Rounds

Chapter 22

Few weeks later in a sunny, but gloomy day, Aidan has been getting ready for his court day. Linda decides to take Aidan and Evan out to the mall to look for a nice suit, Aidan was quite excited about it, but at the same time scared. He looks over at Evan, looking out of the window, all of a sudden thinking about when he's sitting in the court room, fighting for him, he now has faith because of how the last few days have been. At this point, he doesn't see Linda leaving his life the way that Jay did, he trusts her but he doesn't want her to leave, not even after the trial, he shakes his head, trying not to think about it. Linda looks at him, "Aidan? Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm okay, just overall nervous for this trial in two days," "You shouldn't be," she says, looking at the road, "Why don't you think so?" Aidan says sitting up in his chair "Because, we're going to believe that you can have your son and he won't go back to his mother," Aidan turns back to the window, "Don't worry about it, right now lets just worry about getting the suits."

Pulling into the parking lot, Aidan gets out of the car and grabs Evan from the back of the car, Linda gets out of the drivers seat and checks her phone and starts walking towards the doors of the mall, Aidan follows behind, "You okay?" "Yeah, I just get worried about my baby-girl while I'm at work, I get like this when she gets sick," Aidan gets closer to her, putting his arm around her shoulder, "She's okay, we dropped her off at your moms, so she should be feeling better any minute," "I don't know, she's been sick for about two weeks, I don't know what's going on with her," "She's not sick from Evan is she?" "No, she got sick before then, we were at home and she was coughing really bad when I got home from work," Aidan ponders before they reach the mall doors, "Would calling your mom and checking on her make you feel better?" Linda feels her pants for her phone, "Yeah, I guess so," Linda grabs her phone and dials her moms number.

Waiting for her other to answer, they walk into the men's clothing store with Aidan holding Evan on his neck. Aidan looks around the store, "Wow, I've never been in something like this," "You never dressed up before?" Linda asks with a crazy look on his face, "No, not at all," "Not even for your high school graduation??" "Nope, I had to wear jeans and a T-shirt, that's how poor my mom was, my step dad didn't really help us all that much," Aidan says trying not to get angry, Linda takes her phone from her hear and looks at the screen, "No answer, maybe their sleeping, I'll text her." After sending the text, Linda puts her phone away looking around the store for sizes that Aidan and Evan need, and what color looks best on them. Evan searching for suits made Aidan nervous, Evan was just being a kid, having fun, Aidan was trying to find the same joy, but the trial was making his heart race. "What about this color?" Linda says, pointing out an orange suit, "I don't know about orange, isn't that a girl color?" Aidan says laughing, Linda rolls her eyes playfully, "No, women and men can wear it," Aidan nodded his head.

Aidan and Evan eventually picked out what they were going to wear for the trial, the suits came with everything a suit has, a shirt, a pair of pants, a belt, the suit jacket, a tie, and shoes, Linda even added vests and shoes to their suits. Evan was very happy, to the point where he had a smile on his face and he was jumping where he sat, which was still on Aidan's neck, "Evan, are you that excited buddy?" Aidan asks laughing with the pain in his neck, "YEAH!" he screams, Linda looks up at Evan and smiles, suddenly her phone buzzes. "Is that your mom?" Aidan asked, "No, It's the email from my partner," "You have a partner?" "Not like that, we work with each other," "Ohhh, okay," Linda looks at the email and gets excited, "Well, this is for Evan, the name change was approved, so you can change his name at any point you want to, but you can only do it once," Aidan smiled really hard and looked at Evan, "I think I know what his name is going to be, but I'm not going to say it right now," Aidan says with a smile.

As they were getting in the car, Aidan's phone starts buzzing too, it's a text from Brian, "Hey man, how's bout we meet at a bar, I gotta talk to you," Aidan hesitated, he thought Brian would get the hint to just leave him alone, but I guess he really wants to fix things, Aidan didn't want to think about it, "What's wrong?" Linda asks, "Brian texted me, he wants to go to a bar and he says he wants to talk to me," Linda makes a face like she's puzzled, "Well, maybe you should hear him out," "I don't think I should because he was suppose to be my brother, I mean, like a real brother, he was more than someone I met from high school," "I mean that\'s what brothers do through, if you guys are brothers, then you guys would fix what's wrong." Aidan hesitated once again, he was really fighting his brain to not think about him, but his heart was saying another.

On the way back to Aidan's house, Brian calls his phone, he looks at it and doesn't answer, Linda looks at him, "Are you going to answer it?" "No, I'm driving and I'm still thinking about what he did," "You can't hold that against him forever, you know?" Linda says shaking her head, Aidan keeps his eyes on the road. When they arrived to the house, they all get out the car and make their was inside, "Why don't you two go and try on the suits?" "Haven't we done enough of that?" Aidan smiles and groans at the same time, "I'm sorry, I just like seeing you in it, that's all," Linda blushes, Aidan smiles at her, "Hey daddy, I'm hungry," "Okay buddy, sit at the table and I'll make you a sandwich." Linda sits at the breakfast bar and, puts her phone down on the counter, pondering about her daughter's illness and her mother calling back, "Are you hungry?" Aidan asks Linda, "Yeah, I am a little hungry, it'll get my mind off of what's on my mind."

Linda helps Aidan make sandwiches for all of them, laughs and giggles were going around the room, when their done making the sandwiches and sit at the table. Soon as Linda is about to eat her sandwich, her phone rings, its her mother, she answers, "Hey mom," "Hey honey," "What's going on are you okay, is Kenny okay??" Her mother was silence for a moment, "Um, we're in the hospital.." Linda's face came to shock, "WHY?? ARE YOU OKAY??! WHAT HAPPENED?!!?" Linda says shouting, "Calm down, Kenny was just coughing really bad, so I brung her here," "What did the doctors say!??!!" "They haven't came back yet, we're waiting on them now," "I'm on my way!" "No honey, you don't have to come, she's okay," "NO mom, I'm coming right now!" Linda says in a panic and hangs up the phone.

Aidan is staring at her, "What's going on?" Linda moves in speed, "I have to hurry to the hospital, my mom said Kenny has been coughing really bad and she took her there," "Oh my gosh, do you want us to come with you?" Aidan asked, "No...no, I have to do this.." she says getting up from the table and goes to Aidan and hugs him, I'll come by later with Kenny," "Okay, be safe and text me when you get there," "Okay," Linda says headed to the door, she closes the door behind her and goes to the car. She gets in the drivers seat and took a deep breath, she starts her engine and pulls out of the drive way, on her way.