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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
 
 
 

Growing Pains - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Missy Red and Kaleidopy
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 5

A few hours after midnight, Henri carried the luggage down to the foyer as Jean-Luc silently walked into the dark room of his youngest son. Sitting down on the queen-size bed, he watched his son sleep.

Jacques knocked softly, stepped inside and whispered. "De limousine jus' arrived."

Jean-Luc kissed his son, "Adieu, mon petite fils." He took one last glance at Remy, got to his feet and joined his brother-in-law out in the hallway. He closed the door behind him, following Jacques down the stairs.

"The plane tickets are in the envelope." Therese said, handing him a white envelope before giving him a hug. "Don't worry, Henri and I will take good care of Remy."

"I know y' will Fille, but if anythin' goes wrong y' call me. Comprendre?" Picking up one of the suitcases, he turned back around. "I mean it T'erese, if dat boy starts havin' nightmares again, y' better call me."

"I promise, Uncle." Therese opened the door as the luggage was picked up and carried outside. She followed Jean-Luc and Jacques to the car where Henri was having a conversation with Vincent St. James.

The conversation ended quickly and the two men shook hands before Vincent climbed inside the car, helping Jacques with the luggage.

Standing by his son, Jean-Luc gave his bag to Benoit as his brother- in-law entered the limousine. "Henri, keep your temper. Don' give de Assassins a reason to start a war. Marius is only lookin' for an excuse to start killin'."

"Y' trained me well, Père. I won' let y' down." Henri answered, grasping his hand. "Bernard's goin' to be spendin' a lot of time over here to assist me." The full moon gave away Therese's huge smile. Henri chuckled, "I knew dat would make y' happy, Soeur."

Jean-Luc entered the car, looked up at his eldest. "Take care of de family."

"I will, Père." Henri closed the car door and he and Therese watched as the car pulled out, driving down the road and into darkness. The gate shut behind the vehicle and a metallic noise clicked.

"The gate's locked!" Therese glanced at her brother's wristwatch. "It's just three-thirty? I'm going back to bed." She walked back into the house, Henri following behind her. She punched in several numbers on the key pad to activate the security system. "You staying down here?"

"Non, I'm goin' back t' bed too. I can still get a couple more hours of sleep b'fore my meetin' wit' de Guild." Henri stretched before going upstairs. Deciding to peek in on his brother, he opened Remy's bedroom door and found his brother asleep on his stomach, his head buried under several pillows.

Closing the door, he moved to the next door to check on his young cousin. Lapin was twisted up in his bedcovers. Walking over, Henri quickly untangled the boy who amazingly remained asleep.

Six hours later, Therese woke to the sun glaring through her windows, hitting her in the face. She quickly dressed, walked out into the hall and found Lapin coming out of his room. "You look like you've been up awhile."

"I'm up early all de time." Her cousin reached down to tie his shoe laces on his sneakers. "Been watchin' cartoons in my room so I wouldn' wake anybody." He cracked a sly grin. "Y' want me to wake up Remy?"

"No, you leave him alone today, Lapin. He's going to have a rough time when he finds out Uncle Jean's gone." Therese put her finger to her lips, silencing her cousin. She opened the door to her brother's room and peeked inside. Satisfied Remy was still asleep, she shut it and turned to Lapin. "Come on, I'll make you breakfast."

Therese walked down the stairs with Lapin following behind her. She reached the bottom stair and heard a noice coming from the large room. Recognizing Henri's voice, Therese moved into the large room seeing several papers thrown on a table. "Henri, I don't think.."

She froze, seeing Bernard LeBranche sitting beside her brother. 'What was Bernard doing here?' Giving her brother a dirty look, Therese ran back up the stairs.

"Women!" Henri stacked the papers together. He knew he would have hell to pay when she came back downstairs. He turned to his friend, "Bernard, y'goin' to protect me from T'erese, non?"

"Mebbe T'erese can take your place while Jean-Luc's gone." Bernard laughed. Henri glared at him. "Hey, chill Henri, y' need to lighten up a bit."

Therese finished putting the final touches of her make up on her face. As her thoughts shifted of many ways of getting back at her older brother, she her a slight moan coming from her younger brother's bedroom. Therese opened Remy's bedroom door and saw him stirring under the covers. "Good morning sleepy head," She greeted him, "You want to get up or stay in bed all day?"

Remy sat up in bed, his hair, disheveled hung down over his face. He tried focusing his eyes as he looked around the room. "Where's Papa? He hasn't let yet, has he?" He asked, crawling out of bed. He didn't wait for Therese to answer, he ran out of the room, down the hall and stairs, yelling for his father. Remy stopped, finding the foyer empty. The suitcases left last night were gone. "I didn' get to say goodbye."

"Y' were asleep, petite frère. Père didn' want to wake y'." Henri spoke in a gentle voice. Remy faced his brother, watching as Henri gave some papers to Bernard and then moved in Remy's direction. "Tante will be stayin' wit' at de house until Père gets back."

"Tante?" The boy asked, wondering why Tante agreed to stay at the house while Henri was home. The healer never stayed over night unless his father asked her to do so. Something didn't sound right. He studied his brother and asked, concerned. "Henri, y' leavin' too?"

"Non, but wit' Guild business, dere's no tellin' what time I'll be gettin' in. Tante t'inks it's best if she's here wit' y' and T'erese b'cause dere might be trouble wit' de Assassins." Henri returned to the table, taking the papers back from LeBranche. "Y' better get upstairs an' change b'fore T'erese starts yellin' like a banshee." He laughed, slapping Bernard on the leg as Remy ran up the stairs. "Even petite frère knows T'erese runs dis house wit' an iron fist."

"I heard that!" Therese walked into the large room. "You want some breakfast?" She smiled sweetly at her brother's visitor. "Bernard, you're more than welcomed to stay, we have plenty."

"Non, we gonna be leavin' soon." Bernard returned her smile. "T'anks anyway, mebbe I take a rain check, huh?"

"I'll remind you of that later." Henri lowered his face to keep from laughing. Therese purposely stepped on his foot, listening with a smile of her own as he let out a painful yell.

Half an hour later, Remy entered the kitchen and sat down across the small table from Lapin. "What we havin' to eat?"

"I don' care. I'll eat anythin'." Lapin answered, reading a comic book. "

Wanna bet? Y' never ate T'erese's cookin'." Remy giggled. His sister pointed a threatening spoon in his direction. He asked, "What y' cookin'?"

"Oatmeal."

"Oatmeal? I hate oatmeal! Everybody knows I hate oatmeal" Remy yelled, "I want eggs an' bacon."

"You're getting oatmeal and you're going to eat it." Therese pulled out a bowl, filled it with oatmeal and served it to her brother. "Remy you're setting a bad example for Lapin. Stop acting like a spoiled brat."

"But I want bacon an' eggs," Remy stuck a spoon into the bowl and started stirring the oatmeal. The more he stirred it, the more he hated the warm cereal. He flashed his sister his winning smiled. "T'erese, y' know your my favorite soeur. Will y' fix me an' Lapin eggs an' bacon?"

"You're eating oatmeal and if you complain one more time about eating it, you'll get a second helpin'." Therese said. "That little smile of yours isn't going to work this time, Remy."

Remy looked at Lapin who only shrugged and started eating his breakfast. Remy remained stubborn, refusing to eat. He continued to play with his spoon.

Therese sprinkled sugar into her bowl. "It's not going to disappear until you eat it, Remy."

"I ain' gonna eat it." Remy shoved the bowl away, lend back into his chair and defiantly crossed his arms. Therese pushed the bowl back in front of him and dared him to move it again. Remy decided to leave well enough alone.

"I'm finished, may I be excused?" Lapin asked, interrupting the battle of wills going on between brother and sister.

"Put your bowl in the sink and you can go upstairs to clean your room." For several minutes, Therese continued to watch her brother waiting for him to move. "Remy, oatmeal is good for you, now eat up before it gets cold."

"Don' want it." Remy muttered.

"All right, don't eat it." Therese sighed in frustration. "Just go upstairs and clean your room."

Lapin took his time making his bed. Finished, he made his way to Remy's bedroom and knocked on the door. He walked in, finding his cousin's bed still unmade. Thinking Remy was still downstairs, Lapin made the bed. He heard what sounded like plastic paper folding. "Remy, where are y'?"

"Under de bed."

Lapin yanked the covers up and looked under the bed. Remy was stuffing a powered doughnut in his mouth. "Wipe your mouth Stupid, or dey gonna know what y' been eatin'."

"Did y' eat all your oatmeal like a good lil' boy?" Remy crawled out from under the bed, wiping his mouth with his wrist. "Y' acted jus' like a wimp. If y' had stuck wit' de plan we would have gotten eggs and bacon."

Lapin folded his arms, glared at his cousin. "At least I didn' act like an ass."

A knock sounded and the door opened, revealing Therese. "Remy, are you hungry? I don't like the idea of you not eating just to win an argument."

"I'm not hungry, T'erese, honest." Remy admitted, spending five minutes convincing his sister the truth. He didn't tell her the reason, but she believed him.

Therese walked to the window and looked outside. "Why don't you two go outside and play until dinner is ready. It's just too pretty of a day for two boys to be staying inside."

Both boys rushed out of the room, down the stairs, almost running into Henri and Bernard as they hurried outside.

Several hours later, up in Remy's tree house, the boys saw the black Lamborghini pulling out of the garage. Sliding down the rope, Remy ran to the car. "Henri, take me an' Lapin in town wit' y'. We're bored."

"Bored already?" Henri asked, raising his brow. "Y' need to stay here today petite frère. I got a meetin' wit' de Guild an' I don' know how long it's goin' to last." He revved up the engine. "Tell y' what, tomorrow we'll go fishin' down at de bay."

"Fishin' yeah!" Both boys yelled.

The car drove off, leaving the two boys standing in the yard. "Y' wanna go to de store? Got two bikes an' you can ride one." Remy suggested to his cousin.

Moments later, they jumped on their bikes and peddled down to the end of the driveway. Remy punched in the code, waiting until the gate opened and then reentered it to lock it back. They pushed the bikes out of the gate before it slammed shut.

Lapin stared at the gate. "How did y' do dat?"

"I found de code book in Henri's room de other day." Remy got on his bike. "Papa an' him change de codes everyday so nobody can break into de house. I wrote dem down for dis week, so we can get out anytime we want."

Lapin had another question. "What if T'erese comes lookin' for us?"

"She's busy watchin' dose stupid soap operas to know we're gone." Remy tried keeping pace with Lapin, who headed off in a different direction. "Hey, where y' goin'?"

"De junk yard down de end of dis road. I wanna get somethin' outta dis place." Lapin pedaled off the paved road and unto a dirt road. He jumped off the bike and waited for Remy to catch up. "We go in here, dat way nobody can see us."

"What y' wan' in dis place?" Remy asked him.

Lapin ignored him. He crawled through the small opening with Remy following closely behind him.

Something sparkling caught Remy's eye. Walking over, he pulled out the glittering object and was disappointed it was only a crushed hubcap. Tossing it away, Remy climbed over several old tires looking for anything of value. Things were just about to get interesting when he heard something coming his way. He managed to climb down just as Lapin came running by him.

"RUN!" Lapin screamed as he ran by his cousin.

Remy stared at Lapin's retreating back until he heard something. Turning, he saw three Dobermans coming straight from him. Dropping everything, Remy ran in the direction Lapin had gone.

Lapin had climbed the fence but the barbwire at the top prevented him from climbing over to the other side.

"Dis is all your fault!" Remy started climbing the fence. His right pant leg was grabbed and ripped off from his knee down. He lost his balance and screamed.

Lapin grabbed his hand to keep him from falling. "Climb." His cousin yelled, yanking harder on Remy's hand.

Remy climbed higher, out of the dogs reach. He looked down as the animals circled around each other at the bottom of the fence. One of the dogs looked up, locking eyes with Remy. Remy kept the dog's glaze for a minute and then started climbing down.

"What y' doin', Remy?" Lapin yelled over his shoulder. "Dose dogs gonna rip y' apart." Lapin stared in disbelief, watching as Remy stared down the dog, the two remaining dogs watched, but not moving.

Remy reached out and touched the dog. The dog licked his hand. "Good boy, dat's a good dog." He whispered, petting the two other dogs after befriending the first one. After several minutes of playing with the dogs, he looked up at his stunned cousin. "It's OK Lapin, y' can stop shakin' de fence an' come down."

"How did y' do dat?" Lapin jumped down. He was hesitant at first but then started playing with the dogs.

Remy shrugged. "I don' know. Dat dog jus' looked up at me an' den all of a sudden he started likin' us." One of the dogs tried to lick him in the face, Remy turned, avoiding the dog's tongue. "See what I mean! Mebbe dey know we're not goin' to hurt dem."

"Well, let's get outta here b'fore dey decide dey're hungry an' wanna eat us." Lapin suggested, crawling through the hole in the fence.

Remy followed, turned and found the dogs were following him. "Non, y' doggies gotta stay here." He piled several rocks to cover the hole to keep the dogs behind the fence. Lapin was sitting on his bike and holding Remy's by the handle bars. "I'm hungry. Let's go to McDonalds."

The two rode their bikes into New Orleans, enjoying their freedom and the sites. Lapin slowed his bike down, stopping in front of a McDonalds. He pulled out several dollar bills and turned to his cousin. "Y' stay out here an' watch de bikes. I'll go get us somethin' to eat."

Ten minutes later, Lapin returned with four cheeseburgers. Giving one to Remy, he had an idea. "Y' wanna go back an' give two of dese to dose doggies?" After getting his cousin approval, the two went back and fed their new animal friends before continuing their travels.

As they rode by the river bank, the boys discovered several off beaten paths that wasn't well traveled. A few miles down a dirt road, Lapin stopped, warning bells going off in his head. Some strange reason he felt he knew the area, a place that was dangerous. "I don' know dis place. I t'ink who lives down dere wants to be left along. We better go back, huh?"

"Non, if I'm gonna get yelled at for rippin' dese pants, I ain' in no hurry to go home." Remy pedaled down the dirt road, leaving his cousin behind. He shouted over his shoulder, daring Lapin to follow. "Y' scared Lapin?"

" Remy, I t'ink we're in Assassin territory." Lapin yelled, but his warning went unheeded. Deciding against better judgment, he went after Remy.

A blond headed girl, perhaps their age was playing by the river bank. "Y' two aren' from 'round here?"

"Non, we live on de other side of town." Remy got off his bike, looking for a house the girl might live. Seeing nothing but trees, he asked, "Where y' live?"

"Oh 'round." She smiled slightly, glancing at Lapin, she laughed, "What's de matter, 'fraid I'm gonna bite ya?"

"I ain' scared of no girl." Lapin shouted, throwing down his bike to prove his point. He looked around, listening for something. The place still made him nervous. "C'mon Remy, let's go, it's almost lunch time."

"Remy! Dat's your name?" She asked, grinning when Remy nodded. She looked back at Lapin, "What's your name?"

"What's yours?" Lapin challenged.

" Belladonna! Don' wear it out."

"Lapin, an' it's a nick name b'fore y' make fun of de name." Lapin picked up his bike. "Remy, we gonna get in trouble if dey find out we left de house. Will y' come on?"

"Want some help wit' dose buckets of yours?" Remy asked, eyeing his cousin. "Lapin, get over here an' help her carry dis."

"Yeah right!" Lapin rode his bike around in circles. "It's her bucket, so she can carry it. I ain' helpin' no girl do nothin'."

"Don' remember askin' for your help," Belladonna's blue eyes twinkled, a little smile played on her lips. "I can do anythin' a boy can do an' more."

Someone came out of the woods.

"Bella, you've been sick for two weeks. Y' shouldn' be outside playin'." Tante pushed a branch out of her way and stepped into the dirt road. Noticing the two boys, her eyes widened in shock, but quickly faded. "Please do as I say, girl."

"Oui, Tante." Belladonna started for the woods. "Mebbe we meet again another day boys." She then disappeared back into the trees.

Tante waited, tapping her foot in anger as she eyed both boys twice before she spoke. "What are y' doin' on dis side of town? Do either one of y' know what kind of danger you're in bein' here?"

"What are y' doin' here, Tante?" Remy asked sarcastically as he got on his bike. "Looks like y' in a place y' don' b'long, no."

"Don' y' get sassy with me, Chile. I've bared your bottom b'fore an' I am tempted to do it again." She spotted Remy's ripped jeans. "What have y' children been doin'?" Tante inspected his leg. Satisfied he wasn't hurt, she let out a sigh of relief. "I'm goin' to get my car an' take y' both home."

"Dat's okay," Remy said. "We're headin' back to de house. Dey expectin' us in an hour."

"Is dat so?" Tante put her hands on her hips. "I'm callin' de house an' ask T'erese an' Henri why dey let y' two out of de house after Jean forbid it."

"Tante, please, if y' do den we gonna get in trouble."

"I hope dey do jus' dat Lapin. Your parents are goin' to find out y' were on dis side of town." Tante turned her attention back to the younger boy. "An' what y' t'ink Jean-Luc's goin' to do when he finds out 'bout dis Remy?" She lifted his chin, Remy could see anger as well as fear in her face. "Chile, I don' t'ink I've ever been dis angry wit' y' like I am now."

"Y' don' have to take us home Tante, we goin' now." Remy turned his bike around and ignored Tante's angry voice calling them back. When he was sure that they were out of sight, Remy turned to his cousin. "Lapin, I never seen Tante scared like dat. She was tryin' to hide it but I saw it. What's wrong wit' her?"

"Don' y' know anythin'? We're in Assassin territory."

"We better hurry be'fore Tante calls de house."

Neither saw the blue sedan trailing behind them.

 

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