A Family Stolen

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 1 (Taken)

Jade sat with Beck and the others at Tori's house, each contemplating their choices for college upon graduation of high school. She had several options herself, but wanted to go wherever Beck would be. As of current, that was UCLA. "Andre, are you still thinking about Louisiana?"

Andre shuffled past the recliner that Tori was sitting and started to nod. "You know, I'd love to see New Orleans. Besides, my girlfriend's down there." Jade didn't know much about his girlfriend, or how the two met. According to Andre, she lived in the house his family had before he moved to live with his grandmother. "Then again, she's been thinking of coming here."

Jade tapped her fingernails on her leg and looked to Tori, who'd been silent for much of the night. She wanted the girl to start talking, but wasn't pushing it since she'd been acting different lately.

Even now, Tori appeared troubled as she was every time she hung out with them lately She talked less and less about her family, which Jade wasn't complaining much about; yet it concerned her greatly.

"What about you Tori? You haven't said anything about where you're going for college." In all honesty she was shocked, because it was during their junior year they all started talking about where they might want to go; and Tori never once mentioned the slightest idea of a college. "You've never talked about college."

Tori glanced over with a nonchalant expression and raised up her shoulders. "She's probably going to some drama school," Andre remarked. Tori's brow furrowed and the girl's lips pursed. Jade leaned back slowly, raising her eyebrows at her friend.

Andre leaned over, gently tapping the back of his hand on Tori's kneecap. "Right Tor?" He smiled brightly. Tori's nose wrinkled and her she leaned away from him.

Robbie swept his hand through the air and Jade watched Tori's eyes snap onto him. "She's probably going to a singing or dancing college. Juilliard's her school."

Tori's fingers closed on her knees, her knuckles looking white as bone. Her distress wasn't as confusing as it seemed, since Jade could understand the friends were unintentionally 'choosing' Tori's college.

"Maybe I want to take a year off," Tori replied with a flat, monotonous tone. It startled Jade, but the others didn't appear to react. "Maybe you guys don't know what I want; or you think you know, but you don't. Making my predictions, but you don't know me. I know me." The others blinked and Jade jerked her head back.

She was mildly offended, but it was hard to be truly offended when she understood where Tori was coming from. Even still, this was the first time Tori voiced any displeasure with their actions.

For an odd reason, the Fray's song Save a Life came to her mind when she looked at Tori tonight. "Is something wrong?" Jade inquired. Tori smiled politely, staring through her as though she were transparent. On a normal night, she would be more self-centered, but tonight she was actually trying to start being a better friend.

The only problem was that the others didn't appear to want to change their ways; or if they thought their ways were wrong at all they didn't notice. Half the time, she didn't think even she acted poorly. In the last few months she'd been trying to work on herself.

Tori bit her lip and bowed her head. "I guess." Jade leaned forward and watched her closely. The girl's demeanor appeared to change as the muscles in her arms tensed up and her body began to shake. "No." Tori exhaled and raised her head. "There are things you don't know about me, about my family. Things I haven't said because I don't know how, I'm not even sure I can trust that you won't judge."

Jade started to speak, wanting to question why Tori thought they would judge her, but was interrupted by Andre. "Why can't you trust us?" He put his hand to his chest and jerked backwards. "We've been friends how long and you can't trust us?" Tori's lips flattened and she narrowed her eyes.

An explosion was coming and she had no idea how to diffuse it.

In the background somewhere, Jade heard someone singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. At first, she thought it might be Trina, but brushed it aside because she still didn't believe Trina had singing capability.

The others turned around, looking at the stairwell. Tori followed them with her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Trina sometimes sings when she takes a shower and gets out to brush her hair." Jade raised an eyebrow. Andre shook his head and jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"Can't be Trina, that's actually not terrible singing. I mean that's good for like karaoke, lord knows Trina can't even hold a tune."

"It's not like she tries to sing." Tori's statement snapped like a coiled snake striking out in defense. "She doesn't even like to. That stupid school forced her to get on the stage and perform, so she did shitty performances hoping they'd put her up less." The others laughed, filled with disbelief. Jade remained silent, wondering if the statement were true.

While she sat, she observed the anger flashing through Tori's eyes. There was a hint of pain in them as well. Jade couldn't probe for information with the others there, so she'd have to wait.

She didn't care for Trina, much like the others, but this was the first time Tori appeared to defend her sister at all-much less care about the girl. The others started to comment, some statements making fun of Trina, but Jade ignored them and looked around to observe some things around the house that she felt like she'd not taken the opportunity to notice before.

There were ample photographs of the family on the walls and the tables around the living room, but the family pictures seemed to be standard Walmart portraits while pictures of the two sisters showed them to be fairly close. Her breath caught in her throat and she pondered what this could possibly mean.

She looked towards the study to see David staring out the door with a cold and bitter look in his eyes. She gasped out and her hand moved up towards her throat. When their eyes connected, he turned away. The coldness unnerved her, and deep down she couldn't help but to fear the reason for such animosity.

"Listen." Tori folded her arms across her chest and pulled the corner of her lip into her cheek, forming a dimple around it. "You guys…" She hesitated, her words appearing to be choked. "You guys don't understand. It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I know how judgmental you are. My parents know, Trina knows, of course." Jade rolled her eyes and sighed. "It's not good."

"So?" Robbie shrugged. "Who cares what they think? They're crazy, anyway." Tori scowled at him and her muscles tensed further. "Besides all that, what's got you like this?"

"You just don't get it." Tori swept her right hand out, snapping her fingers. "Trina's boyfriend's coming home." Jade's eyebrows shot up and she stifled a disbelieving chuckle. The others were quick to question, each wondering how Trina could have possibly gotten a boyfriend.

Tori, appearing even more annoyed, let out a subtle growl in response to them. "He's in the Marines. He's been stationed elsewhere for a few months now." Tori straightened her posture, arching her shoulders and sliding her brown ponytail over her shoulder. Jade could see the pride glistening in her eyes. "He's even got Trina wanting to enlist."

Her heart rose and swelled with pride. She came from a military family too and had a great deal of respect for those who were soldiers. Her father wasn't a soldier, though; it had been her mother and her maternal grandparents.

As amazed as she was, she was shocked to hear Trina not only had a boyfriend, but a military man. "You're not kidding?" Jade flashed a grin and leaned forward. "Trina's dating a Marine?" The others started to laugh and the pride on Tori's face instantly fell to annoyance.

"That can't be possible." Robbie waved his hand through the air, chortling loudly. "Trina hasn't been able to land or keep a normal guy, there's no fucking way a Marine would have the patience for her."

Jade blinked as she listened to the words, then turned her head to Beck. Beck had been silent for much of the conversation, and even now appeared very solemn. His eyes were moving from person to person, his mouth was closed and his body relaxed. When he looked at her, his eyebrows bounced and the corner of his lip slid into his cheek as though he were feeling what she was.

The laughter and the words she heard were not new to her; but the feeling of discontent and irritation at them was. She never thought about how it would feel to hear them.

"I'm not lying." Tori's teeth were clenched and her voice was beginning to rise. "Trina's dating a Marine. He was stationed overseas for a little over a year and he's coming home. Just ask her!"

"We'd take your word for it, but honestly how could anyone want to be with that?" Jade wrinkled her nose and tilted her head as Robbie's words penetrated her skull. Her heart was sinking further and the temperature in the room seemed only to grow hotter as sweat formed at her collar.

Tori's glare darkened, her fingers gripping her clothing more and her face turning red. "What do you mean 'that'?"

"You know," Andre replied, "That thing that lives in your house." He chuckled nervously and Jade raised her hand over her eyes. Peering through her fingers, she looked to Cat. The redhead was fumbling with her large pink purse, focusing on the contents; but every now and then her eyes would dart in and out of the conversation.

"Jade," Beck whispered, "What's on your mind?"

"I don't know," she answered back in the same tone. Something didn't feel right; it was like they've had the same conversation a million times before and she was seeing it for the very first time. "Do you feel like this is a little bit…uncomfortable?" He shrugged, his hand moving over his chin and his brooding eyes falling onto his two lifelong friends.

"This is nothing new. Everyone's always insulting Tori's sister and parents."

"I know. So why does this feel weird?"

"Because Tori's played along in the past, so everyone just does it because they think it's funny and there's no harm. This is the first time that it looks like it's genuinely bothering Tori…Andre and Robbie aren't seeing that…"

"Has it always bothered her?"

"I think so, but you've never noticed either."

She looked away, contemplating his words. She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. In the past, she'd always considered Tori a threat to her relationship with him and therefore reacted out of jealousy and distaste for the girl; it would have been impossible for a genuine friendship to start because she'd been so resistant.

Now, as she was growing out of that, she was beginning to pay more attention to the feelings of her friends; and that included Tori.

"Why did you never speak up, Beck? Why did you never say anything if you knew it was offending her?"

"Because she never said anything? Because if I said something, you would have thought it meant something that it didn't. Because it would have been hypocritical, I've done some bad shit too."

"Do you think Trina's capable of having a boyfriend? A soldier, no less?"

"Of course she's capable of finding and keeping someone who cares about her…if you find the right person, you're gold. Look at you." Jade blushed and turned her head away, refocusing her gaze on the conversation.

Tori was trembling, shaking like a volcano ready to explode. Cat was still doing her best to ignore the situation, which left Robbie and Andre stupidly adding fuel to the fire.

"What's the problem?" Andre asked with a nervous chuckle. He ran his hand behind his head and cleared his throat. "I mean, you never had any issue before. Your family's crazy, you say it all the time." Tori rolled her eyes.

"That doesn't mean I believe it all the time."

"Well it's true, isn't it? Your dad's a negligent asshole, your mom's having an affair and your sister's an attention whore." Jade's eyes widened and almost instantly, Tori's entire body froze. An icy chill swept through the air as the girl's veins started to bulge from her neck and forehead.

Feeling Beck lean in, Jade kept her eyes on Tori while listening to his whisper. "Her dad's a homicide detective always on call. The situation with Detective Malone and Mrs. Vega's a little complicated, but I'm almost certain that's not an affair, and I think it's time to leave."

"Did you just call my sister a whore?" Andre chuckled nervously and raised his hands up.

"No! Not like that, I mean, she's-"

"I'm done." Tori stood slowly, her nostrils flaring. Her eyes looked ready to kill the next thing that moved, or in this case, spoke. "I've been told countless times." Tori breathed heavily, her chest heaving and her fists clenched so tight that they might start bleeding. "But I've always come to your defense; hell Trina hates you guys and she comes to your defense!"

"What?"

"But they're right. You're not friends. You don't care about me, you don't care about my family." Andre started to pale and stumble over his words as Tori extended her arm to the door. "Get out. Get the fuck out of my house."

Somehow, she was remaining perfectly calm, and that scared Jade. She knew anger well enough to understand the difference between calmness and shouting; and shouting was the one that she preferred. A calm anger was the worst kind of anger.

"We're your friends." Robbie stood up and furrowed his brow, but grimaced when Tori's icy glare moved onto him. "I-I mean we care about you." He chuckled nervously and shrugged. "I mean maybe we think your family's a bit crazy and stuff, but we care." Beck slapped his forehead and Jade dropped her head.

"No. No you don't care about me. You don't respect my family, you never say anything good about them and you treat them like shit." Tori moved her hand to her chest and leaned forward. "Do you think I don't know what you guys do? Do you think I don't see it?" Tori snapped her finger to Beck. "Don't think I don't know about that puppet game you guys did when you lied to my father while alone with my sister!"

Beck lowered his hand and Jade opened her mouth, but only stunned air entered. She hadn't known much about that evening; only that Beck took Andre and Robbie to get Trina to stop telling people that he was into her.

"You lied to her dad?" Her whisper was hurried and rushed. "Why would you have to lie to him? What were you guys doing to Trina?"

"Nothing I'm proud of," he answered, "At the time sure. Things were getting a little intense, I mean we even had to pull her out of the made up fray for a bit."

"You put your hands on her? I mean seriously, I get it, but you actually physically touched her? Alone in the house, three men, what if she said-"

"I know, I know, Mr. Vega confronted us about it when he looked on the camera." Jade glanced at the ceiling, noticing a small and round lens in the corner of the room. She'd never noticed it before, and was horrified to think of all the things that could have been captured on it. "We only lied to him because we didn't want him to know what we were doing-which yes, already sounds bad. He said he was horrified that we lied to him and said if we ever touched his daughter again-"

"I want you guys out," Tori's shouted at the top of her lungs. It ripped Beck and Jade from their conversation, refocusing their attention on the group. Andre and Cat were standing up now, and Cat appeared halfway to the door. "And don't think you're so innocent, Robbie." Tori's breath was almost as poisonous as the venom in her eyes. "My stepdad continued to investigate that stage incident, the school has cameras too you know."

Robbie swallowed heavily and his eyes grew large. "W-What?" Jade pursed her lips and Beck rose from the couch with a loud grunt. "You have a stepdad?"

"Yeah. Mom and dad got divorced a couple years ago, she just stays with us when Gary gets called away. He's in the military too."

"I didn't know that."

"You'd know that and more if you actually cared, but whenever we're all together, you guys only want to talk about yourself or about Hollywood Arts." Tori threw her hands up. "Any talk about me usually ends up with my family being routinely insulted!"

"You're not so innocent," Cat remarked. The redhead spun around and pointed at Tori. "You say a lot of shit about them too, so the guys only think it's normal." Jade moved her fingertips to her forehead and groaned while Beck tried to usher Andre and Robbie towards the door.

Tori's voice rose more, saliva dripping from her lips. "Forgive me for not having a fucking backbone then, thinking the only way to please you guys was to laugh and join in whenever you guys made fun of my family. I wanted friends and thought if I defended my sister or parents to you, that you'd just up and abandon me!"

"Is that how you think about us, Tori? Seriously!" Cat's voice began to rise to match Tori's. Jade jumped from the couch and began moving for Cat, not wanting the girl to make the situation worse. "What kind of friends do you think we are?"

"Self-centered assholes that don't care about anybody but yourselves. I mean, come on, you attack anyone that doesn't think the same way you do." Tori stepped forward, snapping her fingers and jerking her arm outwards. "Just the other day you guys laughed at Sinjin for saying he didn't want to go into some kind of art or drama thing. It's like the rest of Hollywood Arts, just like Trina says, everyone there only cares about acting and singing, and thinks they're better than everyone that doesn't."

"We're not like that."

"Oh yeah? I sure don't know that. My family doesn't think so either. What if I wanted to go into some science field?" Cat furrowed her brow and Andre shook his head.

"Why would you want to do that?" Andre inquired. Jade closed her eyes and took a deep, slow breath. "I mean, you'd probably stand more of a chance of getting something in the arts field."

"That's exactly my point. It's my decision, not yours."

"Tori, just tell us what's going on!"

"What's going on?" Tori put her hands to her hips and followed Beck and Jade as they rushed to guide their friends towards the front door. "What's going on is my entire family doesn't believe you guys give a shit about me or about my family. What's going on is I think they're right."

"They're wrong."

"Yeah, well I guess you'd have to prove that to me." Once everyone was out the door, Jade turned around to see Tori appearing to tower above them in the doorway. Her hand gripped the front door firmly and her expression was tense with rage. "You just insulted my sister and her boyfriend a few minutes ago for that matter. If you can't respect my sister, can't respect my parents, then you can't respect me. If you say you care about me or my family, then fucking prove it…and until you can prove it, stay the hell out of our house!"

Without a further word, Tori slammed the door. Jade felt a rush of wind roll over her, practically pushing her to the ground. She exhaled sharply and her entire body started to relax to the point she felt ready to collapse.

"Okay," she said with a breathy tone, "Let's give her some time to cool off." She turned to the others, shaking her head at them. She was disappointed and numb, unsure how to process everything that just happened. "We should probably talk about what just happened here…"

"It's not true," Andre muttered, "What she said. We care. It's just…" He ran his hand over his neck and turned to the side. "What the hell happened in there? Does she hate us?"

"I don't think that's it, but I think we need to show her that we care about what she wants. Her family too." She crossed her arms and bowed her head. As she considered the things Tori said, she realized that her parents-and possibly even Trina-may have had something to do with everything.

Then there was what Tori said about liking science, and how they didn't know everything about her. "She's afraid we won't accept her, it seems. If there's things she hasn't told us out of fear of that, then maybe there is something in how we're acting around her that's making her feel that way."

"How can we show her if she doesn't give us a chance?"

"Don't worry. I'll talk to her and see what's going on…" She smiled politely and the others nodded. Each of them looked dejected and worried, fearful of losing a good friend.

The next day Jade drove to the Vega home, ready to talk to Tori about what happened and hoped that she calmed down. Her heart was racing and her mind filled with doubts. There was no guarantee Tori would even want to talk, much less talk to her; but she had to try.

"Okay. Keep calm and don't get defensive." She parked alongside the curb and blew out several breaths of air. "Exercise patience, calmness and understanding. Don't make accusations, don't make fun of anyone or make generalizations."

As of late, she'd been trying to have a better relationship with her father. He got her to seek out counseling, and she found the therapy to be both helpful and amazing.

Jade opened the door and stepped outside. She looked to the house and furrowed her brow at the wide-open front door. "What the…" She closed the car door gently and walked around the hood, sliding her fingertips along the sleek black car.

The driveway and garage had the family's three vehicles parked in place; Holly's SUV, David's truck, and the sisters' red convertible.

Approaching the house, Jade heard noise coming from the television and assumed the family was airing out their house. The air was crisp and warm, so it wasn't a farfetched assumption.

"Hey guys?" She knocked first no the door frame before taking a step in the house. When she looked in, she saw that it was empty. Much more than that, nothing looked right, and it was a sight that took her breath.

Seeing the overturned kitchen and coffee table paralyzed her body, and seeing holes in the couch brought a heavy sensation in her chest. She looked down to her foot and carefully pulled it away, fearing that she might be stumbling upon a crime scene.

"It can't be." She ignored her judgement and returned her foot to the floor; but carefully. With each trembling step, she examined the area with her eyes.

The carpet was torn in multiple places, different sized holes looked to be punched in the walls. Family portraits were either crooked or had fallen to the ground. "Hello? Is anyone home?" She waited with baited breath, but her only answer came from the eerie laugh track on the television.

Clear as it was to her, a fight had taken place. "Tori? Trina? Mr. and Ms. Vega?" David's study room was open. Jade pushed her hands into her pockets and stepped in. Her eyes travelled to the desk and froze on a pool of reddish liquid. "Oh shit. No, no, no…"

Realizing quickly what it was, Jade gasped out and ran from the study, screaming for the family at the top of her lungs. She bolted up the stairs, only to find the rooms devoid of life.

Hurrying back, Jade noticed the busted piano and then the broken glass door leading into the backyard.

Whatever happened, the family was gone. The first thing she did was call the police, knowing she'd have to wait for them to show up so she could give a statement. The next thing she had to do was going to be harder; calling the friends and letting them know the horror she'd just stumbled onto.

Here we are at the beginning. There's some adventure to be found in the mystery; the friends are going to need some help but let's see how what they can do. What's to come, and who might be responsible for this? Also, we'll have to see what led to Tori's sudden outburst. There's a lot going on within the Vega family, a lot that there is to discover. Did the family have a chance to fight off their attackers? It looks like they could have, and what does the blood found in David's study suggest? Who could have something against the family? So many questions, with answers to come.