She opened her eyes slowly—the roomhad gone cold during the night and the fire had long since died. It was almost daybreak now—the long night was over, she hoped. "Caleb?" she said quietly as he came into the room with firewood in his arms.
"I didn't want to wake you," he said quietly as he filled the large fireplace and then searched for the matches he had in his pocket.
"It's ok," she said as she got up from the chaise lounge that Caleb had moved her to at one point. She walked slowly to the large windows and took in the purple haze that introduced the land to a new day. "I've always loved sunrises here. This is the first time we've been here under bad circumstances—we didn't come here when we lost Amelia. We almost lost Tara," she sighed, trying to keep herself from crying.
"We're not going to have to watch any of our children leave us again, Olivia."
"What do you mean by that?" she said as she turned to face him and saw movement from Tara's bed—immediately forgetting what Caleb just said. "Tara sweetie, are you ok?" she said, running over to the side of the bed and taking her hand.
"Mama?"
"Hey," smiled Livvie brightly.
"Kate—is she ok?"
"She's fine—she's back in Port Charles with her family. Everyone is just fine," she said as she sat down on the bed beside her daughter and began telling her all that had happened.
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Leslie walked into the kitchen and kept her head down—she hadn't slept at all last night—her full name being yelled at her still ringing in her ears. She grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and poured some cereal, going to sit down across from Noah at the table with her parents sitting on each side.
There was silence until Noah made a slurping noise from drinking his milk from his bowl, "Can I be excused?" he asked in his small voice and Jasmine smiled and nodded to him as he hopped down, taking his bowl to the kitchen sink and then running off down the hall to his room.
"Leslie—we have to talk," she said quietly.
"I know what you are going to say. You are going to say your ashamed and disappointed in me. You don't love me anymore and are going to send me back to Port Charles, right?"
"You are completely wrong, sweetie. We were happy you wanted to try and protect both Kate and Tara, but you have to realize something—not all vampires are as easy to deal with like Caleb. Even Caleb wasn't easy to deal with in the beginning. What your two dads and I want is you to be a child still—be a child as long as you possibly can. You're growing up so fast already—don't grow up faster than you have to, please."
"So I'm not grounded?"
"There's not much we can ground you for here—but you will be grounded for the remaining of your vacation here. That means no going to the movie's or movie rentals, no shopping, and no talking on the phone to Lizzie. When you get back home Chris, Rafe, and I have decided you two will not get to see or talk to each other for a week."
"But--," she protested.
"Don't you dare fight with me, Ramsey," he laughed at the fact he suddenly thought he sounded like Livvie years ago. "You're our little girl and we love you. Now go get dressed and ready for the day."
"Where are we going?" she said as her face lighted up at the thought of something fun.
"The museum."
"You're killing me dad," she said with a roll of the eyes and then a wink before putting her bowl in the sink and leaving the room also.
"Well, nobody can say she's not a Ramsey," laughed Jack.
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"I know what you would say to me Greg if you could say more than just a few simple words and sentences—you would say Kate, it isn't your fault. You didn't know what was going to happen—you and Tara went over there to celebrate your graduation, not to get attacked by a vampire. You know how I know that?"
"How?" smiled Alison as she stood in the doorway watching her daughter at the stove, talking to her little brother that was sitting on the floor at her feet.
"Mom—hi—did I wake you?"
"No, I can't believe I slept this late. So how do you know that's what he would say?"
"He's a male Kovich—nuff said," she laughed as she put down the spatula and went to hug her mom.
Alison laughed at her response, "When did you get here?"
"About 7:30—I couldn't stay at the Gym any longer so I brought Eddie's car here and Dad took it back when he went to work."
"What's for breakfast?" she asked, nodding to the stove.
"Chocolate Chip pancakes—Greg's choice," she smiled down at him.
"Coco Cip," he said, giving his mom and sister a big grin.
"Good choice, little man," she said as she leaned down and picked him up. "Where's your sister?"
"Pouting in her room, I suppose. Dad gave her her marching orders before leaving. Quite lenient if you ask me," she said with a shrug as she pulled out an extra plate for her mom while she went to put Greg in his high chair.
"Yeah, well I think age has mellowed him out a bit—if it had been when you and Eddie were her age--."
"We'd be grounded til we were thirty," laughed Kate, surprised that she was actually feeling good this morning.
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"Rafe called me this morning," said Grayson. "He told me what you did Andrew—that was very brave and noble of you."
"Yeah, well that's what I was trained for—too bad we couldn't find the vampire, it was like he'd just left her there for us to find her in person."
"Well, that's what vampires do sometimes—but she's with her family now, it'll be ok."
"If you think so," muttered Andrew under his breath. "I'll talk to you later, Grayson," he said as they said goodbye and hung up the phone. Andrew walked through his home slowly—it was empty again, like his life normally was. It had only been one day that she'd been here, but he'd enjoyed the company.
When his father had died his mother had become withdrawn from life, withdrawn from him even—he had lived with her for almost a year when Grayson had offered to take him in, saying the boy needed a father figure.
Andrew was glad for Grayson doing that but he wished he'd let him be a normal child for a bit longer. Katrina and Edward seemed to have a balanced life growing up and it showed—they weren't thinking about an unseen danger around every corner, or wondering if a new person in town was friend or foe.
He walked into the room he'd let Kate use and saw she'd left her pink shirt—he picked it, making sure he'd remember to call and get it back to her soon. Maybe she was right, maybe this was when he should stop being a slayer and start living the life that had been calling him for so long.
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Kate wanted to be happier—she put on a smile when they came over to Lucy's earlier, but now—as her mom and Lucy were off talking about something, she really just wanted to go up to the spare room and lay down. But instead she was sitting on the back steps watching Greg and Miranda playing in the yard.
"Mind if I join you?" said Lizzie quietly as she sat down next to her sister and laid her head on her shoulder. "Look at those two."
"They don't have a care in the world, do they?" said Kate with a half smile.
"Nope. To them they think the world is continuing on normally—nothing has changed to them. Maybe we should take a lesson from them."
"I'm not sure I can do that, Lizzie."
"Sure you can—I mean I'll see Leslie again and get to spend time with her, and you'll get to do the same with Tara," she said as she looked next to her to see a bottle of bubbles and took off the lid and pulled the wand out, releasing bubbles of all sizes into the air.
Kate smiled as she watched Miranda and Greg see what was happening and ran over to play in them, yelling out Bubbles! when Lizzie began to slow down on getting them blown. Maybe Lizzie was right—sometimes you just have to ignore everything around you and blow some bubbles.
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Alison stood on the inside of the house watching her two girls sitting there on the steps as the two little ones played in a shower of bubbles, "How are you feeling?" she asked Livvie onto the phone after a moment of silence.
"Tired. Uneasy about something. I'm sure it's Tara's realization she's a vampire, but it's almost like the other shoe is waiting to drop."
"Have you mentioned it to Caleb?"
"No," she said quickly. She was sitting outside at the moment, Tara's bedroom door open incase she woke up again. "I'll say something later, but right now—," she stopped when she saw the door open and Tara walk out into the sunlight, "Sweetie—what are you doing up?"
"I wanted to walk some. Are you talking to Alison?" she asked quietly, her hands gripping the doorframe to stay standing.
"Yes—do you want to talk to Kate?" she said getting up and moving her daughter over to the seat next to her and going in to get a bottle of water for Tara to drink. "Don't let them talk long, Ali—she's still weak."
"I won't," sighed Alison at hearing Tara's soft voice a moment ago. She opened the door and saw both her girls turn their heads to see who was coming out, "Telephone Katrina—it's Tara," she smiled as seeing her oldest eyes fill with happiness and jump to get the phone from her mom.
