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As
horrified as Melihet had been when she found out that her last lover
was actually married, it did turn out to be a good thing: not too long
afterwards, Charles Cheater - now a doctor working in the local hospital
- came back into her life. Melihet was glad to still be available, and
immediately made it very clear to Charles that her feelings from that
summer they spent together were still burning for him, and happily enough,
the same was true for him. Melihet immediately proposed to him, and
they quickly prepared their wedding.
It was a beautiful occasion, but really, Charles and Melihet didn't
notice most of it - they were too caught up in each other and then suddenly
it was over and the limo was there and they left on their honeymoon.
Which meant that they missed quite a bit of drama. First, there had
been Billy Everyman - he had shown up at the wedding uninvited - who
had noticed the newly-wed couple slipping away for a quick round of
woohoo while the guests were dancing, and had followed them in a burst
of jealousy. Thankfully, K'nat Alien had noticed what was going on and
had managed to drag Billy away, and tried to distract him, but Billy
had been so keyed up that K'nat had been forced to physically kick his
ass.
And then they'd had a party crasher: local neighborhood bad girl Lola
Failure - although that event went mostly unnoticed by the guests, as
Charles' sister Geraldine, who used to know her from elementary school,
had cornered her and tried to get her to leave.
But what started as a shouting match over how over-privileged Geraldine
and her family was compared to people like Lola who had to keep dodging
the police and living out of a suitcase...
ended with Geraldine earnestly listening to Lola's problems and then
totally shocking Lola by telling her that she actually admired her for
not staying with such a horrible mother and for still at least occasionally
showing up at school despite being homeless and living in dumpsters.
And after dragging off some bottles of champagne and spending nearly
all of the wedding party hidden in a corner drinking and talking and
flirting, Geraldine and Lola discovered that they had quite a lot of
chemistry, and that they both were, apparently, lesbians.
Eventually, the honeymoon was over and normal life commenced. Charles
and Melihet offered Geraldine a home with them, since Geraldine still
didn't get on well her mother Evie. Charles even tried to interest Geraldine
into following him into medicine...
but Geraldine quickly realized that the potential stress of the operating
table was not for her.
Nearly exactly nine months after the wedding, Melihet gave birth to
the Strict's first child: a girl they named Charlotte. She was a remarkably
plain child, ...
but very loving, and also very soon showed an interest in what her daddy
did, and started performing mock surgeries on her plush toys before
she was old enough to start school. Geraldine was especially taken with
her, maybe because she realized that as a lesbian, she wouldn't be able
to have a child of her own unless she was willing to find a male sperm
donor. Unless, of course, someone came up with a different scientific
solution. And so Geraldine found herself a part-time job at a science
lab.
A few years later, another child was born, again a girl. This one they
named Melanie, and she was quite a pretty and outgoing little thing.
The Stricts found themselves to be a big and happy family. If any of
the ghosts of the unhappy previous generations were still restless,
prowling around the house at night - none of the current inhabitants
ever noticed.
By the time Melanie reached toddler age, Geraldine had grown into an
adult, and the house really was getting too small for all of them, so
she found herself a small home of her own.
Charlotte grew into a serious and slightly withdrawn young woman who
excelled at school, ...
and who proved to have quite a talent for medicine *and* science, much
to Charles' delight.
Melanie grew into an outgoing and extremely pretty teenager - and was
fully aware just how good-looking she was.
Many afternoons, she turned the Strict home into party central, and
also managed to win the affection of Normalville's most eligible teenage
boy, John III Normals.
Both girl's futures looked bright.
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