take me to church (emily prentiss)

4. four

AN: hi guys! happy monday!

so todays chapter is the benjamin cyrus cult case so the TWs are below!

TWs:
abuse
sexual abuse
religious cults
violence

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"i try to remember the wrath of the devil was also given him by God." - bug like an angel, mitski

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June was upon them.

Liv was slightly alarmed at how much faster the days seemed to go by in front of her eyes as she got older, especially now she had a child to raise. It was terrifying to think back to this time last year when they were only then finding out about Ziggy's existence, and to think to them now.

Now, Ziggy was almost ten years old and was sat on the back porch in a pair of basketball shorts and fluffy socks. His hair was a curly mess and he didn't have a t-shirt on, his arms lined with temporary tattoos.

He had Shadow curled up next to him with his head on Ziggy's knee, and he had their newest dog on his other side.

Zara had been allowed to take the all ginger kitten. Zara loved Nala, and the two of them were as thick as thieves. Nora had taken the ginger and white boy of the litter, and Liv and Emily had kept the all black kitten with one eye, and the other dog.

Nora had named her kitten Nemo, and he was just the cheekiest little devil ever. He definitely had the spirit of a ginger cat and he was as naughty as anything, but Nora adored him and he would quite happily let her carry him down the street to the Bellerose house to spend the day with Shadow and the other two animals.

Their new kitten was named Sergio, after some guy in a telenovela that Emily loved watching with Nora, and he suited it. Sergio had been glued to Emily's side as soon as they brought him home the week before, and Noodle had quickly warmed up to the other cat in the household.

Liv thought it must be nice for Noodle to go from being the only cat to having a fellow cat friend, and another who came to visit daily.

She also thought Shadow must love having another dog in the house.

Their girl, with her caramel brown fur and big blue eyes and her excited little whip of a tail that left red marks on your legs when she spotted some food and was doing spins on the spot.

She had healed well from her wound, and her eye infection had cleared up lovely. The fleas had been killed on all of the animals, so, she was as healthy as she could be. And, to make it better, it only took Ziggy five minutes to settle on her name.

Stella. Partially because it matched the S theme they had with Shadow and Sergio, but also because it meant star in Italian.

"The stars protected aunt Lilah and me on our way home in the woods," Ziggy had said, stroking Stella's back gently in the car on the way home from the vets. "And aunt Lilah's having a baby with aunt JJ, now. Stella can help protect my new cousin like Shadow protects me."

Liv couldn't argue with his logic, and she adored her new animals. They were just tiny babies and, yeah, maybe it was another two things to take care of at home, but they had a system that worked and, honestly, with so many people in their house constantly, what were two more animals going to do?

So, Liv now had three wild animals to wrangle with her wild boy and her childish girlfriend, but she didn't care. She loved that this was their life. She loved everything about their life.