OH BABY !

[OLIVER APOLLO HAYES]

Oliver sat at his computer, mumbling as he struggled to get the triangle on his screen to move. He loved coding, but it could be unbelievably frustrating. He had gotten several different types of coding down, but he always liked the challenge of learning a new one, even when it irritated him when he did exactly what the book said and nothing happened like it was supposed to.

The doorbell rang, but Oliver didn’t move. His younger brother was home, and Oliver knew that Joseph would answer the door. Only moments later, he heard his brother making his way through the house to answer the front door. Oliver didn’t think much about it until he heard Joey screaming his name.

Oliver got up and rushed toward the front of the house, wondering what would cause his brother to sound like that. He saw Joey standing at the front door, his mouth hanging open as he slowly pointed down. Oliver’s hand followed his little brother’s finger.

“What is that?”

[/color] Oliver demanded.

“It’s a baby. I think it’s a girl,” Joseph answered in a dull voice. Oliver took a step closer, looking at the sleeping baby on his front porch.

“Why is it at our front door?”[/color] Oliver questioned.

“I don’t know,” Joey admitted.

“Whose baby is it?”[/color]

“I don’t know.”

“What do we do with it?”[/color]

“Bring it inside? It’s too hot to keep it outside…” Joseph said. Oliver stared at him for a minute.

“You want us to bring some stranger’s baby into our house?”[/color]

“What choice do we have?” Oliver shook his head, but he knew that his little brother was right.

“Go…clear a spot or something.”[/color] Joey hurried off to make some room and Oliver stepped outside, staring down at the baby. He knew it was too hot outside for a baby to be outside. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he just stared, but eventually he leaned over and carefully picked up the basket thing that the baby was sleeping in. He tried to move slowly, not wanting to touch the baby. It slept soundly as Oliver carried it inside and gently put it down on the coffee table. Joey went back to close the front door slowly and quietly, trying to keep the inside cool. It had only been open for five minutes and inside had heated at least ten degrees. The fan blew gently on them, ruffling the babies hair as it slept soundly.

“What do we do now?” Joey asked.

“I don’t…wait…”[/color] Oliver leaned over and tilted his head. “Is that a piece of paper?”[/color]

Joseph leaned forward. “Yeah. It looks like it. Maybe it’s a note. Explaining why a baby was left on our front porch.”

Oliver reached over, his hand hovering above the note, but he was afraid to touch it.

“Well?” Joseph said, urging his brother to do something.

“I don’t want to wake it up. Or touch it, for that matter,”[/color] Oliver said.

“Well we have to read it.”

Oliver took a deep breath and carefully pulled the note from between where it was tucked next to the baby. He opened it slowly and quickly read it.

Dear Oliver,
You probably don’t remember me. You never were much of a gentleman. But who I am isn’t important.
This is your daughter. Her name is Clara Mae Chastity Cross. She goes by Clara Mae. I can’t take care of her anymore, so it’s up to you.
Don’t come looking for me. I’m not interested in ever seeing you again. Take good care of her.
- Your Baby Mama
P.S. You probably don’t think you’re the father, but you’re the only guy I’ve ever had sex with. So I know it’s you. You can do a paternity test if you don’t believe me.

Oliver’s mouth dropped. This was not happening.

“What does it say?” Joseph urged.

“…FUCK.”[/color]

And that was when the baby started crying.

“Don’t curse, dude, it’s a baby!” Joey scolded him. He looked up at Oliver and stared nervously into his eyes. “What are we gonna do?”

“Make it stop crying!”[/color] Oliver cried.

“How?! I don’t know anything about babies. You’re like three years older than me, don’t you remember anything about when I was born?”

“No. That was fifteen years ago. No one remembers being three,”[/color] Oliver argued.

“Well you have to do something!”

Oliver looked over at the sobbing baby, but he had no idea what to do. She looked half scared to death. She was young and somewhere new with a bunch of strangers. That would be scary for anyone. Oliver didn’t know how to comfort her. He knew that if he called his mom, he would be dead, and he wanted to avoid that for as long as possible.

Oliver pulled out his phone and began typing furiously.

“Who are you texting?” Joey questioned, leaning over to try to get a look at the screen.

“Kona. Do something with the baby until she gets here.”[/color][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[KONA NICOLE ANDERSON]

Weaving around the city of Miami was never boring, at least not Kona anyway. Her hair was blowing wildly about her face; today was one of those days you drove just to create some sort of wind to lessen the heat. To make matters worse, the lack of wind created a no surf zone due to lack of waves. She managed to make the most the situation by diving deep into the salty water and swimming with the deeper water fish. The ocean was as clear as her eyes and she was determined to enjoy the cool, clear waters. She had gathered a few good shells and managed a fairly even tan with only her cheeks turning pink.

Though, something strange had happened while she was splashing about the waters of Miami. Something inside her told her she needed to get out of the water. The feeling was so foreign to Kona it startled her. She drifted around the beach front houses and merged onto the beach road. She preferred it to the highways during the sunny afternoons that Miami was known for, but today she found herself on it simply to move faster. Her eyes were fixed on the road as she palmed the wheel making a long turn. Despite the bass in her car being somewhat overpowering, Kona still felt her phone vibrate against her thigh. It was currently charging, but she noticed the flashing screen altering her of a new message. She lowered one hand to scoop up her phone. She slid her thumb across the screen opening up a text from Oliver.

"Son of a bitch," Kona let out a low growl and pressed the gas pedal further down. She had learned that men were not the sort to ask for help. Even when they read the full instructions and got it wrong; is it all that hard to admit they need someone? Well, it is, so when Kona saw the message she knew something was wrong. Her thoughts quickly went to his father. Not realizing the oncoming turn, Kona's back wheels spun off the road and she ended up perpendicular to the road. She was going to kill him. She speed back into her lane and completed the last winding turn before reaching Oliver's house. She hit the brakes, moved the car into park, and whipped her keys out with hard a tug.

With one glance over her shoulder, Kona sighed. She was totally sticking out into the road. Without bothering to knock, Kona kicked open the front door. Her anger was spewing onto the floor as she slowly took in the noise that was filling her ears. Kona pinched her eyes shut and adjusted her gapping jaw by moving it to one side. She slowly opened her furiously bright eyes and took in the scene in front of her. She was speechless and that damn thing was giving her a migraine.
In one violent motion, Kona threw her keys at Oliver's head and scooped up the baby. "Quiet!", and she was. Kona swung the small girl around to her hip and began to bounce her. "Sh, sh." Kona eased her voice. She may not know what to do with a child, but she knew what not to do. Yelling wouldn't help the little thing, but a comforting hug might. "Someone want to explain." Her eyes shot up locking on Oliver and Joey, giving them both a stare that could give a weak hearted person cardiac arrest. However, the baby seemed pleased with Kona as it gazed up at her with an amused expression.

[OLIVER APOLLO HAYES]

It didn’t take long for Kona to get there, but it felt like forever. The baby would not stop crying, and neither Oliver or Joey knew what to do. Joey sat there and tried to shush the baby. Oliver just stared, still not able to process what was happening to him exactly. Someone just dropped a baby on his porch and expected him to take care of it? Who? Why? How was he going to do this? He wasn’t. There was no way. This probably wasn’t even his kid and someone was just trying to pawn it off on him because they knew he was a bit of a manwhore. Oliver always used protection. It couldn’t be his baby.

Oliver knew Kona would come soon because he had a feeling that she knew that he, as a man, was almost incapable of asking for help. Men were under the impression that they could deal with anything that came their way by himself. It was an ego thing, really. Because eventually he would get it right and then he could be all “I told you so.” And if he didn’t get it, then he did everything in his power at least, so when he finally somehow finds the courage to ask for help, it isn’t as much of an ego bruiser as it could have been. But Oliver did not know how to handle a baby. Oliver didn’t know anything about babies. They were just this thing that other people had. And he didn’t want to touch it. It was too tiny and it wasn’t his. He might break it.

The crying was driving him crazy. But Joey trying to quiet the thing in addition to the crying was even worse. “Shhh, baby, shhh, be quiet, shhh, it’s okay, shhh, someone’s coming, shhh, it’s okay, baby, shhh.” Oliver was on the edge of punching something, but he knew he had to keep his temper down until Kona got there.

Soon she, more or less, walked in the door. He was taken by surprise as Kona’s key’s flew toward his head, and it would have been enough to set him off had the next thing she did not be scoop up the baby and begin to rock it, almost instantly quieting it’s sobs.

“Oh thank you God,”

[/color] Oliver muttered. He leaned over and picked up Kona’s key’s from the ground and shoved them in his pocket. As for explaining…he hadn’t even done that for Joey yet. So he guessed it was time.

“Well…someone left this baby on our front porch. Joey decided it was too hot to leave it outside, so we brought it in, and then we found this note.”[/color] Oliver waved the piece of paper around for Kona and Joey to see. “Apparently it’s mom left it here for me to take care of because…I’m supposedly the father. And she doesn’t want to see me again and she can’t take care of it. I don’t even know how she found me or what kind of sick joke this is. This thing can’t be mine.”[/color]

He had to believe that this wasn’t his kid. He didn’t have a choice. He always used protection. Always. To prevent this kind of thing from happening. He didn’t want a baby. He couldn’t take care of a baby. He wasn’t sure how Kona would react, but the look on Joey’s face was almost as surprised as when he first saw the baby sitting on the front porch.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[KONA NICOLE ANDERSON]

Her eyebrows furrowed as she attempted to process all of this information. She was holding Oliver's daughter. Kona looked down at the small, helpless baby now asleep in her arms. "Oh shit, it's gonna die." Kona slowly maneuvered the baby back into her basket. Not only was Oliver simply incapable of caring for anything but his dick, he didn't have the money to pay for the thing! Babies were expensive. He needed a ton of shit and he needed it now. "Joey, tell your mother Oliver and I went out with Mackenzie. Oliver," Kona paused to look at him with the sweetest expression. "It's going to be okay." Kona was small, but she was strong. Her fist made a hard impact with Oliver's nose. Kona let out a small grunt after a loud pop was heard. Her knuckles were covered in blood as she drew them back for another hit. For most people, the startle was not that they were hit or injured, it was that Kona could hit like a semi-truck going 90 on the freeway. She grunt again as she took a third and final swing at his cheek. They happened in a matter of seconds, but Kona made them count. She knew Oliver or Joey would stop her almost as quickly as she had made her move. If it wasn't for the girl, she would have kept at it.

Tamson and thugs had been the ones who taught Kona to fight, and so they taught her in ways that made up for her relatively small frame. Kona panted and clenched her fist. "Oliver, you need to drive us to the mall. There's a baby shop in there. She needs a lot of shit. My wallet's in my car. You better hope like hell none of our friends are there." She walked over the baby, who was squirming unhappily from the noise. She scooped up the young girl and rubbed her head gently soothing it back sleep. She couldn't believe Oliver wouldn't use a condom. He knew they weren't full proof, right? She wanted to smack the mother too. Half of this was her fault. She also left them with nothing but a basket. Where the hell was all the shit she used for the baby?

What did the baby need anyway? Diapers, formula, a crib, a bib, a bottle, a pacifier, wipes, and clothes. Kona wondered how old the little thing must have been. She almost felt bad for Oliver, his entire world had changed in seconds. "Or are you not keeping her?" Kona's eyes moved to Oliver's. In all the commotion, Kona hadn't seen the obvious solution. Adoption and child services was not a place Kona was found of. Adoption could take years though, Kona knew that as a fact. She was scared Oliver would be a father like her own. Her father had denied her too. He hadn't thought her a sick joke, but a betrayal. Of all people, Oliver picked the girl with the most father daughter problems of all. This was not how she wanted to spend her day, being reminded of her childhood. She had to keep her mouth shut too, Oliver thought her father was dead.

Speaking of death, if Kona thought Oliver couldn't afford the baby before, she had forgotten about his father. There was no way they could afford her and Kona had a feeling she end up sixteen paying child support. Her eyes studied the little girl's face. She had your lips and curly hair." She smirked as her maternal instincts began to kick in, maybe she took after her mother and would balance out Oliver's terrible parenting skills.

*graphics are not mine.

[OLIVER APOLLO HAYES]

“I don’t kill things,”

[/color] Oliver agued, though he did agree that a baby did not belong with him. He drank. He did drugs. He slept around. He was never home. He was just not father material. Maybe one day, if he cleaned himself up, but today was not that day.

It really wasn’t fair. Oliver was still in shock from the whole baby thing. He definitely wasn’t expecting Kona to punch him. Especially hard enough to make him bleed. Oliver had gotten his nose busted up before, back in his early days of fighting. But he didn’t think that Kona would hit him. And he didn’t think that she would keep hitting him after he made her bleed. Her second blow came just as unexpectedly as the first, and even though it was his first instinct to hit back, he knew that wasn’t right. "What the hell!"[/color] Plus, where the hell did she learn to hit hard enough to draw blood? She looked like one of those girls that thought she could hit but actually had the punch of a teddy bear. Not to mention that she had just told him everything was going to be okay. Since when did being okay involve having blood gushing from his nose count as being fine?

“Sure thing. Just let me get a tissue first,”[/color] Oliver muttered. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a handful of napkins, tilting his head back and sopping up the blood as best he could. He looked down at the napkins and was surprised by how much blood had saturated them. He walked back into the living room, napkins still pressed to his nose.

“Keep her?”[/color] Oliver echoed. It had barely even occurred to him to offer her up to child services. He hadn’t really come up with a proper plan. He hadn’t thought at all. He’d just wanted the baby to be quiet. The only thing that had occurred to him was to find the mom and give her back. He knew it sounded bad, but he didn’t want this thing.

“I don’t know yet. I guess I have to think about it. So we should get enough stuff to tide the thing over at least,”[/color] Oliver mumbled. He picked up his keys off the table and searched around the room for his wallet. It had ended up on the floor when Joey cleared a space for them to put the baby. Oliver wrinkled his eyebrow as she began explaining similarities. Oliver wanted this all to be a mistake.

“Let’s go,”[/color] Oliver told her, glancing down at the baby who was staring up at them. She did kind of have his eyes. Damn.

“You’re going to leave her with me?!” Joey demanded, stunned.

“Yes,”[/color] Oliver replied, heading for the door.

“What if Mom comes home?” Joey called after him.

“Come on, Kona,”[/color] Oliver said, opening the door for her.

“Oliver!” [/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[KONA NICOLE ANDERSON]

Kona followed Oliver to the car hoping she had broken his nose. Sliding into the passenger seat, she felt a heavy sensation falling onto her. Oliver didn't even believe Clara Mae was his, by the way what an awful name. That was the name, right? Clara Mae? She shook her head. "I'm not calling her that." She spat at Oliver like he was her mother telling her to clean her room. "Her name is Aiden." She smirked knowing that was what Oliver's drunk baby name for their supposed child. She giggled quietly trying to make light of the situation, though she knew it was serious. "Oliver, it is going to be alright, ya know? If you decide to keep her, I'll be here. At least for her, no matter what happens with us. If, if you don't keep her, I'll be here too. I don't know if it'll affect you any, but I'll be here." She looked over at him with an honest smile. That part was true, but she wasn't sure if they'd really be alright.

"No offense, but if I was going to have sex with you before I sure as hell ain't now. I can't be pregnant an-" Kona's breath cut short and her eyes widened. Her entire body went pale as her hands began to shake. She slowly finished her sentence, "-d skate." It was a light whisper. She closed her eyes leaning back into the seat. Her one chance at freedom and a new life had just vanished. She couldn't leave Oliver in this mess alone. As her eyes opened, she looked much older. Her eyes were cold and pained. Her entire demeanor had changed. Kona slammed her feet against the dashboard and turned the radio up to a ridiculous level as she stared out of the window. She was aware she was sulking, but she had been working her ass off for this. The only light she had ever seen at the end of her tunnel had been eclipsed. She supposed she could go, but Oliver already thought she was selfish for all the reckless stunts she pulled. She doubted he realize what she had just dawned on her, and even if he did, she was sure he'd think she was overreacting.

Absentmindedly, Kona pulled her lighter from her pocket and began flicking the flame off and on against her thumb. Her eyes were off in some distant place when she finally forgot to flick the flame off and was simply burning her thumb. Kona too just a little too long to recognize the stinging sensation. "Fuck!" Surprisingly, she was louder than the music. She dropped her lighter and examined her blistering thumb. She gripped her hand around her thumb and squeezed her thumb tightly. "Ow, ow, ow." Kona dug her teeth into the her bottom lip. Now she just felt stupid. She always hurt herself in front of Oliver like she was the baby between them. "WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST JACK OFF!" Kona raised her voice even louder than she had before. "I can't befuckinglieve leave you! It's called a condom, dumbass! And they don't always work! Do you having fucking shit for brains? Seriously!" She kicked the dashboard and panted. Well, her thumb had stopped hurting, but she was still completely embarrassed. To make matters worse, she was blushing big time. She could huff, puff, and blow the house down, but it was still very clear that she was more embarrassed than anything. For once could she act normal in front of him? Just once could she show him that she wasn't just a kid?

Kona slid down in her seat and looked away from him as the blush spread down to her chest. Her eyes were wide and bewildered, and despite her recent tantrum, she was adorable. In no way could anyone take her seriously with that expression, she was just too cute. She really hated that about herself. No one ever called her gorgeous, beautiful, hot, or sexy. Kona was just cute. She was always the cute one, the adorable one. She was sure the only reason boys wanted her was so they could be the one that got her first. To her, that was the only sexy thing about her. She was a virgin, and that was the sexiest thing about her. She had been patient for so long for her to turn into her mother. Her mother was sexy and regal, but Kona was short and toned. In her mind, she had no beauty going for her. To cement her self-conscious feelings, she was always acting like a ten year old boy around Oliver.

She wasn't like Mackenzie. Mackenzie was sexy and seductive. It was hot when she was mad, but it was funny if Kona was upset. She sucked it up though. Oliver needed her, and she would be there even if it meant giving up her competition. She could still compete; she couldn't win though. She picked at one of her bracelets as she tried to regain some sort of respect. "Sorry." She knew his situation was far worse than his, and she would just have to grow up and accept it.

[OLIVER APOLLO HAYES]

He started the car and peeled out of the driveway. He wanted to get to the mall as quickly as possible. He was too distracted by the baby to even notice that his nose hurt, or how much it hurt. He wanted to get there and back as fast as possible. It sounded weird, even in his head, to think that he wanted to get back to what was waiting for him in that house, but he knew he shouldn’t be leaving his little brother at home with a baby while he was out with Kona. He hoped that no one he knew would be at the mall, but he also knew that it was impossible. Even though Miami was heavily populated, there was always someone there. So he began working on explanations in his mind. He wasn’t going to tell anyone about the baby yet.

“I don’t know how it’ll feel about that name change,”

[/color] Oliver admitted, though he was hardly listening to her. His mind was racing more than it usually was. Sometimes, yeah, he thought about things, but he’d never had his mind race like this. He glanced over at Kona as she promised that she’d be there for him. “Thanks, Kona.”[/color] Though he didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic, he did mean what he said. He didn’t know how anyone else was going to react. He wasn’t even sure how he was reacting, even now. But it did mean a lot to him to know that she was still going to be there to help him out. He knew he needed help.

Oliver was once again to notice the change in her voice. “I wasn’t going to get you pregnant,”[/color] he mumbled. He didn’t get girls pregnant. He just slept around. There was no aftermath. There was just that night, that moments, and avoiding her afterward. It wasn’t like he didn’t take precautions. He used a condoms. Sometimes he even asked if they were on birth control. He had ‘safe sex’. Safe sex was supposed to mean no babies or STDs. So why was there a baby sitting in his living room?

Oliver swerved as Kona screamed, thinking that he was about to run over something. He looked over at her and yelled, “What the hell?!”[/color] Then he saw that she had burnt her finger. “Shit, are you okay?”[/color] His eyes widened as she began to yell at him. “I used a condom, I’m not stupid. I don’t need this right now. I thought you said you were going to be there for me.”[/color] He turned his attention back to the road and narrowed his eyes. He was going to get yelled at enough by his mom, he really didn’t need it from Kona, too. She’d been so understanding and now she just turned around and freaked out on him. He guessed he should have seen it coming. Considering her disorder.

He glanced over at her and saw her sunk down in her seat. He sighed. He couldn’t be mad at her. She didn’t deserve it. He deserved to be yelled at. He wanted to yell at someone. They sat in silence for a bit, but eventually he finally heard a quiet apology. “It’s okay. I’m sorry, too,”[/color] he said.

It was pretty quiet for the rest of the ride, but they were only a couple of minutes away from the mall. He wasn’t even sure where to park. He had no idea where the baby store within the mall is. He parked close to the main entrance and decided that would get them where they needed to go. “Let’s get this over with,”[/color] Oliver muttered, unlocking the car door for Kona so she could get out.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]