Paradise // th

thirty eight

As she sat there on her bed, stroking her small angel's head, tears streamed from her eyes, she cried,

"If there's a God out there, please hear my prayer, I'm lost and I'm scared, and I've got nowhere else to run. I've come a long way, but I'm not sure I can be the best mother. So if you're listening, could you give a helping hand to your daughter?"

The small baby whined at the sound of his mother's crying voice and let out a wail as his tears fell down on his cheeks, Hestia held him to her chest and he calmed down instantly as he ate, she kept stroking his curly head and sang him a lullaby, and because she barely knew any, she decided to sing him one that her French teacher had taught her at school.

"Frère Jacques, frère Jacques, dormez vous, dormez vous, sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines, ding dang dong, ding dang dong."

The baby's eyes closed but he was still eating making Hestia chuckle slightly, a knock on her bedroom door made her wipe her eyes and clear her throat, "Come in."

"Hey, love."Nikki smiled walking in the room, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just feeding him."She smiled lightly.

"I wanted to show you something."Nikki smiled as she sat down on the bed next to Hestia, she brought a very big album full of her four kids' pictures when they were babies and opened it.

"That's little Tommy when he was a baby."She spoke with a slight laugh, as she showed her grandchild's mother her first son's picture where he was naked- sitting on a very weird wood chair- making Hestia laugh.

"He looked adorable."She laughed before looking at her son who basically looked the exact same minus the lips.

Her son had thick lips like his mother.

"Ah, look at this."She spoke showing her a picture of him wearing a Spider-Man onesie.

"He's come a long way."She smiled softly looking.

"You have, too."Nikki said with a smile and closed the album before looking at Hestia, "Listen, I know you might not want to tell Tom because you're scared he'll reject the baby- but keeping Lucas from him isn't fair either."

"Nikki.."She trailed with a sigh, "I left after we had a fight and he-"

"No, you left after you thought he was kissing Zendaya because you didn't know whether to stay or not when you're having his kid and he's over there in Los Angeles getting it on with Zendaya."Nikki raised both her eyebrows saying the exact words Hestia said before she left.

She sighed and looked down, unable to talk, "Listen, darling, I promise you it'll be okay, just tell him before it's too late- it's a must, Hestia, Lucas deserves to have his father around as he grows just like you and Tom did- only us being around won't be enough."

-

"So what are you gonna do?"Zeus asked his sister as he ate his bowl of pasta.

"I don't know, Zedd, it's hard for me- I don't know."

"Look, I'm not gonna tell you to tell him- but Lucas deserves to grow up with his father next to him- I know how bad it is- I grew up with your dad, Hestia, he might have given me his last name and let me stay in his home even after everything mum did but he still wasn't my father. And it just wasn't the same- you wouldn't understand, but please just try to understand what I'm saying. You might do the right thing."Zeus spoke and rubbed the back of his neck, "No matter how good of an uncle me or Harrison are- we're never gonna be even one per cent close to what having Tom would be like for him."

Hestia looked at Zeus with a frown and he just shook his head and gave her a sad smile, "Trust me."

Hestia's phone rang and she answered it seeing Son as the ID, "Hey Son, what's up?"

The other end of the line stayed silent, not a word was said, but a breath intake was heard.

"Harrison? Mate? You okay?"Hestia furrowed her eyebrows but still didn't hear an answer- she only heard a sob, "Haz? Haz, is everything okay? Are you okay? Harrison, what's going on? Why are you crying?"

Hestia almost hadn't noticed that it wasn't Harrison, but she did when she heard that sharp intake of breath again, and she swallowed the lump in her throat as she spoke, "Wait- S- Stan?"

The line was cut by Tom hanging up, Harrison took him in his arms and hugged him tightly, "It's alright, mate, let it out."

"You didn't tell me- why didn't you tell me when she left- Haz? She had a baby- she had a- she cheated on me and then left- she-"He took a sharp breath and then coughed making Harrison pat his back, trying so hard to not tell him that it was his baby and that Hestia wouldn't even dare, because she only left because she loved him.