The Sequel. The Little Rose.

Chapter Thirty-nine. Raspberries.

On the day of the Summer Solstice, Sang had been to visit Mr and Mr Drummond again in the morning, taking Victor and Kota with her. They had had a lovely time catching up, and the boys had loved seeing Sang so relaxed and happy. They had even tolerated Pork Chop trying to trip them up every opportunity he had, and had laughed as loudly as the Drummonds when Sang come close to breaking a window throwing a ball wildly for a still agile Spotty. Her Frisbee skills were excellent, but they all decided that tossing a ball was just something she may never quite the hang of.

That afternoon, several of them noticed that Sang's mood had changed significantly. They watched as she sat on a seat under the oak tree looking at a laptop on her knees.

"Pookie isn't smiling anymore." Sean declared suddenly into the silence. "Why isn't she smiling, and what the hell is she looking at?"

"I have no idea, Sean." Owen declared quietly, a concerned look growing on his face. "I don't believe it is connected with last night's events."

"Let's not talk about it." Luke said, walking in from the library where he and Gabe had been looking for the manuscript the two of them were positive had to be hidden in the house somewhere.

"Sit down, guys. Have a coffee and piece of cake." He could remember Sang had said smiling. The glint in her eye had made several of them very uneasy, he recalled. But not as much as when she had exclaimed "Oh, silly me. I forgot a knife to cut it," and then proceeded to remove the ritual knife from its scabbard under her shirt, before laying it gently on the table before her. "This should do the job. Don't you agree?" she had continued, looking at them all. "Now. Why did you follow me? You knew I was going to the cemetery, but not one of you said a word of protest. I told you days ago. I wouldn't have minded, but I feel like you don't trust me. So I would appreciate someone explaining to me exactly what you were thinking. Mm."

"Sweetie," Kota had spoken up first, "it's not that we don't trust you. We just needed to make sure you were safe."

"It's a cemetery, guys and you knew I was going there. What did you think was going to happen? There was no one there but me." Sang interrupted before she looked across at Nathan, who was looking slightly disbelieving at her. "You do know zombies are not real, right? What would harm me there?"

"When you told us 12 o'clock Miss Sorenson, we all thought you meant 12 noon not midnight." Mr Blackbourne finally spoke. "I do apologise sincerely for intruding on your privacy, but frankly there would have been no way I could have condoned you wandering around alone at that time of night. It is just not safe, and your safety is our priority. You are part of this family, and I am grateful that Mr Taylor was looking out his bedroom window when he did."

Sang sat and looked around the table a little stunned, before starting to giggle "Noon. Seriously? Why would I carve a candle, for a noon ritual?" Sang giggled some more and then shook her head and sighed, "Well I'm sorry too. It never occurred to me to be scared there or that there would be danger. I just wanted to pay my respects."

Of course North had nearly blown it for them "Danger, fuck Sang Baby, look at the size of that fucker." He had exclaimed loudly, before reaching over to grab the ritual knife Sang had put on the table. Luke grinned as he remembered Sang's lightning reflexes as she had stopped him, with her eyes narrowed. "Don't touch it, North. It's Mrs D's knife. If you touch it, she'll have to perform a cleansing ceremony on it. Do you want me to tell you what that involves?" she had sassed him, before smiling and reaching across to hug him and whispering something in his ear that had made his shoulders relax. All in all, Luke thought discussions of last night were better left alone, and he breathed a sigh of relief when Kota spoke up, because he too wanted to know why his Cupcake looked sad suddenly.