If Jemma felt bad for not going to the party with her mother, she didn't show it. Darcy was secretly pleased, as she felt Jiaying was way to up in Jemma's business. Not to mention having the gorgeous, intelligent babe next to her attracted even more attention to the invalid.
Everyone had shown up, doing their best to find the clues to the other pair's clues. Of course, everyone already knew about Tremors' and Natasha's sudden interest in Panda, so of course the song was played on repeat. No one knew what half the words where except maybe Tremors (she always looked them up) but whatever. They could at least pretend to and throw off everyone else.
"Mr. Ward," Jiaying says, just recognizing the lawyer. "What are you doing here?"
Ward looks pointedly to the tray of hors d'oeuvres he is carrying. "I'm Raina's assistant."
Jiaying bristles, glancing at Raina. She had always thought there was something off about her, and now she knew. Raina was in cahoots with Waters's lawyer! Who wasn't even a lawyer in the first place! "Well that doesn't mean you have to cater her parties."
"Oh, I'm just serving these. And she's paying me. I was going to work the bar as well but Lincoln and Triplett stole it right from under me," Grant continues, but Jiaying has stopped listening. She wanders back to her husband.
"Why did I have to come to this. I'm not even going to play," Cal wines, shuffling about uncomfortably in his new suit. One that actually fit, Jiaying notes with a satisfactory glance.
"Don't say that," Jiaying coos. "Five-hundred thousand dollars, and we'll need the money for Tremors' education."
Cal glances at his younger daughter. She seemed happier lately, maybe because she had stopped spending time with her mother. "Half of 500,000. The other half is Mrs. Maximoff's," Cal corrects his wife absentmindedly. He misses Jiaying's dismissive eye-roll completely. "I wonder if it's possible to create something that automatically translates any speech so the person could understand it," he muses. "An eye-implant, maybe? Or a chip in the brain?"
Jiaying hits his arm softly. "Will you stop with your crazy ideas, Calvin?"
Cal does not bristle at the mention of his full name. "You used to enjoy hearing them," Cal says as he stalks off.
Raina watches carefully this exchange carefully, gears turning. The Johnsons were definitely a very interesting family, and Mr. Johnson seemed like a very interesting man; he did not seem to want to play the game, money be damned, and was never really around. He spent most of his time either downstairs in his office or at the pet hospital doing surgery. Or somewhere else; there were no witnesses to vouch that Cal was really where he said.
"Thor Odinson," Darcy finishes dramatically, pulling Raina back into the conversation.
"That's very interesting," Raina says with a slight smile, turning to Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter. The only two residents of Shield Towers who were not heirs. "And how is your bakery?"
"Brilliant," Hunter replies. Raina has heard his voice before and therefore knows he is British but it is still a bit jarring for her brain.
Bobbi nods. "We weren't sure it would work here but it's doing great."
"And how did you meet?" Raina inquires next. They were her witnesses, and with enough pressing they would answer her.
Bobbi and Hunter look at each other briefly, starting to laugh a bit. "We were both volunteering at a Boys and Girls Club."
"Not so coincidentally the one where Linc used to go to," Bobbi interjects. "We basically got married so we could foster the kid."
"And so your mother would be okay with us living together," Hunter adds.
Bobbi half-shrugs. "That too."
Raina chuckles, swiftly scanning the crowd for the next pair to question. She is brought back into the conversation with Bobbi and Lance, however, when Bobbi says: "Who was it that you where dating before me? Mary something? Mary Sue—"
"Mary Sue Waters? The cellist?" Raina interrupts.
Lance nods somberly, taking a sip of his drink. "Waters's daughter."
He and Raina exchange a glance, and Raina realizes… and she has to get out of there.
"Well, I'd better go check on Ward at the bar. He… he gets distracted," Raina says, rushing away.
"What was that about?' Bobbi asks her husband quietly. Lance just shakes his head.
At the bar, Ward is pouring Darcy a glass of wine—a tall glass. Something nags at the back of Raina's mind, but she pushes it away.
"How's everything going?" Raina asks no one in particular.
Darcy, for once, isn't keen on answering and moves back to the other corner, where Jemma has gathered a small crowd. After she gets her drink, of course.
"Good. Pizza bites are almost gone, same with the garlic knots. No marinara was double-dipped in the erasure of these foodstuffs."
"Well, that's really the whole point, isn't it?"
"Better get one before they're gone." Ward waves the half-empty tray under her nose.
Raina shakes her head. "Just a glass of red."
"Coming up."
"You know, you're not too bad behind a bar. No tripping; no stuttering. No spontaneous spilling of liquids."
"Yeah," Grant passes her a glass of white. Okay, maybe he wasn't that good either. "Better get back to mingling."
"Don't remind me," Raina mutters, plastering on a smile and venturing back into the party.
Aside from Raina, at least one other person was decidedly not enjoying the party.
Tremors was sitting on a chair in the corner. Natasha was standing not too far away, but she was talking to Mack.
The only other person she might have talked to was her father, but Cal Johnson was talking to his partner.
"Mill." Johnson pointed out Waters's Mill to his partner. His logic: if people started speaking to Wanda in English, she might pick up a few words.
"Mill," Wanda repeated.
"House."
"House."
"Lake."
"Lake."
Johnson noticed a man running around the circumference at the lake. "Runner."
"Pietro," Wanda says sadly.
"Sure. Let's call him Pietro," Cal laughed.
Tremors watched this exchange enviously. Without her father there to talk to, she was alone.
Maybe it was something to do with the punching, but that was the only way Tremors could effectively get people to stop looking at her with their eyes.
And their pity.
Jiaying, breaking away from a conversation with the doorman, notices her husband talking to that young, pretty, foreign girl. Which is just what Jiaying had been when Cal had met her, but that wasn't the point.
She starts forward, thinking of how she was going to pry her husband far away from that woman—only to see Tremors sitting by herself in a corner.
Ugh, that girl was making her look bad. Again!
"Could you at least smile?" Jiaying hisses, effectively throwing Tremors from her chair.
Tremors takes a moment to regain her balance. She glares at her mother with nothing short of hatred, but Jiaying remains unaffected.
"Stand up straight, get yourself a drink, and go talk to someone," Jiaying orders, pushing her daughter forward. "Look at Jemma."
Tremors glanced at her sister spitefully. Jemma was laughing prettily at something that Lincoln Campbell had said. Looking at them, Tremors felt the sudden urge to go up there and punch her sister. Hard. She loved Jemma, really, but sometimes… well, it would have been nice to see her be imperfect for once.
Tremors leaves her corner, but ends up in the kitchen, sniffling.
Then someone taps her on the shoulder and she almost passes out.
"I wasn't—"
Melinda May nods, squeezing Tremors shoulder lightly. The cleaning lady glances over her own shoulder before leading Tremors into the laundry room, which was more private.
"Here," she says, passing Tremors a hand towel.
Tremors takes it and wipes away a couple of stray tears before using the towel to muffle a painful scream.
A couple of seconds later, Melinda steps away from the sink so that Tremors can wash her face.
"There," Melinda says after a moment. "Ready to go back out there?"
After a second, Tremors nods. "Thank you," she whispers, leaving.
Melinda makes a silent vow to make the person who caused such pain to that beautiful girl pay.
Outside of Shield Towers, Trip was running. He doubted anyone noticed his absence, but that didn't really matter.
What mattered was the meet he had in less than a week, and making sure he was ready for that.
His father's insults echo throughout his mind. It wasn't really Mack's fault, Trip thought, but he needed the motivation to keep going.
So that's what he did.
A/N: If you can't tell, I hate Jiaying with all of my being. I truly think that she is the worst person who has ever been on the show, including John Garrett. Even Hive was better than her.
Aside from that, thanks for reading.
Note: I'll admit it: I have too many fics going (seven!). So I'm going to focus on this one (because I actually have a plan for it. Kind of) until it is finished and then go back to the others. So if you read any of my other fics and are wondering why I'm updating this one more often, it is because I'm trying to finish it. On the bright side, I'm going to update this more!
Anyway, have a great week. Or something. *awkwardly leaves*
*runs back* *falls down* *gets up* Oh yeah, and please review. *leaves again*