Legacy
Chapter 7
"Mom! Wake up! It's Christmas! Come on Mark!" Adam banged on the bedroom door as he yelled.
"What time is it?" Mark groaned.
"7:01" She laughed. "I told him he had to stay in bed till seven."
"Mom!"
"Come here Adam." She called to him. "Merry Christmas baby!" She told him as she hugged him.
"Merry Christmas! Now get up!"
"It's too early. Go back to bed." Mark grumbled.
"No Mark you gotta get up! It's Christmas!"
"It's early, that's what it is." He teased him. "And I'm Jewish. So I get to sleep in." He rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head.
Adam gave Chelsea a look and she nodded her head. Just then he launched himself onto the bed, diving at Mark, starting to tickle him. "You gotta get up Mark! You gotta! Wait till you see all the stuff out there!"
"Alright, alright, I'm getting up!" He laughed as he grabbed Adam, pinning him to the bed and tickling him back.
"I'll go make coffee." Chelsea told them, getting up. "Besides, we have to leave here by eleven to get to my parent's for dinner." She got the coffee as Adam dragged Mark out to the living room. He started digging through boxes, showing Mark which presents belonged to who.
"Okay, settle down. We are going to do this in an orderly fashion. Got it?"
"Oh yeah, right. Whatever mom!" He grinned.
While Adam handed out the stockings, she started cinnamon rolls. By the time the rolls and the coffee were ready, Adam was about to explode. "Okay, we can start." She sat down on the couch as she handed Mark, who was sitting on the floor with Adam a cinnamon roll. Adam ripped into his first package toward the front of the tree. After another, Chelsea made him find one for her and Mark.
"Here Mom, this one's for you from Mark." He handed her the blue box with the green ribbon on it. "Open it!"
"I am Adam. Relax!" She laughed at him while glancing at Mark who had a small grin on his face. "Let's see." She pulled the paper off the box. "It's a ." She opened the box. "A coffee cup. You got me a coffee cup?" She asked him, holding up the plain blue coffee mug.
"Well yeah, I thought you could use an extra one." He grinned.
Adam opened up another gift, before handing Chelsea shoebox size gift from Mark. She ripped the blue paper and green ribbon, opening up the box to find another coffee cup.
"I wanted to make sure you had a pair." He told her, still grinning.
"You're very odd Mr. Cohen." She laughed, somewhat confused. "Okay, Adam you can open the big one, from me."
Pieces of paper and ribbon went flying as he tore into the package. "Oh wow! A keyboard! This is so much cooler than your old one! And way better than just a boring old piano! Thanks Mom." He hugged her.
"Your welcome baby." She grinned. They watched Mark open up his gift of two DVD's from Adam.
"Great! Two of my favorites."
"Can I watch them?" Adam asked. "I've never seen either of those."
"No!" Both Chelsea and Mark told him at the same time, before breaking out into a laugh. "Give your mom the one over there Adam." Mark told him, still grinning and holding the NC-17 rated movies.
Chelsea opened up the box to find another coffee cup. "I'm detecting a pattern here." She laughed. She did think it was odd. She could tell they were a set of coffee cups. She couldn't begin to imagine why Mark would get her coffee cups, and then split them up like that too. Maybe they did stuff like that for Hanukkah. Who knew? She didn't really care if he got her anything, she was just happy to have him there. "What's left?"
"A big one for me, and a small one for you. Both of them are from Mark." He told her.
"Open yours up Adam." Mark told him, as he grinned at Chelsea. Adam lifted the box some.
"It's not very heavy. I don't know what it is." He said as he ripped the paper off the box. "Oh wow! My own guitar!"
"Yeah, you were doing so good I figured you needed one of your own. And Roger's old acoustic is too big for you, so I though you'd do even better on a smaller one."
"Wow thanks Mark!" Adam hugged him. "I love it."
"That was so sweet of you to get him that." Chelsea told him, kissing his cheek.
"But you still have to practice piano. And do your homework first."
"Yeah," Adam laughed, "okay."
"Someday, when you outgrow it, I'll give you the full size acoustic. When you're big enough for it."
Chelsea just watched them. She knew how much Roger's guitars' meant to Mark. And here he was promising one of them to Adam. She was almost ready to cry.
"Here Mom, here's the last one, it's from Mark." Adam broke into her thoughts as he handed her another box, this one wrapped in red paper.
"Oh, okay." She pulled the paper away and lifted the lid off the box, laughing as she saw what was inside it. "Well, now we have a matching set of four!"
"Look inside the cup." Mark told her as he scooted closer to her on the floor. He kept talking as he watched. "After the video store, we went for coffee. I asked you to go get coffee. I never do stuff like that." She picked up the cup and turned it over as the little velvet box came out.
"Oh Mark." She said softly.
"Open it." He moved up on the couch next to her.
Slowly she lifted the lid, exposing the ring inside. "Oh my god. Oh my god!"
"Chelsea, I love you. And I love Adam. Really. And I want to marry you. Please?" He expected his voice to crack from nervousness as he spoke, but for once in his life, it came out strong, with out any stutter or anything.
"Oh my god Mark!"
"Well?" Adam yelled.
Mark laughed. "Yeah, well?"
"Yes I'll marry you." She threw her arms around his neck. "God yes. I love you Mark."
"I love you too Chelsea." He told her, kissing her.
"Cool! Does this mean Mark's gonna move in here all the time?"
"Yes, it means Mark's going to be here, all the time." Just then the phone rang and Adam got up to answer it.
When he was gone, Mark leaned in closer to her and helped her put the ring on. "Hey." He whispered. "I want you to know something."
"What?" She asked him, still somewhat amazed.
"I love you. I really do. And I want you to know that I bought that before we ever had that conversation two weeks ago. About Adam and Roger. I just wanted you to know that."
"Oh god Mark. I love you. I really, really do." She kissed him again. Just then they realized Adam was telling whoever was on the phone that they were getting married and Mark was going to be living there all the time. She had to laugh as they heard Maureen's voice screaming out of the phone from all the way over on the couch. As Mark got up to talk to her, Chelsea just watched them. Mark took the phone from Adam and put him into a headlock in one easy move. She realized he really did love both her and her son.
**********
"Well it's a good thing your brother drove us back," Mark said as he opened the apartment door. "We never would have been able to get all this stuff back on the train."
"Yeah! We made out good this year!"
"Adam! That is not the point of Christmas." Chelsea told him, trying hard to keep a straight face.
"Oh, come on Mom, you know I'm kidding."
"Yeah, Mom, he's kidding." Mark laughed as he helped Adam carry all his presents into his room.
Chelsea watched them walk away. She loved seeing them together. And Mark wanted to marry her. Her and Adam. He would finally have a father. Why that thought thrilled her beyond belief, it also made her sad at the same time. All that was going through her mind. Finally she heard Mark talking to her. "I'm sorry. What sweetie?"
"I said what are you doing?"
"Um, just thinking."
"Oh." He pulled her onto his lap in the armchair, kissing her. "Did you have a good Christmas?"
"Yes." She kissed him. "It was wonderful. And you're wonderful. I love you Mark."
"Good." He kissed her again then just watched her. She was sort of staring off into space. "Chels, are you okay?"
"Yes. But I think I could be better." She got up off his lap and walked over to the hallway. "Adam, come here. I want to talk to you."
Mark watched her. He wasn't sure if she was upset or what.
"Yeah?" Adam said, walking into the room.
"Sit down a minute. I have to tell you something." She pulled him down onto the couch with her.
"I didn't do anything. I swear!"
"No, sweetie, you're not in trouble." She almost laughed, but not quite. Chelsea looked at Mark for a little support, but he had no idea what she was doing and she could tell that from his expression. "I need to tell you something. It's about your dad."
Mark's head shot up. What was she doing?
Adam sat there patiently waiting for her to continue. Mark had just about jumped out of her chair as she said that. Chelsea took a deep breath. "Remember what I told you about your dad?"
"Uh huh. You said he couldn't take care of us, but that didn't make him a bad person."
"Right. Actually he was a really nice person. He was a musician. A guitar player in a band. And he wrote songs. He wasn't perfect by a long shot. He did a lot of drugs, which was bad, and he had a lot of problems, but he was still a really great guy. You understand?" Adam nodded. "Okay. Well, you need to know this. I mean you should know this. He was your father, and I want you to know about him."
"What was his name?"
Chelsea looked at Mark then back to Adam. "His name was Roger. Roger Davis. And he was Mark's best friend."
"You mean the guy who used to live with Mark? The one who's guitar I been playing? That's my dad?" He asked, wide eyed.
"Yes. He was your dad. And I'm sorry you never knew him. I never even told him you were born. And that's my fault, so I don't want you getting mad at him, because he didn't do anything. He just never knew. I should have told him, but I didn't. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never told you. I'm sorry I never told him. I'm sorry you never got to meet him, and I'm very sorry he never got to meet you."
"It's okay Mom. Don't cry."
"But I want you to know about him. Okay? I want you to know what ever you want. And Mark can tell you. Mark knows everything about him." She was sobbing by this point. "Mark can tell you how you look like him, and talk like him, and smart mouth like him, and play guitar like him. Mark can tell you anything you want to know. Okay baby? You just ask him. Okay?"
"Yeah Mommy." He said, hugging her.
Mark had the feeling Adam was getting a little freaked out, Chelsea being all up set and all, when he realized he had tears running down his face as well. Great, he thought, now we're probably both freaking the kid out. He wiped his face. Pull it together Cohen. Just because she wants you to tell her son everything about his father is no reason to bawl like a baby.
Adam turned to Mark. "You really knew my dad?"
"Yeah, I really knew your dad." Mark felt his face form into a smile. He got up from the chair and walked over to join them on the couch. "He was my best friend. Pretty much my whole life. Since younger than you are. And he was a great guy. And if he had know about you, he would have really liked you." Of course that would have been after he returned from where ever he ran away to that time Mark thought. No, Chelsea had been right in not telling Roger. At least then. It would have either sent him packing, or heavier into the drugs. Later, after he was clean and had his life more together would have been different. Unfortunately, Roger ran out of "later's." "But your mom was right, when you were born, he wouldn't have been able to take care of you, and then she just didn't know where to find him, or that he had stopped taking drugs or fixed his life some. But if he had, he would have really, really loved you."
"That's cool." Adam nodded.
"Yes, it is. It really, really is." Chelsea smiled through the tears that were still running down her face. She pulled Mark and Adam into a hug. "It really is.
Chapter 7
"Mom! Wake up! It's Christmas! Come on Mark!" Adam banged on the bedroom door as he yelled.
"What time is it?" Mark groaned.
"7:01" She laughed. "I told him he had to stay in bed till seven."
"Mom!"
"Come here Adam." She called to him. "Merry Christmas baby!" She told him as she hugged him.
"Merry Christmas! Now get up!"
"It's too early. Go back to bed." Mark grumbled.
"No Mark you gotta get up! It's Christmas!"
"It's early, that's what it is." He teased him. "And I'm Jewish. So I get to sleep in." He rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head.
Adam gave Chelsea a look and she nodded her head. Just then he launched himself onto the bed, diving at Mark, starting to tickle him. "You gotta get up Mark! You gotta! Wait till you see all the stuff out there!"
"Alright, alright, I'm getting up!" He laughed as he grabbed Adam, pinning him to the bed and tickling him back.
"I'll go make coffee." Chelsea told them, getting up. "Besides, we have to leave here by eleven to get to my parent's for dinner." She got the coffee as Adam dragged Mark out to the living room. He started digging through boxes, showing Mark which presents belonged to who.
"Okay, settle down. We are going to do this in an orderly fashion. Got it?"
"Oh yeah, right. Whatever mom!" He grinned.
While Adam handed out the stockings, she started cinnamon rolls. By the time the rolls and the coffee were ready, Adam was about to explode. "Okay, we can start." She sat down on the couch as she handed Mark, who was sitting on the floor with Adam a cinnamon roll. Adam ripped into his first package toward the front of the tree. After another, Chelsea made him find one for her and Mark.
"Here Mom, this one's for you from Mark." He handed her the blue box with the green ribbon on it. "Open it!"
"I am Adam. Relax!" She laughed at him while glancing at Mark who had a small grin on his face. "Let's see." She pulled the paper off the box. "It's a ." She opened the box. "A coffee cup. You got me a coffee cup?" She asked him, holding up the plain blue coffee mug.
"Well yeah, I thought you could use an extra one." He grinned.
Adam opened up another gift, before handing Chelsea shoebox size gift from Mark. She ripped the blue paper and green ribbon, opening up the box to find another coffee cup.
"I wanted to make sure you had a pair." He told her, still grinning.
"You're very odd Mr. Cohen." She laughed, somewhat confused. "Okay, Adam you can open the big one, from me."
Pieces of paper and ribbon went flying as he tore into the package. "Oh wow! A keyboard! This is so much cooler than your old one! And way better than just a boring old piano! Thanks Mom." He hugged her.
"Your welcome baby." She grinned. They watched Mark open up his gift of two DVD's from Adam.
"Great! Two of my favorites."
"Can I watch them?" Adam asked. "I've never seen either of those."
"No!" Both Chelsea and Mark told him at the same time, before breaking out into a laugh. "Give your mom the one over there Adam." Mark told him, still grinning and holding the NC-17 rated movies.
Chelsea opened up the box to find another coffee cup. "I'm detecting a pattern here." She laughed. She did think it was odd. She could tell they were a set of coffee cups. She couldn't begin to imagine why Mark would get her coffee cups, and then split them up like that too. Maybe they did stuff like that for Hanukkah. Who knew? She didn't really care if he got her anything, she was just happy to have him there. "What's left?"
"A big one for me, and a small one for you. Both of them are from Mark." He told her.
"Open yours up Adam." Mark told him, as he grinned at Chelsea. Adam lifted the box some.
"It's not very heavy. I don't know what it is." He said as he ripped the paper off the box. "Oh wow! My own guitar!"
"Yeah, you were doing so good I figured you needed one of your own. And Roger's old acoustic is too big for you, so I though you'd do even better on a smaller one."
"Wow thanks Mark!" Adam hugged him. "I love it."
"That was so sweet of you to get him that." Chelsea told him, kissing his cheek.
"But you still have to practice piano. And do your homework first."
"Yeah," Adam laughed, "okay."
"Someday, when you outgrow it, I'll give you the full size acoustic. When you're big enough for it."
Chelsea just watched them. She knew how much Roger's guitars' meant to Mark. And here he was promising one of them to Adam. She was almost ready to cry.
"Here Mom, here's the last one, it's from Mark." Adam broke into her thoughts as he handed her another box, this one wrapped in red paper.
"Oh, okay." She pulled the paper away and lifted the lid off the box, laughing as she saw what was inside it. "Well, now we have a matching set of four!"
"Look inside the cup." Mark told her as he scooted closer to her on the floor. He kept talking as he watched. "After the video store, we went for coffee. I asked you to go get coffee. I never do stuff like that." She picked up the cup and turned it over as the little velvet box came out.
"Oh Mark." She said softly.
"Open it." He moved up on the couch next to her.
Slowly she lifted the lid, exposing the ring inside. "Oh my god. Oh my god!"
"Chelsea, I love you. And I love Adam. Really. And I want to marry you. Please?" He expected his voice to crack from nervousness as he spoke, but for once in his life, it came out strong, with out any stutter or anything.
"Oh my god Mark!"
"Well?" Adam yelled.
Mark laughed. "Yeah, well?"
"Yes I'll marry you." She threw her arms around his neck. "God yes. I love you Mark."
"I love you too Chelsea." He told her, kissing her.
"Cool! Does this mean Mark's gonna move in here all the time?"
"Yes, it means Mark's going to be here, all the time." Just then the phone rang and Adam got up to answer it.
When he was gone, Mark leaned in closer to her and helped her put the ring on. "Hey." He whispered. "I want you to know something."
"What?" She asked him, still somewhat amazed.
"I love you. I really do. And I want you to know that I bought that before we ever had that conversation two weeks ago. About Adam and Roger. I just wanted you to know that."
"Oh god Mark. I love you. I really, really do." She kissed him again. Just then they realized Adam was telling whoever was on the phone that they were getting married and Mark was going to be living there all the time. She had to laugh as they heard Maureen's voice screaming out of the phone from all the way over on the couch. As Mark got up to talk to her, Chelsea just watched them. Mark took the phone from Adam and put him into a headlock in one easy move. She realized he really did love both her and her son.
**********
"Well it's a good thing your brother drove us back," Mark said as he opened the apartment door. "We never would have been able to get all this stuff back on the train."
"Yeah! We made out good this year!"
"Adam! That is not the point of Christmas." Chelsea told him, trying hard to keep a straight face.
"Oh, come on Mom, you know I'm kidding."
"Yeah, Mom, he's kidding." Mark laughed as he helped Adam carry all his presents into his room.
Chelsea watched them walk away. She loved seeing them together. And Mark wanted to marry her. Her and Adam. He would finally have a father. Why that thought thrilled her beyond belief, it also made her sad at the same time. All that was going through her mind. Finally she heard Mark talking to her. "I'm sorry. What sweetie?"
"I said what are you doing?"
"Um, just thinking."
"Oh." He pulled her onto his lap in the armchair, kissing her. "Did you have a good Christmas?"
"Yes." She kissed him. "It was wonderful. And you're wonderful. I love you Mark."
"Good." He kissed her again then just watched her. She was sort of staring off into space. "Chels, are you okay?"
"Yes. But I think I could be better." She got up off his lap and walked over to the hallway. "Adam, come here. I want to talk to you."
Mark watched her. He wasn't sure if she was upset or what.
"Yeah?" Adam said, walking into the room.
"Sit down a minute. I have to tell you something." She pulled him down onto the couch with her.
"I didn't do anything. I swear!"
"No, sweetie, you're not in trouble." She almost laughed, but not quite. Chelsea looked at Mark for a little support, but he had no idea what she was doing and she could tell that from his expression. "I need to tell you something. It's about your dad."
Mark's head shot up. What was she doing?
Adam sat there patiently waiting for her to continue. Mark had just about jumped out of her chair as she said that. Chelsea took a deep breath. "Remember what I told you about your dad?"
"Uh huh. You said he couldn't take care of us, but that didn't make him a bad person."
"Right. Actually he was a really nice person. He was a musician. A guitar player in a band. And he wrote songs. He wasn't perfect by a long shot. He did a lot of drugs, which was bad, and he had a lot of problems, but he was still a really great guy. You understand?" Adam nodded. "Okay. Well, you need to know this. I mean you should know this. He was your father, and I want you to know about him."
"What was his name?"
Chelsea looked at Mark then back to Adam. "His name was Roger. Roger Davis. And he was Mark's best friend."
"You mean the guy who used to live with Mark? The one who's guitar I been playing? That's my dad?" He asked, wide eyed.
"Yes. He was your dad. And I'm sorry you never knew him. I never even told him you were born. And that's my fault, so I don't want you getting mad at him, because he didn't do anything. He just never knew. I should have told him, but I didn't. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never told you. I'm sorry I never told him. I'm sorry you never got to meet him, and I'm very sorry he never got to meet you."
"It's okay Mom. Don't cry."
"But I want you to know about him. Okay? I want you to know what ever you want. And Mark can tell you. Mark knows everything about him." She was sobbing by this point. "Mark can tell you how you look like him, and talk like him, and smart mouth like him, and play guitar like him. Mark can tell you anything you want to know. Okay baby? You just ask him. Okay?"
"Yeah Mommy." He said, hugging her.
Mark had the feeling Adam was getting a little freaked out, Chelsea being all up set and all, when he realized he had tears running down his face as well. Great, he thought, now we're probably both freaking the kid out. He wiped his face. Pull it together Cohen. Just because she wants you to tell her son everything about his father is no reason to bawl like a baby.
Adam turned to Mark. "You really knew my dad?"
"Yeah, I really knew your dad." Mark felt his face form into a smile. He got up from the chair and walked over to join them on the couch. "He was my best friend. Pretty much my whole life. Since younger than you are. And he was a great guy. And if he had know about you, he would have really liked you." Of course that would have been after he returned from where ever he ran away to that time Mark thought. No, Chelsea had been right in not telling Roger. At least then. It would have either sent him packing, or heavier into the drugs. Later, after he was clean and had his life more together would have been different. Unfortunately, Roger ran out of "later's." "But your mom was right, when you were born, he wouldn't have been able to take care of you, and then she just didn't know where to find him, or that he had stopped taking drugs or fixed his life some. But if he had, he would have really, really loved you."
"That's cool." Adam nodded.
"Yes, it is. It really, really is." Chelsea smiled through the tears that were still running down her face. She pulled Mark and Adam into a hug. "It really is.
