Timmothy spends most of his time these days trying to connect with his family.
Teaching Reve new swear words...
...and giving Finley lots and lots of attention.
Wholesome stuff like that.
And then, when he thinks nobody's looking, he breaks down.
He'll double-check her doors are locked, and there aren't any monsters lurking outside the windows. Finley wouldn't mind a pinch of neurotic behavior—she's had to put up with Junpei all these years—but Timmothy's paranoia is different. He's deeply ashamed of it. He goes through a lot of trouble to sneak around make sure no one catches him acting this way.
He won't talk about his time away from Hidden Springs, so all Finley knows comes from what Leslie could tell her, and what her psychic prying could tell her. Her boyfriend was tortured and violated.
And then they told him he was mental and needed rehab before he could resume life as a normal citizen. He thought they were full of crap and he wasn't crazy and THEY were crazy, but after enough time he learned how to fake what they wanted to see and hide what they didn't want to see.
As they're entangled on the floor one night, because Finley's bed is just too small, a jolt of unwanted psychic insight puts a name to those moments when he pulls away from a passionate but suffocating kiss, or becomes quietly distressed when she unexpectedly touches his neck or face. He puts on a smile for her but she can feel the discomfort and shock, the brief traumatic flashback. Some vampires consider feeding to be erotic, Finley knew that much, and with their mental powers the victim doesn't have to be willing. Finley just hadn't wanted to consider the possibility the abuse Timmothy endured went to such extremes.
They used their inhuman abilities to restrain, coerce and force, brought him within inches of his life and mocked him for his inability to fight back. Every time Timmothy has an intimate moment with Finley, he hopes it'll somehow wash away and replace those memories.
It's not working.
Grandma and her ghost stories.
He says words like Pisces and Aquarius, but he's not asking about her sign.
"They've been there for billions of years," Finley says, as she gazes at the specks of light in the sky. "And they'll be there when we're gone and forgotten."
"I bet we enjoy our existence a lot more than stars do," Timmothy answers.
Timmothy isn't wanted back at base yet, but he should stay in shape for when that day comes.
He can't help thinking that physical training did nothing to help him against vampires, but at least it distracts him so he doesn't end up crawling back to drugs to numb the pain.
None of his old hobbies make him happy. Since he got so darn sober he sees his favoritest games are mindless, pointless grinds and all the other players are pricks, and his favoritest TV shows are vapid and plotless. He can't seem to enjoy anything he used to enjoy, except for Finley.
The doctors called this lack of enjoyment depression. They told him the drugs he did since high school might've been a contributing factor to his mental imbalances. He thinks about that a lot. How dare they say he was imbalanced? Maybe they'd be imbalanced, if they ever saw what he did...
Lewis is trying his best over here.
Finley is busy, so Timmothy spends some time with his son without her, hoping to bond with their child.
Junpei said the kid likes the park, and Junpei was not wrong. Reve loves the park.
"My mom liked to take me and my brother fishing," Timmothy tells Reve. "Maybe when you're older, I can teach you how?"
Reve smiles. He has no idea what Timmothy is talking about. "Let me down, please."
"Sure." Timmothy sets Reve down in the grass on one side of the bridge, and watches him scamper around.
When Reve starts picking flowers and trying to give them to his father, Timmothy decides the kid must be starting to like him. "Uh... does your mom let you do that?"
"Pink!" Reve says, clearly excited about the azaleas.
"I think we have enough shiny pebbles, okay?" Timmothy tries to reason with Reve, after Reve deposits yet another tiny rock in his hands for safe keeping.
After an afternoon in the park, Timmothy brings Reve back to the Archer place, where Mab feeds him something that looks unappealing but must taste awesome, because the toddler is eating it up like it's candy.
"He kept picking up stuff and asking me to hold it," Timmothy says, after he empties his pockets of wilting flowers, leaves, twigs and rocks.
"He does that to us, too." Mab laughs, "Your hands are bigger than Reve's, so he thinks you can hold more things."
Timmothy tries to strike up a friendly conversation with Junpei, but Junpei isn't feeling very talkative, and rarely makes eye contact.
Junpei had to endure his sister missing this guy and being in love with this guy, and while it doesn't get confusing to sort his own feelings from his sister's in this case, it still weird, like having two conflicting sets of memories, two different films playing at the same time. Junpei doesn't know how to react.
He knows, literally, what it would be like to be in love with Timmothy. And if Junpei pushes the weirdness aside and looks at that objectively, shouldn't it mean he can at least think the guy is alright as a person, or maybe just tolerate him, or something other than this panic boiling down in his guts? Shouldn't they be able to be friends?
Junpei can't help it; he wishes Timmothy would leave.
He can't shake the feeling that Finley won't be happy with Timmothy, in the long run.
Timmothy is planning to propose to Finley. He lets Mab in on the secret plans.
Mab cannot be Timmothy's mother, but she can be welcoming and supportive. Hopefully it will be enough.
Finley meets Timmothy at Lars' after work.
When she calls out his name, he's startled at first, and turns to look at her with this scary intense expression. He reminds her of a cornered animal.
Remembering where he is, he mellows out instantly. "Hey, doll. How was the office?"
"I'm sorry. They kept me late on something stupid," Finley replies. She then asks casually, "Who did you think I was?"
"I don't know," he says, with a dopey shrug. All the terrifying delusions his mind jumped to when his name was called make no sense, so he's not about to own up to them.
Finley frowns as she pulls him out onto the dance floor. Before he left, there was nothing he ever kept from her.
"You look amazing in that outfit," he gushes.
"It's just something I found in the back of my closet."
"Once I found a rat in the back of my closet."
Finley laughs. "There's a reason I like my place better than yours."
They should be sharing a place, he thinks. "Really though. You look dynamite."
"Uh huh. What you're really thinking is, you prefer my shorter skirts."
"Am I that obvious? ... It's true, shorter skirts emphasize your delicious hips."
Finley blushes darkly, in a way she doesn't when they're in private.
This place hardly should count as public tonight, though, since the only other person here is the teenaged Lee Lho.
"It's like you cast a love spell on me," Timmothy rambles.
"I could," she teases. "But what fun would that be?"
"Magic is real, you know," he says, tone suddenly distant.
"I know," she says gently. "I reported on some of it."
Timmothy pulls her into a protective hug. "Don't go back, okay? Stay here until it's all over." Then he kisses her, adding an element of passion in an attempt to hide the fear.
When he releases her from the kiss, she slowly reaches out to stroke his cheek. "It is over."
"Yeah." He is confused for a moment, then remembers, yes, it is. It is because that's what they told him. "But some of them are still out there, you know? With their magic."
"I'm not afraid," she says, after a pause.
Finley would like to go all night long, but she's tired from work, and there will be more work tomorrow.
"I should make sure Reve's in bed, and get some sleep myself," she says reluctantly.
"Why're we still living apart?" Timmothy asks. "I could do that stuff... I mean, I could put Reve to bed every night. Tuck him in. Read him a story."
She smiles weakly. "I'll start paying more attention to the housing market."
Timmothy's face brightens with hope. "Can I look for a ring for you, yet?"
He has plans for where he's going to propose and what he's going to say, but no ring.
She thinks about it for a moment. Timmothy doesn't seem 100%, but he's made serious effort, and she loves him, and he loves her, and she's committed to their relationship. She wants to make it work. Changing their status to engaged could be part of the road to everything seeming normal. Maybe Finley never wanted normal, but Timmothy needs normal right now. "Nothing gaudy, okay?"
"Deal."
They part ways for the night.
Finley's emotions run high, and back at home, Junpei can suddenly taste Timmothy's breath mints. Gross. Ew. Gross. And it goes particularly bad with the smell of burnt spaghetti sauce.
Junpei's going to have to talk to his twin about calibrating those bracelets to cover more situations.
Mab paints something special to decorate Reve's future bedroom.
Junpei talks to his plants.
A piece of the meteor commemorates the spot where his lettuces were murdered.
Timmothy finally got around to reading some of Finley's articles, and praises her work... while his eyes wander someplace below her face.
It's Saturday, and they're hanging out at one of Hidden Springs' many fancy public pools.
They brought their son along, but the floaty pool toys and playtime can wait, apparently...
"You gonna get that?" Timmothy asks, when the cell phone ringing has gone on long enough to attract Reve's attention.
It's Reisa Chesterfield.
"You need this now? It can't wait for Monday? ... Oh, fine!"
"Reisa needs something she left at the office," Finley explains. "She can't get away from her house guests to get it, so I'm going to grab it and drop it by her house. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Timmothy kisses Finley goodbye. "Have fun."
Then sits down to wait for her return.
He glances at his son. "Ready for swimming lessons soon, buddy?"
"My name is Wr...Reve."
Timmothy laughs. "Wuh-wuh-wreve. Okay."
"I want my ness-toy."
"Sure."
Reve is appeased when given his favorite toy.
And then this happens.
DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?
AND THEN IT REAPPEARED. WITH SPARKLES.
Timmothy is suddenly having a very... very bad day.
They said he was crazy, but he knows what he saw...
The sudden stab of alarm is like a siren going off next to Junpei's ears. Ow!
Finley felt the cry for help, too, and quickly tore herself away from Reisa's party. "Timmothy! Where's Reve?"
After being shoved into the water, Reve's instinct was to be still. The sensation of being surrounded by liquid was interesting, if surprising. The sinking part scares him, though, and when he starts trying to breathe again... it doesn't work very well.
In fact it hurts. A lot.
Finley darts towards the edge of the pool. Immediately she knows what happened and why, but she won't think about that right now. What matters right now is rescuing her son.
She's pushed Timmothy's involvement in the situation so far to the back of her mind that it takes her by surprise when Timmothy grabs her and holds her back.
"Let go!" she screams.
"No! It's not Reve!" Timmothy takes her arm and twists with military precision, sending an almost paralyzing shock through her body. "I know what I saw!" He hasn't told her what he saw, but how can he? She's too busy struggling and not listening to him.
"Reve is drowning!"
"That's not Reve!" Timmothy snaps. "It used magic!"
Finley's screaming for help is going to attract attention, so Timmothy clamps a hand over her mouth.
Their son is in a lot of pain, projecting it in a way only another psychic would pick up. When his consciousness fades out it stops and for a second so does Finley's struggling, the same second a third thing happens: Rusty Menon rushes out of the building. He's followed by Lyre Colby and Garrett Antig.
Timmothy takes a defensive stance and tells Rusty to stay out of this, or something; Finley has been roughly thrown aside and isn't processing the entire crazy rant he's going on, and splash, Lyre dives into the pool...
Rusty may look bigger and stronger than Timmothy, but it's not the size of the dog in the fight so much as the size of the fight in the dog, and Garrett is afraid this will end badly.
Finley doesn't have time to answer her phone right now. Junpei will have to wait a few minutes before she can tell him exactly how bad the situation is.
Finley tries to revive her son.
"Should I call the police?" Garrett frets, behind them.
Rusty is not very good at talking sense into people. This is an epiphany that comes to him as he's cussing Timmothy out and nothing constructive is coming of it.
In the background, Reve chokes for air, then begins to cry.
At first the noise is miserable and weak. After a few seconds pass, it's at full volume.
Shakily, Finley scoops Reve up in her arms, close to tears herself.
If the Chesterfield place hadn't been just up the street.....
"He's alright," she announces, with more certainty than a non-psychic would have.
"He's not human!" Timmothy hisses.
Timmothy raises his voice over Reve's wailing, but Finley sharply cuts him off, "I can't talk to you right now!"
"I know what I saw!" Timmothy protests.
"You didn't see anything!" she shouts, aware of the eyes on them. "You're insane!"
Finley leaves Timmothy at the pool with no care at all as to whether or not anyone called the police. Once home, she seeks comfort from her mother, while Junpei gets Reve into some clothes that aren't soaking wet.
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Etc.: That is the same Garrett and Rusty from 1.14. They were the twins' schoolmates. They were also milling around the community pool when I needed background extras, so that worked out.
Finley is certain Reve is alright because she thinks she'd be able to detect brain damage. Spoilers: she's right and he's fine. More than we can say for another character...
Timmothy has the insane trait. I chose to treat it as more of a predisposition towards mental issues, rather than writing him as bonkers since the moment he acquired the trait.
Reve's traits so far are artistic and loves the outdoors. He won't be getting genius as his child trait or anything; he's just maturing faster in some ways because he's psychic. It's something of an oddity for me to be writing full conversations between my sims and their toddlers. Reve gets to be special. Still, complex stuff is lost on him.
Title is a lyric from a Harvey Danger song.