Chea looked out the window of her house. So many years have passed by in what seemed to her only an instant. She was sitting on the sill of the window looking through her old diary. She had filled many diaries of the adventure her friends had with the Monkees through the years. The first one was full of all the time gadget trips they had. At first she wrote every detail about what happened to them. Over time, she could see now, the trips happened less and less often before they stopped altogether in 1974, coinciding with the birth of the first "Monkee baby". Mike and Karen surprised everyone when they had the first baby, when everyone expected it to be Chea and Micky. After a false alarm in 1968, Mike and Karen didn’t even think about having a baby again till late 1973 when it she discovered she was really pregnant this time. She gave birth to Michael Roark Nesmith late in the summer of 1974.
Chea found a baby picture of Roark, as they called him as not to confuse him with his father. As time wore on, it turned out Roark was almost a carbon copy of his father. Almost.
This brought Chea to the end of the first diary and on to the second one she had. She had neglected her diary for the few months after the birth of Roark. This gap led into 1975. There was a very good reason for such a large lapse of time, this was when she finally got married to Micky. At this same time, Peter and Livvie had their own baby, Davis Richmond Tork. He had both his fathers looks and disposition, and what turned out to be Livvies thirst for knowledge. After the time gadget adventures came to a stop, Livvie spent almost all of her free time; when she wasn’t going to gigs with everyone, reading about everything she missed. History was her favorite topic. Like his parents, Davis's sweet demeanor betrayed the intelligent person that lay beneath the surface. Davis and his parents still lived in town. As a matter of fact, they lived a couple of streets over.
Brianna loved England so much on her second visit there, she moved there with Davy after they got married in 1977. The first visit there was in 1968, when the gang went there to find Livvie after she ran away from home. Livvie was not from the future like the others were but from the distant past - 1906 San Francisco - and had a hard time adjusting. Happily she did much better now, but while she was there the second time around, Brianna discovered a country she soon grew to love. Unfortunately for Davy and Brianna, it turned out that Brianna could never have children. A year after they moved there, Brianna was beginning to give up hope of ever having a child, something was left on their front steps that changed everything.
"Someone left a baby on our front porch." Brianna had said to Chea when she called her about it. "A beautiful blonde baby girl." She said. Chea could hear the joy in her friends voice.
"This was just the miracle you were looking for!" Chea remembered saying.
"That’s that Davy said. God showed a little mercy on us." Brianna said.
"In fact, that’s what we're calling her. Mercy."
"That’s the perfect name." Chea said.
"I know. It's seems to fit just right."
Chea smiled at the memory as she reached the end of the second diary. It was 1980 when the second diary became full. The current diary she was using, she held in her hands. It was more than halfway full already, but that’s only because there was a lot more to write in it after she and Micky had their own baby at last. Bethany Renee' Dolenz. It would be their only baby. Unlike their icky future where Chea had 7 children and "died" in childbirth, she and Micky decided early on that one would be enough. She was a little angel, she thought as she closed the book. There was only one reason why she was looking at the book today of all days; today her little angel was graduating high school.
"Come on, Chea!" Micky called out to her from their. "Come to bed."
"Okay, but I'm so excited about tomorrow." Chea said as she came up stairs. Chea and Micky still lived in the old pad. They were the only ones to remain there after everyone moved. They went their separate ways but it was never for long. A day didn’t go by when they didn’t talk to one of their old friends.
Chea pulled on a nightgown. "I cant sleep."
"That’s okay." Micky said. "I can't sleep either."
"What’s the schedule tomorrow?" She asked.
"We get up early and sneak out." He said.
"This is our home, we don’t have to sneak out of our own home." She chided him.
"I know but we still have to get our baby her graduation gift." He said. "And one more gift too."
"For who?" Chea asked.
"Don't forget, Bethanys not the only one graduating tomorrow!" He reminded her.
"How can I forget?" Chea said. "Now there will be TWO graduates in the family."
UCLA
In the dark library of UCLA a single desk lamp shone. One student was working all by her lonesome at one desk in the center of the room. She was there long after the library closed for the night. She begged the librarian to let her stay late to finish the last test she had to work on to get her degree. Livvie Rose Carter was that student. She was going to graduate tomorrow with honors, yet she still wanted to pass the last test she was working on with flying colors. This was no time to slack off now, even though she was already guaranteed her honors status. Livvie stopped reading her test for a minute and rubbed her eyes. She did that once in a while to rest her eyes. She didn’t want them to get tired when she was so close to the end of the test. Livvie had come a long way, she wasn’t about to let her eyes stop her.
Livvie started reading up on what she missed in history. By coming back with her beloved Peter she missed a lot that went on in her absence. She wanted to know what she missed. She went to the library every chance she and read ever book she got her hands on. Once she devoured all the history of the world, she wanted to know more. She moved on to other subjects, her appetite for knowledge was now insatiable. Once she read all the books at the library there was only one place left to go: college.
Receiving full support from her husband and her pride and joy, Davis, she saved up money for UCLA. It was tough going since tuition seemed to go up every year. She eventually was able to pay for it. By this time Davis was almost out of school himself, so that left Livvie more time to focus on her studies. One of the bonuses was that she could live at home and avoid paying mucho moola for dorm expenses. Tomorrow was the end of the journey, and she wanted all of her friends to be there. But that couldn’t happen, Tomorrow Cheas daughter Bethany was also graduating from school. They worked out a plan though. six friends, three would go to each. Davy and Brianna would come to hers, and The Nesmiths, flying all the way from their ranch, would go to Bethanys. They would meet up at the old pad later for a bigger celebration.
Livvie heard footsteps behind her. She lifted her head and looked around. Beyond the single table light that lit her table, she couldn’t see anything at all. It was a particularly dark night. She didn’t even see a moon when she came in that night. After a second of looking around she didn't hear any other noises. She started to return to her work when someone grabbed her from behind.
"Gotcha!" Peter cried.
"Peter!" Livvie cried. "Don't do that! You scared me!" She said half jokingly to him.
"How is my favorite brain?" He asked letting go of her. He sat next to her.
"I'm almost done." Livvie said. "But I'm working pretty hard on it."
"That degree is as good as yours." Peter said. "Maybe you'll teach me a thing or two or three."
"Bound to happen. You've taught me alot already." She smiled. "Where’s our boy? Is he coming in from San Francisco?"
"He will be here bright and early tomorrow morning." Peter said. "He said he would never miss his moms college graduation."
"I have you guys to thank for encouraging me to do it." Livvie said. "I got to finish this, love." She kissed him on the cheek. "If I'm late, do say hi to him when he arrives? I might be asleep by then."
"I will." He said. "Who else is coming to our graduation?"
"The Jones." She said. "They oughta be here by now."
"Customs might keep them a while." Peter said. "We know how they are."
"Yeah." Livvie said. "I'll see you later."
"In the morning." He promised kissing her again on the lips. He walked away a little bit. He bumped into a table with his knee. Winching a little bit he smiled through his pain and walked around the table. He waved.
The Airport
Davy and Brianna got off the plane first. They looked around. Customs was over on the far side of the airport, but since they were searched at Kennedy airport, they didn’t need to go through that fun again.
"That customs in New York was a pain in the arse." Davy said as he walked with Brianna to the luggage claim.
"They had to. We were coming from England, mind you, where they are having this big mad cow disease thing." She said.
"I remember. They were this close to having me for a cavity search." He moaned.
"Well you said you wanted to do everything." Brianna laughed. "Where’s our girl?" She asked. "Mercy?" She called. "Mercy?"
"I'm right here mom, behind you." Mercy said startling her mom.
"Don't do that!"
"Its fun." Mercy said. "I was right here all along, and you two acted like I wasn’t here."
"It wasn't intentional darling." Davy said.
"Sure, like what-ever." Mercy sighed. She tossed her deep black hair back over her shoulder. She put on some big thick sunglasses. She dug in her pocket and extracted a cigarette. She moved to light it when Brianna made a slight moaning noise. "What?"
"I don't think you can smoke here." She said. "In fact I know you can't." She said taking the butt from her daughters mouth.
"I have more where that came from." She said patting her pocket.
"Such a nasty habit." Davy said.
"Says you, I saw a picture of you with a cigarette once." Mercy countered. Brianna eyed her husband.
"It was before I met you!" He protested. "I didn’t like it. And I didn't inhale."
"Show me that trick sometime." Mercy muttered. "I'm sure it will get a few laughs." She put her lighter away. "I suppose you don't want me to smoke at all on this trip."
"If you can handle that." Brianna said. "I think it would be very rude if you were to light up at Bethanys graduation party."
Mercy gave this some thought. "All right. For Bethany." She said. "But first flight back over, I'm lighting up."
"All right, that’s me girl." Davy said. He ruffled her hair with a free hand. She glared at him and he stopped. She turned and walked the rest of the way to the luggage claim.
"What’s with the hair?" Davy asked Brianna.
"She did this last night." She said. "She’s been in this dark mood since Daniel broke up with her."
"What a jerk. I knew he was no good for our girl." Davy said.
"You never liked her boyfriends." Brianna continued.
"Well I'm her father, I'm not supposed to. No man is good enough for my girl." Davy said.
"That’s just it, we're not her parents. But hopefully after we show Mercy our surprise, things will change." Brianna said.
They reached the luggage area and grabbed their bags. Mercy had one shoulder bag while her mom and dad had two each. She looked at them struggle with their bags.
"Do they really need that much clothing?" She asked herself. "I bet they only have half of it."
She watched them waddle out of the terminal and out to the car rental place. After they got a car they loaded it up and headed for the old pad.
"Oh its so good to be home." Davy said.
