Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Coyote Ugly just the ones I make up in the story.

Chapter 2: Going Home and Facing Reality

May 5th 2000

I was packing my overnight bag and getting ready to leave the hospital when the social worker stopped by.

"Violet, may I come in?" Theresa asked.

"Sure," I said.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop by yesterday I was so busy with admissions and discharges. I just wanted to let you know that the funeral home picked up your son's body yesterday and made an appointment with me for you and your fiance to discuss the arrangements with them. It's tomorrow at 1:00pm. Here's the card. Here's my card also if you want to talk." Theresa finished handing me two cards.

"Thank you." I said smiling a little.

She left the room and Kevin came in.

"The car's out front. You all set?" Kevin asked.

"Yes let's get out of here." I said taking his hand in mine and walking out of the room and the hospital together.

15 minutes later we arrived at our apartment building and opened the door. It looked very clean. I took my jacket off and sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Kevin went into the kitchen and got us something to drink. Suddenly I heard Brahms Lullaby playing and I thought the music box got bumped into by my cat so I went into the spare room, which was supposed to be Josiah's room and ran my fingers along the railing of the crib then came to where the rocking chair was and sat down in it and started rocking myself slowly. The cat rubbed my leg marking me with her scent then jumped into my lap and I started petting her.

"Clancy, what are you doing?" Kevin asked the cat as he came into the room with the drinks.

"She must've rubbed the music box and set it off," I said still rocking myself.

"Let's go in the living room okay? I'll shut the door so she can't get in here." Kevin said taking my hand, leading me out of the room and shutting the door after Clancy got out. I was kind of hoping I could spend more time in there but knew it wasn't right, not now.

May 6th 2000

Kevin and I sat in the lobby of the funeral home, waiting for the funeral director to get us and lead us back into the family room to discuss the arrangements of the funeral.

"Hello you two must be Violet and Kevin. My name is Joe and I'm one of the funeral directors here. I'll be helping you out today. Come with me." he said as he lead us down the hall into the family room. Once we were there we saw a gift bag on a chair with a card attached to it.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the gift bag.

"That's from the hospital. It's a keepsake book. You can open it when you feel the time is right." Joe said.

"Does Jill still work here?" I asked.

"No she works in East Rutherford now at a different funeral home. Now on to business shall we? What church were you thinking of going to so I can pull up the pricing information."

"St. Andrew's here in South Amboy, the church my family goes to."

"Okay here it is. St. Andrew's requires you have the funeral there and it costs $300 to use the church. Are you going to have a meal there?"

"No the meal will be at my Dad's house."

"That's good." he said as he continued on with the package prices. After a half an hour we were done and walking back to the car so we could go to the church and meet with the priest.

7:00pm May 6th

Kevin and I were sitting at the kitchen table. He was studying for an upcoming test and I was finishing my supper. Then a knock sounded at the door. I went to answer it. It was Keith, my cousin. He must've got off of work just now.

"Hey Keith come in," I said opening the door.

"Hey Vi. I just wanted to stop by and see how you two are doing?" Keith said sitting down.

"We're fine. Just shocked that's all." I said smiling a little.

"That's good. Okay I'll cut to the chase. I'm sorry for what happened. I can't find the right words to comfort you and console you so I'm just going to say I'm sorry." Keith said.

"Yeah thanks Keith. It means a lot coming from you." I said.

"Don't mention it. Oh and Kevin the dean at the fire academy just wanted to let you know that he's granting you a two week leave of absence. You can wait to take that test until after the two weeks are up." Keith said.

"Okay tell him thanks for me." Kevin said.

"Well I gotta go. Take care." Keith said as he left.

Later that Night

Kevin and I were asleep when I started have nightmares and night sweats. I woke up in a panic and felt a need to go into the spare room but it was locked. Kevin must've locked it up. I went to wake him up.

"You locked it? Why?" I said angrily.

"Locked what?" Kevin asked half asleep.

"The spare room. I need to go in there. I had a nightmare and I need to be in there."

"Violet I locked it because I can't stand to see you sitting in there pretending that he's still alive because he's not he's gone and we have to face reality." Kevin said defending himself.

"I'm going to my Dad's. Don't follow me." I said packing a small suitcase.

"Violet, why are you doing this?"

"Because I can't be with you right now. I need to be alone." I said as I left the apartment.