A Place In the Sun
3
Ryan got ready for work that evening at his apartment.
"So, how did your visit with Gillian go earlier?" Tracy asked.
Ryan could hear the resentment in her voice. "It was fine, she wasn't feeling all that great, so I only saw her for a few minutes."
Tracy and Ryan had been together for quite a while now, almost two years. Tracy knew about Gillian. She knew why Ryan had left her and why he was hesitant to start another relationship after her. It didn't matter most of the time, since Ryan generally avoided the subject of Gillian if he ever could, but she really resented Gillian. Gillian held Ryan's heart, and she always would, Ryan just wouldn't admit it, at least not to anyone else. But others saw it. Tracy saw it, she saw whenever her name was mentioned, as few times as that was now, he'd act different, lost in memories of Gillian.
"She's going to be okay?" Tracy asked.
"Yeah, she said that Jake said that she should be fine," Ryan seemed disinterested in the conversation. "I need to get to the club, I'll see you later tonight, okay?"
"Okay," Tracy sorta pouted. She didn't like it one bit that Gillian was back in town.
Ryan kissed her on the top of her head and left for SOS.
...
Jake sat on the end of Gillian's bed at the hospital.
"So, what are you doing back here in Pine Valley?" he asked.
"I really don't know, Jake, somehow, I ended up heading this way. I had to get us away from where we were, so I just started driving, and I ended up coming back here. I don't know why. It's not like there's really a reason for me to come here."
"Of course there's a reason for you to come here, Gillian. You have family here, Dimitri and Eugenia, and you have friends here, me, Raquel, Hayley and Mateo, Ryan. You're always welcome here."
"Thank you, Jake. I just knew I couldn't stay where we were, it wasn't good for Kata, and I found myself coming back here."
"What was wrong? What happened?"
"No, Jake, it's in the past, it's over with. I'm ready to start all over again, again."
"Well, I'm glad you decided to do that here. Oh, here, they took this off of you when you were brought in," Jake handed her a necklace.
Gillian smiled as she took it. It was the necklace with St. Christopher's medal that Ryan had given her on their anniversary. She'd worn it every day since then; she'd never taken it off. Not if she could help it. She'd never told Ray the significance of the necklace; he'd have never allowed her to keep it if he had. She told him that her father gave it to her. She hadn't told him what a jerk her father was and that he'd gambled away the family fortune and that she hadn't talked to him in years.
"Thank you, Jake."
"You better get some rest, okay, so I'm going to go."
"Could you bring Katalin in later for me?"
"Oh, I needed to talk to you about her. We really can't keep her here, she's fine, would you like me to call Dimitri and have him take her to Wildwind? Maddie's six now, so she can play with Katalin."
"Jake, Dimitri doesn't know about Katalin, no one does."
"You have to tell someone about her."
"I told you."
"I can't take her with me. I'm on all night. I'll talk to Dimitri for you if you want, I'm sure it would be kind of awkward telling him that you've had a daughter for almost four years and never told any of your family."
"I'd appreciate that, Jake. Make sure that she's safe, and I don't want Ryan to find out about her until I'm ready to tell him myself, okay?"
"I promise, I won't tell Ryan and I'll make sure that Dimitri understands that, too. Now, you rest, I'll make sure she's taken care of."
"Thank you, Jake."
Jake smiled at her before turning and leaving the room.
...
Julia came in and sat down at the bar at SOS.
Ryan noticed this beautiful young woman that he'd never met before and went over to her.
"What can I get you?" he asked her.
Julia jumped; she hadn't seen him come up to her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Ryan apologized.
"Oh, no, it's okay," Julia laughed.
"So, you want something to drink?" he asked again.
"Um, just some water, I'm waiting for someone, he should be here soon."
Ryan set a glass of water down in front of her. "So, are you new to Pine Valley?"
"I'm from here, actually, well, I lived here for a few years, but I moved away six years ago, my family still lives here. It's kind of complicated, really. I'm waiting for my brother right now."
"Well, welcome back to Pine Valley. I'm Ryan Lavery."
"It's nice to meet you, Ryan, I'm Julia Santos."
"Wow, you're Mateo's sister? You're waiting for him?"
"Yeah, it is his club, so I figured I'd be able to catch him here."
"He should be in soon. He's usually in around seven thirty or so, he usually tucks the kids into bed before he or Hayley comes over."
"Aw, I guess I'm too late to meet my little niece and nephew tonight. Mama told me about Liliana and Christopher. I hate that I've missed so much."
"Liliana and Christopher are adorable, they're great kids. Hayley and Mateo are lucky to have them. I'm sure you'll get to meet them soon."
"Yeah, Mama's having this sort of family reunion thing tomorrow night at the Valley Inn, she rented out the whole restaurant for our family."
"Hey Ryan, thanks for holding things down till I could get here," Mateo said coming up to the bar.
"No problem, I was just talking to your sister, here," Ryan said.
"Oh, Julia, geez, I didn't even recognize you at first, you look great!" Mateo ran around to the other side of the bar and gave his sister a hug. "How are you? When did you get in? Mama was worried last night when you didn't show up at her place."
"I'm good. I got in last night, but, well, you know, I had to go visit Maria, yesterday was..."
"Yeah, I know."
"So, Edmund saw me when I was about to leave the mausoleum and he got me to stay there for the night since it was late by then. I went to see Mama this morning, though, and I saw Rosa for a second, she was on her way out to meet with Tim."
"Rosa and Tim have gotten pretty close," Mateo pointed over to a table in the corner where Rosa and Tim were seated with their heads together. "Neither of them noticed your or me come in."
"Doesn't that make you feel like yelling something really obnoxious over to your littlest sister?" Julia asked, laughing.
"Yeah, it does," Mateo smiled. "You want to?"
Julia nodded.
Mateo and Julia snuck over to Rosa and Tim and stood beside their little sister, one of them on each side.
"Rosabelle, shouldn't you be at home, doing your schoolwork?" Julia asked in a sugary sweet voice.
"Yeah, Rosabelle, it's a school night, isn't it? Shouldn't you be asleep by now?" Mateo added.
"This is why I'm glad I'm the oldest," Tim said, laughing.
"Cute, very cute," Rosa said, not amused. "First off, classes at PVU don't start for another two weeks, so NO, it's not a school night! Second, could you two leave us alone?"
"Is that any way to speak to your sister who you haven't seen in SIX years?" Julia asked, twirling Rosa's hair.
"Would you quit it?" Rosa practically yelled, swatting at Julia's hands in her hair.
"Okay, I'll just go back over there to the bar..." Julia started to walk away.
"No, no, Julia, stay," Rosa pleaded, pulling her back to the table.
"Actually, Rosa, I've really got to get going, I still haven't checked into the hotel since I spent last night at Wildwind," Julia said.
"Why are you staying there? You can stay with me and Mama."
"I know, Mama's going to have something to say about it, but really, I need to be alone right now, I need time to adjust to coming back here, and that's really kind of hard with her hovering over me like I'm sure she'd do if I was at home."
"Okay, well, then I'll see you tomorrow night."
"I'll see you then," Julia said. "Hey, have you heard from Anita and Bobby? They were supposed to be in last night, too, weren't they?"
"Yeah, they were, but we haven't heard from them, they know to be at the Valley Inn at seven tomorrow night, so I'm sure we'll see them then," Rosa told her sister.
"Well, I have to be going, bye Rosa, Tim, bye Mateo," Julia said, before turning and leaving SOS.
...
It was much later that night when Dimitri came to the hospital to see Gillian and to get Katalin.
"How are you doing?" he asked, coming over to her. Katalin was sitting on the end of the bed.
"Better," Gillian was tired of being asked how she was.
"So, this is Katalin?" he asked, gesturing towards her.
"Yes, Katalin, come here, sweetie," Gillian said. "Kata, this is Dimitri, I've told you about him before, you remember?"
"Yes, Mommy, I remember," Kata said, shyly.
"Kata, Dimitri is going to take you to his home, Wildwind, and you are going to stay with him for a few days while I get better, okay? His niece, Maddie, she's just a little bit older than you, so you'll have someone to play with there."
Katalin just nodded.
"Is that okay with you?" Dimitri asked her.
"I'd rather stay here with Mommy," she whispered.
"I know you do, Kata, but I'll be better in no time and we'll be back together. I'm sure that Dimitri will bring you here to spend some time with me tomorrow, if you can stop having fun with Maddie long enough to come visit."
"I'm sure I can, Mommy. I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too, baby," Gillian said, kissing the top of Kata's head.
"You'll take good care of her, won't you, Dimi? Did Jake tell you about everything?"
"I won't tell you know who about her, if that's what you mean. I want to thank you for trusting me with her."
"No, I want to thank you for taking care of her. She's the most important thing in my life and if anything happened to her, I don't know what I'd do."
"I understand, I'll take good care of her," Dimitri promised. "Katalin, are you ready to go?"
Katalin nodded reluctantly and took Dimitri's hand.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Gillian," he said.
"Good night, Mommy," Katalin said, blowing Gillian a kiss.
"Good night, Kata," Gillian hated to see her go.
Gillian had a hard time falling asleep after Katalin was gone. She couldn't help but worry about her; she didn't want her to find out about her father in the wrong way. Of course her worst fear was that Ray had found where they'd gone and he could be after her. For some reason, he always wanted to hurt Gillian, and he knew that the best way was through her daughter.
...
Carmen stared out the window of her hotel room.
She had stayed in her room all day. Now that she was here, she felt scared about what she might find.
What if her past wasn't what she had dreamed it might be? What if she wasn't liked here? What if no one remembered her?
What if this wasn't even where she was from? Then she'd be back to where she started, six years ago. This is what everything had worked up to. She was here in Pine Valley because of what little she had remembered.
Garlan had told her it was a plane crash, a plane crash in which there were only four survivors; he'd picked up that information from a trip onto the mainland shortly after she'd washed up on his shore. Other than that, that's all she knew of how she ended up on that island six years ago.
She couldn't remember anything. But, she was here to remember, she was here to regain her life.