Updated Dec 2, 2025 • ~8 min read
[Note: This chapter slot was already covered by Chapter 18 where Knox confessed. Moving to proper Chapter 25 content]
Chapter 25: Coming home
The hospital discharge process took three hours.
Three hours of paperwork, car seat safety checks, nurses providing last-minute instructions that Knox frantically tried to memorize, and Julia second-guessing whether they were actually ready to take a human home.
“What if we’re not ready?” Julia asked for the fifth time as a nurse went over feeding schedules.
“No one’s ready,” the nurse said kindly. “But you’ll figure it out. And you can always call if you have questions.”
“What if she stops breathing?”
“She won’t. But we’re sending you home with information about safe sleep practices.”
“What if she won’t stop crying?”
“Then you call your pediatrician. Or your partner.” The nurse glanced at Knox. “You’re not doing this alone.”
Finally, at 2 PM, they were cleared to leave.
Knox carried the car seat—with Charlie strapped in, looking impossibly tiny in all the buckles and padding. Julia walked slowly beside him, still sore from delivery.
Brian met them in the lobby with Julia’s car—he’d insisted on driving them home.
“Ready?” he asked.
“No,” Julia said.
“Good answer. Let’s go anyway.”
The drive to Julia’s apartment was the most stressful fifteen minutes of Knox’s life. He sat in the back beside Charlie’s car seat, watching her sleep, convinced something terrible would happen if he looked away for even a second.
“She’s fine,” Brian said, watching Knox in the rearview mirror.
“I know. I just—what if she’s not?”
“Welcome to the next eighteen years of your life.”
They made it to Julia’s building without incident. Knox carried Charlie while Brian helped Julia, who was moving gingerly.
Cailyn was waiting in Julia’s apartment, having stocked the fridge, organized the nursery, and generally made everything as ready as possible.
“Welcome home!” she said, then immediately lowered her voice when she saw Charlie sleeping. “Sorry. Welcome home,” she whispered.
Julia looked around her apartment like she’d never seen it before. “This is real. We brought a baby home.”
“You did,” Cailyn confirmed.
“I don’t know how to keep a baby alive.”
“Good thing you have help.” Cailyn gestured to the kitchen. “I made a feeding schedule template, diaper change log, and sleep tracker. Everything the parenting blogs recommended.”
Julia looked at Knox. “She’s more prepared than we are.”
“I read seventeen parenting books,” Knox protested.
“Cailyn made spreadsheets. She wins.”
They got Julia settled on the couch with water and pain medication. Brian left after extracting promises that Julia would call if she needed anything. Cailyn stayed for another hour, walking Knox through the systems she’d set up.
And then, finally, they were alone.
Knox and Julia and Charlie.
A family that wasn’t quite a family.
Parents who weren’t quite together.
Figuring it out as they went.
Charlie woke up crying around 4 PM. Julia fed her while Knox consulted the baby care books, trying to remember what came next.
“Burp her?” Knox suggested.
“Right. Burping.” Julia attempted to burp Charlie, who promptly spit up all over Julia’s shirt.
“Is that normal?” Julia asked, panicked.
Knox flipped through the book. “Yes. Apparently very normal. They call it ‘reflux.'”
“Reflux sounds medical and scary.”
“Everything about babies sounds medical and scary.”
They changed Julia’s shirt and Charlie’s onesie. Then changed Charlie’s diaper because apparently babies had impeccable timing for bodily functions.
By 5 PM, Knox was exhausted and he’d barely done anything.
“How do people do this?” he asked, watching Julia rock Charlie back to sleep.
“I have no idea. Sheer determination? Fear? Caffeine?”
“All of the above.”
Charlie finally fell asleep. Julia placed her carefully in the bassinet beside the couch, both of them holding their breath until they were sure she’d stay asleep.
“We did it,” Julia whispered. “We kept her alive for four hours.”
“Only about 157,000 more hours until she’s eighteen.”
“You did the math?”
“I’ve done a lot of math. I’m very anxious.”
Julia laughed quietly. “Me too.”
Knox ordered dinner—Thai food, because Julia was craving it and because it was easy. They ate quickly, knowing Charlie could wake up at any moment.
“Can I ask you something?” Julia said between bites of Pad Thai.
“Anything.”
“Are you scared? About all of this?”
Knox set down his food. “Terrified. Completely terrified. I’m scared I’ll do something wrong and hurt her. Scared I won’t know what she needs. Scared I’m not cut out for this.”
“Really?”
“Really. Why?”
“Because you seem so calm. So confident. Like you know exactly what you’re doing.”
Knox laughed. “I’m faking it. Completely faking it.”
“Oh thank God. I thought it was just me.”
“Definitely not just you.”
They finished eating just as Charlie woke up crying. Julia fed her again while Knox cleaned up dinner.
The evening settled into a rhythm of feeding, changing, burping, sleeping. Repeat endlessly.
Around 10 PM, Julia looked dead on her feet.
“You need to sleep,” Knox said. “Real sleep, in your bed.”
“But what if Charlie needs me?”
“Then I’ll wake you up. But Julia, you just had a baby two days ago. You need rest.”
Julia looked torn. “What about you? You need sleep too.”
“I’ll sleep on the couch between feedings. We’ll trade off.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Go. Sleep. I’ve got this.”
Julia went to her bedroom reluctantly, leaving Knox alone with Charlie for the first time.
Charlie looked up at him with unfocused eyes, blissfully unaware of Knox’s panic.
“Okay, baby girl,” Knox whispered. “It’s just you and me for a few hours. Please don’t do anything scary.”
Charlie yawned.
“I’ll take that as agreement.”
The next few hours were a blur. Charlie woke up every two hours like clockwork. Knox would bring her to Julia’s room for feeding, then take her back to the living room for burping and changing.
At 2 AM, Charlie wouldn’t settle after eating. She just cried. And cried. And cried.
Knox tried everything—rocking, swaying, singing, checking her diaper, checking her temperature. Nothing worked.
“Please, Charlie,” Knox begged quietly. “Please tell me what you need.”
She just cried harder.
Julia appeared in the doorway, looking concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. She ate, she’s clean, she’s not too hot or cold. I don’t know why she won’t stop crying.”
Julia took Charlie, trying all the same things Knox had tried. Charlie continued to wail.
“Maybe she’s overtired?” Julia suggested, consulting her phone. “The internet says they do that.”
“How do we fix overtired?”
“It says to swaddle and rock her.”
They attempted to swaddle Charlie, who fought it like they were trying to restrain her for interrogation.
“This is impossible,” Julia said, near tears herself.
“Here, let me—” Knox took the swaddle blanket, trying to remember the YouTube tutorial he’d watched.
After three attempts, he got Charlie wrapped up snugly.
Immediately, she stopped crying.
“Oh my God,” Julia breathed. “You did it.”
“I have no idea what I did, but I’m never doing anything different.”
They stood in the living room at 2:30 AM, both exhausted, watching Charlie sleep peacefully in her swaddle.
“We’re going to survive this,” Julia said.
“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself.”
“I am.”
Knox smiled. “We will though. Survive it. Together.”
“Together,” Julia echoed.
She leaned against him, just for a moment, and Knox wrapped his free arm around her.
It wasn’t romantic. It was survival. Two people clinging to each other in the chaos of new parenthood.
But it felt right.
“Go back to bed,” Knox said. “I’ve got the next shift.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. You need rest.”
Julia kissed Charlie’s forehead, then—surprising Knox—kissed his cheek.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For being here. For helping. For being her dad.”
Then she disappeared back to her bedroom, leaving Knox with a sleeping baby and a heart that felt too full.
He settled onto the couch, Charlie still swaddled and peaceful in his arms.
This was day two of being a father.
Already he’d failed multiple times—hadn’t known why she was crying, couldn’t figure out the swaddle on the first try, felt completely incompetent.
But he’d also succeeded. Kept Charlie safe. Supported Julia. Showed up.
And tomorrow, he’d do it all again.
And the day after that.
And the day after that.
However long it took.
Whatever Charlie and Julia needed.
Knox looked down at his daughter—eyes closed, tiny fists curled up by her face, completely trusting that the adults around her knew what they were doing.
“We have no idea what we’re doing,” Knox whispered. “But we love you so much, kiddo. And we’re trying our best. That’s got to count for something, right?”
Charlie sighed in her sleep, content.
Knox decided to take that as approval.
Day two: survived.
Only 157,079 hours to go.
He could do this.
They could do this.
Together.
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