Fallen Families

Chapter 24.

Friend? 

Nicole was sitting back in her own room. Quite frankly sitting around doing nothing all day was just no longer as thrilling as she remembered it being. She was waiting for Ava to come over. (which after a lot of convincing from her parents, they were allowed to see one another. )

Nicole decided that she wanted to do a bit of research herself. She wanted answers, and maybe fleeing the city to find her long lost parents wasn't the way to do it anymore. She walked over to her desk grabbing her laptop. 

Throughout her time with Scarlett and Chris, her mind would always go through different scenarios, however, one incident, in particular, was running through her mind, which she could never understand. 

Actually, there was a few, one of them is how they managed to keep this a secret for such a long time, however, her main question was how they could both just move on with their lives. Nicole didn't understand how people could just abandon their kid and be fine in the future. It didn't make sense to her. 

She was gonna start by researching her father, something about him just didn't make sense about him, and she wanted to know what it was. She went as far back as she could search the web, from around the time she was born. 

But as much as she searched she would never find the true story. 

13 years ago

To say Chris was distraught had to be the most underrated statement of the year, he didn't even know what he was doing. He was landing, and he guaranteed by the time he returned home, nothing would ever be the same again. 

Last week he had gotten a message from Scarlett saying their baby girl was born, and she had done the hard task of taking her to the adoption center. Now she was in the states resting and getting back into shape. 

She didn't know that he was here or what he was doing. He had heard that this little bundle of joy would be leaving for the states with the adoption agency tomorrow and he had to see her before that. Before he loses her for good. 

So he set out, leaving to go see his daughter for one last time, before taking that part of his mind away, leaving it there with her. So earlier he had called the adoption network and said he was interested in their latest baby. They informed him she would be leaving Europe soon, as he already knew, but if he had a real interest in her they could stall the leave. But deep down he knew he couldn't do that. 

He arrived at the adoption center later that day and went up to the lady at the desk. His heart was pounding just knowing that his daughter was in the same building as he was. It kind of freaked him out. 

"Hello, sir can I help you?" The lady said not making eye contact with him. She was more focused on whatever was on her phone. Her voice was so uninterested, but Chris didn't pay much attention to that. 

"I um... I uh..." He couldn't even speak because he was so nervous, this was what made the woman look up from her phone, and she stood in shock immediately regretting ever ignoring him. She shut her flip phone, placing it down on her desk and smiled. 

"You're Chris Evans right?" She asked. Chris was a bit surprised because his movies were not the...best things. 

"Oh uh yeah that's correct."  He nodded his head shyly. He knew he was still considered a 'celebrity' and people knew him of course, however, he wasn't a big old star. But then again the game he was in where he was a surfer was a big hit in some places, for some odd reasons. Or maybe the Marvel movie he did two years ago, fantastic four which he was actually about to the premiere of the movie in a month. So the paparazzi were looking for him, which is why he had to make this discrete. 

"Uh um what can I uh do for you?" She asked giving him a nice smile. 

"I called earlier hoping to meet one of the baby girls that was just admitted here not too long ago, her name is Nicole." He explained She nodded her head looking on her desktop computer to find his appointment. 

"Oh yes, Nicole is being sent out tomorrow, but we have you scheduled to meet her if you wanna follow me back this way I can take you to her." She said walking her way around the desk, making sure to strut, obviously a horrible approach to flirt with him. 

She leads him to the back of the nursery where a baby girl wrapped in a white blanket laid, she told him to take all the time, and someone would come to get him when it was time for Nicole to be fed. 

Chris reluctantly walked up to the baby girl, admiring her as they become closer to one another. Chris was stunned looking at her for the first time. She looked so much like Scarlett the way her eyes shimmered, but she had the dirty blonde hair on her head that resembled him so much. 

The little girl looked over at Chris, and as if she recognized him she smiled raising her little hand asking for him to touch her. Chris couldn't move, he didn't want to touch her for the fear of becoming attached. 

"Hi, little baby." He spoke softly pulling up a chair so he could sit beside her. Nicole didn't take her eyes off of her father. He had caught her attention, and she had no intention of letting him out of his sight. 

"You probably don't know me." He said, releasing that this was the first time she would hear his voice because he never spoke to her when she was in Scarlett's stomach. "But I guess it's for the best." 

"You know I never wanted to be an absent father, but I am so young, I don't understand what it means to be a father. And one day you are probably going to grow, you're going to ask yourself if it was something you did that made us leave, I just want you to know that it wasn't you. There is nothing wrong with you. It was us, we just weren't ready, we wouldn't have been able to give you the life you needed." 

He looked at the sweet girl. She didn't care. She didn't care if he messed up, she wouldn't care if he was scared. When this little girl grew up all she would care about is him being there. But his fears and anxiety got the best of him. 

"I love you, and I want you to know that even when it doesn't seem like it, I care about you, I am just so scared of you telling me you hate me that I am keeping my distance, but just know I do care. I may suck at showing it, but I do care." He leaned down so he could kiss her head, a tear rolling down his cheek. He had to leave because if he didn't, he knew he wouldn't leave alone, and no one needed him making impulsive decisions. 

"Goodbye baby girl." 

And Chris never spoke of that encounter. He left the same day he arrived, not looking back. He kept it a secret from everyone he knew, even Scarlett. In fact, the two wouldn't see each other until the filming of Avengers, leaving the secrete hidden away deeply. After that rumors spread about Chris dating Emmy Rossum, Christina Ricci he was a busy man trying to keep his mind off the beautiful blonde who stole his heart all those years ago, the beautiful blonde who started dating Ryan Renolds, then getting married. 

She was out of Chris's reach, and he believed he had lost her. He had lost everything, but he had hoped one day he could get one of the things he lost back. So when he heard of Scarlett and Ryans divorce early in the year before filming Avengers he was ecstatic, but before anything could happen their daughter came. Chris was once again trapped alone in his mind trying to figure out how he can stand there in front of both of them knowing he is lying to them. 

He knew something. He wasn't there to say goodbye to Nicole. 

He knew that the day he flew to Europe to say goodbye to Nicole, he was actually going to adopt her.