Family Reunions Suck!!!! by josette grover

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Back at the office they'd taken over, Aaron turns to look at Gideon. “How do you know Stark? You were excused from GD's annual evaluations for personal reasons?”

Gideon looks at his friend and takes a deep breath, softly letting it out. “He's my son. His mother and I met one summer, I was leaving that fall for school. We were both sixteen, she ended up pregnant and her parents made her give the baby up for adoption, go on with her schooling. We met again years later, she told me what had happened. By that time her parents were dead and we put our names on the list in case he ever wanted to find us. He contacted me about five years ago, his adoptive parents had died and he decided to contact his birth parents.” Gideon shakes his head. “He'd always known he was different than the rest of his family, not the least bit being a genius who skipped four grades in school, went to college on a full scholarship, and was working on his first masters when kids his own age were saving money for their first cars. It wasn't that big of a surprise to find out he was adopted.”

“His adoptive parents?” Derek asks.

“Killed in a car accident, he's got a brother around somewhere, they were never close. He knew that Nathan was adopted, he felt that he should have gotten more of his parents attention since he was older and their natural son, or so he thought. He blew up at dinner one night, told Nathan he was adopted, he should be the one getting all the attention. Nathan told me he'd calmly finished eating, walked upstairs, packed his belongings and left for school out of state that night, only coming back to visit on holidays.. He says they found out they were both adopted when they went through their parents belongings, his older brother got real quiet and never said another word about him not being his brother.”

“How did his brother find out he was adopted but didn't know he was as well?”

“Seems his mother kept a journal for years and he found it when he was going through their personal papers when a distant cousin asked for help in doing a genealogy. Seems he overheard one of the older neighborhood woman complaining about how wasn't it just awful how they treated that freak of a boy they adopted like their own boy. It wasn't proper how he'd been allowed to skip grades when her own grandson was kept in his grade, he had to be just as smart as that Stark boy, why she remembered when they brought that baby home from the orphanage, she gave birth to her children, you never would have seen her taking in a baby somebody gave up for adoption.' She knew the younger boy was adopted, but not the older one too.”

“Ohh yes, we had one like that in my old neighborhood growing up.” Derek shakes his head. “Looked down on the entire neighborhood, they let their kids be kids, her children were proper who would never get into trouble like the other kids, even if the trouble was normal childhood mischief. She shut up soon enough when it was found out her daughter had gotten pregnant, refused to marry the baby's father, refused to give the baby up for adoption and raised him herself. She threw her out of the house, she lived with a neighborhood family whose daughter she'd tutored while she went to school, they watched the baby for her while she worked and put herself through school, she ended up marrying one of their sons.”

“Good for her.” Aaron says. “Hopefully she didn't have any more children?”

“Two sons, one of whom she thought hung the moon. He should have been the best in our class if the teacher hadn't tanked the grades, went out for football but didn't get picked for the team. She complained but the coach was firm, she tried to get him fired because her precious son should have been the quarterback, went to a bunch of school board meetings where she brought it up every meeting until they banned her from any future board meetings. Last I heard he was in prison, he'd been involved in sticking up a liquor store and shot two people, killing the clerk.”

Aaron shakes his head. “And the other boy?”

“She didn't have a good thing to say about him, he was her husband's from a previous marriage and not as good as her children. He was older than her kids, got good grades and went on to college and medical school. Last I heard, he lived with his partner and they had adopted three children. He ended up inheriting everything with his sister when their father died, he'd disinherited the other boy. She howled like a banshee and hired an attorney, sure that thieving older boy had changed the will to keep her and her boy from getting anything, how dare that slut get a dime from her husband, she'd threw her out of her house.'”

“I take it it didn't go the way she wanted?” Jason smirks.

“Nope, the judge threw her case out, ordered the kids to let her live in the house until she either moved or died, but she couldn't damage anything there, sell any of the furnishings, and had to have somebody from the court inspect the house weekly to make sure she was behaving since she'd threatened to burn the house down if they got to keep it. She died alone and bitter six months later.”

“There's always someone with nothing better to do than gossip and look down on the rest of the neighborhood.” Jason shakes his head as they leave the office, shutting the light off behind them.

Back at the farm, Spencer settles in at the table with the others when the sound of an explosion has Jo rolling her eyes and grabbing for the radio on the table. “Carter, come in.” she sighs as Fargo and Nathan run for his car. Her brothers and Greta look at her when she doesn't even get up from the table. “Please,” she waves a hand at them. “This happens at least once a week in Eureka.”

“I'm here, Jo.” a voice crackles from her radio. She scowls, that's not Carter, at least not the Carter she'd been expecting. “Zoe?”

“Dad was giving me a lift, he hit his head when something exploded. Allison's with him.”

“Where are you, Global Dynamics?”

“Yes,” Zoe says.

“Ask Dr. Blake if she needs me there, Stark and Fargo headed that way.”

Jo listens to voices further away and Zoe's voice comes back. “Yes, with Dad out she's going to need your help.”

“Hold on, Stark and Fargo just came back into the yard. What's up?” she calls.

“Tree down across the road, we can't get around it.” Fargo calls.

“Buck, grab the cycles.” Greta orders. Buck's already halfway across the yard, Spencer a step behind him. “Jo,” Greta tells her sister. “Grab whatever you think you might need out of your vehicle and bring it with you, Buck and I will get you around the tree.”

Spencer comes out with a motorcycle, tossing Greta a helmet and holding the motorcycle up as she straddles it, buckling the helmet and getting settled as Jo comes back with a bag strapped to her back. “Dr. Stark, get on behind Buck, I'll take Jo.”

“What about me? You'll need me, Dr. Stark.”

“Get in front of Jo,” Greta orders. “There's not enough room on Buck's motorcycle.” She smirks. “Besides, I'm better at this.” Fargo squeezes himself between the two sisters, squeaking as Jo's strong arms wrap around his waist. Twin roars are heard in the yard as the motors are kicked into life, along with a high pitched squeal as Greta takes off.

“Tell me before I reach the tree.” she turns her head slightly to look at Fargo.

“Up around the next bend.” he says in her ear as the motorcycle slows down, pausing by the tree.

Buck pulls in behind Greta and looks at the damage. “Damn,” he whistles.

“Dr. Stark, who owns this area?” Greta asks him.

“I think you do, the town limits are a couple miles that way.” he points around Buck's shoulder. “Either you do or it's owned by the government for future town use.”

“Cool, Buck when we drop them off, head back and get the chain saw. Grab the ATV and cut up the tree so the trucks can get through. There's a couple of other trees that look like they're ready to fall.”

Buck nods as they rev their engines, turn around to get a running start. Fargo starts to ask a question, screaming like a little girl when Greta aims directly for the tree, flipping a switch and pulling up on her handlebars second before Fargo is sure they'll hit.

“Damn you're loud.” Greta smirks as Fargo opens his eyes, looking around to see they're flying. Buck follows Greta as they fly into town, low enough to follow the streets and for people to look up and recognize who's flying over their heads as Greta follows Jo's directions out to Global Dynamics.

“Land here,” both Jo and Stark order suddenly. “Neither of you have the clearance to go any farther.” Greta and Buck land the motorcycles and watch as the three people run down a rickety bridge and disappear. Buck looks at Greta who smirks and heads back through town, this time on the ground.

The guards blink as Dr. Stark, Fargo, and Deputy Lupo come running through the holographic barrier, pausing at the guard shack. One of the guards on duty immediately calls Global Dynamics, bringing a golf cart down to pick up the new arrivals.

Coming back through town, Buck and Greta are stopped by a figure they recognize as Henry Deacon after a second and pull into vacant parking spaces, Greta taking off her helmet and putting it on the handlebars as she fluffs her hair up.

“Did I just see you flying through town?” he asks.

“Hey, Jo was with us. It's okay if you have a police officer with you, right?” Buck says, wincing.

Greta rolls her eyes, “Relax Buck, it's not like when you got caught joyriding in your mom's car after she went to bed. I don't think he's seen a flying motorcycle before.”

“Exactly.” Henry nods.

“It's an experimental Dayton design, two hours flight time before the battery needs recharging . . .” Greta starts to say.

“I noticed there wasn't a gas tank. How do you recharge?”

“You can plug them into a regular outlet, it takes about two hours for the batteries to recharge after flight, overnight for a full charge. It's slightly heavier than a normal motorcycle, but you can go up to three hundred miles on a single charge if you're not flying. I'm something of a guinea pig for new Dayton technology, if it holds up to my abuse it's good to go.”

“What's the weight limit?”

“About four hundred pounds is the limit we're comfortable with the bike carrying in flight. It drains the battery faster than regular flight.”

“We could have just flew over the tree and landed on the other side.” Buck snorts.

“What's the fun in that?” Greta snickers. “The techies at Dayton did want us to test the bikes out after all.”

“There's a difference between testing and total destruction.” He smirks.

“That's why they send them to me, they know I majored in total destruction.” Greta smirks back at her brother as she kicks the cycle back into life, waving to Henry as they head back to the farmhouse.

Buck pulls off his helmet when they reach the farmhouse. Somebody had already cleared the tree from across the road, and looking at the tidy pile of wood split he knows who it must have been.

“Dad went to check up what's happening at Global Dynamics after he cleared the tree.” Ryan echoes his thoughts when they walk to the table. Buck looks over at the plywood covered broken windows, frowning.

“They're going to be building new windows to replace the broken ones.” Spencer says, coming out of the house. “Everybody left, the windows need to be back in before they can pressure wash the walls, too much of a chance of the water breaking the plywood. The walls that were damaged have been ripped out, the electrical has been inspected and passed, and now we're waiting on the insulation and new walls.”

“Dad coming back?” Buck asks.

“Officially no, he's heading back to Washington after they find out what's going on at Global Dynamics.” Ryan says. “Unofficially, he'll probably pop in a couple of times while we're here.”

Everybody heads inside as the rain that had been threatening for the last hour finally arrives, Greta putting an energy shield through the walls to keep the rain out and heat inside as Buck lights the gas fireplace. Ryan stands in front of it, rubbing his arms.

“Damn, it turned cold suddenly.”

“You've been in Miami too long, all that warmth has spoiled you.” Buck snorts. “This is just a little rain, wait until it's blowing snow and twenty below to start bitching about being cold.” But for all his bluster, Buck pulls a thick sweater out of a closet and drapes it over his brothers shoulders.

“Why do you think I moved to Miami? I hate the cold.” Ryan mumbles, zipping the sweater up and shoving his hands in the pockets. He takes the mug of hot chocolate Spencer pushes at him and sits down, blowing on the chocolate to cool it before he takes a sip.

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Family Reunions Suck!!!! by josette grover [Reviews - 6] Chapter or Story Table of Contents - Text Size + Back at the office they'd taken over, Aaron turns to look at Gideon. “How do you know Stark? You were excused from GD's annual evaluations for personal reasons?” Gideon looks at his friend and takes a deep breath, softly letting it out. “He's my son. His mother and I met one summer, I was leaving that fall for school. We were both sixteen, she ended up pregnant and her parents made her give the baby up for adoption, go on with her schooling. We met again years later, she told me what had happened. By that time her parents were dead and we put our names on the list in case he ever wanted to find us. He contacted me about five years ago, his adoptive parents had died and he decided to contact his birth parents.” Gideon shakes his head. “He'd always known he was different than the rest of his family, not the least bit being a genius who skipped four grades in school, went to college on a full scholarship, and was working on his first masters when kids his own age were saving money for their first cars. It wasn't that big of a surprise to find out he was adopted.” “His adoptive parents?” Derek asks. “Killed in a car accident, he's got a brother around somewhere, they were never close. He knew that Nathan was adopted, he felt that he should have gotten more of his parents attention since he was older and their natural son, or so he thought. He blew up at dinner one night, told Nathan he was adopted, he should be the one getting all the attention. Nathan told me he'd calmly finished eating, walked upstairs, packed his belongings and left for school out of state that night, only coming back to visit on holidays.. He says they found out they were both adopted when they went through their parents belongings, his older brother got real quiet and never said another word about him not being his brother.” “How did his brother find out he was adopted but didn't know he was as well?” “Seems his mother kept a journal for years and he found it when he was going through their personal papers when a distant cousin asked for help in doing a genealogy. Seems he overheard one of the older neighborhood woman complaining about how wasn't it just awful how they treated that freak of a boy they adopted like their own boy. It wasn't proper how he'd been allowed to skip grades when her own grandson was kept in his grade, he had to be just as smart as that Stark boy, why she remembered when they brought that baby home from the orphanage, she gave birth to her children, you never would have seen her taking in a baby somebody gave up for adoption.' She knew the younger boy was adopted, but not the older one too.” “Ohh yes, we had one like that in my old neighborhood growing up.” Derek shakes his head. “Looked down on the entire neighborhood, they let their kids be kids, her children were proper who would never get into trouble like the other kids, even if the trouble was normal childhood mischief. She shut up soon enough when it was found out her daughter had gotten pregnant, refused to marry the baby's father, refused to give the baby up for adoption and raised him herself. She threw her out of the house, she lived with a neighborhood family whose daughter she'd tutored while she went to school, they watched the baby for her while she worked and put herself through school, she ended up marrying one of their sons.” “Good for her.” Aaron says. “Hopefully she didn't have any more children?” “Two sons, one of whom she thought hung the moon. He should have been the best in our class if the teacher hadn't tanked the grades, went out for football but didn't get picked for the team. She complained but the coach was firm, she tried to get him fired because her precious son should have been the quarterback, went to a bunch of school board meetings where she brought it up every meeting until they banned her from any future board meetings. Last I heard he was in prison, he'd been involved in sticking up a liquor store and shot two people, killing the clerk.” Aaron shakes his head. “And the other boy?” “She didn't have a good thing to say about him, he was her husband's from a previous marriage and not as good as her children. He was older than her kids, got good grades and went on to college and medical school. Last I heard, he lived with his partner and they had adopted three children. He ended up inheriting everything with his sister when their father died, he'd disinherited the other boy. She howled like a banshee and hired an attorney, sure that thieving older boy had changed the will to keep her and her boy from getting anything, how dare that slut get a dime from her husband, she'd threw her out of her house.'” “I take it it didn't go the way she wanted?” Jason smirks. “Nope, the judge threw her case out, ordered the kids to let her live in the house until she either moved or died, but she couldn't damage anything there, sell any of the furnishings, and had to have somebody from the court inspect the house weekly to make sure she was behaving since she'd threatened to burn the house down if they got to keep it. She died alone and bitter six months later.” “There's always someone with nothing better to do than gossip and look down on the rest of the neighborhood.” Jason shakes his head as they leave the office, shutting the light off behind them. Back at the farm, Spencer settles in at the table with the others when the sound of an explosion has Jo rolling her eyes and grabbing for the radio on the table. “Carter, come in.” she sighs as Fargo and Nathan run for his car. Her brothers and Greta look at her when she doesn't even get up from the table. “Please,” she waves a hand at them. “This happens at least once a week in Eureka.” “I'm here, Jo.” a voice crackles from her radio. She scowls, that's not Carter, at least not the Carter she'd been expecting. “Zoe?” “Dad was giving me a lift, he hit his head when something exploded. Allison's with him.” “Where are you, Global Dynamics?” “Yes,” Zoe says. “Ask Dr. Blake if she needs me there, Stark and Fargo headed that way.” Jo listens to voices further away and Zoe's voice comes back. “Yes, with Dad out she's going to need your help.” “Hold on, Stark and Fargo just came back into the yard. What's up?” she calls. “Tree down across the road, we can't get around it.” Fargo calls. “Buck, grab the cycles.” Greta orders. Buck's already halfway across the yard, Spencer a step behind him. “Jo,” Greta tells her sister. “Grab whatever you think you might need out of your vehicle and bring it with you, Buck and I will get you around the tree.” Spencer comes out with a motorcycle, tossing Greta a helmet and holding the motorcycle up as she straddles it, buckling the helmet and getting settled as Jo comes back with a bag strapped to her back. “Dr. Stark, get on behind Buck, I'll take Jo.” “What about me? You'll need me, Dr. Stark.” “Get in front of Jo,” Greta orders. “There's not enough room on Buck's motorcycle.” She smirks. “Besides, I'm better at this.” Fargo squeezes himself between the two sisters, squeaking as Jo's strong arms wrap around his waist. Twin roars are heard in the yard as the motors are kicked into life, along with a high pitched squeal as Greta takes off. “Tell me before I reach the tree.” she turns her head slightly to look at Fargo. “Up around the next bend.” he says in her ear as the motorcycle slows down, pausing by the tree. Buck pulls in behind Greta and looks at the damage. “Damn,” he whistles. “Dr. Stark, who owns this area?” Greta asks him. “I think you do, the town limits are a couple miles that way.” he points around Buck's shoulder. “Either you do or it's owned by the government for future town use.” “Cool, Buck when we drop them off, head back and get the chain saw. Grab the ATV and cut up the tree so the trucks can get through. There's a couple of other trees that look like they're ready to fall.” Buck nods as they rev their engines, turn around to get a running start. Fargo starts to ask a question, screaming like a little girl when Greta aims directly for the tree, flipping a switch and pulling up on her handlebars second before Fargo is sure they'll hit. “Damn you're loud.” Greta smirks as Fargo opens his eyes, looking around to see they're flying. Buck follows Greta as they fly into town, low enough to follow the streets and for people to look up and recognize who's flying over their heads as Greta follows Jo's directions out to Global Dynamics. “Land here,” both Jo and Stark order suddenly. “Neither of you have the clearance to go any farther.” Greta and Buck land the motorcycles and watch as the three people run down a rickety bridge and disappear. Buck looks at Greta who smirks and heads back through town, this time on the ground. The guards blink as Dr. Stark, Fargo, and Deputy Lupo come running through the holographic barrier, pausing at the guard shack. One of the guards on duty immediately calls Global Dynamics, bringing a golf cart down to pick up the new arrivals. Coming back through town, Buck and Greta are stopped by a figure they recognize as Henry Deacon after a second and pull into vacant parking spaces, Greta taking off her helmet and putting it on the handlebars as she fluffs her hair up. “Did I just see you flying through town?” he asks. “Hey, Jo was with us. It's okay if you have a police officer with you, right?” Buck says, wincing. Greta rolls her eyes, “Relax Buck, it's not like when you got caught joyriding in your mom's car after she went to bed. I don't think he's seen a flying motorcycle before.” “Exactly.” Henry nods. “It's an experimental Dayton design, two hours flight time before the battery needs recharging . . .” Greta starts to say. “I noticed there wasn't a gas tank. How do you recharge?” “You can plug them into a regular outlet, it takes about two hours for the batteries to recharge after flight, overnight for a full charge. It's slightly heavier than a normal motorcycle, but you can go up to three hundred miles on a single charge if you're not flying. I'm something of a guinea pig for new Dayton technology, if it holds up to my abuse it's good to go.” “What's the weight limit?” “About four hundred pounds is the limit we're comfortable with the bike carrying in flight. It drains the battery faster than regular flight.” “We could have just flew over the tree and landed on the other side.” Buck snorts. “What's the fun in that?” Greta snickers. “The techies at Dayton did want us to test the bikes out after all.” “There's a difference between testing and total destruction.” He smirks. “That's why they send them to me, they know I majored in total destruction.” Greta smirks back at her brother as she kicks the cycle back into life, waving to Henry as they head back to the farmhouse. Buck pulls off his helmet when they reach the farmhouse. Somebody had already cleared the tree from across the road, and looking at the tidy pile of wood split he knows who it must have been. “Dad went to check up what's happening at Global Dynamics after he cleared the tree.” Ryan echoes his thoughts when they walk to the table. Buck looks over at the plywood covered broken windows, frowning. “They're going to be building new windows to replace the broken ones.” Spencer says, coming out of the house. “Everybody left, the windows need to be back in before they can pressure wash the walls, too much of a chance of the water breaking the plywood. The walls that were damaged have been ripped out, the electrical has been inspected and passed, and now we're waiting on the insulation and new walls.” “Dad coming back?” Buck asks. “Officially no, he's heading back to Washington after they find out what's going on at Global Dynamics.” Ryan says. “Unofficially, he'll probably pop in a couple of times while we're here.” Everybody heads inside as the rain that had been threatening for the last hour finally arrives, Greta putting an energy shield through the walls to keep the rain out and heat inside as Buck lights the gas fireplace. Ryan stands in front of it, rubbing his arms. “Damn, it turned cold suddenly.” “You've been in Miami too long, all that warmth has spoiled you.” Buck snorts. “This is just a little rain, wait until it's blowing snow and twenty below to start bitching about being cold.” But for all his bluster, Buck pulls a thick sweater out of a closet and drapes it over his brothers shoulders. “Why do you think I moved to Miami? I hate the cold.” Ryan mumbles, zipping the sweater up and shoving his hands in the pockets. He takes the mug of hot chocolate Spencer pushes at him and sits down, blowing on the chocolate to cool it before he takes a sip. Previous Next You must login (register) to review.

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