Chapter Text
“Jessa,” Anthony says meekly. She startles; she didn’t think anyone was still awake.
“Good Lord, Tony,” Jessica says, hand on her chest. “What are you doing still awake?”
“Sorry,” he says, still quiet, and something must be up. Jessica knows that tone. Anthony is brash and clever until he isn’t, and when he isn’t, he comes and talks to her.
“No, it’s okay,” she tells him, “just surprised me. Wanna sit?” Anthony sits. He usually haunts the library this time of night but Jessica has always been fond of the living room. Only the small light is on and everything is yellow and warm. Jessica’s been working through Aeschylus lately; she’s currently reading his Oresteia.
“Jessa,” he says again, but this time it’s beginning a sentence, so she waits. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Stop that immediately,” she says. “You know what they say about thinking.”
Anthony gives her a little smile. “What?” he asks, playing along.
“It gives you ideas!” cries Jessica. “Horrible, horrible thoughts. Don’t buy into them, Tony, don’t do it.” It’s working, a little. He doesn’t look terribly sad anymore.
“I’ve been thinking,” he says again, and Jessica pretends to shudder horribly. “I’ve been thinking that maybe Lucy and I- well. I don’t know.”
Ah. They’re having this conversation. Jessica bites back a smile. “What about Lucy?” she prods gently. “Is something up?”
Anthony sighs, slouching back into the cushions. “No,” he says. “But- but-” he groans, and puts his face into his hands.
Gently, gently, Jessica kicks his knee. He doesn’t respond, so she does it again, harder. He peeks through his hands to glare at her. She grins. “Tony,” she says fondly, “you don’t have to be embarrassed.”
Anthony makes a muffled noise into his palms. Jessica kicks his knee again. He tries to kick her back, but he’s still covering his face and can’t see her so he misses.
“You already know what I’m going to say,” he mutters, peeking through his fingers again as if to gauge her response. “So can’t you just… put me out of my misery?”
“I thought it was George for a while, you know,” Jessica says conversationally.
“What?”
“Who you fancied.”
“What?”
“Always going on and on about him. George is so smart this and George makes the best food that. I thought, alright, my baby brother has a crush. I can handle this. And then he moved in with us and I thought, okay. Even better. Forced proximity.”
Anthony moves his hands and kicks her properly this time. Jessica laughs.
“But then I realized,” she continues, “that you don’t chatter on and on about your crushes. You go quiet about them.”
Anthony glares. But then he looks away, and Jessica can see his ears turning pink, and he crosses his arms over his chest like he’s eight again instead of fifteen. “I dunno,” he says, quiet again. “It’s just- I don’t know.”
“You know I like her plenty,” says Jessica. “She draws like I do, and she’s a fantastic agent. If I didn’t approve I wouldn’t have let her move in with us.” But it’s not her approval that Anthony is missing. Really, it’s not approval that he’s missing at all.
Jessica has done her best since Mum and Dad died, but nothing can fill the gap where parents should be. She misses them fiercely and often. She missed her mother when Anthony asked her, all shy and quiet, if he could give one of Mum’s necklaces to Lucy for the Fittes Gala. She missed her father when Anthony brought George home, because Dad would have loved him, a researcher after his own heart.
“Alright, Tony,” she says. “What are you going to do about it?”
He looks back at her, a question on his face.
“I mean, what are you going to do about it? She’s mad at you after the whole deal at Aickmere’s. Are you going to talk to her? Try and make things better? You can’t just keep giving her gifts and expect her to forgive you.”
“She wants to leave,” says Anthony suddenly. “She wants to quit Lockwood & Co.”
Oh. Well. That explains why he’s freaking out.
“Well,” says Jessica, “if that’s her choice, we can’t stop her.”
“But it’s Lucy,” says Anthony, as if that explains everything. “She can’t- she can’t just leave.”
Jessica knows that Lucy Carlyle has no emergency number on file for anyone other than her team. Jessica also knows that Lucy Carlyle loves 35 Portland Row, loves her team, and certainly cares for her little brother. So if she’s trying to leave, something happened to make her go. She wouldn’t leave for nothing.
“Oh, Anthony,” she says gently, and scoots closer to him. “It’s not like she’ll disappear.” Jessica wishes Dad were here. He would know how to do this. He would know what to say to make it better.
Anthony scowls at something in the distance, refusing to make eye contact with her. “I know. I’m not stupid.”
No, but you’re fifteen and the girl you have a crush on is mad at you and ever since Mum and Dad left and never came back you think that can happen to anyone. Jessica sighs. “Look,” she says. “You’ve got a few options.”
“I’ve got exactly one fucking option,” Anthony snaps. “I won’t let her leave.”
Jessica blinks. “Blatantly false,” she tells him. “Have you ever met anyone who could stop Lucy Carlyle from doing what she wants to do?”
He loosens again. “Sorry,” he mutters. “I just- it’s Lucy.”
“It’s Lucy,” Jessica agrees.
Anthony gives her a look, as if judging what she’ll say. He must deem her worthy because he says, “I think I like her.”
Jessica, because she is a terrible sister, says, “Well, I should hope so. You hired her, after all.”
“No- Jessa,” he whines, and she laughs. “Spilling my heart out to you and you do this? God.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she tries, but she’s still laughing which sours the effect. “Look. Tony. Brother mine.”
“Yes?”
“Everyone who has eyes knows you like Lucy.”
Anthony groans and covers his face again. Jessica kicks his knee again. He kicks back.
“I’m just saying,” Jessica tries, “that maybe you should tell her.”
“I cannot,” Anthony says to his palms.
“It’s not as if she doesn’t like you back.”
“She hates me,” he informs her. “She hates me and she is quitting Lockwood & Co. and she hates me.”
“As if anyone could hate this beautiful face,” says Jessica, leaning in to try and pat his cheeks. He valiantly tries to fight her off but Jessica is the eldest and therefore unstoppable. They end up just laughing with Jessica trying to pinch him and Anthony trying to tickle under her arms and really, it could be ten years ago and Mum and Dad could be making dinner, which means that Dad is cooking while Mum is allowed to watch and not touch anything, and later they’ll be tucked in and Mum might sing.