vanillajello | Overland Park, KS, Sunday/Monday-ish FT

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Overland Park, KS, Sunday/Monday-ish FT

It was finally morning. And there was a box of junk on the kitchen table. In said box, there was a charred copy of Dr Shoshanna Schoenbaum's book You Becoming You, a red plastic poncho that had been sliced to shreds, and two empty cans of crab. See, as Tara had explained, once they'd all gathered for some... pretty early morning coffee after a night of not so great sleep, Bryce had been coming out for a while now. As had become apparent, he'd been the one responsible for the crab surprise in the soup. But, he'd also burned Shoshanna's book and apparently stabbed Gimme's poncho full of holes. And done something to Chicken. Tara couldn't really say what.

And now Chicken, Gimme, and Shoshanna were all just gone.

Tara was acting really remarkably chill, considering it had also come to light that Bryce had been making her throw up the pills she'd been taking to keep him down. She seemed like things were pretty normal, by their standards. Nothing like when she'd been running to the bathroom to throw up the night before. Kate found it a bit worrisome. Moreso than Charmaine's nonchalance. That was just the kind of repression that ran in the family.

Of course Kate wasn't going to get to feel any of that for long, because while they were having their coffee and their tea, she got a call to go into work to cover for yet another shift. And since her dad and brother were coming home in a matter of hours, she said yes. Maybe out of being selfish and getting out of this whole environment for a while.

So, she'd gone back over to the other house for a change of clothes and whatnot, leaving Luke with the Craine ladies for a moment. She knew he could handle it by now. At least they were both themselves right now.

"Sorry we're so full of exciting happenings," Charmaine drawled, giving the box of assorted Bryce memorabilia an idle nudge.

[ooc: NFB, and for that guy who's still here! Fandomized from USoT S03E10 'Train Wreck'. Warning for... I don't even know what so let's just say dark themes related to mental health.]

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"Oh don't worry about it," Luke said with a wave of his hand. "Believe it or not, my family's even more, uh, exciting than this."

He did find it a bit strange that it was so calm in here, but he figured they earned a little repression after last night.

Charmaine's eyebrows quirked in a manner pretty similar to how Kate's tended to. "How is that even possible? Is there, like, a lot of drama involving marriages between blood relatives?"

Tara's curious glance turned into an eyeroll at her sister. Charmaine just though she should've known by now that sarcasm and/or wild speculation were sme of the best defence mechanisms.

"You honestly would not believe the extent of it if I told you," Luke said, shaking his head. "There's a lot of cursing and backstabbing."

Literal cursing and backstabbing, actually.

"So you don't have to worry about traumatizing me."

"If you say so," Charmaine drawled, which earned an exasperated sigh from Tara. "Look, Char, no one's getting traumatized." Well, beyond those that already were. "I have things under control now.

It was amazing how someone could ooze doubt while merely taking a sip of tea, like Charmaine just did.

"Well that's good." Yeah even Luke doubted that, but he managed to keep it out of his voice. "You're way more fun to be around as you are."

Tara gave Charmaine another eyeroll, and Luke a wry smile. "Thank you, Luke."

"Thank you Luke for what?" Kate asked as she reappeared, in full SkyKans uniform, tying her cute little scarf around her neck. "Everything cool here?"

She swore she wasn't paranoid.

"Yeah we--" Luke pretty much forgot what he was going to say when he saw Kate in uniform. "Aww, you look adorable."

"Huh?" Yeah, she had to look down at herself, confused, before she got it. "Oh, thanks. She smiled, straightening the scarf. "It's just my work uniform."

"But it's a stewardess uniform," Charmaine chimed in, "so it's automarically adored by all."

"Flight attendant," Kate corrected automatically.

"Whatever."

Luke chuckled. "You look just like they do in the movies."

What? It's not like he's ever needed to use a plane to get somewhere.

"Yeah, I'm sure the attendants on whatever shitty airline you flew in on ––" Not that she was subtly pointing out he couldn't possibly have come via Portalocity, or anything. "–– probably don't match SkyKans ones in terms of class."

Well, her hairdo was classy enough for that to almost work.

"It's hard to beat Kansas in terms of classiness, this is true." Oh look he said that without laughing, it's a miracle.

Yeah, but Kate snickered. "Of course. So, uh, are we about ready to go?"

She actually still had a question to ask her mom, but she was kind of skirting around that for a moment more.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Luke said, getting up from where he was sitting. "Thanks for having me over, Tara and Charmaine."

He was gonna say that it had been interesting but Luke figured that went without saying.

"Thanks for not running away," Tara replied, with only a touch of wryness.

Kate straightened up and took a breath. "Okay, so we're good to go," she said. "But, before we do... Mom, uh, did you tell Dad about Bryce?"

Tara shook her head, just a little, idly picking up her cup of tea again. "No."

"What?" Kate asked, frowning. "You didn't tell him?"

Her mother gave her a look like the whole question was ridiculous. "And ruin his big trip? No, ma'am."

Even Charmaine had to say something to that. "Tara, you have a homicidal alter..."

"Who tried to seafood your professor," Kate concluded. "I mean, I didn't imagine that did I?"

Luke rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, not really sure if he should be putting in input on this. But doing so anyway. "Yeah, I'd kind of want to know if I were him..."

They were a bit past disapproving of him weighing in on this now, all things considered. Not that it seemed to have an effect. "It was a prank," Tara said, shaking her head at all of them, spreading her hands. "He's 14 years old. He didn't understand the consequences."

Charmaine picked up the ragged poncho from the box. "Uh, and are these, um, stab wounds for ventilation?"

Tara's phone started beeping on the phone. A timer going off. She reached for it and turned it off. "Trust me, I have it under control."

Kate thought she had every right to look dubious. "And you are saying this why?" she asked, as Tara picked up her bottle of pills and shook one out onto the kitchen counter. Charmaine raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "I thought he was barfing up your pills."

Tara opened up the capsule so that the powder poured neatly out on the counter. And then she picked up a straw and snorted it.

So now that was happening.

"Oh...that's creative." And didn't look very safe at all. Luke looked over at Kate with a worried look on his face.

Charmaine, queen of inappropriate reactions that she was, snickered like she was half delighted with this.

Kate, however, shared Luke's look of worry. "Ohhh," she said, shaking her head. "Mother, there are no words."

"Oh, honey, it's temporary, just until your dad gets home," Tara said, closing the bottle of pills again. "And then he and I will make a plan, and we will execute said plan." She wiped the sides of her nose. "And it will be staggeringly successful, I promise. But until then..." She picked up the box of crap and gave the bottle a little shake. "Three snorts a day keeps the psychos away."

And then she went on her way, taking the box away through the laundry room. Kate could really do nothing but stare after her. Seriously. What?

"That's not gonna work out well," Luke noted with a frown. "At least your dad will be home soon."

"Yeah." Kate was really looking forward to this being someone else's problem. No matter how much it was going to hurt her dad to find out there was someone new and evil lurking about. "So we should just, uh... Go."

"Yeah, yeah," Charmaine said, waving a hand. "We got this under control here."

It was hard to tell whether she actually believed that.

"It'll be fine, Kate," Luke said, though he really didn't seem all that confident about it.

"Yeah, sure." Color her not terribly convinced. Still, she picked up her bag again. At least she got to go to work. "Yeah let's just go."

"See you, Charmaine," Luke said, giving her a slight wave as he picked up his own small bag that he had kept spare clothes in. "Lead the way, miss flight attendant."

See, he didn't call her a stewardess that time even if it was on the tip of his tongue to do so.

It was appreciated. Probably not as much as it could have been under different circumstances, but appreciated all the same.

Kate grabbed the keys to the Green Hornet off the table. No way was Tara driving anywhere when she was snorting her meds, plus buses didn't offer as much of an opportunity to vent about how messed up things were as a private car did.

And then they were on their way. Away from the crazy for a while.

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Overland Park, KS, Sunday/Monday-ish FT

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