Chapter 77) The Rapids Of Our Lives

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality.
Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.     

Lao Tzu

A.N.: A lot of cursing throughout and some NSFW images toward the end. Nothing too graphic but enough to advice some discretion.

Del Sol Valley
Everett Cameron & Maeve Reed's small rental home
Everett 24, Maeve 21

Giggling and gently swatting at him while trying to wiggle free from Everett’s grip, which didn’t stop him from playfully smothering her with kisses, Maeve finally succumbed, allowing him to press her up against the front door while she responded to his advances. Maeve’s hair was all black now, her natural color, which she reluctantly returned to when their meager budget no longer allowed to have her blonde highlights refreshed and grown out blonde in a flood of dark just wasn’t a flattering look for an aspiring artist. The curls were natural, Rett often told her he loved the contrast of her light eyes to the wild and raven-black hair. That was all it took for Maeve to not mind any of it anymore.

Both winced hard when seemingly out of nowhere there was a knock on the door they were up against in the midst of their prelude to lovemaking.

“Ignore whoever that is! Don’t you stop now that you got me all hot and bothered, Cameron! You better finish that job!” Maeve warned, pulling his face back to hers to continue their intense kissing which was going a very certain direction, but Rett soon pulled away again.

“Love to, but hard to ignore him when the dude and I are looking deep into each other’s eyes through the front door window. Kind of a mood buster when I am trying to show my girl a good time while another guy is staring straight at me. Slapnuts out there doesn’t even have the decency to try to look away. Let me get rid of that clown real quick. If that is a reporter or a fan, I’ll give him an autograph with my feet on his ass!” Everett growled, unamused, while reluctantly letting go of Maeve.

“Yeah?” he barked, purposely unfriendly after he opened the door.

The man outside cleared his throat.

“Mr. – uh – Cameron? Everett Cameron?”

“What do you want, pal? We’re busy!”

“Of course. This wouldn’t happen to be Miss Maeve Reed? Oh, it is, fabulous. I am with Elegory Courier Service, my company has been hired to …”

“Bruh, what do you want?! We don’t give a shit about your work history. Land the fucking plane, we were kinda in the middle of something here!”

“Oh, yes of course, I couldn’t help but … uh .. notice … I have these envelopes for you, but need a signature please, well, two really, one from each of you, if you don’t mind.” the man held up two stiff cream colored envelopes with gold embossed writing on them, obviously not some cheap mass produced mailings.

“And mind sharing what the hell am I signing for? Oh shit! Never mind, I already know, here, give me and I’ll sign. Maeve, get that butt over here and sign for yours.”

Without argument Maeve obliged, Rett thanked the man and slammed the door shut.

“You know what these are, Maevenator?!” Rett tossed them onto the side table, lifted up Maeve, smothering her with kisses.

“I wanna go with the obvious and say big envelopes, presumably not junk mail, they remind me of Cordelia’s wedding invites, but something tells me that’s not even close ….” she responded breathlessly when he finally gave her a moment to talk.

“Nah, you are right. They are motherfucking invites. One for you, one for me. I have seen those twice before, they are the shit they send you when you are nominated for the Starlight Accolade awards. We both got one! We fucking made the award show, babe! And something tells me this time neither of us is going to leave that glittery-glamour shed empty-handed.”

“Holy shit – no way!” Maeve said, and as soon as Rett released her from his embrace she quickly tore open her envelope.

Both hugged and screamed and cried, then called family and friends … after that, they ended up REALLY celebrating.

Several months later
Del Sol Valley Hills
Everett Cameron & Maeve Reed's brand-new mansion,
days after move in

Everett walked up behind Maeve, who stood by the window overlooking the nighttime view over Del Sol Valley, when she noticed him she turned his way, giving him a melancholic smile.

“Still can’t believe it, Rett. We made it. We actually did it! We both won several accolades. Look how far we’ve come. We are frigging wealthy now. It all happened so fast, and we did it all by ourselves. Look at that view. When we first got to this town you said that one day you’d own a home with this very view, and you did that in just about two years. I cannot believe we are your aunt and uncle’s neighbors now. This is still so unreal. Totally insane!”

“Oh, it’s very real. I always knew we would make it big. Once we joined forces there was no stopping us anymore. The world is our bitch now, babe. And I don’t own shit, WE own this bi-a-tch! Our castle, my queen.”

“Man, Rett, how much our lives have changed in just a fairly short amount of time. We went from not being able to stand each other to the best friends, to lovers, to engaged, from two nobody’s with not a dime in our pocket to overnight millionaires. I still feel like I will wake up and all this was nothing but a dream. If I do though, I hope you are at least still with me.”

“Oh, it’s all real and you aren’t getting rid of me anytime soon. We Cameron men have a lot of rough edges and room for improvement, but once we really love, it’s for life. And yeah, just imagine what’s still ahead. First we take Del Sol Valley, then we take the world! It’s all ours, right at our fingertips. The one thing I am more than thrilled about – besides getting to do all of this with the craziest, most perfect, most beautiful girl as my partner – is that my grandparents are still alive to see this. My grandpa is bursting with pride and that makes me so unspeakably happy. He always believed in me and I managed to do him proud. He taught me so well and I owe him so much. He is the reason we made it here so far, this fast, when it takes other talents a lifetime to not even get close to where we are. I used to think he was wasting my time with nonsense about being my own manager, producer and all that stuff I thought was so very boring, come to find that nonsense made all the difference in the world. We are famous, we are rich and we are independent. No producers, managers, leeches trying to screw us over.” he grabbed and kissed her.

“And you taught me. I owe everything to you. Without you, I would have made every single mistake in the book. No, without you, I would have given up years ago. You were always the only one who truly believed in me, you and your grandfather. I would be nowhere close to anything like this without you, Rett.”

“Doubt it. You’re way too stubborn. You’d have found your own way, but hell, I’ll take the laurel wreath, maybe you feel inclined to repay me in sexual favors.” he winked at her and they kissed.

“Oh jeeze. You and your one-track mind. Fine, meet me in the hot tub you poor deprived hunk.”

“That’s what I am talking about!” Rett laughed, slapped her butt then pulled off his clothing to Maeve giggling and shaking her head, then followed suit.

“I really am a lucky girl ..” she mumbled to herself after she followed him.

“I really am a lucky man! Come here you! Enough talk. Time for action.” Everett’s voice was deep and husky.

At the same time
Windenburg Isle
Declan Cameron & Rory Flynn's home
Declan 26, Rory 25

About the same time in Windenburg, Declan and Rory were poured over papers and calculations.

“So, if I take on some overtime and you get some side work creating apps and such stuff, we can totally swing Selvadorada for a week, especially if we go in the off-season. Unless, of course Ashleigh and Dale choose that for their wedding date. I really wish they would FINALLY make up everyone’s minds. They are driving me nuts with the back and forth. Do it already or don’t but quit yanking all your friends around.”

“Well, I guess it’s pretty important, ideally a once in a lifetime thing, so you want to get it right. I wouldn’t even know where to begin trying to sort out when to get married, where and how. I’d just hope you would decide for us and all that’s left for me to do would be nod, smile and hand over my credit card.” he smiled sheepishly.

“How romantic. Seriously, Decs, you can do better. What’s your favorite season?”

“I like them all … but I guess Autumn if I had to pick just one.” he noticed her face cloud up at his diplomatic response, so he added the latter part to be sure not to upset Rory.

“Mine too. Settled then. Whenever we decide we’re ready, it will be a fall wedding.”

“Well, my parents got married in Sulani … if we did something like that, it wouldn’t matter much.”

“Oh, not Sulani. I remember last time the both of us, your brother and Maeve were over at your grandparents’ place, when Rett brought up something about Sulani, and your grandpa started telling your grandma to draw all of us a map to … OMG … ” Rory’s face was somewhere between appalled and highly amused.

“… to the ‘fuck fountain’? Yeah, that’s my gramps for ya. There is this waterfall where he and my grandma had romantic moments when they were about our age and lived there. He can never recall the Sulani name for it, so he gave it his own spin. They sent my mom and dad there too during their honeymoon.”

“It’s hilarious, but I could never do it in a place I think of as ‘fuck fountain’. HA HA HA” Rory laughed.

“Imagine it were our honeymoon and we were actually trying to conceive … or the Cameron curse hits us and years later we are telling our kid where they were conceived.”

“… or our friends and families during a dinner together … ” Rory giggled.

“As long as we don’t do what my parents did with my brother and name the kid after the place of conception. I can see us at a fine restaurant, surrounded by our entire family and go ‘well and this is our little F.F., short for …’ I swear my grandfather would start laughing and never stop again. Same for my brother.”

They both laughed, once they calmed down, Declan got serious.

“Rory?”

“Hmm?”

“Do we even want kids? I am not sure how you feel about that. Not sure how I feel about it.” Declan’s voice was soft and quiet.

“Well, seeing how I am my parents’ only kid, none of them have other family, I guess I kinda feel a little obligated. So maybe one kid, I guess? And you kinda should carry on the Cameron line, I suppose. Plus, you are smart and handsome, that should probably be copied over in the next gen.” Rory grinned and winked at Declan.

“I have a feeling Rett and Maeve will go into production, on purpose or otherwise, so no worries about the Cameron lineage. Ever since they both shot up the fame scale practically overnight and moved to that huge mansion near my aunt and uncle’s I have a feeling they have christened every inch of that place in a romantic manner – and that home is HUGE! That is assuming Rett won’t pull a Chad and in a few years we get to meet a niece or nephew of mine nobody ever knew I had by one of those girls Rett doesn’t even remember being with, before he started chasing Maeve and she eventually set him straight. Maybe there are already a baker’s dozen secret Camerons out there nobody knows about. Yikes. I think I’d much rather it be Maeve for sure!”

“Well, Rett keeps saying he is careful … so far, so good right? I have a feeling he doesn’t want his genes running around unsupervised, so I am pretty sure he meant it, and he really is a lot smarter than most give him credit for, because his big potty mouth is misleading. And honestly, with his name being all over every media outlet known to mankind, if there were any illegitimate kids out there, you bet the paternity claims would have fluttered into his mailbox by now. Nah, I think we’re save from that. That being said, now as far as he and Maeve go, I am wondering if any birth control is even strong enough to hold up to their constant passion. Man, those two should be in a commercial for birth control … or viagra or something like that. When we were there for the housewarming of that mansion I almost walked in on them three times. THREE times. Towards the end of our stay there I felt like one of those spies from the old movies, constantly looking over my shoulder and peeking around every corner trying not to be seen …”

“Maybe they should get a side job as bed stress testers … and maybe next time we visit them we get super-noisy Spongebob Squarepants shoes. Just in case.” Declan joked, causing both of them to laugh, which was followed by a few moments of silence.

“Rory?”

“Decs?”

“What exactly are we waiting for with getting married? I can’t remember.”

“What?”

“I mean it. I cannot imagine my life without you, nor do I ever want to, we have been living together for almost 4 years now, we both have good careers, we own a house, we’re in our mid-twenties … how about we postpone the trip to Selvadorada and see if we can budget in a wedding instead?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, why not? I don’t even know what you like? Big, small, traditional, modern …?”

“To be honest, neither do I. Never once really thought about my own wedding. I don’t even know what kind of dress I like. Guess we’re not done brainstorming for the night.” Rory admitted.

“At least the one thing we do know is that it will be a fall wedding, right?” Declan shrugged.

“Right, that part we got, now we just need to figure out which fall in what year. And how. And where.”

“Back to the drawing board. Since it already is the end of fall, this year is out for the wedding, so we have at least a year to figure all this stuff out …” Declan went into analysis mode, making Rory smile.

“Maybe we’ll beat Ashleigh and Dale to the altar if they don’t get cracking ..” she giggled, before they kissed.

At the same time
Windenburg Cameron Lake House
Blaine 81, Viktoria 80

Blaine opened the door and instantly rolled his eyes, letting out a small groan.

“Hello there handsome …” the beautiful young woman purred unimpressed, as she already squeezed inside past him, which he reluctantly allowed.

“Babygirl’s not here, sorry. Maybe another time. Too bad, so sad. Let me see you back out …”

“Oh no, we don’t need her. You’ll do just fine.” she smiled triumphantly.

“Lucky fucking me. Well, at least you and your brother bother to knock, unlike that pesky son of yours, who always just came through my daughter’s fucking window. Now that kid’s my son-in-law and one of their kids is having kids. Ugh. Fine, we’ll visit, want a coffee?”

“Yes, please. Strong and dark … just as I prefer my men!” she grinned.

“I bet, and then ground up and in the freezer if they piss ya off, huh. Fine, I’ll be a good boy like babygirl always wants me to be, so I will play pleasant host and get you your coffee.”

“Fabulous. I will make myself comfortable on the couch while I wait eagerly for your return.” Lilith chirped, causing Blaine to frown out of her line of sight.

“Great, now I am stuck with that crazy witch. Fucking Caleb, can’t he keep her on a leash or something? Just fucking fantastic, now I got her roosting on my damn couch. Where the hell is that wife of mine when I need her?! She’s so much better in dealing with this bitch than I am. I’ll probably end up saying something wrong, pissing Lilith off, she’ll run and tattle on me, then babygirl’s gonna be pissed at me, and Caleb too, oh, why did I even answer that damn door?!” he grumbled under his breath while pouring her coffee, then tried for a neutral face as he walked back into the living room, as he sat down next to her.

“So, whatcha want, Lilith?” he asked her as politely as he could muster.

“Want? Do I have to want anything in order to visit an old friend. Speaking of old, my oh my, how old you have gotten, every time I see you it surprises me again. I really wished you would have let me turn you to when you were still as yummy as you once were. Oh … hee hee hee .. I said yummy, how funny, no pun intended … or maybe pun intended, cos, why not, right? Tee hee hee.” he giggled, a pearly sound, which did nothing but annoy Blaine further.

“Yeah, real thigh buster. Other than dumbass vampire puns, if this is purely a social visit, drink that coffee and get. I am kinda busy actually.” Blaine said.

“Busy? You? Aren’t you retired? How busy can you be …. grandpa?” she added a sarcastic tone as she purposely over-enunciated the last word, pointing at his sweater.

“The day I kick that bucket will be the day I officially retire from music. There is no such thing as a retired musician. For your information, my grandson Rett sent over a few demo files for me to check out and give him my input on. I hate to keep that boy waiting.”

Lilith smiled, flicking her tongue to create little dismissive sounds.

“Grandchildren. Ha! Who would have ever pegged you – of all people – to get all mushy in your old days, the great womanizer, brawling, trash-talking, alcohol and all-sorts-of-substance-addicted rough boy with not a care in the world, now sitting here, wearing kitschy and ugly ‘I love to be a grandpa..’ sweaters. Ridiculous! What a waste! Marriage and family life really has taken a toll on you. No wonder I don’t bother with such foolish nonsense. Anyway, when will Viktoria be back?” she rattled on in one breath. If she were to breathe, that is. As a vampire, she didn’t have to.

“Who knows? Went over to Brendan and Natty’s home, just for a moment, according to her, but whenever she goes there, those moments usually turn into hours. I have a feeling that since my other grandson Declan and his fiancée bought that house right there on the isle, she’ll end up bugging those kids as well. I just didn’t feel like snuggling family again today. How’s Caleb? How come he didn’t come along with ya?”

“Oh Caleb is fine. Keeping busy with his Grand Master Vampire business and such … the usual, terribly boring stuff. Oh Blaine, those eyes of yours. I never get tired of looking at them. I still find myself wondering every now and again what could have been, had you and I ever overcome your silly inhibitions regarding my kind. As my son and your daughter have demonstrated sufficiently now, such unions can be very successful.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Lilith, not that old hat again! Give me a break, woman, I am an old man now! Are you really so desperate for a man that you need to hit on an 80 year old? I may still be plenty fit for my age, but I retired the man-whore side of me long before I even got married 60 years ago and I am certainly not making any exception now, most definitely not for someone like you. No offense, but you are about as pleasant as an enema, just not even half as useful. Before I’d fuck you, I’d stick my junk down the garbage disposal and flip that switch! Outcome would probably be the same anyway!”

“No need to be insulting! I know I am a lot of woman, and too much for most men to be able to handle. But I was always under the impression that’s how you like your women, seeing how you always let Viktoria boss you around. I never understood what you see in her, she is more boring than absolute vacuum. Pity you are so old and feeble now, had you only let me turn you when you were still in your prime, agh, think of what all could have been. Now you can’t even sit down without all your joints cracking … at least that way you match that goodie-two-shoes wife of your’s pace, that boring little ….” Lilith was cut off my Blaine, who raised his voice as he got up off the couch and headed towards the hallway, pulling her up the couch and along with him.

“Enough now! This fun little hangout is over! I have been plenty nice, but now it’s time for you to take your instigating, bitchy self back to your brother to deal with. For the record, young or old, in my prime or long past it, I wouldn’t fuck you with my worst enemy’s dick, Lilith, I am just not that desperate! So take your vindictive ass out of here before I call Caleb to drag it back home for ya! You know he is no fan of you talking such nonsense!” Blaine reached for the handle of the front door, but Lilith held on to his hand with an iron grip, demonstrating the super-human vampiric strength, while belying her small frame and almost angelic appearance.

“Oh no, not so fast. I have had it with your unwarranted arrogance, thinking you are better than me just because I happen to have a weakness for your rakish ways. You are lucky I still even bother with your wrinkled, floppy old self! All I did was pay you a harmless little compliment and speak some truth. But I am done with nice now. You are going to look at me, Blaine, yeah, just like that … deep into my eyes, don’t even try to withstand, I am way too strong now, you cannot stop it anymore, there you go, that’s a good boy … yeah … just like that. Shame I have to resort to hypnosis, normally men fall over themselves to have me without much help, but we do what we have to. Telling me no just will not do anymore! Come on, handsome, before you deteriorate even more. Who knows if you even live to see many more days, you pitiful mortal. Let’s put those good genes to good use … Here’s to hoping I didn’t wait too long and that you can even still perform as necessary. I’ll deal with Caleb later on, that old fool, once he cannot change the facts anymore. We all know he would never undo something his best friend is partially involved in … you know, sometimes it really is easier to ask for forgiveness, than permission. All I need from you is a tiny little donation from your gene pool, then I will be on my way and you’ll be none the wiser, wake up blissfully unaware as you mortals always are. You can live out your little boring life with your little boring wife, while I will have what I wanted from you. Win – win.” her eyes glowed preternaturally now, her face merely a grimace.

Mesmerized and incapable of any decisions or thoughts of his own anymore, merely a blank canvas left only with basic functions unless willed into action by Lilith’s hold over his mind and movements, Blaine followed the still chanting and purring, smiling Lilith to his marital bedroom …

It wasn’t until hours later that he would come to, when I returned home, only to find him naked and passed out atop our bed. To claim I was surprised didn’t even begin to describe my feelings about that odd situation. It wasn’t even the part about seeing Blaine naked, I still got that plenty, just the entire context was more than questionable.
If his intention had been to turn himself into a Blaine-appetizer, and wait for my return naked, ready to go for a round of mattress mambo, you’d think he’d have been smart enough to be under the blanket, rather than lay there like a frozen fish stick turning blue, shriveled up and furthest from anything I’d call sexy. The heater had been off when I returned home, the entire home felt like walking into a freezer. It was late Autumn and quite chilly in the evenings, this house wasn’t the best isolated to begin with.

“Oh dear lord, Blaine, what’s this now? Why did you not turn on the heat, silly? Now it will take forever to defrost the house, our poor Spunky tried to lick me when I walked in but his tongue almost froze up in mid-air! Good thing that dog is a huge ball of fur! What in heaven’s name have you been up to? Have you been drinking? Blaine? HEY – BLAINE, wake up!” I said, a slight shaking in my voice now as our advanced age occurred to me. Hopefully he was all right!

Please Blainey, be all right! I promise I won’t give you any grief, baby! I pleaded in my head.

Once he shifted a little and moaned, I relaxed a little, breathing a sigh of relief. At least I didn’t walk in on him naked and dead on our bed, pardon my bluntness. I know we all gotta go some time, and he and I indisputably were in the winters of our lives, obviously we didn’t have decades left to look forward for, but you’d think if we go, not like this.
We both were healthy and strong as bulls despite our advanced years, so no reason to just keel over naked onto a bed. If I die in bed, please let me wear cute pj’s and be UNDER the covers.

When I saw Blaine drool on his pillow, then smack his lips as if he were eating something, before mumbling into his pillow “…hmmm, pancakes….”, I chuckled, then repeated louder.

“BLAINE CAMERON! UP WITH YOU! What is going on with you? You are worse than a toddler, can’t leave you alone for a moment! Are you drunk? You better not be! And where are your clothes? Are you out of clean pj’s?” I yelled louder, now shaking the bed hard from my side, which finally did the trick and fully woke him, his eyes opened, fixated on me, when he shot up, discombobulated.

“What?! Where? Oh … hi babygirl … you’re home!”

“Did you get wasted after I left here?” I wondered.

“No! Well, I … don’t think so … don’t remember. Did you undress me?” he mumbled with the voice of someone who just woke from deepest slumber.

“Me? No! I just got home, honey, and I found you like this, naked, sleeping, sweaty, and no offense but you reek, baby. Hopefully you are not coming down with something. It’s the season for colds and flus. Another reason you shouldn’t lay around here butt naked! What were you thinking? It is way too chilly in here for you to be sweaty as you are. Let’s get you cleaned up for now, then I’ll make you some broth and off to bed for the night with you, dressed and UNDER the covers this time, maybe a healthy helping of Nyquil. Tomorrow I am taking you to the doctor. All this and you having a blackout all of a sudden, that is nothing to joke with at our age! And why are you so sweaty anyway, when you do not feel hot to the touch? You are cold as an ice cube, baby. So strange, you were fine when I left.”

“I AM fine. I don’t feel sick. Just a bit … blah. I’ll be fine. Don’t need no damn doctor. Just need a shower, you are right, I do smell like a decomposing skunk. What the hell? Maybe I fell asleep trying to take a shower and the damn dog humped me or something. He better not have, or I’ll turn him into a rug!”

Blaine went off to the shower, but I remained concerned. In all the years I had known him, he had never had blackouts, not even when he had gotten very drunk. This time he was not drunk, I smelled no alcohol on his breath, but something here was not right. I was definitely concerned. Even more so when I realized he really didn’t know what happened or why he was undressed. I had to keep myself from running to the computer to research his symptoms.

Blaine had his own set of worries to chew on. He remembered Lilith coming over, recalled him on the verge of kicking her out of the house, but didn’t recall anything after that.
Including her leaving, nor him going to bed. Especially not naked. Ever since there had been grandkids of all ages around, and now toddler-aged great-grandkids, he never was uncovered to avoid unpleasant surprises.
After the shower he got dressed, then inspected his neck carefully.

Nothing.
No bite marks.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
How bad could it have been then, right? At least that witch didn’t turn him or drink from him. But what the hell had happened? Blaine had dark suspicions, which he pushed from his mind every time they tried to rear their ugly heads …