(no subject)
Author: askingxalice
Title: Hand Me Down
Summary: Ira does something really stupid, and has to deal with the consequences.
Story: Third Account
Timeline: August 2062 - Ira and Ria are 16, Grace is 39, Chloe and Kurt are 46, Andy is 78.
Challenge:Cookies N Cream #27 (push), Molasses #27 (out of bounds), Cotton Candy #17 (timeout)
Toppings/Extras: Malt (Summer Challenge 2010 - 'I know, I was just having fun pretending to be a normal person'), Brownie, Fresh Peaches (8/22 - Your willingness to walk a different path can give you far more than you imagine.)
Word Count: 5,044
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Ira and Ria are Chloe and Kurt’s children. This piece takes place in the third part of ‘Phase’. I was hoping not to start this one for a while, but the muses won’t shut up about it. This also takes place about a year after Oz’s death. (Noooooo, I don’t want to write that, noooo.)
Chloe was positive that the worst thing to ever find when you opened the door was the police. The police only meant a few things. I’m sorry, ma’am, there’s been an accident. We have a warrant for your arrest. We need to search the premises. So to open the door at four in the morning on a Saturday morning and find two police officers there, holding her sixteen year old daughter that smelled of pot and booze - a daughter that was supposed to be staying at her grandfather’s house - was not the best way that Chloe wanted to start her Saturday.
“Can I help you, officers?” At this point, it was courtesy to ask that; the problem was obvious, and it was hard for Chloe to keep on a neutral face.
“Yes, ma’am. You are Chloe Grant, aren’t you?” The older officer asked, before he couldn’t help but put on a bit of a sheepish grin. “Obviously it’s you, ma’am, but it’s just policy to ask. This is your daughter isn’t it?”
God. This was going to be a PR nightmare, because if the tabloids would capture anything, it would be the worst moments possible. She might be a bad mother for thinking that first, but she had a feeling that she wouldn’t be feeling many motherly feelings towards her daughter for the next few hours.
“Yes, officer, it is. I’m sorry that my daughter, who was supposed to be at her grandfather’s, caused you such trouble.” Reaching out to grab Ira’s arm, Chloe helped her stay upright as she stumbled into the apartment rather than dragging her in like she wanted to do. Once Ira was out of her grip, she leaned against the wall, giggling. “I can guess what she’s been doing. May I ask where you found her?”
“She was at a party in the Bronx. We broke it up about an hour ago, and managed to keep most of the kids there until we found out their ages. We checked her, and she’s only been drinking. There aren’t any drugs in her system. Since she’s a minor, we had to bring her back home, and since this was her first problem with the law as far as we can tell, we’ll let her off with a warning. But next time, she most likely will be charged, which can be up to a five hundred dollar fine, and some community service.”
Chloe sighed and rubbed a hand over her forehead. “Yes, officer, I understand. Thank you so much for bringing her home. I swear this will never happen again.”
“Alright. You have a good day, ma’am.”
“You too.” The door was barely closed before Chloe was moving and dragging Ira with her. “Come on. I’m not even going to try and talk to you in the state your in.”
“Ow, mom...” Ira whined, barely able to keep her feet under her as she was manhandled towards the bathroom. “Mom, stop. You’re hurtin’ me.”
“I don’t care.” Chloe shortly answered, shoving Ira into the bathroom ahead of her. It took a bit of force to get her into the shower, before Chloe reached to turn the cold water on as high it as it would go and shut the shower door.
The shriek that rang out sent both Ria and Kurt running. They didn’t expect to find Chloe sitting on the edge of the sink and filing her nails, with Ira banging against the shower door and begging to be let out. “Go back to bed, Ria. Kurt, please go make some coffee. Very strong, if you don’t mind.”
They didn’t ask questions, and quickly obeyed.
~~~
By the time Ira was sober enough to have a conversation, it was after sunrise, and Kurt had to make a second pot of coffee. Chloe had called Andy to tell him where Ira was. After that, it had been Faith so damage control could be started as quickly as possible. And then, the really fun part had started. Chloe had all but pushed Ira onto the couch, much like she had forced her into the shower hours earlier.
“Ira Michelle Grant, you better have a damned good explanation for why you lied to both us, and your grandfather, snuck out of his house, and went all the way to the Bronx for a party. And then, you had the absolute gall to drink to the point to where the cops had to drag your sorry ass back home.”
Kurt had to wonder, watching from the doorway of the kitchen, if it would have been better for her to give into her temper and start to yell. Either her words weren’t piercing the booze induced fog around Ira’s mind, or she really didn’t give a shit. Either way, both options are dangerous.
Ira shrugged, a sulk very prominent in her expression. “Because I felt like it.” She answered. Her tone was clipped and angry, and just more than a bit sarcastic.
Chloe’s eyes flashed in anger, and her lips pressed into a thin line. “You have no idea the danger you could have been in. Something could have happened. You could have been hurt. You could have been killed and we wouldn’t have known until somebody found you. We wouldn’t have known until you were brought to a hospital, and we wouldn’t have known until they called to tell us about your condition, or asked us to come in and identify the body. Do you have any idea how much you would have worried us if Daddy had woken up to find you were missing?"
”I left a note!”
“A NOTE ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH!” Chloe all but snarled. “You should have asked us for our permission! If you had just been truthful with us, we probably would have let you go!”
“Yeah, like I really want to go to a party with a fucking bodyguard trailing my every move.” Ira muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It’s for your own good. You know how this has to be, and you’ve known about it since you were a kid. If you haven’t gotten used to it by now, it is not my problem. Besides, Oz always wanted-“
“How the fuck would you know what Grandpa Oz would want!?” Ira interrupted, her words clearly coming out of her mouth before she could fully process them. “You were too busy on your fucking tour to even fly back home to see him before he died!”
Chloe’s face went white, and the silence that fell was cold and tense. She stared at Ira with shuttered eyes for a long moment, before quietly turning and walking for the front door. She gathered her coat, her purse, and slipped on her shoes. Her hands shook when she gently shut the door. Kurt had a feeling that it had taken every last ounce of willpower she had to keep from completely exploding and calm walk out.
“That was a shitty thing you did.” He said, finally speaking up to take over Chloe’s place. He straightened and walked to stand in front of the couch, hands held behind his back.
“I’ll apologize for it later.” Ira mumbled from where she had sunk further down into the couch once the words left her mouth.
“I’m not talking about what you just said, though there will be punishment for that. A completely separate punishment. I’m talking about this entire thing. I’ll admit that we’ve spoiled you and your brother, and let you get away with a lot while you were growing up. But this is completely inexcusable, and I can promise that I will find something to make you realize how badly this could have turned out.”
Ira glared, blue eyes crackling with anger. “Oh, please! So I snuck out! So I got drunk! Excuse me for behaving like a normal fucking teenager for once!”
“You will not speak to me like that. You will never speak to your mother like that. And if I hear you say anything like what you just said to her again, I can promise you that the consequences will be worse. You are very lucky that she didn’t slap the ever living hell out of you, and you’ll do damn well to realize that.” Kurt snapped, before pinching the bridge of his nose. “This discussion is over. Go to your room. The cable and internet will be blocked from your room, along with the power to your TV and gaming consoles. No arguing.”
From the expression on Ira’s face, she very much wanted to keep arguing. Instead, she clenched her jaw in a fashion that she had one hundred percent inherited from her mother and stormed up the stairs. Kurt could hear her bedroom door bounce off the wall before it slammed, and he wouldn’t be surprised to find a hole in the plaster from the doorknob later.
~~~
Andy wasn’t surprised when Chloe walked through the front door and slammed it. He had heard her heels hit the concrete as she walked up the steps before she had unlocked the door, and he only knew one person could make footsteps sound angry. “I’m guessing it didn’t go well.”
Chloe didn’t answer, only throwing her purse on the couch before she stormed into the kitchen. He could hear her banging through the cabinets before she stomped back into the living room with a mug that he was certain was not full of tea. She sat down on the couch next to him, set the mug down on the coffee table, and exploded into sobs.
~~~
“You’re a dick, you know that?”
Ira responded by throwing the magazine she was reading at the doorway. Luckily for Ria, her throws weren’t near as wonderful as her kicks were - you don’t need to throw much in soccer, after all - and it hit the wall next to the door instead of him.
Her twin didn’t even blink, though he stayed standing outside the doorway. “I’m serious. It’s bad enough you had to go and get brought home by the cops, and scare the hell out of Grandpa Andy, but then you had to tell Mom that she basically didn’t love her own father. You went way over the line, Ira.”
“If she loved him so much, she would have been here!” Ira yelled. “She was told about the heart attack as soon as it happened, before he even got to the hospital! He died thirteen hours after that. She had plenty of time, don’t you even try to make excuses for her-“
“She was flying back from Toyko, Ira! Even if she had been able to leave immediately, without cancelling her shows, and having to deal with the record label and everything, she still wouldn’t have made it back in time!” Ria answered, his own voice rising to meet hers, before he realized this and frowned. “Whatever. You need to figure out a way to get over yourself, sis. Even I’m not on your side this time.”
With that he left, and Ira resisted the urge to throw something else at his retreating back.
~~~
Kurt didn’t even glance up as he heard the raised voices upstairs, and kept his head in his hands as he leaned over the kitchen table. It was rare that he was unable to come up with a punishment for one of his children; over the last sixteen years, he had had many moments of genius when it came to effective, yet relatively painless disciplines for the both of them. For Ria, it had been no visits to Sarah and Rayne, and being banned from the kitchen for certain amounts of time. For Ira, it was deleting her saved game files and not allowing her to play soccer. But those had been for the usual teenager things - bad grades, being disrespectful, using their credit cards without his and Chloe’s permission. Never before had either of them done anything like this, and he was at a loss for what to do.
Next to one of his elbows, his cell phone vibrated across the tabletop a second before it started to ring. I can’t decide whether you should live or die... He didn’t have to look at the screen to know that Grace was calling, but he was baffled as to why. Picking the phone up, all it took was the push of a button to answer. “Hello?”
“I hear you’re having a bit of a teenager problem.” Grace said in greeting.
Kurt snorted. “You have no idea.” He groaned, rubbing a hand over his forehead. “I’ve never seen Ira act like this before. If you know what she said to Chloe earlier... How did you know, anyway?”
“Chloe called Faith, Faith told Jax, Jax told me when I called to ask him a tattoo question.”
“What kind of tattoo question would a coroner have?”
“One of the guys I have down here wanted to get a tattoo post-mortem. I was seeing if Jax wanted to do it.”
Kurt laughed, though his amusement faded quickly. “What am I going to do about her, Grace? For once, I’m actually stumped on what to do for this. The only thing I’ve thought of is to take everything out of her room and leave her with her mattress and a pillow, but I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.”
“I... I might be able to help. If it’s alright with you and Chloe.”
“I can promise you that Chloe will be fine with whatever punishment I decide on. Ira is lucky Chloe didn’t beat the shit out of her for what she pulled.”
“What did she do?”
“She said that-“ Here, Kurt hesitated, having to force the words out. Just the thought of anyone saying that to Chloe made him nauseous. The fact that it was their daughter only made it worse. “She said that Chloe didn’t love Oz, since she wasn’t able to get back in time to see him before he passed.”
For a long moment, here was a silence from the other end of the line. “Send her to me tomorrow, around noon. Not at home, but to the morgue at Maimonides. I can straighten her out.”
“What are you going to do?”
Grace sighed, and Kurt could hear her shift over the phone; the telltale squeak of her office chair was unmistakable, even from a borough away. “There was a girl last night, about Ira’s age. From where she was found, and the statements the police have from her parents, she was at the same party as Ira was. She must have left before the police broke it up, but...”
Kurt felt as if someone had poured ice water down his spine. “What happened to her?”
“She was walking down the sidewalk... They think she was trying to get to a subway station, but she stumbled out into the street. The car wasn’t able to stop in time.”
“Jesus.” Kurt sat back in his chair, running a hand over his face. That could have been Ira. Easily enough, that could have been his daughter, cold and dead on a slab in the morgue.
“Like, I said, send her to me. If she doesn’t come home asking for forgiveness on hand and knee, you can take all of the stuff out of her room, or ship her off to boot camp, or whatever you feel is best. I just thought I would offer this solution first. She won’t see anything horrifying - the autopsy isn’t scheduled for another two days.”
“You’ll be showing her a dead girl that was hit by a car.”
“I could just as easily be showing her a dead girl that was hit by a car, cut open, and had all of her organs removed and weighed.” Grace calmly replied. “I won’t pull the sheet down past the shoulders, and I’ve already gotten permission from this from the right people. Her parents feel that this could help this from happening again, and the higher-ups don’t want her touching anything, and for her to throw up in the sink if she gets sick.”
Kurt sighed again, and was silent as he thought that over. “...Alright. I’ll bring her over at eleven thirty to make sure she goes. I can trust you to make sure she gets home?”
“I’ll tell the cabdriver what address to bring her to myself.”
~~~
“I tried so hard to get back in time, Daddy.” Chloe’s voice was hoarse from crying, and she kept sniffing to try and keep from looking like a child whose parents didn’t wipe its nose. The crying had stopped up her sinuses, and the whiskey had opened the floodgates. “I tried so hard. I know she misses him. We all do, but she should have known better than to... It took all I could to not beat the shit out of her. If I hadn’t left, I know I would have slapped her. I know I would, and I hate that.”
“People deal with grief differently, Chloe.” Rubbing a hand up and down her back, Andy’s eyes were as red rimmed as his daughter’s were. “Some people lash out. That doesn’t make what she said okay, or what she did okay. I want to talk to her, because I think I knew Oz better than he knew himself on most days. He could have easily said the same thing about me.
He loved you more than anything else in his life, and I can promise you that knew you were trying your best. Oz would have never wanted you to feel guilty about anything like this, because he knew you. He knew that you would have done everything you can, and he knew you loved him. I swear to you that he did.”
Chloe wiped away a few more tears that fell, giving a hiccup. “I know he did, Daddy. I just - I’m so scared that other people might think that. What if somebody else in the family thinks it? What if any of my fans think it? I don’t want people thinking that I didn’t love him. He was my Daddy.”
“Nobody in their right mind would think you would do something like that. Nobody. If your fans love you as much as they say they do, then they already know how much you’re hurting from it.” Hooking a finger under her chin, Andy gently forced her to look at him. “Ira is just hurting as much as you are, and she’s angry about it. So instead of kicking around that soccer ball she loves so much, she’s acting out. I don’t know if it’s to try and get attention, or if it’s just because playing soccer isn’t good enough anymore, but I can promise you that ignoring it and hoping it goes away isn’t going to do anything.”
“What should I do, Daddy? Right now, I just want to - to lock her in her room and throw away the key.”
“Well, after you and Kurt decide what to do about this... I’d suggest maybe getting her connected with a therapist. Maybe talk it over with Kurt and Ria and see if a group or family therapist might be better.”
“Ria hasn’t been doing anything like this. If anything, he’s started acting better than he was before, which wasn’t even that bad. He was bratty, but he always seemed to know where the line was. Ira, she just... She loves pushing that boundary, to see how far she can go before she gets some sort of backlash. I don’t know how to handle that.”
“She’ll grow out of it, sweetheart. She’s just being a teenager. I seem to recall you doing the same thing at school when you were her age...”
“Seeing how much I could break the dress code is completely different, Daddy!” But still, she was smiling now, and that was his original goal.
~~~
Ira scowled. She scowled at the dashboard of the car, she scowled at her dad, she scowled at the hospital receptionist. She scowled at the elevator door, and she scowled guest sign-in sheet and she signed her name, the date, and time. Most of all, she scowled at Grace once she entered the morgue.
On her part, Grace was unphased by this. She had seen a lot worse than a sixteen year old’s fiercest scowl, and only waved Ira closer. The teenager did so, but stopped once she caught sight of the table Grace was standing by.
“What the fuck?”
“Your parents have agreed to let me show you this. And before you leave, let me at least tell you that you have two options; you can stay here, and listen to me until I’m finished; or you can go home, where your room will be stripped of everything but a mattress, a blanket, and a pillow. You’ll live like that until you get everything back for Christmas, and that will be your only present for this holiday season. Are we understood?”
Clenching her jaw, Ira nodded. It was a hesitant moment before she stepped forward to stand on the other side of the table, across from Grace. She made sure to keep her eyes anywhere but on the sheet covered body between them.
That became harder once Grace pulled the sheet back to reveal the face underneath.
“Ira. Look at her. Otherwise, the reason you’re here is pointless.”
Swallowing down a sudden rise of bile, Ira looked. She almost looked like she was sleeping, except for how pale she was, and the scrapes along her cheek. There was heavy bruising around her temple, along with a gash that disappeared under her hair.
“We’ll shave the hair back during the autopsy, to see how far that gash goes.” Grace spoke up. “Do you recognize her?”
Unable to speak, Ira shook her head.
“Her name is Jeanette Campbell. She was only a few weeks away from turning seventeen. From what her parents told me, she was a straight A student, and a wonderful athlete. She was on the track team. She was in the running to become student body president, and was on the homecoming court last year. She was everything that most girls in high school want to be. She was also at the same party you were last night, and had been drinking.
When she was found, she had been hit by a car. The police think that she was on her way to the subway station, a few blocks down the street. Instead, she tripped. She stumbled out into the street, into the path of an oncoming car that was travelling around thirty miles an hour. Of course, it wasn’t that that killed her, in my opinion.
We can’t know for sure until the autopsy is performed, but here is what I think. I think that the alcohol had made her muscles so relaxed that she would have come away with broken bones and bruises at the worst, if nothing was punctured. But when she went flying, her head hit the curb.”
Here, Grace pointed to the gash, and the bruising. “If she hit her head hard enough, and at the right angle, it would have killed her instantly. We can only hope that that is what happened. Otherwise, she simply would have bled into her brain until she lost consciousness and eventually died. For now, all we know is that she was intoxicated, hit by a car, and hit her head. She was dead by the time the paramedics arrived.”
“What’s the point of telling me this?” Ira stuttered, desperate to look away, desperate to leave. She didn’t want to be here, or to see her, or to hear this.
“Because you need to learn that actions have consequences, Ira. Even if this didn’t happen to you, the circumstances were the same. You could have just as easily left the party, headed for the subway station, and fell into the street. You could just as easily be the person on this table. Am I understood?”
“Okay, I get it! I won’t go off without telling anyone again!”
Shaking her head, Grace drew the sheet back more, and Ira quickly looked away as the girl’s breasts were exposed. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Grace pick up a scalpel.
“That’s not what I’m asking of you.” Turning the scalpel this way and that, Grace inspected it and watched the light glint off of the blade. “I’m asking you to never do this again. Do not go out without your parents’ permission. Do not go to a party without letting somebody know where you are. Do not drink until you’re goddamned old enough to do so, and handle the consequences. Because I do not want you to end up on this table, Ira.”
Slowly, Grace lowered the scalpel, and Ira could only watch in horror as she began to cut under the girl’s collarbone. Almost no blood came to the surface, and the sound of the blade cutting through flesh seemed to scrape along the inside of her ears. Immediately, she felt bile rise and gagged, and ran for the nearby sink.
By the time she was finished and had turned around, the body was covered, with only a small spot of blood telling that there was anything different than before. Ira shakily wiped at her mouth. “Okay. Okay, I promise. Just - just please don’t cut her again.”
~~~
“Do you think it’s too harsh of a punishment?” Chloe asked.
It surprised Kurt, because they had been sitting in a tense silence ever since he had returned from dropping Ira off at the hospital. Other than short phone calls from Faith, who had kept Chloe updated on how the damage control was going, and things she could to help it once everything calmed down, they hadn’t talked much.
Chloe was too worried to talk; worried about her daughter, worried about her relationship with her daughter, and lastly worried about what the public would think of her daughter. Kurt was worried as well, but about different things. He worried that this might backfire, that it might make Ira act out even more. He worried that any punishment they would try to do after this would only push her away more. He worried about the possibility of losing his little girl. And under out that, he felt an extreme sorrow and pity for the couple that had already lost their daughter.
“No, I don’t. I think it’s a harsh punishment, but I agree with what Grace said. She needs to learn that actions have consequences more harsh and permanent than losing a few hours on her video games or not being able to play soccer with her friends. I don’t think there is anything we could do that would effectively do that without pushing her away, and that isn’t what any of us need right now. WE don’t need this family to fall apart.”
Chloe sighed, a sound that made it seem like the entire world rested on her shoulders. “I’m so scared she’ll hate us.” She whispered. “I’ve already lost one of my daddies. I don’t want to lose my only daughter, as well. Especially not this soon after Daddy left us.”
Moving over to sit next to her, Kurt drew her into a hug. He tightened his grip as Chloe started to tremble, but both of them heard the key in the lock before she could start to cry. Immediately, Chloe was out of his arms and off the couch, and staring at the door with a scared and hopeful expression on her face.
Ira was pale as she walked through the door, her eyes bloodshot. For a long moment, the three of them only stared at each other before Ira spoke. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, I swear I’ll never do anything like that again, I swear.”
In a flash, Chloe was across the room and had her daughter in her arms, the both of them shaking with tears. Kurt was only a moment behind her, his arms wrapping around the both of them. He didn’t cry, but only because he knew that one of them had to be strong with this.
“I’m sorry, Mom, I’m so sorry.” Ira sobbed. “I didn’t mean what I said, I promise, I know you tried to get home. I never should have said that, Grandpa Oz would have hated me for saying that.”
“I know, I know, baby. You were just angry. It’s okay.” Chloe drew back enough to look Ira in the face, before she shook the teenager lightly. “But if you ever say anything like that to anyone again, I will keep you in this house without any source of entertainment but your own mind until kingdom come, do you hear me? And this is not the end of your punishment.
We won’t take away your video games or internet, or soccer, but you are going to apologize to your grandfathers. Both of them. Daddy is going to take you to the cemetery later. After that, you are going to write a letter to more than one tabloid explaining how last night was a very stupid mistake and that it will never happen again. Otherwise, I will have you on the streets in a sandwich board that proclaims how very sorry you are about it. Okay?”
“Okay, okay!” Ira’s answer was almost frantic, and Kurt quickly got Chloe to release her grip on Ira’s shoulders.
“Ira, why don’t you go upstairs and rest for a while. It’ll be a few hours before Andy gets here, and we’ll tell you so you have enough time to get ready.”
She nodded and ran for the stairs. Only a few steps up she paused to look back at them. “I am really sorry, you know.”
“We know you are. Now go lay down.”
Ira nodded once more before continuing up the stairs. They heard her door open, and there was a moment before it shut.
“I think she was checking to make sure everything was still in her room.”
“Probably.”
“Should we still save that punishment idea? Just in case?”
“Oh, definitely.”
Title: Hand Me Down
Summary: Ira does something really stupid, and has to deal with the consequences.
Story: Third Account
Timeline: August 2062 - Ira and Ria are 16, Grace is 39, Chloe and Kurt are 46, Andy is 78.
Challenge:Cookies N Cream #27 (push), Molasses #27 (out of bounds), Cotton Candy #17 (timeout)
Toppings/Extras: Malt (Summer Challenge 2010 - 'I know, I was just having fun pretending to be a normal person'), Brownie, Fresh Peaches (8/22 - Your willingness to walk a different path can give you far more than you imagine.)
Word Count: 5,044
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Ira and Ria are Chloe and Kurt’s children. This piece takes place in the third part of ‘Phase’. I was hoping not to start this one for a while, but the muses won’t shut up about it. This also takes place about a year after Oz’s death. (Noooooo, I don’t want to write that, noooo.)
Chloe was positive that the worst thing to ever find when you opened the door was the police. The police only meant a few things. I’m sorry, ma’am, there’s been an accident. We have a warrant for your arrest. We need to search the premises. So to open the door at four in the morning on a Saturday morning and find two police officers there, holding her sixteen year old daughter that smelled of pot and booze - a daughter that was supposed to be staying at her grandfather’s house - was not the best way that Chloe wanted to start her Saturday.
“Can I help you, officers?” At this point, it was courtesy to ask that; the problem was obvious, and it was hard for Chloe to keep on a neutral face.
“Yes, ma’am. You are Chloe Grant, aren’t you?” The older officer asked, before he couldn’t help but put on a bit of a sheepish grin. “Obviously it’s you, ma’am, but it’s just policy to ask. This is your daughter isn’t it?”
God. This was going to be a PR nightmare, because if the tabloids would capture anything, it would be the worst moments possible. She might be a bad mother for thinking that first, but she had a feeling that she wouldn’t be feeling many motherly feelings towards her daughter for the next few hours.
“Yes, officer, it is. I’m sorry that my daughter, who was supposed to be at her grandfather’s, caused you such trouble.” Reaching out to grab Ira’s arm, Chloe helped her stay upright as she stumbled into the apartment rather than dragging her in like she wanted to do. Once Ira was out of her grip, she leaned against the wall, giggling. “I can guess what she’s been doing. May I ask where you found her?”
“She was at a party in the Bronx. We broke it up about an hour ago, and managed to keep most of the kids there until we found out their ages. We checked her, and she’s only been drinking. There aren’t any drugs in her system. Since she’s a minor, we had to bring her back home, and since this was her first problem with the law as far as we can tell, we’ll let her off with a warning. But next time, she most likely will be charged, which can be up to a five hundred dollar fine, and some community service.”
Chloe sighed and rubbed a hand over her forehead. “Yes, officer, I understand. Thank you so much for bringing her home. I swear this will never happen again.”
“Alright. You have a good day, ma’am.”
“You too.” The door was barely closed before Chloe was moving and dragging Ira with her. “Come on. I’m not even going to try and talk to you in the state your in.”
“Ow, mom...” Ira whined, barely able to keep her feet under her as she was manhandled towards the bathroom. “Mom, stop. You’re hurtin’ me.”
“I don’t care.” Chloe shortly answered, shoving Ira into the bathroom ahead of her. It took a bit of force to get her into the shower, before Chloe reached to turn the cold water on as high it as it would go and shut the shower door.
The shriek that rang out sent both Ria and Kurt running. They didn’t expect to find Chloe sitting on the edge of the sink and filing her nails, with Ira banging against the shower door and begging to be let out. “Go back to bed, Ria. Kurt, please go make some coffee. Very strong, if you don’t mind.”
They didn’t ask questions, and quickly obeyed.
~~~
By the time Ira was sober enough to have a conversation, it was after sunrise, and Kurt had to make a second pot of coffee. Chloe had called Andy to tell him where Ira was. After that, it had been Faith so damage control could be started as quickly as possible. And then, the really fun part had started. Chloe had all but pushed Ira onto the couch, much like she had forced her into the shower hours earlier.
“Ira Michelle Grant, you better have a damned good explanation for why you lied to both us, and your grandfather, snuck out of his house, and went all the way to the Bronx for a party. And then, you had the absolute gall to drink to the point to where the cops had to drag your sorry ass back home.”
Kurt had to wonder, watching from the doorway of the kitchen, if it would have been better for her to give into her temper and start to yell. Either her words weren’t piercing the booze induced fog around Ira’s mind, or she really didn’t give a shit. Either way, both options are dangerous.
Ira shrugged, a sulk very prominent in her expression. “Because I felt like it.” She answered. Her tone was clipped and angry, and just more than a bit sarcastic.
Chloe’s eyes flashed in anger, and her lips pressed into a thin line. “You have no idea the danger you could have been in. Something could have happened. You could have been hurt. You could have been killed and we wouldn’t have known until somebody found you. We wouldn’t have known until you were brought to a hospital, and we wouldn’t have known until they called to tell us about your condition, or asked us to come in and identify the body. Do you have any idea how much you would have worried us if Daddy had woken up to find you were missing?"
”I left a note!”
“A NOTE ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH!” Chloe all but snarled. “You should have asked us for our permission! If you had just been truthful with us, we probably would have let you go!”
“Yeah, like I really want to go to a party with a fucking bodyguard trailing my every move.” Ira muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It’s for your own good. You know how this has to be, and you’ve known about it since you were a kid. If you haven’t gotten used to it by now, it is not my problem. Besides, Oz always wanted-“
“How the fuck would you know what Grandpa Oz would want!?” Ira interrupted, her words clearly coming out of her mouth before she could fully process them. “You were too busy on your fucking tour to even fly back home to see him before he died!”
Chloe’s face went white, and the silence that fell was cold and tense. She stared at Ira with shuttered eyes for a long moment, before quietly turning and walking for the front door. She gathered her coat, her purse, and slipped on her shoes. Her hands shook when she gently shut the door. Kurt had a feeling that it had taken every last ounce of willpower she had to keep from completely exploding and calm walk out.
“That was a shitty thing you did.” He said, finally speaking up to take over Chloe’s place. He straightened and walked to stand in front of the couch, hands held behind his back.
“I’ll apologize for it later.” Ira mumbled from where she had sunk further down into the couch once the words left her mouth.
“I’m not talking about what you just said, though there will be punishment for that. A completely separate punishment. I’m talking about this entire thing. I’ll admit that we’ve spoiled you and your brother, and let you get away with a lot while you were growing up. But this is completely inexcusable, and I can promise that I will find something to make you realize how badly this could have turned out.”
Ira glared, blue eyes crackling with anger. “Oh, please! So I snuck out! So I got drunk! Excuse me for behaving like a normal fucking teenager for once!”
“You will not speak to me like that. You will never speak to your mother like that. And if I hear you say anything like what you just said to her again, I can promise you that the consequences will be worse. You are very lucky that she didn’t slap the ever living hell out of you, and you’ll do damn well to realize that.” Kurt snapped, before pinching the bridge of his nose. “This discussion is over. Go to your room. The cable and internet will be blocked from your room, along with the power to your TV and gaming consoles. No arguing.”
From the expression on Ira’s face, she very much wanted to keep arguing. Instead, she clenched her jaw in a fashion that she had one hundred percent inherited from her mother and stormed up the stairs. Kurt could hear her bedroom door bounce off the wall before it slammed, and he wouldn’t be surprised to find a hole in the plaster from the doorknob later.
~~~
Andy wasn’t surprised when Chloe walked through the front door and slammed it. He had heard her heels hit the concrete as she walked up the steps before she had unlocked the door, and he only knew one person could make footsteps sound angry. “I’m guessing it didn’t go well.”
Chloe didn’t answer, only throwing her purse on the couch before she stormed into the kitchen. He could hear her banging through the cabinets before she stomped back into the living room with a mug that he was certain was not full of tea. She sat down on the couch next to him, set the mug down on the coffee table, and exploded into sobs.
~~~
“You’re a dick, you know that?”
Ira responded by throwing the magazine she was reading at the doorway. Luckily for Ria, her throws weren’t near as wonderful as her kicks were - you don’t need to throw much in soccer, after all - and it hit the wall next to the door instead of him.
Her twin didn’t even blink, though he stayed standing outside the doorway. “I’m serious. It’s bad enough you had to go and get brought home by the cops, and scare the hell out of Grandpa Andy, but then you had to tell Mom that she basically didn’t love her own father. You went way over the line, Ira.”
“If she loved him so much, she would have been here!” Ira yelled. “She was told about the heart attack as soon as it happened, before he even got to the hospital! He died thirteen hours after that. She had plenty of time, don’t you even try to make excuses for her-“
“She was flying back from Toyko, Ira! Even if she had been able to leave immediately, without cancelling her shows, and having to deal with the record label and everything, she still wouldn’t have made it back in time!” Ria answered, his own voice rising to meet hers, before he realized this and frowned. “Whatever. You need to figure out a way to get over yourself, sis. Even I’m not on your side this time.”
With that he left, and Ira resisted the urge to throw something else at his retreating back.
~~~
Kurt didn’t even glance up as he heard the raised voices upstairs, and kept his head in his hands as he leaned over the kitchen table. It was rare that he was unable to come up with a punishment for one of his children; over the last sixteen years, he had had many moments of genius when it came to effective, yet relatively painless disciplines for the both of them. For Ria, it had been no visits to Sarah and Rayne, and being banned from the kitchen for certain amounts of time. For Ira, it was deleting her saved game files and not allowing her to play soccer. But those had been for the usual teenager things - bad grades, being disrespectful, using their credit cards without his and Chloe’s permission. Never before had either of them done anything like this, and he was at a loss for what to do.
Next to one of his elbows, his cell phone vibrated across the tabletop a second before it started to ring. I can’t decide whether you should live or die... He didn’t have to look at the screen to know that Grace was calling, but he was baffled as to why. Picking the phone up, all it took was the push of a button to answer. “Hello?”
“I hear you’re having a bit of a teenager problem.” Grace said in greeting.
Kurt snorted. “You have no idea.” He groaned, rubbing a hand over his forehead. “I’ve never seen Ira act like this before. If you know what she said to Chloe earlier... How did you know, anyway?”
“Chloe called Faith, Faith told Jax, Jax told me when I called to ask him a tattoo question.”
“What kind of tattoo question would a coroner have?”
“One of the guys I have down here wanted to get a tattoo post-mortem. I was seeing if Jax wanted to do it.”
Kurt laughed, though his amusement faded quickly. “What am I going to do about her, Grace? For once, I’m actually stumped on what to do for this. The only thing I’ve thought of is to take everything out of her room and leave her with her mattress and a pillow, but I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.”
“I... I might be able to help. If it’s alright with you and Chloe.”
“I can promise you that Chloe will be fine with whatever punishment I decide on. Ira is lucky Chloe didn’t beat the shit out of her for what she pulled.”
“What did she do?”
“She said that-“ Here, Kurt hesitated, having to force the words out. Just the thought of anyone saying that to Chloe made him nauseous. The fact that it was their daughter only made it worse. “She said that Chloe didn’t love Oz, since she wasn’t able to get back in time to see him before he passed.”
For a long moment, here was a silence from the other end of the line. “Send her to me tomorrow, around noon. Not at home, but to the morgue at Maimonides. I can straighten her out.”
“What are you going to do?”
Grace sighed, and Kurt could hear her shift over the phone; the telltale squeak of her office chair was unmistakable, even from a borough away. “There was a girl last night, about Ira’s age. From where she was found, and the statements the police have from her parents, she was at the same party as Ira was. She must have left before the police broke it up, but...”
Kurt felt as if someone had poured ice water down his spine. “What happened to her?”
“She was walking down the sidewalk... They think she was trying to get to a subway station, but she stumbled out into the street. The car wasn’t able to stop in time.”
“Jesus.” Kurt sat back in his chair, running a hand over his face. That could have been Ira. Easily enough, that could have been his daughter, cold and dead on a slab in the morgue.
“Like, I said, send her to me. If she doesn’t come home asking for forgiveness on hand and knee, you can take all of the stuff out of her room, or ship her off to boot camp, or whatever you feel is best. I just thought I would offer this solution first. She won’t see anything horrifying - the autopsy isn’t scheduled for another two days.”
“You’ll be showing her a dead girl that was hit by a car.”
“I could just as easily be showing her a dead girl that was hit by a car, cut open, and had all of her organs removed and weighed.” Grace calmly replied. “I won’t pull the sheet down past the shoulders, and I’ve already gotten permission from this from the right people. Her parents feel that this could help this from happening again, and the higher-ups don’t want her touching anything, and for her to throw up in the sink if she gets sick.”
Kurt sighed again, and was silent as he thought that over. “...Alright. I’ll bring her over at eleven thirty to make sure she goes. I can trust you to make sure she gets home?”
“I’ll tell the cabdriver what address to bring her to myself.”
~~~
“I tried so hard to get back in time, Daddy.” Chloe’s voice was hoarse from crying, and she kept sniffing to try and keep from looking like a child whose parents didn’t wipe its nose. The crying had stopped up her sinuses, and the whiskey had opened the floodgates. “I tried so hard. I know she misses him. We all do, but she should have known better than to... It took all I could to not beat the shit out of her. If I hadn’t left, I know I would have slapped her. I know I would, and I hate that.”
“People deal with grief differently, Chloe.” Rubbing a hand up and down her back, Andy’s eyes were as red rimmed as his daughter’s were. “Some people lash out. That doesn’t make what she said okay, or what she did okay. I want to talk to her, because I think I knew Oz better than he knew himself on most days. He could have easily said the same thing about me.
He loved you more than anything else in his life, and I can promise you that knew you were trying your best. Oz would have never wanted you to feel guilty about anything like this, because he knew you. He knew that you would have done everything you can, and he knew you loved him. I swear to you that he did.”
Chloe wiped away a few more tears that fell, giving a hiccup. “I know he did, Daddy. I just - I’m so scared that other people might think that. What if somebody else in the family thinks it? What if any of my fans think it? I don’t want people thinking that I didn’t love him. He was my Daddy.”
“Nobody in their right mind would think you would do something like that. Nobody. If your fans love you as much as they say they do, then they already know how much you’re hurting from it.” Hooking a finger under her chin, Andy gently forced her to look at him. “Ira is just hurting as much as you are, and she’s angry about it. So instead of kicking around that soccer ball she loves so much, she’s acting out. I don’t know if it’s to try and get attention, or if it’s just because playing soccer isn’t good enough anymore, but I can promise you that ignoring it and hoping it goes away isn’t going to do anything.”
“What should I do, Daddy? Right now, I just want to - to lock her in her room and throw away the key.”
“Well, after you and Kurt decide what to do about this... I’d suggest maybe getting her connected with a therapist. Maybe talk it over with Kurt and Ria and see if a group or family therapist might be better.”
“Ria hasn’t been doing anything like this. If anything, he’s started acting better than he was before, which wasn’t even that bad. He was bratty, but he always seemed to know where the line was. Ira, she just... She loves pushing that boundary, to see how far she can go before she gets some sort of backlash. I don’t know how to handle that.”
“She’ll grow out of it, sweetheart. She’s just being a teenager. I seem to recall you doing the same thing at school when you were her age...”
“Seeing how much I could break the dress code is completely different, Daddy!” But still, she was smiling now, and that was his original goal.
~~~
Ira scowled. She scowled at the dashboard of the car, she scowled at her dad, she scowled at the hospital receptionist. She scowled at the elevator door, and she scowled guest sign-in sheet and she signed her name, the date, and time. Most of all, she scowled at Grace once she entered the morgue.
On her part, Grace was unphased by this. She had seen a lot worse than a sixteen year old’s fiercest scowl, and only waved Ira closer. The teenager did so, but stopped once she caught sight of the table Grace was standing by.
“What the fuck?”
“Your parents have agreed to let me show you this. And before you leave, let me at least tell you that you have two options; you can stay here, and listen to me until I’m finished; or you can go home, where your room will be stripped of everything but a mattress, a blanket, and a pillow. You’ll live like that until you get everything back for Christmas, and that will be your only present for this holiday season. Are we understood?”
Clenching her jaw, Ira nodded. It was a hesitant moment before she stepped forward to stand on the other side of the table, across from Grace. She made sure to keep her eyes anywhere but on the sheet covered body between them.
That became harder once Grace pulled the sheet back to reveal the face underneath.
“Ira. Look at her. Otherwise, the reason you’re here is pointless.”
Swallowing down a sudden rise of bile, Ira looked. She almost looked like she was sleeping, except for how pale she was, and the scrapes along her cheek. There was heavy bruising around her temple, along with a gash that disappeared under her hair.
“We’ll shave the hair back during the autopsy, to see how far that gash goes.” Grace spoke up. “Do you recognize her?”
Unable to speak, Ira shook her head.
“Her name is Jeanette Campbell. She was only a few weeks away from turning seventeen. From what her parents told me, she was a straight A student, and a wonderful athlete. She was on the track team. She was in the running to become student body president, and was on the homecoming court last year. She was everything that most girls in high school want to be. She was also at the same party you were last night, and had been drinking.
When she was found, she had been hit by a car. The police think that she was on her way to the subway station, a few blocks down the street. Instead, she tripped. She stumbled out into the street, into the path of an oncoming car that was travelling around thirty miles an hour. Of course, it wasn’t that that killed her, in my opinion.
We can’t know for sure until the autopsy is performed, but here is what I think. I think that the alcohol had made her muscles so relaxed that she would have come away with broken bones and bruises at the worst, if nothing was punctured. But when she went flying, her head hit the curb.”
Here, Grace pointed to the gash, and the bruising. “If she hit her head hard enough, and at the right angle, it would have killed her instantly. We can only hope that that is what happened. Otherwise, she simply would have bled into her brain until she lost consciousness and eventually died. For now, all we know is that she was intoxicated, hit by a car, and hit her head. She was dead by the time the paramedics arrived.”
“What’s the point of telling me this?” Ira stuttered, desperate to look away, desperate to leave. She didn’t want to be here, or to see her, or to hear this.
“Because you need to learn that actions have consequences, Ira. Even if this didn’t happen to you, the circumstances were the same. You could have just as easily left the party, headed for the subway station, and fell into the street. You could just as easily be the person on this table. Am I understood?”
“Okay, I get it! I won’t go off without telling anyone again!”
Shaking her head, Grace drew the sheet back more, and Ira quickly looked away as the girl’s breasts were exposed. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Grace pick up a scalpel.
“That’s not what I’m asking of you.” Turning the scalpel this way and that, Grace inspected it and watched the light glint off of the blade. “I’m asking you to never do this again. Do not go out without your parents’ permission. Do not go to a party without letting somebody know where you are. Do not drink until you’re goddamned old enough to do so, and handle the consequences. Because I do not want you to end up on this table, Ira.”
Slowly, Grace lowered the scalpel, and Ira could only watch in horror as she began to cut under the girl’s collarbone. Almost no blood came to the surface, and the sound of the blade cutting through flesh seemed to scrape along the inside of her ears. Immediately, she felt bile rise and gagged, and ran for the nearby sink.
By the time she was finished and had turned around, the body was covered, with only a small spot of blood telling that there was anything different than before. Ira shakily wiped at her mouth. “Okay. Okay, I promise. Just - just please don’t cut her again.”
~~~
“Do you think it’s too harsh of a punishment?” Chloe asked.
It surprised Kurt, because they had been sitting in a tense silence ever since he had returned from dropping Ira off at the hospital. Other than short phone calls from Faith, who had kept Chloe updated on how the damage control was going, and things she could to help it once everything calmed down, they hadn’t talked much.
Chloe was too worried to talk; worried about her daughter, worried about her relationship with her daughter, and lastly worried about what the public would think of her daughter. Kurt was worried as well, but about different things. He worried that this might backfire, that it might make Ira act out even more. He worried that any punishment they would try to do after this would only push her away more. He worried about the possibility of losing his little girl. And under out that, he felt an extreme sorrow and pity for the couple that had already lost their daughter.
“No, I don’t. I think it’s a harsh punishment, but I agree with what Grace said. She needs to learn that actions have consequences more harsh and permanent than losing a few hours on her video games or not being able to play soccer with her friends. I don’t think there is anything we could do that would effectively do that without pushing her away, and that isn’t what any of us need right now. WE don’t need this family to fall apart.”
Chloe sighed, a sound that made it seem like the entire world rested on her shoulders. “I’m so scared she’ll hate us.” She whispered. “I’ve already lost one of my daddies. I don’t want to lose my only daughter, as well. Especially not this soon after Daddy left us.”
Moving over to sit next to her, Kurt drew her into a hug. He tightened his grip as Chloe started to tremble, but both of them heard the key in the lock before she could start to cry. Immediately, Chloe was out of his arms and off the couch, and staring at the door with a scared and hopeful expression on her face.
Ira was pale as she walked through the door, her eyes bloodshot. For a long moment, the three of them only stared at each other before Ira spoke. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, I swear I’ll never do anything like that again, I swear.”
In a flash, Chloe was across the room and had her daughter in her arms, the both of them shaking with tears. Kurt was only a moment behind her, his arms wrapping around the both of them. He didn’t cry, but only because he knew that one of them had to be strong with this.
“I’m sorry, Mom, I’m so sorry.” Ira sobbed. “I didn’t mean what I said, I promise, I know you tried to get home. I never should have said that, Grandpa Oz would have hated me for saying that.”
“I know, I know, baby. You were just angry. It’s okay.” Chloe drew back enough to look Ira in the face, before she shook the teenager lightly. “But if you ever say anything like that to anyone again, I will keep you in this house without any source of entertainment but your own mind until kingdom come, do you hear me? And this is not the end of your punishment.
We won’t take away your video games or internet, or soccer, but you are going to apologize to your grandfathers. Both of them. Daddy is going to take you to the cemetery later. After that, you are going to write a letter to more than one tabloid explaining how last night was a very stupid mistake and that it will never happen again. Otherwise, I will have you on the streets in a sandwich board that proclaims how very sorry you are about it. Okay?”
“Okay, okay!” Ira’s answer was almost frantic, and Kurt quickly got Chloe to release her grip on Ira’s shoulders.
“Ira, why don’t you go upstairs and rest for a while. It’ll be a few hours before Andy gets here, and we’ll tell you so you have enough time to get ready.”
She nodded and ran for the stairs. Only a few steps up she paused to look back at them. “I am really sorry, you know.”
“We know you are. Now go lay down.”
Ira nodded once more before continuing up the stairs. They heard her door open, and there was a moment before it shut.
“I think she was checking to make sure everything was still in her room.”
“Probably.”
“Should we still save that punishment idea? Just in case?”
“Oh, definitely.”