Chapter 5 - The Joy of Grief

"I just can't believe she's gone" Gerado mutters to himself, the shock of it almost too much to take. Sure he wasn't always the best husband in the world, but he cared about Chambana deeply. Much more so than he did about Isabella. If they didn't have Ella, he probably wouldn't have stuck around.

"Who cares" Isabella shrugs, "She's gone now, you've got me, no need to keep moping"
"How... how can you say that, that's just Evil!"

"Get out of my sight, I need to take a shower anyway"

Realising that she has commited some kind of social faux pas, Isabella decides to make it up to him, by surprising him in the shower. A bit too surprising at one point.

No Gerado... You are supposed to take HER from behind, not the other way round

Once they come out of the shower, very clean, and very satisfied. Gerado has to go downtown to identify the body. It's almost too much for him to bear.

In order to make up for her little "mistake" earlier, Isabella offers to take Gerado to the Salon. She needs a haircut anyway, and Gerado wants a tattoo, to remember Chambana by.

 Now he will always have her close to his heart (*retch*)

Cassandra is probably affected even worse by the news than Gerado is. She has taken to sitting on the Seesaw by herself. Perhaps hoping that her dead mothers spirit will come and play with her.

This was actually autonomous... I thought it so fitting though

Still, she does at least have her schoolfriends. One in particular her best friend, Darrick Swift. although he doesn't believe any of her scary stories about Vampires

He's not even impressed when she does her best "Scary Vampire" look.

Then again, he does have trees growing through his walls making the whole place structurally unsound. Vampires are probably the least of his worries.

Now she's an adult, Isabella has been forced to think about what she wants to do with her life. She's decided that she wants to be a scientist, but seeing as she doesn't like people, she doesn't want to work in the Science Centre. So she has built herself an observatory, and started scouring the heavens for new Stars and Planets. As well as spying on the bin men....

Megan has taken up meditation. She claims it helps her to channel her inner evil. Personally I think she's just too lazy to walk up the stairs to get to bed.

Nobody really felt like celebrating, but as it was a double celebration, and Gerado felt that Cassandra needed something to take her mind off of her grief, the family threw a birthday party for Cassandra and Ella.

First Ella, Megan had the honour of blowing out the candles, as Ella was too small. Although she didn't appreciate all the noise that Gerado was making in her ear.

Mind her head Megan!

Ella looks a little cross-eyed as she ages up. She's also inherited Megan's hair. Y'know, even though Isabella is adopted.

Then it was Cassandra's turn....

It looks very painful.....

"I think I'm going to cry.... I can't believe I aged up wearing this"

So, a quick wardrobe change later.....

Cassandra already knows what she wants to do with her life. Her mothers death has made her hungry for revenge, and she is determined to become a police officer and bring those responsible to justice.

Her natural vampiric agility and strength make her an excellent candidate. Although even Vampire's have their off days....

Isabella managed to pick up a little money while taking Ella to the park, by tutoring Ervin Sargent.

In fact, she got SO into it that she didn't notice Ella being kidnapped!

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Not so angsty this time. I tried to make it a bit more humorous. Hopefully it worked. I probably didn't actually have enough for an update but I took some stock footage that I had from a couple of chapters ago that I wanted to get in, particularly the whole Cassandra "scary vampire" thing. Still, Cassandra is coming along nicely and will soon be yet another pawn in my fiendish plot *evil laugh*

Gerado is going to be the tattoo addict, as I don't really like the tattoo's, and he isn't too long for this world anyway.

 Challenge Notes:
Step Children - Completed
Number of Children - 2 Out of 3. Number 3 won't be coming along until Ella is a bit older, as I only have one cot.
Primary Income - Freelance Scientist - check.
Secondary Income - Medical - check.
Generation Goal - The Opportunist - so far so good. That's how Ella ended up getting kidnapped actually.... she went to the park to tutor him, and one of Megan's Evil Minions picked her up.
Misc Fun - Tattoo Addict - Started.