Family Ties
By Risty Maskell
(PG-13)
Disclaimer:
I own none of the Margera clan. This story was written purely for the entertainment of others and there was no copyright infringement intended. If any of the Margeras or their friends read this, I meant no disrespect. I own Charlie.
Author's Note:
This story is completely AU. It has been bouncing around in my head for days, after I had a CKY and Viva La Bam Marathon.
Chapter One
::~1987~::
"But Mommy, don't go! Please!" Big blue eyes filled with tears as the little girl gripped the woman's hand tightly, trying to prevent her from going out the door. "I be good! Promise!"
"Let me go!" The woman wrenched her hand angrily out of the toddler's grip and glared at the bedraggled mop of curly blonde hair that framed such a sweet little face. "I am not your mother. Go away!" She stormed out the front door, slamming it behind her. Three seconds was all it took for the toddler to throw herself on the ground, screaming for the woman who had just left her there at the foster home.
"Oh, sweetheart." A kind faced woman crouched down next to the howling child and tried her best to comfort her. "Charlene… it's okay. We'll look after you."
"I want my Mommy!" The little girl wailed.
"I know, honey. But your Mommy can't be here. You live here now." The young woman picked the sniffling child up and cradled her in her lap. "Come on, dry those tears."
Charlene sniffled, rubbing grubby fists to her eyes. "Why Mommy leave?" She whispered sorrowfully.
"Well…" The woman bit her lip. How could you tell a three year old that her mother didn't want the responsibility of looking after her anymore? "She had some things to do, honey. She's a very busy lady."
"No fair." Charlene snuggled close to the woman for a cuddle. She smelled good… like cookies and soap and flowers. "What your name?"
"Kate." The woman smiled. "Come on, shall we go and see if some of the other kids want to play?"
"But what about my Mommy?" Charlene looked toward the door expectantly, as if Moira St Steven would walk through the door again and take her away.
"I'll keep an eye out for her." Kate smiled. "Hey, do you have a nickname?"
"My name's not Nick. It's Charlene." The little girl drew her eyes away from the door and looked up at the lady. Kate laughed a little.
"No, honey. A nickname. Can I call you Charlie?"
Charlene seemed to think about it for a few moments. "Okay." She said finally.
"Okay, Charlie. Let's go play with some toys, okay?"
Charlie sighed, resigned to the fact that she'd have to play with toys until her Mommy came back. But there was that pretty cool swing set outside. Maybe she'd be allowed on that.
Time passed and every day, Charlie would get up and sit at the window to look down the street to see if her Mommy was coming back. It broke Kate's heart to watch her go through this ritual every day, because she knew that Moira wasn't coming back. They rarely every came back.
She tried her best to coax Charlie out of her shell. She suffered through the tantrums, she never yelled at the child. She prayed every night that some kind family would come and give her the love and family she deserved. But as the days and weeks passed, and the warmer weather descended on the city, her prayers stayed unanswered. Slowly, Charlie's fuzzy memories of her mother lapsed into the shadows.
Then came the day that all the children in the house looked forward to once a month: Adoption Day. Charlie awoke to do her usual ritual of getting dressed and coming downstairs to look out the bay window, to find Kate standing at the foot of her bed, holding up a lovely blue dress.
"What's that for?" the little girl asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes free of sleep. Kate smiled.
"It's for you, sweetie. You want to look nice for the people who are coming today, don't you?"
"I don't wanna be 'dopted." Charlie pouted. "I wanna stay here with you!"
"I know, sweetie… but there are lots of other kids who need my help too."
"I don't care!" Charlie whined. "I wanna stay with Kate!" She flung herself back on her pillow and buried her head under it. Kate sighed. She'd gone through this far too many times.
"Charlene Rose. Stop being such a little baby." She said, a harder tone in her voice. "All these nice people have come a long way to see you and you're going to look nice for them."
"She's always a little baby." One of the other girls, Mandy-Sue, said. "She's just a big crybaby!"
"Am not!" Charlie sat up and glared at the older girl.
"Are too!" Mandy-Sue smirked. "Crybaby! Crybaby! Crybaby!"
With a hysterical scream, Charlie launched off the bed and onto Mandy-Sue's bed, pulling at her fair hair while the older girl screeched in anger and pain, punching at the littler girl.
"Enough!" Kate yelled, pulling Charlie off of Mandy-Sue. "Mandy-Sue. I expected a lot more from you, young lady. And Charlie, will you please get into your dress. Mrs Smith is downstairs, waiting for you all to be ready so we can have breakfast."
Mandy-Sue stuck her tongue out at Charlie behind Kate's back. Charlie reciprocated until Kate had left the room to go and check on the boys.
"Dork." Mandy-Sue said under her breath.
"Egg Face." Charlie retaliated. "Dog breath."
"Stop it! Just stop it!" Ellie, the oldest girl in the dorm was fed up. "You'd think you two were a married couple, the way you carry on."
"She started it." Mandy-Sue glared at Charlie.
"I don't care who started it. Just get dressed all of you and go down to breakfast!" Mrs Smith had heard the last comment as she entered the dorm. "Mandy-Sue and Charlene, you two can sit on the naughty step until you've learned to be civil to each other."
"But…"
"But…"
"No buts! Now, downstairs, the lot of you." Mrs Smith stood in the doorway as the girls trooped dutifully past, down to the kitchen.
"I dunno, April. Are you sure we need another kid? I mean, aren't Jess and Bam enough for one household?"
"Oh, Phil. You were all for the idea of having a little girl, now come on."
"All right, but Bam's not gonna like having a little sister, I can almost guarantee it. It'll take all the attention offa him."
"He'll learn to live with it." April said, getting out of the car as they pulled up outside Tabitha Smith's Home For Children. Standing on the step, she rang the doorbell. A woman with her greying brown hair pulled into a braid answered the door. "Hi, I'm April Margera. And this is my husband, Phil."
"Lovely to meet you, Mr and Mrs Margera." Mrs Smith smiled. "I must say, I was glad when I got your phone call."
"Well, thank you for telling us about today."
"Of course, please come in." Mrs Smith opened the door wider and let the couple in. "You're a little early, most other families won't be here for another half hour, I don't think."
"We misinterpreted traffic conditions." Phil said with a shrug. "Comin' from West Chester, the road to Atlantic City is usually really busy this time of day."
"Ah, yes." Mrs Smith smiled. "I know the road. Well, come on in and meet the girls. It was a girl you were looking for, wasn't it?"
"Yes." April nodded. "Preferably a younger girl so she can grow up and into our family."
"Lovely. Kate! Would you please introduce the Margeras to some of our younger girls?"
"Yes, Mrs Smith." Kate came forward and smiled at the couple in front of her. "They're in the living room at the moment; Ellie's reading the younger ones a story."
April and Phil followed the young woman into the living room to find Ellie reading Stuart Little to the younger girls. April's heart melted at the sight of so many angelic faces turned to the older girl in complete rapture. Phil had to smile at the sight, until Ellie finished the chapter and looked up.
"Excuse me, Ellie, but these are the Margeras." Kate smiled at the girl. "They're going to talk with some of the girls." Ellie nodded and smiled shyly at the couple, who returned her smile and looked over the sea of faces. April headed to one little girl.
"What's your name, sweetie?" She asked.
"Nicola." The little girl said, straightening her bow in her hair. "I'm seven."
"Are you, now?" April said with a smile. "Are you enjoying the story?"
"I've heard it before." Nicola shrugged. "It's okay, I guess. But I don't like mouses."
"Oh, that's a shame." April smiled and her gaze shifted to the next little girl. "And what's your name?"
"Mouse." The little girl said cheekily. "Nicola doesn't like me either." Phil had to hide a smirk. That one reminded him of Bam. His gaze shifted to two little girls on a step, away from the other children. He went over to them and sat in a chair next to them.
"Hi." He said quietly. The younger girl looked up, her blonde curls framing an angelic face.
"Hi." She said, shyly.
"I'm Mandy-Sue." Said the older one, pushing into the conversation. "I'm five and a half."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Mandy-Sue." Phil smiled, his gaze going back to the blonde. "And what's your name?"
"Charlie."
"Well, hey Charlie. I'm Phil."
"I'm sorry, Mr Margera." Kate came over with an apologetic smile, April behind her. "These two children are in Time Out. They're not really supposed to be spoken to."
"Why are they in Time Out?" April asked. "They look like such sweet little girls."
"Mandy-Sue called me a crybaby and I pulled her hair." Charlie said quietly.
"Oh, well that wasn't very nice." April said. "I'm sure you're sorry, though?"
"I guess so." Charlie shrugged. April smiled. She exchanged a glance with Phil who nodded with a smile. April turned to Kate with raised eyebrows. Kate knew that look well and practically beamed.
"I'll go and talk to Mrs Smith. Mandy-Sue, you can go and help Ellie greet the other families."
"But…"
"Now, Mandy-Sue."
The little girl walked off to the entrance hall, grumbling. Kate watched her go with a sigh and went to find Mrs Smith. April crouched down next to Charlie and smiled.
"Charlie, huh? Is that short for something?"
"Uh-huh… Charlene Rose." Charlie puffed her chest out proudly, obviously pleased she remembered her middle name as well as her first name. April smiled.
"Well, Charlie-Rose… do you want to come and live with me and Phil?"
Charlie's lower lip trembled slightly. "Will you leave me somewhere like my Mommy did?"
April was shocked. Who could leave such a sweet little girl like this? "Oh, no. We'll take really good care of you, honey." She smiled and held out her hand. Charlie looked at it for some time, looking back up at April and Phil.
"Will there be other kids I can play with?"
"We have two boys. Jesse and Bam." April said wit ha reassuring smile. "They're eleven and seven."
Charlie crinkled her nose. "Bam? Like the Flintstones?"
Phil laughed. "Kind of. His Pop-Pop called him Bam because he likes running into walls."
"He's silly."
"He can be." April agreed. "So what do you say? Think you can knock some sense into my two boys?"
Charlie looked down at her lap again. "What if my Mommy comes looking for me here?"
"We'll tell her where you are." Kate said reassuringly. "Come on, Charlie… you'll have great fun."
"And you can visit here too." April said with a smile. That seemed to seal the deal with Charlie. She looked up and smiled.
"Okay." She nodded and hopped off the step. "Can I go put my jeans on now?" She looked up at Kate for confirmation. Both April and Phil laughed.
"It's up to April and Phil." Kate smiled. April nodded at Charlie who ran up the stairs to get out of her dress. "Mrs Smith has gotten all the paperwork ready for you to sign." Kate said. "I'll take you to her office and then I'll go and help Charlie pack."