Ok, so I know I just posted a new multi-chapter fic a short while ago, but I can't help myself. Plus, this is completely different from that one – and I'm hoping to finish typing up Through the Looking Glass fairly soon, so that updates will be steady for the last few parts of that one, and Sharing is only really a seasonal fic, so that should be wrapped up in no time – so I should really have more time to spend on my other fics. Plus, I'm in the mood for some variation ;)
Hope you enjoy…
Title: What Will It Take (To Show You That It's Not The Life It Seems)
Disclaimer: The only things I own are the characters you don't recognise. The title is a line from the My Chemical Romance song 'I'm Not Okay (I Promise)' simply because it fit ;)
A/N: Also, one MAJOR things to note: I'm ignoring the 'love child' plotline – it no longer exists in the universe of my fanfic (it didn't actually, when I first began writing this, and it fits better if it stays that way ;) )
Summary: They didn't mean for their children to turn out as dysfunctional as they were. Sometimes these things just happen – and sometimes it really is the parents' fault. Then again, every time a Sparks appears on the UES, the world seems to tilt on its axis, so they could always just blame him.
"What I needed most was to love and to be loved, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me; and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers or jealousy, by suspicions and fear, by burst of anger and quarrels."
St. Augustine
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Prologue: I'd Take The Blame, If You Weren't All As Guilty As I Am
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"Everyone wants to live a fairytale. Everyone wants a perfect life, but what makes up a fairytale? Is it truly the pain and the strife? What would a fairytale be, without a damsel in distress? She would never meet prince charming, never dance in her dress. You see you can't have a story with just a beginning and an end. You have to be broken to be able to mend. Without the dark, there'd be no light. Without the wrong, there'd be no right. Every story can have a perfect ending. You just have to wait for it."
Marisa Draper
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The whirring of the machines and the steady beeping seemed to irritate her even in sleep.
He stood and leaned over her; his gaze never wavered from her form as he reached out and brushed a few strands of her mahogany locks from her closed eyes, ran the backs of his fingers along the curve of her cheek, traced the line of her jaw.
Her dark lashes fanned out over the hollows beneath her eyes, fluttering in the slightest of movements, but her lids remained shut.
She forever fascinated him, even in sleep, especially then, in fact. She was a beautiful creature by day; but by night, she was utterly captivating.
He lay down next to her, rested his head on her chest and reveled in the feeling of the rise and fall.
He was wrong, his best friend, he was wrong. He didn't come to see her because it would make him feel better. He came because without her, it was hard to remember who he was.
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He wasn't sure if it really did all stem from him; wasn't certain he could be held accountable for everything that had happened to them all since he'd arrived.
There'd been death and divorce, make-ups and break-ups, drink and drugs abound. He knew his presence was the common factor in many; but he wasn't convinced they wouldn't have happened had he not been there to see them through.
He hadn't been there, in fact, when the latest incident had occurred. They occupied different rooms on different floors, with different outcomes on their horizons. Hers was bleaker than her cousin's; the look in her parents' eyes told him as much. As if seeing the two for himself, mentally documenting the obvious and then the not-so obvious distinctions between them both, wasn't testament enough.
He was the new kid: under suspicion from the start. His name alone raised eyebrows, morphed figures into hard stone, faces defined by the contours of a glare.
It was the life he'd never really led: the one he was born into; but never brought up in.
Nothing was what it seemed; he knew that better than anyone. Only it wasn't such a superficial world he now resided in. It was ever consuming and the mere taste could leave you aching for more; he bore no naïveté so they begrudgingly accepted him as one of their own.
The UES was a black hole, he soon discovered, and he was sucked in just like the rest of them. He added to the collection, and soon Pandora's Box spilled across the streets of Manhattan.
Everyone had their secrets; and where secrets spin webs, scandal runs riot.
He should've known: it was the definition of his life, after all.
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He wasn't convinced to run now would be the best option though – it was the first time he'd stopped short before his feet hit the tarmac and the wheels left the runway.
She did that to him.
She made him think twice.
She made him want to stay.
She made him want to fight.
And he'd be damned if he let her face the aftermath of it all alone.
She asked for him, called out for him; whispered his name as she choked on her own blood.
He couldn't leave her after that.
He loved her.
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TBC…
A/N: the few lines about him lying down next to her are inspired from a small section in 'My Sister's Keeper'
Also, this is going to flashback to everything that's happened. It will mainly surround the lives of the children, but the adults will be heavily involved – in how they influence the youngsters as well as their own interactions with one another as well as their children, and things like that.
Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think.
Steph
xxx