Chapter 5: Say Goodbye

While he was out in the park, Hawke spotted a beautiful woman, and, never one to be shy about going after a woman he was attracted to, he immediately introduced himself. She told him her name was Sun Young Kim, and she and her twin brother Ho Sung and his wife Hui Young were visiting Brooklyn Heights from their native Shang Simla.

"I have a twin sister," Hawke says, "Well, we're triplets. But our sister Phoenix disappeared." And he finds himself spilling the whole story to her, and even letting flow the tears he's held back since they first heard the news. Way to make an impression, he thinks to himself, trying get control of his sudden compulsive oversharing, way to screw things up. "Since she disappeared, I've been carrying this emptiness inside me. The place where she used to be...I can't feel her anymore, the way I feel Raven. Eleanor," he rambles on, unable to stop himself.

But rather than fleeing from him, Sun Young sits him down beside her on a bench, and holds him comfortingly. "My brother feels the same way about losing me," she says sadly.

"But he's in town with you now, right?" Hawke asks, not quite understanding.

"Oh, of course. I was speaking hypothetically," Sun says, forcing a smile.

Hawke, back to his normal self, wraps an arm around her, pulls her close to him. "I have to go to work now," he says, "But I'd like to take you out when I'm done. Can you meet me at the Brightmore after 10:30?" Sun agrees to his plan happily.

At the Brightmore, they dance, and flirt. Sun tells him about her life in Shang Simla, and Hawke tells her about Riverblossom Hills, again revealing to her the things he's kept to himself since his arrival to Brooklyn Heights.

They stay out until the club closes. "I don't want to say goodbye just yet," Sun says when they get out of the club's door, "Why don't you come back to my place?"

Hawke had expected to be following her back to a hotel, but she leads him to an apartment not far from the Brightmore. He wonders how long her family is planning on staying in the city, but in the heat of the moment, he doesn't ask questions.

After a few hours of sleep, she still doesn't want to say goodbye. And Hawke finds he doesn't want to leave her, so he stays at her place, serenading her with his guitar.

By the afternoon, he's invited her back to his place. "Sun, I never want to say goodbye. I want you to stay here with me. Not just for your vacation, but forever."

"I have something I should tell you," Sun says, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm not here on vacation. I'm here to see a specialist at your hospital. Dr. Morgana Wolff. I don't have much time left."

"What do you mean?" Hawke asks, though he understood perfectly well what she was saying. He just doesn't want what he heard to be the truth.

"I have an infection. It's called 'Mummy's Curse'. There are rare bacteria locked up in ancient tombs that can be released when they are opened after so long. I made the mistake of exploring in the Dragon's Cave in my village, and I opened one of these tombs, and became infected. There is no cure, and I don't have much time before it consumes me."

"There must be a cure," Hawke insists, "We'll find you a better doctor."

Sun shakes her head, smiling at his determination, "You are just like my brother, he also believes I can beat this if I just keep trying. And that's why we are here. He found the best doctor, the leading expert on these rare cases, Dr. Wolff. She is working day and night to help me, and has tried many treatments on me, but nothing has worked. I am resigned to my end, Hawke, and I'm happy to have enjoyed your company before I must go."

Hawke isn't ready to resign himself yet. He's only just met her, but he knows she's the one, the love of his life. There must be a cure, Dr. Wolff will be able to save her in the nick of time, he's sure of it.

"Marry me, Sun," Hawke says, getting on his knee before her.

"Hawke, I am honored and overjoyed. But to marry you, it will be too painful for you when I..."

"Sssh, don't say that," Hawke whispers, "There's still hope. And no matter what, I want to be with you for the rest of our lives. If you refuse me, it will break my heart."

"I will marry you, Hawke," Sun agrees, and they get married right there.

They spend the rest of the dat celebrating their union in Hawke's bedroom.

In the evening, he family gathers for Amelia's birthday. Emilio has a game tonight, and can't make it in time for cake, so it's Eleanor, Hawke and Sun.

Eleanor is more than a little surprised by her brother's sudden marriage. The couple tell her the whole story of their meeting, and the reason for Sun's visit to the city. Of course, Eleanor thinks, her brother's reaction to meeting a girl with a fatal disease would be to marry her. All the perfectly healthy women he's been with weren't interesting enough for him, apparently.

Emilio rushes over after his game to give Amelia her birthday gifts, the play table she asked for, and a football signed by everyone on the team.

Nausea isn't a symptom that Sun had experienced since she was infected. She will have to see Dr. Wolff about this new development immediately.

Sun returns from hervisit with Dr. Wolff with new for Hawke. "We're going to have  baby," she says, her glee tinged with sadness. She's happy she will be a mother before she dies, but she doesn't like to leave a child without a mother.

Hawke is stunned by the news. "Is it safe?" he wonders, "Are you okay to be pregnant. And what about the baby?"

Sun asked the same questions of the doctor, and can assure her husband that the pregnancy won't make her own illness worse, nor can she pass it along to her offspring. And of course Dr. Wolff and her colleagues will be monitoring the pregnancy very closely.

Sun's brother Ho Sung is torn between joy at his sister's happiness, and fears for her life.

Under normal circumstances, he might be a little hostile toward the man who swept his twin away from him in such a sudden manner, but knowing that his sister might not have much time left to enjoy the pleasure of marriage and family, he can accept that there was no time for a long courtship, and is happy for Sun to have found a man that would love her and choose to be with her despite her illness.

After her scouting activities, Amelia mets up with her father in the park to play catch and get help with homework.

She comes home in the evening to an empty apartment, and fixed herself some bread and jam for dinner.

Uncle Hawke and Aunt Sun are out dancing, enjoying every moment of life they have together.

Her mother is visiting Thornton Wolff.

The next day, Amelia goes home with her friend Thierry Tricou after school, hoping to get a decent meal at the very least. "Peace, little sister," Kvornan greets her with his strange accent. Not everyone's Dad is like hers, Amelia realizes.

Thierry lives up to his family's reputation of being generally creepy and strange by taking Amelia out to the porch for a ghost story. At no point is Amelia offered any food, and she goes home hungry.

With another baby joining the family, Eleanor decided it was time to find better accommodations, and the Romans bought a townhouse, close to the school and hospital. Hawke and Sun take the third floor, Eleanor's bedroom is on the main floor with the kitchen and living areas, and the children get the lower floor. The house has a garage, but after buying the house, the family doesn't have enough left over for a car.

Emilio comes by on Saturday afternoon to play catch with Amelia before the game. Just as he did as a teen with his girlfriend Phoenix, Emilio forgets himself sometimes and tosses the ball a little too hard.

"I don't want to lose you, Sun," Hawke whispers, holding back tears. Time is passing with no cure in sight, and as much as he tries to tell himself a last minute miracle will save his wife, reality has been forcing itself on him. Sun doesn't have much time left.

"Don't," Sun whispers, "Let's pretend, for now, that everything is right. Let's enjoy what we have without thinking about tomorrow."

Taking Sun to the hospital is an everyday occurrence, but today is the day their child will be born.

They have a daughter, Li Feng. "It means Beautiful Phoenix," Sun says, "After your missing sister." Sun, feeling her own end drawing near, is thinking about her own twin, how he will soon be missing his sister the way Hawke does.

The pains Dr. Wolff warned her about come as Sun places Li Feng in her crib. After the pain starts, there's only a few hours left before the infection consumes her.

Delirious with the pain and fear, Sun hurriedly tries to teach Hawke a song she learned as a child. "I want you to teach it to L Feng," Sun insists.

Hawke is worried by her feverish desperation and wants to take her back to the hospital.

"You aren't well," he says, stroking her cheek. Her skin is warm, too warm, "I'm taking you to Dr. Wolff."

"Tomorrow," she says, knowing that for her, there will be no tomorrow. But there's nothing the doctor can do to stop this, and the last thing Sun wants is to spend her last hours in a hospital. "Right now you should take me to bed."

Hawke gives in, still wanting to believe that everything will be all right, that he and Sun will have a long, normal life together.

After Hawke is asleep, Sun creeps down to the nursery, to say goodbye to her newborn daughter. "I'm sorry little one, I won't be here to see you grow. But I will always be watching over you."

Dr. Wolff explained this process to her many times, but there are no words that can accurately describe the pain of being consumed by this infection.

In in the end, nothing is left of Sun but a pile of dust.

Grim doesn't care that she was too young to die, that she leaves behind a husband and newborn daughter who need her alive. Her time has come.

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Challenge Notes:
Sun and her family were taken from Shang Simla. I did change Sun's clothes and hair when I moved them into Brooklyn Heights. Reader's of the Archer legacies might recognize sun as Yasu's mother.
Using Twallan's Master Controller, I did give her the Mummy's curse moodlet, which kills a Sim once it times out. However, it gives 14 days before timing out, and she had like 10 days left on it by the time Li Feng was born, so I had to use Debug Enabler to actually forced the death by mummy's curse event. Which is too bad because I would have liked to see the full progression of the curse. Sun had just started to get the black lines radiating from her (you can barely see them in the pic where she's placing the baby in the crib for the first time) but, while I'd be willing to fudge the rules for a few days to see this, waiting a full ten extra days was too much. Li Feng would be a child by the time her mother dies if I let the curse run its course.

So, that's the two children required for this generation. Both Hawke and Eleanor have achieved their LTWs for the Fulfilled goal. Their new house is done in their favorite colors for It's so You. The nursery hasn't been done yet. Currently it has Amelia's sea foam colored crib, and the nursery itself is in the colors the room was created in. By the next update, the nursery will be redone in Li Feng;s favorite color. Gray, yippee.