Six of Us Part 1
"Hey, sister emergency!" Jude called as she entered Thea's house.
"What do you need?" Thea called from the kitchen.
"An outfit." Jude reached the kitchen, "Sean and I are going out tonight and I don't really have the time to go pick something up and I kinda want something a little new." She said, "Or borrowed." She added.
"Or blue?" Thea smiled.
"Sure, I like blue." Jude nodded as the joke went over her head.
"Well you can take a look but Dominic and I are also going out tonight so… don't take any of my favourites." Thea nodded, putting the groceries away.
"Oh, nice. Where you going?" Jude asked, giving her some help.
"Marianna's." Thea nodded, "It's been a while since we've been out just the two of us."
"No way. That's where we're going." Jude smiled as Thea turned to her, "Maybe we could phone up and get them to make the table for four." She said as Thea looked at her, nodding slowly.
"Yeah or… I mean, we could go somewhere else. I don't mind. If you guys want some alone time." Thea shrugged.
"No, that would be nice. I've missed out on things like this for a long time since we were in New York. We should do more things together." Jude nodded, "In fact, we should even ask Cassie and Theo too."
"Which means all seven children would be staying with mom and dad? That's a little cruel." Thea nodded.
"Oh, that is slightly bad." Jude thought about it, "Maybe they won't mind."
"Jude." Thea laughed, "Seven kids. Our kids. Demon kids. Sam." She emphasised as Jude chuckled.
"Don't. They're all sweet kids. James doesn't even count and neither does Lena. So it's really only five." Jude nodded.
"It's really ok if we just go out separately." Thea nodded, trying to be as subtle as she could.
"Why don't you want to go out with us?" Jude questioned, "Is it Sean? You don't wanna go out with him?"
"No, it's not that." Thea scoffed, "Just… well we never really do stuff with guys included. It might be awkward for them." She shrugged.
"They're grown ass men. They can have a conversation about sports or something." Jude shrugged, "C'mon, we've never even done this before which is pretty insane."
"Ok, fine. You can convince Cassie, though. That's all you." Thea waved her hand.
"Ok, fine." Jude accepted the challenge, "I'm going to look through your closet." She smiled cheerily, rushing away upstairs as Thea couldn't help smile at her excitement.
"How'd you agree to this? You don't like things like this." Theo said, walking down the street with Cassie towards the restaurant they were meeting at.
"It's not that I don't like them." Cassie said, "Jude sounded really excited and I actually like when she sounds excited about stuff. It's annoyingly infectious." She nodded, "And she made a point… it's crazy we've never hung out the six of us before."
"We're not exactly six compatible people, are we?" Theo asked her, "I feel bad for your parents."
"Are you kidding? Did you see all the activities they had planned for them? And the sleeping bags in the living room?"
"Yeah, I kinda wanted to stay with them too, actually." Theo nodded as she chuckled, "My grandma used to hit me with a brush when I stayed with her, when I got in her way."
"Oh, nice." Cassie nodded.
"Yeah, sweet woman." Theo nodded, arriving at the restaurant, opening the door and letting Cassie walk through first.
They found the table, seated right at the window in the corner, last to arrive as usual.
"Drink, ma'am?" The waiter wasted no time in asking.
"Uh… whatever your house white is, please." Cassie smiled.
"And for you?" The waiter asked Theo.
"I'll do a Coors. Thanks." Theo nodded as the waiter eventually left the table.
"It's busy here tonight." Cassie observed.
"I don't think this place is ever quiet." Jude said, "Anytime I pass it's full."
"We came here for a birthday last year." Thea nodded, "I can't remember who. Mine or yours." She pointed to Dominic, "It was nice."
"House wine?" Jude turned to Cassie beside her.
"Yeah? It's an Italian, you can't go wrong." Cassie shrugged.
"Were you guys working today?" Thea asked Cassie and Theo, reaching for a breadstick.
"Yeah." Theo nodded, "Working hard." He said.
"Very hard." Cassie nodded, gliding her foot up Theo's leg under the table as he smiled to himself.
"Did you get that full apartment block?" Sean asked them.
"Yeah, but some were-"
"No no no." Jude interrupted, "No work talk. No… cop talk." She shook her head, "Next thing you'll all start showing us your scars." She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, Theo show them the one from the shooting." Cassie nodded as Theo stood up, pulling his shirt up and turning to the side where the white scar ran along his entire torso.
"Oh Jesus." Thea raised her eyebrows, "That's how far they cut you to get some tiny bullet fragments?" She questioned.
"Well I was bleeding all over the place from inside so… they had to get a bigger look." Theo shrugged, sitting back down.
"You still feel pain?" Dominic asked him.
"Not so much pain as it is stiffness." Theo said, "And sometimes I get tingling down that side of my leg. That's normal, right?" He asked Thea.
"Not really, no." Thea said honestly, "But… it sounds like nerve damage which actually kinda makes sense for people who have been shot. Tingling or numbness?" She clarified.
"Both?" Theo nodded.
"Maybe you're having a heart attack." Jude looked over at him.
"Jude." Cassie rolled her eyes.
"Maybe." Theo nodded along.
"You don't get it in your arms, do you?" Thea wondered.
"Oh, he is not having a heart attack." Cassie rolled her eyes as they all laughed a little, going silent whilst Cassie and Theo's drinks arrived.
They ordered food, passing their menus off to the waiter, more silence coming over the table as the couples exchanged glances across from each other, coaxing each other to think of something to say.
"I think James has a girlfriend." Thea spoke up.
"Isn't he like eight?" Theo laughed a little.
"He's thirteen." Thea looked over at him with confusion.
"He's starting early." Sean nodded proudly.
"When did you losers have your first girlfriends then?" Thea chuckled as she looked at the guys.
"Well there's a difference between first girlfriends where holding hands is as good as it gets, or first girlfriends where… you know…" Theo nodded, "A little more than holding hands is on the radar."
"Well when did you do a little more than holding hands, Theo?" Thea smiled, picking at another breadstick.
"Sixteen." Theo nodded.
"Oh, me too." Cassie smiled.
"I'm confused." Jude admitted, "We're talking about the v card, right?"
"Yes." Thea nodded, "Sorry, we didn't explain it properly for you." She rubbed Jude's shoulder as Jude rolled her eyes.
"Well I was eighteen." Jude nodded.
"Of course you were." Thea shook her head, "And you?" She asked Sean.
"Sixteen too." Sean nodded.
"What about you two then?" Theo looked over at Thea and Dominic.
"Fifteen." Dominic said as Thea played with her breadstick.
Jude watched her, sighing to herself as she already knew Thea's answer.
"Uh… thirteen." Thea nodded.
"For holding hands?" Theo teased as Cassie shook her head at him discretely.
"Bit of a weird thing to talk about at dinner." Dominic nodded as he looked over at Thea who wasn't saying anything. He could tell she was uncomfortable.
"It's not what you guys think. I was… I knew what I was doing." She made clear. Even though she looked at her son and only then realised just how quickly she had made herself grow up when she was his age. When she shouldn't have been doing the things she was.
"We don't have to talk about it." Jude said quietly, taking Thea's hand under the table, "It's ok." She nodded.
"No, it's fine." Thea shook her head, brushing her hand away, "Anyway, her name is Jess. She seems sweet." She smiled.
"And you're embarrassing him." Dominic smiled.
"I'm his mom. It's my job." Thea shrugged as they chuckled.
"How are him and Sam adjusting to the new dog?" Sean asked.
"Well honestly, Chance is so well behaved that sometimes you barely notice he's there. It's amazing, actually. How smart he is. Sam is still learning to give him space but they're all doing good." Thea nodded.
"That's great." Cassie smiled to Thea who nodded.
"How'd he get his name?" Theo asked, "Homeward Bound?" He guessed.
"Sam is a big fan." Thea nodded, "So Sofia allowed it."
"My mom is the oldest." Mirren argued.
"No she isn't." James hummed, sitting on the sofa with his phone in front of him, too old to join in with his younger cousins and their games, but still sitting around listening in.
"She is." Mirren said.
"No. She isn't." James assured her, "Ours is. She just turned forty. Your mom is like… thirty-four or something."
"Oh." Mirren said, "Well what about Aunt Cassie?" She shook her head.
"She's twenty-eight." James nodded.
"So there's six years between them." Sofia noticed, sitting on the floor next to Chance.
"Nana A had a baby every six years." Mirren said.
"What's that noise?" Leela piped up, getting out of her sleeping bag where she had been combing her furbies hair.
"That's my sister." Chase nodded, "She cries when she's hungry. And tired. And when she pees and poops." He said, "She peed on daddy this morning."
"Why?" Leela looked at him with confusion as Chase shrugged, "Well when my baby dolls cry, I get them to stop right away." She said smugly, folding her arms.
"By smacking their head off the wall or taking their batteries out?" James scoffed.
"No." Leela said immediately, "By taking care of them, actually."
"Well… Lena isn't a doll." James made clear whilst Sofia laughed a little.
"Ok, pizza is on." Punk announced, "You guys hungry?" He asked.
"Make that noise stop, papa." Leela covered her ears whilst Lena cried in the kitchen where AJ was getting ready to feed her.
"It will soon." Punk nodded, "Lena's just hungry."
"I told you." Chase said.
"Well feed her quickly." Leela huffed, "Because she's really loud."
"It's a good thing you're the youngest in your family." James nodded as Leela made a face at him.
"Does Nana A have babies every six years?" Mirren asked as Punk looked at them all, looking over at James who was laughing a little and shrugging.
"She did. Yeah." Punk nodded, "She had Thea, and then she had Jude, and then she had Cassie."
"How did she have them?" Leela asked as Punk folded his arms.
"In a hospital." Punk nodded, trying to dodge the question.
"Did she not want to have any boys? Because boys suck?" Mirren asked.
"No they don't." Chase said angrily.
"You don't get a choice." Punk said, "You guys hungry?" He went back to his initial question.
"Yes, I am." Sofia nodded.
"Did you only make pizza?" Leela asked.
"Yeah, because maybe I got dessert for you all, too. If you're good." Punk shrugged as he watched them smile to each other. He loved to see enjoyment on their little faces.
Although it was overwhelming to babysit all seven of them, and at times quite stressful, it was just great to spend time with them and hear their little conversations with one another. He'd do anything for his daughters, and just the same he'd do anything for the little people they had created too.
"You wrapped her in bubble wrap and made her run at things?" Sean asked, pointing to Cassie.
"Yeah." Jude confirmed.
"She was always down to do it." Thea defended.
"I was." Cassie confirmed, "They told me to test out a tyre swing once on vacation. I did. It snapped and I broke my ankle." She nodded.
"Our little guinea pig." Jude smiled, rubbing Cassie's shoulder.
"Wasn't it weird for you growing up with Cassie?" Theo asked Thea across the table, "I mean… when you were like twenty she was? What?"
"Eight." Cassie answered.
"It wasn't weird." Thea shook her head, "It was actually kinda cool cause I got to see her first steps and watch her learn to speak. And I was old enough that I can still remember it. I was kinda like her dad for the first eight years."
"You were a good dad." Cassie nodded as Thea smiled to her.
"And they both irritated the hell out of me which is why being a middle child is the worst." Jude concluded as they all chuckled.
"You love us." Cassie nudged Jude, "So how has it been? Being back in Chicago? I'll be honest… I never thought you'd come back."
"I don't think we did either." Jude admitted, looking across at Sean.
"Was it really to do with that lunatic at your work?" Thea asked, "Or did you really have being chief set in your sights?" She smiled.
"I really didn't." Sean assured them, "Everything just kinda happened at once I guess, right?" He looked at Jude.
"Yeah, it did." Jude agreed, "I've surprised myself by how much I've actually missed it here."
"Dominic were you born in Chicago?" Cassie asked, "I don't think I've ever asked or known."
"Yeah, I was." Dominic nodded.
"He was born in the wilderness." Thea nodded to them.
"Were you born on a farm?" Jude smiled, "I'm so jealous."
"Not a farm." Dominic chuckled, "We stayed about half an hour out from here. It was in the middle of nowhere, I guess. My parents built the house from scratch." He said as they all raised their eyebrows, apart from Thea who knew this information.
"Were they…"
"Rich? Yeah." Dominic nodded.
"They were lawyers, right?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah. Mom was a family lawyer and dad was a criminal defence lawyer." Dominic nodded, "And that's about as much as I know about them." He laughed a little.
"What age were you when they passed?" Jude asked.
"I was six, about to be seven." Dominic said, "Then I went and lived with my mom's sister and her husband. They live more in the city."
"But if your parents built their house and clearly, they owned it… what happened to it?" Cassie asked.
"It got sold and the money got split between me and Scott, my brother." Dominic said, "Fascinating, right?" He smiled a little.
"It's just a shame they built a damn house and never got to enjoy it." Jude frowned.
"Well someone's enjoying it now." Dominic shrugged as Thea smiled.
"How did they die?" Theo asked as Cassie shot him a disapproving look.
"Car accident. Dad was killed instantly, and mom hung on in hospital for a couple days before she died." He said, "Alright someone else tell their sob stories now. I'm done with mine." He shook his head, taking a sip of water as Thea tapped his foot under the table softly.
"Your parents would never have approved of me." Thea smiled at him.
"Why not?" Dominic asked, "You didn't know them."
"C'mon… lawyers are in like the same rank as politicians and accountants." Thea said whilst Cassie looked down awkwardly, glancing at Theo who was staring at his beer. Jude and Sean were also saying nothing.
"I didn't know them. I'm not sure why you think you do." Dominic said, trying hard not to sound mad.
"No, I'm just saying…" Thea laughed a little, realising he wasn't laughing with her, "They just probably thought you could do better. All parents of son's think that way." She shrugged.
"I can actually agree." Jude nodded as Sean looked at her, "Oh, your mom does not like me. She never has."
"I actually think she's scared of you." Sean said.
"My mom loves Cassie." Theo said, "Sometimes I think she loves her more than me, actually-"
"You two don't count." Jude waved her hand.
"I'm going for a cigarette." Dominic said, leaving the table as Thea watched, fidgeting with her hands, turning to the rest of them who tried to avoid eye contact with her awkwardly.
"When are they bringing this food? I'm starving." Theo said, trying to break the silence.
