Consequences

twelve

"I heard you guys downstairs. Lani told you the truth. Eddie isn't my real father but he's my dad. My real dad...he was an abusive monster. But he was never like that towards me or my sister. I only saw the good in him. So, when I found out who he truly was, I couldn't accept it. I couldn't let him go. I couldn't believe that he was this monster because I knew that he had a good heart. But that's not enough. I know that now. And maybe that's why I stayed with Trey for so long. I don't know. All I know is that when my dad left, instead of me blaming him and the monster that he was, I blamed my mom. I blamed myself. The same thing happened with Trey. Everytime he hit me, it was, what's wrong with me? What did I do? Until one day I just asked myself, what's wrong with him? And that's when I finally left."

Demi was in tears by the time she finished her explanation, so Drake reached across the console and grabbed her hand, lightly squeezing it as she used her finger tips to wipe her fallen tears away.

"I don't want you to blame yourself for what happened to me. Like I said, there was nothing you could do," Demi repeated as he slowly nodded his head.

"Demi, I love you. And I'm telling you this now, I'm not going anywhere. I'm always going to protect you...you and Aiden. I promise you," Drake promised as Demi wiped at her tears again before finally looking into his eyes.

"I know. I love you too," she said, barely above a whisper.

She looked down at his lips, then back into his eyes before leaning against the console and briefly brushing her lips against his. His hand slid to caress her face as she kissed him, then brushed her nose against his before settling back into her seat. They didn't need to say anything else. A lot of things between them were unspoken. But they both knew that with that simple kiss, everything had changed.

"MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" Aiden screamed as soon as she entered the house with Drake right behind her, carrying the boxes with the sweet treats that he had ordered at the bakery in his arms.

"What? What? What?" Demi responded with just as much excitement as Aiden ran into her legs then stepped back a little bit and opened his mouth.

That's when Demi saw that his very front tooth on the left side of his mouth was missing. It had been loose for a while but Demi was squeamish and didn't want to pull it out so she told him to just let it be and that it would come out on it's own. And it finally did.

"OMG BABY! My little boy is growing up! Where is it at?" Demi asked, causing Aiden to uncurl his first and show her the tiny tooth sitting in the palm of his hand.

"We have to put it under my pillow so that I can get money from the tooth fairy," Aiden said, speaking with a slight lisp because of his missing tooth and stuttering in odd places as Demi knelt down to his height.

"That's right, Aiden. Remind me to do it before you go to sleep, okay? I can't believe you lost your first tooth! You're mommy's big boy now," Demi said as she lightly tickled his sides, his laughter music to her ears before she engulfed him in a hug and kissed the side of his face.

"Mommy, are you sad?" He asked as Demi shook her head and swallowed down her tears.

"No, I'm happy. Sometimes people cry when they're happy too," Demi said as Aiden nodded in understanding and kissed her cheek. "You're just growing up on me."

"I can't stay little forever!" Aiden exclaimed as Demi giggled.

"Yes you can. You're gonna stay this small forever and never grow up and never leave me," Demi chuckled as Aiden shook his head while laughing.

"Mommy you're being silly," he said as Demi stood up and took his tooth from him.

"Why don't you see what Drake got from the bakery? I think he might've gotten your favorite," Demi teased, gently pushing Aiden towards the kitchen as Lani came down the stairs. Demi stared down at the tooth in her hand and shook her head as she willed her tears away. All she had been doing lately was crying.