Solace & Taproots

Epilogues

It was weird being in her own car again, especially since the last person she remembered being in it with was Jaime. It helped though, knowing someone else had already ridden in it since then, when Allie and Leonard helped the new family move in. And, when she first approached it again, Sam offered to drive, and Rebecca rode in the passenger seat, which ended up being a gently bittersweet processing milestone for her, a little bit of a connection back to Jaime for a time.

Sam took Rebecca to a framing store where they picked out two for Jaime's sketches. The one of her looking out the window hung in the kitchen — they were on the opposite side of the building, intentionally. The slumbering sketch went where it ought to - over a dresser in their bedroom, and the fifth floor kid's drawing of Rebecca and Jaime hung in the foyer.

Rebecca hadn't been sure why Sam brought back several additional empty frames, but it made sense when she surprised her with a mid-grade consumer inkjet printer that supported wireless printing from phones. The ability to print out photos of their memories and families, new and old, went a long way into turning their new residence into a real home — even with the unfinished construction. Drywall would get painted eventually, and rugs and fuzzy slippers went a long way to offsetting the concrete floor. Sam swore better hot water would come next, "come hell or high water, preferably both, because that would solve the problem."

She also made good on her promises about the earrings, and Rebecca now wore one on her left ear most of the time, with a simple stud in her right to leave room for an earpiece. Sam told Rebecca she'd always wanted to get her bellybutton pierced, so they had Ronnie help, as Rebecca was too squeamish with needles and the idea of using one on Sam. They only mocked her a little bit.

She did, however, find an ornamented double chain that threaded through a decorative dangle in the front and fit around Sam's waist quite nicely, the lower of the two chains draping down to the top of her hips. This led to many t-shirts, tank tops, and button-ups being knotted tight to leave her midriff bare, which caused Rebecca, and for that matter, Sebastien, all kinds of distraction — to the point they would occasionally catch the other looking at the same time, and mutually shrug. He never did or said more than that on the topic, so she didn't shoot him to keep him away from her girlfriend.

Rebecca placed the matching cuff and stud earring atop Jaime's memorial, and the awesome lil' guy up there in the wheelchair took checking on it regularly VERY seriously during his "security sweeps" of the fifth floor. Sam rigged up some bicycle lights on his chair, which made his mother cry... on Ronnie's shoulder, who had taken a liking to the kid and started calling herself "Auntie Ronnie" when on the fifth floor. Huh, maybe someday she could indeed put that sword down. If the way she took care of Rebecca was any indication, the kid would fare well with her around to keep an eye on him.

Speaking of the memorial, Sam wept openly when Rebecca first went, insisting Sam come with her. It really got going when Rebecca 'introduced' her, telling him aloud how she never saw things with Sam coming, just like him, and thanked him for keeping her safe when the world went to hell. She went on to tell him she'd always miss him, that she thought he'd really like hanging out with Sam, and that yes, they would totally get it on, the three of them, if he were there... and that she would always remember him as the man he wanted to be, and was for her.

Oh, and that she was deeply sorry about shooting Rogelio, but he really was being an asshole.

Life at the "Garden Fort" as it came to be known really did center around family building, genetic and otherwise, for the little knot of core residents. As they grew, they did encounter some problems with regrettable residents, but those turned out to be mostly self-correcting situations. Thieves didn't stop before they got caught and turned out, and unpleasant people usually left of their own accord in the face of everyone else's tight-knit cohesion.