Life After High School-Ten Years Later

By Risty Maskell and Silver15

Disclaimer: We own nothing.

Summary: No comment. Read the damn thing.

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(Kane's POV)

We were only staying in Hobbiton for one night, because the next morning we were riding back to Rivendell to stay with Billee, Legolas and Elrond for a few days. I hoped that Colan would be there too, because he's really nice. But sometimes he stays with his girlfriend. Her name is Wendy and she is a hobbit, but she's really nice. Mum told me that those two used to play together as children, before Billee and the others left Hobbiton to go home to Rivendell. Apparently no one had objected to it, because mum told me that Billee and Jaime had sort of made friends again. They weren't great friends, but they spoke on the phone sometimes and occasionally Billee and Legolas came to visit Jaime. They were still better friends with mummy though.

Dad and Benny said they were going to play cards so I asked if I could go out for a while. Dad hesitated for a moment and I thought that he was going to say no. Then he beckoned to me to come closer and knelt down so that we were face to face.

"Do you want to go and play with Ria?" he asked. For a moment I thought about lying, and he must have sensed that. "The truth, Kane." He said firmly. "You don't have to lie to me, you know that."

"I know," I agreed. "Yes, yes I do."

"Just an hour or so couldn't hurt, Damon" Benny said, sticking up for me. I held my breath, if anyone could make dad change his mind it was Benny. "The kid needs to meet more people of his own age."

"Yeah, but Jaime's kid" Dad said slowly. "You know how much Jaime and Frodo hate me, Benny. And Emma and I both agreed that we would have nothing more to do with them. I don't want them trying to turn Kane against me."

"They'd never do that dad" I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him, burying my face in his jacket. "You're the best dad in the whole world. And besides, I wouldn't listen to anything she said anyway. Mum told me that she tried to take me away from her. I'll just go to Ria's house and ask her if she wants to come out to play."

"Well, alright" Dad agreed. "But don't listen to anything Jaime has to say. She's a liar son, and she can't be trusted."

"Got you" I ran for the door before he could change his mind. "I'll be back before it gets dark!" I called, before slipping out of the door.

I went to Ria's house and knocked on the door. When Ria opened it, she looked pleased to see me.

"You want to come out for a bit?" I asked. "Just until it gets dark."

"Okay" She held the door open and stepped back. "Just come inside for a moment, while I ask mum and get ready."

I went in, looking around me as Ria led me to the kitchen. Their house was quite nice, kind of cosy looking. I noticed that as well as having lots of baby photos on the walls; there were also quite a few of Jaime and my mum when they were in High School.

"Mum?" Ria stuck her head around the kitchen door. "Can I go out to play? I'll be back before it gets dark."

"I guess so" I heard her mother reply. "Who will you be with?"

"Kane" Ria replied and I heard Jaime sigh. Another voice, Ria's father I assumed, added to the conversation.

"I don't know a Kane…" he began, then paused. "Jaime, she doesn't mean…Emma's son?"

"Yes" Jaime said quietly. I had to strain my ears to hear. "But Emma isn't here, at least I don't think she is. Damon is though, and Benny. I saw them earlier, but they didn't have much to say to me. Emma wouldn't either, you know that."

"Jaime, it's been ten years since you last spoke" Frodo said gently. "Don't you think that this has gone on long enough?"

"The last time I spoke to her," Jaime said with a sigh. "She told me that she hated me and that she wished I'd burn in hell. Then she said that if I couldn't accept Damon, then our friendship was over. And even now, I still can't accept him. He's evil, Frodo. There's something in his eyes, something I don't understand, and it scares me. He scares me."

Their voices trailed off and Ria came downstairs, ready to go out.

"You coming?" she asked. I nodded and we left the house. I was glad that I hadn't had to speak to her parents. How dare they talk about my dad like that? Who did they think they were? To me it just confirmed what dad had said about Jamie, she was a liar. But her daughter was really nice…

We wandered around town for a bit, then went and sat by the lake for a while, until it began to get dark. During that time, we talked about all sorts of things. At first we talked about our brothers and sisters. I have a brother called Vincent, who is eight and a right pain in the backside, and a baby sister who is just a year old. Her name is Crystal and she is really cute, but she screams a lot and she can't play games like us. All she likes to do is crawl around and pull things out of cupboards. But after a while, we began to talk about more serious things. Ria asked where I lived and I told her all about Silverwood and how beautiful it was. Then she asked if I knew why her mum was so afraid of my dad. I told her that I didn't know, all I knew was that both of my parents really hated her because at the wedding, when there had been that fight, Jaime had refused to give me to my mum. Ria hadn't heard all of that before; I think she was quite shocked by it. After that, she switched the subject and asked whether I saw my real father. I told her that I didn't, because every time my mum had tried to make an arrangement with him, he had always cancelled it. He didn't even send me regular Christmas or birthdays cards, so when I was eight, I had told mum that I didn't want to see him any more, that I wanted Damon to be my only dad. I didn't want a part time dad, I explained, I wanted a full time one.

When it was beginning to get dark, we had almost run out of things to say, so we got up and I said that I was walk her home.

"You're going tomorrow, aren't you?" she said as we said goodnight outside her front door. I nodded.

"Yeah" I said. "First thing tomorrow morning. But maybe I'll be able to come down here again sometime."

"I'd like that" she replied. Then she leant forward and kissed me on the cheek. "Goodnight, Kane" she said as she hurried indoors.

I stood there for a moment, until the front door had shut behind he, then turned and began the walk back to the inn.