Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Giraffe
After Beau Brewer got some air he headed back into his house to find his son and fiancé in the kitchen. Michelle was holding a nice tender cut steak against Martin's bruised head.
"What are you doing?" Beau asked, saying under his breath, "We're not in the fifties."
"Helping my step-son," Michelle said not hearing the last part, "I saw this on TV. It's supposed to help."
"That was my dinner." Beau said disappointed at the thought of not getting his juicy steak because it was rubbing up against his son's head. Then again it's popularly not that good anyways he thought to himself….who was he kidding that was a nice cut of meat, "My poor dinner."
"Will order take-out or I can make something."
"TAKE-OUT!?" Beau quickly said, her cooking kinda scared him. He was very worried that she'd burn the house down by accident or accidental poison him.
"Ok." Michelle said smiling sweetly she really loved that man.
"Um…honey…um…" Beau began, "That's not really….safe."
"What's not?"
"Putting a steak on a bruise they found that out awhile ago." he said trying to sound nice and not rude.
"Oh…I told I was new at this." Michelle said taking it off, "Got it! No teenagers alone in bedrooms and no steaks on bruises."
"My head." Martin moaned as his father handed him a Ziploc baggie filled with ice.
"Well if you ask me they should send her away and give the baby up." Beaker whispered to Mrs. Hillbuttoms, but she didn't say it quiet enough because Eric heard it. It was the last straw.
"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!?" He screamed, having a break down. He was finally letting it all set in.
"I'm so sorry." Beaker said collecting the ladies and heading out the door.
"We're just going to go." Olivia said pulling Freddie out the door.
"And I'll go look for Martin." Mac added as he followed them out the door.
"My hero!" Annie said wrapping her arms around her shaking husband.
"Ruthie's pregnant."
"Yes she is." Annie said.
"My little girl is pregnant." Eric said, "Oh I'm an awful father."
"No your not." Annie said leading him to the sofa.
"How could this happen? Why did this happen?"
"Eric I'm going to tell you something you've told me many times over the years," Annie said, "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. And it's true. Look at everything we've been through and still were here alive and happy. We're going to make it through this."
"How?"
"The way we always do together." Annie said kissing his cheek. The twins, Simon, Lucy, Kevin, Mary, Carlos, Sarah, and Matt stood in the kitchen listening.
"We're going to get through this." Matt said.
"…Together." Everyone said in unison causing Annie and Eric to turn and find them all their standing ready to support their sister.
"And can we together get the giraffe out of my car." Simon added causing everyone to laugh for the first time in awhile.
"I have to ask," Lucy said turning to him, "Why did you buy a giraffe?"
"Because they were out of monkeys."
"You're nuts."
"Look who's talking." Simon said as the back door opened and Ruthie walked in.
"Ruthie where have you been?" Annie asked.
"With Martin." Ruthie replied taking a seat down on the sofa next to her dad, "I see the baby shower is finally over."
"Yeah well it wasn't as we planned it." Annie said as everyone turned to eye Simon the Beaker bringer, "It was just suppose to be family!"
"But you did get a lot of gifts and your going to need them…babies cost a LOT!?" Simon said, "Or so I'm told."
"Here." Mary said grabbing a bag off the side table and handing it to Ruthie.
"This is from all of us." Matt said.
"Thank you." Ruthie said pulling the tissue paper out. It was wrapped around a beautiful baby blanket that seemed familiar.
"It has the pieces of your baby blanket that you gave Sam and David along with my baby blanket, Matt's baby blanket, Simon's baby blanket, and Lucy's baby blanket." Mary said with a smile.
"It's beautiful." Ruthie said rubbing her hand across the fabric that had been stitched together to create a masterpiece, "How did you make it so quickly?"
"After I found out and calmed down, we all came up with the idea. We knew their wasn't enough time to get mom to make it so we found a women that takes pieces of important fabric and makes memory blankets." Lucy said smiling.
"And this is from your father and me." Annie said handing Ruthie a wrapped box. Ruthie smiled as she ripped it open to find a beautiful baby book.
"I got it a few days after I found out." Annie said opening the book to reveal that the book begin with baby pictures of Grandma Jenny, Annie, and Ruthie. The rest of the book was filled with a space to be filled by the photos of her baby.
"And I got you something else too." Simon said, "It's stuck in my car."
"Stuck in your car?" Ruthie asked confused.
"Matt, Dad, Kevin, Carlos, Mary, Lucy, Mom, Sarah, Can you help me get it out?" Simon asked.
"Why can't I help?" Ruthie questioned.
"I want to put a bow on it and wrap it up." Simon said causing Ruthie to roll her eyes.
"Whoa!" Sarah said shocked, "How did you managed to do that? How did you get in the car?"
"You're never going to be able to wrap that." Matt said.
"It's too uneven to wrap." Mary added.
"And it's huge!?" Lucy squealed.
"I can't believe you bought it." Annie said.
"Where is she going to put it?" questioned Kevin.
"It might scare the baby." Mary said.
"How?" Simon asked.
"Well it's huge as Lucy established and well in the dark it might look scary to a little baby." Mary summarized.
"That'd scare me." Carlos said causing everyone to look at him, "What it would?! I don't like giraffes."
"Who doesn't like giraffes?" Matt asked.
"I don't want to talk about." Carlos said as Mary wrapped an arm around him.
"He was attacked by a giraffe." Mary explained.
"Attacked?" Kevin said trying not to laugh.
"By a giraffe?" Lucy said right behind him on the verge of laughter.
"I thought giraffes were gentle." Eric said.
"They are." Mary added, "It was a man in a giraffe suit."
"Now I know what to dress up as this Halloween." Matt said.
"That's not funny." Carlos said, "It was very traumatic, now can we drop it."
"How are we going to get it out?" Lucy asked.
Ruthie found herself alone in the living room. Her family had left her with the rest of the gifts to open while they went to get the gift that was stuck in Simon's car unstuck.
"I wonder what it is?" Ruthie said to herself with a sigh, as she began to open gifts from all the church ladies. It was all stuff she was going to need and she was grateful. The gift from Olivia had been a beautiful silver baby brush and mirror. Freddie had given her a card that said she was going to have to wait a few days. Mac's gift had her laughing so hard. It was a set of shirts, an adult and a baby shirt saying Big Dude and Little Dude. She left the massive pile of gifts from Martin in the corner. She just couldn't open them right now. After organizing her loot she picked up one of the books Freddie had given her and curled her feet up under herself and began to read.