Seaside Moors around your soft neck

It settled on her more this year, but in a gentler, more tired capacity.  She did not feel as large as she had before - perhaps she was not done growing, or perhaps the novelty had worn off.  This year had been meant to be different.  She'd hoped the stress, the anger, all of it wouldn't touch this batch as it had the last.  But with Reyes, and now Raleska, disappeared... she couldn't find it in her heart to look forward to much of it.  Not right now.

What had started as a contest, mother against mother, had turned to something else entirely.  She hadn't felt this gutted since... she couldn't recall.  Perhaps her time in captivity, but even then, it had been her own life in peril.  No comparisons, then.

Silently, Rosalyn stepped slowly and awkwardly out.  She moved forward and shifted to her side.  There were a few things that could have kept her up like this; she guessed she knew the cares that rested on her wife's shoulders.