Life After High School. Is It Scary? You Bet.

By Risty Maskell and Silver15

Disclaimer: We own nothing. Damn.

Summary: I can't tell you. I'm brain dead.

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(Emma's POV)

The night after the memorial, I woke up to the sound of Colan crying in my ear. The poor little guy was really scared of something, he was trembling and his PJ's were soaked with sweat. I asked him what was wrong, but he just shook his head, crying too hard to speak. I nudged Boromir and he opened his eyes and gave a yawn.

"It's early," he muttered. "Go back to sleep, Emma"

"Move up" I gave him a gentle kick in the leg. "Colan's getting in"

"Oh right" He moved to the edge of the bed and promptly fell asleep again. Men! I lifted Colan up and helped him in next to me. He cuddled against me and stopped crying.

"What happened Colan?" I asked gently. "Did you have a bad dream?"

"I…I dreamed that I was all by myself" Colan answered with a sniff. "And my old daddy was there. He tried to take me away, and then Marcus came and tried to take me too. But old daddy was…being mean and Marcus was…all dead. I didn't want to go with them, but they kept…chasing me"

"Oh Colan" I hugged him tightly. "Your dad will never take you away. Ever. Elrond will make sure of that"

"Elrond is my daddy now" He muttered sleepily. "He's nice" He paused for a moment then looked up at me, his thumb approaching his mouth again. "Emma, do ghosts exist?"

"No Colan, they don't," I told him. He looked puzzled.

"But Jaime told you that she saw Mark's ghost" he said. "Was she lying?"

"No, not really" I told him, stroking his hair. "Sometimes, when people are really upset, they see things that aren't there" I did believe Jaime, if she said she saw Mark's ghost then she did. But it seemed that Colan had overheard us and it had had quite an effect on him. If telling him that ghosts didn't exist made him feel better, then great.

Colan stared at me for a minute, trying to work out if I was telling the truth. "Okay then" he said finally. With that, he put his head on the pillow next to mine and fell into a deep sleep. 

In the next week or so, things gradually got back to normal. I think that having the memorial service and seeing Mark's 'ghost', really helped Jaime. Although she still got upset now and again, she was finally coming to terms with his death. I just wished that Billee and Damon could do the same, but I knew that things were slightly different in Billee's case. If Marcus hadn't died, all the other stuff wouldn't have happened. And because of that, Billee feels angry with his brother for leaving him alone to deal with the aftermath of his death. Marcus took the easy way out and both Billee and Colan have suffered because of his decision. But they coped well with it all. Benny's ribs were healing fast and from the sounds of it, Jaime's parents were getting the treatment they deserved. Things were looking up.

As for me, I was now six and a half months gone. I hadn't put on a great deal of weight, which was quite worrying, but I could feel the baby kicking a lot. I was having regular check ups and everything seemed to be going fine, although I was advised to get a lot of rest. Benny said that they wouldn't let me give birth naturally, because if I started losing blood, it could be really dangerous for the baby and me. Which reminded me that I needed to ask him something.

One sunny afternoon, we were all sitting around in the garden just taking it easy. When Damon went inside to get a drink, I went over and sat next to Benny.

"I want to ask you something," I said slowly. "Boromir and I have talked about this and he agrees that it would be a good idea"

"What would?" he looked bemused. "Tell me"

"I know you aren't officially a doctor" I blurted out. "But you know all the medical terms and stuff and you know what you are doing. So, we were wondering, since I don't trust doctors, could you be in the room with us? Just so we could have someone who would explain what was going on and that"

Benny looked completely amazed, for a moment he was lost for words. Then suddenly he began to smile.

"Emma" he said taking my hand. "I would be honoured"

Things certainly were getting back to normal. Colan's birthday was in a week's time and Billee wanted to give him a small party. I only hoped that things would continue to go okay for a while longer…