Michael and Melissa never got around to going out on their little date, but that was just because they'd spent their whole weekend at the hospital with Ashton and Emily, hanging out with them and their new baby girl.

Little Riley Irwin was born mid Friday morning, and luckily everyone was there at the hospital when it happened. Michael didn't know what he would have done if Ashton and Emily's daughter was born and Melissa wasn't there, he knew how excited she was about it.

Aside from Melissa (and Ashton and Emily of course), Parker was probably the most excited about Riley being born. Michael had no idea where he'd gotten it from, but Parker was just in love with the idea of babies. He thought Riley was adorable and wanted to hold her every second, but Ashton was still a bit nervous about Parker handling his new baby.

Now Michael and Melissa were currently out shopping with Calum and Lacey, feeling the need to give Ashton and Emily some time alone with their new daughter. Besides, Calum was trying to buy some new furniture for Lacey's room at his apartment and he claimed that he needed a lot of help.

"Do you like this bed, Lace?" Calum asked, even though they'd looked at about 10 little toddler beds already and Lacey hadn't shown a preference. "Or do you like the one we just saw?"

"I don't think she really cares." Michael spoke up from behind them. He was beginning to get a bit bored now and Melissa was hungry.

They hadn't had a problem with going out with Calum earlier, they had a few hours to kill before it was time to pick the kids up from school, but now things were getting a little old. Calum was being very picky about everything that he bought, because he insisted that his little princess's room needed to be absolutely perfect for her.

Calum turned around and glared at Michael. "Trust me, she cares."

"I honestly don't think she does." Melissa mumbled, watching as Lacey looked over Calum's shoulder and at something on the other side of the store instead.

"Baby, listen to me." Calum groaned, changing Lacey's position in his arms so she was forced to pay attention to him. "Do you want the pink bed or the blue bed?"

"What time is it?" Melissa asked, quickly turning to face Michael. He sighed and took out his phone from his pocket, checking the time.

"It's only noon, we still have a few more hours." Michael groaned. It's not that he didn't like shopping with Calum, it was actually enjoyable most of the time, but this was just boring.

"My Princess wants the pink bed, as usual." Calum jokingly rolled his eyes and turned around, ready to go look at something else.

"So why are you deciding to decorate Lacey's room now? Hasn't she been staying with you for a while?" Melissa asked as they followed Calum. They didn't know what he was looking for now, and both Michael and Melissa were just mindlessly following him.

"She's been going back at forth between me and Hanna for the last few months, but we've finally worked out a schedule." Calum said, glancing over his shoulder at Melissa. Michael walked over and wrapped an arm around her waist, still feeling just a little uncomfortable at the thought of Calum and Melissa's past. "Lace will stay with me during the week and then Hanna will take her for the weekends."

"I see." Melissa said, nodding to herself.

"What exactly is your relationship with Hanna?" Michael questioned. Last he'd heard, Calum still had some feelings for Hanna and they were trying to work things out again.

"Oh, it's not as complicated as it seems." Calum shrugged. "We're just taking care of Lacey as best as we can. She's what's really important right now, we're just both trying to be there for her without worrying about each other romantically."

Michael was pretty surprised with Calum's answer, and for a second he thought that maybe his friend had been kidnapped and replaced with some robot, because this was not how Calum normally acted at all.

"That's really smart, actually." Michael said, still in shock.

Ever since Calum found out about his daughter he started acting a lot differently. He didn't sleep around with random girls from bars anymore and Michael could tell that Calum was working hard to be a real father to Lacey. He was really growing up, and Michael felt an overwhelming sense of pride for his best friend.

"Well, yeah." Calum said, his cheeks tinting a light shade of pink. "I want my babygirl to grow up with both of her parents there for her, but I don't want things to be confusing. Right, Lacey?"

Lacey looked up at the sound of her name and stared at Calum with wide eyes, looking completely confused.

"What are we looking for now, Calum?" Michael questioned, hoping that they would be leaving soon.

"Uh... I don't know. What are we looking for, Lace?" Calum laughed and kissed Lacey on one of her chubby cheeks, making her giggle.

"Oh my God, she has no idea what we're looking for." Melissa groaned from behind Michael.

"Trust me, she knows." Calum looked over his shoulder at Melissa, clearly having heard what she just said.

"Are you alright?" Michael whispered to Melissa and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Melissa nodded. "I'm still hungry, though, can we get something to eat soon?"

"Calum, Melissa and I are hungry." Michael said, even though he knew that Calum was on a mission now and wasn't going to want to stop for food. "I think we might go off and find something to eat."

"I need you to help me pick out a dresser!" Calum whined. He stopped walking and turned around to face them, a furrowing his eyebrows together. "You guys can't leave yet, you have to help me!"

"Why does Lacey need a dresser, does she really have that many clothes?" Michael questioned.

"Yes she does! She has so many clothes and they're always laying out all over the floor, I need to pick out a dresser for her room!" Calum argued with Michael, readjusting Lacey in his arms.

"I'm sure you can manage to pick out a dresser on your own, Calum." Michael chuckled soflty to himself, finding it amusing how worked up Calum was getting about this. "Why don't we just take a break? Even Lacey looks kind of bored."

Lacey had her head resting on Calum's shoulder and honestly looked like she was about to fall asleep. All day, Calum had been pretending that Lacey was picking out the things for her room but she really wasn't, Calum was doing it all on his own. Lacey was obviously bored, but Calum was failing to realize.

"Lacey, are you bored?" Calum gasped, looking at Lacey again. She reached up and tugged on Calum's bottom lip, and Michael knew that Calum was always annoyed by that. She apparently did it all the time. "She's not bored, Michael, shut the fuck up."

"Hey, don't swear like that in front of her." Michael scolded.

"Oh, she doesn't understand." Calum scoffed, waving Michael's comment away with his hand. "Now, let's go look at those dressers."

*•*•*

"Kitty, no!" Parker yelled from the living room. They were playing Mario Kart together while Melissa and Michael were in the kitchen. It was later that evening and they were trying to decide what to give the kids for dinner. "No!"

"Okay, I bought this chicken thing - " Michael said, his head half in the refrigerator as he searched around for something to eat.

"We had chicken nuggets last night, didn't we?" Melissa asked, leaning up against the kitchen counter.

"No Mel, it's, like, an actual chicken. I bought it when I went to the store with Parker the other day." Michael explained, pulling out the chicken from the fridge and showing Melissa.

"I don't think Katie would eat that." Melissa said, crinkling up her nose. "Or Parker."

Michael sighed and put the chicken back in the fridge. "Well, why not?"

"You know her, she'll only eat chicken if it's all fried and greasy." Melissa shrugged. Michael sighed again and walked over to Melissa, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I guess we could order something." Michael suggested, even though he had been hoping to try and make something on his own tonight.

"I guess. I'm not even hungry anymore." Melissa said. After finally picking out a dresser with Calum, the four of them all went out to eat somewhere before picking up Parker and Katie from school. Michael wasn't hungry and neither was Melissa, but they knew that the kids would want dinner soon.

"I'm not either." Michael sighed again. He let his hands slip up the back of Melissa's shirt, slowly rubbing over her back.

"If Parker and Katie get hungry we can order something for them." Melissa said quietly, but Michael could tell that she was kind of distracted now. She wrapped her arms around Michael's neck and pulled him a little closer, leaving a few kisses along his jawline.

"That sounds good." Michael nodded, his voice in a low whisper as Melissa continued to kiss down his neck. They stayed like that for a few minutes, mostly just because they were enjoying their time alone, but also because neither of them knew what else to say.

"So, uh," Melissa started and Michael pulled slightly away form her so he could look at his girlfriend while she spoke. "I have a doctor's appointment next Thursday."

"Oh, really?" Michael said, just a little surprised. He knew that he and Melissa had talked about her going to a doctor just to figure out what was going on (she was obviously not pregnant, but continued to have all of the symptoms), but Michael honestly thought that this was going to be another one of those things that they never got around to doing.

"Yeah." Melissa nodded. "I just want know why my body is doing this, you know? Hopefully I'll get some answers."

"Yeah, I hope you do." Michael agreed. He was tired of seeing Melissa so upset, and even though she seemed to be fine now, Michael could tell that she was still a little torn up about all of the baby drama.

"Do you want to come with?" Melissa asked, staring up at Michael with a hopeful look in her eyes. He couldn't possibly say no to that.

"To the appointment?" He questioned.

"Well, yeah." Melissa shrugged. "I mean, you really don't have to. I just thought you might...."

"Of course I'll come with you, Mel, yeah." Michael nodded quickly, wanting Melissa to know that he was going to be there for her no matter what.

"Alright." Melissa said, biting back a smile.

Michael was about to open his mouth to speak again but stopped when he heard more screaming from the living room, and he began to think that this game of Mario Kart was getting a little too intense for two 4 year olds.

"Kitty, stop it!" Parker yelled loudly, and Michael and Melissa were now both interested in what was going on.

"You stop it!" Katie screamed back at him. There was a moment of silence before the sound of little footsteps came through the apartment and into the kitchen.

"Daddy!" Parker and Katie both yelled as they stomped into the kitchen, a big pout on Parker's lips and a frown on Katie's.

"Oh, hey, guys." Michael said, still unsure of why they were so upset with each other. Everything was fine when Michael went in to check on them 5 minutes before. "What's wrong?"

"Kitty is being very mean!" Parker yelled, pointing accusingly at Katie.

"Parker is being very mean!" Katie argued and pointed back at Parker. Michael could already see Katie's eyes watering, and he expected that there would soon be a lot of tears between the two kids.

"Kitty hit me!" Parker added, stomping his foot on the ground. Michael should have known that it was a bad idea to leave them alone in the first place, Parker was in a bad mood earlier that morning and it should have been expected that he wouldn't be feeling better after school either.

"Katie, we don't hit people!" Melissa scolded her, shaking her head.

"Park hit me first!" Katie defended herself, already rubbing at her eyes.

"Parker, you can't hit a girl!" Michael yelled, his words coming out a little too harsh. He probably should have thought before he spoke, but Michael had a problem with doing the opposite of that.

"She cheated at Mario Kart!" Parker sniffed and a few tears fell from his eyes. Melissa moved away from her place at the counter and kneeled down next to Parker, trying to calm him down.

"I'm sure she didn't." Melissa said softly, rubbing Parker's back as he continued to cry. He sat down on the floor and hugged his knees to his chest, curling up into a little ball.

"I didn't!" Katie shook her head and then began to cry, coming forward and hugging Michael's leg. She hid her face as she started to sob.

Michael had never seen Katie like this and was kind of worried, but Melissa seemed to be acting normal about it. She gave Michael a look that said "go on, you've got this" and watched as he tried to comfort the small girl.

"Katie, sweetheart, hey." Michael said soothingly, bending down so he was almost at Katie's height. "Please don't cry, baby, I'm sure this was all a big misunderstanding."

Michael sat down on the floor, getting into a more comfortable position before he continued speaking. "Park's just grumpy today, he didn't mean to be such a meanie to you."

"Park's always grumpy." Katie sniffed, rubbing her eyes again. She crawled over and climbed onto Michael's lap, making him wrap his arms around her.

"Yeah." Michael shrugged and let out a small laugh, rubbing Katie's back while she softly cried into his chest. Michael glanced at Melissa and Parker, who had moved to the other side of the kitchen, and watched as they talked to each other.

Michael was really thankful that Melissa and Parker had such a good relationship with each other. At first he had been so scared that they weren't going to get along, or that Parker was going to be upset and think that Melissa was replacing his mom. He was very glad when he saw that wasn't the case, and Parker loved Melissa as much as Michael did.

After a while the kids were done crying and Michael decided that the only way to make this right was to have them apologize to each other. Parker had other ideas, though, because he wouldn't even look at Katie.

"Park, come say you're sorry to Katie." Michael said, turning on the floor - with Katie still on his lap - to face Parker.

"No." Parker snapped and turned around, keeping his back towards Katie.

"Come on, Pac-Man, Katie says she's sorry. Right, Katie?" Michael said, hoping that Katie wasn't going to be as stubborn as Parker was.

"Right." Katie nodded, looking up at Michael. "I'm sorry, Park."

Parker was silent, even though Melissa was whispering for him to just apologize so they could get back to playing their game.

"Park, come on." Michael sighed. He was trying to be nice about this and not yell, but it was kind of hard.

"No." Parker repeated, his back still facing Michael and Katie.

"Parker..." Michael warned, all of them knowing that in a few seconds he was going to get really mad.

"No, Daddy, I'm not saying sorry." Parker said, and Michael could swear that he heard Parker giggling to himself.

"Parker Axel Clifford, if you don't turn around right now and apologize to Katie you won't get to play Mario Kart or watch TV for the next week and a half." Michael said sternly. He knew that it was harsh (and he probably wouldn't even enforce this punishment if Parker did decide not to apologize) but Michael knew that this was the only way to get Parker to listen.

Parker slowly turned around and stared back at Michael for a few long seconds, finally realizing that he wasn't just joking around.

"I'm sorry, Kitty." Parker said quickly, hiding his face with his hands again.

"See, that wasn't so bad." Melissa said, giving Parker a small smile.

"Yeah, now you two can go finish your game now - " Michael started, eager to get the kids out of the kitchen so he could finish his conversation with Melissa.

"I want to stay here with you." Katie said quickly, cutting Michael off.

"What?" Michael questioned. "Why do you want to stay here with me, Katie? I'm boring. Go play Mario Kart with Park."

"Kitty." Parker whined. "Come on, let's go play!"

"I want to stay here." Katie repeated. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Michael's neck, hugging him tightly.

"Don't you want to spend some time with Park? He apologized and everything." Michael said. But he knew that it was too late to change Katie's mind now.

"It's okay." Parker said innocently. He stood up again and then started rocking back and forth on his heels. "I don't want to play with Kitty anyway."

"Parker!" Michael yelled, scolding him again. He didn't understand why Parker and Katie were fighting so much, they usually got along really well.

"Bye bye!" Parker giggled and then turned and ran out of the kitchen, going back into the living room.

"What a dick." Michael rolled his eyes and stood up from the floor, keeping Katie in his arms.

"Michael!" Melissa tried to hold back a laugh, pulling herself up from the floor as well. "Don't call him a dick."

"I can call him a dick if I want to." Michael scoffed again. "He's acting like one, I hate when he does this."

"Mikey, what's a dick?" Katie asked softly, lifting her head up from Michael's shoulder and looking at him.

"Nothing, sweetie." Michael laughed quietly and kissed Katie on the forehead. "Are you hungry? Do you want some dinner?"

"No, I'm not hungry." Katie shook her head, then yawned. She rested her head back on Michael's shoulder again. "I'm sleepy."

That was one thing that Michael had learned about Katie in the last few months. She could fall asleep at pretty much any time of the day and when she did she was out for hours. Parker, on the other hand, often took a long time before he was worn out enough to go to bed.

"Yeah, it's getting kind of late." Michael said, turning to look at Melissa. She was leaning up against the counter, mindlessly scrolling through her phone.

"We can get going if you want." Melissa said and looked up from her phone. She slid it back into her pocket and walked over to Michael, who was watching as Katie slowly began to fall asleep in his arms.

"I think maybe you should." Michael nodded towards Katie. "This little one is tired and I need to go kick Parker's ass anyway."

"Michael!" Melissa laughed again, slapping Michael on the chest.

"Not literally!" Michael whined then held out his free arm and wrapped it around Melissa's waist, pulling her closer to him.

"Don't be too mean to him." Melissa looked up at Michael, pouting a little.

"I won't, don't worry." Michael assured her and then made his way out of the kitchen so he could walk Melissa and Katie to the door.

Michael set Katie down on the floor and she immediately sat down, too tired to even stand. He bent down next her and grabbed her shoes and coat, putting them on for Katie since she obviously wasn't going to do it herself.

"Oh my God." Michael almost squealed at how cute she was. Katie looked like she could curl up right there on the floor and fall asleep. He looked up at a Melissa. "She's so cute, I want to keep her."

"So do I." Melissa laughed, grabbing her own jacket and putting it on.

"Let's just kidnap her." Michael suggested. He picked up Katie again, checking one more time to make sure that her coat was zipped all the way and her little mittens were still in her pockets.

"I totally would, but I don't really want to get arrested." Melissa chuckled, reaching up and tucking a strand of hair behind Katie's ear.

"Who cares if we get arrested, we'd have Katie and that's all that matters." Michael said, giving Melissa a small shrug.

"No, Michael, we wouldn't have Katie, we'd probably be in jail - " Melissa began to explain but stopped herself, knowing that there was no way to change Michael's mind.

"Exactly." Michael laughed, nodding slowly to himself.

Melissa laughed again, shaking her head. "We should get going now."

"Right. Let me go tell Parker that I'm leaving for a minute." Michael said. He passed Katie off to Melissa and quickly walked into the living room to check on Parker.

"Hey, Park." Michael said, sitting down next to Parker on the couch. His eyes were focused on the TV, not even acknowledging Michael.

"What?" Parker asked, sounding very annoyed.

"I'm going to walk Melly and Katie out to their car, do you want to come with and say goodbye?" Michael asked, reaching for the remote in Parker's hands.

"No." Parker snapped and snatched the remote away from Michael, hugging it to his chest.

"Will you be okay if I leave you alone for a few minutes?" Michael questioned. He knew that Parker would be fine, he'd left him alone in the apartment many times before - even though he knew he wasn't supposed to.

"Yeah, duh." Parker said, rolling his eyes.

"We're going to talk when I get back, I really don't like the way you're acting." Michael sighed and got up from the couch, ruffling Parker's hair as he walked past him.

Michael walked back over to Melissa and took Katie from her, wanting to hold her for just a little longer. They exited the apartment and Michael locked the door behind them, only because Parker was in there on his own.

When they got to Melissa's car Michael helped buckle Katie up in her carseat, kissing her softly on the top of her head when he was done.

"Goodnight, Katie, I'll see you tomorrow." Michael whispered, pushing some hair off of Katie's forehead.

"Night, Daddy." Katie mumbled, her eyes already closed. Michael shut the car door, unable to wipe the smile off of his face.

The amount of love that he had developed for the little four year old girl over the last few months was almost indescribable and having her love him back made everything even better. Michael wasn't Katie's dad, he would never be her dad and he knew that, but the fact that Katie thought of Michael like a father just made him so happy, he didn't think he was ever going to stop smiling.

"What?" Melissa asked, noticing how happy Michael suddenly was.

"She called me Daddy." Michael smiled.

"Michael..." Melissa sighed, assuming that Michael was trying to make some sort of inappropriate joke.

"That's not what I meant!" Michael laughed, holding up his hands in surrender. "I just love that she thinks of me as a father figure now, when a few months ago she'd scream and run away whenever she saw me."

"I know, I know." Melissa said, laughing along with Michael. "She really does love you, she talks about it all the time."

"That makes me so happy!" Michael giggled, doing a little dance. He felt like such a dork, he was getting all mushy about his son's best friend loving him.

"I love you." Melissa sighed happily, taking a few steps forward and standing up on her toes to quickly kiss Michael goodbye.

"I love you too." Michael smiled against Melissa's lips before she pulled away. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll see you tomorrow." Melissa said, walking around the other side of the car and getting into the drivers seat.

Michael was still smiling as he walked back into his apartment, and he was still smiling when he sat down on the couch next to Parker, who had snuck in the kitchen and grabbed a bag of potato chips for himself while Michael was out.

He suddenly didn't want to yell at Parker anymore. He knew that if he started to reprimand Parker about being such a brat Michael would get too carried away and make his son cry again. They could talk about what happened later, but for now Michael didn't care.

"What are you watching?" Michael asked Parker. He was still ignoring Michael.

"TV." Parker shrugged, shoving a few more chips into his mouth.

"Yeah but what?" Michael asked, rolling his eyes. He was still smiling.

"Just TV." Parker said, shrugging again.

"Do you want me to make you some dinner, Pac-Man?" Michael offered, poking Parker in the stomach a few times. "You can't just eat potato chips all night."

"Yes I can." Parker answered stubbornly, holding the bag of chips far enough away from Michael so he couldn't reach them and take them away.

"You're being kind of a jerk, Park, I don't like it." Michael pouted. He grabbed Parker and pulled him onto his lap, despite how much Parker was wiggling around.

"I am not!" Parker protested. "Let go of me, Daddy!"

"No, I want to spend some quality time with you!" Michael argued, kissing Parker on the cheek a few times and making him let out a scream.

"Ew, don't kiss me!" Parker whined, but it was beginning to get hard for him to contain all of his giggles.

"But I love you!" Michael laughed, tickling Parker's sides. "Don't you love me too, Park?"

"No!" Parker said and then started to giggle uncontrollably, trying to wiggle himself out of Michael's arms. "Okay, okay, I love you!"

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear." Michael said, now satisfied. He stopped tickling Parker but kept him on his lap, holding him tightly. "I really do love you, Parker."

"I guess I love you too." Parker shrugged.

"Get off of me." Michael said and jokingly shoved Parker off to the side, making him land on the couch again. "What are you watching?" He asked, pointing to the TV again.

"I don't know." Parker giggled quietly to himself, covering his mouth with his hands.

"Cool." Michael nodded and leaned back on the couch, planning to stay there for the rest of the night.

-

I feel bad cuz there's never any drama in this story and some people like drama but idk

this was ACTUALLY a filler cuz I have something big planned for the next chapter and needed to break it up

lol bye