Howdy everyone, thank you so much for your kind reviews and messages. Here's the new chap.
Enjoy,
So ;)
Act 57: Sara
"Say uncle," I demand giving a noogie to Sidney.
"Never!" he wrestles back.
He pokes me on one of my weak spots and I squeak letting go just enough for him to move out of my grip. We keep our battle for domination, tickling and poking, but I get a grip on him again and slug him on the cheek.
"Argh… uncle, uncle!" he capitulates immediately. "Yuk, yuk, yuk," he shakes himself like he was coursed by shivers. "That'd disgusting!"
Linds' laughter mingles with mine. "Sara the Brave wins again, that's five to one."
"Yes," I raises both my arms in victory. "I'm the best," I pants.
Sidney rolls his eyes. "I'm the best," he repeats with a whiny voice. "You're just lucky today, is all."
"Oh don't pout," I ruffle his hair and he gets out of my reach sticking his tongue out at me.
Sidney was in town for business, and things took a turn for the better. Apparently, the new client, very satisfied with my siblings' work, commissioned a new order and promoted them to someone else. As a result they have new orders, so Sidney will be coming to Vegas a lot more in the upcoming months something for which I'm glad.
We're spending the day at Cath's because she had some plans with Nancy and I had promised to watch over Lindsey, plus she has a backyard which is much more fun to play in.
Linds chortles with a shake of head. "You've put on a good fight though, Sid."
"Thank you, and let it be said that I let her win."
"Ah," I huff. "So that's what you've been doing since we were babies, uh?"
He lifts his left hand wiggling his fingers. "Oh you're getting it now."
"Sid… don't," I try to protest but he's faster, and before I can get up from the floor he's pinned me down and is tickling me fiercely.
I'm laughing too hard to breathe, wiggling like a fish out of water but don't manage to escape his attack. "Uncle!" I cry out when I'm on the verge of passing out.
"Sidney the Fierce, wins!" he declares with his funny voice.
"Maybe but he's still losing five to two," Linds points out with a chuckle.
Sid narrows his eyes at her. "You know, I suspect you're giving points away."
"Hey now, I'm just the referee…" Linds starts to protest but springs up on her feet as soon as she understand he's about to pounce on her. Soon, Sid is chasing her around the backyard while I try to decide who I should side with, and make my mind up in about three seconds just has Sid catches Lindsey.
Linds tries to escape Sidney's hands as he's digging his fingers in her ribs, squealing and wiggling around. I come to her rescue making Sid jump in surprise.
He hiccups with amusement when I poke him. "Hey not fair, that's two against one!"
We end up in a pile on the floor, it's hard to say who's tickling who and who's winning, there's a lot of squealing and laughing though.
After a couple of minutes we manage to more or less escape and stand up, Sidney being on his own decides to go for the kill, swiftly moves to grab Linds, throwing her over his shoulder, she lets out a small cry of surprise.
"Okay, I have an hostage," he announces which makes Linds chortle. "Stay away or I take her for a crazy spin."
I raise my hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, no need to go to extremes," I try to keep a straight face. "Don't panic Short Stuff, I got this."
"What's a crazy spin?" though she's amused, Linds sounds a bit apprehensive.
"Nothing you have to worry about," I assure her.
"I want you both to admit defeat and say that I'm the best, the strongest and the smartest ruler of the whole universe."
"You wish!" I huff in protest immediately. "Yeah, I'm sorry Short Stuff but I can't do that," I leave Linds under fire with very little remorse.
"Wait, what?" Linds queries.
A wicked smile appears on my brother's lips. "Crazy spin!" he shouts and starts spinning as fast as he can.
"Let me down!" Linds breathlessly demands in between fits of laughter.
"Super crazy spin!" he accelerates his moves making her laugh even more hysterically.
I don't even try to stop Sidney and just watch in amusement. I've been in Linds' place and know from experience that Sid can go for quite a while without losing his balance.
"Uncle! Uncle!"
Sidney stops spinning. "Who's the best of the universe?"
"You are, you are!" Linds is panting.
Sid pumps a fist in the air. "Sidney the Fierce wins again!"
"Kids," Cath's voice calls our attention and we turn to the house, she's looking at us a smile playing on her lips and Nancy standing next to her.
Sidney finely puts an out of breath, flushed and slightly disoriented Linds down before passing an arm around her shoulders to keep her from falling.
"Dude, I hate you," Linds mutters, swearing revenge under her breath but the effect is ruined by the broad smile she's sporting.
"Sidney, this is my sister, Nancy," Catherine continues.
My brother is still for a second as if entranced then shakes his head "Hi… I'm Sidney… the good looking, smart twin brother of Sara."
"I'm standing right here," I remind him.
"Yeah, I know," he replies never tearing his gaze from Nancy who seems highly amused by his introduction making Sid beam in response. "Notice how no one corrected me?" he asks finally looking at me. "Told you, I'm the best of the universe."
I push his head in response with a roll of my eyes.
"Nance and I are going out and we'll be back around seven, you guys are good?"
"Yup, no worries, and Linds is in good hands," Sid affirms. "Right, Short Stuff?" he gently ruffles her hair.
Linds nods with enthusiasm.
I walk up to Cath to kiss her. "And we'll take care of dinner as well," I add.
"Okay, see you later, and play nice," she kisses me again, then waves at my two acolytes.
"Bye Mom, bye aunty, love you," Linds bids them goodbye then does wait for them to leave to turn to Sidney and pounce. "Charge!"
"Hey!" is all the protest he gets out before trying to escape the teenager.
Cath shakes her head in amusement and then leaves with her sister.
We keep playing in the yard for a couple of hours switching to different ball games, then we decide to get started on dinner.
In the kitchen, Sid and I teach some things to Linds who eagerly soaks everything in. I find myself thinking of my childhood and how we'd spend days cooking and baking with my parents.
By the time Cath and Nancy come back dinner is ready, and our trio is sitting cross-legged in the living room playing thumb war.
The evening goes in a blur, we have quite an animated dinner with each pair of siblings telling stories of our younger selves. Afterwards I insist to do the dishes while they keep enjoying themselves. Since Sid is here I don't stay at Cath's, after a proper send off we get on the way to my place.
"It was a fun day," he muses.
"Yeah, thank you for taking away some of my dignity with those awesome stories," I joke.
"Hey, not my fault you were a wild child."
"Whatever," I roll my eyes.
"Nancy is really nice," he states out of the blue after a short silence.
I narrow my eyes at the road but don't say anything, though I dread a bit the next thing that will come out of his mouth. I can read my brother with the subtlest signs. I'm mentally reviewing the evening now and though the moments were brief I suspect that he has been stricken by lightning when he first saw Nancy.
"You know, she read The Knight with a green Shield? It's crazy, she's the only person I know who actually heard about that book."
"Oh boy…" I mutter. Yup, struck by lightning. If there's one thing to make my brother fall under a spell it is to like one book on his favourite list, and the book he mentioned happened to be in the top five, what were the odds really?
"I feel like a beer," he declares when we enter my apartment twenty minutes later. "Want one?"
"Sure."
I let myself fall on the couch with a satisfied sigh. "Thanks," I grab the bottle he hands me before sitting next to me. We clink our bottles before taking a sip.
"You know, I don't mind if you want to spend the night at Catherine's."
"The last time I left you alone for five minutes you set my kitchen on fire," I point out.
"Dude, it was an accident!"
"Uh-huh."
"I'm better at doing flambé now, I can be left alone."
"It's okay, I like spending time with you."
"So do I but I'll come around more often now. The point is, you don't have to baby-sit me. Besides I'm older so if anything I should be the baby-sitter."
I shake my head. "I'm not even going to answer that."
He just chortles then takes a sip of his beer. "You look well… better."
"I am," I clear my throat. "Talking to Catherine was hard, it still is but at the same time it's easy because I know that no matter what I reveal she'll stay by my sides. It's actually a good thing, talking to her. I mean, I never thought it would be, but it is."
A shit-eating grin stretches on his lips and I frown. "I have to do it, you know I do," he stands up, putting his bottle on my coffee table.
"Sid, what are you…"
I don't finish my sentence when he takes his victory dance position. "I told you so," he starts singing and shaking his body in a ridiculous way. "I was so right. Yeah me, yeah me, who's the best? Say my name!" he cups his left ear and points at me with his right.
"I refuse to do this," I pout. "We're not kids anymore, come on."
"Now, now, don't be a grouch and stop spoiling my fun, you know I deserve this," he chastises me. "Let's take it from the top,"
I roll my eyes as he starts again "I told you so, I was so right. Yeah me, yeah me, who's the best? Say my name!"
I let out an exaggerated sigh, narrowing my eyes at him "Sidney," I mumbled flatly.
He beams, kisses his fist and hols it out to me. "Kiss me, I'm awesome."
"You're a moron," I roll my eyes at his antics.
He plops down on the couch then pokes me in the ribs, soon we find ourselves laughing. There a long silence once we calm down.
"I'm happy for you," he says seriously.
I scrutinize him and briefly wonder if I should tease him about Nancy, but then decide against. "What?" he asks.
"I love you, Sid."
"Awww… I love your ugly mug too," he wraps one arm around my neck and give me a noogie before kissing my head.
"Dude!"
We spend the next day together, playing video games and just relaxing since he'll be leaving in the evening.
When I go to work the next day I'm reminded that there's nothing like a good week-end to give you a boost. Funny how when you're in a good mood you feel invincible and things seem to go your way.
Nothing dampens my mood during the week, the cases I get are some of those that make for funny stories afterwards. Shifts are slow so we get to spend quality time as a team, and it doesn't hurt that at the end of the day I get to be with Cath and Linds.
It's because I have such a great week that I'm blindsided when I wake up from a violent nightmare. I sit on the edge of the bed when I feel myself shaking and cold sweat slowly coating my back. Soon the feeling that walls are closing in overwhelms me so I exit the room quietly not to wake Cath up.
I'm used to nightmares, usually they come after bad case or during time of stress, but I know that this is an occupational hazard. With everything we deal with on the job it's normal to be deeply affected by things from time to time. Those I can shake off easily.
There's one nightmare though that I've never been able to get rid of, it's the one about the night my father died. It only got more terrifying with time too, things switching around regarding to who gets hurt, but the one constant is that I'm petrified and powerless.
I feel a sharp pain in my right hand, looking down at it I only realized now that I'm clenching my phone. I put it down on the coffee table and try to fight the urge to call my baby brother to know that he's alright or Charlie so he can soothe my anxious feelings.
Everything is so overwhelming that unwanted tears roll over my cheeks, I can't even get a grip on my breathing.
Fuck.
No worries I'm just putting things into place to wrap things up properly. I'll come back for more next week.
Thanks for reading
