Sanity Saved

man i loved this chappy how roman tic vaughn was :rolleyes:
and the necklace and him fummbling with it was so funny :lol:
thnkaks for the pm ;)


and sorry i didnt reply last chappy didnt have time (n)
but...here i am now :rolleyes:
and i was wondering what was still up with nadi
and what was up with ricky and stuff
ok thanks for the pms
:love: ambre :love:
 
oh no....that doesnt sound too good!!
please dont let them split up even if things are bad!?!
thanks for the PM
cant wait for more :D
 
Aww Vaughn is just too perfect!!!
-That was such a sweet date for their one month anniversary!!!
I can't wait to find out what shocking things are going to happen next!!
-Loved it!! Thanks for the pm!!
 
Vaughn gets all kinds of brownie points...
He remebered the 1 month even when she didn't...
He got the resturaunt for them to be alone...
and he got her a gift...
I wonder what is gonna happen to change this....
Thanks for the pm...
Update again soon.
 
aw, vaughn is so cute! :D
i'm still wondering about what's up with nadia.
oh no... what's gonna happen?!?
sydney and vaughn have to stay together!!!
thanks for the pm.
can't wait for more.

~Kay :cool:
 
You are all very lucky this is going up tonight, lol :smiley: . I'm sure when you read the last part of the chapter you'll know what I have been talking about when I said shocking and important (now don't you go reading the last few lines :P). Hope everyone enjoys it!

Chapter 21


I reluctantly got out of Vaughn’s car early that evening after spending the entire day with him. I walked up the pathway with a sense of dread looming over me. Tonight it was just my dad and me for dinner, which would be insanely awkward. My dad had never made meal in his life, considering he was married to Irina Bristow-cook extraordinaire. The same applied to me. What an interesting night this would shape out to be.

I opened up the door to a silent house; not an unfamiliar situation. I could hear the distant shuffling of the newspaper in the living room I silently made my way over to that part of the house, and saw my dad was seated on the couch, flipping through the black and white pages with a thoughtful expression.

“Dad?”

He looked up from the paper. “Sydney, you’re home.”

Thanks for stating the obvious. “I just got in,” I told him, as I made my way over to the chair opposite of him. He seemed to be surprised by this action, which made sense considering in our lives we had rarely ever been a room alone together. The discomfort settled in soon after I sat down.

“So, what do you want to have for dinner?” I asked him.

“What is there to have?”

He was so helpless, it was almost pathetic. “I don’t really know. Do you want to come to the kitchen and help me look?” I said, hopefully.

He paused for a moment, with a very hesitant look on his face.

“Please?” I asked. “I don’t know what you want to have.”

He put down his paper slowly, and stood up. “All right.”

He led the way out of the living room, and through the hall to the kitchen. I followed. We entered together, and simply stood there for a moment, observing the amount of appliances and ingredients we could possibly be using. I noticed a small note on the kitchen table at closer observation. I went over to retrieve it, and read out loud to my father.

“Tonight I have pasta scheduled. The ingredients are all set out on the kitchen counter. Below are the instructions you will utilize. Be sure to put all things you use back in proper place when through.”

I put the note back down, and looked over at my father.
“So, do you want to eat now, or should we start later?”

“We?” he questioned.

“Well, I can’t do this all by myself. I’ve never made pasta before, so I’ll probably need some help.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but seemed to think better of it when he caught the look on my face.

“I guess starting now would be best,” he told me, steeping forward. Together we bent down to look at the instructions my mother had left for us. I scanned the steps quickly.

“Do you know what any of this means?” I said, with a laugh,

He gave me a slight smile back, which actually came as a very big shock. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw my father genuinely smile at me. “Not a clue,” he said, referring to the very descriptive instructions she had left.

“All right, well I guess were just going to have to do our best.”

I walked over to the counter to the mass of ingredients left by my mother. “Okay, so I think we start out with these, and then have to add these,” I told my father, referring to items that I didn’t know by name. This was going to be one different pasta dish, that was for sure!

Together we got to work. My father started cutting up a pepper, while I through the pasta noodles in the boiling water. We were actually making a fairly good team. I found it comforting to be in a relaxed environment with my father, where we both were getting along and actually talking. In our house my father mainly stayed out of the family issues, and just sat back and watched without comment. I guess he just thought it was best if he didn’t get involved and let my mother do all the yelling and ordering around. My father just sat in the shadows. Sometimes I actually would forget that he was also part of this family. He sort of reminded me of myself: quiet, avoided confrontation, invisible.

I stepped back from the stove, after stirring the sauce. “I think that’s about all we can do for now,” I told him, as I sat down at the kitchen table to wait. He joined me. I had to stifle a laugh as I looked over at him. Covering his face was a large smudge of pasta sauce across his left cheek.

“Um, Dad, you kind of have some, um, sauce on your cheek,” I said pointing to my own cheek to indicate the location for him.

“What?” He lifted his hand to frantically rub away the smudge.

Together we shared a laugh as he finally managed to get rid it of it. The sound of our laugher echoing off the walls seemed like such a strange sound in our house. I think we both realized that soon after we started, and immediately became quite once again. It felt like almost a sin to be laughing in the kitchen- something you wouldn’t understand unless you were a Bristow. The kitchen was like my mother’s sanctuary. All of her time was spent here. I believed it was the one thing that kept her sane when Aunt Katya was killed. After that unfortunate day she spent her days cooking and creating new dishes. And because my mother spent so much time in this part of the house it seemed as if her harsh, cold, spirit was absorbed into the walls. I could hear that hovering spirit scolding the two of us, “how dare you laugh and be happy!”

The house became quite again, and we both sat at the kitchen table, waiting for the timer to go off for our food. I tapped my finger against the table, while my father taped his shoes on the floor. Even he was feeling fidgety- something I wouldn’t expect from Jack Bristow. Finally, I could no longer stand the silence, and I blurted out the first question that came to mind.

“Why did you let it happen?!” I immediately regretted it.

My father’s head snapped up immediately, but instead of angry and upset eyes, I saw ones of understanding and sadness.

“What do you mean?” He knew what I meant.

“Look at this family!” I gained more courage when I realized that he wasn’t angry. “Why did you let it get to this?”

For a moment- but what felt like an eternity- he didn’t say anything. I sat there anxiously awaiting the answer I knew I deserved.

“There’s no easy respond to that,” he whispered, still not making eye contact.

“I’ll take a difficult one then,” I said, still not breaking the eye contact that he was not returning.

He sighed. “Sydney…”

“Dad, I need to know,” I said, desperately. He finally looked at me.

“I never wanted things to turn out this way. That’s the only answer that I can give you.”

“But you could have stopped it. You could have helped mom.”

He looked curious. “What do you mean?”

“I know I was young, but I remember the day things started to change. I know it was because of the accident, Dad.”

He sighed, running a hand through his short, gray hair.

“You could have got her help.”

“No professional help could have helped her at that point, and I knew it. There was nothing anybody could have done.”

I debated telling him about the visit she had made to my room a couple nights ago, but decided against it.

“So, we’re just supposed to accept this life?”

“It’s all we can do.”

The sound of the timer going off snapped us both out of our heated discussion. I was reluctant to give it up, but I decided to drop it for the moment. We both stood up. My dad strained the noodles, and turned off the stove, and I checked the sauce, and grabbed the plates. My dad dropped some noodles onto each, and I drizzled them with the thick sauce. Was it supposed to be that colour? Neither of us said anything, but I could see the look of disgust on my father’s face when a rather large chunk of something fell into his plate.

Together we sat down across from each other at the dining room table. I looked down, and cautiously picked up my fork, and began to twirl the pasta around it. It even smelt bad, but I was determined to at least try it. The second it entered my mouth I had to fight the urge not to spit it right back up. I took a sip of water, attempting to drain out the rancid taste. I could see my father doing the same. He set down his fork.

“Chinese?” he said.

“Please.”

He got up, and took out the phone book, and looked up a restaurant.

He ordered, while I cleaned up our plates. Somehow I had a feeling our little dinner wasn’t going tot turn out the greatest, but at least we tried. I scraped the contents into the garbage, and my dad walked back into the kitchen.

“It should be here soon,” he told me.

“Thank god, that was some of the worst tasting pasta I have ever had in my life.”

“Agreed.” He paused. “You do realize that we are going to have to hide these takeout containers. I don’t think your mother would appreciate the fact that we ordered in.”

“No, she probably wouldn’t.”

Again, silence…

“Come here, I want to show you something,” he said, leading me into the living room.

“Sit down,” he said, indicating to the couch. I did as he said.

He knelt down, and took something out of the cabinet under the TV. I couldn’t make out what it was because he was concealing it in front of him. He proceeded to put it into the VCR.

The screen flickered for a moment, and two young, vibrant faces appeared on screen.

“Jack, would you out that thing down,” my mother’s voice rang through the room. The happiness and joy in her voice was such a change from her now cold and dull voice. She was smiling and laughing. Her hair hung loosely around her shoulders. She was dressed in a simple white t-shirt, and beige shorts. Another woman stood next to her, with the same expression on her face. In-between the two of them two little girls sat laughing on the ground.

The image was such a surprise I didn’t know what to say. My mother, Aunt Katya, Nadia, and me all together happily was such a flashback I couldn’t even describe..

“I don’t think buying that thing for him was a good idea, Rina,” Katya said. “He’s going to film every little thing from now on.”

“Well, at least we’ll have all the happy memories to look back on when these two go off and leave us,” my mom said, referring to when Nadia and me went off to university.

“Where are we going, Mommy,” a young, clueless Nadia asked.

My mom knelt down on the floor with both of us. “You girls aren’t going anywhere, don’t you worry,” she said, pulling us into a large embrace.

“Mommy, I think you’re suffocating us,” a younger me said, as I was pushed up against my mother’s stomach.

The video cut out at that moment.

My father took the remote, and turned off the TV. “That was the only thing I ever filmed. Katya died the very next day.”

I was silent. I just stared at the TV. I didn’t know what to say.

Those happy memories never even stood a chance.

~*~*~*~

That night I sat in my room for a long time thinking about everything that I had seen on that tape. Everything would be so different if Katya had lived. I couldn’t even begin to imagine it.

I pealed back the covers to my bed and was about to climb in when I heard something. It was soft at first, but when I listened closely I could defiantly hear something making noise in the distance. It sounded like someone crying, small sniffles and soft sobs. Slowly I got out of the bed. I walked across the wood floor, and out into the hall. The sobs were defiantly coming from Nadia’s room. I stopped in front of her door, and lifted my hand to knock. The cries immediately subsided.

“Nadia,” I called out quietly. “Let me in. What’s wrong.”

The room was deadly silent for a moment, but then I heard the sound of her feet shuffling towards the door. She opened it slowly. Her eyes were red and puffy, her face blotchy, her nose runny, and a mound of Klenex bunched up in her hand. The room was completely dark behind her. She quickly pulled me inside, and gathered me in her arms. The action surprised me, but I responded; wrapping my arms around her, and stoking her black hair.

“Nadia, what’s wrong,” I whispered. She was scaring me. She pulled back slightly and looked into my concerned face. Her eyes pleaded with me to help.

I led her over to her bed, and had her sit down. I grabbed her hand. “Nadia, tell me what has happened. I know there’s been something bothering you for a while now, but I can’t help if you don’t tell me.

The pools of water instantly grew, and streamed down her face in a constant flow of salty tears. Her sobs grew louder. She brought the tissue to her face.

“Oh, Sydney. I don’t know what to do!”

I moved closer to her. “You’ve got tell me what’s wrong. Come on, it’s fine.” I squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“I’m pregnant, Sydney.” She gulped. “I can’t do it. I just can’t. I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what to do!” she cried, as she came crashing into my arms.

A little cliffy for you there, hehe

~Andrea :angelic:
 
WOW 3rd time to reply 1st to a story tonight :D

:eek: Oh my nadia is pregnant. i never thought of that
is she going to have the baby or an abortion?

great update cant wait for next one
 
Oh god! Shes pregant! Well at least this will hopefully make Nadia and Syd closer! Thanks so much for the pm. Also this story is great! The emotions are so well written.
 
You know, I actually feel more sorry for Jack than I do for Nadia. Jack couldn't help what happened to Irina. When Katya died, his happy marriage died along with her. He's now stuck with a cold, angry wife and with children who aren't close. He's left with only one video tape of recorded happiness. I hope he and Sydney can become close. They need each other.

Nadia on the other hand. It's unfortunate that she's pregnant and her life too will change. However, unlike a freak accident that no one expected, or could stop, Nadia had control over the situation (unless it was date rape). She chose to have sex, she also could have used protection or made the boy use protection. But she didn't.

I now understand Nadia's change in attitude regarding Sydney dating Vaughn. Dating the captain of the hockey team, of a rival school, is much less of a problem than facing a teenage pregnancy. Nadia too faces being ostracized. Now she'll need someone to stand by her side and defend her. For once Nadia needs Sydney.

Thanks for the PM.

Chris
 
aww poor jack, he must feel so helpless!
and poor nadia, no wonder she has been acting weird!
at least they both have syd, and hopefully they will all be able to get things back to how they used to be together!
thanks for the PM
cant wait for more :D
 
i knew it!!!! this is going to mean bad bad things... b/c now jack and irina are going to be insanely protective and butt into sydney's life which will mean no more vaughn b/c they will forbid her...

ooohhh

thanks for the PM.. and for the chapter before this.. AA ws being annoying when i was trynig to respond. Vaughn was so sweet with the restaurant and the necklace.
 
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