Cora

Two weeks later

"Chloe, please stop crying," I whisper as tears start to trickle down my cheeks.

It's been two weeks since I had my baby, and so far, it has been incredibly exhausting. For the past few days, Chloe has been crying non-stop throughout the day. It doesn't matter what I do, I can't calm her down.

I have tried rocking her, changing her diaper, nursing her, giving her a pacifier, swaddling, bathing her and even taking her on a car ride. So far nothing has helped her calm down.

Mom took off work for a few weeks after the baby was born so she could help me with Chloe, but a few days ago she went back to work, and I was home alone with the baby all day. I am not going back to school for another few weeks, so my teachers have been emailing all my assignments, so I can at least work on them while I am home.

I sniffle and look at the clock on my bedside table and see that it is almost midnight. Chloe has been sleeping for only two hours at a time since she was born, and she got up over two hours ago, and after breastfeeding her, she wouldn't go back to sleep.

I walk back and forth with her in my arms while bouncing her and softly talk to her. She turns her head to the side and starts to scream louder. I sigh loudly and sit down on my bed and rock her from side to side but that only makes her scream louder.

I grit my teeth and slowly get up from my bed and lay her down in her crib and walk away for a few minutes. I am so frustrated, I need a few minutes to calm down.

I shut my door and put my hands over my ears and close my eyes tightly when Chloe continues to scream in her crib.

I open my eyes and try not to break down. I didn't know being a mother was going to be this hard. I stupidly thought that Christian was going to help me with the baby after she was born, but so far, he hasn't stepped up like I thought he would.

After witnessing Ana running down the hallway, he freaked out, passed our daughter to me, and ran out of the room to never return until I came home from the hospital.

He didn't look miserable or anything, so I assume that whatever was happening with her, that they worked it out. That hurt a little, but I have been slowly coming to the realization that Christian is never going to be with me.

I can see that he genuinely loves her, and after having her there with me when delivering Chloe, I can now see how good of a person she is. She stepped up and helped me when she didn't have to. On the other hand, it does hurt that he doesn't have any feelings for me, but I now can see that throwing myself at him this whole time was stupid and immature.

I sigh and throw my head back into my door as Chloe continues to wail inside of her crib. I look down the hall towards my parent's bedroom door and see that her cries haven't woke them up yet. I contemplate for a few minutes whether to wake up my mom to see if she can help me, but I decide against it. Even though I am exhausted, and need help, I don't want to wake her up since she has work in the morning.

I take a deep breath and before I open my door, stop and realize I can take her to Christian's house. Grace said that if I need help, which I can always come to her house. Since Chloe won't settle no matter what I do, I decide to take her up on her offer. I would love to have Christian come and help me, but I know that he wouldn't. He hasn't helped at all, and I know he has school in the morning, so I know he won't do anything.

I go inside of my room and dress in some sweatpants and a t-shirt. I take out a pink hoodie from my closet and put it on before I put on a pair of converse shoes. I gently take a screaming Chloe out of her crib and place her on my bed. I dress her quickly and put her in her car seat. I try to give her a pacifier, but she spits it out and continues to cry.

I miserably sigh and pick up my purse, phone, keys and place a thick purple blanket over the car seat and head out of my room. I walk fast out of the hallway, so I don't wake up my parents and head out towards my mom's car.

After getting Chloe into the car, I back out of the driveway and head towards Grace's house.


After twenty minutes, I arrive at the house. I look towards the house and am surprised when I see Christian's bedroom light glow in the darkness. Is he awake?

I look at the dashboard and see that it is 1:15 in the morning and frown. Why is his light on at this hour?

For a few minutes I contemplate driving away and trying to calm Chloe down myself, but her continue cries cause me to take a deep breath and get out of the car.

I get Chloe out of the car and walk up the path to the front door. I place the car seat down and knock on the door. After a minute or two, the porch light comes on which startles me. Chloe whimpers and then starts to scream louder. I squat down and rock her for a second. Suddenly the door opens, and I am surprised to see Christian standing in front of me with his shirt off.

I immediately blush and look down. I may know that nothing is going to happen with us, but I still can't help admiring his perfect body that is in front of me. His perfect abs. His long, lean legs and muscular chest are all on display, and I can't help but blush harder when he squats down to our level.

"Hey," he whispers.

My head snaps up, and I look at him dumbfounded. He is never like this. Usually, he can't stand the sight of me or doesn't want anything to do with me, so his tone and the way he immediately takes a screaming Chloe out of my hands causes me to look at him like he is from a different planet.

"How long has she been crying?" he asks while ushering me inside.

"Um, a-about three hours now," I stutter.

He sighs and walks up the stairs towards his bedroom. I frown and close the front door. I follow him upstairs and find them in his room. He places the car seat on his bed and takes Chloe out and puts her on his shoulder.

I stare at him wide-eyed while he continues to try to calm her down. I can't help but continue to admire him from his open door while he paces with a screaming Chloe.

Suddenly, Chloe stops crying and falls asleep against his chest. He beams at me and places her on his bed. He sets pillows all around her, and when he sees that she is fast asleep, he looks over at me and gives me a sexy smile.

I gape at him and still when he starts to slowly walk towards me while looking at me up and down. I frown in confusion when he stops in front of me and bites his lip.

Before I can blink, he pushes me up against the door and attacks my mouth. I am speechless at first, but after a few seconds I throw my hands in his hair and kiss him back. I don't know what the hell is happening. He is grinding his erection into my core and kissing me like he hasn't kissed me in years.

What the hell? He's kissing me! What is happening?

I groan when he starts to kiss down my collarbone. "I want you so bad," he moans as his hands travel down to my sweatpants.

My eyes go wide when he starts to push down his own sweatpants, but before his erection springs free, I hear a door open behind me and a familiar voice.

"What is going on?"

I jump up in shock and look behind me and see Ana standing there with a tube of ice cream in her hand. She frowns and looks ahead of me and spots Christian.

I sigh in relief when I see Christian rocking a crying Chloe, but then silently curse myself when I realize I was having a daydream when he was trying to calm her down. What the heck is wrong with me!

"A screaming baby, that is what is going on!" Christian snaps causing Chloe to scream harder.

Ana comes into the room and puts down her ice cream and goes to stand close to them. She puts her hand on his arm while Christian unsuccessfully tries to stop her crying.

"Do you want me to try?" she says softly.

Christian, who is red in the face, nods his head and looks over at me for permission. I nod at him to tell him it was okay. We couldn't calm her down, so at this point, I would try anything.

Christian passes her over to Ana, and after a few seconds of rocking her gently, she stops crying.

My eyes go wide in surprise as well as Christian's when we see Chloe fall asleep immediately in her arms.

"Wow," I murmur in astonishment at the peaceful look on Chloe's face.

"How did you do that?" Christian looks at her in surprise.

She shrugs and then looks at him shyly. "I read a few baby books. Babies can sense your frustration and tension."

Christian and I chuckle, and she smiles at him.

Ana slowly sits down on his bed with Chloe in her arms. Christian sits down beside her and kisses her forehead.

I shuffle from foot to foot before I sit down in his office chair.

We sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before I decide to speak, "Why are you guys still awake?"

They both look up at me and Christian answers, "We were working on a project for a class that was due tomorrow. We just now got it done and were about to go to bed, but this one wanted ice cream," he smirks over at Ana.

She shakes her head and smiles at him. "I was hungry from all that homework," she shrugs then looks down at Chloe.

Christian snorts and shakes his head. He kisses her hair and looks down at the baby.

I don't know what to say, so I say the next thing I can think of. "Thank you."

Ana and Christian both look up and she gives me a polite smile and he gives me a small one.

"Anytime," Ana whispers.

I give her a small smile and a nod. At that moment, I am ashamed of my past actions towards them. Especially the ridiculous daydream I had before Ana walked in. I can clearly see that they really care about each other. There and then, I decide to stop trying to get Christian to notice me, and to just be there for my daughter. I faintly smile when Christian gently runs a finger down Chloe's cheek, and Ana does the same.

Suddenly, I see something move in my peripheral vision. I look behind me and see Grace in her silk pajamas smiling sweetly at the scene in front of her. I smile, and she winks at me before softly closing the door.

I turn back around and continue to sit there for a while basking in the wonderful sound of complete silence.


AN: Sorry for the long wait for this update. RL has been crazy these last few months. I have been getting many PM's and reviews for this story, and I felt guilty for not updating for long so I wanted to hurry up and write the next update. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to write these days so updates will be slow, but I will finish this story as well as Surviving with You.

For anyone who was wondering, I changed my username a while back; PassionForGrey. I am also changing the name of this story to Double Devotion. FYI, This story won't be as long as SWY, so I am planning on having 5-10 more chapters and that will be it for this story.

Thank you for following and reviewing and for those who have checked in these last few weeks.