EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
[ chapter four—mother knows best ]

Lee grinned as Adaline pressed the rim of the shot glass to her lips. "Drink up, bug." He teased, Adaline unclenched her jaw exhaling through her nose.

She was losing, Adaline hated losing. Especially to Lee.

She tilted her head back, and the liquid inside the glass washed up against the back of her throat, leaving behind a burning sensation as it ran down her throat.

Adaline winced, setting the glass down. "Oh, come on. You've put worse in your mouth. You'll live." Nadia choked, placing her hand over her mouth as her eyes darted between Lee and Adaline as she sat too scared to move.

Lee looked between them shrugging, "The rabbit?" Adaline pressed her lips together nodding as she averted her gaze to her playing cards, shuffling them in her hands.

"What?" Lee asked, knowing full well what he was doing. Nadia shook her head with a smug grin spread across her lips. "Nothing, Lee."

Adaline's eyes remained on the cards in her hands, clearing her throat as she lifted her gaze. She began to deck out six cards for each of them.

Lee tilted his head at his sister as he leaned forward against the table. "You ready to lose... again?" Adaline narrowed her eyes down at her brother, "Are you?"

Nadia scoffed, "Im clearly going to win." Adaline shifted her gaze to the clock, realizing just how much time she'd spent playing a game that was only supposed to go on for twenty minutes.

Lee rolled his eyes at the redheaded girl. "Keep dreaming, Nadia. The two of you are going to be black-out drunk by the time one of you wins."

Nadia shook her head at the boy, shifting her gaze to Adaline. "Oh god, what is it?" She asked, her body tensing as she saw the steam rolling out of Adaline's ears.

"I think Mom and Nick are going to get Alicia," Adaline mumbled, standing vastly stumbling back against her chair.

Lee crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at his cards displayed face down on the table. "It is a good day to be the forgotten child." He chuckled.

Adaline and Nadia glanced at one another and back at the young boy. "Im sure that's not it, Lee," Adaline spoke in a soft tone.

Lee shrugged, scraping the chair along the floor as he stood. "Doesn't matter." He mumbled, pulling open the closet doors. Adaline followed his gaze, "Her bag is gone."

Adaline embraced her brother, "If it means anything... I'd bring you with me." Lee scoffed returning to his seat Adaline released him.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

"Theyre gonna get us all killed," Jake muttered, his voice laced heavily with rage. Almost shaking with it. Adaline pressed her lips together, crossing her arms over her chest, and leaning back against the file cabinet behind her.

"Theyre gonna declare war." Jake continued to ramble, pacing as his father drank his body weight in alcohol. "God damn, idiots!" Jake scoffed, shaking his head.

"Lee says theyre just getting her out, not killing anyone," Adaline spoke, looking between Jeremiah and Jake. Jeremiah scoffed, slamming his cup down hard onto the desk. Adaline jumped clenching her jaw as liquid splashed up, headlights lit up the room.

Adaline inhaled deeply as Jake rushed out of the room. The blonde stood, Jeremiah slowly following behind. "Congratulations, you just declared war on Walker's nation." He exclaimed, marching down the steps of his home.

"Joe, call the patrols! Watch for perimeter breaches!" He shouted at the man. "They could be right behind you."

"They aren't. The mission was successful we got the girl." Troy shrugged as his brother stood before him. Adaline sighed as she ran her hand through her hair standing not far from her mother and sister. "I can't believe this was your idea." Alicia hissed to their mother.

"You were in danger," Madison spoke, Alicia furrowed her brows at the woman. "Not till Troy showed up and started killing people."

Adaline's gaze met Troy's, watching his head fall as she looked at him. "How many?" Jake asked his brother, forcing him to look at him. "Uh, four, five." Jake shook his head walking back up to the house.

"It wasn't just Troy, I convinced him, I made the call." Madison intervened, her eldest daughter's eyes bore into her.

"You don't make calls, Madison." Jake shouted,  "It's not your place to make the call. I made a deal with that guy!"

"Against your father's wishes!" Madison yelled back, Jake turned back to the woman shooting daggers at her with his eyes. "To save all of us!"

"He played you!" Adaline scoffed through laughter, shaking her head. "Walker wasn't gonna negotiate with you! You never had anything. There was nothing at stake except Alicia's life" Madison continued as Jake stormed toward the house, turning back to the woman vastly. "And look what happened! People died, for something you never gave the light of day!"

Adaline stormed past Troy shouting at him to shut up as he tried to speak to her, The blonde took her brother by his shirt shoving him back. "What the hell is wrong with you, Nick!"

Nick raised his hands in his defense as his sister rushed toward him. "Alicia was in trouble, I had to do something!" Adaline's eyes widened, stopping in her tracks and staring at her brother.

"You're like her little pet." Adaline spat venom, watching as her brother's gaze fell. "Taking whatever she says and running with it. Alicia was fine, and now we're all screwed."

Nick shook his head, placing his hands on his hips as he stepped forward. "Your just mad mom didn't come to you." His voice was low, all eyes fell on them as Jeremiah finished with Madison.

Adaline smiled, scoffing as she did. "Mad? Why would i want the burden of being the favourite?" Nick clenched his jaw, almost in tears. "That means nothing to me if Alicia and Lee are put in harms way, which they continuously are whenever you pop back up."

She paused, exhaling as she gathered herself, lifting her chin as she began again. "Where were you when it really mattered?" Madison stepped past her thirdborn, shouting at Adaline to stop.

Nick sprung toward his older sister, shoving her into his place against the tray of the ute. "Well, i'm here now and i'm not going anywhere, so get over it." Troy dismissed his men, his gaze set on the siblings as he moved toward them.

Nick stepped away from his sister, shaking his head as he walked away. Madison took her daughter's wrist, forcing her away from the group. "Go home." Adaline's gaze fell as she began to make her way home.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Troy slowly approached Adaline as she sat beneath a tree with her head in her hands, groaning as she felt her headache growing. "Are you alright." Adaline glanced up at the boy as he towered over her.

"I'm fine." She mumbled, returning her head to her hands. "They didn't deserve that," Adaline muttered glancing up at him as he gazed around them.

Adaline lay eyes on blood trickling down his arm. "You want me to stitch that?" Troy met the cut on his arms shaking his head. "You're drunk... I got it."

Her brows furrowed, "You can stitch yourself up?" Troy averted his gaze attempting to rid himself of the grin on his lips as he dragged his hand down his face. "Kinda had to."

Adaline raised a brow, moving aside for him as he went to sit down beside her. "You're much nicer when you do it though." Troy grunted as he sat back against the tree, glancing at Adaline as tried to hide her smile.

"I can't lose anyone else," Troy turned to face her, scanning her features as she stared ahead. "You won't." His voice carried as a whisper. Adaline turned to face him, smiling faintly. "It's inevitable though, right?" Troy leant back against the tree, unable to do anything but nod.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Adaline and Nadia stood in Jeremiah's office. Jake had taken a truckload of water and Ofelia back to Walker's people hoping to fix the parley over a week ago, he came back with a long cut across his forehead. Ofelia, he has been dropped at the gate, bloody and bruised.

"Walker thought I gave you information that got you onto the reservation when you took Alicia." She spoke softly, "As if." Troy scoffed, Ofelia turned to look back at the boy, "What?"

"I think he means you didn't seem to know much about their camp where we asked." Ofelia didn't look back at Madison as she spoke, instead keeping her eyes ahead. "All I know is I've lost my home. Lost the people that took me in when I was left to die in the desert."

Nadia shrugged, "You shouldn't have left us at the hotel and stole our shit." Ofelia looked back at the girl, "Seriously?"

"Take her out of here, okay?" Jeremiah spoke calling one of the guards over, "Tell Joe to take her down to the infirmary." He ordered.

Jeremiah watched as the door closed behind the two, "So, what do you think?" He asked. "No, Walker won't sit back now that we've drawn fresh blood." Adaline looked over at Troy as he spoke, "his people will press for an attack. I can get more info out of her."

"No, she's only in this situation because of me. It's my fault." Jake spoke up.

"Back in La, I told her father I'd look after her. I shouldn't have let her go back." Adaline turned to Jeremiah sighing. "Well, she's here now. So put her to work, watch her. She's your charge." Jeremiah pointed to Madison, who nodded at her daughter for her to follow.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Screaming broke out in the camp, waking the Clark family, Adaline stood up from her bed looking out the window. Adaline ran out of their cabin, the dead everywhere. The girl pulled arrows back hitting the dead. The people of the ranch screamed and yelled.

The girl pulled the bow onto her shoulder grabbing her machete and moving into the depths of it. "Ofelia!" Nick exclaimed, the girl running out of the cabin. "She did this," Adaline spoke out of shock.

"Did what, Ady?" Madison asked, "The militia didn't turn over nothing, Mom." She hissed, Nick and Lee both dropped to their knees, coughing their lungs out. Adaline picked up her machete chasing after Ofelia as she tried to flee.

As the girl gained on Ofelia she jumped into a Jeep at the back gate, trying to turn over the engine.

The girl smashed the end of her machete at the window, breaking the glass. Ofelia grunted as she tried to jump over the seat, Adaline opened the door cutting her arm from the glass.

"What the hell did you do?" Adaline exclaimed dragging Ofelia out of the car and onto the dirt road, The two girls rolled around trying to get on top of each other, blows landing. Adaline pressed a knife to her throat as she straddled her. "What'd you do!" She exclaimed, Ofelia, ignoring her question.

Adaline pulled the knife back punching the girl across the face, "My brothers are sick, what the hell did you do, Ofelia? I swear to god!"

Ofelia lifted her head as high as she could spitting blood from her mouth into Adaline's face, pulling one of Adaline's knives from her jeans as she wiped her eyes and sliced the knife just below her eye across her cheekbone. 

The girl slammed Ofelia's arm onto the dirt, Ofelia letting go of the knife, Adaline in return knocking her out cold.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Adaline's hands shook at her side as she made her way past the medical tents the ranch people had set up for their ill. Troy helped another of the able bodies to pile their dead onto the back of a truck.

His gaze fell on Adaline, "George, three more." The man nodded back at Troy, taking his place on the tray as the youngest Otto rushed to Adaline.

"Woah, easy there." He spoke, stopping before Adaline, his hands met her forearms. "You getting into fights without me?"

Adaline winced as Troy ran his thumb just below the wound beneath her eye smearing the blood beneath his finger across her cheek. "I need to get in there." She mumbled, her voice shook.

Troy's hands met the blonde's, straightening out her clenched fists. "You're shaking." Adaline glanced around them, and multiple of their people's eyes laid on the two.

Her eyes fixated on him. He held her hands tighter in his as they shook. "Let's uhh..." His voice trailed off as he noticed people staring. "Leave the fighting to me."

Adaline nodded, resting her head against his shoulder for a moment picking herself up again as she heard a shot ring off from inside the tent.

The blonde stepped into the medical tent, looking over at her brothers who lay unconscious. Everything she'd ever done was for them. Her family.

"Ofelia put something in the coffee last night. A powder." Jeremiah turned to face the girl from a dead one he'd put down, "What? What kind of powder was it?"

The girl shrugged, "she didn't know."

"You sure about that?" Adaline threw her belt onto a plastic chair by the door, rolling her eyes out of the man's sight. "pretty damn, sure."

Adaline sat between her brothers as Alicia began suturing up her arm. "Her coming back here with the bruises, it was all bullshit." Alicia hissed.

"It was a hit on the militia," Jake added, Madison muttered something from the other side of Nick, Adaline pressing her lips together. "He's burning up."

"We have antibiotics, but without knowing exactly what it is.." Jake paused, and Madison rubbed her thumb over Nick's forehead. "Give 'em the antibiotics." She spoke as she stood up, glancing at Adaline. "You alright?" The girl nodded, following after her mother.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

  "I know what you think of me," Ofelia spoke up, Madison scoffed lowly. "Yeah, I doubt it. Just drive."

Adaline tied a knot at the end of her stitches, cutting the suture string with her teeth. "It was just supposed to make the soldiers sick."

"Well, you messed that up, huh?" Adaline scoffed, Ofelia, cutting her off. "So, my people could come in unopposed."

"We used to be your people." Madison hissed, turning to face Ofelia. "Nick was your friend."

"He shouldn't have joined the Ottos." The girl scoffed. "Listen to you, set a world record for Stockholm syndrome."

Ofelia furrowed her eyebrows together, "I'm not brainwashed."

"Nick and Lee might die. Do you get that, do you care?" Madison asked, looking back out the windshield as they approached the nation. "We treated you like family."

"The nations my family now." Adaline picked up her machete from the seat next to her. "Well, let's see how badly they want you back." She muttered.

Adaline climbed out of the truck first and opened Ofelia's door, dragging her out by the back of her shirt, and pressing her blade to her neck.

"I wanna talk to Walker!" Madison exclaimed, aiming her gun at Ofelia as they approached the front of the jeep.

Walker's people raised their guns at the Clark women. "He's in the diner." A man answered.

Adaline pushed the girl toward the diner, Madison pushed open the door, and Adaline and Ofelia followed after her into the diner.

"Madison Clark. Hello." Walker greeted as she approached the table Walker was seated at. "You killed my husband. Shot my daughter. Now your pets poisoned my sons."

"The ranch broke the parley-" Walker began, Madison speaking over him. "It was me. I broke your parley 'cause you had my girl. I wasn't gonna lose her and I won't lose my sons. What was the poison?" Madison demanded.

"I told you when we met. You bought into a lost cause. The ottos are—"

"I don't give a shit! I don't care what you think about Otto or his son. I don't give a damn about the feud or what you think of me."

"Do you care whether you live? Or whether your daughter lives?" Adaline pressed the blade against Ofelia's neck a little harder, the blade nicking her neck. "Oh, I'm happy to die, take you with me. Unless you tell me what's killing my sons."

Walker looked over Ofelia, the blade against her neck and the anger In both Clark women's eyes. "Anthrax." He admitted. "Cultivated from animal hides. There's no cure."

Adaline clenched her jaw together, her eyes lifting to meet Walker. "You son of a bitch." She muttered, dropping her hand to her side.

Walker raised his hand, his men lowering their weapons. "This woman is more of a man than Jake Otto or any of his relatives. They're free to leave."

"I told you when we met, you bought into a lost cause. The Ottos are.." Madison cut the man off, "I don't give a shit! I don't care what you think about Otto or his son. I don't give a damn about the feud or what you think about me." Madison exclaimed.

"Do you care about whether you live?" Walker asked pointing to his people who surrounded the Clarks with guns aimed at their heads. "Oh, I'm happy to die, take you with me. Unless you tell me what's killing my sons."

"How old are your sons?" Walker asked as the Clark women approached the door. "Seventeen and twenty-one."

"If they're strong, they'll live." Adaline continued toward the door after her mother, "My fight is not with you, Madison. Leave this ranch. Take your family and go." Adaline stopped realizing her mother had stopped walking. "We've fought too hard, lost too much. We're not running anymore."

"Then you'll die."

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Adaline sat outside the medical tent as her mother went to let Jake know what the poison was. "You don't lead this ranch!" Jake exclaimed not long after her mother went inside, Moments later the boy stormed out, Alicia and Troy following behind.

"What the hell happened to you?" Nadia asked approaching the blonde. "Ofelia." The girl answered.

She rested her head against the back of the seat. "Nicks awake." The blonde smiled, "Lee?" Nadia nodded her friend's mood lifting.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Troy climbed out of the truck, his gaze diverted to the ridge where Walker and his people surrounded the ranch. "What the hell is this?" Jeremiah asked Adaline wrapping her arms around her brothers, "bargaining power." Troy answered.

"So, uh, Jake can make a deal." He continued. "I'm not sure they're in a negotiating mood," Jeremiah spoke. "Walker treasures these relics," Madison added. "It's a trailer full of, uh.. rocks and beads and bullshit." Adaline rolled her eyes sighing.

"You scared, Jeremiah," Nick spoke catching the group's attention. "You better be careful, son. You may not like my hospitality but I guarantee you, you'll find it better than theirs." Adaline followed the old white man's gaze to the ridge where Walker's people were spread out.

⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Adaline tilted her head at her brother, "I'm so done with that man." She shook her head looking down at the skull that Jeremiah had confirmed to be Walker's father. "Does Jake know?" Alicia asked. "I think he suspects," Nick answered.

"Doesn't change anything," Madison spoke. Alicia and Adaline disagreed strongly, "This changes everything."

"We're on the wrong side," Adaline spoke up. "Sides don't matter, the only thing that matters is a future." Madison disagreed, and Adaline shook her head in disbelief.

"A future built on that!" She exclaimed pointing at the skull in the middle of the table. "I get what they did to Travis.."

"No, it's not about that.." Madison muttered, Adaline shook her head speaking up."I get that you want to protect us from that but there has to be something, some line, we don't cross."

"Or we're just like Otto," Alicia spoke up, her mother disagreed with her. "Ottos alive, Troys alive."

"Troy is only alive because we lied for him." Adaline exhaled deeply, squeezing her eyes shut while her mother took a seat on her own bed. "What?" Alicia asked, Nick glanced around the room waiting for someone to speak up. "He killed the Trembles."

Alicia looked between her siblings and mother, "You knew?" She asked her sister, Lee, and Nadia were quick to their own defense. "Not us."

"Alicia-" Madison spoke quickly being shut down. "Gretchen was innocent. And you covered for her killer, all your family talk.."

"I know it's hard to understand-" Madison began, looking at the ground as she did.

"It's impossible to understand!" Nick sat down on the bunk across from his mother. "You're just like them!" Alicia exclaimed, "You're worse! Your heartless, you don't have feelings!" Adaline's eyes widened, "Alicia!" Lee exclaimed, "No wonder Dad was so depressed, he was living with a goddamn corpse!"

Adaline wiped a tear from her cheek, jumping as her Mother jumped up from her bed shouting back at her daughter. "Enough! If I wasn't busy keeping everyone else alive, I'd have time for feelings. I'd love that luxury, I'd love to indulge myself, but someone has to be strong. Someone had to keep everyone else together, you have no idea what I carry!"

The family sat in silence, Alicia packed her bags in a hurry looking at her older siblings like they were public enemy number one and two.

"You guys haven't been to Montgomery?" Madison asked, drawing her children's attention. "No, you never took us. Not even when your mom died." Alicia answered.

"No, there was a man there. Local councilman and he had a beautiful wife and they lonesome little girl. The girl knew everybody loved her daddy, he knew everyone's names, all their kids' names, who went off to what college, who was recovering from what illness. And he knew when to burn the ballot boxes and which ones to burn. But what he didn't know, what he could never learn, was when to turn down a drink."

Nadia took Alicia's hand, running her thumb back and forth as she rested her head on Adaline's shoulder.

"So life was hard for the little girl, and it was harder for her mother, as she grew she got tired, tired of crying, goddamn exhausted icing her mother's face, pulling out stitches, because her mother didn't want to go back to the emergency room. One morning she ate her breakfast, brushed her teeth for school, took the gun out of her daddy's dresser she shoes him. Shot him while he slept off the night before."

The siblings all looked at their mother, Alicia shedding tears, "Yeah, my mother looked at me then like how you're looking at me now. And I knew that was something I'd have to carry. I'd do it again. I'd live with the look, I'd do it a thousand times to protect her."

"Mom.." Adaline spoke softly her mother standing up, "I'm gonna go talk to that old man, convince him to set aside his pride. Make peace with the enemy."

Their mother walked out the door and the siblings remained quiet, eyes stuck on the bed she'd sat in.

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word count — 4373

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