Flashing Lights ||kris bryant||

6.2

Kris's P.O.V.
8:17 A.M.

Rubbing my hands over my eyes, I close the door to my hotel room and head downstairs to the lobby. The trip is relatively quick as I jog down the few flights of stairs and think about what I want for breakfast.

"Kristopher Lee Bryant." Stopping in my tracks and turn around to face Rizzo and Maddon sitting at a table. Giving them a signal to give me a minute, I continue towards the breakfast bar and nod in thanks to our team chef as he hands me a plate loaded with food.

Taking a few quick bites of the array of fruits on my plate, I mentally prepare for the conversation I'm about to have.

"How are you fine gentlemen this morning?" Their unamused faces, make the smile slide off my face as I plop down into a chair.

"Well let's get straight to business. You and Emma definitely have had a rough few weeks. Am I right or am I wrong?" Maddon quirks an eyebrow at me while he waits for me to respond.

My answer is cut off by Rizzo. "Well that's kind of a dumb question if you ask me, no offense Maddon. I think everyone that knows Kris and Emma has had a rough time."

"Yeah, the whole situation with Mike was terrible. Especially for Emma, I'm worried about her." I confess, finally letting all of my pent up emotions out.

"We are all here for you and her. But for a three year old, well almost four now, to think that what happened to us was her fault is not healthy." Rizzo comments as he grabs my shoulder offering a sympathetic pat on the back.

"Maybe she should talk to someone? Like a professional not one of us." Joe suggests but shakes his head when he sees my reaction.

"Yeah that'll definitely go well, especially since she can barely talk to any strangers. Her trust is very hard to earn." My sarcasm doesn't sit over well as I get two pointed looks.

"Real quick pause on this topic, but where is Emma?" Rizzo asks, finally that she isn't with me.

"I'm rooming with Dexter and he was drifting in and out of sleep so I just placed Emma on his bed and let them fall asleep together. I trust Dexter not to roll over and squish her or shove her off the bed." I respond with a quick shoulder shrug.

But do I really expect Dexter not to do any of that?

"A dumb idea looking back at it but as long as she sleeps for a bit longer everything will be fine." I shake my head, a small smile on my face.

"Well I know that we have to be at the field in a couple of hours, right?" Rizzo pauses until he receives a nod of confirmation before continuing, "I could always text Freddie Freeman and see if his wife is coming up with Charlie? Emma would be in a safe, non stressful environment until the game or something?"

"Wow, who are you and what have you done with Anthony Rizzo?" I feign a look of shock as I stare at him for actually having a good idea for once.

"That's actually not a bad idea." Maddon slows states with a drawn out nod of approval.

Grinning at both of us, Rizzo whips out his phone but loses his grip on it sending it flying towards my face. Unable to duck out of the way, I close my eyes as it hits my bruised cheek.

"You are an idiot." I hiss in pain but end up laughing because only Rizzo could do something like that.

"Sorry sorry!" His face definitely shows he isn't sorry at all before snatching his phone and racing out of the room, fingers flying at the speed of light as he sends a text.

"Eat your breakfast before he comes back and accidentally trips and knocks this table over." Maddon told me before he stood up and left the table with a quick squeeze on the shoulder.

Deciding to follow through on Maddon's advice, I go back to my breakfast and savor the taste of it. The peace and quiet I am experiencing is quickly lost as I hear Rizzo calling my name from the hallway.

Cringing I shovel the rest of the food into my mouth before turning to face a grinning Rizzo. "Let me guess, good news?"

"Wow someone's sarcasm is out of control today." He grumbles before shoving his phone in my face. Reading over the texts, I let out a sigh of relief as Freddie said that it would be fine with Emma staying with his wife and kid.

"Great right? I thought so too!" Rizzo continues talking but I tune him out. Staring off at who knows what, I'm brought back to the memories of meeting Emma for the first time.

Her loud screams pierced the air as I quickly clasped my hands over my ears. When they slowly die down, I reach my arms out and tell her that she can trust me. Her little body scurries over to my arms and wraps her little arms around my neck before her breaths even out and falls asleep. Her face nuzzled into my shoulder with her breath tickling her neck.

Snapping out of the happy memory, I abruptly stand up and cut Rizzo off from talking. "See ya on the bus!" And I walk off back towards my hotel room to prepare for the day.

******************************

"Alright Emma bear, you ready to meet some more friends?" Rizzo tickles her stomach causes her to giggle.

Holding her a little bit tighter to me, I become a little apprehensive about leaving Emma and not having her just stay with the team during batting practice.

"Kris, Anthony!" A deep voice calls out as we turn the corner and come into view of Freddie.

"Hey Freddie." I shake his hand and wait for Rizzo to do the same before introducing Emma.

"Howdy there Emma." He gives her a wave, causing her to go wide eyed and the duck her head into my chest. Smiling Freddie motions for us to follow behind him as we walk down the hallway.

"And here's my wife, Chelsea and our son, Charlie." He introduces after he lets us into a large playroom area.

"Emma look at that ball pit." I whisper in her ear, causing her to look up so fast that had I not moved my nose out of the way, it would have been broken.

As soon as she located it, she wriggled around in my arms and I took that as a sign to put her down. Once her feet touched the ground she was off and running before finally diving into the pit.

"I really can't thank you enough for watching her for me." I profusely thank Chelsea as she waves it off.

"No problem, it's the least I could do." She smiles at me before grabbing her husbands hand.

"Well we are off to batting practice, Kris or someone will come back in later and check in on Emma in a bit." Rizzo explains as he begins to drag us out of the door.

"Thanks again!" I call out before giving a final wave.

"I hope the separation anxiety doesn't become to much for you, because Maddon won't let you out of practice until a little bit before the game."

"I'm not the one who's going to end up passing out after a few sprints." I retort before shoving him into the way and quickly jogging away, leaving him behind.

Wow, I'm let's just say that hiatus was a bit longer than I expected. Thanks for all the love even though I didn't reciprocate it :(

I'll get back to updating!