Chapter Four:

We All Fall Down

The desert night was cool against Brick's sweaty skin. The cold metal of the steps cradled his trembling body. Brick wiped at his eyes furiously, trying to fight back anymore tears that might be coming. The animal inside was riled up. It's barking sounded more like laughter. A giant rolling guffaw at his expense. The animal knew the whole time, but Brick didn't want to believe it. Stupid! The word echoed through Brick's head. All thoughts stopped when he heard someone moving up behind him. If it was Mordecai, Brick was terrified of what might happen. If it was anyone else, he had to be prepared to run and hide. Now was not the time for any form of confrontation.

Soft clattering of boots on the metal walkway behind him. "You hurried off in such a rush you didn't get the hold the baby, sugar."

Moxxi's voice, at one time was venomous for Brick to hear. In the back of his mind, the memory of how she had broken Mordecai's heart was still as fresh as if it only happened only yesterday. But hearing her voice now calmed the inner animal. It was woman's secret ability to control a passionate man with words. Brick was fortunate enough to be immune to the charms of women, but that logic didn't hold up to Moxxi. Her secret ability was beyond that of other women.

"I wanna be left alone." Brick tried to control his tear strained voice.

Moxxi moved up to sit next to Brick on the steps, resting her head against his broad shoulder, her hair was drenched with sweat, but smelled faintly of Brickleberry shampoo. "We don't have to talk sweetie. I just want to sit and rest awhile."

Brick wanted to refuse, but this was the most company he had in a long time. Moxxi touched her warm, soft hands to Brick's scarred forearm. He knew she could feel him trembling. Brick was doing a poor job hiding his emotional state from her. In some way he wanted her to know how he was feeling. It would be a relief to talk about his emotional disheveled heart with someone other than his animal. Moxxi started to hum a soft song.

Brick listened for a long moment, recognizing the melody as 'Wake up, Jacob' hummed at a much slower tempo. "That was something else, huh?" Brick said, his voice was tired, showing his age.

"Yep, a real miracle." Was all she said.

"I love babies. My sister was a baby, a cute one at that." Brick fumbled around, trying to keep from slipping back into the dark place he crawled from.

"I'm not an emotional woman, but if you ever want me to cry, just give me a baby." Moxxi wiped at the mascara streaks down her face.

"Yeah. The biggest problem with babies is, they grow up and leave you. Everyone leaves you eventually." Brick rested his chin across his forearms.

"That's true, but in a way it's a tribute to how good of a parent you were." Moxxi shifted around so she could see his face. "If a child leaves the nest, then you've raised them to be confident to try and live their lives. If they don't, then you wind up with Scooter."

Brick couldn't help but laugh. "True dat! The problem is that kids aren't the only ones that leave. Adults do too. I'm going to miss him."

"Who, Scooter? Shit my baby ain't going nowhere it seems." Moxxi giggled, shaking her head so her wet bangs slapped against his arm.

"No not Scooter damnit. I mean Mordecai. He and Lilith are together now and that means there's no more room for big 'ol stupid me." Brick grumbled, pushing a false smile to his lips, in the hopes to stifle the tears the were coming on.

"Sugar, what the hell are you talking about?" The smile fell from Moxxi's face.

Brick realized that they were playing a game of cat and mouse without even knowing it. "I love Mordecai."

"Well no shit, let me alert the Echonet." The glib comment sounded more harsh than playful.

"Lilith and Mordecai have a baby now. They have a family, so they don't need me fumbling around in the middle of it, pining after Mordecai some puppy in love."

"Oh..." Moxxi breathed out heavily. "Mordecai didn't talk to you about this did he?"

"About what?" Brick cocked his head, his patience running thin.

Moxxi got up from her spot on the stairs, running her fingers along his arm. "Come on sugar, lets go have some words with that lanky sniper of yours."

When they walked back into Zed's office, the air was thick with the smell of blood and sanitizing liquid. Zed and Tannis had headed out to get some fresh air. Tina was sitting at the foot of the bed talking to Lilith, who seemed to be alright, but very loopy from the drugs and blood loss. Mordecai paced around the table carrying a little baby bundle in his arms. Talon was perched on his shoulder, clumsily trying to keep her balance. Brick smiled when he saw his love carrying two babies with him. It was a sight that he had always wanted to see. Moredcai with a baby, with their baby. The thought caused his inner animal to rumble.

"Mordecai! How could you not tell Brick about this?" Moxxi wasn't subtle about her attack on Mordecai.

"What? Things were already going to be stressful enough. I didn't want to worry him about it. I was going to sit him down tomorrow and tell him everything." Mordecai spoke softly, trying to keep from losing his temper while he was cradling the sleeping baby.

"Yeah? Well your procrastination fucked everything. It only ended up hurting Brick's feelings instead." Moxxi chewed her bottom lip, even under all her make up Brick could see her face was turning red from anger.

"I was only trying to help." Mordecai grunted furiously.

"Fuck yeah, help a mutha fucka out." Lilith cackled as she swatted at Mordecai, who wasn't standing anywhere near her.

"Easy girl, you're makin' a damn fool of yerself." Tina lightly patted Lilith's thigh.

"Would somebody please tell me what's going on." Brick growled between his gritted teeth.

"By all means, Mordecai. Fix this." Moxxi pointed at Brick.

"Alright! Brick do you remember about a year ago when I got shot and almost died?" Mordecai leaned against the wall, bouncing the baby gently.

"Yeah, of course I do. I sat by your bedside for the better part of two weeks." Brick reassured Mordecai that he remember plainly.

"After that I got to thinking. If anything happened to me, you would be all alone. I couldn't bare to think of you alone in this shit bucket of a world. So I got this idea..." Mordecai stopped talking when the baby started to cry.

Moxxi walked over and took the baby with an expert swooping motion. "You're all stressed out Mordecai. The baby can sense it."

Brick watched with uneasy curiosity as Moxxi popped one large boob from her shirt and masterfully tucked her large nipple into the babies mouth. Even Mordecai was stunned to see her do it. Tina on the other hand was blushing too brightly to even make a peep. Moxxi's eyes drifted from one set of eyes to the another.

"What?! This is one of my many fantastic skills that y'all don't even know about. After having six kids, your twins always stay active and ready to feed a hungry baby. Even if the damn thing isn't yours." Moxxi's accent fell away to reveal her heavy southern drawl. "Now stop staring at me and keep on talking, buster."

"Whoa! You have six kids. I know there's Ellie and Scooter. Who are the other four?" Brick asked his mouth hanging open.

"Never you mind. Just shut up and listen to the explanation." Moxxi shifted her breast slightly to give the baby more breathing room.

Mordecai kept on talking, but his gaze stayed locked on Moxxi. "One day while Lilith was in to see me, I decided to talk to her about my plan. I wanted to have a baby. So that when I'm gone, you'll always have a piece of me around."

"That's a horrible and beautifully romantic reason to have a child, by the way." Moxxi added as she turned her bare breast away from Mordecai's prying eyes.

Mordecai shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs from his mind, that Moxxi's naked flesh had caused. "I knew if there was anyone I could trust to do that for me, it's Lilith. Unfortunately she can't have kids. Something about her Siren powers making it so she can't produce eggs. I dunno the logistics of it and I didn't ask."

"That was when he approached me about it. Now I'm not gonna say I'm too old to have more kids. So what I will say is, after six kids, this body ain't what it use to be." Moxxi added nonchalantly as she continued to move around the room the same as Mordecai had been doing when they came in. "I did manage to keep some of my eggs in cryostasis just in case."

"Dr. Zed suggested that we could use my sperm with one of Moxxi's egg and have a baby that way. But with how unsanitary Pandora is, there would be no way to guarantee the baby's safety outside of a womb." Mordecai explained as he rubbed his frazzled chin hair.

"After running some tests, he was able to figure out that Lilith's womb was healthy enough to carry a child, just not able to conceive one. So after some lackluster magic, Dr. Zed implanted the baby in Lilith and it took." Moxxi added as if they had rehearsed the whole thing before telling Brick about it.

Brick was lost in the hurricane of words that flew around him. Each word smacking against the side of his head, but never quite made it into the ear canal. It didn't make much sense to him, what was going on. Not that he felt stupid. This just was not his area of expertise. Judging by the look on both Moxxi and Mordecai's face, they could tell he was not really following their explanation.

"So you, Lilith, and Moxxi have a baby together. Now you're saying you did it all for me. You're talking about leaving, or going away. I don't know what to do with this Mordy. All I know is that, I love you and I want to be with you. I don't know how to live without you. Please don't leave me for Moxxi or Lilith." Brick's voice cracked as he tried to make himself as small as possible.

"No it's not...like that...She's our baby, Brick. Moxxi and Lilith went through all this crap for us...I'm not leaving you. I need you now more than ever. I can't raise a baby all on my own." Mordecai looked at Moxxi, who was already on the move to stand next to Brick.

"She?" Brick looked down at the baby.

Moxxi pulled her nipple from the baby's mouth and held the little girl out to Brick. "Here's your little girl, Brick."

Brick took the baby in his massive hands. Even all bundled up in Mordecai's red scarf, she was barely big enough to fill both of his palms. Giant tears ran down Brick's face as he looked down at the small child. For a moment his heart stopped. When the baby opened her eyes to look up at him. He was greeted to silvery blue orbs staring back him. Mordecai's dark skin and Brick's bluish gray eyes. But how?

"How can she look like both of us Mordy?" Brick sobbed out as he cradled the small baby to his broad chest.

"Remember the night I came back from the hospital and you were drunk. I..." Mordecai stopped as he looked at Tina.

Moxxi was already on it, clasping her hands over Tina's ears, before beckoning for Mordecai to continue. "...while you were drunk I took some of your cum. The good doctor made a cocktail of both our seed and that's what he used to impregnate the egg. So in essences the baby has two moms and two dads." Mordecai was uneasy about explaining this aloud in front of others.

Brick chocked up again. "So she really is my baby!" His voice was emotionally strained.

"Yours and mine." Mordecai said wrapping his arms around the big guy's waist.

"Oh my sweet god." Brick closed his eyes and rested his cheek against Mordecai's head. "I love you so much Mordy."

"I love you too, amore." Mordecai kissed kissed back, canoodling with Brick.

The wave of emotion washed through him. It was hard to tell what was making him cry harder. The idea that he had been wrong about Lilith and Mordecai all along, or the fact that he and Mordecai were fathers now of this beautiful baby girl. It didn't matter. When he closed his eyes, he could feel the tears flowing freely. For the moment Brick was free of his animal. He could almost see the large Shuck sitting off in the distance looking back at him. The glowing golden eyes didn't reflect sadness or defeat, but instead a hint of pride. As if to tell Brick that he had won the day and should enjoy this victory, because it wouldn't last.

Tina reached up to lightly caress the underside of Moxxi's bare boob that was still hanging in front of her face. Moxxi grunted and slashed out with wild hands. Slapping Tina's hand away, before Moxxi tucking her breast back into her shirt.

Tina looked at the red mark on the back of her hand and giggled. "Totally worth it, Moxximus!"

"Grabba bigga titta for the win." Lilith giggled, her voice heavily tired as she closed her eyes to rest.

Brick started chuckling, which made his sobs sound more desperate. Tears raining down on Mordecai's face. His playful laugh reflected how much he didn't care though. Instead he held his family tightly and gave Brick a strong kiss on the lips. They both knew raising a baby was going to be hard, but with the help of Moxxi, Lilith, and Tina, they knew everything was going to be fine.