Imagine this:
After Cort goes to prison, the twins get sent to live with their uncle, and investigator who lives out in California with his daughter and his “friend” and have to adjust to the differences.
They refuse to be separated, even when they’re sent a nearby school. But the first night they get there, Holland and Jackson have two spare rooms set up for the boys. Colt slips out of his room and into Ryland’s the second he heard his uncles go to bed. The two of them curl up in Ryland’s bed, pretending that their older brother is still there to hold them as they sleep.
Holland and Jackson are quick to move Colt’s bed into Ryland’s room once they realize that the twins ended up sleeping in the same room more often than not.
Holly is older than Cort, she’s off at college, but she’s told everything over phone and keeps in contact with her father to check on her cousins any chance she gets.
Both Holland and Jackson end up cutting back on the smoking, and drinking, because the twins watch them closely when they do. Ryland with fear and Colt with a deep wariness. Looks that should never be on a ten year old’s face.
They end up making sure to never smoke or drink around the twins, either doing it outside or making sure to keep it to one glass. But never where the twins could see it.
School goes about as well as it can, being new kids. The twins stick together, Colt is the one who introduces them to their new class, they got sent home one day because they both got into a fight protecting each other when some kids refused to stop bringing up Cort, their murder brother.
Holland called the school while Jackson got Colt some ice for the bruises and a band aid for a cut Ryland got. It didn’t stop the kids from bullying the twins, but Cort wasn’t brought up again. And the twins looked a little less cautious after the incident.
Ryland breaks a glass one time, an accident really, and Colt steps in front of his twin to protect him. Both stand frozen when Jackson starts to clean the glass up while Holland panic asks the twins if either were hurt.
The first time one of the twins fell asleep out on the couch or just anywhere within Holland or Jackson’s presence, they made sure to do absolutely nothing that could disturb them. Holland later cried because that meant the boys were starting to feel safe and to trust them.
Ryland and Colt slowly stop walking on eggshells around Holland and Jackson. They slowly stop trying to quiet any sound they make, or hide whenever they got home late while working a case.
They slowly start to trust.
