Stay [h.s.] | short story

Epilogue

"Where the hell is he?!" Jasmin screams, constant tears staining her pale cheeks.

"You need to calm down, Jasmin," Amy tells her younger sister who is gasping for air.

"Do not tell me to calm down!" She snaps. "Did you call him? I can't do this, I can't—"

"Jas! . . . where is she?. . . Jasmin Styles, she's my wife." Harry's voice can be heard down the hall and seconds later the door swings open, Zayn and Harry rushing in.

The doctor shook his head in dismay, along with a few nurses.

"Baby," Harry breathes and sits on the chair beside his his wife's hospital bed.
She reaches for her hand and Jasmin slaps it, he winces jokingly..

"Can we deliver now, Mrs. Styles?" The doctor asked and Jasmin nods, squinting her eyes in pain.

"Where were you?" Jasmin shrieked. "I wasn't going to deliver without you."

"Traffic," he said. "I shouldn't have checked on the shop; you told me it was fine that I —"

"Shh. . . I'm trying to get your daughter out of me!"

Harry laughs and plants a soft kiss on Jasmin's sweaty forehead.

"9. . . 10. . . push." Jasmin pushes and Zayn is sitting on the couch, uncomfortable at the sight of Jasmin birthing a baby.
He hates hospitals, let alone this scene.

"Fuck!" She continues to blurt out every single curse word she knows  and Harry strokes her hair, speaking words of encouragement.

"I love you. You're doing great," he whispers and Jasmin still listens in, despite the pain that ran through every muscle in her body.
His hands are almost red, too red and almost purple by her intense squeeze on him, but he doesn't seem to mind.

Harry turned to his friend with a smile, tears in his eyes.
Zayn is biting his nails and looks like he's about to pass out with Jasmin.
"This is beautiful, isn't it?" Harry says with tears in her eyes. "Uncle Zayn."

"Sounds nice," he choked. "But I don't feel very good."

One last push; one last burst of energy Jasmin gives and finally,
the sound of a baby's cry fills the room.

Harry is amazed and overwhelmed with joy himself and watched the nurses rest their son on Jasmin's chest.

"She's beautiful," one nurse said.

Jasmin cried as she admires her baby girl. She gently feels her delicate, soft skin.

"What will you name her?" The doctor asked.

"Darcy," both Jasmin and Harry say in unison, making everyone in the room smile.

"Darcy-Anne Styles," Jasmin smiled. Darcy's eyes flutter open for the first time, revealing her deep green eyes that she got from her daddy, only darker.

"She has your cute nose," Harry says, making Jasmin giggle.

Harry gives Jasmin a soft kiss on the lips. "We did it," he says. "We made it through."

She smiled her sweet smile.
"Yeah. We made it through."

When you truly love someone, you just know.
Maybe it's the way you admire every part of them,
their eyes,
their smell,
their skin,
the way they feel when they're close.
You leave everything bad behind.
Slowly, nothing else matters.
Nothing else will matter except each other.

Every morning, for the past year and a half, Harry healed Jasmin again;
healed her doubts,
healed her doubts within herself,
healed the heart that he broke at midnight, now replaced with honesty and sweet embraces.

She began to love how he made her feel again.
She began to love herself again.

Jasmin had thought that she lost him a long time ago, which she did.
Now he's here, he's better, he's wiser.
When someone is truly in your heart, they can never truly be gone,
they stay.