Chapter 16 - No Place Like Home

It's been 3 years since Melodie disappeared. The others say she died but I refuse to believe it, I know her and I still feel her. She's alive. I don't know where but I know she is.

"Hey V, the Mansion sold Morrison said, the guy who owned it was really happy with the improvements you made. Said it made double what he'd expected." Nero put a hand on my shoulder, the mention of the mansion was always a touchy subject but once Mel had disappeared I'd gone back to what should have been a crumbled building as good as new. Morrison had said no damage after all and so Mel must have made sure there wasn't any obvious damage when wed left.

After a year the owner had decided to sell up, even offering it to us. But none of us could take it. Mel was all over that place and it was too hard.

Dante hadn't eaten pizza in three years, Vergil had gone to counceling, Nero had left Kyrie and moved into the office with the rest of us along with Nico, they weren't together though but still fight as always, and Lady and Trish had all but disappeared. They'd arrived first thing this morning though as they did every year. We always did something to celebrate Mel.

"Mail!" Yelled Dante from the office and Nero and I head to him from the kitchen where we'd been perched on the counter to see if we have anything.

Nero has a letter from the orphans he'd taken in with Kyrie but there was nothing for me. I sigh and leave the office, walking with no general destination.

"Hey V, ya doin ok buddy?" I don't answer but I do give him a sad look, it's pointless lying to him, we are connected after all. "I miss her too ya know. Princess was crazy cool, she may not of liked me much at first but she was good people, I wouldn't let any one else near you after her." I huff at the comment. As if I'd want anyone other than her anyway. She was my one and only, I'd sworn that to myself the first time we'd slept together. It hadn't only been her first after all but mine as well, though I'd never told her that.

Before long I find myself on that forsaken hill, no signs of the fire spell Mel had cast that night.

I sit in the grass and Griffon lands beside me. We talk about things we'd done with her during missions and free time and what we wish we could tell her now. It sounds crazy but when I'm here I feel like she can hear me, well us.

Then Shadow comes out and lays in the grass, swatting a blue and black butterfly and one with indigo and yellow wings. The colours reminded me of Mel's enchantress form and I moan quietly to myself.

"I never had the chance to tell her how sexy and beautiful she was to me. How much she truly means to me. I told her I love her but that wasn't enough...it was never enough" I sigh and lie back in the grass, running the fingers of one hand through Shadows fur and the other over Griffons head.

Neither of us say anything for a while and then I hear footsteps approaching from the path I'd taken.

Nero and the others come over the top of the hill, a basket and blankets in their arms. "What's all this?" I ask as they set everything down and Nero throws a blanket at me. Mel's favourite perfume freshly sprayed on it. I bury my face into the soft fake fur material and shed a single tear, hidden from the others. It was the blanket I lay holding every night. Her only Disney themed one.

"We're gonna have dinner here tonight. All Mel's favourite food, her blanket collection and her favourite drinks. Then we're gonna watch the sunset and star gaze untill midnight. Figured she'd have enjoyed that." Nico smiles as she flops on the ground beside me. Mel disappearing had hit her nearly as hard as me. They had hated each other at first, fighting and arguing all the time. But Nero had put that to an end before I'd met them. They'd always been near inseparable when I'd known her. I tap her shoulder gently as I wrap the blanket Nero had given me around my shoulders, unaware untill now of how cold I'd actually been.

We eat, drink, laugh, joke and mess around untill the sun begins to sink toward the horizon.

We all stand to watch the sunset, unaware of someone approaching from the centre of the hilltop.

" 'Sa beauty ain't it? She'd a loved this" Morrison says as the sun becomes nothing more than a half disk on the horizon. All of us hum and yeah in agreement.

Someone hums behind us. I recognise the tune but I can't think where from, then a flower flutters past my face in the wind and I remember that Mel loved the Disney movie Beauty and the old bursary rhyme Tom The Piper's Son, that's what I could hear.

Thinking it a sime coincidence, I turn to see who it is, and instantly begin to cry in disbelief. I tap Nero who turns, passing the tap on he shoulder down the line until it reaches Dante who is slapped upside the head instead of gently knocked.

"The fuck Vergil...what are you all?..." He turns to see what we all do.

"Mel?" Nero takes a step forward, then stops looking at me. I move forward and embrace the woman before me. She's real and quickly hugs me back a line of tears leaving a trail down her face.

"MEL!" The others all run and hug her until we end up a pile on the ground, all laughing and crying.

After a few minutes we get up and she grabs me once again. I kiss her gently and then she pulls out of my arms and backs away. I go to follow her but she raises her hand. Shaking her head and asking me to stay with just the look on her face.

She goes over the hill and out of sight. A minute later she returns in the form of a wolf with a wolf cub following close behind her.

The wolf cub peeks its head out from behind her legs and she giggles, oh how I've missed that sound.

"Come on, come and say hello little one." She smiles at the little one who shifts into human form and grips Mel's hand as she stands, shifting from one form to another with ease. The little girl looks to Mel before walking forward, and straight to me.

She looks me dead in the eyes, they're so green-blue it takes my breath away, like the Caribbean ocean on a calm day. Then she opens her little mouth and says, " Hello daddy, I'm phoenix, your daughter and I'm three soon!" Then she jumps into my arms and hugs me tightly.

Melodie laughs and comes to stand beside me. "Now Phoenix, mind your father." They giggle and she goes to her mother.

I'm back V, I'm home. And we have a beautiful little girl. I jump at the voice in my head, then Mel licks my cheek and purrs gently and I smile.

"Welcome home, my beautiful girls. Now about that birthday..."

The End.