Chapter 16
Sunday mid morning, the whole gang that lives in LA and some of their kids came over to Kelly's so everyone can reunite with Brandon. Donna and Andrea even went out to buy a cake that says, 'Welcome home Brandon….it's about time!' Sammy and Brent quickly busy themselves playing with their cousin Ruby as all of the adults, Brandon, Kelly, Steve, Janet, Andrea, David, and Donna catch up on retelling old stories from high school and college. As also do their best to try to catch Brandon up to speed on the current events in their lives.
Once it was the kid's bed times, everyone started to leave and David was the first one to say, "Alright see you all tomorrow at Casa Walsh."
Brandon being confused, "Wait, what's tomorrow? Why is everyone coming over to the house?" Brandon asks.
Kelly feels really bad now, "Brandon, I'm sorry, I forget to tell you this weekend. Every memorial day, everyone goes over to your parent's house. We started the tradition after they moved back into your old house," Kelly informs him as she apologies.
"That's okay, so how many people are we talking about?" Brandon asks.
Steve replies this time, "Everyone, Bran, all of the kids and our parents, it's always a mad house! Except Dylan and Brenda can't make it because they were just here for Sammy's birthday party. Oh Kel, Ryan told me a couple of days ago that him and Joy will be able to stop by for a couple of hours."
"Oh good, I haven't seen my other sister since Christmas break," Kelly mentions.
Everyone then says goodbyes for the evening, then Brandon and Kelly put Sammy to bed.
As they go back downstairs to relax on the couch, Brandon asks, "Hey Kelly, I have a question."
"Yeah, what is it?" Kelly responds as she settles her back to his chest and he wraps his arms around her.
"Well, I've just started to wonder about a couple of people, who you haven't mentioned yet, if they were going to be at my parent's house tomorrow," Brandon says.
"Okay, who are you wondering about?" Kelly asks.
"Well you're mom and Mel," Brandon says, "where are they at and why exactly is Silver living here with you instead of with them?"
"Well it's kind of a long story and I don't like talking about when Silver is around," Kelly takes a deep breathe, "but I'll tell you the whole thing and Sammy doesn't know any of this."
"Okay," Brandon says.
Kelly continues, "Jackie has never been involved with Sammy's life to the point that Sammy has never met her. When I finally told her that I was pregnant, she became mad at me for reasons that I didn't know at the time. About two month after Sammy was born, I kept on getting a couple of missed calls from Silver for about three months. I always forget to call her back because I was so busy with a newborn although your parents were always there; I practically lived with them for the first couple of months of Sammy's life. Silver ended up finally getting hold of Andrea at the beach apartment and gave her your parent's number. It was October when I finally got to talk to her on the phone. She was crying and I could hear Jackie in the back around yelling at her for pouring the entire bottle down the drain. That's when I knew that Silver was in grave danger of Jackie doing everything to her that she did to me whenever she was drunk or high. When I got over there, Jackie was still madly searching through the house looking for any trace of alcohol. She accused me of telling Silver to get rid of all of her bottles, but I told her that she did that herself by scaring her daughter into it the same way that she scared me into it. It took an hour of yelling between my mother and I before she left the house. Then it took me another hour of apologizing to Silver so I could get her to come with me to your house with your parents. When she was holding Sammy for the first time, she told me that she now had a baby brother a two months younger than Sammy. She told me the whole story of how Mel had cheated on Jackie again. Mel of course left Jackie, he had just begun the process to attain full custody of Silver because of Jackie's drinking, but Silver couldn't stand him at that point in her life and that's why she was trying to get hold of me because I was the only one that she felt that she could count on. Brandon, she was only thirteen at the time and I still feel so bad about not finding out sooner so I could help her. Because my of job, I normally had known how she was doing in school because I had semi-regular contact with all of her teachers in middle school except when I was on my extended maternity leave that wasn't up until a week after she finally got in contact with me. So anyways, she finally moved into the beach apartment with Andrea, Hannah, Sammy, and me. It was starting to get crowded and stressful especially because I was fighting to be her legal guardian. And it was becoming harder on everyone because Silver's best friend, Naomi, told the entire school about Jackie and Mel, severely embarrassing her. They got in a huge fight and Silver hasn't been able to forgive her until more recently. So then she pretty much decided to be a social-outcast and created a blog that makes fun of anything going on around the school including living with Hannah who was in fifth grade at the time that created a lot of stress for Andrea and me. She's finally started to tone it down a bit after we discovered that she is bi-polar a couple years ago, but that is a whole other story for another time. So anyways, after talking with your parents, they offered to help me buy this house and Steve, David, and Donna helped with the lawyer fees and I eventually won after Jackie's house was searched and found multiple drugs and Mel was willing gave up his legal right of full custody after Silver begged him. She doesn't have any desire to speak with him, but he does deposit money into her checking account every month for living expenses and he has also agreed to pay for her college. The last that I heard from David was that he is doing alright with his practice and everything. Now, on the other hand Jackie told me during the custody battle during one of the hearings that she wanted neither Silver nor me to be her daughters and never wanted anything to do with us ever again. She completely denied being our mother and I don't ever intend to tell Silver that because she doesn't need to remember her mother that way. So therefore, we lost contact with her up until beginning of last fall when she was in an AA meeting with one of Silver's friends, Adrianna. Adrianna asked Silver to go to a meeting with her for support and she saw Jackie. Jackie ended up apologizing, but found out from her friend that she had cancer and it had already spread throughout the entire body, including her brain. I found out when I discovered Silver had been skipping class and sneaking out at night after about a week. She decided that she needed to help Jackie by talking with the doctors and nurses to make sure she was at least as comfortable possible. I asked her several times not to try to take care of everything herself and to let the nurses do their job because I was afraid how the stress would affect her bi-polar. She always asked me to come and visit mom in the hospital, but I wouldn't go further than picking her up and dropping her off until this last March, she was late coming to the parking lot. So I went up to the room, only to discover that the room was empty. I thought I was too late and that she had already died. I began to regret not seeing her sooner because she was my mother after all and whenever she wasn't drinking or high, she was actually a pretty decent mom. Silver found me in the hallway and told me that they had just moved her into a private room. So, I got to see her one last time to forgive her before she died holding my hand. And that was two in a half months ago," Kelly finally finishes.
"Wow, I'm sorry Kel, about your mother. I always liked her throughout college," Brandon says.
"Yeah, me too, that is the only time I can remember her being a real mom. But it's over now and in the past. The only thing I can do now is be a great mom instead of wishing for a great mom," Kelly says.
"Kel, you are a great mom!" Brandon tells her.
"Thanks, I feel like I've learned it all from Cindy," Kelly says.
"Well, she is a great one to learn from, of course I might be just a little bias," Brandon jokes.
Kelly smiles back at him, "no, not at all."
The next day, it seemed like everyone that knew the Walsh's were in their backyard for a classic barbecue grill out. The guest included: Steve, Janet, Maddie, Joshua, Brett, David, Donna, Ruby, Andrea, Hannah, Felicia and Doc Martin, Rush Sanders, Ryan, Joy, Samantha Sanders, Nat, Joan, Frankie, Willie, Silver, Teddy, Annie, Dixon, Navid, several of Jim's business colleagues, and several other friends as well as Jim, Cindy, Brandon, Kelly, and Sammy. And of course several people wanted to hear everything that happened to Brandon in the last 6 years. By the time the day was over, everyone in Casa Walsh was exhausted.
Once the last guest had left, Kelly said "Cindy, I'll help you clean up."
"Oh, Kelly that's not necessary. Do me a favor instead and go home to get some rest before you go to work tomorrow," Cindy says.
"That does sound like a good plan. Hey, look at Brandon and Sammy on the couch, they look so cute, I don't want to disrupt them," Kelly says quietly not to wake them.
"Sammy can stay here tonight, it'll save you a trip and allow you to sleep in longer in the morning," Cindy says as she reaches for the camera.
"Thanks Cindy," Kelly says as she picks up her purse.
"It's no problem, we'll see you tomorrow afternoon, bye," Cindy says as she gives Kelly a hug and sees her out of the door before she takes a picture of Brandon and Sammy sleeping on the couch.
