"The One" – Part 32

Summary and additional notes in part 1.

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews!

This is not related to my Degrassi timeline fics. (See my Author's profile for details!)

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Degrassi!

-oOo-

Fiona smiled at the new picture on her desk. She brought the photo of her and Adam slow dancing at his sixteenth birthday party in from home. On her late morning coffee run she popped into Duane Reade and picked up a photo frame. It was a five by seven mahogany frame, which she placed right next to her computer screen.

"Is that Adam?" Jessica asked curiously.

Fiona looked up. She hadn't realized her assistant was standing over her shoulder. "Yes, it is."

"Oh my gosh! He looks so young!" Jessica remarked.

Fiona chuckled. "We were. It was taken at his 16th birthday party."

"That's a very young looking sixteen," Tom commented. From the photo he would have thought Adam was fourteen or possibly younger.

Laura smirked at her colleague. "He's transgendered remember? It kind of complicates puberty," she pointed out as she made her way over to Fiona's desk. George, Kai, and Hanna also came over.

"You guys look adorable," Hanna told her.

"Thanks," Fiona smiled.

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, there's some heat in your gaze! I can recognize eye-sex when I see it!"

They all laughed. Fiona merely shrugged.

The comment reminded Laura of what she wanted to ask her the other day. "So, you gave us a pretty quick rundown at happy hour, but are you ever going to tell us what your parents' calmed down about?"

Fiona sighed. "Well, I guess it's easier to explain if I start from the beginning."

"I'm all ears!" Kai joked. Laura readily nodded.

Fiona softly laughed. "Okay… When I first met Adam I had a crush on my best friend, who was a girl. I didn't see Adam for who he was, and I hurt him pretty bad. He still cared about me, so he stood by me as a friend. I was really confused at the time, but as I got to know him I realized what an incredible person he was. I fell in love with him and decided not to care about labels. By some miracle, he felt the same way about me and accepted me baggage and all," Fiona told them.

Laura smiled. "That's beautiful."

Fiona nodded. "Adam has such a big heart. He doesn't abandon the people he cares about, no matter what anyone else says. We got a lot of resistance from friends and family about being together. His brother and close friends hated me for breaking his heart. My mom hadn't to come to terms yet with the fact that I wasn't straight and thought Adam was putting 'strange ideas' in my head," she paused to chuckle at the absurdity of that memory. "And his mom and mine completely freaked out when they learned we slept together."

"Wow!" Kai exclaimed. "Well, you guys were pretty young."

"17 and 15, right?" Laura smirked.

"Yeah, but it had more to do with them being uncomfortable with us being together. It wasn't what they envisioned for us. My mom expected her daughter to grow up and marry a rich a boy. Adam's mom probably would have preferred the same," she noted.

George frowned. "Still can't picture that dude as a girl!"

Fiona laughed. "It's not how he was meant to be. He knew that early on. When we met he was already living as a guy."

"At 15?" Lynn asked.

"At 14 he started living full time as Adam," Fiona revealed.

"That's so young. As a parent I really don't know how I would handle that," Tom noted. He was a divorced father of two.

"It was hard on all of them, but it's not something that can be 'fixed'. At the end of the day you have to accept your kids for who they are. If you don't, you'll lose them," Fiona stated. She was happy her mother came to that conclusion sooner rather than later. Their relationship had gotten so frosty back then, she wasn't sure if they could repair it.

"Well, this conversation has turned somber and depressing," George noted.

Kai had a wry smile. "Sorry we're not adequately entertaining you!" he retorted.

"What? I'm just saying," George shrugged.

"Okay, one last question and I'll shut up," Laura promised.

Fiona raised an eyebrow. She was doubtful that would ever happen.

"What did your parents do to break you up?" the saleswoman inquired.

Fiona let out a laugh. That was a long story. "Like I said, they flipped out. His mother threatened to file charges against me. In turn, my mom wanted to pull me out of school and bring me back to New York. It was madness."

"What kind of charges?" George asked curiously, suddenly interested again.

"Well… Adam and I are two years apart, which is nothing. She definitely had no case, but she used the threat as leverage to get us to break up," Fiona explained.

"Wait a second… Are you talking about statutory rape charges?" Kai questioned.

She nodded and they all looked at her incredulously. "Hey! Obviously nothing came of it. It was pretty ridiculous."

"I don't see how that would stand in any court," Lynn stated.

"It wouldn't!" Fiona insisted. "His mom was just being a hard-ass."

George couldn't stop laughing.

Fiona rolled her eyes. "So we 'officially' broke up. Of course we really didn't, we just pretended to while we waited for cooler heads to prevail. It took a couple of weeks, but eventually both our moms came around. It wasn't a moment too soon because we sucked at secretly dating," she smiled.

Hanna snorted, finally deciding to comment. She already knew most of their backstory. "You guys are so obvious! You look at each other and ooze 'I love you.' I have no idea how you managed to go undercover for two weeks!"

"My brother came up for a visit and he knew right away. I managed to hide it from my best friend for almost the whole time, but then she walked in on us kissing," Fiona noted.

"You crazy kids!" Lynn said in jest.

"Yeah, I wish I went to your high school! My experience was nothing like that," George joked. He didn't have his first girlfriend until college.

Fiona smiled and shrugged.

.

tbc

A/N: Hmm, this chapter could also be known as "Bury The Castle: As Told By Fiona Coyne"! I'm with George. My high school experience was nothing like that either, lol!

Review! You know you want to! :D

In the next chapter, Adam's looking back on some memories of his own!

Off-topic: Updating "Long Weekend" shortly...