Note I'm making this message the day I post this which should be April 2nd. So why did it take so long to post this chapter well most of this chapter was written back on March 7th, but march 8th I accidentally slammed my car door on my left hand which put my four fingers not including my thumb out of commission for a little. I'm posting this now because I can somewhat type decent now. Again, sorry for the missing couple of weeks and my hand is doing fine now I'm just waiting for the nails to fall off and there should be updates again.
March 7th message - I went through season eight again for better understanding of where to place this exactly. I should have listened more to Eagles11 he warned me of the complexity that bringing in Chloe would cause. Where I want to be in the story compared to where I seem to have placed Chloe is somewhat problematic. Chloe's emotional and situational timeline is extremely vital to the show's timeline, and I hope I can figure it out. I think we'll go with season 8 episode 20 as the placement.
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Atlanta Georgia, Highland Square
Alicia held Grace with one hand as she heated the formula to the proper temperature with her other hand. As she finishes, she looks down to grace who was staring at the door that Clark just left out of. Alicia pats Grace's head which grabs her attention and says, "Don't worry sweetie daddy will be back soon." Grace seemingly forgets about the door and puts her fist in her mouth.
Alicia sprinkles a couple of drops of the formula in the feeding bottle on her wrist to test the temperature. Alicia felt that the temperature was in the proper range and says, "Alrighty time to eat." Alicia moves over to the couch and sits Grace on her lap slightly tilted back. Alicia keeps one hand behind Grace's back to keep her up and prevent her from falling one way or the other.
Alicia tilted the bottle down and held it to Grace's lips. Grace immediately latched on to the tip and began drinking. Grace finished the whole bottle in around five minutes which left Alicia saying, "I guess you still that apatite doesn't you sweetie. I just it doesn't come back up all over me." Grace just stuck her first in her mouth as a response to her mother.
Alicia got up from the couch with Grace pressed towards her chest and got the burping cloth from the counter. She lays the burning cloth on her shoulder and lines Grace with it towards her shoulder as she proceeds to pat her back.
Alicia did this for about two minutes with nothing coming out as the result. She looked down to grace to see her peaceful asleep and says, "I guess Martha was right in that your old enough to not need help burping." Alicia thought 'Maybe I should put her in her crib to sleep. No, actually I like her like this.' Alicia just holds her close to her chest, smiles down at her sitting in peace and basking in the situation at hand.
Around thirty minutes pass before Grace wakes up in her mother's arms. Alicia noticed this and said, "Hello sunshine are you ready for a bath?" Grace still waking up just looks at her mother giving her a small yawn.
Alicia picks her up and heads to the bathroom. She closes the door slightly and turns on the bath waiting for it to be the right temperature. As it becomes lukewarm, she plugs the drain and the bath begins to fill. Alicia turns off the water after it fills about five inches and sits Grace on the slip resistant mat never letting go of her.
Grace was unsure at first of the water once her mother started to use the baby washcloth she enjoyed being in the water and began smacking her hands in and out of the water while giggling up a storm. Alicia smiles at her and said, "Ah so you like bath time huh." Alicia can't help but wonder, 'I wonder if that's a Clark thing since mom used to say I hated bathes as a baby.' Alicia began using the dove baby soap they bought and slowly cleaned her.
Alicia finished washing Grace and began wrapping her in a towel as she drained the water and brought her out of the tub and said, "I know you like playing in the water but we don't want you to spend too much time in there." Grace wasn't happy to be out of the water but didn't make a fuss over it.
Alicia dried Grace off completely and began to put Aveeno baby daily moisture lotion and rub it all of ever her to help her skin, Once finished Alicia dressed Grace in one of the new onesies that they had bought earlier on her along with a pair of cute small pink socks. Grace was starting to feel sleepy again and began yawning to her mother. Alicia notices this and decides to rock her to sleep. A few minutes later grace was asleep, and Alicia slowly got up to put her in her crib.
Alicia thought 'Since I have some time, I should get eat something before she wakes up.' She heads to the kitchen and looks at her options before saying, "I guess some soup would be good." Alicia opens the fridge and grabs a container. The container had some soup she made earlier in the week and she poured it into a bowl she grabbed from her cabinet. She heated it in her microwave for fifty seconds before taking it out and taking a seat at her table to enjoy it. She feels the day catching up to her as she eats and thinks 'Maybe it's time to get some rest. Wait how come Clark has been out so long. I thought he was just going to go see Chloe. I hope everything is alright.' As she thinks this, she hears someone coming through the door and turns to see Clark.
She looked towards Clark and could see the sheer exhaustion on his face and could tell that it must have been a tough night for him. She stood up and said, "Clark what happened, you look horrible." Clark began to explain everything that happened to Alicia.
Alicia, almost in shock from hearing about Clark's past and current escapades says nothing before she slowly walked towards Clark and gave him a hug. Clark returned the hug but was unsure as to why he was receiving one. Before Clark could ask the reasoning behind the hug Alicia whispered to him "I'm so sorry that you had to go through all that, and that the responsibility always seems to fall on your shoulders. I know that others might think you can share the responsibility and that you don't have to put everything on your shoulders, but I know that you wouldn't be you if you didn't. You don't to cause problems for others and at the end of the day if you're the only one who has to deal with the consequences then your fine with that." Clark had tightened the hug and thought to himself 'She always did know me best.' Alicia speaks up again saying "I can understand why Chloe would do that. It's almost the same with her in that she cares for you and if she thinks this will help you, she is going to do it. I'm not saying it's what she should have done but I can understand her reasoning. Don't worry I know you're going to get through, and you will find her." Clark separates from the hug and gives her a quick peck on the lips.
Clark was much more relaxed now compared to when he got there and suddenly remembered Grace and asks, "So how was she? Was there any problems?" Alicia was about to answer but a sudden loud crying cut her off as both Clark and Alicia turned their attention to the crib. Clark made his way over to the crib and picked up grace who immediately stopped crying once in Clark's arms.
Alicia couldn't help but smile at the change in Clark's demeanor as he interacted with Grace. Alicia walks up to Clark's side and comments, "Looks like somebody missed their daddy." Clark smiled at the comment and Alicia continued, "Remember, no matter what happens out there you still have us." As if she was trying to agree with her mother Grace gave an incoherent babble to Clark to which they both laughed at.
Clark looked over to Alicia and said, "I can look after her now if need to do anything or go anywhere." Alicia just shook her head and said, "I'll just take a quick shower and then I can watch her while you take one." Clark's nods in agreement as Alicia gives Grace a kiss on the forehead before grabbing some clothes and walking to the bathroom.
Clark looks back to Grace and sees her giving him a funny look and wonders 'Why is she making that face.' Clark however is then immediately hit with a putrid smell and realizes she needs a diaper change. Clark takes her to the changing table and grabs a new diaper and a pack of wipes.
With new diaper on Grace had a bright smile as Clark disposed of the diaper. Clark picked up Grace and headed to the kitchen and grabbed a banana. Clark takes a seat on the couch and begins to peel the banana however as he does Grace reaches over and grabs the top of the banana and begins smushing it. Clark wanted to be mad at her but seeing her giggling at the destruction of his snack made him sigh in defeat and grab some paper towels to clean up.
Clark turns his attention back to grace and see her trying to eat some of the mashed banana. Clark snickers at this and asks, "Is somebody hungry?" Alicia just brought another fistful of banana towards her mouth getting about half in her mouth and about half on her face. It was this point Clark couldn't help but start laughing. However, Grace took the opportunity to smear some mushed banana on Clark's face.
Before Clark could clean them up, he heard "I'm pretty sure the food goes in your mouth not all over your faces." Clark couldn't help but internally sigh at being seen like this. Alicia walked over to them and said, "I can clean her up while you shower since I'm all done." Clark began thinking 'I could really use a shower, but I shouldn't leave her to clean Grace.' Clark waved his hand and said "It's fine I'll help clean this all up then take a shower. She was eating the banana by the way do you think she's still hungry." Alicia began thinking as she was cleaning up the mushed banana before saying, "I did give her the normal amount but if what we saw yesterday was any indication on her eating habits she might need some more. So why don't you finish cleaning her up and I'll start preparing her bottle." Clark gave her an "Okay" and finished cleaning Grace up while Alicia headed to the kitchen.
As Alicia began to feed her again, she saw Clark looking over her shoulder to watch with a smile on his face. She turned towards Clark and asked, "Do you want to try feeding her?" Clark's smile grew a little more as he nodded and received Grace in his arms and gave her the bottle.
It was about another ten minutes until she finished the bottle and Alicia took her back saying "Alright I'm going to try and burp again however she might not need it anymore and while I do that you can go take a shower." Clark just said, "Sounds good" and went to grab his clothes.
Most times when Clark needed to clear his head and unwind he would just stand under the hot water in a nice long shower, but even with everything that happened today he found himself wanting to get his shower done and over with so he could be back with Grace and Alicia.
He got dressed and headed out of the bathroom to see Alicia rocking Grace to sleep. Alicia turns to him and smiles as she raises a finger to her lips. Clark registers the signal as to not be loud as Alicia gets up and heads to the crib laying Grace down gently to sleep. Alicia walks back over to Clark and whispers "I don't really have all that much in the kitchen, I'll probably do a grocery run tomorrow, but you can help yourself to anything if you're hungry." Clark just shook his head and replied, "No I'm actually good I just want to get some semblance of rest after today." Alicia came up to him on her tippy toes and gave him a long sensual kiss which Clark melted into. She separates and looks Clark in the eye saying "We will get through this together okay. Now let's try and get some sleep before she wakes up again or who knows maybe she can already sleep through the night." As Alicia turned the light off and pulled Clark towards the bed.
They both slid onto the bed and at first, they took opposite sides but as the minutes passed, they both slowly inched closer and closer to each other until they were cuddled up against each other.
