Thanks goes to Kennedy's Friday Night Delight, Alice Jericho, HurricanHelmsSexyBiatchKelis, and the wonderful SILENTMUSINGS (for the best, most in depth review I have ever received! xoxo) Thanks to you! Hope you enjoy!
Alex was on his third plate at the breakfast buffet they had decided to go to.
"Packing' it in eh?" Petey observed with a smirk.
He looked up, "I barely ate anything at the hospital. I couldn't with Aiden being sick."
"It's a miracle she's back with us. We've definitely got a lot to be thankful for." James said.
Alex nodded as he took a bite of eggs. Chris sat in the corner watching Alex pensively. He was waiting for the best opportunity to bring Ajay up to him. He though about discussing the topic in private but it was irking him too much to wait.
He speared an orange slice with his fork before gathering up the courage to say something, "So, what did you say to Ajay when she was leaving?"
"I told her that I was still angry with her because of what she had done." he said dismissively.
"Is that it?" Chris pressed.
Alex ran his tongue along his teeth, "Why do you ask?"
Chris glanced at Petey and James whose faces were unreadable, "She left to go pick up the kids from Gran's and was really upset after she talked to you."
Alex shrugged, "She should be. I'm not going to downplay what she did to spare her feelings."
"She feels terrible and responsible for what she did." Chris told him.
Alex took a sip of juice, "She should. Every time I think about what she did and how Aiden suffered because of it, I could seriously go ballistic."
Chris clenched his fists. Alex' nonchalant attitude towards Ajay's feelings was quickly pissing him off.
"She felt guilty already. You didn't have to make it worse." he griped.
"I disagree." Alex said with a smirk.
Chris dropped his fork with a loud clatter, "Don't do that alright? Don't sit there and smirk about making Ajay feel like shit."
Alex couldn't help the cocky grin that spread across his face, "I really couldn't care less about her feelings. That's like at the bottom of my list of priorities right now."
"Well you understand why I'm upset right? I would never talk to Aiden the way you did to Ajay." Chris said.
"You're damn right you wouldn't. I'd knock your head off your shoulders." Alex retorted.
"So how is it different? Why are you allowed to talk and treat Ajay like shit?" Chris questioned.
"Well, lets see here…Ajay totally disregarded Aiden's health and the fact that she was having a difficult pregnancy all because of her stupid insecurities." Alex pointed out sarcastically.
"She tries very hard to not let that affect her. You know about her abandonment issues. She couldn't help that she felt threatened and reacted." Petey interjected.
Alex shrugged again, "That's not my problem. Maybe Chris should have cheated on her in the first place."
Chris stood up defensively, he was beyond pissed at that point, "Who the fuck are you to say anything about my relationship with Ajay? You're the fucking poster boy for infidelity."
Alex nodded, "Yeah, and I have to live with that everyday, don't I? I have to look in the mirror knowing what I did to Aiden and how bad I hurt her. If it wasn't for Savannah I wouldn't have gotten through sitting by Aiden's bedside knowing I was partially responsible for her being there. See, that's the difference. I take responsibility for my actions. I don't walk around and blame everybody because of what I've done and what's happened to me. She was irresponsible at the worst possible moment and I don't know if I can forgive her for that."
"Didn't Aiden forgive her though?" James asked.
"That's her, not me. If I have to be the asshole to protect her and my child then so be it." Alex said.
"I feel the same way. I don't want you to treat Ajay like you have been that's not fair." Chris said.
"Fair?" Alex laughed, "All of you see this situation totally differently than I do. You see Ajay as this poor little lost soul who made an innocent mistake and now wants to be forgiven because she see the error in her ways. Now she's the victim and I'm the bad guy for protecting my family."
"How do you see it then?" Petey questioned.
"I see it like this, my sweet wife trusted Ajay to be her friend and stand by her and when she unknowingly set Ajay off, she almost paid the ultimate price for nothing." Alex explained.
"It wasn't nothing to Ajay." Chris added.
"That's not the fucking point! The fact of the matter is that I would have lost Aiden and possibly Savannah. I really don't understand how that doesn't trump Ajay's fucking feelings. I hope none of you ever have to sit by your wife's side praying she doesn't die so you won't have to raise your baby alone. I wouldn't wish that on anyone." Alex said.
Chris sighed, "What about Ajay then? I think we both share the need to protect our families."
"I guess she needs to either develop thicker skin or stay the hell away from Aiden and Savannah for awhile. Honestly, I don't want her anywhere near Aiden, not after what she did to her. I don't care how sorry she is." Alex admitted.
"She's not going to want to do that. She'll want to catch up and spend time with Aiden. That's her way of trying to make it up to her." Petey said.
"Then she's going to have to deal because I'm not backing down from this." Alex said flippantly.
Chris rolled his eyes, "This is bullshit! What if I told you that I was going to act that way towards Aiden?"
Alex shrugged, "Then I'd kick your ass if you upset her."
"What if she did the things Ajay did and I decided I should punish her the way you're doing with Ajay?" he shot back.
"Aiden would never do the things Ajay did. Don't fucking kid yourself, she couldn't be that big of a bitch no matter how hard she tried." Alex said.
"I'm done talking about this for now. You need to watch it Lex, you're very close to crossing the line with me." Chris warned throwing a couple of dollars on the table for the tip.
"Ajay crossed the line with me, so I get what you mean. My first priority is my family and I'm not going to waiver on that, not even for my best friend. My girls come first, end of story." Alex said going outside to the car.
"That went really well." James muttered sarcastically.
The drive back to the hospital was silent. Alex rushed to Aiden's room stopping at the door seeing that Mollie was holding his sleeping daughter and Aiden was awake and shaking on the bed.
He went to her first, sitting on beside her, "Are you okay? Your numbers are a little higher than they have been."
She closed her eyes, "I'm a little tired. I've been trying to stay awake until you got back."
He glared at Mollie, "You were supposed to call me when she woke up."
"She said she was fine, and besides I had my hands full." She motioned at Savannah.
He got up and sat in the chair beside her looking down at the sleeping infant, "Was she okay? Did she cry?"
Mollie smiled, "Just a little. She's an attention hog like her daddy."
She nudged him with her shoulder as he put his arm around her. He always knew how to make her forget that she was angry with him, with even the littlest gestures. Aiden glanced over at them forcing herself not to scream at Mollie to let go of her child.
"That could have been a reality…" A sinister voice whispered in her head.
She bit her lip painfully, trying to stifle her tears.
A small knock on the door was heard as a nurse came in the room, "Miss Savannah needs to come down to the nursery for her final exam before she goes home."
Alex stood up.
"Here you take her." Mollie said standing up too.
"We'll go together, if you want. I don't know how I'll do by myself." he admitted.
She forgot her anger completely and went outside in the hall.
"We'll be right back." he smiled at Aiden.
She nodded quickly, her fake smile faltering. He kissed her forehead and went out into the hall with Mollie and the nurse.
When the door closed she coughed out a sob and leaned forward to rest her head on her knees. She ignored the pain in her abdomen. She was quivering in fear of the flashing pictures in her head. She could see the nurse with the wretched mouth handling her daughter and then returning her to Mollie's arms.
Aiden pinched her eyes shut as the vision took over her brain. They all looked up at her with eerie smiles.
Blood trickled out of the nurse's mouth, "Isn't she beautiful?"
She was shaking her head trying to disperse the awful scene before her. Thankfully a knock on the door made the image disappear.
Chris poked his head in with a half smile, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
She sniffed and wiped her eyes, plastering on a fake smile as she nodded.
He sat on the bed frowning at her, "Are you in pain? What's wrong?"
She looked down, her shaking hands coming up to cover her face.
He took both of her hands into his, "Aiden, talk to me."
"Everything has just kind of hit me and I got a little overwhelmed." She said.
"If you need to talk about it, you know I'm here for you anytime." he encouraged.
She faltered through a smile, "No, I'm just being emotional."
He kissed the backs of her hands, everything about him was so endearing to her, "I have a favor to ask."
"Sure." she smiled.
He glanced up at the monitor to check her vitals.
"Don't do that." She sighed, "Alex does that all the time and it makes me nervous."
His blue eyes shifted back to her face, "Sorry."
She shook her head waiting for him to continue.
"I really don't mean to put you in the middle of this, but you're the only person that can help me.'
She squeezed his hands, "What do you need Chris? You know I don't mind."
He frowned again, "Alex is still really upset with Ajay for what she did to you."
"I know, it wasn't her fault though. I put myself in an impossible situation, I have no one to blame but myself." she told him.
"Aiden, you know Ajay is partially to blame for this. Everybody does including her. I'm not trying to excuse what she did by any means, but I know Ajay. When she gets back from Gran's she's going to want to go back to the way things were before all of this. She's going to want to be by your side, and talk to you and hang out." He explained.
She smiled then, "That's fine with me, I want that too. I want to forget this ever happened, except for having Savannah of course."
He chuckled, "I would love to be as optimistic as you, but you can't just sweep this under the rug. We almost lost you forever, that's not something we can forget, those emotions don't just disappear."
"I know that, but I don't want everybody to just sit around blaming each other either. I just want to be normal again." she whispered, her eyes welling up.
He cupped her cheek gently, "Please don't cry."
She inhaled a shaky breath, "So what was this favor you were talking about?"
He looked down at their clasped hands, "If its not too much trouble will you please kind of look after Ajay when she gets back? She's been so hard on herself and Alex has really been making it worse. I'm not asking him to forgive her, just that he doesn't kick her while she's down for Joey and Kenzie's sake."
"Chris, you know I wouldn't let that happen. She was there for me countless times before our misunderstanding. I definitely owe her." She said, tears escaping her eyes.
He shook his head with a lopsided grin as he wiped her tears away, "How do you do that Aiden? I'm still a little mad at her myself and here you have completely forgiven her."
She laughed, holding her stomach to prevent her staples and stitches from moving too much, "Like I said, I'm ready to be normal again."
"Thank you." he said pulling her into his arms for a hug.
The door opened and Alex walked in trying to shush his screaming daughter.
Aiden immediately turned her attention to Alex, "What's wrong with her?"
Mollie grinned, wiping Savannah's eyes some, "She had some blood drawn and wasn't very happy about it. This is what Alex looked like while they were doing it as a matter of fact."
"Whatever, I told you it was hot in there and my eyes were sweating." Alex muttered.
Aiden held her arms out signaling him to bring their daughter to her.
He handed her off with ease.
Mollie punched him in the shoulder.
"It was very cute that your eyes were sweating. Having two daughters must have finally softened you up some."
He grabbed her in a headlock and bent her backwards playfully. Aiden gritted her teeth determined to remain focused on Savannah.
"Good news! The doctor said that as long as your tests and next check up go well we get to bust out of this joint and go home." he said excitedly, still holding Mollie in the Dragon Sleeper.
"That's good new." she said softly.
"Let me go. Let's go get some coffee." Mollie whined hitting Alex arms.
He let her up ducking out of the way when she swung at him, "We'll be right back. Did you want anything?"
She shook her head no, not looking up from her daughter's cherub face. They left again.
Chris turned to her with a big smile, "You finally get to get out of here."
She smiled too, "Yeah, finally."
"More importantly I get to get Alex and Savannah away from Mollie." she added silently.
So, I've been playing around with an idea for a spin off of this dealing with Aiden's "post coma issues" let me know if that's something you would be interested in reading :) Thanks!