Last shot to redemption [a Adam Cole story]

8 Apologies and promises

(Including Adam  POV)

It's been two days since the incident with Adam in the parking lot, but I didn't even have time to waste many thoughts on it. By the time I picked Aiden up from my parents', he was already starting to show signs of not feeling well. He was quite grumpy and restless. It was not like him. Aiden was usually the happiest baby there is. Always cooing and babbling to himself, simply a little sunshine. When we got home I immediately took out the thermometer to see what was wrong. At that time he had no fever, at least not yet.

During the night, however, he got the stomach flu. And let's just say it wasn't a pretty thing with babies. One diaper explosion after another, but the puking was even worse. Thank God he only did that two or three times.

Since it was the first time that Aiden was really sick, I called our pediatrician immediately. The doctor said that there was no need to worry as long as Aiden was drinking enough so that he did not get dehydrated and didn't get a high fever. And that I should come with Aiden to his office the next morning.

That's exactly what we did, because after the first exhausting and sleepless night the little man got a slight fever after all. Luckily Aiden still drank his formula and tea, even though he didn't want to eat any of his other baby food. The doctor examined Aiden and gave him, among other things, medicine to lower the fever. He also gave me some tips on what I could do, such as giving the baby a lukewarm bath to reduce the fever and massaging his tummy.

But all this seemed to help only partially. The day went mostly like the previous night and the next night was not much better. Sleep was not on my mind. When Aiden finally slept for half an hour I was busy doing the laundry. Besides I was much too tense to sleep out of fear that something could be wrong with Aiden.

So after the second sleepless night I was pretty exhausted. But at least the baby was better. His temperature had dropped. Although the stomach flu was still bothering him and he also lacked a lot of sleep.

We had just come home from the doctor and from buying diapers. I fed Aiden some baby food, glad he was finally able to keep it down. This was definitely a sign that he was on the mend. I was glad that he was better, because I was totally exhausted. Now that he had a little more in his stomach, I hoped he would sleep longer than 30 minutes. I needed some sleep too.

I had just put Aiden in his crib and was on my way to the bathroom to take a quick shower and then go to sleep myself when there was a knock at the door. I groaned in frustration, it really couldn't be true. So I went to the door to shoo away whoever it might be. But the person in front of me I had not expected at that moment. It was Adam. Suddenly, I remembered what had happened a few days ago. My concern for Aiden had completely taken that out of my mind. I was even too exhausted to get angry.

"What are you doing here, Adam?" I asked, but I had to concentrate really hard to keep my eyes open.

"What am I doing here, Y/N? I want to see my child!" Adam replied in a demanding tone.

"No, you won't see him now! And if you keep talking to me in that tone, you're never gonna see Aiden! He's sick, and I'm glad he's finally asleep. I don't have the energy to argue with you right now, so please just leave," I said and tried to close the door. Adam prevented this by pushing it open again.

"Listen Y/N, I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you and what I did, but please, please let me see my child. Just-just five minutes. I'm begging you." he said, his whole body language completely changed. As angry as I was at Adam, he was still Aiden's father and now that he knew about his son, I could hardly forbid him to see him. No matter how much I might have wanted to. Adam had the right to know his son. And I didn't want the worst-case scenario to lead to a lawsuit.