Disclaimer: I cumulate coupons from my usual store to own the DVD set of season 3 of Glee. Courage, I've accumulated half of the 30 euros I need to buy it. But beyond DVDs, I own nothing of Glee.
Good to know because it's an information that has never been discussed here and, unless I'm mistaken, this detail was never mentioned in Glee either: in theory, Dave is one year older than Sebastian (if you believe in what classes they were when they met, assuming they hadn't repeated before). But Sebastian was born on March 2 (as we know from the chapter 'Happy Birthday Sebastian') and Dave on November 24 (as we didn't know yet since I've just decided it, I chose the date of Thanksgiving it's intended) as a result, they're actually only about three months apart.
So, Kurt and Blaine got married, Dave has a young cousin, Lucy, that Sarah and Asma have adopted and apparently Santana and Brittany have also planned to marry. Mike and Tina are still together without breaking since high school, this is the most solid couple of McKinley. And Mercedes seems to have started a new story, but it's a secret, too early to risk that magazines get involved.
Dave and Sebastian celebrated their two years together and decided to pass the necessary tests to give up condoms. Savings in sight. They haven't passed'' the last step'', it may never happen, but they don't seem to complain.
They still live together in Chicago. Dave will soon graduate and officially become a high school teacher. Sebastian will soon complete the first part of his study of law and will continue his journey to become a lawyer.
"Oh damn, I don't have enough, uh ... one second. Scar, I miss 25 cents, would you have that?"
"I don't know, look in my wallet, I left it on the bar."
Dave and Sebastian had agreed to spend a quiet evening, staying at home and ordering a pizza. They had drawn straws to know who would pay and Dave had won. And now in front of the deliveryman, he realized he was running out of change. Not that it was really a problem, it was more because it was more convenient to let one of the two pay the whole order that they 'fought' about it.
This is how Dave found himself looking into his boyfriend's wallet looking for 25 cents ... and had come across the picture of a young woman, whose face was strangely familiar to him, posing with a newborn, smiling weakly to the lens. He found the cash he needed, paid the deliveryman with a distracted look and brought the pizza to the living room where Sebastian was waiting in the comfort of the couch. He put the two pizzas and drinks on the coffee table, still staring at the photo.
"Hey Pooky, there's a problem?" Sebastian asked, frowning at Dave lost in thought.
"Uh, yes." Dave replied absently, settling in the small space between the arm of the couch and Sebastian sliding one arm around the waist of his boyfriend to stick him against his chest. "Who is it?" he asked softly, showing the picture.
"M ... My mother." Sebastian replied, visibly unsettled.
"You miss her huh?"
"I've never known her, she left just after my birth, leaving me to my father, I can't really say I miss her, I'd have to have known her to miss her."
"Don't say that. It's your mother, it's normal that you miss to not have had her in your life, not knowing why she left you. We all need to know where we come from."
"Yeah, well you don't always get what you want in life. I'll never know why she didn't want me, just have to move on."
"Hey, why are you doing this? I know you're used to have to be more than perfect with your father, but it's me. I love you. You, who you are, not what I want you to be or I think you could or should be."
"I ... It's not really that I miss her. But I don't understand why she left me. She gave me no chance. I was just a baby, what could I have done to her that she didn't even want to know me? It's my mother and I don't even know who she is. I don't know what she likes the sound of her voice, if she has friends."
"She has a sweet voice, when she tells stories she changes her voice for each character, when she gets angry, her accent is stronger and she ends up speaking Italian, she has a magical cure for the common cold, she makes the best spaghetti bolognaise on earth, she sings in Italian when she cooks, she could win any game but she loses all the time because she likes to see the sparkle in the eyes of those who win, she smells good of orange blossom. And when she thinks she's alone, she looks at this picture and cries."
"I like your story, it's almost like you know her. I could almost believe it but it's impossible, it's you who make the best spaghetti bolognaise on earth."
"Oh, yes, this is possible because it's her that I hold my recipe from."
"Stop it Vid, it's not funny."
"I'm not trying to be funny. Bass, I'm serious, I know her. Since I'm barely older than the boy on your photo."
"It's me. The little boy on the photo, it's me."
"I know." Dave said, gently pushing Sebastian to get up and get his wallet.
He pulled out a photo of the young woman, looking just barely older than the picture of Sebastian. She was taking the pose in a garden, holding by the waist a chubby little boy who had to be three or four, both laughing, the little boy trying to free himself from the grip of the young woman surely to go back to play with the ball a little further on the lawn. Dave handed the photo to his boyfriend and sat back down beside him on the sofa.
"It's beautiful this picture." Sebastian said, smiling faintly.
"This is my favorite."
"You can see she loved you very much." Sebastian whispered with a slightly dark look.
"I really like her too. It's almost her who raised me. M-my ... mother ... She wasn't really present."
"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean ..." Sebastian began settling on Dave's lap, facing him.
"No, it's okay. There's a part of me that would like her to change her mind as Blaine's father. But I know it won't happen. It's like that."
"She doesn't know what she loses." Sebastian muttered, laying his head on Dave's chest.
"She'd love you." Dave said thoughtfully after a moment of silence.
"But too bad for her, if she can't accept the gorgeous man I love, I don't want to know her. Your father has found too good a substitute anyway."
"In fact, I was talking about Eleana. Your mother"
"She decided that I wasn't worth the trouble long ago."
"What did your father said to you about her?"
"That she... she had gone back in her country and she didn't want to see me anymore."
Sebastian burst into tears, unable to say one more word. Without saying anything, Dave pulled the other man into his arms and tenderly stroked his hair through his fit of tears in a gesture he hoped reassuring. Sebastian snuggled against him, his head in his neck, breathing in his scent between sobs. Gradually, he calmed down.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry." Sebastian said in a small voice, seeing that Dave's shirt was now soaked with tears.
"Hey, no, don't apologize. I love to see you cry. Well, no, I don't really like it, I want you to be happy, and it breaks my heart whenever you're sad. But I love knowing that you can afford to be vulnerable with me. That you know I'm there to catch you if you fall and not to break you down."
"What did I do to deserve you?"
"Nothing special, you're just you, enough for me, I don't need more."
Sebastian smiled and slowly leaned to kiss Dave tenderly before putting his head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a moment, thoughtful.
"You lived in Italy when you were little?" Sebastian asked, frowning.
"No, I've always lived in Lima. Well, before moving to Thurston for my last year of high school. Why?"
"I was born in Sidney, Ohio. She left me saying she was going back in Italy, she got rid of me and she wasn't further than that all that time. Well, not that long you'll tell me, we went to France not long after."
"But you have only one side of the story. She may have had a good reason."
"A good reason to leave her barely two months old baby and never look back? Excuse me, but I hardly see how she can have a good reason!" Sebastian got angry as he straightened his boyfriend's lap.
"Two months? That's what your father told you? That she had gone without you when you were two months? Sorry to say it like that, with all the respect I owe him, your father is an asshole. I already thought it but now it's confirmed."
"Perhaps, but he stayed, he kept me with him." Sebastian said, crossing his arms.
"From what you tell me, it was him who left. With you."
"How would you know?"
"I know it because I know you Sebastian. I couldn't make the connection before, but you and I have known each other for a long time."
"Duh yeah, we've been together for three years and had beaten about the bush three years before that, idiot."
"No, I'm not talking about six years, Bass. We've known for 22 years."
"What are you talking about?"
"I had only a few months when my mother wanted to go back to work and they've looked for a nanny to take care of me. Eleana stood as. My mother thought she was too young but my father liked she was Italian so she could talk to me in Italian, so they called her in for an interview anyway."
"And your father won."
"Actually no. It was me who won. Or you, I don't know."
Sebastian looked his boyfriend in the eye, frowning at him questioningly.
"She had no one to look after you; she came with you to the interview. My mother first thought to not even get her to pass the interview but my father managed to persuade her to give her a chance. You were asleep in her arms when she arrived and I was sleeping in my room for once. I didn't sleep much for a baby of my age and when I was awake, I would cry until someone came to get me."
"You already didn't like to stay alone huh my little grumpy baby."
"That's it. My father offered to make room for you in my bed the time they speak. They laid you down beside me. They talked a long time and my father started to think I was going probably to wake up and if I started to cry, it was going to wake you up too. He came into the room slowly. I was already awake but I wasn't crying, I was just watching you."
"Okay, that's creepy. Thankfully I slept."
"No, you weren't sleeping either, you were starting to stir a little, as if you were going to cry, I stretched my little hand to you. Well, little ... compared to yours, it wasn't so little. I grabbed a bit randomly what my hand was able to reach. I was four months; I wasn't yet very precise in my movements. I took your wrist. You turned your head to me and you smiled at me."
"Are you kidding me?"
"Yes, a little, you were just one month, you didn't smile at me. But you calmed down, you looked at me with big eyes and my father was so surprised that I was awake and that I didn't cry that he stayed like an idiot watching us for several minutes. Until you started crying for good."
"Well, tell me about it, I woke up into bed with a stranger who was crushing my wrist."
"That's it, pretend that it wasn't your stomach that reminded you it was time of your breast feed."
"And you remember all this, of course." Sebastian teased.
"All this, no, but all the times my father told this story, showing the photo album that goes with it, yes."
"You have a photo album just for that?"
"We have a photo album for the year after Bass." Dave replied in a soft voice. "My parents hired Eleana, she had no one to look after you while she worked, and she was coming with you. That is, until a little after your birthday. Then your father brought you with him to France, not giving any news to Eleana. Well, nobody knew where he had taken you; that I know now that I have your version of the story."
"But she hasn't even tried to seek me, to fight to see me."
"This is not my story, I shouldn't tell you this, but ... she's Italian, to live in the U.S., she needed a visa. It wasn't easy for her for a start. Your father is an influential man; he had the power to really complicate her life. I don't know if he threatened her, what I know is that she has never forgotten one of your birthdays, every year she knew she couldn't be with you. I've never seen her happy on March 2."
"So, like that, we slept together the first night." Sebastian joked, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"And with the blessing of our parents besides." Dave said with a laugh.
"There's something I don't understand. How come you haven't made the connection before? You know my name, my birth date ..."
"You're funny you, you're not the only one to be born on March 2nd, 1995. And I didn't know your name before. Well, the baby's name I mean. I never talked too much with her, it's painful for her. Nobody has ever really known who your father was exactly and she never called you by your name. She always used little pet names."
Dave paused, a little thoughtful before resuming with a thrilling look.
"No, wait, it wasn't any nickname, she called you Ony. She wrote it on the album. She wrote it O N Y, we all thought she had misspelled, that it was honey like the one of bees but in fact I think it was the nickname she gave you from your middle name."
Sebastian pressed his forehead against Dave's, eyes closed. They sat like that in silence for a long time, Dave absently stroking Sebastian's back.
"Why?" Sebastian asked in a tiny voice. "Why did he do that? Why did he take me away from her, making me believe that she was the one who didn't want me? And why did he make me believe that she was gone right away if I stayed a year with her? And why I have no picture of her except this one?" he finished, pointing vaguely to the picture.
"I don't know Ony, I don't know." Dave whispered.
"I don't know if you have the right to call me that." Sebastian joked.
"Okay Bass."
"Just kidding. I like it."
"She lives in New York now. If you want to talk to her one day."
"You still talk to her?"
"Yes. She practically raised me until my parents thought I was old enough to be alone at home."
"You ... She knows you're ... well that you…"
"That I'm gay?" Dave asked in a soft voice, receiving a nod in response. "Yes, she knows it. All that it has changed is that since she knows, she asks me if I have a boyfriend and not a girlfriend."
"She knows about me?"
"It's been three years Bass, of course she knows."
"And yet she hasn't wanted to meet me." Sebastian said in a tiny voice playing with the cord of Dave's hoodie.
"Actually she has. The opportunity never shown; that's all."
"The opportunity. To see her son she hasn't seen for over 20 years. It is that I must not matter that much."
"Hey, stop that." Dave said, taking Sebastian's hands in his. "Look at me. She knows I have a boyfriend whom I love more than anything. She knows his name is Sebastian and he has the same age as me. She looks forward to meet him. But she doesn't know it's you. You are not the only Sebastian on earth and I never told her your full name."
"Don't say her, okay?"
"Why? I know she'd want to know. She misses you, really."
"I ... I want to meet her before she knows your boyfriend is her son. I want to see her reaction when she'll realize who I am. I know it's silly ... but it's been twenty years since my father probably lies to me, I don't want her to have time to modify her reaction."
"No, it's not silly. You have the right to know."
"She spoke Italian to you?"
"Sì, la mia piccola rosa."
"I guess that means yes?"
"Yes my little rose." Dave replied, smiling.
"Oh no, you've not just call me that!"
"Yes I did." Dave said with a laugh. "I love you Ony. Since the very first time my eyes fell on you 22 years ago."
"I can't believe we've known all this time, I feel like a little old man." Sebastian groaned.
"Yes, but you're my little old man." Dave said with a smile.
"What was she singing when she cooked?"
"Songs in Italian most of the time. Most frequently it was ... wait that I remember."
Dave thought for a few seconds and then began to hum.
Come prima
Più di prima, t'amerò
Per la vita
La mia vita ti darò
Sembra un sogno
Rive derti, accarezzarti
Le tue mani tra le mani
Stringere ancor
Sebastian sat up slightly, a smile on his face. Before Dave could begin a new verse, he sang to the same tune.
Come prima
Tu me donnes tant de joie
Que personne ne m'en donne
Comme toi
C'est ta bouche qui m'apporte
ma joie de vivre
Et ma chance,
c'est de vivre rien que pour toi
"Marie was singing it to us when we were kids too. Us, it was rather during bath time. And in French of course."
"Oh, you miss her too."
"Yes. I ... she hasn't carried me in her belly, but she's still my mom. I mean, she has acted like a mom, she raised me. I shouldn't say that huh, now that I know my birth mother isn't what I thought but ..."
"But Marie has been there for you in times when you needed a mom. Nobody can change that."
They were interrupted by Dave's phone indicating a message. Sebastian pulled away reluctantly to let him pick up.
"This is Mike. They go to the hospital, Tina begins to have contractions."
"Great. So it's a boy or a girl?"
"But we do not know yet silly, she hasn't yet given birth, she just has contractions, it can take hours."
"Why did they not want to know? I can't wait, I want to know. We must call Kurt and Blaine to tell them, they're our contact in the pyramid. "Sebastian shouted over excitedly, already grabbing his phone and dialing the number.
"When are you gonna grow exactly?" Dave asked, biting his lip.
"Never. Kurt? Blaine is with you? Put the speaker. Here it is? Tina is in the hospital, she's going to give birth."
"Super! It's a boy or a girl?" Blaine exclaimed.
"We don't know yet." Sebastian replied with a sulky tone.
"What? But what are they waiting for? It's too long a wait!" Blaine said in the same tone.
"Yeah, I know, it's torture."
"How do you manage every days with your baby puppy?" Dave asked to Kurt attention.
"I don't know, probably just as you with yours." Kurt said with a sigh despite the smile that was heard in his voice.
"We also have news." Blaine cried out. "It's fine Kurt, we can say now? Please, please, please."
"Now that you have teased them, come on, tell them."
"I'm going to be a dad!"
"Blaine? I really thought you were gay and faithful." Dave said teasingly.
"Huh? What? But of course I'm faithful. We did that properly, we have a surrogate all. With Kurt's sperm actually but I don't care, it's my baby. It's been six months since Kurt forbids me to tell it, just in case it goes wrong. What if we don't find a surrogate and if she doesn't get pregnant and if she had a miscarriage. Thankfully it quickly worked; otherwise I'd have lost it. But there it is, in six months we'll be three, we'll have our little boy with us."
"A boy? Great we can make him play football and Kurt will teach him how to fix a car and ..." Sebastian kindled before being cut by Kurt.
"Oh, let's calm down. He's not even born yet. If he wants to dance, he'll dance if he wants a doll for his birthday, he'll have one."
"There Anderson, this is what you earned having a child with Kurt Hummel, he'll make of your son a fag." Sebastian sighed playfully.
"Bass, be nice please." Dave lectured.
"Oh, I was kidding."
"Kurt, we have to hang up, that we prepare the baby's room and that we release the line for Mike to finally tell us if it's a boy or a girl."
"We have six months before us Blaine."
"Only six months Kurt, we'll never have time to do everything. It's a disaster, this baby is going to come and nothing will be ready."
"Well, sorry, my puppy is at it again. And besides, mine, he has the eye that goes with it." Kurt's sighed.
"Believe me; mine also knows how to go about on this side." Dave sighed.
"What are you doing?" Sebastian asked, hanging up while Dave typed on the keyboard of his phone.
"I send a message to my father."
"Why? He's not in our list."
"I just ask him to bring the album of us when he comes tomorrow."
"You tell him who I am?" Sebastian asked a little worried.
"He knows who you are Scar. It's been six years since we know each other I remind you."
"No, I mean, you tell him that the baby ..."
"Only if you want me to tell him."
"Not yet, okay?"
"No problem. But I can't promise he won't understand by himself."
"I'm not asking you to promise that. "Sebastian said. "I'm getting hungry." he added after a pause.
"Me too. I heat up the pizza."
They ate while watching an old movie that was on TV, the kind of movie you've already seen a thousand times but watch it anyway. Then they went to bed to be ready the next day to pick up Paul and Shannon at the airport at eleven. Before that, Dave prepared his famous spaghetti Bolognese they would just have to reheat coming back from the airport after dropping off his parents' stuff at their hotel.
Paul was a little surprised that his son wanted to see a photo album of him as a baby with his boyfriend, he who had avoided them to not make him feel uncomfortable, but he brought the album anyway. After lunch and a glass of champagne that Paul had insisted on offer to celebrate the success for their exams of his boys, they settled all four on the couch to watch the album together, Sebastian head resting against Dave's left shoulder under his arm, Paul and Shannon on each side of them.
Dave took the album on his knees; on the cover was a picture of Eleana with Dave on her lap, blowing the candle on a cake that was missing a small portion, his little cheeks all puffy with air. The young woman was watching Sebastian in a high chair next to them who had a piece of chocolate cake on a plate in front of him, a big smile on his face and probably more chocolate on hands and face than in the plate.
"Which one is David?" Shannon asked.
"This one." Sebastian said pointing his finger to the little boy and trying to swallow the tears that threatened to spill.
"Yes, but how do you know?" Paul asked, surprised.
"Hey, Scar, you okay?" Dave, who had identified the emotion in Sebastian's voice, asked.
"Yes, it's fine."
"Who's the other baby?" Shannon asked.
"He was the son of the nanny. Dave adored him, that's why we had hired her besides."
"You're going to tell your story again Dad?"
"Why? It bothers you?"
"Actually no, I love this story even more since yesterday." Dave said with a smile.
"What happened yesterday?" Paul asked.
Dave looked at Sebastian, giving him a questioning look. Sebastian nodded.
"Tell them."
"You know that Sebastian has never really known his mother. According to his father, she was gone when he was a toddler. He has a picture of her in his wallet that I had never seen."
"Yes, and?"
"Yesterday, I saw the picture by accident."
"You search your boyfriend's wallet? You disappoint me David; I didn't think you'd be capable of that. A good relationship should be based on trust."
"Dad, calm down. I missed 25 cents yesterday to pay the pizza and as he trusts me, he told me to look in his wallet and the picture was there, that's all."
"And you'll tell me that this is the first time in three years that it happens."
"No, Paul. But I changed my wallet last month. In the old one, I had put the picture in a slightly more hidden place. He'd really have had to search to find it before." Sebastian interjected.
"Now that this great mystery is cleared up, so last night, I saw a picture of his mother."
"The only one I have of her."
"His mother, it's Eleana dad."
There was a silence in which everyone was recording new information.
"So, if I understand correctly, the adorable baby covered in chocolate, it's you Sebastian." Shannon said with a crooked smile.
"And in this album, there are pictures that didn't exist. Well, that's what I thought." Sebastian said deeply moved, a tear rolling down his cheek that Dave wiped with fingertip, smiling at him.
"You want us to leave you two alone maybe?" Shannon suggested.
Sebastian shook his head, unable to speak.
"You want him to stay to tell you the story of the pictures?" Dave asked, stroking Sebastian's cheek.
Still unable to speak without bursting into tears, Sebastian sent a trembling smile to Dave, gently squeezed his hand and kissed him.
"I think that was a yes." Dave said when they parted.
They spent the rest of the afternoon watching the photo album together. Sebastian's emotion was palpable and contagious, but Paul recounted that year that Sebastian had spent with his mother. At least, the part which he had witnessed. After that, Sebastian began to think that she was a little more than his mother because for a year she had been his mom.
The song (songs, well, we understand each) is Come Prima by Tony Dallara for the Italian version and the same title by Dalida for the French version. I owe the choice of this song to Gianell that you can find on this site. Well, not the final choice, that, I did it by myself so that she has a minimum of effect of surprise but she gave me many ideas that I wouldn't have had alone. And to be precise, this case is a real group work since she more or less have been the messenger, it's her dad who had all the ideas. So here, thank you to the both of them.
I don't translate the song because I don't get any message with the lyrics in themselves. It could talk about a dog, it wouldn't matter, what mattered was to draw a parallel between what Eleana was singing and what Marie was singing as if it was a song Mom, no matter in what language. And besides, I don't speak a word of Italian (yes, I'm aware of the trouble in which I got myself) and I already pray that my mini sentence is correct because I know how Google translation can make not really grammatically correct sentences and in addition, my stats tell me that I am read in Italy.
