Agent Carolina (agentcarolina) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-12-22 10:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, [plot] future kids take 5, ~2018 december, ~25 points, ~~agent carolina (agentcarolina), ~~agent york (freelanceryork) |
Who: York/Carolina/Church
What: Congratulations it's twins
When: Saturday
Where: York and Carolina's place
Warnings: Probably not
Status: Closed/started in docs
For as much as he had adapted to living in Madison Valley, York still kept to his routines. They were up with the sun, whether it was the weekend or during the week. They went for a run, then they'd make breakfast, shower and change to get ready for the day. Sometimes there were slight variations, like adding in some additional exercise after their run or the order in which they did things when they got back to their apartment, but it was never anything drastic.
Today, it was drastic. When they got back to their apartment, Delta spoke up. There are two unidentified life forms in your apartment, he warned. York paused and glanced at Carolina, who was no doubt getting the same update from Church. "D?" He wanted more information. Bio-scans indicate they are the biological offspring of yourself and Agent Carolina. Twins, aged 10 years old.
York's eyes widened fractionally. "Probability that this is some kind of trap?" 57% chance. 95% chance this is the work of the dome containing us. "Joy." He glanced at Carolina. "You ready?"
***
”Oh yeah this ought to be fun.” Church appeared and glanced over at Carolina since her bio scans were all over the place after hearing that news. She didn’t do well with surprises.
“Twins?” She looked at York and let out a long sigh. To be honest she’d never thought about kids, too many family things already not to mention when was she ever going to get around to it? Too many wars, too many battles. “Of course it would be twins. Come on, let’s go.” She gestured for him to go first.
***
York had very briefly thought about kids, but it was never anything more than a passing one. They didn't have any future together in their own world and Madison Valley was too unpredictable to bring children into. Plus, Carolina didn't exactly seem like the type to want kids. He certainly wasn't going to ask her to get pregnant.
Still, he was curious about the twins and opened the apartment door cautiously. The female child popped her head out from the kitchen and into the line of sight of the door.
"Stop playing games, Dad. We know you guys are back. We made breakfast," she said, and then headed back into the kitchen. "Hudson," she complained. "Stop messing around and set the table!"
As York turned the corner into the kitchen, he could see the male child, Hudson, was balancing the plates precariously on a knife. Interesting. He flashed a grin toward Carolina.
"Morning Mom, morning Dad," Hudson added as he deftly caught the plates and did as his sister said.
***
”Holy shit.” Sure Church could see the bioscans and know what was there but it was different seeing the two little kids. That red hair must be a girl thing in Carolina’s family since the boy had dark hair. ”Yeah I’m out before I get myself in trouble.” And his hologram winked out.
“They made breakfast.” Carolina made a face knowing they’d have to sit down and deal with this and she’d really rather just turn around and head back out. But they apparently had the two kids well trained from the efficiency setting the table and the balancing act. “I guess we’re having breakfast.”
***
York didn't blame Church for disappearing. He also didn't blame Carolina for thinking that this wasn't the most ideal of circumstances. It was almost unnerving, but someone was going to have to act calmly about this and it wouldn't be fair to put that on her.
"I guess we are," he replied quietly. He stepped into the kitchen more fully and looked at the kids cautiously. He wasn't sure just how familiar they were with the Dome and the fact that they'd gone back in time. Clearly, something had given him away because Hudson took one look at them and laughed.
"Oh my god, Mom. It's breakfast, not a firing squad." He turned to his sister. "Shell, you're better at this stuff. Make them stop looking like we're going to explode."
Shelby gave her brother an unimpressed look. "Ignore him. It's better that way," she assured them as she brought the food over to the table. "We know we're in the past," she assured her parents. "I'm Shelby, that's Hudson. We're 10, almost 11. We grew up in Madison, so we know this stuff happens sometimes." She took her seat and hoped her parents would follow suit.
York was grateful for the introductions and waited only a moment before taking a seat. He looked at Carolina to see what she would do.
***
Church was not gone too far. Carolina could tell he was lurking and watching and not actually gone dark but as long as he kept his mouth shut that was okay.
The first thought that went through her head was pretty much ‘jesus christ twins who talked me into that?’, followed quickly by ‘we’re terrible at naming things’. “Sorry. It’s a little strange to go out for a run and not be a parent then come back and be one. Fastest birth ever.” Carolina sat down but she was still unsettled and it showed with her taking the outside seat at the table and sitting so she’d still be ready to move quickly if she had to. When she became aware of what she’d done she started to worry that it would look insulting until she realized that they’d all left her that seat like they knew where she’d need to sit to feel comfortable and that made her finally let out a soft snort of amusement.
“And you scared Church off. Not an easy thing to do.”
***
"Least painful, too," York chimed in, knowing it would probably get him an elbow or a kick from his girlfriend. It seemed like she was working through it though when she made an amused sort of snort sound. That was cute.
"He's got his own life and stuff," Hudson replied with a shrug as he dug into his breakfast. "He stays more with Aunt Charlie."
"You said you had your hands full with us," Shelby chimed in, and she dug into her breakfast with less vigor than her brother.
York arched an eyebrow. "Charlie Charlie?" Well that was interesting. He made a mental note to check in on that one later to get some more information.
***
Oh look York was psychic since Carolina caught him on the ankle with a quick kick.
“Don’t tell Tucker that, he’ll just start up mocking Church about his ‘girlfriend’ again and I’ll have to punch him for all the noise in my head.” Carolina and Wash were the ones who paid for someone winding Church up and letting him loose. Tucker didn’t have to listen to him non stop. And ‘Aunt’ Charlie was an interesting development.
“Should we spring them on Wash or warn him ahead of time?” She wasn’t sure which would be the better...or funnier...way to go to be honest.
***
"You say that like you don't like punching Tucker," Hudson pointed out, and York instinctively shot him a look that he was clearly used to getting because he just rolled his eyes. "Come on, Dad. Tucker's kind of fun to mess around with and we know where the line is." Spoken like someone who'd had to be told where the line was, but still.
"Let's give Tucker a break this Christmas, alright?" York suggested. "That's giving us a break too." Hopefully reason would be appreciated by their children.
"We probably shouldn't surprise Uncle Wash too badly. He's got a lot going on," Shelby replied, more considerate of her parents' best friend. It was clear who her favorite Uncle was, although the way she said it made York worry more for his friend. What was going on that she thought he had a lot going on at this point in time?
He almost wanted to ask.
***
Carolina had been just listening to the back and forth with a little bit of bemusement. York was good at interacting with the kids but then again who wasn’t he good at interacting with? Hudson obviously was one of those people that had to be constantly informed of where a line was otherwise they’d bounce right across it in the name of fun. But it was what Shelby said that snapped her attention fully into the conversation.
“What’s going on with Wash?” Of course she asked. Something wrong with her team and family was always going to get her to ask. It got Church’s attention too as his hologram quietly reappeared by her shoulder to listen in. Something wrong with Wash was guaranteed to be something Carolina would have a stake in and he might need to try to head her off at the pass.
***
Shelby realized her misstep as soon as Church’s hologram winked back into existence. She clearly looked conflicted as she glanced between her brother and her parents.
“She just means he tends to shoot first at surprises,” Hudson replied, unconcerned, as he ate more of his food.
Shelby glared at her brother. “Well excuse me for not wanting to mess up the timeline,” she retorted. “But really, he’s...okay. He just has a hard time sometimes, because of everything you guys went through back in your world.” It would never be home for them, they knew, but that didn’t mean they didn’t know and worry when Wash, Tucker and their mom went back.
York nodded and put his hand over Shelby’s understandingly. “It’s okay,” he promised. “We appreciate the heads up.”
***
Carolina, don’t. Church knew her better than almost anyone, it didn’t hurt that he could see her memories and now in this place because he had to spend a few days in York’s head he had a pretty good chunk of what he knew of Carolina along with the personal logs he’d already had on file. Which meant he knew her well enough to not tell her no out loud. They’re kids. They’re your kids even if you don’t remember it. Let it go. There’s other ways to approach it.
Carolina had whipped her head to the side to look at Church and took in a breath to yell at him and teetered on the edge for a few seconds before she forced herself to let the breath out again. “Epsilon, why don’t you go tell Wash the news so we don’t surprise him.”
The implied ‘so I don’t have to listen to you and feel more homicidal’ part of that sentence was pretty well implied from her tone as she spoke through gritted teeth.
Yeah. Good idea. Catch you later baby Freelancers. This time when his hologram winked out his presence was gone from her head. Luckily Wash kept his radio on in his helmet even if he didn’t wear it so Church could jump whenever he needed to.
“Is it too early to drink?”
***
York knew full well that Church and Carolina were conversing without saying anything. He didn't bother distracting the twins, just continued on eating his breakfast until C suggested Church go give Wash the heads up. Knowing their luck, he'd been woken up by his own future possible children and for a split second, York wondered if that kid would claim Carolina as their mother, too. He couldn't think like that, wouldn't even begrudge the pair of them that, so he focused on what was right in front of him.
"Probably," he replied with a shrug. "But, there's no reason we can't see what you two have up your sleeves after breakfast. That balancing act was impressive." York nodded slightly toward Hudson, who beamed proudly.
"Took me forever to get it," he admitted proudly.
"We know," Shelby replied with a roll of her eyes. "You show off every chance you get."
"As if you don't show off too. Who's always doing trick shots with literally anything you possibly can?" Hudson replied, and the two devolved into a bit of natural bickering.
York shot Carolina a look. They clearly had their hands full.
***
It was so weird to have the kids so full of enthusiasm for what they could do but obviously be untouched by war of any kind. Sure, Carolina and the other Freelancers had been like that but behind it had been a grim knowledge what they could do would be eventually used in the great war had taken some of the joy out of it.
And knowing that she wondered just how often she fucked up being a mom. Taken care of actual small children might be a little bit like taking care of Caboose but she wasn't that great at that either.
"So did we have twins or clone ourselves?" Being dry and sarcastic was one way of handling it. And it seemed like a better option than punching anything or drinking a lot. She wasn't very good at drinking a lot anyway.