Christmas

This chapter is going to be all in Michaels Pov :) happy reading !

*Michael*

I was angry. I couldn't believe what she was doing to herself. Why would she take such harsh medication like that? Maybe I shouldn't have went off on her like that. She was pretty out of it so hopefully she doesn't remember much.

I look over at her, slumped on the passenger side of the car. After she passed out I decided to take her back to the hotel so she could get her mind together again. When I went to tell Dalma and Curt they were already gone. The waiter had told me that they went to go talk somewhere in private and to not wait up.

I drove along the highway, my mind racing. It was too quiet so I turned on the radio and played the quiet storm.

"Welcome back to the Quiet Storm. If you're just now joining us you are in for a real special treat. We have a new single out from Rose, it's not the same groovy beats we're used to hearing from the troubled pop star. It's actually nice and mellow, and it talks about heartbreak. Here's the sure to be hit 'Faraway Eyes'."

The song starts playing and it's beautiful. I listen to the lyrics and try to hear the meaning behind the song.

'I had a dream that someday, I'd be so very happy,

Have daughters and sons to call my very own,

But then you came into my life,

Well rehearse lines and romance, darling no, no.

Only now to look up and find you gone.

You throw me with those, faraway eyes.'

I look over to her again and frown. Every song tells a story, I wonder what the true story is about this song.

We finally get back to the hotel and I carefully pick up Rose and carry her to the elevators, looking around to make sure no media were around. The elevator dings and the doors open and I walk in, pressing the button to her floor.

I look down at Rose and her eyes start to flutter open. She looks around for a second, her vision hazy.

"What happened?" She whispers, her already raspy voice more hoarse.

"You fell asleep at the restaurant." I answer blandly.

"Oh shit." She closes her eyes and she fell back asleep, her mouth agape. I shake my head and step out of the elevator as soon as it opened.

I managed to still hold onto Rose and grab the room key and entered the room, closing the door behind me with my foot. I gently laid her down on the bed and took her shoes off. She was completely knocked out and I knew she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. I put a cover over her and gave her a kiss on the forehead, and closed the door on my way out.

I exhale and get my thoughts together. I look at the time and it's 9:30 pm. I grab my bags and look through them, searching for the gifts I had bought for Rose and Dalma. I wanted to make Rose feel happy again, and I was already starting off on the wrong foot. I decided when she wakes up I was going to apologize for my actions back at the restaurant. I didn't mean to blow up like that, I should've talked to her in a more calm manner. Hopefully she'll understand and not hate me....

I hear a soft knock on the door and I walk towards it, looking through the peephole. I open it and Curt stands in front of me.

"Hello sir." I say, looking up at him.

"Hello young man. I can assume you and Rosalinda make it back safely?"

I nod my head. "Yes she's asleep right now. Would you like to come in?" I offer.

He shakes his head. "Actually I was on my way to the bar downstairs, I need a good drink after everything tonight. How about you come join me?" He asks, but it sounded more like a command rather than a question.

I grab the room key and exit the room, and we head downstairs to the bar. We each had some beer and ordered some wings also, since we never got to eat at the restaurant.

"So where's Dalma?" I ask, taking a sip of my beer.

"She's in her room, knocked out. We got to talking and one thing led to another so.." He winks and it took me a minute to understand what he was saying.

"Ohhh." I look down and gulp down my drink, trying to get the picture of them doing it out of my head.

Curt laughs and looks at me. "So, did she tell you about what happened between me and her?"

"Who? Dalma?"

"No, Rosalinda."

"Yes she did. She told me that you were a tyrant and wouldn't let her do her own things. She got an emancipation from you."

"That sounds about right." Curt chuckles, and I give him a confused look.

"I guess you could say I had it coming. I was terrible with her. But I wanted her to succeed. On top of that I wasn't really in her life like that either, after Dalma went to jail I was kinda in and out with her. I didn't mean to but since she was with her little man at the time I thought she didn't need me." He takes a sip of his beer and continues talking. "I love her, I really do and I'm happy that she has found success but I wish I was able to treat her better. Her mother is the only one who has treated her right. Everyone else was just shitty, including her own family and boyfriend."

"So why now? Why did you come back here while all of his stuff was happening?" I ask.

Curt sighs and looks up at me, sadness in his eyes. "I'm dying Michael."

I gasp, my eyes going wide.

"That's the same expression I had. I have cancer. Lung cancer to be exact and it's spreading very fast. You're the only one who knows about this. I haven't even told Dalma yet. The reason I came back here is because I wanted to resolve all of our family issues once and for all before I go. I heard about the trial and I wanted to be there for support wether she liked it or not. I want to be a good father for her Michael, even though I wasn't there for her back then I want to be here now, or I'll deeply regret it. Now the only problem is how am I going to get her to speak to me." He looks down, looking somber.

I look down also, but I'm deep in thought. "How about this. After Christmas you and I will talk to Dalma about the situation, maybe she'll talk to Rose about it and see if she'll speak to you there. It's not much but it might work."

Curt smiles. "That would be awesome. You're a good man Michael. Way better than that man Rose was with all those years ago."

"Can you tell me more about this ex boyfriend?" I ask, and order another basket of wings.

••••••••••••••

December 25, 1988

I wake up in the living room the next morning to the smell of breakfast in the kitchen. After talking to Curt for some time I found out that he really was a good person and wasn't the same guy from 15 years ago. We came up with a plan to get Rose to talk to him and decided to go forward with it tomorrow afternoon. Curt agreed to stay away from her today so she wouldn't be upset.

"Merry Christmas Chico!" Dalma yells from the kitchen, her back turned to me. "Come on now get up! Breakfast is ready. Go grab Rosalinda for me will ya?"

I yawn and stretch out my arms and legs and shuffle towards Roses room, knocking softly on the door.

"Come in."

I open the door and Rose is making her bed. She was dressed in a simple black button up and shorts. She looks up at me and smiles faintly. "Merry Christmas Michael."

"Merry Christmas Rose." I walk towards her and hug her, smelling the intoxicating perfume that's lingering on her neck.

I started to open my mouth but Rose cut me off. "Before you say anything, I just want to say that I'm sorry. It was wrong for me to laugh in your face while you were being serious and I shouldn't have taken those pills. They really are prescribed to me as sleeping pills but I'm supposed to take them only when I'm flying for long periods of time. It's just seeing my father again and hearing that my agent was suing me on the radio really got to me." She sits down on the bed, playing with the comforter. "Plus when I got inside the restaurant, everyone was looking at me and talking shit about me. One lady said that what me and you have is a weird relationship, and she called me a jailbait hussy, and you wacko jacko." She bites her nails.

I look down. Her agent is suing her, plus people are talking mess about her and on top of that what I heard about her dad? I didn't know it was this bad.

"Rose. It's okay. I didn't know that was going on. I'm sorry I was being an asshole to you. I should've just spoke to you in a calm manner. I've never seen you act that way before and I wasn't sure what I should do. If anyone should be sorry here, it's me. Can you forgive me?"

Rose smiles and gets up, hugging me. "Yes I forgive you."

"Yasssss forgive him honey!" We hear Dalma tell from the other side of the door.

"Oh my god mami! Stop eavesdropping!" Rose yells, burying her face in my chest. I hear Dalma laugh and walk away.

"Come on. Let's eat." I kiss her cheek and lead her out the room to the kitchen.

We all sit down at the small table and Dalma says grace. After we ate we started talking some more. While Dalma and Rose started talking about shoes I excused myself and grabbed the presents for them. I come back and stand between them, the presents behind my back.

"What's going on Michael?" Rose asks, and I set their presents down on the table. Dalma squeals, tearing the wrapper off the long rectangular box.

"Chico!" Dalma exclaims, pulling out the long diamond encrusted statement necklace. "This is absolutely beautiful!"

"Well when I saw this, I noticed it stood out in the crowd, just like you. It basically had your name written all over it." I smile, and take out a smaller box from my pants pocket and hand it to her. "Open this one."

Dalma opens the box and screams, pulling out a pair of matching teardrop earrings to go with the necklace. "Oh my God Michael. Oh there's a note." She picks it up and reads it out loud.

'To my darling Dalma, you are like a second mom to me, and I am enterally grateful that you're in my life. I love you."

-Chico.

Dalma starts tearing up and grabs me, giving me the tightest hug ever. For a tiny woman she sure had some strength. "I love you Chico. Thank you so much for this."

"You're welcome." I smile, and I look to Rose.

"Go on, open it."

Rose smiles and opens her present. She gasps when she notices the box. "You went to Tiffanys?"

I nod my head. "I know that's your favorite store and you like watching 'Breakfast at Tiffanys' so I figured I should get you something from there." I smile.

She opens the box and her eyes went wide. Dalma almost had a heart attack. "Chico! You went all out!"

Rose pulls out the ring and slips it on. The whole platinum band was covered with mini diamonds, and there was a big emerald in the middle, with two medium sized diamonds on each side. The ring was so big and glittery I bet everyone in Miami could see it shining right now.

"M-Michael. It's beautiful. I'm speechless." Rose giggles, admiring the ring.

"Well that's how you make me feel every time I see you. You leave me speechless because of your beauty." I kiss her cheek, and I can see Dalma crying from the corner of my eye.

"I love you two together!" Dalma sobs, blowing her nose on her napkin.

I laugh and rub her shoulder. Rose grabs me and gives me a kiss. A passionate, sensual, loving kiss. I felt like the luckiest man in the world.

"Thank you so much Michael." Rose whispers.

"You're welcome baby. Merry Christmas." I kiss her nose.

"Merry Christmas." She smiles.

"We actually have a present for you Michael." Dalma says, and we turn to her.

"Yep we sure do. Go get the present mom."

Dalma runs out of our room and comes back a minute later.

Rose goes into her room and grabs something also and comes back, both of their hands behind their back.

"Mom you can go first."

Dalma hands me her gift. "Come on open it already!"

I laugh. "You guys didn't have to get me anything."

"Oh hush it. You're familia now, you deserve it love." Dalma says, nudging me to open the gift.

I open it and I'm shocked when I notice it's a gold Rolex. "Dalma, I can't believe this!"

Dalma laughs. "Well believe it papa."

"This must've cost you a fortune!" I exclaim, shocked at the gift she gave me.

"Pssh it was nothing Chico. Go head, put it on."

I put the watch on and look at it. It was amazing. "Thank you so much Dalma." I get up and hug her, kissing her forehead.

"You're welcome my love. Come on Rose, it's your turn."

Rose hands me her gift and it's just an envelope with mouse ears drawn all over it. I open it and read the short letter inside.

'Dearest Michael, while you were doing your concerts in Los Angeles your darling friend Rose called us and we had a very lovely conversation. She told us how much you loved amusement parks and have some rides at Neverland Ranch. On behalf of Rosalinda De La Fuente and the Walt Disney World company we would like to invite you and whoever else you would like to bring to spend the day with us at Disney world Orlando. We will be shutting down Magic Kingdom and you can have a field day, complimentary of us. Everything is already paid for, including the hotel rooms and dining. Hope to see you soon haha!

- Love, Mickey and Minnie. '

I look up at Rose and she hands me another piece of paper. I open it and notice it's a court order from the State of Florida, granting her access to leave the city of Miami.

"So basically I talked to the head of Disney, as well with my lawyer and the detective, and they allowed me to do this since it would be a one day thing. Of course Detective Jameson will be accompanying me but who cares about that."

I jump up and tackle Rose, giving her sweet kisses everywhere. "Baby this is amazing! I love Disney! Thank you so much!"

"Michael!" Rose laughs. "There's one more surprise."

I get up and pick her up. "What more surprises could you possibly give me?"

"Well, we will be going on the 29th, which is in a few days, and we will be joined by the Foster Care of Orlando. I asked them if they would like to spend the day with Michael Jackson and they were more than happy to accept. We will be picking them up at 8 am sharp, and they'll be staying at the resort for the night. It's a group of 15 kids, between 10 and 17. They're excited to meet you!"

I was in shock. Rose secretly set up a kids day so the foster children could have fun, and I get to join also. This was the best present ever. Nothing could top this.

"You're amazing." I breathe out.

Rose flips her hair. "I know."

I hug her again and the three of us spent the rest of the day together, just talking about the kids day and what we were excited to be doing. Eventually Dalma left to go to sleep and Rose and I went to go lay down together, Rose was still looking at the ring I bought her.

"I noticed you didn't read the note in your box."

"Oh! I'm so sorry." Rose jumps up and grabs the box from the kitchen table, and returns, opening the box.

She reads it in silence and when she finished she had tears in her eyes.

"Michael that was beautiful. I love you." She kisses me.

"I love you more." I smile. And I meant every word of it.

We laid down and just kept talking until we both fell asleep. It was a small Christmas, given the circumstances but an amazing one.

'Baby Rosie. My true darling. You mean everything to me. I cannot be without you. Whenever you wear this ring, just know that I'll always be with you. If you need comfort, look down at this ring and you'll see me. Remember what you said when we were together for the first time, As long as you don't change, I'll always be here for you. I love you.'

-Michael.

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Yay a semi long chapter! Thank you so much for reading my story ! It means so much to me. Unfortunately this story is coming closer and closer to its end :( but don't worry! Book two is coming I promise! It's called Rosalinda, and I can't wait for you guys to read it!