Healed (Sequel to Broken- Niall Horan)

Chapter 8

***Navaeh's P.O.V.***

There hadn't been too much excitement in the month following my exhibit. Aside from a few recent days of feeling like shit, everything had progressed normally. Niall and I found ways to entertain ourselves on the days that I wasn't at Uni and he didn't have to go to a meeting. There was just a sort of ease about it all; everything was actually going right since Niall and I had started dating, and that was a nice feeling. He just... I don't know how to explain it other than he was just so caring and he made sure that I knew that he loved me. And knowing that you're loved... that's a wonderful feeling.

I was standing in front of the mirror in our bathroom while I tied my hair up to prepare to go to the grocer's. It was the middle of May and London had been a mess of rain and storms for the past week and half. Niall liked it because it gave us an excuse to stay inside, but I still had to get groceries because we were running out of food. I had been having small stomach cramps that whole entire day, and I was anticipating that my period was about to make a lovely appearance. After all, it was back to acting up again; I had skipped April, but that wasn't much of a surprise due to my periods knack for missing months.

"Nav," Niall called from our room where he was sitting on the bed. I rolled my eyes a little at the shortening of my name; he only used it when he was feeling particularly lazy.

Just finishing my ponytail, I poked my head out of the bathroom to look at him with a raised brow, "Yeah, Niall?"

"My keys are on the kitchen table if you want to take the car; I don't want you to catch a cold out in the rain," he pouted a little with the last words just to get a smile from me, and he succeeded. I nodded my head with that same smile and was about to go back into the bathroom to grab my phone that was sitting on the counter, but his voice stopped me. "Are you feeling better? The nausea gone?" he wondered in reference to how I had been feeling the day before.

I gave another nod, "Yeah, but I've got some cramps now; I'm telling you, it's probably just my period coming in again."

Niall's smile widened, "More cuddling for me, I guess." I laughed a little and shook my head before going to grab my phone. Once I had the sleek device in my right hand, I walked back out of the bathroom and to where he was sitting on the plush bed that we shared. "Oh, babe, we need more condoms," he added in when I had leaned over to bed to get close enough to kiss him. I nodded yet again, a silent reply that meant that I had taken a note of it. With nothing else to remember, I gave his lips a small kiss before pulling away from him and heading towards the door of the room so that I could leave. "Love you!" he called after me.

"Love you too!" I called back with a wide smile hanging on my lips. Thanks to the fact that I was driving to the grocer's market, I arrived fairly quickly. Pete wasn't stationed outside of the store due to the weather, and that allowed me to walk into the store in peace. My mind was focused on nothing in particular as I walked through the large store, humming a familiar tune under my breath. Never really pausing for too long, my eyes scanned over the items on the shelf and I grabbed what was needed. I stopped at the condoms, letting my eyes look at all of the different types until I found the ones that we actually used. I bit my lip to keep from smiling too widely at the thought of how half of them might be gone by the end of the night. Niall's drive was actually really baffling.

"Navaeh?"

I almost dropped the box of condoms in my hand when I heard a familiar voice call my name. Thankfully, I was able to catch the package when it stumbled out of my hands, and I placed it in my carrier before turning to see the keeper of the voice. What greeted me were the smiling faces of Ben and Jan, staring at me with wide and excited eyes as the little boy bounced on the heels of his feet. I tried not to think about the fact that they had managed to catch me in front of the condoms, but a small blush was still on my cheeks.

"Navaeh!" Ben practically squealed out my name before rushing forward to wrap his arms around my waist. I was short, so it wasn't a hard task for the growing seven year old. I patted the top of his head fondly and let my hands skirt through his short blond hair for only a moment. He was so different that when I had last seen him; he was starting to have a lot more brown in his hair and I wondered if he would turn out to bear the same color as Cody and Jan did.

"Hey there, buddy!" I yelled back with the surprise evident in my voice. I hadn't seen Ben and Jan since the day that I visited Cody's grave, and it wouldn't be a stretch if I said that I had missed them. You know, you get used to seeing certain people all of the time and when you start to see them less things don't really feel right. It wasn't that we hadn't tried to see each other more often; we had planned on meeting up a few times, but things just always seemed to get in the way. So, I was ecstatic to see them in the grocer's even though we were right next to the condoms.

Jan was the next to wrap me in a hug, a light laugh slipping past her parted lips, "Oh, it's so nice to see you, sweetheart." I returned the words when we had pulled away, and she took Ben's hand in hers again just to make sure that the little boy didn't run away and wander through the store.

"How have you guys been?" I wondered as I hiked my purse back onto my shoulder. The words made me cringe a little after I had said them; I had lost someone not long after they had lost Cody, and I knew how annoying it was to be asked that constantly. However, Jan showed no annoyance; her expression only saddened for a moment before picking back up again.

She shrugged before answering, "We're still trying to deal with the aftermath, but things have been better; Ben just finished up with his speech therapy and he'd doing fantastic in all of his classes this year."

"Ah, that's wonderful!" Ben beamed up at me, nodding his head with so much enthusiasm that I was almost worried that his head would roll off of his shoulders from too much shaking.

"And how are you, dear?" Jan questioned in return, the smile still showing on her lips.

My smile widened if that was even possible, "I've been great, actually; Niall and I are dating now."

Her eyes lit up at that; she looked overjoyed at the news, "Really?"

"Mhm," I nodded, "We've been together since New Year's; it's really been amazing." Yeah, everything was looking up.

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