Chapter Text
JD slipped out of the bed and crossed to the door, giving the girl in it another glance. At least he hadn't woken her. He didn't need to be keeping Veronica up even if he couldn't sleep. He'd blame that on the new house or the time spent sleeping in the hospital, but in the end, it wasn't really any of those things.
It was just a weird ass dream, and he was fine, he swore he was.
He opened the door across the hall as quietly as he could, slipping past the bed and trying to make as little noise as possible only to slide the outer door open.
He stopped short. “You're awake.”
Mark looked over at him, jumping a little. “Fuck. You scared me.”
“Give me one of those,” JD said, and Mark passed over a cigarette. JD lit it and took a drag. “Sorry. Thought you were still asleep.”
Mark shook his head. “No. Had a strange dream and needed one of these.”
“I swear there was someone in your bed.”
Mark glared at him. “There is, but it's not what you think, so leave it alone.”
“Uh huh.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, come on. Like people haven't been speculating on when that's going to happen since... oh, I don't know, they met? She kind of had an eye for you from the beginning.”
Mark sighed. “Look, you and Veronica have your relationship. Nora and I have ours. You stay out of mine, and I don't need to know about yours.”
JD laughed. “You make it too fun to tease you about it, you know.”
“I hate you.”
JD just smiled, knowing that wasn't true. Strange as this was, they were brothers, and they actually liked each other, more or less. They'd both sort of taken beatings for the other, Mark more than JD, and neither of them had been willing to leave the other to Bud Dean's hands.
They were screwed up, really. That wasn't healthy.
“You dream about it? About him?”
“No,” Mark said, frowning. “That's the weirdest part, actually. I was... It... Okay, so, somehow we met another brother. A triplet. And... we were all standing around this old car, working on it, and it caught on fire and tried to run us over and... JD? What's wrong?”
He forced himself to swallow, thinking of his own dream. “Um... I had just about the same thing. His name, the other one, he was Junior, and we were dressed like big dorks from the fifties or something, and the guy kept talking and there was music and a production and it was... weird.”
Mark fidgeted. “Okay, that's creepy.”
“Aren't twins supposed to have some kind of weird ESPN thing?”
“ESP,” Mark corrected, “and I know you said it like that on purpose.”
“Come on. It's freaky as hell that we dreamed the same thing.”
“Except if it had been about your dad taking us and killing us or... torturing us, it would have seemed pretty normal for us both to dream about it,” Mark said. “And.... admit it. You're worried about what we might find out when—if—we get the court records of our adoptions unsealed. Of who our mom might be and having other siblings.”
“We might make some of the other girls happy,” JD said. “I think they're looking for boyfriends. Betty's especially desperate.”
“Don't be mean, and they could all do better. And... who says they all want boyfriends?”
“Huh. Didn't think about that.”
“I'm not going to,” Mark said. “Their sex lives—their business. Just like yours is yours, and mine is mine.”
“Oh, you and Nora so—”
“Shut up, JD.”
“Mark and Nora sitting in a tree—”
“Don't make me kill you.”
“K-I-S-S—”
“You're going to wake both of the girls up, you idiot. And my parents. Stop it.”
JD rolled his eyes, but he did, since he didn't really want to get another lecture from the Hunters on their smoking habit, since neither of them approved and had told them both they'd better stop, which neither of them wanted to do. JD wasn't about to give it up, but he also didn't want to get caught because he couldn't really afford to get kicked out of his brother's house.
He looked over at Mark. Creepy dream or not, it was kind of nice not to be alone when this stuff happened. He could get used to having a brother.