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Daniel spots him at the gala. Figures. He’d assumed the rest of the horsemen had received cards as well, but chose not to communicate as per the unspoken instructions. If they were meant to meet, it will happen when it happens. One of the horsemen being Jack, who had dressed up very formally, as opposed to his usual style. He was almost unrecognisable with his hair gelled like that. While being a bit annoyed at the fact that his husband hadn’t communicated his involvement in this scheme, Daniel hadn’t either. So what, he’s a hypocrite to his very core, sue him.
Everything is going to plan. Daniel isn’t a crier except for when he is, but seeing his son and daughter so grown up, it brings a tear to his eye. June and Bosco seemed to have picked up a peculiar boy, Charlie. Supposedly introverted, but able to forget that fact as soon as he has the means to one-up anyone with information. He reminds Daniel of himself.
June and Bosco had always taken after their father, Jack, which Daniel was immensely grateful for. Together, they had raised outgoing and likeable kids. A strong juxtaposition from himself. Although, Jack will argue to hell and back that Bosco is a carbon copy of Daniel through and through in both attitude and looks. Genetics, he claims, forgetting the whole adoption process.
When a fight breaks out, Daniel knows that Jack can’t resist revealing himself. He’s proven right when he appears from seemingly nowhere to deck a guy that was charging at Daniel. He could have easily taken him on his own.
“Sweetheart, fancy seeing you here.” Daniel murmurs through gritted teeth as they take on the goons coming at them from all angles. Jack is knocking them down faster than Daniel.
“Yeah, what a surprise. You should have said something, honey.” Jack replies with a grunt, sarcasm in his tone.
“Maybe, you should have said something first, darling.”
“Perhaps the more pressing issue is our children galavanting around the world, working with The Eye? How do we feel about this?” Jack is swinging a wine bottle at some poor souls head.
“You’re the one who taught them how to fight. We haven’t set the most amazing example.”
“Right, and aren’t you glad I did. Safe to say they didn’t inherit your pansy genetics. What kind of form is that?” Jack gestures to Daniels loose fists which are certainly not protecting his head like he taught him.
“My genetics aren’t pansy, I’m a capable fighter, I mostly just choose not to. Brains over brawn.”
“So what I’m hearing is that you’re with me for my muscles and dashing looks.” He throws a weird little side smile smirk Daniel’s way.
“Who said anything about dashing looks?”
“Why do you hate me? This isn’t a good role model for Bosco and June’s future relationships. When they end up with anxiously unattached assholes, it’ll be your fault.”
Whatever Daniel was about to say is cut off by a rather bulky man tackling him to the ground. The wind is forcefully knocked out of him. Something crunches, but at this age, most things crunch on a daily basis. Ouch. That is going to bruise, everywhere. There’s going to be bruises on his bruises. Said man is still on top of him, pinning him down by the shoulders. If he could get air into his lungs, he’d probably yell for help.
“Argh.” He tries to inhale, oh, and now the man above is winding his fist back. Probably to punch him. Great. He can already see his skull being crushed like an egg. Brains and bone scattered across the tiles. Not a great sight for his kids to see. It’ll probably mess them up for life. Poor Jack, all those therapy bills.
His thought process is interrupted by the weight miraculously being lifted off his chest. He intakes air, before looking upwards. There Jack is, holding this impossibly huge man by the collar of his shirt. He’s always blown away at how strong he is, despite Jack probably being malnourished as a child. That’s why he’s so short. He wouldn’t ever say that to his face though, he’s super in denial about it. Maybe this is like when mothers lift cars off of their babies through adrenaline. Daniel being the baby in this scenario. Damnit, he’s even a pansy in his own made up scenarios.
Daniel scrambles up, Jack having knocked the dude out and mercilessly thrown his body to the floor.
“He really had me there. Must’ve been, what? 150, 200 kilos?” His voice is croaky as he inhale deep breaths.
“I was so sure you were going to be a pancake. I’d be married to Flat Stanley. I’d roll on top of you during the night and I wouldn’t even notice. I’d have to put you in an envelope and mail you to Merritt.”
“You’d never have to pick a lock again though, just slip me under the door and I’d get it from the inside.”
“I’d hug you and get a paper cut.”
During the debacle, Henley, and Merritt had appeared.
“Jack, this has got to be the third time this week you’ve brought up Flat Stanley. I have messages from yesterday talking about Flat Stanley’s invisibility arc.” Merritt pats Daniel’s back in some support, as he is still trying to regain his breath. “Also, if I received a Flat Daniel in the mail, I’d fold him into a paper plane. Or a hat, I’d wear you around on my head.”
“Ewww. Don’t make me think of that.” Daniel looks truly disgusted, much to Merritt’s delight.
“Get a move on everyone, escape plan hello?” Henley appears behind them and is shooing them up the stairs and through the corridors. “June, Bosco, what are you doing here? I didn’t realise it was bring your kid to work day.”
“Auntie Hen!” Both teenagers run into Henley’s open, waiting arms. “As it turns out, today is the day we are no longer children. The Eye totally contacted me and June separately. How cool is that?” Bosco and June detach as Henley continues to hurry them outside.
“Separately my ass, you’re both nepo babies.” Charlie grumbles from behind them.
“Should I be offended that Sofia and Lucia didn’t receive cards? I think they’re both fantastic illusionists within their own right.”
“You just got off maternity leave with Lucia, she can’t even walk!”
“Didn’t Sofie just turn 3?”
“Yes, and she can already disappear cards.”
“Auntie Hen, we all saw her eat them. I saw Auntie Lu fishing soggy paper out her mouth.”
“She’s still learning, but the potential is there. She has the two greatest magicians in the world as her parents. Lucia just has a magical aura, I swear I can see it sometimes. When she was born, she pulled a coin out from behind the doctors ear.”
“Motherhood has sent you nutty, Hen.” Merritt says, long since disturbed by the miracle of birth. They can’t reach the helicopter cough zip line soon enough, with the FBI hot on their tails.
-
On the boat, still riding the high of a successful heist, everyone’s pretty excited to catch up and debrief. The gaggle of voices grow louder until June’s breaks through.
“Wait, if everyones out here, then who’s driving the boat?” She’s looking around. Everyone else looks as well, cautious tones arising. There’s no one steering.
“Forgetting someone?” Whipping her head around, June recognises the voice. On the opposite side to where the groups attention was focussed, stands Lula May.
“Auntie!” She runs over, jumping at Lula who catches her easily, as she has her whole life. She is quickly swarmed by everyone else.
“Where are the girls?” Bosco asks. He’d been very quickly enamoured with his younger cousins, who seemed to idolise him back. As much as a newborn and a toddler can.
“There’s still no one driving the boat.” Charlie comments, but is ignored or drowned out.
“Oh, I left Lucy in Sofie’s care. Taught her how to mix formula and everything. She is a smart girl, it’s all good. You know, when Sofia was born, she took the doctor’s glasses and made them disappear into thin air.” She waggles her fingers in effect.
Silence. Usually you’d be able to tell it’s a joke, but Lula’s weird like that. She looks around at the silent crowd.
“Jesus, they’re with Hen’s parents, biweekly grandparent movie night. What do you take me for?”
A sigh of relief.
After a lot of catching up, debriefing the huge fight at the gala, some questions about Lula’s boating license or lack thereof, Daniel’s near flattening.
“Ha. Flat Danley.”
“See? Lula gets it.” Jack says, but is quickly silenced by a glare from Daniel.
Merritt speaks up.
“I’ve been meaning to ask. Who, ah, who’s the dad?” He asks cautiously, but unable to help himself, gesturing between Lula and Henley.
Lula and Henley both glance at each other, and turn back to Merritt, looking confused.
“We are both girls, Merritt, there is no dad.”
“Yeah, I mean I was always told I had quite broad shoulders. Fantastic swimmer by the way, but I am a female, Merritt. Did my deep voice confuse you?” She says, lowering her voice comically and wiggling her eyebrows.
“Hey! Not like that, I meant like, there’s a certain way kids are made, and you’re both great mums. Great mums.” His hands raise in surrender. “But Henley, you were pregnant, I was there, who was the dude who helped ya? Did you pick him out from a portfolio? He had to look like Lula, those two girls look like both of you… somehow.”
“There was no dude, Sofie and Lucia are all me and Hen.”
“ Lu, you know what I’m talking about, it’s just not possible, unfortunately.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, man! I guess, in this scenario, I’m ‘the dad’ you’re referring to.” Lula makes quotation marks with her fingers, wiggling her eyebrows again.
“Yep, if you took their DNA, it’d be an even split of Lula and I! Or however it works, Sofia has your head shape, eyes, and general attitude. She’d be like a 70/30 split. She has a natural affinity to animals as well. She’s a little mini Lula.” Henley swoons, and Lula nods proudly.
“You two are insane, we all took biology. I’m sorry to break it to you like this. Lula, you are not the father.”
“I am, Merritt, and I’m sorry that you’re just too bigoted to see that. It really is the people you’re closest to.” She shakes her head slowly, with an expression of pity and sadness, her hand clutching her head.
“Do not call me that! I’m not bigoted, I’ve had more boyfriends than all of you here combined!” He gestures to the group as a whole. “Lula, you married the first girl who could put up with you for more than 5 minutes.”
With that, Jack and Daniel looked up from where they were talking to Bosco, June, and Charlie.
“Merritt, do not pull the gay card. You have 5 ex wives. Personally, I think after two marriages you just have to stop. Common denominator and all that.” Jack quipped. They’ve had this argument before.
“Yeah, Merritt, why don’t you have any ex-husbands?” June chimed in after Jack.
“Stop ganging up on me. June, you be quiet. Everyone needs to stop having kids that are mean to me. Also, I’m around 15 years older than Daniel, it wasn’t allowed back then.”
“Why’d you get married so many times?” Charlie asks, ever curious and ignorant of social cues.
“I could not tell you. I guess when you get to my age, there’s not much else to do.”
“I think you’re a catch, don’t listen to these guys, Bosco is literally girl repellent. It’s like his pheromones strike fear into their hearts. I’ve seen it in their eyes.”
“You’re my favourite kid, Charlie, did I ever tell you that?” Merritt says, clapping him on the back. They both ignore Bosco’s upset cries of indignation.
“Hey man, we only just met!” Charlie grins and puts his hands up. “Say it again though.” He follows seriously, smile dropping.
-
Jack watched Charlie, June, and Bosco celebrating their plan, playing out perfectly without a hitch. His kids, he couldn’t be more proud. The boy, Charlie, was similar to him, growing up on the street without a stable family. Daniel, while having two technically present parents, grew up with the knowledge that he held his mother back. She never let an opportunity to remind him of that slide. It made him scared of any sort of relationship, convinced he had to choose between ambitions and stability. When they brought Bosco into their lives, Daniel and Jack swore they would never let anything get in the way of Bosco’s upbringing. Should anything, god forbid it, happen between them, he would always come first. The cycle stopped with them. Unconditional love no matter what.
Jack imagines Charlie, losing his mother so young, but just old enough to remember her gruesome death. One last act of true love being the reason he survived. He thought of how Bosco and June grew up, as opposed to him.
“Charlie, I wish I had known you, found you sooner. You deserved better.” He said, bringing a hand to the kids shoulder. “But, you’re with us now, Daniel and I, the others, you’re our family.”
To his surprise, Charlie’s started to fill with tears that he just barely fought back from falling.
“When I found June, and then Bosco, I knew they were different to me. We are all so similar in so many ways, but there was something fundamentally different. They had you and Daniel. Parents who loved them unconditionally. In a way, a very detached, bastardised way, I held onto you too. Your work finally gave me something to care about.”
The poor kid had been through so much in the past few days. The adrenaline, sadness, elation, all mixing into one big ball of something.
“Your mother would be proud of you.” Jack said, honestly. He knew as a parent, what it felt like. However, he also saw how Dylan’s plan for revenge chewed through his entire life, how aimless he was once he achieved his goal. He didn’t want the same for Charlie.
“But, I can tell you right now, that she’d want you to be happy. Now is the time for you to do what you want, Charlie. Don’t let avenging her be your only motive.” They both look over to June and Bosco, who are chatting and catching up with their aunts and uncle.
“It’s a pretty amazing family you’ve built here, Jack.”
“They’re not without their faults, but it’s your family too, Charlie. Now get over there, I’m sure everyone has a billion and one questions for you.” He clapped Charlies shoulder again, pushing him towards the crowd a bit. Charlie smiled at him before jogging over, a chorus of cheers, and more claps on the back following him.