[Ty & Sarah] I can take a deep breath now

[brandnamegenes]

She'd insisted on finishing out the semester - because, for God's sake, there was only two weeks left, and she didn't want to be that girl who was making up her finals. Even with what Elisha kept reasonably pointing out (at louder and louder volumes) was a perfectly valid reason to be making up her finals. She wasn't going to let Jesse win the battle of public relations, a statement that had had her dad groaning theatrically and wondering out loud why his children were basically his father.

The dads had, therefore, spent the next two weeks at the Park Plaza while Sarah had thrown herself into her NYU classes headfirst and refused to think of anything but Greek Architecture and the History of Urban Design until she'd passed all her exams. Then, of course, she didn't have that to concentrate on, and she was on a plane home with her parents and one very worried older brother.

In Chicago, it was kind of easy to pretend none of it had happened, Sarah thought as she spun in the swivel chair in her dad's study. Not entirely; neither of her dads were going to let her do something like...pretend it hadn't happened, as much as she sort of wanted to do just that. But she sure as hell had no risk of ever running into Jesse. She wrinkled her nose as she caught the direction her thoughts were starting to go - she could transfer to a college in Chicago and get almost the same program. She'd definitely never run into Jesse Vaughn-Mackenzie in Chicago. He'd told her a dozen times that he was amazed someone like her came from the Midwest.

God, she thought, why hadn't she dumped him in the first week? The world would never know.

Sarah shook her head as she heard the front door slam, and spun in the chair again as a way too serious-looking version of her baby brother (she had fifteen minutes on him, it counted) started past the study. "You took your damn time," she said, and half-smiled, half-smirked as he swung his head to stare at her. "I was thinking maybe that Ollie got scared by the idea of Kagan Family Togetherness and the two of you were hightailing it back to L.A."

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[missinglinks]

"Ha ha, funny." Ty said, smirking a little as he turned from his expected course. Hadyn had been at the airport to pick them up, and had decided to drag Ollie out on an errand with him. Ty suspected it was to split the two of them up so that he could get a measure on Ollie without Ty trying to run interference. Strangely they had never done anything life that when he'd dated a girl.

Of course...Hadyn driving a car was also a bit more new. It made some sense, though. The man had a pace-maker, and frankly didn't need to do nearly the same amount of walking and running he used to. It was still strange, though, seeing him drive. He'd rarely ventured out in a car as they grew up.

"I'll have you know, there are rules, young lady." One such rule was that he had to leave campus in his uniform. Thus he and Ollie and gotten in the cab to BWI in uniform, and flew home in uniform. Setting his bag and hat down, he shucked off his Navy Issued peat coat, and hung it up on a hook by the study before moving into the room.

"Ollie's getting his first taste of 'welcome to the family' as we speak. Hadyn's taken him out on an errand. Either to give him the third degree, make him carry things, or both." Probably both, if he thought about it. "How are you?"

[brandnamegenes]

"Maybe Papa just wants to be seen with a hot young man in uniform," Sarah said, flicking her hair out of her eyes. "I can't blame him." Ollie was, after all, extremely hot. But in reality, he was probably getting the third degree. Which was probably less because Oliver Byrd was a man as much as it was because of. Well.

Jesse. Sarah frowned a little bit and chewed on the base of her thumb before she shrugged. "I'm fine," she said after a moment, and lifted her eyes to meet her twin's. "Really," she said. "I'm okay. I want him to die a little bit, but I'm okay."

[missinglinks]

"I'm...going to pretend that was not said." Ty said with a laugh as he pulled a chair over and sat down on it backwards. He folded his arms over the back at the chair and looked away a moment. "He is hot though, so." It was neither here nor there, though.

But he did cock his head to the side as she said that last bit. "That...could be arranged. Like...um, more than arranged. Because when I find that son of a bitch he might want to run for cover." Not to mention that Ty has already proven himself to be an excellent shot with a rifle. When he'd discussed career paths with his adviser, it had been mentioned at least twice that he was a rather impressive shot. "A few friends insisted on walking me through the airport until I boarded a flight to Chicago, or he might have been dead already."

He wasn't even joking, either.

[brandnamegenes]

Sarah was pretty sure that shooting an overprivileged snotty New Yorker in the face - no matter how much he really had it coming - was probably not going to do a whole lot for Ty's career. Especially not his chances of being a SEAL, which, admittedly, was something that sent a twist of fear through her stomach when she thought about it. Gaël's boyfriend was a SEAL, and he talked a little bit to her about worrying when Carlos was away.

"How dare they," she said, though, dryly. "Jesse in the ER would have been a great Christmas present. And we don't even celebrate Christmas." The rape counselor she'd talked to in New York had told her it was healthy to want Jesse to be punished, Sarah thought, but somehow she didn't think she'd really had murder in mind.

"They let him out on bail, you know," she said instead. "And his parents got him a battalion of lawyers."

[missinglinks]

"Yeah?" He said, raising a brow. "They...are aware that your last name is Kagan? Even if he manages to get off this...ridiculous charge somehow, which I highly doubt if Uncle Jordan gets any say in the matter, we have a battalion of lawyers. I'm pretty sure that no matter what they do, Grandpa is planning to destroy everything that entire family has ever held dear."

The saying 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' might have been coined a long time ago about a jilted woman, but Ty was pretty convinced that Jonah Kagan was about to rewrite the history of that phrase. His conversation with his grandparents hadn't been long, when he'd been back in Maryland, but it had be interesting. Their grandmother was just worried about Sarah, and more or less just concerned for her well-being. But Jonah was just enraged, she said. All the man would talk about was how he would make Vaughn-Mackenzie regret the day their son was ever born.

It was the first time Ty ever believed what his father had told him about the man growing up.

"That aside...we can always set Greg on Jesse. He's great at making people miserable." It was their cousin's one supreme talent in life.

[brandnamegenes]

"You are aware that Kagan is, like, the Jewish Smith?" Sarah said, leaning her arm on the back of the chair. "And that I probably didn't tell him that I could swim in money like Scrooge McDuck?" She wasn't an idiot, after all. She might have liked Jesse a lot - and for some now inexplicable reason (probably related to his absurdly long eyelashes) she had liked Jesse a lot - but they'd all grown up knowing that a lot of the time people were around them because of what they could do for them.

It had caused them all to develop slightly suspicious natures about the whole romance thing. Sometimes she thought the best way to deal with it was the way their dad apparently had: just pretend you didn't have money.

As for Grandpa...she was a little worried he was going to burst a blood vessel every time she saw him, honestly. The man was north of eighty now, and she suspect he and Dad were brainstorming ways to bury Jesse and his entire family is so much legal tape that they'd never see the light of day again. An idea, if she was really honest, she didn't exactly hate. She did want Jesse to regret the day he'd ever hurt her. She just wished there was a way to make him regret without feeling like the men in her family were playing knight.

She smirked a little, though. "Yeah, that's happened already," she said. "He got a black eye in before Uncle Jordan broke them apart and scared the fuck out of Jesse with legalese."

[missinglinks]

There was no stopping the men in Sarah's life playing knight. It was the nature of being one of two women in the family. Hell, Leona wasn't even really in the picture, though he imagined she'd had some advise for Sarah...along with a bottle. She wouldn't have been the best to have about, really.

"Yeah, I know." He said, looking down. "Well, if he didn't know before he's really going to know after all of this. And, you know...that'll be an interesting look on his face. I wish I didn't have to go back to school just so I could see it." These past few weeks had definitely given Ty pause. It was the first time he realized just how...separate he would be from his family. When something horrible happened, he wouldn't just be able to drop everything and go.

"What? He got to punch the dickwad and I didn't?" He asked, horrified. "That's it...I'm going to have to go to New York. I'll be back tomorrow."

Though he didn't move. "Did you punch him?"

[brandnamegenes]

Aunt Leona was...fun. There was no denying that - she didn't even think Uncle Jordan would deny it. But they'd known early on that she wasn't the kind of family member who you could really count on, in the end. Hell, even Greg knew that; he didn't want it to be true, but when the chips were down...he knew it.

Sarah snorted. "You are not," she said, "going to New York. Dad would probably tackle you before you got out the door." Well, if Elisha were home. He was off creating glass - something he'd been doing an extra lot of since they'd gotten home. She didn't have to guess why.

She was silent, though, for a moment. "My aim was...bad," she said finally. She'd thrown punches - a lot of them - but none of them had really connected. She'd been too upset, too shocked, too...too many things. Mostly she'd been desperate to get away.

[missinglinks]

"Well, I know what your getting for Hanukkah...some well proven self-defense lessons. Ollie can be the practice dummy." Ollie would also give him a pathetic look about that, too. But it would amuse Ty, that much was sure. "And after I'm gone, you can practice on Izak. He's a string bean, good for practicing."

Mostly, Ty thought, he wanted to give Sarah something that would help her feel safe again. Self-defense was about the only thing he knew could help with that. "I mean, it would be useful for asshole boyfriends and pricks that don't know what headphones on the subway means."

[brandnamegenes]

"But what about the manspreaders, Ty? That's the real scourge of New York." She wasn't really kidding.

She did laugh a little, though, before eying Ty with a knowing look. "And what did your boyfriend do to deserve that?" She asked. "He's already getting the third degree from Papa. He'll get it again from Dad when Dad gets home. Izak was even thinking about asking his intentions." That was a blatant lie, obviously, but it would be funny as hell.

It was true, though, that her fighting skills weren't exactly on par. She'd played tennis in high school because Hadyn had insisted on some kind of regular physical activity, and her asthma had been too bad for track like Izak or soccer like Ty. But it didn't exactly prepare one for defending oneself. Neither did yoga.

[missinglinks]

"Oh, you know...he just gave me that smirk and I decided it would be funny. To be fair, I'm pretty sure he's already got revenge planned and he doesn't even know what is about to happen." He smiled though, because it was still fun. No matter how much she didn't understand it. Maybe it was just a Navy thing...these were the same people who would give nut taps as a form of hello.

"Izak is so not giving anyone the third degree. And I'm sure Ollie can fly through the storm. He's...charming. And has his own money, so mine basically means nothing." Plus, honestly, money wasn't a thing when you considered where both of them met.

"But...I can promise that I've got some fairly painless punching for you."

[brandnamegenes]

She'd only met Ollie when she'd impulsively driven down to Annapolis on Fall Break this year, but despite only knowing him for a weekend - she was pretty sure that smirk was just the way his face worked. "You're both weird," she said, though, laughing a little.

She did wonder a little what it was like, dating someone who didn't care about your money. Jesse's cluelessness was part of his appeal, but it hadn't exactly worked out for her. "You should make him introduce you to his family," she said. "I bet Hollywood is full of stories beyond even what we filthy rich scions of industry can come up with." Her history degree was getting a little weird, at least the twentieth century class. She was pretty sure one of the chapters of her book for the final essay was about their great-grandfather.

She leaned back, though. "Painless?" she said. "You mean, you're not going to let him break my nose? I am touched, Tyler." She tapped her heart. "Right here."