Damien folded the last of the shirts he had taken out of the closet, neatly into the small traveling bag on the bed. The time for his flight wasn't long now so he needed to get a head start. He wasn't packing a lot of things, just enough for a few days and when he was done with the shirts, his eyes skimmed through the room to check for anything else he might be missing. As he began to zip up the traveling bag, his phone vibrated in his jeans pocket. Praying silently that it wasn't work related, Damien slipped his phone out and smiled a little when he saw it was his mother calling. As long as it wasn't work, it was fine and also it had been a while since he'd heard from her. "Mother.” He greeted, zipping the bag with one hand and then carrying it to the corner of the room, "How are you doing?" "Hey, honey.” She cooed from the other end, "I'm okay. I just wanted to hear from you. Are you good?" Damien flipped through the documents he had procured from his bottom drawer, his left hand firmly holding his phone to his right ear as he replied, "Yeah I'm great, thank you." "That's good. So… according to what we spoke about the last time, you're not busy at all this week, nor do you have any important meetings or projects. So this means that you're free to have dinner with your sister and I, right?" Damien chuckled, dropping yet another file in the pile of documents he needed his secretary to attend to while he was gone. "So you're keeping tabs on me now? Is that right?” He asked joking and his mother responded by letting out a small laugh, "Hey, you did tell me that yourself. But… back to dinner. What would you like to eat? I could make all your favorites. I won’t skip even one, you just trust me." Damien paused in the middle of flipping through a document. He couldn't come to this dinner because of his flight, and he also couldn't tell his mother no, because he didn't want her to know about his trip to London as it would bring up a lot of questions. None which he felt like discussing. "Um… I can't do dinner, mom.” He finally said, feeling bad internally. He had turned down her offer so many times, and this was so unusual of him. It was also beginning to look like he was doing it on purpose, and he didn’t like it at all. "Oh, come on, Damien. You assured me that you wouldn't be busy this week. Your sister and I have been looking forward to this. Layla wants to see you so much. She wants to tell you about her school ceremony coming up, amongst some other things Damien, come on.”He could note the hurt in her voice and he even imagined her sulking as she said this, and guilt pinched him hard in the chest. Sighing, he pushed the files he was looking through and tried to gather his words, "Mom, I really want to hang out with you and Layla. It's been a while and I think it'd be very nice, but I can't. I can’t because… I'll be going on a trip to London. The flight's already been booked." As soon as the words left his mouth, Damien instantly regretted it and the heavy silence that instantly descended was not helping. His mother knew how much he despised that place, and the vow he had never made never to go back was not lost on her, so it was bound to come as a shock to her naturally. "London?" She finally breathed, her voice strained but curious, "Why are you going to London Damien? What business do you have there? Is there something you are not telling me?" Damien sucked in a deep breath. He didn't want to talk about this, but he knew there was no way to avoid it, so he spilled the beans. He rarely hid things from his mother and no matter how hard he tried, she always had a way of knowing about so keeping it from her seemed useless. "I'm going to see Madison, no the Connors rather. I know it's strange, but there are so many things that I still don't…” "Oh Damien, what do you want to do with that family that made life miserable for us? What do you want to do now?” “Mother…” He began but she cut through before he finished, “Okay now, Damien… I didn't want to say it before as I was keeping this to myself but then what do you want to do about Madison then? I saw those stories in the papers, and I read about everything you did to that poor girl. Everything I saw that you did was absolutely terrible! It was mean and unnecessary, and I could tell that all you kept doing was bullying her and feeling good about it, but know this, I will never been in support of that behavior and I won't ever be." "Mom what are you talking a—" "No, no, let me speak. Let me finish.” She interrupted before he could say anything further, "If you're going to London just to bully that girl most especially, then I am not in support at all. If you want to make her feel so bad, even in her own space, then I really do not think you should. You've been treating that poor girl so badly and I know you're angry of course because of what happened in the past, but I think you might be going overboard. She did nothing to deserve any of this. Especially since she—" "Oh mother will you just cut it!” Damien yelled through her words, cutting her off sharply. His fists were clenched angrily as he struggled to keep his shaking body steady, “If you would just keep quiet and listen to me then you might actually get a clue of what's happening." There was no response on the other end, so he knew she was waiting for him to speak finally giving him the change to say something and he began to relax. "I…I'm not going to London to bully Madison or take my anger out on her just like you are thinking. I might not even go to see her, despite how badly I want to. I want you to know that I’m going there to get answers. There are so many things that happened in the past that are still very unclear, so many unanswered questions, so many events that didn't make any sense at all, and the Connors are the only ones that can answer that. Madison is the only one who can answer them and that's it. So whatever you’re thinking I’m going to do there, is the complete opposite and…" He trailed off, sighing deeply his chest tightening as memories assailed him instantly. "Oh, honey…" He heard his mother say in a teary voice, “I'm really sorry about my words earlier.” “Thank you mother.” Damien said softly, and he could hear her soft chuckle and sniff from the end of the phone. “I am in full support of this. You know back then everything that happened between you two, really made me sad and I hope you might be able to get the answers you seek. I'm proud of you for being willing to take this step, and I hope you can work everything out so you'd finally be able to let the past go. It'd be good for you both." Damien felt his heart squeeze in pain at his mother’s words, and he voiced his gratitude out again, "Thanks, mom." "Goodluck honey, and don't forget, if you ever want to talk, I'm here for you okay?" Damien chuckled softly, grateful that she understood what he was going through. After they talked briefly about what he would be doing over in London, she didn’t cut of the call immediately and instead kept him company on the phone as he continued to pack everything he needed. Soon the atmosphere was no more tense, and in a few minutes Damien found himself beginning to laugh. When it was time for him to sort out his files from work, he informed her telling her he would be busy and needed to concentrate and bading each other farewell, she finally ended the call. Damien sat on his bed, looking over at his packed traveling bag and assuring himself that he was doing the right thing. He stretched out his hand to grab the bottle of whiskey on the table and taking a long swig, he put it down again and continued to work.