A/N The first part was inspired by One Tree Hill. My idea of how Kartik and Gemma can have their happy ending. I own none of these characters, except the kiddies! Please Review….
Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday. We made our debut, saying goodbye. That feeling that you get at seventeen or eighteen that nobody in the history of the world has ever been this close, has ever loved as fiercely or laughed as hard or cared as much. Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday and sometimes it feels like someone else's memory.
Four years have passed since I departed England for a new life in America. I always imagined America as another India, somewhere exotic, a place where I wasn't molded into the constricting shape of modesty and tradition. But as I soon found, that America with its high society teas and scandals, is very similar to the England I had left behind. But there is a glorious side to America that England never seemed to grasp. America is full of hope and acceptance; it is a place where dreams are just around the next corner.
America is much more accepting. Where freckles sprinkled across my children's noses are kisses from God, and the color of their skin is just as ordinary as the clothes they wear. It saddens me to know that if he had lived, we would have survived. America would have seen how beautiful our love was, just as my friends had. My heart still breaks at the thought of him, but when I look at our beautiful children, how could I forget how much happiness I had felt in his arms. The black curls of my daughter mingling with her emerald eyes remind me how perfectly we had fit together. Or how the midnight hair and chocolate eyes of her twin brother tell me that his father's spirit is still alive.
I love watching my children play in the yard, as they are now. So carefree and innocent, the two of them fill the empty spaces in my heart. My daughter, Kali, and her twin brother, Kiran are trying to master the game of cricket, yet failing miserably.
"Mommy," Kali whimpers after her brother hits the ball into the back of the yard and out of her reach, "When are we going to visit, Auntie Felicity and Auntie Ann." I sigh as a repeat the date nearly one week away, Kali has been like a starry-eyed school girl with her daydreams of a romanticized England complete with debutantes and their princes. Kiran on the other hand, has a much more serious purpose. He too is excited, but to finally walk in the places where his own father's footsteps had passed. My only regret of my past decisions is that it has left my only boy with only whispers of his sole idol. Kiran looks more Kartik like everyday, so much so that I often gasp as I look into eyes identical to the ones I had gazed into so many years ago.
"Mommy, why can't we go now?" Kiran demanded as I sent him a reproachful glare at his bad manners.
"Because, Kiran, Aunt Felicity is in Paris at the moment and will not return until the English season. And since your aunt is not at her house to greet us as her guests, we will have to wait until she is." I sigh deeply as I watch my son come up with his next rebuttal to my statements, another trait his has seemed to inherit from his father.
"Well, can't we just go early and wait for Aunt Felicity to come back at her house. Auntie said we could come whenever we wanted," Kali begged, taking up her brother's cause.
"That is because your aunt has no regard for moral restraint," I mumbled under my breath. Out loud I said, "Because is impolite to visit when your host is not present, no matter how much your impolite host says otherwise."
"But, Mommy…." Kiran whined, running out of reasons to argue against me. I sighed at his frustration. I felt awful for denying Kiran the chance to see the only physical remaining evidences of his father. I had told him and his sister stories of a boat house, and a stable with a book, and a school with a magic door. Kali loves the romance of her father and I, to her it is a perfect forbidden love, the English rose with an Indian prince. I do not have the heart to tell her how her fantasies often bring only heartache in real life. Kiran loves the bravery and adventure of the tales the stories of his father fighting bravely in a magical wasteland battling the forces of darkness for his one true love. The two of them remind of me so much, that I wonder if they carry not only Kartik's genes but also a part of his soul. If they each have a piece, and I have a piece, then maybe together we could find the other… Maybe…
One week later we disembark from the train that has taken us from the ship to Victoria Station where Felicity is to meet us. When I see my old friend for the first time in four years, I feel tears well. Felicity spots us with a gasp and soon she is closing the distance between us at an immodest speed, but then I abandon all decorum and dash to meet her the rest of the way. Hugging Felicity is just like I remembered all the friendship and memories rushing back. As I introduce my children and look into Felicity's eyes as they take in the resemblance of Kartik, it feels like everything is back five years and we are at Spence in a tent made of scarves and whispering tales of spirits and witches. I smile at the memory of how much I had missed my friends, but I am home now and I am so close to Kartik. I can feel him there, just through the door of light and down the river. I know it just as I know everything will soon be alright.
Will Gemma find Kartik? How will he return? And what about Felicity's new girlfriend or Ann's new beau? Review