Prove It (Completed)

19. Topper

So far so good, apart from Cassandra's stupid comments and I wondered what Alexi would do, she would hate that her friend had been so unnecessarily catty. Would she send her home, would she let her stay and would she protect Cassandra if she said anything else about Per's being here.

I wandered out of the pool house, knowing that Ivo needed Per more than any of us at the moment, it didn't bother me, he had her alone, I knew my time would comedropping onto a subbed and watching as Cassian and Cosmo swam lengths. I wanted them to stop, so I could talk to them, find out why Cassandra was here, I was surprised they hadn't already got rid of her. They hated anyone else taking Alexi's attention, it was a open family secret that they intended to claim her as their own, just as soon as she finished her internship, Alexi kept brushing them off, not taking them seriously but we all saw the intent in their actions, she was theirs and I was sure it would be an epic battle if she tried to say no to them.

Ivo had taken Per for a stroll along the beach, and I know Rupert was with his mother and Thad had gone off in search of his father, all of us still blown away by his reaction earlier. Per had assured us that she had already forgotten Cassandra words and she was alright. We all hated that she seemed so okay with taking verbal attacks like that, in brushing them off so easily and we had all promised we would deal with anyone that did that again. She had patted each of us and told us not to worry, we had told her okay, whilst exchanging looks to the opposite over her heads.

"Where's our Little brother?" Cosmo dropped onto the lounger next to me and I started, I had been so lost in my thoughts about Per, that I hadn't noticed them getting out of the pool.

"On the beach with Per" and I grin.

"You thinking of your girl?" Cassian asks with a grin and I nod.

"Yeah"

"You lot stirred up this vacation, that's for sure, they were okay about the storm, trusting you to manage together, then you call about a girl coming with you and BAM, they all loose their marbles, there was a lot of whispering between the parental's" Cassian laughs.

"Anything negative?" I ask, knowing these tow would not sugarcoat anything.

"not that we heard. Why is this the first we've heard of her anyway?" Cosmo asks.

"Because three days ago we didn't know she existed" I tell them, grinning at the shocked look on their faces.

"Three days, what the fuck bro, where did you find her, is this some sort of joke?" Cosmo barks out, looking worried and I know its just because he cares.

I tell them everything, from finding her in the kitchen, realising she had been at schools with us for a year and we hadn't seen her, absolutely everything, our reactions to her, her attack, her parents, our feeling, our plans for the future and they sat and listened.

"We know the kid... Vaughn" Cassian says when I have finished. "He is part of a project team working on a new vaccine that is mineral based, we are supplying the key mineral from our mine just outside Jacarta, he is representing Vaughn Chemicals who are trying to create a lab based version of our mineral"

"Fuck, Ivo will go nuts" I hiss out, knowing Ivo wants to kill him for daring to hurt Per.

"He won't get the chance, its early stages but we can change the labs, there were other options to Vaughn Chemicals, we can just choose one of them" Cosmo says.

"Can you do that?" I ask, knowing it would probably involve a lot of work and financial penalties, if they can break what would probably be a watertight contract.

They laugh "Who's going to stop us?"

I stayed and chatted with them for a while longer, I had seen Thad go back to the pool house about an hour ago and knew Ru was there as well, but it was the thought of seeing Per again that had me returning.

"They are not back yet" Ru calls as I walk in.  He and Thad are sat, the games console on and Call of Duty playing.  "Want to play?" he asks pausing their game.

"Okay" I respond and join them.

We play for another hour before the door opens and Ivo leads in a flushed looking Per, his hand holding hers possessively but its the smile on his face that makes our brows raise.  Per blushes and leans into his side but smiles at us as well.

"Good walk?" Ru asks with a laugh as the two of them blush a little and I notice the state of their clothes, did he, did they?

"I need to take a shower" Per whispers nervously as we watch in silence.

"You're in the master, your bags are already up there, first door on the right at the top of the stairs" Thad tells her and I watch as Ivo leans down to kiss her lips before letting her go and with another blush she is off, rushing up the stairs.

"Drink?" I asked the room and heard the murmurings as all eyes followed Ivo over to the bar.  I poured and pushed glasses to each of them before lifting mine in toast "Congratulations" I told Ivo who blushed and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Do you hate me?" he asked us quietly, our fearless leader was nervous, guilty and much as we would normally want to rib each other, this was not the time, there was too much at stake.

"No, we don't hate you" Ru told him.

"She was ready?" Thad asked curiously and Ivo nodded, his face flushing at a memory.

"She was... is perfect" he said cautiously.

"Ivo, we are happy for you, we promise" I tell him and he nods looking relieved.

"Go shower, let Per know we have to be back up at the house in any hour for dinner" I tell him with a grin. His eyes widen at my words and I see the confusion.  "Ivo you are the only one who can interrupt her shower to tell her, she has let you in, we can't do that until she lets us in too" I explain and he nods, understanding what I am trying to say.

"Go" Thad laughs and Ru pushes him in the direction of the stairs as we all laugh at him.

We all sit back down, each of us with a smile of sorts, she had accepted Ivo, now we just had to wait for her to come to us, she was in...