Listen To Your Heart

"No, it's fine. Honestly. Your mom and I were just going to decide on the floral arrangements anyway. You would've been bored to tears." Eliza said, running a hand through her fiery locks. She was kind of hoping to get some other things done as well, but she didn't want Sam, her fiancé, to feel bad or anything like that. This was one of the downsides of being engaged to a doctor. He was on-call 24/7, so there was really no way of telling if he'd be called in or not. And today was no exception. "I'll see you tonight. Love you too." She hung up the phone, letting out a soft sigh. She was going to need a drink, or maybe five, after spending the afternoon with her soon to be mother-in-law.

---

"Look at it this way, mate, at least she finally reached out to you." Dan said, trying to make the situation a little bit better. He kind of had a feeling that he was only making matters worse though. Josh had just gotten off the phone with his mum. Apparently he'd a received a wedding invitation in the mail, they all had. And not just for anyone either. It was for Eliza Doherty's. Ellie was getting married, and this was the first time that any of them had really heard from her in six years. No one had been more devastated than Josh though, those two had practically been attached at the hip. "Maybe you should go see her? The address was on the invitation, right? She still lives in the same town, and one of the tour stops isn't that far from there."

@ zima.
Leighton bit her lip as she looked at herself in the mirror. She just got off the phone with the doctor. The tests were back. Positive, "Shit." She said aloud and pulled up her shirt. She looked at her stomach. She was three weeks along and she was overwhelmed with emotions. She was excited and devastated at the same time. She didn't know how Dan was going to react though. She walked out of her room and to the downstairs living room in their flat. She frowned when she saw Dan with Josh but then overheard what they were talking about and nodded. Leighton knew who Ellie was but had never met her. She was around before Leighton ever came into the picture with the boys. But Dan had told her a lot about Ellie and how close her and Josh used to be. She sat down next to Dan and elected to tell him after Josh left. She gave a sympathetic smile to Josh, "I think it would be good for you to go see her, Josh." She said with a hopeful smile.

---

Josh didn't know what to feel. He was angry and sad and torn and just all around emotionally unstable. He wanted to be happy for Ellie but he couldn't, knowing that she wasn't with him. Ever since she stopped coming to visit Josh had realized what he was missing. Six years. He hadn't heard from her in six years and you would think that he would be over it by now. Not even close. When Dan suggested he go see her, he almost laughed, "What exactly would I say? 'Don't marry him I'm in love with you.' That's not something you can just spring up on a person." He said and then sighed when Leighton agreed with Dan about Josh going to see Ellie, "I want to. I really do. I miss her so much. I just don't know if I can face the fact that she's happy and she's not with me." He said honestly.

It was moments like this where Eliza found herself thinking about Josh. She didn't know why, she hadn't seen or spoken to him in six years, but he still managed to plague her mind. And it was always times when she was alone, or Sam bailed out on something because of work. She told herself that she was over Josh though. He'd only ever saw her as his best friend, nothing more, nothing less, and she was over him. She'd sent him an invitation, she really didn't know why though. Of course, she'd sent one to his sister, mum and dad as well as the rest of the guys, but she didn't really know why. She hadn't spoken to them in years, though her mother had told her it was the right thing to do.

---

Dan could tell that his friend was really torn up about this whole thing. He had been when Eliza didn't show up that summer, and things had gotten even worse when she didn't answer any of his calls or text messages, but he'd managed to keep himself together for the most part. He'd kept himself busy with the band and DBNO, but Dan and the others knew that he still missed her. "That's a bit dramatic, but yeah, something along those lines." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "How do you really know she's happy, mate? None of us have spoken to her in years. I was just as shocked as you were when I got that invitation in the post. I'm not saying that you have to spring something like that on her, though I do think that you should, I'm just saying that maybe you should go see her. Tour doesn't start up for a few more weeks. Maybe you should go see her before and meet the rest of us there once it starts. I think it'll do you some good."

@ zima.
Leighton nodded at Dan's words. He was right and she didn't have to tell Josh that. She bit her lip when Dan mentioned tour. What the hell was she going to do if he was on tour. She couldn't do it alone. Not at all. She stood and excused herself from the conversation before she walked into the kitchen and made herself some tea. She looked around the kitchen and thought about what she was going to do. There was no way she wasn't keeping it. It wasn't even an option. She finished making her tea and looked out into the leaving room and saw Josh was leaving. She hugged him tightly, "Everything will work itself out." She said with a small smile.

---

Josh nodded at Dan's words before he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He stood up, "I should be going then." He said and then hugged Leighton, "You alright? You look a little peaky." He asked. She nodded before giving him a week smile before he nodded at Dan, "I'll talk to you later." He said before walking out of the flat and heading out to his car and then back home. He sighed on his way home. He was so confused about everything and he didn't know what to do but the talk with Dan really helped him out.

Eliza shook the thoughts from her head quickly. She needed to stop doing this to herself. She was engaged. In a few short months, she'd be happily married to the love of her life. Whether Josh came to wedding or not. She'd moved on six years ago when she didn't go to Weybridge that summer. And it wouldn't matter if he showed up or not, because she was going to marry Sam. And they were going to live long, happy lives together. No matter what, or who, showed up to the wedding.

---

Dan nodded. "Just think about it, mate." He said, hoping that his friend would at least consider it. He figured it would be good for Josh. "Just let us know if you end up going over there." He hoped that, if anything, he at least tried calling Eliza. Those two needed to talk. He wasn't saying that anything crazy would come from it. He wasn't telling Josh to tell her not to marry the bloke she was engaged to. He was just saying that it would do them both some good. They'd been best mates for years and, in all honesty, it had been a strange six years without the spunky redhead around to put he and the lads all in their place.

@ zima.
Leighton sat down on the couch next to Dan and sighed, "I hope he feels better. This whole thing just kind of sucks for him." She said and leaned back. At that moment she had forgotten about her problems and was just focused on Josh. But it didn't stay like that for long. She looked over at Dan and bit her lip lightly, "Babe I've got to tell you something." Leighton said with a worrisome tone to her voice. She was scared for his reaction. She took a breath and looked up at Dan again, "I'm, um. I-I, um." She trailed off as she couldn't bring herself to say the words. She stood up and started to pace around the room before she took a huge breath and stopped, looking over at Dan, "I'm pregnant."

---

Josh drove back to his place and sighed as he walked in. Dan and Leighton's words were running through his head. He didn't know what to do. He pulled out his phone and unlocked it, scrolling through the names and stopping on hers. He couldn't call her. It was a long shot for her to answer and Josh knew that. So why was he still trying? He pressed on her name and clicked call. Josh put the phone to his ear and listened to the ringing as he waited to see if she would answer or if he was going to be listening to her voicemail.

Eliza figured that she should start getting ready. She needed to stop dwelling on the past, and focus on the future. And that meant sucking it up and getting ready to go pick out flower arrangements with her soon to be mother-in-law. Sam's mother wasn't horrible, she was a nice woman, but there was only so much of her that Eliza could take in one day. She just knew that that afternoon would be a long one. Just as she went down the hall to finish getting ready, her phone started going off. "Who the hell has radar on me?" She spoke aloud, letting out a soft sigh as she headed to her room to grab her phone. She froze when she saw the name flashing across the screen. He hadn't tried calling her in ages. She honestly didn't know why his number was still in her phone but it was. She stood there for a moment, letting it ring for a few seconds, before finally, probably just before it went to voicemail, answering it. "Hello?"

---

Dan nodded. "I hope so too." He said. He hoped that Josh would at least consider taking the advice that he and Leighton had given to him. Seeing Eliza, or even just talking on the phone with her, would hopefully do him some good. Maybe it would help clear his head a bit. "He was a mess when it all happened. I think talking to her will do him some good though." He glanced over to his girlfriend, able to tell long before she spoke that something was off with her. "Are you sure you're alright? Josh was right. You are looking rather peaky..." He frowned slightly. And then she spoke, and he knew something was wrong. He became more worried, waiting silently for her to just tell him what was wrong. But when she did, he was silent. He didn't know what to say.

@ zima.
Leighton raised her eyebrows when Dan didn't reply, "Dan say something." She said and bit her lip. She felt tears spring to her eyes as she watched him, "Please." She choked out before she walked around the coffee table and sat back down next to him on the couch. She figured this silence was bad. She sighed and felt tears stream down her face. She knew he was going to freak. Leighton ran a hand through her hair as she watched her boyfriend react to the news she just told him.

---

Josh was just about to hang up when it was about to go to voice mail before he heard Ellie pick up the phone. He didn't know how to reply. His throat seemed to close up and he was at a loss for words, "Uhhh...hi." He said awkwardly. He didn't know what he was doing. Josh hadn't reached out to Ellie in so long and he didn't know how to talk to her anymore. It was like he didn't know anymore, "El...it's Josh."

Eliza didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know why she'd answered the phone. Over the years, he'd called so many times, and she'd never answered, or returned, any of them. But she had today. "Oh...hi..." She said, not really knowing what else to say. She hadn't spoken to him in so long, and the fact that she had nothing to say kind of killed her. She felt like she didn't know how to talk to him anymore, and that was something that had never been an issue for her in the past. Not with Josh.

---

The thing was, Dan didn't know what to say. He sort of felt like he was going to be sick. This wasn't the kind of news he was expecting to receive today. Not when tour was coming up in a couple of weeks, and certainly not when the subject of kids hadn't come up once with he and Leighton before in the past. They'd only been together for six months now, and sure they were an amazing six months, but this was big. And he didn't know what he was going to do about it. "What do you want me to say, Leighton?" He finally asked.

@ zima.
Leighton took a breath when Dan spoke before she let more tears fall down her cheeks, "I want you to say this isn't going to break us. That yeah you're freaked out, we're going to make this work." She cried. She knew that this was going to become an argument. Dan and her had only ever fought once before and it was about tour. Now this one was going to spiral into an argument and it was going to be about something big as well. She took a breath and choked out a sob before she looked at Dan, "I'm three weeks along."

---

Josh smiled at her voice, "Umm...how are you?" He said and then hit himself in the face for being so awkward and stupid, "That was a stupid question. You're getting married. You've got to be beyond happy." He continued before he looked down at his shoes. He cursed himself for bringing up the wedding. He didn't want to think about that. He wanted to imagine that whole thing was not happening and that things were like they used to be. But they weren't.

Eliza was honestly pretty shocked. Not just at Josh for calling her, but at herself for actually answering the phone. She still didn't know why she'd done it, maybe hoping that it would help clear her mind in some way, shape or form. She really didn't know though. "Yeah, I am actually." She said, still not fully able to believe that she was talking to him. "You got the invitation then..." She didn't know what else to say. She was honestly at a loss for words.

---

"I don't know what to say, Leighton! We've never talked about having kids!" Dan exclaimed, his voice a little louder than he initially planned on it being. He was shocked and confused, and maybe even a little frustrated. How had she expected him to react? This was something they had never even touched upon before. He didn't know what they were going to do. He didn't know what he was going to do. He was leaving for tour in a couple of weeks, and he'd be gone for ten weeks.

@ zima.
Leighton let out a sob at Dan's words before she put her head in her hands and ran a hand through her hair. She felt like she was going to be sick. In fact, she was going to be sick. She shot up and ran into their downstairs bathroom and quickly hurled herself towards the toilet and emptied her stomach.

---

Josh bit his lip and looked down at his shoes, "That's great I'm glad you're happy." He lied, "Yeah I did get the invitation." he added and sighed. He wasn't sure what to say to her. He thought of something to ask her but he didn't think he should, "Why didn't you ever come back?" He blurted before he could close his mouth.

Eliza was silent after that, unsure of what to say next. And then he asked the one question that she'd been waiting for him to ask her. Though she was hoping to avoid it, she knew that it was something he'd want to know. "My friends wanted to go on a road trip...one last hurrah before college, y'know?" It was a lame excuse, she knew it was, but it wasn't like it was a lie. The moment her friends suggested it, albeit spur of the moment, she was all for it. It was an excuse for her not to go back to Weybridge. An excuse that would help her avoid what seemed to be near inevitable heartbreak.

---

Dan knew that she wanted him to be happy, but he couldn't do that right now. This was the last thing he expected for her to tell him. This was something that they'd never once talked about. He didn't know what he was going to do. Tour would come up quickly, and then he and the guys were supposed to spend some extra time in the states, working on the new record. He just didn't know what to do. He was taken from his own thoughts when Leighton got up and sprinted to the bathroom. Instinctively, he followed her, resting a hand on her back while the other pulled her hair back.

@ zima.
Leighton wiped her mouth and smacked Dan's hands away from her and rinsed out her mouth before she brushed her teeth. She didn't even look or talk to Dan. She was on the verge of breaking down fully. She spit out the tooth paste and walked out of the bathroom, pushing past Dan. Leighton had no idea how to react. How could she when her boyfriend was freaking out about her being pregnant.

---

Josh frowned at her words. He didn't believe it, "I'm not sure how college works over there but aren't you supposed to have the summer off even while you're in college? You couldn't have came back?" He asked before he continued, "And why didn't you ever answer my texts or calls?"

"I did have the summer off...I was road tripping with my friends from school...we were away for most of the summer." Eliza said. In reality, she'd only been gone for a couple of weeks, and she could have gone back to Weybridge, but she wasn't about to tell him that. Something told her that he'd see right through her though. She opened and closed her mouth, unsure of how to answer his later question. "I...was busy?" She mentally cursed herself for saying what she had. That's all you can come up with, Doherty? Really?

---

Dan frowned when she smacked his hands away from her. He should've expected that from her. "Leighton, don't be like this." He said. He knew that she hadn't expected the reaction that she'd gotten out of him, but what was he supposed to do? How could be possibly be happy when this was happening at the wrong time? He wasn't going to be home much for the next couple of months. Hell, with the career he had, he was hardly ever home! How could they possibly make something like this work?

@ zima.
Leighton scoffed at Dan's words, "How do you want me to be Dan?! You want me to be thrilled that my boyfriend it's freaking out because I'm pregnant?! Well news flash! I'm not!" she yelled at him before she walked upstairs to their bedroom and slammed the door shut. She laid down on the bed and just started crying her eyes out. She looked down at her stomach and place a hand on there, "I know you're going to be worth the trouble. I can feel it."

---

Josh raised his eyebrow, "You couldn't have came the year after that or the year after that one? El you've been gone for six years. Six." He said before he heard her answer to his last question, "You were busy? That's all you can think of? Busy?" Josh was on the verge of getting angry but he didn't want to. He hadn't talked to Ellie in so long but he was just having a hard time doing it without thinking about the fact that she's getting married.

@ zima.
Leighton scoffed at Dan's words, "How do you want me to be Dan?! You want me to be thrilled that my boyfriend it's freaking out because I'm pregnant?! Well news flash! I'm not!" she yelled at him before she walked upstairs to their bedroom and slammed the door shut. She laid down on the bed and just started crying her eyes out. She looked down at her stomach and place a hand on there, "I know you're going to be worth the trouble. I can feel it."

---

Josh raised his eyebrow, "You couldn't have came the year after that or the year after that one? El you've been gone for six years. Six." He said before he heard her answer to his last question, "You were busy? That's all you can think of? Busy?" Josh was on the verge of getting angry but he didn't want to. He hadn't talked to Ellie in so long but he was just having a hard time doing it without thinking about the fact that she's getting married.

@ zima.
Leighton scoffed at Dan's words, "How do you want me to be Dan?! You want me to be thrilled that my boyfriend it's freaking out because I'm pregnant?! Well news flash! I'm not!" she yelled at him before she walked upstairs to their bedroom and slammed the door shut. She laid down on the bed and just started crying her eyes out. She looked down at her stomach and place a hand on there, "I know you're going to be worth the trouble. I can feel it."

---

Josh raised his eyebrow, "You couldn't have came the year after that or the year after that one? El you've been gone for six years. Six." He said before he heard her answer to his last question, "You were busy? That's all you can think of? Busy?" Josh was on the verge of getting angry but he didn't want to. He hadn't talked to Ellie in so long but he was just having a hard time doing it without thinking about the fact that she's getting married.

@ zima.
(: