Chapter Twelve – The Will to Fight

"Oh, my."

Melody and Anne sat outside by the stone tables, enjoying the spring breeze as it gently blew all over the grounds. "I can't believe he's here," Melody continued, sounding completely awe struck.

"Who?" Anne asked as she looked up from her homework.

"See that man?" Melody pointed to a tall man with salt and pepper hair walking down the open corridor with a woman by his side, her blonde hair shimming in the sunlight as she walked. "That's Dr. Ulysses Gregory. He's a prominent psychologist- has written books and everything. He's brilliant. What is he doing here, I wonder?"

"God only knows." Anne went back to her homework, but stopped and slowly looked up. "Wait…Gregory. Isn't Linda's last name Gregory?"

Melody's face became one of panic and she started to fret, shoving her books into her bag. "Oh, I should go and warn Chris that he's here."

"Why would you need to warn Chris about that?" Anne asked. Melody stopped packing her books and looked around to make sure no one was listening in. She leaned on the table, propping up on her elbows.

"Dr. Gregory is Linda's father," she whispered dramatically. "And he's not supposed to know she's dating anyone. At least, that's what Michael says." Anne stared at Melody, her head tilting slightly to the side.

"So…Chris and Linda are having a secret affair of sorts?"

Melody nodded. "They have to keep it a secret because she's underage and Michael said that if her father ever found out that she and Chris were together, he would go mad and make sure they would never see each other again." Her face fell. "Isn't that just horrible?" Anne's lip curled up in a mischievous smile.

"Terrible." She closed her book with a sudden slam. "Don't worry about telling Chris about Linda's parents," she said as she stood up. "I saw him earlier sitting by himself doing some reading. I'll tell him."

"Are you sure? I know you and Chris aren't exactly-"

"Oh, yes, yes, you're busy with all that homework anyhow."

"Well, if you're sure..."

"It'll be my pleasure to tell him," Anne said truthfully with a smile that made Melody slightly worried. She watched as Anne walked off in the direction of the dining hall and went back to her homework, not noticing Anne's sudden turn toward the corridor and her sprint toward Dr. and Mrs. Gregory.

"Dr. Gregory!" She called, running to catch up to them. They stopped and turned to look at her as she skidded to a stop in front of them.

"Hello there," Ulysses greeted warmly. The girl look absolutely enthralled, her eyes shining as she held out her hand.

"Doctor, it's such a pleasure to meet you." She beamed as they shook hands. "Is this your wife?"

"Oh, yes." He smiled at the woman, placing his hand on the small of her back. "My lovely wife, Sarah."

"It's nice to meet you both! Whatever are you doing here?"

"Oh, we're having lunch with an old colleague of mine. And we thought we'd stop by to see our daughter, Linda," Ulysses said. "Do you know her?"

"Oh, of course!" Anne gushed. "Who doesn't know about Linda? She's so 'groovy' as the Americans would say." Ulysses and Sarah chuckled.

"Yes, Linda is quite special." Ulysses replied.

"Oh, she is. She and Chris are just such a joy to be around-"

"Chris?" Ulysses stopped her. "Who's Chris?"

"He's her boyfriend." Anne's eyes widened. "You haven't met him? They've been dating for a while now." Sarah and Ulysses looked at each other.

"How long are we talking?" He asked, looking back at Anne, scowling. She blew out a puff of air.

"Maybe two or three months or so." Sarah blinked, trying to comprehend what the mysterious girl was saying.

"Are you sure you're talking about Linda?" She finally asked.

"Oh, of course. I see them together every day around the grounds. They're madly in love." She clasped her hands together in front of her chest. "It's so encouraging to see for those of us that are single." Anne nodded happily and looked between them, hiding a smirk at Ulysses's extremely tight lipped face.

"Will you excuse us?" He said curtly, abruptly walking past her. Sarah huffed in worry and smiled at her

"Nice talking to you." She quickly shuffled to catch up with her husband and Anne scoffed.

"Oh, it was nice talking to you too," she muttered, walking down the corridor with a strange spring in her step. She saw Chris exactly where she thought he would be: sitting on a bench by himself in the courtyard, lounging back and reading a book. She smiled and started to walk toward him, dying to share the good news...

"Ulysses," Sarah said as she followed close behind him. "Calm down-"

"Calm down?! Calm down when our daughter has been possibly lying to us for months?!" He increased the length and speed of his strides.

"I'm sure there's been a misunderstanding. Let's just ask her about it," she said as she fought to keep up. "Give her a chance to explain."

"Oh, you're damn right I'm going to give her a chance to explain." Ulysses threw the door to the girls' dorm house open and stormed inside. Sarah took a deep breath, knowing he was past the point of reasoning.

"Oh, Linda," she whispered as she followed him. "I hope this isn't true..."

Across the courtyard, Anne was slowly sauntering up to Chris, her hands in the pockets of her dress.

"You know, you've got some real nerve, Chris." Chris looked up from his book. "Dating a girl like Linda with her type of reputation. Especially in secret." She stopped to stare at him. "It's rather sad that you actually thought that you would get away with it." What in the world, he thought to himself as he shut his book slowly.

"What are you talking about?"

"i just don't see what the appeal is with Linda," Anne said, pulling a hand out of her pocket to examine her nails. "She's nothing special, she's just a smarty pants compared to the rest of us." Chris stared at her, not sure on how to respond to what she was saying. "Well, since you are obviously not understanding what I mean, let's just say I solved the problem. Your problem." A sickeningly sweet smile spread across her face and Chris felt his stomach sink…

Linda and Fran walked down the hall to their room and strangely found the door open. They looked at each and looked inside to see Ulysses and Sarah quietly arguing amongst themselves.

"Mother, Father," Linda squeaked. They turned to look at her and she gripped her books close to her chest. "What are you doing here?"

"We came for a visit with Dr. Teany," Ulysses said stiffly. "Though that is no longer the plan." Linda retreated inwardly at her father's extremely angry glare. "Fran," he barked, making Fran jump. "Will you please excuse us? This is a private family conversation." With a nod, and a look of uncertainty toward Linda, Fran set her bag down, left the room and quickly walked down the hall. She needed to find Chris, and she needed to find him fast.

"Shut the door, Linda," Ulysses commanded. As she turned her back to him, she shut her eyes, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. She set her books down on the table by the door and turned back around. "I hope what we've heard isn't true."

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you dating someone here?" She swallowed nervously.

"Who told you I was?" She asked, hoping the shaking in her voice wasn't too obvious.

"One of your classmates, I suppose. I didn't catch her name."

"And you believed her?" She cleared her throat to cover the crack of her voice.

"I have no reason not to. If you have nothing to hide, the question should be easy to answer. So, I ask you again, Linda: Are. You. Dating someone?"

Linda's mind worked furiously to come up with an answer, but each time she opened her mouth, her words failed her. She must've stayed silent for too long, because Ulysses scoffed, shaking his head.

"Well, your silence is a very loud answer," he said grimly. Linda looked down to her feet. "So is it true that this relationship has been going for three months now?" She was too afraid to answer him. "And that you're in love with him?" She tightened her grip on her closed fist, biting her lip. Clearing his throat, Ulysses straightened his blazer. "Well, I'm sorry, Linda, but you're not going to carry this on any longer. You're going to break up with him today." Linda's head shot up.

"No," she answered before she could stop herself.

"Excuse me?" Ulysses said, ignoring Sarah's coo of his name to calm him down.

"No," she said a little louder, trying to keep the shaking in her voice under control. "I'm not breaking up with him." Ulysses's face went from slightly irritated to extremely angry.

"Ulysses-" Sarah stressed, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"How dare you tell me no!" he suddenly shouted, making Sarah flinch. Linda, however, didn't move an inch. "Young lady, I don't know what's happened to you since you came here, but don't you forget that you have obligations you've agreed to-"

"You mean forced on me," Linda said suddenly, cowering inwardly at her parents' wide eyed expressions.

"I can't believe your nerve!" Ulysses said, quickly recovering from his shock. "This conversation is over. I'm going to admissions and pulling your records and you're coming home with your mother and I today." The world stopped at his words. Linda could feel the stitches of her conscious starting to unravel in the face of the pressure from Ulysses. For the first time in her life, she really hated him as he stared at her like she was a common criminal.

"Like hell I am," she said before her mind could talk her out of saying it. Sarah gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. Ulysses balked.

"I hope to God that I didn't just hear you curse at me! That boyfriend of yours is a horrible-"

"Don't you say anything about Chris! You don't even know him!"

"I don't really care about who he is, Linda," Ulysses replied. "Oxford will be glad to accept you, I can put in a word to Professor-"

"You're not sending me away!"

"Linda, please-" Sarah pleaded.

"Now, you listen well, young lady!" Ulysses cut across. "If I drag you out of here by your hair kicking and screaming, I will!" Linda shook where she stood, her nails digging painfully into her palms as Ulysses walked up next to her. "You have had your fun, but now it's time to say your goodbyes because it ends...NOW." With one last disappointed look, he walked out of the room. Sarah sighed worriedly, looking to her daughter, who looked as though she was about to be sick.

"Darling, I'm…" She trailed off and shook her head, sweeping past Linda and leaving her to stand alone.

"Stop playing games. What did you do?" Chris was at his limit with Anne's mysterious teasing.

"You know, you look so adorable when you're confused, Chris." He opened his mouth to dish out a reply, but a large, bushy head of red hair running across the grounds toward them stopped him.

"Linda's parents are here," Fran panted as she stopped. The realization of what Anne was talking about finally hit him, and he turned to her with a furious glare. To his surprise, she looked positively serene and peaceful.

"It's for the best in the end that they find out about you. That way you can stop living a lie."

"Who the hell are you to play God?" Chris stormed up to Anne, getting extremely close to her face. She didn't look the slightest bit fazed by his sudden move and was even more unmoved by his lunge that was held back by Fran when she grabbed his arm.

"Chris! Don't!"

"You know, I'm just reminding you of who you are, because you seem to have forgotten," Anne hissed. "What made you think you could actually be with her? She's a genius, Chris and you're just an ordinary moron. You're not even smart enough to spit in her direction." Fran's grip on his arm tightened as Chris practically snarled, trying to lunge again.

"Chris, stop!" She pleaded. "Don't do anything you'll regret!" As soon as the words left her mouth, the doors to the girls' dorm house slammed open and everyone looked to see Ulysses storm out, followed closely by Sarah, who sounded as though she was frantically trying to talk him down. Fran let go of Chris's arm and ran back toward the dorm house. With a satisfied smile, Anne looked up at him.

"Well, I think you have bigger problems to attend to now. Good luck with getting out of this one, Chris." With one last lingering disgusted look, she walked past him and toward the dining hall. He had half a mind to go after her and finish their argument, but he forced himself to walk away, turning around to jog after Fran, who was right at the steps when he caught up to her.

Suddenly, the door opened again and Linda slowly walked out as though she was in a trance, her face extremely pale. She stopped and stood at the top of the steps, looking down at the ground.

"Linda," Fran whispered. "What happened?" Linda didn't say anything, but looked up, her eyes briefly flashing to Chris before she started to walk down the steps, each step looking as though it was taking an extreme effort to navigate.

"Linda, what's wrong?" Chris asked. Linda shook her head and started to walk past him, but stopped when he grabbed her wrist. She pulled away sharply.

"Leave me alone."

"No, what happened?" Chris grabbed her again and she spun around.

"Let me go!" She shouted, making Fran jump and people around them stop to stare. Chris grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her into his embrace, tightening his grip as she tried to fight him off. "Stop! Stop it!" She yelled into his shoulder, whimpering as she punched him over and over in his chest and stomach. Slowly, she started to weakened until she was limp in his arms and clinging onto him for dear life. Chris rubbed her back gently.

"Let's go and talk," he said quietly in her ear and she nodded, letting him take her hand and lead her down the corridor and around toward the back of the school, down the hill and to a small pond. They sat on a bench and looked out across the water.

"I'm sorry," Linda sniffled after a few minutes, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her throw. "Did I hurt you?"

"No," Chris lied, his body aching from where she punched him. "Henry should give you some pointers sometime on how to properly beat me to a pulp." His crack at lightening up the mood only served to increase the deafening silence between them. "That was your parents coming out of the dorm house, wasn't it?" He finally asked. Linda slowly nodded, sniffling again. "I'm guessing they know about me." He looked at her from the corner of his eye. Her face was stone blank.

"They're pulling me out of the university." Her statement was empty of all emotion. Chris closed his eyes.

"And you're letting them?"

"What choice do I have?" She whispered.

"You always have a choice," he automatically replied and that made Linda suddenly get up and storm away from him. "Linda!" He got up and went after her, grabbing her wrist to spin her around to face him.

"I wish you would stop saying that," she said, pulling her wrist out of his grip. Her blue eyes blazed with anger. "Why do you keep saying that when you know perfectly well that there is no such thing as 'choice' when it comes to my parents?"

"You're facing a choice right now, whether you realize it or not." Chris grabbed her arms. "You can lay down and let them have their way or you can stand up to them." He paused, his expression softening as he cupped her cheek. Poor Linda looked so angry and scared.

"I'm seventeen, Chris; my father can pull my records."

"Not without your consent. It's university policy."

"Which doesn't matter to him. You don't understand how much influence he has. He makes the world bend to his will just by lifting his finger. He will get his way." Linda hiccupped back a sob. "I'm a prisoner in my own life, Chris."

He kissed her forehead and pulled her into a hug. "What's to stop you from challenging him?" he murmured in her ear. Obligation, expectation, regulation, her mind answered. Those were the guidelines that she had based her whole life on. But she hadn't taken into account exactly how Chris would fit into her already amazingly organized world. If anything, his presence made it go completely bonkers. He pulled her back from him and she felt his fingers gently grip her chin to bring her eyes up.

"Linda, you know that I love you, right?" He asked softly. She nodded. "Then trust me when I say you need to talk to your parents. I know," he said quickly as she balked at his words. "That it seems like the least likely solution to the problem, but in reality, it's the best option you have; the best option we have." She shook her head.

"No."

"Linda-"

"I won't do it, Chris," she said through clenched teeth. He sighed and let her go, turning around to walk away from her. "You don't know my father; he doesn't listen when he's angry." She called after him. "If anything, it'll just make him more determined to get me as far away from you as possible." She panted in desperation. "I can't just talk to him about this!" She yelled, making Chris stop in his tracks. He took a deep breath and turned around, watching her silently with a mixed expression of anger and heartbreak.

"Then I guess you really don't love me as much as you say you do," he said so plainly that she had stop and make sure she didn't hear him wrong. Instantly, her eyes narrowed.

"You," she growled, storming right up to him and getting in his face. "Are an insufferable son of a bitch!" The words hit him like a slap, but he forced himself to keep silent. "How can you say that when I have risked everything to be with you?!" She raged, practically on the verge of screaming.

"So you really love me, then?" He calmly challenged.

"More than my own life!"

"Then prove it, Linda. Show me how far you're willing to go to keep us together." She blinked and backed up from him, spinning around to look off into the trees of the forest surrounding the university. She felt Chris watching her back, waiting for her answer as her mind began to race.

It all came down to her decision: to fight or to stay silent. If she stood up to her parents, it was very likely that she would fail and her father would make sure she and Chris never spoke again, but if she let them take her away, she would hate herself for the rest of her life, and never forgive herself for not trying at least trying to fight back.

Life is about risks, and sometimes the biggest risks of all have some of the greatest rewards attached.

Peter's words echoed in her mind, silencing the other voices that were fighting for control. She remembered how heartbroken he felt about Jolene, knowing that he was going to have to spend the rest of his life without her. Linda felt her chest ache as she thought about her life without Chris...

There isn't one.

Linda took a deep breath.

Fight for him, for your relationship...for you.

Though she trembled at the words, an overwhelming sense of peace fell on her as she turned around.

"Will you come with me?" She asked him softly. With a gentle smile, he walked up to her and took her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers.

"We're in this together." Hand in hand, they walked together up the hill and back toward the university, determination making them stand tall, but worry weighing down on their shoulders.