Winter Legacy -3.4-

Cupid toddled past his younger brother, he had yet to interact with the younger boy, he was still curious about his new roommate. Shayne didn't seem to be paying much attention to his big brother either.

He grew into a brown haired toddler with his father's light green, nearly hazel eyes. 

Leia did not take too kindly to the new baby. She tended to Cupid well but she would sit and ignore Shayne no matter how much he cried. The woman was having a difficult time for sure, she couldn't come to grips with her husband's love child being in the house. It was proof of just how much Rudolph loved her. Leia though, was determined to stay with her husband, he didn't leave her so she was still the winner, she was always the woman he came home to and now that Sylvia had ended the affair, she was the one who's bed he slept in. But just how big a prize did she receive for her victory, Sylvia would always have the ultimate prize which was Rudolph's heart.

Leia left for work that afternoon, Regan looked up when the woman bolted past her but quickly turned her attention back to her grandson. Another child she was teaching how to talk, life's basic skills. For Regan it felt like just the other day she was teaching Shayne's father how to talk.

Later, the entire family was gathered in the living room, this moment was golden for Regan, there had been tension between Claus and Rudolph after the affair, but tonight they were getting along. Claus was telling his son about a commercial for a movie he really wanted to see.

The tranquility was broken when a drunk Leia stumbled in. "Rudolph!" She shouted, causing Cupid whose back was turned to jump.

"Leia, what is wrong with you? You nearly scared Cupid to death!" 

"What is wrong with me?" Leia slurred. "What is wrong with me is that I'm not sexy, I'm a washed up old hag who pushed her husband into the arms of another woman." She laughed, blasting Rudolph with her stink breath. 

"Leia, you need to lie down."

"Oh I'll l-l-lie down alright, but I sure as hell won't sleep in...in that bed with you. You know what, fuck you Rudolph...no wait, Sylvia already did that, I already did that! You man whore!"

"My kids are in here, watch your mouth."

"Watch my mouth? Fuck no!"

"Leia, Cupid repeats everything he hears, please, behave yourself."

"Cupid? You wanna talk about Cupid? How dare you talk about my son like you give a damn, you didn't care about what example you'd be setting form him when you were out there riding that whore. What kind of example were you? Huh? You got your mistress pregnant, what kind of example were you then? You let your mother bring your bastard child into this h-house. So don't you talk to me about Cupid and setting examples. If I wanna say fuck, then gaddamnit I'll say fuck!" 

Leia hiccuped and nearly fell backward. "I tried to be a good wife, I wanted to stay with you but fuck it, I'm leaving. I'm going to spend the rest of my youth loving Leia, and I'm taking my son with me. Yeah, that's right. I'll take Cupid and you'll never see him again."

It was all Rudolph could do not to slap the spit out of Leia's mouth. "Leia, don't you dare threaten to take my son away from me. So help me if you even try you'll end up on the missing person's list, I swear to God!"

"Rudolph, you will do no such thing." Claus put in, he was not about to get involved with his son and his drunken wife but he had to draw the line at threats on somebody's life. He was not ready to go through the whole Jack-Agnes murder mystery again.

"Leave if you want to, but my son is staying with me."

Suddenly Leia burst into tears. "Why can't you love me Rudy? I love you. Am I such a bad person? What did I do wrong?"

"Stop it!" Rudolph shouted, "Just stop. Go to bed, we'll talk in the morning."

"No." Leia shook her head. "No, I'm leaving. Your mother hates me, you disrespected me by getting another woman pregnant and Regan disrespected me by bringing the little bastard into my house. I'm gone Rudolph Winter, I'm out. But I'm not giving you the pleasure of a legal separation or a divorce, I'll be Mrs. Winter until the day that I die!"

As Leia stormed out the front door, Regan put herself between the raging woman and Shayne, the look in Leia's eyes said that she was not above kicking a defenseless child.

As Leia hopped into the jeep she wished glowered at the house, she would make sure that her son knew just what a pig his father was, she would be damned if she let Rudolph Winter live happily ever after.

                          

The next day Regan was running errands in town when she happened upon Snowie's daughter Snowflake. She marveled at the child, the last time she'd seen her she was no more than a baby. "Well, hello Snowflake."

Snowflake, who is called Snowy, was taken aback. Then she remembered some pictures her mother had shown them. This was her Aunt Ray who had the five children with Uncle Claus. She also remembered something else she'd heard around town about Aunty Ray.

                                   

"Aunty Ray, I heard that your son is a..." She paused, there were a lot of words that her mother had told her not to say in that sentence.

"Yes dear?" Regan pushed, wondering what news Leia had spread around the town already.

"I heard that Rudolph is a cheating son of a bitch who is going to die a horrible death and burn in hell."

"Um...darling, please never repeat that again." Regan was very disturbed, she hurried down the street to catch a cab home.

The Winters finally got their upstairs sitting room done, Rudolph insisted that they get a television seeing as how he had to give his up because his parents stalked his room to watch it and he didn't want to have to go downstairs every time he wanted to watch TV.

Claus went to visit Navidad who had invited him over to meet his granddaughter who would be celebrating her birthday in a few days. Navidad lived on the same street as Snowie and her girls.

"Dad you came." Navidad greeted his father. 

"Hmm? Oh yes. I was just admiring your street. Jasmin is just across the road from the triplets."

"Yeah, she loves Aunty's girls. So, about Rudy and Leia...I ah...I heard some of my co-workers talking. Dad I was so embarrassed."

"Apparently the entire town is talking about it, of course Rudy is the bad guy, but I don't like what they're saying about Shayne, he's just a baby."

"Well, nobody is saying anything good about Sylvia either, I heard she quit her job."

"You're just as bad as the townies."

"Well...everybody likes some good gossip. It wasn't cute anymore when people started asking me if he's my brother, and then they started comparing us and asking if I cheated on my wife." Navidad rolled his eyes. 

"I guess this calls for damage control."

Navidad pitied his father for having to clean up Rudolph's mess. "Oh, come meet Jasmin." He said to change the subject, plus, the night was cold and they'd been standing out there for a while.

Claus beamed at the bald headed baby girl, he was quite amused when Latarsha handed over the baby and Jasmin didn't reach for her mother or start to cry. "Well, you aren't shy." He chuckled.

"Let's have a look at you." He ran a hand over Jasmin's bald head, she had familiar gray eyes and will eventually have lots of black hair. Her skin was the same color as her father's.

"You're my first granddaughter, do you know that?" Claus bounced the baby. "Now I'm gonna hand you back to your mother and go clean up Uncle Rudy's mess, okay?"

Before Rudolph married Leia, he used to sleep all over the bed. After he got married he'd gotten used to sticking to his side of the bed. Even after Leia was gone, he would stick to whatever side of the bed he fell asleep on, when he rolled over too far, the cool on the opposite side of the bed surprised him. Did he miss Leia? Yes, he missed the hell out of her, she was his best friend. He wished things could be different, but it wasn't his fault he couldn't fall in love with her.

When he finally rolled out of bed, Rudolph was surprised to see his mother standing in the hallway. "Mom? What are you doing up here?"

Regan shrugged, "I was checking on the boys. Why are you up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep. Why are you up so early?"

"Brian called Claus, Mortimer isn't doing so good, they went over to the hospital."

"My dad is going to die." Brian moaned when Claus dropped in off home. Claus sighed, Mortimer had a serious stroke, he was in a coma but miracles happened, Snowie had beat cancer so why couldn't Mortimer come out of this?

"Brian, you have to have some hope, your father is strong, he'll fight this and come back to you."

Brian shook his head. "Dad is old Claus, he's much older than you and Snowie, his health had been failing him ever since Mother died, he's tired, he just wants to give up on this life and go be with Mother."

Claus nodded and patted his cousin on the shoulder, "Call me if you need me."

A few hours after Claus went home Brian called him to let him know that Mortimer had passed. Suddenly Claus was feeling his age, it felt like every day he and Regan lost another friend, he was tired of death and pain and sickness. 

The next morning Claus went upstairs and found his grandsons playing in the nursery. He smiled, there was an up side to getting older, his children did too, and they had children of their own. Life was a beautiful thing, pain and death and sickness were just a part of it and Claus would have to accept this, and his own mortality.

After his epiphany of the beauty of life, Claus went out and bought something beautiful for the most beautiful woman in the world. It was wonderful to watch Regan's face light up when he presented her with flowers her favorite color.

Claus soon had to head out to Mortimer's funeral, somehow, the guests ended up at the Winter house, luckily Claus liked to entertain, he even managed to convince Rudolph to play a few songs on the guitar.

Later still, there was a birthday and once again there was a child in the Winter house. A playground was set up on the Winter lot so that Cupid wouldn't get bored, after all it would be a while before his little brother would be old enough to play big kid games.

Regan played with Cupid early that morning, when Claus went out to the boy she made her escape to fix lunch. The day was so lovely that Regan decided it would be perfect for a walk. She had taken Cupid out when he was just a baby so she decided to do the same for Shayne. After lunch she strapped the todder into the stroller and the two of them headed out.

Just as Claus promised his grandson so many years ago, he gave him a baseball. "Maybe we can toss this around later, for now I want to enjoy the water slide."

"Okay grandpa." Like Claus, Cupid was artistic, he would sit all day and build castles and other masterpieces in the sand.

Claus had slid only once when he heard a crack and a sharp pain shot through his body. For a minute he could only sit there and writhe in pain, eventually though he was able to grunt, "Cupid, go find Grandma or your father."