“Cleaning House”

After leaving Kate’s hospital room, Colin’s mind was swimming. He’d only gone in there to check on her condition because he was worried about her and the baby. He’d never meant to cause her anymore pain. If anything happened to her or their child because of him, he’d never forgive himself.

He paced back and fourth outside her room, waiting for word about her condition, praying she wasn’t actually going into labor now. Damn that Sid! He was the cause of all of this! He was the reason Kate had left him! If it wasn’t for that slimy bastard then Kate would still be with Colin most likely and none of this would be happening. Hopefully he hadn’t blown his chances on the paternity suit by letting his intentions slip to Sid. First chance he got he’d have to give Richie Roberts a ring, fill him in on what he’d done.

Finally, minutes later, one of the nurses came bustling out of the room and Colin was relieved to hear that they’d managed to stop Kate’s contractions and that she and the baby were both fine.

Relieved by the good news, Colin headed back downstairs to find out what was happening with his brother-in-law, Adam, who was there in the ER to get the cut on his head checked out.

He found Adam and Raine coming out of one of the exam rooms in the ER, a large bandage on Adam’s forehead.

“Colin, where’d you go?” Raine scolded him.

“Told you,” Colin replied, grumpily, “went to check on a friend up on two.”

“My heads fine, by the way, thanks for asking,” Adam told him.

“Hmm?” Colin asked, distracted by his thoughts of what had just happened with Kate.

“My head? The whole fuckin’ reason we came here? Remember?” Adam snapped, “While you were upstairs visiting with your mate, I was down here getting stitched up by some sadistic fuck of an intern.”

“Don’t...don’t start, mate,” Colin warned him, “I’m not in the mood. As soon as we get back to the house I want you to clear your things. No way I’m getting my fuckin’ arse dragged back to prison for the likes of you.”

“Colin! You wouldn’t dare throw Adam out now? If it wasn’t for him I’d still be back in that shack, all tied up, or worse, dead!” Raine yelled at him.

“Yeah? Try me,” Colin told her, glaring at Adam. “Besides, if it wasn’t for Adam, you wouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with.”

“What’s crawled up into your arse? Two ticks ago you were all worried about my head and now you up and decide to just be done with me?” Adam asked, surprised by Colin’s sudden mood.

Colin glared at him, his jaw clenched tightly. “I...I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just get the hell out of here. A bit of sleep will do us all some good.”

Colin knew there would be no way in hell for him to ever get even joint custody of his child when it was born – if the paternity test went the way he hoped it did – if he didn’t start clearing the clutter in his life, starting with his troubled brother-in-law. He’d let it go until morning, though, for his sister’s sake. After that, it was time to clean house, so-to-speak.

“Good, that’s settled then. Let’s get you two heroes home, shall we?” Raine told them, looping her arms around theirs and leading them out to the car.