The Monroe Legacy - G.4. Chapter 3 - Broken Reflections

Lillia awoke coughing, a terrifying tightness in her throat and her limbs leaden. She knew she had seconds to survive so she kicked, her legs feeling as if they were kicking through treacle as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

Then there were hands holding her down, hands and voices and beeping and whiteness.

She drifted off again.

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Next time she came to she was calmer, the beeping was still there and the whiteness but shapes began to emerge from the edges of the blur. Lillia knew she wasn't underwater anymore, her throat was clear but painful and there was a soft pressure on her hand.

She couldn't turn her head but managed to flutter her fingers and the hand in hers jolted as Jeremy Gilbert swam into view.

'She's awake', he screamed. 'Mr Monroe, Mrs Monroe?'

Her parents came rushing into the room, disheveled but grinning, Rachel with tears streaming down her face as Gray kissed Lillia's forehead and stroked her hair.

The next hour was a blur of questions and lights being shone in her eyes. Lillia answered yes, she knew her name, yes she could wiggle her toes and no she wasn't hungry. The doctors seemed to be expecting different answers from those she was giving, consulting something in a folder that her mom kept looking at fearfully.

Apparently satisfied they left  her with her family, Lillia attempted to talk to them but the exhaustion of the last hour soon caused her to drift off to sleep. The next time she woke up the room was full of teenaged girls and flowers.

'Lil' Rose cried on noticing she was awake. 'You had us all so worried!'

Daisy nodded, 'Thank god Jeremy is a little geek and was awake for study club and pulled you out.  He had to do CPR for like, 15 minutes until the meds arrived.'

Typical Daisy, Lillia thought, always covering good with a nasty comment. But what had Jeremy been doing at her house. And who were those other girls in her room?

'What happened to me' she asked her friends. 'I know I was in the pool but I don't know how I got there'.

The unknown girls snickered and Rose shot them a look.

'Lil we were all wasted' Rose said, 'None of us saw you go out, it wasn't until Jeremy screamed for help we even woke up. I guess you just fell in or decided to swim drunk'.

Lillia couldn't believe she would have been so stupid but that wasn't the only odd thing.

'Why were we drunk at my house?' She asked, confusion clear on her face.

The unknown blonde said, 'Um, it was your party? Duh!'

And Lillia snapped. 'Who the hell even are you two. Get out of my room you freaks!' And they scuttled out, looking shocked. Daisy's face was unreadable as Rose looked worried.

'Lillia,' she began, 'Do you really not recognise Brooke and Nina?'

Lillia shook her head, 'I think I've seen them around school but never to speak to.'

Rose nodded.

'Daisy we need to go find the doctors and her parents,' she said, turning away and speaking quietly, but not quietly enough.

Soon the room was filled once again with people and the hated folder. The doctors poked and prodded, asked more questions and then conferred in the corridor. As one left the other held on to a single sheet from the folder and came in and sat at the foot of the bed.

'Lillia,' he said, 'this is a scan we took of your brain the day after you arrived. You can see there is some damage in these areas caused by the oxygen starvation that took place before you were resuscitated. The main area affected by the anoxic injury is called the hippocampus. It's the part of your temporal lobe that looks after your memories.

That's why we were so surprised that you had such a clear recollection of who you were and could answer questions about your life and upbringing. Brain injuries are funny things and we thought that perhaps the damage looked worse than it was or perhaps had affected scattered and non essential memories.

It seems you haven't escaped completely unscathed though, it appears what is lost is your short term memories. The last five to seven months to be precise. You couldn't identify friends made shortly before Christmas but do remember your summer holiday. Can you tell me who Jeremy is?'

Too stunned to process what she had just been told Lillia answered the question.

'He's a boy in my school. I think he's cute. And he was here'.

Her parents looked at her sadly, Lillia didn't know why and turned back to the doctor.

'Why do you want to know about Jeremy?' She demanded.

The doctor also looked sad, 'To pinpoint the beginning of your amnesia. You remember shopping for a Homecoming dress but not what happened at the dance and afterwards. Jeremy is your boyfriend, you were homecoming queen, he was king, he says you love him.'

Lillia couldn't even begin to process that. How could Jeremy be her boyfriend? She hadn't felt anything when she'd seen him. Surely even if her head had forgotten her heart would have remembered. She had liked him for so long.

'Will I get my memories back?' she asked, her voice barely higher than a whisper.

She knew the answer from their faces before the doctor answered.

'We don't think so.'

 

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 They had told her she was lucky, that based on her scans they thought she would have lost more, that she would have died if Jeremy hadn't known CPR, if he hadn't found her. But Lillia didn't feel lucky, she was glad not to be dead but she couldn't call missing six good months of memory lucky, especially when she could remember drowning so vividly. She hoped the nightmares of being in the pool would clear once she was discharged and back in her own bed but they didn't.

Night after night she awoke drenched in sweat, clutching the air and panting. She could feel the water choking her, hear it pushing at her eardrums. Lillia couldn't go to the back of the house, the proximity of the pool was enough to make her panic, she didn't even like to sit where she could see it out of the window.

When her counselor asked her why she told her honestly. Seeing that pool was like seeing her own grave while she was still alive. Six months of her life died in that pool, her career plan died in that pool. Whoever Lillia had been before the accident lay still and unbreathing on the bottom of that pool.

The counselor looked sympathetic and promised she would find her way back to herself. Lillia wanted to slap the sympathetic smile of her face. At 17 six months was a large fraction of her life to lose. She wanted to slap most people these days and apparently this was another part of her brain injury. Irritability due to anoxic injury of the frontal lobe.

Even the sound of the diagnosis was irritating.

Above all though, Lillia was frustrated by herself. She could shut out other people, doing the rest of the academic year as homeschooling and not answering her phone. But even when she was alone in her room there was in escaping that blank hole in her memory, the shadow which had taken the place of her personality. Lillia saw the sideways glances people gave each other when she didn't respond how they expected, the careful readjustment of their expectations of her when they realised she didn't remember.

The girl in the mirror might have looked like her but she wasn't the same. She wasn't a swimmer, a girlfriend or a leader.

Lillia was lost.

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Read on with Chapter 4 - Facade and Failure

The Monroe Legacy - G.4. Chapter 2 - Sink or Swim

Daisy had the look of a creature who realised it was out of options as a predator backed it into a corner, Lillia knew she had won.

The girls were sitting on the deck in front of Daisy's house the weekend after homecoming and the atmosphere had been tense. On Lillia's arrival Daisy had launched into an accusing rant, threatening her place in the group and only stopped when she realised the normally apologetic Lillia was simply staring her down. Behind the steely facade, Lillia waited with baited breath, playing the mean girl wasn't natural for her but she knew this might be her only chance to change the dynamic in her favour. Who knew, maybe she'd even be able to improve things at school!

When Daisy looked to Rose for back-up, Rose sensing a change had only shrugged, said she was disappointed but that at least one if them had won. Lillia had already been to her cousins house and apologised for what had happened, laying the groundwork to defend against Daisy's manipulations.

Once Daisy had burned out her anger Lillia began to speak.

'I didn't campaign for that crown, you'd have known, there would have been gossip and I was constantly with one of you campaigning for Rose. I don't really care if you believe me.

But know this. If you try to undermine me, spread rumours, snub me or "replace me" as you're so fond of threatening, you will regret it. Our school-mates love me and I will not hesitate to start over, Rose is my cousin and our families are close and just as you say I'm replaceable, so are you. I've had a multitude of texts since the dance from pretty, popular girls who would love to be in my circle.

None of that has to happen. But screw with me and you will see just how lonely high school can be.'

The threat hung in the air like a heavy perfume, rewriting the dynamic of the group and as Lillia turned to leave Daisy stopped her.

'So what are we wearing tomorrow?'

Lillia smiled, until that moment she'd never known the giddy rush of power.

'This week I'm thinking florals.'

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Those outside of the inner circle at Brittlebush might have been forgiven for thinking nothing had changed. Most of the same people sat in the cool tables and come Spring Fling, the king and queen were the same as at Homecoming.

But for Lillia it was a whole new world, one where she pulled the strings and it was intoxicating. She'd heard enough of Casper's theories about power whilst playing chess or Risk with him that she knew she needed to start out strong, so she began by ensuring that Daisy knew she wasn't messing around. She brought two new girls into their circle, they were sophomores, irritating but eager to please and held huge sway over the lower school, exactly what Lillia needed. Every time Daisy tried to take control or alter a plan, Brooke and Nina would take Lillia's side, it wasn't a solution she enjoyed but it worked.

Her next move was less of a power play and more for her. She asked out Jeremy, explaining away the homecoming scenario and trying out some of the unused flirting tips that Rose constantly talked about. By Spring Fling they were going steady, Jeremy still amazed that the undisputed queen of their school wanted him. Even Rose had admitted he was kinda cute, especially after Lillia took him shopping for Christmas, revealing with tight t-shirts a physique that the maths shirts had hidden.

Daisy was the only one who would roll her eyes when he turned up at things, but rarely and only when she was sure Lillia couldn't see. It truly was as if the upper echelons of the Brittlebush Academy student body had turned upside down.

Less successful had been Lillia's attempts to break-down the social divides. When she'd invited some of the swim-team girls to eat at their table it had been crazy awkward, her cheerleader/scholastic decathlon mixer hadn't even got off the ground. Lillia had begged Casper for advice, her brother knew a lot about strategy for someone who hated to socialise and he'd given her a very strange look.

'Lil, not everyone wants to be like you, perhaps the smart people are happy hanging out with smart people and would prefer not to hang out with you?' Casper's bluntness was often borderline offensive and Lillia had to remind herself that his Aspergers prevented him from realising this. Still, she wished that her various activities could overlap more. She found that between parties, training, Jeremy and tutoring she was constantly exhausted.

With college a little over a year away Lillia knew that she couldn't afford to take a break. She'd been scouted by the top swim schools in the country, Texas, Arizona and Stanford were all interested. Rose and Daisy were planning on Arizona, Rose in a cheer scholarship and Daisy on her parents money. They fully expected Lillia to join them, to take the Flowers to a new state and find a new kingdom to rule. The thought filled Lillia with dread, but Arizona was a good school and had the lowest academic requirement of the three.

Given how hard Lillia was finding it just to stay on top of her schoolwork, it might be the most she could to make Texas. If she could on,y find those extra hours, find  way to make the trigonometry make sense and the French sentences stay in the right order. Her nights got later and her morning earlier as she tried to find the time, Lillia wanted desperately to be able to choose but all she seemed to do was get more and more exhausted. The only time her head was clear was in the pool when everything but the rhythm of her stroke and the pressure in her ears fell away.

Her parents made it clear they would support her, whatever her choice but they were busy planning the launch of their new bistro, a family friendly place where good food was reasonably priced and they were as tired as she was. It wasn't unusual for the three of them to all fall asleep in front of whatever nature documentary Casper was currently obsessed with and be woken up hours later in the middle of the night by one if the increasingly frequent explosions that came from Casper's room.

It was a funny sort of set-up they had, Lillia mused, always had been really, her parents loved them and worked hard for them but they also gave them a lot of freedom to try things out and make mistakes. Maybe too much freedom Lillia thought, with Eva's happy little family just down the road she could see for the first time how things might have been different. Like if she had been told no more often, but still, she had never wanted for anything, she had everything she wanted and compared to most of her friends she had so many opportunities to do crazy things.

Which was why she ended up in situations like these. Rose had been pushing for a party. And not just a slumber party but a wild college style party. When Gray and Rachel announced they were flying to New York for a weekend to interview a maitre d that Rachel knew from the past, Rose spied her opportunity. The senior Monroes were told about the gathering and approved it, though they weren't told about the keg, the college kids or the extra 50 people Daisy and Rose had invited. Lillia hadn't even been told about them.

At first she'd tried to laugh it off, ignoring the stony stare of her brother as he barricaded himself in his room. She poured herself a warm beer. And then another and tried to distract herself by making out with Jeremy. 

But now dawn was breaking. There were people unconscious all over the floor, half the kitchen china was broken and her parents were due back in a few hours.

Lillia's head pounded with the stress of it all, she didn't think even her parents could laugh this one off and prom was only a week away. Lillia cursed. The whole point of taking over the Flowers had been to avoid getting pushed into situations but she hadn't even been able to do that, let alone use her position to bring the school together. She had been so naive.

Lillia arrived poolside barely even aware of what she was doing. If was instinctive, her stress relief and as she hit the water she felt the cool pressure begin to erase all the worries. 

Two lengths in she realised that perhaps she shouldn't be swimming. She was exhausted and she'd had a few drinks. Even as the thought crossed her mind she felt the crunch of cramp in her lower leg.

A flash. She panicked. It passed.

Shaking with relief Lillia started for the side and the cramp hit again.

Her leg spammed as it locked, throwing her down in the water, then her stomach cramped. She gasped involuntarily, the water shocking her tongue and the chlorine burning her throat. Lillia struggled, thrashed hard but her body wouldn't obey her. The water, her old friend darkened around her and became an enemy, weighing her rebellious body down and pulling her into its deadly embrace.

As she felt the hard floor of the pool at her back and opened her mouth once again to find only water Lillia's vision clouded and was gone.

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Read the next chapter - Broken Reflections now!

The Monroe Legacy - G.4. Chapter 1 - Holding Court

Lillia Monroe stood completely still, all ten of her toes curled tightly against the concrete edge of the pool. It was completely silent except for the water's movement and even at 5am she could feel the heavy, chlorine scented air warm against her skin. Her best friend Daisy found the poolside too oppressive, often wondering aloud how Lillia bore the constant humidity. On bad days Lillia often wanted to comment that it was less oppressive than Daisy's company, but such an outburst would ruin the carefully constructed life-plan which was seeing her safely through high-school.

The fact was that swimming was the time when Lillia felt free. Her suit was far from glamorous, her carefully highlighted hair was stuffed inside a rubber cap and the water kept her apart from everyone and everything else. She didn't have to be anything other than herself when she swam, not a popular girl, not the heir to her family legacy, not a sister or a friend. Just her.

Glancing at the digital clock face on the wall she realised she'd been stood still daydreaming for the best part of two minutes. Or two laps as her coach would see it. Pressing her goggles into place she took a breath and dived in. An hour of this and then she'd go get ready to make nice for the rest of the school. It was time to face junior year.

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A month later

'Get a load of that senior girl in the awful dress' Rose giggled, pointing non too subtly at a freckled girl in what was clearly a cheap dress. As Daisy giggled, Lillia cringed inwardly, sometimes her friends were so shallow. Of course they saw the dress and the bad eyeshadow and not the way that the girl's date was gazing at her. Tugging absently at her hem Lillia thought that she'd trade her boutique dress and the meathead jock who was her date for a geeky sophomore to adore her in that way.

Increasingly she found Rose and Daisy's company less satisfying than those long ago days where they'd put on shows in the yard and make snow angels. They were judgemental, valued lipgloss above most things and seemed to be left completely unimpressed by life. Lillia envied the hysterical laughter that blew across from the drama table in the lunch hall, the team banter that passed her by in the swim team locker room. She'd paid more for her place in the Flowers than anyone would guess, but what was the alternative?

Lillia had always been quiet, always been a bit of an eccentric with her sports obsession and Eva's rebel influence. Without the Flowers she'd be the uninteresting athletic girl, made an easy target by the disappearance and pregnancy scandal of her big sister and her autistic brother. 

Perhaps if she was more like Casper and Eva then she'd be able to cope with that, fall back on her intelligence and fight the cruel remarks with cutting sarcasm or complete disinterest. But she'd never been like that, Lillia was the easy child, the one who quietly moulded herself to survive in a situation and true to form she'd melted down her personality and created a high school prima donna. 

Lillia had it all, if only it was all what she wanted....

The screech of the microphone disrupted the homecoming dance and her friends rose excitedly, dragging her with them to a spot conveniently close to the stairs up to the stage. Lillia plastered on a grin, Daisy was a great actress, she looked nervous and excited, even though all three of them knew how the vote would go. They'd decided at the beginning of the year, well Daisy had anyway. Rose would take the homecoming crown, Lillia Spring Fling Queen and Daisy would get Prom queen. They'd all solemnly sworn not to campaign against each other and as the most popular girls in school they had no reason to believe their plan wasn't going perfectly.

'And your Homecoming King iiiiisssssss.......... Jeremy Gilbert'

Silence greeted the announcement, everyone had expected Jace Conners, Rose's date to win it. Eventually a confused Jeremy made it up on stage, the kids outside the popular crowd finally realised that one of them had won and cheered and hollered as Jeremy smiled sheepishly. Lillia could sense Daisy standing stiffly beside her, and Rose's grip on her arm went from excited to slightly painful, for the first time something school related was not going as they'd planned it.

As the cheering died down to await the prom queen announcement Daisy turned to Rose and Lillia.

'You both did what I said right? No more nasty surprises?' Lillia replied in the affirmative and Rose nodded, her lips thin and her expression unreadable. It seemed that winning was really important to her and she paled as the announcer returned to the microphone.

'Your homecoming queen iiiiiiissssss........   LILLIA MONROE!

Lillia's heart stopped. This was bad. Turning to Rose she saw the hurt of perceived betrayal whilst Daisy looked..... furious.

'I didn't do this,' she tried to stay calm, but she could see her friends didn't believe her. 'Daisy I swear I didn't! But the crowd was pushing her up the stairs, cheering for her and all Lillia could do was go. As the crown was placed on her head she searched the crowd for Rose and found her nowhere, just the blank stare of Daisy burning into her.

As the dance floor cleared and the band started a slow song for the homecoming court to have their dance Lillia couldn't even look at Jeremy, couldn't enjoy the long imagined sensation of his hands on her waist. The second the song was over she rushed away, searching for her friends and finding them nowhere. Eventually she tracked down someone who had seen them leaving with their dates in the limo they'd shared. Not knowing what to do, Lillia called her mom for a lift, holding back the tears until she got to her room, realising after she'd cried her makeup off that she still had her crown on.      

She'd cried because there was no way Daisy was going to believe that she hadn't planned it, the Jeremy thing was one coincidence too many, and she'd seen how her friend treated people who messed up her plans. Rose would get over it, her cousin was always quick to throw a fit and equally quick to forgive, as long as Daisy let her.

But now Lillia was the one with the crown, the one the school had voted queen. People followed Daisy because they were scared but they had voted for Lillia because they liked her. And Lillia wasn't scared of Daisy anymore. She didn't have to follow Daisy, to accept her judgement, she could be the leader and there would be nothing her friend could do about it, there were plenty of girls who'd love to take her place at Lillia's side. A new era was coming for the Flowers and Daisy could like it or leave.

Lillia touched up her makeup and dragged her brother out  of his room to take a picture.

She touched it up until she looked perfect and posted it to her profile and the Brittlebush homepage.

"There's a new queen in town! See ya in the cafeteria biatches".

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Will Lillia succeed in taking control of the Flowers?

Read Chapter Two - Sink or Swim

The Monroe Legacy - Generation 3 Finale - Last Orders

As Lillia's  16th birthday approached, Gray wondered if maybe he had announced his decision too soon and put too much pressure on his young daughter. It had been almost a five years since he had chosen, aware that for Eva, adult life had already begun and wanting to grant her the freedom she deserved but rather than giving Lillia purpose, the legacy seemed to weigh heavily on her mind. He'd seen her sit staring at the increasingly battered legacy journal for hours, a strange look on her face and he wondered if Lillia might be having second thoughts, though she always denied it when asked.

Gray had thought that his decision would give her confidence in her teenage years, should she ever want to stand apart from her friends. Maybe it had, but Lillia had never wavered in her social allegiances, she was as close to Daisy and Rose as she had ever been and the three of them ruled the school. Gray and Rachel had kept their eyes peeled for any sign that the Flowers were more mean girls than dream girls but so far they just seemed like the average popular kids, they had their moments, but so did most kids.

Flynn was certainly king of such moments. The fit he threw his first day at nursery would, Eva said, never be outdone as the most simultaneously hilarious and traumatic experience of her life. It was said that the screaming could be heard a block away.

For all his tantrums, Flynn was a good kid and Eva had done a wonderful job so far, he was definitely a momma's boy but she was firm with him and Gray was so proud of his daughter. He was ecstatic that she would soon be home for good, having just completed her final year at Brown and she had graduated magna cum laude, in front of her thrilled family and a beaming Hayden.

Eva had finally given Hayden the answer he wanted the day she had recieved her acceptance letter for Brown, they married a few months later at home with just family as witnesses and spent a Honeymoon weekend flat hunting around the Brown campus.

The day they moved away Gray had been a mess, he'd planned out a sort of speech and a big farewell, something about how proud he was and that the sadness of her leaving would be made sweeter by the knowledge that she was chasing her dream. But when the moment came that all flew out of the window and they just sobbed and hugged and cried. 

Now they were coming back, Hayden had busted his ass working whilst Eva had been at college and they had enough for the deposit on a tiny house on a new development. With Flynn about to start school, Eva was due to start working at the local science facility and Hayden's hard work had guaranteed him a transfer to his company's office in town. Gray was thrilled, it would be wonderful to have them close and to get to know his grandson properly now he was a big boy, holiday visits just weren't enough.

Lillia was excited to see Eva too, especially now she knew her sister wouldn't want her room back! Casper was warier, not about Eva and certainly not to see Hayden, he'd missed his chess nemesis, but to be around Flynn, who he mainly remembered as a screaming and disruptive baby.

It wasn't the baby's fault, Casper knew that, but if his nephew was still very loud it was bad timing, Casper had been accepted into an elite summer science programme at MIT and he had a lot of studying to do if he was going to blow them away. In the years since they'd moved away Casper had grown from a studious little boy into a studious young man, his academics beyond reproach, he even participated in the odd group study, though most social gatherings still sent him running to his chemistry set and Tia.

Fortunately the reunion went well, Rachel cried a little, Gray grinned constantly and Flynn rather overawed by all the people who turned up - half the extended family were there to welcome Eva home - was very well behaved and quiet. Casper have Eva a quick hug before making a chess plan with Hayden and then retreated to his room. His family were nice he supposed but there were ever such a lot of them! 

A few weeks later Lillia found herself the sole inhabitant of the Monroe residence. Her parents having flown across to Yale to get Casper settled, the house was strangely still. At first That was exciting, Lillia thought to herself that this was how it would be once she was in charge of the house.  Then it was too quiet, the silence expectant and oppressive and she did what she always did when she was unsure, she called in her friends. Fortunately it was too late for Rose and Daisy to organised a  party so they settled for raiding the wine rack and getting rather tipsy whilst watching movies.

After a while the conversation turned to boys, as it always did, Rose giggling over a new senior who had transferred and Daisy swooning over Rose's brother Axel, much to her disgust. As usual , Lillia was the quiet one, it wasn't that she wasn't interested, she just hadn't really seen anyone of her type in a while. Usually her friends just let it go, but the wine spurred them on.

'C'mon Lil! There must be somebody you like.' Rose whinged, 'All the guys in our year are panting after the "mysterious" Lillia Monroe, but you're always single!'

Daisy looked sideways at her, a slightly unpleasant smile crossing her face. Lillia stiffened, she knew that look.

'I know who Lil likes'  she snickered. Rose whipped round, eyes wide.

'No! Who?!' She was shocked.

So was Lillia, 'Oh really?!' She teased, 'who is my prince charming! waiting in the wings then? I'd love to meet him!'

'Jeremy Gilbert, your geeky lab partner. I've seen you get all hot and bothered taking to him.'

Lillia flushed red, 'I do not have a thing for Jeremy. We're just friends.' She insisted.

Rose shrugged, 'But you have enough friends. Better friends. You don't need losers hanging around you.'

Lillia tried to stay calm, 'Which is why Jeremy is my lab partner and not at this sleepover. You guys know I need a good partner to pass that class.'

The ping of the microwave diffused the tension in the room and Lillia went to get the popcorn. She took the trash outside to cool off and once she was alone she took a deep calming breath. What had just happened was exactly why she would never tell anyone, anyone at all, about her crush on Jeremy Gilbert.

When Gray and Rachel returned, tired and having left Casper halfway across the country to take care of himself, a challenge they believed he was ready for but that scared them nonetheless, it felt as if an era was drawing to an end.

Gray felt older somehow, as if he had had just enough energy to keep him going for as long as he was needed desperately. He'd long ago lost count of the grey-white hairs on his head and had been amused by the saga of Rachel's attempts to find an anti-wrinkle cream that worked. Age had crept up on them quietly, kept away only by the tireless energy that they'd expended to try and keep everything together.

Now Eva was off with a family of her own, a home, a son and a husband, not to mention a degree and a career. Gray couldn't even see the angry teenager he'd once known in her any more, the glowing young woman she'd become was a testament only to her own strength of character and the chance to start again.

Lillia was almost grown, she seemed happy and confident, she had her sports and her friends and her academic were good enough not to hold her back. Gray only wished he had taken more time to treasure her childhood years, caught between her siblings she'd grown up too fast and that was something he'd never be able to take back.

And Casper, for all the nights of sleep that Gray and Rachel had lost over him, he was doing so well. It seemed like he too barely needed them. His schooling was so advanced that they could barely follow it, he functioned with hardly a thing to distinguish him from his siblings. The only time when the Aspergers really affected things was when he was surprised by or under-prepared for a social situation. Gone were the days where his temper flared at the slightest misunderstanding, he was learning to cope with the world and with the people in it and that was his parents dearest wish for him.

Gray hoped that maybe one day Casper would find what he had with Rachel with another person, that his son would want that for himself, but for now it was more than enough to see his son becoming independent, even if that meant he didn't need Gray so much.

Yes, it was the end of an era.

Looking across to where Rachel sat engrossed in a recipe book muttering ingredients to herself! Gray smiled. It was twenty years since they'd first sat together like this, their dreams very different from what they were now. Those two decades felt like a whirlwind, a constant fight to do what was best for their family and Gray couldn't imagine a better partner to have seen him through it than Rachel had been.

Perhaps now was their chance to go back after those dreams they'd shared that had fallen by the wayside, the dreams which had been hung up and used to pad their children's way in the world. Their hair might be greyer and their joints a little stiffer but there was time yet, this time was theirs. It was time to let Lillia chronicle their history and make her own successes and mistakes, time for Gray to step back and support his children rather than pushing them along.

Crossing the room Gray joined Rachel on the sofa, tapping the page of her book until he had her attention.

'Rachel, I think it's time to have another try at opening up that restaurant we always dreamed of.'      

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Generation Four has now begun. Read Chapter 1 - Holding Court now!