s*t*a*r*s (Kindred Series-2)

s*t*a*r*s (The Kindred Series - 2)

An even longer sigh from his daughter, and he knows she has her heart set on going to school.  Away, away from him, from their isolation, from the memory of her long dead mother.  And most of all, away from where she’d screwed up the most.  Mike just couldn’t bring himself to deny her that right to try and wipe away the past, or to at least, get away from it.

“It’s a great way into college, they have a wonderful music program,” begins Sydney.  Tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, her eyes, the only thing that is remotely like her father, dark green finally looks up at him.

            “When do you have to go?” he asks.  Mike knows better than to argue with her, he also knows that Sydney deserves this.

            “Seriously?”

            “Yeah, how much is this gonna set me back?” asks Mike.

            “Mom’s trust fund will take care of it, and then some,” says Sydney, her voice more shy than normal. 

            “You really want this, kiddo?” he asks.  Sliding the gun back together, loading the clip, and pulling it back.  Sydney eyes the gun, and then looks away, wondering why when she’d been rebelling; she hadn’t taken the gun and shot herself.  That death would have been quick, not like the one she is living with now.

            “Yeah, I do,” whispers Sydney.

            “Okay then,” he answers.  “If this is what you really want, but, remember, this is your home.  You want to come home you call and you’ll be back here before you can shed another tear.”

            Sydney hugs her father hard, slamming the breath from him, kissing his cheek.  “You’re my home, dad, this is just a school.  This is just a place that has no history.”

            Mike isn’t sure about that, Haven Island has a long history with his family and his wife’s, hopefully Natalie Summers is as good as she claims to be.  Mike figures it is time.

*s*t*a*r*s

            “I am a USA Senator, and hopefully, a future President, and my own daughter, is pulling a coup, in my very own house!” yells Amy Astin-Larkin. 

They are in her daughter’s bedroom, where Tegan is packing a suitcase. 

Amy is livid, beyond angry, watching as Tegan plays with the silver colored titanium ring on her right thumb that she’d liberated from her mother’s jewelry box when she’d been eleven. 

Amy stares hard at the ring, waves of emotions wash over her, not really hearing what Tegan is saying to her.  Haven Island, the name rings hard in Amy’s mind, the sound of it sends shivers of fear through her.  Never wanting to see the ring again, Amy’d buried it in a box, unable to destroy it, the memories connected to that ring, to that island, is something that Amy had put behind her long ago.  Then, her daughter had taken it, and Amy couldn’t take it away from her.  Now Tegan wants to go to that very island and go to school, where Natalie Summers is the head mistress. 

            “I am not trying to take over, I’m just going to school,” correctes Tegan coolly.

            “No, you are not,” counters Amy slickly.  “You cannot go away to school, we’ve tried this before, Tegan and you always come back after some debacle and I can’t have that this time.  You are staying right here,” orders her mother.

            “Jesus, when are you going to allow me to breathe?  I helped out on the campaign; I did everything you asks me to do.  This is for me, not for you, you cannot keep me under your thumb the rest of your life.”

            Amy softens for a moment, understanding that far more than her daughter would ever understand.  Thinking that perhaps, a new tact is in order, how had her own parents ever talked to her at this age?

            “Now I’m asking you to stay, don’t go to that school, I have a bad feeling about you leaving,” admits Amy.  Tegan grimaces, and then shakes her head no.  “Your father already signed the papers for you to go, hasn’t he?”

            “Yes, I have,” her father says from behind Amy. 

Amy knows it is time, time to start letting Tegan live.  She’d lived once, a long time ago, in another lifetime, with another love.  Amy sighs, slipping off the gold chain that she’s worn since Tegan can remember.  She moves to her daughter, slipping the chain over her neck.  Amy knows when she is defeated, so she is going to make the best of her situation.

            “Someone gave me this, a long time ago, so that I wouldn’t forget them, and to protect me, and now I’m giving it to you.”  Amy hopes that if this is the time, the place that their daughters would reunite, and those four kindred souls that had once been best friends, that the ankh will lead them to Tegan – the children of the J*A*D*E*S legacy.

            Tegan grimaces.  The warmth of the chain surprising her, the gesture stuns her even more so.  Amy turns, walking away from her daughter, and pushing pass her husband, who looks down sadly.

            Dylan looks down at his hands, wondering why his wife has never really loved him.  As hard as he’s tried, Amy will never love him as she’d loved another.