The Sidemen Baby

Chapter 15

Simon's POV:

Cat was fine. She came home a few days later with a huge cast on her arm, but nothing else.

Except.

She was different.
Cat always used to be joking around and pulling stunts in an attempt to make Josh laugh, but that had all stopped. She was now sitting down more and staring off into space, often like something had taken over her.

Josh was also being weird. He wasn't as easy to make laugh, and he started having a weird over protective thing with Cat. He didn't want her going home alone, which I guess I understood, but after three weeks of her cast on you'd think he would get over it.

But no.

He would drive her home at night and then come home to sleep before he would go pick her up and drop her off at work before picking her up after work and bringing her to our place. He rarely had time to film and edit with all the driving he was doing.

She basically lived at our house, and Josh was constantly coming up with new reasons for her to stay overnight. Nobody really had any problems with it, but it just made everyone feel weird when she actually went home. 

Veronica saw Cat as her mum, and Cat was happy to fill that part. Josh was the happiest I've ever seen him be.

Ethan, on the other hand, was not pleased. He was feeling threatened, I guess, and he kept putting off filming to teach Ver and try to be the main parent. 

That's where it happened. 

Ethan was sitting on the living room floor with Veronica in his lap. He was reading to her and she was doing her best to mumble along, pointing out the letters that she knew. 

"OOOOOOOooooooo!" she tapped the book as Josh shuffled in. 

"Hey. I called a house meeting. I need to tell you guys something." 

JJ laughed as he walked in. "It's okay man. We know that you're gay. We love you and accept you."

"What?! No! That's not it. Just. Just sit." 

Everybody fanned in and took seats, Josh in front of everybody and Cat hiding behind him slightly. 

"Well. First off. Cat brought cookies." He gestured to the plate on the table. "And second, I need to get your permission for Cat to move in permanently."

Vikk laughed. "Wait, doesn't she live here already?" 

He rolled his eyes and gave him a slight smile. "I've been working on it. Can we take a vote then?"

Tobi looked at Cat with a confident smile. "Please wait in the hallway Madam."

She left and we looked around. 

I cleared my voice. "Well. Anyone have any objections first of all?"

At first nobody spoke up. It was quiet, with the exception of Veronica babbling. Then.

Ethan.

That bastard. 

"I don't want her to move in." 

Josh's face fell. It was like he was a child and a balloon just popped in front of him. At this point everybody was talking and trying to talk over each other, getting their two cents in. Josh was silent, staring at Veronica. 

"LISten!! I'm not saying I don't like her! She's great. She's great for you. You guys are perfect. Couple goals. I'm saying that I don't want her to live here."

Josh was just glaring at him. His hands were folded and covering his mouth, and his knuckles were white. "Go. On."

Ethan sighed. "I guess. I uh. I don't think it would be a good idea. For Veronica. And us. We are her adoptive parents. If we all became her parents and brought us all in here, for one, there would be 15 of us in one house, plus any more kids that happen, and reason Two, 14 parents. That is way too much pressure on one kid. In any circumstance. This is a bad idea. A bad idea in general. Why don't we just all agree now not to move in girlfriends. Girlfriend free zone. Just to keep her life simple for a change."

Wow. Everyone was in shock. Nobody knew what to say. 

Most of all, Annie was looking heartbroken. 

She took a deep breath before looking at him. "Fick dich" She spat in german and ran upstairs, basically in tears with Tobi calling after her and following close behind. 

All I wanted to do was just get out of there, but I couldn't. And then a thought crossed my mind. 

How is Josh feeling about all this? 

It felt awkward to move. Like any twitch would set someone off. But I did it. I looked over at him and my heart broke. 

He was rubbing his face and his eyes and his breathing was getting deep and slow and he just overall looked angry. "If this was such a concern why wouldn't you bring this up before? Before we moved Annie in. Before we built a home. And a family. Why wouldn't you say anything!?" 

"I didn't think of it then! But can you say that I'm wrong?! Think of how many birthdays she'll have to buy presents for! Funerals she'll have to plan. The stress of all our different teaching ways. What happens when I say no to one thing and she asks one of her other parents and they say yes? Conflicts! Then there is fighting and all of a sudden six of her parents are living all across England! We need to sort this out. Now."

JJ rubbed at his face. "Okay. Well. What if you hope to marry someone in this house? That eliminates two of these imaginary spouses. That knocks the total down to 12. You may never get married.  We may die. You don't know what will happen. You can't restrict Josh's happiness because your hypothetical future has too many humans in it. You just can't. He deserves to have the love of his life by his side, every day and night. He has that right. Just like you do. And when you fall in love, you can move whomever the fuck you want into our shared house. Because    that's the thing. It's Shared. That was the deal when we bought this place. Its a free and safe space. If we just pick and choose who's girlfriend we want in and out, we will be at each other's throats, and before you know it, Simon has moved to Canada and he's doing cocaine and Harry is in Russia becoming a prostitute with six kids on the way! We Cannot turn our backs on each other. Not now. Not then.  I vote she moves in." 

Awkward silence. And then fucking Harry pipes up.

"I'm a Russian prostitute with six kids?" 

That was my cue. "Why Canada?"

Josh snorted. "Out of all of that your only question was about Canada?! Not the cocaine part?!"

"Well. Yeah. That was't unusual for JJ to say. But why Canada?"

Ethan couldn't take it. He shot up and stormed up to Veronica's room with her on his hip. 

"Cat's moving in. We need the help. Anything else to discuss?"  Vik piped up while he finished off all of her cookies. 

"Oh. yeah. Um. She's pregnant. 3 months. We found out when she got her cast on." He was grinning ear to ear as everybody went wild. "I'm gonna have a baby!"

"DADDY DOGPILE!!" JJ shouted as we all went running towards him. 

"WHAT? GUYS NO!!" he laughed and tried to get away. Harry grabbed his heel and he went flying, and we all had to climb on top. unfortunately, Vik was right on top of Josh and everybody else squished him.

Cat walked in to witness a Josh/Vik pancake, and she couldn't stop laughing. "I take it they know now?"

He grinned up at her like she was the most precious thing in the world. 

"They know."