Isn't She Lovely (h.s)

Chapter 29

Samantha

Luckily for us it was still early enough that most people under the age of thirty were still sleeping. There were only three other tables of people when we walked in, all elderly couples out for an early morning cuppa. We crammed ourselves into a booth in the back corner of the restaurant and after what felt like an eternity of spit balls, tiny bits of food, and paper straw wrappers being thrown across the table, we were finally piling back into the car.

"So what should we do now?" Niall asked as he strapped himself in to the backseat next to Catherine. After buckling her in, I carefully shut the door and got back into the driver's seat. I put the keys into the ignition and sighed, turning around to face all of the boys.

"Well what can we do?" I darted my gaze to Catherine and I knew all of the boys understood.

"Umm, I suppose we could... well..." Liam trailed off as he tried to come up with a fun activity we could do away from the paps. After a few minutes of thinking he looked rather discouraged. I knew he felt bad about all of this, but there was nothing we could do about it right now.

"I've got it!" Niall yelped, practically jumping out of his seat.

"Okay. I am gonna take Caty and run back ta da store an then ta flat. Boys, I need you ta go ta da store an' pick up a projector an' some snacks, and Sam, I need you ta run ta da movie rental an' pick up a few movies. We'll meet back at Harry's in an hour, sound good?"

I looked around at Liam and Zayn, awaiting their reactions. They seemed rather curious, but agreed to go to the store anyways. Zayn and Liam quickly got out of the car, pulling up their hoodies and grabbing their sunglasses while flagging down a taxi. Niall proceeded to hop from the car, scooping Catherine out of her car seat, and pulling on a pair of Ray bans as he lowered his hood and hailing for a taxi just moments later.

Once everyone was gone, I started the car and drove the fifteen minutes to the nearest movie rental. The car was eerily quiet without Louis's incessant gabbing, the text tone of Zayn's phone, Liam's back seat driving, Niall's laughing, Harry's constant gabbing, or the singing of my little angel. It was different... nice, almost. I hadn't heard silence in almost three years now, so I was going to savor every second of this.

I hummed quietly to myself, tapping my fingers against the steering wheel. After about ten minutes of driving, though, the silence became overwhelming. I loved the continuous noise, it fueled me. As I pulled up to a red light, I couldn't help but glance over into the minivan next to me. A woman in her mid forties looked utterly exhausted as a teenage girl and young boy fought over something in the back seat. The mother looked beat tired, but I could still see that sparkle in her eye. No matter how irritable and annoyed she was with her kids right now, she still loved them, and at the end of the day, she wouldn't trade them for any other children in the world.

I couldn't help but wonder if that would be me when I was her age. Would I be that soccer mom lugging her kids off to games and practices, trying not to lose her cool as her children bickered back and forth just mere inches away? Would it be possible by then to have such a normal life?

I was so into my day dream that I didn't notice that the light had changed until the person behind me honked loudly, jolting me forward slightly. Minutes later I arrived at the movie rental and hopped out of the car, locking the doors behind me. I ran in quickly and the little bell over the door tinkled lightly. I decided to pick up a few movies that we could all watch together. It didn't take me long to decide, I picked up three movies that we would watch, two for while Catherine was awake, and one for the five of us. I plucked up 'Mary Poppins', 'Peter Pan', and 'Alien' for later in the night. I happily paid for them and ran out of the store, a stack of movies in tow. I hopped back in the car and raced back to our flat to meet the other boys, eager to see what Niall had planned for us.

* * *

"Okay boys, and Catherine, what movie would you like to watch first?" I held up the options I had gotten for Catherine: 'Mary Poppins', and 'Peter Pan'. Catherine put on that cute little thinking face of hers, much like how her father looks when he's deep in thought, and all of the boys fussed over the cuteness.

"Dat one Mummy!" She pointed to Mary Poppins and I heard Niall groan. I knew he wasn't one for children's Disney movies, but it would just have to do for now. I popped the movie into the dvd player we had hooked up to the projector and settled back into my makeshift seat. It amazed me what Niall was able to come up with on the spot. In only an hour, Niall had managed to set up a makeshift drive- in theater in our living room, complete with popcorn, Twizzlers, and our own "cars" made out of cardboard that Catherine had helped decorate. I sat Catherine down in her own pink car, and brought a hand up to tame her unruly curls. She turned in her seat so that she was looking me in the eyes. It was still a shock to look into those beautiful, big emerald eyes that were an identical match to her father's own.

"Mumma?" My head snapped up at the sound of my name these last three years.

"Yeah, Baby?" She pulled herself to an upright position so that she was looking into my eyes.

"Daddy coming home?" She stared at me with those big puppy dog eyes of hers and I practically melted right there. I brought a hand up to her cheek and rubbed my thumb in tender circles against her soft flesh.

"Yes, Love bug, Daddy's coming home, I promise." She nodded and re-situated herself in her makeshift pillow seat in her 'car'.

"Good, I wuv daddy." She sighed contently, snuggling into her seat and leaning her head back against her pillow. I kissed the side of her head lovingly and brushed back the curls that managed to fly up into her face.

"Me too baby girl, me too."