Nine
About a week after Owen was baptized, Michael had a few days off from work and just as promised, he came over to Sydney’s house to help her finish decorating Owen’s nursery.
Knocking on the door, he was soon met by Sydney who seemed to be completely covered in paint and yet, she stirred feelings inside him that he never thought possible.
“Hey, come on in.”
“Thanks. You look like you’ve been already painting without me.”
“That obvious huh?”
“Yeah well the paint on your clothes kind of gave you away.”
“I know.”
And for the first time since he had gotten to know her, she actually smiled broadly and he couldn’t help but smile back at her.
“So did you bring some clothes who can become dirty?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, well the bathroom is over there and I’ll be in the nursery which is just opposite from the bathroom.”
“Okay.”
“Good.”
“Oh hey, where’s Owen?”
“He’s with my neighbour. She offered to take him for the day since I obviously can’t decorate the nursery and watch him too.”
“I see. Well we’ll finish quick so he doesn’t have to be away from you for too long.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
And as soon as he came back out of the bathroom, clad in a worn of jeans and a green t-shirt, he walked into the nursery to see Sydney already sitting on the floor with stamps of bears and clouds laying everywhere around her.
So far he noticed that only the walls had been painted in a very soft colour.
“Okay, so I’m ready.”
“Good, because we still have a lot of work to do.”
“I can see that. So what are all those stamps for?”
“Well, I want to paint playing boy bears on the wall with these stamps.”
“Okay so how do you want to do this?”
“Well I want to have it on each wall but we have to watch out that we paint it high enough so I can put the furniture back and so you can still see the bears and stuff.”
“We can do this.”
“Yeah.”
And after having taken each a stamp and some paint, they started their long work hours and even though it hadn’t been an easy job and they had often reconsidered things, it had all worked out in the end and it was a beautiful nursery room.
“You know, I actually want to be as old as Owen right now. My parents never gave me such a cool room to sleep in.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Of course I mean that, seriously Sydney, you did a great job with this.”
“Thank you, it really means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome. Well, I guess I should go now.”
“Oh okay.”
“I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah. Oh, umm, are you free tomorrow evening?”
“Yeah sure, why?”
“Well, I just thought that I should thank you properly for helping me out by uhm…making you dinner.”
And even though she didn’t mean more by it, she couldn’t help but feel a slight bit nervous.
“I’d love to.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow at seven then.”
“Seven it is. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Ten
The entire day Sydney had been busy with cleaning up everything in her apartment so that it would be all clean and neat by the time Michael came over at seven for dinner.
Needless to say that by the time it was actually seven o'clock, she was beyond being nervous and she started to question herself if asking him for dinner just to thank him wasn't a little over the top.
But she didn't have a lot of time to think about that, because when she had just finished getting dressed, she already heard the doorbell.
Quickly checking if Owen was still asleep in his crib, she made her way to the door and greeted Michael with a big smile.
"Hey, come on in."
"Thanks. Oh, here, I brought these."
And that's when she saw he was holding out a dozen of beautiful red roses for her and a cute little winnie the pooh bear for Owen.
"These are beautiful."
"I didn't know what kind of flowers you liked so I kind of played safe and took the roses."
"They're perfect, thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Oh and Owen is asleep so you can go and place his bear with him yourself if you want while I check up on the food."
"Sure."
"It's the second door..."
"Right across from the bathroom, I know, I helped you remember?"
"Sorry."
"It's okay, I'll be right back."
But when Michael still hadn't returned after five minutes, she decided to go check up her son and Michael to see if something was wrong.
But as soon as she walked into the nursery, she saw that things were far from being wrong or off key.
In the beautiful rocking chair that she had once gotten from her parents, long before they both died, now sat Michael with a fast asleep Owen in his arms and the sight alone, already made her have tears in her eyes.
It was only when she wanted to turn around again and go back to the kitchen, that Michael noticed her presence.
"Hey, I"m sorry for staying away so long."
"It's okay."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just,...I always pictured Danny would be just like this, you know, sitting here with his children."
"I'm sorry I didn't want to upset you, it's just that he woke up when I placed the bear next to him and that's why I wanted him to go back to sleep."
"It's okay. Thank you."
"Sure."
"Well, dinner is ready."
"Great."
And as soon as he had placed Owen back in his crib, they both went to the kitchen and had a nice evening.
Eleven
~18 months later~
It was still relatively early in the afternoon when Michael decided to call Sydney and ask her if she and Owen wanted to join him in his walk to the park, but instead of hearing her cheerful greeting he normally heard when he called her, he got to hear a very raspy reply.
"Hello?"
"Syd, are you okay? You don't sound so well."
"I'm okay, I just have a terrible cold and a major head ache and Owen seems to like keeping me up these days."
"Do you want me to come over?"
"No, it's okay. Shouldn't you be at work anyway?"
"I actually have a few days off. You know, I'm coming over and I'll take care of Owen so you can get some rest."
"You don't have to do that Michael."
"It's no trouble at all. I'll be there in half an hour, I just have to pick up some things on my way over there."
And indeed, only thirty minutes later, he arrived at her place with two bags full of groceries.
"What are all these?"
"Dinner."
"Dinner? Why?"
"Well, I'll make you some home made soup so you can feel better again soon and in the mean time I'll entertain Owen."
"I didn't know you could cook."
"Well, not a lot of people do but my mom taught me just in case so that I can at least survive on healthy food."
“Smart woman.”
“Tell her that twice and she’ll never let go of you.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, why don’t you go back to bed and I’ll call out for you as soon as it’s ready and I’ll take care of Owen in the meantime.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Every sick person needs someone to help him or her so she doesn’t have to go through this alone and it will help you heal quicker.”
“Well since you are a doctor, I’ll just take your advise and go to bed.”
“Good girl.”
“Yeah yeah, don’t push it.”
“Okay.”
And just as he was about to walk into Owen’s nursery, she called out his name.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for doing this.”
“No problem.”
“Oh uhm, whatever you do to entertain Owen, please make him practise his facial expressions. The paediatric said we need to work on that more.”
“Okay, don’t worry.”
“Oh and he likes to be placed in his high chair while I’m working in the kitchen.”
“Syd!”
“What?”
“Go to sleep. We’ll be fine.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for being a mom.”
“I’ll go to bed now.”
“Good. Sweet dreams.”
“I’ll see you later.”
And with that they both went their separate ways, Michael into the nursery and Sydney to her own room to get the well deserved sleep.
About an hour and a half later, Sydney awoke to the feel of a warm hand slightly shaking her awake and as soon as she opened her eyes, she looked into the beautiful green ones that belonged to Michael Vaughn.
“Hey.”
“Hey. Dinner’s ready.”
“Good. How long did I sleep?”
"About an hour and a half."
"That long?"
"Syd, please, you derved the rest."
"Yeah, but still..."
"But nothing. Come on sleepy head, dinner is waiting for us in the kitchen."
"Where's Owen?"
"Well, I think he isn't a big fan of watching me cook because he started fussing as soon as I had made the soup so we played a bit and I think he fell asleep about a half an hour ago so I placed him back in his crib."
"Thanks."
And with that they walked out of her room and into the kitchen where Michael had set the table for the two of them.
"That was very sweet of you but I could have helped."
"Nope, tonight you're not doing anything. All you have to do tonight is sit back and relax."
"Okay, but only if you allow me to at least help you with the dishes?"
"Deal."
"Good."
Twelve
After the wonderful meal Michael had prepared, Sydney helped him do the dishes just as she promised him she would do and even though he had rather see her rest some more, he couldn’t help but feel glad that she had been so stubborn because as she had stood there next to him, he knew what it would feel like to be with her like that every day for the rest of his life.
And frankly there was nothing else on earth that he wanted more than to be more then just friends with her and even though he had held or at least had tried to keep his emotions to himself in the year and a half he had already known her, he just couldn’t hold it in no longer.
So when they sat down to watch a movie after the dished had been cleaned, it took him only thirty minutes longer to finally gather all the courage he needed to tell her how he felt.
Gently calling out her name, since she was deep in thoughts during the movie, she finally looked up at him and she too felt that there was something different about him and that they indeed needed to talk.
“Syd?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I have to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“I know it may sound weird to you and that you might not think alike with me on this one but I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a long time now and it has taken a lot for me to gather up the courage seeing the circumstances but I have t o say this.”
“Michael, whatever it is, you can tell me.”
“Actually, I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”
“Try.”
But when she heard the sweetest three words, she was suddenly taken aback and didn’t really know if she had indeed heard him right.
“You..you..love me?”
“I love you Syd and I have for the past eighteen months.”
“I..Michael, I don’t know what to say.”
“I knew it was a bad idea, forget I even said anything.”
And just when he was about to get up from his seat next to her on the couch, she gently took his hand and he couldn’t do anything else but sit back down and listen to her.
“Michael, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that, well I did but it didn’t sound the way I wanted it to sound.”
“Okay.”
“I have a son Michael…a son who needs me more than anything because he needs to be taken care of even more so than other children and you have to understand that I come with a package. More than one really because I’ve been through a lot and I’m not like other women.”
“I know that.”
“I just want to know if you’re up to this Michael because as much as I love you too, I don’t want to have my heart broken once again.”
“You love me?”
“I do… for the past eighteen months you have been my saviour and my safe haven and I don’t know when I started to fall in love with you but I know that you are a great person and that you’re wonderful with Owen and somewhere along this sad path in my life, you have made it all better and you made me alive again.”
“Oh Syd, you made me feel alive too. You made me feel that I actually wanted to become part of a family more so than anything else.”
“Promise me you won’t hurt me Michael, I can’t get hurt again.”
“I promise, nothing will happen to you or Owen or to us. I love you Syd.”
“I love you too.”
And that’s the last thing they both said before he gently leaned over to her and kissed her with the promise that he would always be there for her and Owen and that he would make her happy again.
FIRST OF ALL I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THOSE OF YOU WHO ACTUALLY CAME BY TO REVIEW EVEN THOUGH THEY DID NOT HAVE A LOT OF TIME. THAT WAS VERY NICE OF YOU...
HOWEVER-DUE TO THE FACT THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE SEEM TO BE ON HOLIDAY OR SOMETHING...I WILL BE UPDATING THIS MORE FREQUENTLY. FROM SUNDAY ON I WILL BE UPDATING EVERY DAY WITH A COUPLE OF CHAPTERS.
Owen's nursery