Fractured

Chapter 20 - Out of the norm

Corey's POV

From the moment we left Andy asleep as the safe house this morning, I had a bad feeling. I didn't know what it was, or what it meant. I was hoping our meeting with Phil would go quickly so we could get back to her. It was easy to see the feelings that each of my brothers had for her. In the time she had spent living with us, we had all grown attached to her and I don't know what we would do if she wasn't around anymore.

Sitting down with Phil, I covered the basics and told him what I had found. He wasn't surprised to hear that Jason was involved, or that Andy had insisted on us telling him alone.

"She suspects someone else was behind it, doesn't she?" Phil asked.

"She said something about having trouble locating the CI File, but wouldn't elaborate. She said you would understand but she needed information from those files before she could be sure of what was going on." Axel mused. "She didn't acknowledge that Jason could be the person behind it all and didn't really say much about it at all as we talked through what we found."

Phil simply hummed in acknowledgment. If I didn't know any better, I would think he knew that Andy didn't believe that Jason was the one behind her current situation and that she knew who really was behind it.

"So boys," Phil started, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think of my girl?" He was sporting a knowing look.

"Da, I like my wife very much. I'm not letting her go anywhere," Raven smirked.

Marc, who hadn't expected the question, or Raven's immediate response, snorted his coffee out of his nose.

Axel thumped Marc on the back while answering Phil's question. "I think we are all equally taken with Alexandria, Phil, but you already knew that. I know you have been keeping an eye on her and us. I also know that when you have been unable to keep an eye on us, you have had others doing it.

"I also know that after Kayli, we have all been hesitant to dive back into anything serious with anyone. I can't speak for everyone else, but I know that I find myself wanting to open up to someone new, to spend time with them, getting to know everything about them and them me; someone to share my innermost thoughts and feelings with.

"Don't pull that face Raven! Not all of us bring a different girl home every time we go out!"

"You know you can talk to us about anything, Ax," Brandon said.

"In theory, yes. But sometimes you want the perspective or opinion of someone who hasn't known you as long as we've all known each other," Axel replied.

Phil was smiling, watching us from where he was sitting at the head of the table. It was the most anyone had been able to get Axel to talk about his feelings in a long time.

"Phil, I think it is safe to say that we are all very taken with Andy, but none of us have spoken to her, or to each other about our intentions," I told him truthfully.

"I think it might be time for you all to talk about it then. From what I have heard, she is quite taken with you all and asking her to choose just one of you, or not telling her how you all feel would not end well for any of you!" Phil chuckled.

"What does that mean?" Marc asked.

"If she thinks she is causing any kind of issue between you all, she will leave." Phil looked sad at this admission.

"Phil?" Axel prompted.

"Why do you think she ran away to join the circus. I know kids always joke about it, but how many actually do it? Reggie whined constantly about the changes he had to make when we all agreed that we wanted to have Andy live with us. He was known to be a bit of a nudist before we took her in and it took a bit to adjust. Over the following years, he would make subtle little digs about the amount of time he was missing out on with Jenny.