a second chance - Hotchniss

Coffee [Aaron]

Another month had passed, and the doctors had cleared Alaska to leave the hospital if she wanted to, but she asked them if she could stay a little longer. At first, I had been surprised about  that, but she had then told us that she had never felt that good in her life and that she, herself, wanted to assure that she would not relapse.

I was more than proud of my daughter. We could only imagine what she had been through and only the thought of it was already enough.

"What are you thinking about?", Emily softly asked and I jumped out of my thoughts. I was leaning against the kitchen island, sipping my coffee. We had just returned from a case, it was around  midnight, but we were both not tired.

"Alaska", I smiled.

She leaned against the counter in front of me and smiled as well: "It's crazy how the time has passed, isn't it? I mean - she's turning 17 next month!"

"I know, right", I sighed. I couldn't believe that she had grown this fast and how quick time had passed.

"I cannot believe that we have been together for nearly 18 years now already", she chuckled. "Would you have believed it, if someone told you back then as we met the first time, that I would end up as your wife and mother to your daughter?"

"I guess not", I admitted and chuckled.

"Don't worry, me neither", she laughed and walked over to get a coffee as well. I watched her returning with a cup in her hand, leaning against the counter again. She looked up and kept looking me right into the eyes as she drank her coffee.

"How are you feeling?", I then asked her. The whole situation around us had calmed down a bit; Alaska was in recovery and we had gotten back together again.

"I'm good", she smiled. "I really am. I never thought I could be happy again, if I look back some months. But I was wrong."

"That's good", I smiled lightly and emptied my cup. Then, suddenly, memories flashed through my head: "Do you know what this reminds me of?"

"Of course", she grinned. "We always stayed like this when Alaska was a baby and just wouldn't sleep at night."

-

"She's asleep", I sighed and joined my girlfriend in the kitchen.

"Give her ten minutes", she smiled but sighed as well. It was around midnight and our baby-daughter had kept us awake like this ever since she was born. I didn't know if she just didn't need any sleep or if she just liked the idea of having all this attention around her. Even though she was just a baby, she was one of the cleverest people I had ever met. She always knew what to do to make us jump for her - and of course we did because we loved her more than anything and just wanted to be good parents.

Emily handed me a cup of coffee, and leaned against the counter while I was leaned against the kitchen island in front of her.

"I keep wondering if one day, we are going to collapse because of sleep deprivation", she chuckled.

"I guess she won't let that happen", I laughed. "She's clever enough to keep us awake only long enough it get tired, not to break down."

She joined my laughter, knowing that I was right. We both took a sip of coffee, not stopping to look into each other's eyes. Once again, I asked myself how I deserved someone like her, the most perfect  human-being I had ever met, with Alaska of course. We had been together for a bit more than a year then. We had not planned to get a child back then, we had only been together for some months when Emily found out that she was pregnant. We had actually never even spoken about kids, since our relationship was still pretty new. Yet, we both had been more than exited as she told me. And even though I would have never expected it; Alaska gave our relationship some kind of stability. She had made our luck perfect; there was nothing more I could as for at that moment.

Shortly before she was born, we had moved into a bigger house, since before we had only lived in my apartment, which was just too small for a child.

"My turn", Emily then said as we heard Alaska cry again. I let out a small sigh and looked after her. Some minutes later, she returned with our baby in her arms, softly rocking her. She had stopped crying, yet she wouldn't go back to sleep again.

"Hey little alarm clock", I smiled and walked over to them. Alaska looked at us, her eyes were fully awake and she seemed really happy that she had finally gotten what she wanted: being taken out of her crib, surrounded by her parents.

"Ouch", Emily exclaimed as Alaska pulled on her raven hair, but chuckled shortly afterwards. "That's my hair!"

"Don't worry, one day, you'll have your own hair to pull on", I assured my daughter, even though she wouldn't even understand it.

"I hope so", my girlfriend smiled and then turned around to look at me.

"What?", I asked

"Nothing", she smiled. "Nothing."

-

"I guess I have never ever had that less sleep in my life, like back then", Emily laughed. "I'm still surprised that we survived it."

"I still believe that she already knew what she was doing back then", I grinned. "She knew how to have us under control."

"I think so", she sighed and put her cup aside. "But looking back, I wouldn't want to change a moment back then. It's what brought us here." She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. Immediately, I brought my hands to her waist and softly pulled her closer.

"Me neither", I smiled and kissed her lightly.

"I love you", she whispered as she leaned in to kiss me again.

"I love you, too", I replied and closed the gap between our lips.