This is the last prompt that I have for Duke Universe. As a reminder, all of these prompts/chapters are generated by the readers so unless more come in, this will be the end of the Duke Universe! If there's anything you'd like to see written, please share it! I would love to write more.
Anonymous asked:
Duke Universe song fic please. Can you set it to Glimpse of Us and have it be where Rose chose Duke over Jake and fixed her marriage? Thanks.
Absolutely I can! This will follow the plot of Rose finds out that she is pregnant and it turns out to be Duke's!
Bonus love handed out to anyone who catches the references in this to other shows/movies
The song is Glimpse Of Us by Joji
Warnings for this one: infidelity mentions, swears, slut-shaming, NSFW scenes, sexy references, alcoholism references, mostly written on my phone
She'd take the world off my shoulders
If it was ever hard to move
She'd turn the rain to a rainbow
When I was living in the blue
Duke was almost feeling all right. Almost. He didn't know if he would ever feel completely all right. His wife had cheated on him. His wife, whom he had loved and who he never would have thought stopped loving him back, had left him for someone. Someone that Duke tried to convince himself was lesser than because Duke knew that he was a good man. He was a man that was worth something and he deserved better than to be cheated on.
"She's a whore!" Adela had screamed when he had told his sister. "A stupid, fucked in the head, whore."
Maybe. Duke had been tempted to say the words himself but, at that moment in time, he'd yet to take off his wedding ring. He'd yet to even process. Rose had told him what she had done, he had drank a lot of bourbon, and then he'd taken himself to a hotel room and called his sister. It was something that Duke had always laughed about when it came to him and Rose - when something happened, she'd scamper off to call Rachelle immediately while he was already dialling Adela. He let his mind wander, for a minute, and he wondered if Rose was sitting on the phone in their kitchen, calling Rachelle. He wondered if Rachelle was already on her way from France. He wondered if the other man was already sleeping in his bed - if he hadn't before.
Duke felt sick with everything that he didn't know.
He called Adela.
"I'm only about half an hour away," Adela screeched, loud and on the go as she always was.
"Bring more liquor," Duke rumbled.
He was a man who rarely drank. He was a man who had loved his life so fully that he had never wanted something to take him away from the moment. That man had been stolen from him in seconds, in an after-work conversation with his wife that was supposed to be innocent and loving.
"Brother bear, my trunk is full of it," Adela promised.
Duke paced the floors of his hotel room, unable to think of anything but Rose and not wanting to think of her. He wondered who the man was, who had stolen her away. He wondered why he had not been enough of a man that she would have wanted to stay. He wondered how it had started and who had kissed who first. He wondered things that he didn't think he really wanted the answers to but he knew that the questions would follow him for a very long time, if not forever. He didn't think that there was recovering from a pain like this. Moving on, maybe, focusing on something else, surely, but wouldn't this type of betrayal lurk beneath the skin? Wouldn't it come out when he was happy again? Would he ever be secure enough to be happy again?
Duke nearly cried when he let Adela in through his door, her arms full of his comfort snacks and liquor and DVDs from the collection she insisted on keeping.
"Come on," she said, dumping it all out in the kitchenette and wrapping her arms around him. "Your sister's got you. Your sister's always got you."
And Duke knew that was true.
Why then, if she is so perfect
Do I still wish that it was you?
Perfect don't mean that it's working
So what can I do? (Ooh)
"Now, it's early, but I think we can guess at the gender," said Dr. Grey, "if you want to know."
Rose stared at the ultrasound screen. Jake wasn't with her today, even though he had planned on being. He had gotten a frantic call about yetis and he had kissed her and run out the door. She knew that he would give his whole heart to be here with her right now and she wondered if it was right to find out without him. She looked at the blob on the ultrasound screen and she wondered who this child's father was and she wondered how she had gotten here, that she didn't know if it was her husband or her lover who had fathered her child.
"Do you have the paternity results?" Rose asked Dr. Grey.
"Yes, we can look at those before or after."
Rose knew that it definitely wasn't fair to look at those without Jake here. There was a chance, a good one, that he was the father but there was also a chance, a good one, that he was not. He had promised to raise the child no matter whose it was and Rose knew that he would. She didn't doubt Jake's convictions about her, even a little bit, but she didn't know if she could go through a second longer not knowing. If it was Duke's child, he deserved to know about it the second that Roes had any proof. If it wasn't Duke's child, she could exhale, and have the life that she wanted.
"I need to know that now," Rose said.
Dr. Grey put down the ultrasound wand and Rose watched the fetus disappear from the monitor. Rose sat up and started removing the gel from her stomach, rubbing the skin gently. It still didn't feel real that she was pregnant. Somehow, somewhere, without ever meaning to, she had created life, and it was so bizarre to her that she could do that. She could accidentally make life. It was a power, Rose thought, that no one should have. There should have to be intent and meaning. Rose knew that no matter who this child was, it was a result of a man who had loved its mother. She hoped that it was Jake's, so that it could be a result of a man who its mother was in love with back.
Dr. Grey opened an envelope and Rose held her breath.
"There is a zero percent chance that Jacob Long and the fetus are related," Dr. Grey announced.
Rose felt like she was going to pass out.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" Rose asked, feeling very far away of herself.
"Best I can tell, it's a girl! Congratulations on your daughter!"
Rose wrapped her arms around herself and she tried to imagine saying those words to Duke. "Congratulations on your daughter." She wouldn't blame him if he spit in her face and walked away but he needed to know.
Rose had kept many secrets and she couldn't keep this one. She couldn't fail Duke again.
When you're out of sight
In my mind
'Cause sometimes I look in her eyes
And that's where I find a glimpse of us
And I try to fall for her touch
Jake closed his eyes, burying his face in the crook of her neck, pumping his hips. Her nails scraped along his back and she screamed out in ecstasy as Jake balanced himself on one arm, his thumb against her clit. She bit at his skin.
"Harder," Jake grunted.
She bit down and drew blood and it was what he wanted. The pain ricocheted through him and Jake thrived off of it.
"FUCK ME!" Danika screamed.
Jake would. Jake would fuck her until she couldn't breathe and he couldn't think. He would fuck her until she was just Danika and not the ghost of Rose.
He forced his eyes open, rotating Danika on top of him in one easy motion. They'd been on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off from the age of fifteen until now. They kept falling back together just to realize they were better off apart. It was something that Trixie and Spud never stopped lecturing him about but there was something safe about Danika. He knew exactly what he was getting from her and she knew exactly what she was getting from him. With them, there was no good to be found in forever but in the moment, oh, in the moment, they could make things be good.
Jake sat up, pulling one of her nipples into his mouth as she rocked against his cock. Her nails scraped along his back and Jake pictured her pulling off skin, peeling back the layers until he had no choice but to escape himself, dissipate into nothingness.
Her hand came up his chest, teasing his nipples as he bit down on her other breast. Danika had perfect breasts and she knew it; they spent most of their time together naked for a reason. He wanted to bruise her. Nothing was good and nothing could be perfect and Jake knew that she felt the same way that he did. They were screwed up in their own ways but they understood each other for that very reason. They couldn't be together for that very reason.
Danika's hands gouged into his chest and then they came up to his neck.
"Lay back," she whispered.
Jake collapsed back against the pillows, taking a breath and feeling her hands squeeze his throat. He knew that she wouldn't kill him but, for a half second, he almost wished that she would. Stars danced in front of his eyes, forming the shape of Rose, forming the shape of the child he'd been expecting to raise, and then it all fled, becoming nothing, because it was all gone. Everything was gone. Jake felt like he was going to explode.
Danika's hands released him and he took an unwilling breath.
"Roll over," Jake commanded.
She did and he immediately went back inside of her, slapping her ass so hard that her skin immediately turned bright red. Jake grabbed her long hair in his hand and forced her head up, bending to kiss her messily.
It wasn't enough. It would never be enough.
But it was all that he had.
But I'm thinking of the way it was
Said I'm fine and said I moved on
I'm only here passing time in her arms
Hoping I'll find
A glimpse of us
Duke, as he always did when he got home, poured himself a glass of bourbon. He opened the freezer for ice-cubes and then, on a whim, opened the door of the fridge. There was a different wine bottle that had been rotated in and he glanced at the clock. It was six. He wondered when she had started. He wondered why he cared and he hated himself for it. He knew why he should care.
"Daddy! You're home!"
Duke caught Gabrielle in his arms and hefted her up.
"I'm home! How was your day?" Duke kissed her temple and it all felt performative.
All of his adult life, Duke had dreamt of starting a family. He wanted to coach sports teams and go to dance recitals. He wanted to be in the front row, cheering his baby on as they hurtled toward everything that they wanted in life. He wanted to be the type of father that gave them the confidence to go after everything that they wanted to be in life. He'd had many dreams of what it would be like to be a father. When he looked at Gabrielle, he resented every one of those dreams. He hadn't gotten a loving wife, telling him that their hopes had come true. He hadn't gotten to rest his hands against a growing stomach, whispering to the child that was to come. He had been there when she was born but he hadn't wanted to be. In fact, despite fetal DNA tests, he had been hoping until he'd seen her skin colour that she was not his child. He had been tied to Rose forever after. They could have gone their separate ways and, maybe, if they had done that, he would have loved his daughter more. It was his own fault, that they were still together. He had been the one to beg Rose for one more chance, for their child, for their family, and she had given in. Now, she felt too guilty for her past affair to leave him, and he felt too ashamed to admit his true feelings to leave her.
"We went to the park," Rose said.
"Dillon and I played on the swings," Gabrielle said.
Duke glanced at Rose. The wine glass in her hand was almost empty. Well, he thought, finishing off his bourbon, I'm not much better.
He carried Gabrielle into the kitchen. He needed another shot before he took a shower.
"The swings sound amazing!"
It was hard to look at Gabrielle and think that when she had been conceived, he had been making love to Rose and Rose had been going through the motions with him.
"How was your day?" Rose asked.
Their daughter sat on the counter between them as they refilled the drinks.
"Same old, same old," Duke said. "Yours?"
"The same," Rose responded.
They met each other's gazes for a second and Duke wished that they hadn't. Looking Rose in the eyes, brought back too much. The joy of their wedding day, the breaking up and the breaking down, and the reconciliation that Duke had sworn he wanted until it had actually happened. The type of hate that he would had for her if she had just cheated on him and left him behind surely couldn't compare to the flat out resentment he felt at the situation that they were in now. He glanced at Gabrielle. When she was older, she would sense that something wasn't right between Mommy and Daddy, and he wondered if it would hurt her.
He leant forward and kissed Rose's cheek, catching her off-guard with the affection.
For today, he could let his daughter believe that she was in a household of love.
Tell me he savors your glory
Does he laugh the way I did?
Is this a part of your story?
One that I had never lived
Jake was a person who sought out pain when it came to Rose. He would rather be tortured by her a thousand times over than let her go. He knew that he was a man that couldn't be happy when she wasn't with him, and he knew how easily those thoughts could twist. He new how all of that could drag him down. Somedays, he wanted to let himself get swept away.
"Jakey. come on. We have to do better than this."
Jake opened one bleary eye at Trixie. She was opening a blind in his pathetic, dark, dirty, little apartment. Jake would much rather stay in his hovel than go outside.
"You can't make me."
"Unless you're gonna, like, set us on fire, man, we totally can."
Jake didn't flinch as Spud sprayed dry shampoo in his hair and rubbed it in.
"I'm fine."
"And when have we ever believed that," Trixie snorted. "Jake, every year this shit gets worse and worse. You gotta start living again!"
"I -"
"Screwing yourself up and doing your whatever with Danika doesn't count," Spud said, sounding more stern that Jake had ever heard him sound before. "Let's go out."
Jake knew that he couldn't fight against his two best friends. They had already done so much for him that he should just feel grateful that they kept showing up. He got himself dressed and put deodorant on, per Trixie's request, He let them take him outside and didn't throw too much of a tantrum when they wouldn't let him have a drink.
"It's a walk," Trixie said. "They're supposed to be good for you."
"Walking for thirty minutes a day or more can improve your overall health. Studies show that it can improve circulation, lighten your mood, and slow down mental decline, among others," Spud said.
"Thanks," Jake said dryly. "I needed that."
"Touch grass," Trixie said, grabbing him by the shoulders and steering him into a park. "Eat a damn leaf, I don't care, but you gotta leave your apartment."
"I am outside, am I not?" Jake said back, feeling as snarky as Trixie.
It was at that time that the sound of children reached Jake's ears and he found himself on the verge of collapse. Ten years ago, he'd thought he and Rose were going to raise a child. Ten years ago, he had lost her all over again. Ten years ago, he had started a downward spiral that Jake knew that he would never recover from.
"Gabrielle! It's time to cut the cake!"
Jake knew that voice like he knew his own heartbeat. No tugging on Spud's and Trixie's part could hold back a dragon's strength. Jake crouched in the bushes, trying not to feel like a creep. He wasn't concerned with the children. He was concerned with her. Rose was steadfastly lighting candles on a sheet cake large enough to feed at least twenty children. At the head of the table, sat a beautiful little girl - one who looked exactly like her father. She clapped her hands as the cake was brought over and Jake watched Duke and Rose stand together behind her as she did everything a ten-year-old could to blow out the candles.
Jake felt hollow.
Duke and Rose laughed together and clapped for their daughter together. They smiled together and cheered. They were in synch as they cut the cake and handed out pieces to the swarm of children. It seemed so fake to Jake but he new that it had to be real. He just wanted to believe they weren't good because he wanted to believe, he would always want to believe, that she was better off with him. Jake could never stomach or face the fact that he was Rose's mistake.
"Man, come on or someone's going to call the cops."
Spud and Trixie had caught up to him and Jake had no choice but to let them lead him away.
Maybe one day you'll feel lonely
And in his eyes, you'll get a glimpse
Maybe you'll start slipping slowly
And find me again
Rose was drunk but that wasn't new. Rose hadn't felt sober in years. Rachelle had noticed and tried to help her but Duke had indulged her because they were each other's demon. Three days ago, they had moved Gabrielle into her college dorm and every farce that Rose and Duke had ever maintained had fallen apart immediately. Rose took a drink straight out of the bottle. Her daughter probably hated her and hated her father, and Rose couldn't even blame her. Rose had nothing to blame but herself, for mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. Rose knew that they could never recover but she also knew that it was time to stop pretending. Duke had wanted to be a family for Gabrielle but Gabrielle was grown now and out of the house. She was starting on a life that was all of her own and, if Duke and Rose were lucky, they could be side characters in that life.
Rose was drunk enough and lonely enough to unblock Jake Long on social media after all of this time. He didn't post often but, as far as Rose could gather, he had never married and had never had children. He didn't even seem to have a steady partner in life.
Rose ghosted around her home, hearing her feet slap on the hardwood floor, and letting it be the only sound that rang in her ears. She paused inside of her living room. Her cluttered, colourful living room, that was filled with details of Gabrielle's life. Rose didn't know how to love her daughter amongst her own regrets and demons but Rose did love her daughter. She had created a shrine to her for that very reason. There were pictures of her and Duke and Gabrielle all together but there was only one picture of her and Duke alone together anymore. Only one picture had escaped the frenzied purge of the house following her cheating scandal and it was their wedding portrait.
Rose stopped in front of it, staring open-mouthed at the image of her younger self. How happy, how beautiful. How would she have liked to know what they had become? How would she have liked to know that her husband was not the love of her life? That there would come a time that they couldn't even love each other for a moment?
Rose twisted her wedding ring around her finger, thinking of laying next to Jake and doing the same thing, nearly twenty years ago. She should know better by now, but she didn't. Or, maybe, she was more confident in what was better. She unlocked her phone and sent off a message to him. The first one in nearly nineteen years.
Rose: I still think about you. It might be too late for us. If it's not, if you still think about me, I'll be at the bar until 5 today. I want to see you.
Rose pressed send and left the house immediately.
When you're out of sight
In my mind
'Cause sometimes I look in her eyes
And that's where I find a glimpse of us
And I try to fall for her touch
But I'm thinking of the way it was
Jake didn't know what to do when he walked into the bar. Well, it wasn't quite the bar anymore. The bar that he had Rose had re-met in was long gone, going from two steps above a dive-bar to a swanky cocktail lounge. Even on a Monday in the early afternoon, it was busy, and the hostess gave him a disapproving look. He supposed that he was older than the demographic he wanted but he couldn't give a damn about her high ponytail swaying disapprovingly at him,
"I'm meeting someone," Jake said, and he spotted Rose immediately.
It didn't matter that she had her back to him. It didn't matter that there was some pretty young thing trying to catch his eye. It didn't matter that there was a surge of people between him and her. Jake didn't feel like he'd given his body the command to move but he was heading toward her. She was sipping from a cocktail glass and noticed him the second that he was close to her. Rose turned her head and they locked eyes and Jake felt like he was on the verge of death, Time had not changed her. Time would never change her - not in his eyes. She was everything all at once. The love as teenagers, the torrential affair in the twenties, the long grey-haired life that he had hoped they would settle down into after all was said and done.
"You came," she whispered.
"Did you think that I wouldn't?"
Rose reached out and took his hand. After all these years, after all that he knew, it was only Rose that could undo him with a touch that innocent.
"I never did right by you."
She was drunk but Jake knew what that felt like. When was the last time that he had been completely sober? When was the last time he was at peace?
"I know," Jake whispered, because he couldn't keep himself from acknowledging his grief. She'd had a husband and a child and what seemed like a great life and he'd just been coasting along.
"You deserved more." Rose started crying.
Jake cleared her tears away, thinking of how Danika had begged him, one last time, for them to be a couple. She said that they had wasted too much time on one another to give up on each other now. She had cried and Jake had turned away, confirming what they had both always suspected but had never actually voiced, because they both wanted to believe otherwise - Danika meant nothing to him at all. He didn't want to build a life with her, he only wanted to see her in the dead of night. Rose, he had wanted to build a life with, but had only been able to see her in the dead of night.
"You left me."
"Will you sit?"
Jake sat in the bar stool across from her, ordering something strong and filled with rum. Across the small table, they never let go of one another's hands.
"I made a mistake."
"How many mistakes can one person make?"
Rose sobbed. "Decades worth."
Jake's heart ached.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying it was miserable without you. Duke and I ... it meant something once, it really did, but it was all gone. He convinced me that Gabrielle should have a family and we should be together and I stayed but it was so hateful! Gabrielle didn't deserve a home like that but I didn't know how to leave him again! I didn't ... i was weak. I should have been strong. She would have been better off and I would have been better off. Do you think you would have been better off, if we had stayed together?"
"I'm here, aren't I?" Jake asked. "I've missed you all this time, But, how am I supposed to know this is going to turn out any different?"
Rose let go of him and spread both of her hands out on the table.
She wasn't wearing her wedding ring.
Said I'm fine and said I moved on
I'm only here passing time in her arms
Hoping I'll find
A glimpse of us
Ooh, ooh-ooh
Ooh, ooh-ooh
Duke sat in what was once Cornelius's room. It was half a mish-mash of his youngest nephew's childhood remnants and half of the home gym that Adela and Lewis were hoping to turn their youngest son's room into. Duke couldn't believe that he was in New Jersey in a room at his sister's place at his age. He may have expected it, deep down, through all the years that he and Rose had suffered together, but he could honestly say that he couldn't believe it.
Like she had twenty years ago, Adela burst into the room. Her hair was greying now but so was his own. She had a bottle of his favourite bourbon in her hand.
"I came right home from work, Duke."
He knew that.
"I have a million DVDs and Lewis is going to understand if we just hole up in here and drink and watch movies and -"
Duke bowed his head, blocking her out. He was transported, back in time, to a hotel room where Adela was screaming about the same whore and her same paramour; he was transported back in time to begging that whore to leave her lover and pick her husband. Duke felt dizzy with regrets and he closed his eyes. He saw Gabrielle, imprinted onto his eyelids. He saw her the day that they had dropped her off to her college dorm. She had wrapped her arms around their necks and pulled them into a three-way hug.
"It's okay, guys," Gabrielle had said. "Don't pretend anymore, okay?"
Rose had asked what she had meant immediately. Duke had protested that no one was pretending anything.
"I love you both," Gabrielle had said, too old for age, and Duke regretted that, even though he knew that he had done nothing to stop it. "I really do. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
They'd told her they'd loved her and they'd walked away from the dorm in complete silence. They'd gotten into the same car and gone to the same house. They'd walked into the same kitchen and then they'd poured different drinks and they'd gone into different rooms. Duke should have known that the tightrope they were walking on was going to give way - that one of them was going to fall off. He also should have expected that it would have been Rose.
"How can I help you?" Adela asked.
Duke wished it was reasonable to go back in time, to ask that his sister pack him into a UFO and fix everything that he knew better than now.
"I'm just letting her go. I can't ... I can't pretend that there's anything to fight for anymore." Duke hung his head and took a deep breath, "I'm done. I give up. I don't want to be her husband and she doesn't want to be my wife."
"After all that?" Adela snorted. "You should have left her in the first place."
The words hurt but Duke knew it was true. Instead of responding, he just pulled off his wedding ring.
It was all over now.
Ooh, ooh, ooh
'Cause sometimes I look in her eyes
And that's where I find a glimpse of us
And I try to fall for her touch
But I'm thinking of the way it was
Said I'm fine and said I moved on
I'm only here passing time in her arms
Hoping I'll find
Rose fluffed the veil along Gabrielle's dark hair, taking a moment to stand in the mirror with her daughter. They looked nothing alike, on the surface. Gabrielle's colouring was all Duke's but, if one looked closer, Gabrielle and Rose shared bone structure, smiles, and wrist bones.
"Mom, how do I know this is the right choice?" Gabrielle asked, seizing the sides of her wedding dress in fear. "How do I know how this will go?"
Rose unclenched Gabrielle's hands from the white fabric and kissed her carefully made up cheek, making sure not to leave a lipstick mark.
"You don't."
Gabrielle rolled her eyes, like she was still a teenager. "Mom, you know what I mean."
"You're talking about Dad and Jake."
Gabrielle nodded. "You ... You never told me the full story."
There was barely an hour until she was supposed to get married. Rose knew that there wasn't enough time to give her the full story.
"What do you want to know?"
"Do you regret marrying Dad?" Gabrielle blurted,
"No."
Gabrielle's eyebrows shot up.
"If I regretted marrying Dad, it would be like saying I regretted having you. You are the one thing I could never give up. I made mistakes and a lot of them I made for selfish reasons but I made mistakes because I believed that they were best for you. Those are the mistakes I regret. I know that you were hurt because I was dedicated to doing the greater good. I never stopped to see what the reality of that was. I know that Dad and I didn't have the best relationship after you were born and I know you felt that way too young. I know that you've had struggles." Rose tried not to cry. "My biggest regret is that anything I've ever done brought you down and made you hurt."
"Momma," Gabrielle whispered.
"On my wedding day to Dad, I believed I loved him with my whole heart. The only thing I did wrong was not following my heart afterward. Your father was the right choice at that time and we both should have realized that it was okay that it wasn't the right choice in the end." Rose reached down and squeezed Gabrielle's hand. "I want you to know that no matter what happens, I am right here. No questions, no judgement, call me, and I am always on your side. I've always been on your side."
"Like Aunt Rachelle was for you?"
"And Aunt Adela was for Dad," Rose confirmed. "You've got me."
"I love you," Gabrielle said, tears gathering in her eyes. "I know we've had ... well, but, I wouldn't trade you for any other mother. I love you, Momma."
"I love you too." Rose grasped Gabrielle tightly within her grasp. "You are more than I ever hoped for. I am so thankful for you to being you."
Rose took Gabrielle's arm and walked her out of the dressing room to where Duke was waiting. It was what would be the beginning of the aisle, in just a few minutes. Rose took Gabrielle's hand and placed it in Duke's, letting the three of them be joined again, in a moment of family, in a moment of love.
it was what Gabrielle deserved,
A glimpse of us
