The days were going by slowly and Rachel was still thinking about the whole ordeal that was going on with AJ. It was two weeks later now. He was still in jail waiting for the trial that was going to take place in a week. Rachel was talking to AJ almost every day or every time that the police let her and was trying to persuade him to say that he was completely innocent of all the charges he was accused of, but although she tried and tried, it was not easy, due to the persistent fact that AJ was somewhat hardheaded with the decisions he made. She maintained her promise to AJ though; she didn't say anything to Nick about AJ's innocence. Nick was out of the house, willing to give Rachel some space and time to think about everything that was happening in her life. She missed him like crazy but she couldn't bear the thought of having Nick with her when she was not completely comfortable with him and his presence, so she decided to give each other a break for now. She knew it wouldn't last for too long though. She had already forgave him for what he did with Patricia and knowing herself, she knew that she would be together with him in no time, but she had to think everything again just to make sure that she was certain about the decisions she had made until now.
Rachel looked at her alarm clock next to the bed. 8:30 am. She got out from bed, putting some jogging pants and a tank top to take care of the kids for the morning; Nick was going to take them for the whole afternoon. She wasn't feeling very well though. She was now experiencing a numerous amount of headaches, migraines, and pains of all sorts. She guessed that all of this was due to the amnesia that she was going through so she didn't pay a lot of attention to it. A couple of minutes later, after she got up from bed and finished giving breakfast to the kids, the phone rang.
"Talk to me" Rachel answered in a strangely happy mood.
"Hey Rach" the overly familiar voice replied.
"Hi Nickolas" she said, smiling to herself. She needed him near her. She wanted him near her, but she felt she couldn't back up from what she said a couple of days before.
"Is it okay if I pick up the kids a little earlier?"
"You can take them Nick, you don't have to ask me, you're the dad" she smiled.
"Aaron and I are going to take them to the zoo for a while…we would really like you to come" Nick said, hoping that Rachel would say yes.
"I - I don't know about that" Rachel replied. Her heart told her to go but her mind told her to stay there.
*Rachel, say something* she thought.
"Well?" Nick prompted.
*Rachel, say something…anything… Don't let the poor boy hanging there* she thought. "Okay, I'll go" she finally said, still surprised with her answer.
A wide smile was spread across Nick's face as he looked to the ceiling. He finally felt that his prayers were positively answered.
"Cool, so take a shower and do whatever you're going to do and I'll pick you up in about an hour and a half. Is that okay with you?"
There was silence over the phone.
"Rach, you there?"
When she heard Nick's voice again, she snapped out of her thoughts. "Yeah, um… yeah sure, pick us up whenever you want"
"Alright then, I'll see ya then in a while" he said as Rachel sensed his distinctive grin over the phone.
"Bye bye" she said, hanging up the phone and preparing the kids.
After she dressed the kids and had them ready, she told them to go and watch TV or play something until she got ready.
"What to wear? What to wear?" she said to herself, rummaging through the closet thinking of something attractive to wear for Nick. "Aha!" she finally said out loud, finding the perfect outfit. At last, she wore a little forest green tank top with some short jeans and her Adidas sneakers. She put her hair up in a high ponytail and put some light makeup with lots of lip gloss, a thing that she now learned Nick loved.
Almost an hour later, Rachel looked in the mirror, satisfied with the image that she now portrayed. She twirled once more before running downstairs to open the door.
"Hey Nick" Rachel grinned, opening the door and letting Nick in.
When Nick looked up, he saw a stunningly cute Rachel greeting him with a grin with some pretty darn cute clothes on her. He scanned his eyes from her head to her toes.
"You haven't said anything" Rachel smiled.
"You look beautiful" Nick rambled, still amazed with her appearance. He got closer to her and went to give her a kiss on the lips but she backed up and moved her head so that he would give her a kiss on the cheek.
"Not too fast Nickolas" Rachel answered.
Okay, okay" he said. *You screwed it up Carter*
"Where's Aaron?" Rachel said, trying to take a bit of the pressure off of Nick (the same pressure she put though)
"Oh, he stayed home. He didn't want to come" he said plainly.
Rachel smiled to herself as she went over to the play room to pick up the kids who were playing there.
"Daddy!" Colin greeted cheerfully.
"Hey big guy!" Nick grinned as he picked him up and gave him a kiss.
"Dada!" Alyssa said a little while later, copying what Colin did.
"Hey!" Nick said, putting Colin down on the floor and picking Alyssa up.
"Look Daddy! Mommy said I had to wear glasses from now on!" Colin said to his dad while taking his glasses off and extending them to Nick.
"Well, why did you take `em off then?" Nick asked.
"Just because daddy, I don't like `em" Colin said, repeating the ghetto talk that Nick usually used.
Rachel rolled her eyes. "Like father like son"
"Only the best gets replicated from generation to generation, hun" Nick said with a smile.
Rachel rolled her eyes again and took Colin's hand. "Let's go, baby"
"Momma, are we going with daddy?" Colin said, his green eyes looking at hers.
"Sure sweetie" Rachel answered, as Colin grinned.
The same grin that Nick had, Colin had. Nick couldn't deny Colin if he wanted to. They were strictly alike. Alyssa was a little bit more like Rachel, personality wise, but she had Nick's exact looks, only in a little girl's body.
"Are we ready to go?" Nick said.
"Yup, I think we are" Rachel replied smiling at him, getting certainly lost in his ocean blue eyes.
"Okay, then come on" Nick said as he put his arm around her waist and led her out the door, still carrying Alyssa.
Their day at the zoo was a fun one. They did anything and everything but they were disagreeing on almost everything. While Nick and Rachel wanted to do something, Colin and Alyssa wanted to do another thing, always trying that the other thing they wanted to do was the exact opposite of what their parents wanted to do. Then, they went for lunch. That was another disagreement. The kids wanted to eat a McDonald's happy meal and Rachel and Nick didn't want to go to McDonald's; so they had to buy the kids food, and then, they decided to go to lunch to a nearby café.
"Long day, huh?" Nick started, trying to make a decent conversation with Rachel. Since the kids were there, they didn't allow them to talk much.
Rachel nodded, still looking at Alyssa who was glancing at Nick for something. Rachel looked at Nick then looked at Alyssa.
"What do you want, princess?" Nick asked, picking Alyssa up and throwing her gently over his shoulder. Almost immediately after Nick did that, she fell soundly asleep.
"That was what she wanted" Rachel smiled as she looked to the stroller to find Colin sleeping too. She motioned Nick to look over and he smirked.
"They were tired" Rachel said.
"That's why they were bugging us so much" Nick grinned. Rachel rolled her eyes and smirked.
"Now we can talk" Nick said, motioning Rachel to come to the chair next to him since she was across the table from him.
She stood up and sat next to him, still keeping her distance a little bit.
"I miss the kids, you know? I miss seeing them every morning and tucking them up every night" Nick started saying.
"You know you can come to the house every time you want…hell, it's your house"
"I know… but I want to give you your space to think things over"
Rachel nodded sadly and looked down. With that, Nick lifted her chin up with his hand and looked at her. "I love you, okay? Whenever you want me back… I'll be back"
At first, Rachel nodded but then she started laughing. Nick looked at her oddly. "What's so funny?"
Rachel kept laughing.
"What?"
"You said `whenever you want me back, I'll be back…‘ that sounded so `Everybody'" she explained.
"You remembered that?" Nick said, his eyes lightening up.
"Nah, I just heard the CD before you came this morning, and it just reminded me of that"
Nick nodded. "But, in all seriousness, whenever you want me back…" he started as he saw Rachel crack a smile. "You know" he finished smiling.
"I know, whenever you want to go back…you're welcome" Rachel said putting her hand on his thigh and rubbing it slightly.
Nick put his arm around Rachel's back and leaned over to kiss her. This time, Rachel didn't back up and she kissed him back. It felt right that time.
"I love you" Rachel whispered.
"Me too, sweetie"
"Are you sure you're not going to have anything like you had with Patricia with her or with anyone else?"
"I'm sure… I wouldn't do anything to hurt you on purpose… I already told you that"
"Just making sure" Rachel smiled as she leaned her head on his shoulder, careful not to wake Alyssa up who was still sleeping on Nick's shoulder.
"Now, can I come back to the house?" Nick asked curiously.
"I knew this had to come up in the conversation" Nick chuckled. "I know… but I had to ask"
"It's your house" was all Rachel answered.
"No, if you're not comfortable with it I'm not going back" Nick decided.
Rachel smiled. "You can come now…I was just teasing you"
"Thanks Rach" Nick said sarcastically, stroking her hair and kissing her again.
On the ride back to the house...
"Are you going to see AJ anytime soon?" Nick asked Rachel, knowing that she was the one visiting him almost every day.
"I'm planning on going tomorrow…he feels very lonely in there" she said sadly. She couldn't tell Nick anything about the promise though. She remembered that she promised AJ not to.
"Did he talk to his mom?"
Rachel shook her head. "He doesn't want to tell anybody for now"
"Rach, you don't understand, he's innocent"
"Oh, believe me… I do understand, I know he's innocent though"
"You do? How are you so sure?" Nick asked, inquisitive about her answer.
"I - I just know" she stammered. *You can't say anything to Nick*
"Rach, are you hiding something from me?" Nick asked.
"No how can you say that?" *Please God let him believe me*
"Rach, please tell me" Nick said, getting his eyes off the road for a moment and looking at her straight into her eyes. *Oh fuck it* "AJ's innocent" she said cautiously.
"I know that but how can you be so sure? That's what I asked you before"
"AJ told me that he did all this because of you. AJ is in jail right now because of you, he didn't want you there Nick so he told the police he was guilty" Rachel finally said, awaiting Nick's answer.