"But I don't want your knees!" Chris whined to his mother as he followed her to the bathroom. Maddy sent her son an annoyed look. She had a very low tolerance for whining and her children were usually pretty good about it. Chris missed a step and hurried to right himself before his mother could notice that he'd almost tripped. Maddy, however, had already noticed and decided to ignore it. His pride was fragile enough without her commenting on his clumsiness. It wasn't like she was any better.

"Do you think I want my knees?" she asked, pulling a green plastic bottle out of the medicine cabinet. She hated having her knees. They just randomly started hurting and it was usually the right one that started first. It was worse when it was cold. Which was pretty much all the time in Canada. "Fricking genetics." she muttered, twisting the pill bottle cap off.

"But I'm only thirteen!" Chris replied, careful to keep the whine he could feel rising in his throat down. He didn't want his mother to look at him like that again. "Your knees only started hurting…" he stopped, trying to remember the first time his mother had complained about her knees. "Recently.."

She shook her head. "Actually, my knees started hurting like this when I was about.. sixteen."

That made him stop. Sixteen? But that means.. "Mom, your knees have been like that for twenty three years?"

She nodded and shook two of the off white pills into her palm. "You can blame your grandmother for that." Closing the lid with a snap, she handed him the pills. "Take these with food."

"You're giving me your prescription!?" Chris practically squeaked out in horror and confusion, his wide eyes locked on the capsules in his hand.

Maddy sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "It's not strictly prescription medication. You can buy bottles of these pills in the medicinal aisle at the store."

"Oh.. Thank you." he turned and left the bathroom, clenching the pills in his fist and wondering where Brittany had wandered off to. The last he'd seen of his sister was when she'd announced that she was going outside and Bell had rolled her eyes. This, of course, had lead to the two of them fighting and trying to claw each other's eyes out. Sev had grabbed Bell and locked her in her room while Selene had dragged Brittany outside. Chris had been left alone, but he'd managed to entertain himself for a little bit by drawing.

"Mom!"

Chris heard his mother coming down the stairs and sat on the couch, picking up his sketchbook and adding a few more touches to the drawing. He darkened the color around the eyes, hoping to give the sketch the sinister look he was going for.

"Mom!"

Maddy sighed and came into the living room, going to the front door. Before she could go outside though, Brittany and Selene came barreling in the house, sending wary glances over their shoulders. Brittany tripped over a discarded shoe and was sent flying. Maddy grabbed her daughter's shoulder to keep her upright and closed a hand around Selene's arm to keep her from falling as well. "What is it, you two? You sound like a pair of baby birds, squawking for me like that."

"There's a man outside!" Brittany replied, stepping back until her mother's hold on her shoulders was broken.

Maddy didn't even try to resist rolling her eyes this time. "There are always men outside, dear. Men are going to be pretty much everywhere you go. Females aren't the only creatures on the planet."

"No mom, he's creepy!" Brittany practically yelled, as her mother brushed dirt off of her shoulder and grumbled about having just washed the shirt. "He looks like dad!"

That made their mother stop fussing with Brittany's shirt. "What?"

Brittany fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "Well... he sort of looks like dad. Only, a bit more.." she looked to her twin. "How would you describe him?"

"Sinister? Cocky?" Selene provided nonchalantly, chewing on her fingernail. "Like a thug? His hair is longer and he's wearing sunglasses and- Mom, are you okay?"

She wasn't okay. Maddy was trembling, partially with fear and partially anger. The only man she knew who looked like Matthew, but wasn't... She suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to hide under a blanket, like she'd done when she was little and thought things like that worked. Finally, after a few minutes and shaking uncontrollably and fighting the desire to hide like a child, she took a deep breath. "Brittany, take your brother and go to your room. Lock the door and don't come out until I come to get you."

"But mom-"

"Now." Her tone left no room for argument and Brittany grabbed Chris from the couch before dragging him up the stairs.

"Mom? He's dangerous, isn't he?" Selene said hesitantly, watching her mother carefully.

Maddy nodded. "Very. He's the reason your aunt d-" her breath caught in her throat and she stopped, unable to say that awful word. "...Isn't here."

Selene watched her mother's face, red eyes searching out any twitch or detail that would tell her what was going on in her mother's mind. "I'll go let Sev and Bell know not to come out for a bit."

"You need to stay in your room too." the blonde said quickly, her eyes suddenly narrowing at her daughter.

"I know, mom. Don't worry." the albino smiled at her mother, hoping it was enough reassurance, then turned and went up the stairs, stopping at the top. She waited until she'd heard the front door close to sneak back down the stairs and peeked through the window. The man who looked like her father saw her and smirked at her. She ducked back out of sight before her mother could see her and went to her room.

Outside, the two blondes stared each other down, one full of anger and the other grinning lazily. "What the hell are you doing here Michael?"

He flinched both at her tone and the name. "Now beauty, before we go any further, you should know that 'michael' isn't actually my name."

Maddy rolled her eyes. She'd had a hunch that he'd been using a fake name all these years, but in this instance, she wished she'd been wrong. "What is it then?"

"James."

Her eye twitched. Note to self: never give a character the name james again. "Tell me what you want or leave." She snarled, trying to give off the impression that she wasn't terrified and would kill him if he didn't listen to her. Unfortunately, he wasn't nearly as easily scared as Alfred and simply rolled his eyes at her.

"And what will you do to me if I don't leave, girlie?"

She scowled at him. "Being in the dark is worse than knowing."

"So nothing." he concluded with another smirk. "You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to scare me."

Her nails were digging into her palms, but she ignored the sting and glared at him. "Get off my property."

"So where's loverboy?" James asked, his eyes briefly flickering to the front door. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's not here. Isn't that right?"

"Why would he be?" Maddy snapped, before she could help it. "Now, get away from my house."

He chuckled. "Alright girlie. If that's what you want." That damned smirk of his came back and he turned away from her, walking down the driveway. "I guess I'll see you later Princess."

She rolled her eyes and went inside, locking the door behind her. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she scrolled through her messages until she came to the last time she'd texted Matthew. It's been a month and a half? Wow. She pushed the thought out of her mind and typed out a quick message, hitting send and going upstairs. Maybe if she made lunch, she could take her mind off everything.

"Is anyone hungry?"

Bodies immediately launched themselves out of their rooms, clinging to her like koalas. She surveyed the children currently clutching her arms. Brittany- she was a lot like her uncle, always hungry. Chris- he pretty much just followed Brittany's lead. Bell- she was currently glaring daggers at her siblings, but that was normal.

Sev walked out of Selene's room, dragging her along behind him. "You haven't eaten in a awhile. Come eat."

Selene however, wasn't making it easy for her older brother to drag her into the hall. "I said no."

Maddy shook her head and began her trek to the kitchen. "Who wants what?"

"Pasta!" the children chorused.

The chant not only reminded her of Feli, but also set her on edge. The five of them usually couldn't agree on anything. She sent each of them a confused look. "Really?"

They all nodded eagerly and she shrugged. "If that's really what you want." She grabbed a pot, one of the multiple strainers that were stashed around the kitchen and sighed. "If you want me to cook, you're going to have to get off me."

Brittany, Chris and Abelia scrambled off their mother and joined their siblings in the hall. Maddy put the pot under the faucet in the sink and turned the water on, turning to the cabinets to get the pasta sauce, salt and various other spices down. "Don't tell your father I use pre made sauce." she told her brunette children, meeting their bright green eyes.

Bell made a gesture like she was zipping her mouth closed and Sev shook his head. Chris was staring quizzically at them ,his eyes narrowed. "Hey mom."

The blonde turned to her youngest son. "Hm?"

"Why does Bell have two different colored eyes?"

Abelia glared at him, before hiding behind Severus, closing her eyes and covering them with her hands. She was self-conscious about them and it didn't help when someone pointed them out.

"It's because she has heterochromia." She turned the faucet off and put the pot on the stove. Adding salt to the water, she grabbed a metal pasta ladle and the spaghetti from the cabinet. "It has to do with the amount of melanin in each iris."

"Is it contagious?"

The pasta ladle clattered to the stove and she stared at her son in both surprise and anger. "Christopher Flynn Williams! What kind of question is that? Of course, it's not contagious! It's not a disease!"

Chris backed up, sensing his mother's fury. The other children looked at him with a mixture of sympathy and annoyance. They all knew not to invoke their mother's wrath and he had just done it in the worst possible way.

"Go to your room."

"But-"

"Now!"

He shot up the stairs like a rocket, chills going up and down his spine. Slamming the door, he sat on his bed and sulked. It wasn't fair! He'd asked a perfectly valid question. He almost wished his mother had blown up at him instead of sending him to his room. Having her scream at him for a few minutes was better than sitting up here, waiting for her to come up with his punishment. He didn't make his mother mad very often, but when he did, his punishment was cruelly specific and carefully tailored to fit whatever he'd done. All her punishments were, due to the fact that his mother had a very dark mind and as his father put it, "spent too much time in her own head."

I guess that's what I get for having a writer as a mother though.

He sighed and laid down, closing his eyes in the hope that a nap might delay his torment.

pinkittwice54: I didn't think I made the chapter that heartbreaking. I'm sorry.