NOTE: NO POST NEXT WEEK. SEE YOU IN DECEMBER.

With this segment of Chapter Seventeen of Repairing the Legacy, we continue the serialization of Repairing the Legacy. This is a rough draft work in progress and may not reflect the final form. Time period: set after the ending of The Martiniere Legacy main trilogy. I’m breaking longer chapters into sections for readability. This is the first part of Chapter Seventeen. There will be five parts to this chapter.

New to the series? Chapter order:

Chapter One, Section One

Return of the Prodigal Son (2 parts)

Conversations and a Dinner (2 parts)

Dancing into Change (2 parts)

Sisterly Compromises (3 parts)

Conspiracies at the Rodeo (3 parts)

Passing the Baton (4 parts)

Research Complications (3 parts)

Chasing After Shadows (3 parts)

Fifth Anniversary Present (3 parts)

Mariah (5 parts)

Shadows, Redux (3 parts)

Accidents Happen (4 parts)

Maternal Memories (4 parts)

A Voice…Weeping for their Children (6 parts)

Winding Down the Years (4 parts)

The Gathering of Shadows (6 parts)

August, 2073

RUBY

Ruby hesitated at the bedroom door, hand on the knob.

She hadn’t been in here since Gabe died.

Thirteenth anniversary turned out to be a curse.

She took a deep breath. Sooner or later she had to go inside. Might as well be tonight. Gabe’s body rested in the family graveyard, along with Brandon’s Kris. Gramps and Granma. Her uncles. Other Ryder family ancestors—and now the Double R cemetery was a part of Martiniere family lore.

“You gonna be all right?” Mike hovered behind her.

He had been a bulwark during the funeral today, even though he disappeared for a while afterward. She didn’t blame him. Second on the scene, as she screamed over Gabe’s body while she performed CPR, whipping out the AED as fast as he could, given the limitations of his newly-cyborged arms. The kid had been so strong over the past few days, along with Brandon. If he needed some time to work through his own grief, well, that was to be expected.

“I—“ Ruby set her jaw.

Stop indulging yourself. Life moves on. You have to as well.

Mike rested his hand on her back. “You want me to open the door? The bedroom’s in order. Brandon, Justine, and I—took care of everything.”

Ruby nodded, biting her lip.

Mike rested his hand over hers, turned the knob. He gently pushed the door open. Ruby took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Justine, Bran, and Mike had done a good job of straightening but not removing evidence of Gabe’s presence. There was no evidence of the debris from the paramedics desperately trying to revive Gabe. His clothing had been put away, and there was no sign of his walker. The bed was made. Gabe’s old black Stetson hung on the wall, where it always had been. The chairs belonging to the little table that sat under the window were upright and pushed in, not knocked over like they had been when Gabe—collapsed.

“Bran said it was better to have little pieces of Gabe around for a while,” Mike said, a rare awkward tone in his voice. “It really helped him when Kris died, that Da—Gabe advised him because that helped him. Not just after Rachel’s death, but after the divorce.”

Ruby nodded again, blinking back tears.

No. I will not give in to any more tears. The time for tears is done.

She walked into the bedroom and stopped.

Right where Gabe—

Her knees gave way. She crumpled into a ball, whimpering, barely aware that Mike bent over her, fumbling to get down, hampered by his new leg braces. His heeler, Striker, nudged at her, whining softly and licking her hands.

“Ruby? Are you all right? Ruby? Are you all right? Ruby? Not you, too!”

The terror in Mike’s voice, edging on a potential meltdown, shocked her out of widow and into parent mode. Ruby sat up, gulping for breath, wiping her eyes, fighting against that dreadful emptiness, worse even than the divorce. The finality of it. No matter how much she wanted to yell, cry, curse or scream, it wouldn’t bring Gabe back. He was gone. Forever.

But Mikey was here, and he needed her.

Lily needed her.

Ronnie needed her.

Brandon needed her.

Lily and all of her boys needed her—except Gabe.

She exhaled shakily. “I just realized that this was where—“

Striker pushed his muzzle into one of her hands and Ruby patted his head absent-mindedly.

“Do you want to move into the downstairs bedroom permanently?” Mike asked.

Ruby shook her head. “No. I—no.”

He rubbed her back and she leaned into him, as Striker continued to nuzzle her. “Oh Mikey, Mikey. I’m so glad you’re here. You and Bran. And Justine. But you boys. Such good kids.”

“You took care of us. Now it’s our turn to take care of you.”

They leaned against each other for a few moments. Striker pressed hard against both of them.

Then Ruby shuddered. “My knees are getting creaky, and both of us should be getting to bed.” She reached for the bed, just like Gabe—stop it. She pushed herself up, then helped Mike to his feet. He struggled more than she expected, and Ruby focused on that, glad for a diversion. “Those new braces being a problem?”

Mike made a face. “No more than to be expected.” He flexed a hand. “Arms are coming online, but slowly. When I talk to the cyborged brothers, they tell me it’s to be expected. I had a long chat with Alexander. My cyborging differs from theirs, especially since it was limited to bone and not full limb replacement. The one thing that seems to be common is a gradual adaptation for full success.”

“Good.” Ruby exhaled hard again. “Well. I’ve made it inside. I’ve had my collapse and cry. Now, perhaps, it’s time for me to get ready for bed.”

“Just holler if you need anything.”

“I will,” she promised.

After Mike left, Striker trailing behind him, Ruby shivered. She made herself breathe long, slow, and steady. Bedtime. Maybe she should do her usual routine from the years when Gabe had to travel on Martiniere business, apart from her. The old shirt he had been wearing before starting to change for dinner still hung on a peg next to the Stetson. Ruby took the shirt and laid it on Gabe’s pillow.

New sheets and pillowcases, damn it.

So she wouldn’t even have the consolation of that scent.

But they had meant well—even Brandon.

Slow procession toward bedtime, pausing and swallowing hard a lot because there were so many reminders of Gabe. He was—had been—affectionate at bedtime. Brushing her hair. Gentle caresses. Shoulder rubs. Soft kisses. Quiet talk as they unwound from the day. The presence that was Gabriel Martiniere, familiar and beloved.

Ruby didn’t realize how huge that presence had been in her life, even during their time divorced, until it was gone for good. No chance of calling Gabe now—ever. No hope of an eventual reunion.

Damn it, enough with the tears!

At last she settled in bed, clutching Gabe’s shirt. Her body was exhausted. She couldn’t sustain a long thread of thought. But her mind kept insisting she was awake, that she needed to stay alert, that Gabe would be coming out of the bathroom any moment now and might need her help—

“Gabe,” she finally whispered. “I can’t believe it really ends like this. Oh Gabe. You’re gone. I—God, Gabe.” She wiped her eyes with his shirt.

At last, fatigue took over, and she fell asleep.

#

But sleep wasn’t restful. Ruby woke repeatedly, clutching for a presence who wasn’t there, who was no longer present to comfort her when nightmares struck. And her dreams weren’t peaceful. They were far too realistic.

Gabe had occasionally talked about those dreams, the ones that seemed like he was seeing a different version of his life.

This set of dreams didn’t match the ones Gabe described—when he did talk about them. His had been peaceful. Hers were outright nightmares, reflecting her worst fears. Philip Martiniere kept showing up in different ways.

And in every dream, he was trying to kill Ruby, sometimes her and Gabe together.

She was riding Philip down on horseback, trying to distract him from repeatedly shooting Gabe.

Juggling Brandon and a red-haired little girl, shoving them behind her for some sort of protection as Philip raised his gun, aiming it right at her face.

Facing Philip at Gabe’s side in the middle of a Martiniere Group board meeting, shouting him down until he reached for a weapon.

Standing next to a redheaded woman who shared Gabe’s features and called Philip “Grandfather” in a mocking tone so much like Justine’s.

The last dream suddenly segued into the same redheaded woman talking quietly and reassuringly to Ruby, in words that seemed to flit away as Ruby heard them.

At that point, the nightmares stopped.

When Ruby woke after that, she had a faint sense of Gabe’s presence as she lingered in that period between surfacing and full wakefulness.

The sense of his presence faded when she opened her eyes.

This is the last chapter of the book. The Enduring Legacy (book version of Repairing the Legacy) is available in ebook from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, and Nook—and available in paperback through Ingram. Once these last parts are published, I have some short works I’ll be posting that may have appeared elsewhere. Or not—depends on the progress of a couple of Martiniere short stories that are being sent out.

The next serialized story here will be one of the Martiniere Multiverse stories. Not sure yet, but I think it will be The Cost of Power, in a world where Gabe tells Ruby who he is shortly after they start dating. Not sure where that story will end up going, but it’s one where there will be fireworks between Gabe and Philip. Not the one referred to here—that one, A Widow’s Vengeance, is pretty dark and I haven’t thought it through, yet. But Gabrielle Marguerite (not the one in this story) will show up there.

Or I might write the Widow’s Vengeance story. Still thinking about it.

Have a great holiday ahead, folks if you celebrate First Winter Stuff-Your-Face Celebration, and if you don’t do anything for it, still, have a good week.