A pair of hands took hold of AJ’s shoulders, pulling him away from the door. Woodenly, AJ followed, paying no attention to where he was going. Then he was being turned, and a pair of warm arms wrapped around him, holding him tight. No words were spoken. At the moment, none were needed. AJ brought his arms up slowly at first, then gripping to Brian as a lifeline. He felt his tears start to overflow and was embarrassed, but too far gone to be able to stop them. Still Brian said nothing. He held him close and let him cry.
When finally AJ’s tears were spent, Brian moved them towards the deck, snagging one of the bags along the way. He reached inside and pulled out AJ’s brand of cigarettes and a lighter, handing them to him. AJ smiled in appreciation. They stepped outside, leaving the door open so that they’d be able to hear Mattie if anything happened.
After the first drag, AJ felt his mind clear. He used the back of his hand to wipe the tears off of his face, embarrassment sinking in. Even that started to fade, though, as his anger came back. He started to pace, puffing on his smoke. “I swear to God, Bri, what the hell am I supposed to do here? Jesus, you should have seen her in there.” AJ spun, gesturing toward the hotel room. “She is bruised like no tomorrow! Old ones, a few new ones. Someone’s beat that child, Brian! My child!”
There was no comment from Brian. He simply stood there, letting AJ get it out. He knew there was nothing that he could say right at that moment. His own heart was breaking at the thought of someone abusing a child, any child. No wonder she had been scared of them! To have your mother, the woman who was supposed to protect you, be the one who hurts you. That was beyond Brian’s world. He couldn’t understand it.
“How the hell could anyone do something like that?” AJ hissed, lighting another cigarette off of the first one, and then putting that first butt in the ashtray. “She’s so tiny! I mean, I could practically count her ribs. I know some kids are small, and Ma always said I was a slender kid, but there’s no way that the way she looks is healthy!”
“It won’t take long to get her healthy, J. You’ll take good care of her. I have faith in that.”
Brian’s calm words seemed to fuel AJ’s temper. “I’ve done a fine fucking job so far, haven’t I?” AJ snapped at him. “Got her Ma pregnant, and didn’t even know it. Never contacted the woman ever again, never even knew about her until today. Some fucking daddy I am.” In those words Brian could hear all the pain and guilt that AJ was feeling. He wanted to rise and go to him, to hold him until they both felt better.
“You didn’t know, AJ. You can’t blame yourself for something you didn’t know.” Brian said.
But AJ was shaking his head. “It’s karma, biting my ass for all those times I was a fool. For using and drinking and sleeping with whatever I could find. I should have been more careful. Because I wasn’t, a little girl had to pay the price. A beautiful, sweet little girl.” The tears were coming again, but he fought to hold them back.
Something moved across Brian’s face. He reached out for AJ, to do what he wasn’t sure. A knock sounded on the door, interrupting them. AJ had to rush off and answer it before it woke Mattie up. He wondered what would have happened if someone hadn’t knocked. The look on Brian’s face, he couldn’t really find words to describe it.
All thoughts of that left AJ’s mind when he opened the hotel room door and found Marcus standing there with a cop at his side. “Uh, come in.” he said, gesturing into the hotel room. He led them over to the deck, apologizing as he did so. “Sorry, but I just got Mattie into bed, so I don’t want to wake her up.”
“Not a problem, Mr. Mclean.” The police officer said. He was an elderly gentleman, a little thick around the middle, with hair that had gone silver, but his eyes were still sharp. He smiled as he held his hand out to both AJ and Brian in turn. “I’m Officer Thomas. Your security guard here told me the situation, and showed me the letter. Unfortunately, I have to say I knew who the woman was right off the bat.” Officer Thomas pulled out a pack of cigarettes, asking “Do you mind?”
AJ shook his head. He pulled out a smoke of his own, and flicked his lighter, offering it to Officer Thomas first, and then lighting his own. When they were both puffing away, Officer Thomas sighed. “Wife says these things will kill me yet. Figure she’s probably right. Gotta say, after seeing Ms. Barley today, well, might make it a little easier to quit. Lung cancer’s what she had.”
It took everything AJ had not to tap his foot impatiently. His nerves were stretched thin as it was, and this man’s prattle wasn’t helping any. With just his fingertips he managed to hold on to his temper.
“Anyways, I’ve got the swab sticks to take the samples for the paternity test, and with situations like this we can get it back by tomorrow evening if we rush it. If it can’t be rushed, it’ll be about 48 hours. Fortunately the guy she was with at the time demanded a paternity test, so we already have hers and the little girls on file. It’ll just be a matter of matching yours, which should make it go all the faster. Apparently she tried to pass the kid off as his, but he knew he hadn’t been with her long enough for as far along as she was.”
The cop put his cigarette out in the ash tray, and then grabbed a package out of his pocket. He set it on the table and carefully opened it, making sure nothing rolled off. With brisk efficiency he snapped the gloves on, being careful to touch no surface. Next he grabbed the cheek swab, holding it up in the air away from everything. He was surprisingly efficient, which he didn’t mind. It was no matter to him if people thought he was a bumbling old man. When it came time to do his job, he did it.
“If you’ll open wide, I’ll take a scraping off your cheek and get this to the lab. Your man here authorized enough money that we should be able to process this as quickly as possible. Ah, there we go, that should be good!” Officer Thomas put the swab into a special plastic container, sealed it off, and put it back into the package. He then rolled it up and put it into his pocket. “Now, about the girl. Since we don’t know if she’s yours or not yet, we can have someone here from child services in a jiffy to take her off your hands until the results of the test come back.”“She stays.” AJ said firmly. That was not a point he would negotiate on.
“Yes, well. We’ll get these results back to you as soon as we can, Mr. McLean. I’ll try to keep this as confidential as possible for you, to keep the press at bay for now. If you need anything at all, please call and let me know.” They shook hands, and Marcus escorted the officer from the room. Left alone again, AJ took a deep breath that turned into a yawn.
“Why don’t you go tuck in, Age?” Brian suggested softly. “Go lay down. I’ll kip it out on the couch if you need me at all.”
“You don’t need to sleep on the couch, Bri. You’re like, two doors down from me. No need for you to be uncomfortable on a couch for what’s left of the night.”
Brian just smiled at him and ushered him in the room. “Go on, go to bed, J.” he said, pushing him toward the bedroom. “You two get as much sleep as you need. Let me stay out here and help. I’ll be your guard dog and make sure no one bugs you two unless it’s an emergency.”
“What…” AJ had to pause to yawn. The stress of his evening was catching up with him, as well as coming down off of the show. “Oh, man. What about the other guys?”
“I won’t let them bother you till you’re ready, either.” Brian said with a wink. He knew that wasn’t what AJ meant, but he was setting him at ease. Appreciating that, AJ hugged his friend before he lugged himself back to the bedroom. He stripped his shirt and socks off, but left his jeans on as he climbed into the bed.
No sooner had he settled down under the covers that Mattie rolled toward him and snuggled against his chest.
A smile curved AJ’s lips. He wrapped his arm around her, and drifted to sleep.