Memories of a rainy day
Disclaimer: I do not own the origional characters or plot, I do however own any fictional characters added by me personally (DarkFlames)for the plot of the story at hand, and the titles, story, and all else that belongs to the fictional non-profit story that is 'Memories of a Rainy Day'.
Summary: Sometimes memories are in the past, sometimes in the un-known future. Brenda/Dylan story, but with all the characters and their little side plots. Brenda and Dylan are dealing with surprising news that will affect not only them, but those around them. Donna deals with he mixed emotions on her relationship with Ray, and the intense bond she has with David, who in turn fights for a music career, and to clear out the emotional past with Valerie. Steve fights for a girl, Claire,a little surprised at the extent of his emotions. Brandon explores the future, and Kelly explores the possibility of a future with him. Plus, of course, much much more. Takes place in the fall of the gang's third year at CU but will continue over un known period of time (talking years people). May be special apperances by old characters, such as Andrea, Stuart, Rick (yep), Jesse, and more.
Chapter summary: Brenda and Dylan have news, but they turn out to be hard to break (or to avoid doing so). Steve has problems, something he has in common with Donna. Kelly sees Brandon, and asks him to tak to the other blonde. And David meets with a record producer. Read for more...
Chapter one, Apocalypse baby
The day was alight with memories, hers and theirs. All of them different in details, yet similar in general pattern.
Many questions had arisen, just after it happened that was. Not all of them had got an answer even now as they stood there huddled in the rain drawing on each others comfort and bodily warmth.
Some brought umbrellas, for which she would always be thankful even though she could not recall who these people were five minutes after the service. There were so many of them, and so few at the same time.
A warm hand held hers throughout the ordeals. One after one the shocks hit her until she realized it was all just the same and shut out the noises and questions and reassurances completely.
Nothing made sense anymore. Her memories swayed before her open eyes, as if a poor movie sequence was being played over and over again simply to remind her. Their memories were different; they only remembered the sad faces, the un-fortunate news, and the desperate reactions of two people having had something so precious torn from their arms.
The service was quiet, and they stood huddled in the rain. Some of them had brought umbrellas.
12.04 AM
The winds whisked the empty bag from the garden, but she could not care less. Behind her Dylan was holding a camera and taking pictures even though he had not yet figured out quite how all the buttons and settings worked.
He was smiling, and raised his eyes to look at her.
She was standing there, amidst the wind, wearing nothing but one of his long t shirts and underwear, wondering how on earth they were going to break this news to her family in the morning.
'Smile Bren…' he whispered, and she obliged gritting her teeth in a Hollywood fashion laugh.
They had read off the results of the third test just moments earlier. After much 'ifs' and 'buts' Brenda had persuaded Dylan to take a late night drive to the pharmacy to buy some additional samples of the home-pregnancy kit just to be sure. They had not been to a doctor yet and frankly Brenda did not want to find out from a stranger in a white cloak. She wanted to be the one to read it off the stick with Dylan holding her hand in case she fainted.
The first had been positive, but neither of them had allowed themselves to believe it. The second one came out in between and the third was positive again. After a little discussion they decided to go with the first and last.
She let her hands move across her belly while Dylan shot pictures. It felt so right somehow.
They had not planned this. In fact it had come as quite a surprise to both of them when Brenda realized something was different with her body. She had been late before, during their last pregnancy scare, but this time it was not as much a scare as a new scene in their performance.
They had been living next to each other for six months in apartments in Beverly Hills before moving in together in a house next door to casa Walsh. That had been a quite the shocker for Brenda's family, and they had gone about that rather gently. After a while the Walsh's all seemed comfortable with having their only daughter living next door with that McKay boy. That was how her father still referred to Dylan at times of distress.
Brandon had been fine with it, as long as he was allowed to borrow the house during the summer when Dylan and Brenda were scheduling their vacation in Hawaii. They had gone to North Shore, a beautiful resort with magnificent hotels, nature, and surfing options.
Steve had the same claim to the house, not that Dylan or Brenda had actually agreed to that, though.
There was really no downside on the bargain, except that the two of them had finally learnt how much hard work a lawn and back garden required to look fine.
So now they had lived here, in a two floor house with two bedrooms, a living room, a dining hall adjoined to a big kitchen, a bathroom, a small pool, and a walk in closet for Brenda, as well as a few extra rooms for storage and work including a place for Dylan to write and a room for Brenda to study and practice her acting skills for the next big play, for five and a half months including their summer vacation.
It was mid October and the baby had not been on their schedules or even future prospects. Marriage seemed far off enough. Still Dylan had been stunned but with happiness when she told him, and she had found herself growing to the idea despite a certain amount of worry and shock. Still, life was good for the Walsh-McKay household.
10.08 AM
The next morning Brenda awoke to the smell of fried eggs, bacon, and noodles. Something also vaguely reminded her of burnt bread.
'Are you up yet sleepy?' a voice floated into the bedroom from the hallway.
'Dylan, what are you doing?' Brenda yawningly made her way out of bed.
The smiling head of the dark haired man popped in through the door and contemplated her momentarily.
'You just need some inspiration that is all. And I have just the thing.' He noted.
'What is that honey?' Brenda replied sluggishly.
'Breakfast…' Dylan whispered confidently.
'In bed?' Brenda asked enthusiastically.
Momentarily Dylan's face fell and he mocked surprise.
'We could always throw pillows on the kitchen floor?' he proposed after a while.
She threw a pillow at her boyfriend. 'Fine, just give me a minute.'
The master bedroom was mostly taken up by the great bed. She had loved it since the day they found it in that store. It was the kind you could jump around and bounce up and down on, with soft mattresses and still big enough.
The main bathroom which Dylan and she used was adjoined to the room, something she had grown accustomed to after growing up with Brandon.
As she made her way there this morning she noticed the pregnancy tests from yesterday still in the trashcan, quite visible. It still seemed a little dreamlike, and she was tempted to pick up the box and re read the instructions just in case she had gotten it all wrong.
Fortunately Dylan's voice interrupted her as he impatiently yelled for her from the downstairs kitchen.
'Coming!'
10.35 AM
'Brandon, could you take these to table four?' Nat asked over the many voices murmuring in the Peach Pit at ten o clock on a Monday morning.
'Sure.' Brandon replied, with a sarcastic smile.
It was not so much that he minded the manual labor, it was more of a principal issue really. Specially as Steve had been sitting right next to him when Nat placed the request.
With a tiered nod Steve looked at him as if saying 'why are you not at table four already? People want food.'
'Yeah, yeah.' Brandon muttered to himself.
He had left casa Walsh early that morning to swing by downtown before meeting Steve for an apparently urgent breakfast discussion. After Brandon had arrived at the Pit, however, not many words had been exchanged between himself and the somewhat drowsy Sanders.
Being a Monday morning after all, he could not say he was entirely surprised.
As he was heading back from table four (where a pair of high school sweethearts had been cuddling and given him an annoying glare as he repeated their orders) the doorbell started moving and delivering ringing noises while a blonde girl entered the coffee shop.
'Morning Kel.'
'Hi Brandon, I thought you would be at school by now?' the girl asked mildly surprised.
'Yeah well, I have some late classes today and I promised Steve breakfast.'
'Oh, I see.' Kelly smiled up at him. 'It beats my excuse.'
'What is that?' Brandon asked as the two of them made their way back towards Steve at the counter.
'I just needed to get out of the Beach House, you should hear Donna and Ray going at it.' Kelly proclaimed, plopping down into a seat on the other side of Steve. 'Good morning.'
'What's so good about it?' Steve grunted, before hastily tuning out the conversation and returning to staring into space and toying with the food on the plate.
Brandon raised an eyebrow. 'Donna? Really?'
Kelly paused momentarily, then used her scarf to smack the boy for his implications regarding their friend.
'Hardly. No, they were fighting again. Loudly too. I swear the only time of peace and quiet at that place is at night and now that he's been staying on the sofa that usually means a couple of hours. I think someone should talk to Donna, she's not doing too well with all this.' Kelly finished, and ordered up a coke after throwing some money on the counter for the waiter.
'Well have you tried talking to her?' Brandon asked.
'Of course, but all she does is look at me like I'm crazy or something. You know what she is like these days. I can hardly talk to her at all anymore, not with him around.'
'So you want me to try?' Brandon proposed suspiciously but not sarcastically this time.
'Do you think you could?' Kelly said.
'I don't know Kel, I mean I love Donna and if you say there's a chance she'll respond better to me then I'll go for that, but don't you think you should be talking to someone else about this? Like maybe Brenda?' he let the questions hang in the air for a while.
Kelly watched Steve who apparently was still not paying any attention to the conversation.
'I don't know, maybe you're right.' She said after a while.
'Look, I'll talk to Donna tonight, we've got this exhibition project together to prepare for so we'll probably be at school pretty late anyways. I still think you should talk to Brenda though. You might be able to figure something better out together.' Brandon concluded.
There had been some issues between Kelly and Brenda after his sister's return with Dylan from London. It was not so much the fact that Brenda and Dylan had gotten back together as the competitiveness that had always been there between the two girls.
After all that competition started already as they met and Brenda started cutting up jeans to look right for the beach as she could not afford to buy the fancy clothes, and Kelly purchasing a jacket simply because her friend had liked it but could no pay.
Kelly and Brandon had dated over the summer, but decided to end it as friends instead of committing. Both of them felt the attraction was still there, but neither saw the other as boyfriend/girlfriend material just yet.
In fact Brandon was currently dating another girl from one of his literature classes which Brenda had convinced him to sign up for. Her name was Susan and she was also a reporter at the school network.
Somehow it just seemed so much easier with something new than risking something old and precious. Which brought his line of thought back to the blonde and Brenda.
'I'm supposed to see her for lunch today, I'll talk to her then. But that doesn't mean I don't think you should talk to Don anyways.' Kelly said while a sandwich and a bottle of water was placed in front of her.
'Sounds like a plan.' Brandon responded.
There was momentary quiet while they both looked down at Steve, who had not yet moved his gaze.
'Steve, that's it I need to get going now.' Brandon said cautiously.
The other boy nodded.
'I'll talk to him.' Kelly said as Brandon started to get up, still looking worried. 'You go ahead, I don't have classes for another couple of hours anyways.'
'Thanks' Brandon mouthed. 'Bye Sanders.'
'I'm screwed.' The blonde boy said in that faint defiant tone he used at times of despair.
Brandon smiled and connected his gaze with Kelly's again. They both nodded.
'Bye Nat, bye Kel.' Brandon waved and turned around to walk out the door of the Peach Pit. At least it was a sunny day.
12.58 PM
'Brandon!' the echoing voice of his sister stopped him in the middle of the hallway.
'Hey you.' He said turning around to great the exited brunette. 'What are you all perky about?' he asked.
'I can't tell you right now, but can you come over tonight? Just you though, it's important.' Brenda said with a broad smile plastered on her face and her green eyes twinkling in the sunlight.
'Sure. Should I be worried?' Brandon asked, lifting an eyebrow mockingly.
Brenda laughed a little. 'Hardly' she laughed. 'I don' think so.' A pause. 'I hope not.' Brenda said her smile beginning to fade.
'Okay, sounds good enough for me.' Brandon said stopping her before she could delve further into her line of apparently not comfortable thought.
'Right…' she said, less enthusiastic.
'Bren?'
'Yeah?' she asked, looking almost worried.
'I'm sure whatever it is will be fine, and I doubt anything that makes you look that happy would have me worried. Unless it involves Paris.' Brandon shot at her with a smile.
'I know, thanks. Oh I have to go, I promised I would have lunch with Kel.' Brenda said looking at the watch on the wall behind them.
'Right, tell her I said hi. And make sure to talk about Donna with her.' Brandon added.
Brenda looked around for a while. 'I know. I had no idea how bad it was. In fact I don't think any of us still do. I want to help her so badly, I can't imagine what she is going through but she just want open up about it.' She finished.
'I'm sure you'll do the right thing, whatever that is.' Brandon pecked her forehead. 'Listen, I'll come over around seven, is that good?'
'Sure, I'll tell Dylan. Do you want dinner?' she asked.
'What are you having?'
'Take out.' Brenda smiled shyly.
'Sounds great!' Brandon said, and turned around leaving down the hallway.
Brenda sighed. The thought of Donna was still in her mind and suddenly her baby news seemed less important.
She had made an appointment with the doctor before lunch, and he had confirmed her suspicions. Dylan had wanted to take her down to the beach for lunch, but she remembered the date with Kelly and decided to spend some quality time with her friend instead. After a few well placed kisses Dylan agreed, and was currently sitting in class.
The crowded hall was buzzing with noise, laughter, and stressful feet clattering against the floor as their owners rushed about.
By the backside there was an entire lawn with hardly anything but fresh green grass and a few trees. She spotted Kelly underneath one of them, un-packing her backpack in the shade. It must have been almost ninety degrees out today.
Making her way slowly down the staircase leading to the outdoor ground floor Brenda looked around trying to see if she recognized any of the other people having their lunch out in the sun shine of this gorgeous LA day.
There were mostly small packs of people chatting and smiling, or studying together. A few were sitting alone, some reading and some listening to music. None of which she could place.
'Kelly!' she called when she was only steps away.
'Bren, good morning.' Kelly said smiling brightly.
The two girls hugged quickly before sitting down. 'Oh, peanut butter.' Brenda laughed.
'Yeah well, you would be surprised how hard it is to make lunch in a household with three other students.' Kelly said.
'I went from living with my family, which included my brother the living eating machine, to living with a neighbor who had yet to realize his kitchen actually worked, to living in the same house as that person.' Brenda smiled at the thought. 'There were a lot of peanut butter sandwiches made.'
'I can imagine. I still don't see Dylan as the type to use the kitchen though?' Kelly said.
'I've given up training him.' Brenda noted, making herself comfortable on the ground while fishing up a banana and some salad from her bag.
'Now now, you need calories.' Kelly said mocking her choice of lunch.
'I know.' Brenda replied smiling. It felt right to be out and about like this with the girl opposite her.
'So what's new?' Kelly asked.
Brenda hesitated for a moment. She was dying to tell her big news, but at the same time she had made up her mind about who she would tell first already. They would all find out sooner or later, but both she and Dylan wanted their various families to know first.
Therefore she merely responded with a short 'Nothing much really.'
Kelly nodded, while un-bottling her water.
'So I was talking to Brandon earlier, about Donna.' Brenda started.
Kelly paused, looking slightly surprised.
'You're right, we have to do something.' Brenda continued.
'I completely agree, but what? I have tried talking to her, I know you have too, and this morning I even asked Brandon to try.' Kelly paused.
'Has anyone talked to David about this?' Brenda asked.
There was momentary silence. 'I don't think she wants to hear anything from him, not yet.' Kelly replied.
'I know she's hurting, but they were friends for a long time and they were close. Maybe she would listen to him?' Brenda added.
After the time with in the limo backseat David and Dona had reconciled in the fall, but their relationship was still rocky and eventually even their friendship suffered thorns as he begun criticizing her relation with Ray Pruitt. When he finally stood up last spring with Brenda and demanded Donna face up to reality about her boyfriend he had become a persona non-grata with his ex.
Surprisingly enough Brenda had not been blacklisted. Possibly because she had agreed to keep quiet about what she saw. David on the other hand could only guess as he had not been there, standing on a balcony in Palm Springs, when she fell.
'Well they have been working together lately, and they did have lunch with me and Steve at the Peach Pit last week.' Kelly murmured.
'I'm just saying it's a shot in the dark but you never know what it may lead to.' Brenda finished.
Kelly nodded. 'I'll talk to him today and meanwhile maybe you could…' the words drifted.
'I'll make sure to find her and make sure she's okay.' Brenda shook her head. 'I can't believe it you know, Donna Martin being in this situation?'
'It could have happened to anyone.' Kelly whispered.
'Don't I know it.' Brenda said barely audible.
'Huh?' the blonde asked curiously.
'Nothing. Let's eat, there must be more positive things to talk about. How did that blind date work out for you?' Brenda said, turning the conversation.
Kelly watched her momentarily. 'You know you can talk about it with me, in fact I wish you would. We never did, you were so determined to deal with it alone.'
Brenda shook her head. 'I know, I'm just not ready. I'm not sure if I ever will be. It's better, but I'm just not ready, but I promise you the day I am I will talk tell you everything.'
Kelly nodded. 'I don't have to tell me, as long as you know you can talk to me. About what happened last year, or anything else that's good or bad. That's what friends are for you know.'
'I know, thanks. Come on let's eat. I'm starving.' Brenda said, digging into the food.
1.15 PM
The sunlight streaked the roof tops, and still all Steve could think about was the darkness of last night. He kept seeing her face in front of him, hearing her voice as she talked in a low tone explaining softly why she needed to leave. It was not just the fact that she was walking out on their relationship, she was leaving LA.
He thought about the relationship. It had been stormy, un-predicted, and they had generally all the odds working against them. And here he was, fondling a ring in his pocket hoping to change her mind.
A bell rang somewhere far off and he let his hand slide out of his pocket. The velvet of the box containing the ring just annoyed him. She would be there, in class, and he did not want to face her. Still he knew that he had no choice but to go or he would risk a lower grade, something which was an accomplishment on its own really.
Donna was walking out of the main building, and he lingered his eyes on her a while. Parts of the conversation Brandon and Kelly had been having earlier that day came back to him and he considered himself somewhat fortunate at least.
Steve was not the kind of person to see a friend suffering without intervening one way or another, at least not when he knew he could and should. What happened between him and Brenda a few years back when she had gotten that role in 'Cat on a hot tin roof' was something he had often considered when he came close to letting a member of the gang down again.
Without a second thought he flung open the door of his new corvette, stepped out and pulled up his books in his arms.
'Donna, wait up!'
His voice boomed out over the school yard but the current red head stopped and turned around, trying to find the source of the sound.
'Over here, I'll be right there.' Steve waved his hands and got her attention, while at the same time attempting to lock and alarm his car. 'Right, here we go.' He said, mostly to himself, before starting over the walk paths towards to shyly smiling Donna Martin.
'Hi Steve, aren't you supposed to be in class?' she asked with her high pitched voice.
'Yeah, well. I figured I'd let you buy me coffee first.' He said with a testing smile.
The girl laughed, a bright laugh. 'Well at least I've made her smile.' Steve thought.
'I'll have coffee with you, but you're buying.' She compromised.
Steve attempted to think this over as they started walking, and flung his arm around her. 'You know what, that sounds like a plan.'
She laughed again, this time however the sound was interrupted with a sharp inhale of breath.
'What's wrong Donna?' Steve asked stopping concerned.
'Nothing, it's just. I just twisted my ankle a little in the grass that's all, typical me to wear high heels here right?' she said, the smile back on.
Steve nodded. 'Well, come on then, be careful with those feet of yours. If you're lucky I'll throw in a cookie in the coffee deal.'
'You wouldn't!' Donna mocked him, and they continued walking in the midst of the many students wondering around.
A/N: Like? Despise? Anger? Happiness? Share it with a review please, and make a writer with a need for inspiration inspired to post more chappys (don't worry, I have written much much MUCH more on this story, so about four chapters are already ready to be posted. So it won't be a one year wait for the next one, but I will post sooner with reviews.)
/Darkflames