Chapter 18

Blake and Ghira walked until they found a deserted corridor. Blake stopped, looking up and down, listening for others. "Blake?" Ghira asked.

"It's okay dad." Blake said. "No one's here. You don't have to hold back anymore." Ghira stared down at his daughter, a hesitant look on his face. "I'm sorry dad, please."

Ghira sighed and pulled Blake into his arms. Blake tensed. "I'm not going to yell at you Blake." He declared. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I was stressed and irritable, and I took it out on you, and I never wanted to drive you away-"

"It's not your fault dad!" Blake protested. "It's mine! I was stupid and-"

"And you were young, and we all do stupid things at that age, and it hits some harder than others." Ghira interrupted. "I don't blame you for leaving-"

"And I don't blame you for it either!" Blake cut him off. "I always wanted to travel, and I took the first opportunity that came up, and you didn't have to let me go, but you did. You didn't have to give me space, but you did, because you cared for me, even though it hurt mum, and I fucked up. It's my fault, not yours, and I accept that. You need to as well, please."

"I don't know if I can do that Blake." Ghira sighed. "After everything you went through, I can't help but feel like I failed, both you and Kali. It was all I could do to keep strong for her, after we...accepted the worst."

Blake and Ghira held each other for a time, nothing but the occasional sniffle coming from Blake to break the silence. Finally she pulled away. Ghira let her go, and they both sat, leaning against the wall. "What happened?" Blake asked. "When did you find out?"

"You hadn't been talking to us often at that point, so when two weeks went by...well your mother was worried but we figured you were either busy or it had slipped your mind." Ghira explained. "But when we called you, your phone was disconnected, completely. Your bank account was closed and emptied. The school said you had been absent from lectures for several weeks. We even called a few of your friends, but they hadn't seen you either."

"I'd moved in with Adam." Blake sighed. "He made me withdraw all my money, close all my accounts, cut all ties. He took my phone too, said I didn't need it anymore. If I was far enough away I couldn't contact him, I was in the wrong place." Ghira's face twisted with pain, but he remained silent. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Blake-" Ghira started.

"Please dad." Blake resisted. "It's hard enough with Glynda. Not now."

"Did he-" Ghira persisted.

"Yes, now please, drop it." Blake groaned. Ghira clenched his fists, growling. Blake laid a hand over his. "He's dead, and fucking buried, or cremated, or whatever the hell they did. Got shot in the back by his own gang. Good riddance to demonic filth."

Ghira wrapped his arm around Blake, who snuggled closer, clutching at Ghira's sweater as she shook. "We prayed for you." He sighed. "I was never much for the faith, but Kali built a shrine. It was her way of coping. I joined her when I could. Whether your spirit lived on here, or with the Maidens, we hoped it would count for something."

"I didn't deserve your prayers." Blake declared. "I don't deserve anything, not you, not Velvet, Glynda and Solstice."

"Blake-" Ghira tried to protest.

"I don't deserve the Maidens' kindness." Blake continued. "I should be in whatever hell Adam fell to. I'm filthy. I loved him. I watched a poor girl beaten within an inch of her life and I did nothing to stop it...too damn scared and cowardly."

"There's nothing wrong with survival Blake." Ghira countered. "I doubt there was anything you could have done. What matters is you got out of there. You're alive. You survived that hell and bettered yourself. You forged a new life. My only wish is that you'd come back to us sooner. Yes, you made mistakes, I made more than my fair share in my youth, were it not for your mother, I doubt either of us would be here. More than anything, I'm glad that we can be here, after everything we've been through that we can be a family again...a slightly bigger family than before. But hey, more family is good. At least I won't have to worry about you getting pregnant."

Blake slapped Ghira's chest as they both laughed. "Don't let mum hear you say that." Blake warned. "She was always the one talking about finding me a nice boy someday."

"It'll be our secret." Ghira smiled.

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself either." Blake advised. "We're planning to adopt. We were visiting orphanages just a few weeks ago."

"Oh, well, uh, how did that go?" Ghira asked.

"Pretty well." Blake shrugged. "At least until we stumbled upon the secret child of my best friend's late sister."

"What?" Ghira gasped.

"We almost adopted her, but in the end Yang decided she could handle it." Blake sighed. "Poor woman. Summer is such a sweet girl, and she's almost the spitting image of Ruby."

"Well…" Ghira trailed off.

"Oh, and our other friends Nora and Pyrrha wanted a baby." Blake added. "Or rather, Nora wanted a baby and Pyrrha agreed."

"Fair." Ghira nodded.

"But Nora wanted to do it the old fashioned way, and her best friend Sun to do it." Blake continued.

"Hmm." Ghira raised an eyebrow.

"Pyrrha is very possessive, and Sun needs to think it over, so they start spending more time together." Blake went on. "Eventually they all decide to give a three way relationship a shot."

"Odd, but not unheard of." Ghira allowed.

"They do the do, a month passes, and everyone gets called in a panic because it turns out they're both pregnant." Blake rolled her eyes.

"Well...whoops." Ghira laughed uneasily.

"After everyone calmed down, Pyrrha decided to keep the baby." Blake explained. "But she's been really panicky and Nora was just being weird."

"Weird?" Ghira asked.

"She...kinda' returned to normal, and I can't put enough air quotes around 'normal' so I won't even try." Blake laughed. "She's always been a little touched, not in a bad way, just imagine a hamster with a sugar high in human form. That's Nora."

"I'll need a second." Ghira shook his head. "Okay, that's weird."

"Now imagine the hamster gets pregnant, and suddenly becomes calm and well adjusted." Blake continued.

"I can see why that would be concerning." Ghira agreed.

"You know you've lost it when you walk into work thinking, 'I wish Nora would lounge around topless, eating a box of donuts.'" Blake chuckled. Ghira burst into laughter. It was the first time Blake had heard him laugh in seven years, and in the moment, she could think of no more beautiful sound.

After the heart-to-heart with her father, Blake called up Winter to notify her that she would be absent from work for a few days at least. Afterwards, she found herself receiving messages from all her friends, asking how things went, if she needed anything brought to her, if they could come visit sometime. Yang and Winter especially expressed interest, asking for a picture of them together.

"Oh my God your mum is adorable!" Yang texted. "And your dad is huge! And kinda hot…"

"Yang, seriously -_-" Blake replied.

"Hell yeah seriously ;)" Yang responded.

Blake shook her head, scoffing. "What?" Ghira asked.

"Just Yang being Yang." Blake chuckled.

"What did she say?" Kali asked.

Blake sighed. "That you're adorable and dad's hot." She shook her head.

"Well she's not wrong." Kali and Ghira said in unison. They looked at one another, Kali giggling as Ghira grinned.

Blake rolled her eyes before glancing at the next text. "She'd like to drop by tomorrow." She announced. "Winter too. If you're up for it."

"Of course!" Kali cheered. "I never really got to meet any of your friends when you were young."

"You met Ilia." Blake noted.

"You did?" Ghira asked.

"Once!" Kali complained.

"Once was more than enough." Blake grumbled.

"Why?" Kali inquired. "She seemed so nice!"

"Yeah, she seemed nice." Blake sighed. "Until it turned out I was just a phase, and she refused to even look at me in case her embarrassing little secret got found out."

"What?" Kali asked. "Phase? How...oh! That little bitch!" Velvet chose that moment to return to the room, several candy bars in hand. She froze, but Kali's furious glare softened. "Oh, not you Velvet dear. I just found out about Ilia."

"Oh, that bitch." Velvet chuckled.

"Guys." Blake admonished.

"I had wondered why you stopped spending time with her." Ghira thought aloud.

"I was friends with her mother." Kali declared. "I should-"

"Do nothing!" Blake cut her off. "I looked her up online. She came out of the closet a few years ago, made a big post about it, apologized."

"Oh...well...good." Kali said.

There was a beat of silence. For Velvet it was too much. "Candy anyone?"

Ghira had commitments the next day, so he returned to his hotel for the night. Blake and Velvet elected to stay with Kali, chatting with her until she finally fell asleep, her daughters' hands in her own. Blake was not too far behind, leaning over to kiss Velvet, before resting her head on one of the pillows Kali had given them. Blake and Velvet had protested, but Kali insisted, citing her dislike for overly fluffy pillows. Velvet fell asleep watching her wife and newfound mother-in-law sleeping with smiles on their faces.

Blake was awoken the next morning by her phone's ringtone. The blaring techno mix indicated it was Yang who had decided to disturb her slumber. Groaning, she reached for her purse, fumbling blindly beside the chair, hoping to mute the damn device before it woke her mother. Suddenly the music stopped.

"Hey Yang." Velvet answered the call. "Good. Blake's just waking up still. No, we've been awake for a while. It's okay. Here, Blake, honey?"

Blake held out her hand blindly and felt the device slipped into it. She moved it to her ear. "Blurgh." She managed.

"Sorry Blakey!" Yang apologized. "We thought you'd be awake by now."

"S'fine." Blake yawned.

"You think we could come visit now?" Yang asked.

"Bring coffee, and donuts." Blake requested.

"Oh!" Kali exclaimed. "Could I get a cookie? I love the white chocolate macadamia ones."

"I'm writing that down!" Yang announced.

"Step on it." Blake ordered. She hung up, burying her face back into the pillow with a groan. She felt gentle fingers brush through her hair.

"Still not a morning person kitten?" Kali teased.

"Nmng." Blake grumbled.

"In colder months I have to bribe her with coffee and scratches." Velvet noted.

"Oh, you mean these scratches?" Kali asked. She began scratching from the base of Blake's skull downward. Blake groaned, nuzzling the pillow.

"And the base of her spine." Velvet added.

"She stopped letting me scratch there when she got older." Kali smiled.

"Oh, I can't imagine why." Velvet smirked.

"I know right?" Kali chuckled.

"I need to pee." Blake complained.

"No one's stopping you." Velvet declared.

"Nmng." Blake grumbled.

Kali gave one last, languid scratch down Blake's neck, then ceased. "Go on honey." Kali encouraged. "There'll be more when you get back." Blake flushed, giving Kali a grateful look before rushing out of the room. "She didn't need to pee, did she?" Kali asked once Blake was gone.

Velvet giggled. "I may have ruined head scratches for you."

After Blake returned from the bathroom, and thwapped Velvet in the face with her pillow, the trio settled down and waited. It was not much longer before the pattering of little shoes steadily grew louder down the hall. "Aunty Velvet!" Summer exclaimed. She skidded around the doorway and made a beeline for Velvet, jumping into her waiting arms.

"Hey baby girl." Velvet smiled. "You're getting faster every day."

Blake chose the moment to scoop up Summer, having snuck around the bed while she was distracted. Summer squealed and giggled. "This little ball of cute is Summer." Blake introduced.

"Aunty Blake!" Summer laughed.

"Oh, she's adorable!" Kali cheered.

Summer kicked playfully before Blake lifted her onto the bed. "Summer, meet my mummy, Kali." Blake said.

"Hey there!" Kali greeted.

"Hi grandma Kali!" Summer said.

"Aw, I always wanted to be a grandma." Kali declared. Summer reached out for a hug and Kali obliged, wincing a little at the pressure on her ribs.

"Careful, she ate three cookies in the car, on top of a pancake breakfast." Winter warned, standing in the doorway.

"Oh hello!" Kali called.

"Good morning Mrs. Belladonna." Winter bowed politely. "Winter Schnee. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Kali." She responded. "Thank you Winter. I realize it must have been a little strange, getting that sort of call out of the blue."

"I certainly get some strange calls, but I'm glad to have helped." Winter smiled.

"Yang, you okay?" Blake asked.

"Hmm?" Yang had been staring off into space but snapped her gaze to Blake. "Oh, I'm fine. Hey Kali, I'm Yang Xiao-Long."

"Oh my God, your hair is amazing!" Kali praised. "What do you use?"

"A whole bunch of stuff." Yang replied. "I'll write you a list."

"Everyone you know is so beautiful." Kali chuckled. "I keep forgetting you work for a modeling agency."

"Funny, I remember someone else saying the same thing." Blake smirked.

"Well it's true." Winter noted.

Yang leaned against the window, rubbing her bare arms. "So, what do you do for a living?" She asked.

"I teach at a preschool in Porto Menagerie." Kali answered. "My husband Ghira is the mayor. He's out meeting...I don't know. I'm terrible at remembering political and business stuff, but he'll be back when he's done."

"So I gotta' know-" Yang started.

"Yang!" Blake and Winter simultaneously admonished.

"Is his hair as soft as it looks?" Yang finished her question, grinning at Blake and Winter.

"Softer!" Kali declared. "He takes great pride in it, but his products don't work on my hair. I have no idea why."

"Ugh, I know." Yang groaned. "Men's hair products make no sense. I used my dad's shampoo once when I was out, and my hair felt horrible for like a week."

"Are you cold?" Kali asked, noticing how Yang continued to rub her arms, which were crossed tightly in front of her.

Yang stopped rubbing her arms, flashing a nervous grin before looking down. "Haven't been in a hospital for years." She explained. "Not much of a fan really."

"I don't like it here either." Kali offered an understanding smile. "Ghira was awfully rowdy when we were young. Political activism is far from the safest profession. Then there were the assassination attempts…"

"What?!" Blake gasped.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Kali chuckled.

"The smell is the worst part to be honest." Yang complained. "The noise comes second. Antiseptic and constant beeping, and it's always the same beeping no matter where you go. I basically lived here for a year. It's weird to be back."

"Were you sick?" Kali asked.

"Nah, my sister, Summer's mother, cancer." Yang corrected.

"Oh, that poor girl." Kali sighed.

"She's in a better place now." Yang smiled sadly.

"Mummy's with the Maidens." Summer said.

"Oh sweetie, come here." Kali hugged Summer once more.

Yang perked up. "Her family's growing fast." She observed.

"Borderline crawling from the woodwork." Winter joked.

"Got any secret relatives I don't know about Velvs?" Blake asked.

"Just bigoted ones, hence the lack of holiday cards." Velvet replied.

"Why can't people just live and let live?" Kali complained.

"Because tradition and ignorance." Velvet answered. "Doesn't matter. My new family is lovely."

"And successful." Kali added. "I never would have guessed you'd become a model Blake."

"Neither would I." Blake agreed. "I was a librarian before Winter approached me. I did our friend Pyrrha's makeup one time and it impressed her."

"You did, and continue to do a wonderful job." Winter praised. "Blake and Velvet are more than employees Kali, they're major shareholders in Solstice, co-founders and very valued friends."

"We're not really that big a deal Win…" Blake protested.

"She's paying you compliments Blake, don't be bashful." Kali said. "Thank you Winter, both for your work with Blake and for visiting. I imagine you are a very busy woman, but I would love to visit Solstice someday."

"You are more than welcome to drop by Kali." Winter offered. "With the recent pregnancies, and Summer's adoption, we are fairly quiet...is Summer asleep?" Sure enough, the small girl was napping on Kali's chest.

"She burned through that energy quick." Yang whispered.

"Or she's storing it for later." Kali suggested. Yang groaned at the thought.

At times Summer could be a bundle of energy. When she was not drawing or snapping together building blocks with Yang, she would often run around the house, aimless and with reckless abandon. Yang was always worried she would slip and slam into the unforgiving furniture, but Summer was sure-footed. Yang and Winter usually suggested she go run around outside, just in case, but Summer preferred the indoors. The end result of Summer's racing about was usually exhaustion and a nap.

Summer ran around the lounge, weaving around the furniture as Yang sat on the couch, watching the little whirlwind speed past her. Though Yang was concerned for her safety, it was incredibly cute and she could not help but smile. It was so cute in fact that Yang decided to record it. She reached into her pocket, intending to grab her phone, but it was not there. Yang thought for a moment. Damn. She had left it in the car after taking Summer out to lunch. Hoping she would not miss the opportunity, Yang rushed outside, grabbed her phone, and ran back to the house. Yang could hear Summer's giggling as she pushed the front door in.

Wham!

The giggling stopped as Summer smashed into the opening door at a full sprint, bounced off and crashed into the side of the couch. Yang froze, staring at Summer's tiny form as she lie twisted up on the floor. A sinking feeling overtook Yang's insides. Any second she expected Summer to cry, to scream in pain. Surely the impact had injured her. Yang had hurt her. How could she have hurt her? What would she say? What would she do?

Still a bit wobbly, Summer stood up. She looked at Yang and smiled, then set off running again, resuming her giggling as she went. Yang stood at the door, trembling and on the edge of tears. Running around like that was too dangerous. They had gotten away with it this time, but next time they would not be so lucky. Yang had to do something to protect Summer, something to make her safe. She could cover all the furniture in padding, but that would leave the walls and floor, still very capable of injuring the little girl. A helmet, knee and elbow pads would still be insufficient to fully protect her. Then Yang had an idea.

Winter arrived home after a longer than expected day at Solstice. Without Blake and Velvet, everything took longer than usual. Winter was not going to rush them. They had just found new family and she would not rob them of a moment of that. Still, she wished they would return sooner than later. Everything ran so much more smoothly when they were around. Winter opened the door to find Yang lounging on the couch, watching television. Curiously, Summer was nowhere to be seen, though Winter could hear a faint giggling.

"Hey Win." Yang greeted. "Rough day?"

"You could say that." Winter confirmed. "Where's Summer?"

"Rolling around." Yang replied.

"Uh…" Winter was about to ask for more details when Summer literally rolled out of her room. She was wrapped in several layers of bubblewrap from shoulder to ankle. Her giggling was accompanied by a cacophony of pops. "Why is-

"We had a little accident with a door." Yang explained. "I decided we needed some safety measures, just in case."

"But she can't even run." Winter noted. "Wait, where did you even get that much bubblewrap?"

"Nora had it." Yang replied.

"That's...I'm not even surprised." Winter sighed. She watched as Summer rolled around the living room, giggling and popping as she went, a toothy grin on her face. "Well, at least she's having fun." Winter shook her head. "But we're going to have a long talk about your sanity."