Picking Up The Pieces [Final Part Of Falling For Mr.Parker]

Five -

Tom's POV -

I woke before the sun had even risen and I could feel the room spinning as I attempted to sit myself up.

I could feel sick rising up towards my throat and, the feeling to be sick was there, but I couldn't actually be sick.

My head was pounding and I could remember very little about what the hell actually happened last night, all I could guess was that I had decided I was going to be clever and I was going to drown my sorrows with alcohol rather thna facing them head on.

I looked over to the corner of the room where I noticed Steph was asleep on Max in the chair, while Max was wide awake and looking at me.

"She had a nightmare. Tried waking you up, but you were dead to the world." Max spoke coldly to me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, raising my hand towards my head in the hope that was going to stop the band from playing their song on repeat in my head.

"Do you really not remember what I told you last night?" Max laughed harshly, Steph readjusting herself on Max's lap as her head buried further into his arm.

"Clearly not, or I wouldn't be asking what you're doing here." I replied sarcastically.

"Well, allow me to update you, your wife is in hospital after collapsing. So, when you've sorted yourself out, I'm going to take you to see her and you're going to attempt to sort this mess out." Max stated, and I knew there was no arguing with him.

He had spent so much of his time, defending me to other people and telling them that I'm not as bad as they all think I am, and then I go and do something like this which makes people hate me even more than they already do.

If I even attempted to argue with him, then I knew it was going to be useless because he was going to win and he would make me look even more foolish than I already did.

"Did she go back to sleep alright? I mean, after her nightmare?" I asked.

"Well, since her nightmare was about losing you and thinking you were dead, I'm not sure if she's ever really going to be OK." Max snapped.

"What?" 

"She told me that she saw you last night, and she also told me about how she saw some woman leaving here before I turned up. She's not stupid you know Tom, and she knows you're going to die if you don't stop doing things like this." Max shouted in annoyance, but he was also trying to keep it down so that he didn't wake Steph up; I didn't really need her to hear me getting some lecture off of Max about how I've been acting recently. "You're really not doing yourself any favours."

"I'm not going to die Max, I think that's a bit of an over-reaction." I shrugged.

"Steph is six and for the first five years of her life, all she knew was that you were some drunk idiot who helped to create her. She didn't even start calling you dad until four months ago. Are you really willing to throw all of that away?" Max asked, but I didn't reply, instead I sat there and simply thought about what Max had just said to me.

For the first five years of her life, she didn't even know who I was; I missed out on so much because I decided to pick alcohol over my own daughter.

She called Nathan 'dad' for most of her life, and she still sees Nathan as more of a father to her than she does with me; which hurts a lot and I wish my own daughter would love me in the way that she loves Nathan.

I was almost dead before she even got to six years old on more than one occasion and had more than one scare with my life in the time since I got back with Rachel.

I guess, since she grew knowing me as a drunk, I was always going to be a drunk who was a day closer to death each time I did the same thing I did last night.

"Well, are you?" Max pressed for an answer.

"No." was all I managed to reply before I walked out of the room and headed for a shower because, when you're in the shower, you have the time to think about everything and consider all your options in life since no one is there to distract you.

All you have is the silence and your thoughts, so there's no option really but to allow your thoughts to take over in that short space of time between getting into the shower and then getting out of it again.

**

An hour later, I walked back downstairs and saw that Steph was now awake; she was playing Just Dance II on the Wii with Max and I'm sure he was letting her win on purpose.

"I win. I win. I win." she said excitedly, jumping up and down in celebration. 

"Really? Again?" Max laughed and I just left the two of them to it as I took a seat on the sofa, watching how at ease Max was with Steph and how much he loved her; even he was a better dad to her than I was.

And he didn't even have any kids of his own.

I guess I just suck at parenting and, when the twins are born, I'm sure that I'm going to go wrong with the two of them as well.

"Can we play again Max?" Steph smiled at him.

"In a minute. You play by yourself for a minute while I go and talk to daddy in the kitchen." Max replied as his eyes now focused on me with a fierce stare.

"Morning daddy." Steph smiled before she went back to deciding which song she was going to dance to this time around.

"Morning Princess." I replied before following Max into the kitchen, wondering what the hell he was going to talk to me about this time around.

I mean, he had already shouted at me for everything I could possibly think of.

Max's POV -

We walked into the kitchen, and I could see the fear on Tom's face as he wondered what the hell I was going to say to him this time around; but there wasn't really a lot more to be said.

I spent my time defending him and insisting that everyone should give him a second chance since he was never going to be stupid enough to make the same mistake twice.

Now, guess who's the one that looks like an idiot now because Tom went and did the same things all over again.

"Look, I'm not going to give you some lecture over what's happened recently, but there are some things which I need to say before you go to the hospital." I stated.

"What would they be then?" he questioned with suspicion.

"Firstly, if you love Steph, then you need to start treating her like she's your daughter and not just some little girl you've been forced to look after. She seems to think you don't love her and that you don't want her either." I started off, and the look on Tom's face changed within seconds of me telling him that, like he was about to burst into tears at any given moment. "Secondly, you need to stop drinking each time you fuck something up because it will be the death of you, and you know that it will. You have a family, a wife that will never stop loving you and friends that care about you. Finally, just appreciate everything you've got and stop trying to throw it all away." 

Once I had finished giving Tom my little speech, I simply left him to digest what I had just said and to give him the space that he needed to think about his actions over the last six years.

Someone needed to remind of what he was about to lose and no one else was going to do that because they would all be the happiest people around if Tom and Rachel's relationship fell apart before it had even had the chance to begin.

I wasn't going to let that happen, and I was going to make sure Tom didn't let that happen either.