Hand in Hand

Chapter 11

Don groaned when he heard the phone ring; he felt like they hadn't been asleep that long with him constantly checking on Meryl and helping her with her medicines. "Shit!" He hissed quietly as he tried to disentangle himself from his wife; not wanting the phone to wake her up because she needed as much sleep as possible. "Where is it?"

"Don?" Meryl mumbled still mostly asleep. "Okay?"

Don grabbed the phone and silenced it, seeing it was Larry. "It's just Larry, Darl; go back to sleep and I'll take care of it."

"Kay." Meryl replied to her husband in her sleep and then curled up to his pillow. "Come back to bed."

Don smiled at her as he answered the phone as quietly as possible while checking on the babies and making sure that they were still sleeping; he breathed a sigh of relief when it looked like his wife had fallen back asleep and their babies were snoozing away. He tried not to be irritated with his best friend; but he knew he wouldn't do a good job at that. "Larry? What is it? It's early."

"Listen bud, I'm sorry for calling so early." Larry could tell Don was irritated and he didn't blame him with everything they had gone through in less than 48 hours; but he knew they would want to hear what he had to say. "I know Meryl needs sleep, and you do as well. I wouldn't have called unless it was important."

Don calmed down; knowing that Larry was telling the truth. "I know you wouldn't; I'm sorry, just a little cranky. Not at you."

"You have every reason to be." Larry assured his best friend. "Listen, she's okay; but I'm calling about Mamie."

Nothing elicited fear in Don than the thought of something being wrong with any of his children, his granddaughter or his wife. "Mamie? What's wrong with Mamie?"

"Physically she is fine; but it's about the divorce." Larry said. "Listen, I'm sure M is asleep; but I think you should bring her in on this."

As much as Don hated to wake up his wife when he knew she needed to sleep; he also wanted her awake for the phone call. He immediately got in bed next to his wife and kissed her lips. "Baby, I hate to wake you up but Larry needs to talk to us. It's about Mamie."

"Mamie?" Meryl immediately woke up, not surprising her husband, as she was always in mother and wife mode. However, she sat up too quickly and help her head. "Shit!"

Don rubbed her back and kissed the side of her head. "Easy, baby; Larry says she's physically okay but it's about the divorce. Here, I'll put him on speaker."

"Larry?" Meryl was still trying to adjust her eyes and bring her brain into focus as to what was going on. "What's going on with our baby girl."

Larry took a deep breath. "Listen, I'm breaking confidentiality by telling you this; but my role as her Godfather is trumping client confidentiality."

"You are on my retainer." Don attempted to joke. "Spill. What is that little shit trying to do to our baby girl."

Larry knew Don would be in fighting mode; just as Larry always was with Suzie's ex before Henry. "The divorce hearing was moved up to this afternoon. She isn't telling anybody. She told me she didn't want to bother you two with it with everything going on; but I knew you would of course want to know."

"It's not a bother." Meryl croaked as she reached out for Don's hand. "She's our baby girl."

Don sighed as he wrapped his arm around his wife. "That's our Mamie girl; always trying to protect those she loves. We're her parents, we don't need to be protected."

"That's right." Meryl agreed with her husband. "We're the ones that should do the protecting. Has she told anyone?"

Larry shook his head. "No, she told me not to say anything to Lizzie or my parents or Hen and Suze or Lou."