Best Man

It was so quiet throughout the Orchard Park home that evening that one would swear they could hear static in the air.

Caroline was pacing the entire length of the house; her arms folded across her chest and biting her bottom lip in deep concentration while Billie Joe sat on the couch in the living room with a longneck bottle of Heineken in his hands.

Her hair was stringy and wet from having taken a warm shower an hour prior and she hadn't bothered to blow dry or comb through it. She'd simply got dressed and come back downstairs. And every couple of minutes or so, she'd run to the front of the house and peer out the windows when she heard a car on the road; thinking each time it would be Mike and the others.

"A watched pot never boils," Billie Joe smirked, pulling the rim of the bottle away from his heart-shaped lips.

Caroline threw him a look over her shoulder from where she was leaning into the window pane. "I can't help it. I'm anxious."

"Well, you're gonna have an anxiety attack if you keep pacing around like an expectant father. Only, well, you're an expectant mother, now aren'tcha?" The grin plastered on his face was merely that of congratulatory glee for his friend's good news.

"Oh God," she groaned, standing up straight and walking over to where Billie Joe was to plop down beside him; hands on her knees and hunching forward. "How do I tell him?"

Placing a hand on the shoulder furthest from him, the thirty-something punk gave it a squeeze and a rub as he pulled her into a side hug and pressed his lips to her temple.

"You say, 'Mike, good news. I'm pregnant,'" he muttered against her skin.

"Easier said than done. I mean, I don't know if I'm ready for motherhood. A few months ago I was second-guessing the idea of marriage let alone starting a family of my own."

"But that was months ago. You're a different woman now than you were then. And this is a new year. A fresh start. A clean slate. You got a blank canvas before you to paint whatever you want on."

Caroline turned her head to look at him while leaning forward enough to rest the side of her face in the palm of her hand. "You done with the analogies?"

"At the moment, yeah," he laughed slightly. "You'll be fine. You're strong, determined. When you want something you hold on to it for dear life. And even when you're unsure, you take chances. Because it's better to try something new than never knowing, right?"

Sitting back with a sigh, Caroline leaned into Billie Joe again and pulled her legs up under her on the couch; resting her head on his shoulder.

"Do you think I'll be a good mother?"

"From how well you were with Tre's kids and now Estelle? You'll be a great mother. All of our kids love ya, Care. Hell, from what I heard through the grapevine, Ramona still wants you to be her stepmother someday."

"Yeah," Caroline smirked. "I know all about that."

"I know you're anxious and nervous about your potential, but you can't tell me that now that you know, you aren't fucking excited. You have a life in you that Mike and you made. A human being. And, according to the doctor, your baby'll be here at the end of September or early October. That's seven or eight months from now," Billie Joe spoke soothingly. "Seven or eight months until you'll have your very own child to hold in your arms and look up at you for the first time. As soon as you hold this child, it'll be love. Made out of love, born into love."

Caroline smiled genuinely at the thought of holding a baby girl or boy in her arms while Mike looked over her with pride in his eyes.

"I am excited," she admitted. "It's just kinda bittersweet that I learn I'm going to be a mother on the same day I learn my birth mother was left to die after I was born."

"It's a cycle. In life, there's death. And in death, there's life. D'ya ever see that movie The Seventh Sign with Demi Moore? Well, it's kinda like that. There's all these souls in heaven or wherever and a child can't be born unless someone's died and their soul can go into the child. Maybe, in some fucked up and mystical way, your real mother's soul has been waiting until now to return to earth in the form of a newborn."

Caroline raised her eyebrows skeptically. Then informed Billie Joe, "I think you've had enough of that Heineken."

"Au contraire, mon frere. I've just begun!" he announced, raising the bottle up as if to salute Dionysus, the Roman god of wine and revelry.

As the pair of friends -- and nothing more, mind you -- cuddled very platonically on the couch, the unmistakable sound of a car pulling into the driveway alerted Caroline's senses as she picked her head up off Billie Joe's shoulder and jumped to her feet.

"They're back!" she squealed nervously.

"What'd I say about taking it easy?" the punk who was still donning a head of dirty blonde hair questioned. Holding a hand up to her, he signaled for her to calm down and take a deep, steady breath.

"To take it easy?" she repeated.

"That'd be it," he grinned.

Rubbing her hands on her stomach to wipe away the clammy sensation she felt, Caroline did as Billie Joe said and took a deep, steady breath. Biting her bottom lip out of habit, she walked out of the living room, through the dining room and turned into the kitchen where she migrated to stand in the doorway between the kitchen and the hallway where the side entrance to the house was.

When the doors blasted open from the wind and four manly voices began to waft into the house, Caroline leaned against the door frame and waited until her man appeared.

First inside was Nef, followed by Tre, who gave her an inquisitive look along with a smile. "Hey," he muttered.

"Hi," she replied, but only out of reflex. She was too distracted with wanting to pull Mike away from them to talk to him in private.

And then he appeared with Dave bringing up the rear and closing the door behind him.

Dressed in dark slacks and a black, knee-length jacket that reminded her a lot of the character Spike's long coat from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Caroline caught Mike's eye as he ran an ungloved hand through his recently cut platinum hair, which was getting darker at the roots, to shake out the flakes of snow that were melting on his head.

With a smile and a step forward, the bassist wasted no time in drawing his woman close in a one-armed hug and to place a kiss on the side of her neck, just under her earlobe.

Closing her eyes for that brief moment, Caroline inhaled the heady scent of his cologne as well as his own skin's scent, and for a moment all her fears melted away like the snowflakes on his head.

And she knew everything would be okay.

Pulling their faces away so they could look at each other, Caroline rested one hand on his right shoulder and the other cupped the left side of his face as she began to beam from ear to ear.

"We need to talk," she muttered.

"Okay," he nodded; his eyes flitting down to her lips and back up to her eyes.

Without another word, she took him by the hand and led him up the stairwell to the house's second level; leaving behind the other guys. And as soon as they reached their bedroom door, she dragged him inside and shut it behind them.

"So, what do we need to talk about?" Mike wondered, pulling off his coat and letting it drop to the bed, only to look back at Caroline to find her eyeing him like a side of beef. "What?"

Letting her eyes wander the length of his body and study every contour of his face, she smiled appreciatively.

"Our child's gonna be so beautiful," she muttered rather softly. Taking a step or so closer to him she noted the mild confusion on his face as she turned her chin up to look at him; grabbing onto his shirt collar.

"What d'you mean?"

Billie Joe's voice popped into her head almost immediately: "You say, 'Mike, good news. I'm pregnant.'"

"I'm pregnant," she spoke clearly. "We're gonna have a baby."

Slowly, Mike's blue eyes widened and the confused smile on his lips quickly became a smile of fucking elation.

"You're shitting me!"

"I shit you not," she insisted with a shake of her head.

Mike let out a chuckle and bent at the knees to lift Caroline up into his arms and swing her around in a way similar to couples in the movies whenever something good happened. "I can't believe it...I mean, I can, it's just...omigod!" Kissing her all over the face so excitedly, he eventually set her back down on the ground and just beamed as brightly as she was. "We're gonna be parents?" She nodded. "I'm gonna be a dad? Again? Fucking shit, yes."

Mike looked like a kid in a candy store with every moment that passed that he had to allow this news to sink in further. And he was seriously one moment away from going all Tom Cruise on her if she hadn't have grabbed his hands and held them in hers; forcing him to focus on looking at her while drawing him nearer to her.

"But I also learned that my real mother died after giving birth to me," she added ruefully.

Mike's face fell to that of sympathy for his fiancée as he frowned and hugged her close. "I'm so sorry."

"She was raped in a cemetery and it sent her into labor. Fortunately for me that the rapist stuck around to help deliver me, but he left my mom to die. Took me with him and eventually got too scared that he decided to leave me in that dumpster by the hospital," she explained. "The PI told me the only reason he found this out was because the rapist died last week from cancer at Mercy Hospital, where you were, and admitted to everything. And then Billie Joe went with me to OLV this afternoon to get blood work done to see if Connie DiChristina is in fact my mom. And before we left, the doctor told me I was pregnant."

"Well, good news out of sad news. God works in mysterious ways, huh?"

"Tell me about it."

"How're you feeling about finding out about your mom?"

"Better than I thought. And kinda funny. I told Billie Joe as much; that it was ironic to learn I'm gonna be a mom the day I learn about my own's demise."

Mike gave her a soft, sympathetic smile as he cupped one side of her face and she leaned into it; kissing the skin of his palm. Staring back at each other, they both smiled at each other for a few moments until Mike shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Not to change the subject, but...did the doctor say when you'd be due?"

"He figured around the end of September or early October. But to be sure I'd need to set up a real appointment with an OB-GYN."

"Well, either way..." he trailed, smushing Caroline's cheeks together so that her lips puckered as he kissed her. "I'm gonna be a dad, again. I'm gonna be a dad, again," he chanted.

Releasing his hand from hers, Mike turned and threw open the bedroom door to walk out and stand at the top of the stairwell while Caroline laughed; waiting for what he was going to do next.

"I'm gonna be a dad, again!" he shouted with pride. "Aaaaahhhh!"

Downstairs, Billie Joe and Tre, along with Dave and Nef, turned their heads upward and in the direction of the stairwell when they began to hoot and holler for the couple.

All except for Tre, though.

His face falling, the drummer put on happy face to fool the others as Mike and Caroline came down the stairs, hand in hand.

Billie Joe had already gotten up from the living room and joined the others in the kitchen as they gave out hugs and kisses for the expecting parents, while also stealing a glance at his younger friend.

But he knew him too well. He knew when any of his friends were lying. After twenty years, it was hard to keep secrets.

And, for that moment that Billie Joe looked at Tre, he felt a pang that the blue-eyed man had many secret feelings he wasn't openly admitting.

This couldn't be good.