Hey everyone, welcome back to the Ink Family Legacy! I've finalized things and worked it out that there will be eleven chapters this gen. Yes, that means we're only a few chapters from heir vote! Time certainly does fly. But we're not there yet, so let's go into the chapter with the shamelessly cute pic of Eva on the front.
— — — — —
Finn's homecoming was a strange moment for India. The last time she had a baby this small in her arms was Eva, and her twins were barely knee high. The same twins that were nearly sixteen years old and driving now. It never failed to shock her how much time had flown by.
Finn turned out to be such a good baby – very different from Eva at that age. He was always smiling and giggling, and you only had to look at him to get him to start laughing.
It was no wonder then that Noelle adored him. She had always loved babies and had been quite disappointed when Eva grew out of it. She was definitely the "responsible big sister" type.
The concept of opposite twins was not lost on them – where Noelle was responsible, Hunter stayed out late charming girls out of their money. He would almost feel guilty, but then he would see Shonda Newbie wearing the new suit that she bought with her dead father's inheritance.
He almost gave her the benefit of the doubt – both her parents were gone now, and she was the head of the household – but then he saw that her three younger siblings still had ratty backpacks that were ripping at the seams. Hunter couldn't stand to see people use money selfishly.
She was easily taken in by him. Hunter always seemed to know the right words to say. He was particularly observant, singling out her traits and dealing compliments left and right. Good sense of humor? He had a clever joke. Couch potato? He could talk for hours about TV shows and video games. Hunter's comments were usually spot on.
But when it came to the money request, Shonda hesitated.
"Oh…I don't know Hunter. Fifty dollars is an awful lot, don't you think?" she murmured.
Hunter bit his cheek to prevent a snide remark. "Sorry hun. Don't want to seem pushy. It's just that my sister's birthday is coming up and I'm a little short…"
She fidgeted a bit, clearly weighing her options. But before she could give an answer, Hunter got a tap on the shoulder.
"It's past your curfew buddy."
"Don't you know how dangerous it is for teens to be on the streets at night! There's been word of an organized crime ring right here in Riverview! And another thing…"
Hunter rolled his eyes – he had heard it all before. This was probably the fourth time he had been caught breaking curfew. The only thing he feared…
…was his mother's response. India had grown increasingly cross with each arrest, especially since he promised to change his ways after each one.
"HUNTER INK! It is two in the morning! Your father and I have been worried sick! Noelle and Eva can't even go to bed because they're worried about where you are! What were you thinking?!"
"S-sorry Mom!" Hunter stuttered. He glanced to see if the policeman would even be around to help him out if India got really mad, but he skipped out as soon as she started yelling, the coward.
"I…I was at the art gallery with a friend, Mom. She's a senior and graduating soon, so I wanted to spend some time with her before she left. I didn't realize how late it was. Sorry."
India's rage cooled as Hunter spoke. She knew that Hunter wasn't getting into any trouble, but he couldn't keep coming home in a police car. All she wanted was for her son to be safe…
Plus, she couldn't stay mad at that face. It was too much like Leo's.
"Listen Hunter. You may hang out with your friends, but don't you think your family worries about you? Eleven isn't too unreasonable, is it?"
"No, Mom. I'm sorry. It won't -"
"Don't say it won't happen again, because you've already broken that four times now. Just promise me that you'll stay out of cop cars, okay? I don't want to see you in one unless you're an officer."
Hunter grinned. "You never know Mom, I heard that the academy could use some suave new recruits."
"Get inside you vain little troublemaker."
Leo wasn't left out of the loop – the very next morning he talked to Hunter over breakfast.
"I'm sure you've talked to your mother. You've become quite the regular in that police car, huh?"
Hunter sighed – Leo and his humor… "Yeah, yeah Dad. Everyone knows."
Well, not everyone.
"Hunter, you got ARRESTED?!!"
"Ah…er…"
— — — — —
It took until Finn was about three months old, but India finally decided. She would take Eva to a specialist.
The three hour drive was quiet, with Eva peacefully sleeping with her head in India's lap. India, for her part, had merely watched the countryside blur by in a daze. The doctor was apparently very reclusive and required patients to come to his home, but he was widely regarded as an expert.
"Ah, welcome. You must be Mrs. Ink – George told me you would be coming." the doctor said genially. "And this must be Eva?"
"Yes. Thank you for seeing us Doctor Caspian." India replied nervously.
"Anything for a friend of George. Now, if Eva will just sit over there…"
"A test?" Eva squeaked as she sat down.
"Yes – it's important to assess your condition." the doctor said.
Eva frowned but put pencil to paper. She knew that this was somehow important to her mother, so she would try for her.
India and the doctor talked for hours. The more she spoke the more worked up she got, spilling details from Eva's stressful home birth to the latest fight with Eva's homeroom teacher. Things she had been keeping to herself were easier to tell to this stranger than to admit to her family.
"So that's…I think that's…everything. I just want Eva to be able to talk to people, to communicate her feelings." India sighed.
At the same time, Eva came up and handed the paper to Dr. Caspian before wandering off. After a quick glance over the responses, he nodded to himself.
"Well Mrs. Ink, I've seen a lot of cases in my day. No two children are alike, but your daughter appears to fit all the benchmarks of what we call Asperger's Syndrome."
"W-what?"
"Asperger's is a form of high functioning autism. Children with it typically show significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. Your description of her fixation with blocks and building things shows that."
"She also seems to display a degree of alexithymia." he continued. "Which is fairly common in Asperger's. Eva feels all of her emotions normally, but cannot adequately describe or identify them. The root of the word is literally 'without words for emotions'."
"S-so what does that mean for Eva?" India said, tearing up.
"Well, it's hard to say. Eva appears to be extraordinarily intelligent. If you enroll her in behavioral therapy, she seems the type that could make vast improvements."
India was absolutely stricken. Her poor baby, her little Eva, was autistic. She felt and experienced as much as any other little girl but was completely unable to put these feelings into words, even for herself. She wondered if there was something she had done wrong – had the home birth hurt Eva? Did she miss some trauma in the girl's infancy that could have caused this?
As she spiraled into darker and darker thoughts, Eva reached up her arms and touched India's face gently.
"Mama…sad? Sorry."
India started bawling – they had taught Eva to say sorry whenever she saw someone crying because she used to accidentally offend other children all the time. Knowing that Eva just couldn't work out what she had done wrong, they had hoped that saying sorry would at least smooth things over. Now India wondered if shortcuts like that only served to hurt Eva.
"It's okay Eva. You've done nothing wrong. I'm going to make sure you're okay."
Eva looked up at her blankly with those big blue eyes. "I'm okay." she responded.
India smiled through her tears. "And I'm going to fight to keep it that way. Let's register you for Willow Valley, okay honey?"
— — — — —
The news of Eva's autism came as a bit of a shock to the family, but everyone agreed to work hard to help Eva realize her full capabilities. As it turned out, Noelle had another shock in store for her.
"Noelle! Noe, c'mon, wake up!"
"Ugh…what?" Noelle grumbled, sliding out of bed. "Hunter, it's early. What do you-"
"Hurry up and get dressed. You'll see when you get back." he urged.
Noelle sleepily dragged herself out of the room and got dressed in the bathroom. When she returned she found that there was a desk in the room that hadn't been there a few minutes prior. And on top of it was…
"Happy early birthday, Noe."
Noelle was dumbstruck – she had been complaining to their parents that she needed a computer to start writing. She had hoped that her and Hunter's sixteenth birthday would earn them one, but Hunter appeared to have beat them to the punch.
"Hunter, you…when? How?! God, this must have cost-"
"Not that much, sis. Besides, how else you gonna become a writer? Would you rather have invested in a typewriter?"
Noelle grabbed her big brother and pulled him into a big hug. "Thank you thank you thank you Hunter! I only got you a lame free pass to the gym weekday evenings."
"Are you kidding?! That's awesome!"
When Noelle pulled away, she looked concerned. Seeing the question in his eyes, she said, "Hunter…where did you get the money to pay for this?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "Why? What's it matter?"
She frowned. "Hunter, seriously. You don't have a job and you've been hanging out with a whole bunch of different girls. Then you keep getting arrested, and then all of the sudden there's a new computer, and-"
"What? You don't trust me?"
"That's not it, Hunter."
"I saved up and bought it Noelle. That's all."
Hunter could practically feel Noelle's eyes boring straight through to his soul.
He was lying, and she knew he was lying. They had never been very good at keeping anything secret from the other. Eventually Noelle sighed and rubbed her arm, looking away.
"Just stay out of trouble Hunter. Please."
— — — — —
After all the stress of suspecting her closest friend, Noelle needed something refreshing.
"Noelle! Hi!"
Lucky Myron was basically a living air purifier. He was always smiling and happy to see Noelle, which was a welcome difference from the increasingly distant Hunter.
Even better, she was pretty sure Myron liked her. He paid very close attention to her and got nervous when she sat too close or held his hand on the way home.
It was rather endearing to Noelle, but there was one big drawback – Myron was a coward. He never really stood up to his imposing father and seemed scared to take the first step towards a romantic relationship. Well, lucky for him Noelle wasn't the type of girl to just sit and wait.
She took his hands and held them tightly one day. He smiled nervously and blushed. "Um, h-hey Noelle. What's up?"
"Myron, do you like me?" Noelle wasn't one to mince words.
His blush grew fluorescent. "O-of course. You're my best friend, of course I-"
"No My – do you like like me? Because I like you."
In lieu of a response, Myron turned impossibly red and couldn't manage an answer. Noelle simply said, "In short, would you like to be my boyfriend, Myron?"
Myron stood speechless for exactly five seconds before launching into a frenzied, "Y-yeah! I'd love to! I mean sure, you're way too pretty for a guy like me and I know I'm not the strongest guy out there. Actually, I'm kind of a pushover. Not even kind of, I really am. U-um, are you sure you want to date me, Noelle?"
Noelle rolled her eyes and tugged on his collar.
"There." Noelle said when they finally broke for air. "Convincing enough?"
"Yeah. More than enough."
— — — — —
Leo was still going about his work, of course, mostly oblivious to his older children's exploits. He was a full fledged neurosurgeon at this point, so close to his final goal.
It was hard to put that in perspective when he held his youngest son in his arms.
Leo knew that he would be an old man before Finn was even a teenager. Living to see him get married or have children probably wasn't going to happen.
That made every second he spent with him precious. He only wished that he would live long enough to do this to Finn's children too.
Of course, certain members of the household weren't quite so delicate.
"Um…Noelle?"
"Yes Hunter?"
"W-what do I do with him? Can't you take him?"
"Oh come on you big baby, just hold him." Noelle sighed, leaning back on the couch. "Talk to him."
"Ah…well then…hello there Finn."
*giggle*
Hunter grinned back at his smiling brother and held him more comfortably (though still slightly awkward).
"Aw, he's not so bad." he said. "I'll have to teach him baseball or something."
"Please wait until he can, you know, walk." Noelle called.
— — — — —
They had to wait until the beginning of the next school year, but Eva was finally enrolled in Willow Valley Private College. Sure, it was seventh grade, but the school went through high school so she wouldn't have to worry about transferring.
India finished the last alteration and stood back to admire her work. "I've got to say Eva, you look so smart in your uniform."
Eva smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Think so?"
The year or so of intensive speech therapy since her diagnosis had done wonders for Eva's communication. She could now hold meaningful conversations with strangers, and even her old homeroom teacher had begrudgingly admitted that Eva had improved. Her manner of speech was sometimes awkward or robotic, but it sufficed.
The school turned out to be the best decision they could have made for Eva. Before long she was studying engineering, and her homework became too complicated for India to help.
"Increasing thermodynamic efficiency? Um, I don't remember anything about this from school…"
Leo was the only person who could help her nowadays, but Eva seemed to keep up pretty well by herself.
One quiet day after school Eva arrived home to a quiet house. Leo and India were away at work, Hunter out on the town, and Noelle had fallen asleep in front of the TV. Eva wandered through her parents' room and found her way to Finn's room.
She had never really been in here before. Loud noises really hurt her ears, so Finn was kept away from her for the most part. But the older he got the less he cried, and today Eva felt brave enough to visit him.
So this was the brother she named. Finn.
For the longest time she simply watched her baby brother sleep, startling a bit when he'd suddenly roll over or whimper in his sleep.
Eva decided something that day. What that was…well, that was yet to be seen.
And none too soon! Why all the cheering?
Why, it was Eva's thirteenth birthday! She had been caught rather off guard by the transition, and really no one could really imagine Eva as a teenager. Yet it was time for this emotionally challenged girl to go through one of the most emotional periods in one's life.
Eva had finally allowed Noelle and India to touch her hair as long as it remained short. The result was a much more feminine arrangement to her disheveled hair. And, as in childhood, Noelle had to fix Eva's wardrobe. Without her older sister, Eva would probably wear overalls everywhere.
Everyone knew that Eva was pretty handy, but no one really knew how handy until she took a wrench to most of the appliances in the house. She made a two hour effort a night to upgrade sinks and showers around the house.
"So if the three of us each got a different banner for our cars…"
It was at this point that Leo realized he had three teenagers in the house. Oh boy. And on top of that, he had…
…a new toddler.
Finn grew up to be absolutely adorable. His sandy hair and freckles were all India's influence, but those big brown eyes were straight from Leo. He was probably the most even split between his parents.
Finn was pretty much always happy. He had two loving parents and three adoring big siblings to take care of him. He also got excited every time he was given a toy to play with, no matter how old it was. He led a pretty simple life.
"Hey, what are you doing in Eva's room, buddy?" India cooed, picking up her baby. "It's past your bedtime, hun."
She really couldn't get over the fact that somebody finally inherited her hair.
"Alright Finn, time for beddy-bye."
"No Mama, I's not tired yet!"
"Don't weave me here!"
Unfortunately for today, his cute would go unanswered. He would be staying in his crib.
"I's not tired~!" he sang.
Cheeky thing.
Of course, a long day of being tickled and snuggled can really wear a tyke out, and Finn was soon out like a light. Sweet dreams little guy.
— — — — —
And another chapter is done! Told you Finn was cute! Well, at least to me he is. The genetics of freckles don't work, so I decided way back before the twins were born that I'd give freckles to any kid with India's hair. I'm glad that at least one kid got them! Anyway, please comment~Garb is a Problem
“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
- Albert Camus
I feel sleepy. I think that is because I only got about 5 hours of sleep last night, but I can't be sure. I think I got up at 3 am for a while, but maybe not. And either the cats were very tolerant this morning, or else I fed them twice; once while sleep-walking. It's hard to say.
In any case, trying to fix my sleep pattern a bit, since I have to take the dog in to the vet tomorrow at 10 am, and I'd like to have brain cells for that.
Otherwise, Darkshore check-list:
Car – cleaned, fluids checked, as ready as she's gonna get.
Gear – is minimal, this year… but I haven't actually put things together yet. Tomorrow, tomorrow.
Garb – is a problem. My memories of Darkshore are of a foggy and cool site, at which wearing long-sleeved garb is both possible and desirable. However, since the current site is in King City, it will probably be hot-as-blazes. This is a problem, as most of my garb is long-sleeved, and also since the monster garb that I am bringing is almost entirely black. Still, I always say I'd rather be hot and sweaty than cold and freezing, so I guess I'll just suck it up. I can always ditch the under-layers and just wear the tabards over a tank-tops if I feel like I'm going to die. In any case, still need to pack.
Other Stuff – for surrounding days, emergencies, and the thousand, thousand contingencies that I always like to plan for; mostly got it worked out. I'm sure I'll forget something.
Finally finished reading “Sword Breaker”, which was highly enjoyable. Currently re-reading “Jurassic Park”, because I love it and recently bought a used copy.
Gregory Odonnell