The Smith Legacy: 2.7 Rumours had started to spread

Having returned home, the Smith family invited their friends around for a house party, after which, Dabney completed her article on Rebeca, but her career was going nowhere as the piece didn't leave anyone but the subject feeling warm and fuzzy.

Gabby decided to call Deng and invited him to visit, in return for the hospitality he had shown her in China. No one could quite guess if she intended to greet him in her lingerie when he was due to arrive the following day.

Emily snuck a canvas onto the easel, leaving Cade to play on his laptop, and Baby fertilised and tended to her garden.

That week, at the science laboratories, Colby Kent was after taste test subjects. Again, Baby stepped up, and she was left with minty breath. For her contribution she earned a healthy raise and bringing in the required Assassin Bugs, from her trip to China, earned her a further boost to her earnings. She headed home after work and looked after her garden before fixing the broken shower.

Deng arrived and Gabby paid special attention to the aches he had developed from the flight. The two of them enjoyed each other's company and rumours started to spread about them, Gabby couldn't work out why the gossip had a negative tone.

Emily completed her painting on the easel and Cade went out of his way to prepare a meal of Dim Sum for the family's Chinese guest.

At work, Dabney watched the Grim Reaper rise from below, and was fiendishly delighted to witness the death of Zebulon Abernathy. She went on to collect the family's earnings from the two businesses they were partners of and then to the library to start work on a new novel.

Emily's ghost finally lost her grip on the mortal realm, destined to leave the Netherworld occasionally but never again to be restored. In retrospect, it wasn't surprising; her initial departure from the mortal realm had already strained her relationships with family. She had still been best friends with Cade, good friends with Abbey and friends with Dabney and Baby and she had managed to stay friends with Abbey and Cade, but her relationship with Gabby hadn't improved and Dabney and Baby now actively disliked her.

She had seen Cade, Dabney and Gabby all grow into adults, Abbey achieve her lifetime dream and move out, and she herself had visited China. However, she wasn't part of the living world anymore and didn't feel the passion she had for life the way she used to. When night fell, and while her children dreamt, she slipped away.

While at work, Gabby was helping out with the Emperor of Evil's master plan when she came face to face with a secret agent in an area with a moving floor, flame throwers and pit traps. The odds were against her but she knocked out the secret agent, and, while the do-gooder escaped later, Gabby still got to take home some of the betting pool. She also earned a promotion to Super Villain and, during the day, she hung out with Deng and asked him to be her boyfriend.

Cade worked on a new painting, capturing Mum's portrait would be harder now. Somehow he had settled easily into the view that Mum would always be there, the same way he had while she were living, and, other than Anna, he couldn't really think of what had kept him from starting work on the piece.

Dabney interviewed Colette Kendal, who she had invited to visit, and, afterwards, the bookworm Smith headed to the library and worked on her drama novel.

Baby couldn't remember when she'd first been contacted and asked to prepare hamburgers for Ari Kay but, having agreed to do so, and having finished work, and taking care of her garden, she decided to get to it. Unfortunately, the meal burned and blackened in the oven, not quite turning out as she had planned.

Another day and another "bonus" for Gabby, while she was working, she picked up a new item to add to her collection of ill-gotten gains. Day held something new though, she decided that Deng would make a great father and the two of them tried for a baby on the new DuoDreamer by Starloft.

Dabney earned a healthy raise and a promotion to Editor In Chief, at work, and she headed to the library afterwards to finish her latest novel, "Olivia Blend".

It was Baby's day off and so she invited Marlin Dexter to visit, looked after her garden, and, this time, managed to make an edible batch of hamburgers.

Meanwhile, Cade was bored of painting something small, something medium-sized and something large and so headed out to take a photo with his phone, with which he hoped to paint something different. It didn't work quite as he'd expected but he was still able to return home and work on a still life painting of the town's lighthouse.

Dabney won the Simitzer prize for great reporting and enjoyed a cash reward and the adoration of her co-workers as a result. She headed to the library at the end of her work day, to start work on her first humour novel.

Cade completed his painting of the town's lighthouse and, it being his thirtieth piece, he felt confident that his speed had improved in producing such artistic works.

Deng headed home to take care of the everyday tasks he needed to catch up on but couldn't do while in Sunset Valley and Gabby was quick to extend the offer for him to visit again, she had planned on proposing marriage to him.

Baby earned a promotion to Creature-Robot Cross Breeder, her lifetime wish fulfilled, but she wanted to reach the very top of her career too, so she headed home to continue caring for her garden, and fixed the broken kitchen sink.

Although he started the day by completing a small painting, Cade didn't spend all day at the easel, it was his birthday and friends were invited around for a party in celebration. He looked rather soulful as he contemplated what would come next.

Gabby didn't want to take away from Cade's landmark, becoming an elder, but, when Deng returned to Sunset Valley that same day, she proposed to the foreign man who had quickly come to mean so much to her.

Baby didn't neglect her garden and, just before bed, watered, weeded and harvested her plants.

Meanwhile, Dabney had worked late on her novel the previous night, so, although she chatted with Ti-Ning Bishop, whose thoughts, along with Jeremiah Ortiz's, were more on the state of the room, she was in bed before the party was over.

Gabby collected her sixth trinket from work that evening and was promoted to Emperor of Evil. She still enjoyed her evil slumbers, her wicked bubble baths and her fiendishly quick meals, but now she also had a red aura glowing from within. Routine maintained though and, with the end of the week, the Smith's hosted a house party, after which she and Deng tried again for a baby.

Baby tended to her garden one last time, not sure who would care for it in her absence, and placed her insects in the living room, uncertain if she'd have the space for them in her new surroundings. Having grown up in the family home, she had decided that it was time for a taste of her own independence and moved out to a modern little bungalow, across the road from Abbey.

Cade painted, and Dabney headed to the library, where she witnessed Ryan Faulkner's demise. This death she did not laugh through and anyone who knew her would have been surprised to see how devastated she was by her best friend's passing.