Michael pulled the car to a stop in front of Melissa and Katie's house and shut it off, leaning back in his seat.

"Do you want me to help carry her in?" Michael asked softly, trying not to wake Katie or Parker. They were asleep in the back seat, both of them tired from being out all night.

"What about Parker?" Melissa asked.

"I guess I'll have to get him too." Michael sighed and unbuckled his seatbelt. He knew that Katie's mom was home tonight and wished that her and Melissa didn't have to leave, but Michael knew that Melissa would get in trouble for keeping Katie away for another night.

Melissa turned around in her seat and gently shook Parker, checking to see if he was still awake. He stirred slowly and rubbed his eyes, waking up a little.

"Park, are you awake?" Michael asked, turning around as well.

"Uh huh." Parker nodded, sitting up a little straighter.

"We have to go inside for a minute, to put Katie to sleep, is that okay?" Michael questioned. He figured that Parker would be fine staying in the car on his own for a couple minutes, but Michael didn't want him to get scared being alone in the car at night.

"Can I come with?" Parker asked sleepily, still rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah." Michael said and then got out of the car, Melissa doing the same. He walked around to the other side of the car and unbuckled Parker, setting him down on the ground while Michael went over to Katie's side and picked up the sleeping girl in his arms. Parker trailed slowly behind him.

"You can just take her right upstairs, I'll talk to her mom." Melissa said, reaching back to grab Parker's hand and guide him into the house.

"Alright." Michael nodded. He walked through the door and straight upstairs, luckily not having to walk through the house at all to get to Katie's room.

Michael got Katie ready for bed, being careful enough to not wake her up, and tucked her in. He leaned over and kissed Katie on the forehead before slowly walking out of the room, still trying not to make any noise.

He walked down the stairs, and as Michael got farther into the house he could hear voices in the kitchen. He already knew that it was Melissa and Katie's mom arguing, as always. If Michael was alone he would have just walked out, but since he knew that Parker was probably with Melissa he had to stay.

Michael walked into the kitchen and was immediately seen by both Melissa and Katie's mother, who stopped talking as soon as Michael entered the room. Parker was sitting on a chair at the table, his head down.

"Uh, hey." Michael said nervously. "I'm sorry to interrupt, I'll just grab my son and go."

"Who's this?" Katie's mom asked, looking between Michael and Melissa.

"This is my boyfriend, Michael." Melissa said and let out a deep sigh. He'd been introduced to Katie's mom a couple times, Michael would have thought that she'd remember him.

"It's nice to meet you, - " Michael held his hand out, trying to be polite for at least a minute before he started yelling at this woman.

"Candace." She said harshly, not making any move to shake Michael's hand.

"Yeah." Michael nodded. He walked over to where Parker was sitting and picked him up, letting him rest his head on his shoulder.

"Where's Katie?" Candace asked, finally noticing that her daughter wasn't here.

"She's upstairs, I just put her to bed." Michael said. He carried Parker over to where Melissa was standing and kissed her on the forehead to say goodbye, trying to casually leave the house without causing too much drama.

"Why are you putting my daughter to bed?" Candace asked, glaring at Michael and folding her arms across her chest. Michael stopped walking and faced her, realizing that he wasn't going to get out of here easily.

"Well she fell asleep in my car, I just thought - "

"You just thought that you could come into my house and put my daughter to bed?" Candace questioned. Melissa stood off to the side, looking down at the ground. "I'm her mother, I don't need you to do my job."

"Michael was just trying to help - " Melissa said softly, trying to defend him.

"She's my daughter, I should be the one putting her to bed and taking care of her." Candace said stubbornly.

"Oh, then be my guest." Michael scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You really haven't been doing a very good job of taking care of her lately so I thought that I might as well step up. But if you want to actually try and be a mother to her then go ahead, be my guest."

Parker whined and buried his head into the crook of Michael's neck, just wanting to go home.

"What did you just say to me?" Candace asked.

"I said that you and your husband have been doing a really shitty job of taking care of your daughter and I decided that she needed someone to be a parent." Michael snapped, readjusting Parker on his hip. "You're constantly going on trips on your own and Katie hasn't even seen her father in months, I just felt that she needed someone."

"Excuse me? You can't just come into my house and try and tell me that I'm not a good parent!" Candace raised her voice at Michael, stomping her foot on the ground.

"Oh, I think I can." Michael rolled his eyes. "You hardly do anything to take care of Katie, you leave all of that to Melissa and I don't know if anyone else has noticed how awful you are but I have and I'm getting sick of it!"

"Michael - " Melissa tried to stop him from overreacting and yelling once again, but it was no use. Michael was too angry and now that he'd started yelling at Katie's mom he didn't think he could stop.

"Katie has cried to me more than once about how badly you treat her so don't even try to deny the fact that you're a horrible mother!" Michael yelled. Parker stirred again, doing his best to keep quiet and ignore what was going on around him. "I understand that you're busy and you get stressed sometimes but that's no reason for you to practically ignore your child!"

"Who even are you? I don't know you, you can't possibly think that anything you have to say to me will make a difference - "

"You neglect your daughter and it's starting to really take a toll on her. She's only four but she knows that you don't care about her! Do you even know how hard that is for her?" Michael questioned, getting even more worked up now. He hated to see Katie upset and he hated know that her own mother was the cause of it.

"Do you feel this way too?" Candace turned to Melissa, who had hardly spoken. She had a tendency to stay quiet at times like this, when Michael really needed her to back him up.

"I-I don't know, it's not really my place to say - "

"That's such bullshit!" Michael yelled and Parker whined because he was being too loud. "Tell her how you feel, Mel, come on."

"No, Michael." Melissa said, shaking her head quickly. "I think it's time for you to go." She walked over to Michael and grabbed Parker from him, trying to speed up the process of them getting out of the house.

"Well I don't think I'm quite finished yet - " Michael said as Melissa gave him a little push towards the door, attempting to get him out of there.

"Yes, I think you are." Candace said sternly. Her glance shifted over to Melissa and she stared at her for a moment, as if she was trying to say something without actually speaking.

"Let's go, Michael." Melissa took his hand and pulled him out of the kitchen, dragging him through the house and to the front door without saying another word.

"I was on a roll, Mel, what are you doing?" Michael asked when they reached the front door, keeping his voice down.

"I don't think this is the time or place for you to yell at her about this." Melissa said softly, shaking her head.

"But she needs someone to yell at her for what she's doing or she'll never change!" Michael protested, not understanding what was so wrong about what he'd just done.

"Yes, but I don't think you realize that she's my boss and she has the power to fire me and I can't let that happen." Melissa said, passing Parker back to Michael. He was pretty much asleep now, despite all of the talking going on around him.

"If you get fired you'll just move in with me - "

"I can't leave Katie." Melissa said quickly, shaking her head. "I've been doing this since she was a baby, I can't risk getting fired and never being able to see her again."

"You're not going to get fired." Michael scoffed.

"Well I might now that you came in there and yelled at her like that! I'm definitely going to get in trouble for letting you walk in and freak out on her!" Melissa said, seeming to put all of the blame on Michael. It wasn't his fault, it was Katie's mom's.

"I'm sorry, baby, I really am." Michael sighed, reaching out and grabbing Melissa's hand. "You're going to be okay, you're not going to get fired. I just got mad, I'm sorry."

"I told you that if we were going to confront her about something like this we would do it calmly and at a good time for all of us!" Melissa groaned, obviously trying to stay calm. "I don't know what's going to happen now, she's probably so mad at me and at you, too, and I bet she'll get mad at Katie for no reason now - "

"Babe, babe, calm down." Michael said softly, stepping closer to Melissa. "Nothing bad is going to happen, okay? I'm sorry."

"I know. It's fine, Michael, I'll figure something out. I guess..." Melissa mulled, looking down at the ground.

"Melissa!" Candace yelled from the kitchen, cutting her off.

"I guess I have to go now." Melissa rolled her eyes. "I'll figure this out, Michael, don't worry about it."

"I'll come over some other time and apologize or something - " Michael said quickly, even though he really was not sorry at all for what he'd said. Katie's mom needed to hear all of what Michael had said and he didn't care that he was a little harsh about it.

"It's fine." Melissa said, stepping forward and standing up on her toes, quickly kissing Michael on the lips. "I love you."

"I love you too." Michael said as she walked away, heading towards the kitchen again. "Call me later."

Melissa looked over her shoulder and nodded to Michael, and then he turned and open the door, letting himself out of the house.

The ride home was short and silent. Parker was fast asleep in the backseat and Michael didn't want to wake him, so he kept the radio off. When they got back home Michael carried Parker inside, hoping that he wouldn't wake up as soon as they got into the apartment like he sometimes did.

Michael brought Parker inside and walked into the living room, where Luke was still awake and watching TV. He's gone to Sara and tried to talk to her but, long story short, things didn't work out quite as planned and Luke was still living with Michael.

"Hey." Michael said as he sat down on the couch, Parker on his lap.

"Aren't you going to put him to bed?" Luke asked, turning down the volume on the TV.

"He's fine." Michael said, letting out a big sigh. "He's been asleep for almost an hour now, I don't think he'll wake up again any time soon."

"You guys were gone for a while, is everything okay?" Luke questioned.

"Uh, yeah." Michael shrugged. "I got into a little argument with Katie's mom."

"Wait, really? Isn't she kind of crazy?" Luke asked. "Did she start it? What did see say? Was it about your hair?"

"She's really crazy." Michael confirmed, nodding. "I saw her and I just blew up. She treats everyone like shit and I was starting to get sick of it."

"You didn't yell too much, did you? What if she gets mad at Melissa for something you said to her?" Luke rambled off questions, not giving Michael time to answer any of them. "What if she thinks Melissa told you to go over there and say something to her? What if she - "

"It's going to be fine, Luke, she's not going to get fired." Michael scoffed. Katie's mom might get mad at Melissa for what happened, but she would never fire her. "I just got mad, I overreacted a little, it's not that big of a deal."

"Uh, it kind of is a big deal." Luke sighed. "You know that if she gets fired she's going to blame you."

"She'd blame me even if it wasn't my fault." Michael said sarcastically, shifting a little and pulling Parker closer to him.

"I don't know, Michael, I just have this weird feeling." Luke said softly, "I don't know exactly what you said to her, but I have a pretty good idea that you took things too far."

"Well then that's my problem." Michael snapped. "I'll figure it out, Luke, you don't need to worry about me."

"Fine, fine." Luke said, shaking his head. "I was just trying to... Whatever, it's fine."

Michael sighed again, not wanting to start yet another argument tonight. He leaned back on the couch, careful not to disturb Parker.

"I saw Sara talking shit about me on Instagram today." Luke blurted out after a few minutes of silence.

"Really?" Michael laughed, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, yeah, I was stalking her pictures and she posted a thing from her ultrasound and one of her friends that she hasn't seen in a while commented and asked who the father was and Sara said that 'unfortunately it's Luke'. UNFORTUNATELY?" Luke said, sitting up straight. "I mean I know that she's mad at me right now but she doesn't need to talk about this stuff on Instagram!"

"That's dumb." Michael said, nodding slowly.

"I would never say anything like that about her." Luke pouted, folding his arms across his chest. "She's so stupid."

"Well don't say that, you're never going to win her back with that attitude." Michael chuckled softly. "She's not stupid, she's just upset with you right now. Give her time."

"I'm not going to win her back at all." Luke snapped.

"You've got to be kidding me." Michael groaned. He was sick of Luke acting like this. Michael understood that he was trying really hard to reach out to Sara but she was just being stubborn as well.

"I don't want to get back together with her knowing that she's not even happy about me being the father of her children!" Luke argued. He raised his voice for a moment and then quieted down again, remembering that Parker was still there.

"I'm sure she didn't actually mean that whole thing on Instagram. She's just bitter right now, Luke, you really hurt her." Michael said, running his fingers through Parker's hair as he slept.

"I don't know, whatever. I won't be surprised if she doesn't even let me see the babies when they're born." Luke sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, leaning back on the couch.

"You'll be fine, Luke. It'll all turn out okay." Michael said quietly, closing his eyes. He was pretty tired as well, it'd been a busy day for all of them.

"I always thought that Emily and Ashton would split up first." Luke said after a few minutes of silence, startling Michael.

"Yeah..." Michael trailed off. "I mean, technically you and Sara aren't the first out of our group to break up."

None of Michael's friends had expected him and Beth to ever break up. They were so in love as teenagers, it seemed like they were going to stay together for ever. But people change, and Michael was okay with that now.

"Oh, right." Luke nodded. He shrugged, "I still thought it was going to be Ashton and Emily."

"I don't think they'll be separating any time soon." Michael said quietly, waiting for this conversation with Luke to end so he could go to sleep. He needed to get Parker to bed, too, otherwise he might hear Michael and Luke talking and wake up again.

"I wish I wasn't such a pussy." Luke sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah." Michael nodded. He also wished that Luke wasn't such a pussy, because then maybe he wouldn't be sleeping on Michael's couch every night. He'd be at home, with his girlfriend.

"I just...I can't take care of two kids, Michael, I can't. Sara knows that, and I feel really bad about the fact that she's doing this all on her own, but I really just can't." Luke said, letting out another sigh. He stared down at Parker for a moment and then looked away quickly.

"You have to try, Luke." Michael shook his head. He didn't understand why Luke had to be so stubborn about this, he couldn't just say that he wasn't ready to take care of kids when he didn't even know what taking care of kids was like in the first place.

"But - "

"I didn't think I was ready to have a kid at 19 but I committed to taking care of the baby because I loved my girlfriend and I wanted to make her happy." Michael said, trying really hard not to yell at Luke again. "You can't just bail on Sara because you think you're not ready. You don't even know if you're ready or not."

"I'm 23 years old! I barely have a job and I still have to call my mom every time I do my laundry and I can't cook anything besides mac and cheese and instant rice! I can't go from that to having two kids!" Luke said, raising his voice a little. Michael slapped him on the shoulder, not wanting Parker to wake up.

"You're going to regret this, you know." Michael sighed, figuring that there was nothing more that he could say to change Luke's mind. Michael hoped that eventually Luke would learn his lesson.

"Yeah," Luke nodded slowly, "I know."

They sat there quietly for the next few minutes, both of them wondering if they other was going to say anything more. Finally Michael decided that there was no point in sticking around.

"I'm going to go put this little guy to bed." Michael said and stood up from the couch, keeping Parker in his arms.

"Alright." Luke nodded and kept his eyes on the TV, which was playing some random movie that Michael didn't even know the name of.

Michael carried Parker down the hall and into his room, setting him down on his bed. Michael got some pajamas out of Parker's dresser and carefully put them on him, trying not to disturb Parker and accidentally wake him up.

Luckily Parker was a very heavy sleeper and hardly even stirred while Michael got him ready for bed. He couldn't deal with waking Parker up to take his medicine or brush his teeth so he just left him, deciding that Parker could skip it for one night. Michael tucked Parker in under the covers and then kissed him on the forehead quickly before turning out the light.

He was almost out of the room when Parker decided to wake up and literally jump out of bed.

"Daddy?" Parker practically yelled, running over to where Michael was standing.

"Jesus Christ, Parker! You scared me, what are you doing?" Michael snapped, turning the light on again.

"I didn't brush my teeth." Parker pouted, folding his arms across his chest. "Mommy says I always need to brush my teeth."

"I thought you were too tired, buddy, I was just going to let you sleep." Michael sighed, rubbing over his face with his hands. He was never going to get Parker to go back to sleep now.

"I have to!" Parker yelled and then ran past Michael, out of the room and down the hall. Michael let out a groan and followed Parker into the bathroom, where he was already brushing his teeth on his own.

"You need to go straight to bed after this, understand?" Michael asked, leaning up against the doorframe and watching Parker brush his teeth. "You can't stay up any later, it's late."

"Okay." Parker nodded quickly after spitting into the sink. "I need the yucky medicine."

"Right, you do." Michael nodded, almost forget about it himself. He got Parker's medicine out of the cabinet and poured some for him, laughing just a little when Parker cringed at the taste.

"Ew." He whined, crinkling up his nose.

Michael chuckled again and cleaned up everything that Parker had gotten out in the bathroom, even though he knew that Luke was going to go in there later and mess everything up again.

"Ready?" Michael questioned, giving Parker a small shove out the door, pushing him down the hallway.

"Can I sleep in your room tonight, Daddy?" Parker stopped in front of his bedroom door and looked innocently up at Michael. "Please?"

"Why?" Michael asked blankly. He was really trying to get Parker out of the habit of sleeping with him every night and it didn't seem to be working.

"I'm scared." Parker said, pouting again.

"Fine." Michael sighed, turning around and walking into the living room again, Parker following behind him. "I'm going to bed too, make sure you put the milk away before you go to sleep." He said to Luke, who was still fixated on the TV in front of him.

"'Kay!" Luke called back, not even bothering to look in Michael's direction.

They went into Michael's room this time and Parker immediately crawled onto the bed, getting under the covers and making himself comfortable. Michael told him to stay there while he left and got himself ready for bed.

Michael returned a few minutes later and found Parker almost asleep again, taking up most of the space on the bed.

"Scoot over, you're hogging all of the covers." Michael groaned as he got into bed.

"I am not." Parker whined, not moving at all. Michael pushed him a little, giving himself some more room.

"Yes you are." Michael argued, shoving Parker to the other side of the bed.

"I'm not. Stop pushing me." Parker pouted and rolled over so his face was buried in a pillow. "I'm sleeping."

"No, you're not." Michael said, shaking his head.

"Yes I am." Parker mumbled, reaching over and hitting Michael on the chest. "I'm sleeping, goodnight Daddy."

"Night, Park." Michael sighed, finally getting into a comfortable position, despite the fact that Parker was definitely taking up more than half of the bed. "I love you."

Michael didn't receive a response from Parker, he might have been sleeping or he might have been purposely ignoring Michael. Either way, it kind of hurt.