A/N thank you so much for all the great reviews! I got the most reviews for this story that chapter! And thanks to everyone who favourite or put my story on alert! And i don't own WOWP.
There was a stunned silence all around the table. Justin sat there with his mouth gaping open and his eyes blinking rapidly. Emma was crying and Alex just froze. This was all too weird. Justin's dad was dead? Justin would be crushed. Now he would never get to meet his real father.
"H-how?" Justin mumbled incoherently. "How did it happen?"
"Motorcycle accident." Emma sniffled. "I told him to slow down!"
"He had a motorcycle?" Alex said. "That's cool. Are you sure Justin's related to him?"
Emma gave her a confused look and Justin kicked her under the table. "Not the time." He muttered.
"Jake had a motorcycle that ran on magic. It could fly and go invisible and camouflage. It also had super speed. We were driving on this abandoned field so he could go as fast as he wanted and there was no one to tell him to slow down. I was wearing his helmet. He only had one and he would always make me wear it when I was on the bike. He – he lost control and the brakes broke. He crashed and I – I couldn't save him." Emma sobbed.
Justin's eyes welled with tears as well. He awkwardly put an arm around his mother. Alex felt like she was intruding upon a special family moment. She was about to leave but the look Justin shot her made her stay. He looked so lost and confused and heartbroken. But he looked relived and almost grateful that she was there with him. Emma cleared her throat.
"He was a good man." She said.
"When did he die?" Justin asked faintly.
"About six years after you were born. We were about twenty-four." She whispered.
Justin bit his lip and dropped his gaze to his lap. He hunched his shoulders and clenched his fists. Alex knew he was feeling guilty for living happily while his unknown father was dead. He had lived almost his whole life with his father dead and gone and he had no idea. Alex knew that this would hurt Justin more than the fact that he was adopted.
"I think I'm going to take a walk." Justin said quietly.
He got up from the table and Alex started to get up after him but he said firmly, "Alone."
Alex dropped back into her seat with a scowl. Justin walked out the back door and along the beach until he was out of sight.
Emma sighed, "I never expected this day would come."
"You never thought that my parents would tell him the truth?" Alex asked.
"Well, I hoped not." Emma admitted. "Justin is a great kid but he must be feeling so confused and hurt right now. I knew it would turn out like this."
"So Justin's father was a wizard?" Alex asked.
"Yes, and he was an only child so he never competed in that challenge thing. Both of his parents were wizards as well. I was an only child too." Emma said.
"Sometimes I wished I was an only child but honestly, I really am glad Max and Justin are my brothers. And Justin still is my brother even if we aren't related by blood." Alex said.
Emma gave her a sly look, "You still think of Justin like a brother?"
"Of course." Alex said back. "Nothing has changed."
Emma just smirked and shrugged. She started to clear up the breakfast dishes and flipped on the radio. Alex sighed and stared out the window. She could understand that Justin was feeling really messed up by this but he had never not wanted her around before! They were a team, they did things together! She pouted and kicked a chair leg.
The doorbell rang and Emma said, "Alex, can you get that?"
Alex pranced over to the front door and swung it open. She took a step back in shock. There was a young guy at the other side of the door, maybe about her age or a little older. He was tall and slim with shaggy blond hair and sky blue eyes. And the cutest dimples in his cheeks.
"Hi." Alex said.
" I'm Beau." He said. "Is Emma there?"
"Yeah, but she's busy right now." Alex said.
"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Beau asked her.
"Oh, I'm Alex. I'm here visiting with my brother who isn't really my brother. Emma is his birth mother so he came on a quest to find out more about her and I sort of just tagged along." She said chirpily.
He looked a little taken aback, "Wow, that's... complicated. Anyway, can you just give her back her gardening tools please? My mom borrowed them and she says thank you."
He handed her a spade, a pair of gardening gloves and a couple of other things she couldn't identify.
"'Kay!" She said. "Maybe I'll see you later?" She said pretending to be shy and coy. She glanced up at him underneath her eyelashes and smiled innocently.
"Yeah, sure!" He said with a grin. "I live right next door."
She smirked and shut the door. She wandered back into the kitchen and dumped the gardening tools on the kitchen table.
"Oh was that Beau? He's such a sweet kid." Emma said fondly.
"Yeah. And he's cute too!" Alex said, laughing.
"Alex, can you take these tools to the shed please? It's on the other side of the car, to the left of the house." Emma said, pointing out the window with a dish soap covered hand.
Alex picked up the tools again and walked out the back door. She walked past the car and through a cluster of ferns to an old red shed. She pulled open the door to see a pottery wheel and shelves of pottery. There was a small kiln in the corner and the whole shed smelled vaguely of clay. In the other corner was a shelf of other gardening supplies so Alex just dropped the tools there. She came back into the house to find Emma leaning anxiously out the kitchen window and peering down the beach.
"Any sign of him?" Alex asked. She would never admit that she was desperately worried for her brother.
"Not yet." Emma sighed.
The two women spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards and pacing the floor. When the sun started to go down Emma set the barbeque out on the back porch and started to cook burgers, hoping that the smell would entice him home. It didn't work. The evening was spent in silence. When it was so late, Alex was falling asleep at the kitchen table, Emma decided to give up.
"He's obviously isn't coming home tonight." She said, frowning. "You should just go to bed."
Emma walked through the Window Room (as Alex had taken to calling it) and up the stairs to the second floor. She opened the door on the right to reveal a tiny but cozy room painted light blue with pretty white furniture. The bedding was fluffy and white and there was a picture of an open window with a curtain blowing in the breeze above the desk. There was a window seat overlooking the driveway and forest across the street. There was a dresser right by the door with a big mirror and lots of drawers.
Alex magicked her suitcase from the front room up to her and plopped down on the bed.
"I hope you will be comfortable here." Emma said softly. "I'll tell you when Justin comes home."
Alex curled up on the bed as Emma left the room and shut the door behind her. She was so worried about Justin, she could hardly breathe. She bit her lip anxiously and tried not to jump to the worst conclusions. Like he was feeling so upset over his father dying, he felt he had to join him in the afterlife so he jumped off a set of rocks. Or, he waded into the ocean and the tide dragged him under. Alex took a deep breath and eventually fell asleep.
When she woke again, the moon was much higher in the sky. She realized she had fallen asleep in her clothes. But she couldn't sleep anymore so she wandered down the stairs and into the Window Room. The easel was still sitting blank by the window so she guiltily looked around and walked over to it. There were paints by the easel in little covered containers. She curiously opened one. It was deep, midnight blue. She looked at the canvas again. Then to the canvas. Then back to the paint. Then out the huge floor length windows. She picked up a brush, dipped it into the paint and dragged it across the canvas. She lost herself in the painting after that. She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings until a familiar voice shook her concentration.
"What are you doing up?" Justin asked, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
"Nothing." She said nonchalantly. "Just painting."
He looked at her painting. It was the view out the window. The moon was high in the deep blue sky over nearly black waters. It left a streak of white as the reflection and the sand was nearly white leading to the beach.
"It's good." He said, impressed.
"Oh, thanks." She said calmly. "Oh hey, Justin?"
"Yeah?"
"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL DAY?" She shrieked.
"It was a lot to take in! I needed some alone time!" He cried.
"You were gone the whole day! We were worried!" She shouted.
He grinned, amused. "You were worried about me?"
She crossed her arms and refused to look in his smug direction. "Well, more Emma, less me. Oh, what does it matter? Just go to bed! I'm too tired to yell at you right now!"
He grinned and yanked her into a tight hug. She hugged back then shoved him away from her and ran up the stairs.
A/N so what did you guys think? some new information in this chapter. Please please review and tell me what you think!