Days of our Haiden

Season One Episode Fourteen: 3AM

"Are you hungry? You can have my cheese burger and fries if you'd like. I just picked them up from Burger King on the way home," Aiden said as he handed over to his fast food bag and held it up to her.

Hope shook her head. "No, thank you. I'm not hungry. You go ahead and eat though. I won't be offended."

"I don't mean to sound uncaring; stuffing my face at a time like this," Aiden said, sitting down on the couch beside her.

Hoe shook her head. "No. Go ahead. Eat. I'll feel bad if I stop you from eating."

"Can I at least get you a drink?" Aiden asked, heading to the kitchen. He poured himself a soda. "I wave soda, water, orange juice, milk, white grape juice… I'm kind of staying away from the alcohol after the other night."

"Maybe a water please," Hope said.

Aiden took a bottled water out of the fridge and then headed back out into the living room.

He handed her the water, then sat down next to her and began to eat. "Do you mind telling me how it happened? You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm just trying to grasp everything."

"We got into an argument over RJ calling you Dada. I left for work, and before I left I told Rafe to bathe the kids. He decided to bathe them, only he didn't want to bathe them in their baby tubs. I told him before I don't trust them in the big tub yet, but he was so sure of himself! As usual, he was so sure that he knew better than me. So, he took the baby tubs out, and put the twins in the big tub. He placed their backs against the back of the tub. They could sit up on their own now, so he handed them their rubber duckies and thought they would be fine."

"Wasn't he watching them?" Aiden asked.

Hope shook her head. "He turned the water on and, since the water was only to their heels and didn't seem to be filling up that fast, he went to make a call."

"What call could have been that important? And why didn't he just wait until after the call to turn the water on?" Aiden asked.

Hope shook her head. "Who knows why he didn't turn the water off first? As for the phone call, he was so worried that you were out to hurt me and the twins that he called his FBI friend to put out an investigation on you."

"What, like hire a private detective to follow me?" Aiden asked.

Hope shook her head. "I think more like dig up information on you."

Aiden turned to Hope. "Hope, I would never ever hurt you! I mean, I know emotionally hurt you, and I planned to kill you, but… I couldn't go through with killing you and… and I'm getting help from Marlena. I never want to hurt you emotionally ever again! As for the twins, never would I ever have hurt them! I don't care that Rafe is their father. I would never have taken my feelings for Rafe out on them."

Hope nodded. "I know," she said quietly. She had tears in her eyes again.

He reached out and gently dried them with his thumbs. "Maybe it's my fault. If I had just stayed out of your life and not come back, then Rafe wouldn't have felt the need to investigate me. Then the twins…" He trailed off.

"Hey!" Hope looked him in the eyes. "Rafe is the one to blame. He is the only one to blame; not you, all right?"

Aiden nodded, then set down the remainder of his burger and took her into his arms. "I still love you, Hope. I never stopped. I know you don't love me anymore, but I promise to still be here if you need me. Whenever you need to talk, or whenever you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm here for you."

"Thank you. I appreciate that." Hope rested her head on his shoulder and sobbed just a brief moment. Then they stayed like that for a minute in silence.

Eventually, Hope pulled away. "Can I use your bathroom?"

Aiden nodded. "It's right down the hall to the right."

"Thank you," she said.

Once she had gone to the bathroom, Aiden quickly finished his dinner and ditched his trash. He took his now empty glass to the dishwasher, and left Hope's hardy touched water on the coffee table.

When Hope came back out of the bathroom, she sat down next to Aiden again. "I don't want to go back to my house tonight. I can't be in the house where my twins died—not tonight. I also don't want to see Rafe yet. I don't want to be alone though, and I don't want to stay at Shawn's. He'll just keep asking me if I'm alright, and keep trying to get me to talk. He might even make me talk to Rafe."

"You can stay at my place. I have an extra bedroom," Aiden offered. "I mean, if you feel comfortable enough with that."

"That would be great, thank you," Hope said.

"The sheets are already clean. No one has used the bed since I moved in," Aiden assured her. "Would you like one of my shirts to sleep in?" He nodded toward her dress shirt and dress pants. "That doesn't look too comfortable to sleep in."

Hope pushed some hair behind her ear and nodded. "That would be nice, thank you," she said quietly.

"I'll be right back." Aiden then went to find a shirt for her to wear. He ended up picking an incredibly soft grey t-shirt that had always been huge on him. It was made of cotton and jersey and perfect for sleeping.

He headed back into the living room and handed it to Hope. "Here. It's really comfortable for seeping. It's big on me, so it should fit you about right."

Hope smiled weakly at him as she took the shirt. "Thank you. I appreciate your kindness."

"I'd do anything for you, Hope. You should know that by now," Aiden said gently to her.

She looked away. "I'm not really tired yet. My mind is racing." She looked at him. "Would I be a horrible person if I told you I wanted to play a game or watch a movie to help take my mind off things?"

Aiden shook his head. "Not at all!"

"It's just that, I've been crying all day long. I don't know if I have any tears left in my eyes to cry. I need to distract myself before I go insane from all the pain," Hope explained.

"Why don't you go get ready and I'll find something for us to do, okay?" Aiden said gently, his hand over her upper back.

Hope nodded. "Okay," she whispered. "I might as well text Shawn that I'm safe while I'm at it—just so he doesn't worry. And Ciara… Gosh, I don't know how I'm going to tell her. She probably already knows. Hopefully Shawn can be there for her because I just can't right now."

"I'm sure he will be," Aiden gently soothed.

She then headed into the bedroom to change and text Shawn, and Aiden tried his best to think of something they could do that wouldn't upset her.

~*came back to me.*~

He decided a movie might be too dangerous. He didn't know what movie to pick that wouldn't trigger something in Hope to make her feel worse. Heck, even a comedy could have something as innocent as twins in it that could set her off. So, he decided upon Scrabble. It was a safe game to play.

He changed into some blue and green plaid pajama bottoms and a navy blue shirt, then made some popcorn.

Hope came out in his shirt. It went to the middle of her thighs.

Aiden looked at her and instantly felt weak in the knees. The things seeing her in nothing but his shirt did to him… "I made popcorn. I know you said you weren't hungry, but I think it's a good idea for you to eat a little something at least."

Hope nodded. "Thanks. I guess I could eat some. Can I please have a soda? I like soda better with popcorn. I try not to drink too much soda, but certain things that I eat, I prefer soda with." She sat down at the table, then smiled at him. "Scrabble?"

"Pepsi okay?" he asked her.

Hope nodded. "That's perfect. Thanks."

"Is Scrabble okay with you? We can play something else if you'd like," he said.

"No, Scrabble's fine. I'll set it up," she said.

"I thought of a movie, but I didn't want anything in the movie to trigger your sadness," he said as he came into the dining room with their sodas.

She smiled weakly at him and took her soda from him. "You're sweet. Scrabble should be fine. It will keep my mind occupied, trying to find words to put down."

Aiden went back into the kitchen, put the popcorn in a big bowl and salted it, then brought it back into the dining room. He set it on the table, then sat down across from her.

"Thanks," Hope said.

"So, I'll let you go first since I'm so good at this game. You'll need all the help you can get!" he teased.

"Excuse me, but I'll have you know, I used to play this game a lot with my dad when I was growing up. I beat him more times than he beat me, even though he had been in this world longer and knew more words than I did at the time!" Hope said.

"He clearly must have let you win. I'm gonna cream you on this!" Aiden scoffed.

Hope raised an eyebrow at him. "We'll just see about that now, won't we? Care to put a little wager on it?"

Aiden nodded, and raised an eyebrow at her in return. "What did you have in mind?"

Hope thought about it for a moment. "How about this? The winner gets to have the loser say whatever the winner wants the loser to say no matter how embarrassing it is."

Aiden nodded. "Sounds good to me! Prepare to be embarrassed!"

Hope smirked. "We'll see who's embarrassed."

Aiden smirked as well. "Indeed we shall."

Hope had a mischievous glint in her eyes as she looked at him. "You go first." She popped some popcorn into her mouth.

Aiden nodded. "All right," he said. "But don't say I didn't warn you." He winked at her and grinned.

Hope rolled her eyes, but smirked at him before taking a sip of her soda.

~*came back to me.*~

Hope raised an eyebrow. "Conversate? That is so not a word!"

Aiden nodded. "Sure it is!"

Hope crossed her arms over her chest. "Then put it in a sentence."

Aiden shrugged. "All right. I'm an introvert, so sometimes trying to conversate makes me nervous."

Hope rolled her eyes. "I believe the right word would be converse!"

"I'll look it up!" Aiden said, taking out his phone.

Hope smirked. "You do that."

Aiden pulled up the online dictionary and searched for the word. His face fell. "It's right here!" he said, starting to put his phone away.

"Wait a minute! Let me see it!" Hope said, holding out her hand to him.

"Can't you just take my word for it?" Aiden asked.

Hope held out her hand and moved her fingers up and down in response.

Aiden sighed. "Okay, it's not there! You were right. It's converse."

Hope smirked. "I would think a lawyer would have known that!"

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. But I can still do converse, so there!"

Hope pouted. "No fair! I helped you out on that one!"

Aiden shrugged. "That's the way the cookie crumbles!"

Hope shot him an annoyed look. "Whatever!"

They grinned at each other.

~*came back to me.*~

"Are you going to finish sometime today, Grandpa?" Hope taunted Aiden as he desperately looked for a final word to add to the board.

"Hey! I'm younger than you!" he reminded her.

"Details, details," Hope said.

Aiden looked a moment more, then gave up. "I can't go, and there are no more letters to pick from the bag. I'm done."

"I have two more letters," Hope said to him. She put them on the board right away to complete the word "and". She had placed the letters n and d. She then clapped her hands together. "I did it! I got rid of all my letters!"

"Let's tally up the points and see who won," Aiden said.

"All right, but we get to double check the other's to make sure no cheating is going on," Hope ordered.

"I trust you," Aiden said to her.

"Well, I don't trust you!" Hope teased.

Aiden's face fell.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way," Hope replied.

Aiden smiled. He could tell by her tone that she was worried she had hurt his feelings. "I'm not a cheater, but go ahead. You can confirm your lose if you'd like it."

Hope rolled her eyes. "You're full of it even after I used all my letters and you didn't!"

"That doesn't necessarily mean I lost," Aiden reasoned.

"Yeah, we'll see," Hope said, confident in herself.

So, they tallied up their scores.

"Two hundred!" Aiden said proudly.

Hope smirked. "Two fifty!"

They traded papers and added them up. They got the same results.

"Yes! I am the winner!" Hope stood up and did a little victory dance.

"Yeah, yeah. Congrats I guess. What embarrassing thing am I going to have to say?" Aiden asked.

Hope tapped her lips. "Hm… Let me think about it for a minute…I got it! I want you to tell me that you are far inferior to me because I am the queen of Scrabble, and you will forever be the loser of Scrabble."

Aiden smirked. "I thought it was supposed to be embarrassing."

Hope shrugged. "I decided to be nice since you are kind enough to let me stay here tonight. Anyway, how embarrassing could anything really be when it's just the two of us, right?"

Aiden nodded. "True. All right. You are the Queen of Scrabble. I am far inferior to you because I am the Loser of Scrabble."

"Forever. Don't forget forever!" Hope reminded him, a smirk on her face.

Aiden sighed. "I will forever be the Loser of Scrabble!"

Hope laughed. "That's better!" She then looked sad just like that, as if someone had just flipped a switch. She looked at Aiden. "Am I a bad person for playing games and laughing on the same night my children died?" She had tears in her eyes. "I just wanted a distraction. This sadness…It's killing me."

Aiden felt his heart sink. "Oh, Baby, you're not a terrible person at all! Come here." He pulled her in for a tight hug.

Hope quietly cried against his chest for a moment. She then looked him in the eyes. "I think I need to go to bed now," she said.

Aiden nodded. "All right. I'm here if you need anything. Goodnight."

Hope blinked back tears. "I don't know if I'll ever have a goodnight again."

Aiden felt his heart break as she headed into the spare bedroom and shut the door behind her.

He put the popcorn bowl and their dirty glasses away, then brushed his teeth and went to the bathroom before turning out all the lights and climbing into his own bed.

~*came back to me.*~

There was a knock on Aiden's bedroom door.

Aiden looked at his bedside clock. It was three in the morning. "Yes?" he asked, his voice tired.

"Aiden, it's me. Can I come in?" Hope called out timidly.

"Sure." Aiden wondered what Hope could want.

Hope came into the room and shut the door behind her. "Can I sleep in here with you? I woke up so sad, and I just don't want to be alone."

Aiden moved over and patted the spot beside him. "Of course." For some reason, even though it was chilly out, his room always remained warm. He supposed he just had good heating vents. Anyway, he had taken his shirt off earlier in the night. He was going to look for it now that Hope was in the room, but he was too tired to go searching for it in the dark.

Hope crawled in to bed next to him; not seeming to mind his bare-chestedness. "I know this must be weird for you. And I'm sorry I'm waking you so early. I just didn't want to be alone," she said, tears in her eyes and her voice shaky.

"Hope, you need me right now. I don't care how late or how early it is, I'm here for you." He gently wiped her tears away with his thumbs. "You know I'd do anything for you, Hope. You may not be in my world anymore, but you're still always going to be my world."

Hope got the same look in her eyes that she had when she had kissed him the first time, so this time Aiden saw it coming. She leaned in and kissed him passionately on the lips.

He hungrily kissed her back. He couldn't help himself. He didn't think he'd ever be able to push her away when she kissed him.

She broke the kiss and gently held his face between her hands. "Make love to me, Mr. Jennings. Please? I want you to make love to me."

Her kissed became more passionate as she tried to pull him on top of her.

It was the hardest thing Aiden ever had to do to stop her from doing so. "We can't. You're still with Rafe," he said. The words tasted like vinegar in his mouth.

Hope looked at him with desire in her eyes. "Forget about Rafe! I have. He killed my twins."

"But they were his twins too, and it was just an accident. You're angry now, but you might regret this later once you've cooled down. I think you need to talk to Rafe. Let your anger subside, then talk to him. This is something you can't just walk away from without taking to him first." Aiden kind of liked being delusional better. Being the voice of reason wasn't any fun. However, for once he was going to do what was right for Hope. He was going to think of Hope's feelings over his own. Though, in a way, he was also looking out for himself, he supposed. He didn't want to finally make love to her again only to have his heart broken by her eventually forgiving Rafe and going back to him.

Hope looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Don't you want me anymore?"

Aiden gently wiped her tears with his thumbs again, and gently stroked her cheek, feeling his heart break again. "You know I do. You have no idea how much I still want you."

"Then have me. I'm all yours," Hope said, trying to get him to make love to her again.

Yet again, Aiden stopped her. "Baby, no. Not like this. You need to talk with Rafe, then if things end up not working out, I will be right here waiting to show you exactly how much I want you. But I can't be with you right now; not like this. Not when you're still in mourning."

Hope sighed. "Can you at least hold me until I fall asleep?"

"Baby, I will hold you for the rest of the night," Aiden assured her. "Come here."

He pulled her closer, and she lay her head on his chest.

He then stroked her hair like he used to do when they were together, and he kissed the top of her head.

"Thank you," Hope murmured.

"Anytime," Aiden said; meaning it.

"You didn't let me win tonight, did you?" Hope asked, looking up at him.

Aiden shook his head. "I thought about it, but I knew that would just make you mad. Besides, when it comes to points, it's kind of hard to cheat anyway."

Hope smiled, then laid her head back on his chest. "True." Her fingers lightly grazed over his chest.

Together they lay like that. Hope quietly sobbed off and on through the night, and Aiden was there to hold her close, stroke her hair, give her soothing words, and kiss her lovingly on the head.

Eventually, sleep was able to take them both until mid-morning.

~*came back to me*~

"Good morning, Beautiful," Aiden said. He had woken first, and watched her sleep. Now, her eyes had just fluttered open.

She smiled weakly at him. "Good morning."

"Are you hungry? I have bacon," Aiden said, wriggling his eyebrows up and down.

Hope laughed. "That sounds wonderful. Thank you."

Aiden started to leave, but Hope gently grabbed him by the arm.

He looked back at her.

"I just want to thank you for being there for me last night. I appreciate that you didn't take advantage of me. I know that must have been hard for you," she said quietly.

"As much as I wanna be with you Hope, I don't want it to be like that. I want us to both truly want it," he said gently.

"I appreciate that," Hope said.

Aiden smiled at her. "I'll go make that breakfast."

"Thank you," Hope replied.

Once he had left, Hope sighed, and took out her phone. She looked at her missed calls. Rafe had called her several times. She picked up her voicemails.

"Hope, its Rafe. I'm so sorry. I can't even express… I don't blame you if you never forgive me for being so stupid, but please, Hope. We need to talk!"

"Hope, it's me again. I'm sorry. Please, when you feel like talking, please talk to me. I'm your husband, and they were my kids too. I'm hurting as much as you are."

Hope hung up her phone. She had to talk to Rafe. As angry as she was with him, she could hear the pain in his voice. She knew the twins' death had been an accident. It was a reckless and careless accident that never should have happened, but Rafe was hurting too—maybe even more than she was seeing as he had been the cause of their death. Also, he was her husband, and he had done so much for her even before they were married. The least she could do was talk to him.

She knew what she had to do.

Aiden came into the bedroom then with a plate full of buttered toast, scrambled eggs, and of course bacon. He also had an orange juice.

"Thank you," she said as he handed them to her.

"I know you like over medium eggs, but I never quite grasped the concept on how to make those," he said with a blush. "I added cheddar to them at least."

Hope smiled. "It's all right. I love scrambled eggs to—especially with cheese. Thank you. I decided I am going to talk to Rafe after breakfast."

Aiden nodded. "Good!" As much as it pained him to see her go back to Rafe, he knew that it had to be done—at least for now.

"I do trust you now," Hope said as she ate.

Aiden looked at her. "Hm?"

"Last night when I said I didn't trust you… I meant in Scrabble and you thought I meant in general," she explained.

"I'd understand if you didn't trust me in general. It's not like I ever gave you a reason to trust me in the past," Aiden said quietly.

Hope reached out and gently took his hand. She rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb. You gave me plenty of reason last night as to why you can be trusted now."

Aiden shrugged. "But I didn't say anything…" He trailed off.

Hope slowly leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Actions speak louder than words."

She smiled at him, and he smiled back at her.

"Aren't you going to eat?" she asked him.

"I didn't make mine yet. I wanted to make sure I got you fed first," he confessed.

"You're so good to me. Well, at least have some bacon. There's a lot here." Hope held out a piece of bacon to his mouth.

He ate it. "Mm… Bacon is so good…"

They then grinned at each other.

Hope then continued to eat her breakfast, letting Aiden share more of her bacon.

Well, he thought to himself, if anything, at least we're on good terms again. He supposed he should just be thankful for that. And, he was.