His Baby

Chapter Sixteen

The plane landed in Australia mid-afternoon, “Can we go to the diner, I’m hungry” Rose says as Drew helps her to carry her bags into her apartment.

Drew nods, and leaving his bags there both head out for the short walk.

The ding of the bell on the diner door had Dana looking up and a smile spread across her face as she saw Rose and Drew enter.

Rose was oddly nervous; she had no idea why.

“Rose, are you okay?” Drew asks noticing her tense posture.

She glances around the room “I don’t know, something seems different” she says as Dana walks around the counter to embrace them both.

“Look at you two” she gushes her eyes darting over them both to make sure they were still in the same piece they left in.

“We’ve only been gone a month gran” Drew says.

Dana chuckles “I know, and it was a good thing for the both of you of you to get away”.

Rose scrunches her brows in confusion, still unable to figure out something “Dana, has something changed in the past month, something feels different” Rose asks.

Dana’s eyes widen, Rose knew immediately something was odd, she tried to compose herself, but Rose noticed “Um…” Dana is unsure where to start as laughter booms through the diner, it was familiar to Rose.

Moving around Dana, Rose follows the line of booths around and when she landed on the last booth her eyes widen “Dana, when did they arrive?” she asks in a whisper.

“The afternoon you left for your holiday, they’ve been here every day since, spending the whole day here, eating and chatting” she says.

Rose nods her head unable to trust her voice. She hadn’t seen them in three months and now they were in front of her, she could reach out and touch him.

What was the most surprising was Ace present in the group, he was smiling and laughing with her family. A sob escapes her mouth, she slaps a hand on her mouth to cease her noise.

Leighton looks around upon hearing the noise and then turns back to the crew, his head moves back so fast that it could have snapped, “Rose?” he wonders.

The rest of the guys stop chatting upon hearing the name and look at the girl staring right at them.

Scott saw his daughter and he couldn’t believe after all this time she was finally in front of him “Rose?” he utters.

She still remained silent, her head nodding to confirm she was here, Scott was the first one out of her chair and moving towards his little girl.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she was embraced into her father’s arms, “My baby girl” he cries into her hair.

“You found me?” she cries out.

He pulls away, wiping the tears from her face he smiles “I will always find you” he says, and Rose smiles back at him.

The rest of the guys rush up to Rose and each hug her tight.

Ace watched as her family hugged Rose, his hands shook with the itch to grab her and never let go, but he had no idea how she would respond to him after what had happened.

Rose stood staring at Ace as he looked at her, each taking in the sight before them. He couldn’t hold back any longer, grabbing the mother of his child, Ace holds her against him. He mumbled ‘sorry’ repeatedly and ‘I love you’ which had Rose shocked.

“What?” she says.

Ace pulls away so he could look at Rose, she saw the tears running down his face, she reaches up and wipes the tears from his face.

“I have been in love with you for a long time, I just didn’t realise it until you were gone from me, I was scared when I found out you were in your room for a month, I thought something was wrong with the baby, then your dad and the guys barge in to my place saying you were gone, I almost went insane I barely slept that month and then spent the rest scared you were hurt”.

That speech alone had Rose balling her eyes out, stupid hormones “So you do care” she says and he nods his head, “I never stopped, when I saw the video of you, I knew I would never stop looking, then we found you and you were gone again” he croaked out.

Rose listened to him intently and then realised he said something “Wait, what video?” she asks.

Turning to look at the guys she notices Drew shrinking away, “Drew” she growls.

He holds his hands up “I’m sorry, I saw how miserable you were and when I went into the room and saw the video on your laptop I couldn’t help it, I had to send it, you weren’t going to do it, too stubborn for your own good so I did it for you” he rushes out.

Rose sighs, she knew Drew did something she was too scared to do she smiles and walks up to him, pulling him into a hug, she whispers “Thank you”, when they pull back Drew kisses her on the cheek.

Ace watches the interaction and his fingers curl into fists. Rose turns around and smiles “Can we eat I’m hungry” she pouts, that face had Ace relaxed a little but still rattled by this Drew guy being close with Rose.

“So long as you come home, you can have whatever you want” Scott says placing a hand on his daughter cheek, gently brushing his thumb across.

She smiles then frowns a little, everyone notices.

“What’s wrong? Do you not want to come home?” Scott speaks softly, disappointment and sadness in his voice.

“No, I do, I just can’t leave Drew” she whispers and Ace’s anger flares again.

“I will not have your fling come with us” he spits out.

Everyone turns to Ace who looked like he was ready to leap at Drew who was biting back a laugh.

Rose snorts and Drew chuckles “Good thing I’m gay then isn’t it” he says.

Ace suddenly feeling embarrassed looks down, his cheeks flaring red.

Rose walks up to him with a smug smile on her lips “Someone’s jealous” she chimes, patting him on the chest she turns round and looks at her family, reaching for Ace’s hands she grabs them and wraps them around her, he was still tense but the moment his hands rested on the small bump, he relaxed.

“So, what do you say?” looking right at Drew “Want to come to live with me in America?” she asks with a hopeful look, Drew glances at his gran and then back to Rose, she knew right then he would reject the offer and Dana knew that too so she spoke for him before he had chance to decline.

“He would love too” Dana smiles, she knew this would be best, he would only stay here for her and she couldn’t let him.

“Gran” Drew starts about to argue the point, Dana holds her hand up silencing her grandson.

“Don’t gran me, I will be fine, it’s your turn to go and live the life you deserve, getting as far away from this hell hole, making new friends, having fun, fall in love, do anything and everything you can’t here. I won’t take no for an answer” she points out.

Drew once again opens his mouth to protest, Dana was having none of it “You are going, and that is final” she says, Drew knew there was no getting away from the orders of his grandmother.

“We can leave tomorrow after my doctor’s appointment” Rose says, and everyone nods in agreement.

“Dana told us you were going to the hospital a lot, is the baby okay?” Damien asks.

Rose turns to him, “Yeah, he’s just small so they wanted to keep a close eye on him” she tells him.

“Boy?” Leighton picks up on the ‘he’ in the sentence.

Rose chuckles, Leighton was always good at noticing the smallest of details, “Yes, were having a son” she says and looks up to Ace who was already looking down at her with love in his eyes and a smile on his face.

Ace leans down and places a kiss to Rose’s neck, sending a shiver down her entire body from a small gesture “Were having a son” he whispers out taking a moment to settle with the new information.

Closing her eyes, Rose enjoyed the embrace of Ace from behind, it was comforting to be back in his arms again.

“Rose” Scott says and she opens her eyes to look at her father who hasn’t stopped smiling since she he saw her “Come and sit down, you can tell us about what you’ve been doing for the past three months” he says and takes a hold of his daughter’s hand.

“I will make you something to eat, you must be famished after the plane ride” Dana smiles and turns to head to the kitchen.

As Rose follows her father to the booth they were in before Rose arrive she turned back to Drew “Come on, I want to officially introduce you to everyone” she says.

Drew was hesitant but joins them at the table, “Guys this is Drew, Drew this is my father Scott, Jack, Tommy, Ryan, Michael, Dominic, James, Damien and my godfather Leighton” she introduces them all.

Rose was next to Ace holding his hand “And Nathaniel Ace” she introduces using his first name also.

Ace jokingly glared at her but smiled.

Drew looks at Ace and saw the way he looked at Rose “If you weren’t the father of her baby and she wasn’t so madly in love with you, I would beat the s**t out of you for what happened” he says.

Ace chuckles, not finding Drew threatening in any aspect, but nodded along anyway “I know, and I appreciate you looked after my family whilst I didn’t, I was a complete bastard, but I will spend forever making it up to her and our son” Ace finishes looking at Rose as he spoke the latter part.

Drew sits beside Ace and they both do a handshake thing making Rose roll her eyes “Boys” she mutters amused by it all.

Dana brings over Rose’s usual strawberry shake and fries with chicken nuggets. Rose immediately tucks in, thanks enough for Dana knowing Rose love of her food was thanks enough.

Rose takes a couple of fries and dips them into her shake, the moment the food touched her tongue she moaned at the taste “It’s been a whole month since I’ve hand this, it tastes better than ever” moving to grab a nugget and dip it in the shake next.

“Ew, Rose what are you eating?” Tommy asks with a look of disgust on his face.

Rose rolls here eyes and continues to munch on her delectable food, “She loves fries and nuggets dipped in strawberry shake, the second time I met her she was in the diner eating it, I tried it, it’s actually quite nice” Drew says when he saw Rose was unable to answer due to stuffing her mouth.

Tommy raises an eyebrow in curiosity and reaches over, Rose lets out an animalistic growl and slaps Tommy’s hand away “Touch my food and I will remove your hands” she threatens.

The guys laugh at Tommy’s pouting face as he rubs his hand where Rose slapped him.

“Don’t ever cross a pregnant woman, especially this one” Drew laughs out as do others around the table.

Rose looks at Drew and sticks her tongue out at him, “Still as mature as ever” Dominic teases.

The rest of the say everyone spent chatting about life over the previous months, laughing and nonstop talking, the smile on Rose’s face never left as she listened to her family chat, leaning against Ace she could feel her eyes drifting shut, no matter how much she wanted to stay awake and listen to her family, her body was shutting down.

Drew notices and smiles “I think I need to take Rose home to rest, it’s been a long day” he says and gets to his feet. Reaching over Ace he picks Rose up like she was nothing, rose embraced the warmth and nuzzled her face into his neck and sighed in content, already falling asleep in Drew’s arms.

“See you back here for breakfast?” Scott asks, standing up he places a kiss to his daughter’s hair.

Drew nods “Sure” he says and heads for the door, Ace watched them leave and sighs, Scott noticed and placed a hand on his shoulder “Go with them” he says. Ace didn’t need to be told twice, catching up with Drew he opens the door for him “Can I come, I’ve been away from Rose for months, I need to hold them” he begs, a man not used to begging would most defiantly do it again if it meant being with Rose.

Drew heard the plead in his voice and nods, he wasn’t going to keep him any longer from his family.

When they left Scott slumped back into his chair and leant on the table, his head in his hands and a sob slipped through his lips. He couldn’t believe after a month of waiting here and two searching they found her, seven months pregnant and she wasn’t as big as she should be, that scared him, but he would never show it in front of Rose.

Leighton placed an arm on his friends, shoulder to sooth him “It’s alright Scott, she’s here now, Rose is coming home” saying hoping it would comfort him.

Scott wipes his face and nods “I know, but he is so small, I can’t cope if I lose them too” he says thinking of his brother. Having the baby this small could cause complications during the birth, Scott was all to aware of that when his ex was pregnant with Rose.

Everyone looked at Scott was a frown “We’ll watch out for her, we always do” Ryan says.

Scott nods, he knew his team would, they always have, they had all been kicking themselves when Rose locked herself in her room and even more so when no one noticed she had gone. They were going to be more diligent this time. Scott also hated himself that this was the second time he almost lost his daughter; he swore to protect her, and he was failing. But he was determined to do better, she was no longer alone.

Rose’s birthday was coming up and though she never celebrated it in the past years, he was always with her on the day, he was her rock for that day.

Ace opened the door to Rose’s home with a smile on his face, he couldn’t believe that she was with him now. Drew carried her into her room and laid her on the bed. He was going to spend the rest of his life making it up to Rose and their son. He also swore to himself to keep him away from the life he was living, there was moany things he did that wasn’t legal, unfortunately, he would never be able to leave it until his dying breath.

Drew walked up to Ace who was still stood in the doorway of the room watching Rose sleep, “I know I said this before, but I do mean it, thank you for looking after Rose and our son”.

Drew nods accepting the thank you, however he couldn’t understand why he let this whole fiasco happen in the first place “You better not f**k up this time” Drew warns. He had only known Rose a short time, but he knew it took a lot for Rose to get this far, the girl was vague when it came to her past, but Drew saw something in her eyes and knew it wasn’t a pleasant life.

Ace had admiration for Drew, he recognised his voice from the video and hated himself for accusing Rose of sleeping around when he knew he was the only one to ever be with Rose.

“Rose told me what happened with one of the thugs and you doing nothing” Drew says quietly not to wake Rose.

Ace shook his head “Not when she was there, I took her home and when I got back, I beat the s**t out of him”.

Drew chuckled “Figured as much, and I told her, but that wasn’t the reason Rose was pissed at you”.

Ace was confused, “She wasn’t pissed about the guy?”.

Drew shook his head, “Rose has been through a lot in her past, I could tell but she would never say it out loud, she might not act like it, but she needs us to keep her safe. Being pregnant makes her vulnerable and she is putting on a front, if she finds out I said that she will kill me, but Rose has held herself together with glue that she is constantly patching up, now that you came into her life, things are changing and she is losing grip. We just need to be there for her”.

Drew went to the couch to sleep and Ace climbed into bed with Rose and wrapped his arms around her, for the first night in a long while drifting to sleep quickly with a smile on his face.