Both Bobby and Ronnie Anne had no idea what to expect when they sat opposite of their mother and Roberto. They both had somber expressions on their faces, and Robertos eyes darted around nervously.
After a few awkward seconds, Maria broke the silence with a cough, then began to talk.
"Kids… this IS your father. He isn't acting. I want you to both know that this man? This is your real father. Got it?"
They both nodded. Maria continued.
"Well, then, me and Roberto both decided that it's time to tell you two some things we've never told you before-"
"Like how we met, where we got married, where you were concieved… oh, not that? Alright, then…"
"ANYWAYS…" Maria said, glaring at her former husband. "Roberto basically already said it. Minus the birth part, of course."
"I, for one, think it's valuable information…"
"We aren't talking about it, Roberto, end of story. Are you kids ready?"
"Yep…"
"I guess so."
Maria took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she did. Bobby and Ronnie Anne glanced at each other with a mix of dread and curiosity. Roberto sat on the couch, picking at a scab on his finger.
"It all started, what was it… twenty years ago? 1998?"
"I think so…" Roberto replied, still not completely focused. "It was the night of my big Lucha Libre match…"
Ronnie Annes ears perked up at the mention of professional wrestling, and she gave a toothy grin.
"Lucha Libre? YOU were a wrestler, dad?"
"Well… technically, yes, but it isn't all THAT simple…"
Twenty Years Earlier…
"I was just out of school at that point. I was 18 and living in Mexico with me padres, and the world was my oyster! I had always been athletic in school, so I decided to give sports a try…"
In the middle of a large auditorium sat a square wrestling ring, a large crowd gathered around it. A tall and handsome man stood in the center of the ring, wearing a fancy tuxedo.
"WELCOME, everyone, to SUPER LUCHA LIBRE 68! We have a stacked lineup tonight, so I sincerely hope you're all ready to witness greatness! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Yeah, that was Pablo… he was the best announcer in the buisness. He could sell anyone to those crowds, from what I heard. Even ME...
"Y ahora, al ingresar al ring desde la ciudad de Chihuahua, con un peso de 134 libras y una estatura de 5' 7", a local competitor, ¡EEEEEEEEELLLL JEEEEEEFEEEEE!"
"Yep, that was my name. "The Boss!" Cool, huh?"
A short and wirey young man came out from the backstage area, waving to the crowd with a massive grin. A chorus of boos shot up immediately; the crowd didn't pay to watch local talent.
"I had everything already figured out by then! I had the bright blue leggings, the cape, the silver glittery mask to finish it off! I was ready to take on the world!"
"AND NOW! Entering the ring, from Ciudad de Mexico, weighing in at over 300 pounds, standing 7 FEET TALL, RAMOOOOOOOONE THE RAVISHEEEEEEERRR!"
"Exxxxcept for that. Ramon the Ravisher was probably the best Lucha stsr in the company at that point, maybe even the WORLD. He hadn't lost a match up until then…"
"And you beat him into submission! Right?"
"Ha! Yeah, no… it wasn't pleasant, to say the least…"
"HA! THIS is the best you could give me, Pablo?! I like me carne a little cooked, if you know what I mean!"
"Hey, listen!" El Jefe said from his corner of the ring. "You're going down, Ramon! You're underestimating me!"
The crowd roared in approval for Ramon. He answered their cries with a wave of his hand, which sent them into a frenzy.
While El Jefe pounced up and down in the corner, Ramon looked on in amusement at the kid. Pablo stepped up to the microphone as Jefe cracked his knuckles together.
"Oh, my! We have shocking developments from backstage, fans!"
Both men stopped what they were doing. This wasn't part of the nights script… whatever it was, it had to be the real deal.
"I've just received word from backstage that EL JEFE was caught calling Ramons wife, and I quote, 'a wretched old hag!' Shocking! Anyway, let the match begin! Ring the bell!"
"Now, me being the decent man that I was, I never said anything remotely like that to ANYBODY…"
"Not the story you told me…"
"Maria! Anyways, I tried to talk my way out of it…"
"Wait, what?"
Ramons eyes slanted, and El Jefe swore he saw steam come from his ears. He slowly walked over to the local competitor, stomping with every step.
"Wait, WAIT! I-I-I never said that! It's a lie!"
Ramon either didn't hear or didn't care. He lowered his head, his teeth gritted.
"Hey, buddy, can't we just talk this out?! I'm pretty sure this is all just a big misundAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Ramon, with an unearthly scream, started to sprint at Jefe. He had no time to react as he was flattened by the behemoth, taking his breath away. The crowd roared; they loved the scene of carnage beginning to spill out of the ring.
"Oooohhh… I think you broke something…"
Ramon grabbed his opponent and began landing punches onto the defenseless kid. He pitifully tried to punch him back, only reinforcing his anger.
"YOU CALLED MY WIFE UGLY!"
"N-NO, I DIDN'T! PLEASE!"
Ramon picked him up with ease and tossed him across the ring, sending him face first into a turnbuckle. He staggered around, only to fall victim to a clothesline.
"By this point, I had had enough with this match. So, naturally, I tried to fight back…"
He suddenly got to his feet, and mustering all the strength he had left, he ran, bounced off the rope, and delivered a semi-decent hurricarana.
El Jefe fell to the ground, too weak to get back up. Ramon, however, immediately recovered and stared at the teen with pure hatred.
"I was going to stop, Jefe… now? YOU DIE."
Ramon crawled over the ropes and leaped the short distance to the floor. El Jefe could only lay in fear as his opponent pulled a table out… and another...
From under each side of the ring, he grabbed the weapons and set them up at the entrance ramp, two on top of the other two. He leaped back into the ring, an evil grin on his face.
"Ramon, please, please, please-"
"TOO LATE! THIS IS FOR ROSALINA!"
He picked him up by the throat and put him crotch first on his shoulders. El Jefe panicked; he was about to go through the tables.
"Wait wait wait WAAAAIT!"
Ramon launched him down with as much force as possible. The tables collapsed under the pressure, and Jefe landed in a heap at the bottom. He coughed up a bit of blood before finally saying a word:
"Ouch…"
Present...
"Four broken ribs, a fractured tailbone, SEVEN missing teeth, a concussion, plates inserted into my spine… I was in the hospital for a solid MONTH before I even got out of BED."
"Jesus…" Bobby said under his breath. "How are you still alive?!"
"Don't ask me! Ramon didn't even get punished for it. I vowed never to go back to it again… and you see why! NEVER wrestle, kids! YOU. WILL. DIE."
Ronnie Anne, while disappointed, spoke up next.
"Uhhh… that was cool and all, but how does that relate to you two meeting?"
Maria and Roberto looked at each other… and laughed.
"Oh, that's funny…" Maria chortled. "I was your father's nurse after Ramon tried to murder him…
Back Again…
El Jefe sat in his full body cast, not even paying attention to the nurse that had walked in to his room. He stared straight ahead as a bowl of soup was placed in front of him, the nurse stirring it for him.
"You don't look good."
"-pfft- You think?"
He moved his eyes over to his left. A short, attractive nurse was looking at him with a bemused smile.
"What did you DO to yourself? Wait, let me guess: motorcycle accident?"
"Ha!" he laughed, looking at his soup. "Lucha Libre. Even worse."
"Ouch… you don't look like a wrestler."
"Yeah, that's what me madre said, too… this is what I get for not listening to my elders."
To his surprise, she laughed at the joke. She walked over and sat at his bedside, a spoon in her hand.
"Well, Mr Macho, I think it's your dinner time. We have steak and potatoes, but since you cant eat solids for the next three weeks, we have soup for you."
"Yay, more soup…" he said as she raised the spoon to his mouth. "It better be chicken noodle…"
"mmmm, nope, just french onion broth. Can't really be too picky, can you?"
"Whatever… what's your name?"
She looked up at him, surprised.
"Why do you want to know that?"
"Well… I mean, you're kind of the only person I've talked to since I got here… I figured I'd make a few friends before going home."
"Well, in that case... Maria Casagrande. And you are…"
"Roberto Alejandro Martinez-Milan Luis Santiago, at your service. Most people call me Bobby, though…"
"Yeeeah, I think we'll stick with that one…"
Present Day Again…
"So, we got to know each other in the dinner sessions of the day. Your mother was studying nursing abroad from Royal Woods Community College, and we kind of just hit it off after that…"
"And about six months later, I was pregnant."
"Yep… we were married soon after that. I fully recovered and gained a few inches, obviously, and the rest is history."
"Bobby, you were born here, in Chicago. Your father named you… I wanted you to be Hector II."
"Hector the Second… no one used those back then!"
"Well, better than giving him five middle names!"
"At least I wanted to-"
"Guys, GUYS!" Ronnie Anne interjected. "What about me?"
"Oh... " Roberto said, becoming silent. "Well, you, Ronalda, were… a surprise, to say the least. Maria…"
"Well, you were born after me and your father divorced. He's never seen you before, honey."
"Geez, way to be subtle…" he mumbled as Ronnie Anne looked at him in anger.
"Uhh…" Bobby interrupted. "Why DID you two divorce? Not trying to be picky or anything, but…"
The two parents looked at each other, before looking back.
"Tell them, Roberto."
"Maria, I-"
"TELL THEM."
He sighed, and, his voice shaking, admitted the reason.
"Well… me and your mom were together for 7 years at that point. But after Bobbys sixth birthday, I think it was… I realized that-"
"Hold on, this is a direct quote…"
"Maria! Anyways… I realized that I was a LOSER."
Both of his kids looked at him as if he had told them he killed Santa Clause. He cleared his throat once, looking around anxiously.
"Well, let me explain. I had nothing going for me. After the Lucha Libre incident, I realized I never went to college. I had no job, no formal secondary education, is that how to say it? I couldn't keep any jobs that I had down for long, and… I got depressed. It was like a… what are those things…"
"A midlife crisis?"
"YES!" He said, clapping his hands together and pointing at Bobby. "I had a midlife crisis at 25!"
"Dad, that's probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard…"
"But listen! I loved both your mother and you, Bobby… and Ronalda. But I was wasting my life with you guys. I saw after the wrestling match that… well, life is SHORT. The doctor said I was lucky to be alive… and there I was, barely collecting paychecks to keep my family going. I wanted to see the world! Experience everything I wanted to do before I inevitably left! Did, did I use that word right? Yeah? Alright… so I left."
"So…" Ronnie Anne said, standing up. "You left us because you wanted to be a WORLD TRAVELER?!"
"Well… sort of, yeah- OW! NOT YOU, TOO!"
"YOU BASTARD!" Ronnie Anne shouted as Bobby held her back, her hand still red from the slap. Luckily, this one didn't hurt as much.
"RONALDA!"
"No, no, it's fine… I understand. I was greedy, you guys. I was selfish. I didn't see it back then, though…"
"Yeah, you think?"
"Maria… anyways, I told your mother, and she was mad, but I didn't know why. I always said I'd come back and help eventually, but she didn't like that. So, we divorced, and I left everything except my car to your mother. And then I came back here. I saw everything I wanted to see. And you know what I think?"
He stood up, empowered by his words of inspiration.
"It's mediocre! Sure, Las Vegas was nice, and Brazil was beautiful… but now I want to see another side of life again! I want to see the family side of it again! I want to be a father again!"
Both Bobby and Ronnie Anne sat stone faced. Roberto turned to them, getting down on one knee.
"Listen, guys… I know I left. And I'm sorry. I'm not asking your mother to marry me again, if you're wondering that… our love isn't there anymore. AND I don't plan on living with you guys here. I have an apartment across the city. All I want, all I'm asking is this… can I be your dad again?"
They looked at him, conflicting personalities on their faces. Ronnie Anne was stone faced still, while Bobbys eyes were raised and his lip quivered.
"... I don't see why not."
"Yes, Dad. I forgive you."
They didn't see, but out of the corner of his eyes, a tear fell from Roberto Santiagos face. He stood up, and with his lip shaking, opened his arms for a hug. Ronnie Anne slowly embraced him, while Bobby latched on and hardly let go in the end. Roberto looked over to Maria, who was still on the couch.
"Maria? They're your kids too, you know…"
She comtemplated it for a minute before getting up and wrapping her hands around Bobby and Ronnie Anne. They stayed that way for what seemed like an eternity…
Finally united again. Finally a family again.
Before we go any further, I want to shout out CrazyManCody895 for giving me the idea for this backstory. He was the one that came up with the El Jeff name in his fanfic, "Baby Daddy Bobby," which is really good! I recommend it to everyone! Hopefully, the Roberto in THIS version doesn't end up like he does in that story, but hey! You never know! This is not the end of the Santiago family by any means! Stayed tuned throughot the summer!