Crossroads of Life

Maddy’s appointment with her doctor was an ultrasound to check on the baby. We were told we could be told what gender it will be, but I don’t think Madison wanted to know. She didn’t want to get attached incase something happened.

During the ride there, she stared out the window, completely lost in thought. She’s been doing that since the night of the get together, so I was starting to think maybe something was said to her.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked, causing her to jump. She looked over at me with wide eyes.

“It’s nothing,” She finally muttered after a minute.

“It must be something,” I replied, pulling into office parking lot. “You haven’t been that entranced since you went to see the magic show.”

“I know,” she sighed and let her hand rest on her stomach. “I was just thinking about something Matt said.”

“Which Matt?” I asked slowly, wanting to be prepared for the answer, I wasn’t at all.

“Our Matt, Sanders,” she replied. “The night you took me to Jimmy, when I told them what was going on, he said something that’s had me thinking since he said it.”

“What did he say?” I asked, shutting the car off and sitting back in the seat.

“He said he doesn’t like the idea of adoption unless I found a family I knew would take really good care of the baby,” she muttered. “He also said I had him and Valary to help me out, I’ve just been thinking, what if I asked them to adopt the baby?”

“That’s not to bad an idea, you’ll get to see her everyday, you’ll know she’ll be well taken care of.”

“Will you help me ask them?” she asked, looking at me with pleading eyes. I couldn’t deny her if I wanted to. She looked too scared and helpless. I nodded and got out of the car, walking around to help her out as well.

“Are you sure you don’t want to know sis?” I asked Maddy as we walked through the front doors. She didn’t reply, mainly because she was staring at something in the lobby. I followed her gaze, and my blood started to boil with rage. Korklan was sitting in one of the waiting room chairs, his head in his hands and staring at the floor.

“What are you doing here?” I snapped, walking up to him. He jumped and looked up, finally realizing we walked into the building.

“I came here to be with the mother of my child,” he replied, looking at Maddy.

“I don’t want you here,” she said flatly. “Not after how you embarrassed me and just left me high and dry when I needed you the most.” She walked up to the nurse behind the desk and checked in, also informing her the gentleman she was just talking to was not allowed back with her.

“I’m here Madison, what more do you want?” he snapped.

“You already know,” I said, squinting my eyes at him. “Just your pretty little signature on a couple sheets of paper.”

“I’m not signing my rights away, this is bull…”

“Sir,” the woman behind the desk said. “Will you mind keeping your voice down? This is a place of business.” Matt just hissed out a sigh and started yanking at his hair.

“I’m not signing my rights to my kid away,” he said in a lower tone. “I’m not doing it. What the hell do you think will happen? I know your scared for the delivery Maddy, but you have to think, that was your mother, not you, who died, and you won’t do what your mother did to Mike. You won’t keep my kid from me if I wanted to be a part of his life.”

“If you would shut up for a minute, we can tell you that Madison’s been thinking long and hard about everything,” I snapped before he could start up again. “And we were going to ask two of our friends if they would consider adopting the baby if it came down to it.”

“Which two?”

“Does it fucking matter?” I hissed as the woman looked our way again. “They’re married, they’ll make great parents, they won’t keep the kid from Madison or even you for that matter. Hell, they’ll probably tell the kid from day one who his birth parents are.”

“It’s Matt and Val,” Madison snapped at Matt. “Okay? Matthew and Valary Sanders is who I’m planning on talking to. If he was still around, I would of asked Jimmy and Leana, but since he’s not here, that takes them out, so the only ones I can think of is Matt and Val. Brian broke up with his girlfriend because she was a psychotic bitch and Gena and Zack and Lacey and Johnny are only dating.”

“Matt’s the big guy I met at the show right?” Korklan asked. Madison nodded as a nurse walked out.

“Madison Haner?” she called back. She sighed and looked at the two of us.

“Come back if you want, just stay out of the way,” She snapped at Matt before turning to follow the nurse.

“Is the baby a boy?” Matt asked suddenly.

“Don’t know, she won’t let them tell her the gender, she doesn’t want to get too attached.”

“She really is terrified about the delivery isn’t she?” he muttered as we followed Madison into a room.

“You have no idea,” I replied, watching my sister. “And you arguing with her like this is not helping her one bit.”

“Are you two coming or what?” Madison snapped, peeking out of the room. We walked into the room as she sat on the table.

“Okay so, we’re just going to look at the baby and see how things are going. I see you was never told the sex of the baby, do you want to know?”

“No, I don’t.” Madison replied, turning her face away from the monitor. The technician watched Madison, confusion all over her face, before turning back to the screen and turning on the power. I watched the baby, the beautiful little baby that was my niece or nephew, but looking down at Maddy, who was refusing point blank to look, my heart broke for her. This wasn’t the way a mother to be should be experiencing her pregnancy. She should be excited and overcome with emotions at seeing her baby, not turning her head in the other direction.

The tech finished the ultrasound and announced the baby was developing normally. She was right on track for being six months.

“I have a meeting to go to, do you want to come Maddy or do you want me to drop you off at home?”

“I’ll go, I have to talk to Matt and Val anyway,” Madison muttered, easing herself into her seat. I turned to look at Korklan, who was watching Madison with a blank expression. After shutting her door, I walked up to him.

“Now do you see how much she’s giving up for this?” I growled at him. “How set she has it in her mind to go through with the adoption. I don’t care what you do, just sign those damn papers and get the hell out of my sister’s life.”

~POV: Maddy~
The meeting wasn’t too long, and they all made the final decision that with everything that I’m going through, and the fact that Johnny’s ankle still wasn’t completely healed, it would be best to cancel the rest of the tour, and to go on temporary hiatus.

I watched Matt and Val from across the room the entire time we were there. There was no doubt in my mind that if anyone should adopt my baby, it should be those two. They would make great parents, and they would raise the baby as their own.

“Matt, Val,” I said quietly as Zack started talking loudly. “There’s something I wanted to talk to the two of you about.”

“What’s up little sister?” Matt asked, patting the seat in between the two of them. I eased myself down, getting myself more adjusted, and took a deep breath.

“I don’t know how to ask but to just ask, but I was wondering if….” I was cut off by Zack throwing something at the door. I glanced up and saw it was Korklan.

“You have a lot of balls showing up here,” Matt said, standing up and walking up to my ex.

“Get out of here Matt,” I called, trying to stand up. “The longer you stay, the more pissed these guys will get, and it’s hard to tell what they’ll do, especially Big Matty over there.”

“Here, allow me to demonstrate,” Matt said, cracking his knuckles and neck and running toward Korklan. Korky jumped backward as Zack and Brian caught Matt by his arms.

“He’s not worth it Matt,” Zack muttered to his friend.

“He might not be, but that woman over there is,” Matt replied, throwing Zack off of him and storming in the other direction.

“Come on, we’ll go talk at the house,” Matt said, grabbing my hand and helping me off the couch. I didn’t say anything during the ride there, none of us did.

“So, what was you about to ask?” Val asked after she handed me a glass of water. I opened my mouth to say something, but the baby chose that minute to kick my ribs, which left me a little breathless.

“Kid’s got some fight in ‘im.” Matt said as I rubbed the spot.

“Well look at the parents,” I muttered, taking in a deep breath. “Okay, I’ve been thinking about this long and hard, and this is the only thing I could think of to do. I-I was wondering if you two wanted to try to adopt the baby.”

“You want us to raise her?” Val asked, glancing over at Matt, who looked shell shocked. I nodded, biting on my lower lip waiting for them to reply.

“Wow, this is so sudden, can you give us a little bit to think it over?” Matt asked finally.

“I know, it’s a big thing for me to ask, but you’re the only two I know I can trust in raising him. You can take time to think it over, but please, let me know soon.”

“We’ll talk it over tonight,” Val promised. I nodded, thankful to have such caring friends.

“Brian just pulled up,” Matt announced, looking out the front window. “He’s waiting on you.”

“Just, give it some thought, please. If you can’t, then I completely understand, there’s no pressure.”

“We know, now go before your brother goes haywire.” Valarie said. I nodded and walked out of the house, sighing heavily as I walked to the car.

~POV: Matt S.~
Val and I watched as Madison got into Brian’s car and drove away.

“I can’t believe she asked us,” Val muttered as soon as they were gone. “That took a lot of guts for her to do that.”

“I know,” I replied, walking up to her and wrapping my arms around her waist. “She needs the help right now.”

“She does,” Val agreed with a sigh. “But are we really ready to take that step Matt? That’s a baby, a little human who will be dependant of us for most of his life.”

“I think we are ready,” I admitted. “I know, I sound crazy, but what other time than now to start working on raising a family? I’m not touring, the baby will be here in three months, and I know there won’t be a tour for at least another eight months, so that’ll give us time to get her in a routine. We’re financially stable, and we’ve always talked about having kids. We’ve been trying for so long, I’m not to sure if it will happen for us or not.”

“You’re right,” Val muttered with a sigh. Her eyes brightened suddenly, and smile formed on her face. “Did we just decide?” she asked me.

“I think we did,” I said, realization dawning on me. “We’ll do it right?”

“Let’s do it, it’ll help Maddy, we’ll get a baby and the baby will be in a good home, and still be able to be around his birth mother. It’s a brilliant idea.”

“Wait, I don’t think we should be getting our hopes up to high,” I muttered suddenly. “Korklan isn’t budging in signing away his rights to the kid, and he’s against the adoption. He thinks they could work it out if Madison moves to St. Louis with him.”

“Not happening,” Val said, shaking her head.

“She was planning it anyway, her and Leana.” I pointed out.

“I know, but that was before she became pregnant.” Val said. “She can’t move clear across the country now.”

“She’s not, and that’s what’s pissing Korklan off so much. She’s doing whatever she can to do right by the baby, but he’s being a selfish prick who doesn’t want to give up anything.”

“Then we’ll take him to court to get his rights extinguished.” Val said in a matter of fact tone.

“It won’t be that simple,” I muttered. “We’ll start everything out, but it will ultimately be up to him if it goes through.”

“Want to call Maddy and let her know?” Val asked. Matt nodded and grabbed his cell phone as Valarie grabbed her.

“Who are you calling?” he asked, watching his wife.

“My mother, we have a nursery to prepare.” Val replied, dialing the number. Matt laughed as his wife ran up the stairs. He was excited, but he had a bad feeling they were setting themselves up for some major disappointment.