Prologue

We had been best friends for nearly 5 years, Nikki and I. There were way too many bumps and bruises, happy endings, and death fights for it to come out any other way. 7th grade to our senior year had been good so far; we were inseparable to most people. Our trips to Tahoe, Santa Cruz anywhere together had some pretty hilarious memories imbedded in them. My sister was in there adding a few extra good memories. No one would have ever thought that I lived a double life and could manage to lie to everyone I knew virtually. For almost two years I lied straight to my best friends face, at first it was tough it wasn't even on purpose it was just that I needed a break and I had found it. Then I changed, I knew she wouldn't be okay with it so I kept it that way. I don't know how I lived with myself, but my decision to tell her came when I found out I was four months pregnant and moving in full time with my boyfriend. The question is how do I tell my best friend about everything I swore against, everything that I told her I hated and would never do, everything I fought against that I have been doing it on the side quite heavily for almost two years now.

"Nikki! Chica! Get your ass downstairs; tell your mom we are going over to a friend's house and that you will be home later tonight. Hurry up!" I yelled at Nik over the phone before abruptly hanging up on her. I was sitting in my Tahoe downstairs; technically the car is my parents' since I wasn't supposed to be driving yet but oh well. My dad knew about how I lived and what not so he didn't mind.

"Shit Brook, what the fuck is going on? You know one day you will get caught not having your license!" Nik yelled at me. Everyone shortened Nikki to Nik because it was easier to say and write. Nik was a mother to me and everyone knew it.

"You are about to have the ride of your life. Buckle up because I don't know if you can hold on to the rollercoaster this time," I stated simply. I was never one to give a lot of detail to people until I wanted and was ready to. It only took Nikki about 2 years to grasp that concept.

"Brook, what is going on? I'm not in a patient mood tonight. You are going to kill us driving illegally and stupidly. At least slow down, we don't need to get pulled over. We are on our way to I assume to Hamilton and yet we don't know anyone over here to see. It being a Friday night and all I am up to a good party but not in this side of town," Nik yelled over the radio.

"I know, what I can say is I like adventure, spontaneity and a little bit of recklessness. Anyways here we are. Take a deep breathe you are about to meet a few friends of mine," I told her hopping out of the Tahoe.

They had just pulled up at a house in Hamilton it was an older one but it was in fairly nice shape. If you ignored the people in the garage it looked like any other regular home. I wasn't sure how Nikki would deal when we walked right in the garage to see "those kind" people but she knew she could retain her feelings until they were alone.

"Hey moron!" I yelled to Damien as we walked in the garage. There were about six people sitting around drinking and blazing. I just looked back to Nikki who was stunned with a hint of a murderous look in her eye. She caught up with me quickly.

"I have no idea what you do here or what we are doing here but you have little time to explain," Nik snorted at me.

"As soon as Holmes gets here and we collect my new family I will explain stuff," I told her.

"Family? What is happening…? You are going to kill me at such an early age you have no idea. I have an ulcer already, I'm almost positive!" Nik said exasperatingly.

"Yo Damien, where is ma and the kids?" I yelled at him trying to get him to focus on me for a second.

"She's in back with them; she's been waiting on you. Watch out I guess we had a long night last," he said before turning back to his pipe and lighter.

"Okay Nik lets move… You will soon be introduced to my new little friends and to the women that I call ma outside of your house," I said while laughing lightly under my breath.

Nikki was becoming a little dumb struck, for almost two years I had been hanging out here and getting blazed off my ass. Every time we fought or I went on vacation most of the time this is where I was and yet Nikki still didn't know the full truth.

"Nance! How are they doing? I'm here to take two of them or I can take all four of them over to our house and Dom can watch them while I am at school. JD and the boys will be here soon so then we can take them now and get them settled," I asked and said all at once. I was nervous so I start rambling.

"That would be great! Are you sure though? He seems like he has been busy lately," Nance asked with concern.

"Nah, he and I talked about it last night with my dad around. I am going to take Coco and Beauty for us and then the lil' bitch and Hooch I will adopt out in a month or so," I told Nance while pulling Nikki up to my side.

"That's awesome then, Dom is going to have his hands full with these four, although you picked out two calmer ones," Nance said while then looking at Nikki realizing that she was knew to the group.

"I know I am a cheater. Nance this is Nikki or Nik as we call her, Nik this is Nance," I said to both at that time.

"Nice to meet you dear. You look a little shocked so I guessed you must be the best friend. We have all heard so much about you," Nance said while enveloping her into a gigantic bear hug.

"Yeah, thank you. Nice to meet you also. I am a little bit shocked, I mean you know some bomb to drop on me," Nikki choked out without trying to avoid having one big freaking panic attack and just go ballistic at me. She would have to save that for later.

"Well, can I have their box and stuff loaded into the car? Are they ready to go, or do we need to do something first?" I asked.

"Yeah sure, let's just grab Damien and the boys. They will be quicker and that way we can 'supervise';" Nance said chuckling under her breath. Nance and I always 'supervised' anything that involved lifting or working hard.

"Damien! Boys! Get in here, help with the puppy stuff!" I yelled at them. Nikki was sending death glances my way with her eyes. I led Nik out to the car. "Okay, I know. It's a lot but you will understand tonight. Just play along then tonight I will answer questions and what not. Although yes I have another house, hence the Dom and yes that it is my boyfriend. The puppies will live there and at my parents' house. Things will make sense in a little while," I said to Nikki on our way to open that back of the Tahoe.

"Hey… Will you fold down the seats? I need to go check that they have everything?" I asked Nikki while I started my retreat into the garage.

"Yo, girlfriend! Who's the chick out in da car? She's got one fine…" Jess was trying to say as before I interrupted him quickly. He had just appeared from one of the back rooms. No doubt there was some passed out whore in the back. Shit we all loved him with everything we had but damn did he have problems about not picking up after his hoes.

"That's Nikki, my best friend. Don't you dare go anywhere near her with your intentions! Do you hear me?" I threatened and not so lightly either.

"Got it! She is the one who you lied to and hid us from isn't she? She's the doublee of the doubled life?" Jess asked her. At times he made no sense but I was the only one that could ever understand him then again I spoke like that most of the time too.

"Honestly yes! Although what else am I supposed to call it? I have been with Dom for almost a year and a half, puked more then I thought was humanly possible and now you choose to give me a hard time for I what I call it?" I asked irritated at him.

"Okay Okay you hormonal little twit! You just get your way… because you are pregnant and no one else knows," he whispered the last bit into my ear.

"Shut up! You be me and then we will talk about hormones, you duckweed!"

"I know, I know, white flag! I am sorry, I am just adjusting. It's crazy, we have never had a newborn and you haven't even told everyone yet! Plus your Dad and Dom have become about 3x's more protective then normal. The other ones are like eh… there being unreasonable when he gets all angry at us for playing around with you and harassing you about cleaning up. They just don't know why yet."

"Uhm… Brook. There are about eight large wheels outside and I think I saw JD launch out of the top of one. Who is the other guy?" Nik asked me as she walked back into the garage where they were all sitting around. She looked a little paler then normal but no one could blame her for that.

"Oh, one is mine and the other one is JD's. The dogs are loaded and Jess is taking the Tahoe. We will ride in my truck. Ready?" I asked Nikki.

"Yo… your truck?" Nik stuttered out.

"Yeah, my other Christmas present slash birthday present from Daddy. I guess he wanted to spoil me after everything," I said rather innocently.

"Oh lord! This is the biggest shocker of my life. How did you cover this up? How did you ever keep this quiet? Where the hell do you park that thing?" Nikki asked as we loaded into the truck. Nik was struggling just getting onto the first step. Even though I was already in my seat and locked in. I reached over to give Nikki a hand. JD had already loaded back up and left and Jess well he left but no one ever knew if he had to make a "stop" first. She would have to get used to this however I wouldn't be driving this much longer. "I mean how can you as my best friend cover this up for like two years? I have told you everything and yet here I am finding out about your boyfriend and your smoking pot and god only knows what else."

"I know I know we are almost to Dom's, home as we all call it. I live there almost 75 of the time so don't be surprised when you can tell I decorated it," I told her. I was just hoping Nik wouldn't have a total melt down. I was becoming afraid she might just start swinging at me.

"Hey way to drop another. How old is he anyways? Hey anymore to drop, should I brace myself for you to tell me your engaged and going to move away out into the sunset?" Nikki said while fuming a little bit. I wasn't sure what she angry at, but she was definitely pissed.

"He is 25, just about seven years older than me. I met him at work; he is one of JD's good buddies. We sort of dated through JD for a while then Dad found out when I got home late one night. He freaked out, mom freaked out so Dad vowed to not let us see each other. Although he gave in when Dom went and talked to him and promised to take care of me. He is a softy for his baby girl," I told Nikki on our way to Dom's place.

"I have missed your entire life I feel. Two years, TWO FUCKING YEARS! What the fuck? Where was I, I feel like I'm an idiot for having this happen. I thought I knew you front and back," Nikki was just starring outside the window.

No one could make her feel better right now; she thought maybe just maybe this was some horrible joke. When she turned forward she saw that they were in the heart of Hamilton. The original big houses with yards and fences. She knew that this could either make or break their friendship. Whatever happened to tonight, there will be no turning away from it.

We were just pulling up to his house. It's a rather large house set back in the middle of the original Hamilton. He inherited it from his gram. I loved it; we had kennels out in the back pasture and four inside the garage. As for the puppy population we have normally, we have a "puppy room." It is right next to ours. It is totally safe for any breed, size or color puppy. We even have a time out corner or for any puppy that is particularly rambunctious. We were pulling up to the house; Dom probably heard my truck down the street. He and Holmes were already outside waiting for us.

"Hey Babe!" Dom yelled to me as I started my slow descent from the truck.

I was barely showing so if you didn't know you didn't see. Although I fell out of my truck all the time. It still unnerved me. I was so scared I would hurt my baby. I cleaned up real quick when I found out, ate right and even took my vitamins. It was crazy, I was back to the girl I was before I got totally into my rebellion phase as the guys called it.

Dom enveloped me in a huge bare hug until he started snaking his hands up and under my shirt. I pushed him away and turned to Nikki. I went and retrieved Nik from the side of the truck and dragged her over with me to Dom and Holmes.

"Nik, this is Dom or Dominick. Dom this is Nik or Nikki. It seems everyone around has some sort of nick name," I said trying to lighten the mood.

"Nice to meet you Nik! I know you probably resent me right now and I'm a total surprise to you but I know about you and have seen your face so many times in our house that it's crazy. All you see is your face in my hallway though. She broke the printer on your face… Oh shit, not even that way. Crap that was funny though. Anyways, you will understand once you see it not with my ramblings," Dom told her as he escorted her into the house leaving Holmes and me outside alone.

All I could hope was that was would accept him into the picture like everything else. She needed to be in both lives now. Especially if I was going to ask her to be my official godmother. No one else would ever be good enough for my children other than my best friend.

"You okay? You look about a million miles away right now," Holmes asked.

"I know. I am just thinking. Do I tell her, when or even how?" I asked him. He always knew what to do in these situations. He had a good perception of people.

"Well you have known her for how long. Which way is gentle but a good getting the point across message?" Holmes asked me back.

"I don't know. How I do this gently and abrupt at the same time?"

"Ok well let's see… You remember how I figured it out? We were swimming and you had been sick and moody which was some of it but I came up and I wrapped my arms around you. I knew when I ran my hands over stomach. Call it my good ol' natural intuition or the fact that you had a rock hard bump in your stomach. Gentle and abrupt."

"Well unfortunately I am not swimming and I doubt she is going to wrap her arms around me anytime soon."

"You know, you are so dense sometimes. Just sit down with her. Take her hand and place it on your stomach. She will get the picture. She will feel 'Lil' Baby'," Holmes told her. He was hoping for a little boy and he knew Dom was to. Boys are easier to deal with when they will be living in an entire group of them.

"Oh… You know I am only dense when I am trying to refuse good advice from an idiot. Although you better be around with Dom the entire time. I needs support incase she finally decides to just strangle me," I said to Holmes laughing.

"Deal! I will hang out here today with you guys. Although we need to head inside before Dom one talks Nikki to death and second thinks I am doing the wild thing with you. That would be bad," Holmes said laughing.

As we walked in Dom was in the kitchen with Nik. They were laughing and seemed to be enjoying each other's company. I couldn't but help but smile when I noticed they were both happy and not trying to kill each other. I wasn't so worried about Dom not liking her and her not accepting him just because of the past two years. Holmes noticed what was happening and going through my mind and leaned in and whispered in my ear, "See things will be great. Just give it some time to fall into place." I, then, also knew he was right; everything would be good in good time.

"Hey baby! What took you two so long?" he asked evil eyeing Holmes.

"Yo buddy, back off! We were just talking," Holmes said with his hands in the air in a surrender pose. He was looking totally serious until Nik looked like she was caught in the middle. Holmes totally broke out laughing hysterically after Nik's look at him.

"Boys! Where are the dogs? They need dinner at some point," I asked trying to stop the laughter from my two hooligans.

"They are in their room. I left some soft food down but they were playing so I left it. Where's JD and Jess?" Dom asked me.

"I don't know, he left right before me. He must have stopped somewhere. Anyways, Nik let's hit the couch and watch some serious TV," I said to Dom and Nik. I turned to see Holmes filling Dom in on what was going on.

"This is such a beautiful house! How many rooms are actually in this place?" Nik asked me when we plopped on the sofa.

"Well including the guest house they are six."

"Damn! What are in all of them?"

"Well, I have one; Dom has one; we have two guest rooms, one male, one female; a puppy room and a room in the making."

"That's freaking awesome! I still don't know how you managed to hide this. I mean all those times you were flirting and playing around with those other boys. You sure as hell kept me fooled."

"I know what can I say, I'm talented. Hey, let me see your hand for a minute," She handed me her hand and I took it and put it on my stomach. I noticed her eyes dilate a little and stare at me in disbelief.

"NO NO! You're not!" She virtually yelled at me. The guys knew what had just happened so this was their cue to come in and make sure she wasn't strangling me yet.

"Yeah, I am. Five months, big surprise. My room in the making is our nursery," I barely got out. It was barely audible.

"Oh my god!" She yelled. She was on her feet by now yelling and I felt nausea coming in waves. I stood up and bolted into the bathroom. I heard Dom follow but I locked the door before he could get in. I was wrapped around the toilet bowl before anyone else realized what had happened. Right then, JD and Jess walked in the door.

"What's happening? I heard yelling in the drive way," he asked all chirpy. He saw Dom at the bathroom door which could only mean that Brook was inside getting sick or being emotional, Nik standing in the living room with a dumbstruck expression stuck to her face and Holmes with a very uncomfortable fidget going on. "Oh, did Nikky just find out?"

"We are having a rather emotional moment here, truth is out about everything I think," Dom said answering JD with concern about his pregnant girlfriend.

"Go away!" I yelled through the door before I got sick again. Everything from that morning and afternoon came up.

"Shit, let me talk to her. I should no better then to yell at knocked up women," Nik said. She sat leaning against the door, knowing Brook was in the same position if not throwing up, she knocked lightly. Brook knocked back lightly; it was there I'm okay signal. "I'm sorry, I was just shocked. Let me in, I got to hold your hair. Dom better have been doing some serious hair holding otherwise I'm going to kick some ass!"

I opened the door just slightly and walked out. I looked over at Dom so he would know it was his cue to get my flat diet coke and plain pasta from the fridge. It was my morning sickness food. I went and sat back down on the couch feeling a little better. Nik came over and hugged me and told me how happy she way for me and Dom. Holmes and JD came over and hugged me also. Holmes and Dave both had a good four months practice with my moments and me. Right when we were all unhooking ourselves from each other Dom walked back in with my food.

"I want to see this nursery," Nik said to me.

"Uhm… Dom should we uncover our oh so secret room?" I said while acting out as if it was some he secret.

"Yes!" All three of the boys replied.

"It's your call babe but we would all love to see it. I haven't seen the final touches so I think it's a good time," Dom said to me.

"Alright then let's go but I get the honor of opening the door," I said taking the lead at the stairs.

As we made our way upstairs I was excited. Almost three months of work and more money than I first expected but for the next five years my child would be living here. I walked up to the door took a deep breath and opened the door. As soon as I walked in I got all teary eyed up, excited and scared all at once.

"Here it is, my baby's home for the next five years," I said to everyone.

"Oh my gosh Brook, it's beautiful," Nik said. It was a good-sized room with boarders of light pink and baby blue. A mural of Winnie-the-Pooh on one wall, Mickey on one and a third with both of them. We had light colored furniture in there. A crib, changing table and a rocker were in there with a small dresser. The room was perfect in ever aspect.

"Thanks," I said,"You three are the first of our family to see and be in here. It's so special to me; I can't wait to pop this baby out of me. It is going to be so loved by everyone, especially all of you." Dom came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my midsection and put his hands on my growing stomach. I interlocked my fingers with his; these little gestures and signs of affection are what really got to me. I couldn't believe in around four months I as going to be a mom, a mother. The next step of my life was going to be my family, so I skipped a few steps in there but I have no regrets about anything. I was excited to go over to Nik's with my baby, my puppies and just catch up. Explain some things and just in general get back together as tight as before. I couldn't help but feel this was a huge changing point in my life.