Kindlin woke up and felt someone looking at her. She slowly opened her eyes to see Nick's staring back at her. "Hey," she smiled lightly.
"Hi, K." Nick smiled back. "What happened last night? I mean, are you okay?"
Kin nodded. "I'm fine. Perfectly fine. I must've had a bad dream. I dunno. One of those dreams where some crazy guy's chasing you."
"I always just beat the sh*t out of 'em," he grinned.
Kindlin laughed. "Yeah, I'm sure ya do." she rolled her eyes, teasingly.
"Should we go check on Alex?"
She nodded, jumping out of bed. "Yup!"
~*~ A Month And A Half Later ~*~
Like Mrs. Criberson had said, the next few weeks were... hard, to say the least. It took Alex about a month to begin adjusting to his new life, but things were starting to get better and he was finally starting to warm up to Nick and Kindlin.
"Kin, Alex?? I'm home! You guys here??" Nick called out as he walked into the house, just getting back from a rehearsal.
"Yeah, Nick! We're in the kitchen, eating dinner!" Kindlin called from the kitchen.
Nick smiled and walked into the kitchen and over to the counter, where Kindlin sat on a stool and Alex sat next to her in his high chair, both munching on "num-nums", as Nick and Kindlin were now referring to food as.
"Hey," Nick smiled, giving Alex a kiss on the head and giving Kin a smile.
"Hewwo," Alex greeted in his little one year old voice.
"What'd you two do today?" Nick asked as he sat down next to Kin on another stool, picking up and eating one of the celery sticks that had previously been on her plate.
Kindlin looked at him sharply, before smiling. "We just hung out... and Alex watched daddy shake it on TV, didn't ya, AJ-baby?"
"Yup!" Alex then resumed eating.
Nick laughed, "You showed him our videos??"
"Yeah... he loved 'em. He just sat there staring at the TV. It was kinda' humerous."
He rolled his eyes. "Let's go out for ice cream tonight. Would you like that, Alex?"
"Yeah!" Alex threw his arms up, accidentally knocking over his bowl of spaghettio's.
Nick and Kindlin laughed, before getting to work on cleaning it all up.
~*~ A Week Later ~*~
"Come on... Amanda keeps telling me that she's really sweet! Just at least try it out once." AJ ((AN: as in, 'BsB AJ'... not 'baby AJ', lol)) urged, on the phone with Nick.
"I dunno, man. I- I-"
"You what? Geez, Nick. It's not like it'd be bad of you or anything. Kindlin already told you that you can date. I mean, it's not like it's a real marriage, remember?? It's fake................. right??"
"What? Y-Yeah, it's fake! You know that, AJ. Why you askin' stupid questions?" Nick rolled his eyes.
"Well, do you WISH it were real?"
"Well... I... No, AJ! Gosh, just leave me alone! I'll go on the frickin' date."
"Good! Amanda will be very pleased. I think she's thinkin' of people to fix Kin up with too."
"Oh, that's great, Mr. and Mrs. Matchmaker. Just great!" with that, Nick hung the phone up, with a sigh.
~*~ A Week Later ~*~
Kindlin, now 3 and 1/2 months pregnant, put Alex into his crib and pulled the blanket over him.
"Dada," Alex whined tiredly, reaching his arms up in the air.
"I know, sweetie. Daddy isn't home yet, he's still at his rehearsal," she lied, actually having no idea where Nick was. "I'm sorry, baby... You go to bed now. I love you." she kissed his cheeks, turned the light out, and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Walking down the stairs, Kin went into the kitchen and turned the baby monitor on, in case Alex began to cry later. She sat down on a chair and waited for Nick to get home.
~*~ Hours Later ~*~
Nick walked into the dimly lit house and towards the kitchen, in need of something to drink. He saw Kindlin sitting in a chair, her head resting on the table, with her eyes closed and the baby monitor resting in her hand. Nick walked quietly to the fridge and got out a can of Coke.
Beverage in hand, he went over to the table and gently shook Kindlin till she awoke. "Hey, what are you doin' conked out on the table? I've heard of people having sex on tables, but not sleeping on 'em," he grinned.
Kin looked at him, groggily, for a moment, before her previous anger returned, automatically awaking her fully. "Well, let's see... I was sitting here for hours, awaiting the return of my son's father. Whoops! Guess I fell asleep!" her voice dripped in sarcasm.
"Kin, I'm sorry. I thought you said we could date..." he trailed off, helplessly.
"Oh... so you were on a date. Well, I guess by the fact that your clothes smell like cheap perfume, I shoulda guessed."
He just looked at her, not saying anything.
Kindlin sighed after a moment. "Look... I know I said you could date... and you still can. I just... didn't think it'd be this soon," she looked down at the table.
Nick sat down next to her, on a chair. "Kin, what's really bothering you?" he asked, insinuating that she was upest that he was seeing other people.
She looked back up at him, sharply, "Alex asked for you tonight... that's what's 'really' bothering me... and I couldn't tell him where you were." she paused. "Because I didn't know where you were!"
Nick exhaled slowly. "Kin, I'm so sorry. I didn't even think that-"
"What, you didn't think that Alex would ever ask for you?" she stood up and stared down at him, incredulously. "Or you didn't think that maybe the nice thing to do would be to tell your WIFE where you were!... Ya know, it's moments like these I wish you weren't the father of my baby-" her speach slowed as she realized what she'd said. "I, uh..."
He stood up and looked at her. "Please... Tell me you're talking about Alex."
"Y-Yeah! I was... talkin' 'bout A-Alex," the look on her face gave her away and Kindlin knew she'd blown it.
Nick just stared at her... his face showing no emotion.
