111 - New Home

*Tell me what you need. What do you need us to do? We can’t go home until all three presidents say that we can, so we’re here for a while. Put us to work. - Critter*

Trigg did call his son on Tuesday night and told them that they could head home at the end of the week. Camille did not find out about this until Thursday night when they were discussing loading up the trailers and Jeeps with the last little bit that was going to Baton Rouge.

When she asked him about this, her brother merely shrugged and asked when he should have told her.

“There really was no good time,” he pointed out. “You have three kids that need your attention. You’ve had to make arrangements for your in-laws’ bodies to be cremated and shipped to your new house in Louisiana. Which, by the way, I don’t think you’ve even been inside of.”

“No, I haven’t,” she admitted with a smirk as they sat on the deck of the lake house sharing a beer. “I’ve seen it. I’ve stood in the yard.”

“Well, you’re almost there,” he offered his beer, and they tapped the necks of the bottles. “Plus, you had to work with Celt and that couple, who are they?”

“Mary Anna and Joseph,” she offered as there was a loud laugh that filtered out through the open door behind them.

“Right, Mary and Joseph –“

“Close enough,” she conceded.

“- who are going to maintain the house for you. Make arrangements for Clay to do his Clay thing. The interior decorating and not the exterior decorating.” He mimed having his head blown apart and then slumping in his chair as if he was dead.

“Don’t you dare spill that beer!”

“Yes, ma’am,” he sat up straight and took a drink. “You had to enroll the kids in virtual school and order their needed supplies. You didn’t have to get a microscope or something, did you?”

Laughing, she shook her head. “Laptops, a new printer with a scanner, notebooks and pens and pencils. Vin needed a new calculator.”

“Oh no, you had to buy laptops. Don’t they have laptops?”

“I’ll use small words since you don’t understand all the computer crap,” she said and laughed when he flipped her off. “Depending on the programs that they’ll need, it can use up all their memory. Better to just have a separate laptop for school.”

“Enroll yourself and get your own shit. Plus, you were helping three kids deal with losing their parents, practically losing their grandparents. Get an entire house packed up and prepare the same kids to move out of their house and into a new house, city and state.”

He looked at his sister as he took a drink. “How the hell are you not going crazy?”

“You don’t want to know,” she smirked and took a drink of her own.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Last night, Darkness bound my hands, laid me over his lap and spanked me until I came. Then he ordered me to my knees, -“

“Nope, you’re right, I don’t want to know.”

With a laugh, she gave him the Dutch version of I told you so. “*Zie je wel*?”

“Fuck you,” he grumbled with a grin. “What do we need to do in the morning to get you on the road?”

They discussed the last few things that would need to be done before they could leave. Most of the furniture would be staying. Keisha and Jasper’s clothes were going to local charities. Each of them kept at least one outfit that was important to them.

Keisha’s wedding dress was carefully tucked away and would go in the back of one of the Jeeps. The same with her jewelry and Jasper’s watch and cuff link collection.

Darkness found a few things of his brother’s that he wanted to keep. And there had also been a call from Zydeco asking if they had found the old leather cut. It had been tucked into the back of the walk-in closet, carefully and lovingly maintained with the leather lotion that was also found nearby.

Thursday afternoon, the two rented trailers were picked up by Camille and Darkness. Early tomorrow morning, before the sun even crested the far horizon, they would load up the boxes. Camille had insisted that they all be a certain size to prevent the boxes from getting too heavy. And it simplifies arranging everything in the confined space.

Even with only taking the kids’ clothes and other items deemed to be essential, the boxes nearly filled both small trailers. There were a few things that Camille insisted on going with them. The boxes each had a new color for each kid – Vin claimed yellow, Nicki took purple, and Mitch claimed pink. Four boxes marked with white tape were carefully packed into the back of Darkness’ new Jeep before the trailer was hooked up.

The drive down took several extra hours due to construction, trailers and three extra bladders. Camille and Darkness quickly realized that the kids were not used to long road trips. The six-hour drive was almost doubled with the three extra members. Camille wondered how they would survive a drive back home that could take days.

As the sun was just starting to go down, they pulled into the driveway of the large three-story house.  Camille decided that Darkness must have called Zydeco when she heard the approaching pipes.

With expert ease, she backed her Jeep and the trailer up and when she stepped out, Darkness handed her the key fob to his Jeep still sitting in the road.

“After watching that, I am not even going to consider attempting it.”

Chuckling, Camille accepted the keys and gave him a quick kiss. “I got you.”

Zydeco and the other Cajuns parked along the curve of the road. She watched as he pulled his three grandkids tight to him. She was glad that he had stayed here when they went up to Arkansas. They now had someone in their corner to talk to that was not there in the thick of it.

Smiling, she got into the new Jeep and realized that there was no way she could drive as it was. The driver’s seat was pushed back all the way to accommodate Darkness and his long legs. Moving the seat up for her much shorter frame, she then adjusted all the mirrors. All the moving and adjusting reminded her why she liked her bike so much.

Utilizing the cul-de-sac, she turned the Jeep and rented trailer around and backed into the driveway next to her own Jeep. With the two vehicles parallel and even with each other, she turned off the engine and got out. The Cajuns that were standing in her new yard and along the road applauded her skills.

“You guys should see Colton back up a thirty-foot stock trailer in one of the farm trucks,” she said with a grin. “That boy can put me to shame.”

“Was that the kid that drove the support truck in Vegas?” Zydeco asked as he hugged her.

“Yeah, all the Lowery kids start driving way earlier than they should,” she chuckled and shook her head as she stepped out of the hug. “And get into too much trouble.” Grinning, she pointed at the three kids that she now considered her own. “We get up in Mass and you meet any of the Lowery kids, guaranteed you’re going to end up in trouble.”

“Isn’t your best friend a Lowery?” Darkness grinned at her as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.

“Two,” she nodded. “Priss and Aramis are both Lowery’s. As are Charlotte and all her kids. And both Aramis and Colton are smart as fuck, so they can get you into all kinds of trouble.”

“So, stay away from the Lowery family?” Vin asked.

“Oh, hell no,” Camille shook her head emphatically. “You will never find a more loyal group; they are straight up ride or die. And you will have some of your best memories with them. More fun than you could ever imagine.”

“But you said that they would get us in trouble,” Mitch asked a little confused.

“Hell, yeah,” Camille nodded in agreement. “You will have a lot of fun with them. But just be prepared, you will most likely end up in trouble.”

Nicki looked at the blonde woman with complete confusion. “I can’t tell if you are warning us against these people, or not.”

“Honestly, that’s up to you,” Camille shrugged. “As with any relationship, there’s benefits and consequences. Such as right now, there’s the benefit of the trailers being emptied. And the consequence of the Cajuns and their prospects having to empty the trailers.”

Zydeco winked at her as he chuckled. “Tell us what we need to do.”

“I guess the first thing is, the kids need to go pick out their rooms,” she tipped her head towards the door and the three kids looked at her in confusion. “You know what you want, not me.”

They rushed to the door only to find it locked. Laughing, Zydeco followed them and unlocked the heavy wooden door.

Darkness gave Camille a quick kiss and pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Call your brother. I’ll get the unpacking started.”

“The boxes in the back of the Jeeps need to go in first.”

He nodded. “Have you seen your dog?”

She laughed. “Swamp Thang gave him a piece of his beef jerky.”

Looking at the dog that was tracking Swamp Thang’s every movement and inching closer even as the man tried to move away, Darkness could only shake his head and laugh. “That explains a lot.”

He walked away and Camille called her brother who answered on the second ring. “*Hallo, zus*.”

“*Hallo, broer*,” she smiled at his easy tone. “We made it. When are you guys headed out?”

“Wednesday, Clay arrives tomorrow to do the house.”

They talked for a few minutes, and he gave her a brief, and very vague, rundown of everything that had happened back home. No matter how much she pressed, he refused to give specific details.

“The people involved will tell you when they’re ready. Don’t press, *zus*.”