Chapter 10 Part 2 - Revised

Cyrus

   They hadn’t talked much about the important things that Cyrus wanted to hear about but rather kept asking about a leather covered journal that had belonged to Deacon. Skye and Cyrus had both told Dom that they had never seen a journal like that or even knew that Deacon had one. “You have seen it before Skye” Dom said calmly “You have seen it many times before, you just don’t remember.” that had made Skye's anger start to surge but being drunk made her the feeling fizzle out before she had a chance to get vocally confrontational.

   Skye and Maury were pleasantly drunk and bickering like siblings by the time Dom decided they should leave. Just after 1am Cyrus stood up and figured that he should be the one to walk his mother carefully up to her room and put her to bed so she could sleep it off.  As he pushed his chair in Dominic reached over and picked up the box. “I’ll take care of this for a few days,” he said. Without a sound in the room Skye replied with conviction. “No.” There was no anger in her voice, she sounded stone cold sober, only her eyes showed how serious she was.

   This didn’t have any effect on the men in the room except Cyrus who felt the tension like an elastic band stretched to its limits and ready to snap.

   Dom held the box, looked Skye square in the eyes and seemed to grow taller. “Nothing will happen to it, and if anything it will make its way back to you anyway now that the connection between you has been made.” He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh and continued. “If it stays here Skye… she will take over and if she does there will be nothing we can do.” With his last words he attempted to make sure she understood the gravity of the situation yet knowing that her intoxication would hinder it. “If she takes over now, your children... will have... no mother…”

   That struck her like a hand across the face and she gave in reluctantly. “Fine…” she said as she teetered on her feet. “Take it, shove it up your ass and get out of my house!” she wheeled around too quickly only to stumble and fall against Chase, face first into his broad chest. Somehow he came up behind her without her knowledge while Dominic rolled his eyes  and stayed calm.

   As Chase held Skye up with his pecs and her elbow she laughed at her own clumsiness and Maury laughed with her as he resumed his mindless banter with her. Dominic took Cyrus aside. “Look kid, I have always liked you and after your father died it was ok for you to have a fuck it all attitude…” he paused and looked at Skye. “But now you need to be the man here, you need to step up and take care of your family.”

   Hearing this Skye piped up “I do just FINE!” she screamed and then shrunk back once she heard how loud she was reverberate in her own ears, “I do just fine.” She said this time in barely a whisper. Dominic pulled Cyrus further away. “You need to find that Journal,” he continued “I can tell you everything but without it you and you mother won’t understand how important or how far back all of this goes.” Cyrus was exhausted and confused but couldn’t help wanting to know more. “So…” he said “what happens when we fine this journal?” Dominic said simply “It will explain the past, but the future…well that’s a new one.”

   Dominic turned around to see Skye leaning heavily on Chase with her head still on his chest, eyes slowly closing as she no doubt listened to his heartbeat slow and steady. With a deep sigh Dom turned his attention back to Cyrus, “Put her to bed Cy and we’ll talk about this tomorrow.” Dominic himself sounded tired now and eager to get out of there with the white oak box held carefully in his hands. With a nod to Chase, Dominic moved towards the door and Chase gently turned Skye towards her son. Once he was confident that Cy had a good hold of her he turned to follow his boss. With her eyes still closed Skye stopped Chase as he tried to pass by and put her hand on his chest. He stopped immediately but said nothing as her hand slid down and dropped limply back to her side. 

   In a flash, Maury kissed the top of her head and staggered out the front door. On his way past Dominic he didn’t notice the tug as Dom snagged the car keys that were partially hanging out of his back pocket in one quick motion. Cyrus snapped out of his daze, put his arm around Skye and watched the tall, broad strawberry blonde man saunter to the front door and take the keys from his boss’s hand. It struck Cyrus then that he never realized how big Chase was.

With a slight bow Dominic left last and quietly closed the door.

   There were so many things going on in his mind at that point that he didn’t know where to begin…or end. Sky moaned softly and her weight shifted, losing her balance as she started to drift deeper. That got Cyrus moving, he walked her to the staircase and then step by step it must have taken almost 10 minutes to get her up to the top landing but he did it and shuffled her down to her bedroom.

   Once through her bedroom door he sat his mother on the bed gently. Skye was practically sleeping through the whole thing, only semi awake enough to not fall over and make him carry her. Cyrus balanced Skye with his left arm while he used his right to pull back the covers on the bed. To make things harder Kona jumped onto the bed and pinned the blankets down so he couldn't pull them back all of the way. Instead of fighting the large dog he pulled the blanket back as far as he could and slowly laid Skye down. He thought about putting her into her pajamas and then decided that things were awkward enough already.

   Skye was out as soon as her head hit the pillow and soft snores came from her in no time at all. Kona put his large head on Skye’s thigh and closed his eyes leaving Cyrus standing in the dimly lit room watching his mother like a parent would watch their child sleeping. With some certainty he knew that a shift had happened and somehow knew that he was going to have to be the parent now and had no idea how he was going to handle that.