Chapter Two-Hundred-Ninety-Seven
The next morning bright and early, Ashley awoke to Bella the alarm clock. She got up and got her out of her crib before lying her on her changing table and changing her diaper and putting her in cute clothes and she took her downstairs to make her a bottle and all that jazz. Her regular morning routine with her baby. Just as she was walking out of the cafeteria with Bella’s warm bottle in her mouth she spotted Brandon headed back to his studio after a quick drive to Starbucks and Krispy Kreme Donuts.
“Hey Bran…please tell me you got a good nights sleep and wasn’t out too late with Peyton?” She asked with a small smile on her face. She finds it cute how fast their relationship is skyrocketing. It seems like it was only just yesterday that she was trying to talk him into asking her out.
“Nah, I got sleep” Brandon chuckled. “She couldn’t stay out too late, she had some other things she needed to do. How about you? What are you doing up so early?”
“Me? I am always up this early now a’ days. Having a baby requires it.”
“Makes since,” Brandon smirked.
“Are you getting ready to go in there and be busy all day?” she asked after a couple of moments of silence.
“Well I was going in there to paint if that’s what you mean,” he laughed. “Do you want to join me? You haven’t worked on Nick’s surprise in forever. It’d be cool if you could give that to him for Christmas.” Ashley bit her lower lip nervously. She doesn’t know how well Nick would react. Is he ready for her to go lock herself in Brandon’s studio again?
“Is it safe for Bells? I have no one to leave her with right now…” Brandon contemplated for a couple of moments.
“Why don’t you go wait for me outside and I’ll move everything out there?”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to trouble you.”
“It’s not a problem. I miss working along side you, and the fumes of the paint in my studio probably aren’t good for Bella.”
“Kay,” Ashley replied and he smiled at her.
“I’ll be right there,” he promised before disappearing in his studio. Ashley turned and headed for the playground and Marcus who was standing at the door monitoring who comes in and out with Laney, hurried after her.
“Morning Marcus,” She greeted, looking up at him as he joined her side.
“Good morning sweetheart,” he replied as he opened the door to the playground for her and allowed her to walk outside before following her. She carried Bella over to her favorite tree that she likes to paint under and she spread out her baby blanket before lying her on it. She then used another blanket to prop her bottle for her so she wouldn’t have to hold it. After a few short moments Brandon walked out with two easels. One with Nick’s surprise painting on it, and the other one with a blank paper on it so he could start a new addition to his Peyton series.
~*~*~*~*~
Later on that morning Nick came outside looking as if he’d showered and everything. He’s wearing a black t-shirt that reads I heart my girlfriend with an actual red heart, and a pair of blue jeans. His hair is brushed back nice.
“Am I allowed to come over there?” he asked. Ashley grabbed up the blanket that she was using to cover up her project and she placed it over it carefully.
“Please do.” Nick crossed the playground and went over to her and he leaned down and brushed his lips lightly over hers.
“Marcus tell you where I’m at?”
“Mhm.”
“I’m sorry I forgot to leave a note. I meant to.”
“It’s okay baby,” Nick reassured. She smiled up at him some and lightly tugged on the hem of his shirt.
“Nice shirt. When did you get it? I don’t think I ever remember you buying it.”
“I have my ways,” he told her mysteriously. “Are you going to be painting all day?”
“Maybe not all day, but for awhile. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, fine. I think I’m gonna make plans with Aaron and Angel then.”
“That would be nice. Angel would really like that, and I’m sure no matter how much he refuses to admit it, Aaron would too.”
“Mhm,” Nick replied, and Ashley stood up and looked at Brandon.
“I’ll be right back Brandon,” she informed.
“Okay” He replied and he watched as Ashley pulled Nick across the playground so they were standing under a basketball hoop and she lightly backed him up against the pole, placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him deeply. Brandon shook his head smiling, before returning his attention back on his painting. He’s happy to see that he didn’t ruin things between the two of them. He always thought they were cute together. Nick slid his arms around her waist and pulled her near and when she pulled back from their kisses he rested his forehead against hers.
“I’m glad to see you are over trying to be good,” he told her with a small smirk on his face.
“What can I say? You bring out the bad in me Nickolas Gene Carter. There’s no behaving around you,” she told him and he chuckled.
“I’m not complaining,” he informed her while pulling her closer.
“What are you doing with Kota and Sarah? Are these plans with your siblings going to include them or should I keep tabs on where they’re at through out the day?”
“I’ll ask them what they want to do. Are you going to be painting out here all day?”
“I think so. It’s safer for Bella out here with all the fumes in his studio.”
“Well if they do happen to stay then, I will tell them they aren’t allowed to go inside without telling you first.”
“Kay.” Nick smiled at her some and he lightly caressed her cheek with his finger.
“I love you.”
“I love you too Nicky,” she informed him sincerely and she brought his face closer as their foreheads touched. “And just know that everything I do, I do it for you” she reminded.
“I have no doubts,” he promised, as he brushed his lips lightly over hers one more time. “I’ll go get Bell’s swing for you – and some toys and such.”
“Thanks,” she replied, and he pulled away and went back into the Orphanage. Ashley smiled brightly like a little school girl in love and she practically skipped back on over to her painting. Brandon glanced up from his painting and over at her and he chuckled.
“In love much?”
“Love is an understatement…but it’ll do…since I can’t find a bigger word.”
“I’m glad things are back to the way it’s supposed to be between the two of you.”
“Me too,” she smiled, as she pulled the cover off her painting and gazed at it. It’s nearly done – she predicts by next week when they go to Kentucky, it’ll be ready to pack up and take with her.
“But enough about me and my romance…how is yours going? What’s the latest in the Peyton Series?” she asked while leaning over to look and he turned the painting away from her mysteriously.
“Lets just say I’m gonna have to stop working on it the moment children start coming out here to play.”
“Ohhh,” she laughed. “How did Jaim like the sunset painting in the museum?”
“If he didn’t like it, he never showed it. He was in awe the whole time by everything else.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile at Sean and Trevor’s Lake House, Trevor walked upstairs and poked his head into the bedroom to see Sean still lying there naked from their lovemaking last night and still sleeping peacefully. He stared at him contemplatively for a couple of moments, and then shut the door quietly and left again while pulling out his cell phone and placing it to his ear after hitting speed dial.
“What’s up Doc?” Max answered the moment he picked up.
“Can you be here in five minutes?”
“Yeah, I was just on my way over there. Why?”
“I need to go out again. I need you to be here to make sure Sean doesn’t go anywhere or do anything stupid.”
“Sure, but what may I ask are you doing everytime you go out?” Max asked and suddenly the front door opened and he walked in. Trevor looked at him and shut his phone and Max did the same.
“Research. But do not tell Sean I told you that or he’ll keep digging until he finds out my secret and I cant afford him to know.”
“Where is he at?”
“Upstairs asleep – but don’t go up there. He’ll come down here when he wakes up.”
“Got it,” Max replied, searching Trevor’s face and getting the message very clear of how important it is he doesn’t go up there. “He’s not gonna come down here unaware that I am here is he?” He asked, giving Trevor a look.
“Nope. I left him a note.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll be back in an hour,” he promised, and then went to the back door, opened it up and went outside and he headed for Sean’s old trailer home. When he got there he went inside and straight to Sean’s room where he had begun digging stuff out and making piles the night before. He went straight to the pile that he told himself he would investigate first the moment he got the chance to come back and he picked it up and sat down on the floor so he is leaning against the foot of the bed. They are piles and piles of books. Photo Albums, Yearbooks, Journals, etc.
He picked up a photo album and he opened it up and was surprised to see his own face staring back at him. It’s a photo of him sitting in a tree on the beach smiling at the camera that Sean had been pointing at him. He’s wearing swim trunks, a necklace made of shells, and his hair is wet and wild from playing in the water. He remembers that day like it was just yesterday. Him and Sean were playing pirates. They were just six years old and had run off together when Sean was having a hard time. No one knew where they were and he and Sean fantasized that they would live on that beach forever and never go home. It was a beautiful fantasy, but then reality woke them up.
Trevor shook his head before flipping through the pages only to find that the book is mostly all him. There are a few pictures of Sean with him, but other then that it’s a book about him and every single picture was taken by Sean – a lot of them without Trevor even noticing. When he came across the photo of him lying in his bed back at the Lake House asleep at thirteen years old he chuckled and closed the book. He put it down silently thinking that Sean would make an amazing photographer if he ever wanted to turn his life around like Shelly had. He still takes really good pictures to this day.
Trevor shook the thought out of his head of him and Sean some day having a normal life together. It’s a beautiful dream…but a dream that is very unlikely to happen unless a miracle happens and it hurts him to think about it. They would have to flee the country to have the life he wants. Sean would be a professional photographer and Trevor would make lots of money for them by being a doctor. It sounds so nice but Trevor knows that if he wants that to happen, he has to figure out what happened in Sean’s past. And when finds out, he has to try his very hardest to fix him before he goes and makes the one mistake that could end their beautiful life together forever as they know it. He can’t let that happen. He just wishes that he would have started this ‘fix Sean before he fucks up’ project a long time ago. Then maybe he would have had more time.
But of course he just recently fixed himself not too long ago. He himself went through his fair share of drug addictions and bad choices and that all started when his father died. God did he love his father with all of his heart. He was his entire world next to Sean and he was angry and he was hurt that he was taken away from him. All he wanted to do was rebel at that point. He wanted to be bad. So he threw his and his father’s dream out the window and he joined Sean instead of trying to stop him. He himself has raped Ashley and terrorized her and he will admit that he enjoyed it. But when he noticed how much Sean was fucking things up, when he came close to losing Sean forever to those drug dealers, he had to sober himself up in order to take care of him. And when he did, he finally saw the light again and grew up. He finally remembered what life his father really wanted for him and suddenly he wanted that back. If only he had seen the light sooner then maybe he would have been able to get it back. But now it’s too late. He fucked up. He failed his father, and now all he has left is Sean. All he has left is the hope that he can fix him some how and he’ll cling onto that hope with all his might. Trevor blinked back his tears and he reached over and picked up a notebook and he opened it up and he began to read through it.
~*~*~*~*~
Later on that day after lunch Dakota, Sarah, and Elenore all went outside to the playground and they went over and crawled inside a tunnel together before lying down and placing their feet on the wall in front of them. Sarah was in the middle and Dakota and Elenore were lying on either side of her.
“Have you finished the letter yet Sarah?” Dakota wanted to know.
“No not yet…which is the whole point of me dragging the two of you inside this tunnel. I’ve been waiting for the right moment when we could escape the grownups eyes.” Sarah opened up her notepad to the right page.
“How does this sound so far?” she asked, and then began to read the letter to the two of them.
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Sarah Lynn Carter and I am six years old. I live in Ramsey Orphanage in Florida and I am writing to you in favor of a really good friend of mine whose name is Elenore Ellerbee – soon to be Richardson if Uncle Kevin ever gets his butt in gear and adopts her already! Cause we all know he wants to, but he is just a very big stubborn slow poke. Anyway, the reason I am writing to you is because she could really use your help. Her daddy is in terrible danger.
When she finished reading it, she looked back and fourth from her sister – who has become her very best friend in the past few weeks, and Elenore for their opinions.
“That’s good so far…keeps goin,” Elenore encouraged.
“Yeah Sarah, I wanna learn how to write likes you” Dakota added, staring at her in awe. In her eyes Sarah could write an entire book if she wanted to. Especially with all of the secrets that she has buried inside.
“I will write more but I’m stuck at the moment. I don’t know what else to say…”
“Even though he’s made a lot of bad decisions that doesn’t mean he is a bad man” Elenore stated and Sarah wrote that down, before suddenly diving right back into the letter remembering to read it to them as she goes.
He’s made a lot of very bad decisions in the past such as hurting people very badly or even going as far as killing them. One of those people he liked to hurt very badly was his daughter Elenore. He abused her all the time, an’ locked her in closets, an’ made her cry, an’ did really mean things to her. All Ellie ever does is hurt all the time. An’ she is very afraid that one bad mistake she makes might make Kevin hurt her like her daddy had done. And like her daddy she does tend to make bad decisions. She is a very impulsive girl. Kevin loves her with all of his heart though an’ would never do such a thing. An’ she’s learning that…slowly. The more he loves her, the more she sees.
As impulsive an’ broken as she may be though, Ellie has a very big heart Mr. President. You see, even though Sean Ellerbee has hurt her very badly she still worries about him every single day. She knows that whenever he finally gets himself caught he is going to be given the death penalty. And the thought really tears her apart because even though he hurt her, he is still her daddy an’ he always will be an’ she doesn’t want him to die. But does anybody ever want their daddy to die?
Sarah paused then and took a deep breath before rubbing at her eyes and Dakota slid her arms around Sarah, hugged her close and rested her head against her shoulder. After a few moments when she regained her strength she continued.
Sean Ellerbee may have made a lot of very bad decisions, but that does not mean he is a bad man. Even though he hurt Ellie very badly, he still loved her in his own little way. He bought her a Backstreet Boys CD an’ posters when she asked for them, an’ had given her candy…an’ he even did the best thing he could ever do for her. He gave her up to the Orphanage so that she could have a better life and he still looks out for her and makes sure she stays safe even though his way of looking out for her may be wrong.
So Mr. President…we ask that you please have a heart. Ellie cries herself to sleep every night an’ wakes up crying some more because sleeping wasn’t any better. An’ she hardly ever smiles anymore, an’ the only thing on her mind these days is saving her daddy’s life. Please give Ellie a reason to smile again.
Sincerely yours,
Sarah Lynn.
Elenore wiped the tears from her own eyes then, and she too wrapped her arms around Sarah and hugged her close, the two girls silently crying together as they both understand, and Dakota sitting there hugging them trying to be there for them the best she can. She’s never experienced losing her daddy before. She may have come close to losing him before he finally came to his senses and adopted her, but that isn’t nearly the same. All she knows is, she loves her new sister and her best friend very much and she hates it that they’re hurting.
Author's Chapter Notes:
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