Two
Vivienne slipped between people after talking to her brothers and rejoined Jeremiah and Camille, her whole body aching from the effort. The doctor told her that it was going to be a while until she was back to normal and that she would lose energy more quickly and this was the perfect example of what they were talking about.
"We will be home soon Vi and you can rest," Camille commented, they both had been concerned with how much Vivi was doing.
Instead of staying the 3 days in the hospital that the doctor wanted to recover and bond with her daughter, she checked herself out of the hospital and settled in at her brother's house to help with the funeral. Though she wasn't much help due to spending most of the time on the couch with Evie sleeping or supervising her nieces. Her eyes focused on the flower coffin and she was unable to look anywhere else for the remainder of the service, it wasn't until Jerry's hand grasped hers and pulled her up from the seat.
"Sorry." She mumbled, "Spacey still."
'Doesn't surprise me, you are still in a lot of pain and pain medicine." He returned softly as Bobby and Jack joined them and the oldest out of all them put his arm around Vivi and pulled her into him.
"Careful." Jerry warned, "She still has a lot of stitches." "What did that son of a bitch do?" Jack questioned, other than Camille and Jerry, he was the only one that knew that Josh abused her, his eyes looking around for his brother-in-law. "He didn't do that part to me. I had a baby the day Ma died." She answered, "Emergency C-section. Opened me from hip to hip."
"My second favorite sister had a baby?" She could almost imagine the look on Bobby's face but she didn't have the heart to pull away from the extra warmth he offered her to look up at him. "Evie Jack ." She returned, "She's at Jerry's house, I didn't want to be alone in the house and I didn't want to be with Josh. He was already mad enough that I kept the baby. If it hadn't been for Green coming in, he would have killed me." Bobby squeezed her to his side almost painfully tight. That son of a bitch was dead. He had gotten an uneasy vibe from him when he had met him briefly, but finding out that he almost killed his sister and her baby was enough to mark him for death in Bobby's book
"Bobby.' She whined, "Loosen up."
"Shit, sorry." He loosened his grip a bit and she took steps forward and picked up one of the roses that fell out of the bouquet that was on top of the casket. She took a shaky breath and laid it on top of it before the men worked on lowering it into the ground. She turned so her back turned she started to go towards Jerry's car but froze seeing her husband and his partner standing not far away watching.
"Jer? Can we go? Please." She called, "I need to get back to Evie."
It wasn't Jerry that joined her it was Bobby, his eyes following her gaze.
"Is that him?"
"Yeah, don't cause a scene Bobby, he isn't going to do anything with you being with me. And not with Green being there." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, she could see his jaw working furiously wanting to yell at her and to storm over to where Green was with his partner but the fact that they just buried their mother and they were both struggling with it stopped him. "Come on, I will walk you to Jerry's car."
Green swallowed the smirk that threatened to form on his face, he should have known that Bobby would have made his way home to mourn Evelyn's death and to find out who did this. But also that he would also protect Vivi, just like he had when she was adopted when she was almost 10 and he was 14.
No one really messed with her and Jack with Bobby, Jeremiah, and Angel around. He had wanted to search for at least one of their numbers to get them back for her but it wasn't his place and he knew it.
"Come on let's go." He ordered clasping his partner's shoulder a little harder and tighter than normal. They had to let the Mercer siblings know that they were handling it and they didn't need their help but in all honesty, he knew that they did their help. They could do and find anything out if they put their minds to it and when it came to Evelyn they would go to the end of the earth for it.
"Careful girls," Vivi called as her nieces Amelia and Daniella went outside with their dog, "Stay in the backyard okay?" "Kay, Auntie Vi." Amelia grinned before pausing to press a kiss against baby Evie's head, "Don't worry Evie, you can play with us soon." Daniella was already outside with the dog. Amelia loved her aunt and loved being around her and the baby. She offered her aunt a smile before rushing out of the house to where her sister was at.
"Don't cry Vi, don't cry," Vivienne muttered to herself as she used the blanket that her mother knitted for Evie to cover herself and her baby thinking that all she wanted to do was to go back to her mother's house and go into her old bedroom and cry, but she had to play the role of the good mourning daughter and she didn't even have that in her.
"Is that the baby?" One of Evelyn's coworkers asked as she and several others came into the house. "It is but let's give Vivi and the baby some space." Camille came swooping in and stopped the women before they could get to her. "She had a c-section, and with Ms Evelyn dying it's been hard on her.'
Vivi mouthed her thanks to Camille before focusing her attention on her daughter, she could hear her brothers coming into the house, laughing about how Bobby burned down the treehouse that Jerry built but she couldn't bring herself to pipe in with her own comments, she felt like she did when she first came to live with Evelyn and the boys and she hated that. She hadn't been that girl in a very long time.
"Is that the little brat?" Bobby asked finally making it over to where she was sitting at. "Yeah." The little girl squeaked when she was shifted away from her mother's chest. "Evie Jack, I went back and forth on the name since I found out she was a girl." Jack sat down on the arm of the chair to peek at her, "I can't believe she gave you all that trouble when you were in New York with me.' 'Trust me, she is going to be exactly like me. Troublemaker."
"You were in New York?" Bobby asked surprised before looking out of the sliding door at the two older nieces. "Yeah, Josh and I got into a huge fight, he beat the crap out of me so I left, I went to see Jack." She shrugged her shoulders, "Go say hi to the girls. You won't scare them."
Bobby gave her a look which she returned with a grin, knowing exactly how she was pissing him off. "You too Cracker Jack." "Don't start that Vi," Jack complained as he stood up from the arm of the chair. "Blame Bobby, he is the one that started it."
**
Josh looked into the house and saw his wife who was now standing in the kitchen with her brother and his wife, their baby was being held by Jerry. "Whatever you are thinking don't do it," Green warned quietly as they started towards the door, "There is another reason why Bobby is called the Michigan Mauler and there is a reason why Vivienne didn't date until you. It's because of him and Angel, they are fiercely overprotective. I won't stop them from killing you." He didn't add the fact that he would help them hide the body too.
"Don't worry about it Green, whatever happens between me and her, is exactly that." He informed as he pushed past him and into the house. "Digging his own grave," Green muttered before following him.
"Vivienne." Josh sneered once he was inside of the house and standing in front of his wife and her siblings. The tall lanky one that Green told him was Jack shifted so that he was standing partially in front of Vivi. "Enough of this, let's go." He started. "I am not going anywhere with you. I am staying at Ma's.' "With her brothers." Bobby threw in, "Where she belongs." "She is my wife, she belongs with me." "Easy fellas," Green warned the tempers were flaring and it could turn ugly quickly. "I won't be your wife any longer." Vivi snapped from where she was standing behind Jack and now Bobby.
"Mom's lawyer referred me to a divorce lawyer. And I met with him the day before Evie was born. You try and fuck with me, my brothers or my daughter, I will take you for every god damn dime you have plus your pension." She pushed her daughter into a surprised Bobby's arms and went over to where the diaper bag and pulled out the stack of papers and threw them at her husband.
"Now get the fuck out." Josh looked at the papers and then back at his wife who looked white as a sheet and then at her three brothers. "You fucking bitch." He started to go around the counter to get to her but was stopped by Bobby. "Listen to my sister, and get the fuck out." He barked, "Or I will make you get out." If her husband was suprrised it didn't show, "See you soon, Vivi, and thats a promise." Green had grabbed a hold of his arm was leading him towards the door. "Not the time or place, Josh, not the time or place." He returned before offering Jerry who had followed them to the door a sorry and that he would handle it.
