Whoa. I did not think I'd take so long to update. Two freaking weeks. I don't even have an excuse, since I didn't do my Social Studies project or the Biotechnology paper, both of which were due this week (I'm just glad the S/S project was mostly extra credit and Biotech is an elective). I'm really sorry you had to wait so long. And regarding Catfriend3000's question, this takes place RIGHT AFTER THE CLUE HUNT. VESPER'S RISING NEVER HAPPENED. Time for the disclaimer!
Me: I own nothing!
Dan: Thankfully...
Me: What's that supposed to mean?
Dan: Oh, nothing.
Hope's POV
After Arthur and I finished explaining what had happened, I looked at my children. Amy looked kind of stunned and Dan looked outright sick. Like he was having a headache. He stood up unsteadily, and claimed he wasn't feeling well. He headed upstairs, and I nearly went after him, but Arthur took my hand and stopped me.
Amy was staring at the hallway where Dan had disappeared. Fiske motioned for us to follow him to the kitchen, while Nellie stayed behind with Amy.
Soon Nellie joined us, and said, "I sent Amy to go talk to Dan." She raised an eyebrow, and I became aware that I was still squeezing Arthur's hand. I loosened my grip a bit.
Fiske cleared his throat and turned to Arthur and I. "Excuse my directness, but do you have a plan yet?" He looked concerned.
I blinked. Arthur asked, "What?"
"A plan," Fiske repeated. "For example, do you plan on adopting the children?" Nellie looked pained when he said that.
I blinked again. I hadn't actually thought that far ahead yet. My basic plan was Find Dan and Amy. Explain. Become family. I realized how stupid we'd been in our act of rashness.
"Um... no," Arthur said, running a hand through his hair.
"Mmhm," Fiske said, looking slightly amused. "Have you found a home yet? Are you considering getting new identities, or explain to the police what happened, or..." He waved his hand.
"No and I have got no idea," Arthur answered. I gave him a look. "What?" he defended himself. "I don't know, and I'm not going to pretend to know." I rolled my eyes.
"I'm sorry, but he didn't take his medication today," I said. Arthur glared at me. Fiske chucked and even Nellie smiled a little. "And anyway, we don't really have much of a plan yet. We were just planning on the whole 'go with the flow' idea." I said that last part because I figured that sounded a lot neater and 'good, responsible parent' -ish, than 'Oh, I had no real plan whatsoever. More like a list of things to accomplish'.
Fiske nodded. "You are welcome to stay with us while you figure things out," he offered. "Do you have luggage?"
I nodded. "The cargo plane was delayed, so the luggage can't get here till at least three. I hope you don't mind we told them your address." Fiske shook his head.
"Well, there's a guest room on the second floor, third door on the left." He looked at me. "I suppose you could find that one easily. I'd like to speak with Nellie." I nodded and he smiled. "Oh, and just so you know, Dan's room is the first door on the right, and Amy's is the second on the left."
I beamed at him. "Thank you," I said sincerely. He waved his hand dismissively, and Arthur and I headed upstairs.
When we got to the head of the stairs, I saw a figure closing the door to Dan's room. "Amy?" Arthur called. She spun around, her eyes wide.
"Uh... hi," she said weakly.
"What are you doing?" I asked. We were standing right in front of her, and I was startled to realize that she was nearly as tall as I was. I barely had three inches on her now.
"Oh, nothing," she said. "I was just checking on Dan." She pushed her bangs back out of her eyes.
"Is he okay?"
Amy shrugged. "I think so. He's asleep, though."
I tried not to look upset by that. I'd really wanted to talk to him, but I figured I could do that later. So I just nodded.
"Well, we'll be down the hall, if you need us," Arthur said. "Is there anything you want to talk to us about?" Amy shook her head, a little too fast, in my opinion.
"I'm fine," she said. She turned to go down the hall to her room, and closed her door.
I turned to Arthur. He frowned. "I guess we'll just have to take her word for it," he said, although he didn't look happy about it. We headed down the hall to our room.
Amy's POV
It was nearly dinnertime, and Dan still hasn't woken up. Or, if he had, he hadn't come out of his room, not even to eat. At our house, we almost never ate lunch together. It was more of a matter of going to the kitchen and making yourself a sandwich or whatever when you were hungry. So I suppose he could have while I was in my room, but I don't think he'd left his room since 1:30.
I left my bedroom and headed down the hall to Dan's room. I opened his door and looked inside. Dan was still curled up in bed. I walked over and shook his shoulder.
Dan rolled over and muttered something unintelligible. I shook him harder and sat down on the edge of his bed. "Dan get up! Dinner's gonna be on the table soon!"
Finally he sat up, and promptly glared at me. "Sheesh, Amy! I was trying to catch up on my sleep!" he said, trying to sound mad, but still just sounded sleepy.
"Oh, well. And take a shower, please. I know you didn't take one last night, and I bet you didn't take one this morning either."
He shook his head, still frowning. "At least I brushed my teeth," he muttered, then grinned. "Wanna check?" Before I could react, he breathed in my face.
I laughed and pushed his face away. "Gross, dweeb. But seriously, you need to bathe." He pouted and trudged out into the hall.
I was glad Dan was starting to act more like his old self. Even though it could have something to do with the fact that his been sleeping the past five hours and might not remember what happened, or assumed it was a dream. I guess I'd just have to wait till dinner.
At the dinner table, everyone was quiet. Fiske and my parents were involved in a weak conversation involving reasonably priced homes in the Boston and Attleboro (A/N: ?) area. Dan was pushing what was left of his baked potato around on his plate, and Nellie was trying to explain to Saladin that he could not eat the chicken off her plate till she was done. I was waiting for everyone else to finish so I could get upstairs to my room already. These people were beginning to get on my nerves. On a normal day, I would have just excused myself and headed upstairs. Sticking around waiting for everyone to finish was one thing we did not typically do. The worst part was that, save my parents, dinners with everyone either ignoring each other or everyone getting involved in an argument weren't exactly unusual. We weren't one of those perfect, close-nit, TV families. Never have been, probably never will be, whether or not my parents choose to butt in on my life.
Finally, everyone finished. "I'll clear the table," I offered. Nellie raised an eyebrow. She had every reason to be suspicious. Clearing the table was another thing we seldom did. We usually just took our plates to the sink ourselves. Nellie, Fiske and I traded off for dishwater duty (no one really trusted Dan in the kitchen alone, so we just had him clear the table of the serving dishes and put them in the fridge).
Trying to smile pleasantly (and likely failing miserably), I took the plates and utensils from each person's spot, stacked them, and took them to the sink. Then I came back for the glasses, then the serving dishes. I thought about just filling the dishwasher, but it was technically Nellie's day, and I really wanted to get upstairs. But I didn't want to seem lazy or rude in front of my parents. Finally though, the latter won out, and I filled the dishwasher.
When I got back to the regular dining room, (the guesthouse has two, so we have a normal one and a special occasion one) everyone was gone. I figured Dan was likely in his room and Nellie in her's, and my parents a Fiske were probably in his study. Finally, I could get to my room and be alone for the rest of the night, since it was still eight o'clock. I headed upstairs.
In my bedroom, I just lolled around, not really doing much. I read. I checked my email. I reorganized my bookshelf. I tidied up my room. I read some more. What I really wanted to do was talk to my best friend, Sunny. But I didn't think I'd be able to without explaining the whole parents thing, considering how we'd met in 4th grade, so she'd never my my parents. All she knew was that they had died in a fire when I was seven.
I decided to write in my journal. Note, I said journal, not diary. It's still private, but I don't always write in it. Just when I feel like I should. I mostly wrote about my parents and how I felt about the entire situation.
At around ten, I began to feel tired. I put on my pajamas, slipped into bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.
Yes! I am finally done with this chapter. It is freaking hard to write in Hope's POV in a situation like this. Tell me if you like how I portrayed her and Arthur. And yes, I know Arthur didn't have a lot of dialog. It was hard trying to fit him in. Sorry for any OOCness.
In case you couldn't tell, I ended up basing their family routine on real family routines, like my friends and my families.
I'll try to get the next chapter up by Wednesday and have it be from Dan's POV. I wanna update at least once a week. I also want reviews.
