A/N: I am overwhelmed about the feedback I received from the first chapter. I honestly didn't think I was going to get very many. These chapters may be short, but I plan on updating daily. And the next chapter is already written and double the length! As always please review, they make me write ALOT faster!

Boyko and I were just now leaving my dorm. It had taken longer to get everything sorted out than I originally thought. It probably helped having a Staff Sargent there with me. He was able to get me out of my dorm and cancelled my payments. I was definitely grateful. But now I was extremely nervous, we were on our way to Sam's house, my new house. Where I would be living with him and his son. It was definitely going to take a few days to get my head around that one! Part of me thought Boyko was loosing his mind, he thought that I was going to be able to take care of a toddler. All by myself! I didn't even know where to start, but if he had faith in me then I guess that was enough for now.

The next thing I noticed we were parked and Boyko was opening my door. I'm thinking that he had probably been standing there for a while because the look he was giving me was one of confusion. "You can do this Andy, Nathan is a sweetheart, and Sam well Sam will warm up to you eventually." Eventually? What did he mean by eventually! Why did I ever agree to do this! I was beginning to be in full on freak out mode. I wasn't ready for this, I was only 19, I wasn't ready for someone to rely on me completely. All of a sudden I was standing in front of a door with Boyko standing right next to me holding my bag.

I watched the door handle, as it turned my stomach did a flip-flop. Boyko put a reassuring hand on my back and ushered me inside. I looked at Sam, he looked completely worn out. I hadn't noticed when I saw him earlier. He had bags under his eyes, he looked as if he hadn't slept for months. And just like that I knew, I knew that I would help in anyway I could. I would do anything to get those eyes to look the way they used to. He was too young to look this completely broken.

"Uh hi, I'm Andy." I didn't really know what to do from this point. We were all just standing in his entry way, awkwardly looking at each other.

"Yeah, hey. I'm Sam. Thanks for doing this and coming so soon."

"No problem, I had no where else to be." I couldn't help but smile at him, something about him was intoxicating.

"Okay well Sam, Andy, I guess I'm going to get going. Sam, you be good to her."

I was definitely blushing, and Sam had to have noticed because he gave me a little smirk. But when he did I noticed something, those dimples. Those could probably make me do anything.

"Yes sir, I will. Thanks for this, I'll see you tomorrow in parade."

And with that Boyko left, it was after 10 o'clock at night. I had no clue what I was supposed to do. We both just looked so uncomfortable standing there. I could tell that he had a hard time asking for help but that he definitely needed it.

"So this is your house.." So screw me I'm allergic to silence okay? And I couldn't rely on him to start a conversation here so I was our only hope of making this a little less awkward.

He gave me that smirk again, I had only seen that two times and all I wanted to do was make him laugh and smile more and more. "Yeah this is it, I know its not much.."

"No it's perfect, trust me."

"Okay so I guess I should show you your room then?"

"Yeah that'd be great, thanks."

"Good, so just follow me." He took me through the living room and out the back door. The door to my room was past the covered patio. There were stairs leading up to my room, when we finally got there and he opened the door, I noticed how simply beautiful it was. It was so simple but at the same time it was exactly where I wanted to be.

"Sam, this is beautiful! I was not expecting this at all."

"Thanks, my sister is an interior designer up in St. Catherines, so after everything happened she made it her mission to basically redo my entire house. I guess she wanted to make it more like me and less like well her."

I could tell that was definitely a touchy subject. One that he wasn't going to just open up to me about tonight, after all I had known him for all of 20 minutes.

"Well it's perfect, really. Thanks for letting me stay here."

"Yeah no problem, I figured it would be easier because of Nathan. How about you get settled here and then come back inside and we can talk about what exactly you will be doing."

"Okay, that works. I'll just put a few things away and then meet you inside."

"Uh yeah okay, and Andy...thanks..really it means a lot."

I had know idea what to say to that so I just nodded and smiled. I hoped that I would be able to do anything and everything for him. I didn't like seeing him this way, I wondered what he was like before. Before all of the worry lines and the bags under his eyes. Maybe I would be able to take some of the weight off of his shoulders.

I unpacked a few things and changed into shorts and a t shirt, still appropriate but definitely more comfy then the outfit I had on to go to dinner with my dad. Once I made my way inside I looked around trying to find him. I walked through the living room, he wasn't there, checked the kitchen, he wasn't there either. I thought maybe he was in the bathroom or something so I decided to sit on the couch and wait. I had been sitting there for at least 15 minutes, I was about to just go back to my room and figured I could talk to him in the morning. But that's when I heard it, it came from upstairs. The sound broke my heart, the only thing that could make that noise was a baby, his baby.

I didn't really know what to do at first but when the sound did not sound like it was stopping anytime soon I slowly made my way upstairs. I followed the sound and when I turned the corner the sight in front of me took my breath away. Sam was trying to console Nathan back to sleep. Nathan had his little fist wrapped up in Sam's shirt. But that is not what took my breath away, what took it away was the way that Sam was looking at Nathan.

He looked at his son with all the compassion in the world. Like nothing he could do could ever make him turn his back on him. I could tell that he loved Nathan more than anything in the world. I decided that it was best to make my presence known so I slowly walked into the Nathan's room. Sam's eyes immediately looked up, copper instincts, they made eye contact and I understood exactly what he was telling me. I knew that I had to do everything to protect his son, he was all that he had left. He held up a finger telling me to give him a minute. I pointed downstairs to let him know that I would be waiting there for him. He slowly got up and laid Nathan back down in his crib. I could hear him coming down the stairs. When he came into the living room he had a beer in his hands and dropped heavily on the couch next to me.

He turned his head and looked straight at me. It was like he was looking through me. The way he was looking at me, well I had never been looked at in that way before. It was like he actually saw me. But it was getting a little too intense for me, especially for my first night here, so in true McNally form I started talking.

"He's adorable Sam. I didn't expect to find him...well I don't know..I guess I just didn't expect a lot of things."

"Thanks Andy, hearing you say that means a lot, sorry about before he still has some nightmares. So I guess we should start talking about your job?"

"Yeah this just all happened so fast. I don't really know any of the specifics."

"Well Boyko promised to keep me on day shifts, so that means I will be working 8-4. Nathan doesn't go to daycare or anything like that, so I really just need you to watch him during those hours. Boyko told me that you take a lot of online and night classes right?"

"Yeah, I don't having any classes during that time."

"Okay great, you can have all your nights off and I'm usually off one to two days a week but it varies. I'll be here when Nathan wakes up but after I leave I just need you to feed him breakfast and basically just play with him. He's a pretty easy kid. He usually takes his nap around 2 so you can use that time to study if you need to. Just make sure he has lunch before you put him down for his nap or he won't sleep as long. Sorry if it seems like a lot, it will get easier once you get the hang of things around here."

"No, it sounds great Sam. This is exactly what I needed."

"Okay well good. You can stay in the studio and I'll buy anything you need but that's probably all I can do, is that okay?"

"Yeah that is more than enough, trust me. Room and board on campus was extremely expensive. So just being able to stay here will make a huge difference."

"I should probably try and get some sleep before Nathan wakes up again. Do you need anything?"

"No I have everything. So I'll see you in the morning?"

"Yeah see you then."

And with that I went back to my new studio apartment. I wanted to get unpacked and get everything where it needed to be but I was so tired and it sounded like I would be getting up pretty early from now on. I set the alarm for 6 just so I would be able to get up and get ready before he needed me. Once I had everything ready for the next day it was after midnight, I crawled into bed and tried to sleep for the little amount that I was actually going to get.