THE MOMENT

Alex stood in front of the flowers everyone had laid for her father, her mother stood beside her as her tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Goodnight dad," She whispers and she places her flower on top of her fathers coffin. The priest says a few words that Alex blocks out as the coffin is lowered into the ground, some of the flowers fall off, but Alex's stays still, at the top of the coffin, beside the one her mother had laid.

She feels her sons fingers slip into her hand and she gives his hand a gentle squeeze, wiping the tears quickly out of sight.

She looks down at her son who was dressed in a little black suit, and he too had tear filled eyes. He knew his grandad was gone now, and he would never see him again, never hear a lullaby or have a bear hug, or pass him chocolate biscuits under the table. Nathan understood what the ceremony meant, and that made it worse for Alex. Rachel takes Nathan's other hand and leads him away from the burial site, taking him towards the cars.

"One day I'll see you again," Alex whispers, her hands pressed into her black coat pockets.

She's about to turn away when she notices, by the bunches of flowers, where her fathers 'DAD' and 'GRANDAD' flowers sat there was a wreath style collection of flowers. She walks forwards and kneels down, seeing the name written on the little card.

You were like a father to me, and you always will be.

- Simon x

Alex runs her fingers over the delicate flowers before standing up and looking at the collection again.

"Alex," She hears and she swiftly turns to see Simon.

"Simon," She says and he looks at her puffy red eyes, the tear stains on her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry, Alex," Simon whispers and Alex smiles weakly and nods.

"Thank you Simon, and thank you for the flowers...He saw you as the son he never had," Alex says and Simon opens his arms. Alex falls into them and hugs him tightly, breathing in deeply, and out slowly.

"You will get through this, Alex, it'll take time, and it'll always be there, but, just know he was so damn proud of you, he always has been, and wherever he is now, I'm sure he's going to be watching your back every step of the way," Simon says and Alex nods, and she pulls away.

"Remember that time when he jumped off the roof onto the trampoline and he sprained his ankle, that was so damn funny," Simon says and Alex smiles widely, eyes glued to Simon's.

"Alex?!" She hears and she looks round and sees her mother.

"Coming," Alex says and her mother glares towards Simon before turning and walking away.

"God, I always knew she hated me, and I knew she hid her hate because Paul liked me, but I didn't expect her to be showing her hatred so soon after-" Simon stops before he can say the words.

"She's just a bitch, I mean...That sounds so horrible, but its the truth, and I know dad not being around is going to make her worse than ever," Alex says, sighing deeply.

"She loves you though," Simon says and Alex nods.

"I know...And I love her, I really do, but sometimes she just needs to respect my choices," Alex says and Simon nods in agreement.

Simon walks Alex down to the cars and he bids her a short farewell, he'd decided he wouldn't go to the wake, he didn't want to intrude, but Alex insisted. Simon sighed and finally agreed to go, but he would have to go in his own car as he had it parked in the car park. Alex found it strange that Simon had driven down to Eastbourne rather than catching a train but she just agreed and got into the car with her mother and Nathan.

"Don't tell me he's coming to the wake?" Rachel asks sourly.

"He is," Alex says sharply earning a glare from Rachel, "He's coming because he saw dad as his second father and you know dad saw him as the son he never had,"

"Your dad almost had a son, well a stepson," Rachel says and Alex looks round quickly.

"What?" She asks, her voice laced with poison.

"I was pregnant 5 years before I had you, I had a stillborn...A stillborn baby boy,"

"5 years before me? You would have been 16...That explains a lot," Alex says, eyes shifting to look at Nathan, "You didn't want me to repeat the same mistake, you wanted me to grow up...You didn't want me to have a child so young, like you almost did,"

"Now you know," Rachel says and Alex just looks away again.

"What did you call him?"

"I called him Seth, Seth Parker," Rachel says and Alex gulps.

"Thats why you wanted Seth to be Nathan's middle name," Alex says and Rachel nods.

"I'm sorry for that, I should have told you at the time why the name meant a lot to me, but...I couldn't bring myself to tell you," Rachel whispers.

Moments later they arrive at the venue for the wake, the local pub where Paul sometimes went for a drink. Simon approaches Alex who seemed to be in a shock like status.

"Mom just told me I had a brother, a half brother he would have been...He was a stillborn...Mom had him at 16," Alex tells Simon when she sees the concern in his eyes.

"Jesus, thats crazy," Simon says and Alex nods.

"I know, I can't believe she hadn't told me before," Alex says as Nathan follows his grandmother into the pub.

They head inside and just like before, Rachel throws Simon dirty looks as she takes Nathan to sit down.

Alex leads Simon over and Simon takes a seat beside his son, asking him how school is going.

"Why do you feel the need to bring him over here?" Rachel whispers to Alex and Alex rolls her eyes.

"Just deal with it please, he's the father of my son for god sake," Alex says, "Show some respect,"

Rachel shakes her head and gets up, walking over to some of her colleagues.

"I'm sorry about her," Alex says and Simon nods.

"Its alright, I know what to expect from her anyway," Simon says and Nathan snuggles into his fathers side, yawning softly before closing his sleepy eyes.

"He's adorable," Says a woman walking past, she was one of Paul's colleagues.

"He sure is," Simon chuckles softly and the woman smiles.

"You must be Alex, god I haven't seen you in years, since you were tiny," The woman says, "I'm Sandra, in case you forgot,"

"I'm Alex, this is Simon," The younger girl smiles and Simon smiles at Sandra.

"And this is your son? Paul spoke about his grandson a lot, he was so proud of you Alex, raising him on your own and all, and still managing to be a chef like you wanted," Sandra says and Simon looks at Alex with a small smile, he felt guilty still, for not being part of Nathan's life till recently.

"Thank you Sandra, but Simon is here now, and he's already proved to be an amazing father," Alex says and Sandra nods.

"Well, I'm happy for you dear, and I'm sorry to hear about Paul, he was a good man, a hard worker and he loved his family more than anything, and he was so, so proud of you," Sandra says and Alex smiles weakly before watching the woman walk away.

Alex looks at Simon before leaning her head on his shoulder. He tilts his head to rest against her head, sighing deeply. Simon and Alex push their hands together, intertwining their fingers.

They sat in silence, taking in the moment, the moment they realised everything had changed.

____________

Ayeeeee!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed, I hope the chapter wasn't too harrowing for everyone

~KatnissBajanCanadian❤