"I'm scared." Maya whispered to Hakeem.

He was already holding her hand so he squeezed it and tried to make her feel better despite the fact that she had every reason to be scared, "You just gotta keep taking the lil breaths like the doctor said."

Taking breaths only worked so long to keep you calm, though, and Maya had long since passed her calm stages.

So now, the calm was full blown panic.

The mask around Hakeem's face felt extremely tight even though there was more than enough room.

Everything feels too tight, too small when you're watching the mother of your child prepare to be cut open to retrieve said child because both of them were in danger of dying. Doctors were talking but they were using medical terms that made no sense to anyone besides them, and they couldn't be bothered at the moment to explain.

He was just impatiently waiting on the sound of a cry.

The words he did understand were "Placental abruption" and "Blood loss", both of which pointed to complications with Placenta Previa, the previously mentioned condition Maya's OB said she wasn't overly concerned about.

Once the anesthesiologist announced that the sedatives were about to be administered, Maya clenched her eyes shut and focused on the pressure of Hakeem's hand to keep her grounded. He watched as she fell asleep, followed immediately by the doctor pressing a scalpel against her skin.

Maya's mom and Monica occupied the waiting room, anxiously awaiting the birth of their grand-daughter.

The doctors' hands moved at an almost inhuman speed, and within minutes they were lifting Ivy towards another set of hands that placed her on a different surface, placing two fingers on her chest and softly pressing down with timed pauses in between.

At the exact same time that Hakeem realized they were doing CPR on Ivy, a flurry of activity erupted where Maya was laid on the table.

And then he was told to leave the room.

"A shidddd." He refused, looking between Ivy and Maya, "Y'all gone have to put me out this hoe."

Why he thought that would be a problem was anyone's guess, and while security was being called to put him out, they were still attempting to stop the bleeding as they simultaneously pushed units of blood through the IV in Maya's arm.

The doctor had successfully resuscitated Ivy, though she had to yet to cry and alert a nearly distraught Hakeem to the fact that she was alive.

Hakeem's final memory of that room was Ivy being placed in an incubator, and a desperate surgeon trying to save the life of a young mother.

• • •

Brielle was asleep when Hakeem walked into the room, but quickly woke up when he knelt beside the bed, pushing his face into her stomach.

He hadn't attempted to text her and explain what was going on, so she was clueless as to why he was in that state.

"What's wrong?" Brielle asked through squinted eyes.

"Maya died."

The Lord is my Shephard and He knows what I want.

Bri sat up and lifted his face to hers, "I'm sorry."

Despite her previous thought, she was actually sorry. Whether she liked her or not, Maya was someone's friend, mother, daughter, and died so suddenly without the opportunity to grow and become a better person.

"Ivy?" Bri asked carefully.

His voice was lacking emotion, "2 pounds."

"But she's okay?"

Hakeem kept asking that question, and the doctors or nurses never gave a direct answer, always reverting back to the same statistic and he repeated it to Bri, "Babies born at 27 weeks have a more than 95% chance of survival."

"Then we're thinking positive, okay?" Bri asked, still cupping his face, "She'll be fine and coming home in no time."

"I can't think no positive shit after all that I just saw. She gotta lay in a box just to breathe. What's positive about that?"

"Ivy not the first and won't be the last premature baby. They gave you statistics for a reason, Hakeem. Obviously, you can be nervous and concerned, but you gone drive yourself insane if you keep replaying what you saw."

It wasn't necessarily that he'd basically seen Maya die because he had no emotional attachment to her. Of course, he didn't want her to die and hated the condition under which she left, but it was Ivy that he was mostly concerned with.

"Didn't you say her neck was big? I never seen anything bad happen to people with fat ass necks. She good, I promise."

He never understood how she managed to say the right shit all the time, "How I ever felt like you was a opp?"

"'Cause technically I was. I'm not no more so we just don't speak on it forreal."

Hakeem had yet to stand up, "I love you so much Brielle."

"I love and appreciate you." Bri responded, stealing his line, "You going back to the hospital tonight or in the morning?"

He couldn't go back to the hospital because of the NICU visitation restrictions. The nurses in the department were extremely nice, and they thoroughly explained that Ivy was receiving the best care possible at the moment.

"In the morning. I can't go back til 9."

"Then go take a shower. You want a bologna sandwich?"

Hakeem nodded his head, "Two of 'em."

While he walked into the bathroom, Brielle grabbed her phone and called Raelyn. She gathered what she needed to make two fried bologna sandwiches, and patiently waited for her to answer.

"Reese's funeral home, you stab 'em we grab 'em."

"Bitch Maya went home to the Lord," Bri whispered into the receiver.

Raelyn gasped loudly, "Girl what the fuck?"

"Righttttt. It's sad as hell that Ivy'll never know her mama, but damn I'm kinda lit."

"I'ma put a lil some extra in the box Sunday 'cause God was really in his bag with that one."

She laughed but stopped herself just as quickly, "We not shit. Rest in peace Maya."

"Rest in peace, Maya." Raelyn repeated, "Lemme go burn a candle."

• • •

*3 months later*

"You hate me don't it?" Hakeem asked Ivy as he lifted her up, "We said an hour and you ain't even do that."

He was immune to her screaming by now and calmly sat in the chair placed in the corner, letting his feet push against the floor to initiate the rocking motion that it was meant for.

Ivy's cries faded into whimpers, and eventually the room was once again silent.

"God I know I'm good for at least an hour. Don't do me bad tonight please." Hakeem muttered, keeping his movements exact for fear that Ivy might awaken.

He knew that if he asked, Bri would help so that he could sleep for a couple of hours, but he didn't want to unless he felt like he couldn't take it anymore.

Some nights he would sleep through Ivy's crying though, and Brielle would put her back to sleep with what Hakeem perceived to be ease.

She want smoke with me, Hakeem thought.

Whether Hakeem noticed it or not, at times Ivy would make him tense, and she picked up on that emotion, mimicking it in the form of cries. A more than likely well-rested, nearly stress-free Bri exuded calmness and projected that unto Ivy.

He carefully placed her back into the bassinet, holding his breath and tiptoeing out of the room.

"Look at my struggling single mother," Bri mumbled when she felt him get back in the bed.

"I wanna throw it away."

She laughed without opening her eyes, "That baby wanna sleep with you and you tryna make her sleep down the hall. She ain't going for that shit."

"My mama said I gotta do that or she not gone sleep by herself."

If Hakeem would've let her, Monica would have been more than happy to raise Ivy as her own. She threw every hint until she finally decided to come out and ask.

Hakeem was surprised that Monica would think he would go for that.

Monica was lingering around the room, picking up nonexistent lint as she tried to approach the subject, "If you get overwhelmed, you know I'll come with no problem."

"I know. Thank you."

He had no intention of calling his mama for help because he felt like he could do it himself. It wasn't like he had a job that required him to have a schedule so he could just sleep whenever Ivy slept.

"I was actually thinking that maybe you and Ivy could move back in?" She hedged, "You can have your old room back."

"Ma...."

"It's just a suggestion. I don't want you to feel like you don't have any help."

"I got help. All y'all be helping."

"Around the clock help."

She always seemed to push, and push. Hakeem didn't know how he never recognized this before, but she was constantly exhibiting new traits that caught him off guard.

"Mama I 'preciate everything you do for me, but I'm not finna move back in there. You know you can come over here whenever, but you ain't even letting me try to be her daddy first."

Monica would never in a million years tell Hakeem, but she thought that since Maya passed, Hakeem would allow her to raise Ivy. It made sense to her because she didn't think Hakeem could do it himself.

His confidence made her proud, however, so she smiled and let it go, "Okay."

• • •

"I'm happy that she's dead." Bri mumbled, waiting for a reaction from Nicole, "It's like all my problems left with her."

Nicole stared at Bri calmly, "I could see why you'd feel that way. Do you think, though, that maybe your and Hakeem's problems had nothing to do with her?"

"No, because our problems had everything to do with her. We literally haven't argued about anything since then."

"What happens if there's another Maya?"

"First 48. Period."

This wasn't their first session, and Nicole liked to think that she was getting better at reading Brielle. She knew that when Bri wanted to avoid going deeper into a conversation, she'd deflect or try to lessen the seriousness.

To Bri's credit, it didn't take much for Nicole to get her back on track, as she smiled and gave her a look, "I'm sure you know by 'Maya', I meant problems. How do you think your and Hakeem's relationship will fair if you encounter another problem of the sort?"

"I like to live in the moment. Why would I make up scenarios that hurt me?"

"It's not making up scenarios to hurt you, it's understanding where you both can improve so that you won't get hurt. Bri I'm not sure how many ways I can explain to you that it's not healthy to pretend events haven't happened."

Brielle sighed, "I wanna switch the subject."

"To?" Nicole asked, making a note to reapproach this later and reaching for a bottle of water that occupied the desk.

"Coby told me that he killed Alisha."

She coughed sharply, and placed the water back on her desk as she looked at Bri in shock, "What?"

"I Googled it, and they said you can't tell the police."

"Bri I-"

"He sent it in a letter." She interrupted, "It was like "I love it in Chicago, and oh yeah, I killed mama."

Jacoby wouldn't answer the phone for his sister to offer an explanation, and none was given in the letter. She wondered what made him pick now as a time to tell her, but she found out when he reactivated his Facebook and started posting scriptures every morning.

The nigga became a Jehovah's Witness.

"Okay.....  How do you feel about that?"

"I think we're all fucked in the head. He found God though, so I'm hoping that works out for him."

Nicole was working to keep her facial expression neutral, "I'm hoping it works out for him as well."

In her defense, she'd never had anyone admit to them that someone had committed murder. She shouldn't have been surprised by anything this family told her, yet they continued to find ways to take her by surprise.

"I recommended therapy to him, too. I thought you'd be proud."

"I'm very proud of the progress you're allowing yourself to make. It's true that Rome wasn't built in a day, but the effort was put into building it every day."

"I like that. I'ma steal it and act like I came up with it."

Nicole looked at her notepad and shook her head with a laugh, "You can have it."

The rest of the session was dedicated to Bri simply talking about her day.

• • •

Hakeem sat straight up in the bed, the pounding in his head an indication that he'd sat up too fast, and the quiet of the house insinuating that either Bri had gotten Ivy or she jumped out of the window.

He felt bad for lowkey hoping she'd jumped out the window.

After using the bathroom and brushing his teeth, Hakeem walked into the living room to see Ivy in a baby carrier strapped to Josiah as he paced back and forth singing to her in a soft voice

"Dirty soda inna styrofoam. Spend a day to get my mind blown. Dress it up and go to NASA, two hundred miles on the dash."

Hakeem couldn't stop the snort from leaving him, "Don't be singing that shit to my baby. Sing the one about the nigga with the farm."

"She tired of hearing that, ungrateful ass dude."

He was very grateful for Bri, Josiah, Raelyn, Grace, hell even Kayla helped where she could, and Hakeem was more than appreciative.

"You know I love you," Hakeem replied, sitting down on the couch and continuing to watch Josiah walk.

Josiah sucked his teeth and looked at Ivy, "Your daddy gay."

"Where Bri and them at?"

"It's Tuesday."

Tuesdays meant therapy, a still somewhat new addition to their schedule. She always said what she wanted to anyway, but Hakeem noticed she was nicer, for lack of a better word, with her words and approaches. He wished she would've made the decision to attend therapy sooner.

Except for the days she came home with an attitude because they'd talked about something that had previously upset her.

"This baby be staring me in all in my face and Ion like that."

"She think you ugly as hell."

Josiah examined Ivy, searching for how she and Hakeem were communicating, "How you know?"

"Ion know why I invite you over here."

"You ain't invite me. I came to watch my niece while her deadbeat ass daddy slept."

It wasn't truly a need for Hakeem to even ask anymore. They all seemed to have a designated schedule to show up, and most times he didn't know they were coming. Bri was the one who they talked to since she seemed to know when everything was.

She made his life better, easier.

The longer he sat there and watched Josiah hold Ivy, reflected on his current life and how it'd drastically changed over mere months, his mind drifted to the piece of jewelry that he'd purchased 3 weeks ago.

He stood up and went into the kitchen to see if Bri had taken any food out. He saw a pack of chicken in the sink and turned to go back into the living room, "You know how to cook chicken alfredo?"

"Yeah. It ain't nun to it forreal." Josiah replied, playing with one of Ivy's fingers.

"Come show me then."

Josiah was lying and didn't have the first clue as to how to make chicken alfredo, but ever since Josiah told him the proper name of a repass, Hakeem thought he knew things.

Pure comedy.

"Yeah, 'Al Dente' is Spanish for 'All done'." Josiah explained, reading the box, "Cook it for like 10 minutes and put the chicken in the oven for 30 minutes."

"You a helpful ass nigga."

"I be trying. Why you finna cook though? Bri food getting nasty?"

Hakeem dumped the box of pasta into the pot and added water, "I'm finna see if she wanna get married."

"They got a word for that. It's called proposing."

As he said it, he pulled out his phone to text Raelyn, instructing her to intercept Bri after her session so that Hakeem would have enough time to finish making the food, then called Grace to ask for help in setting up.

• • •

Leaning closer to get a better look, Bri finally decided on a lighter nude shade and turned to show Raelyn.

"Nude gives me classy pussy vibes. I love it."

"Rae for once I want you to think before you say stuff out loud."

Today Raelyn was thinking before she said everything because it was killing her not to tell Bri what was waiting for her at home. Brielle thought she was so happy because of something Josiah did, brushing off the permanent smile on her face.

She should've noticed when Raelyn kept looking at her and hurriedly looking away.

Or she should have noticed when they were leaving the nail shop and though Rae had insisted they spend the rest of the day together, she abruptly changed her mind and started talking about how Bri should get Kayla from daycare and go home.

"They finna get out in like a hour anyway." Raelyn reasoned, "And she told me she miss spending time with you."

Bri caught none of that and walked into the house completely unaware.

"I smell food." Takayla declared, heading for the kitchen to find the source.

She found Hakeem sitting at the table looking uncomfortable. He was nervous that Bri would say no and then he'd have to take Ivy and move to Idaho or somewhere.

"You cooked?" Bri asked from behind Kayla.

"I did a lil some."

Brielle looked at the sad excuse for alfredo and concluded that he was right. It was a lil some. A lil some she didn't want to eat.

"It look like when Bri makes it," Kayla said excitedly.

You a got damn lie.

They sat at the table, making small talk before eating. Bri put the food to her mouth, chewing through the undercooked noodles and dry chicken while struggling to maintain the same expression she'd had when she sat down.

Takayla looked at Bri, then back down to the plate on the table. It was disgusting, but she didn't want to hurt Hakeem's feelings.

She reached for the juice and smiled, "It tastes like Bri's," Kayla lied.

"I gotta make y'all some more then."

"Don't tire yourself out." Bri said quickly, "We appreciate this one time."

He was too happy that they liked it to think about whether they were lying or not. Pushing back from the table, Hakeem stood up to get the ring from his room, and give himself a pep talk.

While he was doing that, Bri jumped from the table and rushed towards the trash can, motioning for Kayla to follow her, "Fold it in half."

Kayla frowned, "But its glass."

"Throw it in the trash then, Kayla. You wasting time."

By the time Hakeem came back into the kitchen, Bri and Kayla were pretending to eat the remainder of the food on their plates. He paused by the door, then called her name, "Bri and Kayla come here right fast."

"Where we going? I gotta let my food digest.

He laughed and leaned against the wall, "Man youn let a nigga do nun without asking a million questions."

"I'm being cautious!"

Bri followed him down the hall to their room, pausing in confusion at the display. It was a beautiful arrangement, from the trail of red roses that led to a bed of white roses positioned in the shape of a heart, to the balloons dangling from the ceiling, spelling the question that Hakeem would soon be repeating.

Grace had also thought to add a line candles on either side of the heart, creating a mock wedding aisle for Bri to stand in.

She read the words slowly, multiple times, and turned to look at Hakeem with tears already filling her eyes.

Tears were a good sign to Hakeem, and it boosted his confidence that she'd say yes. He knelt down in front of her, taking a deep breath, "It can be tomorrow or the next 10 years, but I need you to know that I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. We got so much to figure out about this life shit, but you make it look easy. All I want is to make you happy and love you the way you love everybody around us. So, Brielle Lashay Washington, will you marry me?"

"Yessssss. Yes yes yes yes."

"You gotta jump up and down." Kayla instructed, "Like on the movies."

Bri was too focused on watching the ring slide onto her finger to respond immediately, but once it was settled and Hakeem stood back to his full size, Bri did in fact jump.

She jumped directly into Hakeem's arms, wrapping her arms and legs around him. He supported her weight easily, hugging her to his chest.

The first chapter of their fairytale.

• • •

"maya just the baby mama & that ain't even finna last long"- the completed sentence that made y'all think i was lying ab that being hakeem's baby 💆🏽‍♀️

rip maya? stepmama bri? how we feel?

thanks for reading.