Original Love

Alex’s POV:

“Do you really have to go back?” Charlie asked from where she lay on her bed, watching Alex continue to pack his bag.

He folded up the shirt in his hands with a sigh as he glanced over to see his girlfriend with a frown on her face. She couldn’t look any cuter with her favorite football teams’ jersey on with the number 12 on it and a pair of skinny jeans. Alex even had his own jersey on since it was Sunday meaning that the games were going to start up soon so he needed to finish up packing so they wouldn’t miss them. One of the good things was that he found early on when he first flew out to Wisconsin once they got on tour that the first Sunday he was there she instantly put the game on without him asking. Sure she wasn’t rooting for the right team but at least she was a fan since he was a pretty huge fan himself.

“Babe, we’ve been over this before,” he sighed as he finally put the last shirt in his bag and flipped it closed. He wasn’t leaving until the next day but needed to put all his crap in his bag now or he would put it off until the last second and then he’d be rushing to finish before he had to catch his flight.

She started to grumble under her breath making him roll his eyes as he flopped down on the bed next to her and pulled her close. Charlie instantly snuggled into him making him smile wider as he closed his eyes and breathed in her scent. He was really going to miss her when he left. There was just too many miles between them and he didn’t like it at all. Over the last few days he really wished that they lived closer, that one of them would move but that was really unfair on both of their parts. Their relationship was just too short to already talk about moving. Besides, if it was ever brought up, he knew that neither of them would want to be the ones to move. Charlie had her work and family in Milwaukee and he had all his in Baltimore. And they both loved their states, they wouldn’t want to just up and move, no matter how much they cared about each other.

“What time is it?”

She shifted in his arms a bit making a noise under her breath because she didn’t want to as she adjusted so she could see the clock on her nightstand. “11:47,”

“You’re games almost on.”

Well that finally got a smile out of her. After pouting about him leaving for the last three days, he finally got a genuine smile out of her and she jumped up and rushed out of the room calling for him to follow. Shaking his head Alex got up also and when he got out to the main room of her apartment, she was ushering Bear off the couch and then making a beeline towards the kitchen for snacks shouting for him to turn the TV on.

Laughing, he obeyed her requests knowing there would be hell to pay if he didn’t. He had already seen a few times how crazy she and Rachael could get during a game and knew that if he didn’t do what she asked he would be living with it the rest of the night. As he got the right channel on Charlie reappeared with a whole armful of snacks and sodas and he helped her set them down before she plopped down on the couch next to him and snuggled into his side as the newscasters finished saying their thoughts on who would win each game that day.

As soon as three out of the four people said her team wouldn’t win Charlie was booing and yelling at the TV making him laugh more. She was almost as bad as he and his friends were on game day and it was quite hilarious to see someone else get as hyper over a game as he does. The game started and Charlie was on the edge of her seat watching and booing and swearing at the TV even more than she had before the game had started and Alex just sat back and watched his crazy girlfriend.

Just before the first quarter ended there was a knock to the door and Charlie just rolled her eyes and mumbled something under her breath about not answering so they would go away. But it just continued on and she finally gave up trying to ignore it and paused the game and grumbled all the way to the door while Alex watched in amusement.

“Uncle Charlie!” A child’s voice yelled as soon as the door was open and instantly Charlie’s mood was changed as she greeted the little voice and Alex saw her bend down and hug whoever it was.

The door opened wider and Charlie walked back into her apartment with two other people behind her. Well, one person and one half pint who was now actually in Charlie’s arms grinning from ear to ear as he babble about whatever he had started talking about as soon as Charlie had opened the door. The man was tall with the same shade of brown hair as Charlie and similar features, obviously her brother. And the little boy had slightly lighter brown hair and eyes matching the man and a huge grin on his face that would make anyone who was upset smile as soon as they saw the adorable little boy. Which was exactly the case for Charlie since her once bad mood was lifted as she listened intently to whatever the little boy was saying.

“Alex, this is my older brother Jer and his son Noah,” Charlie introduced as Alex stood from the couch and nodded to her brother and waved to the little boy still in Charlie’s arms. “And guys this is Alex,”

“Is this your boyfriend Uncle Charlie?”

She blushed and avoided Alex’s eye as both he and her brother laughed at her reaction. “Yes No, he’s my boyfriend. Can you say hi buddy?”

“Hi Uncle Charlie’s boyfriend!”

“Hey kiddo, do you want to go watch the game with me?” Alex asked, noticing the look in Jer’s eyes. It looked like something was up and he needed to talk to his sister alone and Alex figured he could help keep the little boy entertained while they talked about whatever needed to be discussed.

Alex nodded slightly at the silent look of thanks Jer shot Alex when he asked about the game and took the little boy from Charlie’s arms and carried him over to the couch while the brother and sister walked to Charlie’s room to talk. As soon as Alex saw the football jersey Noah was wearing, the exact same one as Charlie’s only smaller, he asked the little boy if he like football and he instantly started babbling about his favorite players and about the game that was still paused for Charlie since Alex knew that he would never hear the end of it if he started the game again without Charlie in the room.

The little boy couldn’t be more than three of four at the most and was the cutest thing Alex had ever met. He really liked kids and easily kept the boy talking and entertained while Charlie and Jer talked, listening to everything he said and smiling at how adorable he was. Though he couldn’t help but remember the looks on both Jer and Charlie’s faces when they went down the hall to speak. There was something going on that was serious and Alex just hoped that everything was ok.

Twenty minutes later Charlie and her brother reappeared in the living room and as soon as Noah saw them his smile widened and he jumped off the couch and rushed over to them. Charlie picked him up and said something to him and then gave Alex an apologetic look as she followed her brother to the door and Noah hugged his dad and then Jer was out the door leaving Charlie holding Noah in her arms with a backpack in the other. Alex could see the worry in Charlie’s eyes as she carried her nephew over to the couch and set him down on the couch and then mentioned she was going to put his bag away.

As she walked out of the room, he sat there for a moment before getting up also and then heading down the hall to try and see what’s up with Charlie. He found her in the spare room putting Noah’s bag on the bed and emptying it into the dresser drawers with a frown on her face. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist making her jump slightly and then laugh at herself for overreacting.

“What’s going on?” He asked as she relaxed in his arms and turned to face him.

He could tell just by her eyes how tired and frustrated she was. The once overly hyper woman watching the game was now exhausted and sad in a matter of seconds just by a twenty minute conversation with her brother. She rest her head on his shoulder and took a deep breath and began to explain what was going on.

“My brother is in the Army and he just got home a few months ago and now it looks like he’ll be shipping out again in a few weeks. He has to report to base to get his orders and asked me to take care of him for a few days while he drives down and then comes back. Then when he leaves he asked if I’ll take care of Noah again, like the last time he was gone.”

Alex pulled her closer not really knowing what else to do to make her feel better. “What about Noah’s mom?”

“She died in childbirth four years ago. I’ve helped Jer raise Noah since he was born since he doesn’t have anyone else. Noah’s mom’s parents didn’t want anything to do with her or her child since she got pregnant before they were married and so it’s just been the three of us. The first time Jer left was when Noah was one and was gone two years. He got back and I’ve tried to get him to not renew his contract but he did anyway and now he’s leaving again. I love Noah to death but he misses his dad so much and I think Jer has a hard time being around him because it reminds him of Sarah and he misses her so much that it’s too hard to be around him sometimes. So he still is enlisted in the Army. Leaving him with me to go and be the hero that he always is. He’s amazing and I support him, I just wish that life was different sometimes and things didn’t end up this way.”

Alex sighed knowing exactly what she meant. “Yeah I understand, believe me. Everything changed when my brother died and it’s still so hard to move on even though it’s been years.”

“Yeah, but I love Noah to death. I’m just glad that Jer brings him here rather than having him stay with strangers or anything while he’s gone.”

Alex smiled, “he seems to really like you. You two are really close. But where the hell did ‘Uncle Charlie’ come from?”

Charlie laughed the first real laugh she had since her brother showed up and raised her head with a huge smile on her face. “Jer always made fun of me when we were kids about me being such a tomboy and then somehow she got it in his head to teach Noah to call me Uncle Charlie and it somehow stuck. So now I’m Uncle Charlie to him.”

Alex laughed also at that, thinking it was the cutest thing in the world and telling himself to remember to somehow get Charlie or Rachael to let him see some pictures of his girlfriend when she was younger so he could see firsthand about all the claims as to how much of a tomboy she was. Even with how much everyone made fun of her he bet that she looked really cute when she was younger and wanted to prove his assumptions correct.

“Speaking on Noah, ‘Uncle’ Charlie,” Alex said with a small smile. “I think we’ve left him alone in the living room long enough and we do have a game to finish after all.”

Charlie gasped as she grabbed his hand and began to drag him towards the door. “Then what are we waiting for? I have to witness firsthand the best team in the world kicking ass once again!”

Well that worked as well as he had hoped. It was so unnatural for Charlie to be upset and he knew that mentioning the game she had seemed to forget about did the trick so he allowed his overly hyper girlfriend to drag him into the room where Noah was patiently waiting for them and sat down like he was told to and laughed to himself as Charlie picked up the remote to continue the game. She was strange all right, but he loved her for it. He just never wanted to see her upset again.