Part Four

"Bebe…"

Snoring.

"Be …"

Soft sleepy breathing.

"Baby -"

"Your turn."

A whiny "Noooo..." permeates the dark.

There's a playful shove.

"Yes."

Then there's a grumbling and shuffling of sheets.

Followed by a brief silence.

Minutes later she is awakened against her wishes.

"Hey, Amanda, I can't do this one. She needs to be fed."

Amanda pushes through the haze of sleep and forces herself to sit up in bed. She looks up bleary-eyed at the man she has so recently let into her life. His blue eyes are drooping as much as hers. He looks like hell.

"You tried everything else?" she asks wearily.

"Yeah, she's hungry. Trust me." Sonny is rocking her daughter in his arms soothingly yet she's still screaming at the top of her lungs, refusing to take his comfort. Hadn't she just been silent? At least for a second?

Amanda groans, but then holds her hands out to take her baby girl from him. Time to nurse. His favorite time of the night.

"You can go back to sleep you know," she says wryly.

"I like to watch."

"I know you do." There's a pause and a smile. "Pervert."

He gets back into bed and she turns her back to him, in an unspoken yet understood invitation to join them. Jesse latches on as Sonny entwines his arms around Amanda from behind, hugging the two of them like a little boy holds his teddy bear at night. They are cocooned in his warmth.

"You two," she says softly as he gently places his chin on her shoulder and lovingly looks down at the baby she is nursing.

It's her favorite time of night too.

A loud cry from the crib in the other room startles each of them awake again. It had been a very long night. Jesse just couldn't seem to stay down.

"I think I know how Barba feels," Sonny says drily as they both find their way out of bed.

"Yeah?" she asks sleepily as they head into Jesse's room. "How so?"

"Look at us. We're the walking dead here, Rollins."

She barely has enough energy to give the tiniest of laughs.

"What is it this time, Jesse?" Sonny croons as he picks up the infant from her crib.

Jesse has no answer for him but a cry.

They each take turns trying to soothe her, walking around with her, talking softly and rocking her - all to no avail. She had a fresh diaper, she had been recently fed and burped, she wasn't running a fever. This was just "fussy baby" time. And this wasn't the first time. They knew from experience that there was nothing they could do but wait it out.

"Hey, I've got an idea," Sonny says when he notices the faint red light coming in from underneath the blinds in her room. The sun was about to rise.

"What's that?" she asked.

"We should go visit Priti."

"Now?" Amanda raises her eyebrows in surprise.

"Yeah. It will be a good change of scenery for Jesse. Might just do the trick."

"I don't know - "

"C'mon, do you even think Barba is awake right now? That guy was wiped. He might be by her side right now, but I guarantee you he is sleeping." Sonny tips his head knowingly. "And Priti won't appreciate that. If she needs him and he's snoozing ...? Could be bad times for him."

"So you just want to go there to help him out? Wake him up? Keep him out of trouble?" she wonders.

"Something like that," Sonny says and shrugs. "But really more like ... I don't want Priti to feel neglected, you know. And she has been feeling that way lately."

"You're a good friend, Sonny." Amanda kisses him on the cheek. "You never neglect anyone."

"She kinda feels like I've been neglecting her lately."

"Really?"

"Yeah, cause of ..." He hesitates, not wanting to say this to Amanda. But he decides to come clean. "Cause of us, you know."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Amanda replies. "I didn't mean to take you away from your best friend."

"No, it's okay. I've just gotta find a way to balance you two. Cause her friendship's important to me too."

"I know it is ..." Now Amanda hesitates for a bit. "And I know Jesse and I take so much of your time. I mean, look at tonight. You don't need to be here, helping me out like this. I mean, I appreciate it, but I've got it under con - "

"No, Amanda stop." He puts up a hand. "I want to be here. I want this experience with you and Jesse. Even on nights like these. Don't take that away from me."

He puts his hands firmly on her shoulders and looks her straight in the eye, the crying baby between them. "My friendship with Priti is important to me but so are you."

His tired eyes shine in the dim light.

"So important, you have no idea," he says and touches her lips gently with his own in a soft caress. Without pulling away he whispers against them, "I think I'm falling pretty hard for you. I . . . "

Amanda's heart races in that moment. "You - ?"

"Yeah," he says almost shyly, looking down and pulling away a bit.

Amanda nods and he lets go of her shoulders. She turns her attention back to Jesse.

"Okay," he says, resetting his shoulders, rearranging his entire posture in an attempt to shake off the intense emotions that had just passed between them. He goes back to pacing while she rocks the baby gently in her arms. Jesse's crying shows no signs of letting up.

"I need to make time for both of you in my life and unfortunately that means Priti will have to give up some of what she had been used to. I know she wants what's best for me, so even though she's not been too happy about it right now, she gets it. I know she does. She'll understand that I need to make time for you. For this. For us," he says returning to Amanda's side and stroking Jesse's head softly.

"Let's go." Amanda looks up at him. "Let's go check in on the Barbas."