Chapter 10 - Suspicion

"Hey Dad..."

"Hmm?" He cocked his head to the side.

Freya did the same. "Have you heard from Jarred since he moved out?"

"...no, I guess I haven't." He nudged a pawn forward, and Freya studied it for a long moment before countering with one of her own.

"I should probably go catch up with him or something." She might never have been close to him...but she was still his sister, right? Wasn't that her job as a family member?

She happens to catch up with him at the beach, where he's doing something very embarrassing.

 

Oh God. Freya decides it's best to scurry over before he does something stupid like cheat on his girlfriend with a senior citizen.

Not a moment too soon, since they're apparently quite compatible.

 

...and because of this journalist eyeing them up from a distance. With ears like those, there's no doubt that he can probably hear everything they're saying anyway.

Turns out her going to see him ended up being quite pointless.

"Freya, what are you doing here?" Jarred asked, eyeing Molly Coddle as she slowly made her way away from the pair. At her age, there's not much else she COULD be doing, really.

"I...just wanted to see you." But her small smile went unanswered. "C'mon, Jarred, you're my brother. Let's go grab a bite to eat or something."

He winces. "You know, I would, but I...can't. Carrie's waiting for me and all, and...well-"

"Don't worry about it." She gave him a quick, awkward hug, and scurried back home to ignore the annoying pain in the base of her stomach.

The first thing she did upon arriving was to call Donald and to invite him over.

"Freya, it's late. What's up?"

She sighed as she hugged him, lingering close for a long moment as she murmured. "It's nothing. I just needed to see a friendly face or something, you know?"

"At eleven o' clock?"

Another twinge. "Look, you're right, and I'm sorry, but...you're already here, so can't we just...talk or something?"

"Yeah, no problem. Just tell me what's wrong. I'm worried about you."

She guided him to the couch, and they talked about everything and nothing for several more hours. It was fascinating just how many different tangents Freya could use to avoid her older brother and the fact that he seemed more than happy to completely sever all ties with her family.

It was nearly 1am on a school night before Donald urged her to go to bed. "You'll feel better in the morning, trust me." And so she did as he urged, assuming he'd head out immediately afterward.

Donald, however, is a little strange.

Whether to be helpful or just to be bizarre, he stayed through the night. He washed dishes that the exhausted family had left the night before.

He cleaned his teeth in the master bedroom, even.

By the time that Joey was up and about, he discovered Donald in the bathroom and nearly had a heart attack.

"Donald! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Oh, Mr. Randall, I'm sorry if I startled you! Freya, see, she invited me over before, and she asked me to stick around to talk to her, and I just...couldn't go just in case she woke up in the middle of the night, and..." Donald trailed off, no doubt more than aware of Joey's penetrating stare, and grinned. "I really look up to you, sir. You're an astronaut, and you're one of the greatest men I know, and-"

"Just go home, son."

"Yes sir."

Joey went off to work that morning with a heavy heart and a furrowed brow, conscious of the fact that once again he'd be missing an important birthday, and that he wouldn't make it home for hours.

That important birthday happened to be Kyle's.

He grew up strong and true, though a little left of center, and promptly dragged his favorite person in the world outside to play chess with him.

Like father, like sister, like brother.

Leda, meanwhile, felt a little blindsided by her baby growing up.

Not quite so much as Joey, who returns at one in the morning to find his bride sleeping away. He's wasting his remaining time with her. The days are flying by far too fast, and something must be done about it.

He's decided. He'll retire after one more week, and spend the rest of his life beside her.

In celebration, a new house with a much more modern appearance is purchased the following day, when the kids are at school.

It's certainly...different than before. And there's a lot of stairs. Leda finds herself wondering if she and Joey will be able to handle them every day. Perhaps, she wonders, something will have to be done if they live here until they die. Perhaps an additional apartment built for them or something.

Joey decides to chase the indecision off of her face with a glorious amount of old-people sex.

Later, Joey realizes that the gnomes have followed them. He feels quite chilled.

Leda reassures him that he will be safe. Joey counters by trying to fracture her spine.

To celebrate their new home, Freya invites Donald over to see her in far better spirits and to give him a tour of the house.

Kyle, meanwhile...he's not sure how he feels about this. He's closer to Freya than he is to his own parents, for crying out loud! He decides he'll be sticking close all night.

"I actually just got back from a trip to Al Simhara," Donald informs Freya during a commercial.

"Al Simhara? Are you serious?!"

"As a heart attack." He leans back into the couch and grins, looking toward her. "Calm down, Freya. You look like you're about to explode."

"I just...I can't even imagine! I've always wanted to go there! What's it like?"

He studied her with that little smile for a long moment before he shrugged. "There's sand. There's sand EVERYWHERE." Donald barked out a laugh as he laced his hands behind his neck. "But there's also these giant tombs everywhere you look. The marketplace itself is fantastic, too, and the locals are all completely gorgeous. It's like they've all been infused with perfect genes or something."

Freya exhales slowly, smoothing her hands over her ponytail. "Wow. I can't wait to go there someday."

"Maybe I'll take you."

Kyle isn't sure he likes the sound of this, especially if it means that Freya's face is going to light up like that. He promptly makes an obnoxious amount of noise putting his uneaten food away and getting his homework out.

He's barely sat down before he hears footsteps behind him. "Need a hand, buddy?"

Kyle would dearly like to inform him that he's probably covered in a ton of germs that he himself really doesn't want to be infected by and that he'll beat the man to a bloody pulp if he's already infected Freya, but before he can even say a word Donald's sat down beside him.

"...I mean, I've kind of got it under control. Freya taught me all this stuff ages ago, so I really-"

"You don't have to put on a brave face with me, buddy! C'mon. Let's have a look at that."

Meanwhile, Joey watched the scene from the bathroom for a long minute before he shook his head and made his way over to Freya.

"You're really...close to Donald, aren't you?"

"Well, of course I am. We were friends in high school before he graduated, and he really...I don't know, he GETS me."

"He gets you."

"Yeah! We both want to travel, we both like the same TV shows..." She trailed off, her eyes dancing around the room for a couple of seconds.

"Freya..."

"He's a good guy, Dad. He really is. Don't worry so much."

Joey was conscious of the way that Donald was eyeing them from the other side of the room, with Kyle scurrying upstairs with his completed homework. Joey hesitated before he beckoned Donald over with a smile.

As Freya began her homework, Joey began his interrogation. "Donald, how old are you now?"

"I'm about to become an adult." He grinned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Doesn't look like it, I know. I've still got this baby face and-"

"I want to know what your intentions are for my daughter."

Blindsided was a kind word for how Donald looked. His eyes widened as he stared at the elderly man, hand freezing against his neck. "...intentions?"

"Yes, your intentions." Joey paused, collecting his thoughts. "My daughter is barely in her last few days of high school, Donald. You've been hanging around her since she became a teenager, even though you're so much older than her, and it's...just not seemly."

Donald grinned again. "Mr. Randall, no offense, but I think you're overthinking the situation. Your daughter and I are just friends. She reminds me a lot of myself at her age."

"Donald?" Freya's voice sounded cheery and clear from the other side of the room. "Could you give me a hand with this problem?"

Joey and Donald locked eyes for a few long silent moments before Donald nodded to him and broke off. "No problem, Freya. On my way."

Joey made a mental note never to leave the two of them alone again.

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I apologize if this chapter was boring. I realized that my caps that I took while MTS was down were really few in number as well as of situations that I really didn't even need to cover. I hope I get the hang of this soon enough.