Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi
"Oh he was so beautiful." The middle aged blond woman said as her almond shaped emerald orbs began to tear up. A small round tear escaping the corner of her eyes and slowly descending down her heart shaped face, but being quickly stopped by her upturned smile as she turned the page of a worn down photo album.
The woman lightly pressed the pads of her fingers to a picture over the seal keeping it in good care. She stared at the beautiful boy looking up at her from the picture. His huge emerald orbs - the same shade as hers and her mothers' had such innocence and curiosity locked inside. His long dark brown locks at shoulder length and brushing against his teeny tiny Nirvana tee shirt his father had bought him.
"He looks so happy. So.. innocent." The woman whispered as she felt more tears escape her eyes. Their descent quick and fast as they landed onto the seal protecting the picture. She gasped and quickly wiped the tear off her picture of her baby boy with her dark sleeve. The woman knew if she continued looking through the pictures she'd see the changes within her baby boy. He would no longer be a baby boy, he's be growing into a man.
A man with conflicting feelings and undiagnosed disorders that were held captured in his mind, but had eventually escaped and ran a muck in his already sensitive mind and destroyed what they could. They destroyed what was left of her boy. Her baby boy.
But now her baby boy was a man. He was seventeen years old and no longer resembled the baby in the sealed picture. His long locks were cut shorter. He owned plenty of Nirvana tee shirts, claiming that Kurt Cobain was a great man and knew how to write songs of the mind. If only the woman had known how truthful those words were to her boy. Her boy had grown, no longer the little munchkin and brat her husband use to call him, but now was standing tall at 5'6. Surpassing her in height and intelligence as well as she remembered how good his grades were.
Her baby boy was a grade twelve this year. She had dreaded this year since the moment he entered grade nine. She knew it was approaching, but she was sidetracked by her boy's deteriorating mental state since the accident in his grade ten year. Then his transfer to a different school in grade eleven had also made time leave her mind for a while as his grade eleven year was the worst one yet. The woman could still hear his pained and strangled sobs and screams through his nightmares he had developed profusely after his car accident. The nightmares had quieted down for a bit like his mind is once medicated and regulated. Once the madness is locked away and he is calm and her baby boy.. only then is he as normal as he wants to be.
For now.. everything was quiet. Her baby boy was out with his friends - the friends he had developed over the summer and had kept him quiet busy and away from his madness locked in his mind. Her husband was sleeping due to his schedule of working at a radio station and playing heavy metal songs all morning and afternoon. Yet here she was. She was flipping through pictures of her only son and was finally being hit by the idea of her baby boy leaving her next year.
He would leave her and she was afraid he couldn't be able to deal with himself. She couldn't have that happen. Not in a million years would that have happened to her. Yet she still wept at the mere thought running along her weary mind.
"Hah. I remember when he was that small and a brat. Now he's just about ten times that size, but is still a brat." A deep throaty voice that she loved and adored said with a chuckle. She flinched at the sound, but soon shook it off. As she did with her tears, wiping them off with the pads of her skinny lanky fingers. The same fingers her baby boy had as well. The mere thought bringing more watery tears to her emerald orbs.
"Cece?" The deep voice asked. When the woman didn't respond, but continued to brush the tears off her face furiously. She felt the rough touch of her husband's hands on her delicate and small wrists as he gently pried her hands off her face and pulled them down to her lap. The moment he saw her red and blotchy face his face softened. He pushed the photo album aside and sat down next to his weeping wife and pulled her body into his lap.
Cece melted into her husband's embrace and immediately felt warm from being in his loving arms. She buried her face into the crook of his neck. He smelled faintly of cigarettes and Old Spice cologne and the smell made her feel at home. The way her husband smell made her feel comfortable and oh so loved. His hands were resting on her back as he gently massaged her back with one hand and the other was stroking her long blond hair that reached her waist. The man loved her long hair. It had been long since they met in high school and he was grateful that she never cut it. Always kept it long and beautiful since they were fifteen.
"Are you crying over our brat of a kid?" The husband asked with a throaty chuckle to show his wife he wasn't being serious over the matter, but rather joking over it. The last thing he needed was for Cece to keep him in the doghouse and to have their son come home smirking at the tension between his parents.
Cece sniffled and slowly pulled herself from her husband's embrace. His hands lowered to the small of her back and gently massaged her skin as her shirt was rising a bit. She smiled and ran a hand through her messy blond hair which she hadn't done up or hairspray'd today.
"Cut me some slack. I'm a mom and I have the right to cry over Eli." Cece said with a smile on her red blotchy face as her husband smiled as she mentioned their son's name. The husband pulled the fabric down on his wife's soft white back and gave her reassuring pat.
"Eh, you aren't the only one who cries over the punk." The husband said with a smirk on his face in which Cece playfully slapped his bicep with an amused look on her heart shaped face that the husband found rather cute on his wife.
"Oh shut up, Bullfrog. The last time you cried over Eli was when he was born. Which was - last time I checked. Seventeen years ago. Hmph." Cece said with a raised eyebrow that made Bullfrog chuckle. He did cry the day Eli was born. That was his son and the feeling of having a son, a baby had overwhelmed him more than it had Cece and he had tears streaming down his face upon hearing the nurse ask, "Would you like to hold your baby boy, sir?"
But then Bullfrog had remembered that wasn't the last time he had cried over Eli. Sure he hadn't cried over Eli during his childhood like Cece had when they dropped Eli off at Kindergarten or when Eli learned to ride a bike or had began being praised in his writing abilities. All those times Cece had cried numerously over it while Bullfrog had merely stood by and gave his son a smile and hug for doing so well.
All of that of course changed once changes happened to Eli. Bullfrog would never forget the night his son's first girlfriend and the girl he had basically considered the daughter Cece was enabled from having - Julia was hit by a car and had passed away.
The night he had received the call from Julia's father that she had been hit by a car that night, his heart had dropped and his palms felt sweaty. He vaguely remembers telling Cece the news and having to hold her for a few minutes as she sobbed over the loss of the girl she had grown close to. But what was worse was when Eli had heard the commotion downstairs and had walked into the kitchen. He seemed normal - content and happy, one ear bud hanging out of his ear as he asked in a small voice, "Mom.. Dad..? What happened."
Neither parent had the stomach to sit their son down at the kitchen table and tell him the news. But nonetheless they had. Cece only had enough in her to say that a bad accident had happened before she began sobbing again, her black mascara running down her face. Thus leaving Bullfrog to look his son in the emerald orb and say in a grave voice, "Eli.. Don't be too upset, but.. someone died. Someone we're all close to. Someone that you love. And son that someone is Julia."
The night was a nightmarish blur for Bullfrog and Cece. Never had they seen Eli so emotional and detached. At first he had dismissed it, thinking it was a sick joke, but once they fully got to the inside of their boy and told him she had died that night that this was not a sick joke, but rather the harsh truth. The truth had slapped him hard across the face and he did something that neither parent thought he'd do. He had collapsed into a little boy, their fifteen year old became a five year old in mere minutes as he clung onto both of them and said over and over, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry.."
Bullfrog had held himself together that night and many nights after that merely for his son - his baby boy. As badly as the grown man wanted to cry over the demise of the fifteen year old girl, he couldn't. Not in front of Eli or Cece or even alone. He held in his emotions and buried them deep. So long after Julia's death had occurred, he was no longer plagued by hurt, but rather small sadness and the same went for Cece. Eli had gotten better after days and months went by. News of her death had spread quickly through Eli's school and when he came home after the first day of grade eleven he proclaimed that he dropped out of his high school and asked to be transferred to another place or he'd stay being a drop out.
The news had shocked both parents by Eli's brashness. They had surely shouted at him, but soon realized doing so was not good for him and his fragile state he was holding up at the moment. They had learnt that Eli's bullying resurfaced once news of Julia's death spread around. People blamed him and people hated him. No parent ever wants to hear that their child was hated by their school, but Eli refused to tell them what was being spread across his school. He had growled at their constant bugging and just merely snapped saying, "Its just stupid secrets finally coming out into the open making me public enemy number one and Mike a fucking saint okay! If you would want to know so badly about what happened then here - Mike knocked up Julia! He got her pregnant! She cheated on me and I knew for months, Mom and Dad! I knew and I thought it was mine - but it wasn't! It wasn't and.. and.. and.."
Since he had admitted those mere secrets, neither Bullfrog nor Cece ever spoke of it to him again. They had spoke of it together of course. Mentioning how they to had suspected of Julia being pregnant and they had thought of it being Eli's, but they never confronted the two. Their information was spilled to them by their closed up son and never spoken of again. Since then.. no one ever mentioned Julia's pregnancy and affair with Mike that had torn up their son's trust issues with anyone other than his parents.
Bullfrog - now lost deep in his thoughts - decided to dig deeper. To remember how when Eli began attending Degrassi, things began changing for the better. Their son gained a friend in a sweet boy they both adored named Adam, but not only did a boy become their isolated son's friend, but a girl as well.
Both parents had heard plenty about the girl named Clare Edwards from Eli on a daily basis. She was his English partner and now friend to both himself and Adam. The way Eli would talk animatedly about Clare immediately made his parents think that Eli had a crush on Clare - which was true truth be told. Bullfrog never did tell his wife about the deep conversation he once had with Eli before he began dating Clare.. and it mainly focused around Julia and if it would be fair to keep having feelings for Clare whilst loving Julia. It had been the only time in ages that Eli had opened up and Bullfrog of course told him to open up and date Clare. To tell her about Julia - to tell her that even if he wasn't ready for a new girl.. he would be eventually and when he was, he'd hope to see her waiting.
Clare became a frequent visitor at the Goldsworthys' home. Always in tow with Eli or Adam. The three stayed tight knit friends despite that Eli and Clare had become an item. But the tone of the home had gone from dark and thick to light and.. happy. The middle aged parents were happy for their son. He had fallen for Clare and she too fell for him. Adam was content being the third wheel and had even had his own little crushes here and there.
But not everything was a fairy tale ending. Not every couple lasts forever - some break up. Such as their baby boy and the love of his life. She had ended it with him after his car accident he had forced upon her. The news of his car accident set both parents on edge. Their baby boy wasn't alright up in his noggin as Bullfrog had confessed to Cece and she too agreed. Both wasted no time paying money to a therapist for him and for medication as well. The medication did its job - make their son no longer an erratically clingy person, but it had its cons that Cece had despised so badly. He wasn't their baby boy no more. He was replaced by some dead zombie son with no emotion. One that could talk and move, but had no emotion. It destroyed him even further inside since the therapist had no idea what to even diagnose him as if they couldn't see his true colors on the medication.
The next month following the car accident was one the parents hated. One they hated thinking about, much less speaking about. Their son had gone off the rails as some would say. Stopped taking his medication and had began writing a twisted play they wish they could have stopped him from writing. Despite gaining a best friend from the play - he had lost much respect and gained hatred and hurt people from his play. His play revolved his and Clare's love story - but twisted to make her seem like the bad person amongst it all. Their son had hurt people with his performance. He had hurt two girls and had made a boy that captured Clare's heart after their breakup hate him with a passion.
It was the night of the play premiering that Bullfrog had finally cried on his son's shoulder. Had finally admitted that his baby boy needed help and needed medication and he needed it for himself and no one else. It didn't take much talking from them both for Eli to agree and say that he did need help and his mind wasn't the best place to be. It was then Bullfrog had gathered his son into his arms like he was five again and hold him close to his chest and.. cry.
"Sweetheart?" Cece had said, pulling Bullfrog from his deep thoughts. He had shook his head and looked at Cece with a blank stare.
"Yeah?" Bullfrog answered, he began rubbing Cece's back once more and she raised her eyebrow at him.
"Are you feeling alright? Did you have a rough night at the station?" Cece questioned and Bullfrog just shrugged at his wife's words. He felt as she sighed and slowly pressed a soft kiss to his scratchy and unshaven cheek as she cupped his other cheek with her warm long hand. Bullfrog smiled against the kiss and turned his head to where their lips met. Both were captured into a long heated kiss filled with love and great passion. The same great passion that lingered between the two since high school.
"Mmm. That was nice." Cece whispered as she pulled away from Bullfrog's lips and smiled as she ran her hand through his messy bedhead and heard his throaty chuckle.
"I'm just glad we had Eli, ya know. It'd be awful lonely and boring here without that punk." Bullfrog said with smirk, but Cece was able to see that he truly meant he was happy they had Eli. Their one and only son - sure he was messed up, had some issues and was a stubborn as a nail, but he had the biggest heart either of the parents had ever seen in that world. They both hoped that one day a girl - preferably a curly haired blue eyed girl would come to her senses and remember how great their son really was. Or maybe he'd find another girl.
Either way - their son was perfect. Despite the flaws, he was their perfect baby boy. And they'd never trade their perfect baby boy for any other son in the world.
A/N: Oh this sucks, but I've had this thought in my mind for a while now so might as well write it now! I probably will not write another until next year and I have a couple ideas, one about Eclare and the other about Imogen. (: So have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please review!