Disclaimer:
I don't own Gary, Marissa, Chuck, etc. I'm not using this for money. Yatsa, yatsa, and yatsa.
Claimer:
I own Rosalind, Jackie, Shaw, Aussie, and Juliet.
Also, this an AU containing Meredith.
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Dark Skies Come With The Truth
Part One
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Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. – William Shakespeare from in Twelfth Night.
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August 13th, 2013
"Aussie!" Rosalind Monica Fisher called up the stairs of the house.
"What, Linda?" Aussandra Maela Hobson yelled from her bedroom.
"Come on! We're gonna be late for work!" Shaw Taylor Klonce yelled.
Gary Hobson was in his bedroom while the children downstairs in the living room yelled up the stairs to his fourteen-year old daughter. Aussie was his firstborn of three and being she was the oldest was something she had enjoyed. Jacquelyn Cosetta and Juliet Caren were his other two daughters and they had just turned six.
"DAD!" Julie screamed.
Gary rubbed his temples, "What, Julie?"
Juliet and Jacquelyn appeared in the doorway, "Why does Aussie have to work? We always help you during the summer!" The two complained, in perfect unison. For the first time since the end of the school year, Aussie had decided to help her two friends with their jobs – both were camp counselors at a camp for the blind, although she usually helped her father by working in McGinty's with her godparents.
"I know, guys. But Aussie decided to work for the last few weeks before school." He said, trying to shoo them out of the room so that he could get dressed.
"Why?" Julie persisted.
"Because."
"Why?"
"Because she wants to." Gary saw Aussie walking out of her room and motioned for her to come drag them away so he could put on clothing.
Aussie grabbed them and walked down the hallway to their room, trying her best to answer their questions on why she wanted to work and why she wasn't going to help her father.
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Gary walked down the stairs to find the paper on the kitchen counter underneath some glasses – he figured that the cat, now named Ray; had come and Aussie had treated it like the regular paper - and the twins eating their cereal. He sighed and then grabbed the paper, quickly scanning the pages. Something caught his eye as he folded up the paper and he nearly fainted. An article on the front of the paper, but at the bottom, showed a picture of Aussie and beside it was an article on her death, but her heroic saving of an infant as a building collapsed.
"Daddy?" Jackie looked at her father.
He looked back at her, "It's nothing, honey. Finish your cereal." He looked at the time on the paper, and then looked back at the twins, "And when you guys are finished, we have to go visit Aussie."
The two girls were excited at the prospect of seeing their sister before helping their father, and both wolfed down the contents of the bowls. They practically threw them in the sink and waited for their father to continue.
He handed them their jackets, shoved the paper into his, and then the three walked out of the front door. Gary made sure it was locked and they made their way toward the YMCA, where the camp was being held. Julie and Jackie were smiling happily, unaware of what travesty could befall the family if they didn't make it to the building before it collapsed.
Gary, meanwhile, just held his daughters' hands. He didn't hear any of Jackie's babblings, as he was thinking of someone else. His daughters' mother, Meredith. He had met her at the Sun-Times during one of his heroic savings, and although they had originally hated each other, she became a friend and a year and a half later, a wife. Aussie had been born about a year later, and after a month long fight over a name, Chuck and Marissa combined four names to come up with Aussandra Maela. Eight years later, the twins came along, which surprised everyone. Aussie, Shaw, and Rosalind had named them after a few hours. Jacquelyn had been Shaw's idea (and Marissa's), and Juliet had come from something they'd read in school. Cosetta had been Aussie's idea since she had just seen Les Miserables the day before. Caren had been the name of Marissa's daughter, who died when she was two during a trip to New York. After the twins were born, though, Meredith had hemorrhaged beyond what the doctors could do. She died two hours after the girls were born. Aussie wasn't told until the next day.
"Daddy? Are you okay?" Julie asked.
"Yeah. I was just thinking of your mommy." Gary said, crossing the street to the YMCA. He opened the door and walked in, quickly spotting Shaw, Aussie, and Linda. Aussie was talking to Chuck's other daughter, Kristal, and holding a little baby in her arms. "Aussie, honey, can I talk to you for a moment?" He asked, as he walked over.
"Sure." He excused herself from Kristal and her other friends, and walked to a secluded spot, with the baby still in her arms.
"I was wondering…" He searched for words.
"Dad. Why'd you come here?" She asked, curious.
"Well…I…I…" He replied, still searching for words, but it was too late. The building began to shake and Aussie flew into her father, who pulled her out the door behind him. The rest of the children managed to get out shortly before the building was destroyed, but now as Gary read the paper, he screamed for the twins. Now instead of Aussie's picture, there was one of Jackie and one of Julie.
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Aussie looked at her Aunt Marissa. The older woman was seated on one of the bar stools, talking to Gary, who's eyes were red from crying and was completely exhausted. Three days had passed since Julie and Jackie had been killed in the building collapse, and Gary hadn't come out of the house until both Aussie and Chuck coaxed him out on the pretense of running McGinty's.
"Dad. I was meaning to ask you something." Aussie finally spoke. She stopped turning the bar stool back and forth so she could ask him her question, "The paper and Ray. How come I've never been allowed to read the paper or go with you during the day?"
So there it was the question that Gary knew would be there one day, the question he dreaded. How does one explain the early edition to a fourteen-year old? How does one say to their own child, This paper tells the future and I was trying to save you, but instead your six-year old sisters got killed?
"Daddy. Please answer me." Aussie said, now having the attention of everyone in the room – Linda, Shaw, Kristal, Marissa, Chuck, Gary, and even Ray.
Gary drew in a huge breath, hesitated, and then began to speak, "Well…umm…" He picked up that day's paper from under the bar counter and handed it to Aussie, "It says what will happen the next day. I've been getting it since nineteen ninety-six. Since before I married your mother. The other day," He paused, and then began again, "The other day at the camp, I had come to save you. The paper had said you'd died trying to save the children. I didn't know that the twins would be…" He stopped and began to cry.
Aussie was in shock. First off, she'd never seen her dad cry like this. Sure he'd cried when her mother had died, but now he cried every time he thought of the twins. Second, a paper that tells the next days events? I just couldn't be, but yet the newspaper in front of her was complete with the next day's date.
Gary stopped crying and looked at his only child, "I'm so sorry, Aussie."
Aussie looked up from the paper at the clock and then back at one of the articles, "Why are you still here? You should be at the zoo right now. Go." She thrust the paper back at him.
Gary was dumbfounded, as was everyone else. Her little sisters were dead, Her father could barely get up in the morning, and yet she wanted him to go off and change the future. But he couldn't fight with her. She now knew the truth and she knew how upset he was, but she seemed to know that if he did some good, everything could be okay for a few precious moments.
He stood up and grabbed his coat from the rack, before walking out of the bar.
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Aussie was sitting up in her bed even though it was three in the morning. A notebook was open in front of her, and she was writing in it.
August 19th, 2013
It's been six days since Julie and Jackie died and it's been three days since Dad told me about the early editions. I've been his partner the last two days, and I think it's okay. I don't know why he didn't tell me.
I've been thinking about what I overheard Linda say – Dark Skies Come With The Truth. The dark skies haven't come yet, but I know that one day they will. I mean I'll have to carry this on or something. I guess this is why Dad doesn't really have a job. Maybe the dark skies have already come.
Aussie finished, wondering. She didn't know what to make of everything. She was thoroughly confused, and the thought of the 'dark skies' made her more confused. And then everything in her mind cleared at once, and she knew. She knew that that the Dark Skies had come.
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To Be Continued…
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This is my first Early Edition story; so don't rip me to shreds.
Any flames will just be used to roast marshmallows.
Cassie Jamie
Please review my story.