Chapter 55A month had passed and Kristen was finally allowed to take the baby home. Due to the fact that Mariah Jean was eight weeks premature the doctors wanted to keep her there to be on the safe side even though she was completely healthy. AJ had decided to go back on tour a few days after the baby was born and he knew for a fact that she and Kristen were both doing fine. Over the course of the month if Kristen wasn’t at the hospital to see Mariah then she was at the gym working her stomach out to make it flat again and to get rid of the stretch marks, which weren’t too bad. AJ came home from the US part of their world tour the day before Mariah came home and would be off for a few weeks before they started the tour overseas. They both went to the hospital together to pick her up and when they came back they found Toni sitting on the door step. As soon as they took the baby out of the car she ran up to them and took the baby from them. "Am I ever going to have her to myself when you are around?" Kristen asked Toni.
"No, any other questions?" she asked as they went into the house.
"Yeah, why don’t you have your own baby and leave mine alone."
"After seeing what a bitch you were you actually think that I’m going to have kids? Not in a million years."
"Thanks a lot Toni. Now give me my baby she’s asleep so I want to put her in her crib," Kristen said taking her from Toni and leaving the room.
"So, what happened with Nick and his car?" AJ asked sitting down on the couch next to Toni. "He was too pissed off, to put it mildly, while we were touring for him to say anything to me about it."
"First he started crying like a baby which was rather cute since he was crying over a car. Then he started chewing my ass out which wasn’t so cute. Your wife is the one who should be getting yelled at not me. She’s the one who ruined his car."
"And how was that her fault?"
"Um let me think about that for a second….maybe because she was the pregnant one?"
"Still wasn’t her fault. So how long did it take for Nick to actually start talking to you again after stealing his precious baby and getting it ruined?"
"Oh only a month. He came home yesterday and I showed him that I got the car cleaned but he’s still making me get it re-appolstered. And not just the seat, the whole damn inside of the car."
"Well that will teach you not to steal his car anymore when he’s gone," AJ said simply as Kristen came back into the room.
"Yeah AJ you’re totally right," Toni said sarcastically. "Now get out of here so I can talk to Kristen alone. I wasn’t exactly sitting on the door step waiting for her to get home for over and hour just to have a nice little chat with you about Nick’s damn car."
"Oh he is talking to you yet?" Kristen asked.
"Yes he’s talking to me now can we stop any conversation having to deal with the stupid car? And AJ leave so I can talk to my twin please."
"Yes ma’am," AJ said getting up and going upstairs to the studio.
"Don’t be playing that stuff too loud AJ," Kristen warned him. "Mariah’s room is right under the studio floor."
"She’s got to learn to love music sooner or later if she’s going to live in this house," AJ said going upstairs and Kristen just rolled her eyes at him.
"She’s going to be really petite when she is older. A lot of guys like really petite girls and having two gorgeous parents isn’t going to hurt her at all. She’s going to be a hard ass teenager to deal with when she starts dating."
"I don’t think we have to worry about that. AJ already lectured her in the car on how she’s not dating until she’s twenty-one and even then she is still forbidden to have sex. So what’s so important you want to talk to me about that AJ had to leave the room?"
"Nick," Toni said simply.
"I thought you didn’t want to talk about anything dealing with his car?"
"It’s not about his car. It’s about you, AJ, and Mariah too."
"What about us?" Kristen asked confused.
"Your little family. I’m not going to lie to you but I’m jealous of you. You have no idea how lucky you actually are. I love everything that you and AJ have together. From everyone’s point of you it’s so clear to see that AJ loves you so much he would literally die for you. You guys get in the simplest and most complicated fights but no matter whose fault it is he’s always right there to make things better and before you got married and you guys broke up he did everything to keep you. He never stopped fighting. I want that with Nick."
"Toni you know he loves you just as much as AJ loves me. I can see it, even if he didn’t talk to you for a month over his car."
"If he loves me like AJ loves you then why are you two married and me and Nick aren’t?" Toni asked and Kristen’s eyes got all wide.
"Are you saying you want to tie the knot with Nick?"
"I don’t know, kind of, yeah," Toni said unsure of her answer. "I mean I look and you and AJ and how you have a family now and I want that so bad and I love Nick so much. So yeah, I really think I do want to marry him. But I know Nick doesn’t want that."
"How do you know he does but he thinks that you don’t want to?"
"Because this is Nick we’re talking about. He would never go into something as serious as marriage."
"Well look at AJ. I never thought he would either with anything, including having kids. I always figured him as a sex maniac until we really started getting to know each other and we had only had sex once before marriage."
"Kristen, I hate to break it to you but he is a sex maniac. We both know it had to be killing him not to be able to screw you every night of his life."
"Yeah….I guess he is a sex freak but hey it’s all good now. But I think you should be having this conversation with Nick instead of me."
"Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ll talk to him but I won’t flat out say I want to marry him. I’ll see you later babe," Toni said giving her a hug. "Take care of that baby tonight or I will have to come and take her from you."
"Hey be my guest, she’ll probably be up screaming all night so then you can deal with it."
"On second thought, keep her. Later," Toni said leaving. AJ had been up in the studio all day and practically all night since it was starting to get late. Mariah was up screaming so Kristen gave her a bottle and carried her up to the studio with her to see AJ.
"How long you planning on staying up here?" Kristen asked making him jump a little since he didn’t hear her come in.
"Oh hey. I don’t know I guess I lost track of time," he said looking at his watch and seeing that it was ten o’clock. "She’s still up?" AJ asked as he took Mariah from Kristen and fed her her bottle.
"I put her to bed at eight and she woke up a few minutes ago. You didn’t hear her crying?"
"No, I had headphones on. You know I am so glad you aren’t being old fashioned and breast feeding her."
"And why is that?" Kristen asked standing behind where AJ was sitting and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Because I’m selfish and don’t want to have to share you," AJ said with a smile.
"You’re sick. I am not having any more kids just for the record."
"Why not? I was thinking we could have a few more once Mariah is potty trained though. I’m not changing more than one baby’s diaper."
"Because I don’t want my chest getting any bigger."
"It’s not as big as it was when you were pregnant if it makes you feel any better."
"No it doesn’t."
"Well it looks perfectly fine to me," AJ said checking her out and Kristen hit him on the arm. "Here," he said giving Mariah back to Kristen. "I’ll try and finish up in here in about an hour. Just go to bed and I’ll meet you there."
"Alright night."
"Goodnight," AJ said giving Kristen a kiss on the lips then Mariah a kiss on the forehead. About an hour later he finished up and went downstairs and into his room but saw Kristen wasn’t there. He went into Mariah’s room to find her sitting in the rocking chair with Mariah in her arms. "You’re still up," AJ said going in the room. "We both need to get some sleep if she keeps waking up in the middle of the night."
"I know I just don’t want to leave her," Kristen said watching her sleep.
"She’ll be fine in here by herself."
"I know but I’m afraid if I go to bed I’ll wake up from a really great dream and I won’t have her anymore."
"I can guarantee you that she’ll still be here," AJ said gently picking Mariah up out of her arms and placing her in crib.
"The nurses at the hospital said she’s still not sleeping through the night without waking up."
"She’s only a month old. Isn’t that normal?"
"I don’t know? Me and my sisters began sleeping through the night between two and three weeks."
"Well if she reaches a year old and she’s still not sleeping in then we’ll get worried, let’s go to bed," AJ said leading her out of the room and into theirs. They woke up to hear crying through the baby monitor and Kristen looked at the clock and saw it was 1:30 in the morning. She went to get up when AJ grabbed her and laid her back down. "You go back to sleep, I’ll take care of her," he said giving her a kiss then getting out of bed and pulling his boxer shorts on before going into Mariah’s room across from theirs. About five minutes after Mariah stopped crying and AJ still hadn’t come back into the room. Kristen heard a soft voice that seemed to be singing so knowing it was AJ she got out of bed to see what was going on. She walked into Mariah’s room with a smile on her face as she saw AJ standing there with the sleeping baby in his arms. She stood behind him leaning her head against his back and wrapping her arms around his waist as she listened to him sing to Mariah.
"Maybe it's intuition
But some things you just don't question
Like in your eyes
I see my future in an instant
And there it goes
I think I've found my best friend
I know that it might sound more than a little crazy
But I believe
I knew I loved you before I met you
I think I dreamed you into life
I knew I loved you before I met you
I have been waiting all my life
There's just no rhyme or reason
Only this sense of completion
And in your eyes
I see the missing pieces
I'm searching for
I think I've found my way home
I know that it might sound more than a little crazy
But I believe
I knew I loved you before I met you
I think I dreamed you into life
I knew I loved you before I met you
I have been waiting all my life
A thousand angels dance around you
I am complete now that I've found you
I knew I loved you before I met you
I think I dreamed you into life
I knew I loved you before I met you
I have been waiting all my life"
As Kristen listened to him singing she remembered something that Toni had told her earlier that day. "You have no idea how lucky you actually are." She realized right then that what Toni said was true. She had the most perfect husband and child that she could ever ask for. Even though she had been through so much before her and AJ even got together he gave her enough love to make up for it all. Tears came to her eyes as she held onto AJ and thought about how lucky she actually was and how she wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.
