First off thanks for all the reviews!! I love reading them all! I love hearing what you all have to say... haha and yes i stole the chapter title ideas from friends!

So anyways, on to the chapter...


I'm Always There With You - Chapter 3


Ryan led me down the stairs and then the rest of the hallway away from the bedroom. I tried not to think about all the things Sandy was now going to miss out on. It really wasn't fair.

As we turned around the corner, I saw Seth and Sophie sitting on the lounge watching the television. As we approached the end of the of the hall Seth got up to meet us.

"Are you okay mum?" he asked, placing his arm around me.

"No, not at all," I said, "But I'll be alright."

"Do you want to come and watch the rest of Grease with us?"

I didn't really want to watch it, but I figured it couldn't make me feel any worse, so I nodded in reply.

Sophie looked over at me as I sat down on the lounge in-between Seth and Ryan.

"I was just telling Seth about the first time I ever met you," Sophie said.

I smiled weakly, "He was so amazing that night, he was just meant to be on stage."

Seth let out a hollow laugh, "Yeah and he never missed an opportunity to demonstrate for us. You know I can still remember the first time dad made me watch this."

"Yeah me too," Ryan said.

"I remember that I was a little freaked out by all the signing, especially with all his dance moves in this scene!" Seth said, pointing at the screen where Greased Lightning was currently being performed.

"This was the first movie we ever actually watched together," I said dejectedly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, that was a good night," I said, smiling sadly, "Even with all the signing."

I was sitting on the lounge in the house that Sandy shared off campus with a few friends. We had just got back from a date. We had been going out for over a month now and I was seriously falling for this guy. He was so different from everything my life had been before I moved to Berkeley, I loved that he was different. I was different here too, I liked this side of myself. It wasn't like it was a new me or anything, I was just able to express myself freely here. And Sandy was a large part of why I was able to.

"Ok so, I figured that we've been dating for some time now," Sandy started saying as he walked out of the kitchen with drinks for the two of us. "And I realised what we have not watched a movie together."

I laughed at him, "Yes, I seem to recall an evening that had started buying tickets at the movie theatre but we never actually made it inside!"

"Well," Sandy said with a sly smile, "That was an amazing evening without the movie."

That was true, it was an unforgettable evening.

"Well even if we had actually gone and seen that, I'm not talking about just any movie, I'm talking about THE movie."

I looked at him in utter confusion as he walked over the television cabinet and pulled out a video case. He hid it behind his back before I had an opportunity to see what the video was. He walked back over to me with a large grin on his face.

"This," he started to explain, "Is the best movie ever made."

He pulled the video out from behind his back.

I let out a small laugh, "Grease?"

"Yeah!"

I looked at him and shook my head, Grease had been my favourite movie since the first time I saw it when I was a kid. I just couldn't believe that it was Sandy's favourite movie, when I had dated Jimmy he had refused to watch it with me, claiming that any guy that watched a musical must be gay. I watched as Sandy walked away from me and put the video in the machine. He turned the TV on and picked up the remote from on top of the cabinet.

"You have seen Grease before right?" he asked me, looking rather scared that I was going to say no.

"Of course I have!"

"Good," he said softy, "Good."

He sat down next to me and pressed play. It started at exactly the right spot, Sandy and Danny on the beach. I looked over at Sandy and opened my mouth about to question him, but he spoke first.

"Before you say anything, I always rewind it to the right place because I don't like wasting time trying to find the start," he said, defending his actions.

I couldn't help but laugh, "You are such a loser."

"Oh but a loveable one, right?"

"Right," I said through my laughter, leaning in and placing a kiss on his lips as the opening credits started.

Sandy opened his mouth, sliding his tongue past my lips, seeking out my tongue and slowly stroking it with his own. He gently pushed me back onto the lounge, moving his lips from my mouth to my neck and his hands ran from my face, slowly down my body finally resting on my hips. I moved my own hands from his back to his hair, I loved the feeling of his hair running through my fingers.

"Sandy."

"Mmmhmm."

"Summer Lovin' is about to start," I said breathlessly as arched my back into his body.

Sandy stopped his movements and looked at the screen, "I hope you know that you have to sing with me."

"No," I said, "No, I don't sing."

"Oh come on, you know you want to!"

As John Travolta started singing on screen, Sandy joined in.

"Summer Lovin' had me a blast."

Sandy looked at him, practically begging me to join in. When I didn't, he started signing the next line along with Olivia Newton-John, "Summer Lovin' happened so fast."

"Met a girl, crazy for me!"

I took a deep breath, not believing I was actually going to do this, "Met a boy, cute as can be."

He smiled broadly at me as I joined him in singing the next lines. I just watched him as we continued to sing, he looked so cute and he had such a great voice.

Sandy sung the last lines alone as I just sat there watching him in a trance. He turned to me as the scene changed, "What?"

"Wow," was all I could get out. "I could really get used to you signing for me."

"Oh really?"

"Definitely," I said as Sandy leaned in and placed a small kiss on my lips. "I can think of a few other things I could get used to as well."

He started laughing, "Oh baby, I think you're already used to those things."

"I think I may have forgotten," I replied innocently, "Care to give me a reminder?"

"How could I refuse," Sandy said as he placed a wet kiss on my neck, "I can't have you forgetting such things, can I?"

As Sandy continued to leave a trail of kisses up my neck and along my jaw, began to unbutton the shirt I was wearing.

"What about Grease though?" I asked him in between my gasps for air.

"Oh, I think it will still be there for us to watch later," he told me as he removed my shirt from around my shoulders. "Much, much later."

As Grease continued to play in the background, I sat there wrapped up in my memories. I thought about all the times that Sandy and I had ever watched Grease together, and there were a lot! As I thought about the first time we attempted to watch it, it hit me for the first time that he was actually gone. I mean, I knew that he was gone, but I hadn't actually thought about it. But sitting here I truly realised all that I was losing. It wasn't just a husband I was losing, he was so much more than that. He was my best friend, my lover, my partner in crime, my confidant, my everything.

I didn't take notice as Sophie got up and said she was going to bed until she came over and hugged me, whispering that it would be okay in my ear. As she began to walk away I got up.

"I'll go get the guest room ready for you."

"No, no, don't worry about it Kirsten," she said.

And as I began to protest she held up her hand. "I'm sure I can manage, you just sit and relax," she told me, "Goodnight boys."

"Goodnight."

I sat back down between the boys. They were talking about the movie, which actually surprised me.

"Hey mum," Seth said, "Did you and Dad ever dance like that?"

I looked at the screen and laughed, "Uh no, the hand jive was a bit before our times."

"But you wanted to didn't you?"

"Well you seem to be forgetting that your father did do the hand jive when he was actually in Grease."

"Yeah but you weren't up there with him, surely all those hand movements were a turn on?"

"Seth!"

"Yeah, I don't really want to go down that road either," Seth said.

"Good idea," I said to him, not wanting to go back to thinking about what I would be missing.

"I'll save it for down the road when I get to tell my sister everything…" Seth said, tailing off.

I looked over at him as he got up and walked down the hallways and then upstairs. I looked at Ryan on my right and he shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm going to go see him," I said softly.

"Alright," Ryan said, "Well I'm going to go to bed, so goodnight."

"Goodnight Ryan," I said, watching him walked outside and into the pool house.

As I walked down the hall and up the stairs, I decided that tomorrow I was going to make Ryan move into the house. He was part of this family, he had been for a long time, it was time that he started living within the actual walls of the house.

As I reached Seth's bedroom, I tried to listen at the door for any movements from within. I heard nothing, so I knocked on the door softly.

"Seth?" I asked, "Can I come in?"

I waited for a moment but got no reply. I let out a sigh and let myself into his bedroom. As I turned the corner, I saw him laying face down on his bed. As I looked at him, I realised how young he actually was. The past few years I had looked at him and had seen him growing into a man, but I looked at him now and saw the six year old that was broken hearted over the passing of his grandmother and desperately wanting to leave too.

I said down on the edge of his bed, "Seth," I said softly as I placed my hand on his back. I heard him let out a sob, I knew that he had been crying, I just didn't know why he was trying to hide it.

"Do you want to talk?" I asked him.

I didn't get a reply, so I just sat there rubbing his back, offering any form of support I could. It wasn't long before he sat up and pulled me into a hug, letting his tears flow freely. I let him cry, not really knowing what to say to him, hoping that he would start talking first. Which he did.

"I just…" he started to say in-between sobs, "I realised that my sister is never going to meet our dad."

"I know," I said softly, fighting my own tears.

"It's not fair," he said into my shoulder. "I was thinking about how I was going to tell her all the tormenting stories of the two of you and your PDA and that's when it hit me that that was all she would ever have."

I let my tears fall as Seth talked, it was true, all that she would ever know of Sandy were the memories that we shared with her. "She may not have met him, but she'll know him, Seth," I said. "We'll tell her the best stories about him, everything from his bad jokes to his great advice."

Seth pulled his head up from my shoulder and looked at me through his teary eyes. "It's not the same though."

"I know," I said softly through my tears. "But it's the best that we can do."

Seth took a sharp intake as he tried to steady his breathing. He looked down at his hands, "It's still not fair."

"I know," I said, wrapping my arms around him and laying back down onto his bed with him. "I know."