Chapter 528) Twist

Brindleton Bay
The Elysium

Hailey leaned over against Chase, their arms wrapped around each other, both of them looking down the path of their sprawling backyard at one of their daughters, Briar Rose, looking like a heap of misery, standing by the pond in the backyard, staring out into nowhere for a long while now, clearly lost in thought. The other daughter, Iris, was off having fun with her friends, since she wasn’t grounded. This one was. Again.

“I hate seeing her like that, staring holes into those poor swans and ducks for what seems like hours. She been so unusually quiet, said she’s been feeling sick for two days now, abdominal pain and nausea and it’s not even that time of month, so I am wondering if it is physical or psychological, but if she’s not better tomorrow I am taking her to the doctor just in case. I am questioning if we aren’t punishing her too hard after basically forcing her to take a pregnancy test the moment we got home and then we still grounded her for 4 weeks. I mean, that’s kinda harsh in and by itself, and considering nothing really happened other than … well …”

Chase gave her a look.

“You fucking with me, Patches?! Nothing really happened?! Our daughter has not one, but two guys she’s been doing the things with no father wants to even think about. Just the fact that she lucked out and didn’t wind up pregnant up still doesn’t give me the screechy happies here! It’s just that, we lucked out this time. We can’t keep her under lock and key forever. Maybe next time we won’t be so lucky and while listening to mushy reasons why they didn’t get around to use protection that time, we start lists of baby names, two columns cos she’d probably have to get back to us regarding the baby daddy situation, so we’ll just make one Brindleton Bay old guard appropriate list of names and the other more Country & Western, cos ya know, yeee haww. Do you want to raise a very much untimely grandbaby for her, while our underaged daughter is trying to get her degree remotely, cos evidently, we can’t let her out of our sight to study on campus? And I know I don’t want to walk her down the aisle before she’s even old enough to vote, and not for any other reason other than because she wants to be married to her groom, not because she feels she has to marry him or else will be talk of the town. You know how brutal rumors are here in the Bay, they can get you excluded from society quicker than you can blink. Not to mention that we all are already part of the big fat lie now, since none of us had the balls to tell her actual boyfriend the truth. I feel for Brad, thinking how I’d feel if I were in his shoes and one day would somehow find out. You know how those things often go, they do come out at the worst possible moment. That would BURN so bad! Poor guy!” Chase frowned.

“Oh Chase, I have no doubt she’s not THAT reckless to forget that sex is the leading cause for pregnancies, neither is Iris and we don’t worry about what she does with Sterling when he picks her up and we don’t see her for hours. I know both girls are smart about that … it’s just complicated. We didn’t exactly have the most normal relationship at first either. Lil old mortal teen me, from a simple middle-class family meeting this cute boy … only to find out when I was already so much in love with him that not only was he a vampire, which back then was still a secret and our kind didn’t even officially exist, not to mention hella scary in a way, I mean … I didn’t know there were such tight rules and such, and I had almost gotten over that when I find out you are also the son of one of the biggest celebrities at the time. You went from super-cute kinda attainable boy to larger than life in a split second, which really wasn’t as fun for me as one might think, for one, I couldn’t tell any of my classmates about you, but we somehow made it work, not to mention in your infinite wisdom you decided on a grand gesture by proposing to me during your 18th birthday party in front of your entire family, so when I flew back home afterwards I had to explain to my parents that I was engaged at 17, just months before my 18th birthday. We were the ONLY students at UBrite already engaged, I had to wear long sleeves most of the time, because between studying and forming a band, you kept forgetting to stash enough blood, so I had to let you nibble on my wrists. And at times Colton too until he met Maddie! My point being, we don’t know what normal is, babe. Not a chance.” Hailey shrugged.

“Yeah, true, that proposal was a bit cringe and a bit out of the blue, but I was so in love with you, afraid to lose you, but my parents followed that up by announcing they were pregnant again, so that softened that blow for everyone. And we didn’t get married until after college anyway, so it was just an elaborate promise. Anyway, my point is, we were exclusive, even though we had to be long-distance for years, while we were teens and then whenever I traveled with 2Dark 2C and you couldn’t come along. I am a musician, you know there are groupies and occasional surprise naked women in my hotel rooms, we both walked into that more than enough, yet I never once even felt tempted. Monogamous and loyal, always, just like Connor is and like Iris is! It bothers me thinking we raised a whore! Especially since whenever I look at Bri, I see you. An almost carbon copied you, just with my eyes, but still so much you, Patches. Bri is way too sweet and too intelligent to be a hoe. She has to understand that, once and for all. I don’t care if and whom she dates, not even that they are intimate, but please, just one at a time. That’s my problem, Patches. That’s why I can’t think of this and think ‘aww’.” Chase told his wife.

“Yah, I get that, I don’t like that part either, but my baby girl is NOT a whore, Gump! She’s just confused, or maybe her heart is. And come on, I’d have a hard time choosing between those two boys too if I were 17. You’re a man and probably don’t see them the way I do, and even though I was never a fan of Jackson, I kinda changed my mind, he is so sweet, mature and such a gentleman, not to mention unless you are blind, any straight teen girl wouldn’t be able to stay calm about him for long the minute he takes that shirt off, he wears those jeans really well, long legs and those slender hips and broad chest. Hmm hmm. And Brad … come on, Maddie is right, he gives Justin Timberlake vibes and treats Bri like a queen, so patient with her. And that sweet face. I just wanna smooch around on him whenever he comes over, he’s just so cute and adorable. OMG, that day last week, when I answered the driveway cam and thought I had to be stoned or drunk or otherwise mentally incapacitated looking at Bradford riding up on a horse, leading another one, so he and Bri could ride around our front yard while she is once more parentally incarcerated … you gotta give him credit here! That is some next level teenage rom com shit, Gump!” giggled Hailey, and Chase couldn’t keep a straight face.

“Was fun until we were left with gigantic horse apple landmines all over the damn yard and while my Spanish isn’t great, I think if we ask our gardener to clean that up one more time, he’ll go chasing after Brad with a pitchfork!” he smirked.

“Oh man, and Connor sure was upset. Poor guy. I think he feels guilty. My poor baby boy thinks he was his little sister’s pimp, the kahunas on Bri for having her own brother drive her out to Chestnut Ridge for … well .. ya know. I wanna be outraged at the audacity of the entire thing, but I just can’t, cos it’s just too damn funny. I mean, it’s not, but it kinda is.” Hailey giggled.

“I don’t blame him! If I found out I was the one driving one of my own sisters to get deflowered, you could check me into a padded room! Poor kid!” grumbled Chase.

“Well, hard to imagine, knowing your sisters were always way ahead of ya there. Let’s just take a minute to remember the great Vivien-drama when she walked in on Fallon banging the head of Vivien’s security team on Liam’s desk, Bear, – and now they’re married, happily and most shockingly, still, which is incredibly hard to fathom, if you know Fallon! Things are always funnier from a distance. We’ll look back at all this and laugh one day, Gump.”

“Oh jeeze, when Colton and Maddie had bought and moved into Vivien’s mansion and were giving everyone the big tour, my dad grabbed Fallon and Bear and dragged them to Liam’s old office in front of everyone and said they looked a little too stressed, maybe reenacting how they REALLY met would help, since Liam left his office furniture. I thought it was impossible to make Fallon speechless, but she was redder than a radish and could not say one thing, Bear was paler than pale with their two horrified teens standing next to them, and Liam and Viv cracking up so hard I thought we would have to call an ambulance for them. Bet that was a fun family meeting at the Barrett’s home later that night, trying to explain grandpa’s joke to their kids. That’s why nobody will ever find out about Bri’s adventures if I can help it, I can hear my family’s gleeful cackling around the Thanksgiving table as they talk about our little girl plowing the back forties buck-naked with some cowboy while her actual upper-class boyfriend is getting private tours of the palace by my niece, the queen.” Chase said shaking his head.

They couldn’t help bursting into hearty laughter.

“Gump, let’s face it, we’re terrible parents. Maybe that’s why we ended up with one extra kid we didn’t plan for, so Iris can be the daughter we present while hiding Bri in the basement. What twins? I know nothing about twins.” she joked.

“Cool plan, if only we had a basement. Plus, there’s still that pesky second birth certificate and so many witnesses, since Bri is kinda hard not to notice.” laughed Chase.

“That just tells us we suck as vampires too, pun fully intended, cos which decent vamp in their right mind wouldn’t have a basement? You know the worst part? I love our kids just the way they are. Bri may be stumbling, but she is such a wonderful person, she has such a quick dry wit, she’s kind, we did something right, Gump. Just like Iris, who is so laser-focused and driven, she’s so damn smart and has her entire life planned out, and our boy, gawd our beautiful and brilliant Con-Bear. If I am really honest, I wouldn’t change any of them if I could. So, there is drama. Oh well. We’ll make it through, together, just like we always have. You and I are not the type for boring, obedient children. Our story has always been crazy, our legacy needs to be the same way.”

“Bri’s got the crazy down, for sure. Uh oh, we summoned the beast, here she comes. Think of something to make her smile, I kinda wanna do her a solid now. Really feelin’ the daddy spirit here.” Chase said, when Bri turned around and started walking towards the house and her parents.

“You just feel guilty that we laughed so hard at her misfortune after punishing her for it.” Hailey said quietly.

“Nope. Don’t feel one ounce of guilt for that. Just love my babies.” Chase replied.

Bri looked up and smiled faintly at her parents, when suddenly she halted, stiffened, jerked, pressing her hand on her stomach.

“MOM! DAD! It … hurts! HELP!” she screeched, collapsing to her knees, curling up in evidently incredible pain, screaming and crying.

Chase and Hailey used vampire speed to catch her and comfort her, Chase called Connor who appeared instantly.

Bayside Memorial Hospital
hours later

Sitting in the hallway of the hospital, jumping up when finally Connor hurried down the long corridor to his worried parents, still in his surgical outfit, as he had been on standby in the operating room to assist the emergency surgery if needed, but because of his direct relationship to the patient, he let other doctors work on her.

“First of all, the good news: Bri is out of surgery and stable, she’s in the recovery room now, I’ll take you to her in a minute, just know she’s pretty loopy right now and won’t make too much sense. I wanted to talk to you before we go see her though, and I’ll probably come home with you so we can all prep Iris, to avoid her accidentally being insensitive about it.

Rohan and Dr. Cunningham are giving a good prognosis, from what I saw, I would agree, she will make a full recovery. But I am afraid there are some bad news, guys. Bri had developed some pretty substantial cysts on her ovaries, the left one ruptured, causing her great pain and internal bleeding. They were able to stop the bleeding quickly and fully take out the growth, but unfortunately, they couldn’t save the ovary, it had to be removed. So, they are going to start treatment, trying to shrink the other cyst without another surgery, to avoid damaging the one remaining ovary. If it doesn’t respond to the treatment, we have no choice but to open her up, meaning she may lose the other ovary too.

Not trying to be too blunt, but I think it’s pretty obvious what that would mean long-term, even if we succeed in saving one ovary, her chances for family planning will be severely impacted and she may face serious fertility issues or even may never be able to be a mom … too early to tell.”