One of the few things Charlie loved more than anything, was coming back home while her mother was in the middle of preparing a feast. "We're home," Charlie said, as she shrugged off her backpack, letting it tumble before catching it with her powers, and letting it trail after her. "It smells like you made—" Charlie's jaw dropped, when she saw a huge plate filled with bacon wrapped cherries. She immediately parks her ass on the barstool and immediately reaches for a bacon wrapped cherry when her knuckles get rapped by a ladle.
"Can't you be patient?" Judy asks in an exasperated manner.
"Mom made bacon wrapped cherries?" Quinn asks with a grin on her face as she dumps her bag on the dining table and makes a beeline for the bar. When she attempts to grab one, her mother smacks her knuckles with a firm ladle. "Seriously?"
Judy places the ladle in the sink, and moves back to check on both roasts, before checking her apple crumble. "I didn't make it just for you, your sisters will be here any minute, and I would like for them to have a snack as well. Neither of you know the meaning of moderation."
Charlie turns to look at her grandparents, who had finally caught up. "Do something!"
Artemis studied the distressed look on both of her granddaughter's faces and turned to look at her own daughter. "Do you need help?"
Judy shot her mother a grateful look, "Brit and Frannie will be here any moment, I was going to make a charcuterie board. Frannie isn't going to want to wrestle over bacon wrapped cherries with those three. Even if she really wants some. And I need to get the wine out—"
"Your father will help the charcuterie board, I will go find the wine." Artemis said turning to go and do just that but stopping in front of her grandchildren and grabbing a skewer of bacon wrapped cherries. At Charlie's outraged expression she can't help but wink at her before she goes to grab some wine.
"Mom!"
"Charlie, wait until your sisters arrive—" as Judy snaps, but as she speaks a portal opens up beside her, causing her to jump back as Brittany and Frannie step out of the portal.
A massive grin appears on Charlie's face and before anyone can do anything she has a plate with half of the bacon wrapped cherries on them.
Quinn scowls at her twin and slugs her arm. "Why do you get the lion's share?"
"I'm the youngest," Charlie reminds Quinn before nodding towards the plate. "And Brittany's making off with the other half."
Quinn whips her head to the plate where Brittany has indeed grabbed the rest of the skewers and her jaw drops, "Britt!"
Brittany raises a brow at Quinn, "You were too slow Quinn."
"Are you fucking—"
"Brittany, Charlie—share some with Quinn," Judy ordered rubbing her temples. "Quinn, language." Judy places her hands on her hips when neither Charlie or Brittany make any effort to share with Quinn. She relaxes when Charlie hands over two skewers and Brittany reluctantly does the same.
Frannie flicked her eyes between her mother and then she looked at her sisters before turning to her grandfather who was in the process of making a charcuterie board. "Grandpa," she says, stealing a gherkin.
Lawrence flashes a massive grin at his oldest granddaughter and throws a massive arm around her shoulders pulling her in for a side hug. "I hear congratulations are in order." Frannie narrows her eyes, "I hear you had an interview at Summit!"
"Oh, that. Yeah. But I have no intention of leaving my job until Thing 3 makes a decision. Besides, I like where I am right now. The salary is massive, I also have my government contract which is extremely lucrative. I don't really see a reason to leave." Frannie turns to give her mom a quick hug, "Hey."
"Don't call your siblings names, dear. You're the adult," Judy shakes her head. "Can we just have one normal Thanksgiving without anyone getting hurt both emotionally or physically?"
Frannie turns to look at her sisters who were quietly munching on their bacon wrapped cherries. She moves to swipe one off Charlie's plate only for all the kitchen knives to suddenly appear around her. "Well perhaps if you had normal children, you could have had a normal Thanksgiving." Frannie rolls her eyes and pushes one of the knives away. "Can I have one Thing 3?"
Charlie finally looks up at Frannie, and nearly falls out of her seat. "What the—when did that happen?" Charlie asked, staring at Frannie's stomach.
Her exclamation draws the eyes of everyone in the family as Artemis finally comes back with the wine. Frannie blinked confusion crossing her face, she didn't know how the dumb one managed to figure it out before anyone else. "Don't you—"
Charlie pushed her plate of bacon wrapped cherries towards Frannie, and the knives floated back to where they belonged. "I think that's cheating."
"What's cheating?" Quinn asked, looking between Charlie and Frannie. Since when did Charlie share food? Especially with Frannie? It was like they had entered a bizzaro world.
"Charlie don't you—"
"She's pregnant. Which means we all have to be nice to her!" Charlie threw her hands up outraged by this fact. "I don't even know how it happened!"
"Well Chuck, when a man and a woman have sex—" Brittany began only to yelp when Charlie gives her the tiniest of shocks. She lets out a laugh, and sticks out her tongue at Charlie who flips her off.
Judy immediately whips her head to Frannie who looked like she was about to murder Charlie. "You're pregnant?"
"Surprise," Frannie responds in a sour tone. Groaning when her grandfather lets out a loud whoop, and even her grandmother looks shocked. "I was waiting until everyone was here—how the fuck did you figure it out?"
"I've been able to sense bio-electrical signals since I was like 7," Charlie blinked. She didn't know why Frannie was so upset with her, if Frannie had wanted to keep it a secret she should have said something earlier.
Frannie scowled, she had never been one to pay attention to what any of her siblings did. The massive age gap had made connecting with any of them near impossible. And as far as she was concerned her siblings were weird. "You can't just—" Frannie inhales and flicks her wrist, a portal appearing underneath Charlie's chair, causing Charlie to fall through it.
"Frannie!" Judy groaned. She was supposed to be the mature one, but whenever her children were in a room together it was like dealing with children.
"Where did you send her?" Brittany asked, swiping the rest of Charlie's bacon wrapped cherries. "Also should you be using your abilities so freely with your baby?"
Frannie shrugged, "Like I was going to fly commercial, as if being in that cesspit of germs would be beneficial for my child. As for Charlie, I dropped her somewhere in the Australian outback. She'll be fine if we let her stew there for an hour or two."
"Frannie—" Judy began before shaking her head. She was going to be a grandmother—a smile crosses Judy's face before she freezes when she realizes something important. "Wait who is the father?"
Frannie groaned, deciding that her youngest sibling was going to spend the entire night in the Australian Outback.
~ O ~
"I just think you need to be a bit more discerning about who you want to be a life partner. Why in the world would you want some weakling, who can only talk to animals?" Frannie asked as she cut into her French toast.
Brittany rolled her eyes, "He's cute. That's the only thing that matters right grandma?"
"Absolutely," Artemis agrees. "That's the most important factor in choosing a spouse."
Lawrence turned to look at his wife, "Wait you didn't marry me because I was cute right?" It was the last thing that anyone would use to describe him. He'd always been a big man.
Artemis looks at him and reaches to pat his hand, "I married you because there was no one cooler than you," she says watching as he beamed proudly. She waits until he gets up to grab more coffee, before looking at her granddaughters and shakes her head. "There was no one as cute as he was," she whispers to them.
Lawrence looks back to notice that all three of his granddaughters were looking at him, and he grins. "Was your grandmother telling you of how amazing I used to be back in the day?"
"That's exactly what I was doing," Artemis says keeping a straight face.
Lawrence blinks, slightly confused as to why his granddaughters were chuckling at his expense, but decides to shrug it off. "Anyone need anything else? Those little sausages? More maple syrup?" There was a chorus of each of them saying no. He pauses and looks at all the food wondering why Judy had made so much before she had gone to pick up Cassandra from the airport.
"Besides, Mike and I aren't a thing. He has a girlfriend! But she's still in high-school," Brittany grumbled.
"A tragedy," Frannie says flatly. "Again find someone who has a useful ability."
"Is that what you did?" Brittany asks in an accusatory tone.
Quinn flicks her eyes between her two elder sisters, who looked ready to bicker. "I think I want to ask a girl to be my girlfriend. I just don't know how. I don't even know if she's interested in me, and if I ask and she says no then our friendship which I value might be over."
There is silence and both Brittany and Frannie turn to look at Quinn. Frannie and Brittany exchange a look, "Is she cute?" Brittany asks.
"I think so?" Quinn blinks and flushes a bit, picking at her food. "She's attractive. I mean there's this asshole, Saint Fuckface, who wants Rachel to move all the way to Akron, because apparently there is someone who shares her abilities."
"Wouldn't Charlie be the best person to ask about this?" Frannie asks, taking a sip of her coffee.
Quinn rolled her eyes, "Charlie thinks that Rachel is her ex-girlfriend. You know how she is. She met Rachel and asked her out after Rachel gave her some food. The relationship lasted exactly ten minutes, Charlie dumped Rachel after finding out she was a vegan. They didn't have sex, and they certainly never kissed."
"Well, that does certainly sound like Charlie. Where is she anyway?" Brittany asked, looking around, but Charlie was nowhere to be found. Brittany turns to Frannie who is sipping on her coffee with a pleased smirk on her face. "Frannie."
Frannie scowled, "She ruined my surprise, spending the rest of the week in the outback—"
"Frannie, we have school." Quinn pointed out.
Frannie rolled her eyes, and opened a portal. The kitchen goes quiet as a few seconds pass, and Charlie doesn't rush through the portal. But as the seconds turn into minutes, suddenly Charlie steps through the portal, her skin is red and peeled from the sun, and she's covered in dirt, and what appears to be blood. Her hands are filled with what appeared to be two furry puppies.
Brittany squeals loudly and hops out of her chair to go and pet the puppy, that wakes up startled by the loud pitched noise. "Where did you get those?"
"I found them," Charlie replies, deciding not to tell Brittany about the state that she had found their mother. "I think it's a Dingo, at least that's what my phone said. Can we keep them?" Charlie asked her grandparents. "Look at this cute adorable face." Charlie says holding a puppy up so her grandmother can take a look at it.
Quinn hops out of her chair with two slices of bacon so she could feed the puppies. "Can we keep them?"
"I wanted you to reflect on what you did, not come home with wild animals!" Frannie groaned. "I'm pregnant Charlie."
"You don't even live here Frannie," Charlie snaps back at her older sister. Charlie turns her attention back to her grandmother who had approached and was gently petting one of the puppies.
"Ask your mother," Artemis says after a moment.
Charlie makes a face, her mother was probably going to say no. She had already named them, after they had gotten over their weariness of her presence. "The boy is named Wolfgang, the girl is named Arte. We should totally go and get them collars after school, and we should take them to the vet for their—shots," Charlie whispers.
"Charlie, the last time you and Quinn decided to break the rules, your mother banned Greg and Rose from babysitting you. So wait until your mother gets back," Lawrence reminds his granddaughter, but as he watches them coo over the puppies he sighs. "Though make sure to point out that you aren't in LA anymore and we've got all this space, so having two dogs won't be the end of the world. It'll give us some company when the two of you are at school. Which you will probably be late for."
"Where'd you come up with a silly name like Wolfgang?" Brittany asked. "We should name him Lord—"
"Wolfgang is his name. I found him, I get naming rights," Charlie insists, letting Brittany hold Wolfgang and giving Arte to Quinn. She winces as she lowers her shoulders and looks at Brittany. "Can you heal me please?"
Brittany pets Wolfgang and touches Charlie, fixing her sunburn before letting go, just as the front door opens.
Like clockwork all 4 Fabray children turn to look at the newcomer. Only to realize it was just their aunt Cassandra. Both Quinn and Brittany immediately go back to playing with the puppies while Charlie begins to fix a plate with the remaining food.
"Wow, and here I thought I would be welcomed with open arms," Cassandra said sarcastically, before she notices the furry creatures in Quinn and Brittany's hand.
Judy follows after her younger sister and freezes when she spots the two puppies. She blinks and looks at her parents, "I was gone for two hours. You let them get puppies?"
"This was all Charlie," Frannie comments.
"Frannie left me in the Australian Outback. I found these two puppies alone. So I rescued them. Please can we keep them mom. Look at those cute faces. How could you say no to Wolfgang and Arte?" Charlie said nudging Brittany forward, so she could have a quick look of the fluffy adorableness.
Judy hesitates, they were rather cute, she really should say no, but it's been a rather hard year and if Charlie was taking care of the dogs, then she wouldn't be out doing god knows what, with whoever offered her the most food. "You have to walk them everyday and feed them, and clean up after them."
Charlie grins widely and shares some of her bacon with both of them, "You hear that Wolfgang and Arte, you're staying!"
"I can't believe I lost out to puppies," Cassandra rolls her eyes. She studies her nieces for a moment before her gaze falls on Charlie. "I could really use a sparring session Chuck. Let's see how strong you've gotten."
Charlie glanced at her aunt before grabbing one of the tiny breakfast sausages her mother had made and breaking it into two so she can feed Arte. "Pass, I need to go to the pet store and get collars for them and find out how much it's going to cost to get them fixed. Then we should take them to the vet, to see what they should be eating."
Judy smiled, Charlie was already being responsible. Saying yes might have been the correct decision.
