Chapter 3

Alexandria Sanders rushed in to the Emergency Room. Nick had dropped her off at the door while he parked the car. Alex searched for her son. After a quick scan she saw him in one corner and approached him.

"How's your dad?" she asked Ollie, wrapping her arms around him.

"They're pumping his stomach. I think…I think I found him in time," Ollie told his mother.

"I love you so much, Ollie. I'm so glad you found him," she hugged him tighter.

Ollie pulled back from Alex. "Why would dad do something like that?"

"There's something I need to tell," Alex started. However, before she could finish, Nick walked in. The second Ollie saw Nick, his face hardened. Alex noticed the change in his demeanor and turned to see where Ollie was looking. Ollie recognized Nick and all the pieces fell in to place. Ollie broke his mother's embrace and walked over to face Nick.

Nick froze when he saw his son walking towards him. Oliver looked so much like him when he was 15. He could see the bits of Alex mixed in, her eyes, her mouth. Nick couldn't believe his eyes. His cute toddler had grown in to a handsome young adult.

Alex saw what was coming but couldn't stop it. Before she could even get out his name, Ollie had balled his hand in to a fist and decked Nick.

"Oliver Edward!" she scolded him after the fact and pulled him away from Nick.

"It's your fault!" Ollie yelled at Nick, straining against his mother's arms.

It was that moment that Catherine Willows chose to walk in to the ER. She had heard Ollie yell and turned to see whom he was yelling at. Then her jaw dropped.

"Nick? Nick Stokes?" Catherine was incredulous.

A smile spread across his sore face. "Catherine!"

"That bastard! He's the reason dad did this!" Ollie shouted.

"Oliver!" Alex again scolded him. "You do not talk like that! Especially to your father."

Ollie looked at his mother like he'd never seen her before. "That is not my father," he spit out, pointing a Nick. "My father is lying on a hospital bed, clinging to life."

Ollie started walking towards an opposite corner of the room. At that moment, he didn't want to be near his mother. He couldn't believe that she could even stand to look at that man, the one who left them twelve years ago. How she could defend him! He took a couple deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

"Oliver, wait," Nick started to follow him.

"You just stay away from me," Ollie warned him.

"Please, Oliver, talk to me," Nick's voice was strained. This was not how he imagined his reunion with his son.

"After twelve years, you finally want to talk? How's this, fuck off!"

Alex's jaw dropped. She'd never heard her son use that type of language. And it was in that moment that she saw the hurt in her son. Ollie knew that Greg wasn't his biological father but he had never talked about Nick, never asked any questions about him. Alex had thought he was too young to remember, or was just trying to be a guy. Now, now she saw that it was because he had been mad, mad at Nick for leaving.

Ollie cast a glance at his mother and it held the contempt that she had heard in his voice. She never thought Ollie would feel this way. She had only been thinking about herself when she told Greg she was leaving him. She'd hurt all of them—Greg, Ollie, Nick—in the process.

Catherine noticed the look in Ollie's eyes as well. "Maybe I should talk to Ollie," she offered, walking towards him.

Alex just nodded and nearly collapsed in to the nearest chair under the weight of her guilt. She put her head in her hands and started to cry silently. Nick went to go sit by her while Catherine put her arm around Ollie and led him to the farthest point in the room. By the time they sat in their corner of the room, Ollie had tears streaming down his face.

"What's going on, Ollie?" Catherine asked him in a soft voice.

Ollie looked at her like she was crazy. Then he motioned towards Nick with his hand. "I wonder?"

"So, your d—biological father is alive," Catherine stated the obvious.

"Yeah, he's been alive all these years. He's never called, sent a postcard, let us know he was alive—Nothing!" Ollie started shaking from the rage that was starting to rebuild inside him.

"Maybe he has a good reason," Catherine was trying to be reasonable.

"There isn't a reason good enough," Ollie replied. "I've heard my mom cry because she missed him so much. And I know how much those tears hurt my dad."

Catherine was stunned. She knew Ollie was very intelligent, but hadn't figured he'd been that observant. He was, after all, a teenage boy. "Don't you think you should give him a chance to explain?"

"Not when my dad tried to kill himself because of that…" Ollie couldn't seem to find the right word.

"How is your dad?" Catherine decided it might be good to change the subject.

Ollie shook his head. "I don't know. The last I heard they were pumping his stomach."

Catherine started to rub his back. "He'll be ok," she assured him. "Your dad's always been a fighter."

"I hope you're right, Aunt Catherine. I hope you're right."

"This is wrong. This is very wrong," Alex kept repeating.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked.

"You. Me. Us. It's wrong. It's just wrong."

"Alex, Oliver will warm up to me. He's a teenager," Nick tried to convince her.

"No, Nick," she replied sharply. "You haven't been there for him. You didn't have to tell him his sister was dead. That his grandfather died. That Santa didn't exist. That everything would be ok. Greg has."

Alex's words stung him. There was no point to argue. He hadn't been there. "But I want to make it up to him, to both of you."

"There is no making it up!" Alex was agitated, more at herself than anyone else. "Ollie is who he is because of Greg. You can't make up missing some of the most important years of your son's life."

"What about you? Is there any making it up to you?" Nick sounded slightly hopeful.

Alex looked Nick directly in the eyes. "Nick," she placed her hand on his cheek. "I never stopped loving you. I never stopped hoping you might be alive." She removed the chain around her neck that held their wedding bands and handed it to him. "And because of that, I never gave Greg the chance he deserved. I never…" she shook her heads, trying to shake away the tears.

Nick's face fell. He didn't think this would go smoothly, but he had no idea how rough the road was actually going to be. The look in her eyes told him that their reunion was going to be short lived. "Alexandria," he whispered her name. "I love you so much."

She gave him a sad smile through her tears. "Just not enough to let me know you were alive before now."

"That's not fair," Nick replied.

"What's not fair is losing my daughter and then losing my husband. What's not fair is a man, who loves me more than his life, might lose it because he thought he'd lost me. Me not giving you a second chance is not not fair." Alex stood up. "It's what you deserve. And I can only hope that Greg is more forgiving than I am."

Alex turned and walked towards the corner where Ollie and Catherine sat. When she got close enough where she knew Ollie could hear her she said, "Ollie, I'm so sorry."

Ollie looked up at her. "Sorry for what? That your leaving dad? That he tried to off himself?"

She kneeled down in front. "I'm sorry that I'm an idiot."

Ollie gave his mother a questioning look. He didn't quite understand.

"I love your father, Greg, very much, I just haven't been showing it very well. I got swept up in the past, but you," she placed her hands on his. "You made me realize that I can't live in past, that I have to live in the present. And you, and your dad, are my right here, my right now. And the both of you have to be my number one priority."

"You can't have two number ones," Ollie replied.

"When it's you and your dad, yes I can," she corrected him.

Ollie bent forward in his chair and wrapped his arms around his mother. "He's going to be ok, isn't he?"

"I hope so," Alex responded, and meant it like she never had before. "I hope to God so."