Chapter 19

He tried his hardest in the next two weeks to ignore the nanny but she made it damn hard to do so, seemed she was constantly bringing Blake out into the living area, and sometimes he wondered if she wasn't doing it on purpose! She even decided the living room was the perfect place to teach him to walk!  It wasn't that he didn't love his son, he did very much, but he looked so much like his Mama that it hurt to look at him, and he didn't think he could take that kind of pain.

Two weeks later she announced that Saturday morning that they were ready to go to the park with him, and a short walk, or long walk...that is exactly where he found himself.  Paris suggested he take Blake over to ride on the animal springs and before he knew it Elijah was having as much fun as Blake.  He had forgotten how good it felt to laugh!

After that week it seemed every time Elijah turned around she was ushering them all out of the house for one of her "outings"  he never knew where it would take them, there were movies to watch, games to go cheer for, quiet lake picnics.  One thing he did know, he could never be properly morose when he was on them, somehow he always ended up smiling, and by God he even sang Wheels on the Bus with her to Blake's delight!

 Elijah didn't know what was happening, but each day it seemed a little easier to get out of bed, and every day it seemed he felt more and more the desire to spend time with his son, even something as simple as playing with his block with him brought a smile to both their faces.

Somehow in between caring for Blake, and writing books she managed to wiggle her way into his life.  First it was simply him joining her for dinner each night, or a nice walk with her and Blake around the neighborhood. Soon he found himself seeking her out for opinions on his latest book.  More and more she became a part of his life.

It all started innocently enough, a simple pillowfight...nothing romantic in that, how was he suppose to know how it would end up...

With her in his arms, and his lips pressed against hers, it felt so right then, so amazing like a wall had fallen around his heart and sunlight was flooding into his very soul.

The next morning the feeling was gone, and dread replaced it, what had he done, why had he thought he should do that, it was the last thing he needed in his life.  Love hurt, especially when it died, and he didn't think he could ever stand a hurt like that again.  She was going to have to go, that was all there was to it, she had to leave.  He could take care of his son himself.

She had gotten out of bed that morning unsure of everything, he had already been firmly planted at the computer to avoid as much awkwardness as possible.
He didn't waste time, as soon as he noticed she was awake he broke the news, " You're umm, services, are not longer required, I'm sorry Paris, but well I'm ready to raise Blake myself, and what happened last night, it was a mistake, it's not fair to keep you here or let you think that it will ever happen again. "

He watched her face fall,   "I see, well I would say that I'm glad I could be of service, but it would be a lie.  I'm glad you are ready to care for Blake though, that much I am glad of.  I'll just pack my stuff and be out of here by this afternoon."

He stood there as she walked to the waiting taxi, and wondered why it seemed a cloud had fallen over their house. "She's just the nanny, nothing else, and we don't need her to be happy!"

Chapter 18

She was adorable, Malachi had to admit that much, she was absolutely the cutest little thing, and the bigger she got with his grandchild, the cuter she was! She was everything Elijah's mother had never been it seemed, she cared about everyone, was funny, and sweet.

It seemed that having a grandchild was more then Holly could bear, she left one night, just like that, picked a fight with him and announced she had enough, packed up and was out of their life for good.  Malachi received the divorce papers a few weeks later, and happily signed them, she never contacted any of them again.

 He wasn't sorry, in fact he was pretty damn sure they were all better off without her.  Still watching his new daughter-in-law waddle around he wondered why that couldn't have been him, why his wife couldn't have been like that.

They brought home their new son, Blake, not to shouts of victory, but somber silence.  The delivery hadn't gone as planned and he had been delivered by c-section, it was then the doctors found the masses on Blair's ovaries.  They had removed the ovaries there on the table and sent the growths off for testing.  The diagnosis was grim.  The doctor told them Blair didn't have long.

 As she walked into the nursery to lay her son down he watched her, and something inside him couldn't believe it, nothing about her looked like a dying woman.  He wasn't going to lose his soul mate so soon after starting their life together.

Blake wasn't even four months old when he lost his mother, she had went peacefully in her sleep, and even in death she had looked so much like the angel both Elijah and Malachi would always believe she was.  Elijah wanted to scream at her as she lay in the coffin to get up and care for her baby, it couldn't be this way, she couldn't leave him alone, she was his happy ending!  She didn't get up and in the end she joined his grandfather and grandmother in their family Mausoleum, and he became a single father overnight.

He didn't deal with her loss well, instead he buried himself in his books, barely coming up for food or sleep, barely even noticing his son growing up without him.  He never left the house, and rarely spoke to anyone.  He slept alone, ate alone, surrounded by family and still lonely.  Malachi didn't know what to do to help him, he couldn't fathom a way out of the hole his son had sunk into.

Age was creeping up on Malachi and he finally had to admit that he just didn't have the energy to raise his active grandson alone anymore, he decided that it was time to hire a live-in Nanny. He interviewed  the applicants himself to make sure he chose the perfect match for Blake, in the end he was certain he had.

"Will you kindly put that blasted instrument up! I am trying to work here!"  She had been playing and singing that stupid guitar for over an hour and he had enough, if he had to hear her sing the wheels on the bus one more time he was going to choke the living hell out of the girl!  "What in Blasts name are you doing here? Who the hell are you?"

The girl put the guitar down and looked at Elijah with a smile.  " Well you're a right fine one aren't you Mr. St. John, I've been working here now for over a week, and you never even noticed!  I'm your son's Nanny, my names Paris, a man should know who is taking care of his son, don't you think?  You're father hired me."

"A nanny? Why in hell's name do we need a nanny? And what kind of name is Paris?"  Elijah was furious, how could his father hand over the care of Blake to a stranger without even telling him! "It seems that your father is feeling a bit worn down from trying to keep up with Blake, and it's no wonder, the boy has more energy then a hive of bees. Now if his father, that would be you ,correct Mr. St. John? If his father wasn't so busy then perhaps he would have the energy for keeping up with his son. As for my name, well it's the kind of name parents give their daughter, when she was conceived in the city of Love."

Elijah's blood was boiling, his face flushed red at the innuendo that he wasn't Blake's father, " You know I'm his father, so you can just stop with that nonsense now!  I do help, it's just a bit frantic right now, trying to meet my newest deadline for the book I'm writing, but once that's done then I will have time."

The girl smiled, she couldn't be laughing at him! "I will hold you to that promise Mr. St. John, now when is your deadline?"   The nerve she had, " Two weeks, the deadline is in two weeks!"  he was seriously thinking he would like to throttle the girl right there, " Very good, maybe we can take a trip to the park to celebrate your completion of the book on time, I think Blake would like that very much!

It's a date then Saturday, in two weeks, we will all have a wonderful picnic in the park."  With that she turned around, lifting Blake from the floor, and headed towards the kitchen.  Elijah was left scratching his head, how did she manage to do that?

So how have they done so far?

I realized I haven't really told or explained too much in the story how all the different legacy rules have been played out within my game, so I thought I would take a moment and let you know starting with Generation 1 and moving ahead from there...

GnGeneration 1

A. Single Parent - You must not retain a spouse or partner on the lot. If your heir is female, you aren't allowed to

move in the father of any children they may have. If your heir is male, the mother may be moved in for the pregnancy

but must leave the lot within 24 sim hours of giving birth. Do not roll for section D.

Of course you all know Anna never married, she had a string of dead beat dads, none of which stepped up to the plate!

B. 2 children only

Anna Gave birth to two little girls, Bailey and her older sister Hannah.  Bailey became the heir for the next generation, and Hannah moved to Paris and was never heard from again (In reality when she moved out, because there wasn't enough money to buy her a house, she had to be kicked out and disappeared from the town, the rest of course was creative license)

C. Standard Career Journalism

Anna hated her job, she really never liked it, it stressed her out, and she never had any wants for it.  Her passion was painting.

E. Idle Career

 Idle career - Idleness is your choice, so your sim won't make any effort in his/her career. Don't learn any skills

nor read any books nor do any travels required for the career. If you reach the top of your career's level, it won't

be because of your efforts, but only because it's just YOU.

Anna only reached level 5 of her career because of the restrictions, but like I said above she didn't want to do any better writing just wasn't her thing, not until she became an elder!

F. Live Your Trait - Choose one of your heir's 5 traits to live by. Your heir, starting at YA age, will have to

do something every day that reflects this trait, and must fulfill any wishes that come up that are related to this

trait, up to 5 wishes a day. If your heir rolls more than 5 trait related wishes in a day, you only have to do 5,

though you can certainly do more. (Except for wishes related to the trait that would require you to break the income

restriction rules, i.e. if you choose Artistic as your trait, you must fulfill wishes to paint or go to the art

museum, but not wishes to sell paintings if you didn't roll for Artist as a career).  

Anna's Trait of choice was Artist, and this was an easy challenge to fulfill it was all she wanted to do!  We did unfortunately lose most of Anna's paintings though along the way :(

Generation 2

A. Couple, must be married

Bailey Married Trevor young, and as we all know that marriage definitely had some major ups and downs, in the end Trevor turned into the husband Bailey wanted, unfortunately he died shortly after that! (Not my fault he wanted to repair the TV!)

B. 5 children

Well they ended up with 6.. can anyone name them all (Geesh I can't even do that without looking You have too much time on your hands LOL!)

Madeline the first born Married and had 3 daughters

Megan Married and had 2 daughters and a son

Malachi and Michael (Michael never existed in reality, that was for story purposes only) This was the chosen heir for our next generation

Mason never married

of course the last two born really were twins

Molly married but never produced children

Maddison married but had no children

C. Non-Standard Career List (Legacy child)

Artist – Paint or sculpt(or both!) and sell the finished products.

Bailey actually made a very good living selling her paintings and sculptings, it was the beginning of the family's climb out of poverty!

D. Business (Partner Career)

Trevor thrived in his career, and through his work and Bailey's paintings and sculpting the family began having to worry about money a lot less.. in fact it was during this generation that several additions were made onto the original home!

E. Property Mogul - Start a powerful business center and buy parts of at least 3 rabbit holes in town (whatever you want). You don't have to be the owner, only at least a partner. You can also buy Venues, and upgrade them. You are allowed to collect on the funds generated by these properties (this is the only way outside of oppurtunities that your Sim's can make money outside their career track)

Before Trevor's death he owned partnerships in the Business building, the Cinema, the Bookstore, and the Grocery Store. 

F. Luxury - Replace the furniture of any room by the highest quality in the catalog. you'll need to save money for that, but money is not a problem for you, is it?

They may have gotten a bit carried away on this part.  They gave the living room a complete makeover, as well as the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.  The only room that wasn't changed in this generation was Anna's room, it stayed completely unchanged until 3rd generation. Not only did the entire upstairs get a new look and basement was added as well with another bedroom down there.

Generation 3

8-14) Couple – You must obtain a spouse or unmarried partner.

Malachi became the Heir for this generation and he married Holly.  This turned into the worst decision of his entire life, and somehow I think he knew it shortly after it was a done deal.

B. Number of Children

1 child was rolled this time, and so I also made sure that I didn't influence the gender since this child was the guaranteed heir.  They had a boy, Elijah.

5) Private Investigator

This was Malachi's job and he seems to love it, but it is a bit of a pain trying to keep up with him working and everything else that goes on in the house.

1) Architect

Holly's job was architect/home design.. again the job seems to suit her, although she has had the want to quit it a few times, I think sometimes she would 

prefer just sitting in front of the television.

6) A Party To Remember 

I chose Bailey's Funeral for the party to remember.  Since Holly doesn't cook, Malachi fixed all the dishes, he served Key Lime pie, Cheese Plate, and Stir-fry all were excellent quality.  A Mixologist was hired, but not a single person got a drink during the entire party!

They also added another addition to the home, and sub basement used to store the urns of those who passed from previous generations.  Bailey and Trevor 

are both there.

13) The Joker - If you roll this, then you do not have a "Misc Fun" objective for this Generation. However,you also have a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card. Your Sim's are allowed ONE re-roll of Challenge objectives if you get a result that for whatever reason you can't / don't want to complete. (incompatibility, repeat of a previous generation etc.) This re-roll can be saved until it is needed

I have chosen so far not to use the Joker.

Now some photos that never made it in the story...

Chapter 17

Devon was born, and soon was toddling about, it seemed to Malachi that time had become stuck in fast forward.  His relationship with Holly was icy at best, they were no longer partners, they were roommates.  When he really thought about it though, it seemed they hadn't been partners for a very long time.

He blinked and Elijah was learning to drive, and had a girlfriend, he hated that he was being so serious with one girl.  His own soured love weighed heavily on his mind as he watched his son with her.  He was certain he was going to make the same mistakes.

Blink again and Elijah was graduating, and  Alison was the one learning to drive and flirting with boys.  She seemed much less likely to become too serious as she seemed to have a steady stream of boyfriends that changed each day.  Elijah and his girl however were just as serious as ever, he tried to talk sense into his son, tried to explain he was too young to throw his life away, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Emma was growing too, not the traditional beauty that her sister was, she had her own charm and beauty to share.   She always had a smile for everyone, everyone except her mother.

His Dad didn't understand anything, he just thought because he had a lousy marriage and he married young that they all had to turn out that way.  Elijah knew what he wanted, and he wanted to make his wife.  He was graduated over a month ago, and she would graduate next year, they could make it work, because they wanted to, because they loved each other.

He loved his dad, he really did, but sometimes he was so disgusted by him, he watched as his mother belittled Emma again, and wondered why his dad put up with it, it wasn't fair to any of them, their mother had made it clear to all of them from an early age that she despised them all, she had belittled and been nasty to each of them as they grew up, and yet his dad never did anything about it.

He knew his marriage wouldn't be like that, his would happy, a real partnership. He and Blair had already talked about children, and they both wanted a houseful.  She loved coming over and playing with Devon.  They both had similar interests, both were very concerned with the shape the planet was in and wanted to make a difference.  Elijah planned to do so with his writing skills, and Blair planned to use photography to wake up the world to not only what they were doing to the planet, but what they would miss when it was destroyed. He proposed to her shortly after he had graduated, and they had hid the ring from his family.

 They decided a quiet and quick wedding was the safest best considering how his family felt, and so they bought the appropriate license and went to City Hall and said their vows.  It may not have been traditional, but it was enough for them both.  They hated the thought of wasting resources putting on a fancy wedding, and they hated the thought of having to listen to their parents.  She was 18 years old the day of their wedding, just old enough to sign the papers without her parent's approval.

That night they returned home and told their family what they had done.  Malachi was furious, he told them both they were throwing away their futures, they should have waited and enjoyed single life longer.  They stood there while he ranted, tears welling up in Blair's eyes.

Finally the rant was done and Malachi sighed.  "Well what is done is done, welcome to this crazy family Blair.  I really do hope you two can be happy."

Chapter 16

He found his mother the next morning, still in bed, she looked for all the world to be sleeping peacefully, she even seemed to have a smile on her face. He would always wonder what put the smile on her face.

The Memorial services were held at the house, it was odd, having all his brothers and sisters there and Mom not being present, and he wondered now how he was going to get by without her.  She had been his rock, had done so much for him, and now he felt entirely alone.

Things with Holly hadn't improved any, even with the vasectomy their bedroom life was almost non-existent and she was rarely home anymore.  He had resorted to hiring a babysitter so he could still take jobs.  Emma's birth had made things more hectic in their household then ever.  She was a beautiful little girl but Malachi could see very little of her mom or himself in her, in fact he couldn't see anything of himself in Alison either.  "Maybe it's because they are girls, I just can't see myself as feminine." He kept trying to soothe his mind, to convince it, it didn't know what it thought it knew.

He couldn't ignore the obvious any more, even after years of trying to.  "I had a damn vasectomy Holly, how in Hell's name can you be pregnant? I was checked, there's nothing there to get you knocked up!"  He was furious, he had tried to ignore her cheating for so long, and now here it was , as if she wanted to flaunt it in his face, " Well give me the money and I'll get it taken care of  Malachi!"  She knew how he felt about it, she knew he couldn't stand the thought of her having an abortion, she had him again, and she knew it just as sure as he did.

" I want a divorce, we are over Holly, this marriage is over.  I'll take the kids, I won't even fight you over the stuff, you can have everything we own...except the house, you have nothing to do with the house, it's our family's."  Holly smiled at him, she was tired of his sulking about, since she had got knocked up and he had refused to give her an abortion he had hardly spoke to her, now she was huge, ready to deliver any day, he knew it was safe, she couldn't abort it now.

She had news for him, this was a good thing here, and she had no intentions of leaving it. " Oh no, Malachi, we are married and the house belongs to us, so if you want to leave me, well you can leave but I am keeping the kids and the house!"  She hoped to God he wouldn't call her bluff, no way in hell she wanted strapped with all the brats, but there was always boarding school if that was the way the chips fell.

How could she even think of taking the kids away, she didn't even like them! "Holly be reasonable, you don't like children, you have nothing to do with your children, why would any judge give you custody of them?"  Holly smiled over at him, "Malachi, you be reasonable, only one of the kids is even yours, so why would the judge give any of the girls to you? Better yet, why would he give our son to you and split up the children? The girls may not be yours, but they are Elijah's sisters."

She was right and she knew it, so did he. What was he suppose to do?  He couldn't lose his children, even if the girls weren't his, he had raised them as his own and in his heart loved them as much as he loved Elijah.  His children were his world now, everything he did, he did for them. She had him trapped. The best he could hope for was that she would grow tired of it all and leave him.