It’s wasn’t the best place he’d ever seen, but Justin couldn’t really complain about the new apartment he’d just purchased.  He had called a decorating company and had them come and baby proof the whole place so he could have Emma there and not worry about what he might have missed.  He was pleased with the end result and he knew he wouldn’t mind spending time here, especially if it would make his life with Adah easier.

He was a floor down from Sam, Adah and Brett, tucked in the back corner away from the elevator and next to the back stairs.  It was perfect, really, because no one would really bother him back here and he could just slip up the stairs whenever he wanted to go see Emma or just hang out with everyone else.

Right now he was headed to break the news to everyone, not sure what the reception might be.  He knew that Brett and Sam were being patient with him and Adah, but he was sure they would be relieved to have their living room back.  He figured Brennan would be a little put off, but he didn’t really care about that opinion.  In fact, it made him feel a little smug to know that he’d been infringing on Adah and Brennan’s ‘alone time.’  Yes, he was jealous, but he wasn’t going to admit it to anyone and he wasn’t going to do much about it.  He’d just be happy knowing he could be closed to both Emma and Adah.

Speaking of Adah, he was most concerned about her reaction to his little move.  She was pretty upset with all the time that he’d been spending at her place, so he wasn’t sure if she’d be relieved that he’d actually stopped sleeping on the couch, or if she’d feel like he was imposing by buying an apartment in the same building.  He didn’t want things between them to be tense.  Before Emma was born, things had been going really well.  They were getting along and getting to know each other and they’d been on the same page with a lot of the baby stuff.  Now, though, she was acting like a totally different person and he wasn’t quite sure how to handle it.  Mostly he was trying to avoid her, but it was difficult because of Emma.

He hoped this apartment would be a solution, he just couldn’t know for certain until he actually shared the news.

As he approached Adah’s door, he could hear Emma crying on the other side.  He knocked gently before opening the door and letting himself in.  He could hear the shower running, so he poked his head into Adah’s room and spotted Emma in her crib, flailing her arms and fussing loudly.

“Hey baby.”  He gently picked her up from the crib, cuddling her close to his chest.  He moved over to the bathroom door and called in to Adah.  “Hey Adah, it’s Justin.  Just wanted to let you know I was here.”

“Okay.”  Her muffled voice sounded over the running water.

“How is my little girl this morning?”  Justin cooed at Emma, tracing her face with a gentle finger.  He couldn’t get over how tiny she was and how incredible it felt to have her in his arms.  She stared up at him, blue eyes wide and curious.  “Daddy has a surprise to show you and your Mommy today.”  His voice dropped to a whisper, “He’s just scared that Mommy won’t really like it.”

Justin turned the stereo on and swayed around the room, singing softly to Emma while he waited for Adah to finish with her shower.  He could honestly do this all day.  Everything he’d accomplished in his life this far didn’t hold a candle to how amazing it felt to watch and hold his little girl.

He’s gotten sentimental in his old age.

“Hey.”  Adah’s voice broke through his thoughts and Justin turned to see her emerging from the steam of the bathroom.

“Hey.”  His eyes scanned her t-shirt and jeans, noticing that she’d lost some weight since Emma had been born.  “You look good.”  He wasn’t sure what the protocol was for telling someone they’d lost weight, but he still wanted her to know he’d noticed.

“Thanks.”  She gave him a small smile before pulling the towel off of her head, shaking out her wet hair and pulling a brush through it.  She pinned it up on top of her head, joining Justin when she was done.  “Hey Baby Girl.”  She grinned at Emma.

Justin pulled Emma little closer to his chest, afraid that if he gave her over to Adah he wouldn’t have any protection once he broke the news.

“So, I have a surprise.”  He watched Adah carefully and noticed that her eyes rolled a little at his statement.

“Tell me you didn’t buy me a house or something.”  She grabbed socks out of her dresser and sat on the bed to put them on.

“No, not a house.”

She glanced up at him, “You bought me something?”

Justin shook his head, “No, not you.  I bought me and Emma something that will help you out.  I guess it’s for the three of us.”

“Okay, I’ll bite.  What is it?”  Adah slipped on her sneakers, ready to go wherever Justin meant to take them.  “Do I need the car seat?”

“Nah, I’ll carry Emma.”  He led them out the door, but Adah was confused   She followed him down the hallway to the stairwell, still wondering where they were headed when they ended up in front of another apartment door.  “Here it is.”  He stopped, opening the door with his free hand and ushering Adah into the room.

It looked similar to her apartment in size and shape, although it was definitely decorated to suit a man and not a woman.  When she looked closely, though, she noticed the pack-and-play, the baby swing, and the gates set up around the living room and kitchen areas.  This was an apartment made to house a baby.

“You bought me an apartment?”  She turned to him, confusion knitted tightly between her brows.  She didn’t want to have to turn down another gesture that Justin was offering, but this was even more overboard then the rooms at his house.

“No, it’s my apartment.  I bought it so I could be closer to you and Emma.”  He pulled the baby closed to his chest, breathing in her sweet, powdery scent as he waited for Adah’s reaction.  So far, she still seemed confused.

“You bought an apartment when you have a perfectly good house a few minutes away?”  She watched as Justin moved further into the apartment, sitting on a brown leather couch with Emma still tucked securely in his arms.

“It’s twenty-three minutes away, actually.”  He let out a sigh and stood, placing Emma gently in the pack-and-play so he could face Adah fully.  “You won’t come to my house, Adah.  You think that it would be too awkward or uncomfortable for the both of us.  I get that, and I respect that.  But I don’t want to be away from my daughter and I promised to help you out.  It’s obvious that Sam and Brett and humoring the two of us right now, but they’re going to get tired of me sleeping on the couch, and they’re going to want to have some time that’s not completely dictated by Emma, too.”

He watched as she stood in the doorway and stared, seemingly frozen to the spot.  When she didn’t respond, he kept going.

“I know I should have run it by you first, but I thought it was the best way.  Now I have a place to stay, and there’s a place for Emma to go, too.  I can’t imagine being away from her for a night, and I’m sure you feel the same way.  Now, I’m not far away and I can come help you whenever you need it, or I can take Emma for a while and you’re not far from her, either.”  He glanced at his baby girl, sleeping soundly in her pink blankets.  When he looked back up at Adah there were tears brimming in her eyes.  “Oh, Adah.  I’m sorry.”  He apologized, immediately assuming that he’d done something to upset her.

She waived him off when he tried to give her a hug.  “No, no.  It’s not you.”  She finally moved herself enough to sit down in the arm chair that was just inside the living room.  “I’m being a huge pain in the ass and I’m too stubborn to admit it.”

Justin stopped himself form pointing out that she had, in fact, just admitted to being a pain in the ass.  He figured that she already knew that.

“Brett tried to tell me the other night that it was too crowded in our apartment, and I took it as him taking my side about you being there.”  She wiped at her face, tears still spilling over her cheeks.  “I didn’t realize that it was about me and Emma, too.”

“I don’t think he meant it like that, Adah.”  Justin couldn’t imagine Brett ever saying ‘boo’ to Adah, never mind telling her that she and her baby weren’t welcome in their apartment.

“I know, but still, he was trying to get me to understand that your offer of a room was just as much for everyone else as it was for me.”  Her face scrunched slightly and the tears came faster this time.  “Shit, Justin, I’m so scared.”

He was at a loss for words, completely unaware of how to console this woman.  Instead, he just let her talk.

Her bright, wet eyes turned up to look at him, an unknown emotion etched into her face.  “I slept with you without even knowing who you were.  I let you into my life and managed to get pregnant from it.  I was stupid enough to get myself into that situation…”  She trailed off, not sure of how she wanted to make the rest of this confession.  “What if I stay with you and something else happens?  What if I can’t resist, again, and we’re in another impossible situation?”  What she didn’t say, was what if I develop feelings for you and you can’t ever see me as anything other than that one night stand?

She didn’t say it, but it hung between them like a live wire.  Neither of them was prepared to touch it and get burned.

“We were drunk, Adah.  We were drunk and stupid…and I don’t think our situation is impossible.”  His voice was small, apprehensive.  His own unspoken fears sat thickly in the back of his throat, waiting to choke him when he wasn’t equipped to handle them, like now.

She stayed silent, trying to calm herself down and stop the flood of tears that seemed endless.  Emma still slept soundly in her pack-and-play; a small bundle of hope and happiness that connected these two desperate souls.  If it wasn’t for Emma, Justin and Adah would have nothing between them but their one-time indiscretion.  Now, they had a lifetime to look after; a lifetime they’d created out of lust, liquor, and loneliness.

“I don’t have to keep the place, I just thought it might help.”  Justin stuffed his hands in it pockets, resigned.  He was running out of ideas on how to make this situation better and it was starting to get to him.

“No, it’s fine.”  Adah conceded, knowing that she had to stop turning him down or they would never be able to form any type of a relationship between them.  “Keep the apartment.  I’m sure we’ll be needing it, if just for Sam and Brett’s sake.”

It was a white flag of sorts, but Justin wasn’t about to overlook it.  “Okay, I’ll keep it.”

~*~

Adah trudged back to her apartment, leaving Emma with Justin while she napped.  There was an empty spot in her arms where he daughter should be, but there was also a small sense of relief because she could go back to the apartment and not have to worry about her baby.

Adah had a lot of thoughts weighing pretty heavily on her mind.  She was glad that Justin was being so invested in being a father, but she was overwhelmed with everything that was going on.  It was hard enough being a mother, but to be the mother of Justin Timberlake’s baby was a whole other challenge.  She was lucky that the press hadn’t caught wind of this.

She also had a lot on her mind when it came to Justin in general.  They’d spent a lot of time together since Emma had been born, and even though most of his attention was focused on the baby, he was being caring and thoughtful toward Adah as well.  It was confusing.  She was obviously attracted to him, and it worried her that she might start to develop feelings for him that wouldn’t be reciprocated.  It scared her, really.  That was part of the reason she had so much trouble with Justin being around, but it was a necessary evil.  She also wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to get some help with Emma.

As Adah reached her apartment door she spotted Brennan dragging Ranger down the hallway in her direction.  A warm smile lit his face as he got closer.

“Her there, Mama.”  He stopped short, pulling tightly on Ranger’s leash.  Adah gave him a grin.

“You haven’t been doing leash work, have you?”  She stooped, scratching the eager Labrador behind the ears and letting him bathe her face with sloppy kisses.

Brennan shrugged and let out a chuckle, “My dog trainer just had a baby.  She’s been unavailable.”

Adah laughed.  “Well, I’m free right now.  We could take Ranger to the park and do some more work.”

“I just got back from the park, actually.”  He reached up to scratch his head and Adah couldn’t help but think that it was a move Justin did all the time when he was nervous.  “If you’re really free, though, I’d like to take you out to dinner.”

Adah felt the heat creep up her neck and into her cheeks.  She’d just been asked out on a date.  The first date since her little tryst with Justin.

“I’d love to.”  Obvious relief washed over Brennan’s face at her answer.

“Great.  That’s great.”  He turned to his apartment door, pulling his dog with him.  “Let me get Ranger inside and we can head out.  It’s okay, right?  You’ve got someone to watch Emma?”

Adah nodded, not sure how much to tell him.  “Yeah, Justin’s got her.”

An expression that Adah couldn’t quite place crossed Brennan’s face, but she let it pass without commenting.  It was an awkward situation to begin with, she couldn’t fault the guy for being uncomfortable at the mention of the other man.

“Cool.  Just give me a second then.”

Adah followed Brennan into his apartment and took a seat on the couch as he fed and watered the dog.  She watched with a small smile, thinking that she could get used to this.  At the same time that thought crossed her mind, she was reminded of her baby and her good mood slipped a little.  It would be really difficult to make any sort of a relationship work while she was balancing being a Mom and figuring out how things worked between her and Justin.  Brennan knew the situation and he was sympathetic, but she couldn’t imagine that he’d tolerate things for very long, no matter how patient he was.

She let out a frustrated sigh, not liking the direction he thoughts kept heading lately.

“Ready to go?”  Brennan came back into the living room, breaking her thoughts and bringing a smile to her face.

“Yeah, let’s go.”  Adah was determined to forget Justin for the night and just enjoy being with someone she cared so much about.

Maybe Brennan was the thing she needed to get her out of this funk and get her mind off of Justin Timberlake.  Maybe.