Authors Note: Intended to be part of a much much bigger but unwritten 'verse, this story is going to be a little off as it takes place nearly at the end of said 'verse, I promise not to spoil too much though, I just thought this would be fitting with what day it is today. If it gathers a lot of positive response/confusion, I will highly consider writing more, and starting from the beginning as well. I also warn of grammar/spelling errors, it hasn't been betaed. Also please keep in mind that this is just a tester, seeing if the story flows well, it's been a while since I last wrote something out in full.
Farethewell with Roses and Grape Juice.
Written by P.M. Zontini.
"It's been over seven years now Abigail, I'm not sure what else we can do to cheer her up." Pacing back and forth across his bedroom, Steven James Jinks Jr. takes a precarious look at his beloved wife, a frown on her face and a look of sadness in her eyes as she peers out their door at her Mother casually sitting in front of the television, doing a puzzle all on her own.
With a sigh she nods in agreement. "I know, darling, but I can't help but feel horrid every time we go out to dinner alone, especially around now." Taking another careful look into the living room, she turns back to her husband with desperation. "I mean, it was Mum's favourite holiday..." The woman sighs as she practically flops down on her bed, burying her head into her knees, an old habit still not broken over forty-seven years of living. " S.J., I don't remember a Valentines day-"
She can't finish the sentence.
"That your Mum didn't do something extravagant for your Mom... I remember, Abby." Sitting beside his wife, Steven wraps an arm around his wife of nearly thirty years and gives her a tight hug, pulling her into his chest so that she can rest her head against him. "I wish I knew what to do to help her, dear, I really do." Letting out his own sigh, he raked his fingers through his already graying hair and racked his brain for anything. They really should have prepared more, he had planned what he and Abigail were going to do over the course of a month, never had a second thought to what Myka would do now that she wasn't needed for babysitting. He felt stupid for overlooking that now.
"We could always cancel dinner? Maybe make something for the three of us here, and watch a movie? Or maybe Tara would consider staying home to keep her company..." Abigail shook her head at all three suggestions, her frown only deepening as he rambled off suggestions. She had to give him something for the effort, he'd do anything to keep her happy, but she knew he had been planning for a long time. "Maybe we could ask your sisters?"
At another firm shake of her head, Abigail sighed once more. "No. Tara's been planning this date with Daniel since before Christmas... Also, Amelia's back in New York, we can't ask her to fly down, and Ari... Well, you know Ari, she gets all moody around this time too, I think Mum's death might have affected her the worst out of all of us... If Caylah manages to convince her to go out though, maybe Mom could watch their kids?"
"We could always call and ask?" Less than a split second later, a loud familiar ringing from out in the hall caused the not-so young couple to jump up slightly.
With a small smirk and a flourish of her hand as she got up from the bed, Abigail looked back at her husband. "Somehow I think we might have been beaten to it."
Myka got to the phone first, her age not getting in the way of the specialized ring that signalled the call was coming from the Bed and Breakfast's phone, it had been one of the only things Claudia had worked on after H.G. passed, wanting Myka to have a way to know that the call was coming from Leena's, from the family she had left in the B&B.
"Hello?"
"Hi Grandma!" A girlish squeal pipes up from the other end of the line. "How are you?"
Smile overcoming her face at the sound of her youngest granddaughters voice, Myka can't help but enthusiastically reply back. "I'm lovely Lenie, how about you?"
Just as charming and irresistible as the woman she was named after, Helena manages to get a little laugh out of her grandmother at the very pensive pause in her voice before exclaiming. "I'm good! I had a question though, Gramma?"
"Yes, my princess?"
The girl takes another little pensive pause, and if you didn't know the seven year old better, you would assume she had forgotten what she was going to ask. To the well-educated individual on 'Leniesms' it's obvious just how much deep thought the child has inherited from her Mother, and how her struggles on making something sound proper takes her a little extra time to figure out how to go about things. "I was wonderin' about if you had plans on Valentines day?"
It's not a surprising question, being one of the oldest grandparents of the children, Myka has taken over the ranks as head babysitter, especially now that her Helena is gone and she has more attention to give her grandchildren than they could have ever imagined.
"No sweetie, why, do your Mommies need me to watch you and your brother for the night?"
Lenie giggles out a negative to the question and begins to playfully chastise her Grandmother. "No, Grandma. Eddie's staying atta friends house for Valentines day." Like the seventy-seven year old woman would have known that before hand. "Momma and Mummy aren't going out for Valentine's either because Mummy doesn't feel good. But I wanted to take you out to dinner, Gramma!"
Myka tries not to sputter in confusion as her daughter and son-in-law listening in on the other end try not to coo with the sweet nature of their youngest neice, the two being nearly in their fifties but still very much teenagers in behaviour. "Pardon me, sweetie?"
"Well..." The child starts, her voice getting a tad of a wavering tone to it, like she's nervous or even shy to say what she had planned next. "I thought that because Nonna has been gone for a long time... and she used to take you out, that you might be kind of lonely... And, I'm old enough now Grandma, plus I was given her name. So I should take you out for dinner instead to make up for her not being able too."
Tears prick Myka's eyes as she nods her head slowly, the grip she has on the telephone tightening just slightly as she replies with a trembling voice.
"I would love that Helena."
"Yay! It sounds like a deal then Gramma!" The little girls joy is practically palpable as she starts talking a mile a minute at what they could do together.
Watching a movie after dinner. Having icecream for desert. A walk in the park after. All of it goes in through one ear with Myka and out the next as the only thing she's able to concentrate on is the fierce similarities between her big Helena and her little Helena, both of them eager to please.
"It all sounds like it'll be wonderful sweetie."
"I promise it will be Gramma, I'll make it the bestest Valentines day in the world for you!" A muffled voice tells the child something on the other end and Lenie practically beams a smile over the phone. "I gotta go now Grandma, Mummy's taking me out fancy clothes shopping!"
"Ooooh, sounds like fun."
"It is! I'll see you on Sunday Grandma, four-thirty sharp okay? And wear something pretty so that together we can look aces! Love you, Gramma!"
Myka can hardly contain a snort as she says her goodbyes, the cheerful impatient little girl hanging up before she can return them.
"Oh Helena... You would have gotten a kick out of her." Is the older womans only response to her granddaughters hasty departure as she returns to her puzzle, wanting to complete the heart-themed picture before the holiday starts up.
"How do I look?" Helena spins around in front of her Aunt and Uncle, the specially-made white and red tails on her coat fluttering around her like wings as she shows off her very extra special Valentines day suit, every other little girl her age donned in some sort of extravagant party dress on this day, whereas the young Helena has been infatuated with vests and tailcoats since the moment she caught glimpse of a picture with her Nonna in the same sort of outfit over fifty years ago.
"Fantastic!" Abigail claps for the youngest and most likely last of the Bering-Wells grandchildren, one of her secret favourites of the lot, coming second to only her own children.
"Stunning!" S.J. echoes as his own suit, even by his own admission, cannot hold a candle to the one his niece wears.
"Beautiful." Myka whispers as she descends the stairs from her room towards her date for the evening, her dress simplistic and casual, but absolutely fitting with Helena's Valentines day ensemble. Her arms tucked around a small parcel wrapped carefully in red tissue paper.
"No, you look beautiful Grandma." Helena compliments without a second thought to her, her own arms curled around something as well, but rather than a package, she holds a fine red rose that she extends out to her Grandmother once she's finished walking down the stairs. "I brought you this."
There's a flicker of sadness before Myka takes the rose, a flicker of remembering, but it's lost as she hands back her red parcel. "And I have this for you, wait until you get home to open it though, your Mummy will help explain what it is." She smiles as the girl dutifully nods her head, handing the package to her Uncle who carefully sets it aside for her until she's ready to go back home.
"Shall we, Grandma?" Helena asks rather grown up as she holds out an arm to Myka, her Grandmother latching tightly to her stick thin arm as the two of them escape the house and take off for the car, where a waiting Caylah is ready to drive them to the reservations that Lenie made all on her own at one of the fanciest restaurants (fanciest that would allow children at least) in town.
Michaelo's, a family run Italian restaurant far on the outskirts of Univille, are more than happy to serve the Grandmother and Granddaughter duo for Valentine's day and it isn't long into their meal before they realize that they're being treated like royalty. Which, with the severe lack of customers in the establishment, isn't much of a surprise.
However, the grape juice poured into crystal wine glasses and red glittering candles on their table are pleasant enough of a 'surprise' that it only adds to their royal treatment and it isn't long before the two girls are noticing the hours slipping away into night-time.
That's when the questions start coming.
"Gramma... Tell me about Nonna?" The request was so small and out of the blue that Myka paused mid bite to stare.
"W-what do you want to know, princess?" As hard as she tried to get the waver out of her voice that occurred whenever someone would mention H.G., she couldn't even for her Granddaughters sake. The subject was too difficult for her to get through. She missed Helena every moment of every day since she had passed, and nothing, not even her children and grandchildren, as lovely as they were could help.
"Would she have liked me?" And that cat was out of the bag, Myka had always wondered how long it would take for Helena to question about the woman she got her name from, the two were so alike that she knew her young Helena struggled just as much as her older Helena did with feeling adequate with pleasing people.
Not to mention, Lenie was the only of the grandchildren that hadn't met H.G. and witnessed her love in person, even Lenie's brother Edward, older by only two and a half years had gotten some time with his Nonna. Not a lot, but some time. Lenie had missed out on it, irony rearing it's ugly head that it should happen to be the only child named after Helena wouldn't get a chance to meet her.
Realizing she had been caught up in thought too long, Myka burst out with an exclaim. "Ofcourse she would have!" Reassuring the young child of her fears.
"Come here, princess." Myka pulled away from the table, leaning down to pull Helena into her lap, the forty pound child a little too heavy for Myka's legs, but never too heavy for her heart. "She would have thought you were just the most spectacular child in the world... She and you adore most of the same things."
Lenie nodded her head, she had been told this before. "Our love of antique clothing. A flair for telling stories and..."
"A knack for keeping lists organized." Myka teased as she tickled her youngest girl, the baby of her grandbabies, and held her close to her chest. Feeling her heartbeat keep in time along with Myka's own. "She would have spoiled you darn near rotten." Helena giggled softly at the bizarre thought running through her head of something literally being spoiled rotten, given so many gifts it decayed.
"Don't tell your Aunts, but your Nonna had a special place in her heart for your Mummy. Her brain just fascinated Nonna so much that she wanted to pick it for hours, trying to learn everything your Mum knew..." Myka drew lines along her granddaughters arms with her finger slowly, the child unintentionally being lulled into sleep slowly and surely.
"You and your Mom have the same sort of brain. I just know that she would have loved that about you."
"G-gramma?" A tired little voice lured Myka out of her buried memories, the older woman glancing down at the child in her arms.
"Yes, my love?"
"I'm... glad you're here... I love you." The little girl whispered as she closed her eyes and buried her head into her Grandmother's chest.
"I love you too Helena. Happy Valentine's Day."