Melanie speeds to Chris' house. She had a last minute body come in and had to perform the autopsy for it. It didn't take long to find out that the body belonged to a drowning victim though. Now they just had to identify who exactly who the body was and who her family was so that they could do an identification. Someone else could take care of that though, or it could be done tomorrow. Melanie hated being late to pick Sadie up from school and always felt bad when she ended up with Chris considering how busy Chris usually was. Melanie knew Chris never minded, but he did have is own life to live. Melanie dreaded him leaving for tour.
There was a late-pickup program at Sadie's school so that when Chris did leave for tour, Sadie could just stay at school until Melanie could come get her. Sadie seemed to dislike this idea, though they didn't really have much of a choice. Melanie didn't like the idea of John seeing Sadie more than the custody agreement allowed. Chris never had to start picking up Sadie from school whenever Melanie couldn't; he just sort of volunteered. Sadie's school let out at three o'clock, and Chris had told Sadie that if Melanie wasn't there by 3:20 that Sadie was to call him so that he could come get her. Before the divorce, John's work hours were based around his own schedule due to the fact that he worked as an independent therapist, so he was usually able to pick Sadie up whenever Melanie couldn't. They had a system and it worked.
Now, however, whenever it wasn't Wednesday, Melanie sometimes had difficulty picking Sadie up on time, especially if Melanie was examining a difficult body. Her job was to perform autopsies on the deceased and sometimes was in the morgue during consultations and identifications in which supposed family members of the deceased would to come look at the body to see if it belonged to someone they knew. It was an amazing job that Melanie loved and it made excellent money, but it was definitely emotionally draining and time consuming.
Melanie arrives at Chris' house. It was the beginning of October, so the weather wasn't terribly cold yet, but the temperatures were starting to cool down quite a bit. Chris and Sadie were out in front of the house on the sidewalk. Sadie stood on a skateboard and held both of Chris' hands as he pulled her along the sidewalk. Sadie's laughs fill the air and a light breeze blew through the pink dress she had chosen to wear today.
Melanie gets out of her car, "Hey, you two."
"Mommy, look! Chris is teaching me how to skateboard!" Sadie exclaims, happily.
Melanie smiles, "I see that, sweetie."
Chris smiles as well and looks to Sadie, "You ready to try by yourself?"
"Yeah!"
"Please be careful." Melanie says.
Chris releases Sadie and she gets a determined look on her face. She kicks off, makes it a few feet, then stumbles and almost falls, but Chris catches her and scoops her up.
"Okay, let's maybe take a break from skateboarding for a little bit." Chris says, setting her down.
Sadie starts bouncing in excitement, "Did you see me, Mommy?! Did you see?!"
"I saw you almost fall."
"Yeah, almost. Fortunately, I was able to successfully catch her because I have cat-like reflexes. You're welcome." Chris states.
"Cat-like reflexes? Then how do you explain all those times you've fallen off stage or hit your interviewers' microphones?" Melanie taunts.
Chris thinks, "I do do that a lot..."
"Uh huh. You're kind of a clutz, Cerulli."
Chris sticks his tongue out at Melanie. She does it back.
"Oh, like you're so graceful?" Chris asks.
"I will have you know I have been graceful all my life."
"Then you would have caught the block when I threw it at you."
"I was four!"
"Um, I'm pretty sure even age four constitutes as 'all your life'."
"What are you guys talking about?" Sadie asks.
"How we met." Chris laughs.
"Oh, yeah! How did you guys meet?"
"We were in preschool. He threw a block at my head and took my snack." Melanie says.
"She cried." Chris states.
"I say again: I was four!"
"You guys remember meeting that long ago?" Sadie asks.
"Not really that much; we mostly remember what our parents told us about it." Chris says, "Although I do have a really vivid memory of feeling bad the next day, so I gave her a flower."
"It was a dead flower."
"I was five!"
"I know. I think our parents just assumed that our affinities with dead things just started at a young age."
They laugh, then head inside.
"Kiddo, you can put that up in your room if you want." Chris says.
Sadie smiles, "Okay!" She says, taking the skateboard upstairs into the guest room where she stayed whenever she stayed overnight at Chris' house.
"That damn thing is as big as she is." Melanie states.
Chris gasps in mock shock, "Did I just hear you say a cuss word in the same vicinity as a seven year old?!"
"Oh, shush. She's smacked your mouth so many times from swearing today that your lips are swollen."
"That noticeable, huh?"
"Very."
They laugh again. There's a pause.
"So...we're calling it her room now?" Melanie asks.
Chris shrugs, "I don't see why not. Half her things are in there already and she's stayed her a lot."
"I just don't want you to feel weird about how much she and I are here."
"Mel, we've talked about this. It's completely okay! Sadie's a really great and easy kid and I love the both of you."
"I just don't want you to feel like you're giving up your bachelor life to take care of us."
"Oh, yeah, having to give up my hundreds of non-existent sexual partners has been such a pain."
Melanie gives him a deadpanned look, then continues, "You're sure we're not a nuisance?"
"Of course. I get plenty of music and interview stuff and work done in the time that I have here and you guys are no interruption, and you know what? Being with Sadie helps me to not be such a stick in the mud all the time while I'm at home and stop being so much of a workaholic and have a little fun once in a while. I mean, I have fun with my friends and it's nice to get to see my family, but...you know how easily I get bored when I'm not on tour."
"So join a gym or something."
"Ha! That's a good one." Chris says, "You guys keep me entertained; you keep me on my toes, and I like that. Why do you keep trying to persuade me not to help? Do you not want my help or something?"
"No, of course I do. It means so much to me how amazing you've been to us through this process and I love seeing how good you are with Sadie."
"Then trust me when I say that this whole situation really is okay with me. You and I have been friends for a long time now and are bound to be friends long into the future, so I'm gonna be in Sadie's life anyway, so she might as well be close to me."
Melanie nods, "Yeah, okay, you're right. That's a good point."
Sadie then comes downstairs. She wraps her arms around Chris' torso and leans her head on his side. Chris was used to her hanging on him by now. He ruffles her hair.
"How 'bout I order us some pizza?" Chris asks.
"Are you sure? That'll be the third time you've fed us this week." Melanie says.
Sadie gets excited, "Ooh, pizza!" She says before chanting, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"
Chris starts to chant with her, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"
Melanie laughs, "Okay, okay, children; we can get pizza."
"Yay!" Chris and Sadie say in unison.
"But I'm paying for half of it." Melanie says.
"No you're not." Chris says.
"Yes I am."
"No you're not."
"Yes I am."
Sadie rolls her eyes and walks into the kitchen without Chris or Melanie noticing as they continued to playfully argue. Sadie picks up Chris' cellphone, which had been sitting on the kitchen table, unlocks it and dials the number for the pizza place. She could have called on her own phone, but she didn't know the phone number and the pizza place they usually got food from was an actual contact in Chris' phone. She puts the phone to her ear and just watches Chris and Melanie laugh and continue to "argue" in the other room.
"Hey, Mario, it's Sadie." Sadie says into the phone, "I'm good, how are you?...Yeah, Mom and Chris are having the 'I'm paying for half of it' argument again and it'd probably be hours before either of them picked up the phone and I'm hungry...Yeah, the usual should be fine. We're at Chris' house...Okay. Thanks, Mario." She says before hanging up.
Sadie sets the phone down, then walks back up to Melanie and Chris, "Mario said the pizzas should be here in about a half hour."
"Okay, sweetie...Wait, what?"
x
A few hours after the pizzas came and Melanie paid for half without Chris knowing it, the three of them sat on the couch in the middle of Big Hero 6. Sadie sat on Chris' lap sideways, asleep. Her head lay on his shoulder and her feet rested on the couch. Chris looks down at her and lightly pets her hair.
"She's gotten so big." He states.
Melanie smiles, "Yeah, she has."
"How the Hell did this happen? She used to be able to just fit right on your chest and now she takes up my entire torso."
"Kids grow up, Chris."
"Well, I don't like it." He pouts.
"I don't either." Melanie laughs.
There's a pause.
"I like that this situation is so normal for us." Melanie says, "For anyone else, having their friend paying this much attention to a kid that isn't theirs would be a little weird."
Chris chuckles, "Yeah, I guess so."
There's another pause.
"Remember what a mess I was when I was pregnant with her?" Melanie asks.
Chris snorts, "Do I ever. I mean, I suppose anyone would be if they were in your shoes since you were trying to balance college and getting baby stuff ready."
Melanie laughs, "Yeah. I really do have no idea how I managed to get my doctorate after she came along."
"You're Melanie; you can do anything." Chris says, "You really were crazy though."
"I was not!"
"Oh, on the contrary; you were nuts."
Chris actually remembered Melanie's pregnancy quite well. She was in her last year of undergraduate school and Chris had just returned from tour when she told him. She'd come to his apartment the day he got back, as she usually did so that she could come see him and Angelo. Melanie had made great friends with everyone in Motionless and everyone in the band understood how close Mel and Chris were, and it was expected that she would come to see him as soon as they returned.
Chris opened the door to reveal Melanie and smiled, "Hey! How's my best friend?" He asked, hugging her.
"Best female friend." Angelo stated.
Melanie smiled as she and Chris came apart, "Hey, Angelo." She said, hugging him.
Angelo smiled, then he and Mel came apart, "I gotta bounce, I promised Kelly I'd go see her as soon as we got back."
"You kids don't get into any trouble." Melanie teased.
"We won't." Angelo laughed before walking out.
Chris smiled to Melanie, "So what's new with you?"
"A lot, actually."
"Us too."
"Really?" Melanie asked.
"Yup. I have some news."
"News?"
"Big news."
"So do I."
"Count of three?" Chris asked.
"Let's do it."
"One, two, three."
"We got the record deal." "I'm pregnant." They say in unison.
They both gasped.
"You're pregnant?!" "You got signed?!"
"Yes!" They shouted before hugging each other. Chris spun Melanie around, then set her down and his eyes got wide.
"Holy shit I have so many questions." He said.
"So do I! You guys got signed to Fearless?! When did you get the call?!"
"A few days ago. We're hoping to get some more music going and hopefully release a full-length record in the fall."
"Chris! This is huge!"
"That's huge? What's huge is you're growing people! How far along are you?"
"Not very far, a couple weeks. My first sonogram is Friday."
"Does John know?"
"Yeah, I took the test last week and told him. No one else knows though, not even my parents. We want to wait until the doctor's appointment and we know that everything is safe and okay. I just had to tell you though."
Chris got a big smile on his face, "You're gonna have a baby." He stated.
"Yup."
"So much around here is changing."
"Yeah, but it's all good and everything is going to be so great. And congratulations with the band! This is such a big deal! I knew you could do it."
"Well, I don't think I would have been able to if it weren't for you. You've had faith in me since day one, even when no one else did. It seems like just yesterday I was singing in the talent show freshmen year and now I have a record contract and you're growing people."
"Yeah, that's kind of what time does, Chris. You're right though, this is all so crazy...I'm proud of you."
Chris smiled, "I'm proud of you too." He says before hugging her again.
Neither of them had ever been so happy about their lives, and they'd never been so happy for each other. Once her semester was over, Melanie switched to online classes for the second semester so that she could focus on everything she needed to focus on with the pregnancy and the baby. She somehow managed to balance school and pregnancy around a full time job she had at a record store at the time and an internship she was doing at the hospital in the pathology department. Everyone was amazed that she was able to get so much done and somehow still manage to get at least seven hours of sleep at night. Melanie pretty much never stopped during the day though, and as if her hormones weren't making her crazy enough, the added work and stress only made it worse.
Chris walked into Melanie's house one day without knocking, "Whaddup, bitch?"
Melanie, who was now much more noticeably pregnant, was sitting on the couch with a laptop, appearing to be working on something. She looked up at Chris with wide eyes.
"What did I ever do to you?" She asked, sounding upset.
Chris' face fell, "No, no, don't get upset. I always call you a bitch, and then you always call me an asshole or a dick or something."
Melanie blinked, "Oh, right."
Chris sat on the couch next to her, "You doing okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just really stressed."
"I can see that."
"I've got this report that I have to do and I just got home like twenty minutes ago and John is gonna be at work for another hour and I've been up since seven this morning and I had three classes and work today and now here I am working on this report and my feet are about to fall off."
"Well, at least now you're at the point in your pregnancy where you can balance your laptop on your belly."
Melanie laughed, as she was indeed balancing her laptop on her pregnant stomach.
"Good point. Oooh!" Melanie said, shutting her laptop and sitting up properly.
"What?" Chris asked.
"My appointment yesterday! We found out the sex of the baby!"
Chris smiled, "You did?"
Melanie nodded, "It's a girl."
Chris' smile grew, "Just like you always wanted."
"Mhm. I mean, I'd of course still be happy if it were a boy, but I'm really happy I'm getting a girl...Just so I can give her all the things my mother never gave me." Melanie said, rubbing her belly, "I wish Tori could have been here for this. She'd have been so happy."
Chris nodded, "I wish that too, Mel. I would give anything to bring Tori back for you..."
Melanie shrugged, "Well, at least I still have you." She says before hugging Chris again.
Chris hugged her and rubbed her back, "Of course, Mel. You'll always have me."
They came apart and Melanie looked sad again.
Chris sighed, "What did I do now?"
"You're not ever allowed to leave me, okay?"
"Hey, hey, no, of course not. I'm not going anywhere." Chris said, hugging her again, "While we're on the subject though, I will kinda have to leave with the band in a few months."
They came apart and Melanie perked up, "You guys doing Warped again?"
"We sure are."
"Damn, this will be the first time I won't be able to come see you guys when you play in the area."
"Actually, we're only doing West Coast dates, so your record will still be clean."
"Awesome!"
Chris chuckled, "Well, that was what I came here to tell you. Do you want me to stay with you until John gets back or are you gonna yell at me for distracting you from your essay?"
"No, stay here. Today has been stressful, I'd like a distraction. Entertain me."
Chris snorted, "Alright, uh...Well, now that you know the sex of the baby, have you thought of any names yet?"
"A few."
"Like what?"
"Well...Adina, Madlaina, Ebony, Talula, Laylani - ooh! I also really like the name Kainda."
Chris blinked.
"What?"
"Nothing, those are all just a bit...extravagant."
Melanie crossed her arms, "Well, then what do you suggest?"
"I dunno. I mean, you've having a girl, so it should still be something pretty, just maybe not so...out there you know? Something like...Grace. Or Mona, or Jade, or Sadie."
Melanie decided to take this into consideration.
As the months went by, Motionless did a few small tours here and there and their popularity began to increase, which was great considering they were also working on their full length in between tours. Despite how busy he was, Chris always managed to be with Mel when she needed him. She was scared about the labor, she was scared of motherhood, and Chris was always there to assure her that she would be okay whenever John couldn't do so. Eventually, during a writing session in May, Chris got a text that Melanie and John were on their way to the hospital.
For anyone else, the band members might have told Chris that he should stay with them and write and go to the hospital later. For Melanie though, everyone understood that Chris had to leave right away and likely would not be stepping foot outside of the hospital until Melanie did. Which was exactly what he did.
Chris found Melanie's hospital room and walked in, "Hey."
Melanie perked up at seeing Chris walk in, "Hey."
"How you feeling?"
"Not so bad yet. The contractions suck ass though...Speaking of which, John?"
John rushed over to Melanie had held her hand as another contraction hit. Melanie groaned in pain and took breaths as John directed her to. Chris just sort of stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do. Within a couple of hours though, Chris was holding Melanie's hand through the contractions too.
Melanie laid back and huffs, "My entire body hurts and I haven't even started to give birth yet."
"You aren't gonna make me stay in here for the actual birth, are you?" Chris asked.
Melanie rolled her eyes, "The doctor will probably kick you out of the room anyway."
"What, you scared of a little blood?" John asked.
"For anyone else, maybe it wouldn't be such a big problem. In this case though, I really don't need to see blood and little people coming out of my best friend's vagina, thank you very much."
"Eh, no one wants to see your dick either, so we're even." Melanie said.
They laughed, then Melanie continues.
"Oh, so um...How are things with Carlie?"
Chris sighed, "Honestly, I think me being with you guys so much is getting to her. She keeps comparing me to you guys because you're married and having a baby and actually know what you're doing with your lives; she says I need to step up and be more mature."
"Well, what the Hell does she know? You're totally mature...on occasion."
"Hey!"
"Okay, you have a fun, child-like character to your maturity."
"Child-like?"
"Well, look at you, Chris, you have the BMI of a twelve year old."
"Thanks." Chris deadpanned.
"Hey, that's a compliment. Most girls would kill to be as skinny as you. Including me right now...shit shit shit shit shit." Melanie says as another contraction hit.
Both Chris and John each took one of her hands. Melanie took a few breaths, and the contraction passed.
"Where are your parents?" Chris asked.
"Tahiti." Melanie exhaled, "My mom has probably already slept with three waiters and my dad is probably trying to negotiate a timeshare."
"Do they know you're in labor?"
"I called them both and left messages. Although, at this rate, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't even know I'm pregnant."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I know Tori would have been here."
Silence.
The doctor then walked in, "There she is! How we doing?"
"Doctor, it's been hours, and this really really sucks. Can I please just push this kid out now?"
"Well, that's what I'm here for; I'm going to check your dilation."
Chris stood, "I'm just gonna..." He trails before walking off to another part of the room and looking down at his phone. He answers a couple of the texts from people asking about Melanie's condition.
"Chris, he's done now, you can turn around." Melanie says in a deadpanned tone a couple minutes later.
Chris turned back around and smiled, "How we doin'?"
"Well, she's at ten." The doctor said.
"So is this where we kick me out?"
"I'm afraid so."
Chris nodded, understanding. He quickly hugged John and Melanie.
"You're gonna be a beautiful mother." He said to her.
Chris sat on the floor next to the door of the room the entire time, not wanting to go anywhere in the event anything went wrong for some reason. He could vaguely hear Melanie yelling from inside, which had him a bit worried, but he knew that Melanie was a toughy. She was born to be a mother; this is what she was meant to do, and Chris knew that.
It sort of made Chris jealous, that here Melanie was, doing the very thing and everyone knew she was supposed to do in life and the very thing that she'd always wanted. She had her life all figured out. Chris was so, so happy for her...but he had no idea where his life was going. Right now, it was actually kind of a mess. He wasn't working the best job and even with the record deal, the band wasn't making any money yet, and who even knew if they would? He had a shitty apartment and no money and was having some serious issues with his girlfriend whom he was already preparing to breakup with because she was just driving him crazy. Melanie had absolutely earned everything she'd gotten, but it still made Chris a bit jealous that he couldn't catch a break and figure out how to get his life together.
The birthing process didn't take long. Within a few minutes, Chris could hear a baby crying inside the room and he smiled. Melanie was a mother. Chris eventually willed himself to leave for a few minutes so that he could run downstairs to the gift shop to get Melanie flowers. They luckily had her favorite; yellow tulips. He then got back upstairs as soon as he could and was led to Melanie's recovery room.
Chris knocked on the open door frame, "Hey."
Melanie's red hair was now up in a messy bun, a few sweaty strands of it stuck to her shining forehead. She held a baby in her arms. The way Melanie smiled at Chris reminded him of when they were kids and Melanie would hold her baby dolls in her arms the way she was holding her very real baby now. John sat next to her, admiring his new baby girl.
"Hey, you." Melanie said, in a tired but happy voice. The entire mood of the room had changed with Melanie's smile and the baby she now held.
Chris stepped into the room and took out the flowers from behind his back. Melanie's smile grew.
"Aww, Chris, you didn't have to do that."
"They had your favorite; I had to get them." He said, setting them down. Chris then slowly walked over and sat on the other side of the bed next to Melanie
Melanie smiled, "Well, there's someone I wanna introduce you to." She said, "This is Sadie."
Chris looked down at the baby, then back up at John and Melanie in awe, "So you guys are, like, parents now."
John laughed, "Yeah, I guess we are."
Chris looked back down at the baby. Melanie removed the small hat that the nurses had put on the baby to reveal her full head of fiery red hair. Her gray-blue eyes wandered around. At the moment, she was calm and quiet, but already so full of life.
Chris laughed, "She's a mini you." He says to Melanie.
Melanie's smile grew, "Yeah, I guess she is."
Chris shakes his head in shock, "I can't believe you actually have a baby."
"What are you talking about? I've had you for almost twenty years now."
John laughed. Chris gave Melanie a deadpanned look.
"Your hormones are imbalanced, you're on drugs, and yet you still manage to make fun of me." He stated.
Melanie laughed, "Won't be long before she is too."
Melanie smiled down at her baby again and kissed Sadie's forehead. Melanie then looked back up at Chris.
"You wanna hold her?"
Chris' eyebrows shot up. For some reason, the thought of holding his best friend's baby had never even occurred to him. He supposed he'd be doing it in the future though, so he may as well do it now.
"Sure..."
Melanie scooted closer to Chris and slowly passed the baby to him. Chris looked down at her. She was surprisingly calm. She seemed to like being in someone's embrace and being all swaddled up. You would still think that being brought into a cold and bright world would be a bit more alarming, but the baby simply lay there and stared up at Chris. He smiled.
"She's beautiful, you guys." He said.
Melanie's smile grew and she nodded, looking at her baby girl in complete adoration, "Yeah, she is..."
The way that Melanie looked at Sadie that day, with so much love and adoration, is the same way she looked at Sadie as she lay strewn across Chris. Despite everything that was going on, the light in Melanie's eyes hadn't gone out yet. Chris remembered how jealous he felt of Melanie during that time in their lives though, and he was shocked to see how it was now the other way around. While things were sometimes hectic, he knew what direction his life was heading in. He wasn't famous per se, but he was doing enough in music to make his living on music and music alone. If the band were to break up tomorrow, he'd still be successful enough to fall back on a solo career or something; it definitely wouldn't be the end of him. No matter what turn his life may take, Chris knew where he was going. He had a house, he had money, he had an amazing career; everything for him finally put itself into place just as the things in Melanie's life began to fall apart.
Chris often noticed a pattern between him and Melanie. Whenever he was at his worst, she was at her best, and vice versa. It wasn't very often that the two of them were happy together at the same time. That was always sort of how their relationship had balanced out. At the times that they WERE both happy, they were no less friends than they were when one was happy and one wasn't; it just wasn't often that the two of them both had their lives together at the same time.
Chris is brought out of his thoughts when Sadie begins to stir in his lap when there was a loud scene in Big Hero 6. Melanie grabs the remote and turns the volume down. Chris rubs Sadie's back a bit, then her body relaxes on him once again.
"You guys crashing here tonight?" Chris asks.
"Might as well. I don't wanna wake her. She's got Peanut in her backpack too, so she'll be fine."
Chris chuckles, "She still sleeps with Peanut? I got that for her when she was four."
Melanie shrugs, "She likes it, and it comforts her."
Melanie brushes a few strands of hair that had fallen into Sadie's face. Melanie sighs.
"I hope she's not hurting with the divorce and all. Especially with everything that's going on inside her little head lately."
"Well, no matter what happens with John, she's still got you and me and everyone in the band. This baby girl's life is gonna be filled with more than enough love, no matter what happens."
Melanie smiles, "And that's why you're my best friend." She says, "Well, I'm gonna put her to bed. When I come back down, let's play some good old fashioned Mario Kart."
"Sounds good to me."
Melanie slowly brings Sadie into her arms, then stands and heads upstairs.
Melanie and Sadie had stayed in Chris' guest rooms quite a few times when the divorce was going on and knew they probably would be once the divorce had been made final too. It had sort of become normal to them now, and Chris always welcomed them in with open arms whenever they needed him. Melanie and Chris were extremely happy with how their friendship worked, and they wouldn't have it any other way.
A/N: What do you guys think of these nice, long chapters? Almost every chapter will be about this length and I'm pretty pumped about it.
This was kind of a filler, but we got a little bit of insight on Chris and Melanie's life now and in the past, and it gives us a bit more insight on Chris' relationship with Sadie, which will be crucial in this story.
Let me know what you thought!
xoxo, Scissorhands