A Long December.

It’s quiet between Lennox and Zayn as they wait for Alex, the lawyer who’d come to her house, to return with some paperwork. Lennox tries to take in as much detail about the office as she can to keep from having to acknowledge Zayn. She can feel his eyes on her and she counts the number of degrees that are lining the walls.

“Lennox, do you honestly think we can do this?”

His voice is soft, but they is no lack of conviction there. Her eyes remained glued to the degrees.

“How do you think this is going to work? We don’t even live together anymore.”

Lennox thinks back to the funeral and remembers the blonde who was attached to Zayn’s side. Where was she? Was she jealous after she saw Zayn drive her home? Was the thought of him being alone with Lennox killing her? Lennox’s thoughts were short lived; however, she knew there was no reason to be jealous. Not of her anyways.

“I can take care of her myself, it’s not a problem.” Lennox finally speaks and her voice is quiet. Zayn turns to face her but she opts to keep her face forward.

“I don’t mean it like that, Lenny. I just- it’s going to be hard for us to work this out.”

She wants to argue with him, remind him of how life isn’t fair, but all she can focus on is the nickname she hasn’t been called in almost a year. Lennox bites her lip and looks down to her hands that are tightly wound together.

Zayn opens his mouth to speak, but the door beats him to it. Alex walks in with a small smile and a manila folder in hand. He wastes no time in sitting down and pulling out all of the documents needing signatures and holding out the pens.

“Now in addition to the child, as you can see here, they left you the house as well.”

Lennox’s mouth drops open a bit at this. “The house? But shouldn’t someone in their family get it?” Lennox glances over to Zayn who looks just as surprised with his eyebrow knitted together.

“Well, yes, in a normal situation, the house would go to a family member, but you two were named in the will, that if anything should ever happen to them, you inherit Emmy as well as the house.” Alex glances up from his papers to look between the two. “I understand that you’re both single?” Lennox bites her lip and Zayn runs a hand through his hair. “By that, I mean unmarried. It actually works out well, you two can just move into the house and you won’t have to worry about passing Emmy back and forth every few days.”

Zayn runs another hand roughly through his dark hair and lets out a deep sigh. Lennox can tell that he’s obviously feeling doubtful about the whole situation. She assumes that he won’t sign off on the papers and that’s fine with her. It’s different between them now, and living together, trying to raise Emmy, it wouldn’t exactly be smooth sailing.

“Everything’s in order. All you have to do is sign.” Alex holds out the pen to the two.

Lennox reaches for the pen, without a doubt agreeing that the child should be in there care as opposed to foster care, but the only thought fully processing in her head is how truly morbid the whole situation really is. Louis and April had a will written, they were twenty five years old and completely healthy. Lennox couldn’t imagine what could actually occur for the thought of a will to cross their minds.

Lennox’s hand is on autopilot as she signs off on the numerous documents. All she wants is for little Emmy to be in her arms and so she can safely bring her home. The baby was probably terrified enough as it was, spending a week in the care of complete strangers. Once she hands over the pen, it’s all up to Zayn.

He lets out a long breath and Lennox assumes this is it, this is the point, just like in anything else in his else, where he decides it’s too much and he has to back out. It’s clear that he knows just how much responsibility goes into caring for a child and it’s more than he’s ready to bargain for.

But Zayn can’t do that, he can’t abandon Emmy, not when she was the light in Louis’ world, not when he saw the way Louis cried the day she was born. It’s a responsibility, one’s not ready for, but he’s going to do it. He takes the pen from Alex and quickly scrawls his name out.

“I’ll be right back then with your little one, and you’ll be on your way.”

”She doesn’t look anything like you, April.”

April nodded at Zayn’s words and let out a sigh. “I know, she looks just like her daddy, all accept the blonde hair. At least she got something from me.”

Lennox carefully picked the baby up into her arms and cooed softly to her as she opened her green eyes and watched Lennox and Zayn carefully.

“We can have one of these too, you know?”

Lennox scrunched her nose and let out a laugh at Zayn’s words. “Zayn, this isn’t a dog, it’s a baby.” She brought the baby up a bit closer and pressed a kiss to Emmy’s forehead. “It’s not that easy.”

Zayn grinned, shaking his head a bit as he watched Lennox interact with the baby. “But it is, you and I could make one gorgeous child.”

“I second that,” Louis stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room, where he fell into the couch and brought April down with him, where she landed comfortably on his lap. “You two could make a good lookin’ baby.”

Lennox’s cheeks heated up and she avoided the three sets of eyes watching her. Zayn grinned and stepped forward, kissing Lennox’s cheek softly. She swatted him away instantly. “You guys are so embarrassing.”

April shrugged her shoulders and patted Louis’ arm. “Well, you’ll always have Emmy to babysit whenever we need it,” she winked.

Lennox nodded and Zayn took Emmy into his own arms where he softly placed his lips against her tiny cheek. “Uncle Zayn’s got it under control.”

+

Lennox’s heart makes a drop and jump at the same moment as Alex comes into the room with little Emmy in his arms. Her smile immediately widens when she sees the familiar faces of Zayn and Lennox, but Lennox knew how daunting it must’ve been for her to be stuck in the system for a few days with all of these strangers.

Lennox quickly takes Emmy into her hands as Alex begins speaking with Zayn about the last few legal bits involved with taking Emmy in.

+

The car ride back home is silent and the two don’t really know what there is to say. In just one week, they’ve lost their best friends, and gained their child and their home. And the two riding beside each other in the car are strangers now; the last time the two uttered a single word to each other was when they broke up, and now, their lives are on two completely different pages.

Lennox’s eyes glance towards the stranger beside her and she feels the previous years sneak back on her. It’s been a while, but the memories hit her as if she was living through them that very moment.

”Come on Lenny, don’t run away from me.”

Lennox turned around, rolling her eyes at the boy. “Zayn, I’m not even running, you’re just not keeping up.”

He playfully groaned and brought his pace up to a quick jog, falling in step beside her. He threw his arm around her shoulder and hers fell to his waist as they headed closer to their usual spot in the park. She dropped her purse down and slipped her shoes off, setting them beside her bag as she sat down on the freshly trimmed grass.

Zayn sat down behind her and wasted no time in pulling her back against his chest. He had discarded his shoes as well and Lennox smiled, knocking her feet playfully into his. “Guess what?”

“What?” he asked softly, leaning his head down and planting a kiss on her cheek.

“You see that empty lot right there?” she pointed her mint green nail across the park to the small empty shop sitting on the street beside the boutique and their hair salon. “I’m going to put my bakery in there.” She patted his leg. “And you’re going to help me bake everything.”

“As long as you name a pastry after me.” He grinned and stretched his body out a bit more, leaning back a bit and bringing Lennox with him.

She scrunched her nose and shook her head. “I won’t name one after you, but maybe you can come up with a new creation and I’ll sell it.”

He appeared to be thinking about it, then he leaned back down and pressed a kiss to her other cheek. “Deal.”

He looked down to their linked fingers and smiled softly. “I’ve already got one in mind. “He spoke up and she leaned her head back to get a good look at him.

“What?” She asked, her long hair falling into her face a bit as she craned her neck to see him properly.

“A strawberry brownie.” He shrugged his shoulders as if it was the simplest thing he’d ever said. Zayn chuckled at the sour expression on Lennox’s face and pulled their intertwined hands tightly around her torso, hugging her closely. “Come on, they’ll be delicious.”

“I highly doubt that,” Lennox giggled as she pictured the creation in her mind. It was anything but tasty.

The two looked up from each other as a pair of little girls began running through the park, giggling loudly as they played a game of tag. Zayn smiled and leaned down, kissing Lennox’s cheek gingerly. “You’ll see, Lenny. They’ll be the best thing in your bakery.”

Lennox carefully places Emmy in the makeshift cocoon on in the middle of the bed. Her grabs the blanket and tucks her in, making sure that she won’t fall out during the night. Lennox’s hand carefully reaches down and pushes the soft curls away from her tiny face. She swears she can see Louis and April in the tiny girl.

“She’s already asleep,” Zayn’s voice is soft, but it still causes Lennox to jump a bit.

“Yeah, she’s been through a lot today.” Lennox straightens up when Zayn comes closer to the bed. Her light eyes are cautious the closer he steps.

“I hope Louis knows she’s in a good place, we can do this, can’t we?”

Lennox smiles a bit and nods her head. “He knows we’ve got her covered.”