I know that I haven't updated this in a week or so.
This was because I really wanted to get this final chapter just right.
I hope I have!
I have tried to please everyone and I think I may have succeeded. My first draft of the finale was totally different to how this one has ended up. But I am happy with this final product. It really leaves them how I wanted.
This is it then!
There will be another chapter posted, but it's just my author's note and my thankyous.
I can understand that I may have left an ending that may annoy people. Some may have read this for closure and- well I won't say anything else.
Thanks a lot for taking the time,
Ben
X
Chapter Fourteen- Finale - Forever Is Tomorrow Is Today: Part Two
Previously…
Mrs. McCluskey found incriminating photos that belonged to Edie. Edie attempted to break in to her house to retrieve them but was caught in the process…
Carlos bid farewell to Gaby…
Eliza met her demise…
Gaby confided in Bree over her feelings for Carlos…
And Susan's health came under serious threat…
No news is good news…
During Gabrielle's divorce Bree Hodge had pleaded with her to try and work at her and Carlos' crumbling marriage. Bree knew all to well that her friend would regret not doing so. But, Gaby had pressed on with the settlement proceedings.
Now she was stood in Bree's front garden trying to understand why she hadn't prevented him from leaving earlier that afternoon and it was taking a tremendous amount of effort for her not to say "I told you so."
Bree looked at her youngest friend.
"Do you love him?" she asked.
It was the question Gabrielle had not even asked herself. She had wanted to, but had been too scared of what answer she may give. If she loved him that would mean that she was wrong to detach herself from him in the first place. Gaby detested being wrong and she was prepared to go to great lengths to maintain the charade that she always made the right choices.
However, she was not prepared to let Carlos go.
"Yes. I love him."
"Then why are you here?"
Gaby turned abruptly and charged back to her house. She bounded into her convertible that was parked on the driveway and sped away in the direction of the train station, narrowly missing Danny Farrell the paperboy as she rounded the corner of Wisteria Lane.
PAST:
Wisteria Lane
Mrs. McCluskey's House
Mrs. McCluskey paced back and forth along the width of the master bedroom. Edie sat bolt upright in the wicker chair she had retreated into when her neighbor had cornered her. She considered lunging for the ageing widow and knocking her out with the ticking clock on the bedside table. But she thought better of it, Edie had witnessed McCluskey pinning a greyhound to the floor after it had attempted to run off with her newspaper. Edie recalled that it was the issue that had contained a coupon for a free packet of fudgsicles.
"And Susan doesn't know about any of this?"
Edie gulped. Karen could set off a nuclear explosion if she ever revealed what she had told her to Susan.
"No, Susan is totally oblivious…and, and I'd like it to remain that way"
Edie winced and prepared herself for a short, sharp slap. She had mastered this during her High School Years; it seemed every other day some cheerleader would make it their priority to see to it that Edie received a beating.
"But why did Sophie only take Susan? Why did she leave one with your Mom?"
Relaxing, Edie leaned forward.
"I think it was always her intention to come back. But things must've happened, and she never did."
Pondering the information that had just been told, Karen considered the benefits she could reap from retaining this from Susan. But as she mentally wrote a list of everything valuable that she had taken a fancy to in Edie's lavish home, it dawned on Mrs. McCluskey that she could get a lot more from this young woman if she was indebted to her.
"Okay. So let me get this straight. Sophie left New York after stealing the money from her wife bashing hubby, she took a baby who we now know to be Susan and left the other twin with you, planning to return for her later. But, Sophie never did which meant you had to dispose of a child?"
Edie nodded.
"Seems that Susan's appalling taste in men comes from her Mother"
Mrs. McCluskey cackled and withdrew the photo from the desk beside her. She slid it across to Edie and smiled broadly. As Edie reached out to take it, Karen took her hand and squeezed it tightly.
"Can I ask you what you're going to do now?"
Staring in to the elderly woman's eyes, Edie for the second time that evening told Karen the truth.
"I'm going to let go"
Not quite understanding what she had meant, Karen let Edie's hand drop and then moved out of the way of the doorway she had been blocking for the past half an hour. On her way out, Edie turned to her.
"Thanks, I owe you one."
"Oh you have no idea."
PRESENT:
Ian Hainsworth telephoned the friends that Susan was closest to at around Midday.
Bree Hodge was measuring her living room to see if she could accommodate a new three-piece suite when she heard the phone go in the kitchen.
Lynette Scavo was prizing a dime out of her Son's nostril when her cell phone started vibrating in her handbag.
But Ian was unable to contact one friend in particular as she was too busy, with a dilemma of her own…
Gabrielle had never been able to move very quickly in high heels. It was just something she had had to accept. In order to stay upright and maintain her constant level of suave composure, she had to teeter along at quite a slow pace. That was why she was ripping of her strapless brown heels she had purchased at a fashion show a month before and discarding them in the nearest trash can.
The train pulled in at the platform and she spotted Carlos at the opposite end struggling to wheel his suitcase on to his carriage.
"Carlos! Carlos!" she howled.
Not hearing her, he continued to haul his luggage on to the train.
Gaby gave up yawping at her Ex-Husband and scurried towards him, barging through the large gathering of people that were now trying to board. As she was dragged in to the surge of the crowd she saw her Husband finally manage to secure his luggage.
After all the indecision over the past 6 months, Gabrielle was not prepared to lose Carlos now. Ducking under a woman's legs she sprawled herself on the station floor and shimmied out of the jungle of legs that surrounded her.
"Carlos!"
She raced towards him as Carlos boarded the train and showed his ticket to an official.
"Carlos!"
Gabrielle yelped as her stomach doubled over, reminding her of why she started jogging in the first place all that time ago.
"Carlos!"
The last few remaining passengers managed to locate their carriages.
"Carlos!"
A whistle was blown from one end of the building.
"Carlos!"
Gaby saw the station guard raise a flag.
"Carlos!"
As she reached the edge of the platform she leapt for the carriage, her legs flailing across the large gap.
He was sat at the end of the carriage with a business associate Gabrielle had met two or three times before at various lunch dates. She movedd down past several passengers who muttered curses as she knocked their cases or spilt their tea over them in her hurry to reach Carlos.
She sat down beside him.
She coughed slightly, making her presence known.
"Gaby?"
"I finished cleaning"
Carlos took her in to his arms and kissed her.
For the first time that she could remember in a long time, Gabrielle felt home. And that was it, it didn't matter where she was with Carlos, she still felt home.
She pulled away and gazed in to his misty eyes.
The balding man that Carlos was sat with leaned over.
"I don't mean to be awfully rude, but who is this?"
Gabrielle snuggled into the soft curve of his neck.
"This is my wife"
She smiled. That is all she'd ever wanted to be.
Edie marched across Susan's lawn clutching a brown, sealed envelope to her chest. Inside was everything her Mother had given her about Susan's other, estranged sister. She opened the mailbox and placed it inside. Snapping the catch shut and raising the small red flag, Edie then retreated in to her home, leaving the burden she'd been carrying behind her.
The waiting room was fairly plain. In one corner there was a sofa doubling as a single bed, presumably for those relatives that wanted to catch some precious moments of sleep before any definite diagnosis could be given to the illness the one they loved was facing.
In the other corner was another, short couch where Bree had sat upon her entrance. There were a number of unidentifiable stains on it that she assumed had been there for years, possibly even when they had gotten it in the first place. Bree tried to put this out of her mind and had reluctantly sunk into the wearing leather, trying to focus on her friend's well being.
Lynette was perched on the edge of a coffee table to the right of Bree. On the top women's magazines lay scattered. Lynette had just returned with two cups of coffee and had begun to get frustrated that her sugar just wouldn't dissolve when Gabrielle entered.
Bree glanced up.
"Oh, you came."
"Sorry, I got off the train at the nearest stop."
Gabrielle joined Bree on the sofa, narrowly avoiding a substance that resembled dried vomit.
"How is she?" she asked.
"We don't know. Ian called me and promised he'd come down as soon as he learnt anything"
"Ian?" Lynette joined in the conversation having lost hope in ever getting her coffee to sweeten.
"Yes, he was with Susan when she was brought in" Bree informed them.
"And Mike?"
Ian was the last person Mike had expected to see by Susan's bedside on the maternity ward. Then he remembered that Ian was actually the Father of the baby and then that made him feel slightly queasy.
"Oh, Mike" Ian stood up and went to shake Mike's hand. He thought better of it and withdrew the gesture.
"How is she?"
Ian gestured to the door. Mike followed him outside.
In the brightly lit corridor, Mike had to squint in order to stable his eyesight. Ian slumped on to a few chairs that were by a glass sculpture and put his head in his hands. Not sure whether or not to comfort the man he had competed for Susan's undying affection with, Mike stood beside him and tried to pretend that the situation wasn't as uncomfortable as he was finding it.
"I don't know what would've happened if I had left a minute or two beforehand" Ian sobbed.
Mike's head began to spin. The nauseas feeling caused him to back up against the wall. It was all he could to stop himself from toppling over.
"You were with her?"
Ian sensed where this was going.
"Mike, this is neither the time nor the place for an argument."
Mike had always hated the rationality of the man in front of him. He swallowed his pride.
"You're right. I'm sorry."
Mike turned to leave; he desperately needed some fresh air. The hospital environment was not a good one for him to be in, especially if he was confined to an area with people he couldn't stand to be around.
"Mike?" Ian called after him.
"What?"
"I realized a few things today. One of them being that Susan loves you, and there is nothing I can do to change that. She belongs to you Mike."
"Wait... and you're telling me you're not going to challenge that?"
"No, no I'm not."
"But…why?"
"Mike, I am prepared to let you have her, not lose her to you."
Ian walked towards him and calmly placed a hand on Mike's shoulder.
"I need some air" he told him and with that, Ian Hainsworth left Mike alone in the corridor.
We receive news every single day.
It may come in many different forms but ultimately it has the same effect. It delivers a change within our lives.
It may signal the end of something which could have catastrophic results.
But we must realise that nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start again and make a new ending.
Change can mean leaving something, or someone behind.
We know that it is not what we leave on stone monuments, but what is woven in to the lives of others that is left behind.
Sometimes it is the smallest decisions that can change your life for ever.
That is why some people choose to live their life in a consistent manner. Because they know, that no news is good news.
Mike entered the waiting room, the heat from the bodies of the nervous people inside hitting him in a wave.
The question was raging through everyone's minds, but no one dared ask it.
Bree stood up slowly.
"Mike, have you got any news?"
THE END.