new chap :) the next one will be extra long and should come around christmas it'll be a very important one so prepare yourselves ;)

hope you'll enjoy this one and as usual i'd love to know what you think about it so please take a few seconds to review ...

Chapter 28

'Mr Clancy?' Vince said very surprised.

'Oh, you already know each other?' Bill asked while watching the two men staring at each other.

'Kind of... Well, no, actually.' Jim realized.

Apart from being angry at each other, and the things related to Timothy, they didn't really knew each other.

'Ok so you can go together.' Bill stated, before leaving them, obviously unaware of the awkwardness of the situation.

Jim looked intensely at Vince, who was looking back at him, sounding more embarrassed than annoyed. Vince quickly looked down.

'If you prefer going alone, I would understand.' he said shyly.

'No... It's fine I guess.' Jim said surprised by the man's behavior. Why was he so embarrassed and shy when he had no problem being hard and mean just a couple of days ago? Jim thought.

The men stood silent while walking towards the river, then Vince broke the silence.

'I think I owe you an apology.' he started. 'I should never have been that... stupid I guess.'

'Why do you apologize?' Jim asked still surprised. 'I mean yeah, you've been stupid, but you were pretty sure of yourself, what makes you apologize now?'

'Ok, I'm not going to hold the fact that you just called me stupid.' Vince said trying to smile.

'Ahh but I only agreed with what you just said there's a difference.' Jim pointed.

'Hm I guess you're right.' Vince admitted. 'The reason I'm apologizing now is because I realized that I was just trying to avoid the truth. I didn't wanted to accept that Timothy was here and I couldn't believe he wasn't at peace. We're not that religious but we did believe or at least hoped that he was in a better place and it was what was helping me through everything.'

It was obviously hard for Vince to talk about this, so when he stopped talking to let his voice the time to come back to a normal tone, Jim just waited, realizing how hurt the man was. It made him remember of how bad his parents had felt when Dan died, how he heard his Mom crying at night, when she thought he was asleep.

'When your wife talked about my son, it brought back so many memories, especially since we were where he died. And when she said he couldn't cross over, that he wasn't at peace I... I just lost it, and I'm sorry. For the way I acted with you and with your wife. I've been horrible with her and she really didn't deserve it.'

'She really doesn't deserve that. Especially now. You know you gave her nightmares!' Jim couldn't help saying.

'I'm really truly sorry. I wish I could take it all back, the hitting her, yelling at her, hurting her... gosh I can't believe I did all this to a pregnant woman! I am a terrible man!' Vince said, his eyes wide open in disbelief and shaking his head.

'No you're not.' Jim said, putting a hand in his shoulder. 'You're very hurt and it makes you do things you would never do otherwise. Or at least I hope so.' he added.

'Yeah, I'm really not like this normally. It won't happen again. Sorry. Again.'

'Good. I appreciate the apology, and I'm sure Melinda will too, especially if you do it in person.'

'I will.'

Jim still didn't accept the fact that people could be so mean to Mel but he did understood that his pain had made Vince lost his mind, and the fact that he opened himself to him about such an emotional and personal subject couldn't keep Jim be mad at him.

'Ok, now on the hard part!' Jim said.

At the cabin, everything was going pretty well, Mel had just finished making what would be a nice little vase once painted or decorated. But at the moment it was still in the oven (the kitchen's ones weren't made for it but it could be adapted), so Mel was trying something else, still with Katie's help, they were now doing candles.

'I never thought it would be that easy. Jim will never believe I did this by myself I'm usually not very good at things like that.' Mel said smiling happily, she was having a lot of fun.

They were simply putting hot wax in a previously chosen mold and then adding things like flowers or little stuff that will be seen in the candle by transparency.

'This is going to be so sweet in my living room.' Katie said smiling. 'When I think that Vince wanted me to go fishing with him! I'm so glad I chose to come here. It's '

'Wait! Vince went fishing?' Mel cut her off, an horrified look on her face.

'Yeah. What's wrong with that?' Katie asked surprised, just looking up at Mel now. 'Oh... I see, Jim went too...?' she added seeing Mel's look, who just nodded. 'Oho...'

'Yeah...' Mel said sounding worried.

She wasn't that afraid that something bad would happen between them but she was afraid the fact he would have to deal with a man he resented that much would ruin his day...

'You're not familiar with all this, I see.' Vince said seeing how Jim handed his fishing rod after saying 'Now on the hard part!' and how he started to mess with the fishing lines.

'No... not really.' Jim confessed. 'I haven't done this for a long time now... since I was a kid and even there I was too sensitive, I guess, to kill the fish I could catch and so I just put them back on the water.' Jim said laughing.

'You know most of the time they actually die, after long suffering from the wound you make with the hook.' Vince pointed.

'Yeah, my dad told me that a bit later.' Jim said, nodding. 'That's why after that I would go fishing with them, but I would just let my dad and brother fish while I was playing Indiana Jones in the forest.' Jim said laughing, then smiling sweetly at these memories.

'I've been fishing with my dad as long as I can remember, and I used to go with Timothy, but he was a bit like you. He didn't understand why we had fishes in the aquarium at home, that we were feeding them, that we had to be sweet to them and then we fished, so basically killed others to eat them, when we could buy it at the grocery store.' Vince said, smiling at the memories too.

The rest of their morning went by smoothly, Mel and Katie trying to keep having fun while worrying about their husbands, Jim and Vince getting to know each other, as they were expected to. Well, certainly not from their wives, though.

As they were cleaning the art room with Elizabeth and the other women, Melinda and Katie stood silent, dreading their men's return. When they heard a group of men talking, they both quickly turned their head towards the window to see the fishermen coming back. After a few seconds, Mel and Katie looked at each other, astonishment in their eyes as they saw Jim and Vince talking and laughing with each other.

'That's weird.' simply said Katie after a few more seconds.

'Well... I hit Jim last night, maybe it calmed him down.' Mel said trying to make fun of the situation while her mind was racing to find an explanation at what they just witnessed.

'You hit Jim?' Katie asked, not knowing for sure if she should laugh or not.

'In my sleep. Yeah, that's a long story.' Mel added smiling, seeing Katie's surprised look.

'Ok, girls everything is done, you're free to go now. You should be able to take your work by the afternoon, we'll find you when it'll be finished.' Elizabeth said.

'Ok, we better try to find out what happened in this forest.' Katie said as they were leaving the room after thanking Elizabeth for the great morning they had.

'Yeah, I'm very curious to know.' Mel replied.

By the window Katie saw Vince walking outside, so she waved to Mel and after a 'See you!' she left her.

Mel figured Jim would be waiting for her at their cabin, so she made her way to it, but when she opened the door to go outside she saw Jim standing on the terrace, leaning against the ramp. He seemed lost in thoughts, he didn't even hear Mel coming closer to him. He jumped slightly when she wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his back.

'Hey.' he said softly, putting his hands an top of Mel's.

'Hey. What were you thinking?' Mel asked gently.

'That I missed you.' Jim replied while turning over to face her.

'Really? 'Cause it seems you had a lot of fun.' Mel teased him, her arms still wrapped around him.

She pointed the cabin window and then the path the men had took to come back, showing that she had seen him coming back since it was oriented the same direction.

'Well to tell you the truth, I did have fun, but it doesn't mean I didn't miss you.' Jim admitted before softly kissing Mel on the lips.

'How was your morning?' Jim asked.

'Great, I had a lot of fun too. Till I learned Vince went fishing too and started wondering how bad you two were going to fight.' Mel said half-serious half-laughing.

'See? Not that bad.' Jim joked opening his arms and looking down at his body as to show he wasn't hurt at all.

Mel laughed slightly but after a minute or so, Jim hadn't say more.

'So are you going to explain or what?' Mel finally asked looking at him intensely.

So Jim explained. How fate kind of forced him to speak to Vince, how weird his behavior was, how deep the conversation had turned when Vince started to talk about Timothy and his emotions about it. Jim slipped the fact he had been touched so much by it too, but that, Mel could feel it and see it in his eyes.

When Jim had said it all, Mel had an admiring look on him.

'So you forgave him?' she asked trying to take in all she just heard.

'Kind of. I said he should apologize to you too. I'll see then.' Jim explained. 'What?' he asked as Mel was shaking her head.

'I just... I can't believe how kind you are. You are such a good man, Jim Clancy. And I love you so much.'

'I love you too.' Jim said taking Mel in his arms.

They hugged each other long minutes, before taking a walk around the cabin, 'cause even if it was lunch time, they weren't that hungry seeing they had a late breakfast. There were things to see all around the cabin, like old tools, stuffed animals. Melinda didn't spend a lot of time looking at these, taking a 'need of air' as an excuse to walk as far as she could, away from what looked to her like huge terrifying snake. Jim couldn't help laughing when he reached her and whispered in her ear 'That was just the skin, honey.' As she sent a dark look at him, he sweetly took his hand in his and lead her towards a large box that he knew Melinda would like the content. The 'up' part of the box was glass through which they could see a collection of the different butterflies that could be seen in the region.

'Wow, this is so beautiful!' Mel said passing her fingers on the glass, as if she could touch them. 'How did you know that was here?' Mel asked curiously.

'Vince told me.' Jim answered. 'He said he used to brought Timothy and Lily here to show them this and explain them how the tools worked in the past, all this.' he explained.

'He really sounds like a nice guy.' Mel said.

'He is. It's such a shame he's so distant with his daughter now.'

'Ah... You noticed that too.' Mel said smiling sadly.

Jim nodded.

Time went by and they decided to go have lunch. Mel had a sudden bad nausea, so she barely ate, only forcing herself to drink some soup. As it wasn't going better, she decided to take a nap to try to rest. Jim stayed with her till she was sound asleep and even though it didn't take long, it was long enough for Jim to fall asleep too.

They woke up an hour later, Mel was feeling much better and the shinning light and the warmth of the sun gave her a sudden idea.

'Did you take bathing clothes?' she asked Jim, excited.

'Yes...'

'Cool! Let's go swimming then.' she said enthusiastically.

'Really? Just like this? Is that one of the sudden envies pregnant women have?' Jim asked smiling.

'Probably. Anyway are you coming?'

'Sure. Let's go.' he answered.

They put their bath suits under their clothes, took a couple of towels and left for the fall, as they could go swimming in the little lake a bit further.

It took them a while to go in the cold water since the water was constantly renewed, the sun couldn't 'heat' it. But once they were fully wet they both had a great time.

Around 5pm they got out of the water as it started to get windy. They dried themselves and decided to stay there a bit longer as the sun was warming them up. They were sat on the grass, Jim had his legs around Mel, as she was leaned against his chest, both's hands were resting on their growing baby.

'You think you mother would understand my gift?' Mel asked after a few quiet minutes.

'I... don't really know. Why do you ask? You're planning on telling her?' Jim asked curiously.

'Well, we might have to. No right now, but if our kids have to gift too, we'll probably have to face some strange situation and since I don't want to ever hide or lie to them about what they might be able to do, if it happens while your mom is around -which I think will be pretty often, knowing your mom- I was just wondering how she would react.' Mel explained.

'Well I can't tell you for sure, but you said yourself that after this crazy weekend with Kenny, when you talked with her she told you how she believed that when people left they were watching over their loved ones, that it was what had helped her when my dad and Dan died.' Jim reminded her.

Mel turned her head to face Jim and she nodded softly, squeezing his hand.

'I think that's a good start.' Jim stated.

'I hope you're right.' Mel said slowly while looking back in front of her.

'What?' Jim asked noticing Mel's low voice tone.

'It's just... I don't want to imagine what would happen if she doesn't believe me and doesn't accept what I can do...' Mel said sadly.

'Hey, Mel don't worry about that.' Jim said tenderly taking his head in his hand to make her look at him. 'We have time to think about that and.. I don't know maybe prepare her. Don't worry.'

'But what if she doesn't want to see me after that, what would you do? And the kids they'll need their grandma.' Mel went on.

'Please, Mel! You know she loves you. Even if she can't accept it, she won't 'ban' you. You're too important to her.' Jim tried to comfort her.

'How do you know that?'

'We have long talks about you.' Jim confessed. And as he noticed Mel's -still- sad look he added: 'As for me, my mom can feel and react however she wants, it won't change anything for me, ok?' he told her, looking intensely in her eyes.

Mel nodded, knowing what he meant and knowing he was telling the truth. She leaned back against his chest, her head in her neck.

Half an hour later, it was about 6pm, they went back to their cabin and took a shower before heading to the restaurant. It was still early but they wanted to stay in the main room, hoping to see Katie and Vince to talk before diner. But when they approached the cabin they heard something pretty unexpected and as Jim opened the door, they both stood in the doorway, staring at what they were seeing.

'Ok... that wasn't planned...'