A Place In the Sun
2
Garlan watched as she gathered what little things she'd acquired on the island for the past six years.
"Carmen, do you really have to go? You have been the best company I've ever had here," he said, making her stop for a moment.
"Garlan, every day, bits of memories are coming back, more and more. I know I'm on the edge of a break through. I'm almost sure that this Pine Valley, the name of this town that keeps going through my head, that's where I'm from. I have a life out there, somewhere, there's people who care about me. Even if I can't remember them, maybe someone will remember me."
"But nothing will be the same. Six years is a long time, Carmen. Things change in that amount of time. Your family and friends, they are past the grief of losing you by now. If you have children-"
"If I have children, they've missed having their mother for six years, and I don't want it to be any longer."
They walked out onto the beach, toward a rickety old boat.
"I will miss you," Garlan said with tears in his eyes.
"I'll miss you, too," she said, giving the old man a kiss on the cheek. As she got onto the boat she turned around and said, "Maybe someday another pretty young girl will wash up on your shore."
He waved to her as she floated away across the bay towards the mainland.
...
Gillian woke up to see the blue lights of the police cars flashing and the red lights from the ambulances.
She was lying on a stretcher with a group of EMTs hovered over her.
She tried to get up, but one of the guys held her down gently.
"Kata, where's my daughter Katalin?" she asked.
"I'll go find out, can you describe her for me?" he asked.
"She's four years old, light brown long hair, it's kind of in ringlets, she's a beautiful child."
"I'll go look for her and I'll be right back, okay?"
Gillian nodded and closed her eyes.
They loaded Gillian up into the ambulance shortly after. Right before they were about to close the doors, the guy who had talked to her earlier jumped in.
"How is she? Is she alright?" Gillian asked frantically.
"She's fine. A few cuts and scrapes from glass, but because you had her fastened into her carseat, she wasn't hurt badly at all. She'll be taken to the hospital soon, but we want to get all the people that were more seriously injured on their way to the hospital first."
"Thank you," Gillian said weakly, closing her eyes again.
...
Their lives had never been the same since Raquel had come to Pine Valley five years earlier.
Hayley sat at the bar of SOS; it was five a.m. She entertained the idea of the vodka in front of her, spinning the glass between her hands.
"This early and I'm already feeling this bad," she said to herself.
Max had ruined her relationship with Mateo. Yeah, they were married, for real, now, but it wasn't the same.
In July '99, Hayley had found out she was pregnant, but not with Mateo's child. Figures that her one night stand with Ryan produced the child that she hadn't been able to conceive with Mateo.
Well, Max couldn't grasp the whole situation; he felt that Hayley was trying to replace him in Mateo's life, he didn't understand that the baby wasn't even Mateo's child.
One night before Mateo got home, Max pulled a gun on Hayley and shot her, and then was going to turn it on himself when Mateo got home and wrestled it away from him. Hayley ended up losing the baby, and Max was sent to a home for emotionally disturbed children.
Raquel had long backed off of Mateo by this time and they were just friends. Hayley and Mateo remarried in a small ceremony in the Wildwind chapel.
They were eventually able to have children. In November '00, they welcomed Liliana and Christopher Santos into the world. When they'd talked about the fact that twins run in Hayley's family before, it had been such a happy thing. But that was before a train of psychos had come into their lives. That night when they'd talked about how wonderful it'd be to have twins, that was the night that Jim hooked the carbon monoxide up to the vents in their apartment. Then they had to deal with the wrath of Lee Hawkins, and now they'd dealt with Mateo's own little psycho, as Hayley liked to think of him as. She never said it straight to Mateo's face that Max was a psycho, but it was what she thought. The child scared her just as much as Tanner, Jim, and Lee had.
But now they had their own twins. Liliana and Christopher were going on three years old. But the joy of having their own children just wasn't there. Sure, both her and Mateo loved Liliana and Christopher with everything they had, but it wasn't like they were sharing their experience of being parents.
But Max was coming home soon. Just over a week, he'd be back here with Raquel. Maybe he'd changed, maybe he hadn't. Hayley didn't really want to find out, she never wanted to see that child again. Because of him, everything she'd ever wanted in her life was gone.
"So, you want me to drink you?" Hayley asked the vodka.
She grabbed her purse and walked out of SOS, leaving the glass on the bar.
...
Julia watched from the window that morning as Sam and Maddie played outside.
She had stayed at Wildwind the night before, she was sure that Mama was worried about her since she'd never called.
She couldn't get over how much Madeline looked like Maria. Maddie had grown up so much since she'd last seen her; of course, that had been when she'd come to Pine Valley for Maria's memorial service. Six years ago.
She heard the cab beep it's horn outside, signaling that it had arrived to take her to Isabella's.
She went outside and got in the car and rode silently to her destination.
She thanked the driver and paid him and walked up to her mother's apartment.
Julia knocked on the door.
"Julia!" Rosa exclaimed when she opened it. She hugged her sister and yelled back into the apartment, "Mama! Julia's here!"
"Mi hija," Isabella said, smiling. Julia and Isabella hugged and they went over and sat down on the couch.
"I'm sorry to have to run as soon as you get here, Julia, but I'm meeting Tim for lunch," Rosa explained.
"It's okay, you go have fun," Julia said.
After Rosa had left, Julia asked her mother, "So, Rosa's seeing Tim Dillon?"
"Yes, they have some classes together at PVU and they have been spending a lot of time together," Isabella said, smiling.
"That's sweet," Julia said.
"I'm sorry, Julia," Isabella took her daughter's hand.
Julia could tell by her mother's voice what she was referring to.
"Mama, it's okay, it was three years ago."
"No, I should have been there for you. Jackson told us and I told him that I needed to go to you, but he would not let me. I thought that maybe Grady's men had found you and they had killed Noah and that they might go after you next."
"No, mama, I was okay, no one was after us, it was an accident. But it wasn't safe back then for us to have contact. It is now, though. It's safe for me to be here now."
"Yes, mi hija, I'm very happy that you can come back now. So much has changed, you have so much to catch up on. Did I tell you, Mateo and Hayley have two children now, Liliana and Christopher, they will be three years old in November, isn't that wonderful? And Maddie and Sam, they have grown up so much, Maddie, she favors-"
"Yes, mama, I noticed, she looks so much like Maria," Julia said. "I have some things I need to do before tomorrow, okay? I'll see you tomorrow night, at six, right? At the Valley Inn?"
"At the Valley Inn at six, yes, your sisters and your brother will be there."
"Then I'll see you then."
Julia left the apartment.
...
When Gillian woke up again, she was in a room at the Pine Valley Hospital.
Jake was looking at her chart.
"Jake?" she asked softly.
"Hey, there, Gillian, how are you feeling?" he asked.
"Kinda fuzzy," she replied.
"Well, that's from the anesthesia, you had internal bleeding so we had to operate to repair the damage."
"Am I going to be okay?"
"Looks like."
"Where's Katalin?"
"Hmm? Who's that?"
"My daughter, Katalin, they said they'd be bringing her here, she wasn't hurt badly, so she'd be along later. Can you bring her to me?"
"I'll go see if I can find her, Gillian," he was shocked by the news that Gillian had a daughter.
Jake left the room.
Gillian looked around, staring at the machines bleeping and the lights blinking. What if Ryan found out about Kata now? she thought. This wasn't how she wanted him to know. She wasn't sure of how she'd ever tell him.
Gillian looked up at the window; Ryan was staring back at her.
She motioned to him to come in.
"Hey there, princess," he said as he came in.
"Hi Ryan," she smiled.
"Long time, no see. Jake called to tell me you were in accident. How are you?"
"I've been better. Jake says I'll be okay."
"That's good."
Even though they hadn't seen each other in so long, that tenseness between them ever since he'd decided that they couldn't be together anymore was still there.
Jake was at the window now. He pointed down to signal that he had Kata with him. He left the window so Ryan couldn't see them.
"Ryan, I really need to rest, maybe we can see each other again, when I'm feeling better."
"Okay, that's fine, you should rest."
Ryan gave her one last look and left the room.
When Jake saw that Ryan was gone, he came back in with Katalin.
"Mommy!" Katalin ran over to Gillian.
"Be careful," Jake warned her.
Kata stopped short of jumping up on the bed.
"Are you okay, Mommy? Doctor, is she okay?"
"She should be fine, sweetie, and you can call me Jake, I'm an old friend of your mommy's."
"Thank you for taking care of her, Jake," Katalin said.
"She's precious, Gillian," Jake said.
Gillian smiled up at him.
After fussing over her mother, Katalin sat down on the floor and began to amuse herself.
"I figured I should just ask you this straight out, is she Ryan's daughter?" Jake asked.
Gillian nodded, "Yes."
"And he doesn't know?"
Gillian shook her head.
"I figured, that's why I didn't bring her in here when he was here."
"Thank you."
"Well, I've got to get her back to her room and get back to work, so I'll check in on you later, okay?"
"Thanks, Jake."
Jake told Katalin it was time to go.
"Goodbye, Mommy, I love you," Katalin said, blowing Gillian a kiss.
"I love you, too, Kata."
...
Carmen stepped off the plane into the Pine Valley Airport.
She was instantly hit with a feeling that she had been there before.
"Maybe I'm in the right place," she thought to herself.
She went out to the street and got a cab.
"Valley Inn," she said without a second thought.