Chapter 40

Louis and Layla Rutherford entered the theater with their children and made the two go their way and get lost with the crowd while they finished some things unresolved. Marie dragger her brother running and left their parents. The couple sighed and went to the back seats and found two empty seats.

"I knew you'd come" Layla said with a little smile on her lips.

"Just because our hearts don't feel it doesn't mean we don't want to see our son for the last time" Mei Chang answered beside the other woman. Her husband was seated beside her with the same clean face as her.

"You are really leaving America, then?" Louis asked calmly. None of the four was looking at the other, but they didn't need to.

"Yes. There is no reason for us to be here anymore" Yun answered. "Our son is already in good care. There is nothing we need to worry about."

They became silent waiting for the shows and thinking about their talk.

"I remember you called me a 'heartless bitch'" Mei commented nonchalantly.

"Um, that wasn't mean. It was said in the heat of the moment" Layla said sweat dropping.

"Except for the 'bitch' part, you are right. We are heartless" Yun said calmly, ignoring the fact his wife was insulted, or supposedly insulted.

"But you came here to take care of that, right?" Louis asked, finally making eye contact between them.

The Changs sighed and looked at them. "Michael isn't with us anymore. We no longer need to torture him with our emotionless unhealthy relationship" Yun said sadly.

It was parents and masters meeting at school. The kids were playing when their parents were finished talking with the teachers.

Walking to a quieter part of the playground, Mei and Yun saw their son was with another boy playing, actually practicing some basic acrobatic moves they taught little Michael. Sitting on a bench nearby was a black couple watching intently the two five year old boys.

"Excuse me" Mei called approaching the other couple, who turned around with curious eye, "Are you the Rutherfords?"

The dark woman exchanged a glance with her husband and smiled back at the Chinese. "Yes. And I assume you two are the Changs?" she asked. They nodded and sat down as suggested.

"It is a pleasure to meet Michael's parents. I'm Louis and this is my wife, Layla" the black man said shaking hands with Yun and Mei as did Layla.

"Good to meet Matthew's parents too. I am Yun and this is Mei. And we are really happy to finally meet you" Yun said with a small but sincere smile.

Louis nodded but also noticed a hidden hint in the other man's voice. He tilted his head and Layla voiced his curiosity, also having noticed it. "Is there a special reason for this?" she asked quietly.

Mei answered for them after breathing slowly. "Yes, there is. Firstly, we came to make sure of something: how do you see Michael?"

"We have already adopted him as our son. Michael's such a wonderful child" Layla answered sweetly.

Yun closed his eyes a little soothing the slight stab he felt on his chest. He opened his eyes and stared directly at the other parents. "That is good and relieving to Mei and I. Can we ask you something really important?"

"Sure. What is it?" the black woman nodded beginning to worry. She remembered when she and her husband met the Asian boy for the first time. It was like meeting an abandoned little child and they had misconcluded things. Eventually they found out things were more complicated than they could understand then. But now, having met his parents and seen them, things started to clear.

"We need you to look after Michael" Mei said bluntly. The simplicity and directly statement got the Rutherfords in surprise. Was that something parents said to other parents they barely knew?

"What do you mean?" Layla asked frowning.

Inhaling deeply, Yun explained. "It is pretty obvious that our sons are going to have their lives entwined, even if they don't want to. And the fact that both of you have taken Michael as a son of yours only makes the situation better. We, Mei and I, aren't able to fulfill the roles of parents to raise Michael" Louis and Layla stared puzzled. That certainly wasn't something they usually faced, so Yun continued. "We have another son, Daniel. He is five years older than Michael and has a completely normal life. Michael on the other hand has not."

"The problem" Mei continued the explanation in the same calm tone as her husband "is that he was unlucky to be born with unloving parents" the other woman opened her mouth, but a raise of hand from the Asian shut her. "We, my husband and I, had the misfortune to lose our feelings towards him since I got pregnant of him. It is something strange, for you, occidental people, at least. The Chinese people are naturally cold, care more for the reason then the feelings, but that doesn't mean there isn't love and care in the family. So was how we and Daniel were raised.

"Michael was different. He is different, because we don't feel anything towards him, no matter how much we want to, and we do. It is sad, because we don't find it in us to feel."

Mei paused and let the other two sink in the information. Raising a tentative finger, Louis asked "Is it some kind of disease or something like that? Because, you know, it looks like a disorder."

"Yes, we know" Yun answered. "And that is why we moved to America. We found a good therapist in that area and we want to feel something for Michael other than only traditional social commitment."

"But while that doesn't happen, we need somebody to give Michael what we can't" Mei finished quietly and looked at their sons playing. They were smiling while Mike showed Matt some balance movements on the swing.

Layla and Louis took some minutes to understand exactly what was said and asked from them. What a mess they got themselves into. The worst yet most interesting job ever is to deal with other people, and that is why they work with it. But to take care of a child of somebody else? That was hard and so very delicate. Though that didn't stop them from nodding accepting that new task.

"There is also something else" the Asian woman said after a while watching the boys. Layla and Louis looked at her patiently. "If anything happens, we are trusting Michael's guard to you" she finished as calmly and her whole speech, but the other couple thought they saw dry tears on the Asians' eyes like they knew something like that would happen.

Vocal Adrenaline's performance ended and they clapped in respect.

"Mike will be well cared. Don't worry" Louis said quietly and his Chinese companions nodded in thanks.

"We know" Yun responded quietly.

It was time to New Directions perform. The mood in the theater was good but the Changs didn't feel any of it.

At the beginning of that week, they felt something that didn't happen for a long while. There was someone trying to create a bond between them, and this someone was very familiar to them. For the whole week their souls talked in a kind of preparations for this moment. But contrary from everyone else, this moment wasn't special because of the performance, but because this was going to be their last meeting.

So now, minutes from the last show to begin, Yun and Mei lost their minds from the material world and met their son's soul for their last minutes together.

For Layla and Louis everything was the same as the rest of the audience. When the music started, there was a sudden wave of emotions and they knew exactly what was happening. Turning to their side, they saw the Asians had their eyes closed and they sang along with their Mike and they could say certainly that their three voices were resonating from the three, each of them having three voices. It was just magical.

Later that night, Yun and Mei were at the airport to take their flight back to China. While on their way to the plane, the woman stopped and looked behind. Her husband said nothing just put a hand on her shoulder looking at the same direction, Lima, Ohio.

"If I could wish anything, I'd wish he didn't have to go through all he went" she said quietly.

"I know. But what is done is done and we can't turn back time. But somehow it was good all this happened. He grew up to be someone wonderful" Yun commented and they went into the airplane with a drop of tear each falling from their eyes.

And we finally reached the last chapter!

I know it is kind of a very turn of events this last chapter, but I just had to do it. And it was the plan from the beginning. I didn't really mean to make Mei and Yun the bad guys of the story, it just turned out they did a very good job at it.

.
.

For eveyone who reviewed, subscribed and/or favorite-ed this fic, I thank you all. This was my first time publishing such a long fic and to know people actually liked it and followed me throughout this experience was wonderful!

For an after thought, this won't be the last time you hear of me. Either will I pester you at any fic you might as well write or (probably) you'll see another fic of mine in the future - hopefully near future.

And that's all folks!

.Atsuko Uehara, January's 27th, 2012.