Less than fifteen minutes after Brie and Connor got home that Monday afternoon, Connor found himself going to answer a knock at the front door of their home; as Brie had already gone to the kitchen for a drink. He looked a bit surprised that Crista was the one knocking on the door when she most likely could have just gotten a ride home with his own children. Nonetheless, he greeted her and moved aside to allow her to enter their home once more.

“Kids are upstairs” he offered, “as always” he added more quietly as he shut the front door behind her.

“Actually, I came to see you or your wife” Crista told him warily.

“Really?” Connor responded, awaiting her clarification.

Crista steeled herself, then asked, “you’re the ones who tested my blood, right?”

Connor looked down a moment, “well, if that was your blood on our son’s pants, then yes” he replied pointedly as she looked down with a slight blush.

Trying to regain some composure of her own then, Crista took a moment to dig around in her glittery spike-covered purse which was oddly coffin-shaped. She then pulled out a glove and handed it to Connor, “can you test the blood on this?”

Connor looked at her questioningly, “a bloody glove?”

“Well, there’s only a little bit of blood on it. But it’s only from last night, and that’s still testable, right?” she offered.

“Should I be calling a lawyer here, instead?” Connor replied.

“What?”

Connor just shook his head down at her, “just curious why you’re asking me to do this at all.”

“Cause you answered the door instead of Brie?” she shrugged, “and, I don’t think the two of you would want anybody else testing this blood” she added more quietly.

Connor looked a bit worried then, “this isn’t Star’s or Sky’s is it?” he asked with a bit of panic as he looked toward the stairs.

“No” Crista assured with a shake of her head.

Connor only relaxed slightly then, “well, we already have a sample of your blood, Crista. So I’m guessing this is Kole’s then?”

Crista narrowed her eyes with a bit of defeat, “you make it really hard to be vague.”

“I try” Connor returned with a shake of his head. He then gestured for her to follow him back to their in-home office. As he prepared to do the blood-testing, he spoke to her again from where she waited nervously inside the now closed office door, “I’m sure you’re concerned and all, but we already pretty much know that Kole is infected as well; err, hybridized” he corrected as he saw the worry his original word choice produced.

“But testing his blood can tell you if there’s anything else wrong with him, right?” Crista bit away some of her glittery lipstick as she watched him.

Connor took pause again then, “I thought that he had told Sky and Star that he had just recently been tested; prior to having unprotected sex with my daughter” he added more bitterly.

“No, I don’t mean that” Crista corrected quickly. Connor just looked at her questioningly, “I mean, like anything else that might be wrong with him, health-wise. Like anything perhaps non-contagious but still... bad?” she whispered worriedly.

“Has Kole been sick?” Connor asked with further concern.

“That’s kinda what I’m tryin to find out” Crista returned sadly.

Connor let out his own worried sigh then, “well normally that would be a question for his doctor. But I don’t think we really want any of you near doctors right now” he stated with his own sadness as he moved to continue with the test. After a moment he looked back at where she still waited nervously, “depending on what all you want me to test for, it could be a while” Connor told her pointedly.

“Oh, ok” she looked around a moment, “guess I’ll go say hi to Sky and Star” she told him awkwardly as she left the office again to make her way to the stairs with a sigh. After all, she wasn’t really sure she wanted to share her worries about the nosebleed with them just yet; and she was even less sure Kole wanted her to.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she found Star’s door open and her room empty, while Sky’s was closed, as usual. She then moved to tentatively knock at his door. Sky then called back, rather flatly, “enter, if you must.”

When Crista stepped into the room the two were sitting close together on Sky’s bed having some sort of discussion that didn’t look particularly jovial. Though both turned rather surprised, and somewhat nervous glances toward her arrival.

Sky then spoke again, “sorry, thought you were a parent.”

“Nope, just lil ole me” she managed a smile before dropping her bag and crawling onto the bed between them.

She then crawled halfway into Sky’s lap and gave him a long, passionate kiss, then turned to do the same to Star a moment later. Though both of them seemed to tense more than a bit at her amorous greeting.

“Ok, what’s wrong now?” she asked warily as she sat back between them with worried looks, “is your DNA gonna kill us now, too?” she couldn’t help asking, silently hoping that that didn’t actually turn out to be the case after all.

“God, I hope not” Star replied, as if that worry had only just occurred to her as well then.

“That would give a whole new meaning to ‘sex kills’” Sky added, shuddering at the thought himself then.

Crista took a shaky breath, “so, why the tenseness? Kisses are not supposed to make tension worse last I checked.”

“No, the cops are making tension worse” Sky supplied as he and Star both looked down.

“Cops?” Crista raised a brow.

“Curt tried to file charges against Kole for his arm” Sky sighed, “only, after the cops watched the video; they wanna file charges against Curt instead.”

“What?” Crista grinned, “isn’t that like the best news ever?”

Star then sadly clarified, “they wanna file charges for what Curt did to you.”

“Me?” Crista looked more than a bit shocked by that. “All he did was grab my butt. And yes, eww, but, not hardly a crime... is it?” she asked warily.

Star sighed, “yeah, it actually is. And it’s even worse since you’re...” Star then just shook her head.

“Since I’m what?” Crista asked as she warily looked between her companions.

Sky swallowed a lump in his throat before offering an answer, “since you’re not legally capable of giving consent to any sort of sexual touching or activities.”

Crista just laughed derisively, “please. Last week alone I had sex with two boys and did plenty of other fun stuff with a girl too.”

Sky took another shaky breath, “kinda what we’re trying to avoid anyone finding out, at all, ever.”

Crista scoffed, “what? You’re all under eighteen. And believe me, I consented” she added pointedly.

Star sighed again, “according to the law, again, you’re not capable of consenting. The Romeo and Juliet statutes or whatever they’re called; those may protect us since we all are only three years older, but we can’t depend on that” Star whispered, her voice breaking slightly.

Sky sighed heavily as he was just as worried as Star then, “so, if you get pulled into this case, they’re gonna wanna know all about every part of any sex life you may have. And like Star said, the Romeo and Juliet stuff may not protect us, since none of us are technically in a long-term relationship with you and just had a recent birthday or whatever the rules really are for that shit” he sighed softly, “so if they find out that you’ve been with any of us, in any way; they’ll consider us just as bad as Curt” he added in a broken whisper as he and Star both looked down.

Crista then went from disbelief to anger. “What?” she exclaimed, “he’s a fucking rapist! That is something that would never apply to the three of you!” she denied as Sky painfully swallowed again, his mind immediately snapping back to the year of torture wherein he constantly engaged in sexual activity with Star even though she hardly wanted to then; though of course, neither did he.

As those memories were too much to bear right then, Sky found it near impossible to breathe as he pushed himself up from the bed and left the room to hide himself away in the bathroom instead. Star just looked after him, already knowing exactly where his mind had went and the effect it was likely having on him then.

“God, he is really worried” Crista stated sadly as she saw Star’s also quite obvious upset as they both watched Sky disappear through the door.

“Me too” Star whispered, still looking at the closed door behind Sky, “and as much as we all want Curt to pay...” she just shook her head, “you can’t be any part of making him pay. Or else, all of us might be carted off to jail with that rapist” she sniffled again as she brushed away a tear. Star then took a deep breath to try and fight back her own urge to give into an emotional breakdown then. “I should really...” she began as she gestured to the door Sky had gone through.

“Yeah, I get it” Crista agreed sadly as she also pushed herself up from the bed, “I guess I should actually eat dinner at home for once anyway” she sighed softly as she gathered her belongings and headed back out of the room once more.

Once Star heard Crista move down the stairs, she rushed to the bathroom door, desperately knocking at it, “Sky?”

“Go away” he replied from inside, obvious pain in his voice.

Thankful that she did get some response, Star’s worry was still very real. “You know I’ll never do that, Sky.” Star took a breath, then added pointedly, “just like you promised me you wouldn’t.”

Sky just scoffed but gave no other response. Star then pushed the door open and took in the scene before her. He was sitting on the floor, his back against the shower stall, his pants pulled down around his knees, several bloody slices cut into his thigh from the blade in his shaking hand.

“What the fuck, Sky?” Star exclaimed as she tossed the door shut behind her, and rushed to a place on the floor next to him.

“I did deserve what Curt did to me” he whispered through his pained tears as Star pulled the blade from his shaking fingers.

“You know that’s bullshit, Sky” she argued through her own tears as she tossed the blade to the floor.

“But I’m just like him. I forced myself inside you, over and over. Then I had sex with a girl who supposedly is too young to even give me permission to. I put it in her and I broke her inside, and I made her bleed. Why? Just so some other boy could put it in her too? I’m just like him.”

“Again, complete bullshit, Sky. And you know that. They forced you to do what you did to me! And the law is wrong: Crista knew exactly what she was doing, and she wanted you to be the one doing it with her! You fucking know all this, Sky!” she continued through clenched teeth and tears.

Sky just shook his head, “if I didn’t do anything wrong, and I’m not just like him; then why the fuck can’t we just come forward and make him pay?” he asked as he shook his head, “cause what we did was just as wrong. That’s why” he answered his own question.

“Stop, Sky. You know.. you fucking know that that is not true!”

Sky then let his head fall back as he turned teary eyes to the ceiling above them and replied, in a pained whisper, “all I know is that if I had done it right that first time, in that first life... then none of the rest of the bad would have ever happened. None of us would be where we are right now, at all.”