MC: LaPonte (22 page)

After an hour of waiting a
doctor comes in taking off a mask. Kate holds my waist tighter. We
can see before he opens his mouth. He shakes his head saying he's
sorry. Darren lets out a noise. Jessie holds him while he cries.
Victor cries with no noise and Little Ben puts his arms around him.
The doctor keeps talking, Kate goes to Victor, lifts him and sits.
Little Ben hugs them both. Ben thanks the doctor. I copy what Kate
did and Jessie hugs Darren and me. We sit until the boys
calm.

I look at Ben. "What do we
do?" I see him struggling.

Little Ben touches my arm.
"Love them Uncle Danny."

"You're strong,” Jessie
touches my face, "they need your strong now. It’s time to let it
show." He tells me. I look at Kate.

"Fuckin kids." Steve says
and walks out.

"You have custody of them.
You need to decide if you want to keep it or turn them over to the
state." Doc says. I can hear the emotion in his voice.

"I can't do that Danny.
You know what it's like. I can't do it. I'll quit. I know it won't
be easy with the baby, but I'll do it." She begs me. I nod. I
couldn't do it either.

"You won't do this alone;
you don't have to quit Kate. The MC will help, we'll all help." Ben
says to her tears in his eyes.

Jess and Tracy tell us
they'll help. "We don't have enough beds at the house but I'd like
to borrow Jessie and Little Ben if that's ok with you. We'll figure
it out. Maybe let them all sleep in the living room?"

"I'll get you some air
mattresses Brother. They can stay. Kate the police need to know
what happened here." Ben says.

"Doc, can you call Anita?"
She asks, kissing Victor's head.

"I got the Prospects
moving their clothes over to your house. They only have two days’
worth of clothes. Doug is going to pick them up some basics. The
Brothers will move the toys from the shelter house to your garage."
Doc tells me as he's typing on his phone.

I stand up with Darren in
my arms. I thank Jessie and ask if he will stay with us tonight. He
nods. Little Ben says he's staying too. Doc takes Victor. Ben takes
Arron from Tracy. The girls hug crying in each other's arms. I
follow everyone out. As we're walking to the main door Darren makes
a noise. Everyone stops. I put him down and squat beside him. He
signs, 'where going'. Fuck I didn't tell him. I sign and say, 'your
mom signed papers telling me and Ms. Kate to take good care of you.
We're going to my house. Jessie and Little Ben too. They will help
fix our hearts.' He nods but looks back. He signs, 'Mom angel.' I
sign yes. He holds on to me, I lift him and we leave with fuckin
tears in my eye again. Fuckin hell.

Chapter Twenty
Six

One week...

Patches is cutting wood
for me. Steve and Luke are nailing the pieces I laid out. We're on
the last section. Tiny and Prospects are painting. Fans are set up
everywhere drying the paint that was put on earlier. The flat paint
should dry quickly. "How did you come up with this one?" Luke
asks.

I measure the last board
and give it to Patches. "When I took the wall down I realized it
still didn't leave much room for them to play. We watched a movie
and they thought the tree house in it was cool. My head started
working the plans into this space. I drew it out and started
building. This gives them built in dressers shaped like trunks, all
the beds off the floor and plenty of room for playing." I hand the
last board to Steve. Patches starts moving the tools
out.

Rob pokes his head out of
Darren's bed platform. "Ready to test it out." We all watch, he
holds the bar and leans forward. Holding his knees back he makes it
almost to the center of the room. We all laugh. He lets the line go
and stands up. "I think I'm a little too tall." The guys laugh at
him again. "This is like the Home Makeover show; they're going to
love it."

Tiny comes over, "We need
a zip line that we can ride." Steve laughs at him. He's got to
weigh over 350 pounds easily.

Petey calls me over. "What
color on this desk?"

"Aaron is red and gold.
Drawer fronts are opposite the base." He nods. "Darren is blue/gold
and Victor is green/gold." He goes to Duncan and Luke to get them
started.

Steve comes over to me.
"They didn't have anything from their house?"

"No the father trashed it.
There wasn't anything they could salvage. Anita was there, she said
the guy is off the charts. He tore apart everything. She was lucky
she found a picture of their mom still intact."

"You need help getting
them toys and shit let me know." He's pissed.

"Thanks Steve." I tell
him. Jess has handled my money forever. I'm not hurting and I
wouldn't ask, but I'm not going to stop them if they want to spoil
these boys.

I crack up as I hear Tiny
yelling at a Prospect. "There ain't no fuckin black leaves. This is
kids’ stuff, you paint with color. Kids don't need to be seeing
that fuckin depressin non color." Steve laughs. Tiny looks over at
us. "What? I watch Dr Phil." I hold my face and laugh.

"Don't know Dr Phil but
you're standin there all in black yellin about it bein a
non-color." Steve tells him with a big fuckin smile plastered on
his face.

Tiny looks down as if this
is news to him. Patches cracks up on the side of me. "I am. I need
to get Nancy to get me some clothes." I laugh. Fuckin
Tiny.

"Since I've known you all
you wear is black." Luke tells him laughing.

"It doesn't show stains.
With all these little fuckers running around I need color." Tiny
barks at him. Everyone laughs. "Get back to work, this ain't no
social hour. Them boys need a fuckin room to sleep in. Can't be
good for their backs to sleep on the fuckin floor." Everyone starts
moving again. Tiny looks at me and shrugs. Fuckin Tiny.

Another two hours and the
paint is on, the tools are picked up. The beds are made and the
ladders are attached. Ben, Jared and Doc come in with toys and
pictures. Patches organizes the toys into the right bins. Steve and
Rob get the pictures hung. The Prospects get the rest of the bags
for upstairs then work on the yard and garage stuff.

Anita comes in with the
mom pictures for the platform walls. I asked her to make a copy for
each of them. Patches asks to hang them. She kisses his cheek and
hands them to him. He puts them up and walks out. "That boy needs a
family." She says quietly.

"He has one. He just
hasn't realized it yet. He's roommates with my son, comes for
Sunday dinner, special occasions and just because. He just doesn't
remember what family is like. He'll get it." I tell her. She kisses
my cheek and walks out the door.

Once everything is
finished we head down to the porch. The Prospects have coolers of
beer waiting. "Thanks for all your help today. It would have taken
me and Patches forever to get it done."

"We take care of our own."
Rob says. Everyone says something back to him, I just
smile.

Patches comes around the
house, I hand him a beer. "You staying for dinner?"

"Yeah. I want to make sure
the clothes get put up. Kate looked tired this morning." I smile
and give him a chin lift. He's one of mine. Kate was tired because
she was up early for me to inspect her jewels. I smile, they were
working fine.

Ben slaps his back. "Good
you're looking out for them Brother." Patches smiles and looks out
at the water. Ben turns to me, "did the electrician finish putting
the lights up?"

"Yeah yesterday. He even
put one in the bathroom." I smile.

Tiny looks at me,
"lights?"

"Darren can't hear if he's
being called. The lights are hooked to a button like a doorbell.
When we call him we hit the button so all the lights flash." He
smiles at me. I look around. "Has anyone heard from them?" I
ask.

"Last I heard they were at
the mall. They had one car full and we're headed back in." Tiny
says.

"Oh shit. Maybe I needed
more dressers." I say almost to myself. They all laugh.

"We can always build more
another day. That reminds me did the Prospects get the stars up?"
Ben asks. Tiny yells for them. They all come running. They pale
when he asks about the stars. He yells at them again to get them up
before the kids get here and they might as well pull all the fans
out when they're done. Everyone is laughing. Fuckin Tiny. I watch
the ladder make its way back into the house.

"Gonna be a long fuckin
day." Steve says.

"An even longer fuckin
night." I say. I know once Little Ben and Jessie see their beds
they'll be staying tonight.

"You know you're going to
have to rebuild their rooms once they see this one." Ben says with
a smile.

I hold my face and laugh.
"Nope, we're going to have to rebuild." All the Brothers say
they’re in. We shoot the shit for a while. It feels good to have
the Brothers here helping us out.

The old ladies pull in.
Patches gets to the suvs first. He gets the kids to go see the
backyard with the Prospects and organizes a bag brigade into the
house. I slap his back. "Brother, nicely done." I take Kate's hand
and bring her up to the room.

"They are going to freak.
They have been excited all day waiting to see it. It's awesome.
Thank you everyone for all your hard work." She walks around
looking at everything. The women are getting the clothes put in the
draws, Patches is hanging clothes in the closet. "Where are the
beds for Little Ben and Jessie?"

Steve walks over to the
wall of bins and pulls a rope in the middle. The beds swing down
from the wall. Kate, Tracy, Nancy and Jess crack up. "That is
freakin awesome. Murphy bunk beds. You are a genius. I love it."
She kisses me laughing. Steve lifts the beds back up.

"I'm not sure we'll ever
see our kids again. It looks like real tree houses. I love the
walkways against the walls." Jess says.

"Tiny’s got the grill
going. He wants to send the kids up." Rob says from the doorway.
"He said to get your asses down there unless you're family so the
kids will fit." We all crack up. Everyone files out.

I stop Patches. "You stay
for your little brothers." He nods. The kids come up the stairs
sounding like a herd of elephants. We stand back and watch. They go
right to their beds, knowing them by color. Little Ben and Jessie
stand with us watching. Darren signs for the boys to come and see.
They run to different sides of the room and climb the ladders to
the walkways. Jess cracks up. They look in at all the
beds.

Darren signs, 'friend’s
bed'. I tell him to get them over to the bins. He has everyone
follow him along the walkway. Steve pulls the rope again and checks
the legs. The boys holler and jump on the bunk beds. Everyone
laughs. "You made us beds Uncle Danny!" Jessie yells.

"No Jessie we all made you
beds. Everyone helped with this one." I tell him with a
smile.

"That makes it more
special." Little Ben says.

"Yes it does little men."
Patches tells him.

Ben walks over to the
windows and pulls the shades. He goes to the light switch and flips
it off. I crack up as everyone oohs and ahhs. All the lights are on
sensors, the platforms have a light that gives a faint glow when
it's dark. We hooked up mini LED's to light the bases and the stars
show on the ceiling. There are lights around the walkway
floorboards to keep accidents at a minimum. It looks awesome. The
boys go wild. Running from bed to bed. Kate hugs me. "It's
perfect." Ben flips the lights back on. We tell the boys we'll be
downstairs.

As we're making our way
down people are going up to see how the boys like the room. Patches
stays behind to keep watch.

"You know they're all
sleeping up there tonight right?" Kate asks.

I nod. "I'm thinking I
should have put a bed up there for Patches." Everyone laughs. Kate
looks at me. I see she's thinking about this. I crack up holding my
face.

Chapter Twenty
Seven

Two months...

"We have a meeting with
the school then I have a class to teach at Security." I tell
him.

His arms go around my
waist, he rubs my belly. "Was hoping for an early day. The boys are
with Patches today. They'll be home at seven." He kisses my neck
from behind. I wiggle my ass against him. He growls at
me.

"I can be here at five." I
shiver as his hands skim my nipples. Shit. "I'm going to be wet all
day if you keep this up." He moans and drops his hands when we hear
little feet closing in.

"Mommy Kate. My coat won't
work." Aaron says. I help him get his coat zipped. I'm so freakin
happy with the boys, my husband, a baby on the way, my job and life
in general. I really expected this to be harder. They've dealt very
well with the transition and grief of losing their mother and the
stress of Darren’s surgery. Counseling for all of us
helped.

I sign asking Darren if he
has his homework. He signs yes. I'm so glad Ben got someone to hold
sign language classes. It was funny seeing so many bikers and kids
in the class but they went faithfully. It's taken a while but I can
talk to him now without Danny. That was our biggest hurdle. At
least for me.