Changing Seasons. Winter II, part 3

Winter II, part 3 Chocolate straight after breakfast? But this was a celebration, and totally merited one of Marianna’s Christmas chocolates.
“Well, they arrive today.”
“I know! I keep pinching myself to check if it’s true. I’m going over to Annette’s to fill her in on all the news – you’ll be okay with the kids, won’t you?”
“Of course I will,” Lachlan said confidently. "Taylor wants me to help her work out some more ideas about what her rocket can do, Fletcher’s got that new book Leo sent him…”
“I’ll be back in a bit then.”
“No rush! Take your time.” “The curtains are lovely. And you look great too. I like that top – was it a Christmas present?”
“Yes, it was. I feel great again too – do you know, I lost three-quarters of a stone while we were getting the house building done.”
“It did show. Clara commented on it, said she’d noticed when you all took Patience out for tea for her birthday.”
“I wish you could have been there.”
“So do I, but the kids weren’t well… And it wasn’t fair to leave Lachlan with four grizzling children! Next year!”
“Anyway, now my jeans don’t fall off me even-with-a-belt-on any more! Come downstairs and tell us all about the new people.” “Put the books away, guys. Marianna’s here with all the latest news.” “…So they’re moving in today! Amber’s a writer, Lucie’s an illustrator, Rafe’s a sculptor, and Leo’s a bit like Lachlan, though he prefers to make things in wood, rather than scrap metal. Though his secret ambition is to run a restaurant. He’s a great cook! And they’ve bought the factory, but really secretly, so the company doesn’t find out. Four new people! Imagine it! And Rafe’s hoping to attract people here eventually…” “This is brilliant. New people! They won’t have heard my jokes yet,” Marcus said.
Blake pulled a face that said “Poor them!” as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud.
“We’ll have to drop off some fresh produce as soon as we’re producing again,” Marcus went on.
“You’ll have to start selling it! Talk to Minnie – they’re going to be too busy to think about growing their own for a little while yet, and they’re not really producing stuff for barter.” “We did it! Here we are!” Lucie hugged Amber enthusiastically.
And we’d better start getting the van emptied,” Rafe pointed out. “It’s going back at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Lachlan and Marianna are feeding us tonight, but I think we want to get the beds put up before we go out.” “Okay. Priority number one – getting these windows sorted. Board up, reglaze or replace?”
It was a bit chilly eating breakfast in this room, especially after their cosy and laughter-filled meal at Marianna and Lachlan’s house the night before. “Cost up for all three,” Lucie said decisively. “And we’ll decide off that. Plus, I think we need to think about future use for all these rooms. There’s no point in doing something for the here and now, and then having to spend more money to change it later. What’s this room going to be? How much light does it need?” “You’re spot on, Luce!”
The room had been the factory canteen at one point – there was a grubby kitchen opening off it, that Amber and Lucie were adamant wasn’t going to be used for cooking until it had been cleaned!
“Gallery space, I think,” Leo said. “What do the rest of you think? Amber, come out of your story and focus!” Everyone could tell from Amber’s expression that she was in a totally different place! “Gallery space in here as well, I think,” Rafe said.
“Yes,” Amber added. “And when that’s not your bedroom any more, we could move your sculpting station in there. And do live displays – the sculptor at work sort of stuff.”
“That’s a good idea,” Lucie said.
“Hmmph!” Rafe said, but Leo joined in with his support.
“It’d be a real draw. Maybe you could sculpt bare-chested in the summer months…”
“Hmmph!!” Rafe said again, even louder this time! “But the real priority number one,” Amber said, very definitely back in the here and now, “is cleaning up this kitchen. Everything we ate for breakfast came out of sealed packets and didn’t need heating. So unless we want to eat nothing but breakfast cereal from now on…”
“It is disgusting,” Leo agreed. “Working clothes on, chaps!” “Right, let’s get going. Leo!” Amber yelled.
“Coming, coming,” Leo replied from the other room. Lucie was heading straight for the stepladders. There were cobwebs in every corner of the room at the moment – but not for long!
“I need to patch these holes up before we can paint. And that’ll mess up the bench. Unless we move these units?”
“I hate to think what’s under them.” Amber shuddered. “This is going to take more than one day. If we took some food round to Marianna’s, do you think we could use their stove?” “Amber, you’re transforming that floor! Want a coffee?”
“Yes please!”
“And I’m going down to Minnie’s for some food for tonight. Want to come?”
“Yes please again! Though I think I’ll get changed first…”
“Me too! But I’ve finished breaking up those old units. Lachlan says he can use the wood one way or another, so I’ll take it round tonight.”
“We get to drive there instead of cycling!”
“Yes, but we’re cycling to Minnie’s,” Rafe said firmly. “Ooh, stir-fry,” Amber said, looking at the vegetable section that Minnie had added to her shop. “Quick, easy, and everyone loves it.” Rafe was complimenting Minnie on the new artwork on the walls. “It’s the grandchildren’s thank you letters for their Christmas presents. I said I could do with some new pictures to brighten up the shop, so they combined the two for me! Real cheerful, aren’t they? Show me the child who doesn’t enjoy painting and colouring. Marianna was telling me her four are loving the crayons and colouring books Patience bought for them. I hear Mason’s turning out to be real artistic! I’ve got me some more crayons in – I know how fast children get through them…” “No, we’re cooking at Marianna’s again tonight. But the kitchen’s ready to have the new units fitted. We’re heading off to IKEA first thing tomorrow morning – well, two of us are! The other two are painting the walls.”
“It’s done Marianna and Lachlan a power of good having you four here. Lachlan, he’s like a new man now. My, he was in a state when they first arrived. And Marianna, she was strung up as tight as a wire.”
“We were worried about them when we saw them in the summer…”
“They was a lot better by the summer than when they arrived, too. Lachlan looked like a tramp, barely spoke…No, I reckon you four will be the icing on the cake of their recovery. I’m real glad you came here.” “I’ve done in here – how are you doing out there?” Rafe asked his brother as he walked out of the newly painted kitchen. They were going to have to do something about that door though. It stood out like a sore thumb. “I’m just reading the instructions…”
“That bad, huh?” “Here, let me have a look too.”
“That’s upside down…”
“And these are IKEA instructions! No writing, so what difference does that make?”
“You might try to stand on your head while you make this?” “There we are! First one done! We’re going to have to get these windows done though. We need a finance meeting.”
“Are you going to tell the girls what we’ve let ourselves in for, or am I going to do that?” Leo asked.
“How about turn and turn about,” Rafe said, beginning to grin. “A sentence each?”
“How about making the next unit? And when the kitchen’s properly finished, then we’ll start talking money.” The fancy coffee maker was a leftover from Rafe and Leo’s previous life. The elderly breadbin and tiny microwave was a leftover from Amber and Lucie’s previous life.
“Says it all, really, doesn’t it?” Lucie said.
“Hey, the pretty stove top kettle is ours too!” Amber pointed out. “And the toaster!”
And the rest of the kitchen was courtesy of IKEA and a white goods shop in Newbrough. It was time for that financial meeting. Amber’s office was the warmest of the rooms – the windows were all whole!
“Right,” Rafe said, looking at his brother and not the girls! “You’ve seen the balance sheet, you know exactly what we’ve spent and that we all agreed on it. We spent on the property, we changed the car for something that’ll transport stuff like my sculptures, we bought the bikes for everyday transport round the place. We agreed that a good kitchen is really going to be worth it for the difference it makes to our day-to-day lives. And you know we’re pretty well out of spare money. Anything we do from now on is going to have to come out of income.” “I might be blonde, but I’m not dumb,” Lucie said. “Not with money, anyway. So what are you two busy not telling us? That we don’t own this building outright, despite the over-the-odds price we paid for it?”
“No,” Leo said, a bit sheepishly. “We do own it outright – and the building I want for a restaurant one day. And quite a lot of other buildings as well…”
Lucie and Amber both looked at him. Hard. He had to carry on.
“You see, we couldn’t manage to just buy those two without it looking suspicious. And we promised Old Tench we would cover our tracks really well. So our bit-over-the-odds price has actually bought us all of the buildings round here. Apart from The Old Forge, of course. We don’t own that.” “So I told Patience that all these buildings now have new owners. Apart from ours, of course. What do you think of the new haircut? My ears feel cold.”
“I like it,” Marianna said, picking up the last of the toys.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Reminds me of how you looked when I first met you. In fact, I think your hair was even shorter then.” Lachlan followed her across the room, looking round at the improvements they had managed to make since they moved in, over a year ago now. Thinking about the changes in himself.
“Marianna,” he said, a bit huskily. He reached out and took her hands in his. “Marianna,” he said again. “If it hadn’t been for you…You’ve fought so bravely for us all…For me.” “I was so afraid I was going to lose you! I watched you being ground down – by that awful job, by the dreadful things my aunt kept saying. I was so afraid you would believe her, believe that I would be better off without you.” Marianna was in his arms and he could feel her trembling with remembered fear. Eventually Lachlan let her go and stepped back a little, looking deep into her eyes.
“You’re not going to lose me. I’m not leaving you, and I’m not leaving our children. Whatever comes, we’ll face it together and we’ll find a way through it together. Because together we are way stronger than we realise…”

The paintings in Minnie's shop are by Sandy at ATS3 (and most of the rest of the contents as well.)
The old factory is by Cyclone Sue at TSR
Marianna, Lachlan and their home are by AlphaFen. Want to try them for yourself? Link here:
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9310543
Rafe and Leo, Amber and Lucie can be found in my studio.