Life After Nicole's Fixed World

6. News and Shocks

The kids were all sitting around the annex reading or in Ezekiel's case, picking locks out of boredom when the doors burst open and their parents come in with a full bag. Cassandra jumped again. "Geeze! No need to scare us."

Eve was still looking pale at the thought of what they were about to tell them. Jacob got up to guide her to the chair he previously occupied. "Sit down, Mom. Are you ok?" He asked then looked to Flynn for answers.

"Your mother's not sure how to react to everything we saw. She's in quite the shock right now." Flynn said. "She's worried about some things as well."

"What did you find?" Ezekiel asked.

Flynn sighed. "Honestly, it's gonna be quite a hard pill to swallow. First we got news. And it's mostly for Cassandra."

Eve wanted to vomit at what he was about to reveal to the young woman, but kept control and started to cry instead. Cassandra looked concerned. "Mom, what's wrong?"

Flynn looked a little worried too and rubbed her back soothingly. "Eve... Hunny, I know it's a shock. But do you think you can pull yourself together enough to help Cassandra? She's gonna need your support and probably advice too."

Having heard him, all three lits looked at their father weirdly and Cassandra spoke. "Dad? What exactly is going on? What would I need support and advice about? Whatever it is, just tell me."

Eve finally seemed to calm down a bit and wiped her eyes. When she looked at her daughter, she took a deep breath. "I don't even know where to start. I don't know if we should just tell you, or show you."

"Show me what?"

Flynn pulled the tape out of his bag and handed it to her. "We found a bunch of tapes that never before existed. But this one is about something else we found as well."

Cassandra read it out loud. "The birth of Cassandra Carsen's daughter Annabeth?!?" She suddenly ended shocked. "No. No way..." She shook her head about to cry.

Jacob was about to comfort her when Eve got up and walked over to hug her from behind tightly. The colonial teared up again too. "I know, Sweetie. I can't even get my own head around it."

The eldest lit didn't even know what to say. Ezekiel kind of just looked like he wanted search the box of mystery pictures for something. "Dad," Jacob finally started. "What else did you find exactly?"

Flynn walked over to hug both of his girls as he answered. "Well, apparently neither your mother nor I ever lived in our apartments. When we went to my mother's house she left me when she died, turned out we lived together there. Apparently with Cassandra and our... granddaughter."

"What else?"

"Both of our cars are not in existence anymore either. We have a shared black suv."

"I feel like there's still something you're not telling us."

"Just the tapes. We'll have to look at them together. What about you guys? Find anything?" Leaving out some details about the other tapes.

"Ezekiel found this box of personal photos all of which we decided to wait on you two to get back to look at. Except we did look at one." Jacob said and pulled the photo they looked at out. "I wasn't 100% on if these were you and mom. But they definitely look like you. The little boy for sure is me as a four year old."

The librarian studied the photo for a minute. "Eve, can you confirm this? It's me at nineteen. But I'm not for sure about the one that looks like you." He said.

Colonial Baird wiped her eyes and whispered to Cassandra. "Are you ok? I know it's a shock, but we're gonna have to deal with it. I think I finally got my own mind to settle enough."

The now blonde looked at her wiping her own eyes and nodded. "I think so. I just don't know what to do. I don't really have any experience with babies." She whispered back.

"Don't worry about that. Your father and I will help you. We're going to be ok. We'll get through all of this together."

"Thanks, Mom."

Eve kisses her cheek. "Anytime, Sweetie." She replied and walks over to look at the photo in Flynn's hand. "That's me alright. I was eighteen."

"Look at the writing on the drawing and then the writing on the back." Jacob said.

They did and when they finished, Eve looked like she might faint. "Are you ok, Mom?" Ezekiel asked.

She steadied herself then looked at her youngest. "I think so. I just... I think I need to sit down." She said and Flynn helped her back on the chair she had sat in a few minutes ago.

"Hunny, are you sure you're ok? Do you want some water or something?" Flynn asked his girlfriend.

"No. I'm ok. This is just a lot to take in."

"I know it is. All of our pasts have changed obviously. And it's not the most pleasant of side effects from the spell. But we've dealt with worse. We'll figure it out. Just like we always do."

"Should we stop for tonight and continue this investigation tomorrow?" Jacob asked. "We have at least a few days before we get the assignment about the minotaur."

"That's a great idea, Jake." Flynn said. "We've all seen a lot today that will take some getting used to. I think it's best we save the rest for tomorrow. We don't need any of our brains to implode. Too much shock at once can do that. And it can be a pain to clean up."

Everyone else agreed and they all dispersed to separate bedrooms the annex has. Eve with her librarian of course.