Work Text:
I.
The news of Charlotte’s death arrives via text.
Her mother is anxious. Because of Spencer.
Melissa’s rolls her eyes.
Spencer’s being accused of murder.
How very five years ago.
She doesn’t waste any time on sorrow.
Charlotte’s a DiLaurentis.
They never stay dead for long.
------------------------------------------------------------
II.
Her sister is fine.
It passes.
Like all murder investigations eventually do.
Spencer gets a job with the DNC.
Her mother is taking the Statehouse by storm.
Her father is flashing his old money smile all over Harrisburg.
Greasing palms and raising money for the war chest.
Melissa finds herself at loose ends.
She accepts a position at a big firm in Hartford.
Mediating insurance settlements.
She’s treading water.
Her thoughts drift frequently.
They tend to land on Charlotte.
-------------------------------------------------------
III.
She doesn’t decide to look for Charlotte, exactly.
She’s not going to run after her.
A Hastings isn’t a golden retriever, chasing sticks and cryptic clues across the globe.
Instead, she signs up for a few dating apps.
A tiny ripple in the vastness of cyberspace.
She goes on a date with a bond trader.
He’s tall. Handsome in a dull sort of way.
He comes down with a nasty case of food poisoning twenty minutes into their meal.
Melissa sits alone and sips her wine.
She smiles up at the security camera.
---------------------------------------------------------
IV.
There are small signs.
An orchid appears on her windowsill.
Her fortune cookie contains a small slip of paper asking Did you miss me? in Mandarin.
She comes home to find an exquisite silver music box on the coffee table.
She opens the lid.
Two tiny ballerinas pirouette towards one another to a tinny arrangement from Phantom of the Opera.
Think of me. Think of me, fondly..
It’s hideously sentimental.
Gauche.
Melissa puts it on her nightstand.
She listens to it every night as she falls asleep.
----------------------------------------
V.
Her father has a heart attack at the club.
He dies on the tennis court.
Spencer at his side.
Grief hits her like a thunderclap.
She’s furious at her father for dying.
She’s livid with Spencer for letting it happen.
She resents having to see the other girls at the funeral, flocking Spencer like a murder of badly dressed crows.
She gets back to her apartment and finds Charlotte sitting cross legged on the sofa.
Waiting for her.
Melissa collapses. Sobs brokenly on the floor.
----------------------------------------------
VI.
“What’s your big plan?” Melissa asks, days later.
Charlotte looks genuinely puzzled.
“I don’t have one.”
“Please. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
Charlotte makes direct eye contact. Her voice is raw with honesty.
“This is the plan. I came back for you.”
-------------------------------------------
VII.
No one bats an eye at her having a girlfriend.
Not even a girlfriend who happens to be a reformed ex-stalker recently back from the dead.
Her mother hugs her.
Spencer calls to say she’s glad Melissa is happy.
This is how far their family has come.
Anything that isn’t a felony conviction falls squarely into the category of good news.
---------------------------------------------
VIII.
Her mother encourages her to run for a vacancy on the Court of Common Pleas.
The local chair of the Republican party makes some veiled statements in the press, questioning whether Melissa Hastings can be fair and impartial given her lifestyle.
A reporter asks for a comment while she and Charlotte are out to dinner.
Melissa isn’t going to dignify him with a response, but Charlotte has no such scruples.
“She’s very impartial,” she explains. “Melissa dislikes everyone equally. Except me.”
The offhand remark makes national news.
Donations start pouring in.
She wins the seat by a thirty six point margin.
---------------------------------------
IX.
Alison and Emily are never shy about asking them to babysit, which Melissa resents out of habit, even though she actually loves spending time with Emma and Sophie.
Charlotte absolutely adores the girls. She buys them extravagant gifts. Books traveling carnivals for their birthdays.
Melissa comes home one night to find Charlotte putting a sleepy Sophie into bed. She’s going through an elephant phase, carrying around five stuffed elephants at a time. Their trunks interlock, so they mostly trail along the floor behind her as she races from room to room. Charlotte is infinitely gentle as she carefully tucks each of them in next to her niece.
She comes over and puts an arm around Melissa’s waist as they stand in the doorway together.
“We should have kids of our own,” Charlotte says. She’s always been direct, but this is a hallmark of the new Charlotte. Instead of elaborate manipulation, her first move these days is to come right out and declare what she wants.
“I want to get married first.”
Charlotte grins. “I thought you’d never ask.”
------------------------------------------------
X.
That’s not the proposal, of course.
They go to Venice for New Year’s Eve.
Charlotte, being Charlotte, creates a private fireworks show over the canals.
The letters are bright red, streaking across the sky.
Till Death Do Us Part
For real this time
Will You Marry Me, My Love?
The moment Melissa says yes, a white swan appears.
It swims in circles around their gondola while they kiss.
A diamond ring is tied around its neck.
-------------------------------------
XI.
The disgruntled and disgraced blowhard who now owns the National Enquirer commissions a hit piece on Spencer. They lay out the whole sordid Hastings - Drake - DiLaurentis family drama on a fold out chart. There’s a grainy photo of Jason labeled “unbalanced alcoholic.” They misgender Charlotte and headline the entire layout HOUSE OF PERVERSIONS, a pseudo clever riff on the fact that Spencer Hastings is on track to be the next Speaker of the House.
Spencer gives the opening speech at the Democratic National Convention. She doesn’t address the article directly, but she talks a lot about the New America.
“In the New America, we’ve moved beyond judging families based on an outdated notion of what we think they should look like. In the New America we understand that families come in all shapes and sizes. That the true measure of family is the love and the care that it provides.”
Melissa watches with tears of pride in her eyes, her baby daughter in her arms.
----------------------------------------
XII.
They have busy lives. Melissa’s on the Federal bench now. Charlotte’s running Hanna’s fashion empire. Drake is at the top of her class, and is turning out to be one of the sweetest kids on the planet. She has three foster brothers and a foster sister who all adore her. The kids operate as their own unit, part basketball team, part pirate crew.
Melissa looks up from her research some nights and sees them messing around in the kitchen making garlic butter grilled cheese or putting on impromptu sock puppet shows and shakes her head in disbelief.
“I know,” Charlotte says, resting her chin on Melissa’s shoulders. “I know.”
-----------------------------------------
XIII.
Melissa squints at her book, adjusts her bifocals. Charlotte sits down on her side of the bed, brushing her long silvery hair.
“I missed you,” Melissa tells her.
Charlotte raises an eyebrow. “When I was in the shower?”
“No. When you were gone. I missed you every day.”
“What brought this on?”
“I thought you should know.”
Charlotte squeezes her hand. “Girls like me, we don’t usually get a happy ending.”
Melissa wraps her arms around her wife’s waist from behind.
“Baby, you deserve nothing less.”