Blue Plaid

Parenthood

In which Stella and Tyson discover they can do this after all.

I was panicking.

Not in the ‘oh s**t, I lost one of the Louboutins I was lent for an event’ kind of way, but more in a ‘I have absolutely no idea what to do and I need some help’ kind of way.

I’d purposely made sure I was available the entire day and night, because the restaurant where Tyson worked was hosting a fundraising event which, if all went well, would in one night, bring in the same amount of revenue they usually got in a month. They’d been prepping for the dinner for weeks and I’d laughed as I’d watched Tyson pace back and forth as he debated different options for the menu, but in reality I was excited for him. A dish that he’d concocted had been chosen for the event’s menu, which meant some major exposure for him and perhaps a good stepping stone into finally opening his own restaurant.

And the reason I was currently freaking out was because Tyson had been at the restaurant all day to prepare for the event that night and I was pretty sure Cooper was sick.

He’d been fussy all day, which was very unlike him and the only way I’d been able to get him to stop crying thus far was to carry him around and rap Kanye West songs into his ear. I’d tried setting him down once, but he started wailing, so I’d quickly pulled him into my chest again before scrolling through my phone contacts and calling the only person I could think of that would actually know how to handle the situation.

As always, she picked up after two rings.

“Hey, baby doll. What’s up?”

“Hey, Mom,” I said, trying not to reveal how stressed I actually was.

Of course, that didn’t work because she had some sort of superhuman powers which made her able to hear my exhaustion through the phone. “What’s wrong?”

My mother knew all about my situation with Cooper and Tyson partly because I knew I would never be able to keep a secret of that magnitude from her and partly because I knew I would end up needing her help eventually. It was times like these that I was thankful that she was completely nonjudgmental. She might have thought I was a little too irresponsible to be raising a child, but she did understand why I’d made the decision to do so.

“Cooper’s burning up and he won’t stop crying unless I’m carrying him and I’m all alone and I have no idea what to do.”

“Sounds like you need to take him to the emergency room immediately,” she instructed, her tone calming but firm, just like it had always been when she was dealing with my less than angelic behavior as a teenager. “Call Tyson and have him meet you there.”

“I can’t,” I shook my head, knowing full well that she couldn’t actually see me. “Tonight’s so important to him. I don’t wanna ruin it. I’ll go by myself.”

“Estelle,” my mother sighed and I didn’t wince because she was the only one who was allowed to call me that. “He has a right to know.”

“This isn’t about whether or not he has a right to know, Mom,” I explained. “If he comes to the hospital, he’ll miss out on a huge career opportunity and I’m not gonna make him make that choice. I can handle this.”

“Fine,” she agreed. “Call me if you need anything, baby.”

“Will do. Thanks, Mom. Love you.”

Once I hung up, I stuck the phone in the back pocket of my jeans and carried Cooper, who was whimpering against my shoulder, to his room. Knowing better than to set him down, I managed to pack his bag with his favorite toys with one hand before grabbing my purse and heading down to the lobby.

After five attempts, I finally hailed a taxi and we were on our way to the nearest emergency room. Cooper didn’t do much on the ride there, just continued to silently cry into my shoulder and whimper every so often, but I still felt like I’d been punched in the gut and was relieved when the taxi came to a stop in front of the emergency room doors because I knew he wouldn’t be in pain much longer.

I clutched him to my close to my chest after paying the taxi driver and hurrying inside, making a beeline for the reception desk, where the unimpressed nurse looked through me rather than at me.

“What can I help you with?” he asked in a monotone voice.

“My son,” I wheezed out, panting a little from my sprint inside. “He’s got a fever and he won’t stop crying and I don’t know what’s wrong. Maybe he has an infection or something?”

I threw out a possible option without having any idea if it was actually feasible because I just wanted something to happen, so when the nurse handed me a clipboard and told me to wait my turn, I was slightly dejected. Sighing, I hoisted Cooper up higher against my chest as I grasped the clipboard with my free hand and turned to take a seat in one of the uncomfortable looking plastic chairs.

Inwardly, I was grateful for Tyson and his ludicrous sense of responsibility because about a month after we’d officially signed for custody of Cooper, he’d made me memorize every possible fact there was to know about the little boy.

Unfortunately, my mission to fill out the forms was hindered by the fact I couldn’t release Cooper from my grasp. I tried to set him down in one of the chairs, but as soon as my arms began to lower, he squealed ‘mama mama’, causing my heart to feel like it was breaking, so I held him close as I sat on the edge of one of the seats and thought through my options.

“Stella!”

The sound of my name being yelled out in an Australian accent was both startling and confusing and I looked up to see Tyson hurrying towards me, his thick brows furrowed in a mixture of confusion and worry as he plopped into the seat to my right.

“What’s going on? I came as soon as I could,” he said, a little breathless as one of his hands reached out to feel Cooper’s forehead, the corners of his lips kinking upwards slightly when Cooper murmured ‘dada’ at his touch.

“Ty, what are you doing here?” I asked, my words coming out angrier than intended because I wasn’t upset as much as I was bewildered that he had known where we were at all.

He raised his eyes to meet mine, his expression blank as he responded. “Your mum called the restaurant and told me that you were at the hospital. Why wouldn’t I be here?”

I made a mental note to yell at my mother later. In retrospect, I really should have made her swear not to say anything to Tyson. But she was stubborn and persistent, so of course she would look up the number for the restaurant and tell him what was going on.

“Because you shouldn’t be!” I insisted, feeling bad that he’d left work. “What about your big event?”

“Stella,” he laughed, shaking his head and picking an invisible piece of lint off the white t-shirt he always wore over his black work pants. “How heartless do you think I am? As soon as I heard the word hospital, I was out of there.”

“Your boss was ok with that?” I asked, my brow furrowing in confusion because from what I’d heard about Carlo the Terrifying was that he would in no way approve of Tyson leaving in the middle of such an important event, no matter the reason.

“It’s fine, Stel,” he assured me, though the tone of his voice indicated that there was something I should be worried about. “So what’s going on?”

Making another mental note, this time to later ask Tyson what really happened at work, I sighed and looked sympathetically down at Cooper, lowering my lips to press a kiss to the top of his head. “He’s got a fever and he won’t stop crying. Other than that, I have no idea what’s going on.”

Jutting out his bottom lip, Tyson reached out to take Cooper from my arms, pulling the boy into his chest and hugging him tight, pressing kisses to the top of his head. “What’s going on, Coop? You got your Mumma and me all worried.”

It was somewhat surreal to hear Tyson refer to me as Cooper’s mother. I’d cried for like two days after Cooper stammered out the syllables ‘mama’, but to hear Tyson say it as well solidified the fact that we really were a family and that thought was equally heartwarming and terrifying.

Before Tyson could catch me staring at him fondly, I turned my attention back to the paperwork, filling in the information the two of us had sat down and memorized a few weeks after officially getting custody of Cooper.

We were called into a back exam room a few minutes later, where Tyson sat on the edge of the paper covered bed holding Cooper in his lap because our baby boy was too weak to sit up on his own. I made faces at Cooper to keep his mood up before the doctor came in and shined lights into his mouth and ears and listened to his heartbeat and squeezed his wrists and ankles.

Once he was finished, the doctor placed his stethoscope around his neck and sighed. “Looks like an ear infection. They usually clear on their own, but I’ll give you a prescription for some antibiotics in case he doesn’t get better.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Tyson nodded as the doctor left the room to get a prescription pad. He came back a few moments later waving a white piece of paper and I took it from him gratefully, sighing in relief that we at least knew what was wrong.

“What do you say, Coop?” Tyson asked, pulling the toddler into his chest with one arm and reaching out to affectionately stroke the outside of the baby’s ear with the other once the doctor had bid us good day. “Do you want the drugs?”

“I think we should,” I piped up, my heart breaking as Cooper continued to whimper. Even if his infection ended up clearing on its own, I hated watching him suffer.

“I agree,” Tyson nodded, sighing as he slowly stood and I did the same with the bag I’d brought filled with Cooper’s toys. “I don’t like seeing him cry.”

This had been happening more often than not over the past few weeks; me and Tyson being on the same wavelength. It was strange, seeing as previously our entire relationship had consisted of a lot of eye rolling and profanity, but it was also nice. We were getting along and putting our differences aside to do what was best for Cooper and that was huge progress for us.

“We’re gonna be such pushovers as parents when he’s older,” I laughed as we exited the exam room and headed towards the entrance of the hospital. “All he’s gonna have to do is give us a puppy dog pout and we’re gonna melt and give him whatever he wants.”

“I know,” Tyson smiled, turning Cooper around so his cheek was pressed into Tyson’s shoulder as Tyson rubbed his palm soothingly up and down the baby’s back, glancing down at him, his eyes absolutely filled with adoration. “You’re gonna be one spoiled kid aren’t you?”

Reaching out, I brushed a few stray hairs from Cooper’s forehead as his eyes fluttered closed, his exhaustion at having cried all morning finally catching up with him, because despite the fact that his ears still hurt, he had nothing left to let out. Lifting the corners of my lips into a small smile, I held my palm against his cheek for a moment before lifting my gaze to meet Tyson’s profile.

I wasn’t sure why – probably a momentary lapse of judgment – but my hand raised to Tyson’s head as well and I pushed a stray curl that had fallen onto his forehead upwards and out of his face, my eyes widening in horror as I realized just how weird of an action I had just completed. That was something you did to people you showed affection to and Tyson wasn’t supposed to be one of those people for me.

Of course, he never had any problems hugging me or kissing me on the cheek in gratitude or casually slinging his arm over the back of the couch when we were watching TV, but I had purposely gone out of my way not to return the favor. Tyson knew that I thought he was s*x on a stick, but despite the fact that I had recently come to the conclusion that I had a teeny tiny little crush on him, I didn’t want him to realize that on his own.

Weirdly, he didn’t seem freaked out as I slowly lowered my had and I expected him to comment on my behavior, but when he parted his lips as we stepped out onto the sidewalk, what came out instead was, “Stella, I lied to you.”

Blinking, partly to adjust to the fading daylight and partly out of confusion, I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”

“When I said everything was fine at work,” he gulped, stepping towards the curb and holding out a hand for a taxi. “That wasn’t the truth.”

“Then what’s the truth, Tyson?” I asked, wondering where the hell this conversation was going.

“The truth…,” he took a deep breath, lightly bouncing Cooper up and down in his arms. “The truth is that they didn’t just let me leave. I got fired.”