Always There

It's absolutely amazing at how quickly time can fly by when life is good. When everything just seems to have fallen into place and things play out the way they were meant to. Life, in itself, is such an amazing thing, as well. It's something you make with someone you love. You make a life together. And when you come together in love, you can create life, and then that life one day finds its own love and creates new life.

It's a never-ending circle.

Like love.

It just keeps going and going and going...

Even though life in this world is limited, it's making the time you have with those you care for and love more than that life, worth all the while. And when time flies, you can't help but look back at everything that had transpired.

* * *

Sitting in a pair of lounge chairs in the backyard of their Oakland home, Billie Joe and Maria looked out at their friends and ever-growing family, wondering where all the time had gone.

Reaching his hand out, Billie Joe took his wife's hand and gave it a squeeze and then gave her a smile, smirking inwardly to himself at the crow's feet at her eyes which was the telltale sign of aging.

Then again, they were both 55 years old. And, sure, nowadays that wasn't as old as it has once been perceived, but considering all they'd done in their lives up to this point, trying to pass themselves off as middle-aged didn't work very well anymore.

Maria dyed her hair quite a bit to maintain her natural dark brown color because she desparately wanted to hide the gray that sprouted like wild fire. Billie Joe, on the other hand, like his father before him, still had his dark hair without the need to dye. Sure, he had a few grays around the edges, but it didn't faze him.

Nothing fazed him today, because life was good.

Today was his and Maria's 20th wedding anniversary, and Olivia was the one orchestrating the party in the backyard, while everyone was buzzing about with chatter, laughter and swimming in the pool.

Billie Joe sighed as a thought hit him out of the blue. "Hon, d'you know that if my dad were still alive today that he'd be 99 years old?" he commented in disbelief.

Maria smirked. "My dad would be going on 81," she replied, thinking of her father who'd died five years prior. And then there was her 80-year-old mother who lived by herself back in San Diego but was checked up on from time to time by Catcher who was already a couple of years away from retirement.

"Times like this really make me miss them," Billie Joe added. "My dad, my mom...your dad. I wish they could be here to see how the kids have grown. I wish my dad could've been alive at all to see at least Joey."

"He can," Maria assured, patting the hand her husband was using to squeeze hers with her free one.

A moment of silence fell over them as they looked from one child to the next.

First, there was Joey was 32 years old and looked a great deal like Billie Joe. He acted and even dressed like his father and it was't like he was doing it on purpose. It was more like a genetic thing. He was the only one of the kids that had been married twice and had a child with each wife, the second of which he was still wed to. His son, Mark Edward, was 6 years old and seemed was swimming in the pool with his daddy while Joey's youngest, his 3-year-old daughter Dawn Marie, was hanging around her mother. It was really odd. Joey had even became a musician, forming a band with his brother Jakob and stepbrother Benjamin; calling themselves, rather simply, The Armstrongs.

Speaking of Jakob; whereas his older brother plays the guitar in the band, he took up a liking for the drums, and having his godfather, 'Uncle Tre', for the best teacher. At 28 years old, Jakob ended up favoring his mother in the looks department, although, like Joey, he acted just like his father. It must be a guy thing. And then there was how much of a manwhore he was. Even though he's currently engaged to a great girl, he still remains a complete and utter flirt at heart.

Next on the list is Benjamin who, when he turned 10, was adopted along with his brother Nathan by Billie Joe, becoming Benjamin Armstrong. Throughout his youth, the 29-year-old, blue-eyed blonde, had always seemed to be close with Mike's daughter Estelle. It was also Mike that taught Ben how to play the bass, which would catapult the boy into one day forming The Armstrongs with Joey and Jakob. Mike even took Ben under his wing like the son he'd never had. In fact, even though Mike eventually remarried, he never had another child, except for Estelle. And that only brought the two kids closer together. They ended up dating all throughout high school, even though Estelle was a year older. They were practically inseparable that it only made sense when they got married when he was 22 and she was 23. And they now had three children together; 6-year-old Rachel Anna, 5-year-old Ryan Michael, and 2-year-old Holly Elizabeth. What was most eerie about Ben was how much he ended up looking like Mitch as he grew up, but he, too, ended up sharing the similar personality as is stepbrothers that was much like Billie Joe, seeing as the older man had been in his life longer than his real father.

Then there was Nathan. He was, without a doubt, the most different of the boys. At 26 years old, he was the only one to have blonde hair and brown eyes, and the only of the boys to look most like Maria. Oh, yeah. And he was gay. Not excessivley flamboyant gay, but enough that a passerby could just sense it. He first realized it when he was in high school when he was about 15. He would later admit to his very open-minded parents (hell, even Billie Joe, whom Nate considered to be his only father, admitted to being bisexual) that his first sexual experience was when he was 17, after Junior Prom, with a guy. And that was what sealed the deal in knowing he was gay. After high school he went to college in San Francisco, probably the most gay city in the US, but also because it was close to home. He took up photography and during one of his first jobs after he graduated college, he met a male model named Antoine. He was a very well built black man with beautifully chiseled features. Nate and Antoine have been in a serious relationship for almost four years now.

Olivia was probably the most accomplished and well known of the children. The oldest of them all at 33 years old, going on 34 in October, she struck out on her own after graduating high school and living in her father's LA bungalow while going out on auditions for anything she could get her hands on. She started out doing a little bit of modeling, but when she developed her mother's hips, no one really wanted someone who wasn't an anorexic waif. She finally got some national commercials which landed her a lunch date with an executive producer for NBC. He got her an audition for the new situation comedy and she nailed it. By the age of 21, Olivia was one of the new fresh faces of TV. When the first season of the show ended and the actors got a break, she got chances to do movies, which she loved and ended up being just as successful in. And, in some senses, she became her generation's JLo. After four seasons of doing the TV show, she left to more so pursue a film career while also dabbling in music, and then being asked by a perfume company if she'd be interested in producing her own brand. She loved the idea completely. Not long after she met and fell in love with another actor with whom she had a daughter, Emily Rose, with when she was 28. They got married the following year, only to have two more children. And there she was now, sitting with Estelle at the table beside the pool, while her three children (6-year-old Emily, 4-year-old Carlen Enrique, and 2-year-old Rebecca Lynn) played.

The daughter that had really brought Billie Joe and Maria back together is of course Hazel. At 20 years old, going on 21, she was more of the wild child. More so than her brothers or older sister. Billie Joe and Maria watched as she weaved in and out of guests at her parents' party with a Long Island iced tea in her hand, while stumbling a little from the buzz she was developing. Hazel was going to school in San Francisco and instead of dorming, she was living with Nathan and Antoine, having her own room. But from what Nathan had expressed to his mom and dad, he was ready to kick his little sister out on her ass if she didn't start cut back on the wild nights out and coming home drunk. She was failing out of school, which wasn't a big surprise, considering she almost didn't make it through high school. It just wasn't for her, just as it hadn't been for Billie Joe. However the one thing that did seem to be her was the hard rock metal and punk scenes and playing guitar. She took after her father to the core. And even though she liked to drink, she wasn't a mean drunk, she was a happy, flirty drunk who would act really silly. Billie Joe and Maria definitely had their hands full with her.

Last but not least, there was the only child Billie Joe and Maria had in wedlock. A son named William Joseph Armstrong who was born in February 2008, two days before Billie Joe's birthday. He was 19 now and was simply called Will, and it was so eerie how much he ended up looking identical to Billie Joe. If Billie Joe was 19 again, the two of them could be passed off as twins. He just finished his first year of college at Stanford, somehow ending up to be the intellectual type like his mother, but sharing the wild streak both his parents had. But, he was a good kid, and had a lot going for him.

When Maria stood up and walked into the house to use the bathroom, she was unaware that Billie Joe had also gone inside a few seconds behind her. When she came out of the downstairs bathroom and saw him leaning against the kitchen counter, she smiled and walked into his arms.

"Life is really good now isn't it?"

"Now?" he questioned with a smirk. "With you around, it's always been really good."

Leaning forward to kiss her, they were both a little surprised by the sound of the doorbell ringing from the front of the house. They headed for the front door, figuring it was just another guest who was late to arriving.

Boy, were they ever surprised when they found someone entirely different standing on the porch.

Mitch.

Aged twenty years, he was now 63 years old. All his once blonde hair was snow white like his fathers' had been years ago. His face was worn with age, and his blue eyes weren't as bright.

"Mitch?"

"Hello Temperance," he said in a gruffier voice.

"What are you--"

"--Doing here? I, uh...I was released two years ago on parole. I was unsure about if and when I should make the move to come see you and the boys. I didn't know how you'd react. Or if you'd even want me to show up," he admitted. "But I had to come. I had to see my boys."

"Well, they aren't so much boys anymore as they are grown men," Billie Joe remarked, feeling a little defensive.

Mitch nodded at Billie Joe, acknowledging the shorter man. "You haven't really changed."

"Have you?"

"Yes."

Maria looked between her husband and ex-husband and sighed. "What have you been up to these past two years?" she wondered.

"My sister let me move in with her. My, uh...my parents died while I was in jail. I didn't get to go their funeral and my sister had already sold their estate, so I couldn't go there. But, um...I'm working again. Nothing major. Just working a night shift at the Wal-Mart at the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa. I took a bit of vacation to come here."

Simply nodding, Maria wasn't sure what to say.

"How are the kids?" he inquired. "I mean, I've seen Olivia's movies. I can't believe she's this famous actress. I looked her up online and found a bunch of fan sites. So, she's a mom now?"

"Yeah. She has three kids and a really nice husband."

"Good. That's good," he commented. "And Ben and Nate?" he inquired, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

"Ben plays the bass in a band with Joey and Jakob. Maybe you've heard the name? The Armstrongs?"

"I might've. They have kids?"

"Ben has three. He married his childhood sweetheart, Estelle."

"That'd be my friend Mike's daughter," Billie Joe added.

"What about Nate?" Mitch pestered.

"You probably wouldn't approve of Nate," the aging punk rocker snipped.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"He's a photographer," Billie Joe answered. "And he's gay. Would you like to come out back and meet his boyfriend? He's a black, male model. Real good looking, too."

"Billie..." Maria chastised.

"What?"

There was a fleeting moment of surprise and maybe a faint hint of disgust on Mitch's face when Billie Joe broke the news, but he took it rather well, nodding in understandment. "Is he at least happy?" he asked.

Maria nodded. "Yes. He is. Both of our sons are very happy. They had great childhoods, a large family, friends, good schools...and Billie Joe has been a great father to them," she added somewhat bitterly. "And now they have lives of their own that they're just as happy with, and with people they love, doing what they love."

"I'm glad for them," Mitch said honestly. "I never stopped thinking about them, and how I fucked everything up. With you, with them, with my friends. Not a day goes by I don't wish I hadn't been such a prick and a weasel, thinking I could actually get away with everything I did. And I paid the price for it. I lost eighteen years of my life behind bars, when I could've been watching my sons grow up into men."

The sadness in her ex-husband's eyes, brought a lump of emotion up into Maria's throat as she watched him look down at his feet. Glancing over at Billie Joe, they shared a look and he nodded.

"Mitch," Billie Joe began as the older man lifted his eyes. "We're having a party in the backyard. It's our 20th wedding anniversary, and...you're welcome to join if you want."

"No, that's okay," Mitch shook his head. "I don't want to intrude."

"Oh, c'mon," Maria smirked. "You didn't come all the way to California just to catch up on our doorstep. You could've done that over the phone." She reached out and placed a hand on Mitch's shoulder. "Come with us out back. We'll introduce you to the kids and grandkids."

Mitch gave a small nod. The years in prison had certainly taken the foreboding presence out of him. He seemed more like a sheepish child now, a shell of what he'd once been. A powerful, Manhattan tax attorney. Now he was just an old, ex-convict with nothing much going for him.

Maria and Billie Joe held onto each other's hands as they let Mitch follow them through the house and head out the back doors into the backyard.

It was strange how some things in life turn out. How everthing comes full circle. Life's a never-ending circle, and love is the tie that binds.

For Billie Joe and Maria, love bound them for the rest of eternity. No matter at what point in their lives they were at...

...love was always there.

***THE END***