Disclaimer: Alas, the Sons of Ipswich do not belong to me!

THE SOUND OF SETTLING

Prologue

To our beloved sons,

We believe the time has come for each of you to marry. Twenty-one might sound young to you, but you are different than most. You boys are special, carrying with you a deeper responsibility that has, without a doubt, matured all of you. Not only that, we would absolutely love to see our grandsons before we come to pass. We despise watching you spend your money on useless materials and unfavorable women. Our reputation is on the line and it is imperative that each of you live up to it. Our ancestors would not be proud. Our lines need to be sustained lest we all die out. The four of us have deliberated over this for quite some time and we have reached a mutual decision: you will all get married before the end of the year and that is final.

With much love,

Eleanor Danvers, Teresa Parry, Rita Garwin, & Lily Simms

Chapter One: Caleb Danvers

Caleb Danvers was feeling downright miserable. He was sitting beside the punch bowl, staring gloomily at the crowds of people wandering light-heartedly around the ballroom. At the corner of his eye, he could see his mother shaking his head with disapproval in his direction. He pretended not to notice. He was quite contented to drown his misery in fruit punch. This somehow made him feel even more pathetic. It was spiked, but it was still fruit punch.

He was so busy concentrating on the glass filled with pink liquid in his hand that he did not notice the girl who had boldly approached him. He looked up with minimal surprise. She was not the first one to try speaking with him. Try, being the key word.

"Hi Caleb! I'm Rose. Our parents introduced us earlier. Do you recall?"

Caleb did not even bother plastering a fake smile on his face. He had been doing so for the majority of the evening and had grown rather tired of it. Instead, he nodded curtly. "Yes, I do."

"Do you want to dance?"

He took one look at her and blanched. "No thank you."

She frowned and left without another word, her blonde hair whirling behind her. It was amazing how a mere color could bring back a million memories. He finished his fruit punch in one gulp and stood to look for something stronger.

He kept to the walls, trying to avoid the probing gazes of high-society mothers and the hungry looks from their female offspring. This was the first of the series of parties that the Mothers of Ipswich had thrown for the Sons. It was already June.

Caleb found it highly improbable that he was going to end up married by December, seeing as how he was still undeniably affixed to a girl that was no longer in his life. He reached the main bar. A blonde bartender with red lips grinned at him. Caleb stared. It seemed that he had traipsed right into Dye-Me-Blonde Land. It was either that or he was being haunted by another painful memory.

Well, there was always a way to escape.

"What'll it be, handsome?" The bartender asked in a Southern drawl.

"I'll have five shots of tequila."

The bartender fixed him with a astonished look. "Well aren't you Mr. Broody." She shook her head before lining up five empty shot glasses and filling them to the brim with the enticing gold fluid. She pulled out a plate of lemons and salt but Caleb pushed it away. He grabbed the first glass and gulped it down, enjoying the taste of Patron and the momentary burning sensation in his throat. It immediately warmed his stomach.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really." Caleb took the next shot without pause.

"Drinking never solves anything, ya know."

"For tonight it will."

Three more to go.

"Why'd you become a bartender?" Caleb asked, the question coming out of the blue. Anything to keep her from asking more. Anything to keep him from remembering.

She shrugged. "I used to be an alcoholic. I'm sober now. Been that way for two years. Being able to be constantly around it and not want it – it's the greatest feeling in the world."

Caleb finished his third shot and went for his fourth.

One of the guests took a seat at the far end of the bar and beckoned for the bartender to take his order. Just as Caleb was about to take his fifth and final shot, she laid a hand on his. "Take it from me, alcohol may numb the pain now, but the memory? It ain't fading anytime soon."

By this time, the tequila had reached his brain and had killed a good number of brain cells rendering him slightly woozy. Emphasis on 'slightly'. He wasn't a Son of Ipswich for nothing. Power still ran through his veins. It didn't matter that he hadn't Used for a long time, it was still there, it was still a part of him.

It was also the mainreason why their mothers were so keen on marrying them off. They wanted grandchildren – no, they wanted grandsons. While Caleb was not totally against it, he felt bittersweet about having a kid that would grow up to have such a complicated life. The Power was a gift, but the Aging was a curse. But to some people, the former was just as worse as the latter.

A face flashed in his head.

Sarah.

He didn't blame her for wanting a normal life. God knows what she had gone through during the Chase escapade – which was close to three years ago. Caleb thought. She had stayed with him until they both graduated from highschool. She had watched the rest of the Sons Ascend, watched all of them toy with their Power. She then decided that it was too much. She left for college then.

Caleb had no choice but to let her go.

He thought about her all the time. If she was happy with someone else. He strongly wished she was. By his estimate, she would be in her third year in college by now. If he can recall, she wanted to be a veterinarian.

Unlike Sarah and the rest of their former class back at Spenser, the Sons never had the luxury of going to college. They immediately inherited their family businesses and were meant to manage them until they died.

He was so deep in thought that barely felt the tap on his shoulder. He turned to look and restrained a groan of despair. It was his mother. The one person he had been trying to avoid all night long.

"Caleb." Her voice was stern. He silently thanked the alcohol for keeping him sane. "This has got to stop."

He feigned innocence. "What?"

"The moping." She raised a perfectly-manicured eyebrow challenging him to deny it. But mothers had a tendency to know everything. Sometimes he wondered if they had powers themselves. "It is highly unbecoming!"

Caleb decided that the only power she had was the power of nagging.

"Rose seemed interested."

Caleb grunted.

Eleanor Danvers threw her hands in the air. "Fine. Go wallow in self-pity. At the rate you're going, Reid's going to end up married first."

Caleb snorted.

Now that was impossible.

A/N: A review would be a nice motivation :)