Living with the Club

Potlatch

Veronica walked to the front desk, "I'm looking for Juan Carlos Ortiz's room," Veronica says, Ricky close behind.
"He isn't taking visitors right now."
"What is his room number?"
"Ma'am, I can't give that information out."
"Ma'am, I'm his brother and this is his girl. If I have to call Dr. Tara Knowles to give me that information, I will."
"You should have said so.. room 228."
Ricky takes the lead now and Veronica is on his heels.
Her man is fast asleep.
She doesn't bother to see what Ricky is going to do, she crawls into bed with him and makes sure not to nudge him, she wanted to avoid waking him up in pain. She's very uncomfortable, but she needed this.
Ricky sits in the chair nearby.
He smiles lightly at Veronica.
"You know, he was talking to the guys about you before he went in," he says quietly but loud enough for her to hear.
"What did he say?"
"He was talking about cute little habits you had and-"
Veronica cuts him off.
"Habits?" She inquires.
"Like how you sometimes you go from speaking in a certain tone to someone then immediately turn to him and it's different. He said it's kinder, sweeter, more serious. You don't even realize it, but he loves it."
"Thanks for explaining. Please continue."
He laughs lightly.
"He said a lot of good things. He finished by saying that as soon as he saw you, he had a feeling you guys would end up marrying."
"I really love him, Ricky. And not in the oh he says sweet things or does sweet things kind of way and I feel like I have to. I mean that I really fucking love him. He's everything. Life. Oxygen. Past. Present. Future."
"I was gonna say if you only wanted physical or some shit, that you better walk away because he's head over heels."
"I know he is," she smiles.
Ricky's phone vibrates.
He glances at it, "I'll be back tomorrow morning."
He stands, resting his hand on his brother's arm.
"Feel better, brother."
He kisses Veronica's head and disapears out the door which was very unRicky of him, but it was sweet.
Veronica snuggles a bit, kissing his cheek.
"I love you, my king."
She knew he probably was fast asleep and probably didn't hear her, but she loved saying it.
She finally knew what it was like to love someone to a fullest extreme and it felt pretty damn good.
She drifted to sleep after looking at his face for a long while.

She woke up to Juice adjusting himself.
"Are you okay?!" She asked a little worried that she had been crushing him.
He laughs lightly, "I'm fine, baby."
"Are you?" She asks, talking about generally now and he understands without question.
"If you call getting set up by Zobelle, sent to prison, almost getting ass fucked for the club, getting stabbed for the club, if you call all that shit being okay, then yeah. I'm okay."
"I have so many questions," she says.
"We needed protection and the guys that we're willing to give it to us wanting something in return. To beat the guy who ratted them out. He was in witness protection. He happened to like Puerto Rican meat though so he made it possible for us to meet. So you see how that happened. Then the attack against the Son's went down before the protection was confirmed. That's why I'm in the hospital instead of at home with you, my love."
She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what he was feeling so she did what she could. She gave him a soft kiss on the lips. She pulls away but his hand reaches the back of her neck and pulls her to his lips again.
Somebody clears their throat after a minute of them kissing.
Veronica and Juice both look and see a nurse.
"How are you feeling, Mr. Ortiz?"
"In some pain."
"Scale 1-10. 10 being the worst."
Juice looked from the nurse to Veronica then back to the nurse.
"6-7" he answered honestly.
Veronica ran circles with her thumb on his hand.
"I'll give you some more morphine," the nurse says, approaching a machine and clicking some buttons.
"I'll check back in later," the nurse murmurs before disappearing out the door.
"Where we're we?" He smiled, putting his hand on the back of her neck, pulling her lips to his.
She smiled against his lips, missing his touch.
He flinches when she leans toward him. She immediately pulls back.
"Are you okay? Baby?"
"I'm fine, pressure on my back makes it a little uncomfortable. But oh God, baby. I missed you."
She feels it is appropriate to chuckle so she does.
He pecked her on the lips several times then looks at her, holding her face in his hands.
"I love you."