Tori's eyes widened when she looked up to find several people entering her room. Her hair was damp and pulled back. She was wearing a pair of faded ill-fitting jeans and a baggy sweater. In her arms was that wiggling baby still bundled up, though this time his eyes were wide open.
"Oh my goodness, would you look at that?" Liz gushed. Alex couldn't help but smirk when his mother rushed passed him and hovered over Tori's sitting frame. "Look at those eyes! And those cheeks!" Tori gave Alex a slightly worried look as she shifted nervously.
"Mom," Alex cleared his throat and his mother stood upright, a blush darkening her own cheeks. "Maybe not rush at her?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I get a little excited when I see the little mushy ones."
"How did they let you become a nurse?" Melani sighed playfully. "Congratulations," she said to Tori, extending a silky teddy bear with a balloon tied to its wrist.
"I tried to get them to stay at home, but they insisted," Alex said around a small frown. Tori smiled, her eyes lit up behind the apprehension. "What time are you getting discharged?"
Tori's gaze dropped and her smile fell. "My aunt won't be here until late afternoon."
"Call her and tell her you have a ride. Have you eaten breakfast?" Alex asked.
"Alex-"
Alex shook his head. His eyes still felt raw from crying most of the night and his throat burned from the hiccupped sobs that he woke up with. He just needed to do this. He needed the distraction. He needed to take someone else's pain away, or at least lessen it. He wasn't good at much; he wasn't the best at taking care of himself, Michael was right, but he could do this; he could care for another.
A chilled hand brushed his and he looked over with a lopsided smile. Ashley was slightly out of breath and his cheeks were rosy from a combination of cold weather and his normal shyness. Alex took the car seat and diaper bag from him, thanking Ashley before he went back to join David.
"We weren't sure what kind of stuff you liked, and let's face it I'm not one to say what's in style. If you don't like anything we have receipts," Alex said as he gestured to the seat in his hand.
Tori's eyes flickered between the stuffed bag and car seat, her lips parted and closed several times and her shoulders fell. "Why are you doing this after everything I've done to you?"
"Can't say that I was all that pleasant to you either. Doesn't make you a bad person, Tori. It makes you human. You were acting on fear and I don't blame you. I told Roman I hated him. I said it because I was terrified. I can't take that back now and..." He curled his fingers into his palms to distract from the tears pricking the corner of his already burning eyes. "You don't have to be alone."
When he looked up, Melani was sitting in the corner cooing over the wiggler and Tori was carefully getting off the bed. Even under the baggy, worn clothes, Alex could see how thin she had gotten, how frail her life's events had made her. Their pain was different, but it wasn't. They both needed something so badly that it had taken a physical toll. Alex had known love was dangerous, had known that it could bring a giant to its knees, but now he had his proof. Tori had never known love and yet it was breaking her. It had teased her with promises of affection and happiness, to live without being a callous shell and then it had kicked out her knees and left her on the ground without ever giving her a real taste.
Her slender arms wrapped around his waist and her cheek pressed to his chest. He hesitated before returning the gesture. His chin rested in her thick, damp hair that smelled like generic hospital soap as they stood in the sun filled room and listened to the shuffling of feet outside the door and babies wailing down the hall. For being a place that watched new life come into the world, it was just as drab and depressing, never letting anyone forget that it brought just as much sadness as it did joy.
