A Ballad For Beulah

It was nightfall when Mike found the strength to pry himself away from Beulah, get dressed and head out to the store to pick up a few items of food she was having a craving for. One, namely, being Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.

He got into his car and took off, promising to return as soon as he could and also suggested she give Tre a ring to see when Billie Joe would be bringing Bailey home so they knew how long they had to continue in their romp.

Once he was gone, she threw a sheer robe on and slowly made her way downstairs into the kitchen where she began to rummage through the cupboards for something to snack on while she waited for Mike to get back. At the same time she was dialing Tre's number; cradling the phone between her shoulder and her cheek.

Unfortunately, she got the answering machine, so she tried his cell phone, and then got his voicemail. In a last attempt to make contact, she dialed Billie Joe's cell phone and he picked up.

"Hi," he muttered in a knowing tone, mostly because he'd recognized the number that came across his phone.

"Hi, Billie. Mike and I were just wondering when you'd be bringing Bailey home. I mean, we know that Estelle was staying at Tre's because she was having a sleepover with Ramona, but...uh...yeah..."

"I'm actually en route right now," he replied stoically.

"Oh. You are?"

"Yeah, why? Are, um...you and Mike not...uh...ready?" he asked warily. The punk rocker was sitting at the steering wheel, driving and talking on his cell at the same time while occasionally glancing up in his rearview mirror to see Bailey sleepily watching the scenery go by.

"Well, no...we're ready. He just went to the store to get a few things for me."

"Oh, okay," Billie Joe nodded as he managed to turn a corner one-handed.

"So..."

"Uh, I dropped Adrienne and the boys off at home first. She said she was tired and said to just take Bailey home without her, but she says hi."

"Yeah, we didn't talk much at Tre's..."

"I noticed, and honestly...I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing."

"From my point of you, it didn't seem like it was a good thing," Beulah commented.

"Okay, so that makes me a little more nervous about heading home after dropping Bailey off."

"Well, you're not the only one who's feeling nervous." Beulah looked down at the orange popsicle she held in her hands and frowned.

"Tell me about it..." he trailed. Then, "Alright. I'm about to turn down your street so I'll see you in minute."

"Alright."

"Bye," Billie Joe muttered as he hung up his cell phone and pocketed it as best as he could while turning the corner and driving a few gated houses down until he pulled up toward Mike's.

Gently, he pulled his BMW into the driveway and parked it, turning around to look at Bailey who'd fallen asleep on the backseat. Smirking to himself, Billie Joe quietly hopped out of the car and opened up the back door and leaned in, kneeling on the seat a little, while he undid Bailey's seatbelt. Expertly scooping his sleeping son up in his arms without waking him, from years of practice with Joey and Jakob, Billie Joe kicked the door shut with the heel of his shoe and walked up toward the house.

Finding the door open, he stepped right in just as Beulah appeared in the archway that lead into the kitchen, doing her best to hold her robe closed while finishing off a popsicle of some sort.

And if it weren't for his attention focused on putting Bailey somewhere, watching her nonchalantly suck on that frozen treat would've stirred his nether region something furious.

"He's asleep?" she questioned rhetorically.

Billie Joe just nodded his head. "Where do you want me to put him?" he whispered.

She pointed to the stairs. "Upstairs. We'll put him to bed."

Nodding again, Billie Joe took a step back as Beulah walked around him and lead the way up to the second floor, her bare feet making no sound at all on the smooth, wooden steps.

With his son in his arms, the five foot six guitarist followed Beulah down the upstairs hallway and into Bailey's bedroom as she managed to finish off the rest of her popsicle and place to stick in the pocket of her robe.

"I don't want him sleeping in his swim trunks," she said quietly as she pulled open his dresser drawer, pulling out a pair of the five-year-old's little boxers.

Billie Joe simply smirked. "They're so small," he commented.

"Yeah, well, he's probably gonna end up as short as you, so don't be too surprised."

"Hey," he mock complained as he softly laid his son down on his bed. His son who barely stirred awake. "Deep sleeper, huh?"

"Mmhmm," Beulah agreed as she slipped her son's swim trunks off, jimmying them down his scrawny legs.

Billie Joe stepped out of the way, watching how the mother of his only illegitimate child slipped the boxers on so swiftly that the boy, once again, barely stirred.

When she was done, Billie Joe moved in to help her. "Here, let me..." he spoke almost inaudibly as he pulled Bailey a little further up the bed and then brought the duvet up to his son's waist.

The boy's parents stepped back and Beulah pointed to a stuffed monkey holding a stuffed banana that was stitched onto one of its hands.

"Bailey likes to sleep with that," she informed.

"Huh? Oh, okay."

Billie Joe reached for the animal and laid it beside the little boy just as the two adults smiled and then took turns kissing Bailey goodnight. As they began to back out of the bedroom, Beulah shut the door three quarters of the way so that the light from the hallway acted as a sort of night light.

"So does that monkey have a name?" Billie Joe asked as soon as they were heading for the stairs.

"Poo Poo," Beulah replied shyly.

Billie Joe laughed, although nervously. Because, even though they were able to carry on civilized conversation with each other, neither of them had forgotten the kiss they'd shared earlier that month and how guilty it had made them both feel. Despite also feeling a twinge of excitement, too.

"Why 'Poo Poo?'" he wondered.

"He saw your Dookie record with the monkey holding the handful of shit in its hand, wondering if it should throw it, and he decided to name the stuffed monkey Poo Poo not long afterward."

"Ah."

As they reached the last step, they rounded the corner and headed into the kitchen where she walked around the island. And in doing so, it covered up her pregnant belly to the point that it almost made Billie Joe forget she was at all with child.

"So, uh...you feeling better now? I mean...'cause apparently the sun was getting to you," he snicker knowingly.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly feeling in the mood to hang with everyone else. Adrienne barely said two words to me and I swear I get this bad feeling she knows the truth but isn't saying anything which only makes me feel like I'm gonna have a breakdown at any moment, because if I was in her shoes I sure as hell would've snapped and ripped you a new one the moment I figured it all out..." she rambled.

And so much so that Billie Joe came around the island to place his hand over her mouth to shut her up.

"I get it," he smiled faintly, dropping his hand.

"Sorry, it's just...with that, and then Tre talking to me about how Mike doesn't love easily but he loves me and I should respect that...it's like he knows the shit's gonna hit the fan sometime soon and he wants to point his finger and laugh at me."

"Tre wouldn't ever do that," Billie Joe insisted. "He means well."

Beulah shrugged. "I know, but I just wish he wouldn't say anything at all," she muttered. "I'd rather not have to face the inevitable."

"You and me, both, Bee."

A moment of silence passed over them, which may not have been a good thing because, as the saying goes, idle minds are the devil's playground.

And idle hands are his tools.

Locking eyes just long enough, Billie Joe found that old familiar voice whispering in the back of his mind. A voice he hadn't really listened to at all in about a year and a half.

It felt as if there had been an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, and the devil drop-kicked and then beat the living shit out of the angel while doing a dance around its corpse.

Billie Joe's eyes wandered from Beulah's small, bare feet up her legs, the curve of her hips and full stomach, her fuller breasts and then to her face where he looked her in the eye.

Swallowing back a lump in his throat, he dragged his left hand along the island's counter top until he lifted to Beulah's shoulder and pulled her close enough so that his heart-shaped lips lingered above hers, just barely touching.

Beulah could feel his warm breath against her own lips and, while she didn't pull away, her mind was very aware that this was wrong.

"Bee..." he whispered.

"Hmm?"

He didn't really bother to continue with his train of thought, simply because he had none.

In a second's time his lips landed against hers and his hands cupped both sides of her face, his mouth once again battling for dominance in the kiss. Despite knowing what he was doing would only get him into more trouble if caught, he couldn't help but think about how he knew Beulah was utterly naked underneath the thin excuse for a robe she wore.

Mike, why would you leave your princess unguarded? he thought devilishly, while mentally beating himself upside the head for thinking it at all.

The fact that Beulah weakly gave in, and not wholeheartedly, should've been his warning sign to stop, but he was aroused and seeing only one thing. Like the Hulk seeing only red when he got mad. Which, in retrospect, is kind of ironic considering the Hulk was green.

Turning her casually, he pressed her back into the counter where the sink was and walked with her toward the fridge, their kiss never breaking as he turned again and bumped into the fridge.

He began to trail his lips away from hers to down the skin of her neck as he pushed the robe off her shoulders a little to kiss her there, suckling on her warm skin.

They eventually backed into the living room and Billie Joe's pants became unzipped in the process. And when he fell down onto the couch, he brought Beulah down onto his lap like a sly fox.

She finally broke the kiss long enough to stare at Billie Joe with wide, unsure eyes, causing her to look like the starry-eyed twenty-year-old he'd first slept with six years ago this very month. The first time, that one night, in which Bailey had been conceived.

"Billie, I'm not sure we should--" she began, shaking her head, but was cut off by him claiming her lips and situating himself underneath her, while pushing her robe out of the way.

"I know, but...this will be our swan song, 'kay?" he whispered huskily against her lips, licking at her upper lip. "Last time..."