Not a day went by since her passing that Hollis did not miss Sally so terribly that he ached. He regretted how little presence he had had in her life since she had gotten married and left the Minutemen, and he regretted that he had never had the chance to express his feelings to her. It was all too little, too late now, as she had lost her life bringing her daughter into the world.
But he had hardly had time to mourn her, because the question of who would raise her daughter had become more complicated than expected. The obvious answer was her husband, Larry, but he had revealed that the marriage was not a happy one- a fact that surprised few- and that the child was not his- again, not much of a surprise. And because of that fact, he had no interested in raising the little girl.
Though the fact that Larry was not the father was not a big surprise, the identity of the father was, and it was a surprise that had completely floored Hollis. He had known Eddie Blake back when he was a smug, bratty sixteen-year-old punk who was much too violent for his own good and did not take well to not getting his way. That had been what had lead to him attacking Sally one day, ten years before, and that had lead to his expulsion from the Minutemen.
Hollis had not seen him since then, and he had expected the same to be true of Sally, but now he was told that at some point during her marriage to Larry, she had slept with Eddie, and that the little girl was his. He didn't know why she would even be in the same room as a creep like that, but he could never ask her now, and could only accept the fact that Eddie was the father, no matter how little sense that made.
Though Larry did not want to raise Eddie Blake's daughter, he did not want her being raised by her father any more, and had approached Hollis about it, claiming that he was the 'only man he knew that was responsible enough for the job'. And though Hollis had no experience parenting, he knew without a doubt that he loved that baby as his own, and he had not even met her yet. For Sally, he would do anything, and that included taking on the responsibility of raising her daughter.
But Eddie, adding to the theme of surprises, was not willing to give up his chance at custody. Being the biological father, and having government-hired lawyers meant that he brought a better case to the table than Hollis, the mother's old friend, and even with the lawyer Larry paid for, things did not look good for him. He spent hours looking over law books and documents, but could not find anything that would help him.
The closest he came to anything resembling a solution was the proposition of joint custody, but both parties would have to agree to that, and, what was worse, that meant they would actually have equal share in deciding how the little girl was raised. Which meant that he would actually have to tolerate Eddie on a day-to-day basis, and probably even live with him.
He was willing to do it. It pained him to even entertain the idea, but for Sally, and for the baby, he was willing to do it. The problem was, he couldn't see Eddie agreeing to it. Even if he didn't factor in that he problem hated Hollis as much as Hollis hated him, he was a proud man, and a compromise would be seen as a defeat to him, and he would never admit defeat.
So, prepared for his own defeat, Hollis went late one night to Eddie's home, expecting to be laughed back onto the street. It took all he had not to turn back home and give up, and he had to remind himself again and again that he had to try, for the baby's sake. When he finally knocked, he was not expecting much.
The door swung open and Eddie stood there, reeking of alcohol, looking almost upset, but Hollis was sure he must be mistaken. "Whaddaya want?" he asked, slurring his words.
"I came to talk to you about something," replied Hollis, already knowing that it was a lost cause. To top it all off, Eddie was completely shitfaced. There was no way he would see reason in this state!
"Come in," he mumbled, stepping back to allow Hollis in. He sat down on the couch in his living room, a mostly empty bottle of bourbon on his coffee table. "Want anything?" he asked as Hollis sat down in an armchair opposite him.
"No thank you. Listen, I think we need to talk about...this situation."
"What, about Laurie? That's her first name, ya know, Laurel. That was what Sally wanted to name her," said Eddie. "No official last name or nothin' yet, no middle name either. Guess that'll come after the verdict, huh?" He gave a weak chuckle.
"Laurie...that's a beautiful name." Hollis smiled fondly, imagining the little girl who he had only seen a few times since Larry had approached him. She had her father's dark hair, but her mother's eyes, and it was clear that she was going to be a beauty. Getting back to business, he said, "I understand your reasons for wanting to raise her, but I think-"
"Ya gotta help me," Eddie said suddenly, desperately, and his voice broke as if he were close to tears. His behavior was obviously due to his intoxication, but that did not make it any less shocking. "Hollis, please, ya gotta help me, I can't...I mean, I gotta raise her, she's my daughter and..."
Taken aback by the sudden display of emotion, Hollis couldn't help but try to extend comfort. "Eddie, you're going to win, you and I both know that. You're her father, after all. But I wanted to ask you about-"
Again, Eddie interrupted him. "No, that's not want I mean. I mean...I mean...I can't fuckin' do it, okay? I can't raise a kid, I don't...I've never done somethin' like that, I can't somethin' like that. Never mind the fact that my job is too fucked for that, I don't even know how, alright? I'm gonna fuck this up so bad, but I can't not raise her. Ya know?
"Cos...cos, see, I gotta raise her. She's my little girl and she's...I owe it to Sal. I mean, I...I fuckin'..." And now he really was in tears, and Hollis could not remember a more awkward situation. "I fuckin' killed her. If it weren't for me, she'd still fuckin' be here, and now I'm too much of a failure to be a dad to our daughter!"
"You didn't kill her," Hollis said, not sure if he would even be able to talk sense into the man in his current state. "Eddie, it's not your fault that her pregnancy had complications. Whatever happened between you two didn't kill her."
"I loved her," he said quietly. "I really did, even though I sure as shit didn't deserve. I fucked things up with her so bad, but she...she forgave me for that. She didn't forgive me for long cos she didn't want to risk her marriage, but it was still more than I deserved, and I loved her so goddamn much. But I can't...I can't do this by myself, I can't raise Laurie without her. I can't raise Laurie on my own, ya gotta help me, I don't know what to do..."
Stunned by these admissions, it was all Hollis could do to say, "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. You don't have to raise her on your own..." And he pulled out the papers to show Eddie what he meant, and Eddie was a hell of a lot more eager to sign than Hollis would ever have thought possible.
It was true that this was mostly due to how drunk he was, but it was also true that his insecurities played a part in the decision and those insecurities were nothing to be taken lately. Hollis had not known that Eddie had loved Sally or that Sally might have loved him and he had not known the man was really capable of emotions like that or a sense of paternal duty. He had not known that Eddie blamed himself for Sally's death.
"I break everything I touch," he mumbled as he signed his name. "Thanks for offerin' to help me out."
It was these discoveries and that statement that made Hollis decide that he was going to try. It would be hard to deal with Eddie for eighteen years, and even harder trying to get along with him and make important parenting decisions together, but he saw something in the man that he had never seen before and that gave him hope that maybe, in time, raising Laurie might change him for the better. So Hollis would set his dislike of Eddie aside, both for Laurie's sake and for the sake of giving him a chance.
She took on Blake as a last name, but they both had a say in what her middle name would be. It was not hard for them to come to an agreement on that one, and they quickly settled on Sally.