Flashing Lights ||kris bryant||

3.6

Kris's P.O.V.

9:45 A.M.

"We are here for the custody battle of Emma Yorke. Between biological father Mike Yorke and Kris Bryant. You each will have ten minutes to present your case. Mr. Bryant you are up first." Judge Johnson called out.

"I'll be right back Emma." I kissed her head closing my eyes. Taking a deep breath I walked up to the witness stand.

"Please begin with the day you met Emma and then go from there." He leaned away from the microphone as he said it.

"The first time I met Emma it was around midnight on opening day. I had arrived at my apartment complex and opened the back door to my car. She was right there on the floor when I saw her. We both screamed in shock but then I stopped when she started crying. I coaxed her out of the car after a few minutes and she ended up falling asleep in my arms before I could ask her any questions. I carried her into my apartment and put her on the couch." Taking a deep breath I continued, "I turned the light on and saw that her face was swollen and a bruise had formed. I called Anthony Rizzo to see what to do but he decided on coming over himself. We both decided that we would let her sleep tonight and then ask her questions in the morning." I stopped and grabbed the complementary bottle of water and took a sip.

"Tell us about that morning." Judge Johnson nodded to me.

"I woke up to sounds of Emma screaming and rushed out into the living room. Anthony had scared her and she didn't know what was happening. I managed to calm her down before we talked. She told us that she ended up running away from her old house because Mike had come home drunk with a woman. He slapped her and told her that he was glad her mom was dead and that she was an accident-"

"OBJECTION!" Mike screamed out making me jump. "That's complete bull. I would never tell my daughter that."

"Sit down Mr. Yorke, it is not your turn to talk." Johnson's voice boomed out silencing Mike and the whispers from around the court room.

"As I was saying, she told us that she didn't like to call Mike dad, because she thought that he didn't deserve that title." I trailed, earning a bunch of whispers in return.

"Order order!" Johnson slammed the mallet down. "Please continue with whatever you think you need to add in the next two minutes.

Two minutes?!

"I just want to say that ever since Emma has come into my life I've never been happier. I love waking up every morning to her smiling giggling face. I love being able to have movie nights with her. I love that we are able to go to Wrigley or travel with the team and she's friends with everyone. This is gonna sound pathetic but please I'm begging you, let her stay with me, she would never have to worry about me hurting her or abandoning her because I thought she was a mistake. I love you Emma bear." I smiled at her just as Johnson signaled my ten minutes were up.

"Thank you Mr. Bryant. Now up is Mr. Yorke." I stood up and walked back to my table and sat down.

"That was very good KB!" Emma giggled climbing into my lap, earning the laughs of a few people.

"Thanks princess, now we gotta listen so sh." I held up my finger to my lips and turned towards Mike.

"Please begin." Johnson nodded at him.

"I'd just like everyone to know that I'm admitting to not being the best parent in the world. My wife died while giving birth to Emma. I was lost for so long after that, I was debating about giving her up for adoption but then decided against it. After all she was my little girl. Daddy's little girl." He smiled down at Emma, making her turn around and place her head in the crook of my neck.

"It's okay, just look at Rizzo or someone." I whispered stroking her hair.

"Then when Emma went missing that night, I ran out right after her and tried chasing her. We had an argument prior and she wasn't happy so she decided that leaving was the best option." She tightened her hold on my neck, breathing becoming more labored. "I went straight to the police when I couldn't find her. I filed a missing persons report and then returned home. I barely could function, my daughter was missing. Then I got a call from the station saying that a young man had found Emma and was taking care of her. I automatically asked when I could bring her back home and they said that he was going to try and gain custody of her. I protested saying that she was my daughter and that I needed her to continue on." He paused looking around the room.

Such a lie.

"A few days later I hired a private detective to check in on Emma, just to make sure she was okay. I'm just going to list two instances that alarmed me. She was presumed missing from Wrigley Field for almost a half hour before Mr. Bryant found her. Then an ambulance was called while they were down in Florida and Emma was rushed to the hospital. That never happened when she was with me." He ended his speech with a small shake off the head and walked back to his table.

"Thank you for that very interesting information. Next up is Emma." Johnson ordered.

"All right EB, it's your time to talk. Do you want to walk up there or should I carry you." I asked loud enough for people to hear me.

"Can you please carry me?" She looked at me and I nodded. I stood up and carried her over to the stand and set her down in the chair.

"I love you." I whispered giving her a hug. She nodded and held her hands up in the shape of a heart giggling as I walked back to my seat.

"Okay Emma please tell us about whatever you want." Johnson asked her politely.

"Can I talk about the prank war KB and I had with the team?" She asked standing up on the chair leaning over to him.

"Uh what else is there to talk about?" He looked taken confused as she was standing.

"I can talk about our movie nights, when I met Moose and Hos, or when I played hide and seek with Riz. Or even when we went swimming and judged a cannon ball contest!" She squeezed making everyone laugh.

"Uh just pick one and share I guess." Johnson pointed for her to sit in the seat.

"Actually I just thought of another one. So for a while I've had nightmares, and sometimes they get so bad I don't know if they are real or not even when I wake up." She looked down at her lap and sighed. "So a few nights ago, I had a really bad dream, I was scared that Mike was going to take me back and I would never see KB again. I was crying and screaming and everything but I couldn't wake up. Then all of the sudden I heard Riz and KB talking loud. I opened my eyes and they both were scared. I started crying more because I didn't want to go back and I was tired. Riz kissed my head before walking back into his own bedroom and then it was just KB and I. He wrapped his arms around me and told me a funny story to get my mind off the dream." She looked at me and smiled, making a few people smile also. "Then he tried singing and believe me when I say this. He's terrible at it." At this everyone except for Mike laughed. He laid back down putting my head over his heart. He then began whispering a new story to me about how we were gonna stay with each other and then win the World Series side by side. Well I would be in the stands but still, I fell asleep at that point. But when I woke up I had my arms around his torso and he had his hands gently on my back. That's been our normal sleeping position since then and I haven't had any nightmares since." She hopped down from the chair and ran back over to me.

"Aw Emma you did so good sweetheart. I think you won the hearts of every single person here." I wrapped her up in my arms and laughed.

"We will take a ten minute recess before continuing." Johnson announced as he dismissed us.

Now the hard part begins when we get back.

Not gonna lie, I was smiling when I wrote some parts of this and hating myself when writing the other part but it's for the story so I managed. Thanks for reading :) pretty long update but here it is!