Chapter Text
At this point Holly should start charging her dad and Healy for her secretary services. The phone was ringing off the hook, again, and they still weren’t back to answer it.
She sighed dramatically, even if there wasn’t anyone in the house to hear it, and walked over to the phone, grabbing a notebook on the way to write down whatever the potential client had to say.
“This is the Nice Guys Detective Agency, Holly speaking. How can I help you?” If she was going to be the stand in secretary she was at least going to be good at the job she was never technically given.
“Can I speak to Holland March?”
The lady on the phone could in fact not speak to Holland March. He was off in Ventura tracking down some lady whose husband suspected she was cheating, Healy having gone with him. They had promised to be home by lunch time today and Holly wasn’t bitter at all that it was nearly dinner and she hadn’t heard from them.
“Mr. March is currently away but I can take a message for him.”
“It’s about his nephews, Ryland and Colton Gentry. They’re currently in the custody of the state of Florida in an emergency foster placement. Holland March is their only known living relative that can be given custody of the twins.”
Nephews? Holly didn’t know that her dad even had any siblings. Did that mean she had cousins?
“I’ll pass the message along,” she replied.
“Thank you. An answer from Mr. March as soon as possible will be appreciated.” The lady rattled off a number for Holland to call her back before the phone clicked, the call having been ended.
Now more than ever Holly wished her dad and Healy would hurry up and get home. She had cousins, in Florida of all places, that had something happen to them that meant her dad, Holland March, needed to take care of them.
Holly loved her dad, more than anything, but the state of Florida must have been desperate if he was the one they were calling.
—
Holly was going to be pissed when they finally got home. They were supposed to be home three hours ago but then their client's wife, who had definitely been cheating, caught sight of them snapping a few pictures and sent the man she was with after them.
From there it turned into a whole thing involving Jackson brawling the guy then Holland having to talk the Ventura PD out of booking them for assault.
But they managed to avoid ending up in a Ventura County holding cell and now Jackson was going at least twenty over down the 101 so they could get home as quickly as possible. Holly had been very strict about Sunday lunches, usually at the beach, and they were in for it for missing it today.
Who knew that a fourteen year old girl could be so terrifying.
By the time they got home it was just past seven and Holland knew that his daughter was going to be pissed at him. He was going to have to bribe her with her favorite takeout or something for being home late again.
She would never admit it but Holland knew she worried ever since the whole Amelia thing–he was at least emotionally aware enough to see that.
He had been trying to be better for her, drinking less and being more present. It was easier now that Jackson was around and he wasn’t on his own.
When he opened the door he expected to see Holly at the kitchen table with an angry glare but instead she was sitting on the couch with a photo album that he forgot he even owned.
“What are you doing sweetheart?”
Holly jumped slightly and closed the book. “Since when do you have a sister?”
What did his sister have to do with anything? “She died a while ago but it had been forever since I talked to her. She married some douchebag, moved to Florida, and fell off the face of the earth.”
“Did you know she had kids?”
Holland nodded. How the hell did Holly find all this out? “Three boys, I only met the oldest once when he was like three and I never got to see the twins.”
“Some lady from Florida called and said that they were looking for a living relative to take custody of the twins.”
“Me?” Holland pointed to himself for emphasis. “What happened to their piece of shit father? And why would they be asking me to take custody of the twins.”
Holly shrugged. “Your answer’s as good as mine. I just told the lady I’d pass the message on.” The glare Holland had been waiting for since he got home made its way onto her face. “Why did you never tell me I had cousins?”
He would have loved to have Holly know more of her family, and maybe even get his sister away from her asshole of a husband, but John Gentry was a douchebag of the highest order and his daughter’s safety took precedence over all else. There was no way in hell he was letting her anywhere near Gentry.
“My sister’s husband was with a not so good guy and we lost contact not long after they got married and had the twins.”
There was a pause for a second as Holly assessed him. He could hear Jackson puttering around in the kitchen, giving them the illusion of privacy but Holland knew damn well that he was listening to everything.
“So what are you going to do about the twins? Are you going to go get them?”
That was a good question. What was he going to do with the twins? Clearly something had happened to Gentry–probably finally drank himself to death–but why was there no mention of the oldest boy? Holland was pretty sure his name was Courtland but he knew for sure that he wasn’t an adult yet, he had to be fifteen or sixteen at the most. There should have been something about him needing someone too.
Obviously Holland was going to have to go get the twins. He might not have ever even met them but they were still his sister’s kids, his family. He had cared about his sister, and had wanted to get her free of that piece of shit, the least he could do was get her kids away from Gentry when he hadn’t been able to get her out.
But Holly came first. As much as he wanted to do whatever he could for those boys he had to think of Holly. He couldn’t just uproot her entire life again.
“Would you be okay with having the twins here, with it being not just you and me anymore?”
Holly rolled her eyes and looked at him like he was an idiot. “It hasn’t been just you and me since you and Healy finally figured yourselves out and having Healy around made everything better.” She paused for a second, considering. “Plus they’re family right? We have to help them.”
Holland studied his daughter for a moment, looking for any sign that she was just saying what he wanted or expected to hear–not that Holly had ever spared his feelings before.
He had no idea what he had done right for Holly to be the way she was or what he had done to deserve her in the first place. All he saw in her was conviction and hell of a lot of worry for people she had never met before.
It was all the answer he needed.
“Hey Healy,” he called out. “Mind keeping an eye on Holly for a few days?”
Jackson sighed in that way of his that said I’m sick of your bullshit but his face was nothing but fond. “Whatever you need March.”
—
When he told Holland whatever you need he wasn’t expecting to be drug around department stores with him and Holly. He loved the two of them very much but fucking hell was shopping with them horrible.
The entire trip–they had been here for two hours already–had mainly just been Holland and Holly bickering about what would be needed to welcome the twins. Holland wanting to keep it simple until they knew more about the boys while Holly wanted to go all out and make their home as welcoming as possible.
There was more bickering than actual decision making and Jackson hoped that he could remain off to the side and not be brought into their arguing–as he had been doing since they walked in.
He knew it came from a good place though since Holland had been a nervous wreck since he called the Florida lady and let her know that he’d be there as soon as possible to bring the boys back to California.
Over the last year and a half that Jackson had known Holland the man had calmed significantly. He was still a clumsy ass disaster that Jackson was convinced had some cosmic entity on his side due to the sheer amount of dumb luck Holland received but that was neither here nor there. In the last eighteen months Holland had been doing better, less passing out in bathtubs and nervous breakdowns about not being good enough for Holly and Jackson.
The last two days Holland had been a wreck despite the general improvements to his mental and emotional state, caught between grief for his sister who he hadn’t been able to help and the three boys she left behind.
Holland had told him all about Courtland, Ryland, and Colton. How he had only met Courtland before his brother in law showed his true colors. That he should have done more for her but Holly was only a few years old and he couldn’t justify leaving her and his wife just because he hadn’t heard from his sister for awhile.
Then his wife died and his entire life went to shit and he didn’t have the capacity to take care of Holly and worry about the boys. Holly was the only reason that Holland was still going at that point and she was his number one priority, he didn’t have room to think about anything other than Holly and making sure she was as happy as possible.
But then Holland had received that call and Jackson could see the way that guilt was over taking him, even if it was misplaced. He had been hesitant to accept guardianship of the twins, not sure if he would be able to essentially go from one kid to three, but Jackson and Holly then lectured him for approximately an hour about he wasn’t on his own and they’d find a way to make it work.
So Holland made a call to the twins’ social worker and was set to fly out to Florida tomorrow afternoon.
The most surprising part of the whole situation was how okay Jackson had been with it. Another of Holland’s hang ups about taking the boys in was that Jackson had once told him he had no interest in kids. Holly was one thing, he would do anything for Holly, but she was the exception to the rule.
It was a reasonable thing to be worried about and if you asked Jackson before if he’d be willing to have any other children in his life other than Holly it would have been a hell no with no hesitation. Now though, after seeing Holland's all-consuming desire to help his nephews and Holly’s excitement over her new found family he found himself thinking that maybe adding a few more outcasts to their cobbled together family wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Or maybe he all the head trauma and finally gotten to him and he was finally going crazy because holy fucking shit Holland was still arguing with Holly over bedsheets as if he had ever won an argument against her that had anything to do with interior decoration. He wanted more of them? More Marches to invade his life and destroy the small semblance of sanity he still had?
Who was he kidding, Jackson would do anything for the two of them. Even accept the chaos that would inevitably come with two more of them.
—
Holland was supposed to be flying out in four hours but had yet to pack a single bag, too busy seething in rage to focus on the tasks he needed to get done before leaving. A lot of the rage was directed at himself but a good bit of it was also for Gentry.
After they had gotten home from their shopping adventure–Holland had eventually conceded defeat and just listened to whatever Holly had to say–him and Healy had looked into the Gentry family. The last Holland had heard from them was when his sister was pregnant with the twins. She had called him to let him know that she was pregnant again, twin boys this time, and that was it. That was the time he had heard from her.
Eventually he had tried to find her but only found that she had died, no other details other than that, not even how she died. Then his wife died and he didn’t think about the Gentrys for a long time.
So he and Jackson did some digging and what they found made Holland wish he knew where the man was so he could kill him himself.
There were a lot of domestic disturbance calls of a man yelling threats at his wife, the sound of things being thrown. In the last five years Gentry had been held overnight for public intoxication or attempted assaults eleven times.
The thing that concerned Holland the most though was the CPS call from about a year ago.
Courtland had broken his arm and the doctor had reported it to CPS. The bruising on his arm had apparently looked like it had come from someone harshing grabbing his arm. When CPS came, Courtland told them that he fell out of a tree, that the bruises were just a coincidence and that everything was fine at home.
Holland could see right through the lie though. It was plenty clear to him that in reality Gentry had been beating the shit out of his kids and something was finally being done about it.
He still didn’t have all the details but he had enough to make him more than a little homicidal towards John Gentry but also want to drown himself in a bottle of whiskey for not seeing it before. He had known that Gentry was an asshole but he never tried to help his sister and now she was gone and her three boys had been living in hell their entire lives.
If the roles were reversed and he was gone and Holly was stuck in that kind of situation he would have been desperate for her to have a way out. Even if it meant she was living with a nutjob who hadn’t had his shit together a single day of his life.
The very thought of Holly being anywhere near someone like Gentry was enough to send him into a spiral. How could he have never checked up on them? Never so much as tried to call?
“Have you even started packing?”
Holland jumped, yelling a high pitched, “Jesus Christ," and glaring at Jackson. The asshole did that shit on purpose. “It’s only one night, I have plenty of time, thank you very much.”
Jackson was giving him a very scrutinizing look. “Do you want me to find the guy and beat the shit out of him?”
“I want to find the guy and beat the shit out of him.” Holland wasn’t as physical of a guy compared to Jackson but he’d fuck up John Gentry’s shit with pleasure. “I also kinda want to beat the shit out of myself.”
He started pacing, too restless to keep standing still. “They’re my family Jack, and I was too caught up in my own bullshit to care about them. What kind of brother am I to never check up on my pregnant sister who I knew had a piece of shit husband?”
“Your own ‘bullshit’ was losing your wife and raising your daughter by yourself. What matters is that you're trying now.”
Holland scoffed. “I knew that guy was a monster but I just let it fall to the wayside, never tried to intervene. God only knows what the fuck finally happened for them to be calling me to take care of the twins. And where the hell is Courtland in all this mess? The social worker refused to go into details about him.”
He was well aware that he was spiraling but everything was just such a fucking mess. He felt so guilty for never doing more to protect the boys and worried out of his mind for them and desperate to know what the situation with Courtland was.
Trying to figure it all out from the other side of the country and knowing only the bare minimum of details was only making his anxiety skyrocket.
Jackson had moved away from his position against the doorframe and was now carefully folding the clothes Holland had scattered about the room to pack. “Are you sure you want to go to Florida by yourself?”
“Someone’s gotta be here with Holly. Sending her off to Jessica’s while we run an overnight case is one thing but leaving her on her own while we go to the other side of the country? Fuck no, not after all the bullshit we’ve dealt with.”
Jackson was the only person in the world that he fully trusted with Holly. Her being home with him would give him one less thing to worry about and would allow him to fully focus on the twins and figuring out what happened to Gentry and Courtland.
“We managed to figure out the Amelia case all while not getting ourselves killed, I’m sure we can manage to figure out what happened to those kids.”
Holland didn’t know how he made it as far as he did without Jackson. The man was the most steady and immovable force he had ever seen, the exact opposite of Holland in every way, but there was no way he could ever continue on without him.
He took a deep breath, finally calming down slightly. “We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
—
Ryland eyed the man in front of him distrustfully. He was wearing a cream suit with a bright yellow tie and smelled like cigarettes, like his dad. Unlike his dad though, he was looking between him and Colt with a small smile.
“Boys,” the nice lady said. She had been checking on them since the night Court was taken. “This is your uncle Holland March. You’re going to be staying with him for a little while in California.”
Ryland didn’t move or acknowledge the man but Colt gave him a little wave.
“His home is in Los Angeles and he offered to let you boys stay with him there.”
Colt immediately lit up. “Like Hollywood?” He loved anything to do with movies, almost as much as Ryland loved science.
“Just like Hollywood,” the man said. “Once we get there I can take you guys to the walk of frame.”
Colt was nearly vibrating in his excitement but Ryland remained a bit more hesitant. How were they just going to go off with this random man they’ve never met to the other side of the country without Court?
“What about Court?” Ryland finally asked. Ever since that night everyone had been refusing to talk to them about their brother.
The nice lady gave him the same weird look that all the adults were giving him when he asked about his brother. “Courtland is going to be staying here. What he did was a very bad thing and he’s going to have to stay here to face the consequences.”
“Court didn’t do anything wrong,” he muttered. Court had just been trying to protect them like he always did.
His muttering was ignored. “Now why don’t you two go pack up your things while I talk to your uncle?”
Ryland didn’t like how nobody but him and Colt were worried about Court but he knew better than to argue with the adults. He didn’t say anything else as he got up and went to the bedroom he had been sharing with Colt the last few nights.
There wasn’t much to pack, the cops had only let them take what they could carry, but the few things he had he wanted to make sure made it to California. Since that was where they were going now apparently.
It was silent for a few minutes before Ryland finally said what he knew him and Colt were both thinking. “What are we going to do about Court?”
Colt shrugged. “Maybe our new uncle will do something. If he came all the way here from California to pick us up, maybe he’ll want to help Court unlike the rest of the adults.”
Ryland hoped that he was right. The man, their uncle, had seemed nice. So far he had only smiled at them and didn’t say anything about Ryland’s muttering, which was something his dad had always gotten mad about.
Their uncle seemed nice but Ryland wasn’t sure if he was willing to trust him yet. He was willing to take the chance if it meant helping Court though.
—
When the twins were out of the room and out of earshot Holland turned to the social worker. “What happened with Courtland?”
The social worker sighed, the sound a mixture of exhaustion and anger. “Three nights ago Courtland shot his father in the head. The neighbors heard yelling then the gunshot and he was arrested shortly after. Now he’s awaiting trial.”
“Isn’t he like fifteen?”
“Just turned fifteen three months ago.”
“So what’s being done to help him?” Holland asked. “Does he have a lawyer or anyone trying to get him out of there?”
The social worker seemed shocked by his questions. “He killed his father Mr. March,” she answered, like it explained everything. “He showed no obvious signs of remorse or even regret when he was arrested. In fact he resisted the arrest.”
Holland looked at her in confusion. Was it not obvious to everyone that Courtland’s motive had been self-defence? If Gentry was his father he wouldn’t have felt any remorse or regret either.
Contrary to popular belief Holland was not a complete idiot. Him and Jackson had done their research and after seeing Colt look like hell it all added up. The bruising that looked like fingerprints on Colt’s forearm and the cut on his brow being horribly similar to Courtland’s broken arm from supposedly falling out of a tree. Not to mention all the times the cops had been called for the yelling and the drinking.
Add all that together and it was a pretty easy picture to see. John Gentry was a piece of shit that had a tendency to hit his wife. When she died the anger moved to the kids and Courtland, being the oldest, took the majority of the hits. Things must have taken a turn, Gentry probably went after Colt, and Courtland took things into his own hands to protect himself and his little brothers.
It was a story he had seen a million times when he was a cop but the kid didn’t deserve to be in a cell for the rest of his life just for protecting himself.
Right as Holland was about to speak up, something very strongly worded about the incompetence of Florida’s justice system, the twins came back into the room. They both had backpacks with what he assumed was everything they were allowed to grab from their home before being moved into the foster placement.
He once again didn’t get to say something scathing as the social worker redirected the conversation to the paperwork spread out in front of him. Taking emergency custody of your nephews took a lot more signatures than he was anticipating. He could only imagine how long the whole process would have taken if he wasn’t related to the twins.
But once everything was signed–the background checks and whatever the hell else that state of Florida deemed necessary having already been done before he was even called–the twins were officially in his care.
Holland March was no longer a barely functioning father of one but now a barely functioning father of one and uncle of two. For some reason he had been entrusted to make sure that three children were taken care of and would grow up to be productive members of society.
Holly had turned out pretty damn incredible so far, probably her mother’s influence, so Holland could only hope the same would be true of the twins.
Ryland was quiet and Holland could read the distrust on his face clear as day. Not that he blamed the kid though, if all he knew of adults was John Gentry then he probably would have been hesitant to accept some random guy showing up and promising to take care of him.
Colt seemed a bit more open though. He immediately lit up at the mere notion of being near Hollywood and even gave Holland a little wave when the social worker introduced them.
It was going to be difficult, he could hardly take care of himself and Holly before Jackson let alone two probably extremely traumatized ten year old boys, but they would figure it out. He hadn’t been able to help his sister but he wasn’t going to let her boys down.
He was going to recruit Jackson and do whatever they possibly could to get Courtland out of jail. With the right people in the kid’s corner it was going to be an open and shut case of self-defence if he had anything to say about it.
That was something to be dealt with in the future–the near future, but the future nonetheless. Right now he had two boys and a five hour flight to worry about.
—
The flight back to LA went shockingly well all things considered. Even though Holland had agreed to take custody of the twins days ago they hadn’t been informed that they would be moving to California until the same day that they met him for the first time. It was another thing in the long, long, list of things that pissed him off about the whole situation but he kept his mouth shut.
Normally he wouldn’t have but he didn’t have Jackson around to have his back when someone inevitably tried to beat his ass for running his mouth.
During the flight Holland took the time to explain to the twins what they should expect, since they were told exactly nothing. He understood that they were kids and that the last few days had been rough on them but wasn’t that all the more reason to explain things to them?
Apparently not according to the people who had been in charge of them previously. Holland could only imagine how uncertain things had been for them since Courtland went to jail so he took the time to explain everything in detail about what to expect.
Colt accepted everything easy enough, he seemed excited by the prospect of living in Hollywood near the beach and having a cool older cousin to hang out with. Ryland though? That kid was still giving him a heavy look of distrust any time Holland spoke.
When he was done and asked the twins if they had any questions all Ryland had to say was, “What about Court?”
It was kind of sweet how much he cared about his older brother. The only times Holland had heard Ryland speak to anyone other than Colt was to ask about Court. For the most part everyone had just brushed over the question or pretended like Ryland hadn’t said anything. This was their brother though, probably the only person who had ever taken care of them, and they deserved to know what was happening to him.
“I’m going to do what I can to get Courtland–”
“Court,” Ryland immediately interrupted. “He doesn’t like being called Courtland.”
“Okay, Court then.” Holland didn’t care to fight the kid about it, he was desperate to get Ryland to like him. “I’m going to do whatever I can to get Court out of prison and out here to California with us.”
The look on Ryland’s softened into something closer to weariness than the outright distrust he had been eyeing Holland with. It was progress.
“You’re really going to help our brother?” Colt asked. He was a lot easier to read, the hope clear on his face.
“In whatever ways I can.”
Ryland almost smiled at him. It felt like approval.
—
With the twins settled in the house Holland’s number one priority was to figure out how to get Court out of prison. Since the creation of the Nice Guys Detective Agency they had a pretty steady stream of cases so he had more than enough money to take a few weeks off work to focus solely on Court.
It had been awhile since he had such a single-minded focus like this but helping Court was important. His case should have been an open and shut case of self defense. The evidence was all there.
Someone, probably fucking Gentry, had clearly attacked Colt and even though Holland hadn’t seen Court he could assume that he looked the same, if not worse, than his little brother. Gentry had a long history of violence too.
Court was also a fifteen year old kid for fucks sake. How the hell the cops looked at him and a beat up ten year old and decided that Court was a cold blooded murderer was beyond him.
This case was going to a jury if Holland had to fly back across the country himself. He’d already arranged for a lawyer to meet with Court so he would know that he had someone in his corner so hopefully that could be avoided.
All that was left to do was the usual PI bullshit–sit around and wait for something to happen. It was least favorite part of the job, sitting still wasn’t exactly his forte, but there was literally nothing else he could do short of flying back to Florida and getting a firsthand recount of events from Court.
He could ask Ryland or Colt but that just felt fucked up. He wasn’t going to grill the kids–who were seeming to be starting to trust him–for details about whatever happened that night. If the boys wanted to talk about that night they could but he wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up.
Holland looked over at the clock and sighed when he saw it was only eleven in the morning. He needed a drink–or ten–but if he did that then Jackson would give him that worried look that was somehow worse than his disappointment and Holly would be disappointed, which would only make him feel even worse.
Things had been better in the last year and a half. He’d been trying to be the father that Holly deserved and just be someone who was worth keeping around in general. The last time he had passed out drunk in the bathtub was on the anniversary of the fire, so progress, he supposed.
And there were the twins to think about too. Thankfully it was summer break so they wouldn’t have to deal with school for another month or two but that meant they would always be in the house.
Holland was well aware that he was a pathetic drunk. He didn’t throw shit around or even say anything cruel, he just drank a bottle of whiskey and drowned in his own self-pity instead. The twins already had one sorry excuse of a drunk asshole for a guardian and they didn’t need another. Holly deserved better than him being drunk and pathetic in the middle of the day too–she had seen him like that way far too many times.
If he was going to drink away his stress he was going to do it long after all three kids were in bed and there was no one to see him thank you very much. His parenting skills were questionable at best but he did have standards these days.
Not that he could do that anyway. The second Jackson saw him getting twitchy and restless he dumped the one bottle of whiskey Holland had down the drain.
Sometimes the bastard caring about him really was inconvenient.
But dealing with his long standing list of issues wasn’t very high up on his list of priorities at the moment. He hadn’t heard any noise from the kids in awhile which was very concerning. Holly was a diabolical little shit on her own–she had literally snuck into the trunk of his taxi and forced her way onto his first case with Jackson–and now she had two accomplices, who absolutely adored her.
The twins might have been slightly unsure of him and Jackson at first but they loved Holly right off the bat. He wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or something that was going to give him a heart attack.
Holland decided that the answer to the question was heart attack when he walked out back to see all three kids in the fucking pool, cleaning it out.
“What the fuck,” he breathed out. This was his life now. He could barely handle his own kid and now he had two more. Holland had never more grateful that Jackson decided to stick around because how the fuck would he have ever done this on his own.
He stood there for about a minute until Holly noticed him. “Hey dad!” she said with a bright smile.
Apparently she was playing innocent but he wasn’t going to fall for it. “Holly, sweetheart, what the fuck are you guys doing?”
The smile got brighter. “We’re cleaning out the pool so we can fill it up! The new house won’t be done until way after summer so we might as well have a pool that actually has water.”
Holland looked between the three kids. Holly with her smug smile, Colt nodding along enthusiastically with everything she said. Even Ryland looked excited about the prospect of a pool.
Why did Jackson have to choose today to go shopping? He knows Holland can’t say no to Holly on a good day and now he’s supposed to say no to all three of them.
Fuck he was a pushover.
He pointed at Holly. “You’re a devious little shit, I hope you know that.”
“So we can have a pool this summer?”
“Sure honey, we can have a fucking pool this summer.” There was no point in arguing so he just accepted his fate. If he was lucky this was the worst that the three of them would get up to. Hell maybe the pool will keep them entertained and away from trouble.
Jackson was going to have a field day with this one when he got home. Holland was never going to hear the end of it but if it made the kids happy he didn’t mind as much.