Baby Honey

It Was Always You

December - Five Months

The four of them hole up in Liam's apartment for the weekend. Harry misses his nest fiercely, but Niall and Zayn build him a makeshift new one in the living room, piling soft blankets and the clothes Zayn had left there before. The other three try their best to keep Harry comfortable and calm, but the collective anger coursing through them makes them all agitated.

Harry spends a lot of time pacing, tearing his nest apart and redoing it. Zayn makes sure the pregnant omega takes his meds, and forces him to drink herbal tea and take naps throughout the day. Harry grumbles, but deep down he's happy he's being taken care of. After the scare of possibly hurting his baby, every danger seems heightened to him.

So he takes his meds when Zayn brings them, and when he finds himself particularly twitchy and anxious, he meditates. It's during one of the meditation sets that he can hear a phone going off somewhere in the flat. Niall and Zayn were both called into work, so it's only Liam and Harry left in the apartment. Liam answers the phone a moment later.

Harry pricks his ears, as Liam's tone is irritated when he bites out a hello. Harry carefully climbs to his feet, creeping down the hallway toward Liam's ajar bedroom door. There's a brief flash of guilt at the eavesdropping, but then Harry hears Louis'  name being spoken. The guilt disappears.

"Louis you're a fucking idiot. I get you don't want a kid, whatever. But you and I both know that what you said to Harry that day was out of line."

There's a pause, and Liam appears to be listening intently. "Well it's not me you should be apologising to! Honestly I don't know what's wrong with you. You've always told me how much you wanted to start a family. Like it or not, this kid is yours. I can smell you on him Louis."

Harry wants to stomp his foot. He doesn't want apologies from Louis, in fact, he never wants to see the alpha again, let alone start a family with him. But he continues to listen anyways, finds himself unable to step away.

"Look, I don't think he really wants to see you right now. Maybe...maybe after Christmas. I don't know Lou, you've really hurt him."

Baby kicks particularly sharply right then, causing Harry to muffle a sound of pain and press a palm against his side. Liam goes silent on the other side of the wall, pausing in the middle of his sentence.

Harry tiptoes back to the living room as fast as he can manage with the pain in his stomach, and settles back in his nest, rubbing the sore spot with gentle fingers. "Please be gentle with Daddy little one," he murmurs, snuggling down against the pile of pillows and pulling one of Zayn's sweaters closer. He listens for Liams footsteps, waiting to see if the older omega will come in to check on him. There's nothing.

Instead, Harry pulls out his phone, and opens his family's group chat. His mum has been wanting to discuss their plans for Christmas, and as the holiday is in the coming week, he figures now is a good time to bring it up again. Thinking for a moment with one thumb pressed against his bottom lip, Harry types out a message.

Niall is flying to Ireland to spend the hols with his family.

He hesitates about the next part, as he doesn't want to sound whiny, but eventually sends it anyway.

After all that's happened with the pregnancy, I don't want to travel. Do you want to come to mine for Christmas? I know it's unusual...

His mum immediately responds in the affirmative, and Robin sends a thumbs up. Gemma doesn't reply, which Harry takes to mean yes. Smiling to himself, he opens Pinterest next to help inspire his dinner ideas. He gets so invested he ends up making an entire page for different recipes he wants to try sometime in the future, that he doesn't notice Liam entering the room until he drops onto the sofa with a heavy sigh.