CHAPTER 2.6: Fix you

The weeks that followed Patrick's death passed by in slow motion for Audra.  She could see, hear and taste things but she felt nothing other than emptiness.


Her father had guided her home that night to an anxious Tate.

"Audra!"  He cried at the sight of her, "I was afraid something had happened to you."


Tate had pulled her close and stroked her hair, she remembered a time when this had been comforting but right then she could feel nothing.

Over those weeks Jonny had been reunited with his family and had met their newest member for the first time. 

Much like she had the rest of the household, Delta enchanted Jonny who doted on his first grandchild although it had come as something of a surprise to find that she was Casper's and not Audra's daughter.

The youngest twins had been at first overjoyed to see their father , but having him back home had brought some resentment to the forefront.

Casper had retreated to Elena's room straight after greeting Jonny with a big bear hug.  Overcome by his fathers sudden reappearance he tried to choke back his tears.

He had taught himself to hide his feelings and had become so used to being strong for those around him that the sudden tidal wave of emotion had knocked him sideways.

Jonny took him to one side to talk but Casper jumped straight in.


"I'm sorry dad, I know you must be disappointed in me."  He said ashamedly.


"Nothing could be further from the truth."  Jonny reassured him, "My leaving so soon after you're mother must of been hard on you, but look at you!  You're a strong and caring man.  Delta is lucky to have you for a father, I'm sure you'll be much better at it than i was."


Casper hugged the father who he loved so much and finally allowed his tears to flow.

Jonny had heard the music coming from Caleb's room and patted Casper on the back, "Why don't you get some rest, you look tired."  He advised and Casper nodded.


Jonny pushed open Caleb's door and stood a while appreciating the music his son was playing before Caleb noticed him.


"Sorry, i get so caught up when I'm playing it's like nothing else exists sometimes."  Caleb apologised.


"I understand."  Jonny replied.


"Do you still play Dad?"


"Not for a long time."  He admitted sadly.

"Maybe we could jam sometime?"  Caleb asked shyly.


Jonny nodded, Caleb looked so much like Leila and had clearly inherited her talent it was almost like a part of her was still here. 

His eyes filled with tears as he realised what a mistake he had made chasing Jessica for all those years, he should have been here, healing his grief with his family. 


Jonny managed to quell his tears as he sensed that Caleb had something to get off his chest.


"Whatever it is you can tell me."  He encouraged.

Caleb took a deep breath and said, "There's this boy, from school." 


"Is he bullying you?   Because i can speak to his parents."  Jonny interrupted keen to try anything to make up for his absence.


"No Dad, Callum's not a bully.  He's......"  Caleb looked at floor, his face bright red with shame.  "He's my boyfriend."  He finally confessed.

Jonny reached for Caleb and touched his shoulder in support, he realised how difficult it must have been for his son to tell him this.


Caleb looked at his father expecting to see disappointment, maybe even shame in his face but his father was smiling at him.


"You're not ashamed of me?"  He asked.


"Never!" Jonny exclaimed, "It took a lot of courage for you to tell me that, I'm very proud of you."

Having Jonny home had improved the twins greatly and both had started doing much better in school.


However Audra's mood seemed to have worsened, she rarely left her room and hadn't bothered to change from her nightgown in days.

"Talk to me Audra."  Jonny asked, "Tell me about him."


Audra looked at her father, at the mention of Patrick she had snapped out of the trance she was in.

"His name was Patrick and he saved my life."  She stated, "I have no idea how I'm supposed to live with that."


"Live."  He answered, "That's all you're supposed to do is live, otherwise he died for nothing."


"I feel so foolish."  Audra admitted as the tears ran freely down her cheeks, "I pursued the anti virus so selfishly, I stopped caring about anything else.  I let my brothers down, I let Tate down and I exposed people I loved to Jessica's evil schemes."


"Audra, you're being too harsh on yourself.  I should never of left you the way I did, my place was here but I was selfish I pursued Jessica because I thought if I could get revenge then it would make me feel better.  But the truth is even with Jessica gone the pain is still there."


"Do you think i should stop looking for an anti virus?"  Audra questioned.


"No.  I'm just saying that sometimes what you think you want isn't what's best for you and if you would just stop feeling sorry for yourself you would realise how much you have right here at home."

Audra heard what her father was saying, it reminded her of the weeks after Leila's death when all Jonny had done was stay in his room and mourn.  Now she knew how he had felt. 


She made a real effort to get on with her life, but it seemed to her that everything she did was that much harder now.  Even drinking plasma juice, which she had always hated but had excepted as necessary, now seemed to taste that much more bitter.

But it got to the point where drinking it actually made her nauseous.

After a few weeks of vomiting day and night Audra started to feel that maybe there was something more seriously wrong with her.

And she wasn't the only one who had noticed.


"Audra are you alright?"  Elena had asked after finding her face down in the toilet yet again.


"I'll be fine, it's probably just a stomach bug."


"That's what i thought the day i came to see you at the hospital, or at least it's what i hoped.  I guess i knew deep down i was pregnant."

"Elena I'm not pregnant, I mean i can't be pregnant."  Audra exclaimed. 


But at that moment doubt crept into her mind and she thought back to the night that she spent with Patrick, the night before his death.  The passion between them had taken hold and neither one of them had given thought to using protection.  Could she be carrying his child?

That week the twins and Elena graduated school and aged into young adults.  Elena was first she developed the handy trait and decided to pursue her dream of becoming a professional author.

Next up was Caleb.......

Who developed the easily impressed trait and transitioned into a full vampire.  Caleb decided to start looking for work as a music composer.

And finally Casper.

He developed the childish trait and also became a fully fledged vamp.  Inevitably he decided to try and become a superstar athlete.

The night of the twins birthday Jonny had invited the whole family over and finally was reunited with all of his children.

It had been awkward at first as this was the first time that Blake and Bobby had been in the same room since their fight.  But Jonny was determined to put the whole of his family back together again.

"Bobby, i realise that it was difficult for you to accept that I left Audra in charge but what you said to her and the way you treat your brother was wrong."  Jonny's straight talking seemed to strike a chord with Bobby who seemed to be genuinely ashamed of his actions.


"It just seemed like my whole world had fallen apart, I suppose I didn't handle it well."  Bobby confessed.


"You need to make things right with your brother, family is the most important thing in life, it took a hard lesson for me to realise that."  Jonny  lectured.

"I'm willing to put it behind us, if you are?"  Blake offered.


Bobby took his hand and shook it firmly, "I'm sorry bro!"


Jonny spent a while congratulating himself on his awesome parenting skills, he just wished that Leila could be there to see it.

Although Audra had started to interact more with her family she still remained quiet about one topic.  Her once perfectly flat stomach had become rounded from the life that was growing inside it, soon she knew she would have to tell her family.

But before she could do that she needed to see Theo and find out if he had made any progress on the anti virus.  She had not heard from him in weeks since she called him to let him know about Patrick and Jessica, he had seemed shocked to hear that Jessica was dead.

"Theo, please tell me you have some good news about the anti virus."  Audra pleaded, Theo looked stressed out and tired, he must have been working non-stop.

"Audra, I wasn't expecting you."  He replied, "I, I've been too busy to work on your cure." 

He seemed frustrated to have been interrupted by her, but what other projects was he working on she wondered.

"Please Theo, I need the cure more urgently than ever."  She begged.

Theo ran his hand through his hair and sighed in annoyance, why could she not just leave him alone?  He had been working day and night trying to figure out how to replicate the virus itself, he had tried numerous times to infect himself, but all had failed.  Then as he regarded Audra he realised that he didn't need Jessica to get what he wanted at all.

"What if I told you that I could get an anti virus to you by the weekend?"  He asked, "What would that be worth to you?"

Audra frowned at his question, "You want money?"  She asked.

"No, I want something more rewarding."  Theo answered quizzically,  "I want your gift.  I want to be a vampire."

Chapter2.5

Theo