The couple spent the next couple of days going to the hospital in the morning and not coming back until it was dark. Zac had made an appointment with a therapist that his rehab facility had recommended that he go see. One night, Vanessa was in Mia's room folding clothes that she had just washed. Zac walked into the room and smiled. He walked up behind her and kissed her neck softly. Vanessa leaned into his touch and smiled. She turned around and looked at her boyfriend.
"How are you feeling about tomorrow?" Vanessa asked.
"I'm a little anxious but it's manageable" Zac said.
"Why are you feeling like that?" Vanessa asked.
"I think because I am going to be more open than I usually am" Zac said.
"I will be right by your side. I want us to go through this together" Vanessa said.
Zac nodded and smiled.
"Thank you for being so supportive with all of this stuff" Zac said.
Vanessa kissed Zac's cheek.
"I don't want you to have to deal with this by yourself. I want to be able to help you in any way that I can" Vanessa said.
Zac nodded.
"How are you feeling about tomorrow?" Zac asked.
"I feel a little nervous but I know that everything's going to be okay" Vanessa said entwining their fingers together.
Zac nodded. The next morning, Vanessa woke up and snuggled into Zac's chest. She breathed in his scent and smiled. Vanessa kissed Zac's neck softly and put her hand on the back of his head.
"Baby, we need to get up" Vanessa said.
"Mm. Five more minutes baby please" Zac said.
"Zachary David Alexander Efron get your cute butt out of bed and into the shower" Vanessa said.
Zac opened his eyes slowly. Vanessa smiled.
"Good morning sunshine" Vanessa said kissing Zac's lips.
"Good morning" Zac said.
"We need to get up" Vanessa said.
The couple got out of bed and took a shower. Twenty minutes later, the couple was walking out the door. Zac drove to the therapist's office and parked his car. The couple walked into the office. Zac checked in and sat next to Vanessa. A couple minutes later, a young woman that was probably in her mid-thirties came into the room.
"Zac?" the woman called.
The couple stood up and entwined their fingers together. They walked toward the woman and followed her into an office.
"I'm Anna. Make yourselves comfortable" Anna said.
The couple sat down on a couch that was in front of a chair.
"I understand that this is your first therapy session since you have been out of rehab Zac" Anna said.
"Yes it is" Zac said.
"Why did you make the decision to continue your therapy outside of rehab?" Anna asked.
"I feel like I have a lot of things that I need to work on in my life and things that I want to improve on in my relationship with my girlfriend, Vanessa" Zac explained.
"I'm assuming you are Vanessa" Anna said looking at Vanessa.
Vanessa smiled.
"Yes" Vanessa said.
"What kind of things do you want to work on within yourself?" Anna asked.
"I want to be more open and not bottle things up" Zac said.
"What about with your relationship with Vanessa?" Anna asked.
"I want to be able to be more honest and open with her. I don't want to hide what I'm feeling" Zac said.
"Alright. Can we start from the beginning? Zac, what led you to the decision of wanting to be more open with Vanessa?" Anna asked.
"In the past, I have always been keeping things to myself. I didn't treat Vanessa the way that she deserved to be treated" Zac said.
Vanessa entwined her fingers with Zac's.
"When you say that you didn't treat Vanessa the way she deserved to be treated, what does that entail?" Anna asked.
"I'm known all over the world. I have cameras and people following me all the time. When you are dating someone, it's hard to deal with all of the media and attention. Cameras were in her face all the time and there was a point where she didn't want to leave the house because she didn't want people following us. I don't care if cameras are in my face, but when it comes to her, she doesn't deserve that. I didn't tell her how I felt about certain things and she always begged me to tell her what was wrong but I would always brush it off" Zac said.
Tears ran down Vanessa's cheeks.
"Vanessa, was this hard for you?" Anna asked.
Vanessa nodded.
"We broke up and it was hard to get used to it again and try to ignore it. He has become more open but I know that with more therapy, that he could be even more open" Vanessa said.
"Now that we have a baby together, I think that I need to step up my game and really be able to be honest with her and tell her how I'm feeling" Zac said.
Anna nodded.
"How old is your child?" Anna asked.
"Two weeks old and she is in ICU because she was born so prematurely" Zac said.
"Oh wow. So you have a little one. I think that we can work on getting you to the point of always being open and honest with Vanessa. I think that it's good that you are thinking about your baby's life in this situation" Anna said.
The couple nodded.
"I think that it's good that you want be honest with me for Mia's sake" Vanessa said.
Zac smiled. He faced Vanessa and looked at her directly in the eye.
"I want us to be a family. I want to work hard on this so that when Mia is older, she can see that you need to be honest and open with people for them to understand where you are coming from and how you are feeling" Zac said.
Vanessa smiled.
"I think that's a great goal baby. I want to help you to get to that point too" Vanessa said.
"Zac, will you let Vanessa help you get to your goal?" Anna asked.
Vanessa looked at her boyfriend.
"Yes" Zac said.
Vanessa smiled. The couple's therapy session ended and they walked out of the office and to the parking lot. Zac stopped walking and hugged Vanessa and kissed her head softly.
"I love you Van. So much" Zac said.
"I love you too Zac. I'm glad that I came with you" Vanessa said.
Vanessa leaned in and kissed Zac's lips softly.
"Everything I said was true. I want us to be a family. Not just a couple who has a child" Zac said.
Vanessa nodded.
"I can't wait to see what the future holds" Vanessa said.
"Do you want to go see Mia?" Zac asked.
Vanessa nodded.
"If you want to" Vanessa said.
"I always want to see her" Zac said.
Vanessa smiled and leaned in and kissed Zac's lips again.
"Let's go" Vanessa said.
The couple continued to walk to the car and got in. Zac drove to the hospital and parked his car. Zac and Vanessa got out of the car and walked into the hospital with her fingers entwined. They went upstairs to the ICU and walked over to Mia's incubator.
"Hi baby. Mommy's here" Vanessa said looking at her daughter.
Nicole walked in and smiled.
"Hi guys" Nicole said.
"Hi Nicole, how is Mia doing today?" Vanessa asked.
"She's doing well. Do you want to hold her?" Nicole asked.
"Yes please" Vanessa said.
"Alright, let me get her set up" Nicole said.
Nicole connected Mia to the portable monitors and lifted her out of the incubator. She placed Mia into Vanessa's arms carefully. Nicole left the room. Zac sat down in a chair that was next to Vanessa. He leaned down and kissed Mia's head.
"Love you baby girl" Zac whispered.
Vanessa smiled.
"She's starting to look like you" Vanessa said.
"That's always a good thing since I am her father" Zac said.
Vanessa giggled.
"She looks like she has grown a little bit" Vanessa said.
"Yeah, maybe the breast milk is helping" Zac said.
"I hope so" Vanessa said.
Vanessa pulled down her shirt and placed Mia to her breast and watched her latch on. Mia then ate her morning meal.
"Does it still feel weird when you breastfeed?" Zac asked.
"It's not as bad as the first time. Sometimes she will tug too hard" Vanessa said looking at her daughter.
"It will get better" Zac said.
Mia pulled away from Vanessa.
"Do you want to burp her?" Vanessa asked.
Zac smiled and nodded. He put his arms out and Vanessa placed their daughter into them. Zac kissed Mia's head softly. He put a burp cloth over his shoulder and gently patted his daughter's back. Zac did this until he heard Mia burp. He smiled when she finally did.
"All better" Zac said looking at Mia.
Vanessa smiled as she watched Zac and Mia interact.
"You are a great daddy baby" Vanessa said.
Zac smiled.
"You are a great mommy" Zac said.
Vanessa smiled.
"I finally feel like a daddy now that I get to hold her" Zac said.
"I'm glad" Vanessa said.
Zac looked at Mia in his arms. He smiled when he saw his daughter's eyes closing. Zac stood up and carefully placed Mia into her incubator. The couple had called Nicole and she had reconnected Mia to her monitors. Zac and Vanessa left the hospital and went home. The couple walked into the house and went into the living room and sat down on the couch.
"Do you feel better after going to therapy today?" Vanessa asked.
"Yeah. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. What about you?" Zac asked.
"I feel like I was able to get a better understanding of where you are coming from and that we know what to work on in our relationship" Vanessa said.
"I want us to be able to communicate better. We need to be able to show Mia that people need to communicate with each other to understand how the other person feels" Zac said.
Vanessa nodded. She leaned her head against Zac's chest.
"I love you" Vanessa said.
"I love you too sweetheart" Zac said kissing Vanessa's forehead softly.
"Do you think that Mia is going to be released soon?" Vanessa asked.
"I hope so baby. I want her to come home and be with us" Zac said as Vanessa snuggled into his arms.
"I hate that she's in the hospital all day long and has to have tubes sticking out of her" Vanessa said.
"She's growing though and that's what we want. When she gets a little bigger, hopefully we can bring her home" Zac said.
"Yeah. It just sucks that every time we want to hold her, we have to bring all of her monitors with her. It doesn't even feel like we are holding our baby. It feels like we are holding a machine instead" Vanessa said as she teared up.
Zac rubbed Vanessa's back in soothing circles. He kissed her head softly.
"I know sweetheart. But, she is getting better. We are going to be able to bring her home soon and then everything will be okay" Zac said wiping Vanessa's tears away.
Vanessa sighed.
"Come on, you need some sleep. You haven't been sleeping" Zac said.
"How do you know?" Vanessa asked.
"I know you Nessa. I know that when you are worried, you can't stop" Zac said.
Vanessa sniffled.
"Come on, let's go upstairs so you can get some sleep okay?" Zac said.
"Okay" Vanessa said.
The couple got off the couch and walked upstairs. Vanessa got into bed and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. The Efron's knew that life with a baby would be hard, but they never expected it to be this hard.