Chapter Forty-Three

"What is it?" Allison asked, shaking the box that was neatly wrapped in colorful birthday paper.

John chuckled, smirking as she started to open it. "It's gotta be better than a carton of smokes."

Clarissa gave him a puzzled look, wondering why that sentence had come to his mind. "John, did you get a carton of cigarettes for your birthday?"

John shook his head, remembering how the only thing he got on his birthday was a good smack upside the head. "No just Christmas. Sometimes I got a half drank beer for Christmas dinner."

Clarissa looked up as Allison held up the new sketchbook, her grin spreading from ear to ear. "Thanks John and Claire!"

Claire snuggled against John's side, tracing the scars on his knuckles. "Happy birthday Alli." She smiled, feeling John press a kiss to her head.

Andy handed her another neatly wrapped box, chuckling as she opened it. "Happy birthday baby."

She gasped at the beautiful necklace that she pulled out, opening the locket to show a picture of the two of them. "Andy!" She cried, wrapping him in a crushing hug. "It's beautiful!"

He took the necklace from her, clasping it around her perfect neck. "I thought you would like it." He smiled, kissing her neck.

Amelia sniffed, sitting up in John's lap. "Can we have cake now?" She asked, making the whole room erupt with laughter, even getting germophobe Dominic to drop his t-shirt from around his nose.

John chuckled, patting her hip as he stood. "I say we cut the cake before Kaylie's frosting disintegrates the whole thing."

"Fuck you, El Jefe." Kaylie snapped, stepping away from Amelia in an attempt to not get sick. She wasn't opposed to being sick, it was more the idea of her strength being robbed from her and making her unable to fight off attackers that made her flinch back. She knew she was safe, but she still had that habit of avoiding sick people and trying to stay away from illness. "Don't sneeze or cough on the cake kid!"

John smiled, rubbing his hand over his scruffy jaw as it began to itch. "Ugh… remind me to shave after this."

Clarissa shook her head, looking at how thick his beard would be if he'd let it grow. "That is not a seventeen-year-old beard, that is grown man facial hair." She rubbed Thomas's cheek, laughing at his thin scruff. "I think you even have more than dad over here."

Claire smiled, pulling on his chin. "I like it." She giggled, letting him bend down to kiss her neck, feeling the roughness of his stubble on her skin. "It tickles!"

John smirked, rubbing his chin over her shoulder, biting her shirt collar. "I think it itches." He chuckled, letting her smack his shoulder to make him stop. "Feels like a big wool blanket on my face."

Allison took a bite of the cake, giving everyone else the signal to dig in. "Andy could get a good beard if he'd let it grow."

John looked up at Ryan before grabbing his slice of cake, knowing that he and Dominic were still on the sugar cut back. "May I indulge in some cake?" He asked, raising his brows at the doctor. "Or must I stick to chips while everyone else has cake?"

Ryan chuckled, motioning to the two smallest pieces of cake. "You and Dom can have those two, but that's it."

John grinned, dishing up he and Dominic's slices and handing Dominic his before stuffing his face with the sweet desert. "I don't think I've ever had a birthday cake before."

Clarissa looked at the boy, shock on her face. "Didn't your parents try to get a picture of cake mushed on your face for your first birthday?"

John shook his head, looking at Dominic. "What was that one picture they did get of us?"

Dominic shrugged, taking a drink of milk to cut the richness of the cake. "I think that the only one they took was the one when me and you first met."

John nodded, feeling Amelia pull on his sweatpants to get his attention. "I wanna see you as a baby." She smiled, not picking up on John's apprehension to the idea.

"Yeah!" Claire backed the child up, curious as to what John had looked like as a baby. "I wanna see how adorable you were."

John finished his cake, listening to the family beg to see the photo. "Alright! Fine. I'll go see if I can track it down." He pushed his chair back, starting for the stairs. "No promises I can remember where I hid it, though."

He opened his door, walking over to his nightstand and pulling out the top drawer all the way, before reaching back and pulling the photo off from where it was taped to the back. He sighed, looking at his unmarred skin, still with the pink tones of a new baby. He could still see that he'd been thin, even at birth. He looked at Dominic, noticing that he'd been a slightly heathier baby, a little more meat on his bones and his skin a slightly darker shade from his Mexican mother.

He stepped into the dining room, holding the picture up as the family all looked at him. "Here it is." He handed it to Clarissa first, noticing how she began to tear up when she saw it.

"John!" She passed the photo to Mary, reaching for the young man at her side and pulling him into a hug. "You were such a cute baby."

John smiled, holding Clarissa as best he could while she cried into his shoulder. "I wasn't that cute Mom." He chuckled knowing that Dominic was the healthier looking one of them. "You were probably looking at Dom."

She shook her head, holding his head in her hands as she looked at him. "I know it was you." She smiled, brushing the longest part of his sideburn behind his ear. "I could recognize you from a mile away if I had too."

He breathed a laugh, meeting her gaze. "Mom, you can hardly tell me and Dom apart as it is."

She tapped his shoulder, scowling at him. "I can too. Dominic Alejandro has darker skin than you do, and his hair is longer."

The table laughed, even the mothers who'd gotten emotional looking at the old photo laughing.

"And their eyes are different." Claire stated, motioning to the two boys. "John's are bigger and his lashes are longer."

Jan shook her head, chuckling at the girl. "Only a girlfriend would notice that."

Clarissa looked at John's eyes, remembering the matching ones that his mother had. "Or a true mother." She smiled, running her finger over the slowly fading bruise around his right eye. "Dominic's aren't quite as light as John's either."

John chuckled, letting her feel over his face and touch the marks. "That's only because I'm happy." Happy, how foreign that word sounded on his lips, but at the same time it felt like the perfect way to tell what he was at that moment. "I'm happy here." He smiled, taking in the joy on everyone's faces. "Happier than I thought was possible."

Clarissa smiled, pulling him close to her in a strong hug that sent a dull pain through his dislocated shoulder. "I'm glad."