being here this week too. Thought I'd show her all the best spots, ya know?"
"…And my best friend's grave was on that list?" Quickly, Elise glanced at Kendra, who gave her a pointed look.
"Oh shit, I'm so sorry," Elise reassured, "we were just walking down the row, Mary actually has some family who were buried here." Kendra nodded, but while her eyes were glued to her shoes, she could almost feel Alyssa's stare. Alyssa bent down to place the flowers on Kendra's grave, and when she straightened back up, she smiled.
"Well, I can show you two some of the actual best places here," she said a bit too cheerfully, waving for Kendra and Elise to follow. turning, she walked briskly back to the small gravel road. Elise met Kendra's eyes.
"You don't need to come," she whispered as quietly as she could manage, "I can make some excuse for you."
"It's alright," Kendra whispered back. she had never expected to see Alyssa again, and this was such an obviously bad idea, but she had dreamed of a moment like this. She could play Mary for a day.
"Okay," Elise said skeptically, "but we can get you out if she starts to suspect it might be you."
"She wont. don't worry." Kendra sped up, following her old best friend back to the road where she could see Vanessa's old car parked on the shoulder. This wasn't the hardest thing Kendra had done by far. She would be fine. Everything was going to be fine.