She was never the jealous type, not even when she was with Anne, her girlfriend (and she did turn a lot of heads). Yes, of course, she knew when to intervene when someone got all touchy-feely with her Bo. But she was never jealous. It did surprise her when all the kids came back one day that she found herself feeling a tinge of jealousy. Of course, she was happy for her girlfriend. She had, after all, seen how the ever-so-smiley woman crumbled down every year on her little girl's birthday or death day. But, even that didn't stop her from longing to embrace the newborn baby she left behind. She longed to see those fiery brown eyes that -even being 3 days old- the little girl possessed. She longed for her little weight over her chest. She longed to teach her how to write and read, maybe even teach her how to create her own stories. But, the happy endings weren't made for her.
The first days. She tried, she really did! She tried to smile and push all of her greaving thoughts to let her family enjoy the bliss of having their kids back (She genuinely was happy from the kid's return, though. She had once loved them as her own, especially the little red-haired girl). Aragon and Jane babyproofed the whole house in a matter of 3 days. Anne turned out to be an excellent parent and started teaching Lizzy-now-turned-into-a-6-year-old-kid how things worked in the 21st century, plus reading to all of the kids every night before bed -she thought it was the cutest thing ever-. Kitty turned herself into Mary's best friend after Mary appearing as a 15-year-old girl and relating over shitty male partners, and Anna was considered the cool aunt by all of the kids after bringing them some sweets from the nearby store. Cathy, on the other hand, had talked to none of the kids -but Elisabeth 'cause who could say no to her when she asks for a reading partner?- and the common greetings. She couldn't bear it. Every time she saw them, she thought of her missing girl.
It was after the first week came by that she shut herself down in her room. All of them were worried that she had again fallen into her old habits. Anne had even found her twice passed out on her desk with scribbled pieces of paper under her. She was so lucky that her handwriting was unintelligible to everyone but her. Her notebooks were filled to the brim with possibilities of what happened to her long lost daughter. If she was not gonna come back, she was gonna know what came after her death. This, of course, only made her even more dishearted. Her baby was believed to have died after age two? They didn't document her at all. All information of her Mary was purely based on the consequences of her birth and how they stopped following her around when the one thing she had to give her worth in history! Died because of the lack of hygiene.
She never stopped though, nights trapped in her room turned into days, days turned into weeks. She would not come out unless one of her family dragged her downstairs to eat something, and even then, she only ate, brewed herself a cup of coffee, and back to work. She wanted more from her baby. She wanted to know what she looked like, how she spoke, what she became! Is that too much to ask?! She was slowly losing herself to the knowledge that with time she would begin forgetting her baby's eyes, her little weight. She would begin to forget the little things she had before childbed fever took her away. And, yes! She was jealous! Of course, she was! All of them had their little ones back! Why couldn't she?
Anne was beyond worried. Even if she now had to take care of Lizzie, she still always -And with always I mean in Lizzie's company- made time for Cathy -And her family-. She knew there was something wrong. The first time Cath locked herself in her room for weeks, it was because of how the survivor's guilt struck her and made her feel bad for wasting everyone's time. Anne knew Cath wouldn't lock herself just for anything. Lizzie, however, knew why the writer was like that. She may be a toddler now, but her memory (If a bit fuzzy) still worked just fine. She knew her mother's girlfriend (Yes, she knew they were dating) was dishearted because of the lack of her daughter. She didn't say anything. After all, she knew the curly-haired woman, first, wouldn't be pleased with her revealing personal information without her consent, and second, she wouldn't want to reveal that she was as well dishearted at a certain baby's absence.
It was after one day, Cathy (reluctantly), Anne (Gave the idea), and Lizzie (Convinced Cathy) had gone out grocery shopping that the things began settling down a bit. They were in the middle of getting Lizzie to calm down with the puppy dog eyes (They already had way more sweets than Jane approved of) that a call was heard. Cathy seldom received calls on her phone, so it was either an emergency or Anne had hers off. It was Kat on the other side of the line so, she immediately concluded the call was for Anne. "Annie, It's Kat-" It was after hearing Kat -loudly- yelling her that this time it was for her that Kat dropped the bomb. "When were you gonna tell us you had a baby?!" this was, of course, yelled so, pretty much the three of them heard it. "W-why do you know this?! I thought we agreed we wouldn't research each other!" Anne looked in shock, and Lizzie looked rather apologetically at the one she saw as her second mum. "I didn't look it up! She's back! So are the lady's kids! You three have to come back! Now!" Cathy was speechless. Was her baby back? Was this not a joke? At her girlfriend's dazedness, Anne decided to quickly pay for their stuff and get both of her girls on the back of their mini-van before parting home. It was a short ride, but she used that valuable time to process what was happening. Her girlfriend had a daughter, her girlfriend had a daughter and didn't tell her, her girlfriend had a daughter and had to deal with the rest of them getting their children's back while she was still waiting for hers to come back! She now understood why the shorter woman was as she was! She was sad at knowing every child came back, but hers. They were just a few blocks away (traffic, am I right?) when Cath finally talked. "I'm sorry, I didn't tell you..." she was now with her head down and looked almost as if debating if she should be ashamed at not saying anything or excited at her daughter's come back. "you don't have to be sorry, we all have secrets, things that make us hurt. You can run if you want, you should meet your daughter. I will be right behind you when these cars decide to move." Cathy shot her girlfriend a thankful smile before pecking her lips and doing exactly what Anne said.
After the initial shock of Parr having a daughter, the welcoming was warm. Mae had taken after her mom. She had black curly hair and hazel eyes. She learned at a fast pace and loved storytelling time. The little girl seemed to be 2 years old, but she quickly caught up on her mum and Anne's relationship. It took less than a week for her to start calling Lizzie Sissy and Anne became mère (mère=mom) -after the green gremlin began teaching french to both of her girls-. It was this what motivated Liz to give Cathy the nickname of mama and Mae the one of Lil duckling.
If you saw them now, you would never guess that the whole ordeal ever happened. After all, Parr -Now turned Boleyn-Parr- would never be planted as a jealous person.