Hello! I know I already have a story going so I shouldn't be doing another. But in October I had tonnes of ideas and was like, 'No, I have to do one story at a time.' I know now can't remember those stories for the life of me! So here is a new story. It's set 15 years after the FAYZ ended. Enjoy!
Caine unlocked the front door; for once he was home before Diana. He usually worked late, he had to as he was fast becoming one of Los Angeles' top lawyers. Today he had been in court and had gotten his client off, as usual. His boss had let him go home at three in the afternoon as a 'reward'. Nothing compared to the five-figure 'reward' that the firm was going to get because of Caine's hard work. Despite how much Caine had to work he still loved his job, but who wouldn't love doing what they were good at and getting paid VERY well for it? He didn't care if it meant people who were guilty didn't get sent to prison. As he said to people who questioned his morals, isn't everyone guilty of something so who can judge anyone else?
Caine decided to get his mind of work he would spend his rare free afternoon watching TV with a nice cold beer. As he was walking past the answer machine he saw that he had a message so he let it play as he sorted himself out with some snack:
"Hey Caine, this your brother Sam, long time no see. I need to talk to you about something so call me back when you get this, bye."
Caine groaned, he hadn't spoken to Sam in two years and he had no desire to change that. They were both the same age, being twins, but their lives were completely different; Sam was living in a little suburb with a wife and two kids. They were even one of those families that sent idiotic Christmas cards. Caine and Diana had gotten a card with the four of them wearing goofy Christmas jumpers and their dog had antlers on. Inside was a message asking them to Christmas Day dinner if they "had nothing else planned". This made Caine and Diana quickly make plans and they had booked spending Christmas in Hawaii within ten minutes of the card arriving.
Although, what Caine would have said was the main difference between him and Sam was quickly changing. Because in about three months Caine was going to be a dad! Both him and Diana had been completely shocked. Neither wanted kids, especially after Gaia, the devil-child. Although Diana decided that it would have been wrong to get rid of it and Caine had begrudgingly agreed. But he had made it pretty clear that it didn't mean that he was ready for marriage, he was perfectly happy to 'live in sin.'
Caine decided that he wouldn't bother replying to Sam's message and instead relaxed. His bliss was shattered when Diana arrived home. "You better have spent the afternoon vacuuming!" Diana yelled as she walked in the door. Usually she had to do all the housework, even though Caine was the one who made the mess. On the rare occasions that he cooked the kitchen always looked like a bomb had went off in it afterwards. One time he had managed to get pasta stuck to the fridge door! And Diana had been the one left to scrape it off, of course. Diana walked into the living room and saw her lazy lump of a boyfriend lounging on the sofa in front of the TV. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked with eyes that were daring Caine to say yes. "I've spent the past five days working until nine or ten at night. I deserve some time to relax." Diana rolled her eyes, "Well, don't get too comfortable, we've got classes tonight."
"Why?" Caine protested, "Why do we have to go to those stupid classes?" Diana was not in the mood for Caine's whining. "Because," she explained, "as new parents we need to learn how to look after the baby." "Why then do we have about a hundred books all on how to look after the baby?" Caine questioned, thinking that Diana wouldn't have an answer. He was wrong. "We aslo need to befriend people in the same situations as us. So that we will have support network when the baby is born." Caine laughed at her, "Just what you need when you're sleep deprived with a crying baby and no clue what to do, friends who are also sleep deprived with crying babies and no clue what to do. Blind leading the blind." All Diana could do to reply was to hit Caine with a pillow and walk away.
Diana hated those classes herself, but it was the normal thing to do. And after a year stuck in the FAYZ she longed for normality. She had tried so hard when it had all ended to be a normal teenager again, they all tried. Yet at school they had been branded as 'freaks', 'demon' and worst of all 'murderers'. None of the FAYZ survivors were convicted, as after six months the Supreme Court decided that the FAYZ was outside the jurisdiction of the US government so they had no right or responsibility to prosecute. Although many people disagreed with this and showed it by sending hate mail or yelling abuse at them in the street. As well as this every so often there had news reports about parents whose children died during the FAYZ, which brought back painful memories. Thankfully by college people and the media had moved on, there had been other things like earthquakes and hurricanes to get ratings from. Diana was just thankful that people stopped recognising her from news reports on the FAYZ. She had spent four years being asked, "Were you the one who had the devil kid?" at least once a month.
This had all caused Diana to long to stay out of the limelight so much that she had a pretty ordinary office job. Sadly Caine hadn't liked it when the FAYZ became 'old news'. So he was now getting his kicks from the attention he got from his job. Last year he was in a newspaper for winning a high-profile case and he actually framed it and put it up in their hallway. Plus it felt to Diana that Caine was doing his best to make sure that they weren't going to have a 'normal' family life, as he was adamant that he wasn't going to propose. Diana had never been the type of girl who wanted to get married. Who would with an example like the one her parents had set in their car-crash of a marriage? But now that she was pregnant it felt like it was the right thing to do. And it seemed like everyone else thought the same. Especially those wannabe 'Yummy Mummies' at those classes who asked her, "You and Caine have been together for fifteen years and having a baby. So why aren't you married?" Diana just tried to shake it off and tell those women that neither her nor Caine saw any reason to get married. Although Caine made them slightly more bearable mocking them all when they got home.
Astrid was in her kitchen making dinner. Well that's what she was trying to do but was being stopped by her daughter Athena demanding her attention. Athena was four years old and to her everyday at nursery was an adventure. "… And then me and Mia did finger painting… and then it was lunchtime and I ate all my carrot sticks… and then we got to go outside and I went on the slide and I slid ALL the way down…" Astrid knew that she should be overjoyed that her little girl was so excited about school but between a full time job, housework and looking after two young children she was exhausted. Plus the other toddler was currently trying to climb up Astrid's trousers leg. Astrid picked up Thomas and placed him in his high chair and gave him his blocks. He then gave the typical response of a two year old by throwing them to the ground.
"Astrid, I'm home." Astrid looked to the clock, 6o'clock as usual. "Hey," Sam said as he walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek. "Daddy, Daddy!" Athena squealed until Sam picked her up over his head as he always did. "Athena, why don't you go in to the living-room and play with some of your toys?" Astrid suggested. "Why?" she asked, a question that she asked Astrid at least a hundred times a day." "I want to talk to Daddy." Athena made puppy dog eyes up at Astrid. "I want to talk to Daddy too!" Astrid and Sam looked at each other and laughed. "Don't worry sweetie," Sam said as he knelt down, "I'll talk to you after, promise." Athena was finally satisfied and ran to her toys.
Sam bent down and picked up Thomas' blocks, "What do you want to talk about?" Astrid set down a chopping board with broccoli on it in front of Sam, making it clear what she wanted him to do with it. "Did you call him?" Astrid asked him as he tried to avoid cutting his fingers off. "Yeah but I only got the answer machine. Oh well, I tried. What's for dinner tonight?" Astrid could always tell when Sam was hiding something form her. "When did you call?" The response of "Um…" confirmed Astrid's suspicions. She turned around and watched her husband, waiting for an answer. Sam looked up and sighed, "I called about ten-ish." "What?" Astrid exclaimed. "Why did you think that you would get them at that time during the week? They have full time jobs. Unless you were deliberately trying to not get them and hoped they wouldn't answer back. You weren't doing that, were you?"
Sam looked guiltily back down at the broccoli. He had been busted and he knew it. "I don't see why you want this. Remember the last time we saw them. Why would you want a repeat of that?" Astrid sighed, she remembered very well how embarrassing it was the scene of Sam, Caine and Connie having an explosive argument in front of Astrid's friends and family. Yet she knew that was no reason not to build bridges. "I just thought that it would be nice for your mum if on her birthday she could see her son that she hasn't seen in years, and all thanks to her other son. Imagine how it would feel not having any contact with one of our children." Astrid knew that this would clinch the discussion for and Sam gave her the look that she was right.
She grabbed the phone and set it in Sam's hand. "But, why do I have to be the one to call him?" Astrid couldn't help but put her head in her hands out of exasperation. "He's your brother." "Yes," Sam agreed, "but if when I talk to him we might get into a fight, you know the way he is. There is a much better chance of them coming if you talk to him. You're so much more cool headed and better at dealing with him." Astrid contemplated this and was disappointed to realise that Sam was right. "Fine," she said reluctantly as she snatched the phone away from Sam. "Wait," Sam stopped her, "you know what's going to happen, don't you? There's going to be a fight and everyone's going to hate each other, like always." Astrid looked down at the phone. "Yes, but there's usually half an hour where everyone has a good time. And then Caine say something spiteful." "So are we going to kick him out after half an hour?" Both Sam and Astrid laughed at this, but stopped as Astrid dialled the number.
Caine couldn't believe that he was being guilt tripped into making the dinner by Diana. No one could make him do what he didn't want to, apart from her. "Make sure the water's completely boiled before you add the rice?" Diana called from the sofa. "I know that, I'm not an idiot!" Caine yelled back. The phone began to ring. "Can you get that?" Caine asked. "There's a phone in the kitchen, you answer it?" Diana replied. "Fine, it's not as if I'm doing anything, am I?" Caine picked up the phone. "Hello," he answered.
"Hello Caine, this is Astrid Ellison-Temple, your sister-in-law." Caine had to fight the urge to put the phone down right there and then. Then he remembered how much fun it was to mess with Astrid. "Thanks for clearing that up. I was thinking –'Which of the many Astrid Ellison-Temple that I know is this?' So why are you calling me?" Caine could hear Astrid sighing down the phone before she replied. "You know it's your mum's birthday-" "Which mum?" Caine asked innocently. "What?" Astrid said rather calmly. "Which mum are you talking about?" Caine explained. "The one who gave me up when I was a baby, or the one who gave me up when I was fifteen?" "The one who gave birth to you, cared for you after the FAYZ and put you through college, obviously." Astrid was using that voice of hers which was filled with patronisation.
Diana walked into the kitchen with a scowl on her face directed at Caine. "Hold on," Caine said to Astrid. "What?" he asked Diana. "I can hear you giving your life story over the phone to who I presume is Astrid. What does she want?" Caine rolled his eyes, "I was just about to find out but then, enter Diana." Diana held out her hand, "Give the phone to me." "Why?" Caine argued. "Astrid's a good person, she doesn't deserve crap from you." Caine handed the phone over.
"Hey Astrid, this is Diana rescuing you from everyone's favourite sociopath." Diana looked over and saw Caine's reaction to being insulted was waving his arms in the air. "What's up?" Diana asked. "It's Connie's birthday on Saturday and she's coming round to ours for dinner that day." "Sounds lovely," Diana lied. Just the sound of a nice quiet family dinner bored her. What she wondered was if Astrid was just calling to tell them to get her a present. Last year Diana had to organise Connie's gift from Caine and all Caine did was sign the card, 'From your least favourite son, Caine'. "And," Astrid continued, "we would love it if you and Caine joined us." "Excuse me?" Diana couldn't believe this. The last time Caine and Sam had been in the same room there had been a colossal argument. Why on Earth would Astrid want a repeat of this?
"Are you sure this would be a good idea?" Diana asked. To her surprise Astrid laughed. "They are grown men. They have to learn to get on someday. Plus I'm sure Connie will love seeing the pair of them together. Well, call me back after you've talked to Caine about it. Diana already knew how that conversation would go. The only way that Caine would go was if he was given no choice. "No, it's fine. We're coming." "Great," Astrid gushed, "come at five on Saturday. We can't wait to see you." "Can't wait," Diana ended the phone call.
Diana walked back into the kitchen. "Well," Caine asked, "what did she want?" Diana smirked at him. "We're going to their house for dinner next Saturday." Diana saw Caine's mouth fall wide open.