I've feeling pretty confident with my pace of chapters now. Especially with all my summer stories stacking up on me.
Some story release dates at the bottom A/N.
November 6th 2013
Chase's Pov
"What're you doing?" I looked up from the computer and beside me was Bree. She looked exhausted in her tank and shorts, huddled into her robe like she was shrinking. A gray mug with steam rising from the surface was placed in her hands.
I sighed, leaning back in my chair. "Just some research."
Bree handed me my own mug before setting hers down. Her sad highlighted the bags under her eyes as she pulled her knees up to her chest.
Looking at her sitting there, folded into herself, I suddenly felt the oldest. My sister looked so tiny and vulnerable, it was hard to think of her as my big sister.
"What are you thinking?" I asked. Bree still looked to space, eyes not seeing anything.
"We're bionic. We're the most highly trained, elite team of superheroes made to face any situation and dispose of it before the rest of the world is affected." Bree looked right at me with enlarged, glassy eyes. "If we can save a world full of strangers, why can't we save the people who matter the most to us?"
She wanted an answer, but I couldn't give her one unless I was willing to lie to her; I wasn't.
"You want to know something? I was thinking the exact same thing when I couldn't help you."
She shook her head tiredly, like it weighed a ton. "You shouldn't've been. I was okay in the end; I'm bionic with the kind of system made to fight whatever it was. I'm not anything to worry about."
I hugged her. I held my sister close, reliving the feelings of lost and depression and hopelessness. Bree felt tiny in my grasp, me squeezing and squeezing like I thought she would disappear.
Bree sunk into my hold, sobbing. Our family had grown on rare sincerities because of what we were—but it felt good. It felt good to hold each other and cry for the first time in years.
Later that night, I put Bree to bed. Her face was still cracked with dry trails leading down her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy and red as I carefully set her in bed. Davenport had strictly instructed her to take a dose of the specific medication he'd personally subscribed to her to help make sure her stress levels didn't resort to their insanely bad levels like they did before. But Bree was tired and obviously asleep. I didn't feel like waking her now; the peace on her face easing me from the scrunched up pain it usually had.
God, sometimes I thought about Bree going through this, how I nearly destroyed myself, and knew I wouldn't make it if Christine ever got this kind of abuse from whoever the hell was screwing with our lives.
I pulled the blanket snuggly around her shoulders, pushed away the hair falling into her face, and clicked the light off, making my way out. The door closed softly behind me with a click.
I dragged myself back down to the lab, taking a seat in front of Davenport's computer once again. I knew what I was supposed to do, but everything I tried or needed to do to proceed with my research flipped blank in my head.
Everything was set in motion for the most part. My newfound ability hadn't been used since we'd discovered it, never rearing its head again. Not that I knew how to flip it on and off like a switch either. So far, we'd look into some old documents of general patients' reactions to the type of diagnosis that came up during the whole incident—the heartbreak especially.
The accessed files (the illness mostly being found in shocking cases of early twenties to mid-thirties in women and men) were pretty vague in themselves. Each precise note consisted of charted information put under sections, written specifically in bullet points. I had a strong feeling actual files held more than the computer backups did.
At around 2 in the morning, I decided to call it quits, numbers and words hanging behind my eyelids when I closed my eyes. As soon as my body hit the sweet mattress of my bed, I fell asleep instantly.
November 7th 2013
The next morning I woke up late. Christine was, surprisingly, downstairs, enjoying waffles drenched in syrup like the rest of them. She looked horrible—I felt bad to say—with huge bags under her eyes, the top of her hair frizzy from sleep and lack of combed attention, and a deeply printed scowl on her face as she shoveled in food.
"You're late, Franken Genius," Leo pointed out. He said this to me around a mouthful of sugary cereal, milk dribbling down his face. Hastily he wiped at his face with his sleeve while I snickered.
"Well excuse me for staying up and doing my part of the investigation," I said, grabbing a glass and filling it with juice as Bree perked consideringly at the mention of the investigation itself.
"That reminds me," she said thoughtfully, scrolling through her phone. "I was up early and decided to do a little bit of prying." She wrinkled her face up at her phone's screen as she talked. "Maria's one complicated woman."
Christine snorted, her lips shiny with a slim coat of syrup. She poked her tongue out to lick her mouth clean of it. "You don't say," she mumbled into her plate.
Bree ignored her, continuing to scroll. "I took to looking to a bunch of paparazzi sites and, you know, the regular social media sites. While Maria keeps to herself mostly, fans—seemingly the same ones, I think—have a Facebook page and about half a dozen Twitter accounts dedicated to saying where she is and what plays she'd be performing. But lately there have been some pictures floating around about her and some 'shady guy seen hanging over her arm'…" she paused, looking down again, "or so said by MariaFan1991."
"Anything on the said by the paparazzi?" I asked. I couldn't help but be a little curious, looking over her shoulder over taking a large swig of juice.
Bree shrugged. "Nothing much; they're basically turning her into any other shady star seen with a man not thrown into the spotlight before," she said, "but there is a common thread throughout all of articles—they're obviously very exclusive, whether dating or not."
"That could explain the whole heartbreak thing," Leo said.
Christine looked conflicted, different emotions passing over her face in a second's time before she settled impassive and stony again. "Not really. My father had never been one for internet unless it's absolutely needed for a kind of research topic—he'd always been a book kind of guy." Her eyes grew weary and distant. "I highly doubt that anything on the internet had affected him as badly as seeing her had.
"Well, let's think about this on the bright side for once," Bree cut in, always the optimist. "Many of the blogs and articles and sites had been very vague about the man and hers relationship—or relation period. And have any of us actually seen pictures of her manager? Or any friends?"
"Because she's too bitchy to have friends," Christine interjected bitterly. Her fork made a sharp stabbing motion into her waffles, the end of it cutting brutally into the sugary skin of her food.
Bree steadily ignored her again. "And at many times, people accuse more than they know, thinking that just because they see it right in front of them, it's true. So, really, we could be getting too far ahead with ourselves."
"Ugh," Leo groaned, suddenly pushing away his cereal pull in distaste. "All this love triangle mystery mojo is making me sick. But if there really is a baby daddy involved I'm totally dropping out."
Christine bent her head forward, gagging on her food.
"Hell yeah they're together," Rachel said. Everyone was together before homeroom, gathered around Bree's phone as she held it out.
Rachel squinted, leaning forward for a better view of the screen.
"How can you tell?" Sammy asked, using her bony shoulders to push herself forward.
"Duh," Rachel insisted like it was obvious, but I couldn't help but admit I too was curious on what she saw in the picture that convinced her of it so surely. "You see his arm around her shoulders like that?" She tapped a nail to how Maria had her side facing the camera, obviously distracted by trying to get into the car. The man too looked busy with escorting her inside. "That's an insanely protective gesture—usually seen in friends with benefits or totally committed relationships that have been under way."
Janelle twisted her face up, giving Rachel a sideways glance. "Dude, you so need to chill on the romance novels and TV."
Rachel stuck out her tongue.
"That aside," Christine said hastily. She fidgeted with the straps of her backpack in a haste to change the subject. "How am I supposed to focus on the play that's coming up next month? It's not even five weeks away and everything is falling apart." She groaned, leaning heavily into me. I kissed her head, pulling her close.
Ashley flapped a hand at her, not concerned. "You guys need to take a minute and breathe." She did an example before plowing on, chumping loudly on her gum as she did. "The problem isn't really as big as you sissies are making it out to be." She pointed at all of us with waggling fingers. Bree yawned and leaned on Janelle tiredly. "It's really just different fragments of several not connecting situations—albeit bad ones—linked only to the same people. So really, to find a calmer approach to each one, they have to be dealt with the same tactic, but with different solutions."
Ashley grinned proudly as we all stared, bewildered.
"I told you," Sammie said, patting Ashley's shoulder in a congratulating kind of way. "If we kept digging and digging we'd find something eventually."
Adam, on the other hand, remained looking quizzical. "She lost me after you guys…"
Rachel poked his stomach. "And we expect nothing less."
The way she ogled him was a bit disturbing, but I figured I looked the same way whenever catching sight of Christine. I couldn't judge.
"Hey guys," my girlfriend spoke up, nudging to where Bree was basically asleep on Janelle's shoulder. "Maybe Bree should take a cot in the nurse's office to lie down a bit."
Bree drowsily lifted her head, waving away our concern. "Whatever, I'm fine. Just a bit tired from the meds and getting up early is all."
"How early were you up anyway?" I asked.
She kicked at the ground. "Six, maybe?"
"Really hoping for the raccoon look, were you?" Leo said with raised eyebrows. "Congratulations, you've succeeded."
Bree scowled, kicking out at him. She gave a satisfied smirk once he let out a yelp of pain, her boot swiftly making contact with his shin. Bree went back to leaning heavily on Janelle. "I was deeply committing to my research, unlike some people." She gave him a pointed glare.
Leo cleared his throat. "Ahem, for your information, bossy, Christy and I have a study date in her attic." He threw an arm over my girlfriend's shoulder.
Janelle gave him a hard stare. "Don't press your luck, Dooley."
Leo immediately let go.
Good, now that Janelle threatened him, I didn't have to do it.
"And it's not a date," Christine insisted, taking a good shove at his shoulder. "It's simply an investigation."
"Sure," Sammie deadpanned, "only you guys can call an investigation—a police tern, mind you—simple."
We split apart not soon after that, Christine and I dragging Bree to her homeroom before heading to ours.
That was basically the gist of my day, with spending time mentally going over everything I researched instead of really paying attention to the teachers.
Play practice was pretty much the same story, except not.
Alissa was gone again for play practice, but left no explanation like last time. My brain instantly just had to configure the most occurring as for why this was, but I decided to chalk it up to being a spur of the moment leave, like she hardly knew she was leaving until she was already mostly gone. There was a sub this time—a wiry, jumpy man in his mid-thirties with already heavy gray streak and several stress wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. He told everyone to call him Mr. Pecker. Since he had no experience with teaching a teenage cast or teaching Drama in general, we were squeezed into the first ten rows of the auditorium to watch a non-related film to Romeo and Juliet—Gnomeo and Juliet apparently.
"What do gnomes have to do with the tragic love story of star-crossed lovers written by the most excellent playwright of all time?" Christine asked as the movie began, snuggling into my side. I pressed my lips to her temple, rubbing circles into her hand.
"I have no idea."
We were in the third row from the front, a decent view of the shady screen above the stage - and, unfortunately, a perfect view of Tina and her cronies: Callan, and the other new guy, Marcus. He was evil alright, jumping eyebrows and all. But he wasn't much of a spy, his weaknesses blunt and obvious when it came to getting answers to major questions. They came out too abrupt and off-topic to not be suspicious. Either way, Tina seemed to enjoy rubbing in the fact she was sitting with two guys, shamelessly ogling both of them.
Maybe that was a good thing; it kept me off her flirt list for a while, anyway.
Throughout the entire movie, I kept a watchful eye on Tina and her boy-toys of the week. Callan seemed pretty comfortable with her for having his eyes set on Chris for months, but I left it alone for now because his being involved with the She-Beast was a lot safer than him being involved with my girlfriend, where plenty of things could go wrong.
Christine fell asleep halfway through the movie. By the looks of it, so did half of our cast, including Gemma and Bree. Damon was staring down the entire time, so either his phone was out or that guy was extremely too obsessed with the crotch of his pants.
The new guy Marcus seemed obsessive with the clock and then typing way at his phone every seven minutes. I watched his head bounce from the clock hanging on the left wall to what I assumed was a phone in his hand. Whoever was on the other end, seemed extremely concerned in what happened every minute of play practice.
Once the movie finally ended, I nudged Christine off my shoulder, noticing a dark spot of drool covering a good amount of my shoulder. She looked around confused for a minute, shaking her head before standing and stretching. I kissed the spot of her side where her shirt pulled up. Christine laughed then whacked me away from her.
We went outside, meeting up with Ashley, Janelle, and Bree. Apparently they'd sat together in a row or so behind us, where Bree had napped on Ashley's shoulder.
Ashley looked down to where her bare shoulder and tank top strap were shiny. "Bree!" she groaned. "Why do you have to be such a drooly sleeper."
"Not a word," I pointed out as Bree looked down sheepishly.
Bree shrugged. "Oopsies."
Christine laughed, kissing me full on the lips with her hands tangling in my hair for a quick second, before pulling away and adjusting her hoodie around her.
"Later people," she called over her shoulder, walking away from our group. "I have a nerd waiting at home!"
I know the last and this chapter have all been like 1000 words shorter than usual, but I swear to God the next chapter will be much longer and more important.
Until then, please review, and share your thoughts and ideas with us, bye!
PS: new LR story coming out between now and a couple of weeks. A new A&A story on the way for, like, June I think. New Jessie one-shot due between tomorrow and next week. Keep on a look-out for those.