Living with the consequences
Disclaimer: I do not have the rights to SOA and make no profit from my writing. Anything you don't recognize from the show I have created.
Content Warning: This fanfiction is rated T. This fanfic includes suicidal thinking. If you are not comfortable reading about suicide please do not proceed.
Nora woke up to the incessant beeping in a haze. She wiped a hand over her nightstand for her phone and brought it to her face. But it wasn't ringing.
"Nora!" Hazel, Nora's 12 year old sister called her name from her own bed across the room.
"What is that noise?" Nora, 18, asked her little sister.
"I think it's the smoke alarm!" Hazel yelled back.
"Stay here!" Nora jumped out of bed and padded over barefoot to the bedroom door. She grabbed the handle and hissed, bringing her hand back up to her chest. It was hot. Very hot. Nora took a deep breath and covered her unhurt hand in the bottom of her t shirt and opened the door slowly. She saw nothing but flames and shut it closed again.
"Okay. Okay, Hazel, put shoes on. We're going out the window." Nora tried to stay calm for her sister as she hastily pulled on last night's jeans from the closet door. She opened the window on the side of the room and one handed, wrestled with the screen until it popped out.
"The house is on fire?" Hazel asked, slipping on her tennis shoes sans socks.
"Yes. We're gonna crawl out here, get on the roof of the garage and drop down in the flower bed.
"But-"
"Hazel. The house is on FIRE." Nora said sternly and cleared off the top of the girls shared desk so they could climb through the window behind it.
"Okay." Hazel picked up their small mutt Randy and turned to her sister. "Ready."
Nora huffed once and grabbed the dog from her little sister. She rested him in the crook of her arm that she had burned her hand on.
"Go. Onto the roof and right to the back. Crawl. Be careful." Nora awkwardly followed her sister out the window and across the roof.
"Okay, listen to me. Hold Randy in one arm. I'm gonna hold your other arm and lower you down as far as I can so it's less of a fall, okay?"
"Okay."
Nora handed the dog over and grabbed her sister's other hand firmly. "Crawl over the edge now. I have you, just hold on to my hand." She lowered her sister down the 4 feet of their extended arm length.
"Okay, now you're gonna let go of my hand and fall. Curl up in a ball and just drop, okay? Do you understand?"
"I'm scared!"
"I know Hazy. Just trust me. Curl up and try to fall on your butt. Wrap both your arms around Randy when you let go. Don't try to break your fall."
"Okay. Count."
"Okay, on 3 Hazy. 1, 2, 3!" Nora let go of her sister's hand and watched and listened to her fall onto their mothers prized hydrangeas.
"Are you okay?" Nora yelled.
"Yeah, I think…"
"Alright, move, I'm gonna jump down." Nora didn't take her own advice. She lowered herself over the edge and held onto the gutters with both hands. She counted in her head and forced herself to let go. She landed on her feet and twisted her ankle.
"Hazel." Nora grabbed her little sister's shoulders. "Go to the Robertson's and ring the doorbell. Over and over and over until they answer and tell them to call 911."
"What are you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna look for mom and dad and Drew. See if they're out here. GO!" Nora cursed herself for dropping her phone on the bed and raced around to the front of the house.
She screamed a few times for her family, making a full circle around the property and sprinted to the front door, ignoring her aching ankle.
She kicked her mother's decorative planter over and peeled off the key that was taped to the bottom. She opened the door and sucked in smoke.
The fire was raging. The smoke was thick. She dropped down and crawled in a few feet. Her brother's door was just at the top of the stairs. If she could get up there…
There was no use in trying. She was choking and coughing and had to crawl back out the door. She did what she told her sister to do and started ringing the doorbell incessantly. She didn't even know if the rest of her family was awake and knew there was a fire. The smoke alarm was right above her and her sister's bedroom door. They may not have heard it.
She pulled the door a little more closed to stop the smoke that was billowing into her face and rang the bell over and over and over until Mr. Robertson, in a bathrobe, pulled her off the front porch.
"They didn't get out! I don't know if they're awake!" She was being pulled out towards the street and she finally looked up at her house. The windows had exploded and fire and smoke were all that could be seen inside.
"Nora, calm down. The fire department is on its way. See? Listen! You can hear them. They will be here in a minute. No longer. Take some deep breaths."
"Hazel-"
"Is with my wife, just over there." He pointed down the street to the front of the neighbor's house and saw the horror on her little sisters face as she stood there, clutching the dog, watching her house burn down.
Chuck walked over to the garage holding the cordless phone to his chest. Someone was asking for Tig by his legal name, and that could not be good.
"Uhh, Tig?" Chuck started.
"What?" Tig yelled back, leaning into an engine.
"You got a phone call, on the office phone. They asked for Alex."
Tig stood up and grabbed a rag to wipe his hands on. He grabbed the phone out of Chuck's plastic hands.
"Yeah? This is Alex."
Tig listened to the old man on the other end of the line and grew pale. He stumbled back and leaned against another car.
"Yeah, okay, I'll be there as soon as I can. A few hours. No more." Tig hung up the phone and dropped it on the ground.
"Tiggy, what's wrong brother?" Chibs asked.
"My baby sister. Her house burned down. She's dead." Tig bent over and rested his hands on his knees. He felt like he was going to be sick.
"Oh Christ, Tig." Chibs came closer as the other patches put down their tools.
"Doesn't you sister have kids?" Happy asked him.
Tig nodded his head slowly. "The girls made it out. Drew didn't, or their dad."
All the men let out low curses. Two girls getting orphaned by a fire was too much to bear.
"I gotta go to Wyoming. I gotta go."
"Go, brother. Stay in touch." Chibs called after him as he stripped off his work shirt and grabbed his kutte.
Tig rode his bike home and traded it for his pickup truck. He grabbed his rode bag, it would have to do, and hit the road. He called Venus on the way to the highway.
"Doll…"
"Tiggy, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Venus started to flirt. It hadn't been too long since the two moved in together. Venus was now a producer at the porn studio.
"Doll, I'm on the road. I gotta go to my sisters. There was a fire." He took a deep breath. "She's dead, doll. And her husband and the boy. Just the girls got out."
"Oh God…Tig…"
"Look, I'm pretty sure I'm their guardian. At least, I was when they were first born. I don't think they ever changed it. I'm ah…I'm gonna be bringing the girls home with me." He said nervously.
"Of course you are!" Venus replied. "Of course you're bringing them home. You just tell me what ever you need me to do to get the house ready. Do you want me to come out there, for the funeral?"
"I don't know. I don't know anything right now. Damn it. Their neighbor called me. I haven't even talked to the girls yet."
"Tig, you listen to me. Drive slowly and be safe. I know how you get when you're upset."
"Yeah, thanks. I gotta go. I gotta, I don't know. I gotta go." He hung up the phone and threw it onto his passenger seat.
His nieces were…18 and maybe 12? 12 or 13. Nora had just started college; she was living at home to save money. Hazel was in middle school. And Drew, Drew was 15. He was turning 16 in just a few months. He wanted Tig to come for his party and help him fix up an old beater car he had his eye on at a lot. He was gone.
And his sister. His baby sister. She was all the family Tig had left in the world besides the club. He had worked hard to stay in her life. When he left for the military, when he was in prison, when she moved so far away. He wanted his sister in his life. And now she was gone.
Tig pulled up and parked his truck on the opposite side of the street from his sister's house. He looked at the aftermath of the fire. Everything was charred and black. Nothing had been spared. He looked at the site. He knew it well. It was a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house. The kids were upstairs, girls on one side, Drew on the other. And his wife and brother-in-law slept on the main floor, in the master suite. He examined the wreckage to figure out how the girls, the furthest from any exit, were able to get out.
There were men walking around the site, probably an arson investigator or fire chief. He contemplated going to talk to them, but headed to the neighbor's house instead. The old man had said the kids could stay there till he got into town. He knew them somewhat. They were older, and had lived next door since his sister bought the house 15 years ago.
He jogged up the porch steps and knocked on the door. Mrs. Robertson, an older woman of probably 65 opened the door in a zippered house coat.
"Alex, I haven't seen you in a long time." She greeted him.
"Mrs. Robertson. Thank you so much for taking care of my girls. How are they doing?" She waved him in and he wiped his boots and followed her in the door. She paused in the front room and lowered her voice.
"Nora burnt her hand pretty good, and twisted her ankle. She got Hazel out through the window, dropped down from the garage onto the flower beds. She's okay, I think. Probably in a little shock. She's worried about what's going to happen next. Little Hazy is quite upset. Clutching that little old dog of theirs like a life preserver. Neither one of them would eat any breakfast."
Tig nodded his head. "I saw men still next door." He left the rest of the question hang there.
"Mr. Robertson already talked to them, and he called the insurance agency. He was their lawyer, you know. Semi-retired now, he still takes care of his old clients. That's the insurance agent over there now. The fire crew left. They said it was the furnace. There was a gas leak and the furnace started up and a spark must have ignited it. Nora said Hazel heard the smoke detector. I don't know why the others didn't. But you know Max snored something terrible, and your sister wore ear plugs to bed every night. I used to do the same thing till Mr. Robertson got his sleep apnea machine."
Tig nodded his head. He was itching to find his nieces and check on them for himself. He had seen the house. There was nothing left. He wasn't sure what the insurance agent thought he was going to assess.
"They were fully insured you know, house and life policies. It's too bad what happened. And Nora is only 18. She won't be allowed to be Hazel's guardian. But I suppose, that's why you're here. You are going to take Hazel, aren't you Alex. Max had no family. His brother died in Iraq and his parents are gone. He has maybe a cousin somewhere, but I don't know…"
"I'm gonna take care of them both. Don't you worry about that. Is it alright if I go back and see them?" He pushed the conversation along a bit.
"Oh, my, yes. I'm so sorry. I'm just rattling on and you haven't even seen them yet." Mrs. Robertson walked through the kitchen to an informal family room. Nora was sitting on the corner of the couch, her ankle wrapped up in an ace bandage, stretched out on an ottoman. Hazel was laying down across the couch, her head in her sister's lap, their old grey dog tucked in next to her.
"Hey, girls." Tig said quietly.
"Alex."
"Uncle Alex."
Both girls greeted him as if they were surprised to see him. They must have known he was on the way. Hazel got up, with the dog, and gave him a hug. Nora started to shift and Tig waved her back down.
"Stay, sit." He sat in the middle of the couch and pulled Hazel down to sit on the other side of him. He wrapped his arms around them both. "I am so glad you two are okay. I am so sorry all this happened."
Nora sniffed once and went back to resting her head in her hand. Hazel snuggled in next to him.
"I want you girls to know I'm gonna take care of everything. I'm gonna take care of you."
"And Randy?" Hazel asked.
Tig rubbed the dog's head. "And Randy."
Tig sat down at the kitchen table with Nora. Hazel had finally fallen asleep on the couch. He scribbled in the corner of the legal pad Mr. Robertson had given him to check his pen.
"Alright doll, Mrs. Robertson said you've been listing off things all morning that need to be taken care of. Let's write them down so we can get a handle on everything."
"Okay." Nora shrugged. She played with the water dripping down her glass.
"So first, I've got a couple of important questions for you, and I want you to answer me honestly. First off, do you want to stay with me and your sister? You're welcome to, and I know it's what she would choose, but I want to know what you want. You're in college. You could move into the dorms, or get an apartment. Or live with me and Hazel."
Nora glanced in the family room at her little sister. "I want to stay with Hazel."
"Okay." Tig squeezed her uninjured hand. "Now, second question, do you want me to move here, and keep you two around what you know, or do you want to come to California with me?"
Nora's head snapped to him surprised. "Alex, you can't move here. You have a house, and a job, and your club. And mom said you were living with someone. You can't expect them to just pick up and move."
"Honey, this is about what is best for the two of you. I will do anything for you two. You're my family."
Nora played with the water that was now making a ring on the table. "I think we should leave."
Tig nodded his head. "That means you would have to withdraw from college."
"I know."
"Okay. So now we know where we're gonna live. How about a list of what we need to do before we move you two out of here?"
"The funerals." Nora said right away.
"Of course, the funerals. Do you know if your parents made any plans? Bought plots? If they wanted to be cremated?"
"They wanted to be buried. But they didn't prepare anything. Mom went over a lot of this stuff last year. Her and dad flew to New York for their 20th anniversary. And…you know mom was terrified of flying. She pictured them going down in a fiery crash. She went over all the financials and insurance with me."
"Alright, shoot." Tig picked up his pen.
"They wanted to be buried here in town. Simple service, closed casket, but...I guess that's a given now. Mr. Robertson has their will. You get custody of us. Of Hazel…I guess… Dad had a $100,000 policy. I only remember because it was offered with his new job and he and mom fought over it and she made him take it. Mom has something too, but I don't know how much. The house and cars are insured together. We…Drew…has what she called a funeral policy. I guess that means it's all it covers, I don't really know."
Tig listed things off in bullet points.
"401k's and bank accounts. We each had an account with mom and us on it. So…Drew's savings account. Pay off the mortgage and mom's car with the insurance. We need to call their works and tell them what happened. And mine, I guess. Mrs. Robertson called Hazel's school this morning. You're gonna need to withdraw her and get her records transferred to California."
Tig scratched out each thing she listed quickly.
"I need to withdraw from my classes. It's early enough in the semester, I think I'll get a little bit of money back. I know it's before the deadline to get W's for my classes…so that's good."
Tig nodded his head as he wrote.
"We need clothes, and personal stuff, toothbrushes and the like. I need new keys made for my car. I can take my car to California, can't I?"
"Sure, sure you can." Tig stated as he wrote down 'new keys for car.'
"I don't have a license anymore. Mr. Robertson said he filed the paperwork to get us new birth certificates and social security cards. I don't know…should I get an I.D. here to drive to California, or just wait till we get there?"
Tig stopped writing. He wasn't sure.
"I need a new ATM card. I might need an I.D. for that. So I'll just get one here."
Tig nodded again as he wrote.
"I don't know what else. We need new phones, and laptops. Hazel is gonna want to say bye to all of her friends. They'll probably come to the funeral. We'll have to have a viewing after 5 for the parents to bring them. We'll have to write an obituary."
Tig set his pen down. He hadn't thought about that yet. "You guys don't go to church. Do you have anyone in mind to do a service? Do you want to speak?"
"No. I can't. I just want all 3 done at once. One big viewing. I can't do that 3 times. You want to talk?"
"I…don't know. I'll have to think about it." Tig picked up his pen. "Anything else bouncing around in that busy head of yours?"
"We need stuff for Randy. A bed, toys, a seatbelt for the trip. He can only eat canned food. He doesn't have a lot of teeth left." Nora shrugged at that. They had adopted him as a senior at 8 years old and had to have half his teeth pulled. He was 11 now, and Hazel's best friend. "We lost his paperwork. But we can probably get printouts from the vet, or just have them transfer them to the new vet."
Tig finished writing, 'transfer files to new vet' and set the pen back down. He looked at the long list. He didn't know how to take care of half this stuff. He would need to consult Mr. Robertson.
"How long do the insurance checks take?" Nora asked.
"I don't know, why?"
"To pay for the funerals. And to get me and Hazel clothes. There's money in mom and dad's checking account, but without their checks or their atm card I don't know how to get it."
"Let me worry about the money. Don't think about it. You may not get new laptops till the checks come in, but worst-case scenario I can borrow money from the club to pay for the funerals and pay 'em back when the insurance money comes in. I have plenty to get you two what you need. I don't want you to worry about money." Tig rubbed his head.
"Actually," he started. "There is something about the money I want to talk to you about. You're 18. Do you want some of that money put in your name? I don't know who the checks will be made out to."
Nora thought for a moment. It wasn't that she didn't trust her uncle with her parents' money, but without him and the cash she would be living in her car.
"It would be nice, to have some security. My tuition money maybe."
"Okay, tell you what, when the checks clear, and I pay off the immediate expenses, we'll split the money 2 ways. Half in your account, and half in an account in your and Hazel's name. That keeps me out of it. Now, I do know that I will get a check from social security for Hazel until she's 18. I'll use that to cover your expenses at the house."
"That's not fair. We're gonna be in your home."
"I'm not looking to make a profit. I just need to cover the extra utilities and food."
"I'll pay rent, I'm 18."
"Nora, you will not pay rent. You weren't paying rent to your parents to stay home and go to school."
"I was…well…they gave me the internet bill to cover every month."
"That sounds fair. When we get to Charming, you pay the internet bill, okay? Nothing else."
Nora nodded her head.
"Alright, now I'm gonna talk to Mr. Robertson real quick about what of all this he knows about or already started. And then, if you're up to it, you and I can go to the store, pick up what you need for a week or two, and I'll move you girls into a hotel till we drive back."
"Umm…I'm up for it….but…I don't have shoes." Nora looked down. Why had she insisted her sister put on shoes and then not done so herself? "But…if you can…you know…pop my trunk…without the keys… I have shoes and socks in my winter emergency kit."
Tig raised his eyebrows at her hesitation. "You think I can pop your trunk open because I'm an outlaw?" He joked.
Nora blushed slightly. "Well, you are a mechanic." She shrugged.
"Good cover. I'll get 'em out of there."
Tig stood in the aisle at Target while Nora picked out clothing for her and her sister. He was talking to Venus on the phone.
"Hazel wants to share a room, like they did here." He paused to listen to Venus. "I think Nora's going to say yes to anything her sister wants right now. I think we can fit 2 twin beds in the guest room with the dressers. I'll send the guys over to help you." He paused again for her to speak. "Arrange it however it will fit. Measure it out first, they may have to have bunk beds, but I don't think they would prefer it that way." He listened to her again. "Just metal bed frames, basic mattresses, they're young, they have good healthy backs." He chuckled at himself. "Just a middle of the line mattress, not to soft, not to hard." He paused again. "I don't know how they want to decorate it. We can paint later if they want. I'll let them pick out bedding online and ship it to the house." He paused again. "Just throw the queen bed in the den for now, stand it up against the wall. Thank you doll, Love you." He hung up when Nora came out of the clothing section.
"She's setting stuff up for us?"
"Yeah, want you two to be able to settle in as soon as you get there. There's a long dresser and a chest of draws. The closet is just average, but you can use the one in the den too if you need it."
"Thanks." Nora looked down at the cart and drummed her fingers on the handle. "Hygiene stuff now, I guess. And we need to go to the pet store, they don't sell Randy's brand of food here." She said hesitantly.
"Whatever needs done, doll. How's the ankle?"
"It's fine, it wasn't really that bad."
"And the hand."
Nora looked down at her hand wrapped in gauze. "It's okay. I guess I need more gauze and burn cream for it. It's only a second degree burn. It was really stupid what I did."
Tig ran his hand down the back of her hair. "Yeah, real stupid saving your sister's life and all. It's not like you were woken out of a deep sleep and panicking or anything."
Nora rolled her eyes. "Yeah, nothing like that."
"You need some suitcases or duffle bags to get your new stuff home in." Tig reminded her as they passed the suitcase aisle.
"Umm…we need new book bags. We can just use those." Nora shrugged.
"Alright."
Tig stayed outside of the aisles while Nora grabbed deodorant, toothbrushes and paste, brushes and hair bands, face cleaner and moisturizer. And god forbid tampons. He had two menstruating girls under his roof now, he'd better start stocking up on chocolate, he thought to himself.
She picked up a leash in the dog section because it was cheaper here. Randy slept in his harness, so she could skip a new one of those. She picked up a bag of soft treats and some tiny stuffed animals. He couldn't chew hard bones with his teeth missing, but he liked to carry stuffed animals around in his mouth.
She stopped in the bedding department as Tig blindly followed her around. He looked up and furrowed his brow.
"Let's not get bedding here, you can pick out some nice stuff on my phone and Venus will have all the beds ready when you get there."
"I know, I heard. But Randy likes to sleep on a comforter, not a dog bed."
Tig grinned. Hazel may have been the one clinging to the dog all morning, but Nora was sure going out of her way to make sure he was happy.
Tig had gotten the girls settled in a hotel room together and was on his way back from picking up pizza, he waited for Venus to answer the phone.
"Hey Tiggy," Venus answered.
"Hey yourself, doll. How are things going there?"
"I got the beds and mattresses ordered. They're gonna get dropped off tomorrow. I wish there was more I could do. I feel like a mom nesting before she gives birth. I can't wait to meet your girls."
Tig smiled. "I know you want to rush out and buy them a bunch of stuff, but I want them to have a chance to pick things out. Make the house theirs, you know?"
"Yeah. Tig? Did you tell them about me?"
"Of course. I told my sister when you moved in. They know I'm living with someone."
"But do they know WHO you are living with?"
"Oh doll, don't be that way." Tig parked in the hotel lot and turned off his truck. "The girls are gonna love you."
"You need to tell them Tiggy. Just so they aren't surprised. They may be uncomfortable at first."
"I don't think so."
"They're just a couple of mid western girls from an average two parent house."
"I don't think Wyoming is technically the mid west."
"And now you're changing the subject." Venus chastised. "Do you know when the funeral will be? I wanna come for it. Unless you don't want me there."
"I want you there. I'm gonna take the girls to the funeral home tomorrow, set things up. Not really looking forward to it."
"How are you doing honey? Really? You just lost your sister; you haven't taken a chance to grieve."
"I'm trying to be strong for the girls. Hazy is a mess, and Nora is being pretty quiet and withdrawn compared to her normal self. It's gonna hit me hard tomorrow, I think. Picking out the caskets and the like." Tig blinked his eyes a few times to rid them of tears.
"I could drive in tonight, go with you."
"If you knew anything about life or home owner's insurance, I might take you up on it. Their neighbor was their lawyer. He's been helping me with stuff. I never took care of this stuff for my parents. Sadie did it all."
"How is the insurance looking? Can Nora keep going to college?"
"Yeah, their dad had a good policy. I don't know about the rest yet. I will tomorrow afternoon. I gotta go, doll. The pizza's getting cold. Love you."
"Love you more."
The funeral home was worse than he had thought it would be. All 3 of them cried at one point or another. He dropped the girls off at the hotel and met Mr. Robertson and his sister's insurance agent at the insurance office. As far as he could tell the girls were in better financial shape now then he had ever been in his life. It was hard to think of his sister's death that way, but it was the truth.
They were 15 years into paying off a 20 year mortgage. And they had kept good records of expensive pieces in the home to add to the policy. Probably had the lawyer to thank for that. Mr. Robertson was a god send with all of the paperwork involved. He even talked the insurance agent into cutting part of the check right there and then in the office to pay for the funerals. The rest would come in a few weeks. Along with the life insurance.
Tig had been planning on borrowing cash from the Denver charter and paying them back later. He was happy not to have to ask a favor from a charter he had never been to. Chibs had already contacted them, and 2 of them had come up to deal with Nora's car for him. It was good to have brothers.
Now he was in a department store with a silent 18 year old and a weepy 12 year old. Nora was helping Hazel pick out something to wear to the viewing and the funeral. He tried his best to stay out of their conversation. He wore jeans and his kutte to every funeral he went to.
Should he wear his kutte to his sister's funeral? The Denver charter, Indian Hills, and Vegas were sending brothers. And his own club was making the trip as well. His kutte had been folded on the back seat of his truck since he pulled up outside his sister's house.
"Nora." Tig called over to the girls. Nora turned her head. "I'm gonna go pick up a button up." He nodded his head towards the men's section.
"Okay." Nora acknowledges him, and turned back to her sister.
Tig blew out a breath and walked across the store. Maybe he would get some nice slacks too. But then he would have to get dress shoes. Maybe he should just call Venus and ask her to pick out something from his closet.
He pulled out his phone to do so and saw a message from Happy. The beds were in and the room was arranged. He was really gonna bring these girls home with him. He was gonna have kids back in his house again. He thought of his daughters as little girls, before Colleen had taken them away. He pushed the image of Dawn burning out of his mind and scrolled to Fawn's number.
He got voicemail, as he expected. "Fawn, doll, it's your dad. I've got some bad news for you. Aunt Sadie died. The house burned down. Your uncle Max and cousin Drew are gone too. The girls are coming to live with me. I'd really like it if you came to the funeral. It would mean a lot to me and your cousins." He rattled off the information about the funeral home and hung up. He wasn't much in the mood to go clothes shopping.
"Girls, we need to talk for a minute." Tig came in their room the afternoon before the funeral. Venus was only an hour away and he still hadn't mentioned that she was…different.
The girls looked at him expectantly.
"Venus is gonna be here in an hour. I thought we could all grab some dinner." He started off casual.
Hazel nodded her head alongside Nora.
"So, there's something you need to know about Venus. She's my girlfriend, and she lives with me. She's gonna be living with US." He emphasized. "The thing is….Venus…wasn't always a her."
He looked at his nieces and they stared back at him blankly.
"She used to be a man. Now…she's a woman."
The girls continued to just stare at him.
"How ah…how do you feel about that? Do you have any questions?"
Nora looked at Hazel and back at Tig and shrugged her shoulders.
"I mean it girls, anything at all, I want you to feel comfortable when she gets here."
"Okay." Nora said simply.
"Okay, what? You have questions?"
"No…not really." Nora shrugged. "It's 2021 Tig. We're generation Z."
"I have 2 gender fluid kids in my class." Hazel shrugged alongside her sister.
"Oh…okay…"
"So how did you 2 meet?" Hazel asked. Tig pictured the circumstances around the first time he encountered Venus.
"We…ah…well…a couple years ago, the club hired her to do a job for us. And we met, and we really hit it off."
Hazel nodded her head. "Is she okay with us coming to live with you?"
"Is she okay with it? She can't wait! She's so excited to meet you 2." He assured them.
The new family of four sat around a table at a chain restaurant. Tig and Venus on one side of the booth, Hazel and Nora on the other. The adults were done eating. Hazel was still working on her chicken tenders and Nora was picking at a salad.
"So Nora, what are you going to school for?" Venus asked.
Nora looked up, surprised. "I want to be a Histotechnologist." She answered with a shrug. She looked at the blank faces on the adults faces. "I want to work in a lab. A Histotechnologist prepares samples so doctors can diagnose diseases." She explained.
"She wants to work at the CDC." Hazel added.
"Maybe one day." Nora shrugged again and set down her fork.
"Nora likes learning about science and the human body. She reads all about diseases. It turned her into a super health freak. She drinks these gross green smoothies with super foods in them and works out all the time. She made everyone in the family switch to aluminum free deodorant." Hazel finished and took a bite of her last tender.
"What's wrong with aluminum in deodorant?" Venus asked, trying to find a topic that would interest Nora and get her talking.
"It causes cancer. The constant skin contact and daily use of it. Specifically, breast cancer, but research is still being done."
"Well then I guess we'll switch too." Venus elbowed Tig to say something.
"What do you do to work out? You did cross country and track in high school, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I still jog." Nora shrugged.
"And she does really fancy handstands. She just bends over and lifts up her legs like they don't weigh anything. It's a tuck and roll."
"It's a tuck up." Nora corrected her little sister.
"A tuck up, and then she moves her legs and twists them around and does these really pretty poses."
"That sounds impressive."
Nora smiled just a tad. "It's just something I saw someone doing on YouTube. I have pictures."
Hazel set down her chicken. "We lost all our pictures. Of mom and dad and-"
"No we didn't Hazy. Mom posted all our family pictures on Facebook, and we both have Instagram pages. None of that is gone. I'll show you how to retrieve all your accounts when we get new phones."
Hazel nodded and finished her last bite of chicken.
"What about you Hazel, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Venus asked her.
"I don't know yet. I really like dogs, but I don't want to have to give them shots or do surgeries on them. I like art class, and history. And I like volleyball."
"Do you play on a team?"
"No, middle school doesn't have a volleyball team. But I like it in gym class. I want to be on the team in high school. Does your school have volley ball?"
"I'm sure they do." Tig assured her. "Sports are really big in Charming."
"What about food? What kind of food do you want in the house when you come home with your uncle?"
The girls both shrugged their shoulders. "Well, okay, lets see." Venus started. "What do you usually eat for breakfast?"
"I eat cereal. Cheerios. Mom makes me mix the good ones with the plain ones so I don't eat too much sugar in the morning. Nora eats the same thing every morning. Oatmeal and berries. She likes blackberries, because they're the darkest and that means they have the most antioxidants in them. And she adds other stuff into them. The superfoods."
"What kind of superfoods?" Venus asked Nora.
"Chia seeds and ground flax seed. I put them in my smoothies too, with Maca powder."
"And she drinks coffee made from mushrooms." Hazel said, disgusted.
"It's good. You've never tried it. You don't know what it tastes like."
"It's MUSHROOMS." Hazel repeated.
Tig laughed. "You don't like mushrooms?"
"No, or Brussel sprouts, or asparagus. Nora eats that stuff. I like normal vegetables, corn…green beans…carrots…maybe peas. And I like fruit. All kinds of fruit. Except figs. And plums."
A waitress came and cleared the plates and left the bill on the table.
"When ever you're ready." She said as she walked away.
"Well, what do you say we get out of here? It's gonna be a long day tomorrow."
"What's it gonna be like?" Hazel asked.
"What do you mean Hazy?" Tig asked her.
"The funeral. Are we gonna see the bodies? When grandma died, they did her makeup and her hair and put her in a fancy dress. She just laid there. It was creepy."
"You aren't gonna see them. The coffins are closed. There's gonna be flowers, and lots of people coming to see us and tell us how sorry they are, and give us hugs. And then the funeral director found a minister to talk for a little bit." Nora assured her sister.
"What's he gonna say? He didn't know them."
"He's just gonna say comforting stuff about death. About them being at peace, and that they'll be watching over us, and we'll see them again. Stuff like that."
"How long is it gonna take?"
Tig stood up and took Hazel by the hand. "He'll only speak for a little bit. But people are gonna be coming to see us for a very long time. Come on, lets get back to the hotel. Randy hasn't gotten his dinner yet."
The funeral home was packed. Tig stood behind his nieces, squeezing their shoulders, offering his support. Hazel was exhausted. Nora was thanking everyone on behalf of the family. A lot of parents and kids came in the evening. Which is also when his brothers came.
He had decided not to wear his kutte, and dressed in the nice clothes Venus had picked out for him. His brothers apparently had decided kuttes weren't appropriate for this type of funeral either, and were all dressed in dark shirts and black or blue jeans.
His brother's old ladies, women he had never met, were fawning over the girls. Saying how sorry they were, how terrible it all was. How bad they felt. He wasn't sure any of it was really a comfort. But he knew it was all in earnest.
He was surprised when his daughter walked in with her boyfriend. He watched her stand in the receiving line and gave her a big hug when she got to him. He thanked her for coming and she gave the girls big hugs. He wanted to break away and talk to her, and felt he should also play host to his brothers, but he didn't want to leave the girls standing there in front of the looming line all alone.
Nora was putting on a tough face. Dealing with all the people as they came up. But Tig could tell she was getting quieter and quieter in her responses. It didn't help when a group of her friends from high school came together and broke out crying when they hugged her. She bit her lip and told them it was okay, that she was okay, but his hand was on her shoulder, and he could feel her trembling.
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