Winter Legacy -3.3-

Leia pushed open the room door and sighed. This was yet another night with her husband sleeping away from home. Feliz swore that her brother had been at her house a couple times but Leia wasn't stupid, she always told Rudolph that she wasn't born as big as she was. Despite herself she had begun to nag him, she went from demanding of Rudolph to tell her the truth to begging him to. 

Rudolph was rolled over and hugged his pillow. He refused to go home, his father was constantly arguing with him and his wife was always nagging him. Once or twice he had even come close to telling her the truth. There were no secrets between his parents, however, Regan hadn't bombarded him with questions, in fact she had been pretty civil toward him. What also confused him was why they hadn't told Leia. Rudolph wasn't man enough to ask his parents their reasons for not telling, in fact he thought he knew, they wanted him to take responsibility for his actions and talk to his wife.

Rudolph would tell Leia, but not just yet. For the moment he was enjoying his time with Sylvia, watching as his baby made her rounder. Rudolph was well aware of the things that could go wrong during pregnancy and birth, he wanted to make sure that there actually was a baby before he went and ruined his marriage.

As Rudolph drove home his mind was on a million things at the same time. He was wondering what kind of situation he had gotten himself into, how had things gotten so complicated? He found himself wishing for his childhood, for the days when he and Ice played pranks on everyone, for the days when got in trouble for picking on Navidad. Navidad. Suddenly Rudolph was jealous of his younger brother, Navi had the perfect life, a beautiful wife a daughter he doted on. What did Rudolph have? He had hell!

Rudolph wandered into the house and made himself an early lunch. He ate quickly and went to the bathroom upstairs to take a shower.

Then he climbed into bed beside his sleeping wife. Rudolph could believe it, he had gotten home free, no one had seen him sneaking in, although he wondered why he even bothered to sneak around these days. He was sure that Leia knew something was up.

Later in the morning Rudolph came down for another breakfast. Regan followed her son downstairs, he didn't even know she was behind him. Cupid clutched his grandmother's gown. Wordlessly Regan handed Cupid to his father and went into the kitchen. She was beyond upset, she would have a new grandchild any day now, but the circumstances surrounding that child's birth will haunt it its entire life. Sure she didn't like Leia, but that didn't mean she wanted Rudolph to cheat on her, no woman deserved to be scorned.

Rudolph snuggled his son, he wanted to tell Cupid, in his babyish innocence, Cupid was the only person who Rudolph felt had not ill feelings against him, but Cupid was at that stage in life where he repeated everything.

"Hey Kid, you're up early." Rudolph cooed, Cupid looked up and murmured something then giggled joyfully. Rudolph put his son on the ground when his mother left the kitchen, then he went in to find himself something to eat.

Leia entered the kitchen fully dressed, she smelled like citrus and strawberries. "Morning Honey." Rudolph sang, he didn't hate her, nope, far from it. He thought of her as a friend. 

"Hey babe, what do you want for breakfast?" She asked as she went toward the fridge.

"Eggs and bacon will be fine."

"Do you want it here or in a disposable plate so you can go over to Sylvia's?"

Rudolph later found out that Leia had known for a while, thanks to the gossipers around town. That night as they crowded in the nursery to tuck Cupid in, Regan chatted animatedly with a disconnected Leia and Rudolph got a text that he'd been expecting for a while. Wordlessly he left the nursery, Leia died a little inside as her husband left.

"Why didn't you call me when you went into labor?" He asked Sylvia when he arrived at her house.

"I wasn't sure if I could." She motioned to the house, "I was just about to wake him, it's time for him to be fed."

Rudolph rested his new son on his shoulder, the baby gurgled. Rudolph learnt that his son was named Shayne, at the moment the baby looked like every other baby ever born. Rudolph fell in love all over again, he was as emotional as he was when he met Cupid for the first time.

At his house, his wife was giving her mother-in-law a sour look. "You could have stopped this if you wanted."

Regan sighed, "Leia that's bull shit and you know it. I didn't want you to marry him, was I able to stop that? No."

"You're happy aren't you? Now he's going to leave me and you won't have to worry about me any more."

Regan turned to Leia, "No woman deserves to be cheated on, I'm not happy about this at all. In fact, I'm a wreck! I know I raised him better than that. I did raise him better than that, and then he turned sixteen." She sighed.

Regan waited all day, she had no idea of knowing if Rudolph was at work, at a club or if he would be there, but she felt like she had to do something. 

"I knew you would come." Sylvia said.

She let her boyfriend's mother into her house and handed her the baby. "He's perfect." Regan murmured as she bounced the baby gently. "Sylvia, you know this isn't right, how could you do what you did to another woman. Not only did you have an affair with her husband, but you bore him a child. What you did doesn't only affect you, Leia and Rudolph. What you did affects all of us, myself and Claus, Cupid and this baby."

"I love him." Sylvia said forcefully. "I should have been his wife, not Leia. Cupid should have never happened, it should have been me and Rudy and Shayne from the beginning." Sylvia burst into tears. 

"Do you love him enough to walk away?"

Sylvia sobbed heavily. "Take him."

"He's here?"

Sylvia shook her head. "No, no I meant take Shayne. Rudy is never going to leave Leia, I bet he's home with her right now. No matter how much he loves me, he loves Cupid more. No matter how much we love each other it wouldn't change the fact that I am the other woman, God! My mother would be so proud." Sylvia laughed dryly. "If I walk away, Shayne won't have a father, because I won't ever be able to look at your son again, hell, I won't be able to look at my son. Please, take Shayne and go."

"Sylvia I can't..."

"If you don't leave now with that baby, I'll drop him on your doorstep."

Cupid was sitting up in his crib, he was more than a little interested in what  his grandmother brought in, it squirmed and gurgled and he wanted to see it.

"That's your brother." Regan said and blew her grandson a kiss. Cupid blew her a kiss back and watched as she left the room.

Just like that he was not alone in his room anymore, he turned and stood in the crib so he could see the new person. It was a tiny person, bundled into a blanket. Was it a toy? Grandma said it was his brother, what was a brother?