“So, I’ll take support,” she declared. “And he’s right. Travis is okay with this schedule, and if Aaron stops being a jerk, then it’ll settle even more for him because he’ll feel it’s settled for all of us. I’ll work for a while at LeLane’s, and with Travis’s support money coming in, save up for my own education. Once I’m there and I can give it to myself, I’ll go for it.”

“You’re turnin’ down a quarter of a million that, bottom line, that guy owes you, baby,” he said gently.

“I’m turning down guilt money that will make him feel better for being so mean to me,” she returned. “I don’t care if he feels better or not. I don’t care about him at all. I’ll take his support money for Travis because he’s Travis’s dad. Other than that, he doesn’t exist for me.”

He grinned at her.

“Your call,” he said.

“It is. Now, it’s time to feed my family. Are you doing the cooking and I’m doing Travis, or the other way around?”

“You ever gonna make that chili you promised me?”

She smiled at him. “Guess I’m doing the cooking.”

Joker smiled back then grabbed hold of her boy.

He dragged him up his chest as the kid squealed.

When he got him face to face, he said, “That means I get you.”

And for his troubles, he got clocked in the face with a duck.

* * *

Three weeks later, Joker was walking from Ride to the Compound when his phone rang.

He pulled it out, saw who was calling and put it to his ear.

“Yo, Lee.”

“You busy right now?”

“Nope,” he answered, seeing as he wasn’t. Carissa’s ex had Travis so she had an afternoon shift. He was done with what he wanted to get done on his new build that day, so he was headed to the Compound to have a few beers with his brothers.

“Need you at Children’s Hospital,” Lee told him.

Joker stopped dead.

“Why?”

“Callin’ a marker, brother,” Lee said quietly.

Fuck.

“I’m on my bike,” Joker told him.

“Maternity,” Lee replied.

Shit.

“Got it. I’ll be there.”

He shoved his phone in his pocket and went to his bike.

Then he rode to the hospital.

He hit maternity only to see Lee wasn’t alone.

Hank was with him.

“I’m here, what?” he asked when he stopped close.

“Need you to suit up,” Lee told him.

“What?”

Lee knocked on a door. It opened, a nurse peered out, looked at Joker, then raised her hand and crooked her finger.

Joker looked to Lee, to Hank, then to the woman.

He followed her.

Once inside the door, he suited up. Covers over his boots. Cut off and gown over his tee.