Gavin Lucas (viciouscircle) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-09-01 02:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, caden, caden x gavin, gavin |
Who: Caden & Gavin
Where: The Back Porch Pub
When: Tuesday night, 11/07
Sometimes talking about things made them feel somehow more ridiculous. Like dreams that had made sense moments after waking but then became nonsense the more you tried to talk about them. That was how Gavin was beginning to feel. He'd told Aaron and Charlie about Amelia and now he had to approach his more skeptical brother with that same story and it was starting to feel... strange. Like maybe he'd lost his mind. He checked his phone a few times just to look at the pictures he'd taken of his kids and for every time he felt like the pictures might fade away or he'd wake up from a dream to a world where everything was still horrible. Telling Caden was going to be hard, he was already braced for it, but then his brother believed in witchcraft and had seen some messed up things already; maybe he wouldn't be so hard to convince. Asshole or not, Gavin needed him on his side.
He puttered around the bar until Caden came in, giving him a slightly awkward smile when he spotted him, his brows drawn together in a familiar and yet different sort of worry. Miles would be leaving soon but he could cover the bar while Gavin talked to Caden and so he tossed the washcloth he was holding aside and walked to the back, lightly tapping Caden's arm to suggest he walk with him. "You healing okay?" he asked with just a glance down at Caden's mangled hand. So much of the responsibility had fallen to his brothers lately while he was falling apart, Gavin knew they both needed a break.
Caden was more than ready to just work and let everything else in his mind go for a few hours. Everything felt shitty, as usual, and it was starting to make him feel restless. He was a little surprised to see Gavin at the bar. He expected his brother to be holed up at home, drunk and miserable. It wasn't like Caden and Aaron were running the bar into the ground or anything, but maybe Gavin just needed some distraction himself. At the soft tap on his arm, Caden checked to make sure Miles was all right on his own before following Gavin into the back. "It's all right," Caden said, not bothering to look at his hand. It had gotten new bandages after a follow up at his doctor's office, and Caden was still getting used to not having full functionality in his hand. "Hurts like hell sometimes."
Gavin didn't think it was alright, Caden had lost his fingers and that sort of thing was bound to fuck him up but he didn't push it, instead he led the way to his little office and leaned back against the desk. "Amelia's back," he said quietly though his expression didn't exactly suggest this was a good or straightforward thing to be celebrated. "I now know you believe in weird shit and you've seen it too so... I need you to believe some more weird shit." Out of everyone he needed to tell this to he was most worried about Caden. He wasn't even sure what he was worried about, the shattering of an illusion, that Caden might go after Amelia to try to get her to admit she was an imposter, that he would tell everyone because he believed they were crazy. He never knew with Caden, though the last bit wasn't even a realistic fear, Caden could be an asshole, but he was an asshole who was loyal to his family and knew how to keep secrets.
Caden stared at Gavin blankly for several moments before he drew his brows together in confusion. Amelia was back? That was something that prompted a dozen questions in his mind, but Gavin's addition of needing to believe in weird shit muddled his thoughts and confused them further. "When?" Caden asked, trying to just get the facts straight first. "Is she okay? What the fuck... what happened? Where was she?" Gavin didn't look panicked or depressed...anymore than he usually did anyway... so he had to assume Amelia was more or less okay.
"She's... okay," Gavin replied though he didn't look so sure about it, of course his pained expression had more to do with his fear that his brother wouldn't believe in any of this because Amelia was okay and she was home. There was no telling what kind of psychological damage she might be dealing with but she was safe for now. "She's... older?" Gavin said, his voice cracking a little so he cleared his throat. They should have gone outside and had a cigarette for this, he was suddenly itching for one. "A lot... older. To her she's been gone for years." The look he gave Caden was almost pleading. He needed him to believe it and not cause a fuss.
It was overly optimistic of Gavin to want Caden to just accept what he was told at face value and not ask questions, not convey some skepticism. Because that triggered an entire mountain of skepticism. He stared at his brother, wondering if Gavin had finally cracked. Maybe they had found Amelia's body and that did it. Now his brother thought Amelia was back... older, but back. Or maybe the last couple of weeks had just been too hard on him. "Gav..." Caden began slowly, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was around who might overhear. "I think you need to talk to someone. See a doctor, get some meds. You're starting to lose it. Maybe I should call Jasper to come get you."
Gavin couldn't help but smile at that. "If you call Jasper, he might just bring Amelia with him," he said quietly, even if there was nobody near who might overhear them. "I'm not telling you right... Let me-" he hummed and pulled the papers from Sheriff Barrett from his pocket. "The cops tested her blood, it's her, Caden. It's really her." He could show him the picture he'd shown Charlie and Aaron already but something was holding him back. He was still picturing Caden going and after Amelia to interrogate her, not believing her, traumatizing her with his irritation and skepticism. Gavin didn't want to unleash that on her.
Caden didn't see anything wrong with Jasper bringing "Amelia". It would at least show him proof that his brother wasn't mentally losing his shit. He took the papers from Gavin and skimmed them, his brows furrowed together in confusion. A bunch of medical speak and numbers. "I can't understand half this shit," he muttered before glancing at Gavin. "You understand how crazy this shit sounds, right? How is this even possible?" His brow rose as a thought came over him suddenly. "Do you think it was Reagan Kelly? Some... magic shit?" Not that he thought that bitch would help them get Amelia back given how insistent she had been that she couldn't. But the timing of it felt strange, and he couldn't imagine any explanation as to how Amelia was older without there being some supernatural magic bullshit involved.
Gavin sighed. Caden wasn't stupid but he didn't have the patience to really look at what Gavin was showing him so he tapped at the paper in Caden's hand. "Those are DNA results. I have a teenage girl back home who looks like Amelia, cries like Amelia, smiles like Amelia-" he couldn't help but smile faintly at that. "And shares my DNA. I don't think it was Kelly. She was taken somewhere else, somewhere not here. They didn't have animals or snow, s'what she said." Gavin tilted his head, brows drawn together. "Caden, I need you to believe me and I need you to keep it a secret."
Caden stared at the paper in his hands for a good long while before he looked at his brother, trying to formulate the right questions to prove this couldn't be true. He supposed the one thing holding him back was the knowledge that it could be true. Because magic was apparently real, and there was a lot of weird, unexplained shit that went on in this town. Caden exhaled slowly and ran a hand over his head. "This is... insane. I'm not saying I don't believe you, it's just..." He shook his head, more to get rid of the emotion growing in his throat than anything else, and he offered the paper back to Gavin. "Is she okay? Physically? Mentally? It's fucking with my head, I can only imagine how it's fucking with hers."
"She's strong," Gavin said and this time he did smile, though there was some wariness to it still. He didn't know if Amelia was okay, she was acting just fine so far but he still felt like he needed to keep a close eye on her. She was going to be seeing that shrink chick at the hospital and she had so much catching up to do. Gavin pulled his phone out finally and found the picture of Amelia and Jasper. Jasper's expression really said everything that needed to be said in that photo, a little baffled but oh so happy. "She's skinny as fuck and she needs a lot of help getting on her feet, this isn't just a happy reunion, not too good to be true. You can meet her if you want but Caden, I swear to the mother virgin that if you are mean to my daughter, I will break your face." He said it all calmly and at this point he didn't really think Caden was going to go after Amelia but it still needed to be said and between the Lucas brothers, it was said in love.
Caden studied the photos on Gavin's phone and immediately could see Amelia in the older girl's face. Christ, how was any of this possible? He exhaled and then gave Gavin an incredulous look. "You say 'meet her' like I've never met her before." She was still his niece and he had still struggled when she went missing. He knew he wasn't someone who wore his heart on his sleeve, or showed much emotion, but he was still affected by things that affected his family. "Have I ever been mean to Amelia? Jesus." It wasn't her fault that she had been born with two fucked up parents. It wasn't Jasper's fault either, just like it hadn't been his fault, or his siblings fault, that they had the parents they had. This knowledge was why he never planned on having kids. "Who else knows about this?"
Gavin didn't argue with that because everything Caden said just meant he believed it really was Amelia. His smile grew bigger with Caden's angry ranting and he felt like hugging his brother when he was sure they were on the same page. At his question, well, he didn't want to tell him Charlie knew, Caden didn't know Charlie and he wouldn't understand why Gavin felt compelled to tell her so he'd leave her out of this for now. "Family," he replied. "Jasper, Aaron, Ollie, the cops... I don't know how many of the cops but the sheriff knows for sure. Amelia's shrink lady at the hospital." It felt like too many already but at least all these people seemed trustworthy so far. "I don't want people to know, I don't even know how to handle this, Caden. She'll need a new identity... Sheriff Barrett offered to help with that." His face said everything he wasn't saying about how weird that was to him. Cops never did anything for them but he supposed it made sense when it wasn't for him, it was for Amelia.
"Did he?" Caden looked a hell of a lot more skeptical at the thought of the sheriff helping them out than the fact that Amelia had aged several years in two weeks. "That doesn't make you nervous? He's not going to turn her into... fuck, the government or whatever, is he? You know how that entire department feels about our family." And if Amelia was really Amelia then Caden would do whatever it took to make sure she was safe. He knew Gavin would feel the same way. Family was family... not counting his parents, of course.
"We had a good talk," Gavin said and he was aware that sometimes when he said that it meant there had been less talking and more his fists smashing into a man's face but in this case he was being literal. It was a little strange, yes, but he trusted Grady Barrett. With this at least. "He agrees it needs to be kept a secret, nothing good will come of others knowing. People are cruel and I'll do anything to protect her from that." He reached over and patted his brother's arm. "We'll protect her from that."
'Had a good talk' definitely meant fists and broken jaws, but Caden was guessing that this might actually mean talking, given Gavin wasn't currently incarcerated. It was still mind boggling to think the cops were helping them - or a cop - but it was what it was. They would just have to make sure Barrett didn't get wind of any of their other means of income. "This is all crazy," Caden murmured. He still wondered if it was all tied to the magic used to get rid of Mila's pregnancy... backlash and all that. But ultimately it didn't matter. Amelia was back and they would just have to get used to this new normal. "You know I'll have to tell Roxy."
"Of course," Gavin replied. "Roxy is family, Amelia's going to wanna meet her. But uh, speaking of family, I don't want to tell mom and dad, you know he'll run his mouth to anyone who's listening." Of course he wanted to tell their mom but she would tell Joe and it would all be downhill from there. It felt cruel to leave them in the dark, but also necessary. "So it's just us and Kat and those closest to us. For now at least." He had no doubt Caden would understand and if anything he wouldn't give a shit about being cruel to their parents.
Caden nodded. Telling Joseph Lucas about Amelia would be like announcing it to the town, especially after a few drinks. If they told their mother, she would end up telling the old man, so... he understood where Gavin was coming from. "Yeah, good plan," he muttered. Running a hand over his short hair again, Caden gave Gavin a mild look. "This is fucking nuts, Gavin. Is she staying with you now? Or is she back with Ollie?" And shit, Ollie. The woman was a nut job on a good day. He could only imagine how she was reacting to this.
"She's staying with me," Gavin replied. "For now. I'm gonna... look into adding a room or buying a new place." He sincerely doubted Jasper would go off to college and even if he did that wouldn't happen for months now. He sighed and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "There's so much shit I need to take care of, Caden. I don't even know where to start." Letting his hand drop he tilted his head back and inhaled deeply. "No, I know where to start. You and Aaron have been working your asses off so, you both deserve time off. I'll take care of things here."
That was definitely the better option for Amelia, given her mother was a certified loon. Gavin wasn't going to be Father of the Year or anything, but he at least provided more stability than Ollie would, especially if the woman was about to have another kid. Pregnancy might softened her, but Ollie was still crazy. He snickered softly at Gavin. "What the hell am I supposed to do with time off? Me and Aaron will be fine. We do need to think about hiring another waitress though. Miles is takin' care of tables and he should be focused on the bar."
"Yeah I'll get on that," Gavin promised since those sorts of things usually fell to him these days. This meant Mila wasn't coming back and he got a small pang of guilt as he thought about it. "You may not want time off but I think Aaron could use it. The offer still stands. You could take Roxy out, have a nice evening just the two of you, what do I know. I'm sure you've got something you've been wanting to do, right?"
Caden's gaze ticked to Gavin's when he mentioned Aaron and he couldn't help but remember what had started all of this in the first place. Well, maybe started all of it. There was still no real proof that what they had done to Aaron and Mila was what triggered Amelia's disappearance, but Caden couldn't help but think it all tied together. "I'll work today," Caden told Gavin. "Maybe I'll think about takin' Roxy somewhere for a couple days after you hire someone. She could probably use a break too." He paused for a brief moment, then asked, "Have you talked to Aaron lately? How's he doing?"
Gavin didn't think Aaron was doing too good and he didn't think Mila was either. Talking about it would make it more real and Gavin felt guilty enough already without doing that. "Yeah he was here this morning," he said instead. "I sent him home. I think he was gonna go see Amelia. Damn it, we need a new name for her. She needs to pick one and she's sulky about it but I can't go around talking about her being back. I'll end up putting names in a hat and picking one at random." He huffed, not really annoyed about it because how could he be? "She'd love to see Roxy so uh, you tell her. I can send you the picture, scan this piece of paper if you need it."
Caden would have told Roxy whether or not Gavin gave him permission to, but he waved off Gavin's offers. "I'll tell her... I don't think I'll need any of that for her to believe it. I think she'll want to see Amelia face to face. I don't know what to tell you about a new name for Amelia. If she's upset about it, just call her Lia or something like that. Or let her choose something to call her in public. I don't think she's got to give up her name entirely. I assume she's just going to be a distant cousin or some shit? If the Sheriff knows and has your back, it shouldn't be too hard."
Gavin had considered these possibilities and Lia was what Amelia had been called by those people she'd known on the other side - or whatever the hell he could call it. "Amelia takes after our great grandma," he said and shrugged. "It's not farfetched to say some cousin of ours does too." Amelia might hate it but it wasn't like they were taking her identity away from her within the family. Aside from their parents, that part gave him a sinking feeling because their mom might still pay enough attention to know which relatives had which children and it could be a hard sell.
"Yeah, well, if people start asking too many questions you can always say she's related to Ollie. Not too far fetched that she'd want to live somewhere else than with that nutter. I don't know man, we'll work it out. Who pays enough attention to us to care anyway? Other than the cops, and they seem to know what's going on." Which was a bonus as much as the Lucas brothers loathed the police department.
"The last thing I want is the cops paying attention to us," Gavin sighed. "But let's hope their focus is just on Amelia." He didn't know exactly what his daughter had been up to growing up but she didn't have a record and if she did break the law she had a decent defense in her not knowing it was wrong. Gavin wasn't sure the sheriff would see it the same way but there might be some leeway considering the trauma she'd been through. There would be no leeway for the Lucas brothers if their business got out. "I'm gonna have to tell her all about the family shit I didn't tell her when she was little, so she doesn't get it in her head to get all friendly with the rotten fruits in the family.
Caden barked out a laugh and clasped his brother firmly on the shoulder. "Gav, we are the rotten fruits in this family. I was pretty sure you knew that already." Honestly, Amelia was probably the only Lucas who had any purity left in her. And who the hell knew what she had been doing over the past couple of weeks - years to her, apparently. For all they knew Amelia had some rotten pieces inside of her too. Not that Caden was going to say that to Gavin's face. His brother was just happy to have his daughter back, so there was no reason to try and tarnish the shine so soon.
Gavin smirked wryly and while he agreed that they were awful, Amelia's grandparents - all four of them - were worse. That wasn't something he really discussed with Caden, especially not Ollie's parents. They all knew she didn't talk to them but only a handful of people knew why. All they needed to know was that if they came too close, Gavin might just go down for double homicide. "Well she's used to these rotten fruits," he muttered. "I don't need her going anywhere near dad."
"We'll keep her away from the old man," Caden assured him. "He only ever comes to the bar anyway and I can't see Amelia spending a lot of free time here." She certainly didn't have to attend any 'family meals'. Not that there were a lot of those to begin with. Honestly, Caden couldn't imagine Amelia spending a lot of time with anyone but immediate family anyway. "Anything you need me to do, just tell me."
Gavin nodded and moved forward, patting Caden's arm before pulling him into a hug. He didn't care if Caden wanted a hug or not, he deserved one for not being a dick about this. "Thanks, man," he said quietly before letting him go. He hadn't wanted his kids but now he would do anything to protect those people he'd help create, maybe especially because he'd fucked up so badly with them so far. He could use all the help he could get.
Caden was not a hugger at all, but he lifted one hand to pat Gavin's back before the moved apart. "Yup." Appreciation was not something the Lucas brothers did well, and it made him uncomfortable, even if it was... well, appreciated. He didn't think there was much else to say, and Caden needed some time to wrap his mind around what Gavin had told him. Amelia was back, and... older. It was going to fuck with his mind for awhile. "I'm gonna head back up front, help out Miles," he said, gesturing to the door. "You okay back here?"
"Yeah I'm good," Gavin replied and maybe it was a relief because there was only so much bonding and heart-to-heart he could do with his brother before it got awkward. He patted Caden's arm again and stepped back. "Probably got a shitload of stuff to catch up on here." There were things he dealt with and his brothers didn't and he wasn't sure what he'd find now that he was finally back to take care of it. Maybe they'd messed with it with good intentions but Gavin was wary of having his shit messed with.
"Not too much," Caden said as he headed for the door to the front of the bar. "Aaron and I kept up on shit. Some paperwork waiting for you though." A lot of the non-essential crap that he and Aaron hadn't wanted to touch. They'd left that for Gavin, for whenever their brother had decided to return to work. He didn't wait for Gavin to respond, but pushed through the door to join Miles at the bar. Caden wasn't entirely sure things were getting back to normal, but this was a start.