Flicker

23

Valerie Pov

As Marks and I are goofing off Natalia walks in with Daniel on her hip.

"Valerie Anne." She warns and Marks smirks.

"Someone's in trouble." He coughs as Jackson and Ben walk out.

"Hey mom." Ben smirks, hugging her.

"Whatever happened, Ben did it." I announce, throwing my hands up.

"You taught your son to swear." She says darkly and my eyes go wide.

"I'm sorry I what?" I ask shocked as she passes my apparently delinquent son to me.

Levi walks over and takes Daniel from me.

"What'd he do?" Levi asks cautiously and Natalia rolls her eyes.

"He decided that Nana is an Old Garden tool." Natalia warns and Ben looks down.

"Yeah he heard that from me." Ben announces and Natalia glares at him.

"You taught my son to call people h-o-e-s!?" I scream and the whole fire house is watching us.

"I am your chief right now." Ben warns, pointing a finger at me.

"Ben you're riding home with me." Jackson says darkly and I feel my blood boil.

I take Daniel and set him on the ground.

"Listen to me Daniel, the mean name you called Nana, is not an okay word." I explain and he tilts his head.

"Uncle Ben called Nana the same thing."

"And Uncle Ben is now in trouble with grandpa." I warn and Levi comes in beside me.

"If you ever say that word again, I'm gonna spank your little butt so hard you can't sit for a week." Levi warns and I elbow him in the ribs.

He winces but doesn't say anything else.

Natalia grabs Daniel and rolls her eyes, ignoring the stare down between Jackson and Ben.

"Do you want me to go ahead and grab Gabby or come get her later if she's asleep?" Natalia asks and I hold a finger up before walking to Levi's office.

Gabby's passed out sleeping still.

"She's asleep but if you don't wanna come back I can wake her up." I offer and Natalia shakes her head.

"Let the poor girl nap, I'll come by later and I'll bring y'all a few pizzas." She smiles and Jackson groans.

"My bank account is gonna be drained." He chuckles, walking over to his wife and kissing her and kissing Daniel's forehead.

"Bye little dude." Jackson smiles.

We hear the alarm go off and it's just for the paramedics so they jump up and run to the rig.

"You and I are not okay." I growl at Ben and Jackson snaps at me.

"Watch your tone, Valerie Anne." Jackson warns and I roll my eyes.

For the next hour I avoid my brother, because knowing my son he's going to repeat the word until he gets his butt blistered a hundred and one times.

About 30 minutes later, Gabby emerges from the room and walks over to where Levi and I are sitting.

"How was your nap?" Levi asks and Gabby doesn't say anything, instead just crawls into my lap and lays her head on my shoulder.

"I was mad at you because I almost called you Mom. I'm sorry." She whispers and my heart absolutely shatters.

"We'll be right back." I tell Levi and I stand Gabby up, walking with her to Levi's office.

I crouch down to her height and brush her hair out her face, "You can call me whatever you'd like, within reason. If you wanna call me Mom, you can. If you wanna stick with Val or Valerie, that's okay too. Or if you want to come up with something cool like 'bonus mom' that's perfectly fine." I explain, watching as the tears fall down her cheeks.

"My moms dead though and I don't know if she can see us or not, I don't want her to think that I'm betraying her or that I've forgotten about her." She sobs, folding into my arms.

"I could never replace her, just like your dad will never replace Daniel's dad, but death is a part of life and God took your momma for a reason baby." I pause, giving her a moment to chime in if she'd like, "God knows what's best and we have to trust his plan. Your mom would understand though I'm sure if you looked at me as a bonus mom because when I look at you, I see my daughter and I've always wanted one."

She sobs into my shoulder and the door opens to reveal a very concerned boyfriend of mine.

"Gabby, baby what happened?" Levi asks crouching down beside us where somehow I've managed to sit on the floor with Gabby curled up in my arms.

Gabby just makes her grip on me tighter and I look to Levi signaling him to leave it alone.

"Mrs Natalia is on the way to come get you." Levi sighs and I glare at him.

"I wanna be with her right now."

Levi rolls his eyes and stands up, motioning for me to follow him. I shake my head and he groans but motions again.

"Levi I'm staying with Gabby."

"Harper I am you're Lieutenant, you will obey." He gripes and I chuckle.

"I'm also you're girlfriend and I'm with my daughter right now so please step out." I shrug, still holding  Gabby's crying self.

"50 push-ups and if you wanna pull that card I can-" he pauses and shakes his head, "You ca either get up and let's go or 50 push ups and bathroom detail"

I sigh and stand up, setting Gabby on Levi's cot.

"You'll be okay, don't worry." I assure her and she nods, looking drained.

"What's so important?" I ask and he looks up.

"You're leaving with Gabby."

"The hell I am." I scoff and Levi looks down at me.

"There's bomb threats being made. You're leaving."

"We're all leaving." Ben chimes in walking up behind us."