Rrinkers

Chapter 3

The sun shining through the curtains and the baby crying woke Tyler up from his deep slumber. He first saw his wife sleeping next to him before looking at the alarm clock and reading 8:16am.

Suddenly, it hit him. "Shit! I'm late!" He quickly got out of bed, which made his wife, Adana, wake up as well. Yanking open his drawer, he got a casual button up shirt and a pair of dark jeans which he threw on in less than a minute. The baby continued to cry. "Babe, can you feed him please."

"Ughhhh, stopp," Adana whined, just wanting to sleep some more.

Tyler didn't stop though. He ran next to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth and washed his face, knowing that his boss was going to be angry that he was late. Again. Well this time, it really was an accident. He finished his routine in less than five minutes and was ready to leave through the door when he noticed that his son, James, was still crying. He's hungry, Tyler thought to himself as he looked at Adana who was knocked out again. They had a busy night prior so he couldn't blame her.

He knew he couldn't just leave his son crying like that. Especially when his wife was so deep in sleep. So, he sucked up the fact that he was going to be really late, went to the counter to get some baby formula, and mixed it all up like he was mixing a cocktail. A baby cocktail. While he was mixing, a memory came to his mind of when he was hungry and instead of his dad choosing to buy him food, he took the money and bought drugs with it instead. That is the main reason he stayed right now to feed his son, even though he was going to be late to work. It's because he did not want to be anything like his dad, the person who had neglected him and damaged him far more than Tyler cared to admit. He remembered all those late nights when his dad would come home late, either drunk or high, and would either beat his mom or lay a hand on him, but his mother made sure that that only happened once, and all the other times she would take the beating for her son, as he was safe, locked away in the room.

Tyler didn't like thinking about his childhood. He didn't like thinking about the things he went through and witnessed. But he couldn't help getting flashbacks every now and then, even at random times like mixing baby formula. It was strange because he got so dismayed when thinking about those dark times, yet they are the main reason why he is the way he is and why he strived to be the best husband to his wife and the best father to his eleven month old son.

After mixing the baby formula, which felt like a decade, Tyler finally was able to feed his son and get him to stop crying. But then he looked at his watch and saw that it was 8:32am. James might have stopped crying but Tyler quickly started when he saw how late he was.

Today was Monday. He had to be at the FBI site at 8:00 am sharp because today was the start of the investigation based on the arson attempt that occurred last week. The one where Lucas and Tyler almost died. Valencia is going to kill me! Tyler thought to himself as he continued to feed James. When the bottle of milk ran out, the baby boy seemed satisfied and looked like he was ready to go back to sleep. Tyler smiled at his son before giving him a kiss, walking over to his wife and giving her a kiss as well, and then grabbing his bag to head to work. Or his execution.

When he arrived at the site twenty minutes later, he noticed that there were more cars than usual. The field office was at least forty minutes from the city, so he was wondering why there were so many cars. Most of them looked like SWAT and police cars, but he still saw others that looked undercover.

"Is there a party nobody told me about?" He whispered to himself, walking to the front door and seeing Lucas' famous black sports car parked in the front entrance. My truck is better, he thought to himself, smirking. He couldn't count the amount of times Lucas and him bickered over whose car was better.