Piper ~ H.S

~Thirty-Eight~

A/N: Hiiii, how's everyone going?? Are you good?? :)

-A few months later-

Today was Piper's 5th birthday.

Since her birthday had fallen on a Monday, everyone at her kindergarten threw a big celebration for her. Turning five was a huge milestone at Chappell Croft - because it meant that the child will soon leave kindergarten to start primary school. And when I picked Piper up this afternoon, she was extremely happy and excited - overjoyed at the little party that the teachers had thrown for her.

Now that she was home, it was me and Ashley's turn to throw a little celebration for her, exclusively with her family. I did invite Heath to come, but due to his law studies, he couldn't make it - but he did pass on to me the birthday present that he bought, to give to Piper on his behalf.

Me and Heath's arrangement on his visitation rights with Piper was going surprisingly well. I thought he'd have totally fucked it up by the first week - but he was actually quite determined not to make the same mistakes with Piper again. He cleared out and thoroughly cleaned the spare room in his house for Piper to sleep, bought her some toys to play with, and he also bought a small cabinet and filled it with a few outfits for Piper to wear whenever she stayed with him and Danica. And the last time I was at his place, I saw that he'd even pinned a reminder for Danica on the fridge to stop buying peanut butter.

I'll admit...I was pleased to see it. It was good to see that he was finally taking things more seriously. And when we reconciled with Judge Elliott when the three-month trial was over, he also found Heath's actions sufficient enough to let his visitation rights continue in the long term. I wasn't really surprised when I found out, though - since he really did try hard to impress Piper.

Piper was finally warming up to him, too - albeit very slowly. She's even starting to crack tiny smiles whenever she was in his presence - which was a good sign - but she still showed hesitance to hug him or show affection towards him. Heath respected that, and he made sure to give her space - but I sometimes worry if it's too much space. All the same, though - as long as Piper is safe when she's with him, then I'm not going to interfere unless I have to. It's good that she's spending time with him, I guess...and I have a lot more peace of mind about the two of them being together now that I know how careful Heath was being this time around.

Although Piper is starting to tolerate Heath's presence, there's no doubt that she still adores Harry - probably even more now than ever. And she's been missing him so much - as I have, as well. He's actually been really busy lately. In fact...the last time I believe we really spent proper time together was back in February, on his 24th birthday. He spent the day with me and Piper, and then took us both to his birthday party in London that his family had planned for him. After spending the night of his birthday in London, we all came back to Worthing - where Harry stayed for about an extra two weeks, before he had to leave for the U.S to make an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and then do another interview on the TODAY show.

Since then, it's just been a whole bunch of TV interviews, radio interviews, and performances for Harry - and as a result, he's had to stay in the States for way longer than either of us anticipated - since the news of him being in America made loads of other people want to snatch the opportunity. I watched and listened to all of his interviews and performances with Piper in the hope that it would stop me from missing him so much...but all it really did was actually make me miss him even more. Even though he's tried to call and video chat as often as he could, he's still been gone for at least a month - and I swear I was starting to suffer from some sort of Harry withdrawal. Some days, all I can even think about is how much I miss him, the feeling of his arms around me, and the feeling of his lips against mine.