Title: Forever Home
Category: TV Shows » General Hospital
Author: GwenhwyfarRose
Language: English, Rating: Rated: K
Genre: Angst
Published: 03-06-11, Completed
Chapters: 1, Words: 1,036
Warnings/Spoilers: Brook Lynn is Ned Ashton's estranged daughter. Ned was once thought to be the father of Kristina Davis. That's all you really need to know
Summary: in my arms you will be forever home.
Official Disclaimer: All General Hospital characters and plots belong to Frank and Doris Hursley, and ABC. I do not hold stock either the people or the company. Ned Ashton, Brook Lynn Ashton, and any other character featured are NOT mine. The title, summary, and lyrics come from the Wally Kurth song Forever Home and I don't own that either.
She didn't know how it was she had been roped into this. They both had really. Her mother had handed her the baby and now she and her 'uncle' were practically alone in her father's house with the child that she had been told was her little sister.
At first the child hadn't wanted to be let go. She understood. After something as emotional as her great grandmother's funeral, she didn't really want to let the child go either. So she just sat in one of the rocking chairs on the back porch and cuddled with the toddler. Then when the little one got fussy, she decided that a nap would do them both good. But she had to get the smaller one to go down first.
The song was one that she had always seemed to know. It was never written down on paper for her, nor did she ever see the sheet music to it. It was just instinctive, so much so that she would have thought that she had made it up when she was younger. She positioned the child so her mouth was right next to her sister's ear and began to hum.
Sleep, baby sleep
while the world passes by
I'll be the keeper,
of your dreams tonight.
It was apparent that her father had gotten her sister to sleep the same way, because soon the child had stopped moving, and her face was filled with the detached wonder that she had seen on her own face in so many pictures. She smiled bitterly when she thought that her father just might have another musician on his hands.
The words flowed from her mouth and she bit back a tear. Whenever she sang she felt as if there was another voice with her, a voice that until recently she hadn't heard in person since she was just a little older than her baby sister.
I'll be your eyes,
until you can see.
I'll be your voice,
until you can speak.
He didn't know why his younger brother had called him back from the main house. The call had been so urgent that he hadn't even stopped to tell his ex-wife that he was leaving. He had just slipped out the back and headed around to see what it was that was troubling his brother. He wanted to joke that maybe his daughter had left him to change a diaper.
What he found when he entered the house; however, was far better than anything that his mind had come up with on the way to the gatehouse. His brother was sitting on the back of one of the chairs in the living room, video camera pointed out through one of the side windows near the fireplace and onto the back porch. His daughter's voce sang out through the house.
In this land of strangers
I'll be the one
to love and protect you
Guide and respect you
She could tell the child was asleep. It was partial instinct. The little body in her arms had slackened and a slight snore escaped small lips. She briefly considered shouting for her partner in crime; to beg him to come get the child away from her. She was actually surprised that the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. She just kept singing.
In my arms you will be…
In my arms you will be…
Forever home…
Forever home…
Her mind flashed back to when she was a child; Three years old and bundle of raw energy. Did her father ever sing to her as he undoubtedly song to her little sister? Did he smile when she hummed along, or if she decided to make up her own words? Would he have looked at her with the tears in his eyes that her mother found when she sang?
It was useless for her to question herself like that. Her father had been a businessman, the man that had been in charge of the family corporation her mother had told her about. Now he ran a studio was warping young talent and stealing songs. It wasn't too much of a stretch for her. She could already see her mother digging her hooks back in, nice and deep and velvet enough to keep him on course. Then again that was just how her mother was, determined and steadfast, with enough energy to be contagious.
The body in her arms snuggled closer to her chest, and she carefully pulled back and allowed the child more room. One foot pushed off of the wood underneath her, and then the other. And her mind drifted off to another time again.
Have you come to show me,
What love's all about?
To lift up my faith,
Higher than doubt?
He never would know where she had learned that song. He had sung it once to her, when she was deep inside her mother's belly and another when she had taking a tumble off of the couch when she was no older than the child in her arms. She couldn't have memorized if after only hearing it sung once, and her mother never was one to sing.
Suddenly there was regret welling up in his heart. All of the years that she had spent in Bensonshurst, he had never tried to go to visit her. He had just politely requested that her mother bring her to visit him. And time and time again he was rejected. He watched her grow up in pictures and videos and now he knew nothing about her other than she liked to sing.
And that she liked to sing his songs.
He wondered if she ever thought about him, growing up. If she would lay in her bed as he did in his and picture what he looked like and wonder if he still loved her. He moved closer to the window and smiled bitterly when he noticed just how much like him she looked.
He questioned if there was still time; If there was still a way for him to get his daughter back.
In my arms you will be…
In my arms you will be...
In my arms you will be…
Forever home…
Forever home…