Cheryl's POV
"Taylor?" The girl says turning around
Oh my god she looks so much like Kait.
"That's insane. How do they look more alike than Madi and Alex," Toni whispers
Kait and Tayleigh walk towards each other cautiously.
"Why are you here?" Taylor asks "You left Montréal years ago,"
"They took me, I didnt leave,"
They hug
"I missed you Tay," Kait says
"I missed you too,"
Tayleigh looked at us and jumped back.
"Taylor who are these people?" Tayleigh says in a whisper
"This is my family," Kait says "Toni and Cheryl adopted me, Madi and Alex are my sisters and the three in the back are my uncles, Pea, Jughead, and Fangs,"
"Nice to meet you all,"
We all talk until Kevin gets here, he asks us questions and then asks us to leave.
"What about Tayleigh?"
"I can give you temporary custody for now, until you figure out whats best for her,"
"Ok,"
We walk over to where Kait and Tayleigh are talking.
"Tayleigh, if its ok with you, the Police Officer said you can live with us for a bit until you decide what you want to do,"
"Ya thats ok," She says shyly
We go back home and Tayleigh and Kait go upstairs while Cher, Alex, Madi and I stay downstairs.
"Girls I know there is going to be push back from this, but we decided both of you are going to start seeing a therapist once a week,"
"Not a chance," MAdi says rolling her eyes "I hate therapists,"
"Ya well its done, you're going," Cheryl says
"Fine, but dont expect me to like this," Madi mutters
"I dont expect you to like it," I assure her "But you start tomorrow,"
Both of them mutter something under their breath and go upstairs to change for bed.
"Why our lives so crazy?" Cheryl asks laying down on my chest.
"Because we have 3 kids that have been through hell, and all our lives have been hell." I say "Oh right and people hate you because you're perfect and they hate me because I got to marry the most perfect girl in Riverdale,"
"Your such a flirt TT," She says playing with my hair
"I know," I laugh
MARCH
Cheryls POV
Tayleigh's adoption finally went through. There was a lot of controversy about us adopting her because she wasn't a legal American citizen, but eventually everything worked out. We only had 2 or three problems. The biggest problem is that Tayleigh doesnt talk to Toni. She likes me, she seems really dislikes Toni. I don't even know why, the other kids seem to like Toni more than me even but Tayleigh seems afraid of her. I could tell Toni was getting frustrated too, she always tried to talk to Tayleigh but Tay just nods or shakes her head and immediately drops her face to look at the floor. The second problem wasn't really that big of a deal but everytime we were making plans to go somewhere or had an important conversation involving any of us Tay left the room in a hurry. I was laying on the couch with Toni on top of me cuddled up with a blanket.
"Babe what am I doing wrong?" She asks out of the blue "Why wont Tay talk to me?"
"You're doing nothing wrong Tones you're amazing, we dont know what Tay went through all those years with Veronica, we dont know anything,"
"I know I just feel like she hates me,"
"I dont hate you," Tayleigh says from behind us
Toni jerks up and waves Tay in
"Tay, we know you're just adjusting, Toni is just having a bad day," I say as she sits down
All she does is hands me a note and presses a finger to her lip to signal to read in our heads. It was written in half hers and half KT's handwriting.
"Moms,
KT and I were sitting and talking in our room when she said you guys dealt with a bug in her listening to everything you say. We started writing everything down so the listeners dont get suspicious but we dont have a lot of time." I read
Tay lifts her shirt to reveal a large blinking red light right under her skin, bigger than the one KT had in her neck. It was about 3/4 the way down her back and the width of a nickel or quarter.
"See the bee stung me!" She says looking at me dead in the eye.
READ MORE she mouths
Mine also has a camera or something Ms. Veronica told me so anyways. It was put in so she could spy on me but it started beeping and I'm scared. Mom's we need to do something.
Please Help,
(BE subtle) That was obviously KT's writing because she says this all the time
TTB & KTTB
"Kiddo do want to go grab an ice pack from the kitchen and CHeryl and I will search up more about bee stings," Toni says
Tayleigh walks away and nods.
"Well at-least we know the why now," Toni says
"I'll text Kev,"
"Good idea, and I'll text Dr. Pralice,"
Kevin speeds over here in his sherif cruiser, just as the boys are getting in the door.
"What's the problem?" Kev asks
"Tayleigh was bugged just like kait but hers is bigger, makes noises and she seems to think there is a camera."
"Oh shit," Hé says
"We dont know what to do," Toni admits
"Bring her to the hospital. Right now,"
"Ok, we will,"
"And only her, we dont know what this thing is I dont want any of your other kids around it,"
"Good plan," I say nodding
"TAYLEIGH WE'RE LEAVING," Toni yells upstairs
We all rush out of the door, and all three boys start going to the hospital.
"Babysitter." I say to Toni
"MADI ALEX WATCH KAIT AND USE YOUR BURNER IF SOMETHING HAPPENS," Toni yells up
"OK,"
"You didnt take away the burner?" I say shaking my head
"It came in handy Cheryl," Toni shrugs
"We seriously need to talk about this,"
"Later,"
We drive to the hospital and go right to Dr. Pralice.
"What seems to be the problem today Kait?" He asks
He doesnt know this is Tayleigh.
"This isn't Kait, its her twin sister Tayleigh, and she is-" Jughead starts before being cut off by Toni
"We think she might be allergic to bees, and she got stung ," Toni says glaring at Jug
"Right, thats what I was saying," He says a little confused
Toni lifts up Tay's shirt to expose the large red blinking
"Ya I definitely think the stinger is still in there, I'll take it out. But this is going to hurt a lot," Dr. Pralice says
"Its fine, It hurt a lot going in so it wont hurt any worse coming out," Tayleigh shrugs
"I dont want to put drugs in her system because of last time," Dr. Pralice whispers to me
"Perfect," I nod
He lies Tayleigh down on her stomach and Toni grabs her hand.
"Its going to hurt ok? But squeeze my hand as hard as you want Tay,"
"Ok,"
Dr. Pralice makes an incision into Tay's back. She doesnt even flinch. He scopes out the area once it bleeds less and lifts the bug out of her back. He puts it in a dish and covers it up fast. The bug starts squirting some sort of liquid- probably a similar one to the unknown one in KT's bug. Tayleigh shifts a little bit. Dr. Pralice stitches her up and then tells us to stay here while he gets the bug checked out.
"I'm sorry I didnt tell you sooner, I knew about it, I was really scared about Ms. Veronica," Tayleigh says playing with her hands
"It's ok Tay, but thats why you always left when we started talking about important stuff right?" Toni asks
She nods.
"Why did you avoid Toni more than me?"
"Ms. Veronica talked more about Toni than you. At first I was scared of Toni because Ms. Veronica told me she was violent and showed me pictures of Taylor and her wrists and back were all marked up. She said Toni abused Taylor and Cheryl knew but didnt know anything. I didn't really believe her because i didnt think Taylor would stay if she was getting abused but when you became the leader of a gang Ms. Veronica told a story about you threatening her. But once I lived with you for a while I saw nothing happening, you never even touch any of the girls so, I didn't want to give Ms. Veronica any ammunition to ruin your life more than she already has." Tayleigh explains starting to cry
"Kiddo, its ok. I understand. Veronica is very manipulative," Toni says hugging Tayleigh
"Ok, so this device is a lot different than the one we found in kait, for one it wasn't inserted in a needle it was surgically inserted, for two it actually tracked where she was we need to run more tests but it. Igbo have even been able to track what rooms she was in. thirdly, the drugs were not meant to just knock her out and give her amnesia like KT's was, it was a synthetic mix of pure cyanide and Penicillin that would have been fatal to her within minutes. Lastly, it had an xray vision camera, something we have never seen before so she might need to undergo treatment for radiation treatment," Dr. Pralice says walking back in
"Ah Lodge at it again," Toni says rolling her eyes
"I can assure you 100% this time that she cannot push back her court date, she will go to jail," Kevin assures us
"Thanks Kevin,"
"Can we go home now?" Tayleigh asks
"For sure kiddo," Toni says rustling her hair
We walk out and get into the car.
"Kiddo you didnt even flinch when her started taking out the machine," Toni says
"Didn't hurt any worse than everything before," She shrugs
The therapist had told us about the abuse she suffered with Veronica, but Tay doesnt talk about it with us.
We go the rest of the ride in silence before I turn into Thornhill. We get out and make it to the front door.
"Hey Tay, look at me," Toni says kneeling to Tayleigh's level. "You know you can talk to us right?"
"Ya I know, I'm just getting used to it, you know? I wasn't aloud to talk to Ms. Veronica,"
"I know, and I get it. Just wanted you to know that ok?"
"Thank you Toni," She says hugging her
"No problem kid, now go play with your sisters,"
Tayleigh runs up the stairs and we make our way to the living area and turn on the TV.
"I'll go get some chips," Toni says getting up from her chair
"Barbe que?" I ask
"Of course princess,"
She comes back a couple minutes later with a bag of chips and sodas.
"Now lemme guess Cherry Cola for Cheryl Bombshell," She says handing me the bottle
I laugh and open the bottle and put the bag of chips on the coffee table. Toni sits across from me and she's obviously cold because she balled herself up like a child and I had the only blanket.
"Babe come here," I say opening up my blanket
She walks over and cuddles up to me.
"Why are you freezing?" I laugh
"I'm just cold, not everyone is burning up all the time," She says defensively
"It's the blossom in me," I sigh
She laughs and puts her head right under my chin.
"Why do all of our kids think they need to protect us?" She says half laughing
"Because they grew up protecting the people they were closest to, and to be honest I dont know if any of them would survive another tragedy," I say playing with her hair
"All of them are too tough for their own good,"
"That's what I'm worried about, what if the become like pre Toni-Cheryl," I say
"Well I never met this pre Toni Cheryl, but from what I've heard, no one loved her or showed that they love her and thats why she was such a bitch, they have 3 siblings and 2 parents to fall back on. So I dont think we are raising a PTC,"
"I guess you're right,"
"Cher I'm always right,"
"Uh huh," I say rolling my eyes
We watch TV for a while until all the girls start running down the stairs- except Madi.
"MOMS SOMEONE JUST BROKE A WINDOW!" Alex yelled running into the room
"Which one of you?" Toni says getting up
"I meant with a brick, someone threw it,"
"Where is Mads?" I ask standing up
"In the shower I told her to stay there so she doesnt step on glass,"
"Ok good, Cher, girls stay here I'll go upstairs," Toni says kissing my forehead and grabbing her jacket off the chair and her blade from the table.
"Are any of you hurt?" I ask looking for any obvious wounds
"Alex got in the way of all the glass," Tay says
"I just got cut on my fore arm and the brick hit my hip," She says pointing to a small cut on her arm and then lifting her shirt to reveal a large bruise forming
"Are you ok?" I ask looking at the bruise
She nods.
"And neither of you got hit?"
"Nope, we're good,"
"People keep throwing bricks at me and they're not very good at it," Kait says
"There's been 2 bricks," I laugh
"3," she replies "One in Montreal when you were getting chemo,"
"WHy does Toni tell me absolutely nothing," I laugh
"Madi, lock the bathroom door and dont come out for a bit ok?" I hear Toni say before she practically jumps down the stairs
"It's fine there wasn't anyone there, probably just a sick joke some kids wanted to play," Toni says
I can tell she's lying I'm not dumb.
"Lex, you and Madi can sleep in a different room tonight and we will get the window replaced tomorrow. For now go play or watch TV in the other room I need to talk to Cher,"
"Ok!" They all say leaving the room
"Tones what was it actually?"
"A note strapped to the brick," She says unraveling a peice of paper from her pocket "Serpent queen actin' all high and mighty with her perfect ass family, to bad gang life ain't perfect. Why dont you come by yourself so your kids dont get hurt. PS if red shows up with her bow and arrow, we will snap her neck. 11:45, Down by the river 1 v 1- PP"
"So she hasn't gotten any smarter because that was probably the worst execution of a threat I've ever seen." I joke
"Its a real threat though Cheryl,"
"I know just a poor one,"
"What if Jughead and Fangs come with me but Sweetpea and FP stay here with you and the girls- just in case,"
"Ok I guess but I'd rather come with you,"
"Ya well personally I dont want Penny to slit your throat,"
"Fine,"
It was 11:15 now, so Toni called the boys and told them the plan.
"Be back soon babe," She says kissing my cheek
"Better be." I say wrapping my arms around her neck "Nothing like last time Tones, no more gun shot or stab wounds, ok?"
"Agreed," She says putting her hands on my waist "But I really have to get going Cher,"
She kisses me and then walks away and hops on her bike.
"Helmet Topaz!" I yell
"Yes babe I know,"
And she meets the boys at the bottom of the driveway.
Oh what have we gotten ourselves into
A/N: SORRY ABOUT THE MAJOR TIME JUMP BUT NOTHING HAPPENED AND I DONT WANT TO END THE BOOK YET