13. Standing Strong

*Here you gooo guys! Hope this is alright! :)) Thanku so much for the comments you left on the last chapter! ^_^*

"You can't do that." Drake's face was dead serious as he stared at the stocky guy before him.

"Nigga, I'll do as I muthafuckin' please! Last time I checked I was the brother here. Shit ain't got nothin' to do with you!" The urge to just blurt out everything was incredibly strong but he knew that would just cause more problems.

"What about Auburn? You can't take her on a plane, she shouldn't even be leavin' the house just yet."

"Fuck, I ain't even think about that." Jelani ran his hand over his stubbly chin as he looked down.

"Don't you think Nic should have a say in this anyway?" Their eyes connected but soon turned to the stairs hearing Nicki speak.

"I should have a say in what?" There was an uncomfortable silence as she moved over to them, looking between their faces. "Can someone please say somethin'?" She was chuckling a little at first but when none of them laughed she turned serious. "Drake?"

"Ask your brother." Standing up swiftly he gave Nicki a remorseful look and stood by her side.

"Lani what's he talkin' about?"

"Look, I was just suggestin-"

"Suggestin'? You told me you had the fuckin' tickets and everythin'!" They continued to argue back and forth until Nicki's voice interrupted them.

"Can one of you please tell me what the hell you're talkin' about?!" Not hesitating to step in Drake spoke up.

"Your brother has plane tickets to Arizona, he wants you to move back with him." Her facial expression only showed mortification as she slowly turned to face Jelani.

"Seriously?"

"Well, yeah I mean since we figured things out I thought it would be best if you were with family, y'know?"

"Lani I'on wanna move to Arizona! We're fine here."

"I don't mind her stayin' with me, this is her home now." There he was again, sticking his nose into other people's business and quite frankly Jelani was sick of it.

"Who the fuck asked you?" He got to his feet quickly and moved closer to Drake with Nicki trying to stand in front of him.

"Jelani stop it!"

"No, I'm done with this guy throwin' his opinion in where it ain't needed or wanted!"

"It is wanted and needed-" She stopped quickly and turned quiet as her brother stared down at her.

"What?"

"I just meant that I-"

"Wait." He took a step back and stared between a silent but deadly looking Drake and his nervous little sister. "There's somethin' goin' on here..." He kept flicking his eyes from her face to his as he pointed at them. "The fuck is this?!"

"I was gonna tell you-"

"Tell me what?! That this nigga's takin' advantage of a sixteen year old girl?!" His nostrils flared with rage and Nicki knew that he'd worked it out already, it was only a matter of time.

Back upstairs Sandi could hear all the commotion and desperately wanted to go down and see what was happening but she didn't want to leave Auburn alone. There was no doubt that she could hear all the noise too and that was affirmed when she started fussing in her arms. Being premature she wasn't feeding properly but Nicki was told to keep at it even if it meant only feeding for five minutes and then have her stop only to want feeding again less than half an hour later. Luckily since she was expressing too there was bottled milk in the fridge and freezer but that still meant having to go downstairs. She just rocked her for a while in hopes that it would calm her but she was still unsettled. Just as she was about lay her back in the moses basket she heard even louder yelling but this time it was coming from Nicki before a series of banging happened which was soon followed by the slamming of the front door. Then it was just silent.



"Here just let me hold it to your face?" Drake let his reddened hands drop to the table as Nicki held the cool cloth to his swollen eyebrow. "I told you to just leave it, I know what he's like."

"Nicki he fuckin' hit you! You expect me to just stand there?!"

"Can you tone it down please? I'm fine, he didn't even get me that hard."

"That's not the point though! And you do know that he has rightful guardianship of you, so he could just drag you out there if he wants?!"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." He looked up at her face and cooled himself a little, her left cheek was a tinge of purply pink already. It wasn't a punch but it was a fairly strong backhand. That guy had issues.

"Let me look at your face." He pulled her hand away and sat her down, she just let him be the doctor as the reality of what just happened sank in. She always knew he'd end up like their Father. She didn't know why though, it was just a feeling she had and unfortunately she was right. "It's just gonna be pretty big bruise. You sure you're okay?" He stared down at her as she nodded. Interrupting their talk Sandi entered quietly with Auburn still in her arms, understandably she gasped as soon as she saw their faces.

"What happened?" She handed the baby to Nicki and she silenced immediately after being placed in her mother's arms. "I knew I shouldn't have let him in!" Sandi could feel herself verging on the tears but Drake quickly stopped her.

"Hey, this ain't your fault ma. Don't blame yourself." He rubbed her arm and turned to look at Nicki but she was too busy watching Auburn as she rocked her.

"You two are okay though?"

"Yeah we're fine, I think we're just gonna call it a night though." He kissed her forehead before they headed upstairs. "See you in the mornin'." She wasn't far behind them as she too went up to her room, they'd all had enough drama for the night.

It was quiet in their room, Nicki had finally got Auburn off to sleep and was just happy to be climbing back into bed. Unbeknownst to her Drake was watching her the whole time, there was something about the way she was with Auburn. Like it all came naturally to her which was odd considering she was merely a sixteen year old girl. Nevertheless she was already showing signs of being a great Mother.

"What are you lookin' at?" The hint of shyness in her voice caught his attention as he stared at her in the dark.

"Just you two, why? Am I not allowed?" She could only just see the outline of his smirk and was taken aback when his hand brushed over the soon-to-be bruise on her cheek. "How's your eyebrow?"

"Fine, how's your cheek?"

"Fine." She mimicked his answer and pulled her hand up to stop his from rubbing on her face. "What's gonna happen if he really does make me go to Arizona?"

"Don't even think about it, I'm not gon' let him take you. He'd have to kill me first."

"But you even said that he has rightful guardianship, so he could." He knew she'd been putting up a front earlier and now she was worrying.

"Don't panic, you're s'posed to be takin' it easy and all you've had is drama after drama. You're not goin' anywhere. Either of you." He kissed her gently to try and diminish her thoughts but it didn't do anything.

"Auburn won't have a Dad."

"Nicki. Stop it." Truthfully the more she talked about it the more he was beginning to freak out. She and Auburn could literally be taken away from him with the click of Jelani's fingers. She lay silently before attempting to talk again.

"I love you." She was still looking at the ceiling as she spoke. Hearing his head move on the pillow she waited for him to speak but he didn't. Her heart felt like it was beating twice as hard, why wasn't he saying it back? Before her mind had chance to answer its own question she felt him nuzzle into her neck as his arm draped over her middle.

"I love you too." He even heard the sigh of relief she breathed and kissed her again to try and wash away any other doubts that were plaguing her mind.

The next morning she was hardly planning on being woken up at 5am but she was. Auburn was crying and Drake was still practically unconscious next to her. She didn't mind though. Slowly rubbing her eyes she yawned and let her legs fall off the side of the bed after she'd pulled the covers back. Quietly moving over to the moses basket she looked down to see her squirming around as she cried out.

"Hey baby." She couldn't help but smile as she reached in and picked her up, she still weighed next to nothing but the doctor said she'd get better with time. She stood and rocked her for a while since the loud volume of her cries wasn't interfering with Drake's sleep. After she'd calmed her a little she headed downstairs and fixed herself some breakfast before wiping her chest area down and getting comfy on the couch ready to feed her. As she sat there simultaneously feeding Auburn and watching TV she noticed that this was the longest she'd ever fed for. "Wow, you were hungry."

"She's not the only one." Hearing his voice she jumped a little in her seat before smiling.

"Well go eat then."

"I'm gonna." He leant down and kissed her over the back of the couch before running the palm of his hand over Auburn's little head. His eyebrow looked and felt pretty tender, as did her slightly purple cheek as he studied it before moving through to the kitchen. It was really bothering him that being hit like that seemed like nothing to her. In fact he'd made a bigger deal than she had. It was sad to think that she was used to being treated so badly, but he was going to change all that.

"Wait, eat it through here." Even though he'd gone at that point he still heard her and took his mediocre breakfast through to the lounge room. Taking a seat next to her he tore the yoghurt lid off and licked it before sitting it next to him. "You can't just have that for breakfast, it's tiny."

"It's all good, it's healthy stuff." He spoke in between eating as she stared at him blankly.

"I'll make you somethin' when she's done bein' greedy."

"It's fine Nic, this is good and..." He paused whilst thinking of the word. "Filling."

"You suck at lyin' Drake, that ain't even real food."

"Neither is that." He used his head to nod at her exposed breast as Auburn was still feeding.

"Y'know what? Make you're own damn food." She shook her head embarrassedly and tried to hide the smile as she pulled her robe more over herself.

"I think I will, you always burn the toast anyway." He laughed and jumped up before she got chance to hit him playfully as she pouted. She could still hear him laughing to himself in the kitchen when her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

...

Auburn, I know it isn't a great pic but it's the best I could find!

*Hope this was alright :o I'm trying to do all three dricki fics tonight :) I'm prolly gonna be posting tomorrow too! Anyway I'mma go get the other chapters done! Thanku all so much for reading and special thx to the ppl who take the time to leave comments on my fics!! ^_^*