The Shock of Your Life

As I saw him look into the same brown eyes, I knew he knew what he was seeing. The same messy brown hair, gorgeous brown eyes and even the same lips.

After a while his eyes softened, I became more nervous but Harrison calmed down.

Richie looked more intensely at my little boy, then reached out his arms to take him. A little hesitantly, I passed Harrison over to him.

For a few seconds Richie looked at him, then held him on his hip and wiped Harrison's face gently.

I watched them both very closely, I still didn't know how Richie would react or if he was going to be this calm about it.

He smiled warmly at him, "Hi buddy," he said.

It surprised me when Harrison calmed down and leaned his head against Richie as he soothingly stroked his back.

"You should go back to sleep so your mommy and I can talk."

Still, I had no clue of what to expect or even what to say at this moment. I was at a loss for words, but their interaction was one of a kind.

Harrison became sleepy again and Richie gently put him down in his cot and tucked him in before walking out of the room. I sighed deeply and followed him back to the living room. I was pretty sure we weren't going to continue where we had left off almost half an hour ago.

Richie was pacing beside the futon when I walked in to the room, he was thinking deeply.

Finally he looked up at me, the hurt in his eyes shocked me. "He's mine, isn't he?"
I nodded carefully, unsure of where this was going and how it was going to get there.

He turned around and paced to the wall, once there, he turned back towards me.

He sighed, hesitated and wanted to say something but shook his head and turned back to the wall.

Once he faced me again, his gentle brown eyes had turned angry. "How could you keep this from me? I have a one year old son and I didn't know about any of this shit? How could you do that? Why?" He said angrily before turning back to walk towards the wall.

I had answers to his questions but I wasn't able to say anything.

"That's why you wanted to come here instead of the hotel." He muttered. "To show him to me, and then what?" He faced me again, anger still in his eyes. "You bring me here, show me where you live... Want me to pity you?"

That angered me. "No! I work hard to be able to afford this, it's not a mansion like your place but it's my own place. I brought you here so you could finally meet Harry."
"Why now?" He asked.
"I tried to get in contact with you when I found out I was pregnant and when he was born."
He gave me a skeptical look. "You obviously didn't try hard enough."
"I did." I defended myself, I had tried every which way I could. "I found your agent, talked to her a few times on the phone and each time she told me to leave you alone and wouldn't pass on a message. When the band was here for promo I hung out at the BBC building for days but you never saw me. I wanted to try again in July with the concert and finding out you were going to The Stones concert but Harry prevented that. I tried." I said very firmly. I had tried to get in contact with him to let him know about his son but every way I tried had failed and that wasn't my fault.

He sighed as he shook his head and continued his pacing.

"I have a son." The disbelief was clear in his voice. "I have a son and I missed an entire year of his life."