The Start of Pain

Chapter 10

I don't own the 39 Clues :))

Chapter 10

"Aww... It's soooo boring," Ned whined, putting his feet up the control panel at comm. centre. He shook the empty bag of chips and held out his tongue for the remaining crumbs. "What do we do?"

Atticus looked at all of the Cahills in the room anxiously. He's never been alone with Dan's cousins before and he was terrified. Whenever Dan tells him stories about them, the endings are not really very 'happily-ever-after'. Actually, every single one of those stories ends with 'and then, he broke his neck' or 'in the end, she got splattered with chocolate syrup'. So, he wasn't exactly thrilled at being left alone with this bunch.

Madison lurched up to her feet with a very excited look on her face. "I got it!" she shouted, looking at all of them with flushed cheeks. Reagan, who was seated on the couch beside her twin, looked up at her. Ned and Ted looked at her with identical, uninterested faces. Phoenix and Keightlyn looked up from the jigsaw puzzle they were finishing. "Why don't we..." Madison trailed off, checking everybody's expressions first. "Go through their stuff for blackmailing material?"

Her suggestion met a thoughtful silence before Ted broke it. "Huh." Ted stared at the ceiling. "Normally, as the oldest -"

"One of the oldest," Ned interjected, shooting his twin a dirty look. They've been over this born-after-just-a-half-minute thing and Ted just doesn't get, does he?

Ted ignored his twin. " - one here, I should be disagreeing to your plan." Ted nodded his head seriously, contemplating the situation.

The entire room held their breath for the verdict.

Ted narrowed his green eyes at all of them. "So, whose stuff are we going through first?" All of them jumped to their feet excitedly except for Atticus. The others are all arguing that they really should go through Hamilton's stuff first, but then, Ian's stuff are pretty tempting, too.

"Um... Uh..." Atticus stammered, trying to get their attention before any of them could get their hands around each other's throats. Surprisingly, it worked. The Cahills turned to look at the cowering kid with the glasses.

"What is it, kiddo? You have a suggestion?" Ned asked.

Atticus shook his head nervously. "We-well... A-Amy and Si-Sinead said that we shouldn't b-be snooping a-around other pe-people's stuff," he stuttered, feeling the weight of their stares on him. He shut his eyes tightly, preparing himself for a good smack in the head.

Like an explosion, the room erupted into laughter. "Oh, Atticus. Young, innocent, Atticus," Ned chuckled deviously. He looked at his twin amusedly which Ted returned with a smirk. "Doesn't get a thing in the world, does he?"

Ted nodded with his own share of chuckles. "You see, buddy." He rested his hands on Atticus' shoulder. "When a Cahill tells you that you shouldn't that just means that you should, but it would be 'hard to do'," Ted explained as if it was an important life lesson, making quotation marks in the air.

"Do you understand, shrimp?" Reagan asked with her arms crossed across her chest. Madison had the same posture.

Atticus nodded slowly and uneasily joined in on the laughter that erupted once more as they decided between Ian's stuff and Hamilton's stuff.

Oh, boy.

xxxOOOxxx

Jonathan slowly approached the sleeping figure of Natalie Vesper-Hollingsworth. He was emotionless as he slithered closer, his sharp ears quick to hear her disturbed mumbles. He rolled his eyes in loathing for that self-centered moron who asked him to take over his twin's job. He strode over to the white board beside her bed and quickly scanned through her vital signs and the progress of the project. Something inside his chest clenched when he noticed that the last addition to the reports is written in Victoria's handwriting.