One More For The Road (sequel to Life Goes On)
Chapter 1
"It's been six months since I last spoke to you all, though much less since I last spoke to my brother. He knows I'm on my way. I haven't told him: I don't need to. He asked me to return; they need me at the hospital. Now that it is clear that Aeryn is very definitely pregnant, she has had to step back and stay at the farm. She should be due any day now, but she has Alice with her and Tai San goes up to help out with the herb garden.
The school is up and running, but without Salene. She carried the baby to term, but it was stillborn and there were other complications: she's still in the hospital and under constant supervision. Pride won't leave her. He's hurting, but he won't show it. He thinks he needs to be strong for her, but she needs to know that he's hurting too. My brother has tried to talk some sense into him, but he won't listen. He won't eat or sleep either. Even Ryan's tried talking to him, but he doesn't want to speak to him at all: Lex hasn't told me why yet, I'll find out when I get there.
Bray has gone. He couldn't sit in the mall without his son or Amber, doing nothing: he went to look for them. I hope he's alright: winter's nearly upon us and he wasn't in that good a state when he left, almost crazy according to Lex.
Ebony is also near the painful end of her pregnancy and Patch and Dee have her confined to her husband's old side room in the hospital and are frantically trying to feed her up: the girl has no fat on her and, if she wants to be able to deliver this baby, she needs a good layer of the stuff. I think that has something to do with Lex wanting me back in the city: I'm the only one of them who has even seen a caesarian section being done and if Ebony doesn't bulk up before delivery, that's what will have to be done.
Tai San did figure out what was going on, eventually. It took her a while to believe it was true and even now I think she still has problems understanding it. Apparently my brother talks in his sleep and speaks out loud when he's talking to me: he hasn't quite got the hang of not having to talk when he's talking to me, yet, although he may make more of an effort now he's been found out. Tai San has been sworn to secrecy in the meantime.
As for the rest, well, Angie and Jetta are still working at the hospital, although they are training nurses now, with Dee. Paul went out with May and her search team about a month ago and they still haven't returned. Jack gave them lists of coordinates he got from the data behind Operation Dormouse. If they find anyone alive, they'll bring them home; if not, it's up to them what to do with the bodies. Ellie wasn't the only Mall Rat found in the computer systems once Jack hacked into the system. Well, perhaps not a Mall Rat exactly, but he would have been if he had survived. It appears, after seven months of searching, that Operation Dormouse claimed one last victim.
I can see the farm now. I'd better hurry: the light is fading. I'll speak to you again soon."
