Half A Heart {Sequel To Made In The USA}

Chapter 10: Stripped Bare

A/N: I added James Arthur's Naked at the part of this chapter that it means most. This one's a long one so pull your snacks close and an enjoy lovlies.

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•Demi•

"Ivan please just let me put you down for one second." I sighed at the constant crying, Ivan had been doing for the past hour.

"Here give him to me." Zayn sighed and reached for Ivan.

"Go to Dada." I coaxed the crying baby in my arms but as expected he turned away from Zayn and cried louder as he tried to pry him away.

"What is his issue today?" Zayn asked frustrated by the still screaming child.

"I don't know. I told you he gets like this but now is not the time. Zayn I have to go. I have been pushing back work for weeks to take care of him while you and the guys prepared your album but I do still have a job." I urged the man in front of me to just try harder to help me out.

"Clearly I know that Demi but what am I supposed to do when he doesn't want to detach from you? I told you stop coddling him so much. He's got to learn to be independent."

"I don't have time for this again. Just take him. I'm late."

"Well I'm trying but he's losing his shit." He replied and detached Ivan's arms from around my neck and finally taking the crying boy from me.

"Seriously can you not curse in front of him." Yes I was taking my frustrations out on Zayn unfairly but I couldn't really take it out on an eleven month old. This has been our reality for months since Zayn has been back. We've tried to work through any trouble we had with trusting each other but working on us while raising a very cranky baby wasn't exactly easy. Zayn had been distant since returning from England and it was building a brick wall in between us. Besides the struggle of hurdling over a wall to speak to him, I couldn't shake the feeling that he had been hiding something from me since his return. He had thrown himself into his work which I understood given that in a few weeks they'd be releasing their album and then preparing for a tour shortly after. But his work excuse sometimes didn't seem to match up. And I couldn't shake the idea that something more was happening.

"I'll work on it. Now go you're late I'll take care of him." He sighed and gently rocked in place in an effort to stop Ivan's crying.

"I'll be back in a few hours. Call if you need me." I sighed and peaked Ivan's cheek on my way to the door.

"Love you." Zayn called out and I couldn't miss the hint of sarcasm in his tone but nonetheless I called back a love you too and left the house. I quickly texted my manger that I'd be at the studio soon and apologized about being late as I got into the awaiting car. I texted Selena in hopes for some much needed girl time and was relieved when she agreed to meet me at the studio in about an hour. Eventually we made it to our destination and I rushed into the building to join my team that was already waiting for me.

"I'm sorry I'm late. The baby was losing his mind about me leaving."

"Don't worry. Let's just jump right into it okay."

"Yeah awesome. So Up and what else today?" I asked as I rushed into the booth and slipped the headphones over my ears.

"We'll just focus on Up for now that way we can get it down and ready to send to Olly's team and then we'll move to that lion song you've been slowly progressing on." I chuckled at his sarcasm and did a few vocal warm ups as he prepared the needed files. After about ten minutes we finally got started on the much needed work and I found myself reveling in the fun of making magic.