Mockingbird: a Songbird Sequel

Epilogue: Colt

"Fucking silence," I groaned, throwing myself onto the sofa. "I've been waiting for this all day."

"Yeah? Remind me how many times you got puked on today," Lennie retorted from the kitchen where she was scrubbing off her third Tshirt in the last twenty-four hours.

I chuckled to myself (out of fear for my life) and sighed. This was life now.

It had been almost a year. Cooper would turn one year the next week and Charley, the following month. Beau was visiting Maggie at school in Florida, the babies were getting bigger by the day, and I was in desperate need of some quiet time with my wife. Just. Fucking. Quiet.

Lennie walked into the living room, the front of her gray Tshirt dark with dampness and sighed. "They really undersell the barf level of babies."

I laughed out loud and slid as far to the back of the couch as I could. "C'mere."

"You do not want to be near me right now. I haven't showered since..." Her voice trailed off. "I don't even know when."

"Don't care." I hand circled her wrist and tugged her down on top of me. "Though... I could be convinced to move this to the shower..."

Lennie let out a sharp laugh. "You better have condoms on hand cuz there ain't no way in fucking hell you're knocking me up again."

"I'll pull out," I stated, chasing her lips as she dodged mine playfully.

"Wonder if that's what Beau said, too..."

"Stop. Talking."

Lennie giggled as she finally relented, allowing me to capture her lips with mine. I felt the sigh that caused her body to melt against mine. After a few moments of kissing the daylights out of her, I pulled back. "We're not expecting guests, right?"

"I don't think so..." Lennie stated, her expression confused.

"Couch sex it is!" I exclaimed as I somehow, I couldn't even tell you how, shifted and got her under me.

"Colt!" Lennie shrieked.

"Shh. Don't you dare wake them up," I snarled, nipping at her smile.

"You think you're getting lucky?"

"Oh, you're the one that's getting lucky."

"Prove it."

I growled playfully as I laid my body over hers, my fingers instantly finding the drawstring of the little shorts she had on, but the second I moved to pull the bow, there was a knock at the back door. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

"Get it! Hurry!" Lennie exclaimed, pushing me off with a force I didn't even know she possessed. "I swear, if those babies wake up..."

My wife ran into the kitchen like someone had lit her pants on fire, and I followed behind, slightly less urgently. I arrived behind her just as she opened the door, revealing the very last person I expected to see.

"Carter!" Lennie exclaimed, instantly throwing her arms around our long-lost, so-called friend's shoulders.

Carter, circled his arms around her, albeit, a bit hestitantly, but his eyes never left mine. "Sorry to disturb you..."

"It's okay!" Lennie insisted brightly. "Come in!"

Carter's head waved from side to side. "I'm... I'm not here for me..."

"What do you want, Cart?" I retorted; arms folded over my chest. I pretended to miss the scowl my wife shot me.

"She was looking for you..." Carter stepped out of the way to reveal a blonde with a tiny, curly, red haired little girl beside her holding her hand.

I didn't recognize either of them, but judging by the gasp that came out of Lennie, I was the only one.

"Ellie," Lennie said, her voice nearly a whisper.

The blonde shook her head, and as she stepped into the light, I noticed a deep purple bruise circling her left eye. "I'm sorry... I didn't know where to go..."

"It's okay," Lennie insisted. "It's okay, come in. Come in."

Carter stood back and allowed the woman, and I could only assume her daughter to enter my house, yet still we stared each other down.

"What happened to you?" Lennie asked, brushing the blonde's hair from her face.

"Brad... he's gotten worse..."

Brad... Lennie's ex... which meant this was...

"Shit," I sighed.

Carter cleared his throat. "She was at Culprit's. I didn't know what else to do," Carter stated.

"It's fine, Carter," Lennie stated. "You did the right thing." She squatted down to the little girl hiding behind her mother's legs. "What's your name, sweet pea?"

"Lucy..." came a tiny response.

"Well, Lucy, I'm Lennie," my wife smiled. "We're gonna take good care of you and your momma, okay?"

I sighed and looked back at Carter. "You can come in," I stated, though, my tone sounded far less than inviting.

Carter shook his head. "It's alright. I got a couple bags of theirs in my car..."

"Bring 'em in," Lennie stated. "We'll get everything figured out."

Carter gave her a nod and then headed to his truck, still running in my driveway. I gave the girls some space and headed out after him. Now, standing on the porch instead of in the kitchen.

"Where ya been, man?"

"A lot of places," Carter answered, non-committal.

"You just disappeared."

"I needed to clear my head."

"Lennie was worried about you."

Carter took a duffle, a backpack and a little kid's suitcase decorated with Disney characters from the back of his truck. He walked up to the stairs and set them next to me. "What do you want me to say, Colt? I needed to figure some shit out, alright?"

"And did you?"

"Why do you care?" Carter retorted. "You made it pretty clear that you no longer want me in your life..."

I sighed, my arms dropping to my side. "Cart, I..."

"Just forget it. I'm not here for us," Carter interrupted. "She needed help. I got her here. That's it."

"Are you back?"

"For now."

"What does that mean, Carter?"

"It means don't worry about it, Colt. I'm not your problem."  I just stared at him, either in shock or still a bit angry, I couldn't tell. "I'll see you, alright?" Without another word, Carter headed back to his truck, and within seconds, was heading back down my drive.

I glanced over my shoulder into the kitchen where my wife was already preparing some grand dinner for our new houseguests. If I knew my Lennie, we'd be housing these two for the foreseeable future. She always had a habit of collecting strays, good or bad.

I sighed and dragged the bags inside, just in time to hear one of the baby monitors chirping in the living room. Looked like Charley wanted to join the party. We'd moved Beau into the bedroom on the ground level so that Cooper and Charley could have separate nurseries, in the hope that just because one of them woke up, the other wouldn't have to.

"I got her," I stated, passing behind my wife and pressing my lips to the back of her skull.

"Love you," Lennie smiled sweetly.

"Love you, too," I responded, squeezing her shoulder.

And I did... I always would.

No matter how many random houseguests life threw at us.