2. Kate stared at the computer screen in shock as letters scrolled across the page as if by
their own will. Strange things were happening in that house, things she couldn’t explain
and didn’t care to stick around to figure out. In her dreams she saw Jack’s deceased wife
telling her to get out of the house and away from her children. At frist Kate ignored the
weird dreams but after a couple unexplainable accidents and sleepless nights Kate had
had enough.
3. She had intended to explain her reasons for leaving calmly to Jack but when he
snapped at her after she said she didn’t know what happened with his first wife but
she was being haunted, he laughed saying that she was being ridiculous then
suddenly lost his temper, Kate lost hers as well. Swears were shouted, insults were
thrown in the end it was Kate who had the last say as she stormed up to the
bedroom to collect her things, twenty minutes later the front door slammed.
4. Snowie and her friend ducked down behind the bush when her step-mom left the house,
they had heard the heated exchange. Snowie couldn’t help but smile as the woman left,
this meant that her Daddy was free to marry again, or would be soon and she had the
perfect person in mind.
5. Jack stared at the familiar looking woman and realized that she was the
babysitter. “Candy? What are you doing here?”
“Mister Winter…you’re here. Snowie said that you were in town.”
Jack gave his daughter a look that said they would talk about this later. “I’m sorry,
it seems Snowie has taken to lying.”
“Can Candy come in Daddy?”
“Yeah, sure.” Jack went back into the house.
6. His kids dominated Candy for a few hours, she managed to get them bathed
and tucked in then she plopped herself down in front of the TV. “You know, you
really should put one of these in the living room.”
Jack took a seat beside Candy, they talked as they watched shows, both
oblivious to the beautiful thing developing between them.
7. It just so happens that Candy became a big part of the Winters’ lives. She was
the only mother that Claus knew and Snowie absolutely adored her. It wasn’t
long before Jack’s little princess began hinting about a wedding saying how
awesome it would be for her Daddy to marry Candy, of course Clause got on
board, he always went along with whatever his big sister said, but he did
genuinely love Candy.
8. A few months later the kids got what they wanted. A beautiful sunset
beach wedding, the experience was shared with three of their father’s
coworkers. Snowie and Claus finally got the mother who would love them
as much as the one who had birthed them and their father who was
determined not to fall in love had finally been blindsided by it, through a
woman he knew nearly his entire life.
9. Once she was sure that her kids would be well taken care of, Agnes welcomed the
other woman with open arms, giving her blessing. She was finally ready to rest
and requested that once her daughter became a teenager she would like to lie
beside Erik in the graveyard.
10. Meanwhile, with his life looking up, Jack had finally been promoted to a point
where he had access to the police database. He entered data he had gathered
from questioning civilians. While he had the database opened he checked on the
status of Agnes’ case, it was labeled CLOSED. By this time Jack had been a cop
long enough to know that because a cased was closed didn’t mean it had to
remain that way.
11. It wasn’t long before Candy found she was pregnant. She was ecstatic that she would
soon be a mother and the kids were thrilled, none more than Claus who would get a
chance to be the older sibling finally, there were a million things he wanted to teach
the baby, Candy chuckled as she explained to him that he would have to wait until
the baby was born and then old enough to learn from its big brother.
12. Claus began to stalk his step-mother’s belly, the bigger she got the more he wanted
to be around her. He asked every day when he would get to meet his new sibling
much to Candy’s amusement and Jack’s annoyance.
13. Sometimes though, Jack was just as bad as his son, he constantly rubbed Candy’s belly and
talked to the baby. He saw this new life as his chance to start over, he had blatantly robbed
his older kids of their mother and he was prepared to do everything possible to make up
for it starting with giving Candy all the love he should have given Agnes, and taking care of
Snowie and Claus like he should have in the beginning. This baby was his chance to do
things right from the very start, to show his son how to treat a woman and be a good
father.
14. Soon the wait was over and however, Candy went into labor alone, the kids
were somewhere playing and Jack was out questioning civilians for his new
case. Unlike Agnes though, Candy immediately panicked, the pain was so
intense that she thought she would pass out.
15. A call sent Jack running to the hospital, this was his third delivery but he would never
get used to the screaming women, the hours of panting and sweating and finally a
gore covered miniature human coming into the world wailing. Jack ran toward his
future, his new beginning.
