Chapter 2

Father and Son

(Kyle POV)

The morning sun was peeking through the clouds. I repositioned Brice for what seemed like the millionth time. I had put Brice to bed around seven o'clock last night, and he woke up around ten last night and he hasn't slept for more than a half an hour at a time since. This is the fourth night in a row that he has done this, which means I have been running off of three or four hours of sleep in the past 96 hours. Normally this would be okay, but with all the extra energy Brice has been taking out of me it's starting to take a toll on me.

I glanced down at him, finally he had fallen asleep. I slowly and gently got up and tucked him in his crib, which Stephen and Nicole used to use for Josh and Lori when they were little. I was about to go back to bed when I heard a soft knock at the door.

"Hey." It was Nicole. "Still not sleeping?" She frowned

I shook my head

She gave me a faint smile "Don't worry he will."

I nodded and she left the room. I assumed she left to make breakfast. The thought made me smile I could really go for some of her blueberry pancakes.

I caught a glimpse of the clock 8:30am, I let out a sigh, I was going to have to get up in a half an hour what's the point in going back to bed I thought. I dragged my feet over to the closet and pulled out my grey sweater and a pair of dark blue jeans, and then got dressed. I grabbed the baby monitor off the desk, not that I needed it, it just made things a little easier. I left my room and headed for the kitchen.

"Morning!" Stephen greeted I could tell there was a slight chuckle in his tone. I assumed it was because of my messy hair, and morning stubble on my face that usually wasn't there.

I smiled lazily "Morning." I yawned "Is Josh, up yet?" I asked

Nicole and Stephen exchanged glances. "Josh, get up before noon on a Saturday?" Nicole questioned in shock, as she stirred the pancake batter.

I smiled to myself at the thought. "He has to work I am tutoring a kid at the Rack so he is going in an hour early to watch Brice, for me in exchange for a ride and fixing the breaks on his car." I explained.

"Oh no he isn't up then." Stephen answered "who are you tutoring anyway?"

"Um a boy named Jacob and girl named Kate." I noticed that Nicole had her worried mom look on. I sighed I knew she thought I was taking on to much. "Don't worry Nicole, I'm fine. I have to do this to pay for Brice, going to daycare while I work and go to school…I'm all he has remember." I smiled.

Nicole lovingly ran her hand across my stubbly cheek. "It becomes final when you sign the papers tonight." She reminded me.

"I know." I hugged her "I'm going to go wake Josh." I called as I bound up the stairs.

"Kyle!" she called after me

"Yeah?" I called from the top of the stairs.

"Shave." She ordered.

"Alright!" I chuckled.

Josh's door was open, I knocked on it lightly anyway "Josh." I walked towards his bed "Josh, come on get up!"

"No!" he protested.

"Come on get up." I said as I started to peel his blanket off of him.

"Urg fine!" He grumbled and I left to get ready. "Stupid breaks not working." I could hear him carry on as I shaved.

I splashed the cold water on my face repeatedly until all the extra shaving cream was gone, and then I snatched the towel and dried off my face. It was about time to get Brice ready for the day so I headed back downstairs to my room.

"Hey there little guy." I smiled at him as I pick him up and grabbed a striped grey and dark blue sweater and a pair of jeans from the closet for him. "Alright buddy you have to be good for your Uncle Josh today." Brice just stared at me like I was crazy, I laughed a little. "He is doing your Daddy a real big favor, he woke up early today to watch you well I'm tutoring some kids." I explained this to him as I pulled the sweater over his head. "Okay your all set!" I set him back in his crib while I got his bag together, once that was all set I scooped him back up in my arms, his legs were straddling my rib cage. I slung the bag over my shoulder and left the room.

"Ready to go?" I asked Josh as I entered the kitchen

"Yep!" He replied tossing me a pancake for the road as he grabbed one for himself.

"Bye!" We called to Stephen and Nicole.

We arrived at the Rack in about ten minutes. I had gotten Brice all set in his stroller that I had brought for him. I knelt down to his level "Remember be good okay." I ruffled his hair and gave him a kiss of the forehead.

"He should be okay but if he isn't I have my cell." I told Josh standing up.

Josh laughed "Relax Kyle, I've got this." He said patting my shoulder "We're just going to be at the park across the street, don't worry."

"Okay thanks for doing this." I smiled at him then checked Brice one last time.

"Bye Kyle." He said turning the stroller around and headed for the park.

I went inside to find Jacob the kid I was tutoring, sitting at a table by the front windows.

"Hi! I'm Kyle." I greeted extending my hand to him.

"Jake." He smiled. He looked to be about 14 years old. He had short wavy brown hair and green eyes.

"Alright Jake what do you need help with?" I asked sitting down across from him at the table.

"Ah… math and some science."

"Well alright let's get started." He took out his books and we got to work.

(Josh POV)

I strolled around the park a few times and I got looks of judgment from walkers, joggers, and people just passing by. It made me mad to think that this is what Kyle has to put up with every time he goes out with Brice. I decided to stop at a bench to feed Brice. I had only done it a few times in the past seven or eight months but the last time I had to feed him he was still drinking milk.

My thoughts began to wonder how long had Brice, been with us? Lets see the accident was eight months ago, so that means Brice, is eight months old, he was about two months old when Kyle, found him, so that means he has been living with us for…six months, wow. I shook my head refocusing on what I was doing. I dug through the bag Kyle had given me and found a jar of baby food.

"Okay squirt." I opened the jar and attempted to feed him. "Here you go." To my surprise it went real well. The only problem was that he had food all over his face. I rummaged through the bag again to find some wipes. "There all clean." I smiled.

He had light brown almost blond hair which he must have gotten from his biological father because Gretchen had dark brown hair. But he had blue green eyes like Gretchen though. I shook my head then decided to take Brice over to the swings.

(Kyle POV)

"Okay if you add X to 3 then multiple be Y what do you get?" I asked Kate who was struggling in math as well as Jake was.

Her eyebrows pulled together "Um 42?" She guessed.

I chuckled "Yeah, you're right." I glanced at the clock on my phone. "Well it looks like we're out of time." I said and she began to pack up her things.

"Oh before I forget my Mom wanted me to give you this." She slid a white envelop across the table.

I opened it "thank you Kate!" it was a check to pay for Kate's tutoring.

"No problem Kyle!" She beamed then left.

"Hey Kyle!" Josh greeted me. I glanced up at him, he had a very tired looking little boy in he arms.

"Hey, how was he?" I asked taking Brice from him.

"He was fine; he liked the swings a lot." Josh said from behind the counter as he grabbed his apron and put it on. "We spent most of our time there."

"He went on the swings?" I asked a little shocked.

"Yeah don't worry it was the baby swings of course." He rolled his eyes.

I laughed a little "Alright well I'm going to get him home." Brice had fallen asleep on my shoulder.

"See ya!" He called after us as we left.

We got home, and I ended up falling asleep on the couch with Brice sleeping on my chest. I don't know how long we were out but I awoke to the flash of a camera going off. My eyes slowly opened.

"Oh I'm sorry I was trying not to wake you, but you guys looked so cute I had to take a picture." Lori grinned setting the camera down on the coffee table.

"It's fine." I yawned, I looked at the clock I had about an hour till the social services guy was coming with the adoption papers for me to sign "I had to get up anyway Mr. Thomas, is going to be here soon."

"Oh yeah I almost forgot about that." She sat down on the edge of the coffee table.

"That's why Stephen and I traded out my tub out for a bed last weekend." I chuckled as I slowly sat up trying not to wake Brice.

She laughed lightly "By the way Mom, wanted me to tell you that you and Brice have to look quote 'presentable' so you better go get ready before she sees you."

I shook my head and smiled "Of course." I chuckled then went to go get myself and Brice changed.

It was 6:04 Mr. Thomas was late. Everyone was waiting on edge. Tonight I would sign the papers that would make Brice legally my son and I would be his father. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy Mr. Thomas was also going to take a look around the house to make sure that our home was a suitable environment for raising a child.

The whole family was awaiting Mr. Thomas's arrival in the living room. Nicole had made sure that everyone was wearing their nice clothes. Even Josh was wearing something other than a t-shirt and jeans. Josh and Stephen were wearing pretty much the same things; kaki pants and sweaters of course Josh had a red sweater on and Stephen had a blue sweater on. Nicole was wearing a white blouse and black pants. Lori had on of her purple tops on and black pants as well. But according to Nicole and Lori I was the one that had to look the most presentable I had on a blue button down shirt that was tucked into black dress pants. The only thing I had changed about Brice was his pants from jeans to kakis.

I paced back and forth with Brice in my arms, he was resting his head on my shoulder. I peered down at him and lovingly kissed the top on his head. The room was in complete silence until the sound of the doorbell filled the room. I took a deep breath and went into the hallway to open the door with my family following closely behind.

"Mr. Thomas!" I greeted as I opened the door "It's nice to see you again!" I extended my free hand to him and he shook it strongly.

"Please Kyle, call me Jeff." He smiled

"Okay Jeff, you've met Brice, here." I said bouncing Brice a little. "But this is the rest of my family Stephen, Nicole, Josh, and Lori." I pointed to each of them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." He acknowledged them.

"Here let me take your coat." Stephen offered. Mr. Thomas shrugged out of his coat and Stephen hung it on the hook.

"Well Kyle, I would like to start by talking to you first." I nodded and led him to the living room were Nicole had set out some desserts and coffee on the coffee table. We sat down and began the process.

"So Kyle, tell me why you want to do this?" He asked.

I adjusted Brice on my lap "How could I not do this?" I simply replied.

"Well I mean you're 18, you're going to be graduating high school in a little over a month, and then you're starting college in the fall. Having the responsibilities of a child is not the ideal life a college student would like to have." What he was saying made sense, but over the past few months I had grow attached to Brice and from the start I felt a connection with him.

"I understand that it seems abnormal for an 18 year old to want to take on all this, but I also understand what it is like to have not to have anyone at all, and I don't want that for Brice, since he does have someone, he has me." Mr. Thomas made a few notes on his note pad.

"Well Kyle, from what I have seen from our last meeting and this one you do truly want what is best for Brice here." He paused "But how are you going to handle a child when you move away to college and don't have your parents to help you."

"The same way every other single teenage father does, and the same way I have been since Brice became a part of my life." Mr. Thomas sighed then took a sip of his coffee. He took a few more notes then continued to ask questions.

After about a half an hour he wanted to see my room, and were Brice was sleeping. I led him to my room; he walked around and took a few notes. Then he smile and looked at me.

"Well Kyle." He paused "I've got the adoption papers in my bag if you really want to do this you can sign them tonight."

The biggest grin spread across my face and I held Brice a little closer to my chest. "Yes! Of course I'll sign them right away."

We went back to the living room and he got the papers ready for me to sign. The Tragers had begun to flow into the room when they realized what was going on. Brice was straddling my knee with his back resting on my torso my hand was wrapped around him as well. Mr. Thomas set the papers in front of me then handed me a pen.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked again.

"Yes!" I beamed then signed my name on the papers. Right then and there Brice became my son and I became his father.

This is the unedited version tell me what you think!