This story is based on a few premises to follow the story: Max is alive but still unwell, Natalia is already working for Olivia and they are close friends, and somehow the paternity and custody matters related to the baby have been resolved. I appreciate any stretching these conditions involve but the honest truth is I never followed GL and I'm pretty lazy when it comes to researching law. This is for a reader who suggested an unusual paring so I hope that it works but no promises.
It was two days after the birth of her first child and Ava couldn't rouse the energy to even give the boy a second thought. Well she thought of him but mostly she thought of what he wasn't and would never be. For almost a year she'd plotted and planned to use his birth to keep Bill in love, tied to her and as far away from Lizzie Spaulding as possible but as Max slid out of the birth canal he'd lost her the one man she couldn't believe she'd never have. Max represented everything she'd fought so hard to leave behind on that long bus ride from Michigan after her mother's death. Some people might think that it was his skin color that caused her the most distress and to be honest it was. There was no way to hide the fact that Max was not and would never be Bill's child but the damage went so much deeper than that. Somehow she'd actually convinced herself that she was in fact carrying Bill's child and to see solid proof that the past few months were built on nothing but slight of hand and lies shook her to the core. Her husband couldn't love her and not even a rightful heir would change that. The fact that Bill had been willing to pretend just for the sake of her bastard made her realize just how much she'd changed. If Crystal Peralta had lived Ava would be unrecognizable. Her mother worked hard and spent her life trying to instill respect and responsibility in her only child and Ava had fallen away. Everything her mother stood for she'd cast away and that's what she realized when she saw Max. She wasn't the mother he needed and she couldn't give him what she no longer had. So she left.
"He's been screaming and yelling for the past half hour" Jeffery said in awe as he looked through the window towards the little boy. His grandchild. Shit. Five years ago he didn't even know he had a kid and now he had a grandchild that he was solely responsible for. Christ. He'd purposely taken steps to ensure that something like this would never happen to him. Limiting himself to dating only young, fickle and emotionally unavailable women cut down the odds that he'd ever have to listen to someone ask where the relationship was going. He didn't do relationships for fucks sake. It was like being tossed into an ice cold lake in the middle of a summer vacation in Florida. It just didn't fit. But here he was scared not for the first time of failing her. Failing her was almost like the fear of death, unexplainable but undeniable all the same. Ava was the first and only person that he'd ever wanted to need him. So looking at Max raising hell even while he was strapped to tubes and monitors gave him hope that he could finally be the man she need. The man that was worthy of her love. "Notice that he hasn't shed one tear" Jeffery laughed as he turned towards Olivia.
"Of course not. He's a Spencer. We don't cry when we're upset. We get pissed. He's probably wondering what's keeping his wet nurse"
"I wouldn't mind signing up for something like that" Jeffery said with a leer that he knew would irritate the other woman. And just as expected she shook her head and wacked him in the stomach as she walked off to talk to Max's nurses. Turning back to the boy Jeffery pulled in a deep a troubled sigh trying to mentally prepare himself for everything that stood ahead of his motley crewed family. Bill was venting to any and everyone that would give him a second how much a whore Ava was. It bothered him that Bill was running Ava's name through the mud but at least Bill was taken care of. It could have easily have been a horrible protracted custody battle with Ava fighting two would be fathers but the Lewis' had gotten Bill to renounce his legal claims on the boy. It was better for everyone they'd told him to put this as far behind him as possible. It didn't matter to Jeffery what people thought of his daughter it only mattered that once she was whole she still had a son to claim. Remy was another matter and only wanted what was best for the woman he'd grown to love. Why she couldn't have chosen him in the first place Jeffery thought but then as he heard Olivia grilling an unfortunate RN he thought glumly "She is Olivia's kid" to himself.
He wasn't well enough to be held but once he was finally fed and changed Max looked over towards Jeffery and Olivia as they stood outside his incubator as if to ask "What now?" He had the most hair Jeffery had ever seen on any baby in his life. Not that he'd seen many but God the kid was sporting a two inch afro already. "He's going to a hair cut" he thought but didn't realize he'd spoken aloud until Olivia looked over to him and leveled a death ray glare towards him.
"You touch his hair and Ava will come back to you in the hospital right beside Max"
"I was only saying I mean" He laughed and looked at her as she smiled softly at the boy.
"And I'm only saying" Olivia barked before she went back to staring at their grandchild. "Anyway it looks good on him"
This was how she would have looked if things had been different between them. This was how she would have stared at Ava when they exchanged her for weekends and holidays and they would have fussed over dating ages and makeup. There were so many things they could have shared if he hadn't. If that night in the embassy hadn't been. Shaking his head to clear those haunting thoughts he wiped his eyes and tried bring some levity back to the situation. There was enough darkness already without bring that back up. "Maybe we can cornrow it" He said almost in a giggle. Almost the bubbling died even before it reached his throat when she swung her head towards him.
"Is that supposed to be some kind of Black joke?"
"What?"
"If that was some kind of"
"Listen I don't give a damn if he's black or blue or polka dot green. He's my grandson and that's all that matters to me." He said giving off some heat. It was too long of a day and too many things had already gone wrong. His only child and probably the only one he'd ever have was gone and in pain on what should have been the most beautiful day of her life. He couldn't save Ava and her son was fighting for his life. It was too fucking much and if Olivia wanted to be a complete bitch and make this about some bullshit then…
"I'm sorry" Olivia whispered as she held up her hands "I'm sorry"
"You should know that I'm not"
"I know that Jeffery and I don't want to fight especially about him right now" Olivia said roughly as tears streamed down her face. She didn't cry. No matter what was wrong Olivia never showed fear or vulnerability especially to him and that fact alone scared him. "Its just so fucking unfair. She should be here. She should be here fawning over him and he shouldn't be locked up in a fucking glass box away from the people" and then she slipped down as if her knees gave way under the weight of it all and he took her into his arms. Holding her close and whispering in her hair and he held her like he should have so many years ago.
Reva and her father drove her the three hours it took to get to the hospital but the ride could have been two minutes or two million. Sitting in the front seat because they both wanted to be able to keep eyes on her Ava just stared out the window not really seeing anything. It was as if the passing scenery could imprint over the past year and the pain could be simply hidden underneath. She didn't remember if she ate and barely acknowledged Reva and her father holding her up to use the restroom. Normally Reva would have been able to man handle the lanky young woman with one hand but it was as if the weight of the grief added physical pounds. Ava slumped, she listed, and she leaned and had to be maneuvered like a comatose patient. The drive, the doctor, the nurse, the entire facility didn't leave a mark in her consciousness. This has to be a dream she kept telling herself over and over and then when that was viewed as unreasonable Ava decided she was dead and this was hell. "Now lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep" But he didn't keep her because she hadn't kept him because every single thing her mother taught her she'd walked away from. This is hell and its never ending. She barely noticed her father and Reva leaving and hadn't much felt their hot tears as they fell against her pale and cold skin. Over and over "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take"