Burying the Past

It was a rash decision that Meredith was making, but with the recent turn of events and the tower of her sanity slowly toppling over, she felt she had little choice but to do something before she cracked -- her goal, get rid of Chandra... And how, she finally realized, had been right in front of her nose all along.



From the box under the guest-bed she'd thrown it into, Meredith brought her sister's "gift" out into the dining room and set it upon the table. She looked at it, hard, and long... but after several moments, she began to cry.

"The knife..." She thought to herself, burying her face into her sweaty palms. "The knife that killed Chandra. She must be bound to it, but... Does that mean that Tana didn't..."

After a moment of thought, a horrific realization came into her mind: that's why Tana saved it. She could easily have used her savvy crime scene skills to remove all trace of Chandra's murder from it's blade, and get rid of it at a moment's notice, but in the off-chance the murderer left their prints on the hilt, it would be the only way to prove Meredith's innocence... But, at the same time, if it was Meredith's prints on the weapon, and no one else...

"That's why she doesn't want me to touch it. But..." She shook her head. "I don't need it. They'll never find us, here... I'd much rather just get rid of Chandra. And even if they find us, what if... What if I really did... And they found this..." She continued to cry, but, fear suddenly pushed her forward: it was time to get rid of this thing, once and for all.



It had been difficult shoving her son's mining device into the back of their car, but Meredith somehow managed without straining herself too much. Across town, she drove, going as far out of the way as she possibly could without going so far that it'd take hours to get back. There, she dragged the miner from the car, set it up on a hill overlooking a pond, and somehow managed to figure out the controls.

"Drill deep, Meredith," she told herself, not stopping to think how crazy she must sound. "Drill as deep as you can, so they can never find it... Never... Ever..."



But the hole was too deep. She moved to it's edge to formally drop the can down into oblivion, but she stepped too close, and the dirt cascaded beneath her feet, bringing her into it's gaping mouth.

"Aaagh!" There was a slight echo of her voice, proceeded by the resounding *clunk* of the can that she'd dropped to get her grip so she didn't fall.



She struggled for what seemed like ages, gnawing at the dirt with her fingers, but constantly being denied safe ground as it caved in under her weight. The hole was not wide, so she managed to spread her feet and scurry up the sides, but by the time she'd reached the surface once again, her clothes were torn and dirtied from dirt and things sticking out the sides of the hole-wall, and her hair was... unrecognizable, to say the least.



Taking only a few moments for a breather, Meredith quickly began to fill the hole that the miner had drilled. Adreniline from her fall still coursed through her veins, allowing her a rather surprising speed to fill a tunnel that seemed to reach for the center of the Earth. Shovel it up, shovel it in... Shovel it up, shovel it in... She repeated the movement so many times that she became frightened the rhythm would send her to sleep, and she'd end up falling right back down the hole again.



But, as the last few inches of emptiness suddenly began to turn into a rising mass of brown, Meredith gave a huge sigh of relief. "Well... Goodbye, Chandra," she huffed between the last scoops of dirt. "You are, and always were, a pain in my butt. Good riddance to you!"

Once the dirt was patted down, with the turf of grass back over the top to seal and conceal it, she found a flat, large rock to lay over it: a marker... Just in case. Fear still gripped her, making her quiver anxiously, but an enormous weight had been lifted off of her -- no more Chandra, no more problems... Right? Right.



Meredith had completely lost track of time. By the time she pulled up to the house and rushed through the door, Travis was already home from school, and was sitting at the table doing his homework. "Plumbbob!" She cursed, closing the door a bit first as she gathered up the last ounce of energy she could to try and remain quiet, to sneak by her son unnoticed.

She tip-toed through the door -- not even shutting it to avoid the noise -- and slowly crept up the steps. When she reached the landing, she breathed deeply and smiled... "Home free," she muttered to herself.



"And what is that supposed to mean?!" Meredith whirled around... only to be treated to the sight of her angry son. "What have you been doing, mom?! Where have you been! Everyone's going to be here for Amelia's birthday in less than an hour, and you're... You're..."

"I-I-... I haven't been doing anything, Travis. It's... it's none of your business. Just don't worry about it okay?"



"Mom, please... Don't lie to me. You've always been a terrible liar, it's not worth it." She suddenly looked offended, but Travis spread his hands wide, now pleading for answer. "You've been acting so weird lately, mom... Does it have to do with why we moved here? Why you're always so angry with Dad? Please, mom... Tell me what's going on."

To his surprise, she almost immediately broke down into tears.



"Oh, mother..." He grabbed her by the arms, bending down to meet the gaze of her hanging head. "I'm sorry, I'm just... I'm just so worried."

"Travis, I really w-wish I could tell you, but y-you're just going to have to trust me. It's j-just important to know, now, that's it's over... It's all over. We c-can go back to the way things were."



Travis wasn't convinced, but considering how little time she had to get ready for their imminently arriving guests, he let her go so she could get cleaned up. There, in the bathtub, she continued to let out the rest of her tears, hoping that by the time the rest of the family arrived, she'd be empty of her emotions and no one would be able to notice...



Luckily, Farah was such a spotlight-hog (a rather boring, irritating spotlight-hog at that) that no one -- save Travis -- noticed the puffy rings around Meredith's eyes.



Well... Except Tana. "Is your mom alright?" she asked Travis, who seemed a bit more distant to her than usual.

"Yeah, she's fine... Just tired from working out earlier, I bet," was the response he gave, aimed more into his glass of water than at his aunt, whose gaze he seemed to be avoiding.



"Naturally, the grandmother should do the honors," Farah said with her typical snooty smile, scooping up Amelia from the crib as Meredith lit the candles on the cake. No one seemed to complain, much less Meredith; it freed her up to take pictures, and meant that everyone's eyes were still avoiding hers.



Everyone cheered and hollared as Farah blew out the one candle that signified Amelia's age...



... and less-than-humbly stepped out of the way so that aging could take it's course: the Kane's last child had finally become a toddler.



The party probably could have gone a little better, though. Farah saw the need to argue with Jebidiah -- over nothing, it seemed -- at every opportunity that presented itself...



... and Jebidiah, severely irritated, tried to cheer himself up with some immature pranks on his sister-in-law.



Meredith wasn't the only one that was feeling under the weather, though. After cleaning up the messy stacks of cake dishes and drink glasses, Mere escaped to the living room to discover Bradley hiding  out by the fire, his nose pressed into a book. "Oh dear," she sighed softly to herself. For a moment, she simply stood there, trying to decide what exactly to say to him. He looked as depressed as she felt, and that couldn't mean anything good.



"Hey sweetie... Good book?" Meredith set herself down beside Brad, looking over his shoulder at the page he was reading.

"Yeah..." His voice was rather grumpy, especially compared to his usual friendly manner.

"You know, I bet it must be hard for you, being the middle kid and all... Everyone always doting on your sister, and your brother getting all the attention... But remember, someday, you're going to be just as big and cool as he is, and your sister especially is going to  be looking up to you. Travis is going to be all old and moved out once she's your age, so, you know... She's going to need a brother that's always gonna be there for her all the time. Do you think you could do that for me? Watch out for Amelia?"

"Yeah... I s'pose."

"Well then, now's a good time to start! Why don't you put the book away, and go play with her... You'll get to be the first person ever to teach her anything!"



Well, Bradley certainly did get over his middle-kid blues, and found himself adoring his sister more and more each day. Luckily for him, his jealousy had only been a temporary flash, and all it took was one act for him to go back to being his happy self.




... But, unfortunately for Meredith, her own desperate act had not had the same effect. She'd only put a stopper on a reminder -- a dream -- but there were other ways for the past to haunt her than ghosts.

---

A better picture of toddler Amelia:

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