Infinite

"Atticus, we're going to be late!" Ronnie called to me. As I turned towards him with my hands in my hair, he straightened out his jacket and gave me a look. "We have to go soon," he stated, putting his hands into his pockets.

"The babysitter isn't here." I glanced to Arch who sat next to Charlie on the couch with his sock-clad feet hanging over. "We can't just leave him here alone, Ronnie."

The dark haired man rolled his eyes and leaned back against the door. "That's not what I'm suggesting," he said, "You should just bring him. We're going to be late otherwise."

Arch grinned and looked at me with excited puppy-dog eyes when I met his gaze. He scooted to the edge of the couch like he was ready to get up at any minute and I turned to glare at Ronnie, who'd put the idea in the boy's head.

I moved closer to Ronnie so Arch couldn't hear and shook my head in reply. "We can't take him into a bar," I replied, although my resolve started to disappear when Ronnie flashed me the time on his phone. I groaned and turned to Arch, who already knew that he'd won the battle. "Fine," I sighed, tangling my fingers into the curly strands of hair on my head, "We've got to get you dressed."

The five year old cheered excitedly and pushed off of the couch to change out of his pajamas. We'd spent the earlier part of the day at the record label with my father, who hadn't been very happy to find out that Arch was in my care for such a long period of time.

It took some time, but eventually we got onto discussing the band. Like I'd predicted, both my father and Bruce really liked their sound and what they'd seen of their live set. Arch crashed on one of the couches as we wrote up the paperwork for the band and I didn't bother to wake him up when it was time to go. I stuffed the papers in my bag, promised I would give the guys the news tonight, and swooped Arch up in my arms.

"I'll be back with their papers soon," I said as lingered in the doorway, waiting for Bruce to follow me into the hall.

He smiled at Arch as he dropped his head onto my shoulder and then nodded to me. "Don't rush, I'm sure the band will be eager to sign and then just bring it in when you have time tomorrow or the next day. I'm sure having a five year old takes a lot out of you."

I didn't glance at my father's expression, but I was sure that it wasn't a pleased one. I shrugged my shoulders in reply to his statement. "Ronnie and Arch entertain each other."

We both chuckled because we knew that Ronnie was also a child at heart. Bruce patted my arm as we neared the elevator and then deviated down the hall. "I'll see you when you bring those back," he said, "and good job finding these guys. They deserve this."

I stepped into the elevator and nodded. "They do," I agreed. Bruce walked off as the doors closed and my father stood next to me in the confined space.

"I don't know why you think you're capable of raising a five year old," he stated, intentionally keeping his eyes away from mine.

"That's none of your business, Dad," I replied, deciding that it was easier to not get into it. The doors opened and revealed the ground floor. I stepped out and said goodbye to my dad before I walked out of the building, calling goodbye to the front desk attendant.

"I'm so excited!" Arch shouted in the apartment. He raced into the bedroom where we were keeping his clothes until we could transition to the house in Pasadena.

"Slow down," I called as I followed him to the edge of the hall. "Ronnie, I need you to call the babysitter and cancel. And make sure you tell her how awful she is at being on time." I tossed my phone to him as he stepped away from the door and farther into the apartment, knowing that it was going to be a minute before we'd be ready.

He caught the phone with his right hand and shook his head. "Or we could just leave and let her show up. Then she'll realize what happened and we won't have to listen to her complain about not getting paid even though she's not even here."

"Call her," I said again. I left him in the living room with that one job and went into our bedroom to help Arch pick out suitable clothes for the night. He would need something comfortable but cute. We were taking him to a bar and I wasn't proud of that, but I'd promised that I'd bring Ronnie to give the good news.

"I want to wear my Ronnie's band shirt!" Arch explained as I walked into the room and saw his mess on the floor, "But I can't find it!" He was kneeling over his pile of clothes in his grey long sleeved pajamas and looked back to me with distraught eyes.

I frowned. "I don't know where it is," I said as I walked over, "When did you wear it last?"

"I don't know," he replied as he continued to dig through his clothes, "but I need it!"

I sat on the end of the bed and grabbed for the first shirt I could reach. "Why don't you wear this one?" I asked, holding it up so we both could get a look at it, "Ronnie and I just bought this for you."

"But we're going to see music," he rebutted, continuing to search for the one shirt he wanted, "I want to wear a music shirt."

I shook my head and lifted him away from his clothes. I set him on the bed next to me and turned so that we were facing each other. "Arch, you've only got one band shirt so that narrows the options by a lot, and since we can't find it right now, you have to pick another shirt so we can get going. I'm already late."

Arch frowned but nodded. Determinedly, he slid off of the bed and turned his attention back to his clothes. I would let him pick the shirt and I would do the rest, making sure he was dressed nicely and comfortingly so that he could sleep in his clothes.

After a couple minutes, he picked one of his shirts and asked if it was alright. I nodded, and then riffled through until I found a long sleeved turquoise shirt for him to wear over it. A banner on the front said "rock and roll" and I paired it with light grey jeans with black patches over the knees. I showed him his appearance in the mirror on the back of the closet door and he grinned, liking that his shirt related to music.

"Alright, man, let's get your shoes on and then we're ready to go." I opened the bedroom door and he ran out with sock-clad feet to get his black Converse shoes that we'd just gotten for him. We'd managed to find time in the week to take him shopping, and the rest we ordered off line.

"Ronnie, do you like my clothes?" Arch questioned as he sat down on the floor and pulled his shoes on his feet.

Ronnie knelt down in front of him and started tying his laces. He nodded as he answered, "I love these pants," he said, knocking him on the knee, "I need to get myself a pair of these."

Arch giggled and nodded. "We'll match," he stated as Ronnie moved to his other shoe and tied the laces in a bow.

Ronnie pulled him to his feet and reached for the jacket that hung on the closet door. He held it out so Arch could slip his arms through the black button up. I buttoned it for him and then the three of us were out the door.

"You called the babysitter, didn't you?" I asked Ronnie as we headed down the stairs to the hall, "If she shoes up here and calls us, I'm going to be very mad at you."

Arch hopped down the first coupled steps and added, "Me too!" before jumping down the rest and ignoring Ronnie's warning to stop before he fell.

"I called the babysitter," Ronnie stated as the two of us stepped to the ground and caught up to Arch at the front door, "She didn't answer, but I left a very unhappy message on her answering machine."

"That's not nice, Ronnie," Arch stated as he paused at the front door of the apartment building complex. We walked passed him. Ronnie continued to unlock the Escalade, but I held my hand out for the five year old.

"We'll put Ronnie in time out later," I announced loud enough for him to hear, "but right now we've got to hurry."

Arch nodded and scrambled over to me. He took my hand and the two of us walked over to the back door that Ronnie had already opened for him. I lugged him into his car-seat and buckled him in.

When we were pulling out of the parking lot, Arch grinned excited and kicked his little feet in the air. "I like my babysitter," he exclaimed, balling his hands into fists as he tried to control his eagerness.

Ronnie chuckled. "Of course you do," he replied, pulling us out onto the road.

Arch was quiet for the rest of the ride, just pleased that he got to come along when he'd been told he would have to stay at the apartment with a babysitter. When were were ten minutes from the bar, the woman who'd we had found to babysit called us back, wondering what was going on.

I pulled my phone out of Ronnie's jacket pocket and answered politely. "Hello?" I asked, glancing back at Arch who looked nervous, almost like he expected us to take him home.

She asked on the other line if she was speaking with me and I assured her she was. I explained that she was supposed to be at the apartment earlier to watch Arch for us and since she didn't show, we'd decided to take him with us tonight.

"I'm so sorry about that," she said through the phone, "I mixed up the times and didn't hear your husband's message until just twenty minutes ago."

"Well we won't be calling you again," I replied, catching Ronnie's smirk form the driver's seat, "We have to take him to a bar with us tonight and it's because you couldn't keep your times straight. So please don't expect us to hire you in the future."

The woman, whose name was Tegan, apologized and said that she hoped we would enjoy our night, even with our 'son' along. I ended the call when we were pulling into the parking lot of the bar and turned to lay down some rules for Arch.

"No running around," I said first, knowing that when he got excited he could hardly control himself, "Don't talk to strangers, stay with one of us at all times, and don't touch anything that looks expensive."

Ronnie stopped rifling through the glove compartment and pulled out two little ear plugs. "And keep these in your ears while the bands are playing," he demanded, showing them to Arch before he stuck them in his pocket.

"Where did you get those?" I questioned as I unbuckled my seat belt and pushed the door open.

"For the boys awhile ago," he replied, referring to his nephews, "I wasn't sure if I even had any left." He got out of the car and opened the back for Arch. He put the boy on the ground and then kneeled down in front of him. We could hear the loud music through the walls of the building, so Ronnie turned Arch's head to look left and pushed one of the soft ear plugs into his ear before doing the same on the other side.

"I don't like them!" Arch said, speaking louder than usual since he could hardly hear himself, "They're annoying."

Ronnie shrugged his shoulders. "They'll keep your ears from hurting," he replied, taking Arch's right hand so he could lead him towards the loud building. He lightly smacked his hand away from his left ear. "Leave them alone."

I locked the Escalade and walked on Arch's other side into the bar. I wasn't sure if we were going to get stopped at the front for bringing a child into the building, but Andrew brought his daughter every time they came, so I was sure the band would understand that Arch had no where else to go.

The guy collecting the money at the door did stop us and say that Arch couldn't come inside. The five year old grabbed my hand and looked heartbroken, so I pulled him into my arms and leaned against Ronnie's side, who'd stopped pulling money out of his wallet.

"Can you go get Evan for us?" I asked politely, talking about the owner of the building and singer of the band, "He'll straighten it out for us."

"Ma'am, this is a bar. It's illegal to bring kids in here after so late," he replied, not moving from his spot.

"After eleven," Ronnie replied, knowing the rules from his own days of playing small bars, "It's not eleven yet and even if it was,-"

"Andy's daughter sleeps in the back," I cut him off before his infamous temper could show, "We're just here for business and Arch is just going to hang out with Andrew's daughter later on. If you'd go get Evan, you'd see that it's fine for him to be here."

Arch looked at the man with worried blue eyes, but smiled when he called another guy over to him and asked him to find Evan for him. Arch turned his smile towards me and then Ronnie, beaming as he waited for the three of us to be let farther than the front door.

The dark haired singer came into sight just a few minutes later. He grinned when he saw us, but it disappeared when he noticed that we were detained at the door. "Vince, what's up, man?" he asked the guy who'd been collecting money, "What's wrong?"

The guy with the shaved head motioned towards Arch. "They brought a little kid with them," he replied, "This is a bar."

Evan shook his head at his friend and leaned closer to inform him on who we were or something of the like. Vince didn't look pleased when Evan pulled away, but he motioned us through anyways. Ronnie slapped thirty dollars down on to the little table at his side, not including Arch in the price of admission.

"Atticus, it's good to see you again so soon," Evan said honestly, clasping his fingers together. He turned his attention to Ronnie and held out his right hand. "You must be the fiance," he said, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Evan."

"Ronnie," the brunette replied, shaking his hand, "and this is Arch."

Evan greeted Arch and welcomed him to his place. Ronnie complimented on how nice the building was, despite its small size and the two launched into an easy conversation, completely forgetting about Arch and I asked a bounded over to the bar to order him a soda.

Ronnie was at my side a few minutes later. He wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed the side of my head. "Evan is rounding up his band," he said, pulling me against him, "I guess you've got some good news to give them."

I held Arch with one arm and handed him his cup with the other. I turned around and faced Ronnie with a grin on my face. I nodded. "This is my favorite part," I said nervously, unsure of how I wanted to deliver the news to them.

Ronnie gingerly took my free hand and nodded towards the lower section of the bar that opened up to the stage. "Lets go then," he said, taking a step towards the two stairs to get closer to the stage.

I nodded and the three of us headed towards the stage where another small band was entertaining the crowd. I was pleased that Ronnie had ear plugs for Arch, but it was incredibly loud, more so than the last time I'd been here. I put Arch down and took his hand, even though he tried to pull it away. I looked around and caught sight of the band heading into the room with the black door. I grabbed Ronnie's arm with my free hand and pulled my boys towards the room.