A Wedding and Brianna's Birth

The night was calm and quiet...only a few flakes of snow fell from the sky, but it was bitterly cold...and as the temperature dropped lower, the snow stopped.

Toshiyuki dropped off his commissioned topiaries for a decent sum of money.

...and spent some time talking with his brother after he got back from doing that.

Satoshi and Molly spent some time building an igloo in the front yard between the trees. And eventually Fiona came out to talk to them. The Creator wonders why exactly Fiona and Molly are still in night-clothes. They're going to freeze their ovaries completely in this cold. Don't they know that it's minus 7?

Yasunobu and Susan decided that they were not going to have a ceremony in the traditional sense...they exchanged rings in private in the kitchen. The reason being was that they wanted to save as much money as possible as they wanted the money to go their grandchildren and throwing a lavish wedding for themselves was just throwing their grandkid's money away...and Susan and Yasunobu both agreed on that. Just exchanging rings and vows was enough. A kiss and their union was sealed.

River spent a ton of time painting.

And Haruo fulfilled his wish to go ice-skating with Braden on their frozen-over fishing pond. It was just then that a piercing...scream of "MY WATER BROKE!!! HONEY!!!!" was heard and a head-long rush to the hospital ensued.

Five hours later and a beautiful healthy baby girl was born...

River, Haruo and Brianna returned home via taxi.

The only one still stirring in the house was Molly who had just returned from work. Everyone else was asleep.

And soon, River, Haruo and Brianna joined the rest of the family in slumber.

Nick Alto's Demise

Nick Alto had just gotten home to find a young man on his front doorstep. "What are you doing here?" he asked, suspicious of the man and his motives.

The man said nothing...

"I'm talking to you...I demand an answer..." Nick blustered getting more and more agitated at the man's silence. No answer but a sudden pain in his cheek registered on Nick's brain as the man decked him with a right hook." Nick thought that perhaps his cheekbone was fractured.

"What the hell was that for?" Nick snapped at the man who just stood there emotionless. "Why the heck did you deck me for?" still no answer and the only response was another right hook to the same cheek. A snap confirmed that the bone was truly broken. Oh this was great, he wasn't going to be able to eat for a while, especially having to get his jaw wired shut.

A vicious fight ensued...

Nick, in his youth, would have prevailed; however those years were at least 35-40 years long gone...and he was not in the shape that he used to be. The man grabbed Nick in a chokehold and one hand on the back of his head, viciously snapped Nick's neck. Nick couldn't even scream. One second he was choking and fighting for his life, the next second he was on the ground, paralyzed, unable to catch his breath or even breathe for that matter. And it was on the grounds of his home, that Nick Alto expired, becoming a ghost. He tried to retaliate in spirit form, but all his hands did was pass through the man.

...and for the first time, Nick heard through his spectral hearing, the man let out an evil laugh that made him shiver. So that was the evil gene? He had heard his wife laugh, a female version of that laugh...several times during the course of his marriage and he'd heard rumors of misfortune being meted out to residents of Sunset Valley; some of whom had long since moved away. Nick was no angel, however, he didn't have that evil gene. He didn't even feel the need to do something evil for the sake of being nasty to someone. Not that he wouldn't gloat in the misfortune of someone else especially if that someone had it coming to them.

A clap of thunder and ominous music pervaded the night air as a dark cloaked figure appeared...Grim approached Nick Alto. "I have you now..." the spectre uttered in a hollow tone from the crypt and motioned to Nick to approach. Nick knew that there was no coming back from this and shook the grim specter's hand. "Are you ready for your fate?"

"I'm ready..." Nick replied...there was no protest, no embittered entreaties for extended life; just a handshake and in a flash of yellow light Nick was gone.

Now only Grim and the assassin were left standing on the porch of Nick Alto's now vacant property. "You did a good job in hunting him down..." Grim intoned.

"It was satisfying..." the assasin responded, rubbing his hands; whether in glee or in cold...Grim wasn't sure.

"So what reward are you looking for, everlasting life, health, the ability to kill everyone who has ever wronged you in one fell swoop?" asked Grim.

"Nawww, I already know how to kill, and living for the sake of living even with good health, isn't cut up to be what it's supposed to be..." the assassin said, "You already know what I work for..."

"OK...95,000 Simoleons it is..."

"Add §100K to that and you got a deal..." the assassin smirked, "I gotta have a shelter over my head...it's getting cold..."

...and the Chikamoris were none-the-wiser that their last enemy had been eliminated.

Daily Matters

Morning brought the family down for breakfast; the first two being Allan and Fiona. Allan chose to have cobbler that morning. Fiona chatted with her grandson as they both ate and a lively conversation ensued.

When River got up, exhausted from her latest pregnancy, she just headed to the kitchen upstairs in their suite on the top floor and ate a slice of Key Lime Pie.

When she felt up to it, she headed downstairs and cleaned up the mess that everyone else had left.

Later on, Allan and Braden and Sandi had a trip to the graveyard with Iqbal Alvi overseeing the field trip.

It did not appear as though good ol' Iqbal was too happy to be entrusted with the care of a bunch of squealing children and trudging through the catacombs was probably not HIS idea of having a fun time.

The afternoon was overcast and the graveyard took on a rather ominous, but still beautiful landscape.

River painted another brilliant painting.

...while Haruo fended off yet another date call from Jamie Jolina-Frio.

The boys did their homework in the snow...and once Allan was done he proceeded to go look at the lights on the Snow Day trees. Luckily they didn't turn into popsicles.

Feeding a growing fetus was essential so River ate...a second meal that day, even though she wasn't all that hungry.

Meanwhile...Braden started working on his next book.

Yasunobu decided to work out with the training dummy.

All was peaceful and calm...at least at the Chikamori residence...