Disclaimer: I don't own the show or any other reference I make.

Chapter 3: Tiredness and Front-page stories.

AN: Little Tommy is about four months old. And sorry to MC, who thought Jude was too forgiving, but things get tough for Tom down the road. Hell to pay.

I woke to the sound of Tommy crying. Was it all a dream? I crawled out of bed and walked over to his crib. "Hey baby boy," I cooed as I picked him up. "What's wrong?"

He just cried in response.

"Oh, baby, you know you have to let mommy get some sleep. I can't be tired tomorrow, or any other day for that matter. Photo shoots and recordings and interviews. It's all a little much." I sat down in the rocking chair that my mom gave me at my baby shower. I rocked back and forth slowly while I sang to him. "Rock a bye baby, on the tree top. When the wind blows the cradle will rock. When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all."

He still cried.

"C'mon, Tommy, what do you want? Are you hungry? Let's get your bottle." I got out of the rocking chair and went down the stairs into the kitchen. I flicked on the light and started preparing the formula, one handed.

"Need help?" I heard someone ask from behind me.

I looked behind me to see Sadie at the bottom of the steps in her robe. "Woke you up too?" I asked her.

"Yeah... He can sure scream."

"Sorry about that, I'm trying to work on pulling myself out of bed the first time I hear him."

"Here, hand him over," she replied, holding out her arms.

I gave Tommy to her and then continued preparing his bottle. "I'm always so tired during the day." I put his bottle in the microwave to heat it. I took him back from Sadie and looked around for a pacifier.

"Here." Sadie handed me one from inside her robe pocket. "Someone slipped it in there."

It grabbed the pacifier and stuck it in his mouth. I rubbed my forehead out of frustration. "How do you have such a handle on this whole thing? I still don't have any idea what I'm doing and I've been doing this full time for four months."

"You have so much going on in your life. You have a kid to care for and you have your music career, which involves photo shoots, interviews, et cetera. I've had a little more time to read about this stuff."

"You've been reading up on this stuff?"

"Yeah well, what are sisters for?" As the timer for the microwave went off, Sadie sauntered over to the microwave, removed the bottle, and tested it on her arm before handing it over to me.

I took the pacifier out of his mouth and replaced it with the bottle. "Hey I never thanked you for letting me move into your townhouse with you, since Mom didn't want another baby in the house after so many years."

"No problem."

"I really mean it; it's just really difficult doing all this."

"I know. Besides, other parents are part of a team; you've been on your own for this whole time. Maybe things will get better now that Tommy has come back."

"Okay, he really did come back. When I woke up, I thought it was a dream, like he didn't really come back."

"But he did, and hopefully things will get better. When are you moving in with him, or is moving in here?"

"I don't know, we haven't really talked about it. And he'll be busy too, so it will still be difficult." I looked down at Tommy, who was now asleep in my arms. "Oh thank God, he's asleep."

"Let's get him up to bed before he wakes up again," Sadie replied with a smile on her face. We went up the stairs silently and separated into our bedrooms. I placed Tommy back into his crib and then crawled back into my own bed, falling asleep instantly.

My alarm blared at 7 in the morning. I was so tired that I slept through it but Little Tommy wouldn't hear of it. He started crying and that's what finally woke me up.

I checked my clock. 7:30. I was supposed to be at the studio in 15 minutes. I stumbled out of bed and rushed around getting dressed. I got Tommy dressed and poured some coffee into a commuter cup. By the time I got Tommy strapped into his car seat, I had five minutes.

I got to G Major ten minutes later. I stumbled in with my coffee in one hand and Tommy in my other. I saw EJ and Georgia running around crazily, like they usually do when I'm late. "Sorry, I'm late, guys. Tommy woke me up at three in the morning and then I slept through my alarm for half an hour before he woke me up."

Tommy came out of the studio and hugged me.

I hugged him as tight as I could with only one arm. "God, I'm so tired. Jr. woke me up at three in the morning." I glanced up at him. His face seemed really serious. "Are you okay?"

"Um, we have a problem," he said.

I looked up at him stunned. "What's wrong?"

He pulled a rolled up magazine out of his jacket pocket and tried to hand it to me. "This."

I set down my coffee on a nearby table and took the magazine from him. On the front page was: "A Happy Reunion" and there was a picture of Tommy and me yelling at each other.

"This is not good..." I muttered.

"You got that right. They got the whole story; where I've been, the fact that I had no idea I was a father, and our whole huge fight from yesterday. There are full color pictures also."

I flipped open to the page where the story was. It explained absolutely everything. There were at least half a dozen pictures; one of him coming into the studio, one of me yelling at him, Jamie coming out of the studio with Tommy Jr. in his arms, one of me saying something to Kwest, one of Tommy and me kissing, and then the final one of Tommy holding our son and me standing right next to him.

"So the press knows everything?"

"Well, just this tabloid does but it will soon be every where. We'll be flooded with interview requests."

Georgia and EJ walked over to us and said, "We have to figure out who sold you guys out to the press."

"What? Oh! There wasn't any press here yesterday so that means that someone must've sold this to the press. I'm such a spaz!"

"You're tired," Tommy stated, pulling me into a hug and letting my head rest on his shoulder.

"Comes with the territory of being a full-time mother and rock star." I adjusted Tommy in my arms. "I really need to get a baby carrier for him."

"Well, hand him off to someone 'cause we need to figure this out," Georgia commanded.

"Georgia, no one is here. I only trust him with Sadie, Kat, and Jamie and none of them are here. Sorry I'm just really stressed out."

"Okay, Jude just breathe, we'll get all of this figured out," EJ told me.

"Well, this can't be that hard to figure out. We haven't let anyone in here with a camera since the press found out about my pregnancy. So that means it had to be a camera phone. How many people could have one?" Nearly half the people in the lobby raised their phones in the air, signaling that it was a camera phone. "Okay, stupid question. Well, we know it wasn't Kwest, EJ, Georgia, Jamie, or Sadie." I paused for a moment. "Did Shay ever stop by yesterday like he said he was going to?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You still talk to Shay? I thought he was out of your life..." Tommy protested.

"When I got pregnant, Shay stopped by to help me out with stuff and even though I despise him, I wasn't in the position to turn down help. He said he was going to stop by yesterday to see how some of my new songs were going."

"I didn't see him at all," Georgia said.

"He probably showed up, shot the pictures, listened to our argument, and then bolted."

"It's possible," EJ agreed.

Tommy Jr. started crying again. "Oh not again. It's not enough that he keeps me awake for half the night. I'm going to take him outside." I stepped outside and slowly rocked him in my arms.

I saw Shay's SUV pull into the parking lot and he stepped out of the car. "Hi, Jude," he called in his badass tone.

"Hey yourself," I replied bitterly.

He walked up to me and looked down at Tommy. "How's Tommy Q Jr. doing?"

"Don't play dumb with me Shay."

"What?" He replied sharply.

"The tabloid..."

"Right, that's majorly harsh of whoever sold you guys out to the press..."

"Wait, so it wasn't you?"

"Of course not. You don't need that kind of publicity right now."

"I should've known. Sorry."

"No problem, you seem really tired. Did he wake you up at three in the morning again?"

"You know me too well."

"So, what's it like having Tommy back here?"

"It's a little weird. I never pictured Tommy and me in an actual family. I never thought it would be like this."

"I know what you mean." He stared down at me with those intense eyes.

I looked away from him. "Don't Shay."

"Don't what?"

"Don't stare at me like that, with those eyes. I know what you're thinking."

"What am I thinking?"

"About our kiss..."

"You're right."

"You have to understand that that kiss meant nothing. It was a week or so after Little Tommy was born and I finally realized that Tommy probably wasn't coming back. You were there and it just meant nothing. Please don't say anything to Tommy."

"I won't." Shay hugged me tightly.

"Well, I should get back inside." I turned around and walked back into the lobby. I went up to Tommy and said, "It's not Shay."

"Yeah, I know. It's one of the secretaries; she needed some extra cash, so this seemed like the easiest way to get it."

EJ bounded over to them. "Okay, what we're going to do is embrace this whole thing. Have the whole family go on different talk shows and do interviews for magazines. Sound good?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," Tommy replied.

EJ went back over to Georgia to talk to her.

"Wow... Okay, Tom..."

"Yeah?"

"What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we have a kid. What's going to happen in the long run?"

"As in, between us?"

She nodded. "Yeah, between us."

"I guess..."

"If we move in together, I want to stay at Sadie's. I already have everything there and, I don't know, I already feel settled there."

"Okay, how about I move into Sadie's with you and then we'll take things from there?"

"That's a plan."

He smiled down at me. "Did I say hi yet?"

I smiled back at him. "I don't think you did..."

He leaned down and gave me a kiss. "Hi."

AN: Well, please R&R!