Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters, storylines or concepts of the OC. Anything else is all mine!
A/N: Sorry about the long delay! I am trying really hard to write as quickly as possible, but there are things going on in my life.
I go to school from 7:30 to 4:30 Monday to Friday. On top of that, I have homework and assignments, and my grandparents have been in hospital and I visit them for 2 hours a day, as well as working twice a week for four hours at a time, so its understandable that I don't have any time to myself.
In saying that, I should have a little more time to myself now, and I'll try my very best to write in that time.
Thanks to everyone's reviews, they were brilliant and all made me so happy!
That's enough from me, please let me know what you think, and enjoy!
CHAPTER 14: ADJUSTING TO A NEW WAY OF LIFE
Seth walked down the long corridor of the maternity ward, occasionally veering off right or left, and following the distinctive path he had travelled so many times.
He was pretty sure that he would know the way to Summer's room with his eyes closed, he had been so often.
Twice a day, every day for three weeks he had followed the exact same path. Up one flight of stairs, down the corridor, turn right, take the next left, walk down a corridor until the 'Private Maternity' sign, turn left, followed by the first right, then it was the third door on the right. If he was feeling really daring he would take the elevator instead of the stairs, but that was pretty much the only variation in his trip.
Today he was carrying a bunch of gerberas for Summer, all different colours like red, pink, orange, yellow and white, wrapped with a big blue bow. It was a special occasion today, very special, and he felt that the brightest flowers he could find were the only ones that would do.
He had brought her flowers everyday, all different kinds to decorate her boring room and give her something to look at while he was at work or gone home for the night.
He knew these particular flowers wouldn't stay in the room for long, but definitely had to buy them when he saw them, because they were so bright and happy, and today was a very happy day.
Summer and Noah were coming home. They had been cooped up in the confines of the hospital for way too long, and had been given the all clear by the doctor to leave. Summer was more than a little excited that she was going to sleep in her own, super comfortable queen size bed, and Summer was pretty sure Noah was going to love having his parents attention completely to himself. No more other babies the nurses had to fuss over, it was just him.
"Hello, is anybody in here?"
Seth opened the door into room N5 and was greeted by the sight of Summer, fully dressed, make up on and hair done. The first time he'd seen that in a while.
"Hey Cohen, how's it going?" She gave him a big kiss and wrapped her arms around him.
"Hey Summ." While they were hugging he started kissing and stroking her hair.
Summer was extremely excited about going home, and was in a very good mood because of it.
They were interrupted by the sound of a loud cry from the corner of the room. Seth walked over and found Noah looking extremely perfect, all dressed up and ready to make his debut into the big, wide world.
He was dressed in a white onesie, white beanie and was wrapped in a fuzzy blue blanket.
"Hey baby. Shh, you don't have to cry. Daddy's here now. You don't want to give mummy a headache do you? She'll get grumpy and then I'll be sad. It's OK."
He bent over and scooped Noah out of the cot, laughing as he saw Noah's deep brown eyes staring widely up at him.
"Good boy. See? That wasn't so hard." He settled down as he leaned against Seth's chest, resting comfortably and closing his eyes.
Summer, who was on the other side of the room, started laughing at how cheesy Seth became every time he was in a foot radius of Noah. He didn't care what anyone thought, and immediately turned to mush every time he was near his baby.
"You better be careful there Cohen. Pretty soon you'll be too far gone and no amount of Superbowl repeats will save you."
"You're no better. I've seen the way you wake him up just so you can calm him down, cuddle him and smell his new baby smell."
"Except then I can't get him to stop crying, and a lot of the time he doesn't smell that good."
"Whatever. We're whipped. And it's only because there's never been a baby as awesome as Noah Isaac Cohen. Especially now his drips are gone, and his oxygen's gone, and we can cuddle him as often as we like."
The doctor walked into Summer's room, and said,
"You all ready to go?"
"Definitely. Been ready for weeks."
"Excellent. Well I had a look at yours and Noah's obs, and everything seems totally normal. His oxygen level has gone up to 98 and his lungs are working well. So I've filled out your discharge forms and all you have to do is sign them."
"Thankyou."
"No problem."
They both signed the corresponding signature boxes and were officially discharged from the hospital. Seth found it hard to juggle his sleeping son and the signature at the same time, but he must have picked up some form of multi-tasking from Summer, because he managed it in the end.
"Are you ready to leave?"
"Yeah, let's go."
They walked out of the hospital; Seth carrying Noah against his chest and wheeling Summer's suitcase behind him, and Summer carrying the many bags of baby things that they seemed to need to carry everywhere with them, as well as another couple of bags of her own.
Summer thought she was high maintenance with all the make-up and whatnot that travelled everywhere with her in her bag, but that was nowhere near as much stuff as Noah needed.
He needed nappies, baby wipes, powder, cream, change of clothes, extra bibs, blanket, and who knows what else.
Compared to him, she was a light traveller. And that was one thing she had never been called before in her life.
"Are you right? Do you need me to take the suitcase? Or Noah?"
"I'm fine Summ. Stop worrying, I'm not going to drop him. Don't you remember how co-ordinated I am? I totally caught that crystal egg and I've only gotten better since then."
At that moment, he came up to a bump on the sidewalk and stumbled over it. He didn't even come close to dropping Noah, but needless to say it wasn't the greatest display of confidence and Summer immediately snatched her son out of Seth's hands.
"You know I was never actually going to fall just then. I was just doing it to scare you."
"I don't believe you. Here, take this stuff."
Suddenly Seth was left with all the bulky luggage while Summer got to snuggle up to a warm, cuddly, sleepy baby.
"It's OK sweetie. Mummy's here now." She shot a look at Seth. "You don't have to worry about anything now."
"You know I'd never drop him."
"You almost did. No matter what you just said."
Noah woke up and started crying.
"Good one Cohen. And now you've woken him up."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"It's your turn."
"No, I got up last time, it's your turn."
"But I'm tired."
"Yeah? Try spending three weeks in a hospital room with screaming babies all around you, having to get up four times a night to feed a very tired baby and getting woken up at 5am for obs. Then come to me about tired."
"Fine." He leant over and kissed her forehead. "Go back to sleep then, I'll get him. Just remember this next time you try and take him away from me for almost dropping him."
She rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, as Seth reluctantly left the warmth of his bed to attend to his wailing son. It had been a constant battle as to who was going to tend to the 3AM crying sessions, and the last week had been very difficult, adjusting to life with a baby in the house.
He knew that this particular time he wasn't hungry – he had been fed an hour before – and when he walked into the room he didn't smell anything change-worthy in his nappy. He was just lonely.
"Hey Noah, what are you doing?"
He lifted him out of the cot and started bouncing him gently up and down. When that wasn't working, and everything else he did just made him scream louder, he was getting a headache. Noah just didn't want to seem to quiet down and let Seth get some sleep. He even tried singing, but that didn't work either.
He ended up putting on a Death Cab CD and sitting in the rocking chair, bouncing Noah up and down and just hoping he would stop crying eventually.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Summer woke up at 7:30 and felt something was different. It was 7:30 and she hadn't been woken up yet. That was weird in itself, because normally Noah would be up at 5 and Summer would be up with him. What was even weirder was the fact that Seth was not in bed. He was never the one to voluntarily tend to his baby, and only got up when Summer got angry.
She got out of bed and put on her slippers and dressing gown. She stumbled down the hallway and into Noah's nursery. When she saw what was happening inside, she started laughing.
Seth had fallen asleep in the rocking chair, his head tilted backwards and leaning against the top of the chair, resting at an awkward angle. His arms were wrapped firmly around Noah, who had only recently woken up and was confusedly staring at Summer. Death Cab was softly playing in the background, but Seth seemed oblivious to the world.
She walked over to Noah and lifted him very gently out of Seth's arms. She didn't want to wake her husband up but felt that leaving Noah in his arms for too much longer would cause him to start crying, and that would be bad news for everyone.
"Hey Noah, how are you baby? You were crying lots and lots last night, and made daddy so tired he fell asleep cuddling you. I hope you're going to be a very good boy for the next few days, cos Auntie Coop and Uncle Ryan are coming to visit. And you can cry as much as you like for mummy and daddy, but not Ryan and Marissa. OK?"
As usual, he didn't respond, but she realised he needed his nappy changed and was probably ready for a feed. The only reason he wasn't crying was he was too stunned from waking up in Seth's arms.
When he was all set and ready for the day, all washed and beautifully clean, fed and changed, and dressed in extra cute clothes, she made breakfast. The extra hour of sleep made her bright and alert, and the thought of seeing Ryan and Marissa again made her happy and energetic.
She put some happy music on and danced along to it as she cooked, keeping an eye on Noah, who was in a bouncy chair near the bench. When breakfast was ready, she carried it into Seth and woke him up by sitting on his lap.
"Hey Cohen."
He slowly scrunched up his eyes and lifted his head up, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Don't tell me I fell asleep with Noah."
"Sorry Cohen. And I couldn't even wake you up. You looked too cute. Anyway, here's your breakfast. Eat up, get ready, Coop and Atwood will be here in like four hours. We have to be ready."
Seth watched on as she rushed around the house, cleaning the same spot three times and getting mad at Seth if he stepped on the wrong spot of carpet. He loved when she was in one of her frantic moods. He sat down and watched TV with Noah in his lap, wondering where she got the energy to clean up their house. He was so tired he could barely keep his eyes open, but Summer was buzzing around like an energiser bunny.
When the doorbell rang, Summer shrieked and rushed towards it. When she had confirmed it was in fact Ryan and Marissa, she hugged them both like crazy, before dragging them inside the house.
"I missed you guys so much!"
"Summ, it's been like four weeks."
"It feels like so much more. And you haven't seen Noah in so long."
Ryan and Marissa could only stay for the first weekend when Noah was born, and had left two days later. A baby could grow a lot in four weeks, and they were pretty excited to see what their nephew looked like and how he had changed. Obviously his tubes were now gone, and he had lost that slight yellow tinge he had from jaundice. He had put on a bit of weight, to bring him into a healthy range, and had grown a light coverage of soft brown hair on top of his head.
He was adorable.
Marissa was quick to steal him off Seth, and they settled down in the living room to talk.
"So, hows Newport going?"
"You know, the usual. Julie got 'herself into some legal stuff with New Match and had to get Chase to bail her out."
Chase was Julie's new husband, and had brought with him millions of dollars from real estate deals all over America.
"I bet my mum's really glad to have sold her half of New Match when she did. She's saved herself so much stress."
"Except Julie still goes to her when there's trouble."
"Not anymore. But anyway, we don't want to talk about our parents. Hows my nephew?"
Marissa was cuddling Noah, letting his small hand wrap around her little finger.
"He's great," said Seth, thinking over the last week since he'd come home from the hospital. "I mean, he cries non-stop and needs to be changed like every hour, but apart from that…"
"Cohen he's not like that. You're giving him a bad reputation, and he hasn't even cried all morning. Last night was just a bad night."
"Yeah, Ryan, I hope you're used to not sleeping, because that's what you're going to get for the next week."
Summer slapped Seth's arm, but didn't really mean it. She knew he was telling the truth, just didn't want to think about Noah as anything but perfect.
After a few hours the adults spent talking, Noah was asleep in his crib and Seth and Ryan were playing playstation. When Summer asked Seth whether he was too old for playstation – seeing as he now had his own child – Seth responded by saying that playstation was actually a very intellectual form of entertainment that kept his brain active for all his fatherly duties. Summer had gotten annoyed at him and taken Marissa into another room, where she could gossip and bitch while Ryan and Seth had a little brother time.
In the other room, Ryan was badly out of practice at Grand Theft Auto, and was listening to a gloating Seth, who had just won another game. But he had other things on his mind.
"Hey Seth, what do you think about… don't worry."
"What do I think about what Ryan? I think about most things you know."
"You've got to promise to not tell the girls what I'm about to tell you, OK?"
"I don't tell Summer everything you know."
Ryan shot him a quizzical look, and Seth conceded, "Fine, I tell her everything. But I won't tell her what you're about to tell me if you don't want me to."
"OK." He looked over to make sure the door was closed, and lowered his voice, just in case. "I'm thinking about proposing to Marissa."
Seth grinned and patted Ryan on the back. "I knew this was coming man. Good choice. How're you gonna do it?"
"That's the thing. I mean, it's been a long time so I have to do make it extra special. She needs to remember it."
"I don't think she'll forget it."
"No, but I mean really remember it."
"Then buddy, we've got a lot of work ahead of us. Before you leave, we'll have the perfect plan. We'd better get started."
A/N: I'm kind of stuck to where to go from here, so if anyone has any ideas, please tell me! thanks!