4.28 Press Release

The science facility, where Winter worked (And had been rebuilt on the same site after the disaster), had arranged a series of conferences all over the world over the coming years. Winter would be the key note speaker, meaning he was having to do a lot of planning both at work and at home, as well as organising the small team of scientists who had worked with him since his arrival in Sunset Valley. It was a lot of work, but his whole life had been leading to this moment, as he'd only been a small child when the original disaster happened and had always hoped to play a part in the mission to understand what happened. Kaity was happy for him, if a little annoyed that he was hardly around anymore. She was proud of him for becoming such a big name in his field, and soon to be worldwide.

 After much protest from Kaity, Winter finally managed to get her to attend the seasons press release with him. She hated all things like that, but Winter pointed out that if he went without her then most likely the press would just bombard him with questions about her anyway, so if they went together they could release an official statement that they were together and that he was Autumns father, hopefully putting an end to all the gossip over his parentage.

Kaity's one condition, even though she almost didn't want to herself, was to have Leighton write them up a script. He spoke to the press constantly, and knew how to handle them, that was on the plus side, the negative was that he and Winter hadn't met yet, and Kaity was worried that her history with him would come out in a bad way.

"Baby K?" Leightons head popped round the front door, and he grinned when he spotted her hovering around the kitchen. "Hey Peach, how you doing?" He asked, letting himself in.
"I'm ok. Look..." Kaity sighed as Leighton crossed the room and pulled her into a tight hug. "Lay, stop. Winter is just through there." She whispered, and Leighton pulled back a little.

 "Kaity. I'm sure he's not the paranoid, jealous douche you make him out to be. I'm hugging one of my oldest friends because she's completely ignored me since she turned her life around and started doing one man and one man only." He winked at her glare. "That's perfectly allowed, by the way." Winter entered the kitchen from the living room.
"Winter!" Kaity jumped back, and Leighton snorted a laugh. "Uhm. Yeah, this is Leighton. Sorry, he was just hugging me..."
"That's fine." Winter smiled at her to try and reassure her, and extended his hand to Leighton. "Good to finally meet you."

Leighton shook his hand. "You too. Hey, man, I'm sorry about that kiss. I saw in the papers that you were possibly together, and asked Kaity but she didn't seem to think you were..." He apologised uneasily.
"Leighton!" Kaity breathed, shocked and unsure what to do to now the subject had been raised. She'd hoped to avoid this situation entirely.
"Hey, it's fine. It's in the past now." Winter looked at Kaity, who was rubbing her forhead and looking from one man to the other, clearly thinking a fight was about to break out any moment. "Kaity, stop worrying." He smiled at her, and she forced a smile back.
"Where we doing this thing?" Leighton asked, and Kaity gestured towards the living room.

Kaity and Winter took the sofa, and Leighton grabbed the chair from the computer desk and sat in front of them.
"So, what are you wanting to say? Or rather, what do you want them to print?" Leighton asked, and Winter looked to Kaity to answer. She was the one who was more well known, so it was up to her to decide what she wanted the town knowing.
"Uhm... Just that me and Winter are together, and Autumn is his son." Kaity shrugged.
"K, they'll want more than that. If you just say that they'll ask you a million and one personal questions, so you need to tell them more useless boring info too. Like..." Leighton cleared his throat and started up talking again in an over exaggerated girls voice. "Like, hi, I'm like, totally Kaity Mattell, like-" Kaity kicked his shin, shutting him up, and the three of them giggled.
"You're an idiot." She laughed. "I never say like or totally, that's Rose."

"Well, you get what I mean, so what else do you want to tell them? Oh, I know! You could explain how you met me, and dispell the rumours that your twins are mine and I'm an awful father?"
"If I mention that without them saying anything, won't they think I'm just trying to make you look good?"
"How did you meet?" Winter asked, genuinely interested. It wasn't often two hundred year old vampires hung around with fairies in their early twenties. Leighton burst out laughing, and Kaity looked embarrassed. Leighton nodded his head to Kaity, motioning her to explain.

"It's really embarrassing..." Kaity began. "I was in labour with the twins. I was walking into the hospital as he was walking out, and-"
"And our eyes met across the lobby!" Leighton put on a romantic swoon.
"Shut up!" Kaity laughed. "Well, technically, they did. I thought 'Damn, he's hot', and he thought 'Oh look, another teen mother.'. It wasn't until me, Rose and Jake turned eighteen and mum had the kids for the night that we saw each other again. We went to the Grind to get drunk and celebrate, and he was DJing. And then... I dunno. I was drunk, and lonely, and wanted to enjoy being young in the few moments I could get away from the girls... and then it was like that for years, until he started dating Bonnie. That lasted all of five minutes. Seriously, that was a disaster!" Kaity and Leighton giggled at the memory, and Winter smiled, enjoying seeing Kaity so happy about a memory for once.

_____

Before Kaity and Winter could make their intial planned statement they were bombarded with questions:
"Is Mr. Snow the father of your youngest child?"
"Is DJ Lazy the father of your twins?"
"Did you really elope and marry?"
Leighton stepped in. "Calm down, they'll take your questions after the official statement. Please remember this is officially an interview about the climate."

Kaity forced a smile, and nodded at Leighton, thanking him. She felt dizzy and sick, and was seriously regretting agreeing to this now. This wasn't her scene. She snapped back to reality when Winter started up with the statement.
"Miss Mattell and I would like to announce that we are currently in the early stages of a committed relationship, and that we have a son together. We would appreciate some privacy while we get to know each other better, and would like the children to be continued to be left out of the papers."

He went on to explain about the seasons. Summer would begin when the flowers started to bloom and the leaves returned to the trees, and winter would be when the leaves started dying and falling to the ground. The moment he finished and asked if there were any questions, the barrage started up again. Leighton silenced the room once more, and asked the journalists to raise their hands. He began picking them one at a time to ask their questions:

"Winter! Did you know about Kaity's wild past when you first got involved with her? If so, why did you decide to enter a relationship? Are you hoping to tame her?"
Kaity started picking at the red varnish on the table. This was going to be awful.
"No, I didn't know about her past." Winter began. He sounded calm. How was he so calm? "Her past doesn't matter because it's just that; the past. What matters is now, and I feel she's matured significantly since the days you're talking about. I don't hope to 'tame' her, as you put it, she doesn't need taming. She's a sim, not a wild animal."

"Was it love at first sight? Are you going to propose any time soon?" Kaity groaned, but not loud enough for the microphones nearby to pick up. Why was the whole world obsessed with marriage suddenly?
"I wouldn't say it was love at first sight, but there was obvious attraction from the start. That's all I'm willing to say on that matter." Kaity flashed a pained expression. Winter only refused to comment to make her feel more comfortable, but she knew how it looked now.

"Kaity!" Kaity's heart stopped. Why did she come here again? This was a stupid idea. "Was is just coincidence that Mr. Farrah attacked you the night Mr. Snow arrived? Were you in a relationship with him? What would you have done if he'd not been convicted, and how do you plan to keep your children safe from future attacks?"

Kaity had every mind to just stand up and walk out right then. How dare they even mention his name? Never mind drag Winter into the crime. Leighton saw the look of rage in her eyes, and bent down to whisper in her ear.
"You can say no comment if you'd like, but I advise at least giving something or they'll run a load of nonsense." He stepped back, and Kaity took a few deep breaths before having a big gulp of water. She could feel everyones eyes burning into her, the noise of the camera-flashes had stopped, and she could see Winter looking worried out of the corner of her eye. What could she say?!

"I have never been in a relationship with that-" Kaity stopped herself. She didn't want to swear, but it was hard to find an appropriate word that they could print. "No. It was a coincidence, and if he hadn't been convicted-" She stopped herself again. She couldn't very well say what she'd have done, because then she'd be plastered over the paper as thinking about murdering someone. "My children are safe, as they were that night too. I'd prefer if that name wasn't mentioned anymore, thank you."

She didn't have time to recover before the next question came at her:
"Has the father of the twins helped raise them at all?"
"No comment." Kaity didn't care how that would sound, she just wanted to get out of there.

"Winter, how are you handling being in the spotlight? Do you have plans to move into the Mattell household? It must be hard to raise your son living apart."
Winter was as thankful as Kaity to have the next question. He could tell Kaity was within seconds of calling this thing off, and although he'd love to walk out too, he knew this was necessary.
"I have to admit, our lives would be easier if we weren't followed everywhere. It would be nice to be able to live a normal life." He hinted. "Our son gets the attention he needs and sees us both regularly.

"Kaity! Are you really a psychic, or are the rumours true and you're just a money-hungry fraud?"
That was the last straw. Kaity turned to Winter.
"I'm out of here." She muttered, before standing as Winter gaped at the journalist who'd asked.
"There will be no further questions, ladies and gentlemen." Leighton announced as Kaity left the room. He and Winter followed seconds later as the journalists started snapping pictures again and shouting unanswered questions.

_____

"You did really well today." Winter smiled, kissing her.
"Yeah, right..." Kaity snorted. "But thanks for saying." She kissed him back, and snuggled futher into his arms. "I don't want you to go." She moaned.
"I'm sorry. I'll be back before you know it." He was going for a full week this first time, but had been assured that he wouldn't have to go for that long the majority of the time, but as this first conference was all the way in Shang Simla, it couldn't be helped as they had to allow for jet lag.
"You'll have to make it up to me when you're back." She smiled, Winter could feel it against his chest. "And buy me loads of presents while you're out there, of course."
"What do you want?" Winter sighed, feigning annoyance.
"I want a panda, and seven kilos of sweet and sour pork balls." Winter laughed. "What? They're all readily available over there."

"I thought you were going to ask for something serious."
"I'm being serious." Kaity tried to restrain a giggle, and sat herself up a little to look at him. "Maybe some genuine Chinese rice. You know how good I am at cooking, and how much you want me to cook you a rice based dish."
"Maybe some jewelry or something." Winter stated, not sure what to reply to her cooking comment as he wasn't sure if it was serious or not.
"Oh! Maybe some shoes! Do they have shoes in China?" Winter burst out laughing again, and Kaity gently slapped his chest. "You know what I mean! Do they have special traditional Chinese shoes?"
"I have no idea, Kaity."
"Do you speak any Chinese? Say something to me."
"No, I don't know any. I'm giving the talks in Simlish, and they'll have translators if they don't speak it."

Kaity lay herself back down again. "Do you know anything about China? Or Shang Simla?"
"I know I'm staying at a hotel called Shang Kong."
"Like King Kong?" Kaity giggled.
"I don't think there are any giant gorillas over there, but I'll keep my eyes open. I'll ring you if one abducts me." It was Kaity's turn to burst out laughing now.
"Maybe you should cut your hair so they don't think you're a woman?" She joked.

"Right. That's it." Winter threatened, before flipping her over and tickling her.
"No! No, stop!" Kaity giggled before screaming. Winters hand flew over her mouth to silence her.
"Shhh!" He laughed, "Don't wake the kids up." He removed his hand from her mouth, and she stuck her tongue out.

 "That was your fault." She accused, before reaching up and kissing him.
"Sorry." He muttered between kisses, pushing her further into the mattress. Kaity wrapped her arms around his neck, and Winter pushed a hand under the small of her back before breaking the kiss suddenly.

"I love you."




*ahem*
Thank you to my besties, Misty and Sunny, for playing reporter for me! I got major writers block when it came to that, so they fired a ton of questions at me and I just watched my poor simmies squirm >:)

What a sweet, lovely ending, right? Totally not a cliffy. Nope.