Chapter Text
By pure coincidence, one of the Baker family was under a particularly focused moment of control by Eveline when they walked through the kitchen and noticed a date circled on the calendar, January 17th, with an addendum scribbled beneath: "daddy's birthday!" The calendar itself was a little over a year old, so the placement within the week had only changed by one day. Just Evie's luck.
The girl had an austere understanding of traditions and recently learned more about holidays in particular several weeks ago during Christmas. Not that the event had been all that celebratory, not with the Bakers themselves still fighting against her gift every so often. However, she could detect their mood brightening ever so slightly at the sight of the decorations, and as such, had not prompted their removal.
She was only aware of birthdays because Mia had celebrated Evie's on her behalf, and now was the chance to further deduce what all the fuss was about.
Perhaps she really was just humoring tradition for mere curiosity alone. Perhaps this was Eveline's attempt at maintaining loyalty through rewards, as though the Bakers were dogs instead of people. Former people. Whatever it was they were now.
No matter the reason, Jack Baker's 55th birthday was definitely going to be celebrated. The trick was just figuring out how. Eveline searched through the hive mind for clues, glanced here and there with each family member’s memories. She didn’t look for anything specific, just any kind of hint, anything to do with the eldest Baker’s interests. Jack himself - the old Jack, the one she had buried to make room for a better Jack, a properly devoted father - was not cooperative, but no matter. There had to be something…
She skidded to a halt, looked back, stared hard at the image of a cake. When Mia had introduced the concept of birthdays to her, she discussed cakes. This memory revealed the cake was on a table, in front of Jack, who was smiling. He mentioned dinner, which Marguerite was proudly preparing. Tom yum, whatever that was. Red wine. Chicken creole…
This was almost too easy. Eveline could barely wait until the 17th.