Okay, I want to thank each and every one of you for being so welcoming with
this story, even though it isn't what you expected in the beginning, but I
promise you it will get better sooner or later, but everything has to get
worse right? For all of you wondering, Briana is Lauren's daughter too,
Lauren is dead, I believe you find out how she died in this chapter
actually, so please let me know what you think of it.
[3]
It was time to face reality; I have to find somewhere where my 6-year-old daughter and I can spend the night. She has always been brought up with the best of the best thanks to Lauren's need to give her everything we didn't have as children, and sleeping in the car is not a possibility, I refuse to do that to her, if it comes down to that, I will rent a room at a cheap hotel, just someplace she can sleep for the night, but Weiss has always offered me his couch, I just hope that's still a possibility, because even a couch sounds good right now; the last sleep I had gotten was on the plane, and plane seats are not the most comfortable things to sleep in.
Briana asked to go home, home was a house we no longer own in London, one I had put on the market the day after Lauren's death, after we spread her ashes over her parents estate, her favorite place in the world. I uprooted my daughter from the only home she had known, where all the memories of her mother lay, and flew her on a plane halfway across the world back to a relationship that no longer existed.
And now I regret causing my daughter all of the extra pain that moving her away from the life she knew caused. But it will be okay, we will make a new life, whether here or somewhere else, I do not know, but it will be new and we will create new memories, moments and times, just my daughter and I.
I see a phone booth and smoothly drift to the curb, careful not to wake Bri up as I slowly lift myself out of the car and to the phone booth. I have my cell phone on me, but I want to make sure that Weiss still lives in the same apartment complex before I go over there and let myself in, and find out it's no longer his. There's a phone book inside the phone booth, and I quickly thumb through it.
Weiss, Eric. 104 Beach St. Apt. #47. Yes. Same place. Placing it back on the shelf, I jump back into the car and once again smoothly drive it back out into the traffic of the LA streets. Briana begins to wake, but quickly returns to the dreams she had been having. The apartment complex isn't too far away, it will only take a few minutes, and I'm kind of nervous because he will be the first person in LA to see me in eight years. I hadn't kept in contact with anyone except my mother and occasionally Dixon, but I would make sure Dixon didn't tell anyone that he had heard from me. But with that came the downside: that because I wouldn't let him tell anyone how I had been doing, he wouldn't give me information on anyone, most notably Sydney, and not knowing what had been going on slowly made me mad.
Lauren had realized that even after eight years and half a world, I wasn't over Sydney, and that had been what the few fights we ever had over the years were about: Sydney. That's what caused her death. We had been fighting over me not being over Sydney, when she had stormed out and apparently went to see Sark. He shot her. One bullet clear through her head. And Briana lost her mother. And her life along with it.
But now I am trying to make a new life for her, a life she will enjoy as much as our past life and hopefully a little more. We will rebuild our life here, the life that collapsed in around us mere days ago when my wife, Briana's mother had been killed by her ex-lover who had been in a fit of rage that she had still been with me. And the first thing I did had been to sell our home, get our belongings put into storage until we found a new home, and flew halfway across the world in hopes of rekindling a relationship with a woman I hadn't seen, heard of or from in eight years. And now I sit in the parking lot of my best friend's apartment complex hoping he'll let my daughter and I stay with him. When is my life going to get normal?
Carefully shifting Briana's weight into my arms, I grab the one duffel bag we brought with us on this trek across the world; I stand up and out of the car and start walking towards the entrance into the lobby. I never expected to get so many weird looks walking through a lobby with my daughter, but of course with the way everything is now, it's expected. So I quickly walk across the lobby towards the elevator, not even attempting to try the stairs, especially carrying Bri. As soon as I get to his floor, I wonder, do Syd and Seth live in her apartment? Did they move in there? Is she still so close, but as far away as she's ever been?
Briana breaks me out of my doomed thoughts, ones that would lead to my ultimate downfall. "Daddy?" She stirs and looks up at my eyes, rubbing hers in the process. "Where are we?"
"We're at my friend's house Bri, so just hold on a second and you'll be able to sleep again sweetie." She nestles into my shoulder, as I will myself to walk past Sydney's door, and onto Weiss' apartment, extracting my keys from my pocket and hoping that in the last eight years he hasn't changed the locks, or I am screwed. The key is the most noticeable thing I've ever seen; the key itself is normal size and shape, but the color is something else; Weiss got it coated on the outside with tie-dye coloring and little hockey sticks; you wouldn't be able to not notice it.
Holding the key in my left hand, and Bri on my right side, I insert the key into the lock, and turn, hoping that the door would pop open, and am relieved when it did and I was able to walk into the apartment. It is as if I have just gone back eight years in the past; the entire apartment is identical to what it had been the last time I had been there, including having to clear the couch of dirty clothes and crumbs of food so I could lay Briana down. Instantly, she molds into it and drifts off again. It was the most comfortable damn thing you can ever sleep on, I, myself have slept on it numerous times, and wish I could have it in place of my bed.
"Goodnight daddy," she murmurs as she shifts until she is on her side and can look at me, a slight smile on her face, "Sweet dreams."
"Sweet dreams Briana Kelly Vaughn. Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite." That is our ritual. Every night, I have to call her by her full name and tell her not to let the bed bugs bite, and on nights when she isn't super exhausted like tonight, she says back, 'They won't bite me daddy, I'm too sweet.' It is our game. Hers and mine. Her mother would tuck her in, but she wouldn't go to sleep until I would come in and do that. When I was away, Lauren would get her on the phone, even when I was in the middle of a mission, my daughter would always come first.
I collapse to the floor in front of Weiss' couch, leaning my arm right next to Briana's body, my head against my knees as I try to do everything in my power to forget what I have seen tonight, what I have heard. Before I know what is happening, a wet tongue is licking my face. "Donovan?" I whisper. My little bulldog had been staying with Weiss while I was gone, and he wags his tail as I stroke him in all his favorite places. "Hey buddy. It's good to see you again Donovan, it's been a while, hasn't it buddy? I'm sorry I had to leave you, but Lauren wouldn't let me bring you with us. Briana's going to love you when she wakes up, I know it, she always wanted a dog, but Lauren wouldn't let her have one. But she can have you now, can't she boy?"
The front door opens, and I freeze. Briana and I have been caught. It is after midnight, and we have been here close to an hour, and I am afraid of Weiss' reaction when he sees me.
"Who's here?" Weiss yells, and I hear him cock his gun, and I realize I didn't re-lock the door; he probably thinks someone has broken into the apartment. "Whoever you are, put your hands on your head, and start explaining exactly why you are in my apartment."
My hands go to the back of my head, and I stand up, just hoping that Weiss doesn't wake up Briana, because really, on top of a pissed off best friend, I really don't need a grouchy six-year-old on my hands too.
And Weiss keeps on walking in, and I know when he sees me, because I hear the gun clatter to the ground, and his voice comes out raspy, "Mike?"
TBC...
~&~&~
[3]
It was time to face reality; I have to find somewhere where my 6-year-old daughter and I can spend the night. She has always been brought up with the best of the best thanks to Lauren's need to give her everything we didn't have as children, and sleeping in the car is not a possibility, I refuse to do that to her, if it comes down to that, I will rent a room at a cheap hotel, just someplace she can sleep for the night, but Weiss has always offered me his couch, I just hope that's still a possibility, because even a couch sounds good right now; the last sleep I had gotten was on the plane, and plane seats are not the most comfortable things to sleep in.
Briana asked to go home, home was a house we no longer own in London, one I had put on the market the day after Lauren's death, after we spread her ashes over her parents estate, her favorite place in the world. I uprooted my daughter from the only home she had known, where all the memories of her mother lay, and flew her on a plane halfway across the world back to a relationship that no longer existed.
And now I regret causing my daughter all of the extra pain that moving her away from the life she knew caused. But it will be okay, we will make a new life, whether here or somewhere else, I do not know, but it will be new and we will create new memories, moments and times, just my daughter and I.
I see a phone booth and smoothly drift to the curb, careful not to wake Bri up as I slowly lift myself out of the car and to the phone booth. I have my cell phone on me, but I want to make sure that Weiss still lives in the same apartment complex before I go over there and let myself in, and find out it's no longer his. There's a phone book inside the phone booth, and I quickly thumb through it.
Weiss, Eric. 104 Beach St. Apt. #47. Yes. Same place. Placing it back on the shelf, I jump back into the car and once again smoothly drive it back out into the traffic of the LA streets. Briana begins to wake, but quickly returns to the dreams she had been having. The apartment complex isn't too far away, it will only take a few minutes, and I'm kind of nervous because he will be the first person in LA to see me in eight years. I hadn't kept in contact with anyone except my mother and occasionally Dixon, but I would make sure Dixon didn't tell anyone that he had heard from me. But with that came the downside: that because I wouldn't let him tell anyone how I had been doing, he wouldn't give me information on anyone, most notably Sydney, and not knowing what had been going on slowly made me mad.
Lauren had realized that even after eight years and half a world, I wasn't over Sydney, and that had been what the few fights we ever had over the years were about: Sydney. That's what caused her death. We had been fighting over me not being over Sydney, when she had stormed out and apparently went to see Sark. He shot her. One bullet clear through her head. And Briana lost her mother. And her life along with it.
But now I am trying to make a new life for her, a life she will enjoy as much as our past life and hopefully a little more. We will rebuild our life here, the life that collapsed in around us mere days ago when my wife, Briana's mother had been killed by her ex-lover who had been in a fit of rage that she had still been with me. And the first thing I did had been to sell our home, get our belongings put into storage until we found a new home, and flew halfway across the world in hopes of rekindling a relationship with a woman I hadn't seen, heard of or from in eight years. And now I sit in the parking lot of my best friend's apartment complex hoping he'll let my daughter and I stay with him. When is my life going to get normal?
Carefully shifting Briana's weight into my arms, I grab the one duffel bag we brought with us on this trek across the world; I stand up and out of the car and start walking towards the entrance into the lobby. I never expected to get so many weird looks walking through a lobby with my daughter, but of course with the way everything is now, it's expected. So I quickly walk across the lobby towards the elevator, not even attempting to try the stairs, especially carrying Bri. As soon as I get to his floor, I wonder, do Syd and Seth live in her apartment? Did they move in there? Is she still so close, but as far away as she's ever been?
Briana breaks me out of my doomed thoughts, ones that would lead to my ultimate downfall. "Daddy?" She stirs and looks up at my eyes, rubbing hers in the process. "Where are we?"
"We're at my friend's house Bri, so just hold on a second and you'll be able to sleep again sweetie." She nestles into my shoulder, as I will myself to walk past Sydney's door, and onto Weiss' apartment, extracting my keys from my pocket and hoping that in the last eight years he hasn't changed the locks, or I am screwed. The key is the most noticeable thing I've ever seen; the key itself is normal size and shape, but the color is something else; Weiss got it coated on the outside with tie-dye coloring and little hockey sticks; you wouldn't be able to not notice it.
Holding the key in my left hand, and Bri on my right side, I insert the key into the lock, and turn, hoping that the door would pop open, and am relieved when it did and I was able to walk into the apartment. It is as if I have just gone back eight years in the past; the entire apartment is identical to what it had been the last time I had been there, including having to clear the couch of dirty clothes and crumbs of food so I could lay Briana down. Instantly, she molds into it and drifts off again. It was the most comfortable damn thing you can ever sleep on, I, myself have slept on it numerous times, and wish I could have it in place of my bed.
"Goodnight daddy," she murmurs as she shifts until she is on her side and can look at me, a slight smile on her face, "Sweet dreams."
"Sweet dreams Briana Kelly Vaughn. Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite." That is our ritual. Every night, I have to call her by her full name and tell her not to let the bed bugs bite, and on nights when she isn't super exhausted like tonight, she says back, 'They won't bite me daddy, I'm too sweet.' It is our game. Hers and mine. Her mother would tuck her in, but she wouldn't go to sleep until I would come in and do that. When I was away, Lauren would get her on the phone, even when I was in the middle of a mission, my daughter would always come first.
I collapse to the floor in front of Weiss' couch, leaning my arm right next to Briana's body, my head against my knees as I try to do everything in my power to forget what I have seen tonight, what I have heard. Before I know what is happening, a wet tongue is licking my face. "Donovan?" I whisper. My little bulldog had been staying with Weiss while I was gone, and he wags his tail as I stroke him in all his favorite places. "Hey buddy. It's good to see you again Donovan, it's been a while, hasn't it buddy? I'm sorry I had to leave you, but Lauren wouldn't let me bring you with us. Briana's going to love you when she wakes up, I know it, she always wanted a dog, but Lauren wouldn't let her have one. But she can have you now, can't she boy?"
The front door opens, and I freeze. Briana and I have been caught. It is after midnight, and we have been here close to an hour, and I am afraid of Weiss' reaction when he sees me.
"Who's here?" Weiss yells, and I hear him cock his gun, and I realize I didn't re-lock the door; he probably thinks someone has broken into the apartment. "Whoever you are, put your hands on your head, and start explaining exactly why you are in my apartment."
My hands go to the back of my head, and I stand up, just hoping that Weiss doesn't wake up Briana, because really, on top of a pissed off best friend, I really don't need a grouchy six-year-old on my hands too.
And Weiss keeps on walking in, and I know when he sees me, because I hear the gun clatter to the ground, and his voice comes out raspy, "Mike?"
TBC...
~&~&~