Running Scared

12- Fighting For Family

Andrew POV
That day after the fight I had with Natalie I hired a lawyer and had papers drawn up to start the process of getting full custody of Gracie. It's now been almost three weeks since I have seen Natalie and that's about to change since we are all currently meeting at the Paternity Testing Center for a DNA test. As I walk into the clinic I see Natalie sitting in the back corner of the room with Gracie sitting on her lap. The closer I get to them I noticed how Natalie looks as if she hasn't sleep in days. "What have I done," I say to myself as I begin making my way over to Natalie. Just as I was about to be in front of her my lawyer grab my arm stopping me for getting any closer to Natalie. "Andrew you cannot talk about to her right now it could mess up your chances of winning the custody battle," he says warning me. "Look at her she looks miserable I can't just ignore it, it's killing me to know I'm the one causing her to be miserable," I tell him. "Look I can't make you not talk to her but just know if you do everything you say she could use against you to help her keep custody of Gracie," he says as he lets go of my arm. "I understand," I say before proceeding to Natalie. "Hey can you go play with the toys for just a minute while I talk to your mommy," I say as I kneel down to Gracie's level. "Ok," she says happily as she claims down from Natalie's lap and makes her way to the toys. "Natalie can we talk for a minute," I say as I take her hands into mine. "I don't have anything to talk to you about," she says as she avoids eye contact with me. "Please don't shut me out," I beg of her. "Fine you want me to talk then I will, you hurt me and now your trying to take my baby for me, I hate you!" She says with barley above a whisper as tears streamed down her face. "Natalie I didn't mean to hurt you but Gracie is my child too and it's not fair for you to keep her from me," I say pleading with her to see my side. "I think it best if you take your hands off my wife," I here Alec say angrily from behind me. "I'm trying to talk to her," I say before turning my attention back to Natalie. I was suddenly jerked up and way from Natalie. "Get your hands off of me," I scream angrily as I jerk myself from his hold and push him backwards. "Put your hands on me or my wife again and I promise you I will kill you," Alec says angrily as he gets in my face. "Natalie can make her own decisions and doesn't need you to control her," I say my blood boiling at this point. "Well I know for a fact she doesn't want you touching her," he says the anger in his voice matching mine. "Yeah well that isn't want she was saying when we hooked up a few weeks ago," I say wanting to run in the fact that she had chosen to be with me even if it wasn't but one night. As soon as the words left my mouth Alex's fist made contact with my nose causing blood to begin bleeding. "Stop it stop fighting," Natalie says frantically as she holds Gracie's face to her leg trying to shield her from seeing us fighting.

Alec POV
Security broke up the fight made Drew go to the back to get his mouth swabbed, then escorted me and him both to our cars. As soon as I heard Kate pull up to the house I begin making my way to the door. "I'm sorry about earlier you know it wasn't my fault right, he deserved to be punched after saying all that about you," I say pleading with her as she entered into the house. "Alec he was wrong, but you shouldn't have punched him in front of Gracie," she says walking past me with Gracie in tow. "So your mad at me for hitting him?" I ask her as I follow behind her. "No I'm not mad at you for hitting him, I'm mad that you did it in public and in front of our daughter," he says turning back around to face me. "Gracie can you go to your room so mommy and daddy can talk," I say sweetly. Once she was out of the room I pull Kate to our room and shut the door behind us. "Look I don't want to argue with you, I love you and I would like to make this marriage work," I say taking her hands in mine. "I know you do and I want it to work too but our marriage just got a lot more complicated since Andrew came back into the picture," she says sadly. "We can make it through anything as long as we are together," I say pulling her into my arms holding her close. "I hope your right," she says but I could tell she had doubts and confusion. "Why don't we take Gracie out and let's have some family fun to help get our minds off of everything that's going on," I say knowing we could all use a distraction. "Yea sure lets go, we could all use a little fun," she say trying to sound happy as she walk out the room to get Gracie ready to go.

Authors Note:
Picture of Alec, Natalie Kate, and Andrew on this chapter.
I'm so sorry I haven't updated in over a week my new job doesn't allow me much free time. I will try my best to update again soon.