July 13, 2001 Tampa, Florida

“Say something,” she demanded looming over him, “Goddamn it, SAY SOMETHING!”

Nick looked up from his seated position, opening and closing his mouth as he fought for the right words, “You know how I feel about this...”

“No! I don’t know how you feel about anything!” Tina was yelling irrationally, her voice echoing off the walls of the large bathroom.

Nick tried to control his breathing, tried to keep his temper at bay because he knew it would be the wrong time to let himself get worked up, “I told you... back when we decided that we would get together for Parker... that I don’t believe in marriage. My feelings on that subject have not changed.”

Her hormones still out of whack, Tina was reduced to tears, “I can’t believe you. You are so selfish!”

“You’re being irrational! I’m not being selfish! Lots of couples are together without getting married! You’re obsessed about having a ring on your finger,” Nick complained.

“Don’t you realize what you’re telling me? You’re denying me an outlet to legally protect myself and my children if things between us don’t work out.”

“Our children,” he corrected her sharply, feeling somewhat vulnerable still sitting in just a towel, “So this is all about money? You’re concerned about the paycheque at the end of it all? You want to marry me so I’ll sign some pre-nup. Then you can sit back and wait for me to fuck up so you can collect at the end of the day?”

Tina shook her head, pushing her bangs away from her eyes, “You don’t get it, do you?” she asked with a heavy sigh. Slowly she moved to sit in his lap, straddling either side of his hips. Tina moved her fingers through his hair, wishing she knew what was going through his mind. Feelings his hands coming to rest on her thighs she sighed again, “No matter what happens I will always be tied to you. There’s no walking away for me. So you have the advantage of knowing that I can’t go anywhere. The two little people downstairs waiting for us will always be your kids, and I will always be their Mother. You, on the other hand, could walk away whenever you want and never look back.”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Nick contested, but he was starting to see what she was getting at.

“You can,” Tina countered, “All I’m asking is for a little security. I want to know that when you go away on tour all the little girls will see the ring on your finger and remember that you’re Nick Carter, father and husband instead of Nick Carter, playboy. Don’t bother trying to tell me it’s not like that, because you’ve already admitted to cheating. You have all the power. You hold all the cards right now, I’m just asking you share a little of it so we can have something mutual. If you want to start keeping your promises the first one you can keep is the ‘I’ll do anything’ promise. If you’ll do anything then that includes what I’m asking of you.”

Nick considered her for a moment, his fingers running idly over the fabric of her sweat pants, “Nothing big, no ceremonies or anything. We’ll just go to city hall,” he finally said and Tina launched herself at him, hugging him tightly.

“Thank you Nicky, thank you so much,” she breathed, kissing his cheek soundly. She fought back the urge to squeal and instead just squeezed him as hard as she could despite the belly left from her pregnancy.

Nick rubbed his hands up and down her back, not feeling quite as excited about the whole thing as she was, “Baby, I can barely breathe.”

“Sorry,” Tina chuckled sheepishly, loosening her arms. After a quick kiss she got up out of his lap, “I’ll let you get dressed and I’ll go get the baby. We still need to think of a name.”

“Look, I know you didn’t want me to say anything or whatever but I really do need to apologize. If an apology to her meant anything I’d say it to her. I just... had a really bad couple of days and things just kind of came to a head.”

Tina nodded, considering his words, “I won’t pretend that I understand but I’ll accept it, and I accept your apology.”

When Parker had been born it took close to a full day before they could decide on a name. Neither had spent much time thinking about different possibilities and Nick was a firm believer that you couldn’t name a baby without first having looked at their face. He didn’t know how you could pick a name without knowing whether they looked the part. His parents decided he was a Nickolas because he looked like a Nickolas, not because they wanted him to be one.

So as Tina passed the sleeping baby carefully into his arms for the first time he slid off her tiny pink cap and pulled the blanket back so he could get a good look at her perfect little face.

“She’s beautiful,” he said, feeling the bed dip as Tina sat down next to him.

“Everyone says she looks like you,” Tina commented, feeling a huge weight off her shoulders seeing Nick hold the baby. It had been stressing her out for four whole days and now she could put that piece of her anger behind her.

“Except a girl, you mean,” Nick chuckled, rubbing the back of his finger over the baby’s sleep reddened cheek.

“Yeah,” Tina agreed, watching him carefully. He didn’t have the same nervous, worried tension that he had exuded the last time he was meant to be in this position. He was acting as if nothing had happened, “So... a name?”

“Right,” Nick said with a nod, “Do you want to do what we did last time until we find something we like?”

“You go first.”

“Brooke,” he called out and Tina took a moment to consider it before shaking her head.

“Don’t like it,” she told him before considering the baby, “Victoria.”

Nick cringed, “No, I don’t like that at all... how about Layla?”

“No, all I can think about is the song when I hear that,” Tina sighed and thought about some of the names she had been considering in the hospital, “Lucy?”

“Lucy Carter,” Nick let the words roll off his tongue, trying it on for size. He watched the baby’s face as he repeated the name, wondering if she would like it. “I dunno...”

“Nick we need to decide on something, the name on her birth certificate is ‘Baby’ and I don’t know that anyone other than Jennifer Grey can get away with that name.”

He chuckled at her Dirty Dancing reference, eyes still on the baby, “Zoey,” he finally spoke, looking up to Tina for her opinion.

“I love it,” Tina said immediately, noticing that as soon as Nick had said the name the baby opened her baby blues and started looking up at him, “And I think she does too. So now I get to pick the middle name... Nicole.”

Nick smiled at her suggestion and nodded, feeling a little bit like he’d just been given a special connection with the new baby that he was looking for. Even if it was something as simple as a middle name, he would take it, “Zoey Nicole Carter... you’re perfect and so is your name. How would you like to officially meet your brother?”

“I’ll go get him,” Tina smiled and leaned over to kiss Nick’s cheek.

As soon as they were alone Nick lay the baby down on the bed and unwrapped the swaddling blanket from her small body. He did a quick check, making sure all of her fingers and toes were exactly the way they were supposed to be. Zoey fussed slightly so he wrapped her back up in the warm blanket and drew her back into his arms. Leaning down he kissed the baby’s cheek and smiled, “I’m so sorry you ended up with a Dad like me. I’m never going to be perfect and I will do my best to make it up to you, but I won’t make you any promises because I can’t keep them. The only thing I can swear is that I will love you as long as I’m living.”

He stopped talking as soon as he heard Tina and Parker in the hallway, smiling when they both came into the room.

“Daddy!” Parker cheered with a toothy grin and they shushed him lest he disturb the baby.

“Hey buddy,” Nick smiled, using his free hand to help pull Parker onto the bed. The thing that made him the most grateful about children was that they didn’t yet know how to hold a grudge. He had been an asshole, had essentially ignored Parker in the same house yet the boy was still elated to be next to him.

Parker stood on the bed, leaning over his Dad’s shoulder, “That’s my sister,” the little boy said and Tina and Nick both chuckled.

“It sure is,” Nick nodded, “This is Zoey.”

“You’re a good baby,” Parker told the little bundle, reaching out to gently touch her arm.

Nick grinned, “She is a good baby. You’re her big brother so now you have to look after her when you guys get older. Do you think you can do that?”

Parker rested his head on Nick’s shoulder and nodded, “Yeah.”

Wrapping his arm around the little boys legs Nick pulled him close, feeling more at peace with both of his kids in his arms than he had in four days.