With each passing day the threesome became closer and closer. Not only were Mattie and her Papa getting to know one another, and growing more comfortable with each other, but Brian found himself falling further and further in love with both of them. It wasn’t just the father who had captured his heart. Each moment he spent with Mattie carved a spot deeper and deeper in his heart for her. The feeling was reciprocated. Mattie loved her Uncle Brian.
But three days after they came home, the first cloud came over their happy bubble. It was the middle of the night when Brian woke up to a strange sound echoing down to his room. He was already out of bed before he realized what it was. His steps quickened out the door and down the hall. Already the door to Mattie’s room was open, and the screams had now turned to sobs.
Unsure of what to do, Brian stood in the doorway, taking in the scene before him. AJ sat in the middle of the bed. In his arms he held a sobbing Mattie. The little girl was quivering and crying her heart out. AJ had his arms around her, one hand holding her head against his chest as he rocked her. He made quiet shushing sounds, trying to soothe. Over her head his eyes met Brian’s, and the worry and heartache there was enough to have Brian crossing the room.
He sat gently on the edge of the bed. At the movement, Mattie’s eyes shot open, focusing on him. In them was a panic that no child should ever have. But when she saw it was him, she reached a hand out, pulling him in to their circle. Without a pause, AJ opened one arm, bringing Brian in to his rocking hug.
The little girl refused to let go of AJ, but she held Brian’s hand in hers and hid her face between him and AJ’s chest. It was a heartbreaking scene. “It was just a dream, Mattie my love.” AJ said in his deep soothing voice. “Everything’s all right. Papa’s here to take care of you. Don’t you worry. Papa’s here.”
“Mama comin’!” she wailed, clinging all the tighter to them. “Mattie bad, Mama comin’!”
“Shh, baby. You’re mamas not coming. It’s just Papa and Uncle Brian. We’ll keep you safe, don’t you worry none.” AJ tried to reassure her, but she dissolved into tears all over again. Brian felt AJ bow his head, burying his face in Brian’s hair. Brian could tell by AJ’s quivering that he was trying to control his own tears.
Bringing a hand up, Brian cupped Mattie’s face. “Your Papa and I are here, sweet pea.” He said softly, gently. Her watery eyes opened, looking in to his. Right then Brian knew that he would move heaven and earth to protect this child. “No one is going to hurt you. No body.”
“No Mama?”
“No, no Mama.” He answered. He used his thumb to wipe away some of her tears. “Just us. We’re here, and we love you.”
“No abuela?”
The Spanish word surprised the both of them. AJ looked down at her. “You mean Nana?” he asked her gently. But Mattie shook her head and wiped her nose on her arm. “Abuela. No abuela. She so mad. Bad Mattie. Bad, bad, Mattie. Bad girl.”
This time AJ wasn’t able to hold his tears in. He gathered her even closer and snuggled down to rub his cheek on her hair. “Oh, honey, no. Mattie’s not a bad girl. You’re a very good girl. No Mama. No abuela. Just Papa and Uncle Brian.”
They all scooted back a little, so that AJ could lean on the pillows there as he tried to rock and soothe his daughter back to sleep. She refused to let go of Brian, so he laid between AJ’s legs, and he and Mattie snuggled on AJ’s chest as he started to sing softly to her. Together, the small family fell back to sleep
~~~~~~~
Brian was the first to wake in the morning light. He sat up and stretched, looking around the room. For a second he wondered where he was, but looking back at the bed, the night came rushing back to him. That poor little child. His heart broke for her. She was such a good girl, who had lived through a hellish three years. It was his fervent prayer that she would forget it as she grew older.
Quietly he made his way from the room and downstairs. There he set about brewing a pot of coffee and stretching his sore joints out. He was too old to be sleeping curled up in a twin size bed, let alone with two other occupants. It had been worth it, though. He didn’t regret a moment of it. If ever he had doubted how much Mattie was coming to mean to him, last night would have reaffirmed it for him.
Once the first cup was brewed, Brian poured it for himself and took it with him to gather the morning paper. He opened the front door, still wearing his pajama pants, and was instantly hit with flashing lights. Reflexes born of living in the limelight had him slamming the door shut in a flash. Shit. What was that? He stretched up to look through the peephole and could barely make out the media camped out on the end of the lawn.
A feeling of dread built in Brian’s stomach as he hurried back through the house, heading to AJ’s office. There he powered up the computer and connected to the internet. It didn’t take him very long to find what he had been afraid of. All over the web were shots of them stolen through bushes, playing in the backyard. Or through a bedroom window as AJ was lifting Mattie up into the air.
Bold headlines covered each page. “AJ McLean love child!” “Boy band rebel turned family man” “Secret love nest of Backstreet boys!” The photos and stories that went with them were even worse. Shit, shit, and shit. This was so not good. They had wanted a little more time before preparing a statement for the press and introducing her to the world. They’d wanted to give her time to get to know her Papa.
There was nothing for it but to go and wake AJ up. Brian unplugged the laptop from the charger and carried it with him as he headed toward Mattie’s room with lead feet. He paused at the door and looked at the two for a minute. Mattie was still against AJ’s side, one of his arms wrapped protectively around her. Her head was lying on his chest, one small hand on his stomach. Under that arm she held her precious Elephant.
With a sigh, Brian moved into the room quietly. He went to the side of the bed that Mattie wasn’t on and gently shook AJ’s arm. “Alex?” he whispered, reaching up to brush his hand against AJ’s face. Slowly the younger man stirred, his eyes opening to blink in the morning light. “Bri?” he mumbled sleepily.
“Age, you need to wake up. You need to see this.”
Something in Brian’s tone had AJ’s eyes snapping fully open. They focused pretty quickly on the computer in Brian’s hands. There was no other way to do this. Brian turned the laptop, letting AJ see the multiple screens open with their stories and photos. He scrolled through some, letting AJ see everything that was there. With each new story and photo, AJ’s eyes grew darker and darker. “Hell.” He cursed under his breath.
Very gently AJ disentangled himself from Mattie. He tucked her back under the covers and tiptoed with Brian from the room. Once the door was shut, AJ still didn’t speak. He went to his office and grabbed one of the monitor extensions, clipping it to the pocket of his pajama pants. Once it was on, he turned to Brian and spoke. “I take it they’re piled up out there.”
Brian set the laptop back on the desk, powering it down. “Yeah. I opened the door to get the paper and the lights flashed. I shut it again, but I imagine they got a picture of me.”
“Fuck.”
The two stared at one another, cursing the life they lived that made this a problem. “You’re gonna have to make a press release now, J. There’s no putting it off any more. They’re saying she your and my love child.”
“Mother fucker.” AJ cursed again. He ran a hand through his hair, staring around the room. “What’re we going to do? They’ll crucify our baby, Bri.”
Even knee deep in problems, Brian couldn’t help the little thrill he felt when AJ called her ‘our baby’. “We’ll make the statement, tell them an edited truth. You’ll have to be candid. Say that when you were still an alcoholic you slept with one woman, and she ended up pregnant but never told you. Now she’s passed away from cancer, and she felt the only place for your daughter to be was with her father. The press will lap it up, and she’ll turn into their golden child.”
Distress marred AJ’s features. “What’s that going to do to her when she’s older? To know that everyone knows she was a child made from a drunken night of passion? Will she think I consider her a mistake?”
“You love her, Alex. It shows in everything she do. I doubt that she will ever find reason to think you don’t love her. As she gets older, she’ll grow to understand that mistakes happen. So long as you never try to lie to her about it, I imagine that she’ll adjust to the idea when it comes.”
Brian’s words seemed to ease some of AJ’s tension. He took a deep breath and then held his hand out. With a smile, Brian took hold of it.
“All right, Uncle.” AJ said, giving him a half grin. “Let’s go call Kevin and get this ball rolling before she wakes up.”