Hushed Willows shakespeare in the park

No, she didn't doubt him. She was a little skeptical of his siblings sometimes, but that wasn't an issue either. What she doubted was the pack itself. The sense of comraderie she had tried to foster at the pack meeting had been for nothing, apparently. Tavi's paranoia was peaking now and there was no reason for it, but she felt like the world was slowly tightening its embrace around herself and her son; it would take some quick thinking to prevent Tambourine from being suffocated by it. And then to hear Stark talk, it was like he was siding with her assailant — not defending Harlyn or the others exactly, but not backing Octavia up as much as she anticipated he would.

It wasn't a scuffle, Stark, she snapped at him without tempering her tone, and sounded quite contemptuous. Whether such revulsion was directed at him (who she had previously been burying her face in to, eager for comfort) or at the situation, or even Harlyn specifically, she did not elaborate until her temper was a bit less infernal. I was looking for Tambourine and I smelled blood, and when I found him he was with Harlyn. I... I freaked out, but I thought she was hurting him. And then her kid, that piss yellow one, he went for Tam's throat.

The mere memory of the event was enough to make her gasp again, and her eyes were hot with tears, even though it had happened days ago. Mentally Tavi tried to remind herself that Tambourine was safe now, that he was alive and things were fine, but... They weren't. She felt the doubt and the suspicion and the loathing writhing beneath her skin. She hated it here. I thought he was dead. I couldn't wake hiim up! And they -- they just -- Mordecai -- and Harlyn, she sat there telling me off like I was crazy. My son was in my arms and dead, and she was -- at this point Octavia couldn't speak, she just dissolved in to tears and buried herself in to Stark with renewed gusto, practically melting in to him with her own tears.

Something in Octavia's mind screamed, he's alive, he's okay, he's fine, we're okay - but no matter how loudly the mantra got, she couldn't hear it over the sounds of her own pounding heart and great gasping sobs. Hiding herself away had stopped this, for a time. She had been protected, as Tam had been, but now with Stark here and the events coming to light, she couldn't hold herself together. She needed him to keep her whole.