4.27 The Proposal

The girls had a rare evening free to sit and watch TV. It just so happened to be a full moon, so the mood was sombre as they remembered their old tradition they shared with Bonnie; full moon movies. They couldn't bring themselves to watch a film, and so were watching old re-runs of Reticulated Splines, a sit-com that was cut before either of them were born.

Kaity was messing around on her phone. It had fallen out of her hand while she was taking Autumn up to bed earlier that evening, and she was surprised that it wasn't smashed to smithereens. It was still working fine. Shaena was swirling the wine around in her glass, watching the red liquid trace an arch around the rim. Neither of them had spoken for a while, and neither were finding this sit-com particulaly funny, not even with alcohol.

"YES!" Kaity jumped to her feet and did a victory dance. "I completed that level, Shae! I've been stuck on it for weeks!" Referring to the game Sweet Squish that everyone in the world seemed to be raving about these days.
"Well done." Shaena smiled. She'd never got into the game herself, finding it boring after level five, but Kaity must've been up to about level sixty by now.
"Now I bet I'll get stuck..." Kaity trailed off when she was interrupted by her phone ringing, and Shaena watched a smile spread across her lips. It must be Winter. "Hi I finished that level just now." She spoke into the phone, barely taking a breath between her greeting and her announcement. "Are you proud?" Kaity turned to face Shaena a little and grinned with her tongue between her teeth, biting back a laugh. Winter, like Shaena, didn't care about that game either, and they'd both got quite annoyed over the past few months with Kaity's obsession. They'd be talking and think she was listening, until they'd ask a question and she wouldn't respond. "No, I'm not going to delete it, idiot! It's taken me ages to get this far so why undo all my hard work? ... Well if you played it even once then you'd love it too. ... Whatever. You're such a loser, you know that?" Kaity laughed at either herself or something Winter was saying, Shaena couldn't tell.

"Anyway, what's up? ... You just finished work?!" Kaity turned to face Shaena again. "He just finished work!"
"Yeah, I got that Kaity." Shaena smiled as she pressed 'ok' on the TV remote, bringing up the information banner and revealing the time. 8:33PM.
"You what?" Kaity asked into her phone again. "Why? It's like, nearly midnight..."
"Half eight." Shaena corrected.
"It's half eight." Kaity repeated into the phone. "A proposal? What does that mean? ... Yes, I know what it means, stop being stupid. What proposal? You knew what I meant. ... What do you mean 'wait and see'? You better come over here right now otherwise I'll hunt you down and- ... Yeah, whatever. Do you want me to pick you up?"
"Kaity, you've been drinking." Shaena reminded her.
"Oh, yeah, sorry, you'll have to walk 'cus me and Shae have drunk nearly a bottle of wine between us. Sorry. ... Ok. See you in a bit. ... Bye!" Kaity ended the call and flopped back onto the sofa.

"Winters coming over, he says he has a proposal." Kaity explained.
"A proposal?" Shaena raised an eyebrow and grinned, causing Kaity to lean over and playfully slap her leg.
"No. Just stop with all that. It's bad enough the twins 'casually' mentioning things like that, I don't need you to do it too. I swear they're plotting something."
"Kaity, they're eight."
"Yeah? So? Anyway, this proposal is for both of us, and I don't think he's into that..."

The girls went back to slowly drinking wine and watching the ancient unfunny sit-com for just over half an hour.

There was a knock on the front door before the girls heard it open and close, and Winter entered the room.
"What have I told you about locking the door?" He scolded them.
"It's our door, if we want it unlocked we'll leave it unlocked." Kaity stated. Winter gave her a desperate look. "And, as Shaena has no more psycho-exs, then we don't really have to worry."
"What about people who read the papers and go crazy with jealousy and walk in here?"
"We don't live in Bridgeport, Winter. Most nights I don't lock the door when I sleep, and nothing's ever happened." Winter looked worried at that admission, but decided to leave it. He walked over and pecked Kaity on the lips, before sitting between the girls.

"So, you were gunna ask us to marry you?" Shaena giggled, Winter shared in her joke, and Kaity just huffed and rolled her eyes.
"I'm sick of all this marriage crap. It's not funny." She moaned. "Have you two got something to do with the twins sudden obsession?" Ignoring the question, Winter decided to get to the point.

"We've got to a point where we can successfully predict the weather, and weather patterns. Every few years the weather goes from hot to cold, and then reverses back a few years later."
"Good for you?" Kaity hinted at the fact she didn't really care about all the sciency stuff.
"Yes, great for me." Winter rolled his eyes. He wasn't really hurt by her comment, he knew she didn't really care about the weather or his job, but faking a little interest at a time like this would be nice. "Anyway, so the scientists originally on the case seem to think they'd never have reached this conclusion without me, and are going to name the cold season after me-"
"What's a season?" Kaity asked, suddenly interested now she realised her boyfriend was some kind of science hero.
"A season, I'd have explained this if you'd let me finish my introduction, but it's what we're calling the years with similar weather. So, we'll have a cold season and a hot season. The cold one they're naming after me, so that'll be 'Winter'."
"Oh wow! I've got a famous boyfriend." Kaity grinned. "I mean famous for actually doing something, not like me." Winter smiled.
"Yeah, I guess I'll be pretty famous. Anyway, they want me to name the hot season, and I wondered if you two could help me?"

"Name it Kaity!" Shaena laughed. "You'll forever be immortalised as the parents of weather."
"Ew, don't." Kaity said, scowling at Shaena's fits of giggles.
"I wasn't going to." Winter chuckled. "I wondered if you wanted to name it Bonnie?" Kaity and Shaena looked at each other, both clearly thinking the same thing.
"Bonnie would have hated that." Kaity stated. "But... She'd have loved to name something like this after her best friend in the entire world."
"So... We're back to Kaity?" Winter asked, confused.
"No. Her mother. Summer." Kaity explained. "She died only a few weeks before her, and she was an amazing woman. Always bright and sunny and happy, never upset, so... Yeah, perfect for warm weather." Winter looked at Shaena, and she nodded her agreement.

"Ok, Summer it is." Winter smiled, putting his arm around Kaity. "What are you watching? Is this Reticulated Splines? Why are you watching this crap?" The girls giggled.
"How old are you that you remember this?! They stopped this when my mum was just a child!" Kaity asked, half embarrassed that she didn't know her own boyfriends age.
"Only thirty-five. I was only young when they cancelled it." Kaity looked at Shaena with her eyes as wide as they could be. Shaena laughed at her.

"Do you know how old I am?" Kaity asked.
"Yes, twenty-four."
"Don't you think... Don't you think that's kinda a massive age gap?"
"Considering we'll both live until we're well over five hundred, and Leighton, the closest thing you had to a boyfriend before me, is two hundred years older than you, no. Do you?"
"I guess when you put it like that, then no." Kaity replied, settling her head into his chest to watch the awful sit-com.

_____

"Does this mean you won't have to work late anymore?" Kaity asked, sleepily.
"Well, I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure..." Winter trailed off, taking a deep breath.
"That doesn't sound good, then." She stated.
"I'll most likely have to travel again. To explain about the seasons to the rest of the world." Kaity pulled away from his arms and propped herself up.

"So, that's it? You're jetting off around the world for the rest of my life now?" She snapped.
"No, that's not what I said-"
"No, because you didn't want to admit it. That's what you're doing though. You're just abandoning your son to tell someone about some sun and snow, don't you think that's stupid?"
"Kaity-"
"No, I'm not done. You're a father, you can't just leave your kids for months at a time for your career. Do you ever see me leaving them? That conference was the only time I've ever left town overnight, and you're not ready for how much it hurts." Tears started rolling down her cheek, and Winter wiped them away with his thumb.
"Are you done?" He asked softly. Kaity waved her hand, exasperated, indicating him to continue. "Right, I'm not abandoning any kids, I'll most likely be out of town for a few nights at a time, and no more than once a month. You'll barely know I'm gone." He reached for her, and she pulled away further, sitting up now.

"That's hardly the point, Winter." Tears were still falling down her face, and she was looking at him like he'd just killed someone.
"Kaity, don't do this." He pleaded.
"Don't do what? Get upset that the one person I trust enough to call my boyfriend, is gunna run off around the world and meet someone better?"
"I'm not-" He stopped himself and sighed, rubbing his hand over his face, before moving himself towards the edge of the bed and pulling her into his arms.

"I'm not going to meet someone better. You're the one I want, and I don't know how to prove that to you without you running off, scared." Kaity huffed, and let him take her hand and kiss her fingers gently. "Is there a way I can prove to you what you mean to me without you shutting me out?" She wrapped her free arm around him.
"I don't know. It's hard for me to trust people, Winter."
"And why is that?" Winter asked gently, hoping tonight would be the night she finally opened up.
"Because... Because I felt some kind of connection to him. A spark of something..." Kaity sighed and swallowed back the lump in her throat. Winter waited patiently and played with the ends of her hair soothingly. "And... I know I was stupid, and I'd never been in so much trouble in my life, and probably never will be again, but... I trusted him. Looking back, I shouldn't have. Looking back I was stupid, and naive, and way too innocent for a damn seventeen year old. But... But Rose had Myles, and Jake was into Christy, and there was no boys at school that didn't bully me and call me names. I could handle it, and it's not like the three of us couldn't fight them off with our combined magic if it had ever come to that, but I wasn't about to start dating any of them... And then he appeared. He was the hottest guy I'd laid eyes on at that point, and a total stranger which only made him hotter... I let him in... And then I never saw him again, and everybody I asked didn't remember ever seeing him before that night or after..." Kaity started crying again.

"And then I was pregnant. I was seventeen and pregnant, due just a week before graduation, and I was alone and scared. And then Rose said she was pregnant, and she was all happy because she had someone there to do it with her. We told mum together, and Jake stood and held our hands, and she was disappointed in us both... But the look she gave me..." She broke down sobbing, and Winter kissed her forehead, trying to calm her enough to let it all out. "She didn't mean to, but she looked at me like I'd broken every rule in the book. I was going to be a single teenaged mother, and I didn't even know the damn fathers name. Well. The boys at school didn't bully me to my face after that. I could see all the kids whispering, and feel their eyes boring holes in me, but Rose would just link my arm and we'd walk off together. She didn't care about what the others said, because she had it all. She got married before Lucas was even born, and then the paparazzi got wind of what I'd done and started stalking and harrassing me." Kaity collapsed into his chest, bawling her eyes out, and Winter pulled her across his body, cradling her like a baby before kissing her once her sobs subsided.

"Kaity. I had no idea. I'll tell them I'm not going."
"No. You should go." Kaity sighed. "This is what you've always wanted to do with your life, and I shouldn't hold you back no matter how messed up I am."
"You're not messed up." Winter reassured her, and kissed her again.
"I am, but thanks for pretending."
"Why didn't you tell me this in the first place?"
"What, when I first mentioned I had kids within a few moments of meeting you? What was I meant to say 'Hi, I'm Kaity. I'm a nineteen year old psychic from Sunset Valley, I have two baby girls because some creep seduced me in the shower a few years ago, and now I'm scared I'll never see you again.'?" Winter smiled at her silly statement.
"No, but I'm your boyfriend, we have a son together, I'm round here most nights. You could have told me any time. You know I'll always make time to listen to your crazy ramblings."
"Gee, thanks." She smiled at him, she felt strangely relaxed now, like a huge weight had been lifted. She repositioned herself reached up to kiss him.

"You should go." She whispered in his ear. It wouldn't be so bad, would it?




I am well aware that the ages don't match up. That's intentional. I'm making fun of myself. In-story, the last... Well, all the chapters of this generation have taken place over 13ish months. So... yeah... Making fun of the fact that anyone has aged at all. :p Don't worry. It'll get more confusing when the kids all age up ;)