CHAPTER 17 - IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME...IF I COULD FIND A WAY

DEBS

“Hey kiddo! Where are you? Go back to the house and start packing. We’re going to pick up Emmy and will meet you there. We’re going to New York.” I explain quickly and nod at Jennifer, who pulls out her phone but looks annoyed.

“Nya, darling. How are you? More importantly what are you doing? Well stop cooking up a storm, pack and get to the airport. We’re going to New York. A couple of days, maybe until the weekend; depends on how much that knife needs to be twisted. I’ll explain when I see you. Not yet, no BAB’ing yet. Love you too.” She takes a deep breath and slowly shakes her head. “Is it bad that I want to turn that little girl over my knee and spank her until she can’t sit down?”

“No, the times I’ve wanted to do that. But what has she done to warrant this reaction from you? You’re normally with words…”

“You mean you haven’t heard about her and Gus’s wardrobe?”

“No, I haven’t. With the boys so busy getting reacquainted, Ted being in Cali and lots of other shit, I’ve been out of the loop. What’s happened?”

As we head to mine in the back of a cab, I fume. No, I don’t fume; I fucking seethe! I knew about the money she had squirrelled away, but the viciousness of this little girl is scary! I have no idea where she gets it from!

“Debs, may I ask you something? It is quite personal.” Jennifer pulls out what I have dumped in my case and starts to fold it properly. “You will only have to use the laundry service to iron them. We’re not going until the evening…”

“Your question.” I prompt.

“Can Michael carry?”

“No, for which I am greatly relieved.” I reply, sitting on the bed. “It’s bad enough with him behaving like a devil child sometimes, but can you imagine him with a kid?”

“And whose kid that would be?” She adds softly and annoyingly, I have to agree with her.

“Actually, that's not true. He was tested when he was born and they said that he could get pregnant, but it would be too dangerous for him to carry to term. So they removed his reproductive ability. He is fully functional as a man, but will never carry.”

“What about Brian?”

“Oh now Kiddo, he was a completely different story. He wasn’t tested. His folks, specifically his dad, refused saying there is no way a son of Jack Kinney needs this testing shit, he’s not a freak of nature.”

“That’s what she called him.” She tells me. “Lindsay. She called Justin a freak of nature with loose morals.”

“This from a woman who stashed way $30K and treats her kids like night and fucking day!”

“But why? This, I don’t understand. Why does she treat Gus so markedly different? He’s a good boy and doesn’t cause her, I mean them, any problems from what I can see.”

“You know the history of Brian and Lindsay, right?” She nods. “Well imagine being a lesbian and pregnant with the Stud of Liberty Avenue’s kid. She was the dog’s bollocks, swanning around like the Queen of Fucking Sheba. Now imagine that the Stud of Liberty Avenue, himself is pregnant. Who would you, in a town full of queens and dykes be more interested in?”

“She’s blaming Gus for Brian stealing her thunder? That’s fucking appalling!”

“You know what, I think that’s the first time I have heard you swear.” I scratch my skull and make a mental note to ask Nya or Kendi to redo my braids at the weekend. “No, it’s not Brian she’s trying to irritate. It’s Mel.”

“Mel? Why Mel?”

“Because Mel fell for her and fell for...well him and then her...hard.”

“Who?”

“Gus. Her loving him, Lindsay could deal with, but it was Mel loving Kemi that tipped her over.” I smile at the memory of the first time she held Kemi. “When Kemi first came home and she saw her, it was love at first sight. Lindsay fully expected to be the first person to hold her, but Mel beat her to it and she absolutely refused to let anyone, except Brian, hold her. In the end, he had to sit behind her to hold his own daughter. Can you imagine the image that presented to Lindsay? He had his arms around both of them; he never did that with Gus and her. Oh how Mel fussed over him like a Mother Hen. When his pregnancy broke the Avenue, Ted was not the only one who made sure Brian was doing okay. And she was so angry when Lindsay and Michael suggested that Lindsay bring up Kemi. If she knew what Jenny and Michael said about Kemi, she would rip their guts out.”

“But I got the impression that Mel and Brian didn’t get on at all before.”

“Again, that was down to Lindsay’s influence. She found him you know…”

“Found who? What?” Jennifer looks confused.

“Brian, when he had the bleed.”

“Bleed? What bleed?”

“He had postpartum internal bleeding. We were in the diner…”

Start of flashback

DINER - 15 YEARS AGO - AS TOLD BY MEL TO DEBS

MEL

That’s the second time he’s tensed up and made that face. And now he is shifting in his seat. I think something is definitely wrong. I adjust Kemi a bit and she, of course, is behaving like the perfect little princess by sleeping through the inane ramblings of Lindsay and Michael. Seriously, leave the man alone already! He does not want to give up his daughter!

“Can you let me out for a minute, Mel?” I nod and slide out. As he heads to the bathroom, I look down at the seat...holy fuck! I grab some napkins and quickly clean that up.

“Won’t be long.” I smile. “Just need…”

“He’s not going to show you his cock, Mel! You’re not his type!” Michael laughs.

And neither are you! I think, but don’t say.

“Thanks for that Michael. Uh...Lindsay, don’t wake her. She’s just gone to sleep.”

“But…”

“No, Lindsay.”

I head to the bathroom and wait for the Bear to come out. I quickly check the other stalls and all bar one is empty. “Brian! Brian! It’s me. Can you open the door?!”

“Yeah!” I sigh in relief as he unlocks the door, but quail when I see that he is deathly white and almost doubled over. “Oh fuck, this hurts! I know the doc said that I would have some cramping, but this feels like someone is stabbing me in the guts! And I pissed myself!”

“No, you didn’t. You’re bleeding.” He rocks backwards as, no doubt, another wave of pain hits him. “Open your shirt!” I order and the firmness of my tone gets instant obedience. He does so and the incision site is bubbled up and bleeding.

“Oh fuck!” I gasp and rip off my jacket. “Hold this over that! Stay awake! Stay awake, do you hear me?!”

“Yeah.” He harnesses everything he has and presses the jacket to his wound....

End of flashback

“We got him to the hospital and they stopped the bleed. But they had to remove his womb, so no more kids for him. He was devastated! He loved being pregnant. So when Mel got preggers and Lindsay, and sometimes Michael, got too much for her, he’d let her hide out in the loft.”

“The loft? His fuckpad?” She looks incredulous.

“But it wasn’t. Once Kemi arrived, it wasn’t. He never tricked there.”

“Wait you said Michael. Why would Michael be involved?”

“The three of them were good friends. Unless, of course Brian did something he didn’t like, then he’d squeal like a nun on her wedding night!”

“And with the arrival of Kemi, Brian started to do what he didn’t like more and more?”

“Exactly.” I grin. “He put Kemi first. Oh don’t get me wrong, he fully supported Gus, but he was with his mothers. But Kemi was his and only his...well now his and Justin’s.”

“When Craig told me that Justin was pregnant, I was horrified. I know, I know. But he was so young and when I went to see him, he looked so devastated. He had fallen in love with the first guy he had sex with and couldn’t remember his name, just how he made him feel.”

“And now they are together, like the Double Ks and Gus…”

“And Nya!” She pipes up.

“I will call on any and every fucking body, because we are going to make sure they are not ripped asunder again!”