Good Man

So this is our swan song
A ballad for whoever wants to hold it in their heart
So take it and keep it
And pass it down from child to child to make it their own art
- Holly Rinedoller, 'Gone Are The Days'



With her large stomach way out to there, with seemingly no hope of ever seeing her feet again, Giselle waddled from side to side as she sighed a heavy breath and looked around front hall. The urge to just stay home and clean, clean, clean was so very compelling but it was also driving Tre up the goddamn wall. He kept telling her to take it easy and had, several times, called up Caroline to confide in her, but it usually just came out as worrying and complaining.

"She's nesting," Caroline had explained the day before on the phone. "It's something we women do about a week before we're ready to pop out babies."

"You sure? It's okay that's she's doing all this cleaning and moving around so much?" he'd questioned, still not convinced.

"I'm positive. About a week or so before both Mikey and Chloe were born, I was washing dishes, dusting the curtains, doing laundry. Shit, I even cooked. And you know how much I hate to clean and cook. Plus, I've had two kids. If I say this is normal and you still don't believe me, ask Adrienne, Lisea, Claudia or Anastasia for a second opinion."

Tre had been satisfied with the answer. Even though he still wasn't head over heels about the situation. It made him nervous, but if this was something Giselle supposedly needed to do, then he wasn't going to stop her.

And now here it was, only a day later and he was able to pull her away from her 'nesting.'

It was Wednesday, June 19th, 2013, and it was Graduation Day.

Ramona Wright and Joseph Armstrong were both finished with high school. They had taken their final exams and passed. Billie Joe was completely blown away by that. Considering he'd dropped out, himself, and for a while it appeared as if his son would be following in his footsteps. At eighteen years old, they were finally leaving behind their childhood to enter into the real world. Though they didn't take after their fathers, because they were actually graduating high school, neither were going to college. At least, not at the moment for Joey.

Another surprise for Billie Joe.

Joey was actually considering college. Maybe not now, maybe not next year, but sometime in the future. Right now he wanted to take at least a year or so off to 'find himself.' He wanted to work, preferably at Adeline Records or at 880 Studios; to get some hands-on experience with the behind the scenes world of the music industry. He wasn't really interested in following in his father's footsteps in being a musician, though he was talented enough to be one.

Ramona, on the other hand, was more than happy to be in the limelight. Always at the ready when cameras flashed at family functions, and always dancing and making herself to be a bit of a goofball on home movies all her life, she was preparing to head to Los Angeles over the summer to take some acting classes and hopefully snag some auditions in the City of Angels. She wanted to be an actress; to forget her own troubles and assume another identity for a while. After Ramona had expressed what a rush it was to Caroline, the older woman admitted there was a time when she was a teenager, before she followed the path of music, that she'd toyed with the idea of acting.

But that was a dream only for a moment. Her heart was in music. Her passion and love. Ramona understood it completely. Acting had become her life, slowly over the last couple of years. School plays, musicals, talent shows, one-woman comedy skits. Anything. She'd been bitten by the bug and caught the disease.

And now she was bowing out of one performance -- high school -- to start rehearsing for another.

"Don't forget your cap!" Giselle called up the stairs.

"I got it in my hands!" Ramona called back down as Tre walked into the front hall from the direction of the kitchen with his car keys jangling in his hands. "I can't find my tassel, though!"

"Check under your bed!" Tre offered, his voice gently booming. "It's where everything else in the universe seems to disappear to," he joked.

Giselle glanced at her husband, smirked and shook her head.

"Wow, that's so funny, dad." Ramona appeared at the top of the stairs, her graduation gown on, but open, revealing the light blue dress she was wearing underneath. Her cap was in one hand and the tassel was in the other. "I just found it."

"Where was it?"

"On my door knob."

"Well, hurry up or you'll miss your own graduation."

Ramona rolled her eyes as she stepped gingerly down the stairs. "Well, that's not gonna happen. I don't miss anything. I do, however, know how to arrive fashionably late." With an air of a diva, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled at Giselle. "We going to pick up Frankito from Claudia's and then mom from her hotel room?"

Tre nodded. "Uh, yeah. That's why we need to leave yesterday."

"Well, excuse me if I have to look good. I only have one chance to give my fellow classmates a kiss-off looking as good as I do and I'm using it to the best of my advantage."

"Whatever. C'mon," Tre muttered. His daughter filed out of the house in front of him as he placed a hand on the small of Giselle's back.

"Unh," she groaned. "It feels like I'm carrying around a huge watermelon."

"Yeah, and just think, you get to push it out something the size of a grapefruit."

Giselle shuddered. "Don't remind me. Not looking forward to that."

Tre just laughed lightly. The three left the house, locking it behind them, and headed for the graduation ceremony.



About five hours later, Ramona was jumping up and down with a girl named Brittani she'd made friends with in the last several months; both exclaiming, hootin' and hollerin' that they were officially high school graduates. Joey, his girlfriend Nicole, and his best friend Colin had joined them.

"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks!" they sang in cacophonous unison. "Schooooooool's out for summer! Schooooooool's out forever!"

Billie Joe stood off to the side with Adrienne and Jakob while Tre, Giselle, Lisea and Frankito stood a couple of feet away to the left. Looking at his wife, the 41-year-old guitarist smirked and hugged his wife closely.

"One down, one more to go," he jested.

Tears in her eyes, and toting her digital camera, Adrienne sighed with her lips pressed firmly together. "Let's not rush it, okay? I only have three more years to be a mom."

Billie Joe frowned. "Babe, being a mother doesn't end when the kids graduate."

"But they'll all be of age, done with school, out on their own. They won't need me anymore."

Jakob overheard his mom and looked at her. "I'll still need you, mom," he assured, hugging her a little from her other side.

Adrienne smiled, wrapped an arm around her youngest son's shoulders and kissed the side of his head. "Good boy."

"Let's go somewhere and get shitfaced!" Joey shouted, dragging his girlfriend around with an arm around her waist.

"How about you wait three more years and then suggest that again?" Billie Joe responded with a laugh. Then he added, in a whisper to his wife, "My God, I don't remember being like that when I was his age."

"You were," Adrienne assured, firmly.

Both families eventually made their way to Rudy's after the ceremony where Caroline was waiting with a huge banner out front above the door that read, CONGRATS RAMONA, JOEY & THE ENTIRE CLASS OF '13!, alongside balloons with the school colors. Inside, on the counter by the register, was the cake. More balloons were grouped together and scattered all over. Guests were waiting for a late night party to shower the graduates with congratulations, presents and whatnot.

Caroline gave Ramona a big hug, and then kissed Joey on the cheek. She just couldn't believe how grown up they'd become. It seemed like just yesterday they all came into each other's lives. Back then, when she'd first met them, the pair were only eleven years old. Just children. Now they were young adults.

As the party carried on into the wee hours of the morning, Caroline kept throwing glances at Giselle who was finally Ellis-free for what seemed to be the first time in months. It was a nice break, mostly for Caroline. Though, even Tre had admitted to her in confidence that Ellis was starting to bug him.

"She's always around," he had complained not that long ago.

Caroline had only laughed, smugly. "Now you know how I feel."

But at the moment, they weren't thinking about Ellis, who was due back to California from New York in two days. She had apparently returned to the East coast to take care of some business out their with her foundation and to attend some high society function, or whatever. When Giselle had explained it, Caroline was only half-listening. She really didn't care.

By three in the morning, the party had finally disbanded, everyone helped to clean up and then headed home. Ramona had opted to go home with Caroline, who also had Estelle and her own children with her, so Tre only had Giselle, Frankito and Lisea in the car with him.

After dropping Lisea off at her hotel, and bidding her goodnight, Tre drove home with Giselle and his son, who was gonna spend the night with them. By four, the twelve-year-old son of Tre Cool was out cold and in bed, and Giselle was struggling to get up the stairs as she gripped the railing tightly. Completely exhausted, Giselle sank into bed, laying on her back and closing her eyes immediately.

"I'm beat," she mumbled.

"You can say that again." Tre dropped onto the mattress beside his wife and rolled onto his side, staring tiredly at her profile. "Apparently I can't do the things I used to do twenty years ago."

"No, shit."

Tre smirked, studying her quietly for a moment. "I love you."

Without opening her eyes, a simple smile appeared faintly on her lips as she was slowly succumbing to sleep. "I love you, too." Then, "Night."

Not responding, Tre left it at that and closed his own eyes.



What felt like only minutes later, Tre was awoken by the feeling of wetness around his waist and legs.

The room wasn't exactly dark anymore, due in part to the new day's sunrise, but it was dark enough that Tre couldn't tell what exactly it was that was pooling on the mattress. Giselle was already stirring awake, herself, and slowly beginning to groan.

"Babe, you alright?" he inquired, rubbing her on the shoulder as he sat up. He turned his head briefly to look at the bedside clock. It was only after seven in the morning, meaning they'd only been asleep for about three hours.

"I think my water broke." Trying to sit up, she blinked the sleep away as she looked at Tre.

"Aren't you due, like, next week?" he questioned, getting up quickly and stumbling over to her side of the bed.

"Nothing's ever definite. Only God and this child knows when he or she is gonna be born."

Helping Giselle up, Tre led her toward the bathroom to get her out of her clothes and into something clean. All the while she occasionally winced as her contractions began to get more painful.

Whimpering, she stepped out of her underwear with Tre's help and he pulled off her maternity dress she was still wearing. Giving her a wet cloth, he darted out of the room to get her a new pair of underwear and a new dress while she freshened up and dealt with the contractions as best as she could while Tre was running around the bedroom like a chicken with its head cut off.

"C'mon. We gotta get to the hospital."

Giselle just nodded and let Tre get her hospital bag she'd already had packed early, in the event of something like this happening. As they left the bedroom and went out into the upstairs hallway, Tre stepped into Frankito's room and crouched down beside his son's bed.

"Frankie, hon, wake up." Tre placed his hand on the preteen's shoulder and gave it a bit of a shake.

"Wha--?" Frankito blinked several times and rubbed his eyes. "Ugh, what d'ya want?" he groaned, sleepily.

"Giselle's water broke. She's going into labor, kiddo. I gotta take her to the hospital," Tre explained. "You can stay here if you want and sleep or you can come with us. If you wanna stay home, I can have someone pick you up later and bring you to the hospital."

Frankito nodded, his brown eyes glancing over at his stepmother who was cringing in pain in the doorway. "I'll stay here," he replied, pointing to Giselle. "She looks like she's being beaten up on the inside."

"Feels like it, too," she bit out.

The boy looked like he was absolutely horrified. Tre simply smirked and leaned forward. Kissing his son on the forehead, he muttered, "Go back to sleep, okay. I'll send someone over here later, okay?"

Frankito nodded again. "Okay." Then, to Giselle, "I hope you feel better." He didn't know what else to say. It was the best thing he could think of.

"Thanks, sweetie. I do, too."



In under a half hour later, they were at Children's Hospital in Oakland where they had reserved a place with several months prior. Tre had signed Giselle in and she was taken to her own room to be prepped. Her contractions had subsided for a while, so he felt okay with leaving her alone long enough to call everyone he could think of to let them know. Tre even called Ellis back in New York to let her know what was going down. She informed him she would be hopping the next flight out of JFK; she wanted to be there as soon as possible and hopefully before the baby was born.

Caroline left Estelle home to stay with her kids while she headed to the hospital with Ramona. Billie Joe and Adrienne simply passed along their well wishes and that they'd come to the hospital, but they were way too exhausted to drive anywhere at the moment.

By a little after one in the afternoon, Giselle still hadn't given birth but was in labor and Tre was sitting beside her. Ramona and Caroline sat in the waiting room, eating burgers from McDonald's that Caroline had sent the graduate to go get for them. There was even a meal for Tre but he had yet to get away to have a bite to eat and the French fries were already cold.

When four in the afternoon rolled around, Billie Joe and Adrienne had finally showed up, well rested and excited in their own right for the prospective Wright child. And by seven at night, Ellis had arrived to the hospital from the Oakland International Airport where she had just touched down to an hour before.

And, still, Giselle was still in labor.

It wasn't until eight, that Tre came out for a moment to let everyone know that the doctors were inducing Giselle and giving her an epidural. What he didn't tell them was that Giselle was in utter pain and screaming bloody murder. She was trying to push before she was fully dilated and the doctors had to continuously demand she stop. Her brow was soaked with sweat, she was exhausted, and it was starting to feel like she was being ripped apart.

But in the waiting room, everyone was so animated with smiles, jokes and laughter, unaware of the physical torture Giselle was feeling.

Caroline, however, did sense something was up.

At half past eight, she stood up and began pacing. Ellis joined her, standing beside the woman she shared a sister with.

Turning her face to set her green eyes upon Caroline's profile, Ellis tried smiling. Caroline sensed the older woman looking at her and met her gaze halfway.

She smiled, halfheartedly as well, before it faded to a look of knowing.

"You sense it, too?" Caroline asked.

Ellis nodded. "Your bond with Giselle was forged by the years you had together. The way best friends fall in synch with their personalities and ways of thinking. My bond was forged by blood. We're both connected to her separately but equally." Ellis, sighing heavily and folding her arms, swallowed a lump in her throat.

Caroline nodded. "It's the calm before the storm," she deduced.



"Holy shit, it hurts so goddamn much!" Giselle half-screamed and half-whimpered as Tre gripped her hand tightly in the delivery room.

A doctor was seated between her legs, as she pushed her child out of her womb.

"Just about two more, good pushes, Giselle," the doctor informed. "You can do this."

"Nnnngghhh!" she groaned, then let out a heavy breath as she got past a push.

"One more, one more."

As she screeched through her last push, Giselle suddenly felt the whoosh of relief as the baby was born. She sighed once more and sank backward, as Tre began to laugh and smile.

"You have a baby girl," the doctor announced happily to the proud parents as a shivering wail broke out.

"You hear that, babe? A daughter."

Giselle smiled lazily as she rolled her head to one side, catching a glimpse of the nurse carrying her baby girl away to get cleaned up.

Tre leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead, smiled but then leaned back to stare at her profile. "Your forehead's warm."

"I just gave birth. I'm overheated, sweating. It's a natural thing."

Tre just smiled, assured.

One more bout with contractions, which turned out to be getting rid of her placenta, Giselle finally sat back, completely at ease. A nurse mopped up her brow, brushed her hair out of her face.

And then, brought their daughter over to her.

Placing the infant child in her mother's arms, the nurse stepped back as Giselle looked down at the now cooing baby. Wrapped in a pink blanket with a pink cap on her head, the baby girl opened her blue eyes and almost smiled.

"Avarielle," Giselle spoke quite breathlessly. "Avarielle Michaela Wright, my beautiful daughter."

"So, we decided on Avarielle?" Tre jested, knowing they had several girl names picked out but hadn't had anything definite until just now.

"She looks like an Avarielle. I think she chose it for herself."



A few hours later, little Avarielle was sleeping in the nursery down the hall where Tre was surrounded by his friends and family, pointing his newborn daughter out. Billie Joe was passing around pink, bubblegum cigars; a tradition that seemed to be timeless and cheesy all at once.

Meanwhile, Giselle was resting in her own, private room, the lights on low. But she was unable to sleep.

Deep down she sensed something was wrong.

Despite the joyous occasion that was just bringing a new person into the world, and it being a successful pregnancy on her part, Giselle knew something was wrong.

When her nurse came into the room to check on her some time later, she asked how Giselle was feeling, but Giselle simply shrugged.

"I feel kinda feverish."

"Well, stress a body goes through when giving birth doesn't end right away..."

Giselle nodded. "I know. I mean...I'm not a surgeon or anything, but I am still a doctor in my own right. And I know something's not right," she insisted, her breathing quite, well...breathy.

Her tired eyes followed the nurse as the other woman neared her, taking in the sight of Giselle's complexion.

Her skin was pale, her eyes surrounded with dark circles. Placing a hand to Giselle's forehead, the nurse frowned. Giselle was warm to touch and rather clammy.

"Let me go get a doctor to check on you, okay?" the nurse smiled. "You hang in there, okay? You'll be fine."

The nurse ducked out of the room, leaving Giselle alone as she turned her head to the side and continued to breathe heavily.