Mango 6 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

We are stood in Tapestry's room, where Honey has decided to camp out permanently waiting for Tapestry to come back, she's totally lost her head, she does nothing but lie there day and night, pretty much what I'm being told Tapestry is doing in Rainbow Valley.

Even though I hate to see that the girl is suffering, in a way she is doing us a favour by insisting she be here rather than round at Sunny's, we have a lot more control over the situation with her being here, I swear she thinks he's just going to come walking into the room any minute.

I hate keeping them apart and watching them suffer like this but I really have no choice.

Me and Sunny are silently watching Gravel talking to, or should I say grilling Honey again, which is pretty much starting to get on my nerves.  The poor girl is distraught, like she hasn't already been through enough, and now he is here regularly and keeps going on and on asking her the same questions as he has already asked her what now feels like a million times over.  I'm not sure how Sunny can just sit there and keep letting it happen.

I really can't take it anymore!!! "Gravel you know, this really isn't helping her!!"  He glances in my direction before he leaves Honey alone and walks towards me.

"You are a doctor Mango, surely she can't just NOT remember anything!!"  he says scratching his head as he glances towards Honey who is now crying on the bed.

I keep my eyes on Sunny who has moved over towards the bed and is trying to comfort her.  Me and Sunny both know that Jazz wiped her memory so that she will never remember anything between being snatched from the cemetery and being found unconscious in Apple Hill ... this Gravel can never find out and he won't unless either of us are stupid enough to give it away.

"Yes it's very possible, everyone handles things differently, when somebody has been traumatized, like Honey so obviously has been, the brain can shut it all out ... Lilly is the perfect example, she still doesn't remember a thing about a minute of her life before her coma 20 odd years ago, and I doubt now she ever will."

"This really doesn't help us .... especially now that Mango junior has gone totally silent!!  We hoped he was going to lead us too them through his activity, but now there is just nothing ... we really need Honey to remember something ... anything that will help"  

He stands there continuously scratches his head which suddenly brings back memories and makes me laugh at him because he's always had that habit ever since he was a child, I always used to tease him about it and tell him he would be bold when he got older.  He puts his hand down and laughs at himself knowing exactly what I am thinking  "Yes I still do it ... but you was wrong about the hair!!"  we both laugh for a moment.

"Gravel, if you keep trying to push Honey's memory like this you are likely to push her even further back into herself, she seriously needs a break from it ...!!"  he gives me a really strange look almost like he can't believe he's just heard me say that to him  "I want her to remember as much as you do ... my two boys are still out there and I want them back home more than anything ... but I seriously think us all keeping on at Honey is going to make her shut off even more ... as her doctor I'm telling you she needs time and space, she's not coping with Tapestry being still out there, she's beating herself up because she can't remember anything and she's pregnant remember this really isn't doing her or the babies any good, this is all getting a little too much for her."

"Okay you are her doctor, so I have to take what you're saying"  he glances towards Honey again for a moment  "I'll give her some thinking space ... but make sure you phone me the minute she remembers anything!!"  he crouches down putting his pad away in his folder on the floor by the bed  

"Don't worry you will be the first to know if she does remember anything!!"

"Coral asked me to remind you ... Are we still on for tomorrow night?"  he says to me looking up.  Huh!  I had completely forgotten about tomorrow ... we are supposed to be going round to Gravels, where Coral is now living with Slate, for a meal ... wedding planning ... Coral and Slate don't half pick their moment!!  They could quite easily have left this until Tapestry and River get back home ... but no ... it's full steam ahead with a wedding we really don't need right now.  I'm just glad that Mosaic and Fudge have said they will wait until Tapestry is back, everyone is in such a hurry to get married all of a sudden, Parsley and Strawberry too, and I really don't know what is wrong with Coral right now, she is the only one being unreasonable!!  I've had a quiet word with Slate at work and he says he's quite happy to wait ... it's Coral who is kicking up the fuss.

"Yes on one condition ... we don't talk about the case, I don't want Lilly stressing out any more, she really is not coping with this at all since Honey came home and Tapestry didn't!! and I really need a break from all of this too, it's starting to wear me down!!  he smiles at me  "Something else you can do for me too ... try and help me talk some sense into my daughters head ... they should wait until after Tapestry comes home before they start all this wedding stuff!!"  he laughs and says he thinks he can manage that, he doesn't know why there is suddenly a rush either.    

My phone starts bleeping with a text message so I open it up, I start laughing when I see the message is from Coral for Gravel.

"Talk of the devil ...Coral says if you are still here I'm to tell you to turn your phone on and you are late, she's sick of waiting!!"  I tell Gravel who starts laughing and seems to look a little uncomfortable for a moment. "Gravel don't let her run you ragged, she's a nightmare for it!!"  he just smiles at me, he looks almost embarrassed.  "She's good at getting what she wants that one, she's got her Granddad wrapped right round her little finger and she'll do the same to you if you let her!!"  

There is an uncomfortable silence which I don't quite understand.

"So how is the case going?  Anything new come up lately? None of us will be happy until Tapestry is home and Lime is locked back up again!!"  Sunny asks him strategically, we have certain questions that we need him to answer for us.

"No, there hasn't been a thing for months now, besides Honey's return, No activity is coming from Mango junior, Maizie or Manderine.  We are really struggling with the silence, we don't understand why they still have Tapestry when they let Honey go and why they haven't made any threats or demands ...  "

"I guess it's Lilly that she still has it in for the most that's probably why she still has Tapestry ... this is probably amusing her just knowing that she is suffering!!!  he frowns at me  "Remember I told you this all started because Lime thinks Lilly is a colourless freak who has no right being in this world ... I hate to think what she might be doing to Tapestry because of his eyes!!"

"If I could find them any quicker you know I would!!"  he says looking a little glum

"I know ... So where are you looking for them now?"  I ask him

"We are now concentrating our search in Apple Hill as that's where we found Honey and where their last activity was, we are also checking out the surrounding towns thoroughly, also Strawberry Falls where Manderine comes from.  I think we have now totally exhausted Sugar Valley."  

The mention of Strawberry Falls turns my stomach ... it's a lot closer to Rainbow Valley than here ... too close to Tapestry and River!!  Me and Sunny exchange a quick glance which Gravel spots.

"Something wrong?!"  he ask ... oh Fudge, I hope we haven't just made him suspicious!!

"Just the mention of Strawberry Falls ... we all hate that place with a passion ... the place where all our nightmares began!!"  I laugh at Gravel  "That's where our boarding school is, that's the place responsible for bringing that evil bitch Lime into our lives!!"

"Yeah, that boarding school of yours has closed down now you know!!"  he smiles at me as I raise my eyebrows in surprise, wandering why it has closed down.  "That was the first place we headed ... an empty building that Manderine knows well ... we though we might find them there, but there was no sign of them, unfortunately!!  Not that Manderine would have known the place is shut down ...unless of course she did have them in Strawberry Falls ... but we are still looking."

"How bad is it looking for River?  Do you recon he's in with Lime and Maizie?"  Sunny gets in the other question that we needed to ask.  "Mango is getting himself really worked up over it again ... worrying because of River's silence."  he says smiling at me

"You guys make me laugh calling her Lime."  he lets out a very loud sigh  "Mango junior is a hard one for me, I can't work out whether he's involved or not ... at first it looked like he was, but then you know what he did Mango to attract your attention and he tried to tell us otherwise, he seemed genuine enough and his past is squeaky clean, nobody has a bad word to say about him ... from what I've learnt about him it doesn't seem to be the the sort of thing he would do ... I'm inclined to think because of his sudden silence he may well now be in the same position as Tapestry, especially if Manderine has found out he is your son ... but, and it's a very big but ... Maizie's involvement makes it lean back the other way ... she wouldn't hold her own son captive would she?"  He looks at me like he's expecting me to answer that question ... I have to be very careful with what I say here, careful I don't drop myself in it by saying something that I shouldn't!!

"That woman is capable of anything ... she doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself!! ... so I wouldn't put it past her!!  but you know I'm not the best one to go asking about Maizie, after what she's done to me ... I'm not really surprised Lime and Maizie are mates ... they are both vindictive bitches!!!"   I say to him, he starts laughing at me, I think Gravel knows already how I feel about that woman for hiding River's existence away from me, so I don't need to say anything else!!

Little does Gravel know I've already had it out with Maizie quite a few times over the past few months, we are still arguing hammer and tongue over it now when our paths cross.

"I'm actually surprized Maize and Lime don't clash!!!  But I can guess who's top dog ...Lime ... she is a nasty piece of work, Maizie is a pussycat in comparison ... Lime uses people, look at Ice, they were best mates at school then out of the blue she slashes up her face and fades one of our other school mates for no reason ... what if Lime has turned on Maizie and she's got all three of them tied up?"  Sunny asks him, I'm laughing at Sunny in my head, for his quick thinking, trying to plant that idea in Gravels head.

"That is a possibility that we have already thought of, we presume she still has the gun she was waving around and used at the cemetery ... so she could well have turned on Maizie ... she could be holding them all at gun point ... which I've thought all along because she has to be controlling the situation somehow ... especially Tapestry with his temperament. "  I stand there for a moment with a really shocked look on my face, I was actually genuinely shocked because all the time that Honey and Tapestry had been in the vampberry den I had never once thought about that gun that she faded the prison guard and police officer with.  I see Sunny start glaring at Gravel, he's playing on my face.

"Gravel I'm not sure you should have told him that ... I've been trying to put his mind to rest telling him Tapestry will come home just like Honey .... and now you've probably just set him off again!!"  Sunny snapped at Gravel, he's so quick thinking and much better at all this acting than I am.

I had to turn away then, I didn't have to act this one out, it did upset me ... until Jazz got to them she could have been waving that gun around and scaring the hell out of them for all we know.. Sunny ran to put his arm round me trying to comfort me ... It actually made me cry just thinking about it ... this is killing me!!  Even though I know both of my boys are now safe, I'm so emotionally drained by everything that has gone on since Storms funeral, the slightest thing sets me off, I've only got to see Lilly crying these days and I end up crying with her  ... I'm never going to be right until those boys are back and this is all over ... and it's far from over yet, I still think we have a lot more to come, especially with Honey and the babies.

"I'm sorry Mango ... I know this is hard ... maybe I shouldn't have reminded you about the gun!!  I'm sorry mate!!"  he went quite for a moment  "I've upset you enough for one day ... I'm really sorry"  he starts to look awkward and looks at his watch "It's time I was leaving anyway, I said I'd meet Coral at the supermarket to help her with a weekly shop, I didn't expect to be this long  ... I'll see you tomorrow night!!"  Sunny let go of me and says he will show Gravel out.

I'm just glad he's going, I throw myself on the couch. I'm too mentally drained to think straight!!

I'm already constantly worrying myself sick that River is going to have to do some time in prison for this and we won't be able to do enough to clear his name to get the police not to press any charges at all.  Then there is his career ... which is in tatters, that will have to be sorted out when this is all over, I can see I'm going to have to do some serious grovelling and quick talking to help get his career back on track ... I'm scared River is going to be the one who comes out of this suffering the most ... when he really doesn't deserve it ... he threw his life away to help get Tapestry out of and away from that place ... he didn't have to and he's not stupid ... he knew what he was doing to himself but he did it anyway.

After wiping the tears off my face and checking that Honey is still asleep I sit back down on the couch feeling pretty exhausted, mentally and physically.  All this acting and trying to keep up the pretense of playing ignorant is really not easy ... I am scared that any minute I'm going to open my mouth and say something I shouldn't, and it's not just when Gravel is around either its 24/7 for me when I'm around my family and friends, the only time I can relax is when I'm with Jazz, Sunny and Mulberry.  I am really dreading tomorrow night, spending the evening with Gravel, especially if he doesn't keep to his word and starts talking about the case.  Sunny walks back into the room laughing and he collapses down on the couch beside me.

"He's feeling really guilty for upsetting you!!  Nice performance!!"  he laughs at me, he thinks I was acting then, but I hadn't been  "Seriously though, Gravel is getting on my nerves, I know he's your mate and he thinks he's got a job to do, but he's really upsetting Honey ... it's seriously starting to get on my nerves keep having to listen to him grilling Honey when I know full well he's never getting anything out of that head of hers!!"

"I know, I hope he took the hint today, I will have another quiet word with him, I'll make it doctors orders tomorrow while we're playing happy families ..." I roll my eyes at him as he stands up.  "Sunny I'm not sure I can keep this up!!  How did our lives come to this?"  he just stares blankly into space for a moment.

"One word ... LIME!!!  Don't you get falling apart on me now Mango, you are the only one keeping me together!!!"  we just look at each other for a moment  "Come on we should see what Jazz has to say!"

 I get up and Sunny follows me, we both glance towards Honey who is still soundly sleeping. I unlock the door and we walk through into the next room and I lock the door behind me.

Since Honey returned we've had to find an excuse to be camped out down here in the basement all the time with doors locked.  So my plan for converting the basement into an apartment for Tapestry and Honey is happening quicker than I expected it too, that is what we are actually doing down here most of the time ... me, Sunny and Mulberry ... the rest of the family have bought that the doors need to be kept locked because its dangerous with building work and electrical wires all over the place, especially now Cotton is crawling around, and they bought the lame excuse of me wanting it to be a surprise, I don't want them to see it until its finished.  They think it is helping me take my mind off Tapestry not coming home with Honey so they are quite happy to leave me too it.  Little do they know it's also where we are hiding Jazz out a lot of the time and occasionally Maizie.

Mine and Sunny's lives have been turned completely upside down since that night that Honey came home. The night we both had our heads totally blown to pieces with all this supernatural stuff.  Sunny had run into the room blindly, he could only see Honey lying on the bed, he didn't see Jazz or Maizie stood there, but when he did his face was a picture.  He just sat there Honey in his arms staring at the two vampberrys with his eyes and mouth wide open for a good few minutes, it was excruciating to watch, waiting for him to react.  I'm not sure which one shocked him most Jazz being alive or Maizie being here.

Both of us are still very much struggling with the fact that one of those babies is going to be one of them ... a vampberry ... besides Mulberry, the rest of our families don't have a clue, not even Honey, that baby is going to have to be whisked away as soon as its born to the vampberry den and everyone is going to have to be told one of the babies faded ... I'm not holding my breath that either of them are actually going to make it, Honey is already having problems caused by the vampire baby ... we will be lucky if even Honey makes it through this in one piece.

Jazz is not sure that the birth of a vampire baby is even possible, vampire can't reproduce and even though this baby was mortal when it was conceived, it is a vampire now, we don't know how this will affect the growth of the baby and what that baby might do to Honey or the other baby.  Honey can't be admitted to the hospital, nobody can know about this baby, with Maizies help as she is medically trained I am going to have to do everything here, me being her doctor helps me to cover it up and falsify her medical records ... so anything could be about to happen but I can't see it being pretty.  A very big reason and part of why we now need to keep Tapestry away until this is all over.

Jazz is standing up against the wall smirking at us.

He has been stood on the other side of the wall reading Gravel's mind, and probably our's too, so we know exactly what is going on in it and what he really thinks is going on here, Cosmic also will have to start plays a part in this soon by hanging around in Gravels office at the police station.  We need to be one step ahead of the police all the time if we are every going to pull all this off and get back to a normal life, not that it is ever going to be normal again.

Gravel being my mate gives us an edge because he tells us more about the case than he probably should but it is also making this a lot harder sometimes, lately he's tried to get close to me again, because of Coral and Slate, he's trying to return our friendship to what it used to be, while all I've been trying to do is keep him at arms length, I've had to, the last thing we need is Gravel getting wind of what is really going on here ... or we are all done for!!!  At least we do have one thing ... Jazz on hand to wipe his memory of anything he finds out that he shouldn't.

"You nearly killed him with your gun act .. he actually felt your pain, but then so did I ... that was no act was it!!  I can see this is all wearing you down!!"  he raised his eyebrows at me "Damn!!  I took that gun off Lime and smashed it into a million pieces ... we could have used that in the set up!!"  my eyes widen and Jazz starts laughing at me ... he can hear what's going through my head, guns scare me because I've seen the damage they cause.

"Gravel is not suspicious, he's just very confused about Honey's memory loss!!  I think you might need to give him a proper doctors talk on amnesia!!  He's clutching at straws keep badgering Honey, they have nothing to work on, only whatever Honey might remember ... one thing he is concentrating on ... the silence and lack of demands ... he's even thinking that Tapestry might have been faded because of it and the other three are long gone, but he is very torn over Mango junior."  he laughs  "Why doesn't he just call him River like the rest of us and he keeps calling that bitch Manderine!!"  he puts his cold hand on my shoulder and just stands there looking at me for a moment before he starts laugh at me, I frown at him.

"What Jazz?"

"I think you might need to sit down Mango ... I think you might have another problem brewing ... it seems that mate of yours is in love .... with your daughter!!"

"WHAT!?"

"Yeah Coral ran through his head a lot more than anything else going on in that room ... he could hardly concentrate on anything but Coral!!"

I asked him if he is joking ... I know what he's like - a joker ... and he's still a wind up merchant any opportunity that he gets, that's one thing that hasn't changed about him.  This has to be a joke!!

"Sorry mate ... trust me ... he's obsessed!!  I thought you needed warning because some of the stuff he was thinking ... I don't think it's just him either ... Cos has gone with him to see what they are up to!!"  Sunny is just stood beside me laughing.

"Great ... it takes a vampberry and a ghost to tell me what's going on with my own daughter!!"  I laugh for a moment thinking about Cosmic following Gravel, if anyone is going to find out for sure, Cosmic will and they won't even know that he is there!!

"I told you Mango ... I saw this one coming ... I told you Gravel and Coral were getting on a little too well, but you wouldn't listen ..."  Sunny has now got that 'I told you so' tone in his voice that he loves to use especially with me  "I wouldn't dream of taking any of my sons girlfriends out socially while they are at work ... those two are always out together without Slate, day and night!!"

Great this is all I need!!!  Gravel .. he wouldn't ... would he?!  Is that why he looked awkward and embarrassed, I hadn't imagined that had I!!   He wouldn't do that to his son ... would he?! I'm going to KILL him if he's laid a finger on Coral!!

"Mulberry"  Jazz says, I presume he can hear him coming.

I'm distracted from my thoughts by the door unlocking behind me, Mulberry pops his head round the door telling me that Ice has taken Lilly out to do some shopping and they have taken Cotton with them so the house is empty all except for a wasted Prelude who is on the prowl looking for me so he'll sit out with Honey and get rid of him if he comes down here.

He disappears again re-locking the door.

Mulberry had to get dragged into this web of deceit, he was getting very suspicious, he's not stupid and he could see that something was going on, besides I needed his help, I couldn't do it alone especially trying to keep Prelude as far away from this as possible, the last thing we need is Prelude finding out Limes whereabouts and I know Mulberry hates that woman as much as we do, he's never liked Prelude with her, he's always wanted them parted.  Lime is the key to us getting the boys back and hopefully keeping River out of prison, because everything is going to be pinned on Lime, who they are never going to find because she's spending the rest of her days in the vampberry den or until we decide otherwise ..

In a way I do feel a little guilty because of Prelude, he loves that damn woman, so much so that he has totally fallen apart again worse than I've ever seen him before, losing Storm hasn't helped either which is another thing ... he's pining after two people and I know they are both very much here ... Storm's spirit is with Tapestry and Lime is locked up in the vampberry den ... I could so easily put an end to all of his pain, and normally I probably would have done, but that woman has caused so much destruction she has to stay where she is, for everyone's future safety. Prelude would never be happy with how she is being kept so he can never find out.

This whole thing is changing me into a person that I don't like very much, I'm having to lie and hide things from my family, I'm having to sit here watching them suffer, even Lilly, I'm having to let them suffer thinking Tapestry is still being held by Lime when I know differently. I'm having to lie to the police, I'm having to plot and scheme like a common criminal and I'm going to have to break the law quite a few too many times before this is over ... I hate it ... but I've got no choice but to change and do what I'm doing for the sake of Honey, those babies and both of my boys.

"Jazz did you hear him mention they are looking in Strawberry Falls?  That is just way too close to Rainbow Valley for my liking!!"  I say to him, it is really starting to worry me now that they are looking for them that far out and so close to where they actually are.

"Yes I did, I forgot she comes from there like Cos ... we need to distract the police back in this direction quickly ... Now that we know that the Originals are oblivious of Tapestry .... I think now is about time we start to put plan two into action ... we need to get busy in Apple Hill to stop their suspicions of the silence ... Maizie has sorted out some of Rivers things, we just need some of Tapestry's clothes ... you know I still have the boys phone in the den, I suppose we could use that!! but Mango are you sure you are okay with this? It is really going to upset Lilly!!" 

"What choice do I have?!  I know its the only way we can do it and like you said we need to distract them back this way quickly before they go into Rainbow Valley ... I don't want Lilly upsetting anymore than she already is but it can't be avoided, I don't want River getting sent down for this either ... we have to get him off Jazz ... you know it isn't fair ... especially now he also has a baby on the way!!"

"Yeah well, from what Gravel was saying and thinking ... I'm now confident we CAN get River out of this completely ... and you heard him, the only thing stopping him thinking that he's not suffering like Tap, is Maizie ... so she has to go ... she needs to be faded from the picture as far as the police are concerned."  I start laughing ... that is going to be impossible without providing a body for them!!  Jazz as usual is in my head and he starts laughing at me  "We don't need a body ... we only need to make them THINK that Lime might have faded Maizie ... the boys can confirm that she did when they come home ... all they need to say is they watched her do it, they are tied up, she took the body out, they don't know what she did with Maizies body ... the police will just end up with a cold case. 

"And how exactly do you think you are going to make them think Lime has faded Maizie?"  Sunny asks frowning at Jazz, I was just about to ask exactly the same question myself ... Jazz says easy, what is Lime most known for, what weapon does she like to play with ... me and Sunny both said "Knives" at the same time which made us all laugh.

"Exactly ... a knife with Limes fingerprints on the handle, stained with Maizies blood ... that is definitely going to get their brains ticking isn't it especially with her track record!!  I'm a cold case you know presumed dead but my body was never found, all they had to work on with me was my blood on the pavement, years later, when Lilly went down the stairs, with Ice telling the police she saw Lime stab me and where ... case closed ... Lime was done for my murder even though they never found my body." 

"How would you know any of this and that you are a cold case."  I laugh at him and he laughs back saying how do I think, he has the best snooper in the world ... Cosmic ... there isn't anything he can't find out ... how do we think he has known so much about all of our lives since his disappearance and kept himself hidden from us.  It still creeps me out now wandering if Cosmic is lurking around all the time.

Sometimes Jazz worries me with how criminally minded his brain works!!  He's come up with most of the planning for this and some of it is downright criminal!!!  "So we are we all agreed its plan two as we discussed plus the added fake Maize fading?"

Plan two ... the first step to setting it up to bring my boys home ... I've been dreading this one because I know it is going to really upset Lilly and everyone else when it comes out ... we are setting it up to make it look like they are active in Apple Hill, the silence is making it look suspicious from the polices point of view, so we have to change the silence into activity.

Jazz and Maizie are going to plant evidence in a deserted building they have found in Apple Hill to show all four of them having been there recently, to keep them thinking they are moving around and in that area somewhere ... Maizie's and Limes fresh fingerprints will be found, evidence of them being there.  We also have to try to start clearing River's name by making it look like Tapestry AND River are both being held and badly treated by their captors, using a few of their clothes which are going to be blood stained, dirty and torn, the blood stained knife hopefully will make them think something has happened to Maizie ... hopefully making the police start believing a little more that River is also being held captive like Tapestry and he isn't one of the abductors.  It's Tapestry's clothes that are going to upset everyone. Drawing cash out of Maizies account in Apple Hill close to the deserted building we hope will draw the police to research the area, finding the evidence that has been set up.

It's going to be risky because Limes finger prints are going to be key to this working, she's going to have to take a trip out with Jazz and Maizie, but she will be compelled so she shouldn't cause a problem ... I'm just praying it all works out.  I'm dreading it ... because once we start the ball rolling there is seriously no going back!!

The police can speculate all they like until the boys come home to confirm our well planned out web of lies that they are going to be well coached in.  Bringing them home is going to take another complicated worked out plan that we have gone over and over until we are blue in the face, making sure there is nothing that can slip us up.  If we ever pull any of this off it is going to be a minor miracle!!

Jazz's phone starts ringing and he answers it quickly.  "Hiya Winter ..... just one sec, you are in luck, I'm with him now."  he says as he hands the phone out to me.

"Hi Winter, is everything okay?"  I'm really not sure my brain can take anything else today.

"No Mango, I think you seriously need to tell Tapestry the truth about Honey!!  I don't know what to do with him, he's still hauled up in his room breaking his heart, he's not eating, not speaking .... it's not fair you keep letting him grieve for Honey and the babies when he doesn't need to be!!"  she sounds pretty angry ... and I'm getting a serious headache from all this!!

"Winter we can't tell him the truth ... its for his own good in the long run please trust me ... things are already starting to go wrong with Honey's pregnancy, I'm not holding my hopes up that either of those babies are going to make it ... especially not the normal one." 

I see Sunny and Jazz both give me a side ward glance then look back at each other with doom and gloom written all over their faces.  I have to walk away from them both, they are both pretty touchy on the subject of the pregnancy at the moment.  Jazz feels really guilty because it was his venom that took hold of that baby, so he basically turned it into a vampberry when he hates what he is and his life and would never by choice inflict it on anybody else. Sunny it just sets him off again, obviously he knows his daughter might not survive this pregnancy, he's been okay today, but he's slowly falling to pieces and he doesn't need me to keep reminding him of what I've already warned him that I think is going to happen with this pregnancy.

"Winter that vampire baby is already taking too much out of Honey, half the time she's riling around in pain and I'll be surprised if even she makes it out of this in one piece ... he's grieving for them now, by the time this is all over he'll have got it out of his system  ... if the worst does happen and we lose all of them, he will have already grieved for them and he never needs to know what went on here."

"He's going to hate you when this is all over and he finds out the truth!!"

"I know but that is the risk I have to take Winter ... trust me mentally he will never cope with what I think is coming with this pregnancy and it's already started  ..."  

I start to explain to her exactly what is going on with the pregnancy, she's a doctor so I know she'll understand.  I also try to explain to her something else ... that I know exactly what he will have to go through if he is here and has to watch this, I've had to do something similar myself watching Lilly in a coma not knowing if she or the triplets would make it ... mentally it tore me apart, I only just coped with it, Tapestry with his brain, he would never cope mentally, he's a lose cannon capable of anything, I dread to think what he'd be like ... it could well completely unhinge him.

I was kind of shocked by the way Tapestry reacted to Winter's pregnancy, I thought the babies they had created was just a joke to them, kids playing a stupid game, to stop Sunny from splitting them up, not realizing what they were actually doing  ... I thought Honey would be the only thing that would upset Tapestry ... but I was wrong ... from what little bits he's said to River while they have been on the road ... it's the babies that he's struggling to deal with the most.  River thinks he's a lot more grown up than I give him credit for.

"We also have to keep him away until its set up properly for them to come home, we have to pin everything on Lime to keep River out of prison ... if he finds out Honey and the babies are still here I don't know how we are going to stop him from just tearing back ... he could blow this all up into an impossible mess for us to sort out, it wont be just River who will end up in prison it will be all of us, including you ... if the vampberrys don't finish us off first for not covering up this mess that they created!! We have to tell him NOTHING until we are set up to get them both home properly, especially with River being in the hospital and not there to talk any sense into him, so please be careful Winter!!"

"Okay I just have to trust you but I'm not happy with any of this, the last thing I want is Mango getting sent to prison because of those creatures, but still Tapestry is really worrying me!!" 

"He hasn't been having any of his outbursts has he?"

"No surprisingly, he's STILL just shut up in his room, not moving, not eating, not talking just crying!!  The only thing he's doing is drinking the milkshake and taking his meds."  she has tried to get him to speak to me a few times on the phone but he refuses by closing his eyes and just lying there in silence.

"Good, maybe River is right he is growing up ... just keep putting the supplements into the milkshake, don't try forcing him to eat that's one thing that will set him off,  just leave him if he's taking his meds, just witter on about rubbish while you are round him but don't expect him to answer you ... he'll just snap out of it and talk to you when he's ready and don't be surprised if he just switches back to normal in minutes, he'll be up and off like nothing ever happened ... Winter I'm sorry you are having to go through this!!"

I feel awful having to put this all onto somebody I've not even met yet, and only ever spoken to over the phone since River, told me about all about her.  I dread to think what she must be thinking about me and this family that she is now a part of!!  Then we get hit with that she's pregnant and will need moving to Sugar Valley very soon adding more complications to the mix.

"It's okay, it's just hard watching him doing this to himself when I could quite easily put a stop to it!!"

"I know ... and remember like I've already told you, if he does have an outburst, just walk right away and leave him to it ... the last thing we need is you getting hurt in your condition!!  The minute he starts hurling fowl language at you just walk right away and stay away until he's gone silent."

Mulberry unlocks the door and rushes into the room  

"Mango you need to come out here, Honey is riling around in pain again!!"

I quickly hand the phone to Jazz and run to the next room



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look out for Gravels side story which will be starting HERE before the next Tapestry chapter
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