“Thanks, sis. I really needed this,” said Beatrice. Giving her twin a tight hug. 

Bernadette hugged her sister back and watched her get on the train headed to Boston. The past day and a half had been tiring but enjoyable. Bernadette and Beatrice reconnected, talking about various things, going out for drinks, getting mani-pedis, and catching a little dark industry bloodsport. The things the twins used to do when they were younger. 

As enjoyable as the weekend had been, it had also been more than a bit nerve-wracking. She still wasn’t ‘trying’ to hide her current life from her family, but she ended up kind of doing so anyway, during the course of trying to make sure that her sister didn’t do anything that might make her life explode. 

Now Bernadette needed something to take her mind off of the past twenty-nine hours and her growing sense that the sister-shaped grenade that she’d sent packing might still find a way to come bite her in the fun-pocket. Staying at home by herself, for the weekend would just let her anxieties eat her alive. 

While she sat in her cat listening to smooth jazz followed by infomercials for the podcast of some D-list celeb that she’d never heard of before, Bernadette remembered that it was still Saturday. Though it was cutting close, she had a sense that a certain shrinking violet she knew might still be open to hanging out. 

Bernadette picked up her phone and called a number she really hadn’t thought she’d ever call. 

“Er...He-, Hello, Samantha Blue. Who may I ask is speaking?” said a light voice that was being drowned out by punk rock crooning. 

“Uh, hey, Sam. It’s me, Bernadette. I wanted to know if you still had the spare ticket for that auction,” said Bernadette. 

There was a sound of bed springs creaking, and things being knocked off a desk. Then Samantha’s voice returned sounding strangely out of breath. 

“Are you okay, over there?” said Bernadette. 

“Huh?! Uh, yeah, yeah! Yeah totally?!” said Samantha. Her voice sounded overly energetic. 

“So, about those tickets?” said Bernadette. Bringing the focus of the awkward little conversation back to the matter at hand. 

“Oh, right...Yeah! I'd like to lub like you go...I mean I’d love to go with you? Er, pick me up at eight, eight-thirty?” said Samantha. 

“Pick ‘you’ up?” said Bernadette.

“Er...I can’t drive,” said Samantha. Her voice seeming to shrink near the end. Her tone making Bernadette imagine being in the same room with the woman, watching her pull into herself. 

“Um, sure. No problem then. That’s cool. See you at eight then,” said Bernadette. Finding herself feeling just a tad nervous. The other woman’s uncertainty was apparently infectious.

*************************************************************************************************************

Elsewhere, a little further on in the evening, while Bernadette and Samantha were having a surprisingly not terrible time, Beatrice Wallace was returning to her family’s home in Boston. The Wallace Manor in Boston still stood, and by some miracle, neither their creditors, nor their enemies, were able to take it away from them. 

In times like these, when Beatrice was positively bone-weary, Beatrice couldn’t help being grateful for this fact. There was nothing like a childhood home to make one feel safe. Even if safety was a dangerous illusion, the feeling of safety, that feeling of having somewhere, where no one could reach you, was still important and needed for both children and adults. 

Beatrice was in the kitchen looking for a snack, the family had had to let go of most of its servants a while back. They kept a small number of day staff on board, but they generally got off work by six. They had some golems and undead staff, but those were creepy, smelled funny, and no one in the family wanted them around too often. 

Evelyn Wallace, the current head of the Wallace clan wandered into the kitchen to see a familiar posterior poking out of the fridge. She gave the behind a swat while worriedly wondering if the girl inherited that fat behind from her, or her husband’s mother. Her husband’s mother was a shrew, but the woman still looked good even in her seventies and it wouldn’t be too bad for her daughters to inherit a bit of that. 

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Evelyn on the other hand, found herself growing increasingly displeased with what she saw when she looked at her own downstairs area and was uncertain whether she needed new gene treatments, some magical surgery, or just a visit to the gym. Evelyn’s own mother had always been slender of frame, Evelyn had taken closely after her. Her excess fat looking less like curves and more like...chunk. 

“Ow! What the hell!? Oh, it’s you, mother?” said Beatrice. Yelling and turning around to see who’d hit her. Whatever minor cantrip she’d been about to cast, died on her lips as she spotted Evelyn standing behind her, but her expression still remained dour. 

“So where have you been since yesterday, Missy? I was at the end of my wits. I called and called but I couldn’t reach you. You certainly didn’t tell anyone where you were going. I swear, if I hadn’t set up that family soul-ward last year so I could easily confirm that all you kids and your father were okay, I might have finally lost my mind,” said Evelyn. Exaggerating just a tad, because though she had been worried, she’d long ago set up numerous measures to protect her children that were still in play even today. 

“Mn...Sorry, mother,” said Beatrice. Her expression still dour, with some chastenedness, creeping. 

“...I just. I just needed some time. I had to get away for a bit,” said Beatrice. 

Evelyn’s nostrils flared, and she felt a heap of swears about to leap from her mouth. Her daughter had unwittingly reminded her of one of the continuing pains in her neck, during this tumultuous period. 

Her dear sister, Margaret, was another person who acted as her “heart” willed her. Fluttering about like some kind of flame-haired, demi-god, butterfly with that annoyingly powerful husband of hers. Their mere existence caused trouble for Evelyn, by causing the sub-heads and elders within the family to question why Margaret wasn’t in charge. And is if that wasn’t enough they went around causing troubles outside the family as well. Making enemies that the enemies that family couldn’t afford to make, accruing costs that the family couldn’t afford to pay. 

Still, regardless of Evelyn's problems with her sister, Margaret, she wasn’t going to hold that against her daughters. They were her daughters and she loved them. 

“Okay, what happened?” said Evelyn. Sighing. 

Beatrice seemed to hesitate, looking worried and a little afraid. With a whatever bottle in her hands, she said, 

“Things with Devin and I are over…” 

“Oh, of course, they’re over Bea. Didn’t you hear? The Meyers family was revealed to be involved in illegal slaving, and there’s records of them having sold some of the lesser-kin of a few prominent families. We can’t get wrapped up in that kind of trouble right now,” said Evelyn. One hand on her hip. 

“No...I mean. We were over before that came out. Or rather, come on, mother. How do you think the Meyers family’s dirty business got revealed to the public like that?” said Beatrice. Pouting. 

Evelyn frowned. Her dark red brows gathered together. 

“Explain…” 

Beatrice did so and then once it was over Evelyn pulled her daughter into a hug and sighed. 

“It’s been hard on you, dear…But, I  do wish you’d come and talked to mummy first. We could have extorted the Meyers quite nicely, before crushing them. Vicenza Meyers has a collection of rare spell reagent that I would have loved to get for you, Jasper, and Chloe,” said Evelyn. 

“Sorry, mother,” said Beatrice. Paling a bit as she realized the opportunity she’d let pass, during her moment of anger. 

“No matter. I’m still proud of you love...No one scorns a Wallace woman,” said Evelyn. Giving her daughter another little hug before softly nudging her aside so she could grab a half-bottle of wine from the fridge. 

Mother and daughter stood side beside in the dim-lit kitchen, while snacking in silence. 

Then as Evelyn was grabbing some cheese spread for the crackers she was munching on, she said, 

“So…Where were you exactly?”  said Evelyn. 

“Oh, I went down to Arcadia, to visit Bernie,” said Beatrice. 

“Oh, you went to visit your sister in her hovel. How nice,” said Evelyn. Feeling her blood pressure rising as she remembered her wayward daughter. 

“Come on, mother. Be nice!”  said Beatrice. Quickly rising to her twin’s defense. 

“I’m not trying to be un-nice. I just don’t see why your sister can’t seem to find a position for herself that’ll let her meet her full potential. Your father and I paid an arm and leg, so all of you could have the best and learn from the best. We called in frankly an obscene amount of favors to get her all those interviews...And where does she end up? Working at a bloody pet shop of all places!” said Evelyn. Getting hot behind the collar. Her words turning into a bit of rant. 

“Breathe, mother.  Breathe…” said Beatrice. Soothingly rubbing her mother’s back.

“I’m sorry...I just...I worry. I'm a mother. A mother’s supposed to worry about her kids, no?” said Evelyn. 

“I know, Mother. We all do,” said Beatrice. 

“....And, I think maybe you don’t need to worry so much. From what I could see Bernie’s been doing pretty well for herself over the past year,” said Beatrice. 

“Oh?...” said Evelyn. Her tone keenly interested. 

“Yeah. She picked me up, in one of the newer Cat-Sith Model-B Smart Cars. And when I snooped around in the glove box, I didn’t sign of it being under a lease, or rental contract. Her apartment seems to be in the more affluent parts of the city of Prospero, and the inside was positively gorgeous. I think it’s fair to say Bernie’s finally found her way,” said Beatrice. 

Evelyn searched her daughter’s face. Just to check that the girl wasn’t lying for her sister’s sake. Then Evelyn sighed in relief, glad that there was one less thing she had to worry about. 

“Wonderful...That’s, that’s simply wonderful. I can’t fathom why she didn’t tell us, but good for her,” said Evelyn. A bright smile spreading across her normally severe features. 

“I don’t suppose she told you where she was working now?” said Evelyn. Mostly asking just for asking’s sake. 

“Hm? Oh, we didn’t really talk about it much. I was still wrapped up in the thing with Devin...I think she said it was some government job. Some new agency that the world government started a year or so, ago,” said Beatrice. 

Evelyn absorbed the information and nodded. Making a mental note to look into the matter later. It occurred to her that she’d allowed the family’s various crises to distract her from her family and that simply wouldn’t do. Thus she decided right then and there that she absolutely would make it to young Chloe’s soccer game this coming Saturday and she would find time to call her daughter Bernadette sometime during the week. 

The family was no longer in danger, and if all those near misses had taught her anything, it was that it was important for her to focus on the things that mattered most to her. Her children.