Chocolate/Pistachio/Chocolate Chip Mint brownie smoothie

[smoothiegarten]

Authors: Marina and Casey
Story: Shifts universe (Shifts)
Challenge: Chocolate 29 (relief), Pistachio 10 (lost) [Marina]; Chocolate Chip Mint 20 (uncomfortable) [Casey]
Toppings/Extras: Brownie, Smoothie
Word Count: 5,069
Rating: PG
Summary: When Drew and the twins go world hopping and don’t come back, Lynne and the others try to find them.
Notes: This is a rewrite of the content of the original chapter 9 of Shifts. (For those of you who have read this, highlight for spoilers: the Earl seen here is not the real Earl Johnson who dies at the end of Tremors.) The rest should hopefully stand on its own.

No matter how hard I tried, I could not put the confrontation with Drew out of my mind long enough to get my homework done. What I had said to him had been completely uncalled for, and I knew I should go and apologize immediately, but I stayed right where I was out of stubbornness. I’ll probably just lose it and say something stupid and hateful again, I thought, trying to justify myself so that I could concentrate. It can wait until after dinner.

That was when the phone rang, startling me. My mom, not knowing that anything was wrong, called in. "Will you grab that, Lynne? I have my hands full with dinner!"

"Yeah, sure." I threw down my pen and reached for the receiver, hoping it was Drew and dreading that it might be at the same time. If he’s calling to tell you to go to hell, you deserve it. "Williams residence, Lynne speaking."

"Oh, Lynne, I was hoping I'd get you." I was surprised to discover that the person on the other end of the line was Bill Harper. "Have you see Mariah and Josh?" he asked, sounding a bit frantic.

I frowned, feeling a pit form in my stomach. "No. Have they gone missing again?"

"Yes, they vanished about twenty minutes ago. I was hoping they were with you or one of the boys when Catherine and I couldn't find them here, in the building or at the park."

He had no idea how apt his word choice really was. If the twins were none of those places, it was likely they'd hopped worlds again for some reason even though we had all told them not to. "I'll call the guys and see if they've seen them," I said, carefully. "And if they haven't, we'll help look."

"Thank you, Lynne. Please let me know if you hear anything!" he said desperately.

"Of course I will." Pressing down on the hook for a moment, I took a deep, calming breath, and lifted my finger again to dial Grayson's number.

He answered on the second ring. "Yo," he said, sounding distracted.

"Grayson, it's Lynne. Have you seen the twins? Bill says they've gone missing again."

"What? No, of course not. Where would they go? We're all here," Grayson said, attention grabbed.

"I don't know, I'm just telling you what I heard."

"I'll call Rand and see what he says. Why don't you call Drew?" he suggested.

I bit my lip. "Sure." Without saying goodbye, I hung up and rang Drew's apartment.

His father answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, Matt, it's Lynne. Is Drew there?"

"No, he left over an hour ago and hasn't been back, but he should be back soon, since it's almost time for dinner. Would you like to leave a message?" he said.

The pit grew bigger. "No, that's fine, I'll call him after dinner. Thanks."

"All right. I'll let him know you called.”

"Great, thanks." I laid down the receiver, trying to absorb this new information. Drew hadn't gone home. The twins had disappeared. In light of recent events, this did not mean anything good, though I desperately hoped I was wrong. After a moment of hesitation, I called Grayson again.

"Hi?" It was obvious that he was anxious to know if it was me calling back.

"It's Lynne. Drew's not home."

"You say that like I should be worried about it. Is the twins' disappearance linked to this?" Grayson asked slowly.

"It could be." I swallowed. "Maybe he shifted without telling anyone, and they followed him." The more I thought about it, the more I realized that that was what he had to have done. It would be like him to make an impulsive decision like that, if he had a good reason to. Maybe our fight had made him wonder, or maybe he had already been wondering, and that had been the push he needed to go looking. Either way, by then I was all but convinced that he had gone in search of his biological mother. The twins would have considered his bad mood a good enough reason to follow him.

I could hear Grayson’s frown as clearly as if I were looking at it. "Drew might be occasionally idiotic, but he's not that stupid, Lynne. He wouldn't ever shift without the rest of us, or at least not without Rand, and Rand's been home all evening."

"He might have," I insisted, not wanting to tell him why I thought so if I didn't have to. That was private, and the last thing I wanted to do was repeat those awful words again. "And that's the only way the twins can get out of their apartment without being noticed."

"What aren't you telling me?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Lynne."

"What?"

"You have to tell us if you know or else how are we going to track them? Josh might be able to do it automatically but the rest of us can't."

Damn it. "Fine. Drew and I had another fight."

There was a pause on Grayson's end. "About?"

"I don't want to say. I think I can track him, though."

"Lynne, I love you dearly, but..." he trailed off, obviously unable to come up with a proper end to the sentence. "Meet us outside Rand's in five minutes," he said and hung up.

I winced, but followed suit. "Mom, the twins are missing and the boys and I are going to help look for them. I'll be back in a bit. I've got my phone." She called back her permission for me to leave, and I snatched up my jacket as I ran out the door, hoping against hope that it was nothing.

***

By the time I reached Rand's apartment, Grayson was already out front and had obviously just finished filling Rand in on the little bit he knew. Rand looked at me, and I could already tell I was in deep shit as far as he was concerned. "We'll talk about this later," he said, and I nodded. "Do you know where to go?"

"I have a theory. You guys connect with me and I'll direct us."

Grayson took my hand and, to show how serious the situation was, didn't even smirk as he took Rand's too. Rand gave me his other hand, and I shut my eyes and focused. If Drew had shifted with the intent of finding his biological mother, the first place he would probably have gone was to a world where they still lived together. I concentrated on that, hoping that there was such a world and that he had indeed decided to try that first. "Okay, go."

Moments later, I felt the familiar jerk that indicated a world shift and opened my eyes again. The fourth-floor hallway looked the same as in the main reality, and I thought absently that it must have been one of the worlds where the main differences were in the people and not the landscape. "How the hell are we going to find them in an entire world?" Grayson asked, after a moment of silence.

Rand glanced at me. "How long has it been since you last saw Drew, Lynne?"

"It can't have been more than twenty minutes at the most."

"He could still get a long way in that time," Grayson put in.

"Not if he had the twins with him, they'd move slower," Rand replied. "In any case, if we just stand here, they'll only get farther away, so let's get moving. Convenience store first, and then we'll figure it out from there if they're not there." He took off at a run, and Grayson and I followed.

It turned out that they were not at the store, so Rand led us around the familiar turn we took to go to the high school. That was when Grayson ground to a halt, eyes narrowing. "I heard something."

"So did I," Rand agreed, looking around. "It sounded like something heavy hitting the ground." He pointed in the direction we had just come. "That way." Grayson nodded, spun on his heel and took off in that direction, Rand and I hot on his heels. It was not long until we could hear high-pitched, hysterical crying. Rand picked up speed, taking the lead as we came in sight of the top of a fallen lamp post, sticking out like a sore thumb from around another corner. We turned and came upon one of the most frightening scenes I have ever had the misfortune to stumble upon.

Mariah and Joshua stood not five feet from the post, clinging to each other. Beyond them stood Earl, an uncharacteristically dark expression on his face as he stared at an unmoving figure splayed on the ground in front of him. I recognized it at once, and my heart jumped into my throat. "Drew!"

Rand swore loudly and dropped to his knees next to our friend, feeling for a pulse. Grayson, meanwhile, immediately stepped between the twins and Earl. "What the hell did you do to him?" he demanded, in a tone of voice utterly unlike him.

"I just got here too," Earl said, expression instantly clearing to one of concern. "I heard the twins screaming."

"Liar!" Mariah yelled around her tears. Her voice snapped me out of my shock, and I went to her, lifting her into my arms as Josh pressed his face into my leg.

"He's alive," Rand reported, sitting back enough that I could see the large mark forming on the left side of Drew's face. "He got hit by the pole on its way down, but it looks like it just grazed him enough to knock him out. He'd be dead if it had been full on." He began to hoist Drew up. "We'd better get him back." Drew came to partially at that, mumbling and pushing Rand away from him.

Grayson picked up Josh, never taking his eyes off Earl. "Let's switch back."

"Okay," Rand agreed, securing his grip on Drew and focusing. Moments later they disappeared. Grayson followed with Josh, but I stayed where I was for a moment, meeting Earl’s eyes. His held a note of pleading in them, and he even went so far as to advance a step, but Mariah cried out and clutched at my shirt collar, so I shifted back without saying anything to him.

When we reappeared, we found Rand trying to adjust Drew’s position so that he could support the younger boy more comfortably. "Is he going to be okay?" I asked him, feeling ill.

"I think so," he said, but he sounded worried. I didn’t blame him, seeing that the bruise forming on Drew’s face was clearly going to be ugly, and our friend was barely conscious, but his tone unnerved me all the same. "Shit, this is bad. I don't know how we're going to explain the twins going missing and this happening to Drew at the same time."

"Let's make sure Drew's going to be all right before we cross that bridge," Grayson said somberly.

Drew had slumped against Rand the moment we reappeared and I couldn't tell if he was unconscious or not. "Grayson, get over here and give me a hand," Rand said, visibly struggling with his weight. "Josh can walk." Grayson did as ordered, slipping his arm around Drew, and Josh hurried back over to me.

"Lynne? Drew don't feel good,” Mariah said, in a small voice. "Is he gonna be 'kay? Did the bad man hurt him bad?"

I put her down and took both the twins' hands, bringing them along with me as I followed the boys. "Rand says he's going to be okay, so he is," I said, as much to reassure myself as to reassure them.

Mariah nodded. "Why'd the bad man hurt Drew?" she asked, looking up at me.

"I don't know. Are you sure he really did it?"

"He did!" Josh insisted, scowling. "We saw it!"

Mariah matched her brother's expression and nodded, launching into a description of where they were all standing and what had been said and what had happened. According to her, they had followed Drew at feeling him upset, as I had suspected, and Earl had found them there and attacked Drew with the lamp post. I frowned, unsure, but nodded in acknowledgement. There would be time enough to discuss it later.

The six of us arrived back at our apartment building, where Rand took his cell phone from his pocket. "We'd better call his parents and 911 from here," he said, eyeing the stairs. "Lynne, you take the twins up."

"Wanna make sure Drew's okay!" Mariah argued as Grayson also pulled his cell phone.

"I will tell you as soon as he is, promise," I said, leading her and Josh to the stairwell, "but right now, I have to get you two home. Your parents are worried sick. How could you do this again? We told you not to go alone."

"We weren't alone," she said with all the logic of a four-year-old. "Drew was there."

"And we didn't get lost cause I knew where he was," Josh chimed in.

"He didn't know you were coming, and you didn't tell the rest of us you were going. You can't do this anymore. I mean it. What if you'd gotten hurt? We wouldn't have known."

"We had to help," Mariah said, face falling.

"So say something next time," I said gently. They would be taking enough heat from their parents for this without me adding to it. "It's not fair of you to scare us like that."

"Sorry," she muttered, sounding pretty much anything but. Josh echoed her, much more sincerely. He looked anxious to get back to his mother after my little lecture, so I picked up my pace as much as I thought they could handle and soon had them back at their apartment. Letting go of Mariah's hand briefly, I knocked, wondering all the time what on earth I could even say this time.

Bill answered the door and relief just poured over his face instantly. "Where have you two been?"

"Daddy!" Joshua reached for him, bursting into tears.

"We found them about a block away," I said, feeling a bit guilty for the fib. "I think they got lost trying to go somewhere." Mariah stayed grumpily at my side, although for my lie or my lecture, I couldn't tell. I shot a look at her, warning her to just go with it.

"You two know you can't just go wandering off!" Bill scolded, lifting his son into his arms. Josh hugged him tightly around the neck, instantly repentant, but Mariah stared at the ground, scuffing her foot in silence before racing past her father into the apartment.

"I should get going," I said, anxious to get back to Drew.

"Thank you so much, Lynne, and thank the boys for us too," he replied.

"Sure, I will." Flashing him a brief, half-hearted smile, I turned and hurried back down the stairs, catching a glimpse of Drew's mother over the railing and feeling even worse than before. She would never forgive me if she knew what I had said to her son, and if she knew that it had led to his injury, however it had happened.

Grayson waved to me as I reached the ground floor. "Get them back safely?"

"Yeah. How's Drew?"

"He's kind of half awake and asked for you," he said, noncommittally, as if not sure what to think of that.

I swallowed and nodded, crossing over to him. He looked fairly alert, but lay perfectly still as Melissa dabbed at his face with a damp cloth. "Hey, Drew," I said, twirling a lock of hair around my finger awkwardly.

"Mom," Drew said, voice a little slurred. "Can we have a moment?"

She bit her lip, but nodded. "I'll go out front and direct the paramedics when they get here. Do not move, Drew, and do not fall asleep."

"I won't," he promised, but as soon as she had vanished out the door, he pushed himself up on his elbow, wincing. "Lynne," he started.

I cut him off. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

He started to shake his head but then stopped, going paler around the portions that were already bruising. "Forget it."

"I can't. If I hadn't said that to you, this wouldn't have happened. You could have died."

He reached up, carefully rubbing his face. "But I didn't. Don't worry about it." His voice was still a little shaky and slurred but holding steady for the moment.

"You're still hurt pretty bad."

"It’s my fault. I reacted stupidly. I should have-I do know better."

"I don't blame you,” I said quickly. “I just hate that you got hurt because of it."

He gave a one-shoulder shrug. "I'm sure the bruise will be a wonderful chick magnet," he said, slumping carefully back down.

I scowled, not in a mood to appreciate that kind of joke. "That's not funny."

"It would be if you didn't feel guilty."

I chose to ignore that, glancing at the other guys. "What did you tell her?"

"Nothing yet," Rand said. "Just that this was how we found him. We figured it would be safest to leave it to him."

"We need something that would leave a bruise across the face," Grayson said. "Like a pipe."

"S'not just my face," Drew said, eyes closed now.

"What else?" Rand asked. Wincing, he raised an arm and traced a thick line down his face through his chest and down along his side near his hip. Rand swore again. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because you already called 911?" he said, his words slowly beginning to slur more and more.

"You could have a concussion! Or a cracked rib, or something even worse than that. You'll have to tell them when they get here."

"Yes, ma'am," Drew said, managing a smile. He cracked one eye open long enough to wink at me, and I giggled in spite of myself. I could hear Grayson snickering behind me, and just knew that he was mentally making a note of that one for later use.

Rand glared at him. "I am not a ma'am."

"I know," he mumbled, but the smile slipped and his hand went to his side as his whole body tensed.

The glimpse of good humor left me as fast as it came, and I dropped to my knees next to him, taking his hand. "Drew, stay with it. You can't go to sleep."

"'m not sleeping," Drew said, but didn't open his eyes, a grimace still written across his face.

"I'm just making sure. You could hurt yourself if you do."

The sirens began to sound in the distance. He forced his eyes open, looking at me, even if they were glazed. "We okay?"

"We're fine, Drew," I promised.

Again, a fleeting smile. "Good," he muttered, eyes slipping closed again.

I just sat there, clinging to his hand, until the front door opened again to admit Melissa and the two EMTs, one of whom bore a gurney that he parked on the other side of Drew. "Move out of the way, young lady," he said, gently but firmly. I accordingly scooted back and accepted a hand up from Grayson, never taking my eyes off Drew.

"Mrs. Henson, will you be coming with us in the ambulance?" the other one asked.

She nodded. "I'll have my husband meet us at the hospital."

The two men lifted Drew onto the gurney and strapped him down in a professional manner, then began to wheel him out the doors. Melissa turned to us. "Thank you for finding him," she said. "Either Matt or I will call when we know something."

"Sure," Rand said, and she hurried out front to catch up with them.

"Damn," Grayson muttered, eyes wide.

Rand stuffed his hands into his pockets, turning to us after a moment of silence. "I guess there's nothing we can do now except wait," he said.

Grayson let out a breath and looked at us. "Whoever gets the call calls the others?"

"Fine."

I nodded in agreement. "I should get home." Grayson nodded as well, and headed for the stairs. After a long, solemn look at me, Rand followed him. I shivered, waiting until they were a flight above me to make my own way up. The whole way, I wallowed in my misery, feeling like the lowest, dirtiest scum that had ever existed. Maybe if I had apologized right away, the whole incident would never have happened. I couldn’t forgive myself.

I arrived back to find that dinner was on the table and that both my parents were seated and waiting for me. "Did you find the twins?" my mom asked, looking worried. "It didn't have anything to do with the sirens, did it?"

"Oh, no," I said hastily. "We found them and they're fine. Drew got hurt, though, so he has to go to the emergency room. He should be fine, too, though."

"Oh, I'm sorry, honey. I'm sure he'll be okay."

"Yeah. I want to pass on dinner, though. I'm feeling kind of ill."

"Of course. The leftovers will be in the fridge if you want something later," she said, just as the phone rang.

"Thanks. I'll get the phone." A gut feeling told me to bypass the dining room extension, so I left the room and picked up the receiver in the hallway. "Williams residence, Lynne speaking."

"Hi, Lynne."

I jumped, recognizing the voice immediately. "Why are you calling me?"

"I want to plead my innocence, face-to-face," Earl said. "I said I needed your help. Why would I hurt one of your friends?"

I hesitated. "I'd like to believe that." It was the truth. Up until then, Earl had done nothing but help us, and I had not seen what had happened to Drew for myself. Only the twins had, and well...I had to wonder if they only associated Earl with the injury because he happened to be there, and not because he had actually caused it. There was no real way of knowing.

"Can we meet then?" he asked hopefully. "You can pick the location and time."

"Yeah, um, the roof, maybe? In an hour? I'm not feeling so hot just now."

"Of course, of course, an hour would be fine. I'll be there."

"Okay. Bye." I hung up, staring at the wall for a minute, then turned to go to my room, feeling sicker than ever and wanting nothing more than to lie down, possibly for days if I could get away with it.

***

An hour later, I pulled myself together and walked up the roof to meet Earl, second-guessing my decision to do so the entire way there. The part of me that wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt urged me on, but the part that remembered Drew's injuries all too well tried to hold me back. At the door to the roof, I hesitated for a long moment, but finally told myself not to be ridiculous and pushed it open, walking out into the crisp night air. Earl was already there, waiting for me, staring off across the city from a corner of the roof.

I stuffed my hands into my jacket pockets, unconsciously mimicking what he was already doing. "Hi."

He looked back, brightening slightly. "Hey. How's Drew?" he asked immediately, the epitome of concern.

"I don't know yet," I said, taken aback by the question and wondering why. "The paramedics came and got him an hour ago and we haven't heard anything since."

He nodded sympathetically. "I wish I had gotten there earlier. Maybe I could have prevented it."

"He should be okay. We got him home as fast as we could."

"I'm glad to hear it," he said, but an odd expression-maybe regret?-flitted across his face before the concern reasserted itself. Seeing this, I frowned, but merely nodded in reply. "Lynne, you have to believe me. I already feel terrible about involving the six of you in all of this. If it wasn't a necessity..."

"The twins are convinced that you hurt him," I said. "I want to hear your side of it."

"I don't know why they think that. Maybe guilt by association? I arrived just seconds after it happened. I mean, the three of you arrived within a minute or two," Earl said, sounding confused.

I bit my lip. This statement seemed to confirm what I had wondered about earlier, but there was still a hole. A large one. "What happened to the light pole, then?"

"What was Drew doing there anyway?" he asked. "That world is incredibly unstable. In a world like that, anything can happen."

"Do you mean it just tipped over on its own because things aren't stable there?" I ignored the question about Drew, for the moment.

"Yes, those worlds are falling apart at the seams. Literally."

"Would that be because it's a world that's close to coming back together with the main reality?"

"Exactly!" he said, clearly pleased with my deduction. "The closer they are, the more unstable and thus the more dangerous they are."

I nodded slowly. "Drew wouldn't have gone if he'd known that. I wish you had told us that sooner."

"I'm sorry. I just assumed you would never go to an unstable world. There are only a few and most are quite different from ours."

"Well, how were any of us supposed to know?” For the first time since hearing that the twins were missing, I felt truly angry. This, at least, was his fault. “We can only shift between them by focusing on one difference. We don't have any knowledge of which is which, like you do."

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "It...it is an odd world for Drew to have visited."

Not so very odd, I thought, wanting to explain on reflex, but refraining. That was between Drew and me.

"And how did the twins get there?" he asked in interest.

"He didn't take them with him. They followed him."

"Followed?" he asked, almost instantly. "You mean they have active magic?"

My eyes widened as I realized what I had done. Nice job, Lynne. You just betrayed your friends trust. They are so going to kill you. "I wasn't supposed to say," I said, looking at the ground, my face burning.

"I won't tell anyone,” he assured me. “Lynne, you must realize that I just want to help."

"I want to believe you," I said quietly.

"Then believe me. I promise you, I'm telling you the truth."

Finally, I looked up, searching his eyes. There was nothing but sincerity in them. "All right," I agreed.

He smiled. "Thank you, Lynne. You don't know how much that means to me."

I finally managed to relax, feeling secure in the knowledge that I had made the right decision. "You're welcome."

"I hope that Drew is all right and that the twins aren't too traumatized by today's events," Earl said.

I nodded. "I'm sure Drew will be fine. I'm more worried about the twins, really."

"I'm sure they will be okay. It is easier to recover from things when you are young."

"They just take it all so hard, though." I sat down on the observation bench, suddenly uncomfortable standing. "They know things. You can't just tell them it's going to be okay. They won't be satisfied until it actually is okay."

"Well, we'll just have to make sure everything turns out okay then, right?" he said, with a confident smile.

"I hope we can. I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

"Of course not," Earl agreed before glancing at his watch. "I'm afraid I have to get going. I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to make sure you believed me."

"I do. Promise."

"I'm very glad to hear that. I hope Drew gets better soon," he said.

"So do I," I said, getting up to offer him my hand, just as if nothing had happened. He took it with a firm grip, smile widening, and I instantly felt perfectly at ease. Of course it had all just been a misunderstanding. All Earl wanted was to help us, and for us to give him a little assistance in return. Drew would confirm the story when we talked to him, and then I would just have to convince the twins of the truth.

After a long moment, Earl dropped my hand and headed for the stairs. I watched him in silence for a moment, but the question I had been wanting to ask all week suddenly resurfaced in my mind, and I couldn't wait any longer to bring it up. "Earl?"

He glanced back. "Yes?"

"Do you know how we got the ability to shift between the worlds like this? That's something I don't quite understand."

"Not exactly, but you had to have gotten it from one of your parents."

"So it's genetic."

He nodded. "As far as we can best determine, yes, although it can run oddly through families, sometimes."

That went along with what the other two had indicated, so on that point, at least, everyone agreed. I nodded once. "Okay, that makes sense. Sorry to bother you about it. I was just curious."

"You're allowed to be curious, Lynne. No apologies are necessary.”

"Thanks, then."

"My pleasure," he said, with another quick smile, heading for the stairs again.

This time, I let him leave. I really wanted to tell him that we had all been adopted, or at least that I had been, and ask if he knew anything about our birth parents, but he had said that he was short on time, and I figured it could wait until the next time I saw him. It was probably too loaded a question for just a quick answer, anyway.

I stayed on the roof for a long while after he left, contemplating the day's events and everything that had led up to them. So much had happened, and I had a gut feeling that the situation would only get worse from there. I don't want anyone else to get hurt, I thought miserably, leaning on the railing and looking out over the city, much the way Earl had done earlier. I wish none of this had happened.