12. A Spanner In The Works - Part Two

*I'm officially free! Finished my first year at university! *sighs* Anywhooo on with the story :)) Thanku for all the comments on the previous chapter, also for Onikafaree readers I'm aiming to get a chapter done for 'Catch Me' too ^_^*

Sitting at the table with this stranger Sandi cleared her throat uncomfortably. He was a fairly big guy to say the least.

"Sorry, what did you say your name was again?"

"Jelani." He smiled tiredly. As soon as he found out where Nicki was staying he got a flight back home to sort out some stuff and came straight back. He was taking his sister home with him.

"And you're Nicki's brother?"

"Yes ma'am." Sandi folded her lips and glanced at the kitchen clock.

"They should be back any minute now." The way her sentence ended on a high note he could tell she wanted to say more.

"They?"

"Yes. Aubrey, my son and your sister..." She let her voice trail off slowly as she thought things over in her head. Nicki had never once mentioned a brother to her and along with that he obviously hadn't shown any interest in keeping contact with her even given her state. The dreaded thought washed over her as she realised he probably didn't know about Auburn, or Aubrey for that matter. She was right. Although Ashley had told him the reasons Nicki was admitted she never spoke of her pregnancy. She knew that leaving him in for such a shock would cause more drama, which is exactly what she wanted.

"They what?"

"Look I-" Hearing a car pull up they both switched their gaze to the bay window in the lounge.

"This them?" With no time to answer Sandi stood quickly to follow him as he went towards living room. He knew it was her as soon as they stepped through the door. Drake entered first with Nicki close behind him and Auburn held to her chest.

"Hey Mom-" He stopped instantly seeing this stranger stood before him. "Who's this?" The level of curiosity in his voice made Nicki look up to see a fuming Jelani. He looked beyond mad. Stuttering on a greeting she looked at Drake sheepishly before her brother's calm yet chilling voice broke the silence.

"Nicki, please tell me that ain't your kid?" It sounded more like he was stating rather than asking. Almost as if him saying that made it somehow true. Feeling Drake's eyes on her she looked back at him before looking at Sandi.

"Could you please take her?"

"Of course, I'll just be upstairs." She smiled comfortingly and took the tiny baby into her arms before ascending the stairs. After watching them disappear Nicki's face turned into complete and utter rage.

"Where the fuck did you disappear to?! You have any idea what you left me to deal with?!" She slapped her arms back down by her side and laughed humourlessly. "Oh wait! Of course you wouldn't 'cause you fucking left me in that dump with him!" Noticing the tears in her eyes, Jelani saw the hurt but Drake could only see anger. He'd never seen her like this before.

"Nicki, please would you calm down?" Drake's soft palm was warm on her forearm as she lifted her hands to her head.

"Well say somethin' then! I know you didn't come here to just fucking stand and say fuck all Jelani! Go on! Say what you gotta say!" She jerked her head back slightly when he turned away from her and sat down on the couch.

"Nic, we need to talk. Like adults. Could you come sit down?" She scoffed and rolled her eyes but catching Drake's expression she dropped her head. Maybe he was right? The air between them did need to be cleared but it wouldn't even need clearing if it wasn't for him bailing on her the way he did a few months ago. Honestly after the last few weeks with Auburn and all the issues surrounding her and her health she was exhausted. Mentally, emotionally and physically. Certainly too tired to start fighting with her brother. Slowly making her way over to the couch opposite him she looked up only to see Drake smiling at her before winking.

"I'll give y'all some space. Be upstairs if you need me."

"Don't go too far, I wanna talk to you." Nicki watched the back of Jelani's head as he rotated to make eye contact with Drake. Within a matter of seconds he was gone, leaving them in silence.

"So? What d'you want Jelani?" She kept her tone dry after seeing the vein in his neck throbbing, she automatically knew he was fighting the anger and if he was anything like their Father then that was a bad thing.

"I been gettin' phonecalls. People worryin' 'bout you and him and I get over there to find you not even livin' with him no more. Why'd you leave?"

"First of all could you drop the attitude? You ain't interrogatin' me." She curled her lip and sat back against the couch. "I was done with havin' to take care of him and shit. So I left."

"And you came here? How'd you know this nigga?"

"He's a friend, said he had a room goin' spare so I asked if I could have it."

"Why were you in the hospital then?"

"It was noth-" She paused dramatically and looked at him. "Who told you I was in the hospital?"

"Just a person I know. She ain't say nothin' 'bouta kid though, so I know it ain't yours. Right?"

"What would you know? You been gone for almost eight months. And she's not an 'It'."

"Why can't I have you just answer my question Nic?! Is. That. Your. Kid?" He slapped the back of his right hand into the palm of his left with each word spoken.

"Yeah." She kept a straight face as he stood up quickly rubbing his hands all over his scalp.

"No, no, no." He was shaking his head in denial before continuing on with his pointless rambling. "No, you just turned sixteen. That can't be right. You lyin'." He kept on shaking his head as he paced.

"I'm not lyin'. I had her two weeks ago. In fact, where you're stood now is where I gave birth to her." She knew what she was doing was cruel. She wanted to escape that house as bad as he did but she would never dream of leaving him if the roles were reversed. In a sickening way she felt like he deserved to feel guilty. The cards had definitely turned with this argument. Or so she thought. She studied his troubled face as he stared down at the floor as if he could see her giving birth right there.

"So, who is he then? Who's her Father?"

"You don't know him."

"Answer the goddamn question Onika!" He leant over to her and slammed his fists on to the coffee table. Her breath was caught in her throat as she inched away from his angry face. Noticing her drawback from him he stood up straight only just realising who he reminded himself of. He sighed before sitting next to her on the couch, taking her small hand in his. "I'm sorry, I just wanna look out for you."

"Well, what would you like? A medal? 'Cause you did a great fucking job Jelani." She wiped away the single tear on her drawn face as she snatched her hand out of his grasp and stood up. "Please? Just go. You sure as hell didn't care back then so what's changed now?" He felt terrible. The known fact that their Father was violent, verbally and physically and he still left her alone with him. What neither of them knew was Drake had overheard the last minute or so of their talking.

"Nicki, can I talk to you for a sec?" She looked back at Jelani before following Drake into the kitchen he didn't hesitate to pull her to him as he hugged her. "You should talk to him Nic."

"Drake he left me alone with that asshole who calls himself a Father and you want me to talk to him?" She was about to walk away but he kept her in his embrace.

"Think about it, who is this helpin'?" The answer was nobody and they both said the same thing in their minds before he asked the next question. "Do you not think Auburn deserves to have her uncle be a part of her life?" Again they both replied with the same answer in their heads. Yes.

"I can't just forgive him though. If he'd stayed then I wouldnt-"

"You wouldn't have Auburn. I know that's a sick way of lookin' at it. Nobody wants to have to go through somethin' like that. But it's true."

"I wouldn't have met you either." She looked up at him, he couldn't help but notice how drained she looked and she was supposed to be taking things easy.

"Exactly. Every cloud has its silver linin'. Now get in there and fix things, you never know what could happen tomorrow." He was clueless as to how accurate his last statement was. She sighed deeply knowing he was right. Her expression was obvious to him whilst he smiled and turned her around before tapping her butt. "Go."

She did as he said and walked back through, her calmness immediately improved the heated atmosphere as she began talking. They both apologised and kept things at a talking level as they discussed everything they needed to and before they knew it he was sat with his baby niece resting in his arms.

"This is gonna take a hell of a long time for me to get used to. I hope you know that Nic?" His voice was quiet and deadly serious as Nicki and Drake shared a worried look. He had no clue about them being together yet and honestly it was only a matter of time before he found out. Interrupting their silence Auburn let out a few grunts which soon enough turned into cries as Nicki scooped her gently out of Jelani's arms.

"I'mma go feed her upstairs. I'll be back down as soon as she's done." She held her protectively against her chest and headed upstairs, leaving Drake and Jelani in silence.

"Thanks, y'know for lettin' her stay with you. Your Mom told me you was a doctor, good to know she had safe place to stay for the time being."

"You don't have to thank me." He smiled before recognising what he just said. "The time being?"

"Yeah, I mean obviously since we patched things up I'm gonna take her back out to Arizona. At least she'll be with some family then."

"But she's fine here, she's no trouble. Plus she's still in school." Drake could feel himself becoming panicky at the thought of losing her.

"No, it's all sorted. I got our plane tickets sorted. We'll leave tomorrow night."

"You can't do that, you can't just pull her away from her life here. That ain't fair." Picking up on his tone Jelani sat forward some more.

"Oh yeah? Try me." He reached into his pockets and pulled out a folded up document. "I'm her legal guardian now. What I say goes. We'll be outta here by tomorrow night."

...

*Okay I'm not keen on this chapter...The next one will be better, well I'll try and make it better lol AND I know NOTHING about legal guardianship and all that so ignore any errors. This is a fiction so I can just make up what I want ^_^ Thanks again for all previous comments. I'm gonna post on Set Me Free and Picking Up The Pieces tomorrow :))*