Fireproof

I slept so hard that night wrapped in Nikki’s arms and I woke up the next morning feeling worse than I had the night before, but refreshed at the same time. I managed to slip out of Nikki’s arms without waking him up so that I could feed Blaze who was not exactly happy with me for taking so long to get up and feed him. Getting his bottle in his mouth was like hitting the mute button on the tv control. He went from screaming, fussy baby to silent and content in the same second.

“Hey, everything okay?” Nikki asked as he walked from the back of the bus, shirtless in pajama pants.

“Yeah, he just wanted his breakfast. I’m sorry if he woke you up.”

He smiled. “It’s nice to have a different wake up call for a change. Good morning by the way.” He pressed his lips softly to my forehead and then looked at Blaze. “Good morning to you, too, little buddy.”

Blaze looked up at him as if he knew what Nikki was saying and gave him a huge smile causing all of the formula in his mouth to come pouring out. We both laughed as I wiped his chin off.

I followed Nikki back to the bedroom and he laid back down while I sat beside him to finish feeding the baby. He watched with a smile on his face as if this were our baby and he was fascinated by him.

“You will make a great mom to your own kid one day.” Nikki said as he laid back watching us, his hand rubbing my back which felt pretty awesome.

That issue just had to come up again which I guess I should have expected it. A new guy, a new possibility at a family, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option with me. “If only I would ever know.”

“What do you mean? I’m up for a kid or two if things work out between us.”

“It’s not that. I would love a house full of kids. I love kids. But I’ve been told since I first started going to a gynecologist that I couldn’t have kids. When I first started having cycles I had some issues and they looked into it and that was the result of it all. I was too young to really care at first but the older I get and all of my friends are having kids, it’s starting to really suck. Criss’s one night stand helped me out a little bit though.”

Nikki sat up and wrapped his arm around me. “I’m really sorry to hear that. But doctors tell people stuff all of the time and then different things happen so who knows, it might happen one day. And if not, well adoption is always an option.”

“That’s true, too.” I smiled.

“Parker, you guys awake?” Tommy called from the front of the bus.

“Yeah. You can come back.”

Tommy appeared in the door way a few seconds later. “So there are a bunch of military people out here asking to talk to you. It’s kind of freaking me the fuck out.”

“Have you done something that you need to be worried about? The city got wiped off the map, this place is going to be crawling with military.”

“Hey, I haven’t done anything. Are you sure you haven’t been lying about your age? Because if you get my brother arrested I’m going to have to hurt you.”

“Really Tommy? Do I look under eighteen to you?”

“Yes.” He smirked.

“Whatever.” I said handing Blaze over to him so I could go see what he was talking about.

I opened the door to the bus and he was right, there were several military vehicles parked by the buses and about ten guys dressed in military fatigues, but one guy stood out to me above all of the others. He was standing there talking to Criss, Vince, and Mick and he was my six foot five inch tall twin brother Aiden.

“There she is. And looking like holy hell as always.” He smiled as he walked towards me.

I smiled back, my face burning as I did so. I really just wanted to take off running and jump into his arms but I wasn’t up for the pain of doing that. “Watch your tone, Marine.”

“How you doing, P? I’ve missed you little sister.”

“I’ve missed you too, Aiden. It’s been rough here lately. How have you been?”

“I’m okay. It’s been very busy overseas but I’m just glad we weren’t in the middle of a mission when I heard what happened. I’m home for a little while to help you.”

“Man, I’m glad to see you. I never get used to not knowing if you’re okay or even alive.”

“I know, but you know I’m okay right now because I’m here. I love you.”

“I love you too, Aiden.”

“So, what the hell is up with Motley Crue being here and you being in bed with Nikki Sixx?” He smirked.

“That’s a long story. But you should probably meet him since I think we’re kind of dating as of last night.”

“What happened to you and Eric? And I heard Criss is a dad now. I’ve missed out it seems.”

“Definitely.” I laughed.

I introduced my twin to the gang and I was also introduced to the friends that Aiden had brought with him to help clean up not only what used to be our home but around town as well. Apparently he had snatched some friends who spent most of their time building things and a few engineers in hopes of getting the mess cleaned up and a house rebuilt fairly quickly. I was extremely happy to have my brother home for the time being. Like Criss, Aiden was my best friend but he took after my dad on the military side and he was all Marine. He was very all work and no play, but he did have a fun side to him when he wanted to.

“Remind me to never piss that guy off.” Tommy mumbled to me as we sat outside that afternoon, somewhat cleaning up and somewhat just enjoying ourselves.

“Who, Aiden? Don’t let his size fool you. He’s a badass, but he’s a badass teddy bear.”

“I bet you never had to worry about being bullied growing up.”

“And what makes you think I needed him to stick up for me? I can hold my own. I got suspended from school three times for fighting before my mom decided she couldn’t handle us anymore and her and my dad split and Aiden and me came to Oklahoma with him. I was glad to get away from her.”

“That’s funny right there.”

“Hey, P.” Aiden called. “I wanna talk to you.”

“Okay.”

“So, I’ve been talking to Criss and Nikki. I want you to get away for a week or two and just regroup and relax. Don’t argue with me because you’re not going to win. Go back to California with these guys and have some fun and let us take care of things around here.”

“Aiden, these guys are busy. They don’t have time to be babysitting me.”

“Didn’t I just say I had talked to Nikki and not to argue?”

“I like this guy.” Tommy whispered in my ear. “He’s actually talking back to you.”

I ignored Tommy. It wouldn’t have surprised me if this whole thing was Aiden’s idea and I didn’t want him shoving me off on a band that was trying to get back on tour. Plus, I hadn’t seen Aiden in over two years and barely got to talk to him at all and I wanted to spend some time with him and sure as hell didn’t want to leave Blaze.

“Aiden, I haven’t seen you in forever and now you’re just shoving me off on some guys that don’t have time to be dealing with me. If you want me to stay out of the way, not work, or whatever then fine.”

“Parker, I’m home, okay? I’m not going back. I got banged up on a mission a couple of months ago and got discharged. I stayed in Germany until I was fully recovered. I’m back on U.S. soil for good so you’ll be seeing more of me than you want to be seeing.”

Of course he had gotten hurt and not even bothered to let me know. “You’re a dick, Aiden. Fine, I’ll go but I’ll go somewhere by myself where I won’t be in anybody’s way.”

I was pretty much pissed at this point as I shoved past him and headed out to the hangar to get away from everyone and cool off for a second. Yes I could be hard headed sometimes and yes most of the time I didn’t know when to quit, but I was not going to be shoved off on Nikki or anyone else who had their own lives to live and were just as busy as anyone else. Plus, I was fully capable of taking care of myself and didn’t need anyone regardless if I was hurt or not. I was halfway tempted to just get in the plane right now and leave. It wasn’t like I had anything to pack.

“So you do have an attitude.” Nikki smiled as he walked up.

“We are going to have problems real quick buddy if you come in here with the whole ‘you’re mad and I think it’s cute thing’.”

His smile never faded. “Well, I can’t help what I think is cute.”

“And this is why I told myself I was done with guys for good and yet here I am again.”

“Hey, look, seriously. It was all my idea, okay? Criss was telling Aiden how things had been rough lately and I made the comment that I would love to take you back to California to have some fun but I didn’t think you would agree to it. It’s not to babysit or anything like that. I want to get to know you more than I’ve been able to do and I just want us to have some fun. I found out a couple of days ago that we aren’t going back on tour until I have my next back surgery and recover from it so it’s going to be a while. We have free time on our hands. If there’s somewhere else you want to go besides California just say it and we will go.”

Okay so I believed Nikki and his offer was very tempting, but there was still the issue that I didn’t want to leave Blaze and my brother had more than likely almost gotten killed and didn’t tell me. It had to have been bad for Aiden to accept a medical discharge because he would have fought like hell to return to duty, but yet here he was.

“He was hurt and didn’t tell me.” I finally said.

“Yeah, that’s pretty fucked up. I don’t blame you for being upset for that but that past is in the past. What matters is that he is here right now and appears to be in good health and says he’s not going anywhere. You could have gotten him back on two little pieces of metal.”

“You’re right. I’ll give you that, but he’s still a dick for not telling me.”

“Fair enough. So what do you think? You want to get away for a little while? You can bring Blaze if you want. I would love for him to come along and I’m sure Tommy would babysit.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Is it safe to leave him alone with Tommy? We aren’t going to come back and have to find him in a pile of empty condom wrappers or anything will we?”

“That I can’t guarantee.” He laughed.

I smiled and walked into Nikki’s held out arms. “Okay. I’ll come with you.”

“Awesome.”

Criss reluctantly agreed for Blaze to go with me and after a little bit longer of visiting with everyone, we got ready to head out. One of the buses was left for Aiden and the guys to stay in so we piled into the other two buses and headed out for California. I felt so weird leaving everyone behind to work and clean up the mess, but I couldn’t deny that some down time with Nikki and little Blaze was greatly needed. Tommy kicked back in the front of the bus with Blaze who was happy and all smiles today it seemed, while Nikki and me decided to kick back in the bed and watch a movie. As weird as it felt, it was going to be fun to relax a little bit.