The Baby Favor

4.

Despite his late night with Micheal, Jason found himself awake just as the sun came up. He sat for a moment, reliving the thrill of Michael's kiss and the sting of his words, before Jason realizes he needed to get up and try to put last night behind him. Despite their attraction to one another, which had never waned, Michael was right about their relationship being complicated.

Over time, it had simply become one of those situations where being together hurt more than being apart. Seeing each other was just a reminder of everything that had gone wrong. At least for Michael. He intended to maintain his distance while they were stuck in this situation together, and so Jason need to respect that, no matter how fast he made his heart race and his skin to tingle from his touch. Attraction didn't solve any of their issues.

Jason sighed and crept downstairs as quietly as he could. As he did every morning, he starts a pot of coffee, took his vitamins and stared blankly into the refrigerator for something to eat. When he found nothing, he shut the fridge and find himself looking at the nursery door just beyond it.

Last night, with Luna crying, he'd ignored the sense of anxiety that normally kept him from going inside he room. He'd suppressed it all, scooped the crying infant from her crib, changed her diaper and ran out into the livingroom as quickly as he could. He hadn't allowed himself to look around at the cheery pale blue walls, the stuffed animals in the shelves or the fabric sign over the crib that read 'Elijah.' He didn't need to. He knew every inch of that room despite having not gone in it in nearly 18 months.

This morning, there was no baby crying. No reason for him to charge in. Even so, he wanted to check on Luna while the coffee was brewing. He went to the door and stopped. It was harder than he'd expected to reach out and grab the door knob without Luna's cry urging him on. It was a simple action, yet an important one for him. The only sound in the whole house seemed to be his heart pounding in his chest as he moved his hand closer. As his fingers wrapped around the cold metal, he hesitated again.

Jason didn't know why this rol meant so much. Why it was so important. It felt like all he had left of Elijah, but that wasn't really true. He wasn't in that room. It was just wastes space filled with unused baby things. At least that was what Micheal had tried to tell him.

A few months after they lost Elijah, he'd encouraged Jason to redecorate. If they weren't going to try to adopt again, what was the pint of keeping it a nursery? They could turn it into home gym. Or a library. Or even into a storage room. He didn't care as long as it wasn't a pale blue shrine for the child they lost. Jason had been aghast at the mere suggestion. That was where the conversation had stopped until Luna needed a place to stay.

Micheal was right and Jason knew that. Taking a deep breath, he turned the knob, allowing the door to click open. The early-mor king sunlight streamed through the window, highlighting the crib and the very awake baby in it. Luna had used the rails of the crib to pull herself up and was standing there with a slobbery grin on her face when she saw Jason. Apparently, the baby was a morning person.

"What are you doing awake?" Jason asked. Luna immediately started babbling and bouncing up and down while she held onto the rail. Jason couldn't suppress a grin as he watched his niece. She had always been a happy baby. It was unthinkable that she should have so much tragedy in her life so early. He supposed it was good that Luna wouldn't remember any of it, but at the same time, she also wouldn't remember what a good mother Jay was and how David doted on his baby girl.

That was the though that propelled Jason one step, then two steps into the nursery.

As he got closer, Luna reached out to him to be picked up. Without her grip on the crib, she lost her balance and fell backwards, hitting her head with a loud crack in the wooden crib. The grin vanished and was relaxed by a loud howl of pain and fewer. Jason didn't hesitate to rush forward and scoop Luna into his arms. The baby was instantly red-faced with tears streaming down her chubby cheeks.