Little Girl.

Zack swore he wouldn’t cry, and yet here he is, wiping tears from his eyes at the sight of his fiancé and their newborn baby girl. Sierra looks up at him with a blissful, proud smile, her brown and blonde bangs sticking to her forehead slightly.

“You’re amazing,” Zack says quietly, pressing a kiss to the side of her head and smiling as she’s handed a bundle of pink.

Sierra rests her head against Zack’s and they both look down at the tiny baby in her arms.

“She’s beautiful,” Zack says with a proud sigh, “just like her mom.”

Sierra blushes a little, leans up to kiss him and the baby in her arms wriggles a little. She laughs, breathless, and Zack reaches out and takes the little girl from her mother’s arms.

“Hey gorgeous,” He says, pressing a light kiss to the baby’s forehead, “how’s my new favourite girl?”

Sierra laughs, resting a hand on his arm and leaning against his shoulder.

“You know, I should probably be insulted by that, but she’s perfect, so I’m not.”

She falls asleep shortly after, well earned rest after what felt like hours of screaming at Zack, leaving just him and his baby girl.

“Hey, little one,” He says with a grin, holding her tiny hand gently, “little Shiloh. I’m glad I let your mommy pick names –you’d have been Erica if I had my way.”

When they take her home a few days later, they find Alex wearing dark blue overalls and a selection of different pastel colored paint, some of which appears to have gotten in his hair.

“What are you doing here?” He asks in shock, looking them both up and down.

“Uh, this is our house, Alex. We live here.” Zack comments, pushing past him carefully with his daughter in his arms.

“Jack said you weren’t going to be back for another two days.” Alex replies, confused. He pulls his phone from his pocket, types something quickly before shoving it back.

Zack raises an eyebrow at him before shaking his head, handing Shiloh gingerly back to Sierra.

“So, let’s see her then,” Alex says, nodding in the direction of the bundle.

Sierra unravels some of the pink material and holds Shiloh out to him –he holds her gently, knowing Zack will kill him with his bare hands if anything happens to her.

“She’s got your hair, Si,” Alex says, smiling at the baby in his arms. Jack chooses that moment to make his presence known –by tumbling rather unceremoniously down the stairs with what appears to be yellow paint smeared over his cheek.

“Hey,” He says, nodding at them like this is a completely normal occurrence. He looks at the fabric and baby in Alex’s arms and smiles, pressing a kiss to the older boy’s cheek.

“Cute,” He comments, looking up at Sierra and Zack before leaning back to whisper in Alex’s ear, “but not as cute as you.”

“Come see what we’ve been doing.” Alex says, cautiously handing Shiloh back to her father and taking hold of Jack’s hand.

Zack looks at Sierra for a long moment before following after them.

They push open the doors to the nursery –that Zack had been meaning to decorate all summer. Zack and Sierra’s expressions quickly change to one of shock, because Alex and Jack have redecorated the entire room while they’ve been gone.

It’s a pale yellow color –which explains the smear on Jack’s cheek- with purple highlights and soft, brown and beige furniture.

“Okay, wow.” Sierra says, taken aback as she turns in circles, taking in the whole room. “Thank you. So, so much.”

“Oh, we just need you to do one thing, though.” Jack says, holding out a paint tray with pale lavender inside. “Put a handprint on the wall for her? Everyone else has.”

Sierra looks behind her at the wall, only to see a collection of different sized handprints, each with the name of the owner written on it.

Sierra laughs, taking the paint from Jack and pressing her hand in it, pressing it against the lemon yellow walls and leaving an impressive mess.

“Zack, your turn.” She says, holding up the tray to him. He looks at her, blinking in shock, and lays their daughter down before taking the paint from his fiancé.

He leaves his handprint right beside Sierra’s, only his is larger and slightly more imperfect.

“Okay, cute. Now go wash your hands before you get paint everywhere.” Jack laughs as Zack swipes two lines of purple across Sierra’s cheek.

It’s as they’re washing their hands in the bathroom that Sierra stands on her tiptoes to kiss Zack’s forehead, whispering an ‘I love you’ as she pulls away.

Shiloh grows steadily then, everything happening when Sierra’s stupidly huge stack of baby books say they should.

She’s six months old, and Zack’s sitting with her on his lap, trying to get her to sit when she mumbles something.

“Did you just...?” He asks, despite knowing the child won’t reply. The child smiles at him, and the same bright hazel-green eyes as his stare back.

“Sera!” I think Shi’s trying to talk!”

Sierra comes running through the house and into the living room, staring at the two of them.

“Do that again, for mommy.” Zack says to the girl, who looks up at her mother and squeals happily, babbling out ‘momma!’ somewhere in the middle.

Sierra squeaks with excitement, smiling at Zack then Shiloh as she picks the girl up from his lap.

“Zee, write that down in the baby book, otherwise we’ll forget.” Sierra says, laughing and making baby noises for the little girl.

Zack and Sierra finally decide to go out on a date a few months later, and leave Shiloh with Alex, Jack, Rian and Cassadee. She sits and stares at Cassadee, apparently terrified of her. Rian laughs at how put out his girlfriend is by this whole situation.

“It’s because she’s never seen you before,” Jack explains, keeping one eye on the dark haired ten-month-old that’s currently crawling all over Alex’s new carpets.

“Oh,” Cassadee replies, still obviously put out. Rian laughs again and puts his arm around her, as Shiloh crawls over to him and tugs at his jeans.

“Hey, little one,” He says, smiling at her and petting her dark curls gently.

“You see, this is why I want kids. They’re so adorable.” Cassadee comments as Shiloh sits back with a soft thud and stares at her.

“You want kids?” Rian asks.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you think we should get married first?”

“Probably.”

“Shall we, then?” Rian says with a soft smile as Alex returns to the room and flops down onto the floor beside the baby girl.

“What have children?” Cassadee replies, confused, watching Alex playing with Shiloh while Jack looks on, amused.

“No, get married, stupid.” Rian laughs gently, elbowing her lightly. She turns and stares him for a second.

“Are you being serious right now, or-” She starts, but Rian speaks before she finishes.

“Yes, I’m being serious.”

“Well, in that case, yes. We should get married.”

It’s Shiloh’s first birthday when she first stands, clinging on to the arm of the sofa for dear life. She lets go, looks at Zack and Sierra, proud of herself, before tumbling backwards onto the floor. She looks confused for a second, glances around her before tugging herself back up onto her feet.

Zack laughs, picks her up and pulls her into a hug, nuzzling against her forehead.

“Silly baby,” He laughs, smiling a little as she wraps her fingers in his hair, “although, I suppose I can’t call you baby any more.”

By the time she’s one and a half, she’s toddling around causing mayhem, which Zack secretly suspects Jack and Alex taught her to, because he doesn’t remember ever teaching her how to climb stairs.

She’s two by the time Cassadee and Rian’s wedding comes around.

Sierra’s pacing around in the hall, heels tapping on the laminate flooring while she waits for Zack. Shiloh watches her from the end of the stairs, swinging her legs back and forth.

“Shi, honey, go and get Daddy for me, okay?”

“Okay, Mommy.” Shiloh replies and begins to climb the stairs.

She amazes Sierra really; in two years, she can walk, talk, feed herself and she’s still as amazing as she was the day she was born.

About ten minutes pass and neither her fiancé or her daughter make an appearance, so she sighs overdramatically and is more than prepared to walk into the room and scream at him, but she’s glad she didn’t.

He’s asleep; half dressed in his wedding suit with a tie unfastened around his neck. Shiloh had obviously seen her father asleep and had tucked herself in under his arm, snuggling back against him.

Sierra pulls her phone from her handbag as quietly as she can and quickly calls Cassadee.

“Cass, I think we’re going to be late.”

By the time Sierra and Zack finally set a date for their own wedding, little Shiloh is four and not so little any more.

Zack’s pacing around the room, Jack and Rian trying their hardest to keep him calm, but it’s not working all that well. The door creaks open and Shiloh appears, looking up at her father.

“Hey, Daddy.”

“Hey, Shi,” Zack says, bending down to pick her up. She smiles at him, internally wondering if it’d hurt his feelings to say she’s too old to be picked up.

“Mommy looks real pretty.” She says, nodding to emphasise.

“I bet she does.” Zack replies. Shiloh pauses then, turning and looking at Rian.

“Oh, and Cass told me to say that Austin isn’t behaving.”

Rian sighs, rolling his eyes, realizing his one-year-old is somehow managing to cause havoc despite being unable to walk.

“She’s probably exaggerating.” Jack laughs, patting Rian on the back sympathetically.

The service goes well –not without a hitch, since Austin started crying almost as soon as Cassadee sat down.

Shiloh was right about Sierra looking pretty, he decides as he looks at her properly right before he kisses her. Her hair’s all been curled –by Cassadee, he suspects- and the dress she’s picked is perfect.

And Zack’s kind of the happiest he’s ever been there and then, because he’s got his daughter and his wife and that’s all he really needs.

To say Zack is reluctant when Shiloh has to go to school is an understatement –he absolutely does not want to let her go.

It takes Sierra coaxing him into believing that she’ll be okay for him to finally let her go into the building.

“Love you, Shi.” He says, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“Love you, Dad.” She replies, grinning and letting Sierra lean down to kiss her forehead.

“Be good, okay?” Her mother says. “You can tell us all about it when we come and get you after school.”

Zack’s day is quiet and... Boring, really. He’s not exactly used to not having Shiloh wandering around, talking loudly and just generally being adorable.

He goes out for coffee with Jack and Alex while Sierra’s gone out shopping.

“We’ve got some news.” Alex says, grinning and taking a sip from the paper cup in front of him.

“Fire away,” Zack replies, stirring his coffee with the little wooden stirrer.

“We’re engaged.” Jack says, blushing. Zack grins, happy for them.

“We’re flying out to California in a month and a half to get married. You, Sierra and Shiloh are welcome to come if you want to.” Alex continues for him.

“Yeah, I think we will. I don’t see why Sierra would say no. I mean, it’s you two.” Zack comments, taking a long drink from his coffee.

“Yeah, she has to love us.”

Shiloh comes back from a day at middle school in tears, and Zack is immediately concerned. He’d had an otherwise good day –he’d spent most of it planning the band’s ‘awesome comeback tour’ (as Alex had named it) with the guys and they were all set to start booking venues.

That is, until he saw his thirteen year old daughter stumbling through the door.

He looks up from the table –where he has about seven folders of past tour dates spread- and looks at her, wordlessly standing and embracing her in a tight hug.

“I hate people.” She says quietly, and she sounds so much like her mother that it almost confuses Zack for a second.

It doesn’t take Zack long to work out that someone’s said something to her that upset her, so he takes her out for dinner to that restaurant down the street that he knows she loves, because Sierra is out at a band meeting until tomorrow afternoon and he really thinks she needs cheering up.

It works, because when he makes a spectacular mess of eating spaghetti, she laughs at him and mutters, ‘God, you’re so embarrassing, Dad.’ And yeah, Zack thinks as he smiles to himself, his work here is done.

When Shiloh comes back from her first day of high school, she sighs and throws her bag down onto the table in the dining room. Zack and Sierra look up at her and Zack raises an eyebrow.

“Dad, did you have to send me to your old high school? I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life.”

“What happened?” Zack asks with a smirk.

“All day I’ve had teachers –and some of the older kids- coming up to me going ‘your dad’s Zack Merrick, isn’t he? I used to teach him,’ or ‘your dad is in All Time Low, isn’t he? I love that band, they’re so retro.’ It gets really annoying after an hour or two.”

Zack and Sierra exchange a glance, then they look back at their daughter and laugh. Shiloh sighs dramatically and throws her arms around, frowning at them.

“I’m going to go and call Austin to warn him what he has coming his way,” She sighs, picking up her bag and stomping her way upstairs.

“God, she’s so like you sometimes,” Zack says, looking back down at the papers on the table. Sierra glares at him for a second, elbowing him in the ribs before kissing him gently.

“Okay, gross.” Shiloh comments as she returns to the kitchen and opens the fridge, her cell phone held against her shoulder. She takes the milk out of the fridge with her free hand, takes a long drink from the bottle before leaving it on the counter.

“Sorry, Austin. Mom and Dad were being all couple-y again.”

Sierra looks at Zack incredulously as Shiloh leaves the room, leaving the fridge wide open, the milk left out and some of it spilled on the counter.

“And you say she’s like me?”

“She’s a Merrick, what can I say.”

Zack is kind of ridiculously proud when Shiloh graduates. Her hair’s shorter than it was when she was younger; cut to her shoulders, but still mousy brown and with her mother’s waves. She still has his eyes and her mother’s attitude, and Zack’s pretty sure she’s stuck with those for life.

And as she’s giving her speech –one that’s very similar to the one he gave back when he graduated, probably because he helped her write it- he’s pretty sure that he’s never been this proud of anything or anyone before.

When she makes her way off stage and stumbles her way into the crowd, the first person she looks for is him. She throws herself at him, hugs him tight and smiles when she pulls back.

“Love you, Dad.”

When Shiloh leaves for New York and college, Zack and Sierra wave her off from the porch, wearing huge smiles and fighting tears.

“Look after yourself, okay Shi?” Sierra says, wiping at her eyes.

“I will, Mom. For the third time.” She laughs, pulling her mother in for a hug.

“You’d better call.”

“I will, Mom, God.” She giggles, stepping back from her mother. “Besides, it’s only the next state over, I’ll come visit on weekends.”

“Love you, Shiloh.” Zack says, pulling his daughter in for a tight hug. “Never forget that. And don’t let anything or anyone bring you down.”

“I won’t, Dad. Promise.” She grins, kisses both her parents on the cheek and heads out for her car.

“I love you guys!” She waves out of the window. “I’ll call.”

As Sierra closes the door, Zack smiles sadly at her and they curl up together and watch old movies that were released back when they were just dating.

“You know one thing I’ll never get over, Sera?” Zack says suddenly, and Sierra looks up at him.

“No, what?”

“The fact that Shiloh is still as amazing as she was the day she was born.”

Sierra smiles, and looks back at the TV screen before speaking.

“I think it’s because she has our fuckin’ awesome genes.”