Time

Twenty-One

Brian answered without hesitation. "Are you kidding? Dirty Dancing all the way." Mya laughed and mumbled I told you so under her breath, then a small smile graced her lips. "H..have you s..seen Patrick S..Swayze in t..that?"

John nodded. "You know what doll, I sure have and I'd would've taken him any day. He was my biggest celebrity crush and still is. He's so fine." She laughed again and hit his arm. In turn, Ian giggled. He was slowly getting up without Mya knowing and he asked Eric another question, all while removing his arm from under my wife's head. "Babe, celebrity crush. Go."

John sat with his legs crossed in the middle of the room and me and Brian just stood there in the doorway and listened to their conversation.

Just the three of them. It made me realize that John wasn't the only one that was protective over Mya, that those who had hung around us were the same. They had became family. But John and Mya had a connection that she didn't have with the others. He was never a threat to me. I knew that from the moment I met him. We both knew Mya Johnson differently and I had a feeling he'd protect her and those she loved at all costs with no questions asked. Myself and Ian included.

"Let Mya go. I don't know." Rolling his eyes, John asked Mya the same question with a playful look on his face as Eric left the room for a split second. "Excuse me, I know you ain't sleeping and you can't say P."

She answered with a laugh, but no hesitation and Brian snickered. "D..Depp."

My eyes widened in surprise.

"She's right babe. Johnny is everything and then some. Sorry not sorry." Eric mumbled jokingly as he reentered the room with a wide-eyed baby in his arms. "But after much thought, I'd have to say that Patrick Swayze is my celebrity crush. Regardless of if he was in Ghost or Dirty Dancing. That man..."

Mya shook her head and got up, eyeing me until her hand was in mine and her lips were inches away from my own, teasing me. "Hi mama." I whispered, smirking as I made the first move and kissed her, holding her waist due to the fact that she was leaning. "I've missed you." I said softly, ignoring the gagging noise coming from her friend's mouth as I sat on the floor, bringing her body in between my legs.

"You guys are sickening. Sickening I tell you." John mumbled, shaking his head and taking Ian away from his boyfriend. He started bouncing his knee, almost subconsciously. "So, Johnny Depp huh? I swore Swayze was gonna grace your lips for a second."

While John was talking to Eric and Brian with Ian occupied, I helped Mya up and discreetly made it out the door without anyone noticing. "W..where are we going?" She whispered playfully over my shoulder as I led her into the suite and then, the bathroom, where I slowly shut the door.

My fingertips unbuttoned the shirt that she was wearing and I noticed that each time I touched her, she'd wince away from me. "Am I hurting you?" I wasn't trying to hurt her or make her scared of me. "I..it's not y..you." I was confused and Mya sighed, looking away from me.

"I j..just hurt. That's a..all." She said softly, glancing at herself for a moment in the mirror, her eyes trailing down to my hands that rested on her stomach. A very faint smile appeared the longer she stared. "Penny for your thoughts?" I mumbled gently, kissing her shoulder blade before I laid my head on her shoulder, slowly taking both of her hands and resting them in the same position.

She asked me a question I wasn't expecting. One that still hurt my heart to answer, even today. "W..why is t..there a d..dolphin in y..your office?" My eyes closed, but I laughed at the way her question was formed. Our conversation in the NICU and our conversation in St. Kitts was fresh in my mind. I had told her about Amiir since her stroke. I had told her about him, about Mayté. But she was asking me again as if she didn't remember. As if I didn't tell her I thought he was Ian. As if she didn't sit with me when I mumbled my son's name.