Page 52 of Patching Over

“I wanted to be one hundred percent sure,” she replies, sounding defensive. “What if one was defective or something?”

“Madame Laveaux isn’t known for being wrong, babe.”

“I know but we still had to check.”

“And?” I leave that one word hanging. I can physically see the test results but want her to verbally say them out loud.

“We’re gonna have a baby, Brick.” Her voice is full of wonder tinged with a little bit of fear. “What do I know about being a mom?” Now she’s muttering to herself, an endearing if somewhat unnerving habit she has, likely because of the sheer amount of time she was left alone with only herself for company.

Gently putting the kittens down, I reach for my woman, extracting the tests from her hands and subtly placing them back on the bathroom counter, then I crowd into her and wash our hands. Can’t be too careful with germs and I was touching the cats and she did have the sticks with her pee on them in the clutch of her hands. “Let’s wash our hands, shall we?”

She starts giggling when she realizes what I’m doing. “You’re gonna be an overprotective ass about all of this, aren't you?”

“And you’re gonna let me. Speaking of, what was the name of that self-cleaning litter box you wanted to get for Calvin and Hobbes? I’ll get one ordered and the prospects can take over cleaning it because I remember reading somewhere once that pregnant women shouldn’t mess with litter boxes. The odor and fumes are bad for both you and for the baby.”

Now she’s doubled over laughing as tears flow down her face. “Brick, you know women have been pregnant for thousands of years without any problems, right?”

“They weren’t my ol’ lady,” I point out, pulling her into my arms now that our hands are reasonably germ-free. “I should probably get someone to check on coming out to the clubhouse, clean the ducts and shit so you aren’t breathing in anything harmful like dust and debris. Oh, and I’ll be sure to reiterate to the guys, so they know to smoke their cigarettes, cigars, and blunts outside from here on out. Can’t be too safe.”

“This is gonna be a long-ass pregnancy,” she mutters, grinning up at me. “But I’m here for it.”

“You better be, sweetheart,” I growl out, taking her lips in mine. “Now, we’ve got a little time before I have Church again, what say we celebrate the good news?”

I leave my woman sated and lightly dozing as I shrug my cut on over my shoulders then head back down to the common area so I can grab a drink before Church. Due to the surprising news we received earlier I definitely need to find those fuckers before they try anything stupid.

I spot Hawg walking out from his office area, laptop tucked under his armpit, and immediately holler out, “Church! Grab your drink of choice and move your asses!”

My pops looks at me and starts bitching. “Brick, you haven’t taken over the gavel yet, why are you acting the way you are? Keep in mind while you’re over here dishing out orders, you're not the man in charge yet, son.”

“Pops, earlier you said you wanted to have church,” I tell him, thinking on my feet while crossing my fingers at the white lie I’mspewing right now so that he’ll think this is nothing more than a reminder.

“Fuck, totally forgot about that. Y’all get the lead out!” he bellows, his arm spinning in the air like he used to do when we were about to take off on a run. “Thanks, Brick. So much has been going on around here that it slipped my mind.”

“Not a problem, Pops,” I utter, keeping the quirk of my smile buried beneath the surface. It feels good to see signs of the old man when he has his days of clarity.

My brothers don’t miss a beat; hell, even Murder and his guys don’t say a word even though I see their mouths twitch with humor. They all grab their beers or drinks from the prospect behind the bar and head down the hall into Church. As everyone finds their seats, I notice Hawg is pulling down the overhead screen we use to project images whenever he’s got something to share that we all have to see. Usually, he just reads shit to us from his screen, so hopefully, it means he’s found where those fuckers are hiding.

The door finally closed, I grab my gavel and bang it on the table, calling out, “Shut the fuck up, we’ve got shit to discuss!” Once the room goes so completely silent you could hear a pin drop from one end of the table to the other, I continue. “Alright, looks like Hawg has some information to give us about those douche fuckers, but first, we’re adding a new rule.”

Brew grabs his ever-present tablet and opens it up to start taking notes on the meeting. “What’s that, Pres?” he queries once he’s on the site Hawg set up for our encrypted shit.

“Rayleigh’s expecting,” I start to say, only to have the room explode with cheers along with pounding on the table. Glancing at Banshee, I see his face is wreathed in a smile, something he doesn’t do very often.

I’ve noticed, though, even though he just found out about Rayleigh, Ban’s smiling and grinning more with each day thatpasses. I’m glad my best friend’s coming back to his former self, although I suspect he’s going to be just as overprotective toward her as I am when it comes to her pregnancy. He won’t take a chance of anything happening to her.

“Means a few things need to change around here, brothers,” I state, my tone serious. “We’ll get the prospects to add an overhang off the back porch and hell, even screen it in so y’all don’t freeze during the winter, but no more smoking being done out in the open. It’s not good for her or the baby. So, no blunts, cigs, or cigars in the common area or anywhere my ol’ lady might be. In here smoking should be okay since we’ve got it really well insulated and filtered. Banshee, I need you to get some of the brothers to check into what it’s gonna run for us to get the ducts in the clubhouse suctioned out and maybe check into adding an air purification system or something. You know, like they use at hospitals to ensure germs are removed and the rooms are sterilized?”

Phantom starts chuckling and soon, the rest of my brothers, even Murder and his crew, are practically in hysterics, doubled over, red-faced, and pounding their hands on the table or their chair. He waves his hands around his head several times while taking deep breaths before he finally stutters out, “P-p-pres, you think you’re gonna make it with your sanity intact until she delivers? Because the way I see it, she can’t be too far along and already you’re changing everything. What’s next? She won’t be able to work for me or Brew at the businesses?”

When Phantom refers to me as pres, Pops’ eyebrows draw up and he sends me a‘what the fuck’look that has me shaking my head, but I choose not to interrupt my brothers and play peacekeeper once we wrap things up.

“Come to think of it, should she be around those chemicals?” I mutter, completely ignoring Pops’ bemused look, tapping my fingers against the table as I think about how I can possibly evenconsider taking that newfound freedom away from my ol’ lady. She’s fought hard to get her GED, to build some independence as she learned everything she needed to in order to actually survive in today’s world.

“Brother, have your prospects do the heavy bullshit, check the cleaners she uses to make sure they’re not harmful to pregnant women and replace them if they are, and let her keep doing her thing. She’s pregnant, not ill, and from the little I know about her past, she’s been working hard to build herself up,” Murder suggests once the rest of the room calms down. “Now, the no smoking thing, that’s not a bad idea because this club as a whole is about living free and easy, but not everyone smokes these days and they’ve got just as much right not to smell the fumes or breathe it in as those who light up do. We can’t take away their rights to enjoy their nicotine or weed fix.”

I see my pops start grinning before he reminisces, “We did that when Lorelei got pregnant the second time too, which woulda been with Ryleigh. All them reports were coming out during that time about how bad secondhand cigarette smoke was and shit, so whenever she was around us brothers, we had a no-smoking policy in the house. Some of the old-timers were pissed but the rest of the ol’ ladies stuck up for her and banded together, even though she wasn’t the one pushing the issue. Bonzai was, actually. Fuck, these women end up toting our balls around, don’t they?”

Murder smirks before replying, “Yeah, but fuck, it’s worth it, RiffRaff.”

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