hey kat talk to me about dad and her kid(s). verse is up to you!
So is it about that time to talk about @withdiiamonds? I think it is.
Yes, it is time to discuss K.arolina Dean. But we can’t talk about Karolina without talking about A.bigail Hobbs.
Abigail, Alana had felt, seemed like a foster daughter. Too attached, too intent, too insistent on trying to keep the young woman safe in spite of the fact that at the time it wasn’t another parent she needed, though Alana, undoubtedly, did the best job of her assigned caretakers at being selflessly involved with her. Abigail’s death leaves Alana’s stinted in an enormous way-- leaves a hole in her heart she hasn’t even told Trish about. She mourns Abigail the way one would mourn their own daughter and she feels responsible for her death, like she should’ve known. The blame is a shadow cast constantly over everything. And isn’t it ironic Karolina is so the sun.
Trish is the one who introduces the young woman into the family. It’s through her closeness and trust that Karolina meets Alana, and it doesn’t take Alana more than an instant to attach. Whatever normally cold attitude she has always seemed to begin with, that doesn’t matter or apply here. Immediately, she listens to everything Karolina has to say. Bright-eyed and involved, hears out her every single gripe and success in college. Helps her in the classes she can help her. Watches her shyly introduce the wonderful, timid little art major like they’re family.
Karolina’s nature is so earnest, so honest, so kind, so desirous to please that Alana can’t help but immediately encourage everything about her. Every moment is packed full of reminders that she matters. That she’s heard. That Alana’s willing to be the supportive person she can be. That whenever she wants to cry, or to laugh, or to just be herself, she’ll have someone here for her.
And at this stage, for both Trish and Alana, this is so important. Neither of them trust or let in easily, and Karolina’s given a place between them in a process that isn’t slow or gradual, but is almost immediate. She’s loved so quickly, trusted so quickly, understood so quickly. After Hannibal’s murder (god bless Trish), Karolina’s immediately Alana’s co-conspirator, the person Alana trusts to help her propose, but this matters because she wants to be sure the girl knows she has a place in this family. That she’s openly welcome here more than anywhere else. That Alana will love her regardless of who she is or isn’t, without expectation.
Karolina may not heal the place Abigail used to be. Nothing ever will. But it teaches Alana to try. It teaches Alana to let herself love that way again. It soothes something in her that’s always been otherwise incomplete.
Kitty Valentine says you have great moms when she sits at a dinner table across from Trish and Alana, and Alana freezes up, and she has to excuse herself for a second to shed just a couple tears in the kitchen when Karolina agrees, when she doesn’t correct her.
