Zavier clenched his fists again. His jaw was starting to ache and he was getting a headache. "I realize that we didn't have the chance to run our ideas past each other, Tess. And I'm not saying what you chose was a bad choice, I'm just scared of the kids getting hurt - that was a real opportunity to prevent that. My choice is only going to seem selfish now too, and I feel like any explanation I give to why it'll help us in the long run is just going to sound hypocritical."
"I'm doing what I think is best for the family, Z," she said softly. "It's just not what you would have chosen."
He was on his feet again, frustration pouring off of him. "I don't… Tess…" He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, visibly getting himself under control. "This conversation isn't going anywhere. We're just going to keep going in circles, and we're not going to agree on this. I think we need space."
He looked at her and tried to make his voice as gentle as he could. "Do you want to keep talking? I'll stay if you do."
She looked as frustrated as he felt, chewing on her bottom lip. Then she shook her head.
"I'm going to the garage for a bit. I'll have my phone on me, so text me if you need anything." Bourbon sloshed out of the glass as he swept it up, and Zavier froze and held his breath for a moment before exhaling. He pulled some cigars out of his humidor and walked to the garage. He stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder. "I'm sorry I swore at you, Tess. I love you."
She nodded her head. "I love you too, Honey," her voice laced with as much frustration as she heard in his.
Getting up, Tess walked down the hall and knocked on Luna's door. Whispers stopped and Luna swung the door open. Concern was written across both their faces as Tess stepped into the room and sat on the edge of the bed.
"We're fine, kids," she said as they both sat on either side of her. In unison, they rested their heads on her shoulders. "Dad and I disagree on me choosing the fighting skill over the healing one."
"Why didn't you choose that one?" Cass asked.
Luna's head swung up, and she glared at Cass. "She doesn't have to choose anything she doesn't want to!"
"I'm not saying she does!" Cass defended. "But it would have been useful. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just wondering."
Tess took a deep breath and patted both of them on the knee. "Stop fighting. I chose it for a few reasons. First, they didn't offer it to me in good faith. They gave it to me because I'm a woman." Luna looked at Cass with defiance. "I'm not saying we shouldn't choose good skills just because the reason they are offered are suspect. If it's good and you like it, choose it. It doesn't matter why. But if it doesn't resonate with you, it's not going to be a good fit. This whole System thing seems to want us to focus on making us better versions of ourselves. If we have a limited amount of options, then we should all choose the ones that feel most like us."
"But you always take care of us," Cass said.
"I know, Honey, and I always will," Tess replied. "But when I was contemplating them, something occurred to me. I'm not reactionary, that's your dad." The twins both giggled at that. "He's a planner but he also is very, very good at reacting to whatever gets thrown his way. It's why he's so good at helping us out of tough situations and making us feel like there's nothing to worry about. He grew up having to deal with a lot and so he's gotten good at responding to things."
"What called to me more is something that prevents anything from even happening to us in the first place. I thought about whether I'd prefer to heal you after you got injured or to absolutely demolish anything that came at you before it could even touch you."
Luna and Cass both had feral grins. "Like a fucking Amazon warrior!" Luna said.
Even Tess's reproving glare didn't dull the twins' smiles. Then she broke and laughed with them. "I'll always be your freaking Amazon warrior," she said. "And god help anything that comes at my babies," she said, pulling both of them in for a hug.
Zavier sat in the garage, puffing like an angry dragon. Tess hated the cigar smoke, but he loved it. They always helped him relax. His drink sat untouched. He never drank when he was angry or sad. He'd grown up with alcoholic fathers and he never wanted it to become that kind of crutch.
After about half an hour the calming experience had him in a reasonable headspace. He still didn't agree with her choice but he understood why she'd made it. He'd put himself in her shoes and thought about the options. Tess didn't wait for things to happen, she solved them before they became problems. He was the planner, but that was always long-term stuff. Future problems. He made sure their debt stayed low, he put extra money each month towards the principal of the mortgage to pay it off early, and he made sure the retirement accounts were well funded. He did maintenance on the cars before they could develop issues and even had calendar reminders for quarterly air conditioner filter changes. He scheduled the replacement of appliances before they could break down and made sure they had a closet full of first aid equipment and cold medicine.
But Tess took care of medical appointments and the kids' sports schedules. She picked up birthday cards and planned vacations. He was good at the long-term plans but she handled the details. Seeing her choices in that light, he could see why preventing the kids from getting hurt in the first place took a higher priority for her than taking care of the injuries after they happened.
He loved her for that decision, but he still thought she was wrong. You couldn't prevent every injury. Eventually, something WOULD injure one of them, and there was nothing they could do about it. Well, not nothing, they still had the first aid supplies, but anything beyond minor injuries was beyond them. He was still terrified to his core about the day that one of them got an injury like that, and they couldn't do anything about it.
Plans started running through his head but he shook them away with an effort. This wasn't something he could prevent with the perfect plan. They'd just have to deal with that when the time came. Maybe he could convince one of the kids to take a healing class…
He stopped himself. He was doing exactly what Tess said he did, and he couldn't help but admit that she was right. The kids were almost adults in their own rights, he was going to have to treat them as such. But that didn't mean he couldn't help influence the decision down a better path. No responsible parent let their 16-year-old kids make all their life decisions alone.