[ 27 ] 1992

-

"Arthur, I know we didn't get on right from the start, but I just wanted you to know before I leave tomorrow that I'm in love with you."

-

Time seemed to have no meaning for him while he was in the garden. It all felt the same to him. People came and went, his friends who had graduated before him were sent off and stationed in different part of the world to begin hunting. As December 1991 came and went, soon January 1992 came around and it was becoming time for Michelle to graduate. She was eighteen now and it had taken some time, but she had finally grown on Arthur, and he on her as well. Arthur was already twenty and still had three more months left of training. Then he'd be going out into the field with his uncles for two years before finally taking over the family business. It was projected that he would do so by the spring time in 1994.

Just one night before Michelle Jenner's graduation ceremony, she found herself tossing and turning in her bed. She was anxious. The Garden  was the only home she'd ever known for the past two years. Fernando and Ernesto Vega were like parents to her, and Arthur...He had been so patient with her when she was full of so much anger after her parents were murdered and she moved to Perth for her training. He had that serious and quiet demeanor about him, but she knew he cared about her. He had been always watching out for her.

That was why she wanted to get her big secret off her chest. After tomorrow, she would not be seeing him as often and she wanted to know if he felt the same way that she did. 

She left their shared dorm room and went to the training room locker rooms. Opening up her locked, she produced a white key card to one of the private training rooms. She had stolen it in order to test her theory that one could reproduce their memories onto the room like a movie, and it was true. She went there whenever she missed her parents, going back through the memories from when they were alive. Most recently, she had found that she could get into someone's mind and scroll through their memories, saving whichever ones she wanted in her mind. That was her special ability, and she could also alter the memories of others. 

Most recently, she had been using her powers to snoop in the old memories of Fernando and Ernesto Vega. She searched for memories of Bobby, their younger brother who had passed away while only being twenty five years old. Arthur had told her that he never met his parents because his father had passed away before he was born, and his mother had been forced to give him up for adoption. His aunt Elenore was the one who raised him all those years. As her final rule breaking act at The Garden--the only reason she hadn't gotten kicked out by now was because Arthur was always advocating for her with his uncles--she had been collecting memories of Bobby from the minds of his older brothers, and she wanted to compile them to show Arthur. He never got to spend time with him, but at least he would get to see him in person and see what he was like. 

She went into the training room and got everything set up. Then she went back to their room to wake him. 

"Arthur..." She placed a hand on her shoulder and shook him gently. 

He stirred in his sleep, but he was a light sleeper and opened his eyes slowly and almost immediately. He was a bit taken by surprise that she was there waking him, and he assumed that something might be wrong. "What is it?" He asked her sleepily. Arthur slowly sat up in his bed, and the covers slipped down his body to his torso. Michelle could feel herself gulping nervously when she realized that he was sleeping shirtless.

"I need to show you something." She said vaguely, without offering him too many details.

Thinking it to be very important, he grabbed his t-shirt off the ground and slipped it on over his head. He then got out of bed and followed her out the door. They walked until they reached the last training room in the training hall. She used her key card to get the door open and he eyed her with confusion. Though he knew he shouldn't be surprised that she had a key card with her. Michelle Jenner was always breaking the rules in The Garden.

As the door whooshed open, he stopped at the entrance of the room when he saw what was inside. It was a playback of a memory. But this one was of people he had once seen in pictures. This was a memory of four kids standing outside, looking out to the sidewalk as a woman stepped out of a taxi with a baby in her arms. Michelle took Arthur by the hand and led him to the middle of the room. The door closed behind him with a whoosh. The eighteen year old girl closed her eyes and willed the memory to continue playing. The room disappeared around them and it was like they were there, in that time period, but no one else there could see them. 

As the memory continued to play, the four children approached the woman. They were two boys, and two girls--Fernando, Ernesto, Elenore, and Elaine Vega. The woman smiled warmly down at all of them. "Meet your new baby brother, hijos." She said to them.

One of the little boys asked. "What's his name, mama?" 

The woman replied. "Robert, but we'll call him Bobby."

The memory then changed to one of the family having fun at the beach. The two boys had taken their youngest brother out into the water. He was only four years old, while they were ten and eleven respectively. Their mother had warned for them not to go too deep into the ocean, and to watch over their little brother. Their sisters were in the sand making castles, but Bobby really wanted to see the water up close. He had always liked the water and marine life. His favorite toys were even a stuffed dolphin his parents gave him, and a stuffed turtle his brother gave him from a trip to the aquarium. But seeing the ocean like that, it was the very first moment that he decided he wanted to go to the Marine Academy.

Arthur was stunned at the fact that he was getting to see those memories, and what his father looked like as a little boy. 

As it moved onto the next memory, he saw a more older version of his father, at about thirteen years old. He had gone to his two brothers for love advice. They were already nineteen, and twenty, and were visiting home. They had moved away to train in the outback and were visiting the family. Bobby knew it was different asking his sisters for that kind of advice. They were girls after all.

"How can I go about asking a girl out?" The thirteen year old asked, going red in the face. He couldn't look them in the eyes and he stared down at his fingers nervously.

Fernando slapped a hand down on his little brother's shoulder, practically howling in amusement. "Little brother has a crush! Who's the lucky girl? Do we know her?"

He nodded his head slowly, but still refused to look at them. "Its Hayley Reid. Our neighbor. We've been friends, best friends, since forever and I just know I want to be more than that. But...what if she rejects me? I don't think I'd be able to handle that."

This time, it was Ernesto who spoke up. "Little Hayley Reid! Well, I hardly doubt she'll reject you. Haven't we all been saying for years that you and her will probably end up married? Even her sisters and all our neighbors thought so. And even if she rejects you, its not like you couldn't find someone else. Mum says there are girls from school calling and asking for you all the time." His words found a way to make Bobby go even more red in the face, if that were even possible.

"Hayley..." Michelle repeated the name. "Was that your mother's name?"

Arthur silently gave a shake of his head no, and kept watching. The memory shifted again, and he was looking at his two uncles with his father. They were helping him unload his belongings at the Marine Academy. They were telling him that if he'd just let them pay for his school, then he wouldn't have to work. He could just focus on his studies and become a police officer, and a marine biologist like he'd always wanted. Bobby gave a shake of his head, assuring him that he wanted to earn his studies, and that being a security guard at the Feeney household wasn't as bad. His afternoons there were mostly uneventful and they paid really well.

"But how's Hayley taking it?" His brother Ernesto asked. "You two have been in the same schools, even the same classrooms since you were five."

Bobby heaved a sigh, thinking about how much it was a burden to him too. He had been in all the same classes with his girlfriend ever since they were kids. It pained him to have to change schools. But the Marine Academy for boys was something he had always dreamed about. He had plans to graduate from there and go to university. He'd train to become a police officer while also studying marine biology. Once he had his degree, he'd leave the police force and go full time into being a marine biologist. "She was really upset the first time I told her I was dropping out of Penola to go to another school. But when she knew it was for the Marine Academy, she fully supported me. Still, I know I'm going to miss her. But I'll be seeing her on the weekends."

But even then, it was becoming even painful to be without her. He had gotten so accustomed to her presence, that now that they couldn't be together, it filled him with an acute sense of anxiety. Separation anxiety, as he had jokingly called it when he talked to her on the phone the previous night. 

His brothers helped him arrange everything in his dorm at the academy and then said their goodbyes.

There was one final memory for them to see, and it was the one of Bobby's funeral. As painful as it was probably going to be for Arthur, she knew it was a moment he had to see. He had to see how deeply hurt his family was because they loved him. He was the youngest of them, and he was their brother. 

There was a heavy feeling of grief in the room and the memory was tinted with a dark hue. It was a memory of the day of his funeral. The family sat around the living room of Elaine Vega's house, mourning the loss of Bobby. The phone rang and Elaine rose from her chair to answer it. She put the phone to her ear and gave a greeting, then listening to know what the person on the other end had to say.

Her face soon contorted into one of anger, and she said accusingly into the phone. "You claim to love my brother so much, yet you didn't even show up to his funeral."

Elenore stood as well and went to stand by her sister. But Elaine was too distraught to continue hearing what the person had to say and handed the phone off to her sister. Elenore was more composed as the two brothers watched on. Elaine started muttering to them how it was a woman on the phone, someone who claimed to be Bobby's girlfriend and that she was sorry for his loss, but she needed the help of the family. When Elenore got off the phone with her, she turned to her siblings. 

"This woman says she's pregnant, and that Bobby's the father. She says she can't keep the baby, for both of their safety." There was a deep concern in her voice. For one, that baby was a part of their brother. And also, she didn't want a child in danger, no matter who's child it was. "She said she'll be calling periodically so that we can arrange for one of us to adopt him. I gave her my phone number so that she can communicate with me directly. I will take care of our brother's baby."

The memory then faded out and the training room with white walls reappeared around them. The entire time, Arthur was quiet, never saying a single word. But Michelle saw the way his eyes were glazed over. How tragic and short his father's life had been, and it seemed like he was generally a good guy.

Michelle placed a hand on Arthur's shoulder. "Arthur...maybe I was wrong to pry in your uncles' memories like that--"

She had started with her apology, but he turned abruptly and pulled her in for a hug. Arthur was usually serious and not much a person of many words, even less a person who really was into public displays of affection, so this took her completely off guard. Still, she felt her heart racing madly against her chest at the action. "I'd only ever seen my father in pictures, and knew about him through my aunts and uncles telling stories about him. But this was even better. I actually got to meet him. Thank you."

She said nothing, but as they pulled away, she bit down on her lower lip so hard she thought it might bleed. She was contemplating her options. Was this the right time to tell him? She would be going away the next day after her graduation. Granted, she wasn't going far. She would be transferred over to New Zealand but that was still far enough that she wouldn't see him everyday.

Ah, what the hell--she thought to herself, and just went for it.

Cupping his face in both of her dainty hands, she blurted out her confession as she closed her eyes tight. Her face was burning red hot with embarrassment, but she just had to get it over with. It was now or never. "Arthur, I know we didn't get on right from the start, but I just wanted you to know before I leave tomorrow that I'm in love with you."

"What--" 

He began, but was cut off when she unexpectedly brought her lips to hiss for a kiss.

-

an interesting turn of events. i think i have one to two more flashback chapters after this one and then we can go back to the big michael-arthur confrontation. i just wanted you all to see this little memory information that i had saved up.

just a note that this is relevant to the story, particularly that conversation michael and arthur are about to have, so please stay tuned for that. 

thank you all so much for reading and supporting this story. it means the entire world to me. please give this a nice vote and comment if you want to. no pressure. thank you again, and have a wonderful day!

-clary