#gray's fic

Goodness, she sounded like her Mother. Olivia shuddered, before heading to the spare bedroom. Maybe she could spend Bea’s punishment time with a couple of unread fanfics stored on her iPad-

She ended up falling asleep.

When she woke, she decided this 24/7 au pair thing was much more tiring than she’d expected. Especially now Bea had been practically possessed by… goodness knew what. She wondered if Aunt Gwendolyn could recommend any remedies to tame the possessing creature in question. Or at least, get Bea to behave.

Of course, as she shook off the heavy, even nauseous feeling that sleeping during the daytime gave her, Olivia tried to think positively. Maybe Bea had calmed down a little in the, hmm, three hours she’d been asleep. And didn’t actually need a spiritual cleansing. She had a feeling it was a long shot, thinking Bea could be back to her usual self by now, but she sure liked to hope so.

When she opened Bea’s door, though? She was wrong.

“Oh, my goodness.”

The whole place looked like something out of a crime scene. Every piece of furniture had either moved, or been upturned. Several piles of clothes sat in mountains on the floor. There were posters, and photos, and things on sheets of paper, covering every inch of the floorspace left; some of them had made it up on the wall. Everything was moving slightly, to the pulsing of a song’s beat, and someone yelling about a mighty fall- Was that Fall Out Boy?!

Not to mention Bea’s whole library had been tossed from her bookshelf; looking to it made Olivia’s skin crawl.

Bea and her beanbag sat in the middle of the carnage - she was back on her iPad, playing Minecraft, the remnants of a McDonald’s lunch beside her.

“Beatrice!”

She turned around, frowning. “There’s no need for the b-word-”

“What is all of this?!”

“Room renovating.”

“Um, why?”

“Why not?”

“Your parents will flip?”

Bea shrugged, returning to her iPad. “I’ve got two months to fix it. I’m going to The End.”

“The end of your life? You sure are. Just, Bea, why?”

Now Olivia dared to make her way inside, though did so with utmost care; in case the whole room swallowed her whole. Or she stepped on a stray Littlest Pet Shop pet. She couldn’t have Bea any madder with her.

“Okay. We’re sorting this out. Right now.”

“Later.”

“Or I’ll ground you for longer.”

“You ungrounded me.”

Olivia stopped, frowning. “When?”

“I went into your room earlier, asked if I could be ungrounded, and you said yes.”

Bea’s straight face sure made her question the untruthfulness in this lie. For a hot second, she wondered if she really had told her- No.

“No, I didn’t. I was asleep.”

“You were?” Bea echoed, not even visibly phased in the slightest. “Weird. You definitely said yes. And you told me you don’t sleeptalk.”

“I don’t, no.” Olivia ventured further, then noticed a cardboard box against one wall. It hadn’t been there before. “What’s that?”

“A package.”

“For whom, with what inside, and why, and how?”

“Me, a clothes hanger from Ikea, and because,” Bea said, without missing a beat. Or looking up from her iPad. Olivia had a feeling the cold fries she offered her were either salt (and oil) in the wound, or another blatant display of her defiance of her. “And with money.”

“So you had that delivered?”

“Express delivered. The hotel has some deal with Dad and my Uncles. And I-”

“You went to McDonald’s after I supposedly ungrounded you,” Olivia cut in. “I noticed.” And she didn’t even know where the nearest McDonald’s was. “So you-”

“What? Oh, the McDonalds? They deliver now. I guess you didn’t know.” Now looking up again, she said, “I actually haven’t left the hotel. Or the penthouse. I just wanted to get ungrounded just in case I was asked to go anywhere.”

“And how, do you think, would you have gotten my permission to leave?”

After pausing, Bea offered, “By asking?”

“While I was asleep?”

“Yeah, I was gonna ask, or just make you say yes to something else to-“

Bea stopped. Now, she looked genuinely afraid. Like she knew she’d tripped up, and wasn’t gonna be getting up and running along with fooling Olivia any time soon. Not for now, at least; Olivia would give her a little credit.

Olivia waited a moment, rubbing the salt and oil into the wound. Which was probably a little cruel. When she thought about it, her idea on a punishment was probably cruel, too. Or was that what Bea kind of, maybe, perhaps, deserved for her efforts?

She then gave a wry chuckle, and felt much more like her Mother, but somehow crueler. “Conning the half-conscious, huh? Smart. But I got you, Bea.”

“I didn’t leave. That’s the main thing.”

“You planned to. And you’re getting punished for that, and the state of your room, and-”

“And the lobby. I get it.”

“I was gonna say your purchases, too. Did your Mom tell you that you’re meant to ask me to use your card?”

She looked up. “No?”

Oh, this kept getting better and better. Or worse than worse. It was unclear. “You’re in trouble now, Beatrice.”