The Good Life

A/N: I made a huge mistake!! I uploaded the chapter last week called Taking Responsibility when I was supposed to upload this one first. So I'm going to upload this one and then put the other back after this one. Sorry if that's confusing lol but I will fix it.

Izzy

"Papa he won't eat all of his food." Izzy complained to me with Bass in her arms. She kept trying to put the bottle to his mouth, but he moved his mouth away each time.

"He doesn't want anymore." I said.

"Yeah but he only drunk like half of it."

"That's fine. He'll cry for the other half of it later."

"If you say so. Do you mind watching him while I go hang out with Lynn and the guys?"

"Of course not!" I exclaimed. She handed me Bass and she left to go get dressed.

"Wow she's only been home a month and we're already babysitters." Alex said and I rolled my eyes.

"She just finished healing so of course she wants to get out of the house." I told him.

"She can do that as long as she's home by curfew. Just because she has a child doesn't mean she won't still be treated like one." He said and I laughed.

"I'm sure she understands that, Lex."

I burped Bass since Izzy forgot to do it. I went over the basics she needed to follow for taking care of a baby, but she didn't remember everything. It was a good thing Alex and I were here helping her.

I leaned onto Alex's shoulder with Bass laying on my chest. Alex threw his arm around my shoulder and kissed my forehead. "Does this remind you of when we had Izzy?" I asked and he chuckled.

"Yeah this kind of reminds me of when Izzy was first born. He cries more than she did though."

"That's because he likes attention. Don't you baby?" I leaned down and kissed him on the forehead and he cooed.

"Wow he makes other noises? I thought the only noises he could make were cries and screams." Alex said sarcastically.

"Leave him alone. That's the only way he can communicate with us."

"Bass look at my lips moving. Try to imitate me." Alex said to the baby as if he would understand. Bass stared at Alex trying to figure out what he was doing.

"You're an idiot." I told Alex and he agreed. "Bass are you ready for tummy time!" I exclaimed. I made Alex place a blanket on the floor then I placed Bass on his stomach on the floor. He immediately began fussing, he hated doing this.

"I'm sorry, buddy but you need to get stronger neck muscles." I said.

"Bass I'm trying to watch TV so I need you to tone down the crying." Alex told him.

I took out his little rattle and shook it to grab his attention. He slowly quieted down and tried to reach for the rattle. I smiled as I got him to lift his head for a few seconds to reach for it.

"See that wasn't so bad." I picked him up and gave him the rattle.

I sat back on the couch next to Alex. I ticked Bass's sides and played with him until Alex's TV show went off. Alex turned to also play with him. He picked up Izzy's bee stuffed animal and made it pretend to kiss Bass. Bass grabbed it and Alex let him pull it away from him. Bass held on to the bee then he moved it up to his mouth and sucked on it. I wanted to take the bee out of his mouth before Izzy came big he looked so cute. Izzy did come down stairs after a while and she came into the living room to tell us bye.

"Okay Papa and Daddy I'm lea- ... Is that Bee?! No he's getting saliva all over him!" She complained. She walked over and pulled the stuffed bee from Bass's grasp. He immediately started crying as soon as he lost contact with the toy.

"Izzy he just wanted to play with it." Alex told her.

"Play?? He was eating him!" She said dramatically.

"Whatever. I'm going to take him to get his own stuffed animal." He said.

"Good so he won't have to eat mine." She walked up to her room to put the bee back in it. Then she came back down and left with her friends. Alex reminded her that her curfew was midnight for tonight. She would get an extra hour in two months when she turned seventeen and was able to show us how responsible she was.

"Come on I'm going to go get him his own stuffed animal." Alex said, making me smile.

I carried Bass to the car and placed him in his car seat in Alex's car. Alex opened the car door for me and I got in then he got in. He drove us to the Target not too far from our house. We went in and went to the baby toy aisle.

"Pick any toy you want." Alex told Bass.

I held him in front of the toys to let him see them all. It wasn't really useful since he couldn't point out the toy he wanted.

"How about the crocodile? He looks pretty cool." I said as I grabbed the stuffed crocodile off of the shelf. I handed it to Bass and he tightly held on to it and yawned. "Yeah this is perfect." I told Alex and he laughed.

Alex grabbed my hand and took us to the checkout counter. When it was our turn next I broke the tag of the stuffed animal and handed to the employee. I knew if I attempted to take the stuffed animal from Bass for the lady to scan he would have screamed and cried.

"Now you can chew on your own toy." Alex said and kissed Bass on the top of the head. Bass was too sleepy to care about the toy right now.

"He needs a nap first. He'll want to play with it when he gets up." I said.

We walked back to the car and Alex drove us back home. When we pulled into our driveway Vicki was outside watering her plants. She waved to us as we got out of the car. Then she saw Bass in my arms and walked over.

"Oh my gosh! Hi guys!" She exclaimed. It kind of sounded fake. There was still some animosity between our two families.

"Hi Vicki." I said and Alex mumbled.

"He's so cute." She smiled at Bass then smiled back at me. "What have you all been up to?"

"Um we just went shopping for a new stuffed animal for him. What about you?"

"I've actually been planning for our family reunion. It's next weekend." She told me.

"Oh that sounds fun." I nodded.

"Yeah all of our family is going to be in town. And um it's uh funny because I told my sister about Vic having a baby and she basically told our whole family. So now they're expecting to see him during the reunion." She chuckled nervously.

"No." Alex said before I could open my mouth.

"Excuse me?" Vicki said dropping the nice act.

"You heard me, no he can't stay with you during the family reunion." Alex told her.

"And exactly why not?"

"Because I don't trust any of you."

"Do you honestly think I would do anything to hurt him?" She asked.

"I think what he means is that we haven't had Bass out of our sight since he was born. It's kind of hard to just trust him in the care of someone else right now." I explained.

"Jack you know as well as I do that I would never put him in harm’s way. I just want him to meet this side of his family too. I promise I won't take my eyes off of him. He's my grandson for goodness sakes."

"I um guess I don't see a problem with it, but I should talk to Izzy just to be sure she's okay with it too." I told her and she seemed annoyed but agreed anyways.

"Just let me know before next weekend." She mumbled and walked off.

Alex and I walked in our house and I handed him Bass as I went to make us dinner. Alex followed me trying to talk about what just happened with Vicki. I didn't necessarily have a problem with Bass staying with them for the day. Vicki is a mother and knew how to take care of a baby. It's just the idea of not constantly knowing that Bass is okay. I wouldn't want to annoy Vicki by texting her every hour.

"Are you sure he'll be okay with them?" Alex asked as he rocked Bass to sleep.

"Yeah I think so Lex. Vicki is a mom so she knows how to take care of a baby. I'm just worried about being away from him so long." I sighed.

"Yeah exactly. He won't be here to cry while I'm watching TV." He said sadly and I laughed.

"It's just one day. I think we can get through it."

"I guess so. What do you think Izzy will say?" He asked.

"She's probably going to say yes. I just didn't want to tell Vicki yes and then Izzy for some reason doesn't want him to go." I said sand he agreed.

I finished making dinner and Alex placed Bass in his crib. He had fallen asleep before I finished cooking. Alex and I finished eating dinner then we went to the media room to watch a movie. We both ended up falling asleep on whatever movie Alex turned to.

We woke up to Bass crying a few hours later. I volunteered to go get him and went to his room. I knew by the tone of his cries that he just needed a diaper change. I went in and picked him up from his crib. Then I placed him on his changing table and changed his diaper. Alex walked in as I closed Bass's onesie back up.

"Your daughter isn't home yet." He told me.

"What time is it?"

"Two-fifteen am." He said and I sighed.

"Have you tried calling her?"

"No I'll do that now." He picked up his phone and called her.

"Your mother is in serious trouble." I told Bass. He made a sound that sounded like a sigh and Alex and I laughed.

"Izzy where are you?" Alex said on the phone. "Why weren't you on your way home two hours ago?...I shouldn't have to call to tell you it's time for you to come home. Midnight means midnight...just get home, bye." He said and hung up.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"They're about to drop her off now."

A few minutes later the front door was being unlocked. Alex and I watched from upstairs as Izzy stumbled in. She was obviously drunk.

"Isabella are you drunk?" Alex asked angrily.

"What? No! I would never drink alcohol. I'm not even old enough yet." She slurred as she made her way upstairs.

"Is that why the smell of tequila is radiating off of your body?" Alex crossed his arms.

"Okay I maybe had one drink, but I was peer pressured into doing it so it's okay." She mumbled.

"No you didn't just have one drink and no it's not okay. You're grounded for a month." He told her and she rolled her eyes.

"Oh my god you act like you guys didn't go out to parties and drink when you were my age." She complained.

"Not while we had serious responsibilities like a baby." Alex told her. "You can't just go out partying like crazy and getting drunk like this when you have him. Now Jack's going to have to stay up all night with him until Bass falls back asleep because you're too drunk to do it." He scolded her.

"Wait how are you just going to volunteer me to stay up and watch him. Why can't you stay up with him?" I asked Alex.

"Because I called not it...one-two-three not it." He said quickly and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine whatever I'll stay up. Izzy you're grounded an extra week because of this." I said and she scoffed.

"Great glad that worked out. Now go to your room." Alex took her phone and keys.

Izzy went to her room without another word and Alex and I went back downstairs with Bass. I sat on the couch with Bass and I expected Alex to go to bed but he sat next to me.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm going to stay up with you two. I figured you both would miss me too much if I left you alone." He said.

"We’re big boys. We don’t need you here.” I joked.

“Okay goodnight-“ He attempted to get up.

“No Lex I was just kidding.” I whined and he smirked as he sat back down. I laid Bass comfortable in my arms before I spoke again. “I think I would rather Vicki watch him for a day than Izzy. Izzy's not responsible enough yet."

"Yeah Vicki doesn't seem half as bad right now." He agreed and I chuckled.

I threw my legs over Alex's lap and leaned against the back of the couch. Alex kissed us both on the cheek and turned on the TV to help soothe Bass. Then I successfully got Bass and myself back to sleep.

Notes

Alex and Jack should have saw this coming with Izzy.