Okay, let me start by saying, I freaking love Halloween! Well, Fall in general. I love the leaves! And the Thanksgiving feast that is soon to come, and then Christmas, which is really my favorite time is after that! Sorry, I went pumpkin picking today and am still hopped up on the sugar from the caramel apples and apple cider and such. And I no longer have a cold! Yay for me! Although, I got rained on at my school's football game yesterday....and then I was freezing, but I held out like a true fan. But the result of this is that I may get sick again. But oh well, it was a fun game at least.
HateToSayIToldYouSo: Is stalkery a word? And you're right. Sandy would suck at being a secret agent. Then again so would I.
And Phaze: No, I really don't get tired of being perfect, but thanks for asking.
Disclaimer: Oh, right. Not mine.
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Sandy wanted to smack himself in the head. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He should have left her room to talk to Caleb.
"Honey," Sandy said slowly. "Calm down, okay? Don't get yourself all worked up."
"Sandy," Kirsten said equally as slowly. "Tell me what the hell is going on. Did my father kill Dave Atwood?" Sandy sighed and sat down heavily in the chair next to her bed and took her hand in his.
"He didn't kill him, exactly," Sandy said cryptically and Kirsten, as he knew she would, pulled her hand away frustrated.
"What does that mean? Exactly?"
"He set it up. I don't know how exactly he did, but as far as I can tell, he paid off some people to make it look like Dave was killed by in a police shootout."
"Did he tell you this?" Kirsten asked. Her eyes were wide with shock and Sandy told himself one more time what an idiot he was. His main goal in life was to protect his wife and sons. To make things better for all three. But somehow in the past few days, he had failed at that miserably. He had failed to protect Kirsten physically, and now he was failing to protect her emotionally. She adored her father. It was going to kill her that he had done something this terrible. Sure, he had done it for her, but Sandy knew that wasn't going to make a difference to her.
"Well, when I confronted him about it he said that I was crazy..."
"Of course he did! Of course you are!" Kirsten interrupted. No, her father was capable of many things, but she truly believed that he was not capable of murder.
"Honey, let me finish. When he was leaving, he said something about people will do anything if you give them the right incentive." Kirsten covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head slightly.
"You think he did it?"
"Yes, I do," Sandy said. "For you. I think he did it for you. I always said that I would kill for you too, but Caleb just sort of beat me to the punch." He tried to smile a little, but she was staring a point straight ahead, and Sandy saw the distance in her eyes. He took her hand and held it tightly.
"You wouldn't have...." She said softly. "But he did. Oh God. Oh God." Tears began to stream down her face. Sandy placed a gentle hand on her face to try to wipe away her tears. "I'm going to be sick." Sandy had just enough time to grab a bucket before Kirsten began to throw up. She clutched at her side, and Sandy was terrified that she would pull out her stitches again. He held her hair back and rubbed her back. She fell back against the bed exhausted.
"Honey, please calm down," Sandy pleaded.
"He killed someone," Kirsten sobbed as Sandy sat down on the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her. Sandy held her close and stroked her hair.
"It's going to be okay," he whispered in her ear.
"How?" She asked turning to him, tears still running down her face. "My father paid to have a man killed." Sandy didn't know what else to say, so he didn't say anything, he just held her and waited for her tears to subside.
"Sandy," Kirsten said suddenly.
"What sweetheart?"
"Ryan can't know about this. He can't ever find out," she insisted. "It's too much. It's too much for anyone to have to deal with it. Promise me that you will do everything that you can to make sure that he doesn't find out."
"I promise," Sandy whispered. "He won't ever find out."
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Caleb came into the hospital with a bouquet of flowers for his daughter. Sandy had told Julie when she called that Kirsten could go home the next day. Caleb had breathed a sigh of relief when this was announced. His daughter could go home.
He did not regret what he had done. That man had hurt Kirsten, and that was just not acceptable. No one touched a hair on either of Caleb Nichol's daughters' heads. So he had gotten in touch with some of the high officials in the police force that he knew. It was easy to get a gun into Dave Atwood's possession, much easier than Caleb thought it would be. He had every intention of having someone slip it into Dave's pockets later, but Dave had taken care of it for him. Somehow he had gotten the gun in the time from when he left his house and the time that he was gunned down. This fact also made Caleb even more relieved that he had taken the initiative. Would Dave have gone back to Kirsten and Sandy's house? Caleb didn't want to have to take that chance.
He arrived at Kirsten's door and knocked lightly and found Sandy holding Kirsten's hand as they talked quietly.
"Dad," Kirsten looked surprised to see him. Hadn't he told Sandy that he was going to come visit her? Hadn't Sandy passed that message along?
"Kiki, how are you feeling?" Kirsten fought an internal battle inside herself. Did she say something to her father? Or did she pretend that she didn't know? But how could she pretend that she didn't know?
"Fine now," she answered shortly.
"Did I miss something?" Caleb asked picking up immediately on his daughter's icy demeanor towards him. "Have I done something wrong?" Sandy closed his eyes. This was not going to be pretty.
"Funny you should ask," Kirsten said. "You killed Dave Atwood? Dad, how could you?" Caleb shot a look at Sandy, and then turned back to his daughter.
"I didn't," Caleb said feigning innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know what your husband told you, but I did not have anyone killed."
"Dad," Kirsten said softly. "How could you?"
"I didn't," Caleb kept his cool. "But if I had, I can tell you why. For you. Because he hurt you. Because you ended up in the hospital and we were all afraid that we would lose you. Because you are your mother, and I miss her, and I couldn't stand to have to live without you. None of us could live without you. And so if I had anything to do with his death, I would not regret it. You are the most important thing in the world to me, to Sandy, to your sons, and the man who hurt you, who made us have to imagine a world without you, deserved whatever he had coming to him. So no, Kirsten, I didn't, but if I had something to do with it, it would be because of those reasons, because of you." Both Kirsten and Sandy were rendered speechless.
"I'm sorry," Kirsten finally spoke up. "I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you Sandy when you told me to turn around. I'm sorry that a man is dead because I'm stubborn. I'm sorry that I don't believe that you had nothing to do with it Dad, and I'm sorry that you had to that." Kirsten began to cry and buried her head in her hands. "I'm sorry for Ryan, and I'm sorry for you Dad, and I'm sorry Sandy that you had to deal with all of this. This is my fault." Sandy moved closer to her and pulled her into his arms.
"It's not your fault," Sandy whispered as he held her. "You did what you thought was right. You didn't expect any of this to happen." Caleb moved closer to his daughter and placed a hand on her arm.
"I'm sorry Daddy," Kirsten sobbed as Sandy released her into Caleb's arms. Caleb ran a hand up and down her back and held his daughter as she wept.
"Don't be sorry," Caleb whispered. "If I do it all again, I wouldn't change anything. Please, don't be sorry. I have...to...I have to go." He handed her back to Sandy and left in a hurry.
"You must have been so scared," Kirsten said as she calmed down. Sandy held her tightly. "God, I'm so sorry."
"I was out of my mind," Sandy admitted. "But it's okay. You're okay now. None of what followed was your fault. You did the right thing. We needed to get Ryan out of that house, and you got him out of that house."
"But his father....and my father...." She trailed off, and Sandy noticed that though she was done crying, she was still shaking. He rubbed her back and pushed her hair from off her face.
"Please stop shaking baby," he pleaded. "It's okay, okay? It's all okay now." And it was the first time that Sandy realized that Ryan wasn't the only one who would have some serious mental and emotional obstacles to overcome.
He had been so busy worrying about Ryan's emotional stability, that he didn't even notice that Kirsten's usually strong exterior was breaking down.
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Ryan started to head out to the pool house when Seth's voice stopped him.
"Where you going buddy?" Seth asked.
"The pool house," Ryan answered.
"No, nope, the pool house is so four weeks ago," Seth answered. "Instead, we have a lovely room upstairs prepared for your arrival." Ryan stopped. They wanted him to move inside the house?
"What?"
"Mom said that she wanted you inside when she got home," Seth said shrugging. "And right now, Dad is so happy that she's okay that he would do anything for her, not that that's not normal, he will always do anything for her. But no, she's milking the sickness, not that I can blame her, I would too. But not the point, the point is that Dad called on the way home and said that you were to have the bedroom next to mine and that sometime soon, after all the madness calms down, we can go out and pick out new furniture for it and new paint." Ryan was still in shock. A bedroom in the house?
"Your mom said that she wanted me inside?" Ryan asked disbelieving.
"Dude, she was adamant about it. She said that the pool house was for guests, and that you were her son and she was not going to have her son in the pool house." Seth shrugged it off, but the words kept swimming around Ryan's head. Her son. She called him her son. She had almost died protecting him, and now she was calling him her son. "Is this okay with you?" Seth asked not seeing much of a readable reaction on Ryan's face. "Cause I know that she's all frail and stuff still and we should tend to her every whim, but if you want your privacy or something and want to stay in the pool house then we can tell her no."
"No, no, don't tell her no. It's fine," Ryan said. Seth nodded and led the way up the stairs to the room next to his.
"Like I said, Dad said that we can go out and pick out new paint and stuff," Seth said looking into the spare bedroom.
"This is fine," Ryan said waving a hand around. He had a room inside the house. Where Kirsten had wanted him. It occurred to him that he always ended up where Kirsten wanted him. When he first arrived it was the pool house, and now it was here. Inside the house. With his family.
"Dude, it's pink. No way is this fine. Pink is girly."
"But it's not an awful shade of pink," Ryan tried to argue.
"It's still pink. There is no good shade of pink." Ryan looked at Seth and raised an eyebrow.
"Really, Seth, you need to think outside the lines of stereotypical gender roles," Ryan teased. He placed the first box and pulled out a framed picture. He set it on top of the dresser.
He smiled as he glanced at it. The Chrismakkah picture for the cards that Kirsten insisted on sending out, even though Sandy and Seth had whined continuously for days.
"Please Mom, no! No holiday cards! No, no, no!"
"Seth, come on, we have to send out holiday cards, it's what people do."
"So let's go against the norm, let's be rebels. Don't you want to be a rebel Dad?" Seth spun around and looked at Sandy for some back up.
"Yes, son I want to be a rebel. If being a rebel means that I don't have to pose for a Chrismakkah card." Kirsten had moved over to where her husband was sitting and reading the paper and leaned down and kissed his neck.
"But I thought that I could be leaning back against you with your arms around me," Kirsten started as she kissed his neck. "By the fireplace, and then after the picture was taken, maybe we could go upstairs and...."
"Mom!" Seth cried out. "Please! We'll take the picture okay? Just...don't talk anymore." Seth shuddered.
"I'm going to go upstairs, and maybe pick out what I'm going to wear," she said kissing Sandy's neck one more time. "Maybe you'd like to join me?"
"I'm coming," Sandy answered quickly. When Kirsten smirked and left the room, Seth glared at his father.
"Dad! What happened to being a rebel?"
"Son, there are some things more important than being a rebel. And your mother waiting upstairs for me, is one of those things."
Ryan laughed looking at the picture now.
"What are you laughing at?" Seth asked dropping off the next box of clothes.
"Nothing," Ryan said turning around. Just laughing about something my family did, he added mentally in his head.
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So Kirsten's falling apart? Hmmm, intriguing. Please review and let me know what you thought! You guys are super duper awesome!