A Selfish Kind Of Love

Thanks For The Help

~Michael's POV

Another loud cry jolted Rayne and I awake, I roll over to see the clock saying 2AM. "Can you go get her? I'm so tired." Rayne muffled into her pillow groggily.

"I'm tired too. I've been working in the studio all day." I whine.

Rayne pops up from her pillow and stares at me. "I've been taking care of her all day. It's your turn. Go get her.." She shoves my shoulder, before falling back into her pillow. I groan loudly and shuffle to Camille's room.

"Hey hey hey... Why are you crying? Don't you know your supposed to sleep at night." I say, lifting her out the crib. She would not stop crying. "Come on 'Millie', please stop crying." I whine. I bring her into the room with Rayne as she continues to cry.

"Ray I think she's hungry.." I say gently shaking her.

"She can't be I just fed her." Rayne whines, she grabs Camille out of my hands and attempts to feed her allowing me time to lie down until I fell asleep..

"Good Morning." I say, leaning to kiss Rayne's forehead before she leans backward. "What I do?" I ask.

"Nothing that's the problem." She mumbles. "I was up all night with Camille last night."

"Well why didn't you wake me back up?" I ask.

"I did, three times. You just mumbled and fell back to sleep."

"Well I'm sorry, I was tired from being in the studio all day long." I say sarcastically. "It's not like I have an album coming out in a week."

"Well, you have a daughter now. I think she's a little more important." She says back in an equally snarky tone.

"I never said she wasn't, but I've been working on this for a long time Rayne. You have time, I don't. I'm on a deadline." I head to the room to grab my shoes. I wasn't gonna listen to her complain about being home all day. I had things to finish up. I stomp past the living room and head towards the door.

"Where are you going?" She asks.

"The studio." I say shortly, slamming the door behind me. I hear a loud groan on the other side of the door before I continued into the truck.

"Everything ok boss? You slammed that door pretty hard." Bill asks. I sigh and shake my head.

"I don't even wanna talk about it Bill." I wave my hand and stare out the window.

"You sure?" He asked, observing me roll the window up and down.

"Rayne and I got into it. She doesn't think I'm helping her with Camille as much as I should be. But she doesn't get that I'm exhausted, I'm working on this album all day and night, I can't take care of the baby too."

"Well that's selfish, she's home all day and you can't take a shift? Come on Mike. You've gotta help her out. How do you think she feels? Taking care of Camille all day and have to take care of her all night? You've gotta compromise." Bill says. "I learned that with my wife and daughter. No matter how tired I am I have to help her out. It's not fair."

I somewhat understood where Bill was coming from, but it didn't feel like he was understanding me. "I have a deadline, I have to finish this album. Once I finish it I'm all hers and she can rest all she wants! But I just need this last week to myself."

Bill shakes his head, "Michael that's really selfish... She carried the kid for 9 months and then has to take care of her by herself for an additional month. That 'me time' was taken away once she got pregnant. You've gotta help her."

Bill was right. It was selfish of me to think like that, as soon as I got home I had to apologize. I felt really bad for even leaving her like that. I didn't stay in the studio too long before coming back home.

Rayne and Camille were both sleeping on the bed when I walked in. I grabbed Camille and placed her in her crib, planting a small kiss on her cheek. I laid next to Rayne eye to eye, pecking her nose.

"Hey." I whisper, rubbing her face to wake her up. She flutters her long eyelashes open, allowing me to admire the beauty of her again, I hadn't done that in a while. She reached her hand over to my cheek.

"I'm sorry.." She says quietly. I frown slightly, "For what?" I ask.

"For expecting too much of you. I know you're working and you're tired. I know this album is important.."

"No, you have no reason to be sorry.." I interrupt. "You're taking care of Camille all day and I suck because I'm complaining about getting up a couple hours earlier than usual. I'm sorry."

She giggles, "I told you we weren't ready for this baby. I don't want us to fight like that again." She kisses me softly, wrapping her arm around me tightly.

"We're just learning. We can do this.. I've just gotta cutback on the hours in the studio. I can manage that. Ok?" I smile sweetly. She nods her head before slowly drifting to sleep in my arms.

***

Dangerous was finally released and doing exceptionally well on the charts. Promoting it was hell, I had to be everywhere, and with Camille being only a month old, I couldn't take her everywhere with me. Luckily Rayne understood that. Frank had been over scheduling interviews and appearances like crazy, I couldn't even keep up.

"So after we appear on this show, we've gotta record your acceptance speech for an award you're receiving in Britain.. Then we've gotta run through a meeting with LA Gear and talk about your contract. After that you've got an interview with-"

"Sleep? Can I interview with sleep Frank? Or maybe my family? I did just have a daughter, Frank. God, give me a break." I scoff sitting in the limo watching buildings pass.

"Michael you know better than I do that the first week of album sales make or break the album. We have to promote, promote, promote! No slacking." Frank explains. I groan rolling my eyes.

~Rayne's POV

I sat and watched as my father held Camille tightly in his arms. "She's looking more and more like you everyday." He gleams.

"Really? I see mom more." I grin.

"Either way she's gorgeous.. I remember when you said you didn't want kids. Look at you.." My dad smiles.

I chuckle, "She's got me wrapped around her finger. I love her more than anything in this world."

"How's Michael adjusting to it?"

My smile slowly fades, "Michael is slowly adjusting. It's taking a while... But he's adjusting."

"What do you mean Ray?"

"Dad, he's trying. It's just new for him.. It's new for both of us. Once he's finished promoting his album he'll be there more." I sigh. My father was not gonna accept me making excuses for him. Michael wasn't helping and that's the honest truth. "But he said he's gonna start helping we talked about it." I add

"What about when he's on tour? How's he gonna help?" My father asked, I shrug. "I don't know dad. But Michael isn't a bad father, he's just busy."

"He helped make her, he can't be too busy."

"He loves her. He's trying.." I knew he was trying. Everyone's judgment didn't matter to me because this was between he and I.