Chapter 33: A New Start

Cleo Slade, granddaughter of Adam wants to stay true to her predecessor's vision of establishing a lasting family legacy in Sunset Valley but that hope has been put at risk by an ill-judged affair that has split her family.  Can the damage be repaired and her children continue the family line?

In this chapter everyone moves on from the trauma of recent events  ...


Their consultant had told them that the new equipment they had recently installed would enable them to make a determination, of at least 99% accuracy, in just a couple of hours. So, after each of them had given a sample of blood, Cleo, Pascal, Danielle and the new baby went down into the restaurant attached to the hospital to wait for the results of the DNA testing.

As much as they tried to keep their concerns hidden from Danielle, the young girl could sense that this was not an ordinary test. Cleo was concentrating on the baby who had been remarkably quiet while they were at the hospital. Pascal joined in Danielle's game of 'Holby Emergency 10' but, she noticed, her parents hardly looked at each other after they had their samples taken.

The restaurant was about to close, the staff had started tidying away all the left-over food, emptying all the bins, and wiping down all the used tables and surfaces, when a nurse came to find them and escort them back to the consultant's office.

Leaving Danielle in the care of the nurse, Cleo and Pascal paused before entering the office, looking nervously at each other as they took the two chairs positioned in front of the consultant's desk.

"Well, Cleo, Pascal, I have the results here. As I told you before even though this equipment can give us results very quickly it has proven to be very accurate. The manufacturer's claim over 99% accuracy and I have not heard of any cases, in real use, where the analysis has been questioned. So I have no doubts, at all, about what I have here."

He leans across the desk to hand them a single sheet of paper. Under the heading "Marker Analysis" are a series of tables, one for each of them followed by another table, "Match Analysis by Paternity Index". They were all a series of numbers against each name, but for the final column of the second table, headed "Determination".

The consultant continued, "as you can see from the determination entry in that last table ... you are both positive matches for both children; there is no question of any other paternity."

Cleo released a huge sigh as Pascal reached over to hold her hand, "thank you Doctor, we knew this would be the result but … you know ..."

--*--

It wasn't easy for Pascal and Cleo to return to the relationship they had before Garett's interference but they still had a love for each other that allowed them to focus on caring for each other and the two children. Despite Pascal's assurances before the DNA testing he knew that if one of them had proven not be his own, it would have affected their relationship. The fact that both were his meant that, over time, the hurt he had felt could slowly fade away.

But first, they needed a name for the new baby. Cleo had had a name in mind but when Pascal turned up outside the hospital she decided to wait so that they could choose a name together. They had no particular ideas as to how they might choose any name above another apart from finding one that sounded right. After a night flicking through lists of possible names they eventually selected one of the first they had thought of. Cleo also wanted to give her son a permanent reminder of her father, a man whose love for his family was unbounded, so when they went to the town hall to add him to the register of births, the birth certificate they left with bore the name Damien Brandon Slade.

So, having registered Damien, Pascal and Cleo set about the next stage of their agreement; moving out of Sunset Valley.

Cleo felt the pain of leaving behind the home that her grandfather and father had spent so much time building as a family home for many future Slade generations but she also knew what it represented and what moving meant to Pascal. And they had found a beautiful new house in the town of Riverview.

So, just a few short months after Pascal’s return the family had packed up everything they needed, handed the keys over to the estate agent and headed off for their new life amidst the rolling hills of Riverview.

--*--

Released from the burden of watching over and caring for her mother Danielle settled quickly into her new school and, despite sometimes being a little over assertive in class, was soon getting good reports.

Cleo was able to take on a part-time role with the Riverview County Fire Department. Although no longer being at the sharp end of emergency handling she was still able to provide a public service and quickly gained a reputation as an expert at bringing calm and reassurance to victims of traumatic events.

Pascal found his considerable horticultural knowledge much in demand and soon became a regular speaker at the Gardeners Association meetings. But, more than that, Pascal loved spending time with his children. Especially little Damien who, as the months rolled past, was turning into the spitting image of Pascal.

Most of all Cleo, Pascal, and Danielle loved having time to spend together and doted on the ever-cheerful baby Damien.

But fate has a way of dealing within people who manage to escape misfortune and trauma.

Just past two years after arriving in Riverview, while picking up supplies from the local nursery, Pascal suffered a massive stroke. Although other shoppers were quick to notice his collapsed figure and call in the paramedics by the time he arrived at hospital the prognosis was not good.

Several attempts at resuscitation were made but each time his heart proved incapable of supporting him. The doctors advised Cleo that further attempts to force him awake might work but were likely to cause significant damage to his heart and other organs such that his quality of life would be severely impaired. But there was a small chance that by keeping his body at rest for a little longer it could naturally restore its own balance and recover with less damage.

Unwilling to lose Pascal, Cleo could also not face imposing a life of pain and struggle on him so accepted the doctor's recommendation not to attempt another resuscitation. As the hours passed by, and night turned into day, Cleo took a break to rest her own exhausted body, snatching a few moments of fitful sleep. A sleep that was suddenly interrupted as a nurse gently roused her, she heard a phrase that would haunt her for years to come; "You should back to the ward, now."

Returning to Pascal's bedside she noticed that much of the apparatus that had been attached to him had been removed. She stared at Pascal's peaceful, quiet, features, there was barely any indication of movement, she didn't look up as someone told her "He doesn't have long, he hasn't responded to the drugs and there is minimal heart activity now. I'm sorry, there is nothing more we can do for him."

--*--

Cleo never forgave herself. As much as the doctors and the inquest said that it was a previously undiagnosed weakness of his heart, part of her would always blame the stress she put Pascal through for his untimely death.

Cleo not only gave up work to devote herself to raising Damien, "little Pascal" as she sometimes referred to him, but she also gave up all the friends she had made at the fire station and around town. Unfortunately she also did not notice that young Danielle was grieving for her father too, nor that her daughter’s school reports were less and less positive about Danielle's achievements and more concerned about disruptive behaviour.

As each year went by Danielle’s relationship with her mother deteroriated. Cleo became increasingly reclusive and every time Danielle challenged her to start living her life again she would just turn her back and start fussing over Damien.

Eventually after one particularly angry exchange Danielle packed up a change of clothes and left to stay with friend vowing never to return. But, as frustrated and angry with her mother as she was, those long months in Sunset Valley where it was just the two of them could not be easily forgotten, so Danielle did visit to see her mother and little brother.However, with no sign of any significant improvement in Cleo's behaviour, the visits eventually became shorter and further apart.

For all her confidence, though, Danielle missed the support and guidance she should have got from her parents. Gradually, and unnoticed by anyone who could have intervened, her perception of the world changed. She had many friends to socialise with but none were close, she would not allow any of them a genuine emotional attachment. Spending more time in coffee shops, or bars, or at parties, she barely scrapped pass marks in her school exams.

As soon as she was of legal age she rented a small flat in the centre of town. The flat was above a small motorbike shop, not that the owners made much effort to actually sell bikes. It was more a hangout for the bikers of Riverview and nearby towns. It had an 'attitude free' reputation where young and old mixed and shared stories of bikes, travels, and exotic locations. It also served "the finest damn coffee in the whole county".

Inevitably Danielle spent a lot of time in the shop, lapping up the wild, and often exaggerated, stories told by the grizzled veterans who seemed to be permanent residents of the shop. One of these tales in particular caught her imagination, a tale of a dusty faraway place; populated by free-spirited people, of a town with few of the rules and bye-laws that cramped places like Riverview or Sunset Valley.

This was the place that Danielle wanted to be, free of old ties, free to live life as she wanted, all she needed was her share of the family inheritance that Cleo and Pascal had banked in her name when they left Sunset Valley. And so, a trip to the bank to close her account, the purchase of a bike of her own and pausing only briefly to leave a note for her mother, Danielle was on her way to start a new life.

Chapter 34: A Desert Home



Author's Note:  If you're wondering why I have cut Cleo and Pascal's story short ...

A year ago when I first stated this legacy game I only had the Base Game and Ambitions but since then I have added all the Expansion Packs, apart from Late Night (which I will probably get when it's properly cheap!), and lots of content from the Store, Stuff Packs and a modest amount of Custom Content.  To be honest, I'm pretty impressed that my old PC still runs the game!!

Also, one thing I noticed is that sending my Sims off to World Adventures locations massively increased the save game size - such that it now takes about fifteen minutes to load or save.

Anyway, the game has finally become just too unwieldy and glitchy and then to get an Error 12 save fail after waiting ten minutes it's just not fun!

I had hoped to save the Gen 3 household and move them all to a new world but every time I tried to save them the game crashed completely!  I could probably have saved each Sim separately but that would mean losing a lot of their built up history which rather defeats the purpose of saving them.

Despite all that, I don't want to give up on the Slade story just yet so I made the decision to cut the Gen 3 story short and start afresh with my Gen 4 heir in a new world that would fit into the storyline I had, anyway, planned - and without all the baggage that comes with a long game it should be a whole lot less frustrating to play!

Think of it like a new series where the old cast is disposed of and the show takes a new and, hopefully, exciting direction.  Though, of course, the point of  a legacy story is the history of the earlier generations so I'm not forgetting the other characters ... if it makes sense to the story (and I'm already thinking of certain scenarios!) I will bring back some of characters I've left behind today ...

So, thank you for reading my story so far and your patience with my haphazard update schedule and please forgive me for not sticking strictly to the legacy challenge rules - I hope you'll think it worthwhile and will continue to enjoy my tales of the Slade family.