4.5--I Can't Hold All These Feels

Dasia goes through a renovation kick after finishing Ellis' exercise room.  She may have gone a bit overboard.


Here's the outside.

The upstairs nook area - that is never used.

Ellis' new bathroom.

The kitchen.

Aaaand the living room.

While Dasia spends her time making the house mildly headache inducing, Ellis works on her fitness.  Just look at those muscles!

It's been over a week since Logan left and he's only called this once to let Ellis know that he can't make it for his son's birthday.  Ellis feels like she should be surprised by this development, but she isn't.  She's not sure how she's going to explain it to Harlan though - all he does is ask for his father.

The next day, Harlan celebrates his birthday.  

And so does Lachlan.  

Lachlan decides to try using his new teenage manipulation techniques to ask his parents to buy him a car...

...Dasia and Duncan just look at each other and laugh.  His parents are smarter than he originally hoped.  On to Plan B - the guilt trip.


"But moooooom! Daaaaaaad!"  He says, pouting his lips.  "I want to be more self-sufficient and independent. Don't you both want me to be a successful adult?  And what better way than to give me something to be responsible for?"


Duncan sighs.  "All right.  All right.  You can stop with the pathetic frown.  I'm okay with it if your mother is."


"Great."  Dasia laughs.  "Put all the pressure on me! Tell you what, kiddo - you prove to me that you can be responsible and I promise that your father and I will discuss getting you a car.  In the meantime..." She adds, interrupting Lachlan's premature celebration, "... focus on getting your driver's license first."

Lachlan's not entirely sure his attempt was a success, but he'll take what he can get.

"He's going to be a tough one."  Duncan laments, smiling sarcastically.


"Nah. Our Lachlan is a good kid.  I mean, he's nowhere near as troublesome as my siblings and I were; so at least there's that."


Duncan laughs. "And I thank my lucky stars everyday, trust me."


"Me too." Dasia smirks.

"So, uh - how is everything with you, 'Sia?  We haven't spoken in..."


"...a few weeks." Dasia frowns. "I'm fine.  Everything is the same.  I'm getting commission after commission for biographies and my latest novel did well."


"Yeah I know.  I read it. It was really good."


Dasia smirks.  "Even the part about the oblivious woman who fucked up a good friendship by getting involved, but doesn't have the balls to say so?"


"That was my favorite part." He laughs.  "Although I think the male counterpart should have the balls, as you say, to acknowledge that he shouldn't have pushed for something more if he knew she wasn't ready or shared his feelings."


Dasia shakes her head.  "I'm in the wrong here, Duncan - and I'm willing to admit that.  You were just being honest and I was just being willfully oblivious.  I'm sorry. Can we just, I don't know, start over or something?"

Duncan extends his hand with a snide smile. "Hello, Dasia.  My name is Duncan and I'm the father of your child."


Dasia laughs as she shakes his hand.  "Very nice to meet you, Duncan."

Harper rocking out - because she's one badass grandma. 

Gideon joins Pacey outside, who has recently taken to the guitar as well - although he knows he'll never be as proficient in music as his mother or brother.


"Judging by the sad-sack tune you're playing and that frown on your face, I take it things with you and Anne aren't going well?"  Gideon quirks his brow.  His brother never really displayed his emotions, other than through his art.  It was always difficult to tell when he was depressed due to his overly dramatic tortured artist persona and formal manners.  

Pacey peers down at his guitar sadly.  "Anne and myself have decided that being in a relationship would ruin our art.  Happiness doesn't breed true creativity; misery does.  So we broke things off."

Gideon smirks.  "Wait - you both broke up... for your art?"  Pacey nods.  "Well, I always thought your role was to be the weird one in the family; now I think it may be the insane one."


Pacey scoffs. "Insanity and genius are often one and the same.  I don't take that as an insult, brother."


"Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night." Gideon shrugs.

Harlan's retirement to his room didn't escape Lachlan's notice.  He feels bad for his cousin, knowing that Harlan is most likely disappointed with his father's lack of presence.  


"Hey - I got you a present."  Lachlan says, barging into his cousin's room dramatically.  "It's not much.  I got it on a field trip to the Science Facility when I was your age and when Aunt Ellis told me she was getting you that chem lab for your birthday, I thought maybe you'd appreciate it."


Harlan opens the box excitedly.  "A model of a DNA strand?!  It's awesome.  Thanks, Lachlan."


Lachlan shrugs.  "It's no big deal."


"It is to me." Harlan smiles.

As soon as the guests leave, Dasia feels herself engulfed by the familiar sparkles.  Somehow, planning for her son's and nephew's birthdays made her forget that she was celebrating her own that very day as well.

Getting older doesn't feel so bad - not yet anyway.


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Aaaand I'm cutting this one short since all of my pictures after this point don't really make sense in this chapter.  I should have planned this one out better. *shrug*


As discussed briefly last chapter, I had this grand story planned with Logan - maybe grand isn't the right word, but whatever.  Anyway, he glitched and is no longer on any of the Harris' relationship panel and resetting the town, him, and Ellis did absolutely nothing and no one can interact with him - for some reason.  Since I can't be arsed to do anything beyond what I've already tried - I just scrapped my old story and rewrote him as the standard absentee father and then changed a future generation to have his story.  Poor, poor future Harris'.