Baby steps - A TNS Fanfiction

Sleepy

Room 004

"What. Did you. Do?"

Piper pressed her knuckles to her mouth and averted her eyes, studying the floor intensely. Finn kept his hand on the small of her back, his thumb moving in a reassuring pattern.

"Someone's got a photo of us, um, kissing."

Natalie stared at them.

"How could you be so stupid!" She hissed, disturbing Grace.

The small girl's eyelids fluttered half open, although she was still too sleepy to raise her head.

"Mummy? Mummy?"

Piper ducked past Natalie, and crouched by her daughter's side. One hand held Grace's and the other smoothed her hair.

"It's okay, it's okay, baby, I'm here," She whispered, as Grace squeezed her fingers tightly and smiled.

In the background, Finn and Natalie were talking in hushed tones - or perhaps they were arguing, it was hard to tell.

"Please don't go Mummy. Please don't go away again," The seven year old cried, noticing that Piper had her coat and shoes on.

"I'm not going anywhere, Grace. Try and get to sleep now, it's late."

The child nodded, closing her eyes dutifully, her mother still holding her hand. The older woman let her head rest against the wall, and her legs stretched out along the floor, as a smile stretched across her face.

Whilst this exchange was happening, Natalie was a hair's width away from smoke coming out of her ears.

"I can't believe this! Look!" She showed him her phone, where the photo had already been released.

"Over a hundred retweets! This is just brilliant. Brilliant. Do I send you home, take you off the documentary? I said fix things to a professional level, not kiss her in the middle of the street!"

"I know it looks bad-"

"It looks bad because it is bad! I can here to tell you that the video of us talking about your petty argument yesterday had been sent to one of the gossip magazines," Natalie half screamed, showing him the Twitter account of NEW, the magazine in question.

Two Truths One Lie's young presenter, who won over everyone's hearts, had been reported falling back into a toxic relationship - with none other than Baby Mama!

"Toxic? That's harsh..."

"Exactly! The media hate this - you've seen how many views that clip of you talking about being a single parent got on YouTube! No matter how bad things are for you, things are even worse for Piper, because she's the villain here!"

A small buzz came from the other side of the room, where Piper checked her phone. And her face fell.

"Seems like my boss thinks that too then," She forced a joke, and carefully prised Grace's hand off her own as she headed over to them. "How many people hate me then?"

"Hold up, did they just fire you? By text?" Finn stared in shock, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Yeah, and before either of you say anything, they can legally do it that way," Piper tugged at her coat collar, uncomfortable. "I'll probably get my paycheck in the mail and then I'll find a way to pay rent."

Natalie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with a forefinger and thumb.
"Piper, it's best if you leave before too many people show up outside. Do you have your car?"

"No, but-"

"But she can stay here." Finn cut Piper off, taking a half step forward. "Grace would be distraught if she woke up and Piper wasn't here."

His friend looked between the two of them, and held up her palms in defeat.

"I can't tell Piper what to do, and I know you won't listen to me anyway, so it's up to you. I'm going to go to my room and make a lot of calls." Natalie opened the door, phone still in hand, and waved goodbye. The door shut behind her, and Finn immediately started to apologise.

"I didn't even ask your permission! I'm sorry, really, you can go if you want to-"

"No, you're right. It makes me sick to think of her so upset..." Piper trailed off, tears pricking her eyes.

"I know I've never been an amazing parent, and I know I never will be. And I know I'm never going to make up for these past years, but-" She cut herself off, wrapping her arms around Finn and sobbing.

"It's okay. It's going to be fine, I promise I'll fix this," He hugged her back, trying to find the words to say. "Do you remember that first night you spent in hospital? After Grace was born?"

Piper shook her head and pulled away.

"I didn't think you did. I only came in the next morning, because I was visiting my Dad's family in Vancouver, and I couldn't get back in time because someone refused to let me know that they were in labour until James called me in the middle of the night when it was too late to get back." He smiled, as it was a very 'Piper' thing to do - refuse to let him worry about her despite the fact that he was worrying anyway.

"When I got there that morning, you were awake, but you were exhausted. Do you know why?"

"No," She whispered, racking her brains. Piper honestly couldn't remember anything about the day Grace was born, as she had been on strong painkillers at the time.

"You'd forced yourself to stay awake the whole time Piper. The whole entire night. You were tired, and emotional, and you'd just given birth. That's partly why you don't remember that much - you were very sleep deprived."

"And you forced yourself to stay awake," Finn continued before he got carried away, "Because Grace was in that crib next to you, and you were terrified that someone was going to steal her in the night. Even though James was outside, thinking you were asleep. Even though the window was shut, you were still so scared something would happen to her, you didn't care what happened to you."

Piper just stared at him. All her memories from that time were tainted with shadows, and she couldn't remember being so protective over her daughter. In her mind, she could never bring herself to care enough. This sounded like a completely different person.

"You fell asleep shortly after I got there, but when you woke up - I could still look at you and see the amazing person you were, only that person didn't seem to wake up all that well. There were still moments early on when that person would come down and apologise for being snappy and agitated, like when you came home that Christmas and told me you loved me, although you did start crying," Finn looked down at her, before she hugged him again her head on his chest and silent.

"I want to come back to Toronto with you for Christmas. But I'm paying for my ticket." She added, smiling. He wiped a stray tear from her cheek with his thumb, before bending down to kiss her again.

Piper ducked away, and he stepped back, embarrassed, as she fumbled with her phone.

"I really need to call James back - Riley's pregnant again," The brunette beamed; Finn rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He decided to grab his pajamas and head into the bathroom, whilst she called her older brother on the sofa.

After he'd changed, he sat on the edge of the bathtub (which also had a shower head, hence why Grace nicknamed it Bower). Then he did something he hadn't let himself do for a long while.

He cried.

Do you guys think this story is really going downhill or is it just me because I'm writing it?