Rum and Coke

A three year old Ellie was snuggled up with her mom on the couch. The pair were watching an old Disney movie, but neither was really paying attention. Danielle was deftly stroking her daughter’s hair while Ellie kept her eyes trained on the bulge in her mother’s stomach. Ellie stared at it in wonder, her tiny hands plastered on her mother’s shirt. Ellie grinned and looked up at her mom.

“He kicked!” she squealed like the toddler she was. “My baby brother kicked!”

Danielle laughed and ruffled her daughter’s hair. “Yes, your baby brother kicked.”

“He my Christmas present, right?” Ellie asked with wide eyes.

Danni laughed. “Depends. Are you going to share him with me and daddy?”

Ellie shook her head, making her dark brown hair fly in her face.

“Oh, really?” a gruff voice said behind the two.

“Daddy!” Ellie squealed, jumping up into his awaiting arms.

He caught her and began tickling her. “What’s this about not sharing your brother?” he asked, continuing his assault on his daughter’s sides. “He’s your mom’s and my present, too.”

“Daddy, stop it,” Ellie protested through her tears of joy as he laid her down on the back of the couch and blew raspberries on her tummy. This went on for a few minutes before Danielle intervened.

“Brian, stop, I really don’t want you killing my daughter,” she said, her blue eyes sparkling.

Brian gasped in shock and pulled Ellie up against his chest. “No, she’s my daughter.” He said with a straight face, but his eyes were laughing.

“Yea, Mommy, I’m Daddy’s!” Ellie squealed, hugging her father’s neck.

Brian looked down at the toddler in his arms. “I still haven’t forgiven you for not wanting to share your brother.”

“No, I sorry! Forgive me?” Ellie whined, hugging his neck tighter.

He let out a low chuckle. “Always, baby. No matter what you do, I’ll always forgive you.” He whispered in her ear before pressing a tender kiss to her head.

~*~

When Ellie woke up the next morning, she found that she was curled up in a ball next to a tattoo covered chest. However, this chest was definitely not Brian’s. Narrowing her eyes slightly in confusion, I followed the torso up until she met a pair of sparkling blue eyes.

Jimmy smiled down at her. “Brian had to take a call and didn’t want to wake you. He’s in the front of the bus.”

Ellie nodded her head in understanding.

Jimmy chuckled. “Once Gates left, you started to toss and turn and thrash about, so, I figured, if you were anything like Danni, then you would stop as soon as you felt at least another body next to yours…and you did!” He sounded so proud of himself.

Ellie nodded again, showing him that she understood that his intentions were solely to calm her down. However, it still didn’t quell the slight paranoia that she had.

“God, you’re so much like her.” Jimmy said, looking directly into her eyes, after an uncomfortable silence. “It reminds me of the first night I actually got high with her. She was so paranoid and jumpy. She forgot who I was and almost bashed my head in.” Jimmy chuckled at the memory.

Ellie just shied away from him.

“Ellie, it’s ok. No one on here is going to hurt you. You can trust us.”

Ellie didn’t respond

“So, do you want to talk about it?” he asked awkwardly. “The dreams, I mean. I don’t know if you remembered last night, but you were pretty shooken up.”

Ellie shook her head and grabbed the pen and paper. I don’t want to think about it.

“That bad, eh? I know what those are like. I know how they can stick with you for years, haunting you. It’s even worse when you’re on drugs” he said with a far off look in his eye. “Don’t worry about it, though. They don’t mean anything, really.”

That didn’t help Ellie.

“I’m sorry, I’m probably not helping you at all. Here, let’s get you fed. I don’t know about you, but food always makes everything better.”