Chance’s body shook with a laugh, but his face contorted in pain. “Fuck, man, don’t make me laugh,” he said. “Shit. Wish I woulda been there. Blackheart hasn’t said anything to me, but Sharon says they went out there and that Blackheart told her she never had to worry about Gregor hurting her, or anyone, again.”
“I’m pissed that I missed it,” Gabe said, “but glad it’s done. How’s Sharon doing?” Gabe didn’t know she was pregnant until Chance said:
“She wants to keep it.”
“Keep it? Keep what...?” That was his “Aha” moment. He didn’t know if the look on Chance’s face was from the physical pain he was in, or the thought of his girlfriend having a baby that belonged to one of the men who raped her.
“She’s pregnant,” Chance said, confirming it. “I thought you knew.”
“No...shit, those fuckers...”
“It was him—Gregor. She told me that morning and that’s why I just followed the fucker on my own. I couldn’t see anything but red, and if he hadn’t been with that woman, I would have just killed him and never called you. Fuck, I wish I would have.”
“Jesus, man, I’m sorry. She wants to keep the baby?”
Chance looked like he was in agony as he nodded. “She says she doesn’t believe in abortion, and it’s not the baby’s fault. Man, I see her point, I do...but I’m not sure, bro, I’m not sure I can look at that baby every day, knowing how it was brought into this world.”
Gabe didn’t know what to say, so for several minutes, he just sat with his friend, in silence. He could see both sides. He was raised Catholic and he’d been taught since he was old enough to understand that it was wrong, and against everything the Bible taught. His Maw Maw started leaving condoms around his room when he was barely sixteen and not saying a word about it. His Paw Paw, though, he’d been the one to sit him down and tell him to make damned sure he didn’t make any babies he wasn’t willing to take care of. Gabe wasn’t a player, but he’d had quite a bit of sex since becoming a Joker. The girls that hung around the club were mostly careful about birth control, but just in case he’d never had sex without a condom. He knew this was an entirely different scenario, though. This baby wasn’t just a “mistake” that Sharon would have to live with. This baby was birthed in chaos and trauma, hate and violence and Gabe wasn’t sure how Sharon would ever be able to look at him and not remember...he wasn’t sure, if he were Chance, that he could do it either.
He changed the subject after a few minutes and by the time the girls came back, they were talking and laughing about something stupid Brain had said or done. When it was time to go, Gabe stood up and leaned over to give his brother a hug. In his ear he whispered, “We’ll all get through this. We’re a family, and we’ve all got your back no matter what you decide, okay?” Chance used his one good hand to pat Gabe on the side of the face. His other must have gone up to protect him when he was getting beaten; it was in a cast and his fingers were bright red and blue in places. Gabe swallowed the burning anger once more, gave Sharon a hug, and told her to call if she needed anything, and then thought about how lucky he was as Patrice rolled him outside to her car.
Some people lose family members and it makes them realize how precious life is. Gabe had lost his parents and instead of cherishing his own life, he got up every day almost pushing it to the furthest limit he could. But suddenly, looking at the beautiful woman he might have a future with, and thinking about Sharon getting up every morning and facing another day after all she’d been through, gave him a renewed appreciation for life. One that he planned on hanging on to...because now he had a lot more to live for than he ever had before.
13
“Do you need anything from your place?” Patrice asked Gabe as she drove. He didn’t answer her for several seconds. They hadn’t talked about where she was taking him. So far, he’d only been to her place once and that was to pick her up for Booger’s wake; he’d barely stepped inside. She lived in an apartment in a renovated mansion in the Garden District. It was where a lot of young, wealthy professionals lived in New Orleans, and Gabe had felt out of place just driving his bike up into her driveway.
“Um...you taking me to your place?”
“No, I was going to just dump you off at your trailer and hope you can fend for yourself,” she said with a smile. “Your place isn’t big enough for you to use the wheelchair or the crutches, you’ll break something...and knowing you the way I do now, it will probably be something you need. I can take care of you better at my place, if that’s okay. I still have another week or so of vacation time left.”
He chuckled. “Well, yeah...I mean, if you don’t mind me invading your space.”
“I wouldn’t offer if I minded. Did you want to stop by your trailer?” Gabe was dressed in the only clothes he had, a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt that one of the guys had dropped by the hospital. He wanted his jeans, and he needed his kutte. He knew that Le Singe had taken it the day he went to the hospital; he only hoped that after what it had gone through in the swamps, it was salvageable.
“Yeah, I’d like to pick up a few things...and check in with Blackheart.” Gabe’s trailer was only half a mile from the club. A lot of the Jokers lived there in a makeshift trailer park they’d thrown together themselves on Blackheart’s property. The parish had tried to shut them down at one point, but somehow Blackheart was able to pull the strings necessary to get the zoning permits. It was back before he’d committed to staying loyal to Sally, and rumor had it that the plain, middle-aged woman who came out to meet with him and write up fines had instead left with a big smile on her face and a knot in the back of her hair, and no one had bothered them since.
Patrice drove past the clubhouse and up to Gabe’s trailer. When he unlocked it and she helped him inside, the first thing noticeable was the smell of some kind of pine cleaner. “Wow, did you clean right before you got hospitalized?”
He smiled. He wasn’t much of a “cleaner.” His Maw Maw had been and still was somewhat of a clean freak, and she’d followed him around in his teen years cleaning up after him. He usually either ate at the club or on paper plates and the most he did at the trailer was wipe the dust off the television when it got too thick to see the screen. The place was immaculate, though, and he was sure it was thanks to Blackheart or Le Singe, sending one of the girls over to do it. Unsure of how Patrice would feel about that he said, “Wasn’t me. The boss must have paid someone to clean it for me. I guess they thought I’d be coming back here and since the biggest issue with my leg is worrying about infection, they probably thought the place should be clean. Usually it’s like one of those...you know, those dishes they grow stuff in in a lab.”
Patrice laughed. “A petri dish?”
“Yeah, if you say so.” He smiled again, kissed her cheek, and said, “There’s stuff to drink in the fridge if you want. I’m just gonna pack a bag and I’ll be right out.” He left her in the little living area and holding onto things, he hopped back to the bedroom, pulling the accordion door closed behind him. The first thing he did when he got there was pull out a duffel bag he used on overnight runs and check to make sure he had condoms in there. He wasn’t sure if she was ready to have sex yet or not, but he was, and he wanted to be prepared just in case. After that he went over to his dresser and smiled when he saw what was lying on top of it. It was his kutte, and it had been cleaned and looked good as new. He got a whiff of a new leather smell when he picked it up and couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it was new. Either way, he was thrilled to see it. He put it on and then threw enough clothes for a few days in the bag before throwing it over his shoulder and pulling open the accordion door. He was surprised to see Patrice wasn’t alone on the couch. Miss Sally had joined her.