Voodoo Curse

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 12 (Suspicion)

"He's not so bad," Beck said of David after making his way to their home where Jade had decided to stay. "David and I discussed how things have been going with the girls, and at first he wanted to know if we were going to be like vengeful spirits or something." He chuckled at the thought and smirked as Jade pushed open the door.

"Vengeful? No, certainly not. Angry, yes, but not vengeful. It's hard to be angry at them for raising our daughters-that's what we wanted, anyway. For my sister to raise our kids if something happened to us."

"Yeah, well he also wanted to talk to me about something else." They moved into the kitchen and Beck grabbed an orange from the fruit basket on the counter. "They're going to Santa Barbara on Friday, he and Holly, and Trina is getting her wisdom teeth out." Jade opened the refrigerator door and hummed thoughtfully as she reached inside. "He has Tori looking after her, but he said it might be a good chance for their parents to spend some time with them as well."

Jade froze with a tupperware container in her hand and glanced over her shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. "Oh I would love to." Her smile faded and her lips began to purse. "Oh but Cat was insistent on doing something with me that night, though, and I was going to use that as an opportunity to get some insight on her grandma."

She walked to the counter and set the container down. "I could cancel on her and be with you and the girls." Beck started to peel the orange, focusing a curious gaze on it as thoughts ran through his mind. "I've spent a lot of time with them lately though. You're their father, so maybe you should get a chance to spend some time with them."

"Yeah, and we don't know how much time we have left. You shouldn't cancel out on the one thing that might help us." He walked around to the edge of the counter and gently tossed the orange peel into the trash. "At least we know Robbie's going to be dealing with some girls from another school."

Jade pulled the Tupperware lid off with a pop and looked up, flashing a smirk at him. "You honestly don't like Robbie much, do you?"

"No. No I do not." He raised the orange to his lips and bit into it, delighting in the sweet juices that graced his tongue. He swallowed and whisked the fruit away with a grunt. "Don't care much for Andre either."

"Whatever will you do once we get back to where we're supposed to be, then fifteen years later, Tori's friends with all of these people again?" She planted her palms on the counter, leaned forward and flashed a slow-growing smirk. Beck felt his heart jolt to a stop and he contemplated the possibility.

Anything was possible, and he'd always been a believer in fate or destiny-if something was meant to happen, it would. If Tori was meant to befriend Andre, Robbie and Cat, then it would happen.

"Cry."

On the plus side, if Trina was meant to run into Jason, then she would. He didn't mind that as much since he actually liked the kid.

"I'm curious how likely it is they'd meet though. If Erwin brought our drunken idea for an arts based school forward because of our 'deaths', and we manage to reverse whatever it is that happened to us…wouldn't that mean Hollywood Arts would not come to pass?"

"It could." She shrugged and began spooning the pasta from the container into a bowl. "But at the very least we know Hollywood Arts comes to pass, there's no stopping you from convincing Erwin to bring that idea to fruition. Maybe you could make it even better." Her eyebrows rose. "You were on your way to being hired as a principal somewhere, you might be principal of Hollywood Arts."

A wave of pride struck him and he tugged on his shirt collar while beaming with pride. "Well certainly." It was Sherwood that was going to hire him as principal, but he could see him working for Hollywood Arts. "You could certainly be a music teacher there as well. If you wanted to."

"I don't know. Maybe when our girls graduate and move out of the house. You know I want to raise our girls, I don't want to be working and not be there for them." Beck's lips flattened together and he nodded with understanding.

He hated to admit, he and David talked about the repercussions of two working parents, and it wasn't good. While Trina and Tori were given a good home life with two parents, they often felt neglected because neither David and Holly were around in times they needed them most.

"Holly's always away at the hospital and David is always on call." He crossed his arms and watched Jade peer blankly at the bowl of stew. "You might be right, Jade. One parent ought to be there for the kids."

"It's not like we have to give them a big mansion with gilded walls and twenty cars. Just a loving family, a mom and a dad, and people that care about them. I don't want them to feel alone because we're never there due to our jobs."

"Fair enough."

Jade pushed the bowl into the microwave and sighed while entering the time. "I was talking to Cat a little bit ago, asking her to get her grandmother's input on the whole fading memories thing. She's getting suspicious, but that's about it."

"Oh. Well, what did the grandma say?"

"The more we attach ourselves to crucial and important parts of our lives, the slower and harder it is to lose those memories." She pushed her hands through her hair and turned towards him. "Like spending our time here in this house, keeping the ash in that jar, it helps us to constantly be thinking about the things that have happened so that we continue to remember…spending time with our daughters, god forbid we ever forget them, helps us to never forget."

"So you're saying, if it draws an emotional reaction from us and triggers our memories, we won't forget it so suddenly?"

"Right…"

"Thank god." Relief washed over his shoulders and poured from his heart, drawing a smile to his face. "I don't know what I would do if we lost that part of our lives." He leaned over the counter, sliding his hands along the smooth surface, and looked sideways at the dining table nearby. "I was worried about you at first, wanting to fix this place up and stay here, but I understand why now."

"This was our first home. This was where we were going to raise the girls, where we were going to retire and spend the rest of our lives." Her voice trembled and tugged at Beck's heartstrings. His eyes closed and he breathed in as the memories of the house started to come to mind. "This is where we conceived our children, where we were made so many memories…a place this important? How could I not want to stay here?"

"I love this place too, and you're right, it's also probably the best place we can be right now."

When Friday came around, Beck joined Jade and the others at the Karaoke bar that she and Cat were going to attend before going over to check on Tori and Trina. Before leaving, he worried about Jade, since one of the girls at the Karaoke place made a vain attempt at flirting with him.

While he did not react, Jade approached the girl from behind and had a look in her eyes as though she were ready to murder the woman. The competition wound up becoming a fight between schools, and then a contest ensued between them.

Before long they were on their way to the Vega home in an unexpected turn of events where Jade and Cat wanted to get Tori to sing, which left Beck to stay and look after Trina.

Much to his dismay, Robbie and Andre stuck around as well as the girls took off.

Tori looked exhausted as it was from looking after Trina, who was already in a lot of pain from surgery and drowsy. It looked like she was still sedated. "Why is she tied?" Beck raised an eyebrow as Robbie and Andre moved to untie the ropes.

Tori sighed heavily and closed her eyes. "She's a fighter when she's affected like she is. I had to do it or else she'd probably kick my ass and not realize it."

"Okay." He walked up and pushed Andre and Robbie back. "We'll deal with this." By the time they untied the struggling teenager and helped her over to the couch, the girls were gone.

He made a mental note of the person that owned the karaoke bar, and part of him wanted to ensure the guy never owned that bar once he got back to their proper time.

After about an hour Trina had calmed down. Andre and Robbie were covered in bruises and blood from having tried to keep the girl under control. He felt bad about letting her beat them up, but at the same time he was amused and amazed to see how good her martial arts skills were.

The boys went to wash up while Beck sat beside Trina on the couch. He noticed a calm look in her eyes and observed her replacing a piece of gauze on her own. "I know I'm giving them a hard time," she said between her mumbles, "I have my reasons."

"You're not completely out of it, are you." He smirked with pride and she shook her head.

"Well, I do go crazy anytime someone gets close to my mouth, but that's a personal thing…I don't like it." She took a deep breath and started to tense her forehead and hands. Beck jerked his head back and raised an eyebrow.

"Sensitive subject?"

"Yes."

"I-" His voice started to break but he covered it up by clearing his throat. "I'm sorry to hear that." Trina tossed the bloodied gauze in the trash and rubbed her hands vigorously through her hair.

"As for Andre and Robbie? I heard what Andre said about me the other day-I was sitting on the stairs, watching the poker game. I heard everything." He cupped a hand over his mouth and winced. "Robbie? Well, that should be obvious."

"The stalking?"

"Yeah." Trina grabbed a roll of gauze and raised her eyebrows. "And I know I shouldn't just beat people up like that. I know it's wrong, and Jason has always told me 'you're not supposed to use martial arts to fight but to defend yourself or someone else', so please don't lecture me."

He swallowed the urge and crossed his arms, forming a smirk as his eyelids fell halfway. "What makes you think I might lecture you on how and why it is wrong to be aggressive?" She turned her head and formed a wry smile of her own.

"Call it a feeling. Maybe next time Tori and I visit our grandad, we'll bring back his old photo albums and show you some pictures of our family." His lips separated and Trina stood up. "By the way, call Jason and see if he wants to come over. I'd feel more comfortable with my boyfriend here."

"O-Okay." She put the gauze in her mouth and looked crazily at Andre and Robbie as they entered the room. The two boys were paralyzed by her wide glare. "Trina…"

"Oh don't worry, I'm only going to scare them…"

"Great." He picked up his phone, sighing with defeat as Trina roared and rushed towards the two men. "Whatever would your mother say?"

Later that evening while everyone was settling down in their homes, and the pain from Trina's surgery was wearing off, Tori dragged her off to their old childhood home. "You see?" Tori pointed at the newly fixed home with the lights on in the windows. "I told you someone was living there now."

Trina rolled her eyes and stepped onto the lawn, fighting back the memories of the nightmares that were popping up recently after about three years. "What do we care if someone lives here?"

"Maybe they'll let us inside?" Trina froze, paralyzed by Tori's words. Her hands began to tremble and she turned a steady gaze over her shoulder. Tori shrugged and smiled faintly. "I've always wanted to see the inside of the house I was born in."

"We weren't born in the house, we were in a hospital."

"You know what I mean!"

"Yeah, yeah, but why do we want to do that?"

"I'm curious."

The wind howled above the silence and her defeated sigh soon joined it. "Fine." She approached one of the lit windows and put her hands on the glass to peer in.

Inside was the living room. The television was on, and the lamps on either side of the couch cast an amber glow. When she saw Beck and Jade huddled together on the couch with a blanket wrapped around them, her chest tightened and she stumbled backwards, nearly falling over.

"What is it?" Tori asked while approaching the window. Trina raced over, grabbing her sister away before she could look.

"Nothing." She pulled Tori towards their car, looking frantically over her shoulders as her heart burst in erratic beats. "We need to go. Now." She rolled her eyes and growled as Mr. Sikowitz came to mind. "Never come here again, Tori."

"What? Why?"

"Never!"

There was no doubt, she and Jason were going to be having a long talk with the man. She'd only suspected, but she didn't think she'd be right-nor did she want to be right.

"Tori," she said once she was in the driver's seat. Tori's brow furrowed she looked over nervously as Trina shifted the shift into drive. "There's a possibility Beck and Jade are going to need help. That said, we need to pay my boyfriend and his uncle a visit." She pointed to Tori's purse, instructing her to call Cat.

"Why?"

Her stomach twisted into knots and her eyes travelled back to the house as a numb and empty sensation came over her. "I have a feeling Cat may not be as crazy as I thought."'

Well what are your thoughts? Observations? Next chapter we meet Nona, and we see the process and explanation of what's going on and what to do