4.17 Different Ways

Bonnie's funeral was set to be a small affair. Cocktail dresses and casual suits were the dress code. Only family and friends. As her only blood relative was her father, Cortez, Kaity and Shaena invited their own families. Bonnie had been like a sister, a daughter, an aunt. Their best friend. Their light in the darkness, a voice of reason.

Madison broke down after the service. The whole day reminded her too much of Geoffrey's passing, and the fact they'd only just buried Summer really hit her hard. She would live a lot longer than Geoffrey, and she'd have to watch him die again. Go to his funeral again. How many other lovers would she have in her centuries of existance? How many other close friends would she have to bury?

Taylor comforted her. As her job involved a lot of death and violence, she was more conditioned to these situations. She was upset, but her outlet for grief was to help others grieve in their own ways.

Luis was like his mother, he broke down in Layla's arms, not caring that his children could see.

Liana cried quietly to herself, while her sister Lyris comforted Jaydean.

Rose and Myles couldn't believe what Sophie and Jaydean had seen, and Rose tried to talk to Sophie, to get her to realise that crying was alright. Sophie wasn't a crier. Jaydean was the silly girly one who cried, she was the strong one who told her she was being silly. She didn't tell her she was being silly today. Today it was ok for her to cry.

Lucas had wandered off somewhere. Rose and Myles weren't worried, they knew everyone dealt with grief in different ways.

 Jake just closed his eyes and went to a different world in his head.

Cortez huddled himself away. He didn't want to talk. All he had left in the world was his grand-daughter, who he couldn't raise because Bonnie had written a will saying Kaity and Shaena would share custody of Elise should anything happen. He knew the girls would let him see her, but in the space of a week he'd gone from having a girlfriend, a daughter and a grand-daughter filling his house with love and life, to being alone.

Shaena silently played with the flowers and notes scattered over the grave. She blamed herself. Of course she blamed herself, it was her fault Alex was in their lives. She wished she'd listened to Kaity years ago. She wished she'd left him before it was too late. She wished it was her. It should have been her. Alex knew where she'd be, he'd come to the house for her. Bonnie had nothing to do with this, she didn't even know vampires could die from a knife wound, but she'd found that fact out the hard way.

And Kaity cried. She blamed herself too. It was her house, she should have answered the door. A small part of her blamed Winter, too. If he hadn't been there, she would have answered the door. She hated herself for blaming him, because she knew that if he hadn't been there she'd be dead too. She had no doubt in her mind that Alex would have killed Shaena too. He'd have taken Joshua, and she hoped he wouldn't have had the heart to harm her children. She hoped that if this had gone that way, he would have changed, and raised Joshua well.

But the way things turned out, she wished she could get to him and torture him like he deserved.


_____

"Thank you for coming today." Kaity whispered. She hadn't expected Winter to come to the funeral, she hadn't expected him to stay long enough to either. He was supposed to have returned to Bridgeport the day after he'd come to the house, but in his opinion Kaity couldn't have been left alone then. He'd helped with the children a lot, leaving Kaity and Shaena some free time to process their thoughts.

"Don't mention it. I didn't know her, but if she was important to you, she would have been important to me." Kaity sighed at his words, and pulled herself up to sit beside him.
How can he say things like that? He barely knows me, so why would my friends be important to him?

 "What's up?" He asked, stroking the base of her neck with his thumb as he wrapped an arm around her.
"You. In the tabloids. I'm sorry about that." She replied, thinking quickly. She wasn't one to talk about her feelings towards him, and she wasn't really sure where they stood. She wasn't about to say something and have him shoot her down.

Winter sighed this time, and gently ran his hand down her arm as he turned himself a little.
"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault that these people have nothing better to do than make up stories about other people. Just ignore them, take it as a compliment that they want to be near you." Kaity shook her head. She knew it had hurt him seeing himself in the papers, especially the article that all but accused him of the stabbing. She was used to it, she didn't even read the papers usually, just threw them straight in the bin, but Winter was used to reading with his breakfast so she'd kept them aside for him, not realising what was written inside.

"I don't care about me. I don't even look at those things, and the kids can't be mentioned, but if you moved here you'd have to get used to it too, and maybe even stop reading the papers..." She wrapped an arm around him, and stroked her hand on his shin.
"Kaity. I think I can stop reading the paper in the morning if it means I get to help raise my son." Kaity almost giggled at how stupid she must've sounded. It was the closest she'd come to laughter in two weeks.

"So you're still moving here?"
"Of course I am!"
"I thought you'd leave tomorrow and never come back."
"Well, you're an idiot then." He accused playfully, kissing her hair and gently tickling her waist and making her fidget.






Lucas, in reality, has dropped off the face of simplanet. I'm hoping it's just in my alternate save, but I don't think he'll be a big part of the story anyway. Just weird.
Sorry about lack of action, needed to start wrapping all that murder stuff up because it's depressing and I have other things to come. This generation is going to be a long one. Chapter 17 and the heir has just been born? (Although there are a few that I read that didn't have a birth at all until they were in their 30's. Some that still haven't at that stage...)

Also, sorry for the weird lighting, that's EA for you, and the odd clothing theme... Yeah, my game would have crashed countless times if I'd gone in and changed their formalwear! So, cocktail dresses it was.