𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆. mommy issues for days

There was something incredibly curious about investigating a murder case that was decades old while your father's freedom hangs in the grasp of both yourself and a brooding girl that you've hardly began to call a friend.

A few peculiar events occurred from the moment Evette and Wednesday left their fathers in the discomfort of the Jericho county jail.

1) Sheriff Galpin would prove to be just as useless as the two girls assumed he would be.

After running an inconclusive DNA test that Wednesday fought for, he attempted to shut down all of the theories that the young shoe-in detective had. Now, Wednesday Addams was many things. Sick, conniving, and murderous being just a few. But a quitter? That was not something that she was familiar with. Luckily for her, neither was her newfound partner.

2) Gomez Addams and Jeremy Monroe were filthy liars.

Not only had they fabricated lies to tell their daughters when eventually questioned, they also underestimated the power of two wallowing mothers who crave the companionship of their own teenage daughters. Morticia came clean first, spilling to Wednesday about the true events of Garrett's murder and how she was the individual who was actually behind his accidental killing. Elena followed, explaining how she had been the one to rush Morticia into hiding and lie to the cops when asked about the events of the murder.

Evette composed a theory that Garrett had ultimately been killed by nightshade poisoning after hearing Morticia detailed Garrett to have had foam spilling from his mouth, inhumane amount of rage, and crazed eyes. With no other way of proving the theory, Evette and Wednesday set out on yet another quest.

The two teenage detectives stood inside of Garrett Gate's grave that Wednesday had spent the last hour delightfully digging up.

"Addams, I swear to God, if you shovel any more dirt onto my boots I'm going to hit you over the head with it," Eve complained, partially joking.

"Don't threaten me with such a good time," Wednesday replied.

The braided girl returned to her task of digging up the grave, purposely throwing more dirt in Evette's direction. A partial smirk curved onto her lips the second her shovel hit the wooden casket.

"Moment of truth," Wednesday said. The girl opened his coffin, closing her eyes with a smug smile as she inhaled the scent of the rotting corpse. "Hello, Garrett."

Eve covered her mouth, not knowing whether or not she was more disgusted by the skeleton in the casket or the fact that Wednesday had been so joyous in its presence.

"You were right," Wednesday exuded.

A bright light shined above both of the girls with a seemingly annoyed police officer holding a flashlight loose in her grasp. "Well, well, what do we have here? Guess we're going to have a couple family reunions in lockup tonight. You're both under arrest."

"Sit tight, you two. You can post bail in the morning."

Wednesday and Eve were thrown into a cell beside their fathers.

"Neither one of you are strong enough to serve hard time," Wednesday said to both of the men. "Thanks to us, you won't have to."

"I knew my little jailbird would have an escape plan," Gomez replied.

Wednesday revealed Garrett's decomposed finger that had been stored in her jacket pocket and handed it to her father. "I borrowed it from Garrett. He died from nightshade poisoning. The remarkable preservation of soft tissue and blue tint confirms it."

"Garrett was dying before he was stabbed," Eve added.

As the two men exchanged enthralled words from behind the other side of the steel bars, Wednesday took the finger back into her grasp and her head was thrown back unwillingly. Eve rushed to her side and snapped her finger above her still–standing friend, attempting to shake her out of whatever trance she was in. After an excruciatingly long two minutes, Wednesday was pulled out of her haze and locked her eyes onto the girl who stood before her. She almost paid no mind to Evette's frantic hands that were clasped onto the sides of her arms.

"Are you okay?" Evette asked.

Wednesday came to her senses and stepped out of Eve's grasp. "The night Garrett died, he had a vial of nightshade poison that broke in his pocket. He wasn't just trying to kill you, father. He was going to use the poison to murder the entire school."

"That sick son of a bitch," Jeremy whispered.

Luckily for Wednesday and Eve, their mothers rushed to their side the following morning and bailed them out of jail together.

Evette waited outside of the mayor's office with her mother as Morticia and Wednesday had an urgent meeting with him to discuss their findings.

"I was worried sick about you," Elena said.

"You have a funny way of showing it," Eve dismissively replied. "I hope you and father know that money can only go so far. At a certain age, a child actually begins to need the presence of their parents."

The mother gulped. "We know that, dear."

"The good news is that in terms of buying my love, you've certainly done it," she added.

Elena shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I know your father and I can be distant. We've tried, really, we have. Just as you lost a brother, we lost our son, Evie. We just hadn't noticed that we lost our daughter in the process until you were so far gone."

Eve turned to look at her mother who took her hand in her own.

"I'd trade everything I've worked for, everything I dream of, everything I aspire to be just to have my daughter back," Elena added. It was made aware to Evette that her mother's ways couldn't be changed overnight. The small leap that her parents took just by attending Parents Weekend meant the world to her.

"I'm bound to have mommy and daddy issues for as long as I live," Eve thought to herself.

Wednesday and Morticia burst into the waiting room, informing the pair that both Jeremy and Gomez were being granted their release.

The two men exited from the jail to meet with Sheriff Galpin. Evette was certainly happy to see her father out of that hideous jumpsuit, as was Wednesday considering that Morticia was unusually distraught over Gomez wearing the color orange.

Eve hugged both her father and mother like she did as a child, relishing in the immediate comfort that they still gave her. Parents Weekend hadn't been nearly as insufferable as she believed it would be. Not only had it furthered an ongoing investigation but it also sparked even more burning questions that neither Wednesday or Eve had considered. It was evident that the wild chase of catching the monster wasn't going to end as easily as they hoped it would.

Their celebration was cut short by the weekend coming to a close. The Addams and Monroe families alike rushed back to Nevermore only to be met with a frenzy of weeping students and parents kissing their children goodbye for yet another semester. It wasn't long before Evette's parents joined in on the trend, pulling their daughter into a three–way hug as her father clutched both his wife and daughter into his chest.

"Stay safe, alright?" Elena said, anxiously cupping her daughter's face in both of her hands. "I'm sure that murderer has been scared off by now, but even still."

"I'll try," Eve replied.

With that, her parents retreated to their vehicle and drove down the long driveway of Nevermore Academy. A pressure had been lifted from her shoulders while her heart ached in exchange, somehow already missing the presence of them.

She didn't have much time to wallow in her sorrows on her way back to Ophelia Hall before Enid pulled her aside and into a desolate alleyway.

Enid slipped a paper into Eve's grasp. "Be there, alright?"

Eve looked down at the paper, finding a colorfully decorated surprise birthday party invitation on behalf of Wednesday. She smiled at the appearance of it, knowing that the Addams girl would hate the look of them but silently appreciate the gesture.

"Yeah, I'll see you there."

Eve stood with some of her classmates as they waited for Wednesday to show up to her birthday party. It was the first time in a few days that she had seen Xavier.

Understandably, Eve was embarrassed with the stunt she pulled with him after the Rave'N by asking him to stay with her. She was ashamed to have broken her own rules of possibly finding more comfort in Xavier than she was supposed to.

Not admitting her feelings to herself was something that Evette Monroe had grown incredibly good at.

She knew there would come a point where her feelings for Xavier would complicate their entire arrangement. An inkling told her that the day of reckoning would be rapidly approaching. For now, she rid her thoughts and ducked behind a statue in anticipation.

Xavier coughed into his arm, earning a light shove from Eve in disapproval.

"Whoever you are, show yourself. Try anything and you'll lose limbs," Wednesday said.

All at once, the teens hiding behind the statue peeked out with joyous smiles on their faces. "Surprise!"

Wednesday's face fell as her classmates began to sing Happy Birthday to her in a sing–songy chant. She could've sworn that her ears were going to bleed out at any moment. Enid appeared from the shadows with a wide smile on her face, holding a birthday cake that Evette spent ages decorating.

Wednesday turned around, locking her eyes onto Thing who had a party hat on. "I should've known you were behind this. What part of 'no party under the penalty of death' do you not understand?"

"I decorated the cake," Eve interrupted.

"The pink balloon was my little touch," Enid added. "Why don't you make a wish?"

Wednesday turned from the partygoers and looked at a peculiar message carved into the old stone wall. "It's in latin. Fire will rain... when I rise."

"That's not really a wish," Enid winced.

"The first part of that phrase was burned onto Nevermore's lawn. It can't be a coincidence," Wednesday spoke, peering over her shoulder to look at Eve.

"Can we save the detective work for at least another hour?" Eve bargained before sighing in disappointment as Wednesday turned back to the message written into the wall.

Ajax sighed. "We're never eating that cake, are we?"

Wednesday ran her fingertips along the message, almost immediately being transported into one of her intense visions. Audible gasps were heard as she collapsed to the ground, Eve and Enid rushing to her side. Wednesday was soon released from her vision and hurriedly exited the party just as quickly as she entered.

"We can still eat the cake, right?" Ajax asked, receiving no response.

Evette sat alone in the courtyard after departing from Yoko and Enid following their fencing lessons. The Monroe girl wasn't particularly gifted in that sense, leaving each lesson to be quite exhausting to her.

"Well, don't you look tense," Xavier spoke as he engaged and took a seat across from her.

"I think stressed would be the better term," Eve replied. "Not only do I have an A- in Thornhill's class, but I can't seem to get the hang of fencing either."

"Y'know, I like to think that receiving scores you aren't impressed with keeps you humble," he joked. "I mean, who else would be upset with an A-? I'm pretty sure I have a C+ and I'm doing just fine."

"Y'know, I like to think that you should be good at archery before you offer lessons to others. But here we are, babe," Eve sighed dramatically.

Xavier let out a laugh. "For your information, sweetheart, I'm not so bad at archery anymore. You might've know that if you actually decided to go to any of the club meetings."

"And hang out with your posse of archery buddies?" she sarcastically gasped. "Why, excuse me for not jumping at the opportunity!"

Xavier dropped his head to suppress his growing smile. "Then why don't we do something that isn't archery or school related? Call it a compromise."

Eve blinked at his words, seemingly taken aback.

"I mean... We can still hang out, right? That's not like — against the rules," he added.

Her lips twisted to the side as she thought. "I guess not. What do you have in mind?"

"And ruin the suspense? Never," he replied though a raspy tone. "Meet me in the yard at eight."

Notes.
writers block is a pain in my ASS.

this chapter is not as good as I envisioned it would be 💔 but I just want to get into the climax of the fic so bad. y'all are gonna like the next chapter though, trust.

my motivation has just been 📉📉📉 so I genuinely thank those who leave comments & send me messages, y'all are so special to me.

also, yes, I say Evette is a straight–A valedictorian while Xavier is her 'school kills artists' himbo bf. this is correct and canon because I say so.

I'd estimate that this fic has 4 more chapters until complete, I'll probably go write those now and cry bc I won't get to write them again until s2 comes out <3  hope y'all enjoyed this chapter & my weird rant!