Jamieson slowly rose from the ground. She looked around to her mother. Green smiled and tried to hold back her laughter from the way Jamieson extracted the information.
Jamieson then began to walk back to the house. She stopped short and turned back to the children.
"Well....what are you waiting for? Go finish what you started." Jamieson said.
All of the children ran back into the forest before Green's shocked and confused voice could call them back.
Green turned around ticked off.
"What do you think your doing?" Green asked with refrained anger.
Jamieson just smirked at Green.
"They're just being kids. Besides.......I think it's a good idea." Jamieson stated. She then turned and began to walk back into the house.
Green just stood there, allowing the words to sink in.
They were just being kids.
She then smiled sadly.
She could hear the sound of them having fun already.
She then slowly walked into the house.
The children came home around seven o'clock. All of them covered in grime and dirt. They all looked like a little breeze could knock them over. They seemed dead tired.
Jamieson had cooked again and had forced all of them to eat. Jamieson told Hope and Jean to do their rounds.
Hope and Jean had to make sure everyone took a shower and brushed their teeth. Afterwards they all went up to their rooms and fell asleep.
Emily and Margaret had insisted on helping Green clean the dishes or she wouldn't be seen for two days straight.
Kyle and Lyle were sent by Green to inspect the tree house, and make sure it was safe. They returned murmuring that the children should go into construction.
Broots had a long talk with Debbie about sneaking out with out telling him first. Debbie had smarted off that it defeated the purpose.
The Major had set up a small table and had been building small model airplanes for the children.
Alex and Zoe had spent the day upstairs and down watching and playing with Zarek and Zander. They had been told that the babies couldn't crawl yet and to be very careful around them. They had bobbed their heads and had disappeared in a flash as they ran into the adjacent room.
Sydney had snuck up stairs to check on the children. He feared that they shared Jarod's inability to sleep with out the nightmares.
As he came to Jean and Hope's room, he saw the light that came from the room.
As he slowly entered the room, he found them sitting up right in bed just facing each other.
Probably talking.
Both Girls turned to look at Sydney.
"I would think that the both of you would be extremely tired." Sydney stated as he stared upon the replicas of Miss Parker.....Green at that age.
"We can't sleep!" Hope exclaimed.
"It's the first night since we were little that we've spent the day together." Jean explained.
Sydney smiled at the girls and walked into the room.
"Too much excitement tends to keep me up at nights as well." Sydney stated.
Both of the girls smiled up at Sydney.
"Would you read us a story?" Hope asked.
Sydney quirked an eyebrow at the request.
"You want me to read you a story?" Sydney asked with surprise.
"Yes.......no one has ever read to us before...not a book anyway." Jean answered.
Sydney sat at the space that Jean had made for him at the edge of the bed. Jean handed him a book from the night table. As Sydney's eyes fell upon the book he smiled.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Sydney eyed both of the girls.
"You are most definitely your father's daughters!"
Both of the girls smiled widely at the huge compliment.
Sydney stared at the book cover and allowed his mind to remember a little boy with lost brown eyes.
The girls looked at each other and then back to Sydney.
"Is the book sad?" Hope asked.
Sydney shook his head. His throat was too clogged with tears to be able to answer the girls.
"No, it's a very happy book." Jamieson's voice came from the doorway.
Sydney turned his head to see Jamieson standing, looking at the three of them.
Jamieson tilted her head at Sydney's stare.
"Whatcha doin?" She asked Hope and Jean.
"We want him to read to us." Hope explained.
"But then he started crying." Jean continued.
Jamieson slowly walked into the room. She sat right next to Sydney.
"He's thinking about dad again." Jamieson said as Sydney's eyes penetrated hers.
"He blames himself for what happened to Dad. He keeps thinking that he could have done something to prevent it." Jamieson said to the girls as her gaze remained locked on Sydney's.
"He's thinking about what it would have been like if he could have read dad to sleep as a kid...and how he will never get to see dad reading to us." Jamieson continued.
Sydney just stared into Jamieson's eyes with complete wonder.
"Don't blame yourself Uncle Syd." Hope said.
At this Sydney turned and looked to the twins.
"It's not your fault." insisted Jean.
"It's my mother's." came Jamieson's voice from beside him.
Sydney quickly turned his head to Jamieson.
Jamieson's eyes had taken a dark look. One of loss.......of sadness.....of anger.
Jamieson's eyes turned to look at Jean and Hope.
"I want to do what dad always wanted to do.......but never could." Jamieson said.
Sydney was too shocked by her earlier statement to fully comprehend the words she was saying now.
Slowly Jamieson wrapped her arms around Sydney and crushed him with a hug as she laid her head on his shoulder.
As Sydney recovered from her earlier statement, not sure what to say, his body reacted as accordingly. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and hugged her back.
Finally her statement sunk in and his eyes closed as he allowed himself to imagine Jarod in his arms.
Slowly Jamieson extracted herself from Sydney's arms and turned to look at the girls.
"Willy Wonka is a good book. I'm sure Dad would have loved it. over here and give your big sister a kiss good night."
The girls smiled widely at the statement and crawled over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. After receiving the kisses Jamieson smiled. The girls then crawled under the covers.
Jamieson then stood up and gazed down at the girls. She then patted Sydney on the shoulder, then turned and left the room.
Sydney watched her leave. A million things he wanted to say to her about the statement about her mother.
But they would have to wait.
He turned his gaze back to the girls.
He then looked to the cover of the book in his hands. He pressed his hand into the cover of the book. Letting out a huge sigh he opened the book and began to read.
Green had been sitting with Bobby out in the back yard looking at the ocean.
Bobby had been nursing a beer as had Green.
Green couldn't let the event of the day go. She didn't understand what made the children decide to make a tree house.
"I don't understand why they couldn't have just asked us to help them....and not sneak off in the early morning hours." Green said angered.
Bobby just smirked as he let out a sigh.
"It was for Ace." Bobby finally explained.
Green turned her head to look at Bobby.
"What?!" she asked.
Bobby rolled his eyes and then turned to look at her.
"Ace has not been able to leave the house because he's injured. He's basically not been able to go outside. After living a lifetime underground, forcing him to stay inside is a cruelty that the kids don't understand. They're making the tree house so he can be surrounded by the outdoors and not be locked inside this place." Bobby explained.
Green allowed the information to process before responding.
"He can go to the back yard and walk around. He's not locked up." Green said.
Bobby shook his head.
"It's not the same." Bobby said.
Green looked back up to ocean.
"He hasn't said anything to me." Green said in finalization as she took a swig of beer.
Bobby turned to look at her.
"Do you really think he would?" Bobby asked.
Green just continued to stare out at the ocean, not responding to Bobby's question.
Bobby laughed and then turned back to look at the ocean as well.
"Funny isn't it?" Bobby asked.
"What?" Green said in a tired voice.
"How easy it is.........to worry about them. You don't even think your good enough or loving enough to be someone's parent..........and then it just happens.........and you don't know how to stop it." Bobby said as he stared at the ocean.
Green just stared out into the endless ocean.
"Can it ever stop?" Green asked.
"No......and it never will." Bobby said.
They spent another 5 minutes in complete silence, until Bobby rose from the lounge chair he had been sitting in. He held out his hand to his sister.
Green looked at the offered hand and then back to Bobby's face.
"Come on. We need to go in and find out if anyone's hurt, broken, or bleeding." Bobby said in sarcasm.
Green laughed outright and placed her hand in his.
Bobby hoisted her up.
As soon as she stood on her own two feet he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she placed her head on his.
"I still don't know if I can trust you completely." She said to Bobby.
"Then don't." Bobby said.
Green's face contorted into confusion.
"I don't want you trusting me if you feel you can't. Your survival as well as the kids depends a large part on our instincts to distinguish friend against foe. Never stop trusting your instincts Mona. It's what's kept us alive this long." Bobby said to her.
Green nodded her head against Bobby's shoulder.
She then proceeded to wrap her arms around him.
Her eyebrows furrowed.
"Why did you use to make me feel like you were hunting me? Like you wanted me......more then a sister." Green asked firmly, seriousness taking her voice.
Bobby laughed outright.
"First off let me say 'hell no'. I never really meant it that way. But what better way then to keep someone you labeled an enemy scared of you, especially with women." Bobby said.
"What about all the times you tried to kill me?" she said as she punched him in the stomach just as he was taking a swig of beer.
He coughed the beer up.
"HEY! It was kill you and Jarod and save my daughter or let her rot in hell. You pick!!" Bobby said in anger as he stepped away from her hold.
Green just looked up into his eyes.
"You really love her that much don't you?" Green asked knowing the answer.
Bobby lowered his head and played with his beer bottle with both hands.
"She's been my life Mona. I was there for her first words. I was there for her first day of school. I tried to give her everything that I never had............she's my world Mona." Bobby said with sadness in his voice.
Mona lowered her head and nodded as a tear came to her eye.
She had missed all that. She had missed that experience with all of her children.
Never again.
"I know it sounds weird. I know it does Mona.........but she's the reason I didn't become a real monster. She was the one he gave me unconditional love. She will now and always be my baby girl." Bobby stated.
Green looked into her brother's eyes and knew he was speaking from his heart.
God....who would have thought that they would be standing outside talking to each other like brother and sister.
They had come a long way.
Green smiled as she looked into her brother's eyes.
"Let's go check on our family." She said to him.
Bobby smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her again......as they both walked inside their home.