H & Lou » larry

Chapter 17

Louis had stopped at the post to pick up a package he'd ordered for Harry, knowing he'd taken the whole miscarriage pretty hard.

Louis held the package under his arm as he searched for their apartment key on his key ring. He heard the apartment door across the hall open and he looked up to see Ben stepping out. He bit his lip gently and stopped, "Hey, Ben?"

Ben stopped and looked at where the voice came from and he smiled politely, "Hey you're the watch dude."

Louis just chuckled and shrugged some, "I just hadn't seen Rita around in a while. I was getting worried."

"Why were you worried?" He was getting defensive and he was a bit larger than Louis. So he held his keys tight and moved to set the box on the ground, leaning up against the door. He wasn't planning to fight this guy over some spout of jealousy.

"I'm a doctor, I just noticed she had some stuff going on. Wanted to make sure she was okay." Louis explained and Ben deflated, still slightly uncomfortable with Louis expressing his concern.

"Yeah, She's fine. Just visiting some family." Ben nodded, "it's been nice talking to you."

"Likewise." Louis nodded and unlocked the door, moving to pick up the package. He let himself in, kicked off his shoes, and walked down the hall into the kitchen. He sat the package on the kitchen table, "babe?"

Harry had been sitting at the desktop in his office all morning and afternoon. Only glancing at the time periodically when he'd remember he hadn't showered that day. He'd give himself ten more minutes searching for jobs he could throw himself into or reading articles he'd found about dealing with a male miscarriage. When he'd look down at the time again, he'd realise it'd been an hour and he couldn't will himself to get up. "In here!" Harry called. He clicked onto some case file he'd worked on in the past and slid his necklace into his shirt.

Louis had checked the bathroom and their bedroom before he heard Harry's voice from the office. He opened the door and let himself in quietly, "Hey, how was your day?" He went over when Harry had spun his chair out a bit to face him.

"Boring as always." Harry closed his eyes when Louis bent down to press a kiss against his forehead. "You enjoy yours?"

"Yeah. I did." He nodded, avoiding telling him about the patients he'd seen that day, which had been primarily newborns and their parents. "I got you something... I read an article, it's supposed to help with the grieving proce—"

"Louis... please don't."

"It's going to help..." Louis frowned slightly and left the room for two minutes to grab the small white package. He brought it back and placed it in Harry's lap, crouching in front of him. Louis could see the imprint beneath Harry's shirt of the pendant that held their baby girl. "I wouldn't have gotten it if I didn't think it'd help you."

Harry looked at his husband and sighed, opening the package to pull out a small weighted bear. He flicked his eyes to Louis and then back to the bear, "how the fuck did you think this would help me?"

"It's her weight. 0.76kg." Louis whispered quietly, "and I read about it, it's supposed to help with like.. accepting and stuff."

"I don't want it." Harry whispered quietly and met his eyes with Louis', "Please, I don't want it. I have her, I don't need this."

"Okay.. okay. I know it's a lot right now.. why don't we put it on your desk and go have some dinner.. if you don't want it after you think about it, I'll put it away. Alright?" Louis suggested as he gave Harry's thighs a squeeze.

"Yeah, okay." Harry nodded a little as he placed the bear next to the stack of books at the corner of his desk.

"Wanna order a pizza? Or do you want me to go pick up something to make?"