I stroked Tyler's small hand through the opening in the incubation machine. He was just so fragile. Out of the corner my eye I saw AJ enter the room. I ignored him. I didn't have enough energy to deal with his problems and my son's, and right now Tyler came first before anything else.

“Hey,” he said as he walked over towards us. I could smell the alcohol on him and twisted my face in disgust. I didn't have anything to say to him at that moment. We stood there in silence, as the only sounds in the room were the machines whirring. “I guess you hate me right now.”

“I don't hate you,” I said continuing to stroke Tyler's hand. There was a long painful silence before I could speak again. “We don't have a middle name for him yet.”
“What?” AJ asked confused.
“They asked if we wanted to fill out the birth certificate now or if we wanted to wait to see if he…we never even had time to pick out a middle name.
“How about James, like mine?” AJ asked walking over and placing his hand through the other opening and stroking the small part of Tyler's cheek that didn't have a tube taped to it.
I looked up at his eyes filled with so much love and forgave him in that instant. “I like James. Tyler James McLean it is then.”