Bittersweet Irish Cream Ch. 13

Ethan and Jack exchange looks and Ethan wanted to laugh too, but he knew it would be inappropriate. Afia however, started giggling this girlish laughter. Connor looked at her in a stoic manner and she touched his face.

"C'mon," she practically cooed. "It's funny. It's a little funny. It's a lot funny." She blinked at him a few times and he started to smile.

She kissed Connor on the lips, then faced the table. "Thank you for telling me, Matthew. Once again you have proven how truly.... unbelievable you are." She smiled and took another bite of her chicken.

"I don't get it. Are you guys in some kinda open relationship?" Angie asked.

Afia smiled at her. "Something like that." Connor's mother looked directly at him with surprise.

"Yea, I wonder whose idea was that?" Matty said.

"Why does that matter?" she asked, still amused.

"Because people who get in open relationships do it because one of them obviously wants to get around."

Afia shrugged. "Or maybe two people make the decision to be in healthy committed relationships and what they do in those relationships are none of your business."

Mary Kate said, "Can we talk about something else" at the same time Matty said, "Or maybe you're a whore."

Jack and Ethan glared at him. Jack was just as close to Afia as he was to Connor. Afia sat back and squeezed Connor's leg under the table to get him to let it go, but to no avail.

Connor's head snapped up but said calmly, "What the fuck did you just say?"

Katharine warned again, "Language."

Connor exploded at her, "What language, Mom!? The fact that I said FUCK or the fact that Matty just called my girl a WHORE!?"

"Both," she said.

But Matty ignored her and said casually, "I said maybe. I didn't say she was a whore."

Jack spoke up. "And maybe you should watch your mouth before I put my fist down it."

Ethan put his hand on Jack's leg as well and patted it to calm him down. The last thing he needed was Red Jackie to come out.

"Oh yea, I know guys like you like fisting, don't you? I don't go that way, sport. Save it for your boyfriend over there."

"Husband," Jack corrected him with a sneer.

Matty laughed, did an O.K. sign with his fingers. "Sure, sure," he said mockingly.

"You know what, fuck you, Matty!" Connor said heatedly. "You don't know shit so whatever you think you saw, you got it wrong. I can one hundred percent guarantee that."

"Ok, save face for everyone here. But it's all going to come out one day. And I'm going to be here to gloat when your world comes falling apart. The perfect Marine isn't so perfect is he?"

"Connor isn't perfect!" Afia said, also upset. "But he is an amazing person with an amazing heart and it just sucks that none of you can see that! None of you know who he really is."

"Apparently you don't either if he's fucking someone else," Matty said condescendingly.

"Of course he's fucking someone else, you dumb ass, Connor is-"

She stopped herself as Connor looked at her with wide, fearful eyes. She took a deep breath. "Connor is my very best friend in the entire world. I let him be who he wants to be and love who he wants to love. Which is more than anyone else in his family has ever let him be."

The table got quiet again. Connor's dad Owen watched the whole exchange with mild interest. He said, "Connor, if you are cheating on Afia, then it's time you both let this go. You're unequally yoked. You're too different from each other. You need to be in a stable, committed relationship with someone else."

Connor let a moment pass, then looking down at his plate said, "I am in a stable, committed relationship with someone else. Sir."

Everyone looked at him. Afia lifted his chin and said, "Hold your head up, Connor. You have nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of." He nodded at her and they hugged for a long time as everyone watched them.

Suddenly Afia stood up. "This will be the last McIntyre family gathering that I will be attending. I'm getting married in May. And not to Connor."

All of Connor's family members had their mouths open. He just smiled at her. Afia had been in a relationship with Jamel's brother Tyrell for the last three years and they were getting married on May 1st.

Afia continued, "Angie, I love you, girl. Come see me any time. Good luck to the rest of you." She turned back to Connor. "You know where I will be. I'll see you there in a few?"

He stood up and said, "Let me walk you out." And they left holding hands, leaving Connor's family shocked at the news.

Katherine spoke first. "Well, I for one am glad that is over. Now they can go on to have normal relationships."

Jack couldn't help himself. "What was abnormal about their relationship, Mrs. McIntyre?"

Owen answered instead of his wife. "It's not right that they were together. Now she's a lovely girl. But they need to be with their own kind."

Ethan's was stunned. He spoke for the first time all night. "Was... that a joke?"

Jack said to Ethan, "No, he wasn't joking." He turned back to Owen. "With all due respect Mr. McIntyre, their own kind is human, and they seemed to be doing alright with that."

Owen said, "Listen, son. You have your views on the world and I have my biblical truths. Nothing good has ever come from being with a colored. Even in the Bible the Israelites were told not to mix with the foreigners. It diluted their heritage and bloodline and led them astray to worship idols."

Ethan, whose mouth dropped open, said to no one, "Holy shit, he's not joking."

"But that was about being led away to false gods, not about skin color," Jack told Owen.

"It's the same thing, being led astray from your family and the way you were raised. We raised Connor to be a good Catholic boy and he's going to marry a good and pure Catholic girl."

"Not in this lifetime," Ethan mumbled.

"Hey! You two don't get to come into my house and tell me about my son and how we're raising him," Owen said testily.

"But he's a 27-year-old grown man." Now Ethan couldn't help himself. "You're not raising him anymore. You don't get to make decisions for him, you have to let him make decisions for himself, decisions that are going to make him happy."

"Ethan..." Jack said his name quietly. He could feel how upset he was getting.

Owen kept talking. "Not if it goes against what we stand for. We are an unflinchingly Godly home, no matter who it offends."

"Nothing that you are saying is Godly, sir. I'm sorry, but it's just not," Ethan said hotly.

Own said to him, "And what do you know about Godly? You two are living your sexually immoral and sinful life for the world to see. I'm surprised O'Donnell didn't put the both of you out of the church."

They both looked at him stunned. Jack did not think he was going to go there. But Ethan smiled and said calmly, "I'm imperfect and I'm a sinner, yes, but there is nothing immorally sinful about my life." Jack looked at him and shook his head. Ethan ignored his husband and continued.

"I'm legally married, I got an amazing husband who I am faithful to and honor every day, and got a kind and respectful kid making honor roll in kindergarten. I pay my taxes, I go to church, tithe, and confession every two weeks. I love God, my country and my neighbor, no matter who they are, who they love or what they look like. And I know God loves me just the way I am.

"Now hate, prejudice and racism? That's sinful. And there just seems to be a whole lot of that going on here. I don't think Jesus would approve."

Owen snapped at him. "You New York liberals think everything is hateful and racist when it's just truth. Men should not lie with men, it's an abomination. You are an abomination."

"Yea? I guess Jackie and I never got the memo." He scoffed, thinking about the "laying" they did just that morning.

"Ethan stop," Jack murmured. Ethan ignored him again.

"Obviously because you're living in a cesspool of homosexual filth and raising EJ in it too!" Owen said, raising his voice. "I'm already praying that good and pure boy doesn't end up like you."

Jack snapped his head toward Owen, now fully wanting to let Ethan unleash on him. Ethan stood up, gave him an icy glare and said dangerously, "You keep my son's name out your goddamn mouth."

"And you get the fuck out of my house!" Owen started yelling. "Who the fuck do you think you are, telling me about my own son, how to raise him, and who he should be with? You disgust me."

But Ethan had already grabbed his coat and called, "EJ, let's go now!" He turned to Owen and said, "You're a hateful, fucked up old man, and you've raised hateful children and one day you're going to have to answer to the God you serve over that."

"And you'll never meet Him," Owen said nastily. "God has turned his back on you. Your businesses will fail. Your child will fail in life, and so will you, all because you have chosen to live a sinful, degradable, disgusting life in the face of God."

"Yea? Well I seem to be doing alright so far, so fuck you, you racist, homophobic sonofabitch!" Ethan took a step toward him with his fist clenched as Owen stood up slowly.

EJ came running over asking, "Why? What's wrong?"

Jack stood up too as Connor came back into the dining room. He looked around sensing all the tension. "What happened?"

Matty said gleefully from his chair, "Dad told the truth and your friends couldn't handle it."

Ethan turned to Connor and said, "Thanks for inviting me, but I'm with Afia, I'm never stepping foot in this shit hole again." He poked Connor in his chest. "You shouldn't either."

He grabbed EJ's hand and said, turning back to the table, "Oh, and my son is neeeeeever playing with your grandkids again. There is no way I'm letting your bullshit values tarnish my son's good Christian ones."

Matty chuckled as Owen said, "You're not a Christian, you're a tool of the devil himself to lead men astray."

Ethan said, "And you're a dickwad." He turned to Jack and said, "You, stay. You were right. I get it now. Connor needs you."

"Ethan..." Jack started.

But Ethan walked out with his whining son saying loudly in his New York accent, "It's like the gat dam Aryan Nation in this bitch!" He slammed the front door hard.

Owen sat down fuming after Ethan left and Jack stood there with Connor trying to figure out what to do next. They stared at each other. "Fucking fag," Matty murmured and Jack and Connor both turned around to him, anger burning in their chests.

Jack had had enough of him. "Say it again, Matty," Jack said calmly and dangerously. "Say it again and loudly so I can hear you and beat the shit out of you, right in front of your ol' man."

Matty said, still seated, "You come over here and try it. Nobody is afraid of you, Jack. Spent your whole life fighting just so people wouldn't know how much of a sissy you really are."

"Ok, everybody stop!" Mary Kate yelled. "Just cool off, everyone! This was supposed to be a nice family dinner, but you all are ruining it."

"I'm sorry, Mary Kate," Connor said. "The last thing I wanted to do was ruin your dinner."

"Yea, is that why you brought all your friends over that you know Dad and Matty were going to say something about? It's like you wanted the drama. Why can't you just have normal friends like the rest of us?" she asked him.

Angie spoke angrily, "You mean nice, white, straight friends? What is wrong with all of you?"

"I didn't want the drama," Connor said. "I just wanted to be around people that know me and like me. This is why I stay away."

"We do know you Connor, at least I do," Angie said. "I love you. Don't stay away from me."

"You don't know me, Ang. None of you do, not the real me. Afia is right. I should have just left with her." He sighed, said to Jack, "Let's go. I'm going home to my family." Jack nodded and smiled.

"Sit down, Connor," Owen ordered. "This is your home and we are your family, whether you like it or not."

Connor looked at him and said firmly, "No. Are you going to make me?" They glared at each other in a long moment of silence.

Jack, realizing it was the first time Connor had ever stood up to his father, broke the silence and said, "Let's go, Connor." He grabbed his arm and pulled his friend from the house to catch up to Ethan and EJ.

~~~~~~~~

"JAAAAAAAACK!"

Claire's blood curdling scream met Jack's ears all the way in the kitchen he was cleaning up that Monday evening, the day after her due date. He ran through the dining room and vestibule to find her in the middle of the hallway in front of her room, doubled over in pain. Two guests had come out of their rooms to help.

She reached for his hand. "I changed my mind, I don't want to do this."

"C'mon, Claire Bear." He reached around her waist and led her downstairs to the bench in the front area.

"Call me Claire Bear again and I will punch you, and I have the strength to do it nowoooooohhh!" She leaned over as another contraction hit her. Liam at the front desk was frozen in fear.

"Ok. Depending on how far apart they are I can call an ambulance or I can just drive," Jack said.

"Call an ambulance, stupid!" she screamed at him. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!"

Jack laughed. "It's ok, you are forgiven for anything you say for the next 24 hours. Liam, call 911."

Liam, who was as white as a sheet, slowly did as Jack told him. Jack picked up his phone and called Ethan. "Hey, are you on your way back?"

"Yea, I'm already in the car, what's up?" But before Jack could answer Claire's scream in the background told him all he needed to know. "Um...yeah ok, be there in about five minutes," he said calmly.

"I'm leaving EJ with Liam until you get here. I'm going to ride with her in the ambulance," Jack told him and hung up.

"Where's your hospital bag?" he asked Claire. Claire looked at him sheepishly. "You didn't pack a hospital bag, Claire?" he asked her incredulously.

"I don't know I don't know, I just didn't think this was going to happen," she cried helplessly.

He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "Claire. This is happening. You are having a baby. Right now in fact. In just a few hours you will have a whole person that you have to take responsibility for, make decisions for-"

She cut off his lecture. "Jack. I...I think I need my mom."

Jack was surprised and said to her, "I think you do too. Do you want me to call her?" He had been trying to get her to call her mother for the last few weeks she had been at the Inn.

"No. Maybe, I don't knoooooooow...." She doubled over in pain again.

"Ok how about we get you to the hospital and settled in, then you can decide."

"Ok," she whimpered.

Jack ran to her room and picked up her huge bag, dropped her cell phone and the gummy worms she had been chewing non stop since she got to the Inn in there. He stopped and said a quick prayer for her, and by the time he came back to the vestibule the ambulance was there.

Ethan met Jack at the hospital in the hallway outside Claire's room an hour later. "Is she doing ok?" he asked.

"Yes," Jack said. "Well...as well as to be expected when a baby is trying to get out, so not really. She is only 1 centimeter dilated and it's going to be a long night."

Ethan looked at Jack's worry lines across his forehead, making him look older than his soon to be 27 years. He took his hand. "You're trembling a little."

"Am I?" he said shakily. "I think I'm just nervous for her. I need to get her to call her mom. Or at least give me her cell phone number so I can call her."

"Ok. Let me talk to her about that. I think I can convince her."

"Ok," Jack said. He looked at Ethan, frozen in place.

Ethan smiled at him. "It is going to be a long night. You ready?"

Jack smiled nervously. "I never asked you, did you do this with Trish?"

"Yup. All 18 hours and 23 minutes," Ethan told him. "EJ's due date was Dec 30th, but she didn't start having contractions until after the ball dropped and 2006 was underway. And they wouldn't give her pain meds because of her addiction history so that was a real treat. We were in the hospital all day, then he decided to make an appearance at 7:39am the next day."

He squeezed Jack's hand. "Your only job is to be there for her. Put your own feelings and fears aside, because she has more than enough for the two of you. Encourage her. Support her. Keep her as calm as you can. Bring her ice, water, whatever she wants. Just be there."

Jack nodded. "I can do that." Ethan nodded too. "You're staying, right?" Jack asked, worried.

"Of course. I dropped EJ off with your parents. I want to be there for you and her."

Jack pulled him into a tight hug and Ethan hugged him back tightly. He let a few tears that were threatening to come out finally drop, then rubbed them on Ethan's shoulder. He swallowed, then stepped back.

"I'm ok," Jack said. "I'm ready."

Ethan nodded, then touched his cheek. Love you, he mouthed. Jack nodded back and gave him a quick peck kiss. Then he turned around and walked into the room to hold Claire's hand.

~~~~~

Five hours later Claire was in tears and throwing up. Jack was rubbing her back and feeding her ice chips. "I'm dying," she lamented. "This baby is trying to kill me."

"Look at it this way, you get to tell her in a few years what hell she put you though," Jack said.

She glared at him and he laughed making her smile a bit. Dr. Mavis came in to check her and said, "You are only four centimeters dilated. We are going to start the pitocin now."

"Wait!" she cried. "I read about that. Doesn't that mean it will make me contract faster?"

"Yes," she said. "And that will help to open up your cervix."

"Will you give me the epidural then so I won't feel it?"

"Yes, but we want to see you pushed to at least five centimeters before we administer it."

"So I'm just going to feel all of it!?" She looked terrified.

"We can give you pain meds to take the edge off. But I don't want to put you or the baby through any more distress. I want to help you move this along," the doctor told her.

Jack held her hand. "It's your decision. You can labor it out a bit more to see if you will open up on your own or get the pitocin and force your body to move faster. You can say yes or no. Your decision."

She looked at him and said, "I....I need this to be done. Don't leave me, ok?"

"Not even a pee break," he said and smiled at her which made her laugh.

She turned back to Dr. Mavis. "Ok. Let's do it." The doctor nodded and left the room. She turned to Jack again. "I'm really scared."

"Claire, I'm going to be here for you. But. If you want me to call someone, now is the time. You said you wanted your mom earlier, then you changed your mind when Ethan asked. What are you thinking now?" Jack asked her.

She looked at him with sad eyes. Then she reached for her purse that was on the table next to her. She pulled out her phone, put the pin in and gave it to Jack.

"Call her please. Tell her. I can't do it."

"Ok. I'm going to have Ethan come in and sit with you until I get back."

"Ok," she said.

Jack left the room and Ethan was sitting in the next door waiting room drinking coffee. He told him what he was doing and Ethan immediately went to Claire's side. Jack dialed the number under "Mom." A woman answered drowsily, it was a couple of minutes after midnight. "Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Ann Byers?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"My name is Jack Frazier. Your daughter Claire is here with me in Providence, Rhode Island. She needs you to come here, as soon as you can."

"You have my daughter?" the woman said sharply. "What do you want, money? Is this a ransom?"

Jack was shocked. "Oh no! Nothing like that at all, ma'am. Claire...Claire is having a baby. Right now in fact, she is in labor. And she is asking for her mother. I tried to get her to call you weeks ago but she refused. But she is asking for you now. She needs you. Can you come?"