Chapter 34
Steph POV:
Carlos and I were wrapped around each other in bed, when the bedroom door creaked open. I looked up at Carlos and he smiled softly. Nico peeked around the door frame.
"Mama?" he asked, voice trembling.
"Yes, baby?"
He rushed into the room and crawled into the bed. He pressed his face into my neck and wrapped his little body around mine. "What's wrong?" I asked him softly.
"There's a monster in my closet."
"Now Nico," I said, "Do you really think that your daddy and I would let something like that live in your closet?"
He shook his head. "Alright, let's go look and make sure there's nothing there."
"Do you want your father to go with you and look?" I asked, rubbing his back. I kissed his temple before Carlos got out of bed. Nico followed him, taking his hand. I watched as the father son duo walked out of the room.
Fifteen minutes later Carlos was back, shutting the door. He crawled back into the bed, wrapping his body around mine, laying his head on my chest.
"So, was there a monster?" I asked, running my fingers though his hair.
"Babe," he said, looking at me.
"Just wait until the twins start running in here like that," I said. He chuckled.
"I wouldn't give it up for anything."
"I wouldn't either."
XXXXXX
Carlos POV:
Tank, Les, Bobby, and a few of the other guys all sat in chairs in the backyard. I was manning the grill and keeping an eye on the kids as they played. The guys were nursing beers and bickering back and forth.
Steph came out of the house with Elena, Lucia, Ruby, and a few other women. Mag and Em came bounding out with them. Ruby was seven months pregnant; sheand Bobby had finally settled down and got married in a tiny ceremony last year.
Bobby spotted his wife and he stood, walking over and taking her hand. Steph walked over to me after helping set up the table. She stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around my neck. She leaned up and kissed me.
I let her take my mouth in a long passionate kiss. Her tongue stroking against mine. I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her close and pressing her body into mine.
There were some whoops and whistles, before we pulled apart. I nuzzled into Steph's neck and kissed her under the ear.
"Would you two stop being so disgustingly cute?" Elena called.
I laughed and Steph grinned. She gave me one more peck on the lips. "Carlos, I think the food's burning."
I jumped out of her grasp and turned to find some of the hamburgers burning. I started snatching them off the grill and sent her a look as she laughed walking away. "That woman," I grumbled.
The guys were laughing as I fumbled with the food on the grill. "She's always made you forget what you were doing." Lester chuckled. I rolled my eyes at him.
I watched Stephanie go back into the house. She emerged with our youngest as I was shutting off the grill. Another boy, just shy of two. RC was a surprise, but a welcome one. We were sure that four kids were enough, but because of faulty birth control we now had RC.
Steph walked over with a smile. RC reached for me, and I plucked him from her arms. He giggled. "Daddy!"
"Mijo." I grinned, kissing his forehead. Steph sighed with a smile next to me.
"Feeling hormonal again, Babe?" I asked with a grin.
She smiled up at me. "Carlos, we would have a pack of kids if every time I saw you holding a baby made me want a baby."
"So that's a yes?"
"Carlos!" She laughed.
"I know, no more babies." I pouted.
"How about we talk about it when I hit menopause?"
I laughed and leaned down to kiss her. "Want me to take him?" Steph asked me.
"No, I've got him. I'm already finished cooking," I told her. She nodded.
I sat in one of the open chairs with RC in my lap. "Daddy, can I go pway?"
"Well, we're about to eat." I told him. He smiled at me and patted my face with an open palm.
"Alright, go on. Jeffrey is playing in the sandbox and your siblings are on the play set." I told him, sitting forward and setting his feet on the ground. He shot out and ran towards the sandbox. I laughed softly and sat back in my chair. Tank handed me a beer.
"Fatherhood looks good on us," he said.
I chuckled. "Sure does. I didn't ever think I would have five kids running around."
"Neither did I. Then again I have three running around." He chuckled.
"I have two!" Les exclaimed.
"You need to catch up." I told him.
"Not all of us want a trail of ducklings following us around. Some of us still like to get laid," Bobby grinned.
"How do you think they got here?" I grinned lazily. Tank snickered.
"Food's ready!" Lucia yelled.
The kids came running up. I stood to go help. Finding Steph, I helped her make the plates for the kids and sent Julie off to help make sure they didn't spill them, since she was the oldest of the group. Not to mention all of the younger kids adored her.
Nico and Julie were close, not just because their ages were the closest together. Once the kids were fed the adults came in waves. I settled Steph in my lap once we sat down to eat. We had gotten one plate for the both of us, I fed her and took bites in between.
When we finished, Steph leaned back against me. I kissed her temple. We watched as the kids at the table thinned out, ours going back to play on the play set.
"If you had the choice, would you do it again?" Steph asked me.
"Marry you, have kids?"
"Yeah," she said, turning in my arms to look at me.
"I wouldn't give it up for anything. I love you, I love the kids, I love our life."
She smiled and kissed me. "We should send the kids home with Elena and Tank." She purred.
"No, you shouldn't," Tank said. I laughed softly. "You know Elena would take every single one of your kids home. She's addicted to having a hoard of kids."
"I thought you only had three." I grinned.
"We would have more than you two by now if I would agree to it," Tank said. Steph grinned.
"I know, she told me. You better watch out. She's going to start plotting on how to convince you." Steph grinned, Tank shook his head.
"I know. I want to let Ryan grow up a little before we try for another."
I nodded, so did Steph. "I wouldn't say it's fun having them really close in age but then again there is an eight-year difference in the oldest and youngest." Steph shrugged.
Elena walked over at that time with RC in her arms. She looked at Tank with a pout. I chuckled and Steph grinned. "Momma!" RC yelled, reaching for Steph.
Elena handed him over and elected to sit in Tank's lap. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her softly. RC sat in Steph's lap bouncing. "Can I have some ice cream?"
"Well do you think you need some?" I asked, tickling his side. He giggled.
"Yes! I always need ice cream!" RC said, bouncing again.
She laughed and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close. She nuzzled into his neck and started blowing, making him giggle. "Can you wait until everyone is done eating?" she asked him. He nodded.
"Do you want to go play and before we make the ice cream, I'll call you back okay?"
"I need to potty," he informed her.
Standing from my lap, she held him to her. "I'll be back."
"I hope so." I chuckled. She sent me a glare and I smiled sweetly.
XXXXXX
Steph POV:
I laid in bed, reading a book, sitting against the headboard. I heard the front door open, and the security system be disarmed and then rearmed. I heard him take off his boots before walking through the house. Carlos stepped into the door frame and raised his eyebrow.
"You're still up," he said.
"Couldn't sleep."
"I told you everything was fine," he said, walking into the room and kissing me softly. He sat down on my side of the bed and started undressing.
His shirt was thrown across the room into the hamper, shoes were tossed next to it landing with a thud. He took off his gun belt and laid it on the bed, before slinking out of his cargos. I took the gun belt into the closet and put it in the safe. I came back and he was still sitting on the edge of the bed.
I sat on my knees behind him and started massaging his shoulders. "How is Manny feeling?"
"Like he's been shot," Carlos said blunty. I rolled my eyes.
"Carlos."
"He's fine, Babe. He gets out in the morning. He'll be off for a few weeks, but he'll be fine."
"Good." I kissed him below the ear. He groaned, leaning into my touch as I massaged his shoulders.
"Tomorrow you're going to sleep in, the kids' Christmas play is tomorrow at one. You can sleep in until eleven before we go up to the school." I told him.
He nodded. "I know I shouldn't but I'm going to. I'm getting too old for this shit."
"At least you're not on call for another couple of days," I said. He nodded, turning and pulling me into the bed with him, before yanking the blankets over us.
He pulled me close, burying his face in my neck. "I love you, Babe."
"I love you, too, Carlos."
Two Years later...
Carlos POV:
"You aren't going to believe this, Babe," I said, holding the letter in my hand. She looked up from her laptop.
"What is it?"
"A letter from Rachel. It was delivered to Rangeman this morning. I didn't open it until now."
She raised an eyebrow at me. "What's it say?"
"She wants us to bring Julie to visit her in the prison," I said, sitting at the table across from her.
"What?" Steph exclaimed.
"Babe, we need to talk this over with Julie. She's twelve now," I said, running a hand through my hair.
"I agree, but is it bad that I want to keep it from her and protect her?"
"I would love to protect her, but she knows she has another mother. She deserves to make the choice."
She walked around the table and I opened my arms. She dropped down into my lap, with a sigh. "I know. We can talk to her tonight after dinner."
I kissed her temple. "Whatever she decides we can handle it," I told her. She nodded in agreement.
XXXXXX
Steph and I sat at the table with Julie. She was watching both of us intently. Trying to find out what was going on. "Julie, I got this letter today." I paused. "It's from… your other mother."
She didn't look too confused, instead she looked interested. I passed her the letter. "Rachel, isn't a good woman. When you were a baby we weren't together. I had married your mom around the time that I found out Rachel was pregnant with you. Rachel and I weren't together. She didn't take care of you as a baby, and when I gave her money to take care of you, she was buying things for her boyfriend at the time. That's when we had to go to court and the judge decided you were going to come live with us."
"And Rachel went to prison for a while for endangering you and fraud for using the money improperly." Steph told her. She nodded, paying attention to us before opening the envelope.
She read the letter before setting it on the table. "I always knew Mom wasn't my mom, but hadn't realized my other one was in jail."
"It's not something we were trying to hide from you, but we were trying to protect you. Maybe a little too much, but we were worried that visiting your mother in jail could hurt you when you were younger."
Julie nodded. She was surprisingly level-headed for a preteen. "I understand." She paused. "Can I just write her a letter? I don't know if I want to see her. Not after everything that you told me about. I mean what kind of woman does that?"
Steph squeezed her hand. "She had problems, Julie. She thought certain things would fix it but that's not how things work."
She nodded. "Thank you for letting me choose," she said softly. "Can I go upstairs and write to her?"
"Go ahead, baby," Steph said. She smiled, rushing around the table to hug the both of us. She paused standing in front of Stephanie.
"I love you, mom," she said, "I don't care that I have another one. You're my mom, you raised me."
Steph nodded. "I love you too, Julie," she said, her voice cracking. Julie jogged up the stairs and I looked at Steph, who had tears in her eyes.
"God, I love that girl!"
"She's a good one. I think we did good with her."
I grinned and I leaned in to kiss her softly. "We did. Now we got to do good with the other four."
Sorry it's late! I'm out of town this weekend, I won't be back until monday so the next chapter might be late.