Chapter 50 - Part 2 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

     "Welcome .. to ..  the .. other .. side."  Sunny mumbles quietly, repeating my words very slowly, as he stares down at his new transparent form, almost in disbelief.  "Oh Fudge!!"

Sunny glances up, staring at me wide eyed as he now gingerly tries to touch me.  Being 'new' to the spirit world he has not yet mastered the art of connection, so his hand goes straight through me.  He snatches his hand back, almost like it has just been painfully burnt, and stares at it for a moment in confusion.

     "Hell!!  Cos, I can not believe I can see you standing there!!  Is this what spirits look like??!!  Is this what Tapestry sees?  Oh berry, does this mean that I am a spirit?!"
     "Yes Sunny ...  you are now in the spirit world with me."  I laugh at him
     "Hang on, if I am here ... with you ... how the hell did I get here?"

I point at his mortal deceased body, which is lay not too far from his feet.  Seeing me has distracted his attention away from it and up to now, he has been quite oblivious to it.   Sunny stares down at his mortal body in horror and suddenly starts to panic and totally freak out, just like I thought he might - exactly like I did.

Looking at yourself from the outside, is the most bizarre experience that I have ever encountered.  I laugh at Sunny, as I grab his arm and try to pull him away.  He shouts at me to stop as he points towards his yellow body.  I ignore him, pulling him out of the shadow cast by the high wall, into the sunlight and away from his body.  There is nothing he can do to prevent me from pulling him away, and I don't stop until we are situated behind a collection of large rocks, which block his view, and he can no longer see himself.

     "Sunny, you do not need your mortal body anymore, and it is best that you do not see what happens to it from here on, trust me!!  Autopsy's are not pleasant things to watch!!"
     "Stop!!  They had better not be thinking about cutting me up!!"  this makes me laugh
     "Unfortunately in your case, River says your deceased body will have to have an autopsy so they can determine exactly how you faded, to rule out any fowl play."  I laugh at the expression of sheer terror on his face  "Don't worry mate ... I promise, you will not feel a thing!!!"

I crack up, after a few minutes he joins me and we both stand there laughing for a while.
     

Our laughter subsides as we stand and listen to the noise going on around us.  Police sirens and cars screeching to a halt up on the road, voices shouting, half a dozen police officers run past us.  I tell Sunny to stay where he is while I step out a little to watch the commotion.  I spot Elderberry and Mango stood over Sunny's body talking to Granite.  I watch as Mango's legs give way as he cracks up and Granite tries to comfort him and hold him up.  I can't watch anymore, I am surprised by Mango being here.  I know how much Sunny fading is going to upset him, just like the rest of his family and the extended family.

     "I don't understand!!  How did I fade?  The last thing I remember is being in the den ... with Tap, Shadow, Lime and ... Honey ... Oh Berry!!"  he looks a little alarmed  "Honey did this to me, didn't she!!"
     "Yes, she did ... I'm sorry!!"
     "What are you sorry for?"  he frowns at me
     "We are sorry that one of us was not around to stop her!!  Jazz is kicking himself for leaving you three mortals unprotected and Omri is kicking himself for giving Honey the chance to escape.  They are both in the den beating themselves up over it."  I smirk at Sunny  "Who would have thought it, Sunny fading the hero, in Jazz's eyes anyway, saving Lime from the raging vampberry!!"  I roll my eyes  "Jazz has gone totally soft in the head over that damn woman!!!"
     "Lime is okay I take it."
     "Oh yeah, isn't she always - Mother and baby are both peachy!!"
     "Typical, she gets away with it and I am the one who has copped it!!"  he rolls his eyes then sniggers  "Seriously can you believe Jazz knocking up Lime, of all people?!  You had to know he had a crush on her at school!!"
     "No, I did not have a clue either, just like you, he kept it from all of us, on purpose!!"  we both laugh, even though I am still not very amused with the Jazz and Lime situation.

Sunny just floats there as he looks down at himself again.  I am amused and can quite imagine what is going through his head, I was pretty shocked, amazed and confused when it happened to me and I did not have anyone around to help me understand or talk me through it.

     "So ... how did I get out here?"  he frowns at me  "And how did I ...?"
     "Honey smashed you up the wall, you hit it so hard your neck broke, which River says would have faded you instantly."  I smile at him sheepishly  "I am sorry Sunshine, I need to tell you something ... after Honey faded you, she turned on Tapestry ... Jazz had to dispose of her, she was half way through fading Tapestry when Jazz walked into the room ..."
     "Is Tapestry okay?"  his eyes widen  "And Shadow?"
     "Shadow is fine.  Tap said he was going at Honey like a savage dog, trying to protect the three of you, but Shadow knew you had faded, he heard your heart and thoughts stop which unhinged him."  I chuckle  "Tapestry is also fine now after they stitched his neck and filled him back up with blood.  He is just a little upset and shook up."  I frown at him  "Sunny you did hear what I just told you, didn't you ... Honey has gone, she is no more ... she is not even in the spirit world with us."
     "Yes I heard!"  he mumbles quietly

I watch Sunny hit the ground, I am not sure if his legs gave way or if he just sat down very quickly.  I join him and sit down on the ground.  We sit through quite a lengthy silently while Sunny just stares down at the floor and collects his thoughts together.  I speak when I can not stand the miserable silence anymore.

     "I am sorry Sunny!!  Jazz will explain to you himself, she really left him with no choice.  She was becoming way to uncontrollable as well as unpredictable.  If Honey had got lose again, who knows what she might have done ... You and Tapestry were the last two people we would have expected her to try and fade ... with that in mind, all we could think is nobody would have been safe from her in the future ... Crystal, Vanilla, Tap ..."
     "I know!!  I understand ... I should never have made Jazz turn her!"  he mumbles quietly  "I should have listened to Jazz and Mango!!"
      "Yeah you should, but that has always been your problem hasn't it!!  Never listening to common sense!!  If you had listened she could have been here in the spirit world now, that sweet little girl that she used to be, instead of ...."
     "Okay!!  Okay!!  Midnight don't rub it in!!"  he snaps at me. "So ... how are they covering up my fading?"
     "Me and Saffy had to carry your body out here to make it look like you have slipped and fell down those steps which broke your neck.  Your keys and wallet are half way up the steps.  River is going to jump on the autopsy, so that he can falsify it to make sure they don't spot by your bone movement that your body was moved after you faded."

     "Saffy?"  he says as he starts to look around him   "Where is he, I want to see him!"
     "You will soon, I just need to see how the land lies between you two, and of course sort out if you are staying or pass over."   he frowns at me  "The bright light that you can see.  Not all spirits hang around like we do, most go straight into the light and leave this world completely.  Don't ask me what is on the other side of that light, because none of us know."
     "Obviously I want to stay if you, Jazz and Saffy are here ... I will still be able to communicate with Crystal, Tap, Vanilla, Shadow and Magnolia and I can still watch over my kids ..."
     "And Ruby ... ?"  I ask mischievously with a smirk  "Will you be wanting to hang around and wait for Ruby to fade and join you ..."
     "Fudge berry, Cos, please tell me that is not what you are doing ... waiting for Lilly!!"
     "And what if I am?!"
     "You still have not let that go have you!!  Mate ... I hate to say this, but what you and Lilly had, doesn't even come close to Lilly and Mango!!  Since her Coma, she does not even remember you!"
     "I am not stupid, I have eyes and ears.  I have been watching them all these years and I know I am probably wasting my time!!  Still it does not change my feelings, I can't just switch it off ... unlike some!!"
     "Is that a dig at me?!"  he frowns  "I guess it must be ... if you have been lurking around watching Mango and Lilly, I guess you must also have been watching all of us, especially me and Ruby ... secretly falling apart!!"  he snaps  "So no, I have no intention of waiting for Ruby, she can go to hell alone for all I care!!"

We stare at each other for a moment, I am not even sure I should say anything on the subject of his relationship with Ruby.  I have watched him carrying his troubles around alone all these years, not even sharing his problems with Mango, or another living sole.  I have seen him crying so many times because of it, and I also know he has only stayed, put on a front and held it together because of his children.

     "So come on Cos ... I want to hear what you have to say ... I guess I told you so  is right up there!!"
     "Seriously Sunny, I was not going to say any such thing!!"  I smile at him sympathetically  "Yes I have been watching the two of you, it has been rough ... I am sorry ..."
     "Not as sorry as I am!!  Sorry that I did not listen to you and Mango at school!!  If I had listened, I would not have been shagging the slut to get myself into that mess in the first place!!  Pissing my parents off because I was colour mixing, and for what?! ... I should have known she would never stay faithful to me!!"
     "You did take one hell of a risk marrying the school bike, especially knowing her track record ... once a whore always a whore, we did try to warn you!!"
     "Yeah, and I guess you have been watching her performing haven't you ... so tell me Cos .. do I know about all of them, bar the obvious one?"  he squints at me when I stay quiet  "I want the truth, because I could never get it out of her!!  You may as well tell me everything you know, it is not like you can hurt my feelings anymore, because they faded a long time ago!!"

     "As far as I know ... there were another two that you didn't know about."  I say sheepishly as I watch him close his eyes and shake his head.  "And I will put your mind at rest over one thing ... she never slept with Alpine again after school, she was telling the truth about him, he definitely is not the one!!"
     "You know who HE is don't you!!"
     "Yes I do ... but please don't ask me for his name, because it will not do you any good, you will not be impressed when you do find out who's child you have been raising ... he does not even know or realize himself and it is not like you can do anything about it now."
     "He really seriously does not know?"
     "Honestly, he does not have a damn clue!!  Trust me, the kind of guy he is, if he knew she was his kid, he would have been there!!  It only happened once with them.  Knowing him, and the kind of person he is, it had to be one hell of a drunken mistake on his behalf.  Over the years I have watched him and Ruby very carefully when I have seen their paths cross and there is absolutely nothing between them, they actually just blank each other."
     "So how exactly, do you know who he is?  You were alive when it happened."  his eyebrows rise  "Did you know it was going on?  Did he tell you?"

     "Hell no, I only found out about it after I faded.  Ruby was cracking up over it on the quiet, she was terrified about how the baby was going to turn out, she knew it was his and not yours, because you were away at your parents, when it happened.  You was trying to patch things up with your folks, as well as helping them move from Amber Meadow to Sugar Falls."
     "Yeah ... Stupid me, I gave her plenty of time to go shagging around, I was gone for nearly three weeks remember!!"  he mumbles
     "Ruby needed someone to talk to ... for some strange reason, she chose me.  She sat at my grave and spilled her guts to my headstone."  he rolls his eyes  "I sat and listened to her rambling, obviously, I couldn't do anything with it at the time, I have just had to carry it around with me.  I knew who he was before the baby was born.  I expected his colouring to come out in the baby, like Ruby was, but it didn't so ...."
      "You know I knew there was something off about that pregnancy, by how odd Ruby was acting and how quickly she wanted another baby.  There was hardly 10 months between Scarlet and Saffron!!   Ruby must have thought she had got away with it when Scarlet arrived all red and Saffron was just the bait, along with Cherry and Crimson, to keep me there if it ever came out."
     "When and how exactly did you find out?  Did she come clean?  The first I knew about you knowing was hearing you and Ruby arguing quite badly over it."
     "Hell no ... Ruby come clean, you are joking aren't you!!  I had to work it out for myself and continuously go at her to get the truth!!  She would never have told me willingly, that woman has no conscience!!"  he rolls his eyes at me  "She doesn't care about Scarlet having the right to know who her real father is, or that there is a guy walking around this town who has a kid he doesn't even know about.  Not even watching what Mango went through finding out about River, pricked her consciousness into doing the decent thing... if I had known who he was, I would have told him, as well as punched his lights out!!"

     "I don't understand, so how did you find out?"
     "I worked it out when the identical twins were born, it was after they came home.  Ruby has this box where she keeps all the babies medical books, hospital bracelets and stuff.  I was just putting away the twins hospital bracelets and medical cards and I started flicking through the books.  I noticed something odd about Scarlet, her blood type being totally different to everyone elses.  Me, Ruby and all of our children have the same blood type.  Normally I would not have thought anything of it, except only days earlier Mango had been going on about how Tapestry had his blood group and Mosaic and Coral had Lilly's, and he explained the whole parent child blood group facts to me ... you know what the nerd is like when he gets going!!"  we both laugh for a moment   "So I knew straight away, she couldn't be my child with a different blood group.   The dates didn't add up either ... Ruby has always told me that Scarlet came early, but she didn't according to her book, she was two weeks over her due date.  It also made me think about how Ruby had left me at work when she went into labour with Scarlet.  I wasn't told until after she had arrived, when with Saffron and the identical twins, she insisted on me being there.  I wasn't here when Cherry and Crimson arrived remember so I did not really have a lot to do with that pregnancy because I was at school, but Ruby totally froze me right out of the second pregnancy, yet with all the rest, she insisted I got involved, she dragged me to the scans, anti natal and everything.  Saffron's birth was the first one I was there for.  I could just feel something was not quite right around Scarlet, even back then."  he starts to choke

     "I don't get it!!  Why have you kept it from the girl?  Why have you let her go on believing that you are her biological Father."
     "How could I tell her at the time and as the years went on, it just got harder and harder to do it!!  It broke my heart when I found out the truth ... she was only six years old, how could I break her little heart when up to that point, she was my daughter and I was her Dad.  She was all me, she clung to me the most ... a proper little Daddies girl."   he chuckles to himself   "How could I tell her I am not her Dad, especially when I could not tell her who actually is ... her Mother would never damn well give him up!!  As the kids got older, we worried, if the truth ever did come out, the others might pick on her, it just got easier for me to stay quiet and not rock the boat."
     "You do realise don't you, this could still all come out and blow up ... Scarlet is pregnant, just because she has none of her Dad's colouring, doesn't mean her baby won't!!  You should have told her the truth ... she is going to have a hard enough time when this baby is born, with Cinnamon faded ... it will destroy her if the truth does have to come out!!"
     "Yeah I know ... I haven't had a decent nights sleep since she told us she is pregnant!!"  he closes his eyes for a moment  "I was too upset when Ruby finally admitted she wasn't my child, to even think about the future or think it through logically."  Sunny mumbles quietly as he looks down at the floor  "I think it only really hit me when she started dating, I shit myself to start with, wandering who the hell she might be related to ...."
     "Yeah I know I heard the arguments between you and Ruby.  You being paranoid that she might be Alpines, especially when she started dating Cinnamon."  he rolls his eyes at me
      "I really need to know Cos!!  Who is he?"
      "I am not telling you who he is, not right now anyway!!  I need you with a clear head, you will have enough to contend with getting used to your new life in the spirit world, and we have other important things to discuss and sort out first!!"
     "Like what?"  he frowns at me
     "You being homophobic and nasty with it!!"

Sunny just stares at me blankly. 

     "Seriously Sunny, what is all this homophobic crap that you have been peddling, especially in your son's direction?!"  Sunny does not say anything he just looks down to the floor.  "I am warning you now, we will not put up with your homophobic rubbish, there seriously is no need for it!!  We think it is best you pass over if you are going to carry on with it!!"
     "You can't be serious!!"  he is shocked.
     "Yes we are deadly serious!!  Saffy does not even want to see or speak to you if you intend to continue with it!!"  his eyes widen and his mouth drops open  "We have enough shit going on around here without you constantly ripping into Saffy and Storm."
     "What does Storm have to do with it?"
     "The rumors were true you know, Storm is gay, just like your brother."  I laugh quietly at the expression on his face.  "They have attached themselves together this side of life, they are all over each other constantly, so if you can not hack it and keep your mouth shut and your twisted opinions to yourself  ... it is best you go."

He just sits there and laughs at me sarcastically.

     "Sunny I am being serious!!   For once in your life, you have to listen, instead of going on in that pig head way of yours, then apologize after it is too late and admit you should have listened in the first place.  Saffy has threatened to leave if you carry on with it ... if he leaves then so will Storm.  Tapestry needs Storm and we need each other!!  We are building a spirit army around Shadow, because when the shit hits the fan with the original vampires in the future, he is going to need us, spirits are the only immortal stronger than vampires.  If you mess everything up by forcing Saffy and Storm to leave then I will never forgive you ... so for everyone's sake, especially Shadows, you need to get your act together and quit the crap or it is best for everyone you pass over willingly before you do any damage!!"

He sits there quietly in thought for quite a while.
    
      "I will cut the crap!! ... I want to stay ... I need to stay!!  I should be here to help with Shadow, he is my Grandchild, and I have to put things right with Saffy or I will never rest!!"

Suddenly he jumps to his feet so I follow him.

      "Where is Saffy?"
      "Seriously ... You best had mean it Sunshine!!  If you start on Saffy and Storm, like I have watched you carrying on at Saffron ... I will force you to pass over!!  I will even sacrifice myself and take you with me, if I have to."
      "I promise ... it will stop right now ..."
      "What the hell is wrong with you anyway ...  you was never like this when we were kids!!"
      "I ... I have my reasons ..."  he stammers  

     

     "Tell me Sunny!"
     "I can't!!  Please Cos, take me to Saffy, only he can help me to sort my head out with this!!"


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