Die Young, Stay Pretty (Short Stack)

Ten - Suburbia

I sat in the kitchen, bouncing my beautiful baby girl on my knee. She giggled at the movement and pulled at a loose strand of my hair. I smiled. It had been a little over a year since the wedding, and her birth. The day she was born was the only day better than my wedding day.

Starla Belle Clemmensen had inherited both my and Andy's best physical qualities. She had Andy's sapphire blue eyes, and midnight hair that had puzzled me for months. It was only when Mel pointed out that it was the same shade of the dye that had permanently stained my hair when I was Turned that I realised that she'd inherited it from me.

Starla had turned out to be a real daddy's girl and loved playing with Andy. I loved to watch them together. They were the family I'd always dreamed of, and I couldn't imagine ever being happier than I was now.

Mel and Shaun had been married soon after Andy and me, on August 13th. They were hoping for their own bundle of joy soon, and as such, Starla was never short of attention, with her two adoring uncles and equally enthralled aunt.

Though my mother and father had been begging to visit since they'd found out I was pregnant, I still didn't know how to work a visit in. I'd had to consume more blood during the pregnancy than I had since I was first Turned and had been terrified that if they came to visit, I'd lose control and attack them. I also had no idea how Starla would do around them. She might be completely fine, or she could try to bite them. I didn't want to take the risk, just in case. But I missed them more than I had on my wedding day.

'How are my two leading ladies?' Andy greeted, dropping a kiss on Starla's forehead and then one on my lips. He, Shaun and Bradie were finishing up the final recordings for Art Vandelay. They'd taken a small break during the process, and it was nearly all post-production now. They were still spending a lot of time at the studio, though. I smiled up at him.
'Excellently,' I replied. I watched as Starla moved her hand from my hair to reach for Andy. He took a seat next to me at the breakfast bar, and I passed her to him. She immediately began to tug at his shirt.

I took a sip from the glass of blood next to me. We were silent for a moment.
'You miss them, don't you?' Andy asked, softly. I didn't need to ask who "they" were; my family were rarely discussed, because it was a source of pain, but when they were, it was almost always about how much I missed them.
'Yeah,' I admitted, quietly. I watched as he bounced our daughter on our knee. Her laughter was strange in the sombre atmosphere. His eyes were fixed on me, and full of worry. He'd tried often to convince me to risk inviting my parents. He knew how much I wanted to see them, and how concerned I was for their potential wellbeing.

'Don't worry about me. I just wish they could see Star,' I told him.
'Why don't you Skype them?' He'd suggested this at least a hundred times before. My answer was always the same.
'They'll love her too much, and then they'll want to visit. I can't put them in danger, Andy.' I could hear the pain in my own voice and I knew I was doing nothing to dispel his worry.
'They won't live forever, Lita,' he reminded me, softly. 'One day we'll be here and they won't. I don't want you to regret anything in your relationship with them.'
'What do I tell them when they want to visit?' I demanded, as I had done every time we had this conversation. 'They'll want to know why I look so different. They'll want to know why I kept them from the wedding and why I'm keeping them from their granddaughter now. There's no guarantee that coming here won't kill them,' I concluded.
'No there's not,' Andy agreed, patiently. 'The last time we discussed this Shaun was still hunting. There was a greater risk of working out what we are, and Shaun had less control than the rest of us. That's not going to be a problem anymore. I know we haven't had Star around any humans yet, so I can't say for sure how that would go. But she's a year old, now. Vampires only take six months to adjust to the new diet and get themselves under control. I've never encountered a baby vampire before, but then again, it's not like we know many vampires. I can't say for sure, but it seems a pretty safe bet that because she was born this way, she wouldn't have had the adjustment period anyway. And if she hasn't adjusted... well, I guess we'll have to keep them away from her. I think that's really unlikely, though, Lita,' he concluded.