Parenthood

Chapter 8: Daddy Daughter Bonding

Alec's POV 

I woke up to my alarm going off at 2 in the morning. Why in the world is it going off at 2 in the morning? I turn my body to turn off the alarm clock. There was a list on my alarm clock. Great. I pick up and start reading it. 

Good morning Alec,

So this is the note that I promised you yesterday. If you are at all confused just call me and I will answer it for you. 

- Wake up at 2 in the morning go for a 45 minute run.  Take 15 minute break and get something for breakfast, like an apple or banana.

- At 3 come back to the institute and work on your swordsmanship. 

- 4 o'clock practice knife throwing, knife handling, and blocking.

- 5-5:15 target practice with my bow and arrow. (Yes I did get a bow and arrow. It is the black and gold one. You should see it when you first walk in.)

- Izzy will wake up at about 6-6:30. She will train with you when she gets there.

- Go back to the room at 8:30. That is when you need to wake up Olivia.

-When she first wakes up she will start crying. Don't worry, that only means that she is hungry. Go to the kitchen and feed her.

- Go for another run with her. Go to the park or something like that. She just loves being outside. 

-Come back at about 12 and give her some lunch. Don't eat with her. 

-Put her down for her nap after she is done eating. This is when you can eat lunch.

-You have to wake her up at 3. If you don't then she will be up all night, and you will have to deal with it. 

- Play until about 5 or 6 then eat dinner. After that sit down and watch a movie with Izzy. Don't fall sleep during it you will want to but don't, trust me. 

- She will fall asleep during the movie so take her to bed right after the movie.

-After that you will work on you archery again. 

- Go to bed at about 10:30. 

Hope you have a great day. See you at about 11. If you fall asleep before I can talk to you then Goodnight Alec. Sleep Well.

I pull myself out of bed, reluctantly.  Pulling on one of Clary's workout shirts on, I walk out of the institute and begin my run. The songs on her playlist make me want to run even faster. After my 45 minute run I stop in the middle of the main plaza and here my stomach growl. I grab an apple and sit down and start to eat it. Sitting down felt like the best thing in the world. Good thing I ran in a circle close to the institute. Therefore, it won't be that hard to go back. I head back for the institute, still eating my apple. 

When I get back to the institute it was really dark. So dark I couldn't see where I was going so I, and by accident tripped over something that I still couldn't see and made a huge noise right in the middle of the institute. I heard footsteps coming from one of the hallways. Suddenly the lights turned on. The only other person in the room was Alec, well Clary. "What are you doing here?" She whispered yelled. 

"I couldn't see where I was going so I tripped on a..." I turned to see what I had tripped on. Come to find out that it was one of the chairs we had in the institute. "... chair."

She walks over to me and tries to help me up. However, because of the chair my leg is caught and I can't get up. Instead by accident I pull her down with me. We both roll and, finally, my leg gets loose. When we stop rolling I land I top of her. "Sorry." I said, trying to stand up. When I get off her, she stands up as well. We are standing so close together. 

"Are you ok?" She asked me. 

"Yea, I'm fine." I reply. 

The was a long moment of silence. During the silence she grabs a sword and started training. I followed what she did. I decided to go for a surprise attack. I swung my sword at her legs when her back was turned to me. She jumps seconds before I hit her. She turns to face me, her face so calm that it scared me. "Why?" She asked being extremely calm. 

"Um..." Was all I could say. I really didn't think this through. 

She raises her weapon and gets into a ready stance. "If you wanted to fight all you had to do was ask."

We spare for about a half an hour before both of us decide to stop. She leaves and I continue my workout. At 8:30 I stop the workout with Izzy and went into our room. Olivia is still sleeping, so I walk over to her crib and try to wake her up. "Olivia. Sweetheart. Please wake up." I say as I pick her up. She immediately starts crying. I run to the kitchen and try and grab some food for her but when I try to feed it to her she just spits it all over me. Great. 

9:45 P.M.

This was one of the worst days I have ever had. Olivia would not stop crying and screaming. Ever time I tried to feed her she would spit at me, throw up on me, or throw it at me. Maybe even all three at the same time. I scraped my knee, cut my arm, and some guy kept looking at my butt when I was at the park. What the heck! Was this a normal day for Clary? This day was terrible. I decided that I would not go work on my target practice and instead I would just go to bed. I put Olivia into her bed and walked into Clary's and my room, and found her laying on the bed with a book in her hands. "How was your day?" She asks not looking up from the book. 

I go into a whole explanation as to what happened and then said, "Is this what a normal day is like for you?"

"No." She said. She looks up from her book and continued, "My day is normally a lot worse." She looks down at my knee. "Follow me." She walks over to the desk next to the windowsill where she has all of her drawing things laying around. She opens one of the drawers to find rubbing alcohol, wraps, and cotton balls. "When you have days like mine you get really good at helping yourself." She pulls out the chair and tell me to put my leg up there, so I did. She hands my one of her belts and tells me to bite on it. I do and she grabs the rubbing alcohol and a few cotton balls. "Ready?" She asks. 

I nod and she pours the alcohol and the stinging hurts like hell. Before I knew what was going on she stands up and takes the belt out of my mouth. "All done." I look down and see that my knee is wrapped and not bleeding as bad as it was. 

"Thank you." I said. I take my leg off of the chair. She starts putting the thing away so I ask her, "Where did you learn how to do that?" 

She stops what she is doing and sighs. I put my hand on her shoulder. "When you take care of Olivia you are always on the floor and playing all the time. You kind of get used to rug burn, cut and scrapes, and gashes. So I have learned how to take care of my own cuts."

"Why do you do this to yourself. You push yourself so hard to the point that you do this to yourself." I say referring to the cuts all over her body. 

"Because I am the only one that is raising this child. You don't help out ever, and every time I ask you for help to always say that your to busy or it's your problem. You're never there. I really think you don't care about this child or even about me."

I wanted to cry. There were so many times that I needed her help today and she was there, but when she needs me, I'm not there. What is wrong with me? I put my arms around her neck, giving her a comforting hug. I can hear her crying, and it kills me to think that I am the reason that she is crying. I'm the reason she's hurting, I'm the reason she has to go through all of this alone, I'm the reason she has to raise Olivia by herself. I was to scared to raise a child so I pushed it off on her, I didn't even think about what it was doing to her. "I am so sorry. I didn't realize what it was doing to you. I will be there for you more often. I am such a terrible guy." I grip my hands tighter around her waist, and hold her petite body against mine. WAIT! Petite body and my arms around her waist.