Hello everyone!

I would like to say sorry for my short extra-two-week hiatus. I was out of town and could not upload a chapter when I was suppose to. This chapter will be longer than usual just to make up for it.

I think that's all for now, so how about we get on with this thrilling story?

DISCLAIMER: I don't own this trash.

Chapter 15

"What's the stitch?" Rose asked, answering her phone and sitting on her bed.

A heavy sigh was heard on the other end of the line. "Rose, I swear, if you ever say anything nerdy like that again, I will not help you anymore. Just because I am your techie friend does not mean that you can quote Kim Possible to me."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah whatever Sollux. What did you find on Jack? Anything useful?" She put it on speaker so she and Kanaya could both hear it.

"No Rose. All I found was that he likes unicorns and puppies." Sarcasm could be heard dripping from his voice. "Of course I found something useful. A lot actually. So for starters, I lost count of the number of times he has been arrested."

"Fantastic." Rose commented. "What for?"

"Oh, many things." Sollux answered. "A few DUI arrests, some DWI's, but most of them for being caught up in gang violence. However, he has not once gone to jail. Every time, his bail money has been paid for by an anonymous figure. No one really knows who it is. They must be rich though."

The blonde wrote this down on a sheet of paper. She had a feeling there was a lot of stuff she would be investigating. "Okay. So what about this gang stuff? Any details on it?"

Sollux gave a slight chuckle on the other end of the line. "Absolutely. I'm sure you've heard of the infamous mafia called the Midnight Crew. Well, he apparently has a connection to them, or at least he had one. No one knows if he still is actually affiliated with the gang. I couldn't find out, so you might want to look into that."

Kanaya looked at Rose and mouthed, "I know that name. Caused me trouble a few years back."

"The Midnight Crew is one of the biggest mafia's in the world. That can't be good." Rose jotted down the ever known name of the gang. "Alright, so what about family? I told you he was related to the Serkets. Any more information on that?"

"Mhm." Typing could be heard on the man's end of the line. "Jack is a part of the Serket family, though not by blood. He was adopted by Vorase Serket, who is the biological mother of Minerva Serket."

"Vriska's mother. So that might be part of why he's someone they don't talk about in their family. They take such great pride in their bloodline, he's sort of the outlier." Rose stated.

"Yeah I suppose." Sollux said. "Anyway, Minerva Serket is the current head of the Serket Banking Corporation, one of the largest family owned bank companies in the US."

Rose took note. "I've heard of them before. They are one of the top sponsors at school. So, what about his dating history? Anything on that?"

The man scrolled on his laptop for a second. "Yup. He apparently has a bad history with women. Several women report him causing them physical or emotional damage." He sighed. "However, no one said anything worse than a few bruises or scrapes were incurred from the abuse. The one thing I did find interesting was that he has been divorced three times. The most famous marriage he has been in was with Candace 'Candy' Peixes, who is the current CEO of Peixes Enterprise."

The raven looked at Rose and mouthed "Peixes… That's Feferi's family."

The blonde nodded, then responded back to Sollux. "Thank you so much Sollux. You have helped us so much."

"Yeah yeah I know. Hey, how about in return, you burn that picture you have of me in your mom's clothes. I would greatly appreciate Aradia not finding out about that." Sollux half-pleaded.

Rose chuckled. "We'll see about that. Talk with you later Sollux."

"Uh-huh." The man sighed. "Oh, also, I hope your mom wakes up. She's a great woman."

"Thank you. I will update you when I hear anything. Bye for now." Rose hung up the phone. "Well, that was very useful. I feel like we're actually getting somewhere now."

Kanaya repositioned herself, crossing her legs. "That's true, however now I think we have so many more questions. Why don't we tell Porrim all of this and see if she can give us any ideas?"

"Sounds good." Rose started to get up. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Thank you so much for staying with me last night. I didn't actually have any nightmares, which was a nice change of pace. I can't remember the last person that made me feel so safe." She smiled.

The other girl stood up. "I am more than happy to help Rose. I am glad you could sleep better. Tell me if you ever need me to do something for you again. I would be more than happy to help."

Both girls walked out into the kitchen, where Porrim was sitting eating a sandwich. "Hey 'Rim, can we talk with you for a sec?" Kanaya asked.

"Of course hon." The older sibling put her sandwich down. "Whats up?"

The girls sat down. "Well," Kanaya started. "We found out a little more information on Jack. Stuff like how he was, and perhaps still is, in the Midnight Crew, how he is really not blood related to the Serket family, how he use to be married to Candy Peixes, and a whole bunch of other stuff. We want to use this information to expose Jack as the criminal he really is and get him put behind bars for what he has done to Roxy."

"Woah, slow down there." Porrim looked at her younger sister. "While I think it's great you want to help, you shouldn't be looking into stuff like this. If there are charges to be pressed, that is between Roxy, Jack, and the police. You shouldn't be doing the police's job. Just be a teenager for now."

"But what if Roxy doesn't wake up for a while?" Kanaya looked at Rose, hoping she hadn't upset her. "She will wake up, but what if when she does it's too late to do anything? We can't just let him get away with what he's done to Rose and Roxy!" The raven's voice continued to get louder, and she stood up next to Porrim.

"Stop!" The woman shouted and stood up, facing her sister. "Ma petite soeur. Vous savez je t'aime, mais ne laissez pas vos sentiments votre jugement. Pensez logiquement."

Kanaya crossed her arms. She hated it when her sister spoke french to her. "Look, I wasn't really asking for your opinion. Sure, I was looking for your approval, but clearly I'm not going to get it here." She sighed. I understand what you're saying, Porrim, but don't think that your lack of support is going to deter me from doing what's right."

"I sincerely hope you won't, Kanaya." Porrim relaxed a little. "I may be your older sister, but I am also your guardian. I'm just trying to protect you. You will not go and do any more with this information you have learned. Leave it to the authorities, understood?"

Porrim raised her hand to pat Kanaya's head, but Kanaya pushed it away. "Je te déteste." She walked off, up to her own room, with Rose followed closely behind her.

"What was that? I didn't know you could speak French that well." Rose asked.

Kanaya sighed. "Yeah I can, I just don't like to show it off much. My mom grew up in France, so her first language is French. She would often speak french to Porrim and I, and taught us a lot. I wasn't able to learn a whole lot, but Porrim knew our mom longer, so she picked up a lot and continued to use it." She felt tears stinging her eyes, and she tried to keep them back. "Porrim only really uses the language when she's really happy or really mad with me, but regardless, every time she uses it, I hate it because it reminds me of my mother."

The blonde walked up to her friend and hugged her. "I'm so sorry, Kanaya." They separated. "So, now what? I mean, your sister seemed very clear about not investigating anything, so what do we do?"

The raven snorted. "What, just because Porrim says we can't do something means we no longer can do it? Come on Rose. We are going to fix this on our own. Sure, I was hoping for Porrim's help, but if she isn't going to give it to me, then we will just have to go it alone. However, that's a lot of information for the two of us to look into…"

"Well, why don't I call up Dave? See if he and Karkat would be willing to help." Rose offered. "I'll give him a call now." She got her phone out and dialed Dave's number, putting the phone on speaker.

"Hello?" A half-raspy voice answered after 2 or 3 rings.

"Dave? Are you still asleep? It's 1:30 pm!" Rose said.

Dave sighed. "Your point? Anyway way what do you want?"

Kanaya decided to pipe up. "Dave, we need your help. We found out some information on Jack and we need you and Karkat to help us research it further. I asked Porrim, but she won't help us. Do you mind coming to the library and looking into things with us today?"

"Oh geez, today? Like right now?" The male groaned. "Alright, but only cause it's you two. Let me ask Karkat if he will come as well." The phone shifted, presumably being moved away from Dave's face. A muffled voice could be heard. "Hey, Karks. Karkles wake up."

A boy groaned. "Good grief what? I was having such a nice dream."

"Oh yeah? Was it about me?" Dave questioned.

Rose and Kanaya fake gagged on the other end of the line.

Karkat chuckled. "As a matter of fact, yes it was. Let me tell you what-"

"Later Karks. I have Rose and Kanaya on the phone asking us if we can help them look into some info they got on Jack. Could you help? Pleeeeeeaaassseee?" Dave asked in a really childish voice.

The redhead groaned. "You know I can't say no when you do the puppy eyes. Ugh fine. Just let me put on different clothes."

The two girls giggled as Dave cleared his voice and put his phone back against his ear. "He said he will do it. We will meet you by the library in maybe 20 minutes?"

"Sounds good." Rose answered. "Thank you guys so much. I'll see you in a few."

"Mhm. You better thank us." Dave retorted, then softened. "No problem, sis. See you soon."

Rose hung up the phone, grinning from ear to ear. "This is great. Alright, so I say we tell Porrim we are going to go hang out for the afternoon, but say we are taking my car. Then we can head to the library. Sound like a plan?"

"Yup, sounds good." Kanaya replied, grabbing her bag and opening her bedroom door. The two girls headed downstairs. "We are going out for the afternoon." She shouted at Porrim.

"Stop!" The older sibling shouted back. She walked to where they were standing, looking at Kanaya. "A quelle heure allez-vous retourner?"

The younger of the two rolled her eyes. Well, now at least I know she's mad at me. "Je ne sais pas. But we are going to take Rose's car, so it doesn't matter if you want to do something. I'll see you later." She looked at her sister again, and noticing that her sister was not going to fight back, she and Rose walked out the front door.

I know I shouldn't be thinking this, but Kanaya is really attractive when she's angry and rebellious. Rose thought this as she got into her car with Kanaya and started to drive to the library.

"Hey Rose, can I ask you something?" Kanaya asked.

"Of course, Kanaya. Something bothering you?" The blonde's voice filled with concern.

The other girl cleared her throat. "Okay, so you can totally not answer this if you don't feel comfortable, but how did you know you were not into guys?"

Woah. She doesn't beat around the bush does she. Rose was taken aback by the question. "Well, to fully answer that question, I have to clarify that it isn't that I'm not into guys, I simply happen to like more than just guys. See, I identify as pansexual." Rose glanced over for a second and saw her friends confused expression. "Ah, you probably don't know what that means. All that means is that I am open to the idea of being in a relationship with any and all sexualities, genders, or any identities really. I figured that out in about the 8th grade. I was dating this guy, and he was pretty cool, but I just felt this feeling like 'is that all? Is there nothing more than just this?' So, we eventually broke it off, and I thought, 'well, shoot, maybe I'm lesbian.' And so I dated a girl, which, again, was fine, I liked it, probably more than I did the guy. Eventually we, too, broke up, and I started figuring out that gender and sexuality is not a two answer checkbox, but rather a sliding scale. I decided I was definitely down with dating anyone who identified anywhere on that so called sliding scale. That's how I figured out, not that I wasn't into guys, but rather that I wasn't strictly straight or strictly gay, rather pansexual. And that is why I consider myself to be the 50 shades of gay."

"Huh. Interesting." Kanaya responded, clearly unsure of what else to respond with.

The blonde chuckled. "Yup… out of curiosity, why do you ask?"

The raven considered this for a moment. "Well, mostly for my own curiosity, since I have only really had simply straight friends or simply gay friends, I was curious about you. That's all."

Rose nodded, and the rest of the drive was filled with mostly silence. Which, of course, wasn't very long because they were almost there anyway.

They pulled up to the library and spotted Dave and Karkat talking to each other at the entrance. The two girls walked up to them.

"Sup ladies. Ready to research the hell out of this guy?" Dave asked.

"Yeah. Thanks for helping us out. Let's go!" Rose responded, and the four of them walked into the library.

After hours of research, Rose finally felt that they had a better idea of what they were dealing with, she wasn't exactly happy about it, but she was more informed about the whole thing than she was before. "Alright, let's go over everything we have found and start connecting the dots. Dave, you were in charge of researching Peixes Enterprise. Summarize what you found."

"So Peixes Enterprise deals in pretty much everything one could imagine, however, they are most known for buying companies to keep them from going bankrupt. They also take a lot of loans from the bank to complete what they label as 'secret projects'", Dave used air quotes when he said those two words. "No one except the CEO and her advisors know what those projects are called or what their intentions are. But one of the other major things I found is that the company seems very buddy-buddy with the police force."

The blonde girl nodded. "That's probably why Jack got out of jail so easily. I'm sure the 'anonymous figure' was just some accountant from the Peixes Enterprise every time he was in trouble. But why? Where were they getting all of this money?"

Karkat chimed in. "That was most likely due to the fact that Jack is apart of the Serket family, aka owner of the Serket Banking Corporation. Their primary function is to serve big businesses with banking and loans. They supply a lot of money for the police force when they need new equipment, but they also give many loans to some company with the abbreviation PixEnt. And I think we all know what name that stands for. So, it seems only natural that two big companies would band together to get a mutual out of a bad situation."

The raven answered. "That makes total sense. One of Jack's Ex wives was Candy Peixes, so the Peixes company would want to help out, I guess. Both her and Jack must have some sort of connection that transcends marriage. But what is it?"

"Well," Rose continued. "I did research on Candy, and didn't seem to find much on her and Jack, except that their marriage lasted only a short time, and that whole time was peppered with problems, all undisclosed. Otherwise, she has been the head of Peixes Enterprise for almost 10 years now. She succeeded her grandmother, who not only founded the company, but also Alternia High school in the mid 70's. Candy has not been a favored CEO, since she is often in the tabloids for attending risque parties and getting into trouble with her current husband, whoever it may be. She is currently married to her 4th husband, who runs a law firm. Hmm, kind of useful if you ask me."

Dave chimed in. "So, that might explain why Candy wanted Jack to stay out of jail. He is probably like her part time security guard or something from all the tabloids and what not. But what else does he have to do with all this?"

"That's what I found out." Kanaya responded. "Jack is in fact, still a member of his gang, the Midnight Crew. No one outside of the gang knows of his position, but he is rumored to be pretty high in the ranks, since many people say he knows the gang boss, whom few are have said to see. That would explain why he gets into so much trouble, but also why he could be seen as good protection."

"Well guys." Rose stood up, followed by everyone else. "We found out a lot today, and I think that answers some questions for me. Thank you all so much for helping me out. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah no prob sis. Happy to help out however we can." Dave fistbumped his half sibling and smiled. "Well, we are going to head out. What are you guys going to do?"

"Uh, I think I am going to drop off Kanaya back at my place then go run to the hospital." Rose responded. "See you guys later. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She yelled back to the boys as they stopped by the front door and texted Dirk. She got in the car with Kanaya and drove to her house. "I will be back. I figured you could chill here for a bit."

Kanaya looked at her friend. "Are you sure you don't want me to go to the hospital with you?"

The other girl nodded. "Yeah I'm sure. Maybe next time."

The two parted ways and Rose drove back to the ever familiar hospital. She walked inside, talked to the lady at the front desk, and walked into her mom's room. Nothing had changed, except it perhaps smelled a little nicer, like lavender air freshener had been sprayed. She sat in the chair next to her mother's bed as the nurse came in.

"Oh, hello sweetie. I didn't expect to see you here. How are ya doing?" The young nurse asked.

Rose smiled. "I'm fine, thank you. Just thought I would check in. Anything new with her?"

The nurse gave her a sympathetic look. I'm afraid not, sweetie. But don't worry, she'll come around." She smiled, checked Roxy's vitals, then left again.

The blonde knelt beside her mother's bed. "Oh mom, I have so much to tell you. I wish you could help me out with this whole thing. It's so much to do." She teared up. "I miss you."

She sat there for a few more minutes before getting up. As she was about to leave, she heard a noise coming from the bed. She turned around to see Roxy stir. "I miss you too honey."

"Mom?" Rose said. "Mom! Is that you?" She knelt back next to her mom, who seemed to have fallen back into her sleep. Rose didn't care much though. "Oh mom. You're awake. At least, you will be. Oh this is great!" She exited the room to go find her mom's nurse.

Translations

Ma petite soeur. Vous savez Je t'aime, mais ne laissez pas vos sentiments votre jugement. Pensez logiquement = My little sister. You know I love you, but do not let your feelings cloud your judgement. Think logically.

Je te déteste. = I hate you.

A quelle heure allez-vous retourner? = At what time will you return?

Je ne sais pas. = I don't know.

So, I have a big headcanon that Porrim can speak near-fluent French. That's why I decided to include it in this chapter (And perhaps future chapters!) I hope that was a nice addition for some of you.

Also, yay! Roxy's up. Or… sort of up.

If you liked this story, or just want to say how cool I am (though I am actually a giant nerd), feel free to favorite, follow, or comment on this story.

Until next time,

~Jane