The Turns Life Takes (Eve/Julian) - Chapter 21
by yhh
Sitting in the breakfast room, the newly reunited parents and daughter
ate breakfast making minimum conversation. An unknown tension filled the
room.
"This is ridiculous," Julian declared, throwing his impeccable pressed
cloth napkin on his plate. "We've read everything there was to know about
each other. Now let's get to know each other in person, in real time. I'm
Julian Linus Crane and I've been dying to meet you," he said, bowing slightly.
Brenda and Eve looked at each other and giggled away the tension with the
over-the-top way Julian introduced himself.
"I'm Eve Elizabeth Johnson Russell. And I've been dying to meet you from
the moment I found out you were a girl instead of the boy I had dreamed
about all these years," Eve stated, trying hard to keep it light.
"I'm Brenda Veronica Barrett Corinthos. And I almost drove Sonny crazy
with my impatience and pacing until I finally got to meet you, two," Brenda
smiled with tears in her eyes. "So what was my name going to be?"
"Anna Katherine Crane," Eve answered.
"Anna Katherine," Brenda repeated, playing with the sound of the name.
"Anna or Katie?"
"Katie."
"Anna Katherine," Julian said in disbelief, reaching for Eve's hand.
Eve nodded. "Anna was Julian's mother's name and Katherine was his beloved
step-mother's name."
Brenda nodded. She watched the unspoken words flow back and forth between
her parents. She couldn't believe they weren't together, happily married
with a houseful of kids. Their love was as evident as the sun in the sky.
After growing up with Harlan and his mistresses, it was nice to know her
biological parents were deeply in love. And not a mistake, as Harlan often
called his marriage to Veronica. Her parents. That was so odd to say. To
even think. All her life she had thought she was Brenda Veronica Barrett,
daughter of Harlan and Veronica Barrett. But now she was no longer the daughter
to a man, who hated her because she "killed" her mother. Or to the woman
she had never had the pleasure of meeting. Now she was the daughter of Julian
Crane and Eve Russell. A product of a passionate love affair driven into
the ground by hate and racism. She was half-black. She had always wondered
about her olive complexion, but both Harlan and Julia just shined her questions
on, like all of her numerous nannies did.
How different would her life had been if Eve was allowed to keep her? She
would have grown up with a poor or at best working class mother, who probably
would have struggled putting food on the table. Her upbringing she imagined
would have been a lot like Sonny's, once Mike left, but at least she would
have had a mother, a parent, who loved and adored. And based on the information,
Sonny's private investigator turned up. Her mother would have protected
her from any and everything, like Eve had done for Whitney, Simone, and
now Endora. Wow, that was strange, she had more sisters than just Robin
and Lois.
She knew Sony, Robin, and Lois were waiting for her to breakdown once she
found out her Barrett family wasn't her biologically family. And maybe,
just maybe she would have if the Barrett family had been a real one, but
it hadn't. She wasn't Harlan's precious Julia. Maybe Harlan had sensed she
wasn't his daughter. It was only as an adult with the dysfunctional but
loving Quartermaines and the loving and boisterous Cerullos had she discovered
what a family was and how they related to each other. Looking at the pictures,
Sonny's investigator had taken of her newfound family, she felt this could
be the family she had secretly dreamt of all her life, even after marrying
Sonny, especially now that Alistair was dead. Her heart melted as she saw
Eve and Endora playing in the park, riding the carousel, Whitney and Simone
shopping, Julian picking up Ethan-Martin. She saw a portrait of a family,
her family. She prayed she could fit in and stake a place to call her own.
"How did you end up in Port Charles?" Eve asked, venturing her first question
to her eldest child.
"My da- -Harlan- -" Brenda began.
"You can continue to call him dad. This is quite the adjustment for all
of us," Julian assured her.
Brenda nodded. "He knew Edward Quartermaine. Harlan, I'm sure was complaining
about my out-of-control behavior, and Edward suggested since he had two
grandsons around my age that I should come live with him and Lila. Maybe
I would do better in a structured family environment- -"
"Was Edward truly trying to pass the Quartermaines off as a structured
family?" Julian asked, smiling.
"Yes, crazy isn't it," Brenda laughed. "But it worked and I was so happy
to be back in the States and living with Edward and Lila. They took me in
and treated me as one of their own."
Eve's heart rejoiced that this Quartermaine family embraced her daughter
and showed her love. She had read about Brenda's life with Harlan and Julia
and had wept at her daughter's emotional neglect. How could a man be blessed
with a child and treat her with such disregard? Yes, she had seen it time
and time again, unfortunately when she worked the ER, but it took on a new
meaning now that it was her daughter. She knew it was wrong that she felt
that way, but she did. The daughter she had thought was a son and had prayed
for had been emotionally abused and neglected. She knew neither she nor
Julian could make those years up to Brenda, but she wanted her to know from
the moment they started searching for her she was loved and wanted more than
anything.
"Did you two really meet and fall in love in a club with Eve as the songstress?"
Brenda asked, looking from one parent to the other.
Smiling brightly, Julian nodded. "Yes, speaking of which." He reached into
the file next to his plate and handed her an envelope.
"What's this?" Brenda questioned as she opened the envelope.
"Yes, Julian. What are you up to?" Eve piped in, curious also.
"You'll find out soon, impatient duo," he reprimanded loving.
Brenda and Eve looked at each other and grinned.
"This looks like a deed. For the Blue Note?" their newly found daughter
said puzzled.
"You bought the Blue Note?" Eve asked in disbelief.
"Eve, your name is on here too," her daughter informed her.
"Julian." Eve couldn't believe he would do this. This was- -
"The Blue Note is where your mother and I met. I walked in the club, expecting
inferior alcohol and passable jazz, but what I ended up with was hearing
the voice and seeing the face of the woman I knew I would love for the rest
of my life," he finished, gazing into Eve's eyes.
"You knew that even though you walked into the club with another woman?"
his former lover asked.
"Yes," he said, never moving from her gaze.
"Every night, you came in with a different woman," Eve reminded him.
"Yes, I did. I said, I knew it, but that didn't mean I was happy with such
knowledge. I was quite happy up until then living my playboy existence.
What was it that Dylan Thomas said, 'Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.'? I wasn't going gently." Tearing
his eyes away from his love, he looked at the product of that love. "And
yes, everything you've heard about me is true, plus more- -"
"Don't believe him," Eve jumped in. "He's a good man who lost his way-
-"
"When I foolishly threw you away. I will never make such a mistake ever
again," he declared.
Watching her parents, Brenda was astounded by the love and passion she
saw between them. They reminded her of her and Sonny, except with a hundred
times the angst and heartache. As they bantered back and forth, she almost
felt she shouldn't be privy to such things, but she couldn't move for the
life of her. She was mesmerized. These two people were her parents. And
they loved each other. And they loved her. Well that would take time for
her to truly believe or rather reciprocate, but she knew they wanted her
enough to search for her when everyone was against them and when it seemed
unlikely that they would prevail.
"I wanted you and your mother to have a piece of what changed my life forever
and brought us all together. Brenda, I owe you an apology. If I had stood
up to my father, fought for your mother, you never would have been raised
by that vile creature Harlan Barrett. You would have been our Anna Katherine
and loved by the two people who wanted you more than anything in the world."
"Oh, Julian," Brenda cried, jumping out of her seat and running in between
Julian and Eve's chair throwing her arms around each of them.
Eve and Julian breathed in the scent of their baby, their daughter. At
last, their daughter was home.
At last, my love has come along,
My lonely days are over,
And life is like a song,
Ohhh at last
The stars above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover,
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to,
A dream that I, can call my own,
I found a thrill, to press my cheek to,
A thrill that I, have never known,
Ohhh you smile, you smile
And then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven,
For you are mine, at last!