The summer is magic... 16/??
By Marea67
About: Kevin/Scotty
Rate: Not sure yet...
Disclaimer: Written with love, not for money..
Summary: Yeah! I finally have a clue where this is going! ...
*****
The next morning, the rain has been replaced by drizzly weather. Deciding to not let it discourage them, Kevin, Scotty and Chad return to the attic, where Kevin and Scotty show Chad what work they had already accomplished. Chad is quite impressed and the three of them continue their search through boxes, crates and plastic bags.
“I feel like she kept just anything, that has to do with her career, up here.” Chad eventually sighs, putting a carton box filled with letters to the side.
“How are we ever going to get this organized?” Scotty wonders. Chad looks around at the mess they’ve made. Not that the mess had gotten worse than it had been before.
“I have to make a couple of phone-calls. I suggest that we leave it as it right now and do something else with the afternoon.” Chad’s suggestion finds acceptance with Kevin and Scotty. Scotty immediately retreats to the kitchen to fix lunch and Kevin decides to take a long shower, cleaning some of the dust and cobwebs from his hair and body.
About an hour later, they rejoin in the kitchen for delicious sandwiches, hot coffee and tea and the last batch of cupcakes. Chad immediately has some news.
“It’s all been settled. I’ve managed to get in touch with the man who runs Cherry’s fanclub and fan-site, Harry Fellows.
He has followed her career since the early 70s and he has met her several times. There’s very little that he doesn’t know about her career and he’s more than excited to create some sort of a museum in her honor. I’ve spoken with a moving company and they can clean out the attic and get everything to Harry’s place.
He can get his hand on an enormous shed where he can store everything and sort out all the dresses, pictures and such. He has contacted other fans who are more than willing to help out. I think that I can leave Cherry’s possessions safely in his hands.”
“Won’t you get in trouble with her husband?” Scotty asks.
“Yes. Wouldn’t he just love to get his hands on it too?” Kevin points out.
“Nope, the house was sold to me, all contents included, whatever is in this house belongs to me, to do with as I see fit. Off course, in time, Cherry would have bought it back and it would all have been hers again.
But because she died before that happened, it’s still all mine and he can’t get his hands on it anymore. I’ve been really wondering about what to do with it all. I only wanted to help her out, way back then, and I hadn’t really looked at what is upstairs, or in the rest of the house, but having seen it…
Almost her whole life and career is here, it would be a crime to let it go to waste if I can make her fans happy with it.”
“There must a fortune up there. To give that away…” Kevin starts. Chad however immediately cuts him off.
“Whoa! I’m not giving it away, they can use it to make a museum for her, but … it’s all mine…. Though, in all honesty, we have talked about auctioning off 2 or 3 dresses to raise capital to build the museum and get it organized.” Chad suddenly seems tired.
“Are you okay?” Scotty asks.
“Yeah. Yeah sure.” Chad is however not very convincing. “It’s just been a bit too much. There were quite some memories up there for me too. And add that to the rocky flight yesterday, the incessant rain, that business with Candace and the fact that I haven’t slept all that good last night… I’m beat.”
Scotty pours Chad another coffee and slides the cupcakes in his direction. Chad can’t help but smile. Scotty’s solution to everything: Coffee and cupcakes. And not a bad solution either. Chad quietly savors the taste of both and once he’s finished, he gets up.
“I think I’ll have a walk along the beach. Clear my head.”
“In this weather?” Scotty asks. Large drops hang from flowers and branches, and the sky is grey and cloudy.
“Yes. It will be alright.” Chad's smile can't even convince the others. Yet, a few seconds later, after putting on his coat, he disappears into the garden.
“Go after him, Kev.” Scotty’s words are soft and gentle, but an unmistakable order.
“Why?” Kevin isn’t exactly in the mood to go out in this weather.
“I think, he needs you.”
“Us. He needs us.”
“No. He needs you. There’s something on his mind. He needs a sounding board.” Scotty points out.
“So, we’ll both talk to him.” Kevin negotiates. It puts a smile on Scotty’s face.
“I think he’d rather be alone with you and talk to you.”
He can see that Kevin suspects the same thing, but that he doesn’t want to give Scotty the idea of being an outsider.
“You know I’m right. Go after him.” Scotty nods at the door and a few minutes later he can see Kevin leave for the garden as well.
*****
It’s hard to see the difference between the beach, the water and the sky. Everything looks grey.
“Hey! Chad! Wait up!” Kevin calls out and Chad turns around, a smile showing up on his face.
“Did Scotty send you after me?”
“Would you believe me if I said this was my own idea?”
“No. I know you care, but Scotty is the more sensitive between you two.”
“True.” Kevin nods, a loving smile on his face for the compliment at his husband.
They continue to walk, neither of them talking. The sand is wet and hard, making it easy to walk on. Despite the wetness, it isn’t as cold as Kevin had feared. He walks on, barely able to keep up with Chad, because Chad is a better shape than he is.
Until Chad suddenly stops, feeling he has walked far enough (and realizing that Kevin is out of breath, though he will not mention this to Kevin).
“Shall we sit down?” He asks.
“Sure.” Kevin shrugs, but he's happy that they can sit down next to each other.
“I’m considering selling the house. But I’m not sure. I bought it to help out Cherry, but what am I supposed to do with it? She loved the house, so it breaks my heart to sell it, but again: what’s the alternative?
A part of me tells me to get rid of it. I have had some interesting offers for it. At the same time it feels like a betrayal to her, somehow, because she wanted this place so much and I want to respect her wishes... but it’s just sitting here. And I’m not that interested in it.”
“Then sell it. I think that you’re doing the right thing in giving her fans access to her belongings, so they can create a place to remember her, but, as lovely and quiet as this place is, it’s not for you. The house is just an empty place where she used to live and whatever she brought to it, probably left with her.”
“Exactly! I feel like she’s not here anymore. I did have that feeling when I saw it, not longer after she had died. Somehow Cherry’s spirit was still in that house, her scent, something that make you look up and expect her to walk in, any minute now. But, this time, there’s nothing. I just hope, that she won’t be disappointed with my decision.”
"She wouldn't be. You did what you could within the confines of your friendship, but you can't hold on to this place forever and if you're ready to let it go, then let it go..." Kevin advises and Chad quietly agrees, glad that Kevin doesn't think his mixed feelings on this topic are ridiculous.
*****
Kevin and Chad slowly walk back to the house. With the selling of the house off his conscience Chad is cheerful and talkative again and he talks almost non-stop, which suits Kevin just fine, because he has come to realize that he should really work on his fitness, because he’s nearly out of breath again.
Chad stops him just as they are close to the garden. He cups Kevin’s face in his hands.
“Thank you.” He gives Kevin a little kiss on the tip of his nose. Kevin’s smiles.
“What for?”
“For being my friend. I don’t have many of those.”
“You’re welcome. And don’t forget to say ‘thank you’ to Scotty. I wouldn’t have gone after you, if he hadn’t let me.” Their eyes meet and Chad grins.
“I know.” He says softly, but teasingly, proving that he knows very well how the relationship between Kevin and Scotty works.
“Let’s go in. I’m hungry again and I want some more coffee.” Kevin guides Chad back to the house, where they arrive just in time to hear a car stop in front of their door. The next thing they hear is loud banging on the door and impatient ringing of the bell.
“What the…?” Scotty walks up to the door and opens it.
He practically gets shoved away and nearly falls backwards with the strength of door being pushed open. Carlin Cassidy doesn’t notice him at first. But when he does he only glares at Scotty, until he sees Kevin and then Chad and he furiously thunders:
“Where the hell is my wife?!”
END OF PART 16/??
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