I do not own.
The next morning, Circe walked into the cafeteria. She saw Rex with their friends from Hong Kong as well and Beverly. They all turned and stared when she walked in.
"Uh, guys? What's going on?" She asked nervously.
"We're all going to help find your parents!" Cricket announced.
Circe glared at Rex. "You told everyone?"
"No, not everyone… just everyone that can help." Rex amended.
Circe looked around the table. "No offense, but how is anyone here helpful."
"Hey, more eyes the better." Rex declared.
Circe face palmed. "Rex, we're not looking for a missing dog here. These are people who may not want to be found."
"Exactly! That's why we need more people to help with the search… do legwork and surveillance… and," Rex had clearly run out of what to say. "Stuff." He concluded.
"Hey, Circ. If you want to keep this private, we understand." Walter piped up.
Circe sighed as she pulled a chair up the round table to join them. "Look, it's not that I'm not grateful that you guys want to help…" She shot a glare at Rex. "I'm not even sure I want to find my parents, you know? We didn't part on very good terms."
"Then maybe we shouldn't look for them." Tuck said.
"Yeah, parents are over-rated anyway. I didn't have any, and I turned out fine." Walter sniffed.
"You're a sarcastic pessimist who is full of passive aggressive rage." Tuck pointed out.
"And people love me for it." Walter leaned back in his chair with a smirk.
"I'm sure Kenwyn would beg to differ." Cricket rolled her eyes.
"Anyway," Rex cleared his throat to get their attention. "I think we should help Circe find her parents so she doesn't turn into Walter."
"I'm right here." Walter said.
"Fine, whatever." Circe said without any enthusiasm.
"That's the spirit!" Rex smiled.
"So where do we start?" Beverly spoke for the first time.
"Well, uh… that is… we start… at the beginning." Rex declared.
"You really haven't thought this through have you?" Beverly sighed.
"I thought about asking you guys for help." Rex hedged.
Beverly pulled out a file from the bag. "Well, it's a good thing you have me."
Everyone leaned in to look. Rex opened the cover to reveal papers with some newspaper clippings.
They each picked up something from the file.
"Mutant outbreak devastates town." Tuck read one headline.
"Farmhouse destroyed by former farmer turned freak." Walter noted. "That's a lot of alliteration."
"Families ripped apart by the mysterious disease." Cricket looked at the caption. "Wait, Circe is that… you?" She pushed the paper toward her.
Circe looked at the grainy picture. A sullen looking girl stared back at her. She was holding hands with two familiar figures.
"Oh my gosh." She gaped. "Beverly? How?"
Beverly leaned back with a satisfied smile. "My detecting skills have improved greatly since last I decided to play detective… that and dumb luck." She leaned forward. "When Rex told me that we were going to look for your parents, I spent all night typing all the information you told me into different search engines."
"I didn't tell you much about my past." Circe muttered.
"No, you told me where you were born, where you lived, and most importantly your last name." Beverly said.
"You have a last name?" Rex asked surprised.
"Of course, I have a last name." Circe groaned. "What did you think?"
"I don't know. I mean, Six doesn't have a last name. Madonna doesn't have a last name." Rex said.
"Her last name is Ciccone." Walter interrupted.
"How did you know that?" Cricket stared at him.
Walter shrugged. "Useless information is my forte."
"I thought art was your forte." Tuck said.
"I'm a man of many talents." Walter exaggerated a bow.
"So after several hours of bupkis I finally decided to type the information into newsfeeds. And Voilà these articles show up." Beverly continued as if she was never interrupted. "So from these leads I was able to access hospital records…"
"Hospital records? Aren't they protected?" Walter asked skeptically.
"Well, you know since Becca has access to so many computers in the world… anyway, it doesn't matter how I hacked… I mean got them." Beverly waved her hand dismissively. "The important thing is that there's a…"
"Birth certificate." Circe took a good look at the paper in her hand. "It's my birth certificate."
Beverly nodded. "With your parent's name. From there it was just an easy search for all the people with those names."
Rex looked at the paper in his hands. "There's over a hundred names on this list."
"Yeah, you'd be surprised how common those names are." Beverly said.
"There's 12 letters in this last name!" Rex exclaimed.
"Yeah, now you see why I don't ever use my last name." Circe grumbled.
"I didn't know you were Greek." Tuck scratched his head.
"With a name like Circe?" Circe raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you changed your name like The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, who then changed it back to Prince." Tuck said.
"His last name is Nelson." Walter said suddenly.
"So which one of these people is Circe's parents?" Rex asked Beverly.
"How should I know? I already did all the hard stuff, now you guys should call them and ask." Beverly pushed her chair back. "I have to go help Caesar. The last time I left him alone this long, he…"
The alarms went off. Several screaming grunts whose head was smoking ran into the cafeteria. One stuck his head under the soda fountain. Another jumped over the counter and used the hose from the sink to spray his head. Still other ran to the salad bar and dumped the bucket of ranch dressing over himself.
"Oh good grief." Beverly muttered to herself as she quickly left the cafeteria.
"Well, I guess we get calling." Rex tore the paper into fourths.
"How come I got the most names?" Walter complained.
"Because you're so personable." Cricket joked.
"Yeah, I'll trade you." Rex switched with Walter. "I don't want you scaring anyone away.
"So what do we say? Did you abandon your EVO child seven years ago? If you did, I have good news. She's here and wants to talk to you. Hello? Hello?" Walter mimicked a call.
"Well, obviously we have to have more finesse." Rex told him.
"Rex, your idea of finesse is hitting something with a golf club until it cracks or you broke the club." Tuck said.
"Shut up. I do have finesse." Rex pulled out his phone and dialed the first number.
The others could hear the phone ringing. Then there was a familiar click. "Hello?" Someone asked tentatively.
"Hi, am I speaking to Jason… " Rex pronounced the last name the best he could. "Because if you are, I'm here with the daughter you gave up seven years ago."
The others strained to listen to the answer but couldn't. All they could hear was Rex's uh-huh's.
"Okay, thanks anyway." Rex hung up. "Um, he's not it."
Everyone smacked their foreheads.
"This is going to be a long day." Walter muttered.
I apologize if I wasn't clear before. This is an AU. If you notice my mainstream stories, I never mention Circe's parents. That's because in my head they are dead and she's an orphan. But since I was asked to write this, they obviously can't be gone. Also for those of you who were worried about the very dark tone in SunBinamra's story, just to be clear, I'm only using the relationship part with her parents. Nothing that happens after her parents throw her out will be mentioned. I hope that puts your mind at ease. For those of you who don't want to read the story, the summary is that her parents are stuck up and emotionally distant towards Circe. When they find out that she's an EVO, they throw her out in fear.