I Got This

An Elani Short

By Lou

"I don't have to go."

"...But you want to."

"I know-"

"Baby, I got this." He chuckled, a glass of water halfway to his tilted lips.

"Eli, I'm..."

He set the glass down on the counter. Weaving his fingers through hers, Eli pulled Lani to him, wrapping his arms around her.

"I know that you are scared," He spoke quietly. "I am, too. It's a wonder those kids don't get any real sleep as much as we check on them. I won't force you to have fun. If you need more time, you need more time. Lemme tell you what an unbelievably smart woman once told me though,"

Lani's lips tilted in a smile as she looked at him. "Proceed."

"This woman, who always smells so damned good, by the way; anyway, this smell so good woman told me that we can't live our lives in fear. That we would steal from our kids that way, and that the best way to protect them is to teach them how to protect themselves."

"They're infants."

"See, I said that, too, right; but the wise woman, who smells so good, you remember?"

"Continue."

"Well, she said that it won't be forever and that we shouldn't get into habits that would hurt them later.

"When'd you get so smart?"

"Well, my mama says that I'm a genius, and I did marry well." Eli buried his face in Lani's neck, breathing deep. She wrapped her arms around him, tilting her head back, her heart thumping hard in her chest at the love that stared back at her.

"I love you."

"I love you. Uh..." He wrapped his arms tighter around her pulling her closer when Lani started to move away. "So...what are you doing right now?"

Lani's brow rose.

"Because," Eli went on. "I was wondering if I could talk to you in the room right quick."

"Right quick?"

"Yeah. Uh-huh. Just for a second. In the room."

"Oh...I needed this." Belle sighed.

"How's Claire?" Lani asked.

"Spiraling." The woman admitted. "She really thought that she had someone in that bastard Charlie. He stole from her instead. Added to that, this mess with Ciara...Now my daughter is incommunicado. I hope where ever that son of a bitch is, he's in considerable pain."

"Amen." The women toasted.

"Hand 'em over." Belle motioned.

"What?"

"Pictures! I need to look at fat cheeked babies."

Lani produced her phone. Eli passed out with permanent marker on his face from his bachelor party years prior was her lock screen.

The women laughed.

"Shawn is terrible." Belle chuckled.

"Eli's ass deserved it. The rookie." Lani smirked.

Belle melted at the laughing faces of Carver and Ju laughing back at them.

"I want another one."

"Another one what?" Chloe asked, joining the party.

"A baby," Belle replied. "And you're late."

"Had to put my husband to bed." She smirked.

Lani and Belle cackled, then they all snickered what that curious brow that male bartender rose at them.

"Let's get a booth."

"Parker wants a sibling," Chloe informed them. Her face told Belle and Lani that she wasn't all the way on board with that.

"What about Joy?" Lani asked. "I thought that they were close."

"Apparently, she doesn't count because she's a girl...and his aunt."

"I guess you had better keep putting Philip to bed properly then," Lani told her, trying to lighten the mood. "And you," she said to Belle. "Start singing your man lullabies before bed, and bring him his lunch to work."

Lani's watch dinged as Bell and Chloe laughed.

After Ju and Carver were taken, and their grandfather had nearly died trying to prevent it, Theo had fit their home with a state-of-the-art system not yet on the market. It scanned their house from top to bottom hourly or when there was any unexplained movement.

Before she had left home...Lani may have...adjusted the settings some. When her phone beeped that the living room was now occupied, Lani pulled the screen up on her phone out of habit, silently thanking her friends for not commenting.

The scene bloomed full screen.

Eli had their babies in their walkers, giving them their dinner in the living room instead of in the kitchen. His eyes were huge as he split his attention between them and the game on tv.

"Men," Belle replied.

"Right."

On the screen, their six-month-old son squawked, slapping his baby fat hands against the plastic in front of him, demanding his food.

"Hey…stop with that," Eli told him. "We've talked about your being rude, sir. It's your sister's turn." He said to their son, and he spooned food into their daughter's mouth.

Food that she disagreed with and promptly spat out.

"Oh…babygirl…what? What is this? See, I told your mama about this organic– what is this…" Eli read that jar and then looked at his daughter. "Green bea-Baby, this is green beans. You don't like green beans?"

Carver, again, sounded his displeasure.

"Look, here, 'lil man; there's no need for all of that. Here." The baby gulped down his spoonful. "Look, baby girl, your brother likes it. You want daddy to try it because I'll do it. Watch…"

He did.

And when his face changed like his daughter's, the women watching died laughing.

Eli looked at his baby girl, who had the audacity to smirk at him. It was like her little face was saying, "I told you this business was unacceptable."

"I see," Eli said to his baby. Then he looked at his son, who had his fingers in his mouth, laughing around them at his father's face. "Really, baby boy? This is what you like?... What if we put some bacon in it, Ju?"

"Don't you feed my baby bacon, Eli Grant," Lani demanded.

"Don't tell you, mama." He winked at the babies. "Carver, don't you move, put the binky where I can see it; I'm watching you."

Lani watched on in horror as Eli ground bacon bits to dust. Keeping an eye on their son out of the corner of his eye, he put the bacon in the jar of purred green beans, then fed it to their daughter.

"I-"

JuJu loved it.

One taste of bacon and their daughter was demanding her share of food the same as her brother.

"That's my girl." Eli chuckled as he kissed Jule's baby cheek. "All the bacon."

"I'm gonna kill him," Lani muttered.

"I never thought that we would be back to where we are," Chloe spoke as the night went on. "Victor hates it, and that is a plus."

"I was in the same boat. Never did I believe that I would end up in an Italian convent, but it just goes to show that you never truly know how deep your pain is until you think that you are out of it."

"Preach," Belle toasted. "There had been a time when I thought that I had lost Shawn forever. Even when we were together in Hong Kong. He uprooted his life, started over, came with us. I made myself believe that it was just for our daughter. He never said otherwise, and I was afraid to ask. I had broken our hearts enough already."

The women lamented in silence, then:

"Now, we're solid," Belle said. "And it's nuts, I know, wanting another child with Claire being an adult, but I want another one. And the trying is so damned good."

They chuckled.

"You ever just find yourself sitting and just…watching them?" Chloe asked.

Lani smirked. "Eli thinks I'm plotting on him, and I am, 99.9% of the time." She admitted, and the other women chuckled. Lani only shrugged. "He shouldn't be walking around in basketball shorts with ass like that. What am I supposed to do; ignore it? When I have the license to ogle; legally? It's literally in the vows."

"Shawn walking around in just jeans. No shirt, no socks." Belle fanned herself.

"Philip with a messy tie, shirt unbuttoned at the collar with his sleeves rolled up," Chloe smirked before slipping her beer. "It's provoking, really. That, and I know that does it on purpose."

"Exactly!" Belle agreed. "The man irons his clothes shirtless. Am I just supposed to ignore that? Impossible."

"Eli thinks he's slick," Lani smirked. He wasn't, but it was sexy, though.

"What's something that people would be sur-" Lani watched beeped again, interrupting her. Her wrist flicked out of habit.

They were in the bathroom.

"Why does he look like he's threatening the baby?"

Lani upped the volume.

"…understand? Now, you're going to sit in that chair and get cleaned up. No warfare. We understand each other?"

Carver fell out laughing, blowing raspberries while Ju sat silently in the half-inch water in her shower seat.

Luxuriating.

It was why he put her in the tub first.

"Don't think I'm about to fall for the cuteness, sir," Eli told him. "I'm not your mama. How? How are you still hungry? I needs my face 'lil man; your mama loves it."

Ju smiled her way through her bath, talking her baby talk cuteness while she dosed in and out of the sleep she halfway fought.

That was when Eli made a mistake. He washed his daughter's face last because he knew her low tolerance for what she deemed unnecessary. He sat the rag down before she could reach maximum lung capacity.

Sat the rag down in Carver's reach.

Swear to God he saw stars when the sopping wet washcloth met the side of his head. Eli had water in his mouth, in his eyes, all down the front of his shirt, in his ears.

Oh, Carver thought that was hilarious. Shaking his head, and trying to dig the water out of his ear, dried Ju's tears right on up, and she was cracking up at his pain, too.

"Oh, that's cold. That's cold. We just gonna laugh at daddy? No love. Just none. Oh, I'm getting you back. I know where you're ticklish, baby boy. As a matter of fact…"

He got a clean rag; thank you, Jesus, Lani murmured under her breath; dunking the cloth in the water, Eli started monologuing.

"It's on now." He said. "What do we have here?" He hadn't even touched baby boy's feet yet, and Carver was already scream laughing, and kicking water.

Some dick head in the bar bellowed to "shut that baby up," and the three women basking in baby laughter flipped him the bird as smooth as you please.

"You're getting some, too, baby girl." Eli went on. "How are you not gonna tell daddy that he was about to be under attack?"

The whole bathroom was alive with laughter and life that came through the small screen, only broken up when Lani was called into work.

Charlie Dale was dead.

His mother, Ava Vitale, was in lock-up, and her only living son, Tripp Dalton, was demanding her release because "it was all Charlie."

Dale had attempted to kidnap Henry Horton, and Allie had shot him dead, saving them both.

The man had been determined to have his son by any means necessary. Charlie had been convinced Henry was key to a life with Claire and, most of all, the chance to be the son their mother had wanted.

Vitale's jet had been stopped on the runway by Shaw and Paul. Shawn hadn't known his daughter was missing until Paul had found a drugged and unconscious Claire bound in one of the jet's staterooms.

It was a mess.

Lani closed the file in front of her, rubbing at tired eyes.

After the baths, Eli had treated the kids to the greatness that was Earth, Wind, and Fire. "Babies are gonna know good music."

She listened to him explain to them about how "Lebron was cool, but he'll never be the goat," whatever the hell that meant. Now he was running to the back of the house with a baby under each arm. Changing Carver quick, fast.

"Oh my God! Air!"

One had on Carver's tiny body; the other reached to open the window then got back to the business at hand only to have to dodge.

Dodge pee.

"Oh! Carver, why the violence, son?!" Of course, because this was his child, Carver thought this was hilarious.

"That's what you get!" Lani laughed. Finally, their son had gotten his father, and it was glorious.

Jules, on the other hand, was getting impatient.

She did not appreciate entertaining the notion of being unclean.

Carver went into his walker while Eli tended to their daughter.

"I'm moving, baby girl; I'm moving." Eli's voice came through the screen.

"Watching movies at work?" Paul tsked as he sat on the edge of Lani's desk.

She shook her head. "Just checking in. We miss you around here, Norita."

"Investigator for the Prosecutor's Office fits me. Even though…"

"Your boss is a bitch?"

"That part."

"While I have you," Eli's voice went on as he changed their daughter. "Boys. Never."

"Oh, yeah," Paul chuckled. "That's going to work."

Lani rolled her eyes.

"In fact," Eli went on. "This is a good time as any to get you used to the idea of the conv-mm…not the convent, but something else."

"Rude!" Lani swore as Paul died laughing next to her.

"Alright, all clean. Bink time then be-Carver?" Eli picked up Jules from the changing table, looking around the room for his escape artist son. "Carver Malcolm Grant?! Lil boy, we talked about this. Come on, baby girl. Your brother is gonna be a problem." He murmured while he started searching the usual places.

"Where's your brother at, Ju?" He asked his daughter. "You are not hungry. Stop it."

When he gave her her bink, Ju laid her head on Eli's chest, ready for bed. The loud crash that followed made her jump. Eli comforted the little girl best he could as he followed the sounds of familiar destruction.

"Throwing binks like his mama throws bricks." Eli shook his head.

Lani could only laugh at herself.

"Well, it is yours."

"Oops," Lani spoke.

It was one of those stuffed dogs with floppy ears. Abe had gotten it for him. Carver was always in the office with his mother until Lani had to put him out because his walker was an accessory to him tearing up stuff.

When the baby saw Eli, he raised his arms out. Eli grabbed the dog; he didn't want any trouble, then he picked up his son. A baby in each arm, Eli started out of the office, counting down the seconds until his wife came home, then stopped, his face turning up as he looked at the boy.

"I just changed you."

She always teared up when she saw them like this. Pressed to the sides of their beds, each had an arm stretched reaching for each other.

No matter how many times she put their arms back in their cribs, she always found them back out again when she checked on them in the night.

JuJu was asleep on her back; she didn't move an inch when Lani took the pacifier from her mouth. Curls just everywhere with her father's face. She didn't wake up when Lani changed her; instead, she just sighed deeper into sleep when she was put back to bed.

Lani could only shake her head at their son. She knew Eli hadn't put Carver in bed like this. He was curled all the way to one side, one tiny fist holding his pacifier to the side of his mouth. The arm Lani had to put back in the bed with him, he immediately reached right back out, and he had one leg crossed over the other as if he was lounging on a couch.

"Sir," she chuckled. "Just why? A mess. Just like your father."

Carver's eyes didn't open until after Lani changed him and put him back into his bed. When he saw who it was, Carver curled into his mother and started back to sleep. Lani stood rocking him for long minutes after because she knew better.

Carver should have been named opossum with the way he liked to fake the funk. There wasn't about to be any 3 am playtime from him.

Eli was passed out on the couch snoring, one leg on the floor with his face pressed into the couch cushions. She didn't know how her husband was breathing.

When she nudged his shoulder, Eli shot up. "Carver Malcolm, drop the bink! Lani?"

"Yeah," she ran her fingers through his beard.

"Don't laugh; it ain't funny." He fell back into the couch then sat back up just as quickly. "Henry?"

"He's home."

"Thank you, God." He sighed into his hands.

"Amen."

She told him the rest of it.

"Shawn okay?"

"Paul had to make him go home. I tried calling Belle. No answer."

"I don't think that it's over yet."

"With Ava Vitale?" Lani said. "I don't either. Henry isn't safe because he's his father's son. Charlie's plans and Ava's didn't match up."

"Fill me in."

"Allie said that Charlie believed that Henry was the key, that he would make everything right, but Eli…listening to that woman speak about her son. There was no way her aim wasn't to erase her mistake and anything that came from it. Anyone."

They sat in silence for long seconds.

"So…" Lani began as she sat on the couch next to him, rubbing a hand over his thigh. "How'd it go tonight?"

"Your son assaulted me with a washcloth."

"Oh, he's my son now?"

"And with two, no, three unacceptable diapers back to back to back; but we survived."

"Mm."

"House is still standing." He went on. "I told you I had this, mama."

"Okay, you did that."

"Absolutely."

"Mmhm…but uh…one thing."

"What's that?"

"About those back to back-"

"To back."

"To back," she nodded.

"It was three of them."

"Right. About those back to back to back to back dirty bombs-"

"Go ahead."

"I just…maybe that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't fed our babies bacon."

"H-oh…" Eli groaned. "Snitching ass house. Alright, I can explain."

"Go ahead."

"Alright, look, Ju wasn't-" Twin cries of demand reached them, and Eli praised God.

"Saved by the babies."

"I just changed them."

"It's 3 am, babe," Lani told him. "I just changed them; that isn't their I need to be changed cries."

"…It's not?"

Lani held out a hand to him. "Nope. They just want their mommy and daddy."

Eli entwined his fingers with hers, grinning when she pulled him from the couch. "It's a different kind of feels good, isn't it?"

"Mm. The best kind."

-END-