Chapter 72: Family at Last

Ashby and Rex are married. Rex takes Ashby's surname, since Riverview's last Wainwright couple never got along. He's not superstitious, he's just a little obsessive about not following in his father's footsteps.

Fischer becomes a toddler. He looks a lot like Rex, and has Pablo's pale blue eyes.

As the fire chief, Ashby decides she can bring her kids in to work whenever she damn well feels like it.

Rex's annoying habit of questioning her coworkers about trivial stolen items persists. Ashby is about to tell him to leave poor Bernardo alone when her phone rings. Another cat stuck in a tree.

Fischer and Luke get along pretty well. They take turns with their toys.

The harmony in the house puts Nol and Pablo in a romantic mood.

Fischer and Luke will start school someday with an impressive vocabulary. Maybe at least one of the children will take an interest in literature.

Rex plays catch with Pablo, improving his athletic skills.

Rex finally gets a real case. Taylor Archer-Rinsler, a local politician and Kimberly's husband, believes there's been some corruption in the election process.

Ashby gives birth to a daughter, named Kipp.

At first Rex thought Taylor was being a sore loser over the election, but his investigation uncovers a huge scandal. Votes have been cast for dead sims. The solved election fraud and jewel heist cases catapult Rex into the headlines, and the donut eaters at the station finally give him his own office as a Private Eye.

Rex gets home to find his sons reading their educational books. This pleases him.

Rex cares a great deal for their education.

Because he is awesome.

Ashby wonders why she didn't realize how awesome he was before. She patiently waits for him to get off the phone; it turns out her cousin Lorenzo's car was stolen, but that can wait for morning.

Too much marital bliss to stomach. Haha look at Fischer's nose.

All isn't as great as it seems, though. At the firehouse, Bernardo turns gray and considers retiring, meaning chief Ashby must select someone to take his place. And Tristan hasn't exactly been leaving her alone, since he has a strong feeling Kipp is his daughter. He doesn't want to break up Ashby's marriage, but he doesn't want to pretend Kipp isn't his, either. Ashby tries to spend as little time alone with Tristan in the firehouse as possible, since he won't let their secret slip in public. While Bernardo does jumping jacks, Tristan gives Ashby a long stare.

Rex follows up on an old case involving super tomatoes from the grocery store that made everyone feel awesome. The scientists shrug, having more important experiments to do, so Rex seeks out other educated opinions.

"I ate one of the tomatoes and it's true! I felt better, stronger, faster! You're a doctor, Arthur, maybe medicine can tell me something that science cannot."

"I'm sorry Rex," Arthur says. "The tomatoes were filled with cocaine. You ate a whole one. You're going to die." After a pause, the vampire narrows his eyes and continues. "Medicine is science, by the way."

Since world-renowned doctor Arthur Archer gave him nothing but sarcasm and pissiness, Rex is forced to research these tomatoes on the Internet. The results lead to yet another town scandal shut down.

Finally Rex gets around to interviewing Lorenzo.

Lorenzo had no idea who stole his car, so Rex's solution is to dust for ass prints in Lorenzo's house (Lorenzo still lives with his parents, Hawk and Alice). Unfortunately no one was home, so Rex was forced to break in to do this.

A small house fire.

Lorenzo's teen brother Arron gets home from school, sees Rex, and does nothing.

Ashby leaves destruction in her wake. Broken hearts yesterday, charred floors today.

Soon it will be Luke's birthday.

For the moment, it's Kipp's birthday. No one in Rex or Ashby's family has this hair color, so it doesn't take more than a second for Rex to reach obvious conclusions. He's just not sure what to do about it.

Lorenzo and Ashby's cousin, Donovan, son of Taylor and Kimberly, is the petty thief who stole Lorenzo's car. Rex storms across the street to confront him.

"I'm afraid I haven't heard of any missing car," Donovan says, smirking in the most... annoying way Rex can imagine.

Rex takes out his rage on Donovan.

The thief sings like a canary. The plot was to steal cars, tear them apart, build new cars from the parts, and sell those. Kerry, Donovan's insane little brother, was the mastermind behind the whole scheme. Kerry works in the business office, not for the criminals, so this crossing of the streams make him particularly dangerous.

"I'm going to cook Kerry's goose!" Rex shouts. He calls in the police to arrest Donovan...

....and then holds a stake-out to catch Kerry doing something nefarious. Soon, Kerry is behind bars as well.

The three Archer toddlers.

Hawk and his wife Alice are mortified to learn their new car is not new, but rather the result of combining three old cars. One of which was their son's stolen vehicle.

Hawk and Alice had three children. The scientist Lorenzo, the absent-minded and apathetic Arron, and the young hot-headed Carol.

Luke becomes a child.

With this haircut, he will kill you with cute.
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Etc.: The car plot string was real. In every new step, Rex dealt with another of Ashby's extended family. Poor Lorenzo's car was stolen by his cousin and then partially sold to his father, and the brilliant scheme was concocted by his other cousin.

"I'm going to cook Kerry's goose!" is also a direct quote from the game.