“Papa, papa.” Maxwell wakes up because of Zachary and Darryl calling him.

He feels his bed slightly dip, knowing both boys have crawled on the bed – within seconds he feels them both jumping up and down on the mattress.

“Wake up papa,” Darryl says, his little hands shaking Maxwell slightly.

Maxwell slightly cracks on eye open and stares at the boys, they both look at him with cheeky smiles on their faces. A small smile grows on Maxwell his face as he sees them so happy, it does pain him that he knows they will get bad news today. Zachary won’t really understand what will happen but he knows that Darryl will understand, he is older and he is very smart for his age already.

“Hi boys.”

Maxwell sits up a little and once he sits comfortably both boys jump on top of him, giving him a hug. He wraps his arms around them both and places a kiss on top of each of their heads.

“Are you ready for school today Darryl?” Maxwell feels him nod against his shoulder. “But first we got to eat breakfast and get you ready for school.”

Before he knows it Darryl crawls out from underneath his arm and is off the bed, Maxwell looks at Zachary who is still cuddled up against him.

“Hey little tyke, it’s time for breakfast.”

“Okay, Papa.”

Zachary slowly crawls off Maxwell and sits down on the bed, Maxwell looks at him and sees him pouting. A soft chuckle leaves Maxwell as he pokes Zachary in the cheek, the pout growing bigger.

“Papa, help?”

Maxwell can’t help but melt when he looks at Zachary’s puppy face. He knows that Zachary wants to be carried downstairs and his puppy face and pout is his way of asking. Maxwell climbs out of bed and picks Zachary up, holding him close.

He feels very grateful for still having the kids, even when he and Kate are now officially divorced. He can’t imagine a life without them, especially now that he knows Kate is moving out of the United Kingdom. He doesn’t know what he would have done if she would take the kids with her, he knows he’d be heartbroken because he can’t move along with them. He would have gotten the lawyers involved for a legal battle to keep Kate from moving out of the United Kingdom with the kids.

Since he has full custody over them if he had to fight Kate to keep the kids in the United Kingdom he knows he would win that battle. Knowing Kate though he knows she would have found a way to sabotage it if that would have happened.

Luckily he doesn’t have to worry about those things, the only thing he has to worry about now is that he finds the right au pair, since he can’t seem to find a fitting nanny in all those months.

“Papa, hurry.” Maxwell hears Darryl from the hallway.

Maxwell hadn’t noticed that he was spacing out while thinking about not having the boys in his life. He starts walking out of the room and into the hallway when he enters he sees Darryl running of the stairs. He starts to walk a little faster so he can keep an eye on him since he doesn’t want him to fall off the stairs.

Once they are in the kitchen Maxwell puts Zachary down into the high chair and then walks to the stove. He starts looking through the drawers and in the fridge to see what’s available. Maxwell sees that he has everything in house for French toast, so he grabs the ingredients.

“Papa, what are you going to make?” Darryl stand next to him.

“I’ll make French toast.”

It stays silence after that, so Maxwell starts to beat the eggs with the milk, cinnamon, and vanilla. Once that is done he puts the frying pan on the stove and soak the bread into the egg mixture.

When Maxwell is done with the French toasts he brings the plate to the table together with some cutlery and syrup.

After eating Maxwell starts cleaning the kitchen while Darryl and Zachary are finishing their last few bites. He loads everything in the dishwasher while he is waiting for his coffee to be ready.

After the boys are finished Maxwell goes upstairs with them, he lays down clothes for Darryl on his bed to get dressed and Zachary he helps. Since he needs to take the diaper off and start dressing him. Even though Zachary is nearing the age of three and goes without diapers at day most of the time he still isn’t fully potty-trained and thus needs diapers at night and when they go away for a trip.

Darryl enters Zachary’s room when he’s done changing and he just waits on the bed until Maxwell is done with Zachary.

“Time to brush your teeth and get your faces cleaned,” Maxwell says as he puts down Zachary on the floor.

Darryl nods and walks off to the bathroom, Zachary follows him towards the bathroom and Maxwell does the same. When they are in the bathroom Maxwell sees Darryl putting his stool in front of the sinks o he can grab his toothbrush. Maxwell helps Zachary and places him on the sink, grabbing the toothbrush that belongs to Zachary and puts toothpaste on it before handing it to Darryl.

Maxwell helps Zachary with brushing his teeth and when he is done with helping Zachary he cleans his own face and grabs his own toothbrush to brush his teeth.

When they are all cleaned up and dressed Maxwell sees there is some time left so he lets the kids watch TV. While the kids are watching TV Maxwell sits in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and the newspaper to kill some time.

When he is done reading the newspaper he gets to his study to get his stuff for work, he rarely empties the bag from his work so it means that he just have to take the bag with him without any worries.

“Darryl, Zachary hurry up. We have to leave or we will be too late.” Maxwell says from the hallway once he is done from his study.

He hears the television being turned off and some stumbling in the living room and within seconds the boys are standing in front of him. Both looking unkempt, which means they weren’t just watching television but probably wrestling while watching television. Maxwell shakes his head slightly at the boys before smoothing their hair and clothes.

“Come on boys.” He says while handing Darryl his bag.

Darryl takes the bag and Maxwell opens the door so they can step out of the house. After closing and locking the door Maxwell helps the kids getting in the car, making sure the boys are buckled up.

After starting the engine Maxwell starts to drive, first to Darryl his school to get him to class and then towards his mother to drop off Zachary.

A small sigh leaves Maxwell’s lips the moment he has let himself fall into the seat behind his desk at work. He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes slightly before putting back on his glasses. He starts up his computer and looks through his agenda, he sees that his first appointment will be starting in thirty minutes. The patient he will be seeing as his first appointment today is a rather new patient who is having a hard time with opening op to him.

While Maxwell gets lost in ideas of how to let the new patient open up to him more he nearly misses the incoming sound from a new notification. He checks the notification and sees that it’s from Luna, his receptionist, telling him that his last appointment of the day was cancelled.

That means Maxwell will be able to go home a little earlier unless there is an emergency appointment calling today. That rarely happens lately because a lot of his patients are near the end of their sessions and are doing way better than when they entered the therapy.

Once the thirty minutes have passed Maxwell gets another incoming sound from a notification, this time it is to tell him that Hayden has arrived. Maxwell pushes his chair back and stands up making his way to the door and opens it, he opens it and calls in Hayden.

Hayden walks into the room and Maxwell points at one of the chairs that Hayden can sit down on, he sits down and Maxwell sits in front of him.

“Good morning Hayden, how are you feeling today?”

“Morning,” Hayden mumbles back, fidgeting a bit. “I guess I’m doing okay.”

“Well that doesn’t sound good, would you mind telling me what’s going on?”

Hayden starts telling his story and Maxwell takes small notes so he can update the details to his file after the session. As Hayden is talking Maxwell asks him some questions, perceiving that he is opening up a little bit more now.

While Hayden talks Maxwell keeps observing him, noticing that he’s letting all the emotions go without holding them back for the first time since they have started. Maxwell is glad that Hayden is finally opening up to him this way, so he can start helping him better and that means that he finally can do his work the right way.

There is a slight pause during the story and Maxwell glances at the clock, he sees it is nearing the end time of the session.

“Hayden, we have ten more minutes left. If you like you can finish now or we can pick up the conversation next week again.”

Hayden nods but goes back to telling the story, as Maxwell listens to it, it seems that Hayden is close to the end of his story already. Within a few minutes, he is done telling what happened and Maxwell gives him a few tips which he can use to distract himself during the day. Hayden stands up when the session is over and Maxwell stands up too and gives a handshake before opening the door.

“I’ll see you next week.”

“Till next week.”

Hayden closes the door after him and Maxwell walks back to his desk, to start adding all the new information from Hayden to his file.

When Maxwell is on his lunch break he decides to go into the shopping mall that’s close to the building he’s working at. They have a super nice café there and he knows he can be at peace there without any of his co-workers near him to barge in because they need something.

Maxwell is sitting down at one of the tables of the café he’s sitting at and scrolling through his phone. Then he gets a call notification, he looks at the name and sees that it’s his mother. He picks up the phone straight away and he hears Zachary screaming in the background right away.

“What’s happening?” there is slight panic in his voice.

“Zachary doesn’t want to sleep, so he decided that throwing a tantrum would be the best way to stay awake. Maybe you can calm him down and get him to sleep.”

“Sure ma, just give the phone to him and say it’s me.”

In the background there is some noises, Maxwell hears his mom say to Zachary that it’s him and before he knows it he hears that the phone is given to Zachary because the sobbing is louder.

“Hey little tyke, grandma says you don’t want to sleep.” Maxwell says in a soft voice.

He hears Zachary calming down and after a few seconds he starts to mumble something inaudible back in the phone. It’s obvious he is very sleepy, it’s noticeable through the tone of his voice but he always has to fight his sleep. Especially when he knows he will be with his mother.

“Why don’t you want to sleep?”

“Not sleepy.” A soft and sleepy mumble that is now audible.

“Then why don’t you tell grandma that you’d like to watch some television with her in bed.”

“Okay papa, but no sleep.”

“No sleep little tyke, can I speak to grandma again?”

Maxwell doesn’t hear Zachary complain and after a few seconds the voice of his mother is heard again through the phone.

“Yes Maxwell?”

“Just lay down with him in bed and put one some television, before you know it he falls asleep. He’s just in this phase where he doesn’t want to sleep a lot even though he is tired. Also knowing he will see his mom makes him want to stay up all the time. I’m not quite sure what that is about just yet. Maybe afraid that he won’t be able to see her when he is asleep.”

“Max, dear god please stop analysing your own kid as if he is one of your clients. But I’ll go lay down with him and watch some television. I’ll let you know how things work out today, okay?”

“Sorry mom, I’ll stop with it. Yes please, if it’s really urgent to let me know what happened you can just call the office and Luna will make sure you get in touch with me.”

“I know, I know.”

Before Maxwell can even say anything else to his mother she has hung up on him already, so he just stares straight ahead of him mindlessly playing with the food on his plate.