Safe and Sound

4

"Ashley, don't make a single decision yet!"

Ashley and Hannah lifted their heads at the exact same time at the sound of the familiar New York accent. The man who stood in the doorway was dirty and unkempt, his beard and hair were untidy and his clothes didn't match and had no sense of fashion style but they were practical for the winter weather. He was rugged and rough but in a sort of handsome way with his blue eyes and dark hair, obviously coming straight from the streets.

"Harry? But how- what are you?" Ashley couldn't finish a sentence, shocked, her mouth open and eyebrows raised, eyes wide.

Harry knew exactly what she was thinking, he always did. "When you guys didn't show up in Central Park, I got worried." He approached the bed and placed his hand gently on Hannah's back while the other hand found its way into Ashley's. It was obvious that he cared for them deeply. "I checked your alley, you were gone." Harry had been a police detective in his younger years but the tragedy of losing his wife in a house fire had resulted in the loss of his job and his home. Harry had been promoted to detective early on in his career and had married young with the hopes of having a big family, but plans don't always work out. He was unable to pick himself up and wound up on the streets. "I saw the tire tracks and assumed something had happened so I checked the hospitals in the area and low and behold here you are." He offered her a small charming smile through the slit in his shaggy beard where his mouth was. "I had to tell them I was your husband just to get up here." He chuckled.

Harry's life only seemed to turn around after he met Ashley again. During his detective years, he used to go into the coffee shop where she worked for his faulty coffee, but when everything fell apart, he stopped going to the coffee shop and lost touch with her. Harry accidentally bumped into her one day while he was making his way through Times Square. They had been a one in a million chance of meeting, Times Square had been mobbed as usual. He often thought it was fate for them to meet. Ashley had been nine months pregnant at the time, close to bursting when they had run into each other again. Harry had offered to help her back home and she'd agreed but had gone into labour before they could make it there. Harry took her to the nearest hospital, spending the last of his money on a taxi with the driver muttering 'don't you dare give birth in my taxi' in a rough New York accent, his voice groggy with years of smoking. He accompanied her to the hospital and despite barely knowing her, stayed by her side in the delivery room with the nurses assuming he was the father. He didn't want to risk being kicked out so he said nothing and Ashley was in too much pain to deny it. It was only when Ashley did not write his name on the birth certificate that the nurses realised he was not the father.

When Harry and Ashley looked back on that moment, they both found it hilarious. They'd bonded quickly, a labour room would do that to people, and Harry became a surrogate uncle and a father-figure to Hannah, helping out wherever he could. As Hannah got older, he bonded with her too. He watched over Hannah whenever Ashley needed to and sometimes on special occasions like her birthday, he'd take her to the arcade and spend what little money he had trying to win her one of the teddy bears in the claw machine. He loved these times and knew she loved them too.

Harry had fallen in love with the idea of their little family, him, Hannah and Ashley, he loved it, though he had never actually told Ashley how he felt about her, he was never sure if she felt the same way, not with her late night activities.

"You didn't have to come." Ashley said, shaking her head dismissively. "But thank you... husband." She gave him a small teasing smile and he chuckled.

"Anything for you." Harry said, leaning forward to place a gentle kiss on Ashley's forehead then place one on Hannah's forehead too. "Are you okay, kiddo?"

Hannah nodded, looking up at him. "I'm fine, just worried about mum." She said honestly, looking over at her mother with worry in her green eyes, the only feature she had gotten from her real dad.