TWICE // D.S.

EIGHT

once aubrielle calmed herself down and after nicolette fought her urge to go yell at daniel to get away from her baby.

she finished her glass of water and slowly set it in her sink. she walked down the hallway, rubbing under her eye once more. she carefully pushed open the door and watched as james was peacefully sleeping; his head rested on daniel's shoulder.

she admired the small smile on his face before daniel took notice and turned to her, "how old is he?" he quietly asked

aubrielle let out a small sigh before walking over to her bed and sitting down, "he turned a year, a month ago"

"does he know how to walk yet?" he asked

"he needs a bit of help" she answered

"jo-jo? food's almost here" nicolette said and walked back into the kitchen, hailey following behind her

there was a small silence amongst them before daniel whispered, "thank you" aubrielle was a bit taken a back by this, and by her silence he decided to speak again, "for letting me see him"

"so that's it?" she asked "you're just going to pretend like he doesn't exist? you're just going to live your life like how it was?"

"if that's what you want, I will" he replied, "there's obviously something going on, I'm not sure why you hate me so much and I'm guessing you don't want me around him" he explained

"I- I don't hate you" aubrielle admitted

"look, no one's here but us, you don't need to lie"

"I'm. not. lying"

"well it kinda seems like it, because one minute you don't want anything to do with me and then the other it seems like you want me to be there for him, it's just very, confusing"

"all of that is true though, why can't you understand?"

"this isn't an easy concept to understand, aubrielle" daniel replied, gently placing sleeping james, back in his crib.

"it makes perfect sense to me, why can't you just understand?"

"because you don't say anything!" he raised his voice, "sorry" he muttered "it's very difficult trying to make this work when I no absolutely nothing"

aubrielle sighed, she came to defeat that he's right, "I don't want you to be a bad influence on my son, I don't want you to pretend to be there for him. I want you to be there for him because you want to, I want to see if you'd fight to be there for him because you care that much about it" she explained

"but for some reason, for some reason, it all goes back to me. why? why do I matter so much in this situation? why do you have to do what I want? why can't you have your own opinion and what you want?" she continued

"i do" he gulped "I want to be there for him, but I also want to make sure he's mine. i want to support him, but I also don't want to risk my career. i want to make us work, but it seemed like you didn't want anything to do with me"

"so tell me, is your career more important than him?"

"I-i can't give you an answer to that, I'm sorry" he admitted and she sighed