(Vincent's Pov)
We had arrived into Texas around three in the afternoon the next day. We made some stops here and there for gas, rest stops, and some scenery photos for Clementine's mom. I would arrive at my grandma's house after about an hour and I parked the car in my grandma's driveway and I see the door to the house open and I got out my car and then I went to Clementine's door and opened it for her. I then took Clementine over to the door and I smiled at my grandmother.
"Grandma this is Clementine, Clem this is my grandmother." I introduced them and my grandma gave Clem a hug and Clem hugged her back.
"It's nice to meet you dear, come in you two." My grandma says and I nod as I let them go in first and I go in the house and close the door and I hear my grandma and Clem talking.
"And this is Vincent at his first band concert." I hear my grandma tell her as I walk in the room and saw my grandma pointing to some photos and I see Clementine smiling.
"Surprised you haven't showed her my baby pictures." I say and my grandma laughed a bit.
"Oh, I could, maybe I should." She says and I chuckled and looked to Clementine who giggles a bit at this.
"How have you been?" I asked my grandma as she took a seat in my grandfather's recliner and Clem and I took a seat on the couch.
"I have been good, just getting old, oh your mom will be here in a few hours after her shift." She tells me and I nod.
"What about dad?" I asked and she looked to me.
"He might be coming… now how did you two meet?" she asked and Clementine and I explained our story to her, I knew she knew about the Minerva and the issues that we were having but I told her there was nothing to worry about. Once we were done my grandma was about to get up saying she was going to get us drinks but I stood up.
"I'll get it grandma, anything specific you want?" I asked and she said that the lemonade would be fine so I nod and I head into the kitchen to grab the drinks and I hear the two talking.
"So has Vincent been treating you well?" I hear.
"Yes, he's a very caring man." I hear Clem tell her.
"He got that from his grandfather… it broke Vincent when my husband passed." Grandma says.
"I know, he's told me a lot about his grandfather." She tells her.
"He likes to remember the good times, my husband taught Vincent that family was everything… my son didn't think to highly on that but his wife… she's a good one… she was taught by her father that family was everything too, that's why we got to see Vincent as much as we did, my husband adored him." I hear her say and I place the cup on the counter as I listen more.
"I just hope my son doesn't start anything if he comes over." I hear and I get the drinks for all of us. I went back into the living room and handed my grandmother her glass and then handed one to Clementine as I sat next to her. We talked with my grandmother for a bit before we heard a knock on the door and my grandmother gets up and I follow her to see her open the door and I see my mom who looked to me and she comes up and hugs me and I hug her back, I then looked up to see my dad and I nod to him and he nods back. We all went to the living room and I see Clementine stand up.
"Ehem, Mom, Dad this is my girlfriend Clementine, Clem this is my mom and dad." I introduced them and Clem shook my father's hand and my mom hugged her and they all took a seat and I helped my grandmother with getting the drinks and we came over to the them and gave them their drinks and I look at Clem and smile at her.
"So… you're dating a new girl?" My father asked and I nodded as I took my drink and then set it down.
"Yep." I tell him.
"How long?" He asked.
"Two months." I tell him.
"How long have you known each other?" He asked and I look to him.
"A few weeks, before we started dating." I tell him.
"How old are you?" He asked Clementine.
"Eighteen sir." She tells him and he looked to me a bit as I took a drink.
"Son, just have a good time with your son." My grandmother says and I look to her and then to Clementine who looked a bit uncomfortable so she moved a little closer to me and I place my arm over her shoulder.
"What happened with that other girl?" He asked and I look to him.
"We broke it off, she accused me of some things and stuff." I tell him and he nods at this.
"Uh where is the two boys uh… Tenn and Willy?" He asked.
"With their family." I tell him.
"Why are you here?" He asked and I clear my throat a bit and looked down a bit and then looked to him.
"I'm getting surgery and the only good hospital was here." I tell him.
"What kind of surgery?" He asked.
"…. One to help me have a family." I tell him and he looked to me.
"You two having a family? She seems a bit young." He says.
"No… no just… if I ever want to have kids I could with someone." I tell him and he nods as he takes a drink from his cup and I looked to him then to Clem.
"You could have had children if you were a girl." He says after he finishes his drink and I look to him.
"Jimmy." My grandmother says and I sighed a bit.
"No, Ma listen to the stuff that's coming out of their mouth, they could have had kids if they stayed a girl, could have had them naturally instead of botching their body like this." He says and Clem looked to me and I looked to her a bit but kept quiet.
"Jim stop." My mom says and sighed a bit.
"No, I will not, I've been quiet o this stuff for to long." He says and I look to him.
"Then talk it out." I say to him and he looked to me.
"You were a beautiful young girl, you could have had a nice husband, you are smart and you're still my daughter, you are still Violet to me." He says and I nod a bit at this and lean back a bit.
"Why… why would you do this to yourself?" He asked and I looked to him.
"You changed from being a beautiful lady into this." He says and motions his hands to my body and I look to him. I felt sadden by all this.
"I am different from you dad… you were born into the body you are comfortable with; I was not… that's the simplified version of why I did what I did… and I'm happy with how I am, I am finally able to be who I want to be." I explained to him and he looked to me.
"I am happy dad… I like who I am now, I am finally in a healthy relationship with Clementine here, I have a good job at a music store, I have good friends too… friends who support me." I tell him.
"Of course, they support you, anyone in your generation would." He says a bit pissed and I looked to him sadly.
"Grandpa supported me… grandma does too." I tell him and he looked to me.
"Grandpa was very supporting of me, and he's from an entirely different generation, you… look I am just trying to be happy… I know you only want to remember me as the little girl like I was, but that's not who I am on the outside… I haven't changed I mean physically yes I have." I tell him and he shakes his head.
"Um… I don't mean to involve myself in this but, Sir, Vincent is happy he's a really good man." She says and he looked to her a bit then back to me.
"You think they are a good person?" He asked and she nods to him and he chuckles.
"He didn't visit my father in the hospital when he was dying, we had to beg him to come, he's not nice…. And my father kept saying 'where is Vinny, where is my Grandson' he comes just after my father died." He says pissed and I looked to him and then down to my lap.
"Explain how he's a good supposed man." My father says and I looked to my father.
"Was he hurt?" She asked him.
"Pardon?"
"Was he hurt when your father died…. Did he cry?" She asked him and he looked to me as I kept my head down a bit.
"He did." He says and I look up to him.
"He loved your father, right?" She asked and he looked to the photo of my grandfather then to me and he nods a bit.
"Wouldn't want to leave the house when he was little… said him and grandpa wanted to stay up all night watching western shows… but he had school in the morning." My father says and I looked to him sadly.
"Don't you think he was devastated when he couldn't make it to his grandfather on time?" She asked and he looked to me and I nodded a bit.
"I… I remember seeing him crying out in the hall…. Couldn't even come in to say goodbye." He says and I look to the side a bit.
"I didn't want to see him like that." I say quietly trying to hold my tears back.
"I didn't want that to be the last image I saw of him… he didn't want that either… why do you think I didn't look at his coffin until it was closed." I say to my dad.
"I… I didn't think of it like that." He says and I nod.
"It's fine." I tell him and we kept quiet for a bit.
"I'll start on dinner." My grandmother says and I looked as Clementine went to help her and I look to my parents a bit and scratched my beard a bit and I clear my throat a bit.
"So, you want to have a family?" My dad asked and I nodded.
"Yea… yea I do." I tell him and he looked to me.
"With Clementine?" He asked and I turn a bit red on this and I take a breath as I place my hand on my mouth and I nod a bit.
"Only if she wants to… after she finishes college of course and when she feels she is ready… but even if we don't work out in the end, I could still have a family with another girl." I say and then look to my father then to my mother.
"Do you really like her?" My mother asked and I nodded and smiled.
"She's amazing, she's kind, caring, everything about her is just… amazing." I tell them.
"She must be." My dad says and I rubbed my neck a bit.
"I'm going to help grandma." I tell them and they nod and I head to the kitchen and I see my grandma teaching Clementine her secret recipe for her pasta dish.
"Wow, grandma telling you her secret recipe, she never told it to Minerva." I say as I come to help.
"Clementine here wanted to know your favorite dish; I'm just teaching her how to make it just like grandma." My grandmother says and I chuckled a bit at this.
"Well, I just came to help, need me to do anything?" I asked.
"Yes, in the garden I need some fresh tomatoes for the salad." She tells me and I nod as I go into the back yard and I get the tomatoes for her. I walked back in and looked to the side to see a picture of my grandmother and grandfather.
"Ah that was taken when you were about three, grandpa wanted to try cooking but he knew it was my job." Grandma jokes and I smiled and I go and wash the tomatoes for her. We were able to finish up on dinner and I went and set the plates on the table along with the silverware. We all sat down and my dad said a prayer and we began eating.
"So, when is your surgery?" My dad asked.
"Got to go in tomorrow at around nine in the morning it'll be for a few hours and then I stay in the hospital for about two weeks to make sure things go right and to be monitored." I tell him and he nods at this. After a while my parents had left and I go and grab our bags from the car and I bring them to my old room in my grandmother's home. My grandmother gave us some extra blankets and towels and I let Clementine use the shower first. After her I went and took my shower then headed to the bedroom and I laid in the bed next to Clementine and I pulled her close to me and I looked to her.
"How do you like my family?" I asked her.
"I love your grandmother, she's very kind, your mother is great too… your father… he's ok to an extent." She says and I nod at this.
"Yea… but I'm glad he didn't drink today." I tell her and she nods. I kissed her head gently and I feel her place her hands on my chest a bit. I look to her and see her blushing and I chuckled.
"You, ok?" I asked her and she nods.
"Yea I'm doing ok." She tells me and I nod at this. She looked to me and I rub her side a bit and I smile at her just a bit and she kisses me and I kissed her back. We pulled apart and we finally go to sleep. Hours passed before I was woken up by my alarm and I tiredly turned it off and I muttered a bit as I got up and got ready for the day. Once I was dressed up, I go over to Clem and I kissed her head as she got up and I smiled to her and she smiled back to me and kissed me and I kissed her back. She then got up and ready and we head into the kitchen, we grabbed something quick to eat and I tell my grandmother that I should be out of surgery in a few hours and if she wanted to visit, I would have Clem pick her up. She agreed and then I headed to the car and I drove to the hospital. Once there I talked to the people for a bit and then they got me ready for the surgery. Once I was given the anesthetic I was down for the count.
"He should be waking up in a bit, oh he's waking up now." I hear and I take in a breath as I open my eyes and take a look around the room a bit and I see a girl sitting next to me and I smiled a bit.
"Hey." I tell the pretty lady.
"Hey yourself…. You doing, ok?" She asked and I nod.
"Yea, I'm doing good… something happened?" I asked.
"Some disorientation or small memory loss might happen don't worry he'll be better in a few hours or so." Another person said and the girl nods and looks back to me and I smiled at her as the person left.
"You're very pretty." I tell the girl.
"Oh, I am?" she asked and I nodded.
"Yea… what's your name?" I asked.
"Clementine." She tells me and I think a bit.
"I have a girlfriend named Clementine." I tell her.
"Oh, you do?" she asked and I nodded.
"Yea she's pretty, like you." I tell her and she smiled at me.
"Well… what if I told I was your girlfriend." She says.
"You are?" I asked and she nods.
"No way." I say as I try to get up but she lays me back down a bit.
"Yes way." She tells me and I look at her.
"Why am I here?" I asked.
"Hmm, you had a surgery." She says and I nod.
"For what?" I asked and she looked to me.
"Well… to help you have a family." She tells me and I look at her.
"Oooooh, ok…. Are we going to have a family?" I asked her.
"One day, if you want." She says and I nod at this.
"Yea?" I asked and she nods and I chuckled a bit and I start to feel a little tired.
"Tired?" She asked and I nod a bit.
"A little, but I want to talk to you." I tell her.
"We can talk more when you are feeling better ok?" she asked and I nod and I close my eyes a bit and fall right back to sleep. When I woke up, I was fully aware and I clear my throat a bit and I looked around the room a bit and I see Clem reading a book an I smile to her.
"Hey." I say and she looked up to me and smiled back.
"Hey, you good?" She asked and I nodded.
"Bit thirsty, and hungry…. Could go for a burger." I joked and she laughed a bit at this and I smiled and lean my head back a bit.
"I can get you something to eat and drink." She says and I nod at this as I closed my eyes a bit as I hear the door open and close. I then hear the door open again and I wake up and I see Brody.
"Brody?" I asked and she nods as she takes a seat next to me and I look to her.
"The entire band is here, we wanted to come earlier but traffic got the better of us." She says and I nod and smile a bit.
"Thanks." I say and I look to her.
"You feeling good?" She asked me and I nod to her.
"Yea a bit sore but that's what is to be expected." I tell her.
"Clem said you were surprised she was your girlfriend." She says and I laughed at this.
"I… barely remember that…. Must have been real funny." I say and Brody nods as she pulls her phone out and she shows me the recording and I laughed a bit at this.
"At one point, you woke up still confused and asked her to flash you, the nurse was in and said that it was rude to ask that and you apologized a lot." She says and I chuckled.
"Sounds like me." I say and I smiled. The door opens and everyone comes in and I sit up a bit more but I felt a bit of pain and I stopped and leaned back a bit.
"Your parents coming?" Louis asked.
"Not sure, but they should be coming sometime in the two weeks I am here." I explained.
"What about your grandma?" Brody asked and I nod.
"She might she has my number to call Clem." I tell them and I lean up a bit and grabbed the water she had for me and I took a drink and she smiled at me as she gives me some food. I talked with everyone for a bit before the nurses came to say visiting hours were over, and I asked if Clementine could stay. She agreed and went to get a cot for Clem and the others hugged me before they left. Clem sat in the chair next to me and I smiled at her.
"Love you." I tell her.
"Love you too." She says and I smiled at her.
-Two Weeks Later-
I was able to get up a bit from the bed, though it did hurt a bit it wasn't as bad as when I had my bottom surgery. The doctors told me I just needed to try and see if I could provide a sample for them and I turned red as they said this in front of Clementine. I nod as they hand me a cup and I rubbed my neck as I headed to the bathroom and did my business and handed them the cup back and I laid back down in the hospital bed.
"Um… hope it worked." I muttered and I feel a hand on top of mine and I look to her and I smile.
"I bet it did." She says and I nod. About twenty minutes passed and the doctor comes in and I rubbed my neck a bit as I looked to them.
"Well… congratulations it was a success." She says and I chuckled a bit at this.
"You'll be sent home in a few hours, we will give you come pain medication you have to finish it even when you don't feel pain, and then you can check up with your primary doctor or give us a call if you need to." She says and I smiled and nodded at this.
"Thank you." I tell her and she nods and I lean back a bit. She then left the room to get me my papers and I look to Clementine and I smiled. A few hours passed and I got the papers and we were able to leave and Clementine had gotten a call as she got in the car. She was talking to her mom saying that we were heading back to my grandmothers, she asked how I was doing and Clementine explained to as she drove the car and I closed my eyes a bit. I didn't open my eyes until we got into my grandmother's driveway and we headed inside. She gave me a hug and I hugged her back.
"How was it the last time I saw you?" She asked.
"It was good… doctor says that it was a success." I tell her and she smiled.
"Oooh, well I hope for some great grandbabies soon." She tells me and I turn red and I rubbed my neck a bit and looked to Clementine who was also blushing.
"Yea, uh… we can try." I muttered and I see my grandmother smile and I chuckled at her and I nod. After a while I had to take my pain medicine after eating that is and I went and relaxed on the couch a bit.
"If you are feeling tired Vinny then you can lay your feet on the couch, your grandfather did that." She tells me and I look to her and smile a bit.
"I'm ok grandma, I need to stay up a bit anyway." I tell her.
"Ooh afraid I'm going to have to convince Clementine to make a husband out of you?" She asked and I coughed a bit at this and she laughed at this and I looked around to not see Clem in the room and I look to my grandmother.
"I uh… she's got school to think about… maybe later on down the road but… you know." I tell her and she nods.
"I know, I'm just messing with you." She says and I look to her.
"I um… just uh… I just want Clementine to do what she needs to do before she has a family… if we stay together that is I mean uh… I hope we stay together." I tell her and she nods.
"Trust me, I can see you and her together for a long time… some roads will be bumpy but you and her will get past them, just like your grandfather and I." She tells me and I look at her.
"You miss him a lot?" I asked and she nods as she grabbed the photo of him on the stand next to the recliner.
"Every day I miss that man, he made me laugh every day, he would go in the garden to pick me a rose, he made me a happy woman." She says to me and I look to her.
"You look a lot like him when he was younger." She says and goes and grabs her old scrapbook and brings it over to me and I look at the photos to see that I did look like my grandfather and I chuckled a bit at this.
"He use to be that small?" I asked and she nodded.
"Yea, then he bulked up when he worked on his father's farm…. Did I ever tell you how he and I met?" she asked and I looked to her.
"You were at your local diner getting a chocolate milkshake with your friends, Grandpa came in with his brothers after his dad gave him some money for working on the farm, and he wanted to treat his siblings… he started to flirt with you after you two looked at each other, and you told me, that you fell in love instantly." I say to her and she smiled and I sighed a bit as I looked to the photo a bit.
"He had a girlfriend at the time, but he and I hung out with me a lot… she got jealous." She says and I smiled as I sat up a bit.
"And she wanted to fight you." I say and she nods and Clementine comes in the room.
"Who fought who?" Clem asked and I look to her and smiled.
"Grandma fought my grandpa's old girlfriend; his old girlfriend was mad that my grandpa was hanging out with my grandma." I explained to Clementine and she laughed a bit at this and I look to my grandma who was smiling at this.
"Oh, it's true, back when I was young my father taught me to fight, he use to fight a lot when he was younger and he thought I would need to protect myself too… anyway she came over as me and Vinny's grandfather were talking and she takes my milkshake and throws it in my face, I got up and punched her in the face, we fought for a bit before Vinny's grandfather pulled me off and yelled at his girlfriend to leave." She says and I chuckled a bit.
"When did you two start dating?" Clem asked her and I got up and grabbed my drink on the table.
"It was a few weeks later, we were at the diner again, got our usual and he asked me out of the blue if I wanted to date him…. I said yes and never regrated saying yes." She tells Clementine and I look at Clem and smiled at her a bit my grandma showed Clementine the photo of my grandfather and she looked to me and I smiled.
"You look exactly like him." She says and I nod then Clem handed the photo back.
"If he could look at you now." My grandmother says and I look to her.
"I… I am sorry I didn't come in time to see him." I tell her.
"I think he understood, you know I would never be mad at you and you know your grandfather wouldn't either." She tells me and I sighed a bit.
"I still regret that day." I tell her and she smiled to me sadly.
"It's ok Vinny." She tells me. I nod a bit and I think a bit.
"So, you will be traveling with the band again?" My grandmother asked and I look at her.
"I might, I am just helping them out for a bit until I can get things figured out." I tell her.
"Fair enough." She tells me and I smile at her.
"So, what do you want to do while we are here?" I asked her.
"Oh, just to sit down and relax, nothing big." She says and I look to her.
"Alright… well I want to at least take you out for dinner a couple of times." I tell her and she nods at this. My grandmother decided she would go to sleep and I give her a hug and she gives Clementine a hug as well then heads to bed. I look over to Clem as she takes a seat next to me and I smile at her.
"Your grandmother is so sweet." She tells me and I nod.
"Yea, she is… hey want to just drive around a bit?" I asked her and she nods and I grabbed my keys and we head into my car and I drive us around a bit.
"You, ok?" I hear and I nod as I think a bit while driving.
"Yea, I'm good… what about you?" I asked her then looked to her.
"Yea I'm fine… I wanted to ask you this but." She tries to say but goes quiet and I look to her then to the road.
"But?" I asked and she sighs a bit.
"Your father…" she says and I look to her a bit then to the road.
"What about him?" I asked as I drove.
"Does he not… I don't think I can word this right." She says and I think a bit.
"Does he not support what I am doing?" I asked her.
"Yea… I mean I don't want to be rude." She says and I nod a bit.
"No, I understand, I mean… he just doesn't understand and I am trying to teach him, he's not use to it but I think he is trying to learn at least and I'll give him credit on that, I never really got to talk to him on it so right now I am trying to do just that." I explain to her. We just drove for a bit and went down a dirt path and just drove more.
"Your dad seems like he wanted you to stay a girl… when you mentioned the surgery." She says and I nod as I lean my head on my hand.
"Yea…. But hey now that I know the surgery-." I was interrupted by a phone call and I answer it.
"Hey Vincent." I hear and I smile.
"Cousin Jane, how are you?" I asked and looked to Clem a bit.
"Doing good, Molly is being an ass but hey." She says then someone else gets on the phone.
"Don't let her lie to you I am an angel." Molly says and I laughed a bit.
"Are you with Grandma?" Molly asked.
"Uh, no not right now, I'm just driving." I tell them.
"Oh ok, your dad called saying you had surgery?" Molly asked.
"Yea I uh… well I mean I can have my own kids now." I tell them.
"Wait really? Like you just got to get laid now." Jane says and I chuckled.
"Hey my girlfriend is in the car." I tell them.
"Girlfriend, who?" Molly asked.
"I'll introduce everyone in a few days, proper introductions you know." I tell them.
"Alright, well we wanted to say hi, also Aunt Karen is being a bitch so yea." Jane tells me.
"Yea when is she not? Anyway, I'll talk to you two later." I tell them and we all hang up and I pull over by a lake and I lean the seat back a bit and look to Clementine who does the same.
"Well, your cousins are hyper hu?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yea, Jane was adopted into our family when she was thirteen, Molly is my real cousin." I explained to her and she nods.
"So why are we here?" She asked and I think.
"It's nice, and romantic." I tell her and I look to her as she looked back to me.
"So, when can you…. You know?" She asked and I think.
"Well, they didn't say but if I was able to… you know… in a cup then I should be able to have sex now." I tell her and she looked to the ceiling and I sighed a bit.
"Look, I know my family was… they're joking around." I say and she looked to me.
"I… I just." She tries to say something and I get up a bit and look at her.
"Does it make you uncomfortable?" I asked her and she sighs a bit and rubs her face and looks to me.
"No… I mean… it's just reminding me of the shit Gabe was saying." She tells me and I look to her.
"You know I wouldn't ask you to-."
"No… I know I'm young to be thinking about it but in all honesty… I wouldn't mind." She says and I was a bit shocked at this.
"I meant what I said when Gabe was being an ass… if we last long enough to want a family I wouldn't mind it, though I do want to finish college." She tells me and I nod.
"Yea of course… I would never." I tell her and she nods.
"…. But." She says and I look to her a bit and she leans close to me and kisses me and I kissed her back.
"But?" I asked.
"I wouldn't mind helping you test it out." She says and I chuckled a bit at this and look to her.
"Only when you think you're ready, like really ready." I tell her and she nods and kisses me again and I kissed her back.