Chapter 27 - Gen 1 - Lilly

~Always Be Together~


I walked into the dive bar relieved to see the mixologist is here so we can get this over and done with.  She has her back to me as she is cleaning the bottles at the back of the bar - I had the perfect opportunity right now while she has her back to me, I'll take her by surprise.

"ICE"  I shout quite loudly

There was a sudden smash as she dropped the bottle that she had in her hand. She is beginning to make a habit of dropping bottles, I wandered if she had dropped the one a few nights ago because of something that me or Caramel had said while we had been sat in front of her having our conversation.

She spins round to face me

"Hello Lilly"  she said as calm as you like.  She might be calm but I certainly wasn't.

"I think you have some explaining to do!!!  What's your game???"  I snapped at Ice.  Her disguise had fooled me at first, the brown hair and eyes, but I knew that face underneath the scars, it was just the new colours that had totally thrown me!!   It was her eyes that threw me the most  - I thought her eyes must genuinely be brown I didn't know you could get coloured contact lenses.

"I guessed you would be the one who would rumble me after the other night."   She smiled at me but when I didn't speak she carried on  "You know you have all been in here, Mango, Alpine, Sunny, Ruby, and Caramel, not one of them have batted an eyelid at me - but I guessed it wouldn't take you long to work it out when you kept asking Caramel if I reminded her of anyone."  she is smiling at me as she spoke which I found quite strange, I'm not sure that Ice has every smiled at me before.

"How long have you been here in this town????"  I asked her remembering Mango said that she had worked here for months.

"I've been here for nearly six months now, I'm actually surprised its taken you lot this long to notice me, I thought I would be spotted straight away."  she said still smiling at me, I couldn't help but stare at the scars that now ruin her face.

"Are you spying on us for Lime??"  she winced when I said Lime's name.

"Hell No!! I'm hiding out here because of Lime, I didn't know what else to do, I was alone, I guessed I would be safer here with you lot but I didn't know if any of you would accept me after everything that went on at school.  I made myself a mixed berry to blend into this town and maybe it might fool Lime for a while.  When none of you spotted me, the longer it went on it just got harder for me to say anything to any of you, I don't think anyone looks past my scars." 

"Your face - what happened to it?"  I couldn't help but ask her about the scars seeing as she had just mentioned them.

"The scars are Lime's handy work.  You know she isn't going to stop until she gets each and every one of us don't you, and that is including me, she's already tried once!!"  she wasn't smiling any more.

"Lime did that to your face?"  I asked her pretty shocked, I always thought they were the best of friends.

"Yes, she came after me just after she got Jazz, I was the lucky one, I got away from her but not until she had slashed up my face, as you can see."

"JAZZ??!!" 

"Oh Berry - You don't know about Jazz do you!!"  she put her hand on my arm which I thought was a strange thing for her to do.

"No, Sunny did mention a while back he couldn't get hold of him but ........... please tell me he's ok!!"

"I wish I could, I'm sorry I'm afraid he suffered the same fate as Cosmic .............I'm sorry about Cosmic by the way, he was nice, he definitely didn't deserve what Lime did to him, nor Jazz!!!"

My legs nearly went from underneath me.

Jazz - gone?!  I don't think any of us had even worried about his safety, and especially not Ice's,  we always presumed it was just me Cosmic and Alpine she was after.  I'm finding it hard that she could have done that to Ice's face, Ice would have been the last person I would have expected Lime to have a go at.

I need a drink!!!!

"Why you Ice?  I don't understand - you was her lacky, if she said jump you asked how high - what did you do to upset her."

"I stood there laughing like the rest of you that day, but I don't really think she needs a reason, she's done with me so disposing of me is just a game to her, I actually think that she enjoys fading people."

"How do I know I can trust you - you could be working for Lime for all I know!!"

"I promise you I'm not doing anything for that woman other than hiding from her, I'm in exactly the same boat as the rest of you, we are all in danger."  she looked at me  "I would have had to have blown my cover soon anyway, Alpine and Sunny were in here last night, sat at the bar talking away in front of me like you all have,  they think Lime is never coming back, they don't know the danger they are in - we all are - and I think she's coming soon I've been having her prank calls and nasty text messages for the past three days."  I was surprised when she said she had had the texts and prank calls like the rest of us.


"Have you kept them?  Show me."  I really don't know if I can trust her, she has always come across to me as a nasty person, she has never once been civil to me before today, this is not the Ice that I remember.  Maybe Ruby would know, she was closer to Ice at school than any of the rest of us were.

She handed me her phone and I started to go through her text messages.  She had similar text messages on her phone like what we have all received from Lime.

"This is what I was worried about, none of you trusting me, and I don't really blame you, especially you, I was very mean to you at school, I know and I'm really sorry that I was such a bitch to you!!!  Lime didn't leave me with much choice, I was too weak to stand up to her!!" 

"I don't understand why it's been two years since she faded Cosmic and she nearly faded Alpine, why has she been so quiet and  left us all alone for so long, we've had no silent calls up until a few days ago."

"Who knows what goes through that head of hers!!  She's not been as quiet as you think, she's faded Jazz, she's done this to my face and she's been busy having kids in between her rampages."

"LIME HAS KIDS??"  I couldn't imagine that woman being capable of loving anyone but herself, I wouldn't have thought she would even have wanted any children..

"Yes she has two boys, and I'm sure she was pregnant again the last time I saw her, I think she's breeding her own little evil army, I really feel sorry for those kids!!."

"Does Lime know where you are?"

"I don't think so, as soon as she did this to me I went into hiding, I didn't give her a chance to get me again and she would have done if I had stayed were I was.  I had to break into the school and go through the old records to find out the name of the town that Mango came from - all I knew was that you all came here together with him after school - I was alone with Jazz gone, coming here I thought was my best and only option."  We sat in silence for a few minutes.  "We only stand a chance against Lime if we all stick together."

"Did you see much of Lime after school?"

"I did for a while and she was ok with me, she got married and had her first baby then she vanished for ages, they moved out of town, I never even thought at the time what she might be up to.  Then Jazz told me about Cosmic and Alpine, Sunny had told him.  Straight after Lime and her family moved back into town she was having another baby, then she turned nasty with me and set about me and Jazz - I didn't see it coming and neither did Jazz, neither of us really thought we were in any danger from her - but we were both wrong."

"So how do you think the others will take to me being here?"  she asked me

"I don't know?"  and I didn't know, I really don't know how any of the others will react to her being here, not even Mango.

"I'm not sure that Ruby will be too pleased to see me after all I did get her expelled from school."  I couldn't help but laugh quite loudly which she didn't look too happy about.

"Did Jazz never tell you why he asked you to set up Ruby with that fire?"  I asked her and she just shook her head  "I can't believe he didn't tell you - you actually did Ruby and Sunny a HUGE favour helping her get expelled - she was pregnant and we needed to get her out of the school before it started showing."

"Pregnant!! - no Jazz never said.  I suppose you all have kids by now."

"Ruby and Sunny have four, Caramel and Alpine have three, me and Mango don't but I suppose you know I have one buried in the cemetery with his Dad."

"I'm sorry ....... no I didn't know ....... was that because of Lime??"  she just sat there with her mouth wide open, she actually looked genuinely shocked.

Having to explain to her what had happened was pretty hard, thinking about it was like having to relive it, losing the baby still gets me down some days, I don't think I am ever going to get over that.

I didn't know what else to do but take her home with me.  Mango would know what to do about her being here - I didn't have a clue if I could even trust her or not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where the hell have you been, I've been worried sick, your brothers are both out looking for you."  Mango started yelling at me as soon as we walked through the front door  "And what's the point of getting you a new phone if you're just going to leave it in our room??!!  You know you're not safe out there alone ....... why do you keep on just taking off and putting us through this worry??!! "

"I'm sorry I really didn't mean to worry you!!"

"Don't do that to me again!!"  he said as he hugged me  "Especially not now the silent calls have started again!!"

"Where did you tear off to anyway?"  he asked

"I had to go to the dive bar........."

"Oh please, tell me you've been sat in there drinking again while we have been worrying ourselves sick .....and you've brought home the bar staff!!"

"No, well I did have one drink, but I needed it, and as for bringing how the bar staff, there is a very good reason for it."   Ice started laughing

 "Still the nerd I see Mango, even without your glasses, I thought you would definitely be the first one to recognize me."  Ice said and Mango's head shot in her direction and he just stood there staring at her.  I'm sure he still didn't recognize her and if he did he wasn't saying anything.

"You remember Ice don't you Mango."  I couldn't stand the silent staring any longer. .

"Oh Berry!!  Ice!!  What have you done to yourself?"

"Brown hair dye and contact lenses."  she said which almost made me laugh


"Not that, I don't see your colour remember!  I meant your face, whoever stitched it up did a very bad job of it!!"

"Oh that ..."  she said  looking down at the floor  "I never had it stitched"

"Why ever not??"

Listening to Ice tell Mango about Jazz and how Lime had done that to her face a second time around didn't make it any easier to listen to.  Suddenly I felt very scared for all of us, but in the back of my mind I still wandered if Ice could really be trusted.  Mango didn't seem to be at all worried about Ice's presents in the house and he did know her better than I did.  I guess I just had to trust his judgement but that doesn't mean I won't be keeping an eye on her.

Mango asked her where she was living, she told him she was renting a place over on raspberry avenue.  He said she may as well stay over because he was getting Sunny, Alpine, Ruby and Caramel round here in the morning, he thinks everyone needed warning.

"What did you do that for, asking her to sleep over, I don't trust her!!"  I said to him quietly when Ice wandered off to answer her ringing phone.

"Why ever not?"  he looked at me a little surprised

"Ice was very close to Lime, how do we know she's not here as her spy - or worse."

"Don't be silly, Ice was never really that bad, ok she did used to do stuff for Lime, but so did most of us, we were all bullied by her it was not only you, actually Ice used to get it really bad before you arrived, she is a lot softer than you think!!!  Ruby was actually closer to Lime and did far worse than Ice and if you have forgiven Ruby I don't see why you can't forgive Ice."

"Maybe because Ice was the one who ground Mulberry's photograph into the floor when she could quite easily have given it me - Lime had walked away but still she stood there grinding the photo into the floor until it was just a pile of mush!!"

 Mango suddenly started laughing  "Oh Berry!!"

"It's not funny Mango!!"

"I'm sorry I'm not laughing at what she did - it's pretty ironic you should bring up Mulberry right now."  he said and started to laugh again.

"MANGO!!"

"Sorry - I don't think you are going to like this - do you know how I knew the mixologist with the scars all over her face was brown and blue?"  I shook my head  "Prelude told me a while back because you see since Mulberry moved in with him he has been spending a hell of a lot of time in that dive bar because of that mixologist.  Prelude wasn't happy with it at first because of her being a mixed berry, he even considered sending him back to your parents to get him away from that mixologist."

"Ice and Mulberry - NO!!!!"  I am shocked

"Yes I think so - he hasn't mentioned anything about them lately so I think Prelude might be a little more relaxed about them - but apparently Mulberry has it bad so ............." he started laughing again

"DON'T!!!! - anyway where was I? Why hasn't he spoken to me about it, he's my brother too!!"  I also wandered why Mulberry had not mentioned that he might have a girlfriend or that he liked someone.

"He doesn't like to stress you out with stuff, he thinks you are still, you know, not yourself."

"Did you tell him about us - only I'm worried he might not like it, I'm not purple am I"  Mango started to look a little concerned  "He didn't like the thought of Mulberry with another coloured berry ....."

"Don't stress, I told him and he said - It's about time, he said he saw it coming years ago and he's glad we have finally got our act together!!"

"So he's ok with us?"  he smiled at me

"Perfectly fine."   something is bugging me  "Why didn't you recognize Ice earlier?"

"I don't know, that's the first time I've seen her up that close, I was looking at her scars more than her face, they are shockingly awful from a surgeons point of view!!"

It was a little like the old times all of us together again but with two noticeable absences - Cosmic and Jazz - which made me really sad to think that we could never really all be together again.  Of course we were all upset over Jazz fading none of us saw that coming and none of us expected that Lime would have Ice on her hit list either.  Now we all had a new worry - knowing that none of us were safe from Lime and her threats.  I wandered what we had coming and when.

"A little bird has told me she's seen Lilly and Mango making out ........ FINALLY!!!!"  Caramel said suddenly with a huge grin on her face.

"Big Mouth!!!"  Ice said and started laughing

"What about you Ice - how's your love life - got yourself a boyfriend??"  I nearly choked on my food when Caramel asked Ice about her love life.

"Yes I do actually!!"  she said but carried on eating.  I hoped that Caramel would stop there but doubted she would.

Mango dropped his fork on his plate loudly and looked at Caramel   "How is Alpine getting on with the new Medication?"  I knew what he is doing, he is trying to steer the conversation away from Ice's love life.

"I don't know, it doesn't seem to have made any difference to his memory, it's as bad as ever, he still can't remember any of our names half the time, and he does the stupidest things sometimes, it took us hours to find his shoes yesterday, he'd put them in the fridge."  She said and the smile went off her face.

"I thought as much I asked him earlier and he just said what new medication?"  Mango sighed  "I think I might have him in and run some more tests."

"Tell me honestly do you think he is ever going to get his head back to normal?"

"I did warn you, after the extent of his head injuries, he's actually pretty lucky, but unfortunately I don't think there is anything else we can do now to make him any better, but I'll have another look just in case."

The conversation carried on going from one subject to another but thankfully didn't get back onto Ice's love life.  I wanted to get her on her own to talk to her about her and Mulberry being together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't get the chance to talk to Ice about Mulberry.  It all happened like a car crash.  Ice turned up while Mulberry was here, they were both a little surprised to see each other here, Mulberry getting a few more surprised than even I expected.

Me and Mango were outside watching the stars together and all we could hear was Mulberry and Ice inside the house arguing like cat and dog.

"I don't like it!!"  I said suddenly

"You're on about Ice and Mulberry again aren't you!"  he said as he started laughing  "Who would have thought it - Ice could end up being your sister in law" 

"Stop it - its not a laughing matter!!!!!"  I couldn't believe how calm he is being with the whole Ice situation, he's even helped her get a better paid job at the hospital, he is not the slightest bit concerned with her sudden presence.   "Don't you think its a little suspicious how Ice just happens to have been hiding in town for six months disguised as a mixed berry and that she has been dating my little brother on the quiet."

"She didn't even realize he was your brother, its just a happy coincidence."

"Well I don't believe that -  I just don't trust her!!"

"Lilly you need to cut her some slack - at the end of the day she is one of us, she is in the same boat as us, we all need to stick together and you seriously have got her wrong."

"Another reason why I don't want her round Mulberry, if she is telling the truth she's putting him in even more danger than he is in already being my brother - Lime has already nearly got one of my brothers remember."

Mango stood up suddenly so I did the same.   "Lilly you seriously need to chill out, Ice is one of us - trust me, and as far as Mulberry and Ice are concerned you just have to let them get on with it - from what Prelude told me it was Mulberry who did all the running not Ice, the boys obsessed with her, if you go trying to break them up, you are the one who's going to get hurt."

"I know I have to put up with it but It doesn't mean I have to like it!!" 

"Don't get telling him you don't like it - you'll only upset him, the last thing we need is fighting amongst us - we need to stick together and concentrate on Lime coming."

We walked into the house and Mulberry and Ice are still going at it, Mango went upstairs to read one of his medical books, I couldn't help but interfere, all the shouting was reminding me of my parents fighting and it is driving me crazy.

"What's going on?  We could hear you two yelling from outside."

"Mulberry's a little upset about my colour change."  Ice said to me

 Mulbery went straight at Ice "It's not the colour change and you know damn well - it's all the things you haven't been telling me - like your hair and eyes being fake, you knowing my sister, not even your name was real for berries sake!!  Was anything you told me the truth??!!"

They started to argue again and I felt like a spare part standing there just listening to what they were saying to each other.  Mulberry had this look on his face and a glint in his eye that suddenly reminded me of Dad, Mulberry looked pretty upset and angry.  I was a little disturbed by some of the things he was saying - like she had been using a false name.

I walked off and left them to it,  I went upstairs to talk to Mango.  "She's been using a fake name, did you know?"

"Yeah, I had to help her get everything straightened up when she started at the hospital."  he said putting his book down on the bedside table.  "She was hiding from Lime, just like Lime has changed her name to hide from us - maybe if we had all thought about doing it then Lime might never have found us - you need to stop stressing over Ice!!"

"I can't help it, he's my little brother and I don't care what you say, I don't trust her!!  I want to ask a BIG favour - can Mulberry move in here."

"What?"  he sounded a little shocked

"I want to keep an eye on him, well her mainly, I can't do that with him living at Prelude's ........... Please, I'm sure he'll be no trouble!!"

"Will it make you happy and stop you from stressing?"  he asked and I smiled and nodded  "Ok he can move in, why not ask them both, then you can keep a proper watch on them!!  Then maybe you might stop giving me a headache!!"

"It's gone quiet downstairs."  I said suddenly realizing they had stopped arguing.  "I'm just going to check that he's ok."  Mango just started laughing at me as he picked up his book and started reading it again

When I went back downstairs I found them messing around like they had not just spent the last few hours yelling and screaming at each other.

 "So have you two made up?"  I asked Mulberry and he said they had.  "I wanted to ask you two something - how would you feel about the two of you moving in here?"

"And why would we want to do that?"  Ice asked

"Well, I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not happy about you and Mulberry being together because I think you are putting him in necessary danger."  she just looked at me like I'd gone mad  "He's in enough danger as it is for just being my brother, Lime has already nearly faded Prelude, she hit both Cosmic and Prelude, only Prelude survived - if Mulberry is around you he has got more chance of getting hurt."

"Doesn't moving in here put him in even more danger - after all it is you she wants the most!!"  she had a point I suppose.

"Maybe but I cant help but worry over him, I want him here where I can keep an eye on him, besides Mango says we all have to stick together, you are living in that tiny house alone, you are the easiest target for Lime aren't you - we stand a better chance if we are all together."

"I'll think about it."  Ice said  "What do you think?"   she ask Mulberry

"Lilly is right about you living in that house on your own - you would be safer living here and I don't mind - Lilly and Mango are not as strict as Prelude, he still treats me like I'm a child, I'd rather live here."

"So that's settled - you're both moving in!!"  I said to them.

"I suppose."  Ice said

I'm really not comfortable with Ice and Mulberry being together.

but at least with them living here I can keep an eye on them,
I don't care what Mango says, I just don't trust Ice ..



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Song: "Always Be Together" by Little Mix

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another unplanned detour - the game put these two together - I had Ice in town but never planned on using her - first she turns up as the mixologist at the dive bar - then she appeared as Mulberry girlfriend on his friends list - so my mind went a wandering.