A/N: See? Posted earlier than 3 months! Hope it's not too confusing... I'm not too great at the heart to heart talks...
PS. That silly rule about them not taking their communicators was something Richie had established with one of his tantrums. If someone has to alert them, come visit them.
Ch- 15: Reconnecting
Commander Sky Tate, commander Z Delgado Tate and their children, Richard Tate and Ruth Tate were all seated in the living room of their seldom-used house. The four of them lived at SPD, and so the medium sized house was usually on lock-down. Any of the four only used this house when they felt like getting away from the others. Which meant that Ruth used this house to get away from Richie in particular and to get some alone time with Sam without anyone noticing.
The whole family lived here together before Richie got into SPD. Which was about two years ago. Yeah, he was sixteen when he dropped out of school to get into SPD.
Right now, the whole family was in the living room, more than half of the house had its lights out; they didn't feel like switching it all on.
Sky, Z, Richie and Ruth were all sitting in separate chairs, none of which were very comfortable, but they were all facing each other. Sky had his hands knotted in front of him, Z was slumped back in her chair, Richie had his arms crossed in a defiant pose, and Ruth held her head in her hands, as if sick with the headache. Sky leaned back, then, and sighed, "why is this not going anywhere?"
"what?" Z asked, looking annoyed.
"we have been going at this for over an hour, tell me, why are we not doing anything?" Ruth added, supporting Sky.
"I think it's because you guys don't know the first thing about parenting?" Richie said sarcastically, and Z grinned, this was exactly what she would've said.
"Listen kids," Sky said, sitting up, "we've put forward all of our different perspective in this last hour, and we've pretty much established that all of us are adults now," then he looked at Richie, who was seventeen, "well, almost adults, I mean, you're grown up, just not legally, only, I mean, you get what I mean." He sighed again, "you two have grown up, and we can't just tell you what to do anymore."
"wait I thought this was all about you two misunderstanding us" Ruth said, confused.
"it is" Z added, "we misunderstood you, because we didn't know you had grown up so much. We thought you were still little kids who wouldn't know right from wrong." She paused, "But apparently you do."
"it's just that, today, when we saw the commotion, we automatically thought it was all caused by you." Sky said.
Ruth added, "I mean I know you're annoying, and sticky, and a little mean, and maybe a bit stuck up, and…" Richie clammed her up by placing a hand on her mouth, "thank you" he said sarcastically.
She struggled a little, and removed his hand from her mouth, and said, "What I meant to say was that you are still my brother and it was wrong of me to just assume that." then she added, a little unnecessarily, "even though you have a long convincing history of it."
"okay, enough of that, listen to us first," Z said, "you lashing out, made us realize that maybe both of us might have been a little… dictatorial to you two"
Sky nodded, "yeah, we have been a little too bossy, you know, we have like…" he was looking for words, but he just didn't know what to say.
"we know what you mean dad" Ruth said; she hadn't initially wanted to call Commander Tate 'dad', but she had learnt to do so, though it still sounded forced.
"but you should know that we only want what is best for you."
"come on! Mom, dad, how bad can it get?" Richie asked, tiredly.
"we used to know this guy, he was such a sweet guy, all he could talk about was buttery toast, he saw the best in people, and so, he was true to himself; we didn't know a guy with a clearer conscience."
"I sense a past tense," Ruth pointed out.
"he's probably the most wanted criminal on earth now, since he didn't decide to go galactic. He's a murderer, rapist, psychopath, mentally disturbed, and, honestly, he scares us" Sky explained, and then, in a very grave tone, Z added,
"you two know him as Bridge Carson"
"WHAT?"
"WHAT?"
The two teens said in unison. (I know Ruth's twenty-something, I didn't forget)
"Bridge Carson used to be?" Ruth asked, their parents usually tried to avoid this subject.
"well, what I'm trying to say is that something we did, some wrong choices we made, some…" she tried to place the words, it was so hard imagining how things might've ended had they maybe tried to talk it out with Bridge at the right time. Maybe…
Yes, 'maybe' was all that was left with them.
"the thing is, we have seen someone turn evil from good, and we don't want that to happen to you two, because we don't think we might be able to forgive ourselves for ruining another life."
"how can that happen to us? We're not in any sort of 'love-triangle', we're family you know?" Ruth said, and Z knew she felt a wave of relief rush over herself, when she heard Ruth refer to all of them as a family. Ruth had been a little mistrusting in the beginning, but it seemed like she had really accepted them in the last few years.
"it wasn't because of the love triangle mishap. Though it was our fault, we know," Sky said, giving Z a meaningful look, "it was because he had so many of his feelings bottled up, that it led him to develop so much hate, that he… well, more than he could handle."
"suppressed feelings are the cause of anger, and anger leads to crime."
Richie nodded, "I get it now. I mean I was angry, I really was, and I've had bad thoughts more than once a while. It would've only been so long till I turned those thoughts into reality."
"bad thoughts?" Ruth grinned, curious at his choice of words.
"hello, parents sitting here. Can't swear" he whispered, and Ruth grinned, "got it," she whispered back, and they shared a fist-bump.
"alright, so we just want you two to know that whatever we do, whatever 'dictatorship', you think we have imposed, it's just our desperate attempt to kinda make sure that you two don't turn bad. Because well, we both love you more than ourselves." Sky said.
"you really mean that?" Ruth asked.
"yes sweetie, of course we mean that." Sky smiled, Z added form behind, "Ruthanne, Richard, both of you are our children, and we want to protect you, we work at SPD, and we all put our lives on the line everyday. We don't know whether we would make it through another day or not, and both of you know this too well, that one day or another—"
"one way or another," Sky chimed in, knowing where his wife was headed.
"we're going to leave you" she looked painfully pensive, "and we want you two to be able to make your decisions, wrong and right, on your own. We don't want you to end up as fugitives from the law. We want what is best for you. And sometimes, if we are too harsh on you, if you feel like you can't connect with us, we're sorry"
"aww mom! You'll make us cry!" Richie said, and got up, and hugged his mom, and then his dad. Then he looked at Ruth, "hey sis" he said, and he hugged her too. she hugged him back, and then, she looked at Sky and Z, wondering whether she should hug them too, but then decided she had a confession to make. Any sort of PDA would only follow after the confession, IF they understand.
"mom, dad, I have a confession, even to you, Richie," she said, her voice a little low.
"sure sweetheart, what is it?" Z asked, taking her hand, because Ruth was obviously uncomfortable in sharing.
"I've kinda sorta been kinda sorta dating Sam" she said, VERY nervously.
Sky's face flushed red, "you WHAT? Young lady this is completely unacceptable, I told you that you should stay away from BOYS until you are at least forty!"
Z looked at Sky and chuckled, "I started dating you at twenty three…"
"see? Mom gets it" Ruth said, amused, because she had thought it'd be her mom who'd flip out, and Sky who would be supportive.
"come on Sky, she's twenty seven. She's old enough to make her decisions." Z added, shrugging.
"but she's just a little girl!" Sky protested, his wife and daughter ganging up on him? So cliché.
"dad… you didn't even know me when I was a little girl" Ruth said, and it stung Sky more than he let on,
"that's all your mom's doing." He said, kidding of course, then turned serious again, "but I've just got you, I don't want you to grow up just like that!"
"dad, even I have a girlfriend"
"everyone here knows that's a lie Richie." Sky said, momentarily being distracted by Richie, and then turned back to Ruth, then something hit him, and he turned to Richie again, "you knew about this?" he asked, MAD.
"duh"
"why didn't you rat me out?" Ruth asked, a little confused.
"no matter how bossy, irritating, annoying, vexing," then he picked up a dictionary, looked up a word, paused a moment, and continued with the list, "aggravating, bothersome, galling, caustic, incommodious, rebar—"
"We get it idiot!" she said, clamming her hand up on his face,
"what I meant to say," he pushed her hand away, "no matter whatever weird creature you are, you're my sister, and I can't rat out your secret relationship to our parents, you know?" he smirked, and Ruth could swear that if her heart could melt, it would.
"sweetie, Sam's a nice boy, we've spent enough time with him to know that." Z said, "you don't need to keep it a secret anymore, okay? As for your dad, it'll take him a while to recover from the shock, then he'll be fine too, trust me." Z smirked, placing a hand on a crashed Sky.
"you're the best mom! Even you dad. I like that you worry so much. just don't overdo it sometimes" she smiled, and gave her parents a little hug.
Then she turned to Richie, "We need to have a word-off." He smirked, then she also smiled, "thanks for having my back bro. Hope I can repay the favor."
"it's not a favor" he said, shaking his head, and Sky and Z laughed.
"you guys wanna go out for ice-cream?" Sky suggested, and they were all excited, except for Z, who had a cough (not covid-19), so she said, she'd stay home.
And so she watched as her husband and oddly, really grown up kids exited the house towards an ice-cream parlor.
Z sighed, overall, the talk had been nice, the kids had opened up to her and Sky, and well, it was all they could ask for.
'Now where is that mozzarella cheese? A sandwich wouldn't be so bad right now' Z thought, as she switched on the kitchen lights, and she felt her heart skip a beat, skip many beats, as she saw an unwanted guest sitting in the kitchen, facing her, hands crossed, legs straight, his hollow, soulless eyes fixated upon her in the most menacing way possible.
He tilted his head, comically.
"Hello Z,"
He said, smiling, almost sweetly; the viciousness in his eyes overshadowing the honey-like sickeningly sweet words.
Bridge Carson
A/N: All stuff about Carson is in the following chapter, about how he got here, how he knew others would/wouldn't be here, and stuff. Any question about the deep talks? In the review box please!
PS: how was it?
