Lost In Stereo (Discontinued)

Chapter 21-New beginnings

And that's all I imagined as I stared at my newborn daughter. I was holding her tight against my bare chest as she had just been born. The world was quiet and peaceful. I mean, it wasn't around me but at that time, holding Beth for the first time I felt that everything was at ease. I promised myself at that very same moment that no one was going to hurt her. Not Jack's son nor a random drug dealer. I was going to make my relationship with Lisa work out for the sake of my daughter.

"Alex" Lisa's voice interrupted my intimate moment with the baby. "Let me see her" I looked into her eyes. Lisa had exhaustion written all over her face after being in labor for six hours and going through several complications.

I moved my chair closer to Lisa's bed. "Look at her" I whispered with my eyes still attached to the little human pressed against my chest. "She's beautiful" I said almost to myself

"She is" I felt Lisa's hand caressing my hair softly, which made me smile more if that was even possible.

"We created this" The baby stirred a bit. "And now we need to protect her" Lisa frowned.

"Alex, babe, she is just a baby" She reminded me.

Indeed she was a baby, Lisa was right about that. She just hadn't seen how much of a wreck our three lives would soon turn out to be. My relationship with Lisa was a mess as it always been. None of us had stopped to think how all that craziness would affect our kid but in that very same moment, I did. I was completely scared for her life.

"Lisa" I looked up to meet her blue eyes. "We're gonna do this right, okay?"

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"No messing around. None of us. We won't forget about each other while I'm on tour and then act as if everything was okay" Lisa nodded slowly, not really knowing where all of this came from as I was mainly the one who had always been okay with our lifestyle. "I want to do this right, I-I want to know what commitment actually is"

"Alex" Lisa's hand was now softly rubbing my cheek. "I love you, you know that, right?" She said sweetly.

"Of course I know and I hope you know that I love you too" Lisa and I stared into each other's eyes as I said those three words back.

"Can I?" She pointed at Beth.

"Why are you even asking?" I carefully helped Lisa sit straight and I gave her the baby so she could hold her.

Only three days later we were making our way home. We were welcomed by our two dogs who couldn't be happier about having both of us back. Peyton soon became Beth's protector while Baz was a bit jealous of the new family member we had just added up.

The first two years went by without any trouble. The three of us made our way to Los Angeles and then back to Baltimore and the word 'family' truly had a new meaning for Lisa and me.

It was just when Beth turned three when my nightmare started becoming true.

'"Man, wake up" Jack voiced echoed in the room. I soon felt a hand hitting my chest. "Alex, showtime"

I opened my eyes and I shook my head slightly, trying to remember where I was. Detroit? Dallas? Washington?

"Nashville, Alex" Rian's voice also echoed in the distance.

"And it's your daughter's birthday, you should at least call her" Jack threw a towel to my face and then a bottle of cold water which landed right next to me on the couch.

Then I heard Zack, Rian and Jack leave the room.I lazily managed to stand up. I opened the bottle of water and drank half of it. I then poured the other half in my face and then I dried it with the towel. I made my way to the phone and I dialed home. I had enough time to look at my own reflection in the mirror which was right next to me. My eyes had bags underneath them and I wasn't able to remember the last time I had a shower. I surely smelled like a mix of aftershave, booze and sweat.After ten beeps, I tried to dial once again. That was when someone picked the phone up.

"Hello?" My little girl answered.

"Hi baby, happy birthday"

"Daddy? Dad!" Beth exclaimed.

"Are you having a good day?" I leaned against the wall as I continued to stare at my reflection. On the other side of the line, Beth nodded happily as she was hearing from her dad for the first time in a month.

"Yes. The auntie and uncle came this afternoon and they got me lots and lots of presents?"

"Did they?" I was playing with my hair, almost distracted and not really caring about what my toddler had to say.

Beth nodded once again, unaware that her father was unable to see her gestures. "They got me a small guitar, dadda. Are you going to teach me how to play guitar when you come home?"

"Of course I will, Beth" I smiled. "Where's mom? Can I talk to her?"

"Uh" Beth turned around but her mom was nowhere to be seen. "Mama's friend came with the auntie and mama is with him"

I hummed at first but then I realized what my daughter had just said. "Wait, where's mom?"

"Upstairs I think. She told me that she had something to show Travis and she told me to be a good girl and not to bother but I can call her if you-"

"No no, it's alright" I interrupted my kid. "Just" I sighed. "Just tell mom that I called, alright?"

"Alright" Beth answered. Then, the line went silent for a few seconds. I was starting to see how my relationship with Lisa was going nowhere but somehow we both were still holding on for Beth. Beth was just confused as she didn't quite understand why her mom's friend made me uncomfortable.

"Alright love, I'm going to leave, okay? I should already be on stage" I was not happy about having to leave my daughter alone in such a situation but there was nothing I could do from Nashville.

"Alright, dad" Beth's voice echoed through the phone and her tone reflected sadness.

"I love you more than Shrek loves Fionna, right?" Shrek was Beth's favorite movie and she rambled, every now and then, about their love being quite beautiful so I took that line as my own.

"Yes dad, I love you too"

"Okay, see you soon kiddo"

"See you, bye!" And with that, our call ended.

I quickly made my way up to the stage but before running under the spotlight, I stopped to take my guitar.

"Hello, Nashville! Who's ready to have some fun tonight?" I screamed into my microphone as soon as I got on the stage. The crowd just responded with a roar.

It was somewhere in between the fifth and sixth song that I looked down to the fans that were in the front row when our eyes met.

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Hello there! God it's been so long since I last updated this that I wonder if anyone is even reading this story at this point. Anyways, don't hate me for this chapter! This story was meant to be a fanfiction about Alex and I felt like the story was leading nowhere. I have a few ideas about where I want this to go now so this should all be fine. 

Vote if you liked this chapter and feel free to comment and add any feed back! Love you! Bye until the next chapter! (which, at this rate, will be released in 2025)