Michael stayed home from work the next day because he wasn't feeling any better and he still didn't want to face Matt again after their conversation the day before. So he called in sick (technically he texted - whatever) and was able to relax all morning because Melissa was nice enough to come by and pick Parker up to take him to school.

Michael could tell that she felt bad about what happened yesterday, and that was why she was being so nice. He didn't try to stop her, though, because honestly Michael kind of liked doing nothing for once. He hardly ever got to just sit around the apartment and do whatever he wanted, and this was a perfect opportunity for him to do just that.

After waking himself up from another two hour nap and making himself something to eat (he just reheated the mac n' cheese that Melissa made the night before) Michael decided to head into the living room, prepared to stay there and do nothing for the rest of the afternoon.

And he did nothing for a while. Michael enjoyed sitting on the couch and eating his food (while coughing and sniffling and sneezing) until his phone started obnoxiously ringing and he forced himself to answer it.

"Hello?" Michael asked, clearing his throat. It still hurt really bad, but there was nothing Michael could do about that.

"Michael?" Calum said loudly into the phone, making Michael cringe before returning his attention back to his friend.

"Yeah, what's up?" Michael asked. It seemed like he hadn't heard from Calum in a while, and it took Michael a second to remember his current situation.

"Are you doing anything right now? Are you working?" Calum questioned urgently, obviously moving around as he talked.

"No, I'm at home." Michael said, even though part of him wished that he'd lied. He knew that Calum was going to ask to come over now and Michael had really enjoyed just being completely alone for the day. "I'm sick."

"Is there any possible way that you could help me? Please?" Calum begged, and a loud crash was heard on the other end of the phone. "Don't touch those!"

"Are you alright?" Michael asked.

"Uh, not really." Calum said, chuckling nervously. "I'm watching Lacey and I'm absolutely clueless! All she does is run around and touch things!"

"Just let her run around until she's tired enough to fall asleep." Michael groaned, falling over so he was now laying on the couch. He thought that his suggestion was pretty good, he'd done it probably a million times with Parker.

"It's not that easy!" Calum whined.

"Look, I'm pretty sick so I guess you can come over here but I won't be much help." Michael sighed, rubbing his eyes. He didn't want to give up his afternoon to watch Calum and his kid, but Michael was willing to sacrifice it because Calum was his best friend, and that's what best friends were supposed to do.

"Can I really?" Calum asked excitedly. "I just feel like maybe this will be easier if I have you with me; you're good at this stuff."

"I'm not good at this stuff at all." Michael scoffed. He was still feeling pretty down about everything that had happened yesterday, and especially about the comment he'd made about Parker. Michael didn't think he was a good father, not at all.

"Dude, yes you are. You're like... Superdad." Calum argued. "We'll be over soon, I have to go before - Lacey, no!"

Calum hung up quickly and Michael let out another sigh, tossing his phone down onto the floor. He wasn't looking forward to Calum coming over for the afternoon; he actually wasn't looking forward to anything. Michael meant what he said the day before, he just wanted to sleep and never wake up again.

He didn't really understand what was wrong, or why he had been feeling this way lately. It was a combination of a lot of things, like Melissa and Matt and Parker's attitude and the fact that Michael always felt like he did everything wrong. He just couldn't handle so many things happening to him at once, and he knew that eventually this was all going to get to be too much for him.

It wasn't long before there was a knock on the front door of the apartment and Michael somehow got himself up from the couch and stumbled over to answer the door.

"Hi." Michael said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. It took him a minute to realize that Calum was holding a little girl in his arms, obviously Lacey, and Michael had to stop himself from laughing. He never thought he'd see the day where Calum actually had a kid.

"Hi." Calum smiled for a second before Lacey reached out and grabbed Calum's bottom lip, causing his smile to quickly fade. "Stop that." He groaned. Calum was right, Lacey looked just like him. Only smaller. And a girl.

"Is this Lacey?" Michael asked, trying his best to smile as he leaned in closer to Lacey, making her giggle and hide her face in Calum's shoulder.

"Yes, this is Lacey. Lacey, this is Uncle Michael." Calum chuckled and handed her off to Michael, catching him off guard. Calum pushed past Michael and went into the apartment, heading straight for the kitchen.

"Oh, hi." Michael said, startled by the sudden child in his arms. Lacey began to whine and squirm around so Michael was unable to hold her and he set her down on the floor, letting her run after Calum.

"Daddy!" Lacey yelled as she ran into the kitchen, coming up behind Calum and latching herself onto his leg.

Michael felt a little pain in his chest when he watched them, because he remembered when Parker always used to do that. He'd felt so distant from Parker lately, and he knew that it was no one's fault but his. He was focusing on the wrong things but he never even bothered to do anything about it.

"Hi, baby." Calum laughed and bent down to pat Lacey on the top of the head. Calum moved throughout the kitchen with Lacey still hooked on his leg, trying to search for something to eat.

"You guys seem fine, why did you say you needed my help?" Michael asked. It wasn't that he didn't want Calum there, but... Okay, he really didn't.

"Well of course we seem fine now." Calum huffed, turning around and facing Michael, his arms folded across his chest. "She always does this, when it's only me and her she's a little piece of... ugh, but when her mom comes back she's an angel."

"How long have you... known her?" Michael asked, trying to come up with the right words to use. This whole situation was weird, he didn't know what to do.

"A couple weeks, maybe." Calum shrugged. "After I explained everything to you I felt a lot better and I called Hanna right away. She brought Lacey over the next day and she's been staying with me ever since."

"Is Hanna staying with you?" Michael questioned. He kind of wanted to meet Hanna, and ask her why she ever wanted to date Calum in the first place.

"No, no, just Lacey is. For now." Calum said, giving Michael another small shrug. "Things are still a little complicated with Hanna."

"Are you guys together, or...?" Michael let the question linger, because he wasn't sure what else to say.

"Not really. Well, I don't know. It's complicated." Calum laughed and turned around again, fixing himself a bowl of cereal. That was really all that Michael had in the house, anyway.

"I get it." Michael nodded, because in a way he understood.

"I think I'm doing an okay job so far. I was really scared at first, you know? I didn't want to mess up and disappoint, well, everyone." Calum continued. He finished making his cereal and started to make his way into the living room with Lacey still hanging onto his leg. "It's pretty easy, and Lacey already loves me."

"That's good." Michael nodded, following Calum. The both sat down on the couch and Calum lifted up Lacey so she was on his lap now rather than the floor.

"I think I love her too. Isn't she a cutie?" Calum asked, poking Lacey on the tip of her nose and making her let out a big giggle.

"Yeah, she is." Michael nodded. Now he was just sad, and he knew why.

He missed Parker a lot, even though he saw him every day and things were still pretty much the same between them. Michael just missed the days when things were a lot simpler. Now everything seemed to be so crazy with Parker going to school and Michael having a new job and girlfriend. It was just different now, and Michael wished that it wasn't.

"So what's up with you? How's your girlfriend and everything?" Calum asked.

"Oh, she's good." Michael lied, smiling a little. He didn't want to admit to Calum that he and Melissa were having problems; he didn't want to admit it to anyone. "Yeah, everything's great."

"Does Parker know that you guys are, like, together?" Calum questioned. He picked a piece of cereal out of his bowl and held it out for Lacey, who quickly ate it and then looked up at Calum, asking for more.

She was pretty quiet, much quieter than Parker was when he was two years old, and Michael was pretty thankful for that. He didn't think he'd be able to handle and obnoxiously loud two year old in his apartment all afternoon.

"Uh, I don't know." Michael finally shrugged. "I'm sure he's realized that there's something going on between us by now, but I haven't told him anything for sure. He's asked about Melissa replacing Beth a few times, though."

"Whoa." Calum chuckled. "What did you tell him?"

"Melissa's not going to replace Beth, of course, no one is ever going to." Michael responded quickly, not needing any time to think about his answer. "Beth is Parker's mom and she always will be, no matter what happens."

"But he's okay with Melissa hanging out here so much? He's not confused by it or anything?" Calum continued to question Michael, which honestly surprised him a little. It wasn't like Calum to care so much about things like this; like Parker's actual feelings. Being with Lacey had definitely changed him.

"He's always a little confused. Like, sometimes he'll ask me when his Mommy is coming home, or why Melissa is here all the time." Michael said slowly. "But I think he gets it for the most part. He's starting to understand that Beth and I aren't together anymore."

"Right." Calum nodded.

"I mean, I'm sure that eventually Melissa and I will get pretty serious and she'll move in or something." Michael shrugged. "But hopefully by then Parker will be a little older and this will all make more sense to him."

"That's good." Calum said, "You should always make sure that Parker is okay with these things. He's still young and he might not get all of this."

Michael just turned to Calum again and let out a laugh because, really, this was so out of character. Michael was used to Calum being his asshole best friend that slept with a new girl every night, not a caring father that just wanted to make sure that everyone was happy.

"What are you laughing at?" Calum scoffed. He finished up his cereal and set the empty bowl down on the coffee table before coming back to Lacey.

"You're like a completely different person now." He said, watching the way Calum was playing with Lacey. He was kissing her little chubby cheeks and tickling her and bouncing her up and down on his legs. Michael could tell that Calum really loved Lacey already; he'd never acted like this with anything else before.

"I guess that's just what having kids does to you." Calum shrugged, quickly glancing at Michael for only a second before turning to Lacey again, all of his attention on her.

Calum and Lacey hung out at the apartment for the rest of the afternoon, and it honestly wasn't as bad as Michael had anticipated it to be. They just talked and watched TV and Michael was able to bond with Lacey a little, which he thought was pretty cool. They'd actually lost track of time, and Michael was surprised when Melissa, Katie, and Parker all entered the apartment.

"Hey!" Michael said excitedly, hopping off the couch and practically running over to them. He was in a much better mood now than earlier that day.

He went over to Parker first and picked him up before walking over to Melissa and giving her a kiss on the cheek. He pat Katie on the top of the head, too, just because he felt that they still didn't know each other well enough for him to do anything else.

"Hi." Melissa laughed, clearly surprised by how Michael was acting now. "You seem to be feeling better."

"I am." Michael nodded. "I'm still a little sick, obviously, but I think that resting all day really helped."

"Daddy, who is that?" Parker asked, pointing down to the spot on the floor where Calum and Lacey were spread out. Lacey was playing with one of Parker's toys, something that she probably found laying out in the living room.

"That's Lacey, buddy. She's Uncle Cal's little girl." Michael explained, looking away from Melissa for a second and focusing on Parker.

"Uncle Cal! You have a little girl?" Parker questioned and wiggled around in Michael's arms until he finally set him down on the floor again. Parker ran over to where Calum and Lacey were sitting and he got down on the floor with them. "Hi!"

"Hey, Park." Calum laughed, ruffling Parker's hair a little. He gently poked Lacey in the stomach, forcing her to look away from the toy she was playing with and up at Parker. "Lace, this is Parker. Can you say hi to him?"

"Hi." Lacey smiled, crawling a little closer to Parker, who seemed extremely fascinated by her.

"Is Lacey going to be my friend?" Parker asked, looking up at Michael, who nodded. "Yay!"

Parker and Lacey talked (or babbled, really, because no one could even understand them) and everyone else watched for a few minutes before Parker finally turned around and looked at Katie again, who was obviously feeling a little ignored.

"Kitty!" Parker called her over to him, and Katie ran over and sat down on the floor next to them. "This is Lacey, and she's going to be my friend. And yours, too!"

Calum looked up at Michael and laughed (he was so happy, it was actually pretty adorable), but slowly his eyes traveled over to Melissa and his smile faded. "Hey." He greeted her.

"Hey." Melissa said politely back to him, looking down at the floor. The knot in Michael's stomach continued to grow, and now he couldn't ignore it.

Michael knew. He knew without either of them having to say anything there there was a history between Melissa and Calum. He wasn't surprised, honestly, because it seemed like Calum had hooked up with just about every girl in the whole town. It just hurt, and Michael couldn't pretend that it didn't.

"Mel, can I talk to you?" Michael whispered, taking her hand and pulling her into the kitchen without waiting for her response.

"What's wrong?" Melissa asked as Michael leaned up against the counter, trying to figure out how to confront Melissa about this.

He didn't want to wait around, he wanted to know exactly what happened right now. He wanted to just get it out of the way so he could try and forget about it as soon as he could.

"Have you and Calum...?" Michael started, unsure of how to finish that sentence. Dated? No. Fucked? Probably. Shit.

Melissa nodded slowly, and Michael could swear he felt his heart drop down into his stomach.

Melissa was his girlfriend, someone that he really, really liked, and Michael was just now finding out that she'd slept with his best friend.

"I'm sorry - " Melissa said quickly, like that could fix it all.

"I'm not mad." Michael whispered. He stared down at the floor, too scared to look up at Melissa. He squeezed his eyes shut, begging himself not to start crying again.

"It was a long time ago, I swear. I didn't even know you at the time." Melissa began to explain. Michael wasn't even sure that he wanted to hear it. He got what he wanted, which was an answer, and now he just wanted Melissa to drop it.

"I'm not mad at you." Michael repeated.

He really wasn't mad, he was just confused now. He didn't want this newly learned information to change anything, but Michael was afraid that it would. Melissa was his girlfriend, someone that he really, really liked, and Michael was just now finding out that she'd slept with his best friend. There was no way that this could just go unnoticed.

"I was young, a sophomore, and in a really bad place at the time. We met through one of my friends and one day things just... happened." Melissa rambled on again, seeming to ignore Michael. He obviously didn't want to talk about this, and he wished that she was able to see that.

"What exactly happened?" Michael asked, finally looking up at her. He figured that he might as well know exactly what Melissa and Calum did, otherwise it would just bother him for the rest of his thing.

"I didn't have sex with him." Melissa assured him. "We just - it was one time, and we - "

Michael actually didn't need to hear any more. He already knew, again. Melissa was the girl, the one that Calum cheated on his old girlfriend with. It made so much sense and there was no other possible explanation for any of this. Melissa gave Calum a blowjob in the janitors closet and destroyed the only relationship he'd ever had. It made sense.

"You were friends with Hanna?" Michael questioned, cutting her off.

"Yeah." Melissa nodded slowly, her eyes already filling with tears.

"You know that's Hanna's daughter in there?" Michael asked and pointed in the direction of the living room, where Calum and Lacey still were.

"No. What?" Melissa said, shaking her head. "I haven't talked to Hanna for years!"

Michael let out a big sigh and rubbed his eyes with his hands again, trying to decide what to do next.

"I'm so sorry." Melissa said, now crying a lot more than she was before.

"I'm not mad at you." Michael said for the third time, wanting to make sure that Melissa knew. He pulled her in for a hug and rested his chin on the top of her head, letting Melissa cry into his chest.

It was pointless for Michael to be mad at her over this. It would be silly for them to get in a fight about something that happened years ago, before Michael even knew who Melissa was. She might not trust him just yet but Michael trusted Melissa, and he believed her when she said that whatever happened between her and Calum only happened once. It was in the past, and there was no point in Michael being mad at her for this.

"I'm sorry." Melissa pulled away, wiping under her eyes. "It happened so long ago and at the time I didn't even know who you were, and I know that it was a stupid decision, I hate myself for it."

"I know, it's alright." Michael said, cupping Melissa's face in his hands. "I'm not mad at you."

"I promise it only happened that one time, I hadn't even talked to Calum since it happened until I started to hang out with you." Melissa explained quickly, keeping her voice down so no one in the other room would hear them.

"I know. It's okay, I'm not mad at you, I just..." Michael trailed off, using his thumb to wipe away a few more tears that had fallen from Melissa's eyes. "I wish you would have mentioned something about it sooner. Or maybe we could have talked about this when Calum wasn't in my house..."

"You brought it up." Melissa shrugged.

"I know, I know." Michael sighed. "I just need to think."

"Alright." Melissa nodded.

Michael slowly walked away from her and down the hallway, basically ignoring the fact that there were a ton of people in his house and he was leaving them all alone in the living room.

Michael went into his bedroom and shut the door behind him, letting out a small groan as he fell down onto his bed. He just needed some time to think about this and process it all. He wasn't mad, just a little shocked and confused. He just needed time.

*•*•*

"Michael?" There was a soft knock on the door that woke Michael up, and he grumbled a muffled "come in" for whoever was there.

Melissa entered the room slowly, like she was afraid of Michael and how he was going to act about all of this. She stood at the edge of his bed and Michael sat up, bringing his knees to his chest.

"Hi." He said quietly, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. He actually had thought a lot about Melissa and Calum and their whole situation, he just ended up falling asleep while doing so.

"Uh, I just came in to tell you that Katie and I are leaving now." Melissa said quietly. "Calum and Lacey left a couple hours ago and Parker is watching a movie on the couch."

"Oh, alright." Michael nodded, rolling out of bed and walking over to where Melissa was standing. "Thanks."

"Are you alright?" Melissa asked, looking up at Michael as he stepped closer to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Michael said, but he could tell by the way she was looking at him that Melissa was still worried about this. "I'm not going to be mad at you about something that happened in the past. That's stupid."

Melissa nodded slowly, still not saying anything else.

"It was just weird for me to think about you, my girlfriend, and Calum, my best friend, doing something like... that." Michael explained. "But I've thought about it and realized that there's no point in me being upset because this happened a long time ago and it's not going to happen again. Right?"

"Right." Melissa nodded. "It was a one time thing, I never even had feelings for Calum and I'm positive that he never had feelings for me either."

"Okay." Michael said, grabbing Melissa's hand and leading her out to the front of the apartment again. "Now we can just move past this and pretend that it never happened."

"Katie, let's go." Melissa called to her as they walked past the couch. Katie said goodbye to Parker and jumped up from where she was sitting, running over to Melissa and grabbing her other hand.

They quickly said their goodbyes (which were a little awkward considering everything that had just happened) and Michael shut the door behind the two girls before joining Parker on the couch.

"Hey, Pac-Man." Michael let out a big sigh as he sat down next to Parker, who was curled up on the couch with his lion.

"Hi Daddy." Parker smiled up at him and crawled closer to Michael, climbing onto his lap.

"How was school today?" Michael asked, pushing some of Parker's hair off of his forehead.

"It was okay." Parker shrugged. "We learned about numbers again but then me and Kitty got yelled at."

"Why did you get yelled at?" Michael let out a small chuckle. He didn't care that Parker got in a little trouble, he knew that if something was really serious he'd hear about it from one of Parker's teachers.

"We were playing when everyone else was trying to learn." Parker giggled, also finding the whole thing funny. "I had to sit in the time out corner."

"Did you have fun in the time out corner?" Michael laughed, tickling Parker's sides a little.

"Yes!" Parker continued laughing, trying to push Michael away from him. "Daddy, stop it!"

"Okay, okay." Michael stopped tickling Parker and they both calmed down.

"Kitty didn't like sitting in the time out corner. She didn't want her mommy and daddy to find out and get mad." Parker said, suddenly becoming very serious.

"I'm sure they'd understand." Michael said. He still felt pretty bad about Katie and her situation with her parents, but Michael knew that there wasn't anything that he could do about it. Besides, Katie didn't like Michael enough to accept any help from him.

"Nope." Parker said, shaking his head. "It's okay, because one day Kitty is going to run away and she'll come live with me."

"Okay, buddy." Michael laughed.

"Daddy, are you still sick? Melly told me you were sick and that's why you didn't take me to school today." Parker questioned, changing the subject. He turned around again so he was facing Michael.

"I'm a little sick, but I'm feeling better now." Michael said. He was telling the truth, he did feel a lot better now that he'd sat around all day and done nothing.

"Good." Parker said, smiling again. "Being sick is gross."

"Yeah, it is." Michael said, scrunching his nose up and agreeing with Parker.

"When you're sick you can't play and have fun." Parker laughed and began to play around with his lion.

"That's right." Michael nodded.

"Don't get sick again, Daddy." Parker ordered, looking up at Michael and folding his arms across his chest.

"I'll try not to, but sometimes I can't control it." Michael laughed, because Parker was actually the one that got him sick in the first place.

"Just don't do it." Parker pouted.

"Okay, buddy, I won't." Michael said, laughing again. He pushed Parker off of his lap and stood up from the couch, wanting to go find something to eat. Michael was really hungry, he hadn't eaten anything since earlier that morning.

"Where are you going?" Parker yelled, hopping off of the couch as well and following Michael into the kitchen.

"I'm just going to get some food." Michael chuckled, glancing down at Parker as he walked. "You can stay on the couch, I'll be back in a couple minutes."

"No, I'll come with." Parker shrugged, reaching up and grabbing Michael's hand, who wasn't at all phased by Parker's sudden strange behavior.

"Do you want something to eat?" Michael asked, searching through the fridge for some food.

"Yes." Parker nodded. "Sammich."

"Okay." Michael laughed, surprised that Parker didn't ask for mac n' cheese, which was usually the only thing he ever wanted to eat.

Michael made both him and Parker sandwiches and then they walked back into the living room, both of them settling down on the couch again just like they were before. Parker snuggled up into Michael's side while they ate and watched the movie that was playing on the TV in front of them.

"Daddy?" Parker broke the silence between them after a few minutes, his mouth full.

"Yes?" Michael asked, looking down at Parker.

"I like it like this." Parker nodded to himself, and even though Michael didn't have any idea what he was talking about he nodded as well.

"Like what?" Michael finally asked, curious as to what Parker meant.

"I like this, I always want it to be like this." Parker said again, "With you and me. And Lion. Forever."

"Uh huh." Michael nodded, running his fingers through Parker's hair. "Forever."

-

THIS WAS REALLY RUSHED IM SORRY I WROTE IT SO QUICKLY SO IM SORRY IF IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE I MIGHT GO BACK AND REWRITE IT IDK BUT I HOPE YOU GUYS UNDERSTAND THIS OR LIKE IT OR WHATEVER OKAY BYE