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!

The Monroe Legacy - G.3. Chapter 11 - Second Chance at First Love

A year passed uneventfully. Gray's nieces and nephews grew, he met Rachel's mother and the two of them fell harder for one another. There was no news of Eva until shortly after the six year anniversary of her disappearance, when a sighting of a woman who looked a lot like Aisha lead to another dead end.

 Gray sat quietly, musing on the last 24 hours, the panic, the hope and the disappointment. His one constant through it all had been Rachel, she had been calm, supportive and let him be a little bit crazy. Now she was tidying up the coffee cups and the papers and he could smell something delicious cooking in the kitchen.

Gray flicked the radio from the news channel they'd been watching to classical music and as Rachel came back through to collect more mess he grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

'Thank you' he said, feeling her smile into his chest at they began to sway to the music.

They danced for a while, the calming motion and the peaceful music soothing Gray's nerves. A new certainty in what he wanted from life hit Gray as they swayed and he made a decision as fast as their first kiss and as right as everything which had happened since.

'Rachel,' he hesitated, wanting the words to come out right, to properly represent everything he was feeling in this moment.

'Rachel, I want nothing more than to stay here, like this, with you forever. But we both know that perfect moments don't last forever.  The next best thing I can think of is knowing that I have you forever, knowing that wherever I go and whatever happens you are with me'

They had stopped moving, Rachel's eyes glittering with tears as she began to understand what he was asking her. Gray took her hand, drinking her in, unwashed hair, sweatpants and all. She was perfect.

'Rachel please marry me. I don't have a ring but I can't wait to know. I'm sure of this, but I have to know if you're in it with me.' He waited, breath held.

'Always Gray. I'm always in this with you and my answer is yes', Rachel .,choked out, as happy tears began to stain her cheeks.

He barely heard the end of her answer as he leaped to his feet and pulled her in to a bear hug, kissing her face and her hair and feeling the happiest he had since the day that Eva had been born.

That consuming happiness carried them through the three months it took to organise a backyard wedding, a simple service for friends and family. They didn't have any bridesmaids or too much fuss as it seemed wrong when their first choice for bridesmaid couldn't be there. Rachel also steeled herself and sat Gray down to talk about children.

Their circumstances had made this a topic of avoidance as long as they had known one another but Rachel knew she wanted to be a mother and she needed to know that Gray wasn't closed to the idea of having another child. It was a painful conversation, uncovering the dashed dreams of a father who never got to see his baby grow, who imagined how she might look and what she might be doing. But Gray was determined not to deny himself another chance, Eva would always have her place and he would never give up on finding her. Until then, when the time was right, he would love for her to have a sibling.

Gray and Rachel exchanged rings at sunset on a September evening, Saffron cheering them on and Violet in floods of tears. Jet arrived on his newest horse and Sienna flew in with her new boyfriend, an English photographer who took some beautiful pictures to commemorate the day.

Gray could feel his parents there with them. Though he was still missing Eva, they had made the place a family home once more, a place where happiness could be found.

After a joyful but uneventful first year of marriage with no news of Eva, it was Gray who reopened the baby debate. Gray and Rachel were now co-running The Lonely Cactus, they had the financial stability to support a child and it was a good time for Rachel to take time off with no risk to her career, Gray would cover her absence. Rachel's face lit up when Gray said he was ready, she had been trying to find a sensitive way to raise the issue, she had just had her thirtieth birthday and her body clock was starting to tick a little louder.

It took three months of reckless passion and a home pregnancy test to confirm that they were expecting. Rachel was ecstatic and Gray was thrilled though he secretly hoped it would be a boy, to ease the slight guilt he felt at starting again. Rachel wanted the gender to be a surprise and given how rough her first trimester was, Gray let her have her way.

Rachel had morning sickness, lunchtime sickness and even evening sickness any time she was around poultry. When this phase passed, their new little one proved to be incredibly active and have sharp elbows, regularly keeping its mother up with its energetic kicking. When the baby. wasn't keeping her up, Rachel worried herself out of sleep. She worried that her termination might have done something to her insides, that she wasn't eating right or taking the right supplements. She read every pregnancy book she could get her hands on and often woke Gray up to make sure she didn't have the latest rare condition she'd read about.

By her third trimester poor Rachel was enormous and exhausted, Gray did everything he could to make her comfortable, cooking for her weird cravings, watching endless Hell's Kitchen reruns at horror o'clock in the morning when she couldn't sleep and massaging her poor aching feet.

By the time the due date arrived, Gray's fear had been replaced by excitement. Their unknown bump had already wormed it's way into his heart, nestling up against the place he reserved for Eva. When Rachel's contractions started, Gray had a slight panic attack when he couldn't find the suitcase before rushing them all to the hospital.

Rachel delivered a healthy baby girl that night, just as the first stars appeared and they named her for their mothers.

Lillia Hallie Monroe was as beautiful as a flower, big clear eyes, blondish curls and a peachy complexion. Gray could see Eva in her, see his mom in her, but she was her own perfect self.

Gray stood back and watched as Rachel gave Lillia her first feed, marvelling that he had been blessed to have them both in his life. He prayed again that Eva would come home and complete the picture but mostly in that moment, he was thankful for his second chance.

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Read Chapter 12 - Heart of Darkness

The Monroe Legacy - G.3.Chapter 7 - I'll Be Seeing You

Saffron hardly recognised the man who stepped out of the taxi as her brother.

It was more than a physical change, sure Gray was thinner, his hair was a mess, his usual clean shave gone and there were dark circles around his eyes, but his spirit seemed broken. He carried himself differently, the sparkle in his eyes had been replaced by a dead hardness.

Saffron wondered if he would ever have come back if she hadn't called and begged, begged him to come home for Hallie's sake.

 

Eva's disappearance had changed Gray but it had aged their mother. Always vivacious and full of life she was now quiet and somehow smaller. The gray streaks in her hair had become the majority, before finally chasing the last if the black from her long braid. Just as she had promised her son she had campaigned for her granddaughter's return making appearances on TV, hiring investigators, pushing the police to look further, to look harder. She kept the house going, she bore Gray's pain along with the deaths of two of her siblings, Belle died quietly in her sleep while Georgia finally gave in to her illness.

 Until one day she could go no more.

Saffron and Leyton had watched the whole thing, trying to slow her down, trying to shoulder the burden but Hallie was stubborn. Gray's despairing calls from the search had kept Hallie pushing until her body simply refused. The day that Saffron found her mother asleep in her car, in the garage with the engine running  exhausted and bent, was the day she had called her brother.

While she knew that no amount of time would numb the loss for Gray she warned him that he was going to lose more of his family if he kept going, and miss out on moments he would later regret. Though she didn't want to say it, Saffron could tell her mother was nearing the end.

Gray had argued, claimed to be on the edge of a breakthrough in Mexico, but Saffron could hear him trying to convince himself as well as her, and once she finally spoke out her fears, he agreed to return.

With Gray back the Monroe house was fuller but sadder. Hallie's energy waned, she often spent all day in bed, her heart breaking for her son's loss and her head worrying about what he would do once she was gone. Saffron and Leyton helped where they could but stuck mainly to their own quarters, it seemed cruel to parade their relationship in front of Gray who could mostly be found scouring Mexican newspapers, calling the contacts he had made whilst searching or just staring at the wall.

Violet stayed away, she was expecting a second child any day and Amelie looked a little too much like Eva for Gray to bear. Sienna and Jet were both out of the country and though they called, Gray would rarely speak to them.

Amelie Monroe-King 

When Hallie, on a good day, told Gray that he had to keep hoping and get out of the house he started walking. He would go out for hours, covering miles, always carrying Eva's picture to ask people if they'd seen her and Aisha's too, he'd have loved to destroy it, to watch it burn, but she was a link he might need, a face that might be recognised. 

Though the police still came up with new angles from time to time, Gray no longer felt the thrill of hope he had when the search began.

The only light in this dark time was the marriage of Saffron and Leyton. They had planned to wait until they could afford a home, but given the circumstances and Hallie's declining health they decided to have a tiny service at home. Hallie smiled throughout, it was good to see another of her children settled and happy, she prayed that Saffron's fate would be happier than Gray's had been of late.

Gray was on one of his walks when his mother died. He received a calm but heartbroken phone call from Saffron telling him to come back, her tone telling him what her words did not, that Hallie was gone.

Gray sat, frozen to the spot, letting the snow fall on him and watching the tiny flakes settle on his knuckles. He wondered how long he would have to sit still before it would stop melting, chilling his body until the snow could cover him and make him forget.

But as he sat, he could hear his mother in his head, see her face in his mind's eye. She had always supported him, believed in him and to give up would be a pretty horrible way to honour everything she'd given up for him. Gray forced himself to move, for the first time in almost two years moving Eva from the front of his mind and replacing her with his mother.

She deserved more from her legacy than a quitter.

The funeral was small and quiet. Hallie's surviving siblings, Oscar and Lola and their families, all of Gray's brothers and sisters, Leyton, Derek and little Amelie. They talked and wept, remembering their parents who were now together again until it got to be too much and everyone dispersed, returning to their homes to grieve in their own way.

As Gray turned to go back to his room, to figure out his next step, Saffron stopped him. Handing him a letter she hugged him hard.

'Mom asked me to give you this when this day came. She also told me to say that things are going to get better'.

 

Gray tried for a smile and settled for a nod, taking the letter.

'Thanks Saff' he said gruffly, 'not just for this, but for everything. I owe you.'

His sister's eyes glittered with tears and she shook her head,

'This is what family is for' and she turned and went to find Leyton.

Gray made his way to his bedroom trying not to look at the doors of his mother's room or the nursery, focusing instead in the letter he held.

Collapsing by his bed he gently unfolded it, smoothing the creases out and running his fingers over the curving script of his mother's handwriting,

Gray,

I have tried over and again to think of the right words to leave you with once I am gone. Some are obvious. I love you. I am so proud of you. I wish you peace and happiness.

The others are harder. I wanted to find a way to take away your guilt and your pain and your longing, but all I could come up with was this.

Live.

Gray, you have to live. I believe that Eva will be delivered safely home, I pray for it daily. Keep looking, but remember to live. If you forget yourself completely, pouring all of yourself into the search then you will have nothing left for her when she comes back. Find a way back to happiness even as Eva finds her way back to you.

We will watch over her, your father and I, just as we will watch over you.

I love you,

Mom 

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Read the next chapter now - Ch. 8 - Choosing the Light

The Monroe Legacy - G.2. Finale - Fade to Gray

Disclaimer- This chapter contains some adult language and is rated PG-13

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In the years that followed between Hallie's announcement and Gray's 21st birthday the dynamic if the Monroe house changed drastically. Hallie began to step back from the day-to-day running of the house, allowing Gray to see to the bills and decisions as well as cooking the meals. She was either found fiddling with minute gadgetry at her inventing bench or curled in Cai's arms in front of the fire. Cai was writing small pieces for the press but spent more time reading the paper than writing for it.

Though they'd never admit it both Hallie and Cai liked the slow, semi-retired life they were living. They finally had time for each other as well as time to better get to know all of their children as they neared adulthood and independence.

After her first bit-part in indie film, Unfortunate Thursdays, Violet was beginning to make a name for herself at the studio. While she had yet to play a part where she didn't die horribly she was enjoying her life in front of the the camera. With this success came exposure and she began to understand what her parents had meant about the price of fame. She often emerged from cast parties to find paparazzi waiting to snap her juiced antics.

One night after a rowdy party she had had enough and confronted the paparazzo waiting in the car park.

'Could you kindly leave me the fuck alone' was her less than eloquent request, eliciting a snigger from the man holding the camera.

'Are you gonna call me an ass-hat douchewizard next?' bantered the photographer, lowering his camera and grinning.

Violet's breath caught. The ass-hat douchewizard photographer was absolutely gorgeous. Forgetting her anger she blushed and muttered,

'Not my most mature response but it's been a bad week' she turned to go.

 

'Want to tell me about it?' came the photographer's soft request. She paused and he continued, 'Off the record, I swear. I've had a crappy week too.'

Wondering if she was making a huge mistake Violet accepted, the butterflies in her stomach urging her closer to the handsome stranger. A few days later an envelope arrived at the house containing a cut-out gossip article, it described the luminous quality of Lucky Palms newest actress and urged studios to look more closely at a Miss Violet Monroe, star in the making. Also enclosed was a baseball cap with a picture of an ass pinned on. Scrawled across the cheeks was a phone number and one word.

'Dinner'.

As Violet began a secret relationship with the young reporter, Gray and Aisha were still a solid pair. After senior prom they each lied to their parents about an after party and snuck to a motel where they spent a tentative first night together. At graduation they held hands throughout and were voted the couple most likely to marry. Gray was also Valedictorian.

Less lucky in love was Sienna. Still smarting from being passed over as heir she decided to take her parents seriously when they told her to take risks. At the Spring Fling she marched up to Ethan, her long term crush and asked him to dance in front of all of his friends. He laughed so hard that he almost peed himself before turning her down flat.

Humiliated and crushed Sienna fled the gym and spent the rest of the evening alone in the play park. The police picked her up ten minutes after curfew and escorted her home to where a firm but sympathetic Hallie waited. Sienna would not be comforted, silently swearing that she'd find a way to outdo each and every one of her siblings. Gray wanted badly to help her, to regain the closeness they'd once shared but ever since his selection as heir his sister had been pushing him away.

Unfortunately for Sienna, Gray would soon have other things to occupy his mind. As soon as he had his high-school diploma he marched in to the managers office at The Lonely Cactus and demanded a kitchen job. His boss laughed and took him on as a Spice Runner! He'd known this day was coming since the day Gray had started as the scullion four years ago!

His new career dominated Gray's life, he spend hours poring over menu plans, experimenting with spice combinations and practicing his cooking. Soon even his date nights with Aisha were cooking related, he would take her to rival restaurants to scope out the competition, get her to trial his new concoctions or sometimes just drag her along to scour markets or even forests for a missing ingredient!

Hallie watched with concern, Aisha didn't seem to mind but it was clear to her that her sons' girlfriend was mainly interested in having a comfortable life. Her driven son would provide for anyone he loved but Hallie wondered whether that would be enough for Aisha in the long term. The pretty teen was used to the excitement of being the toast of high school, being the wife of a workaholic chef might soon lose its shine and Hallie feared that it would break her son's heart.

Saffron was also breaking hearts, decimating the desirable male population of her high-school by the end of sophomore year. Hallie put her foot down when the audacious redhead tried to sneak off to do spring break with some neighbourhood college kids and enrolled her daughter in study club to limit her hours as a dating tornado.

Saffron was secretly relieved to be "forced" to spend more time in school. Whilst the attention and popularity of her lifestyle were fun she couldn't deny that she found it exhausting and she was hoping and looking for that guy who would suddenly make everything make sense. She dated a lot and never seriously which kept her reputation up and rumours swirling but meant she never actually had to do more than flirt a little when out with a guy before leaving him behind to miss her.

In their lack of romantic success Saffron and Sienna had finally found some common ground. They never talked about it openly but they could often be found on the sofa together, watching a romantic movie and eating a tub of ice cream between them. Hallie sympathised from a distance and let them be, she remembered the frustrations of her own never-been-kissed period and hoped her daughters would be as lucky as she had been in love. 

Jet had now been attending Fort Starch for two years and was certainly benefiting from the strict timetable. He was now an accomplished horseman and always begging Hallie and Cai to have a stable added to the house when he phoned home. His parents had little doubt what he'd be spending his inheritance on. Jet was also much less absent-minded, he had routines and goals he had to stick to and although on his holidays Hallie occasionally found him whispering into thin air she was pleased that her younger son had become more grounded in reality, it made it easier to wave him off at the start of each semester (she still cried every time).

Six months before Gray's birthday, Violet came home with a tiny diamond on her left hand and a previously unknown man on her arm.

Introducing him to her parents as her boyfriend of the past year and new fiance, Violet explained that Derek wouldn't be able to stay at his paper if they suspected he might be biased towards any of his subjects and that she would face problems at work if they knew how close she was to the press. From their own run-ins with the media Hallie and Cai knew that their daughters concerns were valid but seeing the look in her eyes when she looked at Derek and the way he was around Violet, they knew it was too late for objections.

A quiet back-yard wedding a few months later was attended by the Monroe family only, Derek was a former foster kid, and Hallie cried as her eldest daughter took her new husband's hand and ran for the taxi that would deliver them to their new home, a tiny place as far away from anything as they could get in Lucky Palms.

Now it truly felt like the end of an era, Hallie wondered if she'd hold a grandchild her arms in the next few years or watch the rest of her children say "I Do". She knew from her parents lives that you never knew how long you had left and she treasured every day that passed, the stormy tempestuous days of teenage heartache as well as the golden days of joy and reminiscences.

As she watched her eldest son bend over his 21st birthday cake, closing his eyes and wishing for his heart's desire, Hallie knew she had done everything she could.

Her children were grown, she had taught them what she knew and she would be there for them as long as she was able, to soothe their broken hearts and share in their happiness. As Gray grew into a fine young man and turned to kiss his girlfriend, Hallie took Cai's hand and they turned and left the room.

Their time was at its end.


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Read the first chapter of Gray's story here - G.3. Ch. 1 - A House is not a Home