xp_logs | Homecoming | Sooraya and her mother (Reply)

In the aid camp after the attacks Sooraya locates the one person she wants to see more than anyone else: her mother. Once found, however, she faces some difficult decisions.

Backdated due to brain-not-workingness.

In the aftermath of the attack on the aid camp Sooraya was overwhelmed; almost moreso than in the attack itself. At least then she had a purpose, something to concentrate on, but now... Though there were not many serious injuries and the majority of the attackers were safely under control it still seemed as if chaos was but a step away. She could smell the smoke that still billowed from a few of the outlying tents, and the occasional shout split the air as aid workers tried to assess the damages done.

With Inspector Kane quite busy and the other students from Xavier's occupied with their own efforts to put things to rights, Sooraya decided that she would seek out someone from the camp and offer her help. She wasn't strong like Monet but she could still contribute; first aid, or cooking, or maybe even translating for the refugees who no doubt wanted to know what had gone on not long before. The thought of putting her English to good use gave her a small swell of pride, and she was smiling to herself as she headed to the nearest aid tent.

A middle-aged woman intercepted her before she could enter the tent. "~Sooraya,~" the stranger called in a clear voice, pitched to carry. "~Sooraya Qadir!~" There was only a hint of a question in her voice.

That voice. Sooraya stopped abruptly, looking about her and spotting the woman who had spoken. "~Kawtara?~" she asked questioningly, not believing her eyes as the familiar face registered upon her memory. "~Is it really you?~"

The older woman's eyes were very bright as she hustled over to Sooraya, seizing the girl by both arms and giving her a long, intent look. "~I almost didn't recognize you, child. Child! You're a young woman now. Mirah will be shocked.~"

"~My mother? You have seen her?~" Now it was Sooraya's turn to look incredulous, and she grasped the older woman's hands tightly. "~Is she well?~"

"~Well? She's here, child,~" Kawtara said with a quick flash of a smile, tugging Sooraya with her. "~Come, I'll take you to
her.~"

The next few minutes passed in a blur for Sooraya - Kawtara guided her across the camp to one of the groupings of tents near a scrubby bunch of small trees. Before she knew it she had stooped to enter one, and as she straightened up she caught sight of the face she had been searching for in vain the entire time they had been in Afghanistan.

"~Mother!~"

Mirah Qadir stumbled, her careworn face going almost gray with shock as her long-lost daughter stepped into the tent. "~Sooraya?~" she asked, her voice hushed, disbelieving. "~Sooraya...~" But then she was moving across the tent in a single rush, clasping her daughter tightly to her. The sound that escaped her was a curiously joyful sob.

The girl returned the embrace tightly, burying her face in her mother's shoulder and wrapping her arms around her. She was here, she was alive, she had not been injured in the attack... it was more than Sooraya had thought to hope for. "~I have missed you so much... I did not think I would ever get to see you again,~" she murmured, the words muffled but still decipherable.

"~I never lost hope. Oh, Sooraya...~" Mirah hugged her fiercely, but then took a step back, giving her a long, searching look. "~You're not hurt? It's been very bad here.~"

"~No, I am unharmed.~" Briefly Sooraya hesitated, wondering where to start in her explaination of how she came to be in the camp. "~I am here with a group of people who came to help - they suspected something like this might happen and so they came to investigate. I came too, with them.~"

"~Came from where?~" Mirah asked, a bit bewildered, as she sank to the ground, drawing Sooraya with her and not letting go of her daughter's hands. Kawtara had withdrawn quietly to allow them these first few minutes together. There was a sudden spark of incredulous hope in Mirah's tired eyes. "~You were not with the slavers any longer? You escaped?~" Her grip on Sooraya's hands tightened. "~The thought of you with them, all this time... it pained me so deeply.~"

"~No, last year... a very kind man found me, Mother, and he freed me and brought me to a school, where I am learning many new things...~" The truth sounded a bit bizarre, but she pressed onward. "~The school is in America, that is where I have been for the last year. I wanted to come back to find you, but I did not have a chance until now. But I didn't want to leave you.~"

"~America.~" Mirah looked like she wasn't quite sure what to think of that. "~I... they have been kind to you?~" A sudden, almost tremulous smile appeared on her face. "~A school. You were always such a bright child, Sooraya. I so often thought of leaving the others, staying in one of the villages where the aid workers gave lessons.~"

Though Sooraya knew the importance of education now more than ever, she couldn't imagine having left their clan when she was younger. "~They have been very kind to me, yes... They are so generous there, and the teachers and students are very nice. They have been very patient with me as I have tried to learn all the new things there. I like it very much.~"

Mirah reached out a hand and touched her daughter's cheek, as if still not quite sure she was real. "~You've grown up so,~" she said
wistfully. "~Not so little anymore.~"

This pronouncement made Sooraya feel both proud and sad - she was happy to be growing into a responsible, mature woman, but she had missed two years with her mother. Where had that gone? "~I am so glad to see you,~" she said then, a smile curving her lips once more. "~And that you are safe. It was very dangerous out there.~"

"~I don't know what we're going to do now, Sooraya. Staying here...~" Mirah shook her head. "~Not after this. But it was so difficult, to carry on as we did, living as we did...~"

"~Yes, I know. But there are other options." Suddenly an idea struck Sooraya, and she clasped her mother's hand eagerly. "~Nathan will help. He knows a great many people, I am sure that he will know what to do next.~"

"~I must meet him,~" Mirah said with a shaky smile, "~whether he can help or not. To thank him, for rescuing you so that you might come back to me.~"

Sooraya nodded, and squeezed her mother's hand, though a moment later her smile faded somewhat as she realized the implication of her mother's words. Was she really back? Was she going to stay in Afghanistan, her time at Xavier's school a brief but important step outside of the world she knew? Though her relief at finding her mother and clan was great, there was also a hint of bittersweetness there. She realized she didn't want to leave the school, not yet.

Her mother saw the hesitation. The doubt. "~What is it, Sooraya?~" Mirah asked, softly but firmly.

"~It is just... I will miss the school and the friends I have made there,~" the girl said honestly, meeting her mother's eyes with a conflicted expression. "~It is such a wonderful place. I wish you could see it.~"

Mirah gazed at her for a long, long moment. Her mouth twisted slightly, almost in pain, and she touched Sooraya's cheek again. "~You've been happy there.~"

Sooraya wasn't oblivious to her mother's emotions, but she wanted so much to tell her of the time she had spent at Xavier's and the marvelous things she had learned there. "~I've learned so much, more than I ever thought possible. They teach me math, and history, and science... I even know how to speak English!~" she said excitedly. "~And even more... they teach me about the things I can do, the things no one else would believe. But they do, and they teach me how to control it, and use it to help people...~" Realizing she was babbling, the dark-eyed girl trailed off, biting her lip.

Mirah's eyes were suspiciously bright, but she smiled, even if the expression was somewhat strained. "~Is there more to learn, there?~" she asked, her voice husky with emotion. "~Would you... want to return?~"

Yes! Sooraya wanted to cry, but the response was immediately tempered with a more sobering thought - I don't want to leave my mother again. Frowning, she looked down at her mother's hand, clasped tightly in her own. "~There are other places to learn... I could find them here, instead,~" she suggested in a tone she hoped was convincing.

Mirah's laugh was half-choked, sorrowful-sounding. "~No, Sooraya. Don't you wonder why we're here, in this camp? Why we can no longer live as we did... there's no peace to be had anymore. No freedom to live, let alone to learn. Especially not for a young woman.~"

"~Then I will stay here, with you. My time at the school has been a blessing, but I would not leave you again.~"

Mirah shook her head. "~No,~" she said, more firmly, "~no. I will take whatever help this man who rescued you can offer, for myself and for the others. But you must return with your friends, to this school.~" Her grip on Sooraya's hands tightened almost painfully. "~I love you, daughter, and seeing you again, knowing that you're well, is a greater blessing than I could have imagined. But I won't let you give up the chance for a better life for me.~"

"~Mother, no...~" Even as Sooraya protested she knew her heart wasn't in it; she wanted to go to the school for the same reasons, to make a better life than the one she had known. A better life that would benefit her mother, also, when it came. "~I would miss you too much.~"

"~And what makes you think that you would never see me, or hear from me? Now that I know where you are. If these new friends of yours can bring you back to Afghanistan once, surely they can do it again.~"

"~Yes...~" The girl's resolve was crumbling more and more, and as she looked up at her mother she tried to find the words to express how she was feeling. None came, however, and she settled for leaning in to embrace her mother again tightly.

Mirah hugged her almost fiercely. "~Wherever you are, you will never be far from me. Not in the ways that matter.~"