It was a late Friday afternoon. Carson was heading to his car after musical theater club finished. Suddenly out of nowhere a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck Carson. Carson didn't know what happened, one thing he knew he was heading to his car and the next thing he knew he was outside some strange apartment hearing what sounded like his parents yelling.
"I can´t support this. No more, Darren, if you want to go, you can..No, you need to go..GET OUT RIGHT NOW! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, CRISS!" Chris Yelled
"Can't support what Chris? Me? Fine you want me to go I'll leave. Good-bye Colfer" Darren yelled going out the door. Him and Chris had been fighting a lot lately over the smallest things.
Once the door opened Carson hid not knowing if this was a dream of some sort or even if his parents could see him but he remembered that his parent's wouldn't even know who he was.
Darren got into his car and drove away with tears streaming down his face. He loved Chris with all his heart and it hurt when they would fight with each other.
Chris started to cry and scream inconsolably pushing the furniture while a young Carson watched from his room. He loved Darren too but he couldn´t do something to help his parents. Jealousy had been killing them for some time. When had things had begun to go so wrong? What could he do to get back to the top? Chris couldn´t stop crying while the teen Carson was looking at this moment like a landscape of a painting.
Carson didn't know what to do. Should he try and talk to his dad? No, how would he explain why they look so alike. Should he go after Darren and try to get him to talk to Chris? He should but they both needed to calm down first.
Darren kept driving until he got to the beach where he often went with Chris and Carson. He didn't know what to do about him and Chris fighting so often, it wasn't the kind of home he wants his son to grow up in. Darren went and sat on one of the rocks and started to think. He really didn't want to leave his 5 year old son missing a father.
Chris was seriously thinking for hours about the start of the fights, the starting point had been a few months before. Silly at first but the snowball had grown into power not to be stopped. For a moment Chris turned around to see his little boy of five years hiding in his room, isolated as usual. When he had begun to be isolated? He did not want his push his little boy further away from him but he seemed increasingly distant . Would it have been because he saw his parents argue? Chris sighed. He had to do something about it but his pride would not let him run towards where he knew Darren had gone; their somewhere only they know... the beach.
Young Carson always hid in his room when he heard his parents yelling. He wanted them to be happy but they weren't. Older Carson was still hiding not knowing what to do, he didn't even know where Darren had went. Darren sat on the rock and thought about the fights they had and how they were becoming more frequent. He sighed not knowing what do.
Then older Carson had the idea that maybe, whatever had happened after he was struck by lightning, had given him the ability to return to the time when his parents had not been divorced and maybe now he had acquired the maturity enough could make things better than they had been. "This is my second chance and maybe I have to do things right and get my parents to be happy. Maybe I can have the family that I never had". He thought, and went in search of his father.
Carson had walked a while until he found Darren. He hadn't seen Darren in a few years so he didn't know what to say to him. Carson walked over to the rocks near Darren. He stayed quiet for a minute. "Can I sit here?" Carson asked pointing to one of the rocks near Darren.
"I don´t know what happened, things were different before." Whispered Darren, addressing himself and not directly at the boy. His face was dark and looked more aged. Darren was not paying enough attention to the young boy on the rock, never imagined that he was the teenage version of his five year old son. It took several minutes of silence, one could hear the waves. "Sometimes we blame everything around us of the things that happen to us when in fact we are usually to blame ourselves." Carson said and added: "When was the last time you smiled?". Darren thought about it but he didn´t remember.
"Maybe you should do what makes you happy." Carson told Darren. He just wanted to beg Darren to not leave Chris this time but he couldn't. Darren thought about what this teenager had just said. He didn't know this was his son he thought this was just some stranger. Carson remembered the last time he had seen Darren was 5 years ago after that he heard nothing from him. He wanted to have his parents back together again. Darren finally noticed the teen beside him and how much he looked like Chris. "Who are you?" Darren asked.
"That really matters now?". Carson replied worried that his father noticed the similarity, he had to leave before he spoiled things. "It might seem that you have all the time in the world to think on what is happening but do not waste time wondering why things do not work, go and fix it before you can´t." Then the boy hurried back home to talk to Chris, as he left Darren at the seaside, confused.
Once Carson got to the house he didn't know what to do. Should he knock on the door? What if his dad calls the police then what would he do? Carson sighed and knocked on the door unsure of what would happen next.
Chris opened the door but did not seem the same. His perfect face was full of tears that vainly tried dry, his blue eyes had lost their shine and his breath reeked of alcohol. Carson thought he could speak without problems while his father was drunk, otherwise surely notice that was his son. "Who are you? Why are you here?" Colfer asked with his broken voice.
Carson internally sighed knowing that it was rare that Chris wasn't drunk now-a-days. "I'm Caden." He lies. Carson doesn't know what to tell his father on why he is here.
"You remind me of someone but I'm not sure ..." Chris started to say but Carson quickly changed the topic: "I'm from the pharmacy, I came to bring the drugs you ordered a few hours ago." Carson had been living throughout his adolescence with Chris who was a drinker and addicted to pharmaceutical drugs but he couldn´t remember exactly when his father started with these habits. "I didn´t order .. Ok, never mind. Come in, stranger!"
Carson stepped into the house. He didn't really remember much of a childhood or his teenage years where he wasn't looking after Chris after he had passed out. Carson didn't know what to do about the fact he didn't really have any drugs on him except for the pill bottle he had hidden in his pocket from Chris that morning. The date on it was the problem, it was 11 years in the future.
Carson attempted to distract his father before this noticing the strange situation and the fact that he not really leave from the pharmacy. "He left this morning." Chris said sadly as he turned to take a drink of beer that was on the table, "I told him to leave And he just left." Tears began to leave his eyes again, "I didn't want him to go, he should have turned around with his radiant smile and stole a kiss, piss me off with his toddler nonsense and let his pretty curly hair tickle my cheeks. He shouldn´t be have left when I told him to."
"I think sometimes we hurt the people we care about most without meaning to." Carson says. He really doesn't know what else to say about it.
Chris gave a small smile at the boy and stood up to get another beer while the younger version of Carson appeared from his room and walked slowly to the kitchen. Carson was hurt himself with, remember perfectly what he had felt at this time and all that had been required the presence of someone to show him affection, "Come here, little boy."
Little Carson was unsure of this boy in his house. He just went over to Chris and stood by him. Carson knew the younger him probably wouldn't have trusted very many people. He would have already been watching Chris be drunk or high most of the time.
Chris became even worse. Not only did he not notice the presence of the stranger in their kitchen but he did not care for the child. Chris began to mourn again screaming: "He used to say stupid things for no apparent reason and sing songs, it didn't matter that he forgot the lyrics, he always improvised and I smiled. We also went to the beach together and wrote our names in the sand but I told him that it was silly, it didn't seem really silly but I could never tell him. " Chris can´t stop and Carson started to scream: "Even you can tell." Carson wanted to silence the insupportable complaints of his father: "Surely he´s at the beach now, right? Go and tell him what you want before it was too late"
Little Carson ran and hid behind Older Carson when Chris started screaming. He was always afraid when his parents started yelling. Darren still sat at the beach not sure of who the teen that was talking to him was. He hated fighting with Chris so much.
The older Carson toke the younger one in his arms and he could feel the protection and love while they are walking toward the exit door. "You're going to leave me too?" Chris asked. The teenager answered with the child in his arms: "You have to put aside your pride and recovers your lost things. Do it for you if you don´t appreciate you enough, do it for your son who needs his parents together"
Carson walked out the door with the younger him in his arms. He knew he really shouldn't leave too far but he didn't care at the moment. Young Carson set his head on the older him's shoulder and cried. Older Carson stopped and sat on a nearby bench and rubbed the younger him's back soothingly.
"Your parents will get back together, I promise, you won't be alone again" Carson whispered and stroked the child's hair "They met a few years ago, when they worked together in a TV series. They were quite different but they got along well and quickly became friends. They couldn´t be a moment without thinking of the other needed .. "
Little Carson continued crying for a while. Once the younger Carson stopped crying he stayed hugging his older self. Darren knew what he needed to do. He got back in his car and drove back to the house. "Chris?" He called out when he walked inside.
Carson knocked on the door several times but no one answered so he went to the window to look inside and found the house empty. Chris was gone. He quickly realized, probably had gone to the beach. Could they understand each other and remember the love in their hearts? Will that love never die?
Darren ran back to the beach after he realized no one was home. He saw Chris standing by their rocks. "H-Hey." Darren said. Carson and Little Carson watched from far away.
"I got home, but ..". Darren stopped, both were tired of excuses. "So-sorry" they said at the same time and they looked down. Why was it so hard to say what they thought? "Chris" began Darren approaching his beloved and showing a big smile, the kind that not gave him long ago. Little Carson smiled at Older Carson and the last search an old song on his phone: "Teenage Dream"
Little Carson and Big Carson walked over to Chris and Darren. Standing next to each other you could tell that the teenager that had visited both Chris and Darren was their son but much older. Darren looked over and looked shocked at them. Older Carson didn't look right at his parents at all knowing that they would figure out who he was.
Teenage dream was ringing from the guy´s phone and their parents laugh while many memories came to their minds, they were holding their hands. Carson left the little boy with his parents and try to explain everything that had happened but at that moment something changed within him. Something went through his body up and down trying to escape. Just when things were starting to go well and the boy felt the big happy ending, he could remembered the lightning had struck him earlier.
Carson woke up at the hospital with both his dad's standing beside him. They never had their divorce after Carson had went back to the past and had them speak again.
Carson remembered what his life was before he had went back in time and changed it, he also had memories of both his dads being in his lives. Carson sleepily smiled at Chris and noticed he wasn't drunk or high.
"I love you" whispered Carson and saw Darren hugging Chris who cried inconsolably cause his son wasn't dead. His parents hugged him too and when the doctor returned to the room to announce that they would leave the hospital soon, he found a very happy family laughing merrily. "We love you too, son, thanks"
Carson smiled. He finally had the happy family he always wanted.
