Floss // A Harry Styles AU

twenty-three

I was nervous. I wasn't usually so impulsive - forcing myself into a place that I had avoided at any cost for ten years, but I needed a distraction for my overactive mind. I needed to get away for a bit, that was it. To calm my erratic, devastated heart. That solace came in the form of a dental practice.

Ruby might have been more sick than I realised. The A&E doctor we'd spoken to on Sunday was, it turned out, very evasive. Very evasive. Early puberty wasn't just as simple as getting your first period younger than the average age bracket. It came with, actually, quite a few possible underlying problems.

I watched on Friday morning as my daughter was pulled between wards for blood tests, x-rays, ultrasounds (I had no idea these were used outside of pregnancy scans and had a mild panic that somehow, at the age of 7, Ruby could be pregnant), and MRI scans. I'd never seen her so terrified and I hated it. I despised seeing her that way. Apparently, early puberty could be caused by brain tumours, which, again, I knew very little about. There was a genetic disorder that could've caused it that I couldn't remember the name of, and I actually didn't even know what 'genetic disorder' meant. I had a long weekend of research ahead of me.

She came out of her MRI scan shaking and with a wet face - an overwhelming thing for such a young girl to go through. I spent 20 minutes in the middle of a hospital corridor while she pooled tears into my t-shirt.

Dad drove us back from the hospital - he and Mum had been with us all day because I was terrified of going alone. Ruby was asleep for the entire journey, her head resting against my shoulder. She always sat in the middle seat when I was in the back of the car with her.

When we got back to Bibury, Dad carried Ruby out of the car and took her to bed in their room at the cottage on The Square that wasn't a square. It was only early afternoon, and I didn't know how to make myself useful. Mum and Dad went about their day as they usually would, and I took a nap with my baby until I couldn't stand being horizontal anymore.

"Voy a dar un paseo." I'm going for a walk, I said to my parents as I pulled my shoes back on. "¿Llámame si se despierta?" Call me if she wakes up?

My mother nodded at me with a smile. "Tome su tiempo. La mantendremos ocupada." Take your time. We'll keep her occupied.

I wandered directionless through the village, away from my house and over the bridge by Harry's place. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I just needed some fresh air. I didn't intend on showing up unannounced at the practice in the middle of the day, but apparently that's where my body had taken me.

I asked Susie if Harry was free at all that afternoon, and I think she assumed I'd meant for an actual appointment. That was, obviously, far from what I wanted, but I guessed if he had the time, I'd take it.

So, I sat in the waiting room while Harry finished up with his (what was supposed to be) last client of the day, leg bouncing uncontrollably and biting my fingernails to ugly little stubs. Mother would kill me. I wasn't nervous because I was about to see Harry - I knew my anxieties would wash away at the sight of him. I was just, still, exceptionally agitated at the dentist.

I thought Susie would tell me I could just go up - that's what usually happened on the rare occasion I visited. But I was surprised to find Harry appear in the doorway, hot on the heels of Oscar's grandad, Nigel. Heat flooded my face.

Barb's husband did a double take. "Thought that was you, Florence."

"Hi, Nige," I said, quiet as a mouse.

"Haven't seen you for a while - you alright?" He asked casually, signing something on the desk and then turning to look straight at me. "Harry tells me the kiddies get on like a house on fire."