I do not own Summerland.

Well hello again!! Wow! I came on here and was so (pleasently) surprised to find four new peeps reading my story!

Thanks so much for the reviews, y'all!

Chris Grace: Thank you. I was afraid y'all might like, hate me for killing of BRADIN especially since Jay killed him... but I'm so happy to see that y'all aren't!!

BalletBeauty64: Thank you!!

froggy2045: Thanks so much for reading, girl!

matt: Thank you so much!

And now, something y'all all seemed to want... the next chapter!!

3.

Not Coming Home Tonight... Or Ever

Jay Robertson slowly released his hold on Bradin as the horror of the realization of what he'd just done washed over him. He had just killed someone. In cold blood he'd murdered someone! He'd killed an innocent 16-year-old boy! What the fuck had he just done!? So what if he'd tried to take his girl? He was 16 for God's sake! 16 year olds did things like that and Erica wasn't interested in him anymore anyway so why the hell had he just killed Bradin!!?? "Oh my God..." Jay fell on his face crying, "Bradin... no! Oh my God, no... What have I done, oh my god, what the hell have I done to you!?" Of course Bradin did not reply, he was only a corpse now, he couldn't.

Jay quickly realized the consequences of this and started thinking what to do... Bradin's head was still bleeding severally and that gave Jay an idea. He'd push Bradin's body a little further into the water and let the tide carry it away and then throw his board into the water too and leave his bag in the sand... make it look like he'd been surfing, hit his head on a rock and drowned... fool proof."

He slowly pushed Bradin's lifeless, limp, body, further into the water and watched as it half sunk, half floated, out into the Pacific Ocean. He then threw his board into the water and watched as the tide carried it out as well. He looked around for Bradin's bag and saw it lying in the sand; it would do right there. Jay took one last look in the water and saw that the tide was carrying it back towards the shore. That was fine, it was bound to reach the shore at some point.

Jay quickly left the scene making a beeline for his shop where he went in, locked the door behind him, went into the back room and broke down. What was he going to do now?

After about 4 hours of senseless worrying and whatnot he finally resolved to never tell a living soul what he had done to Bradin.

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Ava decided she better cook a lot for dinner that night as Bradin and Derrick would probably wanna eat a lot after doing sports all day. It was about 4 in the afternoon and Derrick came into the house, "Aunt Ava?" he asked coming up to her in the kitchen, "Wasn't Bradin supposed to be here by now?"

Ava felt certain he was but knew how Bradin could be late if he had his mind on something else. "I'm sure he'll be here any minute, Sweetie" Ava smiled at Derrick who only frowned.

"I bet he forgot!" He said with a alight tone of sadness but more anger, "He always forgets me..."

"D., you know that's not true!" Nikki said coming into the kitchen, "I bet Bradin's on his way right now!" She gave Derrick an encouraging smile.

"I hope you're right but I doubt it!" Derrick scowled and left the room.

"I hope Bradin drags his butt up here soon!" Nikki said lowly to her aunt who nodded in agreement.

It was 5:00pm when Ava began cooking dinner and at 6:00pm she was just finishing it and thinking how Bradin really should have made sure he kept his promise to Derrick about coming home to help him with his throwing. Derrick walked into the kitchen at the moment and said, "See, Aunt Ava! I told you he'd forgotten me! I told you, I told you, I told you!!"

"Okay, Derrick, now that's enough. I'm sure your brother didn't mean to forget you..." Ava was sure he'd just gotten tied up doing something else... probably with a girl... "Oh, that boy..." she started thinking, "Why can't he just make sure to keep one little promise to his brother! Goodness, he can be so irritating... I'm really gonna have to have a talk with him. Tonight! Yes, tonight-"

"Hey, Ava, what's the real date?" Jay asked walking into the kitchen.

"Ha, ha! It's the 20th, Jay. Here, I'll 'x' them out." Ava laughed putting down her spoon and going over to the calendar.

"Alright... that's fine." Jay walked back into the kitchen.

"Hmm... I wonder what's up with him?" Ava thought noticing he seemed to be nervous about something.

She had just finished crossing out the dates when a knock sounded at the door.

"I'll get it, Aunt Ava!" Nikki yelled coming downstairs to answer the door.

Nikki reached the door and pulled it open but what she saw made her step back.

Two policemen stood on the doorstep. Their tags read "Burt" and "Kent."

"Does a Miss Gregory live here?" the one, whose tag said Kent, asked.

"I'mMiss Gregory," Ava said coming up behind Nikki, "is there something I can do for you?"

"Well, yes. Does a Bradin Westerly live at this residence?" Kent asked.

"Yes..."

"And you are his aunt and legal guardian, correct?"

"Y- yes I am..." Ava frowned, "What did he do now?"

The officers exchanged a glance. "Um... nothing, Miss Gregory... May we speak to you for a minute... alone?" Burt spoke for the first time in the conversation.

"Yes, um- of course," Ava replied stepping out onto the porch and shutting the door behind her. "Now," she began, "what is it?"

"Well... we- we uh... We don't quite know how to tell you this but- we..." Kent looked down at the ground as his partner took up where he left off.

"Miss Gregory," he said with a poker face, "we found a body."

Ava stood stock still, her heart pounded in her chest and she was sure the officers could even hear it! After a full minute of silence Ava managed to stutter out, "Y- y- you w- what?"

"We found a body, Ma'am," Burt repeated solemnly, "It is assumed that it is the body of Bradin Westerly, but we will need your knowledge of the boy for assured identification." Burt pulled out a picture of a teenage boy's body laying in the sand and asked, "Is this him?"

Ava could not believe what she was hearing and now seeing, "I- is- is that the body that was f- found?" she asked, desperately trying to hold back the tears that were begging to fall.

"Yes, Ma'am, it is, I'm sorry," Kent said lowly.

"No! No, that's not him... I mean, yes.. yes, it is.. but... but he can't be dead... he just can't be!" Ava forgot about trying not to cry and tears sprung from her eyes and ran down her face as she continued, "Please tell me he isn't dead! Please!!" she cried harder and dropped her head saying, more lowly this time, "Please tell me that isn't why he broke his promise to Derrick... please... please tell me it wasn't because he was- dead."

Kent lifted her face, "Ma'am, we're so sorry but we're afraid that he is dead."

"No..." Ava wailed and again began crying.

"Ma'am? Ma'am, please... we'll need you to come down to 1st Memorial Hospital tomorrow and definitely identify the body and to make arrangements as to what to do with it, Okay? We'll come by tomorrow around 10:00am if that's okay, Ma'am." Burt said softly.

Ava nodded her head, still crying.

"Ma'am, is there someone here who can assist you if you need it?"

Ava again nodded, she was beginning to stop crying a little and she looked up at the two men before and asked, almost inaudibly, "What happened to him?"

"We're not sure, Ma'am... We found the body about an hour ago but didn't know who it was until we found a bag on the beach with the name 'Westerly' on it. We looked inside and found out it belonged to a Bradin Westerly and traced him to this house. We're really not sure what happened at this time, but it seems to have been some sort of a surfing accident. We will inform you of any more information as it is discovered." Burt replied to her question.

"Thank you... But I have to ask, what was he wearing?"

"Blue jeans and a green T-shirt, Ma'am. May I ask why?" Burt said.

"Because if he was surfing he would have been wearing a wet suit! He never goes surfing without wearing one..." Ava sniffed hard and tried some more not to cry.

"I see, well thank you for this information, it may be very helpful in figuring out what happened to him."

"It couldn't have been a surfing accident based on what he was wearing, Sir... So tell me why you thought it was." Ava said.

"Because we found a surfboard with 'Westerly' written on it in the water close to where we found the body, Ma'am. But based off the information you just gave us, it looks like that was not the case after all." Burt said.

"Where did you find him, and what did the... body look like?" Ava choked back more tears that were coming.

"We found him down by Spanish Cove... it seems as though the body washed ashore and was in the water before we arrived. There was nothing noticeably wrong with the body except for the head... It was badly busted open in the back... looks like he hit his head on a rock, maybe more than once." Burt said.

"I see... thank you, Officers... I'm sorry but I think that's about all I can handle for now..." Ava choked out.

"We understand, Ma'am. We'll be back tomorrow." Kent spoke up.

"One more thing?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think he died from the head injury or something else?"

"No, Ma'am, we believe he drowned," Kent said softly.

Ava silently nodded then turned to go back into the house as the officers left.

She opened the door to find Johnny, Susannah and Nikki standing there with extremely worried looks on their faces. Ava couldn't take it, a feeling of despair took over her and she fell to her knees crying.

"Ava! What's wrong, what is it, Honey!?" Susannah asked gently, coming over and kneeling down beside her.

Johnny came and stood by them and wrapped his arms around Nikki who was shaking, she had heard Ava crying and knew that they were looking for Bradin so she was very scared at the moment. And it just wasn't like Bradin to break a promise like the one he'd made to Derrick earlier that day... She was scared he'd gotten hurt and now seeing Ava like this she started shaking as the same feeling she'd had when her parents died vaguely came over her. She backed into Johnny as he held onto her and waited with baited breath for her aunt to say what was wrong.

"Ava, Hon... you gotta tell us what's wrong..." Susannah gently prodded.

"Bradin- he..." Ava choked on her tears as she tried to speak clearly, "he- h- he's..." She cried harder and had to have Susannah calm her down for a full 5 minutes before she could even try to continue.

"Now, tell us what happened. What's wrong with Bradin?" Susannah said gently, stroking hair out of Ava's face and eyes.

"Oh Susannah! Oh, Johnny... I- I can't believe it's true..." Ava cried harder then suddenly pulled herself together and quickly choked out, "H- he- he's... dead."

The silence that followed this announcement is unable to be put into words. It was broken finally by Nikki falling to her knees and crying. That feeling that was so vague only a minute ago had now completely taken over her and she couldn't handle it.

Johnny kneeled down and held her and Susannah hugged both Ava and Nikki saying softly, "Oh, no, no, no, no..."

Jay walked into the room and realized they must have just found out Bradin was dead. He played dumb and said, "W- what happened?"

Johnny looked up at him with solemn eyes and couldn't find the words to say it. Susannah was too busy trying to calm Ava down to answer and Ava, of course, was crying too hard.

"My brother's dead!!" Nikki suddenly screamed and so loudly and angrily that Jay jumped back nearly two feet. "Why, why, why!!??" tears streamed down Nikki's face freely as she continued. "Why did he have to die!!? What the hell did I do to have my parents, both of them, taken away and now my big brother!!?" Nikki's voice was becoming hoarse as she screamed more and more, "He meant the world to me," she cried harder, "Oh, and I know I never told him that but he meant the world to me!! He understood me..." she cried even harder, "Even though we fought a lot I loved him so much! So damn much!! Why does he have to be dead!? Why, why!!??" she cried and screamed extremely loudly and angrily and then jumped up and ran up the stairs two at a time, tripped, fell a little ways, jumped up again and raced to her room slamming the door shut so hard that the house shook slightly.

"Oh my God..." Jay turned quickly and high tailed it to his room.

"What's going on!? Why is Nikki scream-" Derrick came in the house and stopped dead in his tracks seeing his Aunt on her knees crying. "A- Aunt Ava... w- what happened?"

"Oh, Sweetie... n- nothing..." Ava stood up and dried her eyes breathing heavily and turned to face her youngest nephew, "Actually, Derrick... something did happen..."

"What?" Derrick looked up at Ava who didn't answer, "What!?" He looked from Ava to Johnny to Susannah to Ava with huge worried eyes and finally screamed, "WHAT!? WHAT IS IT!??"

"Your-" Ava couldn't finish.

"Derrick, your brother is... well, Sweetie he's..." Susannah stopped as well.

"Derrick, buddy... your brother's gone to heaven with your parents... he's not coming home anymore, bud..." Johnny said softly to Derrick who looked up at him puzzled.

"Why would Bradin want to go away? What did I do? Did I make him mad-"

"Bud, you didn't do anything! You listen to me, man, Bradin isn't ever coming home because of anything you did or anything Nikki or one of us did! He's just gone on to heaven and you'll see him again one day when you go there, okay? I don't want you to ever think that Bradin's gone because of something you did, ever."

"Why can't I go see him now? Why?" Derrick was starting to cry, "Wait! When Mommy and Daddy died you said I couldn't go see them because it wasn't right for kids to go to heaven, right?"

"Well..."

"Then why did Bradin have to go there!? Isn't he still a kid, Johnny? Isn't he?" Derrick was crying now.

"Derrick... Bradin had to go because he..." Johnny looked to Ava and Susannah for a little help and Susannah took up his sentence.

"Derrick, Sweetie... Bradin's gone to heaven because he was specially needed there..."

"But wasn't he needed here too?"

"Well, yes, he was... but he was needed in heaven more, Sweetie, but it's gonna be okay, Sweetheart." Susannah said gently and pulled Derrick into a tight hug, "It's gonna be okay," she repeated.

Well, there it is!! I cannot wait to hear what y'all thought so review!!

Anna Christie AKA SecondStarToTheRight15