Adopted By The Hemmings (mgc)

Twenty Four

The voices in the living room below fell dead silent. Luna began taking the steps slowly and deliberately, her entire body shaking. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she kept her eyes on the floor, her hand gripping the railing until her knuckles were stark white.

"Lu-"

Luna held up her hand quickly to cut Luke off. Trying to remain calm, she began gathering her hair up to pile it on top of her head. She vaguely heard voices coming from the dining room as she made her way over to the boys. None of them would look at her, Cal and Ash were staring at their hands while Luke stared at a spot on the coffee table. Luna crossed her arms over her chest and Luke finally looked at her. She opened her mouth and then closed it again before taking a deep breath.

"Do you know how upset I am with you?" She kept her voice as even as she possibly could, but it still tremored slightly. Luke opened his mouth once more, but she stopped him again.

"I am not done, Luke. I cannot believe you would do that. You explicitly told me that you would be able to handle this. You were sneaking around behind my back, behind Mikey's back -"

"I'm sorry, I was being stupid and you have every right to be mad, but-"

"Just stop Luke! I am so much more than mad at you! I am hurt! I am hurt that you felt the need to follow me and invade our privacy! I am hurt for Michael, who may I remind you has done nothing but help you get me through the summer and help get me adjusted to Norwest! Most of all Luke, I am just utterly disappointed in you." Luna's voice cracked as she finished speaking. Her lip trembled and she wiped her eyes violently to keep the frustrated tears from falling. She flicked her eyes over all three boys. Shaking her head, she laughed softly.

"I think you guys should leave me alone for a little while. All three of you." She began to walk to the stairs when Luke grabbed her by the elbow.

"Lu, wait please. We're sorry, you have to know that."

"Oh sure, I know you're sorry, but you should have thought about the consequences. Also you three can tell Mikey what you did." Luna yanked her arm away from him before she made her way up to her room, slamming her door.

-Luke POV-

When Luna slammed her door it reverberated throughout the house, quieting the voices in the dining room. Luke stood at the foot of the stairs looking at the floor as his parents and brothers came into the living room.

"Luke, what is going on? Who's slamming doors?" Luke turned around, and tried to swallow around the lump that had formed in his throat. He looked at Ben and Jack as he spoke,

"The boys and I upset Luna." Liz crossed her arms over her chest.

"What did you three do?" Her gaze glanced over the three of them as one of her older sons cleared their throat.

"About that mum, it wasn't just them. . ."

"Okay, all five of you sit down. You're going to tell me exactly what it is that you've done and then you're going to fix it." The three Hemmings brothers quickly took seats next to and around Calum and Ashton. Andy and Liz stood in front of them, waiting, but none of the boys spoke up.

"Alright, well since none of you are forthcoming let's start with you Ashton." Andy's voice was gruff as he spoke causing Ashton's eyes to grow wide.

"We followed Luna and Michael on their date. I didn't want to, Cal and I mainly went to keep Luke from being stupid. . ."

Liz pinched the bridge of her nose as Andy shook his head and took a seat. All three Hemmings brothers opened their mouths, but were promptly cut off by a simple hand from Liz.