FicWad

Vanessa was reading a People magazine in her hospital bed when she heard her hospital room door slam shut rather abruptly. She looked up and saw Axl’s mother standing there, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Hi, what can I do for you miss . . .?”
“Julie, just call me Julie,” She said stiffly. Vanessa nodded as she laid her magazine down on her bedside table.
“Okay, what can I do for you Julie?” She asked her and Julie looked her up and down in disgust.
“My son was always drawn to girls like you; it disgusts me even to this very day. He could do much better,” She said and Vanessa smiled in slight confusion.
“Girls like me? I’m afraid that I don’t understand,” She asked slowly and Julie nodded.
“Girls that act like his lover then get pregnant and then something happens to them. I’ve seen it since he officially became Axl Rose. Take Stephanie and Erin for instance,”
“For your information, he does not like girls like that; and again for your information, Stephanie and Erin were not like that,” She snapped. She didn’t like Stephanie and Erin but there was no way in Hell she would allow his mother to insult fellow women of Axl’s past. Fellow women that he once loved as much as he loved her now.
“Who are you are you trying to kid? You’re like his slut, his groupie. Your pretty and seductive. You’re the same kind of woman that hurt him so long ago,” She said and Vanessa was becoming increasingly angry by the minute.
“Oh of course then again he was never attracted to dumb, weak, girls that depended on him hand and foot like he should have. He was always attracted to strong girls. He was always attracted to girls that relied on their damn will-power to survive, not giving a damn about their men,” She snapped.
“How dare you talk to me like that? Do you know how much Axl would be pissed if he heard you talk to me like this?” Vanessa hissed, sitting up. “And how dare you come into my hospital room and preach to me on the well-being of your son, when you stood aside and watched him be abused by that bastard stepfather of his since he was five!”
“He told me one day while he was in Chicago, that he was held down by eight police officers on a brick floor. Don’t you think that it would have occurred to him that one of those police officers could have bashed his head down on that brick floor? He felt vulnerable. And let me tell you something Julie,” She said, holding up a hand so Julie couldn’t interrupt her. “That man does not like to be vulnerable. He was vulnerable all his life at the hand of his stepfather because you didn’t save him. When he got kicked out of the house, he swore he would never be that vulnerable again.”
“When he see’s you, past worries and shadows come flooding back to him. You have no right to do this to me and you know it good and well,” Vanessa told her angrily. Julie was looking like she got slapped severely in the face.
“How dare you!”
“How dare I? You wonder why your son hates you and his stepfather so much? He fucking hates you and he never wanted to see you again and I hate to burst your bubble here hon, but it’s the truth too. That man has been through a whole lot of shit in his life. And finally when he’s getting better, you show up and ruin it,”
Julie pressed her hands against her bosom. “I care for my only son, the heir to the Rose name. I gave him the best years that I could’ve possibly managed under those circumstances,” She said vehemently.
“You gave him the glory of Michael’s hand,” Vanessa spat back venomously.
“I didn’t leave his father because I couldn’t leave his father! I wouldn’t have been able to support us,” She replied.
“He’s right . . .” Vanessa continued, ignoring her completely. “Where were you when Axl was getting the shit beaten out of him since he was five? Since he was five Julie!? You were his mother, his only hope of-of survival at that age. You were supposed to protect him. What kind of mother were you? You disappeared since he graduated from high school and you suddenly appear when his life is on the line and you want to be in your grandchildren’s lives? You convinced him that was he was insane. You convinced him that he was low-life, that he didn’t deserve to live. You accused him of drinking and doing drugs while he was in high school, when he denied it all, you guys kicked him out of the house. Then he started to wonder what was so bad about those things that you accused him of doing. So basically, he started doing drugs and drinking because of you and his stepfather. I just thank the lord that he got off them and quit drinking in our last marriage, when I was pregnant the first time,”
“I-I only wanted the best for him . . .” she tried to say, close to tears.
“And apparently your idea of what was best for him was marring an abusive husband,” She shot back coldly.
“What have you done to him?”
“I told him the truth. I told him that he didn’t have to worry about him anymore. He fell in love with someone who understands him. I’m someone who has convinced him that he’s not insane like his mother convinced him long ago,” she said and took a deep breath where he let it out, “Now please, just . . . go . . .” Julie just stood there.
“Can you not understand English now? Go before I call the nurse and security and don’t try to feed Axl anymore lies because I’ll know one way or another, I can promise you that,” She said. Julia took one unsettling look at Vanessa and then hurriedly left the room. Slash came in shortly after carrying two cups of coffee and shut the door behind him with his foot.
“Wasn’t that Axl’s mother?” He asked her in confusion and Vanessa nodded. Slash sat down in an armchair beside her bed and handed her a cup of coffee
“Thank you,” she said quietly as she took a cup from him and took a swallow.
“What happened?” He asked her. She quickly told him everything and when she was finished, she saw that he had a look of smug approval on his face.
“Good for you, she deserved that,”
Vanessa nodded and looked down. “But don’t you think I was little too harsh on her?” She asked him a little uneasily and he shook his head where he looked at her,
“Naw, from what I heard from you, I think she finally understood a lot. She heard some things that probably not even Axl wasn’t strong enough to tell her at the moment. When it comes to Axl, you sure do love to protect him don’t you?” He asked her and she smiled.
“I just want him to be happy,” She confessed.
“I heard from Duff that you guys want to get married,” He asked her. She nodded and looked at him.
Duff probably hated that news, she thought glumly.
“What about Tommy?” he asked her and she shrugged nonchalantly.
“We settled for a divorce,”
“What?!” Slash asked, his mouth falling open in shock.
“Slash, its nothing big, we just decided that me and Axl belong together,” she replied, shrugging again.
“What about Brandon?”
“Brandon deserves to see his father,” She said and Slash smiled a small, all-knowing smile.
“You didn’t have an abortion with your fist child did you?” He asked her and she shook her head before they both laughed.
“No I didn’t. I was afraid to tell Axl at that time, you know his temperament,” She said and Slash nodded again.
“Its not his is it?” she looked out the window into the bright morning sunshine outside.
“Brandon is Duff’s child. As if Axl doesn’t know though,”