Chapter Six
Fate
Alright, so the death came as a bit of a shock to everyone. I am so sorry that I killed her off – believe me, I was crying, too (if that doesn't sound too pathetic)!
Thank you for the reviews!
When Jack had waken up during the middle of the night, he could see that Melissa was not laying next to him. He had been able to forget about her death through the sleep that eventually came, but was sickeningly aware that he would be the only one getting up during the night.
Jack wondered if Melissa was watching them the first night. He wanted to believe that she was. At least she would be here, even in a form he couldn't see.
He wondered what it was that she wanted to tell him. It could have been something as simple as asking him to get up more in the middle of the night for Amy.
Jack was surprised to feel that he was starting to miss Melissa. A friend of one year couldn't have had that much of an effect on him, could she?
He was going to find out who did this. Even if it took him the rest of his days, he would find out who killed Melissa.
Each time Amy cried through the night, he wondered how he was going to manage single parenting. This was being thrown at him, and he had no clue how to manage. Amy wouldn't have an easy life if it was just them.
Melissa's parents were bound to ask for custody. He was Amy's father, though, and, given time, he would know how to raise her. Jack had full custodial rights! These were the parents that wanted Melissa to give Amy up for adoption, after all.
Jack remembered a conversation the four of them had in mid-November. Kate had asked Melissa why she loved the name Amy so much.
Amy means "loved". I just want Amy to know that, no matter what, she'll always be loved.
It was practically as if her death was predetermined. Kate had asked the question that sealed her fate a year ago about what they would do if they had a year left to live, and, ironically, Melissa named their child Amy because it meant "loved".
If he could go back in time twenty-four hours ago, Melissa would be under strict house arrest. Jack would not let her out under any circumstances.
There was such a thing as traveling to the future. Couldn't there be such a thing as traveling to the back? There had to be a way. He would do anything to bring her back.
In the back of his mind, Jack began to wonder what it was that she wanted to tell him again.
The day after Melissa's death was here, and Kate Sims still felt like a murderer. She felt it was her fault that Melissa was no longer here. She gave her the Advil. She even bought the medallion last year.
She was the one that was so insistent on buying that medallion. What good had it brought them now? Her best friend was dead because of a piece of cursed Aztec gold.
She still had a hard time believing that Melissa was dead. Perhaps it would have settled in more if she had slept last night.
Had she slept? She wasn't sure. Kate felt exhausted to the bone.
This is what a murderer feels like, she thought.
Now came the part of planning the funeral and wake, something that she wasn't sure if she could even force herself to do.
Please let this be a bad dream, she prayed. Have her be alive and I won't ask for another thing as long as I live.
She couldn't hear Melissa's voice from the downstairs. It was just Jack's and Will's, though they were talking about her. She still wanted to believe that it was a bad dream.
Could she force herself out of bed? Could she go downstairs to know that Melissa wouldn't be there?
Her eyes burned as she went down the stairs from lack of sleep. The room fell quiet as she curled up on the same end of the couch as last night.
Wonderful, she thought. Now I'm being treated like I'm a murderer.
Her eyes went downwards towards the couch. The silence was overbearing.
They didn't exchange "good mornings". There was nothing good about it.
"Th' parents are plannin' e'erythin'," Jack said, breaking the silence between them.
Kate looked up. "What do you mean?
"Th' funeral 'n' wake."
It truly had happened. Melissa's death wasn't just a horrible dream.
"Oh," she said.
What else could she say? Despite the fact the two hadn't talked for six months, Kate was not about to tackle planning her friend's funeral.
"When did you hear this?" she asked.
"We talked o'er th' phone last night."
She nodded. Kate vaguely remembered hearing him talk to Mr. and Mrs. Lewes on the car ride back to the hospital, breaking the news. She didn't know they had talked afterwards.
"Wake's tomorrow at Robert's Funeral Home at 3:00. Funeral's Wednesday at 12:00 at St. Stephen's church. They don't want anyone t' 'elp with th' plannin'. S'ppose it's their way o' tryin' to make things right fer their daughter."
Too little, too late, she thought.
"They do want ya t' do the eulogy, though," Jack said.
Her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach faster than a rock. She couldn't write the eulogy. It hadn't even set in that Melissa is died, and they wanted someone who had a hand in killing her to write it?
"Tell them no," she said. "I can't."
"Yes, ya can," Jack said.
Writing the eulogy would mean reliving all the memories that they had. She didn't want to remember them, not right now.
This is what Melissa would want, though. All she could do was just that.
"Fine."
She realized how angry she sounded when she said that. She was sure Jack didn't notice or cared, though.
"Jack," Will said. "Is there any way we can help you with Amy?"
Will had gone crazy. In the midst of the shock settling in of Melissa's death, Will was all but asking if they could adopt her!
"Adopt 'er," Jack said simply.
"You've gone mad with grief," Kate said. "Jack, all three of us know that you can raise Amy by yourself. We are not taking the only thing left of Melissa away from you. She is your daughter. It's not going to be easy, but we know you can do it."
If Will had faith in him that Kate thought, why had he offered to help in any way? They would be in New York, and he would be a thousand miles away.
"Ya two want a kid. Take 'er. Really."
Amy would be a reminder of Melissa, both a blessing and a curse. She was Jack's child, though, and Kate was not going to take Amy.
She was starting to get a headache. This was not the thing she wanted to talk about right now. She just wanted to wake up from this dream.
"I suppose I should get started on the eulogy," Kate said, leaving.
Jack was honest when he had asked the Turners if they would take Amy. He was not fit to raise Amy by himself. They would know what to do a bit better than he would.
Jack was not a bad parent, per se. Just...inexperienced. He had no desire to learn parenting by himself, either.
"Jack, if you give away custody of Amy, Melissa's parents are going to fight for her," Will said after Kate had left the room.
"They'd have t' go through the legal process, though, William. I'd say in court that th' grandparents 'ad no active role in th' Sea Turtle's life 'n' that I recommend some married, childless friends."
"The fact that we're nineteen and twenty-two won't help us, though. Mr. and Mrs. Lewes have years of parenting experience behind them, despite that they weren't involved in Amy's life. The court isn't necessarily looking for how active a role they had in Amy's life. It's who's going to be the best parent."
The last thing that Jack needed was Amy being in custody of her grandparents. These were the same ones that estranged themselves from Melissa because of the very child, were they not?
"Keeping her truly is the best option. For you and her."
Jack understood why it would be the best thing for him to keep Amy. His daughter would know who he was. Even if he gave her to Kate and Will, he would see her the four times a year that they came to visit. Mr. and Mrs. Lewes lived nearby. If they were nice (unlikely), he could visit whenever he pleased.
Either way, though, he would rent a place more affordable. One paycheck couldn't pay the rent on this house.
Wonderful. Jack was the one now starting to realize how the death turned his world upside down.
"William," Jack said. "It would be superb if we talked about this later."
Staring at an empty sheet of notebook paper and a pen in her hand, Kate could not bring herself to write the eulogy. The reality of her death hadn't even settled in yet, how was she expected to write this?
She still wanted to believe that Melissa was just out running an errand, not being prepared for the wake tomorrow at a funeral home.
It still didn't make sense. "Melissa" and "dead" did not belong in the same sentence, much less being nineteen and a mother.
Unfair couldn't begin to describe the situation. She was young and just had a child, why was it her time to go?
Out of frustration at the world and life, she began to cry.
Jack had the channel five midday news on. Kate had disappeared since morning, most likely stewing about how to write the eulogy. She was silent, not even a peep from her.
He could vaguely hear a story about Melissa on the news. Jack didn't want to see it. As much as he hated to admit it to anyone, he was missing Melissa. Now would be a time for a TV host to say where the hidden cameras were and for Melissa to walk through the door. He'd be so grateful, yet furious. Jack would ask her what she was thinking and why she thought it'd be funny.
In a way, it would be like when she nearly was on the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last year, when she was unable to call him.
He remembered that she said that she felt like she cheated death that day. Jack was beginning to find the signs eerie. Did she have any premonition of her death?
He remembered hearing from Gibbs that a person's soul knew three days ahead of time that they would die. She had acted a bit sketchy all last week. Did she know as early as then?
He half wondered if she had told Kate about any premonition. They were alone on Thursday upstairs for a while – the day that she would have known. She had been more quiet than usual, too, that day.
"Jack," Will said. "Come here, quick."
Jack came out of the kitchen and looked at the television. It was now just a story about a library opening.
"The person that ran Melissa over was the owner of a black Mercedes," Will said.
"Indubitably helpful, Mr. Turner," Jack said, going back into the kitchen.
"You don't remember who we know that owns a black Mercedes, do you?" Will asked.
"Clearly not."
Will was so silent that Jack had to turn around to see what it is he was going to say.
"Cutler Beckett."
Cutler Beckett? It had been months since he and Melissa talked. She hadn't hid something from him, had she? What was he doing in the area?
"They don't have any other information," Will said, going into the kitchen. "No license plate, model, anything. I remember when Kate and I went to EITC Couples Counseling that he had driven a black Mercedes."
"That widely expands our choices, William, and tells us not to assume that it's not the man that wanted us dead at one point."
"It wouldn't surprise me if it is, though," Will said. "He hasn't been pleased with her for months."
"He's wanted her, though. Who gets rid of something they wants?"
"When they see it as a threat. This one was to his happiness. He wanted to control the seas once, who's to say that life and death of a person is out of the question?"
Could it be that the whelp was finally like the Sparrow? He was amazed with how quickly Will was putting two and two together.
Beckett couldn't have killed her.
Could he?
Yes, it's dark right now. It'll lighten up, though, have no fear.