120 - New Routines

*Let me make this perfectly clear, Tramp’s kids are now mine and Camille’s. And if there are any comments, side eyes or any type of mistreatment to any of them, especially the youngest, I’ll strap you to the gun range target and load the guns for my lovely wife. - Darkness*

It took a little time for everyone to get into a regular groove as they worked to find a good routine. Thankfully all three kids were on the same schedule for classes. One day virtual and the next in person.

Vin drove Darkness’ Jeep and Nicki would occasionally ride with him on their in-person days. Nicki would spend that time in the early morning in the library working on her honor class projects.  On the virtual days, he would come back home for a shower before classes. If she did not want to stay after school while her brother was at practice, she simply called Camille, and her adoptive mother picked her up when she picked up Mitch.

The youngest of the three was finally thriving without judgement and condemnation coming from all sides. Keisha had tried to accept that her son was not the masculine football player that his brother was. She did not like it; she did not condemn him, and she tried to protect him.

But she could not protect him from his grandmother all the time. She was unaware of the condemnation that he received at their church. The bullying that he endured at school. The isolation that he felt in the small southern town.

Camille found a catholic church that would not judge or condemn the child. Rosie put her in touch with a youth group that her own sister was involved with for the LGBTQ community. And in one of her packages from home, they found two black T-shirts with rainbow bears on them with a simple offer.

FREE MOM HUGS

FREE DAD HUGS

When Darkness wore it to the clubhouse one night and the brothers offered nothing but support, the three siblings relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever. Neither Darkness nor Camille ever told the three of them the stark warning that Darkness issued that night. Remembering the afternoon that Camille shot up the gun range behind the Cajuns’ clubhouse, no one was willing to piss her off.

Gator called Trigg and asked if Camille would actually kill anyone over her kids. Trigg spent a good five minutes laughing at the other man before finally giving him an answer.

“All of my girls will kill for a child. They’ll just make it a little more painful if it’s protecting their own.”

The silence had stretched out between them as Gator worked up the courage to ask his next question. But he could not find it and Trigg laughed again.

“Don’t even think that I’m going to confess anything over the phone. The only thing that I’m going to ask is that you take care of my baby and her family. *All of her family.”

With adults that were finally protecting the youngest of the three, the older two could finally resume being children themselves. Nicki finally got the braids that she had always wanted. It had taken all day that Saturday to give her the tiny box braids down to her waist with the extensions.

Vin made it to the third string on the varsity football team, but after an injury that knocked out the starter, moved to the second string. He had daily practices every morning and every afternoon. In October, during an away game, Vin made an interception and forty-three-yard touchdown. The following week, he was on the starting lineup.

The furniture that each of the kids picked out was completed and their rooms were decorated how they wanted. For the hirst time, Nicki was allowed to have the dark motif. When she asked about painting her walls black, neither adult discouraged it. And when she tentatively asked about getting a new emo outfit, Camille handed her a credit card and offered to take her and her new friends to the store.

Darkness set up a gym in the garage of the house complete with free weights, an all-in-one weight machine and, at Camille’s insistence, the free-standing heavy weight bag. Saturday mornings were spent with boxing lessons for all three kids.

The shop out back was stocked with tools and Darkness ordered the plans and hardware for furniture for the rest of the house. Gaming furniture and a large screen TV were placed in the loft. Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons were spent gaming with Priss and the musketeers.

Depending on what Porthos was doing with the army, he sometimes joined them. As did some of the other brothers and extended family members from time to time. They quickly discovered that Clay was the person you wanted on your team when playing Call of Duty. Chevy was the one to beat at the racing games. Pagan and Cookie could beat anyone at wrestling.

Except Pagan’s youngest daughter.

Geo would often join the games from Molly or Rye’s house. The game room at the Shack would be filled with brothers from all three clubhouses in Massachusetts for the Sunday night games. The Cajuns in Baton Rouge began joining them along with teens from around the neighborhood and the schools.

For the first time in their young lives, they were allowed to be themselves, they were allowed to find themselves. The big house at the curve of the cul-de-sac became the place that all the kids hung out at. Bicycles were in the yard, extra cars and bikes were constantly in the driveway.

Camille never knew how many people would be at her house when she came home from her own in-person class or swim and dive practice. The third floor was the only place that was off limits to guests.

While Priscilla healed from her ordeal, which she still could not go into a lot of detail about, Camille picked up a lot of the slack with their company. Thankfully, the world was still half shut down and the majority could be done long distance.

They had taken on a new part-time employee for photography shortly after the lockdown started and another over summer. Kenneth used to work for Shiloh before they hired him for photography and assorted other duties. With Camille out of the state and Priscilla out of commission, he quickly became the face that people saw.

Darkness split his time between working with the construction and plumbing companies and building custom furniture in the shop. His original plan had been to work for either Cookie or Pipes when they moved up to Massachusetts. However, the more furniture he built, the more he liked the offer that Sticks had made.

As they approached Thanksgiving, Vin knocked on the door to Darkness and Camille’s room. He sat at the end of the bed and picked at a piece of fuzz on the blanket that was not there.

Eventually, he looked up and met his uncle’s gaze, “What if I don’t want to apply to Arkansas?”

“If I thought that you had wanted to go to Arkansas,” Darkness grinned, “I would have returned the MIT bedding that Oma bought you.”

The younger man relaxed and gave a small laugh. “Yeah, Oma is pretty great. I can’t wait to meet her, mom.”

He froze and his eyes widened.

Smiling, she reached across the bed and grabbed his hand, “It’s okay, *zoon*.”

“I… is it bad that I never felt like my mom was my mom?” he whispered nervously.

“No,” she assured him gently. “From what I hear, your mom was a great doctor. Some people are not meant to be parents. That doesn’t reflect any less on you.”