He saw the older man first, he was craning his neck to look past the crowd, surveying the surroundings and when he caught a glimpse of the blonde he continued forward, pulling him into an embrace when they finally met.
“You okay?” Kevin asked when he pulled back from the hug.
“Yeah,” Nick mumbled, trying to keep his composure.
“Liar,” Kevin said punching his arm lightly.
“Yeah well…How was the drive?” He asked as the walked through the corridor of the hospital.
“Alright, took longer then I thought it would,” he replied following Nick.
“You could have waited for the flight,” Nick said.
“You sounded like you needed someone. So are we going to talk about what’s happened?” Kevin asked lifting his sunglasses so they could rest on top of his head.
“I told you on the phone, she’s mine,” Nick shrugged as he pushed the button for the elevator.
“We’ll talk about this properly later on.”
“Whatever,” Nick mumbled but Kevin chose to ignore it as they both boarded the elevator and rode in silence up to the fifth floor.
The security guard stiffened as soon as he saw Nick approach and started to walk towards him. Nick panicked something was wrong, when he left forty minutes ago things had been fine, she had been stable but he felt his heart jump into his throat when the short stout security guard started to speak.
“I’m sorry sir I can’t let you through.”
“My Daughter’s in there, Matilda McKenzie,” he said.
“I’ve been told that Shannon McKenzie has requested that you be denied access to the unit, I can’t let you through,” He said.
This made no sense, one minute she had been fine, telling him that he could see her as much as he liked and now she had done a complete 180 on him. Then it all clicked and fell into place, she had been served with the custody papers, this was her way of getting back at him.
“Why would she do that Nick?” Kevin asked.
Nick ignored him walking over to the intercom that was usually used to gain access to the unit, he pressed the button and waited for someone to pick up.
“Mr Carter I cannot let you in,” came a reply from the other end, it was a voice he did not recognise.
“If you can’t let me in can you ask Shannon to come out?” He asked.
“I’ll see what I can do,” came the reply.
Five minutes later her voice crackled from over the intercom, he could tell by her tone that she was angry even if he couldn’t see her face.
“You want to play games Nick then that’s what we’ll do,” she hissed her voice filling the hallway, this was not how he wanted this conversation, anyone who was walking past could hear but luckily the hallway seemed to be deserted.
“Games? Games? You’re the one who’s been playing fucking games Shannon,” he said back becoming equally agitated by this, he was not the one in the wrong here it was her.
“Are you still going to pursue this?” She asked, ignoring his last comment.
“To right I am, you obviously can’t protect her, my lawyer says I have more chance of getting her then you,” he nearly yelled back.
“I guess I’ll see you in court then,” she said before he heard her slam the phone down from the other end making him kick the wall in frustration.
“Woah, stop,” Kevin said putting his hand on Nick’s shoulder trying to restrain him from doing any damage to himself. It didn’t work and before Nick knew it tears were streaming down his face, he didn’t know whether they were out of frustration or from the pain shooting through his hand and wrist, it was probably a mixture of both.
“Emergency room is on the first floor,” The security guard pointed out and Kevin sighed as he took Nick’s hand in his, inspecting the damage.
“Damnit Kev that hurt,” Nick said pulling his hand away quickly when the older man poked at it.
“I see anger management worked,” was the sarcastic reply “Come on we’ll get that looked at then you can tell what is going on.”
***
The throbbing in his hand had started to ease but that was from the pain meds he had taken half an hour before, now he was sat on a gurney in one of the side rooms of the ER. Thankful that he had his privacy, he was not in the mood to deal with anyone at the moment but then again maybe it would have been better for him to be out in the open, the Kevin’s incessant questioning would not have been able to take place and he wouldn’t be sat there now sighing and shaking his head, an occurrence that Nick was used to.
He had told him everything, when it had happened, how Shannon kept it from him, the abuse that no one had listened to, how he had found out, his mother’s suggestion, going to his lawyer. Now Kevin was sat with that look on his face, the look that Nick was so accustomed too, in the last few years he had seen it less and less, it only reared its ugly head when Nick had made a big mistake in Kevin’s eyes.
“Nick seriously what possessed you to do that?” He asked.
“I am entitled to custody she is mine,” he snapped.
“Why didn’t you talk to someone before you went off and did this?”
“I can’t say I’m really thinking straight right now, two days ago I found out that I have a five year old, who is in intensive care fighting for her life, I’ve had about five hours sleep in the past forty eight-” he rambled but Kevin cut him off.
“Sorry that was a dumb thing to say. Okay we can fix this, I think the easiest thing is for you to go back to the lawyers and stop the petition-”
“No way I want custody, I want this written down so she can’t screw me over about when I get to see her,” he replied quickly.
“Let me finish,” Kevin said holding his hand up to Nick, when he knew that Nick wasn’t going to but in again he continued. “From what you’ve told me Tild’s is going to be here for a while, both you and Shan are stressed and all this is going to do is add to that. You need to concentrate on your daughter Nick, things like visitation and custody can all be sorted out later right now she needs both of you.”
“I’m still so angry Kev,” he replied looking down at his swollen hand, yet another reminder of his temper.
“I know you are and you have every right to be, but none of this is going to help anybody. I think you should go home, get some sleep, take a shower and I’ll talk to Shan.”
“I’m not leaving,” he mumbled.
“I’ll drag you out of here by your ear Carter,” Kevin said sternly.
“Yeah I’d like to see you try, I’m not thirteen anymore, I could take you old man. Jesus Christ Kev my hand is broken,” Nick called out when Kevin slapped his hand.
“You could take me could you?” Kevin said smugly as he smiled.
“Bastard,” Nick shot back.
***
She was livid. She couldn’t believe he was doing this now, when she really needed him, when Tild’s really needed him. There was no way she could stand to be in the same room as him and there was no way she was giving up time by her daughters bedside so it was easier to just stop him coming on the unit.
It had been easy enough, after all she worked there and he didn’t, the staff hadn’t even questioned her. She hadn’t dared to venture out of the unit all day in fear that he would be waiting outside of the doors, ready to get into an altercation with her, she didn’t need or want that right now.
The only thing she kept thinking about were the words he had hissed at her. How his lawyer had told him he had a good chance at full custody because of what had happened. She knew from his tone of voice that he had been deadly serious and she could see why, what judge would leave Matilda with her after all of this, Nick could provide for her better, could protect her, what did she have to offer? Apart from her love not a lot, and that is what the court would focus on, love didn’t really matter to them, it was whether this child could be provided for financially, protected from abuse, she didn’t tick either of those boxes but he did, a million times over. The only thing against him would be the touring but she already knew he would quit that in a heartbeat, after all he had cancelled the tour without a second thought so why would this be any different?
“There’s a Kevin Richardson outside, he says that Nick’s not with him,” Jenny said, breaking her from her thoughts. She didn’t want to speak to him, but he had driven all the way here and it wasn’t fair of her to take her anger out on him so she nodded and Jenny walked back to the nurses station so she could let him in.
“Hey you,” he said a few minutes later and she stood up so they could embrace. “How you holding up?” He asked and she just sighed as she pulled away and sat back down. “That good huh? Kris sends her love and says to call if you want someone to talk to, even if its three in the morning.”
“Thanks.”
They were silent then. Her not knowing how much he knew, him not wanting to broach the subject of what had happened earlier in the day in fear of making the situation worse.
“Where is he?” She asked after a few minutes.
“At home, I dropped him off earlier so he could sleep, grab a shower and something to eat, he uh he wants to come back later to talk to you, maybe take over here so you can get some sleep,” he said and she scoffed.
“I don’t think so,” she shortly replied.
“Shan-”
“He’s not coming in, he’s not going anywhere near her,” she said tightening her grip on her daughters hand.
“He’s dropping the proceedings,” Kevin told her and she looked over to him, he wasn’t lying she knew that, he would never lie about something that big.
“He is?” She asked.
“Yeah that’s why he wants to talk to you. I think this has just gotten way out of hand, he was tired, not thinking straight and took the advice of his mother,” he explained.
“I should have guessed. God this is just so messed up,” she sighed, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
“I know sweetie but you’ll get through it, all three of you,” he said rubbing her arm.
“All right I’ll talk to him,” she agreed.
Chapter End Notes:
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