Chapter One: The Good Fight
Consider the odds,
Consider the obvious.
The martyr is meaningless,
The campaign has died.
In the planning stages and the fallen faces
Are the singular proof that it was ever alive.
This purchased rebellion has been outbidded,
Denounced and rescinded and left to die championless.
I begged you not to go.
I begged you, I pleaded.
Claimed you as my only hope
And watched the floor as you retreated.
Hope has sprung a perfect dive
A perfect day, a perfect lie.
A slowly crafted monologue conceding your defeat.
Does it comfort you to know you fought the good fight?
Basking in your victory,
Hollow and alone
While you boast your bitter bragging rights to anyone who'll listen.
While you're left with nothing tangible to gain.
Chris knew he shouldn't have tried to break up Manny's wedding. He was just so desperate. He still loved her, and he thought that maybe she'd give him a chance. Now he just wanted to put that day at the back of his mind.
Eight months had passed since that day, and Chris was now sitting at his kitchen table in his tiny apartment, reading the newspaper. It took him awhile, but he had eventually gotten a job at the local grocery store. How sad is that? He thought to himself. I'm twenty-five years old, living alone in this small ass apartment, and work at a grocery store. This is pathetic.
Chris immediately stopped thinking about himself when he turned the page of the newspaper and saw Manny's face. It was a small picture of Jimmy and Manny holding a baby.
"Manuela and James Brooks welcome into the world a healthy baby girl, Isabella Makaia Brooks," the caption underneath the picture read. Chris realized that it was a birth announcement. Manny and Jimmy had a baby together. Chris picked up the phone and dialed Manny's number. He had looked it up in the phone book a long time ago and memorized it, waiting for the day that he'd have an excuse to call it.
Manny sat on the couch in her living room, breast feeding her new daughter. She was remembering the day that she visited Chris in prison, almost nine years ago. When she left that day, Jimmy was waiting for her outside. He proposed to her after telling her that he loved her. Manny remembered how she turned him down and almost broke his heart. But she told him that she just wasn't ready to completely move on. They began dating two weeks after that, and the second time Jimmy proposed, (nearly three years later) Manny had accepted and moved in with him. They waited until after they graduated from college and had been working for three years before actually setting the date. Then they moved into a huge house. In Jimmy's condo, all three of the kids were sharing a bedroom, but after moving, they all had their own rooms.
Now they had a week old daughter. Manny looked down at her and smiled. Her free hand played with the silver locket around her neck. The picture inside was of Sera. Manny wanted her to live on in their hearts. Whenever Jonathan asked who the woman in the picture was, Manny told him that she was his guardian angel.
Jimmy and Manny had agreed that Chris would not be in Jonathan's life, and they would tell their son about his mother when he was eighteen. They had also agreed that Chris could be in the twins' life, and they knew who he was, only from the pictures in their rooms. Even though they know that Jimmy isn't their real father, Lily and Lucas call him 'Dad' because they have grown up with him. Manny finished feeding Isabella and set her down in her bassinet that was in the room. She was just about to turn the television on when the phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Manny, it's me," he said. "Please don't hang up!"
"Chris?" Manny asked. "Why are you calling here?"
"I saw your birth announcement in the paper. I wanted to congratulate you. She's a beautiful baby," he told her.
"Thanks," was all she could say.
"There's another reason I'm calling though." He paused.
"What is it?" Manny asked, sighing.
"I want to see my kids. All three of them," he blurted out. Manny couldn't answer right away.
"I don't know about this Chris. I need to talk to Jimmy first," she finally answered.
"Take your time," he said. "I just need to see them Manny. They're my kids too." Just then, the door burst open and Lily, Lucas, and Jon, ran into the house.
"We're home mom!" they all yelled in unison.
"Shh! Don't wake up your sister!" Manny whispered to them and they immediately fell silent. "Look, I have to go. I guess I'll talk to you later," she said into the phone and hung it up.
"Mom, who was on the phone?" Lily asked as she checked on her little sister.
"No one important," Manny answered. "How was school?" she asked her kids. They followed her into the kitchen and she made them a snack while they told her about school. Manny smiled. Her life was exactly what she wanted.
A/N: The song is owned by Dashboard Confessional. Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi or any of its characters. I do own Chris Hawkins, Isabella, Lily, Lucas, Jonathan, Sera, Avery, and Jake.
