63 - Roses

*Who the hell is D'Artagnan? And why did they send you roses? – Zydeco*
Sporadically through the night that the presidents were grounded, the TV would come on and play a random song or movie clip. The four men were exhausted by the time Dom released them from the room in the morning.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the hallway, the close friends had a party of six. Aramis texted Darkness and asked to meet him. He then got to experience trivial pursuit with a drunk Camille. He also learned why her friends all said that Camille had a theme song.
When they went down for breakfast, three of them were nursing hangovers, two were still buzzed and one was ready for the next adventure. Their presidents, however, were tired and cranky.
Apologies that were described as sad and pathetic were made to Camille and Darkness. Sid and Siobhan promised that the Saints would be out of Camille’s sex life. And if they weren’t then none of their president’s would have a sex life.
Trigg and Toad looked at their wives in disbelief. Brute was thrilled not to have to worry about that. Until Alana told him that the mother house bunnies would be told to stay away from him.
His mouth fell open as Alana mimed being on a phone call, “Hello, this is Jane Nelson from the County Health Department. Travis Olsen, you may know him as Brute, stated that you are a recent sexual partner. I do advise that you come in for a health screening.”
“You. Wouldn’t.”
Alana grinned at her old friend and lover. “Try me.”
“Fuck, she would,” Brute grumbled as she walked away.
Nothing was said about Camille and Darkness sharing a room that night or the next four on their way back to Baton Rouge. When they stayed at the Renegades clubhouse just outside of Austin, Roscoe put the couple in a single room.
Gator gave him a hard look and Roscoe laughed. “Didn’t you see how that little girl kicked Millie’s ass? That big man of hers barely got her off the bitch. I’m not getting on the receiving end of that.”
The next day when they arrived back at the Cajuns compound, Darkness moved his belongings into that was now called the Fairy Room.
Less than a week later, Camille walked into the clubhouse and found some very angry Cajuns. A dozen red roses had been delivered while Camille was in class. Looking at the card from Dartanyan, she knew why they were angry. At Zydeco’s accusing questions, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“I promise you; I’m not cheating on Darkness. D’Artagnan, is the young wannabe that follows the Three Musketeers around in the book. Athos, Aramis and Porthos take D’Artagnan under their wings.”
“Oh, that’s your friend. But her patch said Dartanyan.” Zydeco did not understand why the name was so severely misspelled.
Camille couldn’t help but laugh. “Most of the guys looked at the traditional spelling and pronounced it *Dee are tag nan* because bikers aren’t always the smartest. Then again, Aramis was salutatorian for his class.”
“And where were you?” Peanut asked.
“Number four, just far enough that I did not have to give a speech,” she said as she walked down the hall to her room. Once in her room, she called Priscilla.
“Hey, girl.” Came from the other end of the line.
“You good?” Camille asked and received a sobbed-out no. “Talk to me, Priss.”
The other teen told her how lost she felt. Everywhere she looked, there were memories of Becks. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Then they reminisced about the woman that they both missed.
“I’ve been hanging out with Rye. She totally gets what I’m feeling.”
“I bet she does. Have you talked to Carly?”
“Yvonne makes us all go talk to Carly. Even when all I do is yell at her.”
“What does Carly say?”
Priscilla chuckled. “You know there’s stages of grief and anger is normal. Take it out however you want. Just not on anything living.”
“And I’m sure that’s exactly how she said it.”
“There may have been a few sentence enhancers and some blah blahs or yada-yada bullshit.”
They both laughed.
“What does Noel tell you?” Camille asked.
“Pretty much the same.”
“Less sentence enhancers.”
“Yeah,” Priss laughed and then cleared her throat. “Did you know that Allison has been going out to see Carly?”
Camille was shocked and didn’t know what to say. Allison had said something about working through some stuff. Maybe that contributed to them having a decent conversation at Christmas. After all, it was the first good conversation that they had since before she moved out.
“No. Mom never said anything.”
“Yeah, shortly after you left in summer your dad took her out there.”
“Damn.”
“I think I’m going to go stay with Chance for a bit. I just…. I feel like I’m suffocating here. Does that make sense?”
“It does. I was having panic attacks almost every day. Add in insomnia and I was on the verge of being put back in the hospital. Carly is the one that suggested I move out for a while. It was supposed to only be for Allison’s second senior year.”
“Lasted a little longer.” Priscilla said and Camille softly agreed. “I don’t want to leave home. I just…”
“Need to breathe.”
“Yeah. Oh! Momma T is calling me. Love you, girl.”
“Love you, too.” She murmured as she ended the call.
Absently, she changed into a pair of pajama shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt. Since the whole club knew about her tattoos, she didn’t bother with sweaters anymore. Running a brush through her hair, she stepped into her flip-flops. Camille pulled her hair into a low ponytail as she walked down the hall.
The whole time she was thinking about Allison and that she was going to see Carly. Carly ran a ranch out by the Shack. Not a normal ranch, though. She was actually Dr. Carly Anne Phillips, MD PsyD MSW. Very rarely did she use all of what she dubbed her alphabet soup. Instead, she talked to her patients about her own history and let them know that she really did understand.
It was the same way with the troubled kids that lived in her group home or worked on the ranch. Camille had gone to see Carly originally for her insomnia. The doctors wanted to make sure there wasn’t something psychological keeping her awake. She still talked to Carly and texted her frequently.
“Hey?”
Camille shook her head to clear it and looked at the concerned face of Darkness. He gently cupped her cheek and she leaned into the embrace and smiled at him.
“You looked like you were a million miles away.”
“Not quite that far.” She murmured as she wrapped her arms around him and his hand moved to cradle her head against his chest.
“I heard D'Artagnan sent you roses.” He said with humor in his voice.
“Yeah.” She chuckled. “Your brothers are afraid I’m cheating on you. I don’t think Leo would appreciate me chasing his woman.”
Darkness chuckled. “I know you better than that.”
“Yeah.” She looked up at him. “You do. I have a strange question.”
“Alright.”
“Why did I get a text from Sticks asking how tall I was?”
“I have no idea. I was going to ask why he asked for my shipping address.”
“I don’t know. Except Dom said she was going to send me something that I would like.”
“That’s a little scary.” Darkness chuckled.
“She knows about a secret of mine.” Camille admitted softly.
“I didn’t think you two had any secrets anymore.” Zydeco chuckled reminding them that as they stood in the main room, they had an audience.
“Gotta keep him on his toes.” Camille replied.
It was a little over a week later when Camille received a call from Priss that her newest little sister was born.
Just as Tammy always did, she gave little warning that she was going to have a baby. She woke the other pretties up and in less than an hour, little Reba was born. Reba and Doc were both there before Molly was.
It would be several years before Molly would admit where he was and what he was considering the night that his newest daughter was born. The night that Noel and Case found him, took the gun away and brought him back to his family.