Little did they know that Babsie would be the first occupant. For that's where she had been ever since Isaac had bought the bed. It was simply easier to leave it on the ground floor instead of trying to shift it upstairs. The bed itself had cost a couple of thousand, but Isaac believed it was worth every cent.
Isaac walked into the foyer where Natalie was playing with some of the younger kids in the fountain/kiddie pool.
"Daddy! Watch me!" Nigel yelled.
Isaac watched with a smile as Nigel jumped into the water. He gave a clap.
"Very good."
Nigel beamed. Then a wail came through the intercom. The intercom was rigged up so that they could hear Zeke and Audrey.
"I don't know if the intercom is a blessing or a curse," Natalie smiled.
"I'll go check up on them," Isaac said.
He walked up the stairs and headed towards the nursery.
"Dad?"
"Yes Cosmo?"
"Can you gimme a hand with my maths?"
"Sure. I just want to check up on Zeke and Audrey."
"Ok."
Isaac finally got there. It was Zeke who was crying, a dirty nappy. He changed it, but seeing as he was so wide awake, he went to the intercom and asked Cosmo to come to him.
While Zeke played happily, Isaac, after turning off the intercom, he helped Cosmo work out how to do the problems. It wasn't long after he finished this that Isaac heard the phone ring.
Quickly, Isaac flipped on the intercom and grabbed the phone in the hall. The phone was right outside the nursery door. It would have been in it, except that the ringing may wake up any occupants. So it was outside, but in such a position so that the one on the phone could still watch the kids.
"Hello?"
"Ike, I think I should warn you that Xavier's going home now," Taylor said.
"Now? But it's early. Wait, warn me? What happened?"
"Well, they were reading fanfiction..."
"They always do that. It's been their favourite hobby lately."
"Yeah, I know but... ok, they read one that... well... let's just say when I went up to investigate, Xavier was going ballistic. I mean, he is angry. I have not seen him angry. He's absolutely furious. He was in the middle of writing a... he was about to send some feedback to the writer. Umm... let's just say I did not know he was capable of such language."
"Oh! Do you know what they story is about?"
"Yes, but I'll let him tell you."
"Ok, better go."
"Later, man."
Isaac hung up and then intercommed Natalie to tell her when Xavier came in that he was in the nursery. It wasn't long before Xavier came storming in. Isaac lifted a warning hand and pointed to the sleeping Audrey. Looking at his sister seemed to calm Xavier down, but only slightly.
"You won't believe what someone wrote," he fumed.
"What did they write?" Isaac asked softly.
"It was a... a so-called fanfiction. And you... you... you were a child molester."
Isaac raised his eyebrows as Xavier poured out other things the story contained and as he spoke, tears started seeping from his eyes.
"I mean," he went on, not even bothering to wipe them away, "how can someone write something like that? Why? What kind of -"
"Fan are they?" Isaac finished. "I understand Xavier. Really I do. I've read fanfiction that I... didn't like in the slightest. Stuff that made me just as angry as you are now. I don't even know why people write fanfic at all. I guess, I guess it's an expression of fandom much like writing poetry or drawing pictures are. But I think it's a pretty strange expression, considering the type of things that some writers write about. It's very hard to read about yourself - or people you love - doing things that you know they would never do."
"But... but why? If they're fans, why don't they all write about nice things happening?"
"I guess, only they know, Xavier. Maybe they think that so many people write about nice things happening, that they want to be different. Or maybe they do a few mean things to make the story interesting. Or maybe the writer has a few issues they need to sort out with themselves and it comes out with their writing. Or maybe it's something else altogether. I don't know. I honestly don't know. But we can choose not to read those stories. And we can say, 'hey I don't like these kinds of stories'. We can know that, at the end of the day, they're just fiction. There's no point in letting them upset us."
"I don't like it."
"You don't have to."
"I mean, some stories are really funny. And some are mushy. And some are cool. But others are just cruel and gross and horrible and... and... and I can't stand that anyone would think that anyone of us would do anything of those things," Xavier complained.
"I know Xavier," Isaac said, hugging him. "I know."