"They're where?" Eve glances to her sisters as she breastfeeds her newborn daughter, "Mom willingly went to the beach."
Mac shrugs, then nods, "I guess. Dad said that's where they are."
Nodding slowly she looks to the young woman she once even considered her roommate, "How's he been?"
"Who?"
"Andy." She glances to her baby sister who is peering over her shoulder, watching as the baby suckles, "You want to eat for her too?"
Mac watches her, then shrugs again, "Don't know." She lies, getting up, "Got anything here to drink?"
"Water. We should order Chinese or something to eat." Eve glances to her baby sister again, "I think Katie's getting hungry."
"I am hungry." Kate mumbles, gently stroking the baby's bald head with her finger.
Mac went to the drawer of menus, obtaining the Chinese one, "I'm glad you've kept everything in the exact same place as when I lived here." She offers her a smile, "And the same furniture I see..."
"I change it once a year if I am financially capable." Eve gives her a look, taking the baby from her breast and moving her up to her shoulder, patting the newborn's back softly.
Kate looks to Mac, "I want fried chicken." She looks back to her older sister, "Did I used to eat like that?"
"You mean breastfed?" She raises an eyebrow, knowing her baby sister could be a bit much at times, especially with her questioning and the way she rationalized things. When the girl nods, "Yeah, you were breastfed."
"From you?" She watches the baby, smiling.
"Why would I breastfeed you, Katie?" Eve smirked, attempting to hold back a laugh.
"You carry babies in your belly. I've never seen Mommy carry babies in her belly, so I must have come from you."
"Well, I can't fault your reasoning." She sighs slightly, taking her mobile phone from her pocket. She goes into her family photo file, "Okay, see this one?"
"That's Gram!" Kate points.
Eve nods slowly, "Yes and that's mom and that is my dad-"
"No, it's not."
"That's why my last name is Raydor and not Flynn. We have the same mom, but different father's."
Kate looks to Mac, "You too?"
"We have the same father, but not the same mother." Mac shakes her head, skimming through the menu when her phone vibrates.
The toddler glances between the young women, "Okay." She looks back at the phone's screen.
"And in her womb is me." Eve smiles to her.
"No, you're too big."
"I wasn't always this big. I was as tiny as Freya, you were as tiny as Freya."
"Correction, we were all smaller than Freya." Mac smirks.
"Hey now, leave my large child alone." Eve grins, adjusting the baby to rest in her lap. She slides her finger over her phone's screen a few times, "This one, Chad was in the womb."
"And is the little girl you?" Kate rests her head on her sister's shoulder, still looking at her pictures.
"Yep."
"What is a womb?"
"Where babies grow in their mother's body." Eve smiles at her sister's interest, flipping through a few ore with her thumb gliding across her screen, finally stopping at one.
The girl nods, "Wait, you, Mommy, Daddy...Am I in the womb?"
"Yes, you are."
"And..." Kate picks her head up, looking down at her niece, "And I came out like my baby did?"
"Yes, Andrea Hobbs delivered you on the floor of Mom's office." Eve smirks, "Then Rusty called me and told me they were going to the hospital."
"Aunt Drea?"
"Yes." She nods.
"Eve, do you mind if we hang out here for a while? Mom and Andy went to...they needed some time to talk, so-" Mac sighs, sliding her phone back into the cup of her bra, where she holds it.
"Of course not. Kate can nap after lunch and we can catch up." Eve grins to her step-sister.
As the day progresses, their food arrives. Kate falls asleep on her own after eating. Mac picks her up and puts her in the guest bedroom, gently tucking her in. She returns to the living room, glancing to her niece tuckered out in her vibrating bassinette, "Can't say a vibration has ever put me to sleep."
"TMI." Eve smirks, rolling her eyes. She continues eating with her chopsticks, "So, want to tell me what's really going on with Mom and Andy."
Mac bites her lip, "Not really."
"Rusty called and told me he thought he was going to drink again...Andy, not Rusty..." When the other young woman doesn't respond, Eve nods her head slowly, "That's what I thought. He was right."
She folds her arms, pulling her sweatshirt tighter around herself as she settles onto the sofa, "Sharon was...I found her this morning, asleep on the floor...Looked like she'd been crying all night."
"Damn it." She sighs, pushing her fingers through her thick, dark hair. She gives it a moment before continuing, "You said he stayed at Provenza's?"
Mac nods, "I didn't want to be there when he got home."
Eve licks her lips quickly, "You're going to have to be, but if he ever does it again...if you need to drag my mother from that house, you will."
"I...Your dad was an alcoholic too, right?" Her voice sounds almost small and afraid.
She nods slowly, "He hit my mom a few times, but she dismissed it as the disease until he attacked us." Adjusting herself on the sofa and pulling her legs under herself, she continues, "You know that scar on her upper lip?" She motions with her finger.
Mac nods, "What of it?"
"That was from my father." Eve's teeth clench together and her ability to hold it together begins to betray her, "And I sat there while she got the crap beat out of her because my father was a violent drunk...he was never that bad though. I was with Chad that night...My dad didn't usually come around, he'd be at a hotel with a bar whore or at his office...staying the night. He still had keys though, just in case." Eve purses her lips slightly, "He...He was there before she was. Mom was doing late night beats. I stayed awake and I sent Chad off to his room...when little brothers were compliant because you threaten to make them take the bus to school in the morning." She laughed to herself softly before continuing, "Mom came in, exhausted, in her uniform. Belt removed and hanging over her shoulder. Dad started just...screaming at her. She threw the belt aside, wanting to go deal with him, I guess. He went up behind her and hit her over the head with this...vase my grandmother gave to Mom for her birthday. It shattered..."
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Charles Raydor stands over his wife as she cowers on the kitchen floor.
Sharon attempts to regain her bearings. She rolls onto her hands and knees, trying to stand again, "Charlie-"
"You were fucking your partner. I know you fuck him. I know all the nasty things you do together in the back of that squad car." He hisses at her, almost spitting it in her face, "Cheating on me. On me! Everything I give you."
"Even if I was, which I'm not, We're separated, Charles. You and I are separated." She puts her hand to her head, her emerald eyes squinting at him from the overhead fluorescent light in the kitchen. She sits on the floor.
"He started kicking her and insulting her one after another. I was glad that Chad was in bed." Eve shakes her head, "I knew she had broken ribs, but she wouldn't admit it. You know her." She sighs, "And I looked over and I realized she left her work belt next to me. So I..."
"You turn these kids against me. That little bitch out there hates me. Just like her mother, that one. Why should I pay for a kid who hates me?" Charles Raydor continues.
"Because, sad to say, you're my father." Teenaged Eve stands in the doorway, her mother's Colt in her hands. They don't shake, she isn't afraid. "Leave her alone."
"See? Just like her." He stands up straight, laughing menacingly. Charles pulls up a fist, ready to attack his daughter.
Sharon watches with an intense feeling of fear, knowing she can't shake the vertigo in order to save her elder child.
Eve picks the weapon up more, pointing it at his face, making him stop immediately, "You're going to get your things and you're going to go. I don't care where you go, but you won't stay here. Not now, not ever again." She shakes her head, "This...this is why I hate you."
Charles spits at his wife before rushing past his daughter and getting his wallet before leaving the house with the slam of the door.
She places the weapon on the kitchen table before sitting next to her mother.
"I'm fine." Sharon mumbles.
"You really aren't. Just let me help." Eve stands, ripping a paper towel from the roll. She wets it, then gently cleans her mother's face off, "I'm...I'm sorry it took me so long."
"You could have killed him, Evey."
"It wasn't loaded." She focuses on the dry blood on her mother's face, "He busted your lip."
"It's the drinking, Eve. It isn't him. He's a kind, gentle man-" Sharon tries, she never wanted to create a negative vibe for her children when it came to her estranged husband. She would let them come up with their own conclusions.
"I could see." Eve nods, "When I'm finished this, I'm going to write Chad a note and I'm taking you to the hospital."
"I don't need the hospital."
She picks her head up, tilting her mother's face so they could look into each other's eyes, "You're going to the hospital. I won't have you dying in your sleep and leaving us in his care because you didn't want to go to the hospital and instead bled out." Eve sighs, "I'm sixteen. I'm not stupid, Mom. At least, not about this." She kisses her mother's hair.
"Get me different clothes." She winces as she reaches her hand up to unbutton her shirt.
Eve puts her hand up, "I've got it. Let me take care of you for a change."
Sharon smiles softly, watching her daughter. She picks her hand up, resting it on her daughter's cheek.
"I still, to this day, never understood why neither of us called the police." Eve sighs.
Mac shrugs, "Probably because no matter how bad he got, he's still your father. No part of anyone wants their father to go into prison over something he can't help."
"Andy ever get violent?"
She shakes her head, "Not that I know of. Trudy made him leave when she was pregnant with me."
"Trudy?"
"I have no respect for a woman who not only kicked me out, but told me that I was garbage, and no child of hers. Then who had the audacity to even show up to anything for her son when he wanted nothing to do with her either. I will never call a woman like that mother." Mac swallows, glancing to her step-sister.
Eve places her hand on the younger woman's back, "I'm proud of you. I know that was hard...coming to terms with that."
"It was." She bites her lip, then clears her throat, "So, did your mother go to the hospital?"
She nods, "Of course. I had to drag her to the car. She was wearing sweatpants, a button up flannel that was my boyfriend's at the time, and a pair of flip flops."
"I can't even imagine Sharon in something like that."
"I think about it at least five times a day when I think I look gross."
Mac shakes her head, "You aren't gross."
"My boobs are chapped, I have stretch marks out the ying yang, I'm still bleeding from orifices below the belt, I can't take a shower that is more than three minutes without the baby feeling that my presence is no longer close. I know I look a like a hot mess." Eve shakes her head, "Don't have kids...at least, not anytime soon when you need to look pleasant for some beautiful woman to make out with you."
She giggles, "I'll try not to."
After letting a few moments go by, the older of the pair continues, "Mom was...she was okay after you found her this morning?"
Mac nods, "We had breakfast."
"She had oatmeal..."
"Has she always had oatmeal?"
Eve smirks, "Unless someone makes her breakfast, yes."
"Why?"
"Because she would burn the entire house down. Instant oatmeal has instructions. She can do instructions."
Mac giggles, "She let Kate have waffles with Nutella, whipped cream, and sprinkles though."
"That woman has gone mad!" Eve smirks, mocking an English accent, "Did you put your ridiculous amount of syrup on yours?"
"It isn't ridiculous to me."
"Fine. Your perfectly normal amount of syrup where your waffles float in said syrup instead of simply soaking it up. How were they?"
"They were great, thanks." Mac grins, leaning onto Eve a little.
Eve gently rubs her arm, "You okay?"
"I will be." She nods slowly, "I just...I didn't expect this from Dad and Trudy yesterday just...I really miss my brother."
"I know you do." The older of the pair moves her hand up and begins to stroke the other's hair, "I know."
"I...I just want..." Tears begin to form in Mac's eyes though she does everything in her power to deny them, "I just really want him to hold me and tell me it's okay and Dad will get help and he'll be okay too, but I know it's more than that...I know Dad is hurting and I can't do anything to help him."
Eve feels wetness in her own eyes to mirror her step-sister's, "I know you do. I got to know your brother pretty well, and honestly, Mac, I don't think he would have ever been happy unless he was able to be with his wife and daughter."
"I want to be with him too."
"No, you don't. What about your girlfriend and this imaginary kid you're going to have years from now? What about your goddaughter and helping out with her?"
"My..." Mac picks her head up, "What?"
Eve smiles softly to her, "Will you be Freya's godmother?"
"I'd...are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Yeah...I'd...I'd love to be her godmother."
"Good because I didn't have anyone else to ask and I was going to give Rusty $50 bucks to throw on a dress and a wig-"
Mac wipes her cheeks quickly, laughing.
"You have a great smile. Don't be afraid to show it more often." Eve shakes her head, hearing the baby start to cry, sounding nearly like a foghorn, "Excuse me." She nods, getting up from her seat and tending to her daughter.