Gen Two- Chapter Forty One

The walk had been long and silent. However, even that was a fact unnoticed by me as my mind was far away from the current moment. My brain didn't recognize the exhaustion Doodle caused my arm by constantly pulling on the leash too hard, nor did I realize the wonderfully crisp spring air I typically loved more than anything else finally engulfed the city. No, on I walked while my mind screamed at me the same thoughts it'd been screaming for about a month now. The same panicked worry constantly dominated my emotions. It drained me and beat me down, but even with it dragging me deeper more and more I craved to let it do so at the same time. I couldn't be happy or content. I didn't want to be happy or content. I wanted to fight, and the perpetual struggle reassured me the battle indeed continued.

Even being with Holly hardly pulled me out of myself. The talk she requested never happened that weekend when Mimosa set off the war. I spent every second I had preparing my weapons, and the ending of the weekend forced Holly back to school. The same pattern had continued, although Holly was now out for the summer. It was why she'd finally been able to convince me to take some semblance of a break.

We reached the stone fence of the dog park, and for Doodle that meant heaven. He bolted the second he was off his leash. The large area for him to explore barely seemed large enough as he dashed back and forth like he could fly. It was clear from his expression he was disappointed no other dogs were around for him to play with, but Doodle was determined to have fun regardless. Seeing him be himself was a strange thing for me. It hadn't been a year yet since I'd gotten him, yet it seemed like he'd been in my life forever. That conversation I had with mom that time we all came here together felt like an eternity ago. Everything had changed drastically. What I wouldn't give to have a lack of friends be my main complaint again.

I forgot Holly was there. I hadn't been the greatest at answering her texts and calls, and when we were together in person she often waited for me to initiate the talking, which rarely happened. It was safe to say she didn't want to press me before I was ready. This time around though, she grew impatient.

     "You're really tense." she noted softly, gently putting her hand on my shoulder before lightly running it down my back.

     "Of course I am." I responded indifferently.

The stiffness of my muscles was irrelevant considering everything going on, yet I did have to sigh mentally in relief when Holly's hand began kindly kneading at my shoulder. If only the rest of my problems could be solved so easily. Every morning I woke up dreading to hear Mimosa had carried out her threat. Honestly, I could barely believe she hadn't yet. She clearly assumed it carried enough weight to get me to come around, and that was why she was still pregnant. I, on the other hand, continued to work on getting the law on my side to prevent her from having the ability to just go and get an abortion. Dad and I had gotten the best lawyer possible, and she was working hard to push the case through at record speed due to obvious time constraints. Even with Mimosa so freely admitting her guilt even now, it proved to be a slippery slope to climb to deny her what she should have. We were scheduled to appear before a judge the following day to get a ruling that, if things went in our favor, would temporarily revoke Mimosa's ability to get rid of the baby. After that, we would be in a time crunch to build a solid case to prove that such a ruling should be upheld unless the pregnancy became life-threatening.

There my brain went off again thinking of the mess. Holly's touch stopped registering to me, and I didn't recognize I instinctively sat myself down to get off my weary feet until Holly suddenly plomped herself on my lap.

     "What are you doing?" I asked as indifferently as before.

     "I've decided to stop playing nice and get your attention in any way I can." she replied, smiling brightly and making me wonder when the last time I smiled myself was. 

Well, the answer to that came quickly. Holly abruptly went for that extra ticklish spot of mine under the left side of my chin. Her fingers danced on that spot for way longer than I normally let people, and out of my mouth exploded some of the stupidest laughter that ever burst from my lips. The bizarre sound got Holly laughing. The ridiculous noise got me laughing for real as well.

     "Jerk." I smirked up at her mischievously, tightening my hand on her waist and threatening to return the favor.

     "There we go," Holly beamed, "That's the normal you."

With an ecstatic exhale of relief, she wrapped her arms around for a quick but tight squeeze.

     "Careful, or I might start to think that we are actually still together." I warned.

Holly immediately pulled back and gave me a look.

     "You dork, do you really think I'd be sitting on you like this if we weren't still together? Your stubbornness won out over mine, and I'm glad it did."

I stared at her earnestly, she returned the expression, and we sat together more respectfully.

     "It hurt. It still hurts," she spoke with slight bitterness, but her eyes pleaded openness, "I think it will always be a sore spot with me. The part of me that wishes you had known Mimosa wasn't me will keep wanting that. But, I'm far past done thinking it was your fault. I do know you didn't sleep with her simply because it was an easy chance. It is nice to know you were willing to try so hard to make the moment right for me despite the struggles you were facing and still are, which is why it's even more infuriating that Mimosa took advantage of you. That she tricked you into exposing a part of yourself that's difficult to expose and trust others with to begin with."

Holly sighed.

     "I am beyond furious with her, but I do want Mimosa to get help too. I want her to get better. She might think she's happy being like this, but she isn't. She's searching for what she had before. However, she somehow can't see the plain solution right in front of her eyes."

     "That's why dad and I are hoping the case can fix that. We're taking jail or whatever off the cards and trying to make a deal that me getting the baby and Mimosa having to take her medicine and get counseling or whatever else to get her stable again is the proper 'punishment' for this situation. I want the old Mimosa back too. I won't necessarily forgive her or be her friend again, at least not for some time, but with this Mimosa we have now there's not a chance in hell for either of those things."

     "I can't believe I'd ever say something like this," Holly smiled weakly, "But I hope you whoop Mimosa in court."

I chuckled. My arm was then clutched tighter and a different, kinda weird, smile crept onto Holly's lips.

     "You know, I haven't made a mention of it to anyone before, but I am a bit jealous as well."

     "Jealous of what?"

     "Of Mimosa sleeping with you. A little of you two having a baby together too. That was supposed to be stuff you and I do."

     "Well, the sleeping together part is easy, but I don't think I should be getting you pregnant lest your dad actually murder me."

     "Yeah, god no. That's a definitely far in the future thing," Holly agreed vigorously, "I'm finishing school and spending at least two years working at a job before I consider a baby."

     "What about us sleeping together then? We clearly need to be more specific on the topic of when that's acceptable instead of making dirty jokes about it."

     "I like the dirty jokes, and I'm going to keep making them," Holly teased, "I don't quite know if I can give you specifics though on when I expect I'll want to be with you like that. All I can say for sure is that I want it to be special, and I most definitely do not want to do it on my parents' bed. That's a little...gross? Weird?"

     "Yeah, that should have been a big giveaway. That was definitely mildly uncomfortable." I scoffed amusedly.

Taking a deep breath, I pondered over the matter more.

     "Okay, how about we approach this differently then? We don't have to plan a specific moment, but we can have a secret word."

     "Secret word?"

     "Yup. That way I know for sure it's you and that I'm in the clear to go along with whatever moment you believe is the right one."

     "I can get behind that idea," Holly laughed, "What should the word be?"

Leaning closer, I pressed one quick peck against her cheek before daring to get a quick one from her lips as well. It was the first connection with her like that in two months, and it did quite a bit in having me forget about my troubles for the briefest of moments.

     "How about apple?" I suggested, catching a whiff of the familiar and comfortable scent after pulling back.

     "Sensible, but too easy to guess, especially for someone who knows me well like Mimosa."

     "Pineapple? That way it still has 'apple' in it."

     "So, when we're in a hot and heavy moment, you want me to randomly say 'pineapple' to make sure you're good to go? Isn't that kind of silly?"

     "Well, if I leave the word up to you, you're going to think up something wholly inappropriate that's going to make me laugh just as much as you saying pineapple." I smirked.

     "Pineapple it is then." Holly laughed louder.

With that decided, a more comfortable atmosphere took over. I relaxed for the first time in days, although Holly didn't think so.

     "Geez, you're seriously as tense as a brick," she spoke, aghast, as she rubbed her hand over my back again, "I heard Mal was bringing Lightning over to Mary's place for another visit today. Let's drop Doodle off at your house once he's done running around so we can go there. I can watch Lightning, so you can probably convince Mal to give you once of his amazing massages."

     "He'll most likely tell me that he's the one in need of a massage, but it's worth a shot. Good luck getting Light off Mary too." I warned merrily.

Doodle wasn't eager to leave the dog park, but Holly and I weren't in much of a rush either. Holly caught me up on what the end of her second year of college had been like until my dog tired himself out. The spoiled thing got carried home most of the way only to seek Glade out for more cuddles and playtime. Holly and I arrived at Uncle Eden's right before lunch was put away. We stole some leftovers before Holly pressed the issue of me getting my message. It really was too embarrassing to ask Malachite for one myself. Thankfully, my cousin was in a good and supportive mood. Rosemary indeed hogged Lightning, so he'd gotten a long break. Malachite and I talked for a bit as the massage started, but not more than a minute later I found myself nearly asleep. I seriously did fall asleep several minutes later, which turned into the best rest I'd had in weeks. Malachite was down in the kitchen finishing some coffee when I woke up about half an hour later.

     "Try and catch some more of those 'Zzz's," he suggested half seriously and half jokingly, "I remember how chaotic it was the day of Mary's custody case. You're going to need your energy tomorrow just to survive the waiting portion, and that's the easiest part of the battle."
     "I truly do wonder if I can survive tomorrow. I've already stressed myself out about it several times to the point where I felt I was going to throw up. I should probably refuse to eat anything starting right now, especially if the judge decides Mimosa hasn't done enough to screw me over to stop her from getting her way again. What if that does happen? How the hell am I supposed to prevent her from getting rid of the baby then?" I questioned despondently.
     "If the law proves not to be in your favor, I think you should go ahead and marry Mimosa."

I stared at him with an intense frown, yet Malachite looked seriously back- unblinking and unfazed.

     "I'm not kidding," he continued firmly, "It should be something you're willing to do if you're genuinely determined to have your baby born no matter what."
     "I am. I didn't want a baby so soon, but now that I have one on the way I want it so badly it hurts." I professed instantly.
     "Then do what a father would do. In order to ensure your child's safety and survival, get rid of your pride. Make the sacrifice. Marry Mimosa and then break the marriage off once the baby is born, or perhaps string her along with a semi-fake engagement until the pregnancy is far along enough where abortion is out of the question. It'll be messy, complicated, and full of a crap ton of fighting on either path, I'm sure, but it'll achieve what needs to be done. No matter how hard, frustrating, or humiliating it might seem, the result with be worth it."

I stood stiff. Following that plan, marrying Mimosa even temporarily- they were more things that made me feel sick. I understood what Malachite said. I just didn't know if I had the strength to do it. Tomorrow would simply have to go extremely well, otherwise...well, perhaps I could manage a fake engagement. A few months of putting on a fake smile and going dress shopping with Mimosa couldn't be that bad, could it? On the other hand, she would expect to be able to hug, kiss, and maybe do even more with me anytime she wanted. I sighed. It was definitely something Holly and I would have to discuss a hell of a lot before I tried anything on my own.

Malachite tried to bolster me better by giving me more of a run-down on how I could expect the meeting with the judge to go tomorrow. The sound of the doorbell and a sudden explosion of overjoyed voices interrupted us. Some of the voices were one I didn't recognize in the slightest. Curious, I snagged a rapid drink of water from the tap since I hadn't gotten anything to drink since my walk before moseying over the living room to find out what was going on. The yellow woman and green and purple man I definitely didn't know, but Uncle Eden clearly did. The man and him shared a massive hug and talked enthusiastically like the air was about to run out and the only had ten seconds to say everything they had to say.

They were like a pair of schoolkids, and I wasn't the only one amused by their antics. On and on Uncle Eden and this guy went, and when I met eyes with Holly and Rosemary were all found it difficult to contain chuckles. The yellow woman, doing the same, placed her hand on the man's shoulder. He and Uncle Eden broke themselves out of their bubble to give us the explanation. Uncle Eden motioned the two arrivals in my direction. They had apparently already managed the basic introductions to Holly and Rosemary.

     "Coal, this is my friend from way back when, Mantis, and his wife, Beryl. Mant, Beryl, this is my sister's youngest son, Coal."
     "Pleasure to meet you." Beryl said, reaching out to shake my hand.
     "Same," I said, shaking her hand and then Mantis', "My mom has actually mentioned you several times over the years."
     "That's probably been during the times where she randomly remembered to remind me to try and reconnect with you," Uncle Eden spoke to Mantis as I had, "But something always came up, and we would both forget. I'm so sorry. I should have tried harder."
     "Hey, no worries. It took me this long to get off my butt and try and track you down too. I'm just as guilty." Mantis reassured him.
     "Well, I'm glad you decided to surprise us with both your presence. It's been a little crazy around here since winter. We need the fun." Uncle Eden smiled widely.

Beryl glanced towards Lightning before making her way over to him.

     "I'm sure this little guy has attributed to some of that craziness. Is he yours?" she questioned Rosemary, who laughed.
     "Oh no, Lightning here is my nephew."
     "He's my youngest son's son," Uncle Eden clarified further, "He's around here somewhere."
     "He said he was going to the bathroom." I explained.
     "Lightning, is it? Is he your first grandchild, Eden?" Mantis wondered.
     "Yup." Uncle Eden nodded.
     "Hopefully the first of many. Do you plan to have children when you find a husband?" Beryl addressed Rosemary again.
     "Actually, my, um, my girlfriend and I haven't really discussed marriage, but we've briefly mentioned adopting if we did."

Rosemary answered as confidently as she could and glanced towards me for approval, which I gave as a massive smile and subtle thumbs up. The nervousness in her words was apparent for all though, but that had Beryl smiling even more sweetly.

     "That sounds just as lovely." she encouraged.
     "Definitely approve of the adopting bit." Mantis added.
     "It was always a plan I wanted to go since dad adopted me and his dad." Rosemary explained, giving Lightning a little bounce that made him coo with glee.
     "I expected nothing less." Mantis replied, making eye contact with Uncle Eden once more and grinning.

I shifted to the side when I heard footsteps behind me. Malachite joined us from his adventure to the toilet, but it apparently hadn't been a particularly nice one.

     "Mary, how many times do I have to tell you to replace the roll? You have no idea how annoying it is to be the one to cover up your laziness." he complained.
     "I don't know if it's laziness so much as me being smart. If you change the roll regardless of how much you bellyache about having to do so, why should I do it then?" she bantered.
     "Now that he mentions it," Uncle Eden gave Rosemary a look, "I have an issue with your being 'smart' too. I was the last one caught by your apparent intelligence."

They began talking, and I was about to join in the lighthearted bickering when the two visitors caught my attention. Polite smiles were on their faces when Malachite appeared. However, now they were wearing expressions hard to decipher. They went from being curious to confused to absolutely disbelieving to shocked beyond belief. There were glimmers of recognition from both of them, and I was about to quietly ask if there was something up when whatever they thought they realized settled in.

Beryl gasped loudly, drawing everyone's attention, and covered her mouth in mystified surprise. Mantis looked strongly taken aback as well.

     "Malachite?" Beryl whispered intently.
     "Uh, yes?" my cousin responded, giving them a puzzled expression, "Do we know each other?"

He wasn't answered immediately. Beryl was frozen solid while her husband slowly turned to Uncle Eden with wide eyes.

     "Why is he here?" Mantis struggled to say.
     "Uh...um, I...this is his house? Well, no, I mean he lives with his girlfriend now, but Mal lived here with us ever since Deny and I adopted him." Uncle Eden explained with difficulty.
     "Where was he when you adopted him? How long ago was that?" Mantis asked hurriedly, and, strangely, almost accusingly.
     "Uh..." Uncle Eden quieted, struggling even further, "We adopted him when he fourteen. He had been bouncing around from foster house to foster house for a few years after his abusive father nearly beat him to death and gave him a permanent case of amnesia. There was no mother in the picture at all."

Mantis no longer blinked. His stare was locked with Uncle Eden for a long stretch of tense time until that stunned expression found its way back to Malachite, who watched everything with cautious confusion. It was clear gears were clicking into action in his head though, and, honestly, the same was happening in mine. I did understand there were only so many shades colors could be, but the green of Mantis and Malachite's hair and eyes being a perfect match was too much of a coincidence. It was even more suspicious that Beryl and Malachite's skin were exactly the same. The two shared the same hooked nose as well. Mantis and Beryl also knew my cousin's name even though Mantis and Uncle Eden hadn't talked since they were children.

There was no fucking way though. Right? Enough crazy stuff had been happening in the past months. Could it seriously keep going like this? It apparently could. Beryl escaped her frozen state to launch herself at Malachite for a massive hug. He stumbled and embraced her uncertainly, but embraced her he still did as tears began to trickle from her eyes.

     "Please someone say something to either confirm or deny what I think is happening before I think I've gone insane." he requested.

Beryl was out of commission, so Mantis took a deep breath.

     "The first child Beryl and I had was a son. A son with green hair, green eyes, and yellow skin that we named Malachite after Beryl's deceased step-father. He was born on April 17th. Everything was perfectly fine until we took him to a park when he was four. Some bastard kidnapped him, and no matter how much effort we put in or how big we got the police search to be we couldn't find a single trace of what happened. The years passed, the case went cold, and even though Beryl and I kept looking we did resign ourselves to the fact that our son was long dead or so far lost we would never find him."

He voice softened as he choked up.

     "But he's apparently been living here with you, being loved and well looked after..."

Beryl's arms wrapped around Malachite tighter, and he returned the favor.

     "I'm so sorry, Mant," Uncle Eden pressed forward, "I...I had no idea there was anything going on like that. All the documentation Mal's 'father' had for him appeared legitimate. If we had know-"
     "Eden, shut up," Mantis hushed him with the tiniest of smiles, "There's nothing for you to take blame for. Aside from us finding him, you taking Malachite in and giving him a good home is the best thing that could have happened. I remember how much you helped me. I'm sure you did the same for him after what that asshole put him through. Thank you."
     "You might need to say that 'thank you' one more time," Malachite spoke up, and the meeting of his eyes with Mantis' lingered for a second longer than normal before he continued, "My supposed 'dad' wasn't the only asshole. I was the biggest fucking brat. I put everyone through so much shit. Even tripped poor Coal here into the pool at his house when he was a kid. Knocked him out, gave him a concussion, and made him drown just a teeny tiny bit. Besides that, underage drinking, sneaking out, getting in trouble with the police- I pretty much did it all."

Beryl let out an exasperated, chastising sigh upon hearing that, which had us all chuckling and drove a good portion of the tension in the air away.

     "I'll thank you again then." Mantis said in amusement.

With a great sniff, Beryl detached herself from her newly found son. A stall in the conversation occurred briefly as the reality was hard to swallow, but another chuckle from Uncle Eden prevented it from becoming awkward.

     "I suppose I have to apologize to you, Mal. We should have listened to you more when you were adamant your kidnapper was not your father."
     "See? And you all thought my head had just taken a few too many knocks." Malachite spoke proudly.
     "What's this?" Beryl wondered, drying her eyes.
     "All these years, I always said the man who hurt me couldn't be my father because my father had been a kind man who told me he would never use physical punishment. No one believed me, which I can understand, because I could no longer remember the truth and all the fake documents he somehow got for me were very convincing."
     "What did end up happening to him?"
     "He got charged with maximum jail time and required counseling," Uncle Eden answered, "Although his sentence ended about five years ago. We kept an eye out for him for a while, but he never showed the slightest hint that he was going to try and come around."
     "Well, I hoped he enjoyed his five year break," Mantis mumbled bitterly, "If you know who he is, now we can nail him for the kidnapping."
     "That sounds awesome," Malachite beamed, "I mean, I really don't remember him, but I do know that I hate him. Sending him back to jail is a dream. However, maybe for this afternoon let's ignore him and talk about the good things."
     "That sounds like a plan." Mantis smiled.
     "Yes, we find you and discover that we now have a grandchild, and we get to tell you all about your siblings in return." Beryl said enthusiastically.

Malachite's expression fell flat, in a good way, at the realization he did suddenly have this new part of his family, and we all laughed a final time.

Holly and I stuck around for a little bit. It was enough to hear that Malachite had a younger sister and brother and that Mantis and Beryl would naturally be expanding their visit for quite a while longer than the weekend they original planned to stay. After that, Holly and I decided it would be best if we took off. Uncle Eden said it was fine for us to be around for all the talking, but we knew it was better to give them the space to sort through what would eventually touch on more serious and personal topics. I also didn't really care to be around for such a conversation. Serious was not what I needed when I had the hearing tomorrow.

     "That is insane that that just happened. A good insane, but insane all the same." Holly remarked as we walked along.
     "Really. Like, what were the odds that Uncle Eden and Aunt Deny just happen to adopt the lost son of Uncle Eden's childhood friend?"
     "Maybe they should start playing the lottery."
     "Maybe."

I hurried my pace as I realized Holly was getting a little too far ahead of me. She wasn't walking that fast, and she knew it too. Her hand found its way onto my back when she stopped to let me catch up.

     "Mal told me you fell asleep not five minutes into the massage. It didn't do much for you. Let's go to an actual spa."
     "What?" I frowned.
     "They're not just for girls, and I know the best one to go to. Trust me, you're going to thank me." Holly promised, linking her arm in mine and leading me adamantly forward.

Her intuition was right on the mark. Not sure about the whole thing at first, by the end of the several hours Holly and I spent relaxing I was glad the money had been splurged. The massage I'd gotten hurt in a very good way, and the mineral soak and whatnot proved to be something out of a dream. The only downside was that the effects didn't last long. It didn't feel like it anyway. My muscles curled themselves right back up when I put my head on my pillow to go to bed, yet it wasn't like sleep ever came. I think at maybe two or three in the morning my eyes closed briefly as I lingered at that stage between consciousness and a barely drifting mind. However, at five I got out of bed to wrinkle myself to the extreme with the ridiculously long bath I took to pitifully replicate the relaxation the spa gave me. Breakfast didn't happen, which was for the best.

Dressing took me twice as long. I nearly strangled myself with my tie. Dad had to come do it for me. He also had to support me to the car as my legs started to go. I cursed every red light we hit for extending the agonizing drive, yet I hated arriving at the court house. It loomed over me in a way it never had before. I somehow made it up the stairs before things really started to go bad.

We had arrived a little early, so I ushered myself off to one side when everyone went in the other direction. Mom followed while dad stuck by Uncle Blaze, Desire, Cerise, and Glade, although he kept a concerned gaze in my direction.

     "Coal." mom called to me softly.

She placed her hand against my cheek and felt the dampness of the sweat starting to build. Extreme heat and paralyzing cold rippled throughout me at the same time. My breathing was shortening as it felt like my ribs were ever so slowly cutting and digging into my lungs- upset they hadn't done enough damage the first time around. My stomach bounced and danced with a searing pain that scalded my chest and throat. Every inch of me quivered and shook. My eyes darted about madly for a bench or something. I needed to sit.

     "Coal. Coal, look at me," mom beckoned gently, turning my head with her hand to bring my gaze up, "Everything will be fine. Your lawyer is confident this will go in your favor."
     "The law isn't on my side," my voice shook as much as my body did, and the stinging in my throat grew worse, "This is a national law we're going up against. The obvious answer is right in front of us that my measly complaints aren't going make any difference."
     "It's the judge's duty to uphold the law, but to also make the decision when necessary to determine fair exemptions to it. You've offered a reasonable compromise to the judgment Mimosa would otherwise face. It is going to be clear to everyone in that room, who are almost all going to be parents, that you're a father simply looking after the child that you do deserve to be yours. The judge is a person with sympathies that can understand you have rights as well."

Like when she tried to comfort me about Holly when Mimosa's deception first came to light, I knew mom's words made sense but they did nothing for me. All I could do was shake my head and glance around again for somewhere to sit. Mom led me to the outcropping of the stone column of the building behind us that provided enough space for a seat. She had me close my eyes, rest my head on her shoulder, and hummed a familiar lullaby to calm me while dad came over with a bottle of ice water as I desperately did everything I could to stop counting down the seconds for when we had to walk through those doors.