Fought The Good Fight

==========

Family Matters

Part 3

Off Camera

==========

The environment of the Braddock household is quite exquisite, much more so than what Julia Braddock, Glory's sister, expected to see when she arrived at the home, a home that is more of an estate than anything else.  Julia, to be perfectly frank, was not expecting that phone call anyway.  She had only recently found out from her trainer and uncle, Glenn Braddock, that and Glory were in fact sisters as opposed to cousins, and that Peter Braddock, Julia's father, had an affair with Glory's mother, Mary Ford.  All of this was kept a secret from Julia her entire life.  So many people knew but never told her.  Her own father, her uncle Glenn, even Glory Braddock, and the woman who had at one time considered herself Julia's mother, Aphrodite Noel, knew and kept it a secret.  Julia Braddock was the only one from the family who knew and they kept it a secret from her.  Call her paranoid or just simply pessimistic, but Julia never expected her family to be the first of the ones to reach out to her.

It has been weeks since Julia Braddock even saw a member of her family.  The young blonde has been trying to stay away from them, not simply out of anger but also for the sake of meditation.  Julia put it best the last time she spoke to Glenn Braddock.  She left him at the gym, shouting and crying about how she did not who she was anymore.  Thus Julia has stayed way.  She has kept to herself in an attempt to figure out her identity.  The person she thought she was, the legacy she thought she knew, all of it is a lie.  All of it.  Even now as she sits in Glory Braddock's living room awaiting the arrival of her sister and host, she still is not sure of her identity and is definitely not certain Glory can help her figure things out.

She feels somewhat out of place, surrounded by expensive paintings, a luxurious cream colored carpet, an elegant chandelier overhead with a coffee table on the floor next to a black leather sofa where Julia sits.  And yet, while she feels out of place surrounded by the luxury, she herself looks like the picture of elegance wearing a knee length forest green dress that hugs every curve and shows off her lovely feminine silhouette.  Her feet are encased in black high heeled sandals.  Her long blonde hair hangs unrestrained and flowing to shoulder length.

“Julia!”

The voice belongs to Glory Braddock.  Julia turns to the sound of the voice and watches her sister enter the living room, wearing a gold dress and heels.  A polite smile is on her face as she enters the room, waving elegantly at her sister.  The older sibling walks over.  Julia stands up and greets Glory in a tight hug.

“Hi, Glory.”

After breaking the embrace, Glory tilts her head to one side and frowns.

“Oh you poor dear.  You spoke with my dad, didn't you?”

Julia sighs and nods her head.

“Yeah, I did.”

“And he told you everything, didn't you?”

“Yes, yes he did.”

The elder Braddock sighs and then motions to the sofa.

“Oh well, sit down and we can talk about it.”

Julia nods her head in agreement.  She isn't quite sure of how this will work out and she isn't certain that her sister Glory has all of the answers but she knows she and Glory need to talk.  As much as she has been avoiding a talk with Glory or any of her family for so long, she realizes that she does need to have a talk with her family.  Now is as good a time as any to do just that.  Julia sits back down on the sofa first, in the same general area she had been before getting up to greet Glory.  Glory Braddock then sits down next to her.

“I am so sorry you had to find out like that, Julia.”

“You're sorry?!”

Julia's eyes grow wide as her question exclaims with emotion.

“Glenn knew.  Our mother...”

“Mary.”

Julia rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, her, she knew.  And then there's you.  How long did you know?”

Glory Braddock bows her head in shame.

“I...uh...someone told me...”

“Who told you?  Glenn?”

She shakes her head.

“No...”

“Then who?  Who else knew and told you?”

“Mother told me.”

Julia frowns.

“Our mother, as in Mary, told you?”

Glory looks up at Julia, narrowing her eyes.

“Mary is NOT my mother...”

Glory sighs and finally nods her head.

“...I mean, my adoptive mother told me.  Aphrodite Noel.”

The living room door creaks open.  Glory and Julia stop their intense discussion to look and watch as a maid enters the living room.  She is carrying two glasses of red wine, one in each hand.  She smiles as she approaches Glory Braddock and holds out one of the glasses to her boss...

“A glass of red wine?”

“Is it Merlot?”

“Of course, Ms. Noel.”

Glory nods with appreciation and takes the glass.  The maid then turns and offers a glass to Julia as well.

“Wine, Ms.  Braddock?”

“Uh, yes, thank you.”

Julia takes the glass.  The maid then turns and walks off.  Julia turns and studies Glory intensely, watching her as she sips her wine.

“Ms. Noel?”

“What?”

“Don't play innocent.  What gives?”

She looks around at the extravagance surrounding them at the living room.

“Luxurious mansions, servants, you even call yourself Noel...that's not you...”

Glory sighs as she sets her glass of wine down on the coffee table.

“We've already been through this, Julia.  This IS me now.  You need to accept it.”

“I accept that you are a troubled person.  I accept that you need help...”

She reaches out with her free hand and takes one of her hands.

“...and I am here to help you, Glory, because I know now that we are sisters.”

“Yes, Julia, we are sisters.  Biologically, Mary Ford is our mother that much I will accept.  But I have disowned her due to what she's done to tarnish this family.”

Glory squeezes Julia's hand tightly.

“I care deeply about you, Julia.  We have grown closer together in recent years.”

Julia, despite her emotions, finally cracks a smile.

“Yeah, I guess we did.  Aphrodite did trap us both.  She forced us both to be her children.”

“That' s right and we helped each other through that time.  We supported one another through that time.  We never knew that we were sisters by blood, we only knew that Aphrodite mandated that we be sisters under her motherhood.  But we stood firm together, we supported each other and helped each other during the tough times, and through that time I grew to love you.”

Tears are now flowing down the cheeks of Glory Braddock, as well as down the cheeks of the formerly angry Julia Braddock.  Julia leans over and embraces Glory in a tight hug.

“I love you too, Glory!”

After breaking the embrace Glory stares deep into Julia's eyes.

“Listen, I know this is a difficult time for you, and I admit I should have told you as soon as I found out.  I am sorry for keeping it a secret, but I wanted you to hear it from my father.  I thought it was his obligation to tell you.”

“Why did you ever think such a thing?  We may share the same mother, Glory, but we do NOT share the same father!  He is YOUR father!  You and I are closer than he is to me!”

Glory bows her head again in shame.

“Yeah, I know...”

“Now do you see why I am upset?  Glory, I have been trying to avoid seeing any of my family, including you or Glenn, because I just couldn't bring myself to see you, I wasn't sure I could trust you considering you kept this from me.  I wasn't even certain that I would come here to see you.”

Julia Braddock takes her glass of wine and in one frustrating gulp swallows it all down.  She slams the glass down on the coffee table and sighs.

“I just...I don't know who I am anymore, Glory.”

Just as Julia did before, now it is Glory's turn to take Julia by her hands and squeeze them tightly.

“You have a point.  You deserve to know who you are, who you really are.  And I have not done my sisterly duty in helping you to realize your true family legacy.”

“That's just it, Glory.  What is my family legacy?  For the longest time I looked up to you and to uncle Glenn as heroes.  You and I were just simply cousins, but close.  Now I realize we were sisters?  Now I realize uncle Glenn had been lying to me for all my life?  And our mother had been sleeping around with Glenn and with my father?  The great Braddock legacy once was sparkling and perfect.  Now I do not know how great the Braddock legacy truly is.”

“And you deserve to know the truth.”

Glory takes another sip of her wine and then she sets her glass down.

“Julia...we must speak again, only it must be when we both have more time on our hands, time when we can speak at greater length about the Braddock family and what it means to be a Braddock.”

Julia frowns, staring at Glory with great skepticism written across her face.

“You want to adopt Aphrodite as a mother.  Why should I trust that you have any answers to what it means to be a Braddock?”

“My relationship with Aphrodite is beside the point.  The point is that I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I think I may be of some assistance to you.”

Julia nods her head.

“Ok, fine, we can talk again and I will listen and consider what you have to say.  But you have to promise to answer my question as well.”

“What question do you have?”

“Why do you hate our mother so much?  What has she done that is so bad that makes you want to disown her and accept Aphrodite as a mother, which is something we both fought so hard to get away from?”

Julia can tell by the deeply disturbed look on her sister's face that Glory is not ready or willing to share this information.  Glory sighs and shakes her head.

“Julia, honestly, I would really rather not...”

Julia stands up.

“Then we're done here.”

“Julia, wait...”

Glory reaches out and snatches her sister by the wrist to hold her still.

“...fine, we can meet again and I will tell you everything that you want to know.”

Julia looks down at Glory and nods her head.

“Good.  Just name the time and place and we will talk about the Braddock legacy.”

Outwardly Julia frowns sternly at Glory but inwardly Julia is smiling.  Julia knows exactly what she is doing.  Yes, she will hear Glory out, but she also plans on speaking to the one person who can definitely answer her question, and perhaps the one person ironically enough being ignored in all of this...

...Mary Ford, Glory and Julia's mother.

==========

On Camera

==========

We open in a large bedroom.  The walls are a cream color with a few paintings hung as decoration.  The floor is carpeted, the coloration matching the walls cream color almost exactly, just slightly darker.  The bed is a queen size with a floral print comforter and white pillows.  On the right side of the bed is a nightstand with a red book sitting on top.  From stage left Julia Braddock walks into the scene.  The lovely blonde beauty is wearing a flowing Carolina blue night gown that extends down to the floor.  She walks over to the nightstand and picks up the red book and opens it up to a page, a specific page, and she begins to read…

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.”

She closes up the book and clutches it close to her chest.

“Second Timothy, chapter four, verses seven and eight.”

Julia places the book back down on the nightstand.  Then she climbs upon the bed and sits cross legged, or “Indian style” as they say, in the center of the queen sized comforter, facing the camera.

“I apologize if anyone was offended by the reading of that scripture…”

She pauses to think for a moment before shaking her head.

“…actually, no, I don’t apologize.  I will not apologize for this scripture.  The fact is that I can relate to this scripture.  Reading it and meditating upon it helps me to understand and appreciate more what I’ve been going through.”

“It seems like a lifetime has passed since I was Queen of Camelot, a horrible tyrant who betrayed her own family and betrayed her friends, all for the sake of gaining more power.  I did not realize what I was squandering the trust, support, and love of my friends and family.  The truth is, I did not care.  I was just a power hungry bitch.  And after I came to my senses and tried to make amends, it was then that I realized that I had burned way too many bridges and that my friends and family would not forgive me so easily.”

“Yet I made a promise to my friends, to my family, and to the fans who had once supported me and whom I had turned my back on, I promised them all that I would work to earn their trust again and that I would one day be worthy of their cheers and of their support.”

“After I fought against Mason Van Stanton on IWC Riot I decided to start with a clean slate on Uprising.  And no, I have not had the greatest success since my brand new start, but I can proudly say that I have done things the right way.  I can hold my head high knowing that I have done the Braddock name proud by never giving up and never taking any shortcuts.  The road has been tough, it has been challenging, and the road will only get more challenging as it progresses, but I can honestly say that I have fought the good fight and now I am nearly ready to complete the race.  The finish lane is straight ahead.  I can see it.  It’s within reach.  But to reach that finish line I have to trust someone whom I have no reason to trust and, appropriately enough, someone who has no reason to trust me either.”

“Danny Darko, I have no idea if you are a religious person or not, and quite frankly, it doesn’t matter if you are.  But I do think you can relate to the passage from Second Timothy in much the same way I have.  We both have a very blemished history, not just in terms of winning and losing but in terms of how we got here.  Neither one of us has always been the most wholesome of individuals, have we?  Much like me, you have had to endure your own roller coaster ride of redemption.  Some have forgiven you.  Along the way you have even made new allies and friends, much as I have.  But there will also be those who will never forgive people like us.  Those people would just assume watch us disappear forever.  But do you want to know what I say to those people, Danny?”

Julia’s flare up with an intensity that we rarely see from this beauty.

“We are NOT going anywhere!  They can beat us down, bludgeon us, batter us, and they can leave us for dead, and hell, you and I may not even make it out of the first round of this tag tournament to crown new number one contenders, but even still we will keep coming back!  We will keep getting back up and we will never ever die!  And maybe, if you and I are good enough, and if we have just a little bit of luck on our side, we can win this tournament and become number one contenders to the UWA World Championship.”

Julia points at the camera.

“Alana Starr, you’re up first and you had arguably the perfect tag team partner.  You had Jessica Wilde and with the backing of Sinistry you two would have been a damn shoe in to win the whole thing.  But now that’s changed and your entire tournament journey is in question.  Your future in this tournament is now in doubt.  You don’t even know who your partner will be.  Will your partner be a behemoth who doesn’t know how to vocalize a damn thing?  Will your partner be Myra Lynwood, someone who is talented to say the least but who is the self-described Mistress of Manipulation, someone who is self-declares that no one can trust her?”

Braddock shakes her head.

“Not even you, Alana.  You see, whereas with Jessica Wilde you had someone you could potentially trust, now you’re stuck with the gravity of the situation that you will get a tag team partner you cannot trust.  The Executioner is uncontrollable and Myra Lynwood is out for herself.  You know it, I know it, everyone knows it.”

“But I’ll admit that Darko and I are in the same boat.  I’m sure he has his doubts about me, as I do him, but the difference here is that he and I do have something in common.  We both are seeking redemption.  Both of us are seeking to prove that we can be trusted.  And just like any pro-wrestler worth their salt, Danny and I both want to be world champion.  I am confident Danny and I can get along and work our way through this tournament.  I am confident that Danny Darko and I will finish this race.  But can you honestly say the same thing?  Can any of the other teams say the same thing?”

She shrugs her shoulders.

“Grace Morningwood and Ethan Von Aaron?  No one can trust Von Aaron.  No one can trust Sophie James OR Serenity, let alone them together.  It’ll be a matter of who betrays who first.  The same can be said of Marie Jones and Willow Wilkes or Benjamin Flynn and Gavin Taylor.  Lilith Evans is the Sinistry lapdog, so needless to say the fake dragon can’t trust her.  Maybe DeLight and Pearson can trust one another, but even still I have my doubts.”

“But me and Danny, we have a lot in common.  We have similar goals.  We both want the same thing.  Danny Darko is a legend and me, I come from a legendary wrestling family, and I am looking to write my own chapter in the Braddock history books.  And winning this tournament and going on to become UWA World Champion would be a great way to do just that.”

Braddock shakes her head.

“I won’t get too ahead of myself.  First thing is first and that’s to win this tournament.  Danny, we have a job to do  you and I, so let’s get out there and take care of business.”

The camera fades to black.