Chapter 4-8: Fell In Love Without You

                With Ace in the picture from the beginning, Yalena was able to manage her time a little better and still have a life outside having an infant. Of course, that didn’t make Ace very happy most of the time. Every other weekend, he would come over after work to pick up Camille. These weekends coincided with the weekends that Brielynn was with Glen so, every other weekend, Yalena was a free woman, if just for a night.

                “Are you going out to see him,” Ace accused, making it clear that he meant Glen.

                “I don’t think you have any right to ask me that.”

                ‘That means yes” he harrumphed triumphantly.

                “No, it means none of your damn business Ace. However, if you must know, he’s out with his daughter, as you should be. I’m going out with a few friends. I’ll see you on Sunday,” she ushered him out the door, baby and diaper bag in tow.

                Now that she was “back on the market” so to speak, she paid extra careful attention to how she looked when she went out. Looking in the mirror, she started to notice the age lines and imperfections on her face. Sure, she wasn’t old yet but the years kept sliding past and she had no one special in her life besides her daughters.

                 She met Lyric and Jeanie at a sports bar downtown. Being pregnant, though she wasn’t even showing yet, Jeanie had graciously agreed to watch over them and make sure they got home safely if they drank too much. Yalena propped herself on the bar between her two friends, scanning the room, looking for potential boyfriends.

                 “So, how are you and Zane,” she asked curiously, not spotting anyone worthy yet.

                “Yes, how are you and Zane? I can’t wait to see what this little half-bloodsucker looks like when he’s born,” Lyric laughed, not noticing Jeanie’s shock.

                “Lyric,” she cautioned but the damage was already done.

                “What? What did he just call your baby,” Yalena looked at her friend more closely.

                 Lyric, realizing his slip up, backed away from the women a bit.

                “Yalena, I’m so sorry I’ve never told you before. Part of me just thought you’d figured it out. And you’ve always been my only friend, I didn’t want to hurt that.”

                “Told. Me. What,” Yalena demanded.

                “I’m, a vampire.”

                “WHAT? Oh my Watcher, what did you do to my brother? Did you force this on him? Compel him to love you? You’re a monster…”

                THWACK!

                The sound echoed across the bar. Even the bartender had stopped cleaning his area and was watching them with interest as Jeanie slapped her best friend across the face.

                 “Zane has known what, no WHO, I was from the beginning. He was smart enough to figure it out without me having to spell it out for him. We love each other and you can either be happy for us, or not part of our lives,” she hissed in Yalena’s face before turning and stomping away. With the night ruined, Yalena and Lyric parted company and each went their separate ways as well.

                With the absence of her best friend, Yalena began making more time to see her siblings. Her first stop was to see her sister, Zarah, Zane’s twin sister. Zarah had just had a baby of her own, a little boy named Joe.

                “So, poor Zane. I can’t believe I didn’t know about Jeanie,” Yalena leads as they sit to chat.

                “Yalena, stop. Zane knew exactly who Jeanie was by their first date. Did you know, he’s even thinking about asking her to turn him? He loves her, completely. You’re going to have to accept it. She’s your best friend!”

                Obviously, Yalena wasn’t going anywhere with that one. She sighed and quieted on the vampire debate. She had known they existed, of course, but had never met one in person. She had partly thought they were just a myth or stories from delusional people.  It was jarring to learn that they truly existed and, furthermore, she had been friends with one since high school.

                Later that week, she went to visit Xander. He had since moved from the small, city apartment they had shared when she first moved to Storybrook to a larger home in the suburbs with his fiancée and their toddler son, JJ. When she went in, she plopped Camille down in the playpen with JJ and sat to talk to her brother.

                “How are you and Tammy doing,” she asks. His silence says more than words could.

                “Not good, huh,” she sympathizes with him. He confides that he and Tammy seem to fight all the time. She hates his job and bickers at him, telling him to grow up and find something that can provide for them.

                “What she doesn’t get is that my hours are opposite of hers. I mean, she gets it, but I don’t do it just because I like it. I do it so that one of us can always be home with JJ. We’ve not had to put him in daycare yet.”

                “If she’s so awful, why don’t you leave her?”

                He sighs as he answers. “That seems so easy but, to be honest, I don’t want to turn out like,” he catches himself before he finishes the sentence.

                “Like me,” she finished it for him.

                 He paused and looked at his son before he finally nodded his head. “Yeah, Yalena. I don’t want to be a single dad, having to take turns raising my kid with his mom. If she was absolutely horrible, maybe. She may decide for me. But, I need someone to share things with. Someone to come home to and sleep next to, someone to make happy besides my son. When the times are good, Tammy is great. I’m not ready to give that up yet.”

                She left Xander’s shortly after and decided to take Camille to the park. As they walked, she thought about what he had told her. She wanted someone who would love her as much as her brother loved Tammy. She wanted someone who would endure the bad because the good was worth it and someone who wouldn’t just give up on her when things got difficult.

                Automatically, that disqualified both Glen and Ace. Neither of them were willing to do just that. Glen had run away when she was pregnant with Brielyn and Ace threw a temper tantrum any time she so much as talked to another man.  Suddenly, she could see what was in front of her; someone who had been there all along.

                 Suddenly, in what seemed like no time at all, it was Camille’s birthday. Yalena decided to throw a big family party at her house. Noticeably absent were Jeanie and Zane. Zarah also failed to make an appearance though she had been invited. She called ahead to say that Joe was teething and really fussy but Yalena could smell through the phone. Seemed that the twins had sided together and, unless Yalena could accept a vampire family, Zarah was going to distance herself as well.

                Verne even made it to the party, though not everyone was happy to see him.

                ‘Watcher Dad. Really?”

                “What did I do,” Verne asked, looking perplexed.

                “You told Tammy that I told you that we’re hosting Simsgiving at our house this year? The woman is going to kill me!”

                “Well, didn’t you say that?”

                “I said I’d talk to her!”

                “Alright everyone, time to blow out the candles,” Yalena called out cheerfully.

                “I’m her father, don’t you think I should blow them out with her,” Ace complained.

                Aside from a few, disbelieving looks and glares, Ace was ignored.

                 “Oooh, look, she has your mother’s eyes,” Verne observed, tearing up as a clear picture of Abrielle was brought to his mind. Little Camille also had her father’s red hair.

                Brielyn led her little sister to the block table, to show her how to work on things.

                “Here, look, this is a castle,” she said, pointing at her recent masterpiece.

                “Yum,” Camille exclaimed, biting into one of the blocks.

                “No, you’re not supposed to eat them! Look, like this,” she said, adding a new block to the top.

                 Yalena spent the remainder of the evening chatting with each person and catching up with her father. They had never managed to come particularly close but she had forgiven him enough to be civil and let him be a part of his granddaughters’ lives.

                 As the evening was drawing to a close, Yalena approached Ace.

                “I’m not sure how I’ve managed to not do this yet, but here, I think you should have your engagement ring back,” she announced, pressing it into his hand.

                “But Yalena, we have a family, a daughter just in there.”

                “Yes, we do but that doesn’t mean you and I are right together,” she said, trying to be as nice as possible.

                He didn’t put up much of a fight though so she knew that, deep down, he really felt the same way.

                Lyric stayed to help her clean up after the party. She slipped off to put the girls to bed and, when she came back to the living room, Lyric had collapsed on the couch.

                “Man, that was a bit hectic, wasn’t it,” she said, folding her legs under her as she joined him.

                “No more Yalena. Your birthday parties always turn into drama. Remember when Brielyn turned into a todder,” he asked, laughing as they remembered yet another night where Ace had thrown a tantrum.

                 “Gah, what did I ever see in him?”

                “You don’t want me to answer that,” he joked.

                “No, probably not. You were right though.” She flopped down into his lap, not noticing his discomfort with their proximity. 

                 “Um, yeah, it’s late, so I should head home,” he said, gently nudging her off so he could stand. As he walked away, she reached out and grabbed his arm.

                “Lyric, wait.” He turned to her and she stepped into him, wrapping her arm around his neck. His hands went to her waist, holding her away from him.

                “You were right, about everything. About Ace, about me…about you. I shouldn’t have been so stubborn and blind.” She leaned into kiss him and was surprised when he pushed her back.

                “Yalena, I’m sorry. Katherine is going to, no, we’re, going to have a baby.”

                “But. You said you’d wait for me,” she was confused.

                 “I did wait. But then you got engaged and were having a baby with him. You made your choice. I couldn’t wait forever for a girl who didn’t want me.” He shook his head and turned and left.

               

                Her revelation had come too late. Lyric, the one person she had always been able to depend on, the guy that made her laugh and could just be quiet and play music with her, the man who respected her enough not to take advantage of her, had gone back to Katherine and was starting a family of his own. What have I done?

Chapter 4.7                                                                                                                                              Chapter 4.9