Chapter Text
Craig was waiting for his cell phone to buzz in his back pocket while he sat and ate dinner with his family, he was waiting for Tweek’s daily after dinner message he always wrote to him. Tricia, his little sister finished her food first. Thomas, Craig’s father, finished his food second. Laura, His mother, finished third. Craig was just about done with his food, as he watched his mother rinse off the dinner plates in the sink.
The doorbell rang and Tricia ended up answering it, seeing as her father was sitting in front of the television as he unbuttoned his pants to breathe a bit better and again Laura was rinsing the dinner dishes off.
“Mom!” Tricia called out sounding hesitant and confused. “Who’s at the door sweetie?” Laura called out to her youngest, knowing she had been the one to answer the door.
“There are some cops here,” Tricia said, making Laura halt in the middle of her chore.
“The cops? What in the heavens for?” Laura asked as she dried her hands on her apron, turning the sink off before making her way to the front door.
Craig sat there, he was curious but he should probably finish his dinner. After a minute Laura’s voice could be heard.
“Thomas! Thomas, come here!” Laura called out.
Craig turned in his seat at the dinner table, even more curious about what the cops wanted and why his mother seemed a bit panicked.
Thomas rushed out of the living room, buttoning his pants as he went.
Craig watched his father stand up, button his pants and go to stand next to his mother in front of the door. The door blocked the cops, so Craig couldn’t really tell what was happening.
Tricia walked to the kitchen as she stared over his shoulder at her parents.
“Cops?” Craig asked simply as he stared down at his little sister.
She nodded, her lips tugged into a soured look.
“Yeah there were four of them out there, I wonder what happened,” Tricia said as she nibbled on her bottom lip, deep in thought.
Craig was about to comment on how weird that was, usually only one or two should show up in front of your door, but four of them? That seemed a bit excessive unless something really bad had happened.
Craig’s ears twitched as he heard his mother gasp then the door was closed. He looked over, he assumed both of his parents were now outside with the police. But what did they want? What was so private that they were whispering about and going outside to finish their talk instead of just continuing to talk in the doorway? Sometimes Craig wished he wasn’t a kid, then he could also know about everything that was happening. He hated being left in the dark like some useless kid.
Craig stood up, too much was going on for him to finish eating right now, he was basically done anyways. His head swirled with possible things they could be here for. He walked over to the kitchen windows and peaked out one of them, his sister copying his action and also poked her head up to peer out the window too. They were just both naturally curious children.
Laura and Thomas Tucker stood near a cop car, along with the four policemen.
“What do you think is happening? Do you think dad is going to get arrested?” Tricia asked curiously, no hint of concern whatsoever.
“I don’t know, and why do you think it would be dad to get arrested, could be mom getting arrested,” Craig commented with an eye roll.
One of the policemen bent down to peer into the backseat of the cop car, ‘somebody must be in the backseat,’ Craig thought.
Laura looked absolutely shocked by what the policemen were talking about, Thomas looked confused and shocked, and maybe even a bit angry?
Laura nodded her head quickly and peered over at Thomas with almost pleading eyes. Thomas held up a hand and was saying something to Laura, pulling her to his chest with a nod as he looked back to the police officers and started talking again.
One of the cops nodded, while another cop got inside the second police car that they weren't surrounding and was doing something on the inside.
They stood around for another couple of minutes, Craig kind of wanted to know what the hell was going on out there, he hated being in the dark about these kinds of situations, it made him anxious not knowing what was going to happen and to whom.
Laura turned and caught a glimpse of her two children watching out the window, she looked very worried. Thomas then also glanced at the window their kids were peeking out from and said something to Laura.
One of the cops also turned to look at Craig and Tricia and he waved with a small smile on his thin lips. His eyes looked tired, from what Craig could see.
Laura started talking to the cop before she leaned down to talk to whoever was in the backseat. Then she looked over at Thomas and she nodded. Then one of the cops with them looked over to the policeman who was in the other car who stuck a thumbs up in the air. Then Laura was moving to open the cops backdoor of the cruiser.
Craig and Tricia watched, waiting to see what was going to happen with bated breath. As she stood back to her full height, Craig noticed one thing that made his heart stop dead in its tracks. Laura turned slightly and adjusted her hold on Tweek! Tweek rested in Laura’s arms and on her hip, hugging her tightly with his head shoved into Laura’s neck.
Thomas patted Tweek’s back and started talking to one of the cops again, keeping his hand on Tweek’s back.
“Oh my god! Dude, why is Tweek with the police? Was he arrested? Did something happen to his parents? Did something bad happen?” Tricia asked, suddenly super curious, asking question after question. Craig felt himself pull away from the window. His heart suddenly felt like it was thudding in his chest cavity a lot faster than it previously was seconds ago.
‘What had happened to my boyfriend, that the cops had to drop him off here?’ Craig wondered, his heartbeat skipping a beat. His palms felt clammy and sweaty. His throat felt dry and like it was trying to close up on him.
“Moms, walking this way! Come on let’s go to the door,” Tricia yelped as she grabbed a hold of Craig’s sweater clad arm and tugged at him behind her. Craig’s legs worked on autopilot. Moving without giving them permission to do so, but that was okay because he wanted to know what the fuck was happening and he wanted to know now.
Tricia opened the door and Laura walked in, carrying Tweek who seemed to be shaking(nothing new there) and crying almost silently. Craig caught a glance at his father staring into his own eyes. He looked almost sad at Craig as he shouldered Tweek’s school backpack and held one of Tweek’s duffel bags in the crook of his elbow.
Craig shook his head and was immediately on his mothers heels as she walked to the living room with Tweek, not even sparing Craig a glance. She placed him down on the couch, and before anybody could say or do anything Craig was jumping on the couch and gathering Tweek into his arms in a hug
“GAH!!”
“W-What happened?” Craig heard his voice ask, his mouth moving without him realizing it at first. His voice sounded almost strained. He also stuttered, which was weird. Craig Tucker never stumbled over his words!
Tweek clung to Craig as soon as he noticed who was holding him in their grip.
“C-C-Cr-aaaiiig,” Tweek sobbed as he tried to wipe the tears that were streaming down his cheeks with his shirt sleeves, only to be replaced with more fresh tears.
“Not now Craig. Tweek honey, have you eaten dinner yet tonight?” Laura asked.
Craig threw a glare at his mother and tightened his hug around Tweek as he settled his boyfriend in his lap.
“N-n-n GAH! No,” Tweek said between tears and hitching breaths.
Laura rubbed his head and felt Tweek’s forehead before nodding.
“I’m going to make you some food sweetie, I want you to at least try eating half of it, alright. I know this isn’t a good time whatsoever, but you need to eat and get some strength before we all sit down and have a family meeting,” Laura said before walking straight to the kitchen to prepare some of the leftovers from dinner for Tweek to eat.
Tricia followed closely behind her mom to try and get some juicy details about what happened to her future brother-in-law that she loved so much.
Craig tried to get Tweek to calm down, but his boyfriend was beyond upset right now. All Tweek wanted to do was shove his face into the nape of Craig’s neck and cry his little heart out until he passed out crying and just hibernate for a couple of years.
“Babe, what’s going on? You gotta tell me what happened. Are you hurt?” Craig tried to get some kind of information, any kind of information from the shaking blond in his lap and arms. He wanted so desperately to help calm his boyfriend, something big happened and he wanted to know so that he could protect Tweek from it all, whatever it was.
Laura walked into the living room with a grim look on her face as she set the plate down on the coffee table in front of Craig and Tweek.
“Tweek, there’s some mashed potatoes, broccoli and cut cubed steak here. Craig, try to get him to eat at least half of it. I have to go back outside and clear some more things up with the nice policemen. Stay inside kids, I’ll be right back.
Then with that Laura Tucker was zooming out of the house, shutting the door behind her as she quickly made her way back to Thomas and the cops.
Tricia grabbed one of Tweek’s hands that was littered in many band-aids, and tilted her head; she hated seeing Tweek cry. She loved Tweek, he felt like another brother to her, but better than Craig.
“Tricia, leave us for a little bit, give him some space,” Craig said, almost sounding annoyed at his sister. Craig couldn’t help but stare at just how many band aids that Tweek had been wearing on his hand that Tricia had been holding. He didn’t remember Tweek wearing that much earlier when they were together.
Tricia huffed and stomped her foot.
“But I wanna make Tweek feel better too,” Tricia demanded.
Craig glared more icily at his sister, his glares could make the temperatures drop, that's how stony cold his glaring eyes could be.
Tricia pouted further, “fine,” she huffed, not happy whatsoever by this decision. She gently squeezed Tweek’s hand before releasing his hand, which Tweek moved to grip at Craig’s sweater clad arm tightly.
Tricia made her way back to the kitchen, her mom wouldn't tell her anything besides that they would talk about it together in a family meeting when things have calmed down slightly. She wanted to go back into the living room to comfort Tweek, his cries made her want to almost start crying herself. Something really super bad must have happened, and she was almost dreading hearing what had happened to have Tweek brought over by four policemen.
Tricia shyly walked out the front door and towards her parents. She hugged Thomas’s legs and peered up at him with concern written on her face, clear as day.
“Daddy, what’s going on?” she asked innocently, a slight quiver shook her lips.
Thomas lowered a hand to her head and patted her hair but didn’t say anything to her, he just kept whispering with Laura and the cops. She caught a few key words before she was told to head inside and wait for them there.
Tricia trudged back to the house slowly as she sulked about being ignored and cast aside by both her parents and her older brother. She just wanted to know what happened so that she could try and comfort Tweek herself. By the time she sluggishly opened the door to let herself in, ever so slowly creaking the door shut behind her.
Tweek’s crying had halted somewhat, now all she could hear was his breath hitching every now and again and Craig’s low voice whispering sweet nothings into Tweek’s hair. Maybe Craig wasn’t so bad, he was good to Tweek and that mostly all Tricia cared about from him.
Tricia sat at the dinner table and waited as calmly and patiently as she could while she attempted to listen in to what Craig was talking to Tweek about. She didn’t have anything else better to do and since she was so young, everyone tried to push her to the side, not giving her any information whatsoever to work with.
The few words she heard from the cops were “forced addiction”, “coffee”, “parents in jail”, “force fed”, “substances”, “meth”, “court”, “adoption”, “abusive”, “neglect”, and “therapist”. She may have been young but she was smart enough to at least kind of get a gist about what was going on now. She looked over at Tweek and Craig with big sad eyes. How could Tweek’s parents do such horrible things to someone as sweet and kind natured as Tweek? Tweek was the most amazing kid she had ever had the pleasantries of meeting in this stupid hick town.
Even though Craig made her leave them alone she still at least wanted to let him know what she found out. So she slid her phone out of her pocket and silently typed Craig a message about the keywords that she heard when she was standing with their parents and the cops. She also wrote what she could gather from all said words and what she thought was going on.
Craig had received the message and he eyed the message, silently reading it before glancing over in Tricia’s general location and he gave her a short nod as thanks for letting him know. She nodded back at him to let him know that she got what he was saying as well.
After a couple more minutes, Craig had finally picked up the spoon and managed to spoon-feed Tweek some of the food. Tweek ate the broccoli and the mashed potatoes but turned his head away from the meat that Craig tried offering him. So Craig called it okay since he ate everything else which was more than half which is what his mother wanted Tweek to eat anyways. Craig grabbed the soft throw blanket off from the back of the couch, wrapped Tweek and himself up in it and had Tweek just rest in his lap while he sat on the far left of the couch, rubbing soothing circles into Tweek’s back and running gentle fingers through Tweek’s hair which was starting to felt a bit greasy. Tricia ended up walking into the living room after they were situated in their new spot together and she sat on her father’s lazy boy recliner chair. Together they all waited in silence for both Tucker parents to come back inside.
It only took another five minutes before both Thomas and Laura had arrived back inside. Thomas dropped some papers on the coffee table before turning, picking up Tricia and placing her in his lap as he sat back down in his recliner chair. Laura took a seat on the other side of the couch, in front of the papers Thomas had stuck on the coffee table. Laura glanced over at the plate that was still there and noticed that Tweek had eaten a fair amount of it.
Thomas cleared his throat to begin talking.
“Okay, so Tweek will be staying with us tonight. Tomorrow while you kids are in school, Tweek will be with your mother and I all day so we can go to a few important places and fill out some paperwork.”
Tricia patted her father’s big hand and questioned him, “What kind of paperwork? What happened to Tweek’s mom and dad? Something bad happened didn’t it?”
Laura glanced at Tweek and Craig for a second before looking over at her daughter.
“Tweek’s mom and dad are going to jail for something very naughty that they did. Let’s just say, Tweek’s going to be with us for a while here in our house, which will now be his house too. And that’s why we need to fill out a lot of paperwork tomorrow. We’re going to need to get his address changed so that he can live with us, and we're going to need to get copies of his files and make a few appointments…” Laura filtered off, not knowing what else to say without outright telling them, especially in front of Tweek. That poor boy seemed to have enough on his plate, and at such a young age too.