Not What I Expected

Part 6

Nicole had gotten less than an hour of sleep that night. She had thought it was the best time to go through all of her storage boxes that were in her closet. She came across various mementos, photos going all the way back to when she was a child and different journals she had written in. In particular she had found a journal that she had written in when she had been seeing Ryan and her heart fluttered slightly in her chest. She smiled as her journal entries took her back to when she was 19 and falling in love with him. Part of her wished that she could go back to those days, but she knew that it wouldn't be right to lose herself too much in those memories.

She had been sitting on her floor going through all those memories since 1:30 in the morning. She lifted her head from a journal she was looking through when she heard a door open. It was 5:30 now and like clockwork her bedroom door opened and in walked her little sleepy three year old.

"What doing on the foor?" he asked as he looked at her through groggy eyes, "Why no sleepin?"

Nicole couldn't help but smile as she patted her lap and held out her arms to Hudson. He toddled over to her and snuggled into her lap and gave her a little kiss on the cheek.

"Mommy couldn't sleep baby," she replied quietly, "But mommy did find this cute picture of when you were just a baby."

She held the picture up for Hudson and he reached out for it and looked closely at it. He turned and looked at her and broke into a huge smile.

"Me?" he asked as he pointed at the picture, "Can I have it?"

"Of course you can baby," Nicole replied before kissing his forehead softly, "Go put it in your room and then I will come and help you get dressed. We have to go to grandmas early today."

He nodded his head, struggled to get off Nicole's lap and went running down the hall to his bedroom. She smiled to herself as she began throwing what hadn't been sorted back into the box. She couldn't believe that it was possible to love a human being as much as she loved Hudson. If it wasn't for that little boy, she probably would have given up the moment she found out about Chad's affair. She had to keep telling herself that it wasn't just about her and Chad but that it was about Hudson and how he needed his parents.

She disappeared into the walk-in closet and picked out her outfit for the day and then she walked down the hallway to Hudson's bedroom. He stood in the middle of his bedroom floor with a big smile on his face as he looked down at the clothes on the floor. There were a pair of black jeans and a Lightning McQueen t-shirt set out. It was the first time he had picked out his own outfit.

"I helped mommy," he cheered as he pointed at the clothes, "I wear this!"

Nicole laughed quietly as she moved towards him and knelt down in front of him. She looked into his eyes and ran her hand through his hair as she smiled at him. If for some reason things didn't work out with her and Chad, she knew that her and Hudson would be just fine on their own. She never doubted Chad's love for their son and she knew that he would be faithful to being the best father he could to Hudson, no matter what happened.

"Let's get you dressed," Nicole said quietly, not wanting to wake up Chad, "Then mommy has to get ready for work."

A little while later once Nicole had dropped Hudson off at her parents' she pulled up to Beth's house and waited. She had texted her friend and colleague and offered to take her to work that day and she had happily accepted. They hadn't really had an opportunity to talk since everything happened on the weekend and Nicole had really missed her friend.

"Hey there beautiful," Beth said happily as she hopped into the car, "Thanks for the pickup."

"You are more than welcome," Nicole replied, "I know it's early but I have some paper work to catch up on before my first patient and I have a counselling appointment at 4:00. Lots of stuff to do today."