once i was

TALIA: Great, I wanted to go for a hike. You can watch Anna.

TALIA: You can’t see it, but I’m rolling my eyes.

TALIA: When will you be back?

CLAY: Oh, I felt it.

TALIA: You shouldn’t make so many assumptions.

TALIA: I’m not mad.

TALIA: Right. Silly me.

TALIA: And that’s a reason to sneak out of bed in the early morning?

TALIA: I woke up and you weren't there.

TALIA: "Is that right?" she questioned, a hint of teasing in her voice. "I don't know. I haven't felt that way for the past three years, so you might have to remind me what it's like."

CLAY: "Well, I'll be giving you a reminder in, like, two minutes," he added, turning into the hospital entrance. "I mean...when the appropriate moment arises, of course. Like when the doctors tell us our baby's in the clear."

It was the first time he'd spoke of Anna in such a way - as though he actively took part in making her; like she was on purpose or something. Whatever the circumstances, he found himself beyond ecstatic to have a little offspring with the only person he could ever imagine doing this with.

TALIA: She paced back and forth down the hallway, the sound of beeping monitors and announcements in the background. With every one she heard, Talia’s head rose, expecting to receive an update on Anna - but there was none. She clenched her jaw, wishing they’d tell her something, anything, to keep her nerves at bay.

“Well, you /are/ the only guy I know who’d be able to pull that off,” she admitted, adding a moment later, “but then I’d have to wonder if you’re just as closeted as he was.” She laughed, letting him know that she was only teasing. There wasn’t one doubt in her mind where his desires laid.

CLAY: Sped through a couple of questionable red lights, missing a few close calls, all the while remaining as calm as he possibly could on the phone to Talia - knowing that's what she needed right now.

TALIA: He was right. This was their profession and they knew what they were doing. She would be alright. And, really, in a weird way, it was a good thing that this was happening. Now they’d know for sure what was wrong with Anna and they could stop it from ever happening again.

Since when was Clay the reasonable one between the two of them? Regardless, she was grateful for him in this moment, and was glad she has told him about Anna in the first place.

/Tell me anything./ There was so much she could say. She could tell him how much she missed him, how seeing him again sparked up old feelings for him, how she never thought she’d love anyone as much as she loved him. But Talia would never say any of those things, and especially not to him.

“The Queen movie was a smash.” Why that was the first thing to pop into her head, she’d never know, but her and Clay did initially bond about their shared love of music.

CLAY: His phone was glued to his ear but his hand firmly gripped the wheel as he sped through the streets of LA, leaving plenty of angry commuters in his wake but he didn't care who he was endangering or who he was pissing off -- getting to Talia and Anna was the most important thing.

TALIA: He was surprisingly good at calming her down in an emergency, and Talia thought she owed him a bit more credit because the fact that he was rushing over to the hospital to see her and Anna was more than she expected. It's not as though she thought he wouldn't care, but she did expect him to take his sweet, old time getting there. Maybe he'd have to kick a woman out of his bed first, that sort of thing.

"I can't remember how it started, or what she was doing at the time. Maybe it was something I fed her?" Talia wondered, instantly feeling like a horrible mother for causing her daughter any sort of suffering.

CLAY: "Maybe it was but whatever it is, they're gonna do their job and figure it out, alright? That's what these people get paid to do," he tried to assure her, not wanting her to freak the fuck out even though Clay knew Talia would be beside herself. He felt the same but he didn't want her to know that.

Starting the car, he took off down the street but kept the phone to his ear.

TALIA: She closed her eyes, raising her free hand to her nose and pinching the sides as she inhaled again. It was her quickest way of calming down during stressful situations. "Cedars-Sinai," Talia told him. Surprisingly, knowing that he was on his way there made her feel better. At least they'd be in it together. "She has a fever, a really high fever, and a rash. I don't know how it happened."

TALIA: “Clay, hi,” Talia spoke, exasperatedly. She’d never dealt with something like this with Anna, and it was terrifying for her. “Don’t worry, but I just wanted to let you know Anna’s in the hospital.” She inhaled a deep breath and continued to explain. “They don’t know what’s wrong. She had an allergic reaction of some sort.”

CLAY: Straight away he knew that this wasn't a normal call. She sounded...nervous. Not in the good way, either. As soon as she mentioned Anna his stomach dropped.

TALIA: At first, she didn't want to call him. She wasn't sure he'd be in the right state of mind to come to the hospital, anyway. For all she knew, he was out partying, and was going to show up high out of his mind. Or worse, not show up at all. But Clay was Anna's father, and he had a right to know when something was wrong. And, truth be told, now that he was back in Los Angeles, Talia wanted him to be involved in their daughter's life.

Fingers trembling, Talia dialed the familiar number and waited for him to pick up.

CLAY: Today was the day. He could feel it in his bones. Today, something monumental was going to happen. Today - hopefully - he would be writing his next great novel.

Sat at his desk, he cracked his knuckles and listened to the sweet scratch of vinyl before he was about to put his fingers to the keys of his typewriter.

That's when the phone rang and he could have sworn he was tripping. Talia was calling him? Now? Highly unusual and slightly worrying.

TALIA: The look on Clay’s face was enough to tell her he was pissed. She knew him well enough that she could spot that fire in his eyes from a mile away. She was in deep shit and she wasn’t sure how to get out of it. Feeling another fight coming on, but not wanting to disturb Anna, Talia shook her head.

“I don’t want you to, but I don’t think right now is the time for... all of this,” she waved her hand around, indicating to the two of them and their daughter. “That’s no one you need to worry about. He’s a friend, someone who helped me out lately, got me a job and all that.”

Chewing on her lower lip, Talia’s eyes flickered towards the hallway, knowing that Harry would come looking for her if she didn’t respond. “Be there in a sec,” she called back, looking again to Clay. “I’ll introduce you, but you’re not going to like him.”

CLAY: He watched as Talia flailed her arms about trying to diffuse the situation before there was even a situation ti diffuse. She knew him too well.

He didn't necessarily have a short fuse or a bad temper but when it came to her he was very protective - sometimes a little too much for someone who wasn't her boyfriend or her husband.

There as just this unspoken claim that the two of them had on one another and whenever that felt threatened things tended to get a little messy.

Reeling back into the moment to look back at his daughter -yeah, wow, he had one of those now - he swallowed back and sarcastic or pissy remarks before handing the child back to her mother.

TALIA: She nodded, a fond smile taking over her features. To be honest, she was impressed by his ability to ease into being a father so easily. Maybe it was instinctual, like it had been for her, but she truly thought he made it look effortless. And the amount of love he felt for his daughter, even though they’d never met, was obvious just from the look he gave her.

“I do,” she began, only falling silent when she heard the front door creak, signaling that someone had entered. It could only be one person, and suddenly, Talia felt nervous at the thought of Clay meeting him.

“Guess who’s brought dinner!” came the enthusiastic voice of the one and only Harry Bishop, the man who had entered Talia’s life at a time when she most needed a shoulder to cry on.

Meeting Clay’s eyes, Talia swallowed thickly. “Maybe you should go. But you’re welcome here whenever you want to see her.”

CLAY: It was perfect. The definition of a perfect moment. Absolutely dream-like. There they were, Clay, the love of his life and the life that they had made together; the bundle of perfection that was their daughter. He wanted to bottle the feeling up, this amazing, euphoric feeling that was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before.

That was when an unfamiliar voice cut through it and ruined it all.

Eyebrows pushing together, Clay's head snapped around and he looked back for Talia for answers. Thankfully the guy was out of eyesight but the voice alone was enough to piss him off.

Had some other jerk been playing house here all this time while Clay was off in the world doing his regular shit, being none-the-wiser to all of this?