Under A Paper Moon ~ Jalex

Chapter 19 - That Girl

We pull up outside the house and stare up at it. It's made from red bricks and theres freshly cut grass outside, it's a real family home. Soon enough, we will be a real family. I open the car door and shut it in sync with Jack. We look at each other over the top of my car and I smile at him, it's a fake smile but a smile nonetheless. I'm frightened but I know he's more scared than me, that's why he needs to see me smiling right now.

I spot the estate agent sat in her car and I point to her so Jack sees. We walk up to her car and she spots us and gets out. "Hello, Barakat?" She asks calmly. "Yes, I'm Alex and this is Jack." I say while gesturing to Jack. She leads us into the house and leads us down the hallway. The place is freshly decorated and has a warm friendly feel to it.

Jack and I walk with our hands held so I can comfort him. The house is really nice, extremely nice and it's within our budget.

After the tour she tells us we can go and look round for ourselves. We head upstairs into the second bedroom and look around. "This is a good size for a kid's room." I tell him, he nods at me and looks around. The fear hasn't left his eyes since Jessica rang him saying he was gonna be a dad. "Don't be scared, we're in this together." I tell him. He smiles and we head back downstairs to find the estate agent.

"So do you like it?" She asks us. "It's beautiful, when can we move in?" Jack laughs. His phone starts buzzing, he excuses himself and goes outside. "We love the house. I think it's what we want, we'll go home and talk about it and get back to you." I tell her.

Jack comes running in. "Alex, Jessica's gone into labor! We need to go there now." He tells me. We apologise to the lady for having to rush off and then get in our car and drive off.

Thank God the traffic isn't too bad but whenever we stop Jack starts swearing at the cars in front or at the traffic lights. It takes us 11 hours to get to Michigan and when we arrive we are on edge. We spend an hour searching for the hospital and when we finally get there we run in and ask the man at the desk where Jessica is.

We stand outside the ward preparing to enter. "We can do this Jack." I tell him. We open the doors expecting to hear the screams from the labor but we walk in to see Jessica holding a baby. She looks up to us with a smile on her face. "Glad you finally got here. Jack, Alex this is your daughter." She says as she hands her to Jack. He struggles with how to hold her at first but Jessica shows us how. "Hi Chelsea, I'm your dad." He says to her. This is happening.

Me and Jack are dads