Chapter Text
“In recent news, the Rose family have had quite the week. Alexis Rose, America’s little sister, has finally come out of hospital after a boating accident in the Maldives left health experts uncertain of whether she would survive the night. But Alexis is back and better than ever, and today has flown to her family home in sunny Los Angeles where her parents were awaiting her return with open arms.”
“You know, it’s just inspiring to see the Roses brought together by such tragedy, don’t you think Lynn?”
“It certainly is, Mike. But Alexis wasn’t the only Rose child to return to the family nest this week.”
“You’re correct, David Rose also flew across the country from New York to stay with his family. After a long, tumultuous public relationship with the famous photographer Sebastien Raine, they seem to have finally called it off for good after Mr Raine published nude photographs of Mr Rose in his art gallery, that were apparently taken without the knowledge, or consent, of David Rose or his legal team.”
“Well, it’s certainly been a hectic time for the Rose family, recently recovering from economic turmoil after their business manager, Eli Thompson, was caught just last year in a plot to steal the family’s wealth through a range of fraudulent behaviour. Thankfully, the Rose legacy was not toppled, and instead, their fame has only grown in the wake of such turmoil.”
“I for one can’t wait to see what the Roses will do next, don’t you agree?”
“I sure do Mike. Coming up later tonight, ‘From Rags to Riches’, the inspiring story of a family torn apart by poverty and rebuilt by the love of their community. Tune in after the break.”
David slams the button to turn off the radio and sighs, tipping his head back against the seat of the taxi.
It’s been a long couple of weeks since he walked into Sebastien’s gallery only to be greeted by the sight of his own naked form, spread eagle on the bed; a night he can’t even remember, hung on the wall in front of him for all to see.
Thankfully, his parents were wealthy enough to pay for some of the best lawyers in the country. The Rose family had started what was likely to be a lengthy court battle with the Raine estate, and his parents were not letting up, determined on getting a significant amount of money from Sebastien Raine as repercussions for his actions.
The argument with Sebastien had been legendary, and unfortunately incredibly public. David had been so shocked, and scared, and embarrassed. He remembers how close he was to tears as he yelled at Sebastien to take down the photographs. He hadn’t, and the gallery opening had been a massive success, and now the whole world had seen David at his most vulnerable.
Fortunately, the public response to the even had come down pretty hard on David’s side. The #ProtectDavidRose and #RevengePornIsACrime hashtags had trended for a little over a week on social media, which was impressive considering how quickly people generally move on nowadays, and there had been numerous campaigns aiming to criminalise the publication of photos such as that in the Supreme Court, as well as petitions, protests, and public displays of support for David.
All this, combined with his sister almost dying, had made for a very stressful month.
David hadn’t heard from Alexis in almost three months when he heard the news. He had once thought that nothing could chill him to the bones the way the phone ringing at 4am did, as his sister requested help in the form of coloured contacts, and telephone numbers of the family lawyers, and forged passports. It turns out that not getting a phone call at all was far worse.
He had been in bed, scrolling the news on his phone when he saw the headline.
Public figure, Alexis Rose of the Rose family corporations was found this morning unconscious on the shore of Hulhumale Beach in the Maldives. Representatives of the family say that she is currently in a stable condition at the local hospital.
David’s heart had almost stopped when he read that. He had immediately called his parents who didn’t pick up, and Alexis’ phone, which also didn’t pick up. He had eventually gotten through to the hospital that was treating her and offered to come and get her, but they had requested that he wait until they knew whether she would be sent back to the US first for treatment.
Eventually, she had been moved to the Bellevue Hospital in New York to finish her treatment, where David had been visiting her for the last few weeks.
Together, when she was discharged from the hospital and determined fit to travel, they made the decision to travel to LA to stay with their parents. David had been reluctant at first, but after his parents began calling him daily to check on him, he had agreed. He and Alexis flew together from New York to LA and climbed into the family car waiting for them at the gates.
“Why did you turn it off, David?” Alexis whines next to him, reaching over to press the button again but being slapped away before she can reach it. “Ugh, David! I’m not sitting through the rest of this drive in silence.”
“Don’t put it back on,” David says, slapping her hand again.
Alexis softens at the look on his face which is closed off, and this time reaches out her hand to hold on his arm. He flinches momentarily before relaxing into it and letting her try to comfort him.
“Hey, thank you for coming home with me. I know you didn’t want to.”
“Yeah, well. It’s probably a good thing for us all to be in the same place at once for a while since we evidently shouldn’t be on our own right now.”
Alexis hums in agreement, but there is no amusement on her face anymore.
“Plus, I should probably show my face with Mom and Dad at some point, since they are paying so much money towards this court case.”
“Have you heard anything about it?” Alexis asks, uncharacteristically gentle as she looks across the back seat at him.
David looks away, out of the window, watching the city rush past the windows. It’s just stopped raining, and the droplets are racing down the glass in feverish desperation, all trying to get ahead, all trying to escape. David shrugs at his sisters’ question, and watches as a raindrop gets stuck, before joining with another rogue droplet. Together they race to the finish line and disappear, leaving nothing but a wet line in their wake.
“I’ve given my statement, but I might have to go to court to state my case if he doesn’t give in quickly. Hopefully the lawyers will make a strong enough argument that they won’t bother disputing it and will cave to their requests. I don’t know how far Sebastien is willing to push this, though.”
They go over a bump in the road, and Alexis winces.
“How’s your back?”
“It’s fine, they told you it was just bruised right?”
“Oh what, like your arm was just bruised when you fell out of that tree in Second Grade?” David replies automatically.
Alexis lets out a little laugh and nods. “Yeah, exactly like that,” she mutters, evidently remembering the event in the same way David does.
She had insisted that she could go higher than David, and she was right; he was never good with heights even before the parasailing incident. Adelina had run out of the house at break-neck speed when she had seen Alexis’ little body crumbled by the trunk of the Elm Tree in the back yard of their huge estate. She had corralled David into the car with them while Alexis cried from the pain of what was eventually discovered to be a fractured elbow.
Their parents had critiqued Adelina for being so careless and allowing them to put themselves in danger but had played no part in the recovery. They had paid the bills and ensured that Alexis had everything she needed to be comfortable, when all she wanted was for her parents to pay attention to her. It had taken almost 6 months for her arm to heal completely, and she still argued that she could feel it twinge whenever someone lied to her.
Her hand goes to that elbow now, and he loses her to her thoughts for a while.
“What did Dad say when you told him I was coming with you?” David asks after a while, as they drive down unfamiliar residential streets.
“He seemed pretty surprised honestly, have you not spoken to them in a while?”
“Um, excuse me, when was the last time you picked up the phone to speak to them? When was the last time you picked up the phone to call me?”
Alexis flicks her hair over her shoulder and scowls. “I called you three months ago--”
“Yes, to ask for a fake passport!” David exclaims.
“Well, we’re going to be living in the same house now, David. You can come and see me all you want.” Alexis says, with a cheeky grin.
“Hm. How do you think Mom and Dad are going to feel about that?”
Alexis frowns at him as if surprised by his attitude towards their parents. “You really haven’t spoken to them?” She asks.
“Well, briefly, to talk about the court case- why?”
“David, they’ve been desperate to have us home for weeks now. They called the hospital every day when I was there, and it was them that made sure that I was moved to the hospital nearest you in New York. Dad said he’d been trying to contact you but that you haven’t been picking up.”
“Well, I thought they were calling to talk about the case, or to talk about you!” David says, bristling up in defence. “How was I meant to know that they actually wanted to talk to me?”
“You should be prepared, David. Last time I spoke to Dad he spent almost an hour on the phone with me apologising for being ‘distant’ and for ‘being lax with my heart’. I think they’ve changed.”
David is just about to respond with something degrading when the car pulls up to the family estate. The LA house is a large brick mansion, with climbing ivy on the walls and large collegiate architecture. The car parks just outside the steps on the gravel, and the driver jumps out, walking around the car and opening the passenger door on Alexis’ side.
“Welcome home Miss Rose, Mr Rose.”
Alexis bops the drivers nose as she clambers out, and David thanks him softly, following behind her. He’s surprised when he looks up at the house to see his parents already standing in the doorway waiting for them.
“My lost brethren, returning to the nest!” Moira cries, holding her arms out to embrace them. She holds them both close, which surprises David who has not become accustomed to physical affection in the family, but he allows it to happen. The sequins of her decorative blazer dig into his neck, and the turquoise wig tickles his nose, but both he and Alexis cling to her, desperate for the physical re-assurance of their mother’s dramatics.
“David,” his Dad chokes out. “I’m so sorry about what happened to you. I can promise that the family lawyers are doing their very best to get you some closure on the whole affair.”
“Oh, well. Thank you,” David stutters in response, finally pulling free of Moira’s embrace but leaving Alexis clutched to her side. “Um, it’s good to see you Dad.”
“You too son, come on in, let’s get you settled.”
***
It turns out, contrary to David’s expectations, his and Alexis’ guest rooms are right across from each other, and just down the hall from his parents’ rooms. It’s a fact that surprises him even as his Dad shows him his room, and even offers to help him unpack before disappearing somewhere on the search for Alexis.
Once his clothes are all neatly lined up in the cedar chest his parents had already placed in the corner of his room, and the rest of his clothes hung in the dresser, it’s almost time for dinner.
David heads down to the kitchen and is surprised to find his Dad already there.
“David!” He exclaims on seeing his son enter. “I suppose you’re getting hungry after a long day of travelling?”
“Um, sure. I was just going to get something and take it back up to my room so--”
“Nonsense, son. We’ll be eating soon, once Sofia has finished with the chicken. You know, she’s been teaching me how to cook it these past couple of weeks, soon enough I might even be able to work my way through the meal myself. With a little help of course.”
David turns to the cook for confirmation. He hasn’t met her before, but that is to be expected considering he hasn’t visited his parents at their home in almost five years, and even then, it had been their old house in the hills. In comparison, their current house is positively tiny, with only enough rooms for the necessary house guests, and none of the old lavish accessories of before. The Roses remain in luxury, but their wealth is far more subdued ever since the tax evasion scare of just a year before; it seems that plus their children’s personal crises has encouraged the Roses to downscale everything to a more maintainable level.
“He’s getting very good,” Sofia says with a nod as she bustles about the kitchen. “I have never worked for anyone who was so interested in what I do, and Mr Rose is a very quick learner.”
David can tell that she’s exaggerating, but the image of his father regularly spending time with one of his employees and asking them to teach him about their work is enough to make him smile.
“You know, maybe at some point you’d like to join me, David. We could have a crack at it together, a little father and son bonding time.”
“Mm, I think that’s a hard pass," David bristles.
Johnny looks disappointed but not at all surprised by this dismissal, and he nods understandingly. “I guess it might take us a little while yet to work up to that point, huh?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
This new version of his parents continues into dinner. They sit around a normal sized wooden table on the other side of the kitchen that would usually be reserved for the staff. David watches as his Dad thanks Sofia for her help, and she goes home with a wave, leaving the family to serve up their own food.
It would be refreshing if David weren’t so suspicious of his parents’ actions.
Alexis, however, doesn’t appear surprised at all by all the massive changes. Her and Moira sit close at dinner, talking in low voices about some celebrity gossip that has been spread around, and laughing together.
David watches as his parents fawn over his sister, all the while sending nervous and almost guilty looks in his direction.
“-- I’m sure that you’ll be excited to see Stevie again.”
This pulls David back into the conversation.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Johnny repeats himself quickly. “I was just saying that you must be excited to see Stevie again.”
“Oh, um, will I be seeing Stevie again?” He asks, biting his lip.
Stevie was hired several years ago as David’s publicist in New York. They had had a short fling that had ended up with him deciding it would be better if they were friends. Stevie left soon after to move to LA and work externally in order to avoid their awkward transition from romantic relationship to clumsy friendship. Technically, she still works for the Rose family, but he hadn’t seen her in over a year.
“Well yes, son. We took it upon ourselves to set up a meeting between the two of you tomorrow to try and sort your image out after the whole Sebastien debacle.”
“Oh, and I suppose that being photographed without permission is bad for the family image? Because believe me it was much more than that from my position,” David snarls, curling his lip up at his parents moodily.
“Don’t be so prickly, David. We know that this has been an arduous situation for you and we want to do everything we can to make it easier,” Moira chimes in, shaking her head disapprovingly at him. “Now, you don’t have to go to the meeting if you don’t want to, but it wouldn’t be a detriment for you to be reminded that you are not on your own here, and Stevie is a familiar if not so friendly face.”
***
Despite David’s reservations, seeing Stevie does offer some temporary relief.
He walks into the study on the ground floor of his parents’ house, prepared for an uncomfortable hour of them pretending nothing had ever happened between them. Instead, he is greeted by a momentary sympathetic glance, before Stevie immediately reverts back to their past patterns of sarcastic humour disguising real fondness.
She doesn’t stand up from where she is sat behind his father’s large mahogany desk, and David can’t be bothered with politeness, instead collapsing down in the chair across from her in exaggerated exhaustion.
“So, what are you going to suggest to ‘fix my image’ then?” He asks simply, cutting straight to the point rather than sitting through awkward small talk about the weather and what they’ve both been up to recently.
Stevie rolls her eyes, putting her conversed feet on top of the desk in a casual way and flopping back into the chair. She is the antonym of this room; a country girl who’s made it big in the generosity of a wealthy family, and yet she refuses to be made uncomfortable in their environment.
“David, your image doesn’t need to be fixed, it needs to be maintained.”
“Okay, so what does that even mean?” He pushes.
“Well, right now you are one of the most popular names in the business. Everyone is talking about the tragedies of the Rose family. It’s going to do a lot of good for Mrs Roses new film, and she’s looking to rake in some real money from that deal.”
David scoffs. “Isn’t it a thriller about mutant crows?”
“Well yes, I think she said it ends with some sort of ‘crowpocalypse’? But that’s not the point. The Rose family will be in the headlines again, and this time it won’t be because Alexis almost died, or because you look great naked.”
“Okay,” David mutters, barely repressing the smile that fights to emerge at her blasé attitude over the whole affair. It’s reassuring to know that one person at least isn’t looking at him any differently.
“--it’ll be because you have talent. Mrs Rose is going to bring your family out of this bout of popularity and push you into something new, and we need to run with this momentum.”
“This is all sounding very optimistic and everything, but what are you intending on having me do?”
Stevie pulls her legs off the desk and crosses them, leaning forward to explain it to him in the simplest of terms.
“Look, the Rose family is the most famous you’ve ever been. I propose that we focus on maintaining this in the easiest of ways. You need to be a cohesive group right now, present a united front to the rest of the world. Be like a familial version of the Kardashians.”
“I don’t know how much of the Kardashians you’ve watched, but they are a family.”
Stevie rolls her eyes. “Well yes, I know that. But they’re a messy family, their popularity is based on their arguments, it’s rooted in conflict. What we want is to build on the idea that people already have about your family. That you’re a close-knit unit, and that you have each other’s back.”
David frowns as he takes that in, thinking about all the news he had seen about his family on social media and in the news in recent weeks. The world seemed to think that they were some cohesive, loving unit, or at least, loving enough that the Rose children would return to their parents’ arms at the first sign of trouble in their private life.
“You want to make people think that we’re some sort of happy family? Is this why they have been acting all weird, trying to spend time with me, and being all- all supportive?” David asks slowly, disbelief etched on his features. It makes sense that his parents would act differently to further their wealth and popularity in society, but it's disappointing nonetheless.
“David, your parents love you. I’ve not said any of this to them. Look, I know you haven’t been in contact with them in a long time, and I know how much they’ve hurt you in the past, but you didn’t see them when they heard about Alexis, or about your situation with Sebastien. They were so upset and- and guilty, I think they genuinely want to help fix things for you.”
“Right,” David says, disbelief evident in his tone.
“Do you want to hear the rest of the plan?”
“Why not, what’s the rest of the plan?” He asks, waving a hand at her to continue.
“The best way of keeping your name in rotation at the moment is by making sure all of you are in the public eye. Now, Mr Rose has his businesses, Mrs Rose has her film, and Alexis is going to be talking to her agent about a reality TV stint with a few other major names.”
“Okay, and what are you intending for me to do?” David asks, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously.
“There’s a new cosmetics company that is looking for a sponsor. They’ve pitched an idea to us, and I’ve said that you would consider it. They want to create a brand for you called ‘Rosie Day’, it would be made up of high-quality skin care and that sort of thing, and you would promote them under your own label.”
“I’m sorry, you want my label to be ‘Rosie Day’?”
Stevie winces and tips her head to one side. “Well, that wouldn’t be your label, your label is the same as your parents, you’re a part of Rose Family Corporations. But yes, ‘Rosie Day’ would be the name of the skincare and the chain of products that is under your name.” She says the last part slowly, as if embarrassed to even say it.
“Why are we even doing all this?” David asks quietly, as if afraid to hear the answer.
“Your parents almost lost everything three times over, David. I think they just want a bit of security. Now, they know about the brand sponsorship, but I’ll be talking to Mr Rose about the presentation of a ‘family brand’ in my meeting with him this afternoon. I wanted to run it by you first but it’s something that the PR firm has been discussing for a while now.”
“Can I at least think about it?” He asks. “Before I agree to all of this, because I don’t know if I want to- if I’m willing to be tied back into the Rose Corporations. I thought I had escaped that in New York.”
“You have a week to decide before the brand will turn to someone else as a sponsor,” Stevie says simply. “I need you to let me know before then.”
“And what about the rest of it? The ‘rebuilding the family brand’ and the ‘presenting a cohesive family unit’? How long do I have to decide about that?”
She stands up and rounds the desk, frowning at him. “Your parents don’t want you to pretend to be a happy family, David. I think they just want their son back. You can let them know about that as soon as you’re ready.”
***
Over the next couple of days, David takes the time to watch his parents both in their interactions with each other, and with him and Alexis. Stevie is right, they have changed; somehow, they have gone from frankly neglectful when it came to their children, to helicopter parents in the course of a few weeks.
He spends a few days alone, or with Alexis in their rooms. They catch up on each other’s lives, and experiences, carefully avoiding discussion of the reasons they ended up moving back in with their parents, and instead sticking closely to the amusing and shocking tales of other big names.
They watch films, and they eat junk food, and they generally recover from what has been a genuinely traumatic few weeks, leaning on the familiarity of their bickering and disagreements to make themselves feel better.
On the third day, David relents to his mother’s requests that he help her rearrange her wigs. He spends the day holed away in her room, carefully brushing and conditioning various hair pieces, with his mother hovering and correcting his handling of her ‘girls’.
“A gentler touch should do it, David.”
“I am being--”
“See! You’re clutching Giselle with such ferocity, you’ll damage her!”
He spends the next afternoon with his father, watching him cook with Sofia. The gentleness that Johnny displays in his careful copying makes something in David soften, and he thinks about what Stevie had said about his Dad being different. It’s the first time he’s looked at Johnny Rose as less of the family patriarch, and more as a father. The look suits him.
By the fifth day, he’s made his mind up.
He tells his parents the same night, over their sixth family dinner in a row. They startle when he starts to talk, having grown accustomed to their eldest son remaining aloof and silent during these meals, but their gentle smiles reveal how relieved they are that he is beginning to let some of his walls down.
“Um, so you know that family image thing that Stevie mentioned? The cosmetics sponsor, and the family brand?” David starts, awkwardly pushing artichoke hearts around his plate with his fork.
“Well, yes son, what about it?”
“I think I want to do it.” He says slowly. “The cosmetics brand, and the appearing in public together, the premieres and the parties and everything. I’ll do it, um, if that’s what you still want.”
“Okay dear.” Is all Moira says in response, but she’s watching him with the closest thing to a maternal look he has ever seen from her. He can’t help but feel like he’s made the right choice, regardless of how difficult it may be.