Olivia spends a few days mulling over her decision to move in with Evan. She finds long walks outside help her think. Along the way, she comes across a blue jay.
"Hey there, friend..." she tries to get the bird to hop onto her wrist.
"Ouch!" the bird pecks her and then flies away.
She has better luck with this parrot.
"Hm, are you someone's pet? They must be missing you..."
Sure enough, she comes across a missing poster in city centre. The owners pick up the phone right away, and give her 100 simoleons for her trouble.
By the time that's resolved, it's early morning. Olivia hasn't had breakfast yet.
She comes home just before her siblings leave for school.
"You took my hairbrush!" Stephanie screams at Noelle.
"I didn't!" she shrinks back.
"Give it up, you little rat!"
Noelle squeals and runs to hide behind their mother.
"Ah, there you are. I suppose you can't help us solve the mystery of the missing brush?" Nicole says wryly.
Olivia sighs irritably, "It's probably hidden under all of your clothes. If you just kept your room clean-"
"You all suck! Get off my back!" Stephanie yells.
Olivia's head throbs painfully as her mother struggles to keep the peace. She busies herself with making breakfast.
"I bet she thinks I'm having some stupid wolf meltdown!" she gestures wildly at Shelby Lin.
Poor Shelby here just wanted to drop off some reports. With Naomi in Bridgeport working for the president, Nicole has taken over political work for the entire sector. All of the underlings report to her now.
"I'm sorry about my sister," Noelle apologises shyly.
"Um...don't worry about it," Shelby says uneasily, looking at her boss.
"Shelby would never dare think something so politically incorrect, Stephanie," Nicole says pointedly.
Shelby blanches, understanding the hidden meaning. "Of course not..."
"Good thing we have you to keep everyone in line," Olivia tells her mother with a smile.
"In line? If only. I'm barely holding the house together," she sighs. "It's a full time job, I tell ya."
It's a pretty easy decision, in the end.
Evan's house is nice and quiet...
And Evan himself is so nice, calm, collected, sweet...
It doesn't take long for her to move her things over.
"How about we break in the bed?" Olivia suggests mischievously.
***
They can't stay wrapped up in each other for too long, however.
It's her graduation day!
Evan doesn't bother putting on the cap and gown and asks the school to just mail his diploma, but still attends to see Olivia get hers.
Then one of the audience members goes into labor.
Evan feels obligated to walk her to the hospital...
What a chaotic day! Evan's starving.
"Rhino!" Vincent loves yelling out animal names from his book. "Grey!"
Evan makes sure to teach Vincent his colours. They seem to be the most interesting part of his books for him.
But he makes sure to get in some other basic vocab.
"We brush our teeth every. night. Or else what, Vince?"
"Teeth holes!"
"Thaaat's right. And you can also get gingivitis! Gingivitis is when your gums get sick and they bleed!"
Vincent shrieks in terror.
"Might be getting a bit too graphic there," Olivia remarks dryly.
Her dinner's interrupted by a phone call.
"Someone else has lost another pet," she sighs. Ever since she found that one parrot, the town seems to be treating her like some sort of animal bounty hunter.
Still, she won't say no to the money. Her clients think that she uses her superior wolf sense of smell and prey tracking to find their pets.
Most of time, though, Olivia calls it "not being an idiot". Exotic pets are easy enough to find, since they stand out like a sore thumb.
Yay, money!
Her true passion is gardening. With the warm weather, Olivia sets up a family outing to the town garden.
"The tomatoes here are so ripe!" she exclaims, pilfering various vegetables. The signs all say that the public is free to harvest and she will take advantage of that!
Evan smiles at her enthusiasm as she tells him about the various plants in the garden. This isn't exactly what he had in mind when he suggested a picnic, but the summer breeze and pleasant scenery make for a very nice afternoon.
Vincent is eager to explore his new surroundings. Evan makes sure he has some guidance.
Olivia's phone interrupts them.
"How the hell do you lose track of a horse?" She wonders if the townspeople are simply careless or if they're all incredibly dumb. She considered the possibility that the horse was stolen, but the caller sheepishly tells her that he left the gate to his pasture open...
After another hour of gardening and exploring, Olivia reluctantly cuts their date short.
"I have some more lost pets to track down," she sighs, "These people pay me crazy prices for it, too. So I have to get on that now. See you tonight?"
Evan is disappointed, but understanding. "Sure, see you..."
Well, it was getting late anyways... Vincent hungrily gobbles down his dinner.
It's dark outside when Olivia comes back.
"The horse was on the outskirts of town and very skittish. I had to call in someone from the stables to help me," she complains, "I think it didn't like me very much. My dad says it's some sort of...fight or flight instinct animals have around werewolves."
"Your glowing eyes probably reminded it of a predator," Evan theorizes, "Or your scent? I've read that werewolves emit special pheromones. Though, me being a mere sim, I can't smell well enough to detect it..."
Vincent interrupts their conversation. "Can I have a bedtime story?"
"Of course, Vince."
He falls soundly asleep in his new bedroom.
With the savings Naomi and Calvin left behind for Evan, Evan's promotions at work, and Olivia's own earnings, they're able to build a second floor. Olivia uses the extra space to house some of the injured animals she comes across on her hunts for lost pets.
Vincent wakes up early the next morning, fascinated by their new bird.
Olivia is happy to let Vincent chip in for the bird's care and lets him name him.
"Hi, Hawky. Are you feeling better?" Olivia told Vincent that Hawky had a broken leg when she found him.
Hawky can only stare back.
Then falls asleep again.
"Nighty-night!"
Vincent's a pretty happy-go-lucky child. He easily accepts Evan's explanation for why he looks nothing like Olivia- she's not his "biological" mommy. He doesn't fully understand what that means, but he knows that he didn't come from her belly, like his classmates came from their mommies bellies, and that he won't get any cool werewolf powers when he's older.
That last one makes him a bit sad. It would be pretty neat to get stronger, and faster, and have fangs and claws!
He spends a lot of time playing in the "dent" in their front yard. Evan comes outside to find Evan make-believing hiding in caves, digging tunnels, or living in his own house.
"You know, a meteor landed there," Evan informs him.
After that, he spends a lot of time pretending to be an astronaut.
It's how he spends his mornings before school.
Olivia finds lots of things on her long walks. Even though she doesn't get regular calls to find lost pets, she finds out that the science lab pays handsomely for specimens.
She makes sure that she only gives them animals for non-lethal experiments, though.
"Your leg seems to be getting better," she informs "Hawky" cheerfully. She didn't have the heart to tell Vincent that Hawky is actually a falcon.
"But you're pretty old... what do you think about staying with us?" she knows the bird can't reply to her, but socialising with him makes him feel better. Or so she tells herself. It's also nice to be around animals that don't react to her...wolfishness.
She has some other rescues as well. This lizard was pale and barely alive when it arrived at the house. The kind sim who gave it to her said he found it in a box underneath his young son's bed and had no idea how to nurse it back to health. It seems that, unofficially, she's become an animal rescue.
Well, better her than some clueless dope. Her many, many forays into forests for the hunt have brought her into contact with lots of wild animals. Her parents made a point of making them identify each one and read up on local fauna and flora. All it takes is one bad decision or misidentification to eat something poisonous during their hunts...
Ah yes. The full moon.
Liza the lizard can only stare helplessly as Olivia transforms. She stays very still, hoping not to attract the predator's attention.
After Olivia stalks off, Liza relaxes and basks under her heat lamp.
Without bothering to change her clothes, Olivia gets on all fours and runs off into the wilderness.
This teen girl wonders if she hit the bubbles too hard...
It's very late when Olivia makes it back to her family home. Her parents taught her to always seek out her pack during the full moon.
They spend the evening hunting. Olivia sticks to finding seeds for her garden.
With it being just the two of them at home, Evan decides to have the painful conversation about Vincent's "real" parents. Olivia offered to be there too, but Evan thinks it would be better for it to be just the two of them at first.
"So you know how I told you that Olivia's not your biological mommy?"
Vincent nods. "That's why I'm not a werewolf, right?"
"Well yes, but actually, even if she were your biological mom, supernatural genes are an either-or thing. Dominant or recessive, similar to height. But... ahem. Sorry." Evan gets briefly side-tracked by the interesting workings of supernatural DNA, "Yes. Well... I'm not your biological daddy either."
Vincent frowns deeply. "But Mr. Crosby at school said I look just like you..." it's impossible to deny the resemblance.
"You do! We are related, but I'm your big brother."
Vincent perks up. He's always wanted siblings! But...wait... "Then who are our parents?"
Evan clears his throat, not sure how to begin. "You know those people in that photo on the dresser, in the red room with the plants?"
"Well...the woman is our mother. The man is my biological father."
"But...who's my dad?"
"A man that our mom used to work with. He lived here a few years ago, but he moved away after you were born."
"Why'd he move away?"
"I don't actually know. I only met him once..."
"Did he leave because of me?"
"No! He just a bad person." Evan can't keep himself from speaking badly about Abner. Not once in all this time has he ever even inquired about Vincent.
"Will you and mommy leave me too?"
"Never, Vince. We love you."
Vincent's artistic, perfectionist, and a virtuoso. I was disappointed that he looked nothing like Abner (who still lives in town and actually had another daughter not long after Vincent). Billy Caspian's physical traits are still strong!
Vincent is clearly confused after their conversation, but Evan's glad that it's off his chest now. Vincent insists on sleeping in "the red room" as they call it. Evan wonders if it's to feel closer to their mother somehow, but doesn't refuse Vincent's request. He reads him a bed time story.
"Good night, Vince."
----
AN:
It took me a while to actually move out Naomi and Calvin. Have this blooper of them in the background!
I cut out a lot of photos to make this chapter manageable. The next chapter should be lots of fun, though!
Olivia's an animal wrangler! I haven't played this career before, I remember having a lot of fun sending her out to find all the different minor pets. She didn't make too much money, but I liked keeping some of the animals around. In real life, I've always wanted a pet turtle :D
A bit about animals- I had a blast watching these two youtube channels last year, one is a guy who takes in reptiles (https://www.youtube.com/c/GoHerping/about), including this turtle who hadn't seen sunlight in almost 30 years :( (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TzgHnl0teQ)
The other channel is this guy (https://www.youtube.com/c/ExoticsLair/about) who keeps spiders.
Olivia won't have as many animals as these two do, but I'm happy that people who take in animals like this exist :)
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