The Night That Changed It All

Telling Danielle

"Hey Lili; I didn't throw up this morning!" I exclaimed with a laugh when I heard the door to our apartment opening and closing about three hours later.

"That's great, Ni." Liam laughed, coming forward to give me a hug once I'd gotten up from the settee.

"Oh, hey Danielle. How are you?" I greeted upon seeing Danielle stood in the doorway, looking a bit concerned.

"Hey Ni. I'm fine. Are you OK? You've been getting sick?" She replied with the concern I could see in her eyes clear in her voice.

"Yeah, but it's OK. I went to the doctor's yesterday. Everything's fine." I laughed; happy to see that Danielle felt the same way as Liam so they could still be friends.

"OK. Do you guys want a cup of coffee?" Danielle asked cheerily, completely changing the subject.

"Sure. Why don't you talk to Ni and I'll go make it." Liam offered, making a move to go to the kitchen, but Danielle blocked him before he could make it very far.

"No, it's fine. I'll do it. You don't make it right." She laughed, ducking into the kitchen as Liam sat beside me on the settee.

"What's she talking about? I make great coffee!" Liam sighed, turning to me for confirmation.

"No, Lili. She's right. You're great at making tea, not so much with the coffee." I giggled, pulling Liam into a quick, loose hug when he pouted at me; he was so cute some times.

"Hey guys; why is there an ultrasound on the fridge?" Danielle asked, standing in the doorway as she looked at my ultrasound. I was wondering where that had gotten to. Louis must have put it there this morning.

"It's.....uh.....it's mine." I murmured after a brief silence, not looking up from my hands, which were fiddling with a loose thread on the sleeve of my jumper.

"You got a girl pregnant, Ni?" Danielle asked uncertainly and when I glanced up I saw she was watching me like she couldn't quite believe it.

"N-no......I......um......I'm pregnant." I whispered, so quiet I was surprised she'd heard me at all. 

"B-but.....you....." Danielle stammered quietly, looking down at the ultrasound scan in her hand before looking back up at me, maybe thinking this was some kind of joke. "You can't-"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too, but the doctor told me there's a small percentage of men who can because of a defect at birth." I explained, curling into Liam's side self-consciously.

"Who-whose is it?" She asked, but I could see she still wasn't sure this wasn't some elaborate joke that she'd gotten caught up in. I just curled further into Liam's side and buried my head in the crook of his neck. I didn't know if he wanted Danielle to know it was his and I'm not sure I wanted to be the one to tell her anyway.

"It's mine." Liam sighed, hugging me gently as he looked at Danielle over the top of my head.

"Oh. When....when did you.....?" She started to ask but Liam cut her off, probably knowing as well as I did that she wasn't going to be getting much further with her question.

"About a month ago. We went out with the lads and had too much to drink. I'm really sorry, Dani." Liam explained with a sigh.

"No, no. It's fine; we.....um.....we weren't......You're really pregnant?" Danielle exclaimed, coming forward to sit next to us. I just nodded as a reply. "Well then, congratulations! How far along are you? Do you know what it is? Are you keeping it? Do the boys know? What about Management? Your parents? Are you telling the fans?" Dani questioned, a happy smile spreading across her face.