What Makes a Family | LT ✔️

Chapter Fifteen: Twist of Fate

AUTHOR'S POV

~one month later~

The last several weeks have remained difficult as Larry and Laurent continue adjusting. The night of Laurent's drunken stupor was revisited often mentally by both of them with Laurent still in disbelief of himself going that route as well as the things he said to Larry...particularly asking Larry why did he marry him. Laurent's stomach turns each time he thinks about it because the fact that Larry even felt the same way about him romantically then their relationship blossoming and ultimately resulting in marriage was the icing on the cake to finally achieving his life long dream of becoming a doctor. Even days after their sweet moment with Laurent on the couch and Larry next to him Laurent still apologized every chance he had. Larry lovingly accepted each time but eventually told Laurent that continuous apologies weren't necessary. He even took it a step further by saying that he understood how much pain he was in and everything he said was a result of that so he wouldn't dare hold it against him. He just never wants Laurent to get to a point where he feels the need to drink. Or worse, contemplating taking his own life ever again. Larry can't even begin to describe what it felt like seeing that pile of pills on the counter that day as well as the pained look on Laurent's face and each time it came to him he had to distract himself with something to get that image out of his head. Life without Christian is very hard...but life without Laurent would just be pure torture. He's never been more grateful for arriving home in the nick of time to stop that tragedy from happening. They each had their moments of waking up during the middle of the night when it would normally be a time where Christian awakens them with his cries and those moments were extremely difficult to get through. Never have they missed a cry more in their entire lives but...each day gets easier. They can only hope and pray that Jenna is complying with the parenting classes and that Christian is safe and healthy. It's still summer vacation for Larry but to his dismay Laurent returned to work only a few of days after his heart shattering breakdown. Larry thought he should take a little more time before going back but Laurent insisted. Larry ultimately agreed but had one request...that if Laurent found himself thinking about Christian and the pain got to be too much he would talk to him and not put himself in any danger again or essentially self-medicating. Laurent didn't take long at all to promise that he will talk to him and shortly after he was back at work. He checked in with Larry throughout each day whenever he had the chance and Larry was appreciative for that. Even though a very difficult period of adjustment they've leaned on each other for these last several weeks. There's still the matter of what to do about Christian's nursery. They each knew it was on the other's mind but they just couldn't bring themselves to talk about it. In fact, they don't go inside that room nearly as much because although they told themselves to allow the pain they feel as it's a part of healing there's still something about being inside of that room that makes them just avoid it altogether. Laurent also wanted to change his morning exercise routine but running was something he wanted to continue because it's the most relaxing while also keeping him in shape so he bought a treadmill along with other exercise equipment and used a section of their large finished basement to turn into his exercise space. Today is Sunday and he isn't scheduled to work nor is he on call so right now he's on the treadmill in the middle of a power run and he'll ask Larry later what he wants to do for the day. He's on a high incline requiring ten times the vigor than a normal run which in turn causes a thick sweat. His twists are pulled back allowing the full structure of his face...beads of that sweat running down his temples as well as over his nose and lips. On occasion he takes the towel draped over the arm of the treadmill to wipe most of it away but for the most part he stays focused. Being an avid runner he runs a total of forty five minutes and feeling invigorated now he begins to cool down. Deep breaths in then softly blowing them out and after a few moments of that he's finally done. He steps down while taking the towel to wipe away the remaining sweat then heads upstairs to take a shower. The kitchen is before the bedroom and in that kitchen is the beautiful sight of Larry in all his splendor including that afro gorgeousness hard at work on breakfast. Since it's Sunday his traditional homemade blueberry muffins are baked and Laurent sees him popping out a batch from the muffin tin one by one and placing them in a basket. Since Larry was asleep when Laurent got up to workout he won't miss the opportunity to greet him so he walks into the kitchen...