Chapter 18- Green-Eyed Willow
"Hey, Danny!" Cameron caught Danny before he headed outside.
"Hey," Danny said. "How's Jake?"
"He's coming along. Still on a feeding tube, and he still can't talk."
"I guess it'll take a while. It's only been a week."
Cam nodded. "So, our new house has been built. I guess we were near the top of the list. Only five have been built so far."
"That's great. I can't believe they were built so quickly."
"Yeah, well they're small. A lot smaller than our old house. Just one level. But I'm just so glad to be out of V-Town. Thanks for everything you did."
"I couldn't have done anything without you and Jake," Danny said. "So, are you gonna live with your mom, brothers, and Violet?"
He nodded. "And Jason. He seems to really want to focus on us. I mean, I still want him to prove it, but my mom trusts him."
"That's good. How many rooms are there though?"
"Well, only three. I'm going to live in the basement though and Aiden and Violet will share. I don't know what's going to happen if the population multiplies since there's limited space."
Danny paused in thought.
"Anyway, have you figured out if you want to work or finish school once all is settled?" Cam asked.
"I think I want to finish school. I don't know who'll teach high school yet. Grandma wants Willow to teach the younger ones. What about you guys?"
"I'm gonna be a firefighter. But your grandma was saying they might combine the fire station with the police station. So, I might end up doing both. Wouldn't be a bad idea really. Jason is still trying to figure out what he wants to do. I think he wants to help fight Valentin so it might be the army, but Monica is adamant that he doesn't do anything too strenuous. Mom is going to stay a nurse. And I don't know about Jake yet. I think he just needs to focus on recovering first."
"Yeah, I hope he makes a full recovery."
"I think he will," Cam said. "It's Aiden I'm not so sure of."
"What do you mean?" Danny asked.
"Think about it… he's been taking V-Vitamins every day for three years. Right up until last week. He's been told non-stop that Mom abandoned him. I tried telling him she'd never do that. But he said his dad did, so maybe she would too."
Danny's heart sank. "At least Willow had Scout and Violet stop taking them for a while now. But she's probably thinking the same thing."
Cam nodded. "As hard as it's been on us and the adults, it's been hardest on the little kids."
"You're right. Other than Willow, and Joss later on… all their teachers and caregivers have been lying to them. They must be so confused."
"And scared…" Cam added. "Anyway, we should still hang out. I mean, the island isn't that big, I'm sure we'll still run into each other.
They fist-bumped, then Danny headed outside. The sun beamed down on him and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. He walked across the grounds and saw Drew sitting on a blanket with a picnic basket next to Sam as she played with Scout's hair.
"Hey, Danny!" Drew waved him over.
"Hey…" Danny walked over. "Is this your surprise?"
Drew nodded. "We haven't really spent much time together as a family since we arrived… just us."
Danny sat next to Drew.
"Willow braids my hair…" Scout mumbled.
"Would you like Mommy to braid your hair?" Sam asked. "Or do you want to ask Willow to later?"
Scout looked up at her. "You can."
Sam smiled and started separating Scout's hair.
"All right…" Drew opened the basket. "We've got sandwiches, fruit, veggies, the works…"
Danny took a bite of an egg salad sandwich.
"And done!" Sam tied the last braid, then twisted her neck to look around at Scout from behind. "You look beautiful! You always do though."
Scout smiled a little, then frowned. "Mommy?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Are you and Daddy going to leave us again?"
Sam's shoulders sank. "Honey, we didn't choose to leave you. We didn't want to."
"But the Almighty V and our teachers—"
"Were wrong," Danny cut in. "And he's not almighty. They lied to you."
Scout lowered her gaze. "Willow said that too."
"Listen, Princess…" Drew said. "We love you and Danny more than anything. We would never purposely leave you like that."
"Do you remember the day in the gym?" Danny asked. "When those bad men tried to hurt us, but they hurt Mom and Dad instead?'
Scout scrunched her face but shook her head.
Sam sighed and wrapped her arms around Scout from behind and rested her chin on her shoulder. "We're here now and we're not going to let them separate us again."
"Your mom's right." Drew lifted a pink cupcake from the basket. "I picked this out just for you, Princess."
Scout smiled and accepted the cupcake.
"Danny, Scout…" Sam said. "I want to talk to you. Now Danny, when I mentioned it before you sounded indifferent, but I want you to tell me what you really want. Do you want us to stay here at Wyndemere with Grandma and Grandpa when everything settles? Or do you want to have our own house with Daddy?"
"And Willow too?" Scout asked.
"I very much want Willow to live with us too," Sam said. "But I don't know if that's what Willow wants. I want to talk to her about it."
Danny shrugged. "I mean it's nice to be close by to know Grandma and Grandpa's plans. But we can't stay on this island long anyway. At least not long-term. Realistically, if people decide to have kids, we'll be overcrowded in ten years. Maybe less. We need to find a way to fight the V. So, I guess it doesn't really matter to me where we live."
"When did you get to be so smart?" Drew grinned. "Oh, that's right, you always were."
"Yeah, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I want to go back to school," Danny said. "I mean I want to… but I need to help fight this."
"If you want to go back to school, then you should," Drew said.
"Back in V-Town you and the other kids didn't have anyone to protect you," Sam said. "That's different now. There's a lot of people fighting this now. This still isn't the ideal society, but you still have some choices. What is it that you want?"
Danny swallowed hard. "I want to do both. Do you think Grandma would allow me to go to school part-time?"
"I'll talk to her about it," Sam said.
Danny smiled. "Thanks."
"Now Scout, what do you think?" Sam asked. "Should we live with Grandma and Grandpa or have our own house?"
Scout shrugged. "I don't know."
"All right, well we still have time to decide," Drew said. "There's lots of homes to be built, we can let others have first grabs… in the meantime…" He lifted a frisbee from his basket. "I found this."
Danny's eyes grew wide. "I haven't seen a frisbee in forever…"
Drew rose and ran about 15 feet away, then threw it towards Danny who caught it. Danny, Sam, and Scout spread out and Danny casted it to Sam. Sam tossed it to Scout who dropped it, then she bent over and picked it up. She tried throwing it to Drew, but it flew several feet away from him. He ran over and picked it up, then hurled it towards Sam. It passed above her and landed in a large bush next to the castle.
Sam pointed an index finger at him. "You did that on purpose."
"Who?" Drew placed a hand over his chest. "Me?"
"Yes, you."
Drew grinned.
Sam ran over to the bush, but even standing on her tippy toes she couldn't reach it. "Gee, thanks."
Drew chuckled, then ran over to her and scooped her up in his arms, then pulled her to the grass with him. They rolled over so she was on top of him.
"You little…" Sam started laughing when he tickled her belly.
Danny and Scout ran over to them.
"Come on, kids, get her!" Drew prodded them.
Danny started tickling Sam's neck and Scout tickled her back, and they laughed along with her.
Danny chuckled and looked up. His heart sank. Willow was watching them from a window a couple floors up, white in the face and gloomy. He frowned as she backed away from the window and out of his view.
GHGHGH
Seeing Willow watching them like that made Danny sad. They didn't mean to disclude her. Certainly, if he explained that she would understand. But he couldn't find her all afternoon. But finally, in the evening, he saw her heading towards Jax's chamber.
The door was open, and Willow walked in but stopped. Backs turned, Jax had his arm around Josslyn on the large couch.
"I just wish Morgan…" Josslyn cried. If we just…"
"It's not your fault," Jax said.
"I wish I saw through Mom sooner…"
"Your mom loves you," Jax said. "And I know you love her too."
"But for three years she wasn't trying to get to me… she was just waiting for Jason to rescue her. Doesn't she care that living in V-Town… it was Hell."
"She does care… it's just…"
"I guess it was a blessing in disguise that Oscar died," Josslyn said. "At lease he was spared V-Town."
"But we're safe now and we have each other."
Willow lowered her gaze.
"I know it's hard to see right now," Jax said. "But things will get better. Remember that lullaby I used to sing you?"
Willow looked up at them again.
"The one Lady Jane used to sing to you, yeah," Josslyn said. "It always made me feel better when I was sad or scared."
Jax started to hum, then sang, "Lavender's green, Dilly dilly, Lavender's blue. If you love me, Dilly dilly, I will love you.…"
Josslyn joined him, "Let the birds sing, Dilly dilly, Let the lambs play. We shall be safe,
Dilly dilly, Out of harms way."
Willow turned and tears were rolling down her cheeks. She locked eyes with Danny then took off down the hallway.
Danny ran after here. "Willow… Willow!"
He turned a corner and she was standing with Sasha who was holding Elias' hand.
"Hey, is your offer still on the table?" Willow asked. "Can we be roommates?"
"Uh… yeah, of course," Sasha said. "Are you okay though, you look like your crying?"
Willow pushed away her tears with the back of her hand. "Yeah, I'm okay."
"Okay, well I can put our names down for a house," Sasha said. "But we'll need to find more people since they want five to a household…" She squinted her eyes. "Are you sure you don't want to stay with your new family?"
Willow lowered her gaze and paused for a moment. "I'm almost 25 years old, I really should get out on my own."
"Well, if you're sure."
Elias tugged on her arm and he flipped a brown curl out of his face. "Mommy, I'm hungry."
"Okay, buddy." She looked at Willow again. "Want to join us for dinner?"
Willow nodded. "I'd like that."
GHGHGH
"Mom…" Danny entered Sam's bedroom without knocking, where she was painting Scout's nails purple on her bed.
"Hey, are you okay, Danny?" Sam asked.
"I am, but I'm kind of worried about Willow."
"Why? Is she okay?"
"She saw our picnic outside and saw Jax comforting Josslyn. She was crying. Then I heard her tell Sasha she'd live her. But I don't think she wants to. I think she wants to live with us. She just feels like she's not wanted."
Sam frowned and tightened the lid on the nail polish. "I know exactly how she's feeling. But I know Drew didn't mean to disclude her in the surprise picnic… Do you know where she is?"
"She was going to dinner with Sasha and her son."
"Okay, can you stay with Scout?"
Danny nodded. "Yeah."
"Thanks, I'll go find her." Sam hastened out of the room.
