Disclaimer, you know.
Everyone was present at dinner that night. an uneasy silence had fallen over them all as Alex took dorothy's hand and squeezed it. she was weighing it over in her head how she would ask this, as she contemplated the dessert in front of her. Because at least to her aunt and uncle, and probably Mr. and Mrs. Teak this was just as personal to them as it was alone to her.
"I know that face, that's your lost in thought face" Em said looking at her niece "Dorothy, something very troubling is on your mind."
Dorothy closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Ace and I were having a talk earlier…and it got me wondering." She said opening her eyes and finding all eyes understandably on her "did mama and papa have a plan? In case something happened to you guys? What would become of me."
"Seems like an odd question to have been brought up by a discussion with Ace" Mr. Teak said looking in their direction
"I'm afraid that's my fault" The Wizard said sighing "anyways, carry on."
"Well…as I recall yes, I'd have to dig up their last will and testament, but I do recall that there was a full plan in place" Em said thinking about it.
"I'm afraid I'm lagging a bit behind now" Nadia said, being the newest member of the group
Before anyone could say or even do anything, madeline was behind her, whispering stuff to her. explaining in a very condensed form about how things worked where they came from. Nadia seemed to get the gist of it based on the look on her face. or if she didn't understand she didn't betray it,
"Do you know where your copy of the will is?" Alex asked curiously.
"In our stuff somewhere, filed away." Em said sighing
"I have a copy." Mr. teak said suddenly, causing everyone to look at him.
"We have a copy?" Alex parroted back.
"yes, because there was in fact a plan." Mr. Teak said "as I recall, if anything were to happen to Emily and Henry, then we were next in the list."
"you were?" Dorothy asked, not sure why she was surprised by this
"We were, I guess still are." Mrs. teak chimed in nodding
"your father and I talked that out once, if anything were to happen to us, it was barbara first on the list, but if that didn't work out Alex would have ended up with either you henry, or with frank." Mr. teak said nodding
"now that would have been an interesting turn of events" Em said with a weak chuckle "I know there was a chain going through the entire friend group and then some."
"if you guys would like, i could go back to the shop and get our copy of the will." Alex offered.
"how do you know its filed there?" Mr. teak asked his son curiously.
"because, it's the only place it could be, we don't generally keep personal papers at home" he said rather bluntly, "If I had to take a guess, you've been keeping it with the rest of Frank's things in that filing cabinet" he said
Mr. teak said nothing, he simply nodded "large red folio." He said.
He nodded, releasing dorothy's hand and getting to his feet. He held his hand out for the scepter. It flew to him and in a moment he was gone. There was a stunned silence for a moment before Jon Foreman spoke up.
"I think…I was somewhere in that list" he said sipping from a cup of tea, "as potential guardians for you, and I think we discussed for alex as well didn't we Horace?"
"something along those lines yes" Mr. teak said nodding, his wife nodding in agreement.
Alex would appear a few moments later with the folder, which he set out. Both he and dorothy took out their reading glasses and started reading through it.
"they really thought this thoroughly through after papa got sick." Dorothy said looking at the dates, "some of this is still marked from before I…"
"Before we were born, Kitten, and not long before we were born, that's the earliest date." He said pointing to the earliest.
"Paperwork, the bane of our existence of late" Ozma said trying to liven the mood, it did spawn a couple of chuckles.
"Oh, here it is, yes, Emily is first in the list, then us, then uncle Alexander, Aunt Barbara, Aunt Fenny." Alex said reading it over "there was definitely quite the plan in place for you Kitten." Alex said smiling at her.
"Oh, yes, Jon you are in here, and so is auntie Melinda…wow mama and papa really took no chances." Dorothy said looking it over.
"Did you really think they would?" Em asked sounding rather concerned, then turning her attention to the triplets "we all had and have plans in the event things take a very steep downward spiral."
"I don't know why you would even think your father and mother would have left you in a place where you could get stuck like that" Henry said, finally chiming in.
"because, we were discussing certain ideas and I made mention of how my decision to leave Ace with dorothy was definitely a good one" Oscar chimed in, "Like I said, my fault, and I apologize."
"You're fine, Oscar." Alex said not looking up from the papers, "Actually, dad, it says here you were named Dorothy's Godfather."
"I am, yes, Just as Frank was yours, it was a very interesting day, your guy's christenings." Mr. teak said chuckling.
"you make it sound like you guys had it done on the same day." Eliza said giggling.
"they did." Em and Madison said with a giggle.
This struck dorothy as odd, as she continued to look through the papers.
"wait a minute…" Dorothy said looking things over "that means he and I must have come home at around the same time."
"that would generally be…what that means, Kitten." Alex said realizing that they had made something of a mess of the papers.
"so you and I literally cant be much older than each other." Dorothy said giggling "which narrows it down for your birthday."
"Are you still on that?" Ellie asked giggling.
"I wasn't until around 30 seconds ago." She said looking over to her.
"wooow…" ellie said snickering.
This caused a bunch of conspiratorial whispers amongst the girls, and a few giggles. Aislynn snickered a little as well, as did Annabella, Eliza and donna.
Glinda who had been silent up to that point, couldn't help but chortle a little. Nessarose and Elphaba just stayed silent and sober.
"Dorothy, seriously?" Mrs. teak asked curiously.
"very." Dorothy said finding this more off putting then looking at notarized documents in her parents handwriting, "like I said before this is starting to feel like an in joke that I'm the only one not privy to."
She heard Melinda whisper something to Zeb who turned to look at dorothy then went back to his food.
"because its blindingly obvious." Aislynn said with a snicker.
Once again Madeline brought Nadia up to speed, she giggled as well.
Dorothy pushed her reading glasses up her nose, and did her best to distract herself. "Oh, here's the order leaving the old house in Care of your parents, Eliza" she said "Home and all possessions until I come of age, left in a trust but with you guys as the caretakers."
"seems to have been your mother's plan" Alex said looking at it, "I think these ones were written by your mother when her health started to fail."
"dates look about right for the time period." She said trying not to think about it
She looked over at madeline, she seemed to have steeled herself. She was pulling emotions away from her again, she took a deep breath as she received orders to stop doing so.
"Maddie, only draw emotions away from me when I ask." She sniffed, closing her eyes.
She felt Ozma's arms wrap around her now, as tears finally started to roll down her cheeks. It was a mix of sadness and contentment. That her parents did in fact have plans for her, that she would never be alone if it came to it. alex did his best to get the papers reorganized, and at least succeeded in getting them stacked neatly once again.
Her mother's last words to her, they echoed in her ears as she closed her eyes. Taking off her reading glasses, she took a deep breath in.
"you are never alone" those were her last words to her, though there were more, a letter Jon had handed her. she didn't feel ready to face that yet, not right now. she took another deep breath, Alex's arms joining Ozma's around her. she just sat there, letting it sink in. at peace with the fact that both her parents up to the end had prepared things for her.
"Frank was with me in the carpentry business, we were both aware of how dangerous it was." Mr. teak said softly, "we decided as a group that we needed a plan, in case something went wrong, fires, floods, tornados, we needed to minimize the chances that any of our children would end up with no one." He added.
And this did give dorothy some peace of mind, that her mother's last words to her would actually be true. She had all of them with her now. her parents plan, in its own way enacted in a way that they could never have foreseen. She took one more deep breath, opening her eyes, looking to where Madeline had been standing, and found she was no longer there. she wanted to visit their grave again now, because she felt she might not get many more chances.