James looked down at the crying baby in his crib. Once upon a time he'd have been straight in there to comfort his daughter, that was until her mother died. Rosie was 3 months old and still heavily reliable on her parents, only James could barely look at her and his mother had fallen victim to a serial killer.
James was barely able to get out of bed now a days, losing Jean, the love of his life, had meant losing most of him too. Rosie was a constant reminder of what Jean and him had had, the love they had, the future they'd planned, only all of that had gone. Rosie was the spitting image of her mother, only with James' blonde hair and the similarity is what meant James froze every time he clapped eyes on his daughter.
"Laura?" James asked as he held the phone to his ear.
"What's up James? Is Rosie okay, I can hear her crying?" Laura asked unsure of how much longer this could go on.
"I don't know, I can't touch her Laura... she looks too much like Jean." He began before he ended up crying too.
"I'll be round to sort her out." Laura promised, Laura had been Jean's best friend, she missed her friend but she knew more than anything that her absent friend would want her family to be okay.
It wasn't long before Laura arrived at the front door.
"Where is she James?" Laura asked trying to be heard over Rosie's screaming.
"Upstairs in her cot." James replied.
"Do you ever take her out of that cot?" Laura asked, although she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. When Jean and James had told Laura and Robbie of their plans to have a baby, this wasn't how they'd envisaged it. They'd all been thrilled but no one more so than James. When she was born, James doted on her, now he couldn't even lift his daughter up.
"Mum's practically living here now, she just went to get some more clothes. Can you watch her while I go out?" James asked, he didn't even wait for a response before he left leaving Laura facing a screaming baby.
Laura herself had never had a baby, she had little experience when it came to kids, and yet here she was facing her best friends baby on her own.
"Aww, come on Rosie. Calm down for your Auntie Laura." Laura tried in that voice that it is only acceptable to use when talking to a baby or a pet. Unfortunately it didn't work. "Come on Jean, help me! What do I do?" Yes she had resorted to talking to the dead but desperate times and all that. She picked Rosie up from the cot and carried her down the stairs. In the fridge she found some made up bottles of formula and decided to how that ago.
Rosie had dropped off to sleep in Laura's arms when the door opened. Instead of being faced by James, he was faced by his mother, Imogen.
"Has he gone out?" Imogen asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, he called me because Rosie wouldn't stop crying. He won't even touch her. We need to sort this."
"I know, I didn't ever expect any of this when Jean told us she was pregnant. I never thought that I'd be this hands on as a grandparent."
"Or me as a family friend. We need to fix this Imogen. Rosie will end up growing up without either of her parents at this rate, I know James is devastated about losing Jean, we all are. However he is responsible for a part of her, Jean would never want to see him and Rosie how they are."
"I agree with you Laura, I really do, but how on earth are you going to get my son to see it."
"I don't know."
"Well if it's anything like usual then he'll be out until morning and Rosie will be down now for a couple of hours. I'm trying to establish a routine for her, Jean had set one but it all just went awry when she died, she's not sleeping through the night again now."
"Okay, can we at least bring her Moses basket down here while we work out a plan, I don't like the idea of her being on her own all the time while James is around?"
"Course we can, I don't like that James leaves her up there either. I'm just glad I intervened when I did."
"Me too, who knows what situation we'd be in if you hadn't."