*trigger warning: some talk about domestic violence. if that topic makes you uncomfortable feel free to skip it.*

☆

It had been one week since the twins and their parents had spoken any words to each other. The silence in the house making the youngest child cry out in confusion as to why nobody was speaking. Within that week, Spencer's father had passed.

Enrique and Evelyn had managed to sneak past their parents and out to the driveway to get into her car. She pulled up to the small house in Crenshaw with her brother trailing behind her with flowers in his hand and Evelyn who had a tray of freshly baked brownies from a small bakery and brought her fist up to knock on the door.

Ms. James opened the door to the two. "Evelyn, Enrique, what are you two doing here?"

"We're here to see Spencer and Dillon," Enrique answered. "And these are for you. I didn't really know what to bring. So, I brought flowers."

"Come inside," she urged, taking the flowers from his hand. "Thank you, Enrique."

The boy gave her a flirtatious grin. "Anything for you, Ms. James."

"Now, is not the time to be gross," his sister whispered, nudging him harshly in the ribs. "Behave, dumbass."

The door to Spencer's room slid open as he peeked his head out. "Hey, what are y'all doing here?"

"We're here to check on you and Dillon," Evelyn told him. "We brought you brownies."

"Thank you," Spencer sighed, as he pulled the girl in for a hug and then turned towards her brother giving him a handshake.

Enrique released from the handshake. "How are you holding up, man?"

"Just doing my best to keep my head up," Spencer responded.

"And Dillon?" Evelyn asked.

"I heard my name," Dillon smiled, peeking his head from the kitchen and walking out with Darnell. "What's the prettiest girl in the world doing here?"

"We came to check up on you two," Evelyn said. Her eyes darting over to Darnell and correcting her statement. "On you three. Sorry."

Dillon shrugged, holding his arms out. "I'd feel a lot better if I had a hug."

"Nice try," she giggled, holding her hand out to the taller boy next to him. "I'm Evelyn, it's nice to meet you."

"I know," Darnell smiled faintly. "Spencer mentioned you before. You're a lot prettier than what he described."

A hint of red formed on her cheeks, Darnell was incredibly attractive and there was definitely no denying that but she and Asher were finally getting on track and she didn't want to ruin that. No matter, how hot Darnell looked. So, she simply brushed the compliment off.

"Alright, now that I'm officially grossed out," Enrique groaned. "We're gonna get out of here. Catch you guys later."

"Bye," Evelyn waved at the four, before walking out of the door. "Hey, Ricky, you know where we should go?"

"Back inside, so you can flirt with that boy?" he retorted.

"No, stupid," she hissed. "It's been two weeks and mom and dad still haven't said anything. If we want answers we should go to grandma's."

"Abuelita?" he nodded in agreement. "Let's go."

☆☆☆

"Abuelita!" Evelyn called out, opening the door to her grandmother's condo in Beverly Hills. "We know you're here!"

"In the kitchen!" Martina yelled back. The two walked into the kitchen seeing their grandmother at the counter mixing a spoon into her drink as she smiled up at her grandchildren. "What brings you by?"

"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" Enrique asked, bringing her glass to his nose. "Vodka...straight?"

"Never too early for a drink," the older woman told them, as she ushered them into the living room. "Now, what did you two do that made you come here?"

Evelyn gasped placing a hand on her chest. "What makes you think we did something?"

She sipped on her drink before responding. "Because I know my grandchildren better than you think."

"Who's Christian Mercado?" Enrique blurted out. "And why is he listed as our father on our birth certificate?"

The same emotion flashed behind their grandmother's eyes. "Why are you asking me this nonsense?"

"That look!" Evelyn yelled. "Mom had that same look in her eyes when we tried to talk to her. What the hell is going on? And why won't anyone tell us the truth?"

"They didn't tell you anything?" Martina asked.

"Nothing at all, abuelita. We haven't even spoken to them," Enrique told her. "Please tell us."

"Fine. Your parents are gonna kill me for telling you. But...you should know," she sighed. "Christian Mercado is your birth father, obviously. He was a bit older than your mother when they met and your grandfather and I hated him. Treated her like shit, he was possessive, and just an all-around bad guy. We always had our suspicions that he was putting his hands on her. Then she came home one day and told us she was pregnant..."

"With us?" Evelyn interrupted.

"With you two," Martina confirmed. "During her pregnancy, Jennifer was in college working on her degree and she met Joaquin. He was in college on a scholarship to play football and falling hard for your mother. But, Christian was still in the picture and he didn't like the idea of his girlfriend and the D1 football player being friends. So, my suspicions of him hitting her were confirmed when she came home one day and had a black eye."

"While she was pregnant?" Enrique questioned. "He hit her?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Joaquin had been the one to take her home that day. She was at his dorm room crying and wouldn't tell him who hit her but, he knew. We all did. I filed a police report the next morning. They refused to look into it and told us there wasn't enough evidence as if the black eye wasn't enough. And then one day...Christian found out about the police report, Jennifer was about 5 months into the pregnancy, her bump was growing rapidly. He was so upset that we filed a police report. He did the unthinkable...He slammed her head against the window of the car, there was so much blood. Then he ditched her, he just left her bleeding in the car and one of the students on campus found her."

At this point in the story, Evelyn and Enrique both had tears running down their faces. "We were so stupid for yelling at mom, Ricky," she mumbled.

"So stupid," Enrique said, as he wiped a stray tear from his face.

"You're not stupid," Martina reassured. "You were curious."

"Can I ask..." Enrique hesitated. "What happened to him? Is he in prison?"

"They found him," Martina said, clutching her drink in her hand. "Arrested him and by some miracle...he's dead."

Evelyn widened her eyes. "Abuelita...you didn't."

"No, I wish," she scoffed. "He died in his prison cell."

"We should go home. I think we should go apologize to mom...and dad," Enrique sighed. "Thanks for telling us, abuelita."

"We love you," Evelyn added, standing up from the couch.

"I love you both," Martina said, kissing them on the forehead.

"Should we buy mom something? Like flowers?" Enrique suggested. "Evie, I feel so bad. We shouldn't have been in dad's safe."

"Yeah, Ricky, I know," she mumbled, getting into the car. "Let's just go home and try to talk to her first."

The twins slowly made their way into the house peeking their heads into the living room. They spotted their parents on the couch typing away on their separate computers not even noticing their children.

"Mom?" Enrique said, as his sister trailed behind him.

"What?" Jennifer snapped, not even bothering to look up at them.

"We're sorry," Evelyn sighed. "It wasn't our business."

"What do you mean you're sorry?" Joaquin questioned. "What do you have to be sorry about?"

"Abuelita told us what happened...I'm sorry, I should've never said those things to you without knowing the full story," Enrique told them. "You helped mom when she was going through something terrible and then you raised two kids who weren't even yours. Mom, dad, we feel awful."

"Abuelita and her big mouth," Jennifer scoffed, closing her laptop. "That wasn't her story to tell."

"But, it's a story we should've told the kids earlier, Jenny," Joaquin sighed, grabbing his wife's hand for support. "We should've told you guys earlier. We know that you two might have questions when the time came to see your birth certificates. But, breaking into my safe wasn't okay."

"Well, maybe you should change the code?" Enrique suggested. "Evelyn's name...not very original, dad."

"I'm sorry, too," their mom spoke up, clutching her husband's hand. "I haven't thought about that man in years. It took me years to get over that situation and even though you guys know the truth. That doesn't change anything."

"We know," Evelyn nodded, looking over at her father. "We're just really...sorry."

"I know, babies," Jennifer sighed, walking up to the two and giving them hugs. "I know. I love you guys."

They gave soft smiles in response. "We love you, too."

"Okay, we're going upstairs. You two stay out of the offices. If you're curious come and talk to us," Joaquin sighed, ushering his wife upstairs.

Enrique and Evelyn dropped back down onto the couch and sighed out in relief. The doorbell to the house rang and they both let out groans of annoyance.

"I'm not getting that," Enrique groaned, making a run for the stairs. "Ha! Loser!"

"You're so lazy," she scoffed, reaching for the door handle and opening it to an unexpected face. "What are you doing here?"

"Needed someone to talk to," Jordan shoved his hands in his pockets. "And I ended up here. On your doorstep."

"Um, is it important?" she asked.

"Simone told me the baby isn't mine. I just could use a friend. You, preferably," he admitted. "Unless you had plans?"

"Come inside," Evelyn said, opening the door wider for him.

Evelyn followed slowly behind Jordan, pulling her phone out to draft a text to Asher. Family emergency...tell you everything later. I'm so sorry, Ash.

Evelyn and Asher had been texting the entire day, he had wanted her support for his dinner with his parents but, Jordan seemed like he needed her a bit more.

Sitting in the living room beside Jordan she noticed how distraught he looked. "Are you okay?"

"No," he immediately answered. "It's just...I was finally getting used to the idea of being a dad. I was excited and I was really looking forward to it. We moved things out of the office and turned it into a baby's room. Then Simone just sprung it on me out of the blue."

"I'm so sorry, Jordan," she sighed, rubbing his back. "Simone's 17...I think. But, that's beside the point, she's pregnant and alone. I'm not excusing what she did in any way. But, she needed someone to lean on during this time. Especially from what I heard that her parents are super strict and would probably kill her. She needed you."

"Evie...I don't know," he mumbled. "Making me believe that she was pregnant with my child? I mean, that's sort of inexcusable."

She wrapped an arm around his shoulder as he placed his head on top of hers. "Of course, you have the right to feel upset. Look, Simone's pregnant, and she's all alone. I'm not going to explicitly tell you to step up and be the dad but, be her friend. She's going to need you."

"You sound like Liv," he scoffed. "Can't believe I'm sitting here talking to my ex-girlfriend about a girl I could've potentially gotten pregnant."

"Yeah, me neither," Evelyn said. "But, that's in the past. Right?"

Jordan drummed his fingers against his thigh and avoided her eyes. "Yeah...in the past."

loosely based on 2x08