I wrapped my arms around his fat neck, although it wasn’t really fat, and squeezed for all I was worth.

“Ackk!” He said as air escaped his lungs.

I smiled down at him.

“Now what were you saying?” I asked with a raised brow.

He curled his lip at me.

“Alright, Nik. Let me get dressed and we’ll head up there to see these babies,” Georgia said as she hustled out of the room.

“Hey!” Nico said, standing.

I held on for dear life, causing him to come down with me.

Nico grappled for purchase, but I succeeded in pulling him down with my unexpected move of holding on while still going down.

Nico landed beside me with a grunt, and I wrapped my arms around his neck from behind, wrapping lightning and thunder (my legs) around his upper torso and squeezing the life out of him.

“God! You’re such a shit!” Nico growled, effectively knocking the wind out of my sails by rolling over onto his back and pinning me to the floor with his body weight.

I didn’t let that stop me for long, though.

Instead, I anchored myself even better, let go of his neck, and started attacking his armpits with the tips of my fingers, ticking him like a lunatic while he writhed and shook with laughter on the ground.

“God! Stop!” He yelled loudly.

I was like a tick, though.

I stayed and stayed until I had no strength left to hold on, then, like any smart woman, I ran.

Like the wind.

I pushed off of him with inhuman strength that resembled a lumbering donkey, and sprinted for Nico and Georgia’s door.

I made it, too.

Slammed it right in Nico’s face and locked the door before he could reach me.

Then I promptly fell on their bed that was littered with clothes and other baby paraphernalia, and collapsed in exhaustion.

“Y’all fight all the time,” Georgia said from the closet.

I nodded. “Yeah, we do.”

“I don’t know why y’all can’t just be normal siblings,” she said observantly.

Nico was the only boy with six girls…it was bound to happen.

I wasn’t a bad sister. I was a normal sister!

“You’re just jealous that your brothers won’t give you the time of day,” I teased.

I was lying.

Georgia’s brothers loved the hell out of her.

They just had a different relationship than Nico, my sisters and I did.

It didn’t mean it was wrong that they tried to baby her.

It was understandable, really.

Especially how Georgia held their family together after the death of their two youngest brothers.

“So what’s going on? Why do you want me to go to the hospital with you?” Georgia asked.

I gave her a droll look.

“You’re a social worker, Georgia. Why the hell do you think I want you up there?” I laughed.

She flipped me off and took a huge step over her Saint Bernard, Hamburger, that was taking up half the closet.

“You know we’re not just ‘assigned’ these things. They have to come to us. You’d have more luck calling in Shiloh,” Georgia explained.

Georgia was a social worker with an adoption agency that placed children in their forever home.

Shiloh, James’ wife, on the other hand, was a child protective service social worker with the state of Texas, working in Gregg County.

Which was why I’d invited her to come as well.

“I already called her. We’re picking her up on the way,” I told her.

Georgia smiled.

“Good,” she said solemnly. “Tell me what happened?”

I sighed.

“From what I got from Michael, as well as what I got from the hospital yesterday, a lot happened. The boy, who’s also the father of the two children, is fourteen. His step-mother raped him repeatedly over the years, and then got pregnant with his babies. She then had said babies, and used them to keep the boy quiet about it all. The father was none the wiser to it all, but basically that was because he was high out of his mind,” I told her. “After the second child was born at home, addicted to God knows what drugs, and then totally failed to be cared for, the boy took it as his cue to get the hell out. He stole their car, took the kids, and had been parked in that gas station parking lot for about twelve hours before Michael caught him trying to steal candy and milk for the kids.”

Georgia stopped and turned half way through the story, but by the time I was finished recounting it, tears were in her eyes, as well as in my eyes.

“Holy crap, that poor boy,” she said, voice devastated.

I nodded. “That’s where the SWAT team was last night. Doing a raid on that house. The judge who’s overseeing the case is the son of a man that abused him, so he wasn’t tolerant at hearing what happened to Madden.”

“Madden is also the name of the boys father?” Georgia clarified.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“What’d they find at the raid last night?” Georgia asked.

Nico came through the door, shoving a lock pick into his pocket as he threw the door opened.

He walked past the bed and pushed me hard enough that I fell backward, causing me to laugh.

He shot me an ‘I’ll get you back’ look, and turned to his wife.

“If you were interested in that, why didn’t you just ask your husband?” Nico asked cheekily.

Georgia sat down on the bed beside me and slipped her socks on before shoving her feet into tennis shoes.

“Probably because I’m still mad at you,” she said, tossing him a fake glare.

I snorted.

“I told you I was too tired to change that diaper! I didn’t steal your hamburger, and I didn’t pour hot sauce in your tea! It was a freakin’ diaper! One!” He said, raising his hands in the air for emphasis.

Rolling my eyes, I got up and tugged Georgia’s hand.

“We’ll be back, brother dear. Take care of the babies and the diapers, until we get back,” I ordered.

Then we left, all under the very annoyed glare of Nico.

“So, what’d they find?” Georgia picked up where we left off.

I closed the front door behind me and walked with her to my car.

My beautiful baby.

It was a sky blue Volkswagen Beetle convertible.

Georgia got into the passenger side, and I dropped into the driver’s side before I told her.

“A lot, actually. Drugs. Enough drugs that they think they were dealers. Dirty needles. Cocaine and weed. Horrible living conditions. Both parents were high as hell. Neither one of them even knew the kids were missing - that’s how gone they were,” I told her, backing out of the driveway and turning left to head to the highway.

Georgia hummed.

I looked over at her.

“What?” I asked, moving my eyes back to the road in front of me.

A tractor was taking up three quarters of the road, and I contemplated passing him on the shoulder when he finally moved over, allowing me to pass.

And in all that time, Georgia stayed silent.

“What?” I asked again.

“They’re going to split them up, I can see it now,” she said softly.

I winced.

That’s what I was afraid of.

Madden was a good kid, but he was in no way, shape, or form, ready to raise two kids, seeing as he was only a kid himself.

“That’s why I’m bringing in the big guns,” I replied.

She frowned.

“I’ll try, honey. But I can’t promise a single thing,” she explained. “I can’t make any promises.”

I nodded in understanding. “I know. I just want you to try the best you can. Work with Shiloh. Anything is better than what they had. I just feel so horrible about the situation.”

She patted my hand as I stopped at the stoplight that would lead us to the hospital.

“And what about that other little boy? How’s he doing?” She asked.

I smiled happily.

“Much better, actually. They said he opened his eyes yesterday. I was going to stop in and see Nathan since I’ll already be up on the ped’s floor,” I informed her. “But we have to be back at your house by twelve so I can make my one o’clock class. Okay?”