Lightning in a Bottle

This was a lot to take in. Especially when I had things going on with myself too.

“I’m gonna do it. I’m ready,” Harry said around a mouth full of food. He had invited me over to hang out, and make food while Kota was off at work and Niall was busy with some friends. I had no idea this was going to be ‘Harry confession hour.’

I chewed my food slowly processing his confession, “How long have you thought about this? You need to be sure! Don’t get my hopes up if you’re not sure!”

“I’ve never been more sure about something in my life! I’ve been thinking about marrying Dakota for years. 3 years ago, when you and Niall got married, I wanted it so bad. But I didn’t want her to think I was doing it because everyone else was,” he explained. “And I’ve been on the lookout for the perfect ring. Nothing had been good enough for her finger until a few months ago.”

“You got a ring?” I squeaked.

He nodded eagerly, “Yeah, do you wanna see it?”

“Yes I wanna see it!” I shrieked! He laughed and got up to run down the hall. This was seriously happening! Harry was going to purpose to Dakota finally! I was so happy, but there was a small little guilty feeling deep down inside of me.

He came back into the room and handed me the little black box, “I had it custom made. Because nothing I saw would compare to the picture in my mind.”

I pulled open the top and was rendered speechless. It was a white cold band with tiny diamonds all around the band. Then there was a massive round diamond on the top. “Holy shit!”

“Do you think she’ll like it?”

“Like it? She’s going to freak out! She’s going to love it Harry!”

He sighed in relief at my words, “I’m glad you think so. Do you think she’ll say yes?”

“No shit, she’ll say yes! Oh my god, I’m so excited for you guys! When are you-” my stomach lurched. “Oh no.”

“What?” Harry panicked. “Are you okay you look-” I didn’t let him finish as I bolted off the couch and raced to the bathroom. I made it just in time before I threw up everything I’d just eaten. “Holy shit, Ayden, are you alright?” I heard him rush into the bathroom and felt him pull my hair away from my hands that were holding it away from the toilet and puke.

I let out a few dry heaves before I sat back feeling a bit better. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sick? Should I call a doctor?”

I shook my head, “No, I um- it’s nothing.”

His worry and confusion only intensified as he looked at me. I stood up to avoid his stare as I rummaged through his cabinets for some mouth wash. We stayed in silence as I took the time to wash my mouth out, but I could feel Harry’s stare burning in the back of my head. After I’d rinsed my mouth a few times I glanced up at him through the mirror and he had this huge grin on his face, “You’re pregnant,” he stated.

I shook my head, “No. Well, I mean, I’m not one hundred percent positive.”

“You haven’t taken a test?”

I shook my head, “No. I’m only 2 weeks late and that’s happened before so I wasn’t sure. But this is the second day I’ve thrown up randomly so… maybe…”

“You’re pregnant!” he laughed. He pulled out his phone and started typing.

I shrugged, “It might be too early to tell.”

“Was this planned? Have you and Niall been trying?”

I shrugged, “Well… kind of.”

“Kind of?”

I nodded slowly, “Last month when I ran out of birth control we both decided that I just… wouldn’t get it refilled.”

“You’re pregnant!” he cheered

“We don’t know that, Harry.”

He rolled his eyes before pulling his phone out and typing, “Google says morning sickness starts around the sixth week of pregnancy so,” he calculated in his head, “This fits the time line…”

“Google isn’t the best with facts.”

He turned the screen to me, “It’s a baby site!” He grabbed my elbow and steered us out of the bathroom, “Come on, we’ll go get a test!”

“Harry-”

“Come on! I’m dying to know here!”

I sighed in defeat, “Fine. Let’s go. But can we not go somewhere obvious? I’d like to tell Niall this myself than have a pap ruin it.”

He scoffed, “Who do you think you’re dealing with here?”

*****

We drove outside of London to find a store. Harry also hid his curls under a beanie and made us both wear sunglasses ‘just in case.’ I knew we were taking a gamble, so I’d have to tell Niall tonight regardless of what this test said.

“It might be too early to tell, yeah?” I fidgeted in the passenger seat as we drove.

Harry shrugged, “I’m not sure, you’re a week late right?” I nodded. “Well say you got pregnant the first night you had sex off the pill. You’d be like 6ish weeks pregnant, so you might be able to tell.”

I shrugged, “I have no idea how this works.”

“Me either babe,” he shrugged keeping his eyes on the road. “How long have you been thinking you were?”

“Well, the missed period was a big red flag.” I sighed, “I just feel like the timing is shit.”

“What? Why? I thought you and Niall talked about it?”

“No, no, we did. It’s just… You’re about to propose! I don’t want to seal your thunder with news of a pregnancy.”

The look he shot me made me feel really stupid, “Are you joking Ayd? This is great news! A wedding and a new baby in the family! This is the greatest coincidence, love!”

“Slow your roll mate, we don’t even know if I’m pregnant for sure.”

“I’d bet my net worth that you are. I feel that confident about it.”

I scoffed, “You’re always so optimistic.”

“Of course I am! Now, on to important things,” he stated. “Who’s up for god parents?”

“Harry!”

“What? It’s a good question! Do you know how many people are going to want to be first in line? I’m just jumping it. I want dibs on godfather!”

“You can’t just call dibs Harry.”

“I believe I just did!”

I sighed, “You are ridiculous.”

“Yes, but that hasn’t kicked me out of the best friend spot, yet.”

“Blue’s the best friend.”

“Yeah, well I’m you’re number two!” he scoffed ‘rude’ under his breath as we pulled into a small drug store. “Alright let’s do this.”

The parking lot was deserted except for a few cars, which was a good sign. An even better sign was when we walked in and there was an older lady at the till. She hardly batted an eye in our direction when we walked it, not taking her eyes off the romance novel in her hand. “We lucked out,” I whispered.

Harry grabbed a basket as we passed a stack of them. “Why do you think I drove a half out of the way? I knew no one would be here,” he whispered back as we walked down isles looking for the one with the pregnancy tests. “Found it!” he exclaimed as he pulled us to the right. “Alright,” he said when we stopped in front of the section with about 50 different brands. “What kind is the good kind?”

“Um,” I faltered. “I have no idea.” It was a bit overwhelming to look at all the different choices.

“Do you know what kind Eleanor or your aunt used?”

I shook my head, “No, I never thought to ask.”

He hummed in thought as we both continued to stare at the shelves of tests. “I got it!” His arm shot out and swept almost an entire shelf into his basket.

“Harry!”

“What? Now we have about 20 tests of all different kinds. How can we go wrong?”

I bent down to pick up the ones that had missed the basket to put back on the shelf. “You’re being ridiculous! Put them back, I don’t need that many!”

He sighed heavily as he shifted through the lot in the basket and shoved some back haphazardly back on the shelf. “Fine, but we’re getting 15. I like that number.”

“There’s not enough pee in me to do 15 tests.”

“Well we better go get you something to drink then.”

“Harry!” I hissed as he walked away from me.”

“Ayden,” he mocked. “Come on, we don’t have all day!”

*****

I ended up peeing in 5 cups (after drinking a massive amount of water) and sticking 3 tests in each of them before capping them to wait for the results.

“How long until we know?”

I shrugged, “No idea. Some of the instructions say 3-5 minutes and others say around 10.”

“Then let’s set a timer to 10 and we’ll wait.” I let him lead us into the living room to sit on the couch. “Are you excited?”

I shrugged, “More nervous than anything.”

“About?”

I shrugged again, “Getting my hopes up. And just… becoming someone’s parent. It’s a huge deal.”

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “I know it is. But you and Niall, I can’t think of two people who are more ready to be parents. You’re kid is going to be so adorable and so loved. I mean, look at all of us with little Darcy. She’s a fire cracker.” I smiled at the thought of Louis and Eleanor’s little girl. She had just turned three and she had the personality of her father and the looks of her mother (with her father’s eyes of course). She was a witty little thing and she knew just what to say and how to look to have everyone in the room eating out of the palm of her hand. I had been right with my assumptions the day she was born- she was surrounded by love and her parents were the best they could be and more.

“I know, I’m just… still nervous about it all you know?”

“I think it’d be more alarming if you weren’t.”

I nodded and sighed, relaxing into the couch. “So when are you proposing to Kota?”

He smiled so massively at the mention of his impending engagement. “This weekend. I’m taking her up to the cabin. I’ve got it all planned. There’s gonna be dinner and candles and flowers. I’ve been thinking about it so much, I’m hardly nervous about it.”

I nodded, “Sounds amazing Harry. She’ll love it.”

“I just can’t believe it’s taken me this long to do it. I mean, I’ve known she was the one for me the day I laid eyes on her.”

“You’re such a romantic.”

He scrunched his nose, “I know.”

We were so engrossed in talk of his proposal that we both jumped when the timer on my phone went off. “Holy shit.”

“Come on! The suspense is killing me!” he shot up.

“I’m just dreading the clean up at the point.”

Harry smirked at me as we walked down the hall, “I’ve already got bleach ready to get your pregnancy pee off my counter.”

“I hate you.”

He scoffed, “Yeah, yeah.”

We walked in and a shot of anxiety hit me at the sight of all 15 pregnancy tests lying upside down. The answers were right there. “What if it’s too soon to tell? We would have wasted all this time and money.”

“Well we won’t know until we look.”

I took a deep breath and walked over to the counter. “Fuck, this is a lot of pressure.”

“Do you want me to do it?”

“Yes,” I said without even thinking.

Harry chuckled, “Sit on the toilet, all look at them.”

I sat down but could not sit still. I watched Harry’s back as he stood at the counter and flipped over all the tests. It felt like he was going agonizingly slow, “Hurry up!”

“Okay, chill out!”

I sighed and bounced my knee waiting.

He turned around and smirked at me, “You are so pregnant!”

“Are you sure? How many were positive?” I asked getting up to see for myself.

“Every single one says you’re pregnant.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed. I took in all the different pregnancy tests. Some said ‘pregnant!’ some had 2 pink lines, some had plus signs and some had happy faces.

But they were all a positive answer.

I was super pregnant. “Holy shit, Harry! I’m pregnant!”

“I told you!”

I turned to him and jumped on him, “I’m pregnant!”

He secured me to him as he twirled us around, “I like this reaction,” he laughed. “I was worried.”

“I’m having a baby! Holy fuck me, I’m having Niall’s baby!”

He set me down and smiled down at me, “You’re having a baby!”

“What time is it? I need to tell Niall!”

*****

I stopped by my aunts on the way home. I knew I should have told Niall first, but I was excited and I needed to grab something. My aunt was ecstatic and so were will and Finn, who was now almost 7. Little Henry, who was 2, was still too young to understand but was happy to see me either way.

When I got home I spread all fifteen positive pregnancy test on the table and placed the little baby booties I got from my aunt’s house on the table in front of them. They were the pair she knitted when she was pregnant with Finn, and they were on loan ‘indefinitely’ she said.

“Babe?” Niall called out at he walked through the door.

A shot of excitement hit me at his voice, “In the kitchen.”

I heard him shuffle about; taking his shoes off, emptying his pockets in the entry way. Then there he was, “Hey what’s-” His words got lost as he spotted what was on the table and he froze. He looked from the table to me a few times before he closed the space and he was grabbing at all the tests to look at all the results. “You’re- are you- we?”

I inched a bit closer to him, biting my lip nervously. “I mean, the tests aren’t 100%, but how could 15 of them all be wrong?”

“We’re having a baby?” he whispered. His eyes locked on mine, his face completely blank but his eyes were so wide.

I nodded slowly, “I think 15 tests is a solid maybe, if not a pretty good definitive yes.”

He was in front of me within a second, closing the gap between us and pulled me into a firm kiss. His arms lock around me pressing me so tight against him it was almost hard to breathe. “We’re having a baby?” He rested his forehead against mine, leaning his torso back to look down at my still completely flat stomach. “I’m gonna be a father,” he said, voice wavering.

I shot of anxiety seemed through my veins, “Are you okay?”

“Okay?” tears ran down his face but I’ve never seen him look so happy in all the years he’s been in my life. “I’m more than happy right now Ayden, I’m- I can’t even think of works! Holy shit!” he exclaimed, letting me go to look at the tests again. He whipped the tears from his face before he grabbed the baby booties tightly in his hands. “We’re having a baby!” he cheered.

I giggled, “We are. I don’t know how far along we are, not too far I’m guessing but… once I go to the doctor we’ll have a better idea.”

“I can’t believe you took 15 tests.”

“That was um, that was Harry’s idea,” I said nervously.

“Harry knows?”

I nodded, “Don’t be mad. I didn’t like tell him on purpose but I got sick at his house and he just put it together and demanded we go find out.”

He smirked, “I’m not mad babe. Sounds like a Harry thing to do.”

“He’s proposing to KIota this weekend too.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Wow. This week is just packed with fantastic news!” He came back to me and held me to him. He kissed my lips and across my jaw before settling into my neck, “I can’t believe you’re pregnant. Let me see!” he said before dropping to his knees and pushing my shirt up.

“Niall, my body still looks exactly the same, you can’t see anything.”

“So what, I know what’s happening in there! I made it!”

“Technically we both did.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he waved off. He poked my stomach right under my belly button, “Hey little one,” he cooed. “I know you’re too small and undeveloped to hear me right now, but I’m still going to talk.” He kissed me where he had just poked, “I already love you, and I hope you look just like your mother.”

I giggled, “I hope he takes after the Irish side. With a little Irish accent.”

He smiled up at me, “I’ll do my best to pass that on.”

“Get up here,” he laughed and pulling up to stand in front of me. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and hugged myself to him.

He sighed into me contently, “Are you happy?”

“I was nervous before but now… Now I can’t wait to bring our child into the world.”

His kissed my neck, “I love you so much Ayden.”

“I love you too popstar.”