Welcome back! Here's some angst and a little background into Emma and Sarah's beginnings...
Don't forget to review!
Mrs S had asked Emma to pick up Kira from school so there she was, waiting outside the little girls classroom, listening to her music, being eyed up by soccer moms.
Emma had picked up her niece many times and still got the judgemental glares from the mothers and teachers who assumed she was a teen mom. Em stood in her leather jacket, shorts with ripped tights and boots, sporting an almost identical outfit as her sister's usual attire, her curly waves sat tangled upon her shoulders, full of random thin plaits and her face was smothered in dark eye makeup. She was a punk, just like the rest of her family, although this didn't suit the square parents picking up their darling children.
Children filed out of their classes, the teachers making sure that each of them were accounted for by their parents. The tiniest kid steps out of the class. Kira. A wide grin spreading across her face when she spots her teenage aunt in the crows of dull colours.
Em waves to the girl as she walks closer to the building and pulls out her earphones. The teacher spots her, frowns and turns to Kira, warily.
"No, she's my aunt," Em hears Kira informs her teacher, knowingly, as she walks up to the girl.
"Hey, monkey," She says as Kira flings herself into her aunt's arms despite the teacher's worried glare.
Kira looks behind Em from her place in her arms, "Where's Uncle Felix?" She asked innocently.
"Well, I went to see him today, and he'll pick you up the day after tomorrow, okay?"
Kira smiles and nods, eagerly and Em spins around walking through the sea of scowls, swinging the little girl's arm, exaggeratedly, causing her to laugh and showing the other women that this kid , with the irresponsible guardian, was the happiest.
"We're back," Em yelled through the house as Kira opened the door, racing towards the kitchen where S sat with a pot of tea and pen and papers.
"Hello, love," S stroking Kira's long curls as she headed for her paints.
Em had already ran upstairs relieving her coat and bags in her room and hopped back downstairs, smiling at her foster mother as she poured herself a drink from the fridge.
"Oh, you seem cheery, love. Read a good book at the library?" S asks doubtfully as she pries the coat off of Kira's back.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, and yes!" Em laughed, winking at her foster mother. "I spent the day at Fe's."
"Aha! Is that right? And what is that boy up to at the moment?"
Em rolled her eyes. S was always insulting towards her foster children but she loved them all and would kill for them, despite what it might seem. "Painting, mostly…" Emma's voice lingered, deceptively as she headed for the stairs.
"Hey, wait, come back here. What's your useless brother up to now?" S called eagerly after Emma.
Emma's eyes flickered towards Kira in the corner of the room, painting, before returning them back to Mrs S, "I'll tell you later, yeah?"
S followed the teenager's eyes towards Kira before nodding at her youngest foster daughter.
Unfortunately, her suspension was over and so Em woke up at half seven and got ready for school. She decided to climb out the window, instead of using the door, as she knew that Mrs S would trap her until she got the truth out of her foster daughter of whom hadn't yet told her the secret she was containing from last night, and sadly, Em couldn't keep a secret for very long.
Also, she wasn't sure if she should tell S that Sarah was back. Mrs S' reaction would be of frustration and she would surely march straight over to Fe's loft, demanding to see her estranged, eldest foster child. Em would have to check with her siblings because she could tell there was something they were hiding from her, that Sarah's return was more than just getting Kira back, and her life sorted out. That definitely was not Sarah.
Landing on the hard cement ground from the pipes, Em adjusted her bag over her shoulder and peered through the window of the hallway, running as she saw Mrs S' head whip past, blissfully unaware of the teenager who just broke out of her house.
The day lasted as usual, although she received a sarcastic welcome back from her peers, though she just smirked at the black eyed girl in the corner of the class, who was not-so-subtly pretending that she hadn't seen Emma enter the class. Em admired her marking on the girls face and greeted the teacher, condescendingly, "Hello Peter,"
The balding man, wearing thick rimmed glasses and sporting a brown and purple chequered sweater vest, rolled his eyes, "It's Mr Calhoun to you, Emma. Welcome back, it's lovely to see you." He offered, cynically.
Lunch came, and went too quickly. Em spent the hour behind the art department squinting, puffing away at her carelessly rolled spliffs and squinting at the preppy kids she was forced to be surrounded by. Unlike her other siblings, Emma was rather talented academically, though she refused to believe it to fit with her punk image, and so when her middle school teacher suggested to Mrs S that she send her to the high achieving high school in the upper side of city, S was beside herself with relief that Emma might not turn out to be as rebellious and difficult as Sarah or Felix.
Emma, much to her chagrin, was sent to the school however, the students quickly discovered that she wasn't one of them. A scrappy foster kid with a hostile wardrobe and a troubled background was all they saw, forcing Em to precede their expectations and slide easily into the familiar role she had witnessed, growing up with her uneasy elder sister. In that way, school was easy for Em. She ignored the rules and emitted a 'couldn't care less' attitude, and for the most part, she really couldn't. But, when lunchtime came, it would be nice not to spend them on her own every damn day.
"Hey Emma, "A timid voice pulled her from her thoughts.
This kid didn't count as someone she would willingly spend time with.
She hesitated before acknowledging the sheepish boy's existence, focusing instead on rolling another joint, "Bugger off, Henry." She finally sighed, still focused on the task in hand.
"Uh, yeah, sure," The weedy kid, who was dressed as if his mother still shopped for him, started to turn away, "I just wanted to give you… the research I've done so far for, for our science project," He stuttered whilst reaching into his backpack and retrieving the necessary documents.
Em ran her hand through her hand, and quickly turned to him, slipping the joint between her lips and lighting up, "Listen, Henry. I'm afraid I can't participate in that project. Foster kid problEm at home, you know," Em lived pulling the 'foster kid' card. She leaned towards him winking, "Do you think you could help me out by taking the reins on this one?" She asked flirtatiously, already distracted by the something else.
Henry laughed, bashful, and returned the carefully filed pages into his bag, "Oh, yeah. Sure. Of course,"
Em smiled slightly at his awkwardness and the power she somehow had over him, in disbelief, "Bye, Henry." She quickly said, between drags, before the boy could strike up a conversation.
Henry understood his cue to leave and followed it, leaving Em to shake her head, rolling her eyes, at his odd behaviour.
The bell rang suddenly and Em could almost growl at it but at least it meant the day was closer to finishing. She stood up to walk away before a jock's arm forcefully collided with her shoulder, causing Em to stagger forwards and adjust her balance before she could fall.
"'Sup Skank," the boy laughed, menacingly, walking backwards so he could watch the exasperation spread across Em face.
"Fuck off," She yelled toward his direction in her thick London accent before her phone beeped and she fished it out of her pocket.
You back in the shithole today? – Sarah
Em smiled at the message, still in awe that Sarah was back, before texting her back quickly, confirming the dreadful news.
Finally, the last bell of the day rang and Em was the first out of the room, ignoring the blatant yelling of her teacher ordering her to come back.
She trailed out of the building, checking to see if Sarah had replied to her text. When she spotted no new messages, Em absentmindedly began her journey home, walking straight past the neatly dressed brunette.
"Oi," Sarah called out to her younger sister with false offense laced in her voice from not being recognised.
Em spun around excitedly at the familiar voice and raised her eyebrows questioningly, "What the bloody hell are you wearing?" She laughed, noticing the new hairstyle and fancy clothes she thought she'd never see on her sister.
Sarah rolled her eyes wrapping her arm around Em' shoulders and pulling her along, "Shut up. I've got to impress S somehow, yeah?" She stated.
The sisters sat in the booth of the diner, sipping at their drinks, before Sarah scrunched up her nose in distaste and nodded towards Em, "You reek of pot, you know?"
Em laughed into her drink, and then shrugged, "Whatever, I've got to get through the day with those stuck up kids somehow, yeah? Anyways, aren't you going to tell me about your ten months full of adventures?" She challenged, changing the subject, knowing Sarah wouldn't answer her.
Sarah proved her right by shifting uncomfortably in her seat and averted her gaze through the window, "Just a whole lot of shite."
Em rolled her eyes at the minimal answer, and slammed her hands onto the table, gaining Sarah's attention again, "Okay, well, you going to tell me why you really look like that?" She grinned again at the out of character outfit Sarah donned.
Sarah leaned over the table and whispered, "One of my new scams," She winked.
Disappointed with this news, Em shifted slightly in her seat, "Right, sure. Of course, you're back to being the model mother for Kira. How d'you suppose S will let you have Kira if you've come back here after almost a year, straight back to being a con artist?" Em scoffed, disapprovingly.
Sarah, sat back with a thud, "Give it a rest, Em. I'm trying to fix this."
"Bloody hell, Sarah. Siobhan is serious this time. She's not going to give you Kira back let alone let you see her, for a while."
"Well, I'm her mum, she's gonna have to." Sarah hissed, slamming her fist on the table causing a few pairs of eyes to turn towards their table.
"For fuck sake, Sarah! You left Kira with Mrs S overnight, and you didn't come back for ten months!" She watched the hurt fill Sarah's eyes as they turned glassy and Em sat back slowly, feeling slightly guilty as she waited for Sarah's reply.
Emma grabbed her bag and slid out of the booth stopping only to lean closer to address her sister, "Please, come back. I shouldn't be mothering her."
Sarah let one tear fall before quickly swiping the rest away and lowering her head into her hands. She knew that it would take a while to fix things with Em. Despite the eleven years difference between the sisters, they had always been inseparable and frequently, the dynamic fell more into a mother-daughter role when Em was growing up.
She was used to Sarah's regular excursions of which nobody would hear from her for a few weeks. But once Sarah had returned from one pregnant, they had become less regular and even after Kira was born, Sarah would go for less days at a time.
So it was only normal that Em would react to this particular reappearance differently. But, this time, Sarah wasn't sure how to make it right with her. One of the most important people in her life was starting to see Sarah's real side, and she couldn't fix it.
Sarah rapidly climbed out of the booth, pounding her feet out of the diner, and headed toward Beth's apartment.
As Emma's high school was in the upper district, it wasn't too far from Beth's townhouse, which meant that it didn't take Sarah long to walk back.
As she rounded the corner to the street, she noticed a parked black car, flashing its lights. She wondered if they were being flashed at her, but before she could think about why they'd want her attention, a silver car pulled up suddenly with a single siren blaring, blocking her view as the black car pulled away.
The driver's door of the silver car, swung open violently as a dark skinned man raced around the front of the car, towards Sarah and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her towards the car.
"What the hell are you doing?" He huffed out as Sarah struggled to break free from his hold.
"Shit," Sarah muttered under her breath. "What's the charge?"
"Not today Beth," He sighed gently pushing her into the car/
They arrived at the police station five minutes later, Sarah having discovered that her kidnapper was Beth's partner, Art. Sarah couldn't function properly; her surroundings were all blurred and time seemed to have slowed down as cops smiled and nodded solemnly at her.
Art left her to enter a board room, when an older man with greying hair addressed her, "Detective,"
Sarah's eyes immediately widened when she realised that he was talking to her.
"Just stick with the statement and you'll do fine," He tried to reassure her, pathetically.
Sarah realised, as she looked into the room Beth's partner had just sat down in, that she, as Beth, was supposed to address a whole room of cops for something she had no idea had happened.
With her hand running through her hair in panic, she took a deep breath, "Uh, I got to use the washroom, Lieutenant,"
The older man sighed, "Alright, get yourself sorted," He began, making Sarah stop when he informed her she was going the wrong way and giving her a suspicious look.
Sarah half ran in the direction of the bathroom, almost bumping into a female cop when she burst into the room, only checking that all the stalls were empty when she thought she was alone. Ripping her phone out of her pocket she dialled Fe's number, only for it to head straight to voicemail, "Felix, Beth is a cop. I'm a cop! Felix, abort!" She instructed into the recording, frustrated and emphasising every word firmly.
Tossing the phone by the sink, she leant onto the counter top, taking a worried breath. Running her hands through her hair she stared at herself as if trying to pry an answer to the situation out of her reflection before her eyes fell on the soap dispenser.
Quickly, she twisted off the dispenser from its secure place on the wall, and held the pot up to her nose, smelling it before hesitantly bringing it up to her lips. She took a small sip, and pulled away rapidly as she started to gag.
Come on, Sarah. You've swallowed worse than this. Without thinking about it anymore she hurriedly gulped down the entirety of the soap.
A few minutes later, she was sitting at a table, surrounded by cops and lawyers with a camera pointed at her face. Somebody asked her to state her full name and at that point she was wondering when the substance would take effect, when all of a sudden she sprung out of her seat and leant over the table, throwing up.
Throwing his bag onto the couch, Felix went straight to his collection of drinks and poured himself one. He definitely needed it after seeing Beth's cut and bloody, train wreck corpse. Well, at least he got a date out of it with the cute, goofy morgue attendant, Colin.
Felix's phone rang, "Hey Sarah!" He answered, relieved that she was okay.
"Did you get my message?" She replied quickly.
"Yeah, I did. But, shit, Sarah, I had already identified her body as you. There was nothing I could do!" He tried to explain.
"It's fine, don't worry about it. I sorted it out. They wanted me to testify to something Beth had done. Something about shooting a civilian? I don't know but, I got out of it."
"Shite. How?"
"By sputtering my guts out on the table," Felix laughed at this as Sarah continued, "Yeah, I didn't have to do any statements after that, but they sent me to Beth's therapist. Turns out she'd been knocking back a ton of different drugs. No wonder she jumped in front of a train." Sarah's voice sounded tired.
"Where are you now?" Felix asked, wondering if she had made it back to Beth's okay.
"I'm at her apartment, trying to find out more about her and this bloody case." Sarah paused and sighed, "Have you heard from Em today?"
Felix sipped at his drink, kicking his shoes off and falling onto his bed, "No, but I'm seeing her tomorrow. Why?"
Felix could imagine Sarah rubbing her eyes, groggily as she spoke into the phone, "I picked her up from school and we got into a fight. She's changed, Fe. I don't know how to fix it with her now. It was easier before."
Fe exhaled quietly. Whilst growing up with two sisters had its perks, they were always fighting about stuff he couldn't really get involved with and he had always felt left out. Despite them all growing up together, everyone was pretty sure that Emma and Sarah were biological sisters; they looked very similar and were found together when Sarah was 12 and Em only a year old, but Sarah couldn't remember anything that had happened so they always suspected that they're parents had been abusive and Sarah's subconscious mind had repressed the memories.
Still, Felix felt that he was the odd one out. The one with no real biological connections, which he knew was silly because they all loved each other as real siblings. But he never liked getting caught up in his sisters arguments which usually turned into a fist fight and was resolved within a few minutes. However, ever since Em had become a teenager and Sarah had left more and more, it always took a day or two for things to get back to normal with them when Sarah returned; she realised that Em wouldn't forgive her as easily than when she was younger.
But something about this time made Felix think that it would take more than a few days for Em to forgive Sarah. This time, Sarah had left for almost a year and nobody really knew if she was coming back.
"I know, but, you know you just need to give her some time. You were gone for a long time, Sarah." He reminded her without trying to sound judgemental, "Just focus on Mrs S and getting Kira back. Em will be happy when Kira has you back."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Anyways, just got into Beth's detective files so I'll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?" Sarah said, sounding distant to Felix.
"Alright, see you." Felix said, hanging up and downing the rest of his liquor.
After seeing the therapist, Sarah had gone straight back to Beth's apartment and taken a nap. She'd called Felix afterwards and then had a shower.
Stepping out of the bathroom, she ran the towel through her long hair and pulled her 'London Calling' band t-shirt on along with some underwear.
She decided to start packing as she'd already scammed Beth's bank account and had the $75 K so she threw a couple of Beth's clothes into her bag alongside her own.
Running her hand along the man's clothes she began pulling out a baggy shirt she was sure Beth's boyfriend wouldn't mind. But as she pulled it off the hanger, the front door shut and she heard footsteps walking towards the room she was in, "Shit."
"Beth. Beth?" A low voice questioned from out of her sight.
The source of the voice walked into the room. Paul, Sarah assumed. He was well built, had light, short hair and was wearing a suit, "Hey." He said after Sarah had stopped frantically moving around the closet and turned to face him.
"Hey." She answered in Beth's accent.
Paul's eyes moved down to the shirt Sarah was wearing and he smirked, "The Clash?" He scoffed.
Sarah looked down at her top pulling her wet hair behind her shoulder, "Oh yeah. Uh, London Calling…The Clash Rock." She smiled.
"Yeah, but you don't," He said almost condescendingly as he began to move closer to her. "You going somewhere?" He tilted his head towards the back she had been filling and so she began to start emptying it.
"Uh, uh…no, it's just gym stuff." She tried to say coolly. "Weren't you coming back on the weekend?"
He moved closer, "Well, I wanted to be here." He said as I it was obvious, "So? How'd it go?" Sarah must have looked confused because he sighed and elaborated, "How was the hearing?"
Sarah looked down at her bag, "Oh. Ah, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it." She began walking out of the room, trying to get away from him only to roll her eyes when he followed her into the kitchen.
"You skipped it?" She heard him question her.
"Um, no. I got sick to my stomach. Basically puked on 'em." She told him, walking backwards so she was facing Paul.
"Are you serious?" He frowned, getting closer.
"Yeah. Yeah," She smiled, "Don't worry, I'm okay." Her hand rested on the counter.
Her coolness obviously wasn't convincing because he raised his arms and spoke louder, "Beth. What's happened?"
Sarah exhaled, putting her hands on her hips and smiling as she told him the truth, "A lot."
"Yeah, I know but you're…"
Sarah waited for him to continue but instead opened up one of the cupboards as if to show him that she was looking for a wine glass, only to open an empty cupboard, "I'm what?"
He stepped closer now, eying her suspiciously, "What'd you do to your hair?"
"Uh…nothing. I got it cut."
"It looks longer." He reached up to touch it.
"It's just wet." She said, ducking away from his reach and spreading her fingers through the long, wet locks.
He tried reaching for it again as he moved even closer, shaking his head, "Something's different."
Sarah knew the only way to shut him up and so she inwardly sighed before rapidly reaching up to make their lips meet in a quick, passionate kiss. Pushing him against the counter, she felt her way down to his belt buckle, trying to take it off whilst deepening the kiss as Paul ripped off his jacket.
He pulled down his pants once Sarah had successfully tugged off his belt and Paul lifted her up, mumbling against her lips, "Bedroom," He tried to instruct Sarah as he carried her in the direction but banged into the table, dropping her onto her feet.
"Right here," She whispered, pulling off her underwear, seductively, before going back in to kiss him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he fumbled with his shirt buttons.
Paul lifted her against him and onto the table, in an almost seated position until Sarah pushed him onto his back with a sigh and straddled him, whilst pulling off her shirt to reveal her naked torso.
Paul looked down towards where their ends met as she climbed on top of him and placed his hands on her waist, securely, rocking up and down, both of them panting.