~ Chapter Sixty Five ~

Felicia stood in the entryway next to the front door, one hand resting on the end table pushed up against the wall, the other resting on her back, which hadn't been quite right for the last two months.  A little less than a month until her due date, and it couldn't come quickly enough, in her opinion. 

Denise was happily fussing over Nick in the living room, for what little good it seemed to be doing.  Nick had curled up on the couch and pulled his arms up over his face - Felicia would have taken the hint that he wanted to be left alone, but not Denise.  Both she and her son were uncontrollable mother hens, if there was someone around to fuss over, they weren't happy unless they were fussing.

AJ had deposited Nick and Becky in the living room, said hello to Denise and given Felicia his customary ‘I'm glad to be home' half smile and hug before saying something about bringing in the rest of the stuff from the car and vanished back out the front door.

Becky was sitting on the stairs, holding onto the slats of the railing with both hands, peering out through them at the living room, a concerned expression on her face.

"How are you, Becky?"  Felicia sat down on the steps next to the little girl.  It wasn't the most comfortable position she had assumed in quite some time, but she felt sorry for Becky, sitting over there all by herself.

Becky let go of the railing and scooted across the step until she was sitting next to Felicia.  "Okay, I guess."  She said solemnly.  "Is Nick okay?"

"Sure, he'll be fine."  Felicia reassured her.  "He's just kind of sick right now." 

"Rich said he gave him enough drugs to kill a horse."  Becky relayed.

Felicia smiled.  Trainer's happiest moments were when they were handing out enough drugs to kill a horse.  Rich must have been thrilled. 

"He was crying." Becky added quietly. 

Felicia blinked, trying to make sense of that last comment.  "Nick was?"

Becky nodded, her face scrunching up.  "I didn't mean to make him start crying!"

"Oh, honey, no... it's not your fault."  Felicia pulled Becky up against her side and hugged her as best she could.

"I just gave him a hug!"  Becky explained.  "I thought it would make him feel better!"

"Aw, it did."  Felicia ruffled Becky's hair, which looked as if it hadn't been brushed that morning.  There were just some things guys didn't get, and little girl's hair was one of them.  "Becky, he's just upset.  Sometimes people react differently when they're upset, okay?  It wasn't you, and he's going to be okay.  Really." 

Becky sighed and snuffled into her sweatshirt sleeve once.  "Brian said I had to be Nick's friend."  She propped her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands.  "I already was his friend, but I think Brian was just checking."

~*~

"Alex, what are you doing?"  Felicia stuck her head around the back of the SUV to find her husband sitting in the cargo space, his legs swinging against the bumper. 

"Contemplating."  He didn't appear startled in the slightest that she had appeared from nowhere. 

"Contemplating what?"

"Not a whole lot."  AJ shook his head.  "I think my brain stopped working yesterday sometime." 

"I figured you'd be chain smoking by now."  Felicia sat down next to him, hugging herself in an attempt to stay warm.  It wasn't raining, per say, there was just a light mist blowing everywhere, which was almost worse than rain. 

"Nah, quit that."  AJ shrugged.

"You just... quit?"  Felicia snapped her fingers for emphasis.

"Yeah, pretty much." 

Felicia almost laughed.  Only AJ.  "So, what happened with Nick?" 

"Well..."  AJ leaned back against the wheel hub, pulling his knees up to his chin.  "Rich hauled him off to the hospital, and... doesn't it worry you when doctors sit and look at something like they've never seen anything like it before and they're just dying to do a medical study on it?"

Felicia did laugh this time.  "Yeah, it does."

"Yeah, so he sat there and stared in fascination at Nick's head, and shook his head a lot, before he and Rich conferred and decided it was just a sinus infection and proceeded to give him more drugs."

"Becky said he was crying."  Felicia corrected.  While it was interesting to finally know why Nick was out like a light on the couch, it hadn't really been what she meant. "She was kind of upset by that."

"Is she okay?"  AJ's eyes darted over to meet hers.

"Fine.  She and your mother are going to make cookies, which is good.  It'll keep both of them entertained."

AJ looked skeptical.  "Geez, I hope she doesn't dump the flour canister over Becky's head like she did to me."

"Alex!  Why would she do that!" 

"How should I know?  I think she wanted to see what I looked like covered in flour... sometimes there's just no figuring that woman out... it's a wonder I grew up to be the normal person that I am." 

Felicia started laughing again.  And to think that she had come out here because she was worried about him. 

"You find that amusing?"  AJ smirked, moving over until he was sitting next to her, slinging one arm around her shoulder.  "You smell good."  He added absently, resting his chin on the top of her head.

She leaned up against his shoulder and waited.  Eventually AJ's train of thought would return to the question she had asked.

Sure enough, he did.  "He flipped out.  It's a little freaky when someone completely loses control, you know?"

She didn't know.  Completely losing control wasn't something she did, and neither did AJ.  He had a flair for the dramatic, that went without saying, but it was in control drama. 

"Myself, I will be more than happy when Stacy gets here to deal with him and all his crap."  AJ added.  "God, I'm tired." 

Of course AJ was tired; he hadn't gone to bed in two days.  He had called her at five that morning and relayed the entire events of his evening, from the end of the World Series on, and while Felicia had merely gone back to sleep when she hung up, AJ hadn't.  She thought back over the conversation, realizing that while AJ had given her the entire complicated story of Nick and his being sick all night, and the entire story of Becky and Kevin, not to mention any other related tidbits he had happened to remember from the clubhouse, he had never mentioned how he had reacted to the news about Brian.

"You know what's so weird about all of this?"  AJ waited, more for the effect his thematic pause had than for Felicia to respond, then continued on.  "I talked to him earlier that day."

Felicia smiled.  He always did that.  It was a little frightening sometimes that she was on the same mental page as a man who dyed his hair blue and orange and inscribed permanent art on his body because he was bored.  "I was just going to ask you about that."

"Well, you know what they say - great minds, same circles."  AJ shrugged.  "Which I guess means that we're some kind of scientific fluke, huh?"  He switched back to the previous subject.  "Brian was a cool guy."

"Yeah, he was."  Felicia agreed. 

"Remember the last time you were in the hospital?"  AJ wondered.

"Yeah."  Of course she remembered.  She remembered every single time, a little too clearly. 

"That was the first time I ever had a conversation with Brian, other than the usual clubhouse stuff over what we should put in Kevin's locker or something.  I ran into him down by the cafeteria, and I didn't think anything of it then... but now, I realize what he was doing there."

"I know."  Felicia reached underneath AJ's suede jacket, rubbing his back.  AJ always wore the same jacket on all plane flights, claiming it was lucky, based on the fact that he had never been in a plane that crashed while wearing it.  It was twisted logic, but no one ever bothered to call him on it.  "He stopped by my room that time."  She remembered. 

She still remembered Brian appearing in her doorway, big smile on his face, and a gift shop teddy bear under his arm.  He didn't seem to find the situation strange in the slightest, dropping in on someone he had never seen before in his entire life.  Even just watching on TV, when Brian smiled, it was impossible not to smile in return.  Felicia had discovered the power of that smile was ten times stronger in person. 

The other quality she had noticed, and what she would remember Brian the most for, was his ability to make someone feel completely comfortable.  She hadn't even been bothered a total stranger had appeared to visit. 

"Brian visited you?"  AJ repeated, slightly dumbfounded.  "You never said that."

"I never really thought about it until now." 

"I have to wonder if I would have done what he did."

"What do you mean?"

"You were in the hospital, and I was flipping out, and he sat down..."  AJ shook his head.  "Now that I realize why he was at the hospital, it makes me think - what if things had been the other way around, and he was the one that was freaking out - would I have taken the time to do what he did to me?"  He gave Felicia a wry smile.  "It's not a thought that makes me think very highly of myself."

"Alex..."  Felicia leaned over to wrap her arms around his shoulders.  "You don't know that..."

"Yeah..."  AJ caught her chin with one finger, giving her a quick kiss.  "Damn, I think too much when I'm tired." He unwrapped himself from Felicia and stood up, straightening his shirt.  "C'mon, let's get inside.  I could sleep standing right here."

Felicia let him pull her upright, smiling to herself.  The shoe was on the other foot for a change.  "Now you know how I feel half the time."  She pointed out.

AJ's head tipped to one side as he pondered that statement.  "Well, then..." He said slowly.  "That officially makes you the coolest person I know."