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.
"Let's get you outta here, huh? Wiggles needs sunshine." Tori looked up with a quirked brow and her nose scrunched.
"Wiggles?" She asked dubiously.
"The kid needs a name." Alex shrugged. Melani looked up and rolled her eyes at Alex while Tori simply shook her head.
"Alex," Tori said as he watched Melani stroking her fingertip on a tiny ear.
"Hmm?" Alex hummed.
"Alex. That's what I named him." Alex looked down at Tori. Her bottom lip was drawn between her teeth as she chewed on it nervously. "One day he's going to ask about when he was born and I'm going to tell him. I'm going to tell him that you were the one that came to sit with us without question, even after I was a monster. I'm going to tell him about the man that never retaliated, not even when someone was cruel to him, because he was better than that. I want him to do the same."
"Thank you," was all Alex could reply, not trusting his voice to hold steady if he said anything more.
A short time later they were on the road. Not even in his wildest dreams could he have ever thought anything close to this would even be a possibility. It brought him a sense of peace even though he felt like he was dripping with chaos. Alex knew he was seeing the real Tori, the one that he doubted anyone ever had and it saddened him. Roman had always told Alex that Tori's parents were assholes that ignored her a great deal. Alex had usually scoffed at it. After all, Melani's parents were only around a few months out of the year, leaving Melani to be raised by nannies until she was sixteen, and she had turned out to be a great friend and she had never bullied a person in her life, but Melani had always had solid friendships.
It took it all falling down for Alex to realize how lonely Tori must have been. Her friends were the type that gossiped behind her back and when someone else got closer to being the schools top dog, they flocked to them instead. Those were never friends; they were people looking for boosts up the social ladder of high school. Those days were gone and they were in the real world now. She didn't even have the painful false sense of friendship anymore.
"I'm going to make sure every cent of this is repaid," Tori said quietly, breaking the silence from the backseat.
"How about you let us babysit sometime and we call it even?" Melani said as she played with the peach fuzz peeking from under the puppy cap on the baby's head.
"As long as Alex doesn't poke him when he's sleeping anymore," Tori teased.
"You poked her baby?" Ashley asked cautiously. "Why would you poke a sleeping baby, Alex?"
Alex blushed and stuck his tongue out at Tori as she laughed in the backseat. Alex couldn't deny it was a comforting sound.
~~
Tori's aunt was an older woman with graying hair. She was petite and slowing in her movements. She looked ecstatic to see Tori, but it was clear to them all that she wouldn't be able to keep up with a baby. Tori was, no doubt, in for a huge adjustment, but the older woman seemed more than willing to provide any type of support she could.
The items were unloaded and set up in the small room that would be the nursery. The walls were already a pale spearmint, fitting of a baby. Alex didn't realize how much they had truly bought until he was dropping a case of diapers in a corner and taking a step back to see the crib that had been decided on. Ashley wrestled a pale yellow sheet onto the mattress and his father was double checking the safety rail on the simple changing table he had put together. It wasn't a kingdom, but he hoped it would be enough to start them off.
Tori passed the baby to Alex only to bring her hands to her face as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. Ashley blushed and David grinned as she thanked them over and over. Melani and Liz were gathered in a huddle of weak sniffs and maternal praise while Alex and his namesake simply stared at each other.
"They say I'm emotional," Alex muttered under his breath. For the briefest of seconds, Alex swore the baby smiled.
They accepted the offer of a home cooked meal before they left that late afternoon. All of them were content, but still ripe with emotion. Despite what side of the picture any one of them were on, it was a draining day; emotionally and physically.
With the promise to send plenty of pictures, Melani gave a final wave and joined Ashley in the car. Alex was turning to follow when slender arms snaked around his waist and held tightly. Tori exhaled heavily and Alex gave her back a small pat. She looked up with an unsteady smile.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "Thank you for not leaving me alone."
"You've got my number," Alex replied, untangling himself from Tori and taking a step back. "I'll answer."