The Stewarts (rebooted- accepting new characters)

[Faith Eliza Cord]

"You think my head is...sort of screwed on straight?" Jeremy blurted, turning his head to follow Tegan's movements with some surprise. Frankly, he was flattered. For someone to say that he wasn't completely insane at this point seemed a major compliment.


He watched as Tegan began the process of making pizza, one hand absently squeezing and then releasing his right knee. He was beginning to feel a little thirsty, and hoped that she wouldn't offer him any food or think it strange if he rejected it. The tomato sauce reminded him of blood, and his stomach growled before he could try to stifle it. Giving a quick, nervous laugh, Jeremy tried to talk over it, hoping she didn't hear.


"Yeah, uh, we're from a little town in Maine, you wouldn't know it. We had to sell our house after our parents died, and since then it's, it's sort of been hard to settle. You know how it is. Uh...you been here with Evan long?"


**


Let Riley deal with the cop? And her miss any potential for fun with this? No way, at least, not permanently.


"You don't get all the good parts," she muttered, giving him a light returning smack to the backside before backing quickly down the hallway towards their bedroom. "Don't get rid of him too fast, he's a guy, he should like to get a load of me if I aim myself his way."


She retrieved her shirt from the floor of their bedroom and was still slipping it over her head as she walked down the hallway to Maddy and Juliette's room, not bothering to knock on the door. Throwing it open, she announced, "There's a cop, don't come out. Pretend you're normal and happy. Yeah, I know, huge stretch, but you've got enough melodrama to make it work."


Then she made her way down the hallway towards the front door again just as the police was allowed inside, showing his badge to Riley.


"Officer Becker here. Would this be Jeremy Stewart I'm speaking to?"


**


"I'm not a...a perv," Maddy frowned, injured, from under the bed, even as her brow furrowed, trying to work out what name her sister had just tossed her way. "You are!"


The added information about Riley and Regina kissing naked made her widen her eyes, shocked at the mental image this produced, and her mouth fell open. She forgot even to be hurt about being called a baby as she went to sit on Juliette's bed, tugging at her arm. "You mean they LOOK? Why do they do that? That's so embarrassing!"


She looked up at Regina as Regina threw open the door, calling out to her before Regina had a chance to speak, "Gina? How come you and Riley are naked and kiss? And what's a perv?"


When Regina completely ignores her, informing her there's a cop at the door, Maddy gasps, then immediately dives under the bed again. Juliette might think she's a baby, but she felt much safer there.

 

[Macal Cord]

*Lucas also smiled on the other end, he actually was expecting more of a challenge to get her to agree to go out with him again.* This place you're talking about have you been there before? Oh remember to keep the sample sealed tightly we don't want anything to taint it..Again Rikarah you've done excellent work..I'm glad it was you that came to me and took this job..It's starting to look like there was no one but you that could fill this job.

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

"Are you in your office?" Rikarah persisted as she headed down the hallway towards that direction, still talking quietly on the phone. "I have the sample safely concealed, as you have said, and it is sealed tightly. If you have time and are willing, I could show you now. Then perhaps we can further discuss our plans for this evening...or whenever it is that would be best for us to meet."


She is eager in spite of herself, but doesn't want to appear to be too much so. The sooner she can have the results of this sample, the sooner this mystery will make itself fully known to her. And she is not uneager at the prospect of seeing Lucas again, though she would not admit this much even to herself.


"I will pass your office shortly." As he complimented her, she smiled briefly, not flattered by him so much as pleased with herself; he seems to be drawn into her own web as she spins it as well. "Thank you. I am glad you chose me."


Reaching his office, she knocked lightly, waiting to see if he was inside.

 

[pistolmouth]

((This is the third time I've had to write up this post because my computer is the worst and overheated, so it might be kind of rushed and blah, which I apologize for, but it is what it is.))


"I mean, I'm not saying you're a beacon of sanity," Tegan said with a shrug as she oiled up the pan and started spreading the dough onto it. "Nobody is, really. I'm just saying, you know, if I were in your shoes, I probably would have eaten a bullet a long time ago. All things considered, I'd say you're not doing half bad, I think."


She never would have imagined them coming from Maine. Something about the things she'd heard about the state seemed a little too... normal, Tegan supposed, to handle a family packed with so many different personalities. Here was Jeremy, who seemed almost AFRAID of Tegan, Zane, who seemed to only care about one-upping Lucas, and Riley and Regina, who just seemed confrontational and too busy trying to be intimidating to show any real personality. Part of her almost imagined them in some place like California or New York, though they didn't quite seem as though they came from a city, or the suburbs, either.


"I've never been to Maine. I've heard that it's really nice, though." She paused to slide the pizza into the oven and retrieved a beer from the refrigerator for herself. "I've lived around town for the last three years or so. Evan moved up here about eight months ago, makes the commute to his school a lot easier if he's living with me and not our parents. They uh, they don't really have the patience to take care of someone like him."


--------


Why was he asking for Jeremy? He's the head of the house, yeah, but the cops know them by now, given how often they'd had to speak with them since Zane died the pigs should know them by face, name and social security number by now.


He listened as Regina's footfalls echoed and grew quieter as she made her way up the stairs and into their bedroom to change. Really, his concern had not necessarily been what she was wearing or what she put on, but instead it was simply the fact that he wanted to have a little fun too, if the opportunity arose. Briefly, he thought about dragging the cop inside and draining him, but they generally don't come to houses without touching back to HQ or whatever, so that plan, as much as it bothered him, was out.


"No, Jeremy's out. I'm his brother Riley. Is there... this is about Zane, right? Because I don't really think there are any questions left for us to answer."


--------


"I don't know, Maddy, because they want to and there's nothing else to do." Juliette grunted, pulling her arm free from Maddy's grasp. "And I'm not a perv. You're the one who's talking about hiding under their bed to see what they do in there, not me."


When the door swung open, Juliette's eyes rose once again to meet Regina's, and her lips curled up in disgust, "God what are you wearing?"


Before any sort of response was given, Regina was saying something about the cops being downstairs and she let out another groan. Couldn't they just get a freaking break for once? Oh, and there goes Maddy back under the bed like a turtle in its damn shell. She was half-tempted to sneak a peek down the stairway to see what was going on, but figured that Regina would be back and snap at them for not listening or whatever, so she picked her magazine back up and sat back.


When her curiosity got to be too much, Juliette tossed her magazine to the side and slid off of her bed, padding to the top of the stairway, trying to listen to what was being said downstairs.

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

There were a lot of "not exactly"s and "I think"s in that sentence, too many to be much of a compliment, really, or even a certainty of opinion, but Jeremy would take what he could get. Tegan didn't think he was completely insane, and that was a step up in and of itself.


He was genuinely smiling, relaxing just slightly as he continued to watch Tegan preparing pizza dough. He himself had no idea how to cook, having never had the need to learn, but nevertheless felt like he should help her. Standing, he came up alongside her as he continued to talk to her.


"Yeah, uh, Maine, it's lots of woods, lots of water...not a real exciting place. The kids were bored out of their minds there, but I kind of liked it...less trouble to get into, you know? Can I help you with this?"


He nodded towards her ingredients, then glanced back at Evan, regarding him. "That...sounds like it might be rough...I mean, I know how it is. Brothers and sisters. My parents...they were a lot better at all of this than me."


**


"Is there a problem, Officer?" Regina comes up behind Riley, now in a flimsy, nearly sheer t-shirt as well as her small shorts. She comes to stand beside Riley, one hand lightly on his arm, but although there's nothing inherently suggestive in her touch, she manages to hold herself in such a way, one hip jutting out, chest slightly forward, that she appears to be "unconsciously" showing herself off to the man. Of course, it is very much deliberate.


The officer, for his part, barely glances over her, whether or not this too is deliberate, and mostly looks at Riley as he responds.


"If your brother isn't available, then if you are both over eighteen, I'd speak with you. There has been some trouble you may have heard about, in your brother's case, and it really must be discussed."


"Are you talking about the horrible person who killed all those people and took my brother's body from that morgue?" Regina asked, and she shook her head as though utterly disgusted. "Some people are just so sick, I could hardly believe it when I heard that. People are so awful!"


Officer Becker's eyes turned to her now, and he looked at her steadily as he deadpanned, "There was no public release of the identities of which bodies were stolen, Miss Stewart. Interesting that you did happen to know that your brother's was. Care to clarify how you came by this information?"


Oh sh*t, Regina thought, even as she kept her face as cool as she could manage. "Well, why else would you be at the door?"


**


Maddy could hear from beneath her refuge under the bed when Juliette left the room, and her eyes grew wide as she called out to her in a whisper, afraid. "Juli! Gina said to stay in the room! Juli!"


But Juliette ignored her, and the more Maddy thought about this, the more frightened she grew. What if they were all in trouble? What if they were all going to jail and ended up leaving her all alone? Maddy was afraid of jail, but she was more afraid of being left alone in the house with all of them gone.


After a few moments she crawled out from beneath the bed with fast motions, following Juliette out into the hall and sidling up close to her, whispering in her ear. "I'm scared. Don't leave me alone."

 

[Macal Cord]

*Lucas had finished crossing campus and was at the steps leading up to the building his office was in.* I've just got her, I'll be up in a few minutes. *He starts up the steps taking them two at a time, sprints inside to the elevator but it was taking to long so he takes the stairs instead again taking them two at a time all the way up to the 3rd floor where his office was. Rounding the corner and sees Rika and walks towards her smiling, holding out his keys to open the door for her.* Sorry for keeping you waiting, stupid meetings taking up all my time. Let me open the door for you and we'll store that sample until I can have it checked out. *He really had no intention of letting a lab see that sample, if there was work to be done on it it would have to be done by him, he's no biologist but he knows enough about DNA to know when there is something different between this sample and normal human blood. He suspects this sample will have the same changes as his own blood does if it does the the Stewarts maybe all of then have the same gene trait as he does..That could be some common ground to talk to them about maybe get them to stop being so sloppy and draw more attention to them all.*

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

Rikarah smiles and greets Lucas as he opens his office to her, shutting the door behind them subtly. Angling herself towards him, deliberately shifting her body in such a way that it is at its most attractive presentation, she holds out the sample of blood to him for him to take.


"It was not difficult to obtain it," she told him with a smile. "I do hope that we will find the information we need from it."


She paused, then, coming closer to him, looked up into his face, lightly touching his arm. "If we were to discover that this family does have that gene...what is it that you would advise we do about it? Certainly if they are murderers, something should be done...and yet...surely the police would not believe such a thing. I am not one to wish to associate myself with the police as it is."

 

[pistolmouth]

"I can understand not wanting to get into trouble for sure," Tegan agreed and smiled weakly. "That's what I like about here... there isn't really a whole lot to get yourself into trouble with around here." At his offer to help, she shrugged and brushed at her chin with her forearm to swat away a phantom itch. "If you could just chop up that onion, it'd be great."


Rough? Maybe a little. She spared her own glance at Evan, still completely absorbed in his DS and whatever game it was that he was playing. It seemed like a far less daunting task than looking after the amount of people Jeremy did.


"My parents don't really understand him. I mean, I'm not saying that I do, and I'm not saying that it isn't a handful, but..." Tegan shrugged, spreading cheese onto the pizza. "It's better that he's here, where he can get the help he needs, I think. It's just a matter of, you know, adhering to his schedule and making sure to clear out his triggers."


--------


The sinking feeling in Riley's stomach when Officer Becker called Regina out on what she'd said was not one that he was too familiar with. There had been a similar one at the death of their parents and at the news of Zane's murder, though that had been more of a mixture of anger and grief. But this... it wasn't anger, or grief, or fear. No, he felt trapped.


He glanced briefly over at Regina, seeing that she had been knocked off-kilter as well, and knew that he'd need to follow up with her statement, though not too quickly, in order to really sell this.


"We just... we sort of assumed that it was the killer or whatever trying to hide his tracks, I guess. Get rid of the evidence, or whatever, and... I mean, yeah, why else would you be here if it wasn't to ask us about this?"


--------


Juliette rolled her eyes at the sound of Maddy's footsteps padding after her and nestled her chin between her knees, ignoring the smaller girl entirely and just keeping her ears trained on what was going on downstairs.


Way to seriously drop the ball, Gina. She thought bitterly, her fingers digging into her shins. Of course she would have to get confident and stupid and get the cop suspicious. But that was exactly the kind of crap they pulled all the time. They think they're smarter, so they do stupid stuff and just expect to be able to talk their way out of it.


Without noticing, Juliette sucked in a small breath and held it, her fingers loosening around her shins and crossing, like doing something lame like that would just make the cop change his mind and leave.

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

"Maybe there's not a lot of OBVIOUS ways to get in trouble here...but if there are any possibilities at all, the twins will find every single one of them," Jeremy muttered to himself, exhaling and shaking his head. Realizing how grim he sounded, he tried to lighten it with a smile and a chuckle, but it was clearly forced. "I mean, they're just sowing wild oats and everything, but I think they have more than enough oats sown to make a decent oatmeal by now!"


He follows Tegan's gaze to Evan as she talks about looking after him, thinking privately to himself that it actually seemed very simple to care for him compared to his own brood of siblings. Trying to have an actual working schedule for any of them was completely pointless; the only way he could make sure they stuck to a schedule was to right the exact opposite of what he wanted them to do, and then they would do exactly what he really wanted just to be contrary. At least the twins, anyway. Maddy and Juliette dawdled too much to stick strictly to any schedule, and as for "triggers," well, seemingly everything frightened Maddy, offended Juliette, and made Riley and Regina just...not be normal...so how could he avoid them?


"Maybe we could trade for a day," he suggested lightly, giving another light chuckle. "You take mine and I take yours...give you some excitement to your routine and give me a routine from my excitement."


**


"Yeah," Regina quickly backs Riley up, nodding and crossing her arms over her chest, though perhaps she was speaking a bit too quickly. She takes a step back from the officer, closer to her twin. "I mean, why else would someone steal a dead body, that's just sick and disturbing if they're not trying to cover their tracks and have an actual semi sane reason. Not that it's ever sane to steal a body, but when we're talking about a mass murderer here, I wouldn't think sanity would be their outstanding trait. I mean, there couldn't be any other reason that someone would steal a body, right? It's not like we're living in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. This isn't even Texas."


She gives Officer Becker a slightly flirtacious smile, though on second thought pulls a straight face again, realizing that perhaps that wasn't the best idea when she was in fact supposed to be full on in "grieving innocent sister" mode. The man seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because he stared at her flatly, his expression unchanging.


"You don't sound terribly shocked about any of those possibilities," he said quietly. "It's your brother we're talking about here, Miss Stewart. Your brother's dead body. You sound awfully casual about that."


Regina's lips twisted, and she started to blurt out an instinctive angry, snarky reply, but then took a deep breath in, trying to restrain herself, to remember her role as "innocent victim," even to conjure tears.


"I...that's a terrible thing to say! Of course I'm upset about my...about Zane...what are you trying to say?"


**


Maddy, aware of Juliette's ignoring her, becomes more anxious, tugging at her older sister's hair lightly but with some urgency as she repeats to her, "Juli, I'm scared. What if the police take Gina and Riley away?"


She strains her ears to listen to the conversation in the other room, noticing that Regina looks the way she always does when she's lying, that she's trying to cry, and that the cop looks mean to her. Did he think Regina was bad? What if he took her away?


Her heart pounding, Maddy hugged her arms through Juliette's, trying to burrow closer. "What if he arrests them? What if he shoots them?"

 

[pistolmouth]

"You know I'm not the tone police, right?" Tegan said, giving Jeremy a small nudge with her elbow as she finished spreading everything onto the pizza and slid it into the oven. "I haven't had a whole lot to do with the twins, but I get what you're talking about. Relax, will ya?"


At his suggestion of trading, Tegan actually snorted and shook her head, holding her hands up as though she were under arrest. "Don't look at me. I'm a terrible authority figure, seriously, your house would probably be in literal shambles by the end of the day. They only reason I do okay with Evan is because he's 20 and for the most part doesn't require a whole lot of care outside of me cooking his meals. That's about all I have the patience for, at this point. I honestly have no idea how you do it."


--------


"We're just... we're still in shock over all of this, you know?" Riley cut in, furrowing his eyebrows, his face fallen and cautious to continue. He swallowed and put a hand on Regina's back, mimicking comfort. His hand gripped tightly onto her shirt briefly, warning her to let him cover for them before she got them both arrested on the spot.


"This whole thing, it's really been a lot for us to swallow. We're still getting our roots into this place, enrolled in classes, have jobs, and then someone -" He paused, inhaling sharply and clearing his throat, "Someone murders our youngest brother, and then steals his body from a morgue. It hasn't even been three days, how exactly are we supposed to behave?"


--------


The tug on her hair, though not hard, is still offensive, and Juliette lifts a hand as though to swat Maddy's away before lowering it quickly, making an angry noise in the back of her throat. "They're not going to get arrested."


She heard the tension in the twins' voices and worried briefly at her lip, trying to hear exactly what was being said. It sounded as though Riley had started to get himself worked up a little, at least enough to sound like he might be angry or hurt or something and she wondered if that would be enough to get the cop off of their cases.


When Maddy continued to talk, though, Juliette snapped, "Maddy, shut up!" She hissed at her, "They're not, now just be quiet so I can listen!"

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

"Well, if you're had a conversation...or even looked at them, at least in Regina's case...yeah, you probably know what I mean," Jeremy muttered, but he had to admit that he was grateful to Tegan for not asking for further details or forcing him to explain.


Even with Tegan, who had been so accepting of him so far when she had so little reason to be, it felt wrong, almost dangerous to talk too much, too negatively, about his brother and sister. It wasn't like she would or could do anything about it if he admitted that they didn't generally get along, how stressed out they made him feel, that he didn't feel at all in control of them. It felt disloyal, moreover. He knew that his sisters and his brother undoubtedly complained about and trash talked him behind his back, but it seemed wrong, somehow, for Jeremy to do the same. He was the oldest, he was the responsible one, the one trying to keep them all together. He had to be the example, even if they weren't there to see.


He is about to backpedal and try again to downplay the struggle he has with his siblings when Tegan denies that she could do any better, stating that she would in fact do worse...implying that he's doing well, considering. This is something Jeremy has never been told or believed, and he blushes, flattered in spite of himself. Every day he hears nothing but complains and sneering comments from his siblings, and having teh social workers show up to check on him, as though doubting his ability, doesn't help. With the twins so wild, Maddy so timid, Juliette so shallow, and Zane dead, how could anyone think he's doing a good job?


"The twins are nineteen, Juliette's fifteen, and Maddy is ten," he tells her, rather than clarify this aloud. "So yes, it's...quite the handful."


**


Regina, feeling Riley tug at her shirt, knows that he's warning her to be quiet, but the gesture irritates her. She can handle this, hasn't she always before? She could talk her way out of anything, and if she couldn't talk, then she could use other methods of convincing. It was bad enough when Jeremy tried to take over for her, did Riley have to too?


"Look, we're not really wanting to talk about this, okay?" she says to the officer abruptly, no longer attempting to conjure tears as she crosses her arms over her chest, meeting his eyes directly, almost aggressively, and speaking in a level, deliberate tone. "So if you're not going to charge us with anything, I think you should leave, because we don't actually have anything to say to you."


"See, this is where you're wrong, Miss Stewart," Officer Becker shot back, his eyes focused solely on her now as his voice hardened. "I think you have plenty to say, and if you won't say it now, then I will obtain a warrant to see if your house here will speak for you."


Hearing this, Regina's mind immediately scrambled to think what in their home might incriminate them, if they couldn't remove it before he saw. Were there traces of blood that could be picked up with polilight? The blood in the freezer, traces of blood in glasses?


**


Maddy's eyes filled with tears as Juliette snapped at her, not allowing her to come close enough to seek physical comfort, and she bit her lower lip, blinking rapidly to try to stave them back. If she cried Juliette would get even more angry with her and make her leave.


She tries to focus on the twins and the cop, latching onto Juliette's arm, but everything she hears makes her feel even more frightened. The cop didn't seem to believe Regina...why was Regina being rude to him? What if he did come back and was looking everywhere? He couldn't do that, he just couldn't...he had to go away. He had to go away and not take the twins with him, it wasn't even their fault, not really!


Without thinking any further over it, she broke away from Juliette, running into the living room and bounding flat-footed towards the doorway where the twins were standing, wiggling herself in between them. She didn't pay attention to Regina's narrow-eyed stare or the anger slanting her brows quickly in response to her appearance; she just stared up at the officer, her eyes large and pleading as she begged him.


"Please don't arrest them! It's not their fault, they didn't do anything wrong that they didn't have to do, please don't take them away! My mom and dad are dead and Zane is dead and I don't want you taking them away, I don't want anyone else gone! They can't help it, it's not their fault, we don't like being like this?"


"Maddy, go to your room, now!" Regina hissed, the horror in her tone almost as prevalent as her fury, and she seized Maddy's arm, squeezing so that the skin whitened beneath her grasp, but Officer Becker was now showing the child his full attention as he frowned down at her.


"Miss Stewart, let go of your sister," he said quietly but firmly, looking at Maddy alone as he spoke. "What do you mean, they can't help it...that they don't like being like this? Being like what?" 
(Primal is without internet for some time as a heads up)