I don't own MR
Sarah Ride had never expected to have a child at sixteen. Much less a beautiful baby boy who no matter how hard she tried, couldn't let slip through her fingers. In the eight months of torture she had gone through she had somehow managed to fall in love with the prematurely born child in her arms. He was as fragile as a glass vase resting on the edge of a tall table, and from the looks of it, didn't seem to be worth the time spent in raising him to full health, and yet, Sarah found herself wrapped around her child's little finger before he had even opened his eyes.
She smiled at her baby boy, who rested silently in her arms folded in a blanket as blue as the sky had been that morning before the storm erupted in the midst of her drive to the hospital. He hadn't woken from his deep slumber yet, but when he did she would be there for him, holding his little hand in her own as she promised to face the struggle head on.
"Miss Ride, have you thought of a name for that beautiful boy yet?" At the chipper voice intervening with her thoughts, the girl looked up to see a nurse dressed in light blue scrubs smiling brightly at her, or maybe at the nameless child in her arms.
"A name?" Sarah breathed out, turning towards the small lump of flesh that rested against her heart as it beat a lullaby fit only for her son to sleep to. "I didn't even think I was going to keep him." She finally admitted. How could you name such a perfect creature? Who gave a sixteen year old irresponsible teenager the right to name something so amazing?
"You can think about it as long as you'd like, Miss Ride. Maybe you should sleep on it? I could take him off to the-"
"No!" Sarah interrupted harshly, flickering her eyes towards her precious baby boy as he squirmed meekly in her arms, as if he wanted to cry out from the obnoxious sound but couldn't. "I mean, I'd much rather just keep him here with me." She added in a much calmer voice, and was rewarded by the crinkling of eyelids as they attempted to squint open.
A grin like no other fell over the new mother's face as her baby boy blinked his eyes open, revealing two obsidian orbs that twinkled like the night sky in the middle of a country field. The nameless child let a strange noise escape from his throat as he peered up at his mother, his wise dark eyes bright with the fresh excitement of being a newcomer in the world he was so graciously brought into.
"Fang," the girl laying in bed with the baby in her arms breathed out, causing the nurse to jump with a start.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" She asked, mildly shocked by the name even as the young mother repeated herself. Although it wasn't the strangest label she had heard, it sounded more like a nickname a gang would give their member than a name for a child.
"Fang Ride. That's his name." Sarah spoke with absolute certainty, and upon seeing the nurse's hesitation began to explain. "It was my father's middle name, and I think it suits him just fine."
What a strange middle name, the nurse thought before shrugging it off with a smile. "Alrighty then, Fang Ride it is." She spoke up before walking out of the hospital room to get the paperwork to make it official.
As she stepped out, another person stepped in. A young man about a year older than the girl laying in the bed with her baby, his eyes just as dark as Fang's.
"Hey Sarah, how are you… why do you still have it?" David Walker demanded suddenly as he stepped farther into the room, just enough to see the baby wrapped in a blue blanket in his girlfriend's arms.
"His name is Fang, and I still have him because I've decided I don't want to put him up for adoption. Oh David, come look at him, he's so beautiful." Sarah waved for the love of her life to come closer to the son he never wanted, and the young man begrudgingly did as told, coming closer to look at the small thing in her arms.
"Sarah, we talked about this," David spoke, attempting to wade slowly into murky waters.
"I know, but I… how can you give this little miracle up, Dave? He has your eyes." Sarah added, as if the look-alikes would help him to understand that he had helped create an actual living being. Something that seemed impossible to give up in the girl's eyes. However, in the clueless boy's, he saw nothing but a tragedy waiting to happen. The kid was nothing more than a hazard to their lives. It would drag them down with it to wherever it went, and why would anyone want to venture into the unknown because of a weak child?
"Sarah, I don't care if he's my exact clone. We agreed on adoption. You're giving that thing up before he ruins our lives more than he already has." David snarled in a demanding voice, ready to argue that the child was nothing more than an extra piece of garbage they could throw away.
"Our lives, or your life?" Sarah countered, even with a baby in her arms she still raised her voice, causing the child to begin to cry out of longing for his mother's happy heartbeat, not the hiccuping noise he heard at the moment.
"What are you talking about? I'm trying to save both of us the embarrassment. Sarah, just do us a favor and get rid of it." The father who wished to have never gotten that title bellowed, two steps away from being too close.
"I can't, David! He's my son! I love him," Sarah insisted venomously before turning back to Fang and gently rocking him in her arms. The baby boy's crying didn't halt however, because he could still sense his mother's irritation.
"You don't even know him." David accused.
"I know he's my child, and that's all I need to know." The frustrated girl hissed, appalled by her boyfriend's behavior. She couldn't believe he could be so inconsiderate towards a newborn. His newborn no less.
David sighed, running a hand through his ink black hair and down his face before breathing out the forlorn words he knew would have her be throwing the kid away before her next heartbeat. "But don't you love me?"
The mother's breath caught at this, and she felt her pulse all but combust, causing her son to cry harder and her nerve to diminish faster. She did. She loved her boyfriend so much it hurt to be without him. It hurt to have arguments with him. It hurt to know he could manipulate her like he was trying to do. "Of course," she finally answered, a whisper where her voice had once been.
"Then, if you really do love me, give Fang up." David spoke the child's name with as much sincerity as he could muster as he slowly manipulated his girlfriend into surrender. "After all, it's either he goes or I go," A soft threat to complete the code that would crack her. In the ten minutes she had held the child, it was impossible for her to have loved him more than her own boyfriend.
Without a second thought, Sarah did what she had to do.
"Mommy, can I have my teddy back now?" A five year old boy with obsidian eyes asked impatiently as a twenty-one year old woman pulled the stuffed animal out of the dryer.
"Will you play with him in the mud again?" She asked, already squatting down to the young child's level with the bear in hand.
"No," he promised, his lips jutting out in a slight pout as he reached for his most prized possession that seemed to be just out of reach. The mother thought about it for a moment before smiling and handing it to him.
"Alright, but I mean it. No more dirt on Teddy," She laughed as she picked her son up in her arms and he squealed in delight, a happy boy lost in the bliss of childhood where nothing could go wrong.
"Alright Mommy, put me down!" he giggled as she grabbed his ankles, letting him slowly turn so his head bobbled towards the ground.
Fang squeezed his teddy closer to him as he laughed obnoxiously as his mother carried him over to the couch she slept on most nights in their small, one bedroom apartment before swinging him and dropping him onto it just as their morning routine permitted.
"Again, again!" The little boy shrieked before becoming engulfed in the world the television had flashing on its screen. Sarah chuckled lightly at her son's short attention span before turning towards the TV to see what could have caught his attention so easily. A father and daughter were on the screen, and the scene made Sarah's heart clench, already hearing the question before it even popped out of Fang's childish uncensored mouth.
"Mommy, where's daddy?" Somewhere he'll never hurt you, he doesn't deserve you, stop bringing him up. She wanted to scream, but after all Fang was only a child, and some things were better left as lies when a child was only a child.
"He's on a trip." She answered simply, sitting down next to her son who had become her entire world. "He's flying over the stars," I hope he's in hell. "watching them burn," or burning with them.
"When is he coming home?" The little boy asked with big doe eyes that twinkled with a puppy's curiosity.
"Not for a very long time,"
Never's a very long time.
A slightly heart-wrenching one-shot inspired by The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Which I do not own either).
This was originally supposed to be longer but I found where I ended it to be a wonderful spot. I'm not putting this as completed because I might make it a two-shot.
Review if you liked it?
Stay Majestic
VR