When Darcy told me that we were going to Alabama to spend the weekend with his mother, I had to admit that I was pretty surprised, especially because we had gotten back from Paris only a month prior, and had only been two weeks since the weekend we spent in Switzerland. But when he told me that his mother had wanted us to come because she had something important and urgent to share with us, my surprise had turned into curiosity.

           I had wanted to know what was so important and urgent that couldn't be said over the phone, or wait a few weeks longer, since we had planned a visit back to Alabama in a month, which made me think that maybe she hadn't wanted James to know just yet. Maybe it was surprise to him since his birthday was only two weeks away, but it didn't mean that she would feel the same towards me. I could keep a secret, at least I thought I could.

          So with that in mind, I waited until James was fast asleep and snuck out of the bed and onto the balcony to call her, half expecting her to shut me down, which she in fact did, telling me to simply "go to bed and I'll see you this weekend." As if knowing me, I would ever be able to function at all until Friday, which wasn't good because I was a NICU nurse and needed to be alert and focus at all times.

         Fast forward to friday and here we were, traveling many hours to Alabama with a sick Sebastian who unfortunately had caught a cold and had been fussy for two days, barely wanting to leave my arms or my side, so leaving him behind was less than impossible.

         Thankfully enough, the plane ride wasn't horrible and Sebastian had been nice enough to want to be held by James so that I could catch those few hours of sleep without being much disturbed, seeing as I had stayed up all night with a sick, fussy, and super cranky kid. Those really were the days when I had to go back on my decision to have a baby with James.

        I had taken on the role of "mommy" to Sebastian when he was only a few months old of my own free will, so I've been all that he's known and I was fine with that, if it meant that he wouldn't know that his mother was a crazy bitch who put him in harm's way. Taking care of Sebastian had put a lot of things, like what it really took to care for a child, into prospective for me. And while it was rewarding, it was also really fucking hard.

           You definitely had days when everything went right and you thought you were super mom. And then, there were days when everything that could possibly go wrong was going wrong. That was when you doubted yourself the most and kept asking yourself, "What the fuck am I doing? I'm ruining this child and his life and can I really do this?" Again, that shit was hard, but at the end of the day, it was fulfilling and amazing in the most difficult of ways. But he was mine, for better and worse,  and we even had adoption papers to prove that. It was my way of paying back for not letting my baby live.

           By the time we arrived and I had to wake up and get off the plane, I realized that those few hours weren't nearly enough time to satisfy me. I was still tired which in a way was great because then I could sleep while James drove the forty five minutes it took to get from Mobile Airport to his small town of Fairhope.

          Because of the fact that we had come to visit at least four times since James and I had gotten back together because his mother hated traveling, I had become quite accustomed to the small town, which reminded me a little of my own back in Texas. It also truly helped that we didn't have to deal with Jemma who James had told me had moved to Maine, according to her little sister. He said he liked to keep tabs on her every now and again to make sure she didn't attempt to come in contact with Sebastian. I didn't know if Jemma knew of the role I was now playing in the kid's life, but I also didn't care.

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         "Babe, we are here." I heard James speaking softly while he simultaneously shook me awake. I opened my eyes and smiled before unbuckling myself and stepping out of the vehicle while he took care of Sebastian, which gave me a few seconds to stretch my limbs and come fully awake. When that was done, I shut the door of the vehicle and turned around towards the house before stopping, a frown forming on my face as I noticed an older man, wearing a cap on what looked like a balding head, that I had never seen before, come out of Melinda Darcy's house?

         I looked over at James who still had half his body inside the vehicle, his back to the house while he got a fussy Sebastian out, and stepped closer to him before speaking. "Babe, who's the man standing in front of your mother's house?" Because I had already met any uncles, aunts, cousins and nephews in the family that mattered and this guy wasn't part of them.

          James looked over at me and frowned before passing me a bag containing a few of Sebastian things, before finally getting him out a few seconds later. He then turned around just as his mother stepped out and stood next to the unknown man and smiled brightly. The man, with eyes the same color as mine, placed a hand around Melinda's shoulder, James looked at me as his frown deepened.

          "Who the fuck is that?" James asked which made me chuckle because that was exactly my thoughts.

            "Guys, you finally made it. I was beginning to get worried a bit." Melinda called while she started moving towards us. James, who was carrying Sebastian who had his head on his shoulder and looking miserable, poor sick kid, started walking towards his mother, I followed him, forgetting the bags in the car.

          "Sorry, Melinda. We had to stop to take care of Sebastian a little, he's unfortunately still sick." I explained while we climbed the front steps of the house. We were praying it wasn't another pneumonia situation.

         Melinda extended her arms towards James so that he would hand her Sebastian, which he tried to do, but Sebastian, being the cranky mess that he was, wasn't having it, so instead started crying while reaching out for me. I smiled through the embarrassment that I knew I shouldn't feel but I still did.

          "Sorry," I apologized and took Sebastian in my arms. "he's still not wanting to go to anyone beside me. Even James and Royce have a hard time getting him to come to them for the past three days but he's getting better now. He's still having a hard time breathing though." I explained so she wouldn't get upset because it really wasn't her, it was just the child was sick.

           Melinda smiled to let me know that it was okay. "Oh, don't worry, Char. James was like that too when he was sick as a child, didn't want to be held by anyone other than me. Not even his father." She laughed and turned her head to the stranger who had now stepped closer to her again.

         "Hello, guys, welcome." The stranger who seemed to be a few inches shorter than James said, when he realized no one had mentioned him yet. Melinda's smile was warm as still gaze at him and then looked back at us.

         "James, Charlotte, this here is Rick, my lover." She said lovingly and before I could stop myself, because sometimes my mouth tried to act faster than my brain, my mouth shot up and the only that could come out of it was a weird sound.

          "Huuuuhhhhh?"

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          Because we were a family, we decided to do what families did and sat down at the large dinning table, after I had put Sebastian down for his afternoon nap, each with a glass of fresh homemade limonade in front of us because it was James' favorite and his mom liked to spoil him a little, my guess was that she was trying to make up for the years when she wasn't a great mother to him, which was mostly his whole life.

          So we all sat there and looked at each other awkwardly until James, seemingly tired of the silence, decided to speak, addressing his mother. "Melinda, why don't you start?" He did that when he was pissed at her, which wasn't often, so when it happened, there was no denying the reason behind it. And because she hated when he called her by her name, because he had called her that most all his life until a few years ago when she got sober and started calling her mother then finally mom, she looked up at him and sighed.

          "I would rather we wait until your brother gets home, which shouldn't be any longer now." Melinda was referring to Felix, the now nineteen years old college sophmore whom she had taken into her home when he was only fourteen, and then later on adopted. Felix was attending Princeton University with a full ride because, as they found out quickly about the kid, he was incredibly smart and could actually play basketball, he was just unfortunate to have been in really bad circumstances.

          James frowned. I sat there next to him and watched the back and forth between them. "So you haven't told him, too?" He asked, and as if on cue, Felix walked inside the house, a backpack on his back, and a duffel bag in hand, repping his school by wearing a hooded black sweatshirt with Princeton written with big orange letters on it.

          "Hey, guys," he dropped his duffel on the floor and looked at us smiling. "So, what haven't I been told?" He asked and started moving over to the table before finally noticing the man sitting next to his mother. He frowned and looked between the two of them. "Who's this?" He asked and his frown deepened. Ah teenagers. I chuckled silently because my bursting out in the middle of this family crisis wouldn't be appropriate.

         "This, my little brother, is mom's new lover. She has a boyfriend now." James answered bitterly and with those words only, you could tell he was irritated.

         "The fuck?" Félix's voice got louder. Now it was my turn to frown because my child was sleeping and I would be damned if he got woken up by two men-babies who couldn't handle the fact that their mother was getting her freaks on.

         "Hey, I will castrate you if you wake up Sebastian, you know he's still sick." I told Felix who finally looked at me with eyes that were a mixture between rage and apologetic.

         "Actually guys, we are getting married." Melinda said and before I could stop myself, because again my mouth was sometimes faster than my brain, my head wiped around.

         "What the fuck!?" My voice louder than Félix's and that, I almost didn't care.

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