16329/Titans 3023: Mother and Daughter, Reunited

Titans 3023: Mother and Daughter, Reunited
Date of Scene:	14 November 2023
Location:	Titans 3023: Troia's Time-Ship
Synopsis:	Future Caitlin escorts Irie to her quarters so mother and daughter can catch up. They talk, laugh, cry, and hug, and Irie's disappearance in the timeline is finally explained.
Cast of Characters:	Caitlin Fairchild, Irie West

---

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
The bombshell Caitlin dropped was a shock to every Titan present, past and future. For the Titans of 2023, it was a stunning revelation of who Irie's mother is, a secret the speedster's closely kept for the better part of four years now.

For the Titans of 3023, it's a dreadful shock: they have just witnessed a ghost come to life.

After several moments of Future Caitlin sobbing and hugging Irie with rib-cracking force, the other Titans had recovered enough to start clamouring around them with questions and excitement. Caitlin, who was a proper tearful mess, looked around, and then wrapped an arm around Irie's shoulders to walk her into the time ship and into the quarters she's appropriated for herself. They are clearly temporary digs, with nothing more than a holo-display and some clothing hanging on the wall. Caitlin gets them inside, palms the door and locks it shut.

Only then does she turns back to Irie, and the tears start welling almost immediately. But there's a smile there, with an absolute joyful radiance that could probably power the ship's engines.

"Let me-- let me look at you," she gets out, finally, and gives Irie's shoulders a squeeze at arm's length. The younger woman's given a thorough up and down. "You look skinny," she blurts out. "Are you eating enough?"

Caitlin realizes the absurdity of that statement and chokes back something between a sob and a laugh, and hugs Irie again with fierce affection.

"How? How is-- where have you /been/?"

Irie West has posed:
    Irie's tears match that of her mom's, clinging to her when they hug. She doesn't answer any of the questions, instead whispering in Caitlin's ear, "I missed you so much."

    When she's led to her mom's quarters, she lets out a shaky breath. And then she's asked if she's eating enough, which breaks the tension within her and laughs. "Yeah. I'm eating enough. Thanks to... well..."

    Her brows furrow at Caitlin's next question, though. "I've been with the Titans. I don't... does something happen to me?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin steps around Irie and sits down carefully on the single, narrow bed. She offers Irie both hands and helps her sit so they're mostly facing, knees touching and fingers tightly squeezed.

"I... you..." Caitlin takes a slow, shuddering breath, visibly forcing herself to calm wildly jangling nerves. "God. It feels like it was yesterday, still," she whispers, and shakes her head. One hand lifts to wipe away tears with her thumb and she looks skywards, swallowing once.

"You and your brother and your dad, it was-- you were training together. Speed Force stuff. I was in the bedroom and I heard something weird, I guess. Then it got real quiet, then Jai came running upstairs and said 'Irie just vanished'."

She swallows again, another painful memory flashing behind her wet green eyes. "He and Wally, they looked everywhere for you. For days. We tried everything. No one had any idea where you had gone," she says. "I... for years, I held out hope. I kept telling Wally to keep looking, I kept telling him to find you. But after... I don't know. Several years. We finally realized you were gone, and weren't coming back, and that ..." She sniffles.

"I lost my baby forever," she says, and a sob slips past her lips. Fingers tighten on Irie's hands again. "And now, a /thousand years/ later, I have her back."

Irie West has posed:
    Irie follows Cait's lead and sits down on the bed beside her, taking her hands in her own as she listens to her mother explain. "I... You don't remember?" She shakes her head, "I was flung back to 2021. You were there. You //have// to remember that, right?"

    Her face falls, "Unless... oh no. I must have created a divergent timeline that split off the main one. That would explain why you never..."

    She all but launches herself at her mother to give her another hug. "I'm so sorry," she breathes, tears coming again. "If I'd known... I'd have found some way to let you know."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin nods, her expression fragile and torn. But she hugs Irie back instantly, as reassuringly as she can. "I know, baby, I know," she whispers, and makes soothing noises while running her fingers through Irie's hair with a reflexive maternal grooming. She hugs the girl close while they both cry it out a while longer.

Finally Caitlin releases her and gets up to go over to the replicator. "Bottled water, and warm towels," Caitlin tells it, and the machine shimmers with light before both manifest. The bottle is uncapped and Caitlin offers it to Irie. Even before Caitlin starts wiping her own tears away, she's automatically dawbing the corner of the towel at Irie's face and holding her chin with one hand to hold her steady. "Just... drink some water, honey, it's OK. Do you want some hot tea or something?" she offers. "Or..." she laughs. "I guess you're old enough for a drink now, aren't you," she observes with a wry amusement. "God. I still can't believe--" she looks down at Irie, then smiles fondly and runs her fingers through Irie's hair again. "You got so tall."

Irie West has posed:
    Irie is content to be mothered, not fighting the way that Caitlin fusses over her. "Thank you," she says taking the water. "This is good. I don't drink. Not quite old enough to do it legally, but..." she wrinkles her nose in distaste. "Most of it is nasty. Wine is good, but I can wait."

    She takes a swig of water and says, "When I went back, I tried so hard to keep from spoiling who was my parents. I messed up immediately with Wally. I didn't realize that I had gone back and just let the cat out of the bag. He handled it really well, though. Never pushed me to find out who my mother was."

    "It was just... //so hard// living with the titans and seeing you every day and not being able to say a thing because who knows how that would have affected the timeline." She lets out a small sigh and gives her mom a helpless shrug. "Well. We'll get to find out, now."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin sits down with Irie, listening with rapt attention to every word she says. Her face twists with a sympathetic expression at Irie's plight, and she nods in agreement with Irie's assessment of the situation. "Yeah, I'm gonna ... have to have a talk with myself, I guess," Caitlin admits ruefully. "I bet that was a hell of a bombshell for her to get, on top of meeting her ghost of Christmas Future. But that's not your fault," she urges, and gives Irie's knee a squeeze. "It's not. You did great and if it wasn't for this chrono-crisis, I'm sure it would have run its natural course. You can't be on the hook for that accident, Iris," she bids the girl. Caitlin's green eyes flicker with a momentary anger, gone before it manifests fully.

"Would you like to see a picture of Jai?" she offers, and reaches for the holo-emitter. "The pictures are pretty good, but the holos are a little antiquated," she admits. "From the mid-21st century so the tech is pretty primitive."

Caitlin thumbs the device and a three-dimensional image of Jai pops up. He looks more like Wally than he does his mother, with a short beard and wearing a clean-looking, sleek suit. He's grinning at a camera and waving awkwardly, before being tackled by two knee-high kids. A woman walks in with a third baby on her hip, smiling and resting her head on his shoulder while they all grin and mug for the camera.

"That's his wife Amelie, and your nieces and nephews. Twins strike twice, that's Emmett and Georgette," she says, pointing at the two taller kids. "And the third one, that's Dakota. First grandbabies," she says with a note of pride-- but touched by a wistful sadness, too.

Irie West has posed:
    "Yeah. I'm gonna need to talk to her, too," Irie admits. "The last thing I want is for her to feel pressured into being my mother earlier than she should, or that she needs to settle down with Wally immediately. Like, it's why I never said anything. I wanted it to happen organically, you know?"

    Her eyes light up at the mention of her twin. "Yes, please!" She leans forward to watch the holo, and she can't help but grin. "Ohmygosh, they're //adorable//. I hope I actually get to see them one day. Did Jai settle down, or did he continue adventuring and become a superhero like Dad did?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Oh, let me think," Caitlin reflects, and looks skywards. She sets the holo-emitter down and shows Irie how to access the controls. They're simple and intuitive, and she can rotate the image, replay it, enable sounds, and switch to other 3D models or stored pictures.

"He did the adventuring thing until Dakota came along, and Amelie told him he needed to do something a little less risk-involved," she says, smiling fondly. "Titans never really retire, of course, but she at least had him on the reserve roster instead of active. He went into medicine," she says, with a maternal note of pride. "Said he wanted to be a doctor. Or wait, was that--" Caitlin's nose wrinkles in thought. "Was that Elias? No, that was Jai," she says, nodding to herself. "Sorry. It's been... a few centuries," she reminds Irie. "The details from way back then take longer for me to dig out of memory."

Irie West has posed:
     Irie is therewith the holoemitter for a while, just flipping through the holos of Jai and his family. She watches as the children grow in each successive holo, and the grey start to pepper Jai's beard. "These are great," she concludes, handing the device back to Caitlin when she's done.

    "I'm gonna need to find a way to send you some of my pictures." She grins, "They're not in 3D but I've got a bunch. I mean, most of them are with Maddie, my best friend. She's really cool. You'd approve of her."

    "It's okay if you don't remember everything perfectly," Irie says sympathetically. "Like... it's been a millennia. Can't expect you to remember it all perfectly."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I'd love that," Caitlin says, earnestly. "I'm--" she laughs, a little sorrowfully. "I'm still sad at how much I missed out on. But in a weird way, you were with your mom the whole time," she says, with the tone of someone looking for a silver lining. "And your family. The Titans are active, still. In my time," she clarifies. "To know you'll be a part of that legacy, it's..." she shakes her head and sighs with profound joy.

"So-- tell me more about Maddie," Caitlin encourages. "I want to know all about her, and your other friends. Is there anyone-- anyone special?" she asks, a little hopefully. "I know I was in my mid-twenties before I even started thinking about that, so no pressure," she hastily amends. "I just-- I want to hear everything," she encourages Irie.