A Not So Sweet Fairytale

*Seventeen Years Later*

"Come on dad. Let's go already,” Jeffrey complained and Tre` sped up happily hitting triple digits on a long windy road as we passed another 45 MPH speed limit sign until he felt me put my hand on his shoulder once again.

He sighed and muttered something under his breath, but slowed down all the same, mostly because he knew how bitchy pregnancy made me all too well.

"I wanna help painth tha walls neon green,” Jeffrey smiled a smile missing his two front teeth, having lost them falling off the monkey bars. It had made Tre` relive his unicycle accident in his dreams for the next month waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.

"No! No! No! Mommy sud we wud paint dem bwue,” Katie shrieked, very proud to have just learned her colors successfully after long hours of flashcards.

"Come off it you two. We're painting them pink. Torrie promised that I could pick the color this time,” Jessica informed us, trying out her new found 'teenage attitude' that I apparently 'have to learn to deal with'.

I sighed and looked at her straight in the eyes.

"What have I said about calling me Torrie?" I asked for the billionth time.

"Well I second the blue motion,” Nathan grinned, ruffling Katie's hair who just laughed.

"That's just because your car's blue and- oh yeah- your crush's eyes are blue,” Jessica sneered, upset that he was three years older with a license.

"Come on you guys. We're almost there,” Tre` commanded and everyone stopped. They really listened to Tre`.

With that we finally pulled up into the driveway of our new house, a plain canvas awaiting destruction via a sixteen year old who would use the trees to sneak out, a thirteen year old who thinks everything needs to be 'glitterfied', an eight year old pyromaniac, and a three year old still suffering the after affects of the terrible twos. Not to mention a grown man who likes to put slip'n'slides on the stairs and out the front door...

We climbed out of the newly equipped ancient van and I sighed, knowing that the house wouldn't even be recognizable in a week's time. I looked down at my stomach, wishing I could see my feet again. Only two more months…

We walked up to the front door. The house was in a decent neighborhood, hopefully we wouldn't have the drug dealer next door this time (much to Tre`s disappointment I'd made him move). I was a paranoid mother, but lenient.

I knew Nathan was a pothead and had been for two years. Within the first six weeks of him starting, I'd talked to him about it. I'd told him that if he kept his grades up he could keep smoking, as long as he didn't get caught by anyone. Especially not one his siblings.

We stood in front of the door, Katie holding Nathan's hand as Tre` fiddled around in his pockets, trying to find the key the realtor had given us earlier that morning. After several moments Tre` turned to me.

"I got it this time,” Nathan rolled his eyes, let go of Katie's hand, and walked around to the back yard.

"Tre`. I thought we'd been over this. You put the key in your right pocket,” I sighed. We'd moved several times for all different reasons, and he always seemed to manage to lose the key and I usually went around and found an open window, but since I was so pregnant Nathan had volunteered.

"Yeah, well, it's handy we have acrobats in the family,” he said, rolling his eyes and then turned away from me and faced the door, waiting for Nathan to hurry up.

"Now DAT'S whut I wanna be when I gwow up- an acrowbat!" Katie told us all.

"I thought you wanted to Sailor Moon,” Jeffrey reminded her with a sideways glance, apparently the only one up to date on the latest 'I wanna be ____ when I gwow up'.

"Nuhuh,” Katie told him, hands on hips.

"I think you two will make wonderful clowns,” Jessica sneered, her arms crossed as she scouted the neighborhood for any possibilities. Spotting one, she turned and looked at me.

"Can I go- mingle- with the neighbors? It's the neighborly thing to do anyways, mother,” she grinned and I nodded.

"Just come back when you see the moving truck coming!" I yelled after her as she practically raced down the street towards a boy who looked fifteen with light brown, surfer hair mowing his lawn.

"But- She's- He's a guy and- and-" Tre` started spewing. He was adjusting to them growing up very well.

"It'll be okay,” I told Tre` as Nathan finally opened the door to let us in.

"About time,” Jeffrey mumbled, pushing ahead of all of us.

"Sorry. This place might as well be airtight,” he shrugged.

"Well at least we're safe if a flood comes,” Tre` told us all.

"Honey, we're on the outskirts of Oakland. There's no ocean near us,” I reminded him and he shrugged.

"Whatever. We're still covered."

We walked into the house that looked just as uniform on the inside as the outside.

"Well, we might as well start decorating,” Tre` told us all and we groaned, god knew what that meant.

"I don wanna decorwate this time. I wanna go to da park we passed,” Katie complained.

"Fine. I'll take you,” Nathan volunteered, glad for an excuse to leave the house, as he played with something in his pocket. I glared at him warningly, knowing full well what he was playing with.

He noticed the look, took his hands out of his pockets, and led Katie to the park.

"Well I want to decorate,” Jeffrey said proudly.

"Me too,” Tre` grinned.

"Well I'm tired so I'm gunna go take a nap on the carpet upstairs,” I muttered, beginning to climb the stairs.

"So what color are we gonna paint the walls?" Jeffrey asked seriously.

"Well, we're not going to paint the walls this time. That takes too long. Instead we're gonna staple wallpaper to the wall,” Tre` explained, very proud.

"That sounds awesome! Can I burn the leftover wallpaper?" Jeffrey asked excitedly.

I found a corner of the house where the previous owner had left a mattress as a surprise for us. I laid down and fell asleep immediately, feeling my back relax for the first time all day.

When I woke up, amber light was flooding through the blinds on the new window over my head. I sighed, knowing I'd been asleep for a couple hours. I decided to check and see what was going on, so I went back down the stairs slowly.

When I got to the bottom floor I stopped and tried to make sense of what I was seeing. Tre` was standing very close to the wall, red in the face, and trying to bore a hole in the back of Jeffrey's head. Jeffrey was sitting on the hard wood floor eating the carton of ice cream. There were other cartons surrounding him. I wondered where he'd gotten them.

"Uh?" I asked and Tre` turned to me.

"He stapled me to the wall!" He shrieked, sounding like a two year old.

"What do you expect when you give an eight year old an electric staple gun?" I asked.

"Well, not this,” he tried.

"Where'd you get the ice cream?" I asked Jeffrey, who'd jumped up and was clutching his ice cream to his chest.

"Nathan went to Cosco. He just left to go back. He forgot to get popcorn,” he grinned, his entire face completely covered in ice cream. He was trembling from the insane sugar intake for such a small kid.

"Oh geeze,” I muttered.

Then the doorbell chimed distantly. I waddled over to the door and opened it up to reveal Apollo and Uncle Gerard. I took a deep breath, as I always did when in the presence of Gerard. The wounds had healed, but there was still a lot of tension between Tre` and Gee.

"Hey. What are you two doing here?" I asked, still feeling exhausted.

"It's nice to see you too mom,” Apollo grinned, stepping forward to give me a hug, but all he could manage was to wrap his arms around my shoulders. My stomach was in the way.

"Another one?" Gerard asked. I wasn't in continuous contact with him anymore.

"Yup. Seven months in,” I told him, then stepped aside to let them in.

"Hey dad,” Apollo waved to Tre`, used to his antics.

"Hey Apollo. How was work?" He asked, the usual as he paused struggling against the wall.

"Alright. Had to do a triple bypass on an old woman today. Thankfully, she made it through alright,” he grinned.

I smiled back at him, trying not to remember Charlotte who was his inspiration to become a heart surgeon to begin with.

"And Anastasia?" I asked, rubbing the tears out of my eyes and referring to his wife of two years. They'd gotten married barefoot on a beach in San Diego. She was Gerard's daughter, the one who had been the reason for us breaking it off. She really was Gerard's daughter with his smile and attitude. I couldn't blame Apollo for getting married to her.

"Just fine. We're taking James and Michael down to visit granpa this coming week,” he told me.

"Have fun,” I grinned. I hadn't seen my father in a year or so. He'd been preoccupied keeping Billie Joe busy since he was having separation anxiety since his boys' band was touring in Europe for the year. Even though they did it every other year, Billie Joe got more distraught each time. Adrienne usually was the one who kept him busy, but she had been pretty sick lately. No one knew what was wrong with her. Perhaps a visit from the twins was just what they all needed.

"Well, would anyone like to help me get off the wall? Jeffrey's managed to staple my boxers and shorts to the wall and I can't exactly climb out of my pants this time,” Tre` explained with a proud smile. Jeffrey was already following in his footsteps.

"But- my ice cream?" Jeffrey asked, still backing away from the room quietly.

"Gotcha!" Nathan screamed, trapping Jeffrey in his arms so he couldn't run anywhere with the ice cream.

"Yuh- gutchu!" Katie chorused, a firm follower of Nathan.

"Hund it off er,” Katie demanded, holding out her hand in front of him.

Jeffrey handed her the pretty much empty carton reluctantly and Nathan released him.

"I'll help you buddy,” Gerard, who hadn't said a word since finding out I was pregnant, volunteered, walking over to Tre` who nodded.

Just then Jessica walked in through the door, followed by the same sandy haired boy who'd been mowing the lawn earlier.

"That's a little- uhhhh…" The unnamed boy tried, eyeing Gerard who was unzipping Tre`s zipper on his shorts while pushed up against the wall.

Tre` grinned, then pulled Gerard closer to him and I rolled my eyes. He loved being the center of attention when it came to strangers.

"He got stapled to the wall,” I explained, walking over to the two of them who I noticed were holding hands.

"At least that's the excuse I'm going with,” Tre` smiled, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Wait- you're- but- no- are you?" The boy stammered, Tre just nodded.

"The one and only Tre` Cool!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms up into the air and hitting Gerard on the head on accident.

"Ow! Do you want help or not?" Gerard asked, not noticing the still stunned expression the boy had on when he saw Gerard.

"Yeah, that's Gerard Way. But anyways, what's going on?" I asked, trying to not embarrass Jessica as she anyways insisted we did.

"Robin's family invited us to dinner,” Jessica explained, with her eternal air of attitude.

"Well what do you think guys?" I asked, looking around and saw everyone nodding, except for Nathan who was eyeing Robin with a calculating look.

"Have any siblings Robin?" Nathan asked suddenly and I shot him a look. There'd be plenty of time for interrogation at dinner.

"Yeah, I have an older brother. His name's Darren. He just turned seventeen,” Robin answered cooly and I was impressed as was Nathan who backed off. He wasn't comfortable with his Jessica being a teenage girl who liked teenage guys.

"Well then, let's go,” I announced before Nathan could ask anything else. I was starving.

So was everyone else apparently because everyone seemed to surge towards the door, except for Tre`.

"Hey!" He yelled at us and we all stopped.

"We'll bring you back something,” I grinned back at him.

"Torrie! Please!" He screamed and I sighed.

"You did this to yourself. You were too lazy to paint the walls. Deal,” I turned away from him.

"I swear I'll paint the walls if you just let me go,” he sighed, knowing exactly what I was after.

"Promise?" I asked, looking him dead on in the eyes.

"Yeah,” he nodded once more.

"Well then, come on,” I told him, ripping him from the wall with his clothes in tact with such force that he fell to the floor.

"Now… Food! Food!" He demanded, crawling towards the door.

"You may want to stand Mr. Caveman,” I reminded him, following him closely.

"Oh, right,” he mumbled, standing.

With that we followed the rest of the group to Robin's house where a pair of women were entwined, awaiting our arrival. One of them looked like Robin, clearly his mother, while the other was a red head with dimples. Both were wearing jeans and tight shirts with low necklines.

"Hi. My name's Torrie Wright. This is my husband, just call him Tre`, my sons Jeffrey, Nathan, and Apollo, my daughters Katie and Jessica, and my son's father in law Gerard,” I introduced us, indicating each member by pointing.

"I'm Katherine Michelson and this is my life partner, Lilly,” she grinned and I elbowed Tre` who I knew was thinking he needed to set up his old telescope to get in on the action.

"Well, let's go in. I worked my butt off making this dinner,” Lilly spoke for the first time, then led us inside a house that was identical to ours, except their house actually had furniture.

"Whatever happened to the moving truck?" I asked quietly, turning to Tre`.

"Oh yeah, they called and said their truck had broken down so they're coming later tonight. At midnight or so they said,” Tre` recapped and I nodded.

"I'm sure you've heard this a hundred times, but you're eyes are gorgeous,” Katherine told me suddenly.

"Oh-um- I got them from my father,” I smiled, taken aback by surprise.

"Katherine, why don't you run ahead of everyone and grab two more place settings for the two extras?" Lilly suggested, pulling Katherine away and giving me a dirty look.

Tre` just laughed silently. This was going to be an interesting dinner.