Piper ~ H.S

~Chapter 103~

A/N: Yo!! I've had heaps of time to write lately this is great!!!

~Harry~

"Piper!" I knocked on the door of her bedroom, "Come on love, we gotta go soon! Or you'll be late for school."

"I'm coming!" She called back, "Just wait!"

"I'm gonna be in the kitchen. Come down when you're ready!" I told her.

"Okay, daddy!"

I went back downstairs to the kitchen where I'd packed Piper's lunch. Her schoolbag was sitting on a stool that was in front of the kitchen island, so I picked it up and quickly glanced inside to make sure that she had everything she needed for the day. After I did that, I picked up her lunchbox and tucked it in her bag in front of all her little schoolbooks.

"Daddy!" Piper had finally made it downstairs and was holding something in her hands, "Happy birthday, daddy!"

She stopped in front of me and held up to me the item in her hands. When I took it from her, I turned it over and realized she had handmade me a birthday card. On the front of the card, she had glued different-coloured strips of paper together to look like a birthday cake – and my heart immediately swelled.

"Aw, Piper..." I couldn't fight the bright grin that was spreading across my face, "thank you, darling. That's so sweet."

"Open it!" She told me, "Open it, daddy!"

I opened the card and saw that she had drawn a picture of me and her on the left side of it. At the bottom of the drawing, she had written 'Daddy and me'. And on the right side of the card, she had written a little message.

Happy birthday daddy!

Your the best daddy in the world!

I love you!

Love from Piper

"Mrs Morrow helped me make it at school!" Piper continued, "Do you like it, daddy?"

"Piper, I love it," I crouched down and wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug, "thank you so much, darling."

"I'm sorry I don't have a present," she sounded sad, "when it's your birthday, mummy takes me shopping to buy you a present, but mummy's not here..."

"That's okay, Piper," I assured her with a warm smile, "this is already the best birthday present I've ever gotten."

At my words, Piper beamed at me and giggled before wrapping her arms around my neck and nuzzling against my face with her cheek.

I honestly did not expect Piper to remember my birthday at all, especially with Leah not being here. It's the first time that my birthday's rolled by without Leah here – so I wasn't really planning on doing any celebrating. So, seeing that Piper had made the effort to still try and make it special for me honestly made me melt. I couldn't believe it.

"We gotta go to school, daddy!" Piper spoke up again, "And school finishes early today, so I can go home early!"

"That's right – your teachers have all those meetings at 1PM," I said with a nod, "I remember getting that email from the school. So, I gotta pick you up at 12:30. That's just after lunchtime," I smiled at her.

"Yay!" Piper bounced excitedly on the spot, "That means we can see mummy at the hospital early!"

"It certainly does," I smiled at her and used a magnet to stick Piper's birthday card to the fridge, "come on, then – let's go. If school's only half a day, we definitely can't be late."