A Safe Place

Chapter two

While I was panicking and trying to calm Samantha down without any luck and her only getting louder, I heard someone come downstairs "What's wrong with the kid?" It was Briggs.

"I don't know, it's just a bunch of crying I can't figure it out"

"Well what have you tried to do?" He asked,coming into the living room.

"Well just rocking her but it doesn't work"

"What do you think you got this stuff for?" He asked, picking up the bag, and sitting on the couch next to me.

"Well I know I need it but how am I supposed to tell if she's hungry or needs to be changed?" I was frustrated, he just shrugged. I continued trying to get Samantha to be quiet, I glanced over at Briggs after a minute, he was just smirking "you're enjoying me struggling aren't you?"

"No" he said which I could tell was a lie since he was smiling.

"Yes you are...Where'd Charlie go, she'll probably help me." I stated.

"It was her turn to go grocery shopping"

"Don't you have anywhere to be?"

"No, which for you is a good thing"

"Why?" I asked, looking away from him now.

"Because I know how to help you with this"

".....What?" I asked him, not sure if he was being serious.

"I know how to help you"

"Really?"

"Yes"

I was quiet for a second in shock, I hadn't expected that "how?"

"That's not really important right now, what is important is taking care of her." He grabbed the bottles and formula from the bag, I'll go take care of this in case she needs it and you can see if she needs to be changed"

"But I don't know how to change a diaper"

"Well then you can just sit there and hope she's just hungry" he tells me as he walks over to the kitchen. I just sat on the couch still trying to calm Samantha while Paul worked in the kitchen.

"How do you know how to do this?" I asked him again.

"I have cousins who are younger than me, I would help take care of them when I was younger"

"Wow" I didn't expect him to know how to help in the first place so I didn't see that coming.

"What? You don't think I'd do something like that?" He jokingly asked when he came back in.

"No, I didn't. We just don't talk about that far in our pasts here" I stated as he handed me the bottle.

"Well now you know that" smiled a tiny bit. I nodded a bit. We sat there quiet for a little while as I fed Samantha her bottle, eventually Briggs spoke again," are you planning on staying here?"

"Am I not aloud to?"

"You are, I was just asking what you were thinking of doing"

"What were you and Charlie going to do?"

"Well...we never really talked about that...we didn't get to that point I guess......I assumed we would have stayed here I guess"

I nodded, "sorry I mentioned it" I could tell by his tone it still hurt him too, to think about what had happened.

"Hey, it's fine. You were just asking because you are in the same position where you have to choose now" his tone changed, he clearly just shoved the hurt down inside.

I nodded "I think I'm going to stay, I know she'll be safe here and plus I need help, and I know you'll all help me" I stated.

He nodded "family does help each other, Mike"

"Yeah" after I said that Charlie came home and Briggs went to help her while I got Samantha back to sleep, I put her in the car seat again and went to help them.

After we finished putting the food away we went back into the living room, we had been talking and the conversation ended up somehow getting into how I hardly bought anything for Samantha, "you do need to get more stuff Mike" Charlie stated.

"I know, I just don't fully know what and I just was getting what was essential for the moment." I informed her as we all sat down on the couch.

"She can't just sleep in a car seat forever" she added.

"I don't know if I can fit a crib in my room" I pointed out.

"I'm sure you can"

"Well I'd need to see how big a crib is to know for sure" I was still unsure.

"Well you'll have to figure that out, I'm sure there's at least just enough room" Charlie assured me.

"Alright" I answered. We were able to talk some more before Samantha woke up again and this time she wouldn't stop crying for a really long time, she didn't need anything for the first 12 minutes and after that I had to learn how to change a diaper. Samantha kept crying though, she still wasn't hungry and she wouldn't fall back to sleep. I had both Paul and Charlie try too but nothing was working, it was impossible, I thought the crying was never going to stop but she eventually fell back asleep on her own "I think she's finally warn herself out" I sighed in relief and put her in the car seat again and leaned back on the couch. We were able to relax for a while and get dinner. Samantha was still asleep for a little while after that, I was hoping she was just going to be asleep the rest of the night but right as I thought that she started crying again, since I was tired I had my head leaning on the back of the couch and my eyes were closed, "Mike, she's crying again" I heard Charlie state, I decided to not do anything since she'd probably keep crying again. "Mike are you up?" I heard Charlie say, I decided I would pretend to be asleep so I wouldn't have to take care of Samantha, I was starting to fall asleep for real though.