All the funny people. [Tag McLeods] on At Home

CJ Stones

May 18, 2020 12:00 PM

All the funny people. [Tag McLeods] by CJ Stones

Sissy left after her friend left, and the house had been sort of quiet since then. Well, as quiet as it ever got. CJ liked to make sure it didn't get too quiet. CJ had had lots of long sleeps and lots of short sleeps since Sissy left, and he was sad that she hadn't come back yet, but she was usually not there, so it was okay. He wanted to go in Sissy's room but daddy wouldn't let him, so he sat in the living room and played with his blocks. It wasn't as fun as it had been when Sissy and her friend were there, but it was still pretty fun.

Daddy came in and out of the living room sometimes. Sometimes he looked angry, so CJ kept playing. Sometimes he looked sort of not angry, so CJ would coo at him or smile at him to see if he would come play. Daddy didn't usually play with him so CJ was almost more surprised when he came and sat on the couch behind him, especially because he didn't look happy. Usually, if daddy played with him, he looked either happy or sort of bored. That's when CJ tried to play the loudest because noise made him happy so he thought maybe it would make daddy happy too. But today, daddy came and sat with him and he looked sad. He felt sad, too and CJ wasn't sure to do so he pulled himself up on the couch next to daddy and tried to crawl on his lap. Daddy frowned, but let him do it.

Everything was quiet while CJ played with a toy manticore. When he looked up, he saw that daddy looked really sad now. Way more sad than he'd ever looked before. His face was wet like how CJ's got when he didn't want to nap because he was too tired.

"Daddy, your face is wet," CJ said, shocked. He reached up to touch his daddy's wet face, but daddy grabbed his hands and shook his head. There was a knock at the door and CJ was promptly pushed off the side of daddy's lap, onto his own seat on the couch.

"Bye, buddy," daddy said. All the parts of his face were flat, and he looked like he did when sissy got in trouble for something, except less angry. That was good, because it when Sissy got in trouble for something and daddy got angry, Sissy looked sad and sometimes daddy made loud noises and threw his grown up toys, like books and stuff. CJ threw his toys sometimes, but the he got in trouble too, although daddy didn't look as mad when CJ got in trouble as when Sissy did.

CJ didn't understand why daddy was saying goodbye, because he didn't have his shoes on yet and he never got left at home alone when daddy went places. Maybe there was someone at the door to hang out with while daddy went out? But when daddy opened the door, it was the lady that came over with Sissy sometimes. She looked sad and angry and sort of tired, and CJ was starting to think that everyone in the world needed a nap.

"Mr. Stones," the lady said to daddy, dipping her head.

"Ms. Wright," daddy replied, almost not moving his lips at all.

The lady gave daddy some paper that didn't look like a coloring book at all and then came in while daddy looked through them. The lady smiled at CJ, so CJ smiled at her. She had a nice face and CJ liked when people smiled. Sissy smiled a lot more than daddy but he wasn't sure how much other people smiled. Sissy's friend didn't smile much at first but he did more later on and sometimes he booped CJ's nose and CJ would laugh and that felt good, so smiling was a good thing in CJ's mind.

"Let's go find you some shoes and socks, okay?" the lady said. CJ nodded and the lady glanced over her shoulder at daddy but they didn't say anything to each other. CJ was pretty sure adults could talk with just their brains though, so that was normal. Sometimes they would just look at each other really hard for a while, or make a noise that sounded like words but wasn't any words, like a cough or a grumble.

CJ and the lady made their way into daddy's room because that's where CJ's things were since Sissy had been here, but everything looked different. CJ's stuff wasn't out anywhere, and there were a couple big suitcases where they hadn't been before. A pair of shoes and socks was on the bed, though, and the lady made a sound in her throat before helping CJ get them on. He was already dressed otherwise, which he thought was great because he had a duck on his shirt.

When that was done, the lady pulled out a wand and waved it at the suitcases, saying one of those fancy words that made CJ feel something in his gut but that he didn't know what it meant. Apparently this one meant "come along now, suitcases" because they followed them out of the room, floating a few inches above the floor. Daddy wasn't in the living room anymore and the lady looked around with big round eyes. She checked out the back door and then looked at a piece of paper on the counter. She frowned, folded it up, and stuck it in her pocket, then took CJ's hand.

"Are you ready?" she asked. CJ cocked his head, and the lady took a breath and smiled at him. "You're going to meet some friends of Evelyn's," she said.

"Friends! Sissy's friends!" CJ replied, excited to see the boy again. "Hein'ick," he said with a firm nod.

The lady raised an eyebrow but her smile stayed in place. It was weird seeing so much smiling. "No, different friends," she said. "Ready?"

CJ looked around, not sure what else he was supposed to do to be ready. "Yeah," he decided. He wasn't sure where daddy went, but he'd seemed sad so maybe he went for a walk.

The lady helped him get in a car that looked normal on the outside but was really big on the inside, and when the doors closed, CJ looked out the window and saw his daddy through the windows. He still looked sad, but he didn't seem to notice CJ and the car and the lady pulling away. The car made a funny sound and everything CJ could see out the window changed. There were still buildings and thing, but then they weren't familiar.

The car stopped and CJ thought it was very funny that they'd gotten all packed up and gotten in the car to just go for a short ride. The lady smiled some more and took CJ's hand again as they got out and walked up to the door of a new house. She knocked, and the person who answered the door was smiling too.

"This is Charles James," the lady holding CJ's hand said. He looked up at the grown-ups and nodded, agreeing that that was his name, although only daddy called him that. The lady holding his hand bent down so he could look at her without looking up and she smiled at him. "You're going to stay here for a while, okay? I'll come check on you sometimes, but these are Evelyn's friends and they're going to take care of you."

CJ thought about daddy looking sad. Maybe this was good. All these people were much more smiley than daddy and if daddy needed a nap, it was easier if there wasn't so much noise. "Friends," he agreed a little solemnly, looking back up at the person in the doorway.

OOC - CJ's fostering by the McLeods approved by their author.

22 CJ Stones All the funny people. [Tag McLeods] 0 CJ Stones 1 5

Fionn McCleod

May 20, 2020 4:48 AM

That's us alright! by Fionn McCleod

Two kids were more than enough. Even if one of them was not really a child any more, he certainly spent more than enough time coming to raid the refrigerator and costing them money and needing attention. Kir might have turned into a pretty great young man (even if Fionn did say so himself) but it wasn’t like he was ever going to stop being their responsibility. It wasn’t like Fionn wanted that either. It was just… it didn’t exactly work that having raised one and got it safely off to college meant he had an available space.

Life really didn’t give a damn about that though.

Anyway, they’d more or less had three kids for a while anyway, and given that they did ship them off to Sonora for quite a lot of the weeks of the year, maybe they should count them as fractions. And regardless of that, the maths wasn’t really important anyway.

What was important was that they were a family. They had always put being one ahead of whatever else life threw at them. Evelyn was part of this family, and CJ was part of Evelyn’s, and however flippant Fionn was fond of being about things, there wasn’t really much to be flippant about here. Everything in CJ’s home had been wrong. The way Evelyn had come back had been so, so wrong. And they weren’t having any more of that. Marijke was feeling guilty about it, like she hadn’t done enough to make it clear that CJ could come visit, or stay over - that if he was the reason Evelyn had gone back, it all could have been prevented. Mostly though, she knew to put the blame where it lay and wanted to rip out Matthias Stones’ eyeballs and set the sockets on fire.

It wasn’t guilt that propelled through the papers about fostering CJ though. It was just what needed to be done. And now, here he was. Fionn nodded a polite hello to the social worker before crouching down to the little boy’s level.

“Hi there,” he smiled. He thought about asking whether CJ liked to do helloes with smiles, waves, handshakes or hugs but figured that might be a bit overwhelming for a first day. He would just mirror whatever he was offered, and they could work on asserting his own choices and respecting other people’s later. There was time. “Yes, we’re Evelyn’s friends. Come in. Do you want some juice?” he asked, “And coffee?” he invited the other adult, looking back up.

13 Fionn McCleod That's us alright! 0 Fionn McCleod 0 5

Heidi Wright

May 20, 2020 11:04 AM

Nice change of pace. by Heidi Wright

Heidi had a little boy and a little girl, and they weren't very much like CJ and Evelyn, but also they were somehow. They were small and innocent and sweet. The biggest difference until now had been that her children were safe at home, while the Stones children were not. Now, that might be changing. Evelyn had been relatively safe and Heidi had not yet stopped beating herself up over the fact that she hadn't done more to make sure it was "completely" instead of "relatively." The kids had gone off to school by now and Heidi wasn't sure whether she wished Evelyn was here so she could apologise, or whether she was glad she wasn't because she didn't know what to say. She'd seen the pictures. She'd been there to help take the pictures. She knew exactly what she'd done by not getting Evelyn and CJ out sooner and she doubted she'd forgive herself for that anytime soon, let alone expect Evelyn to do so.

"G'ape," CJ said decisively, if eagerly, at Fionn McLeod's offer of juice. The boy turned to look at Heidi over his shoulder and she nodded encouragingly. When he turned back to Fionn, he was grinning. It only lasted a moment before he ran forward and gave Fionn as big a hug as his tiny arms could manage. "Fwiend!" he decreed. Heidi blinked, a bit surprised. Perhaps Evelyn had taught him that.

"Coffee would be great," she agreed, smiling gratefully herself. She followed Fionn and watched CJ look around his new home. At least, his home for now. It had been made very clear that Evelyn's hope after graduation was to formally take over guardianship of her brother. Heidi was proud of the girl, even if she worried all the same. On the bright side, once Evelyn was past the age of majority, Heidi would still have a role in her life if CJ was there, and she could check on her. She liked to think that Evelyn wouldn't just drop off the face of the planet otherwise, but some kids grew up and didn't want to think about what it had been like to do so.

CJ was looking around at his new environment and Heidi wondered if he'd ever been in someone else's house before. "How're you doing, kid?" Heidi asked him fondly.

CJ shrugged contentedly and Heidi wondered what was going through his head. "Thank you," he told Fionn for his juice, and Heidi was surprised again. Perhaps that was more of Evelyn's influence, or perhaps enough of Mathias Stones' high society mindset had lingered to teach his boy manners.

When they were sat down and CJ was occupied some with a toy, Heidi looked at Fionn with her adult face. "What questions do you have that I can answer?" she asked. "About anything in this process?"

22 Heidi Wright Nice change of pace. 0 Heidi Wright 0 5