unsolved ≫ jake peralta

II. FAMILIAL TIDINGS

Ivy's family was closer than most.

Perhaps that was because they'd been rocked by tragedy.

Ivy's therapist told her that there were two paths families tended to follow after a tragedy — they either drifted apart or became extremely close. Ivy's family followed the latter.

Her younger brother, Owen, despite being 26, still lived at home with their parents. Her younger sister, Naomi, who was 28 and just two years younger than Ivy, lived a block away from them in her own apartment, though Ivy knew she went over for dinner almost every day, often spending the night still.

Owen certainly didn't remember what had happened to their Aunt Helen. He didn't remember her much at all anyway. Naomi had some memories of the woman, but they were all positive. Ivy had been ten when Helen died, and she took the brunt of the psychological trauma so that her siblings wouldn't have to. Plus, she was ten, and at the time, she considered herself to be mature. Maybe it wasn't that Ivy had been mature at ten — maybe she'd just been forced to grow up early.

Helen's death had pushed the family together — her parents held on tightly to their children, in fear that something bad might happen to them, too. Ivy, however, pushed back unintentionally, finding herself distanced from the close-knit family both physically and emotionally. She'd always been different, of course, in how she managed and expressed her emotions, and her family could be suffocating. The only way she'd gotten the air to breathe was by moving across the country.

As she left work for the day, her mind drifted to the voicemail her brother left on her office phone. Ivy was half hoping that she would forget about the message, so that she would have a legitimate excuse not to return it. However, she rarely forgot anything, and if she didn't respond, she knew it would weigh on her mind until she did.

As she walked to her car, she sought out her brother's contact in her phone. They had sparse communication, a few text messages back and forth on each other's birthdays, and some of the memes Owen sent every once in a while.

"Hey, this reminded me of you," he'd send, along with a picture of a dog in a room of fire, with a speech bubble saying "This is fine," when things were clearly not fine. Ivy didn't see the correlation between herself and the meme. If anything, it reminded her of her sister. Naomi was a hot mess of a person that constantly forgot about things and rarely worried about anything. The sisters were quite opposites.

"I'd say that's more Naomi," she'd responded, and that had been the last communication with her brother, since he'd called her work number. She was shocked to look at the message and see that it'd been sent three months prior. Had it really been that long?

She typed out a quick message to him, asking if he needed anything. Her phone buzzed almost immediately after, indicating a response.

Incoming message from: Owen Auden

Do you have time for a call?

Ivy frowned. She did have time for a call, but she didn't really want to talk. Of course, it would be a good opportunity for her to tell her brother about her assignment in New York, as she would need to tell her family eventually. Owen was the easiest to talk with, and she knew any information she told him would speedily be relayed to the rest of the family.