Chapter 1:
Daniel POV:
What the hell? I heard my phone buzz and glanced t the clock. At three in the morning the other Horsemen should have been asleep, and if they needed something they would have just come to my room. That left one option: Dylan.
I groaned and sat up. "Yes?"
"Get up. I'm on my way to the house."
"What? Why?" I Asked him.
"There's been… an accident… I'll explain when I get there. And wake up the other Horsemen."
He hung up and I groaned. Grabbing a clean shirt and pants I Changed before waking up Jack, Merritt and Henley.
"What is it?" Jack said sleepily as he stumbled out of his room. They were all still in their pajamas.
Dylan's on his way here. He said there was an accident." I held up my hand to stop Henley and Jack's questions. "And before you ask he didn't say what the accident was."
"This had better be damn important." Merritt said.
"He sounded urgent on the phone." I assured him.
We all assembled in the living room. Merritt sat down in his favorite lazy boy, Henley and I sat across from each other at the card table and Jack pretty much fell back asleep on the couch.
We saw a car pull up and I went over to open the door. Dylan came in and Merritt threw his book at Jack to wake him up. He sat up when he saw Dylan was there. "What's going on Dylan?"
"Well we have a slight problem, and by we I mostly mean Daniel, but you are all affected by it as well." He handed me a packet of papers before I sat back down and I started leafing through the papers as he continued. "Daniel… I'm sorry, those papers, are your mother's will…"
I had gotten through the first few lines when he said that. I knew what it was. "What happened?" I said, trying to stay calm.
"There was a car accident…" He tried to break the news to me gently. "Your mother was dead on impact, she didn't suffer."
"Where's Fey?" I said.
"Your sister is fine." He said. "She's on her way here, with another agent."
"Here?" Henley said. "Why?"
"Daniel if you would be so kind as to flip to page five."
I did what Dylan said and skimmed the page until I found what pertained to my sister. Then I reread, and I reread again, and again, until I had to accept what I read. "Why would she name me the guardian of my sister? A-and who is this Alexander she says is her son? My mom only had two kids, Me and Freya."
"Well… that's the tricky part… or parts… You left your mom and sister six years ago, after your father died, correct?"
"Yeah… are you saying… my mom was pregnant when my dad died!?"
"Yes… she found out a month or so after you left… or that s what Freya told me. He's with your sister, on his way here as well."
"W- Why am I the guardian?" I was starting to panic. "I haven't seen Fey in six years, I've never met this, Alexander kid! How am I supposed to take care of kids?"
Jack was looking at me wide eyed as I panicked, Merritt was observing from the corner, probably trying to piece together the full story. Henley put a hand on my arm to try and calm me down. I sat back down in the chair I didn't know I'd abandoned.
Dylan held his hands up. "I know you're confused and caught off guard. But Freya hasn't had a break in over a week; Alexander doesn't have anyone to look up to at the moment. They need you, Daniel."
I buried my face in my hands and took a few breaths.
"Um…" Jack looked between Dylan and myself. "I get that Daniel was named these kids guardian, but is The Eye really going to let them live with us? They've gone to such extremes to keep themselves secret… I mean…" Jack thought about how to word his next sentence. "You're not going to break up the horsemen are you?" The silence that followed Jack's question. The thought of having to leave the horsemen, leave the life that I had grown to love, It suddenly seemed very real, and it scared me.
"I'm uh… working on that part." Dylan said. "For now, Alexander and Freya beileive the four of you are a performance team recruited by a talent label called they Eye and I am your manager. You have two guest rooms here, for now they will live with you and I will put all my efforts into convincing the eye to let them stay here with you so all of you can continue to work together, but… I can't make promises… I'm sorry."
At that point another sleek FBI style car pulled up the driveway and parked behind Dylan's car. The driver got our and helped a teenage girl out of the passenger seat and started collecting bags from the back. It was Freya, older, taller, longer hair, tanner, more womanly than the eleven year old I'd left, but definitely Fey. She went to the back seat and pulled a small bundle out.
The agent came in with a four decent sized bags and a backpack, and Jack stood up to take him upstairs. "Jack." Dylan said. "Put on a shirt." The kid nodded before leading the agent up to the guest room.
"I'll go help grab bags." Merritt said.
"No need." Dylan said. "That' all they brought." Merritt sat back down and Fey came in the door a second later.
I stood up from where I was sitting and went over to her. She looked up and me and shifted the sleeping boy in her arms to one shoulder and I pulled her into a hug. "I missed you so much Danny." She said, holding me as tightly as she could with one arm.
"I missed you too Fey." She pulled away from me and I saw how tired she looked. "Jeez, when was the last time you slept?"
She raised her eyebrows. "It's been… sporadic at best."
"Alright… let me do introductions and then we can get you to bed." I pointed to my two teammates in the room. "This is Henley Reeves and Merritt Mckinney. Henley, Merritt, this is my sister Freya and uh… I assume, that he's Alexander."
Freya looked at the boy and nodded. "Mama told me he looks like you did… Um… When you were little."
I nodded "Let's get you some sleep." I lead her upstairs and we passed the agent on his way down.
Jack was standing at the top of the stairs. "Hey, I had him put all the bags in the spare room next to mine…" He said more to me than Fey. "I didn't know which one you wanted her in and which one you wanted him in…"
"Thanks Jack. Um… this is my sister Freya… and… um… brother… Alexander. Freya this is Jack Wilder."
"Hi." He said shaking her hand.
"Hi." She said quietly.
"Jack, she needs to sleep."
"Oh, right." Jack stepped to the side and went to join the others downstairs. I lead Freya to the spare room Jack had put their things. She walked in and slid her backpack off one shoulder,
"Alex wake up." She whispered. He mumbled something in his half awake state. "I know buddy, just for a second, I need to take off your coat."
He moaned but when she set him on the bed he stayed sitting up long enough for her to take his backpack and coat off of him. "Okay, you can go back to sleep now." He tilted back and passed out on the bed again. She set to work on his shoes and pushed all the discarded clothes into a corner. She pulled off her own backpack and Jacket and looked at me. "I'm sorry…"
"What? Fey, you didn't do anything." I said sitting down next to her.
"I know you wanted to disappear… we just made it so you can't."
"I don't want to disappear." I said.
"They why didn't you come back?" She said. "I tried to get in contact with you… you were all over the news and people were saying terrible things about you because you stole all that money… but I couldn't find you anywhere… then… All the addresses you put on the cards you sent at Christmas… every one of them were fake. You couldn't send mail without a return address but I went to all of them hoping you would be there. They didn't exist or the person there had never heard of you… so I figured you wanted to disappear."
I didn't know what to say so I avoided the question. "Just get some rest."
She looked at Alexander. "Right." She pulled off her shoes and tucked the kid under the covers. "Oh… we found this…" she pulled a sealed envelope out of the pocket of her jacket. "It was in a lockbox at the bank with all of the valuables and the will."
I took the envelope. "Alright, I'll take care of it, just get some rest, you look like you haven't slept in weeks."
She nodded and crawled back on the bed. "Good night."
"Night Fey."