One Day ~ larry mpreg au ~ book 2

34. STRESS

Louis woke up in the middle of the night when he heard one of the babies cry through the baby monitor.

He rubbed his eyes for a second, and then focused on the small screen on his nightstand that showed both of the babies cribs, so he was able to see it was Eva who was crying, while James slept peacefully.

So he got up from the bed, and that's when he realized his husband wasn't in bed. At first he thought he had woken up before him and gone to get Evie, but when he didn't see him or hear him through the monitor, he realized that wasn't the case.

Maybe he was in the bathroom?

But Louis didn't go check, because Evie's cries became louder, and he knew she would wake up her brother any second now, so he quickly went up to the nursery to get her.

"Shhh, shhh" Louis shushed her as he picked her up, and her cries immediately subsided "That's it, good girl".

He checked her nappy, but it was dry and clean, so he bounced her trying to get her to go back to sleep. But when her crying became loud again, he knew she had to be hungry. And because Evie almost never breastfed, he had to take her downstairs to make her a bottle.

And as he walked down the stairs with his baby, he realized that there was a light on down there.

It confused him at first, because he had been the last one to go to bed, and he had left the lights off downstairs.

But then he remembered Harry hadn't been in bed, and that was when he saw him sitting at the kitchen island.

"Babe, what you doing up?" Louis asked.

Harry looked up while Louis approached him as he kept bouncing the baby, and it was in that moment that he noticed that in front of Harry there was a bottle of gin and a glass with ice and what was obviously gin inside.

"I couldn't sleep" Harry replied.

"And you're drinking to help you sleep?" Louis asked, honestly feeling shocked.

Because many years ago, Harry had had problems with alcohol, when he started drinking to avoid having nightmares caused by his PTSD from what happened to him in Guatemala , and that in turn had ended up causing trouble in their relationship, and in Harry's life overall.

"No really" Harry denied "I just had one sip".

"Are you sure?" Louis asked unconvinced, as Evie started crying louder.

"Yes" Harry replied, and got up and offered his hands to take the baby "Let me help you with my Evie".

"Okay" Louis said, and let him take her.

"Shhh, it's alright, Evie, daddy's got you, and mummy's making you a bottle" Harry said as he rocked her.

Louis went to the fridge to get a baggie of milk, he put it in a bottle, and then put that in the bottle warmer they had, until it was ready to give it to Eva.

And because Harry already had her, Louis gave him the bottle, who wasted no time to offer it to the baby, and she took it right away, finally being quiet.

"So why couldn't you sleep?" Louis decided to ask, leaving the alcohol topic aside... for now, because he wasn't going to let it go.

"I don't know" Harry sighed as he looked down at their baby daughter while he fed her "I guess it's a mixture of things; this legal situation with Connor, and then this thing with my job...".

They had decided a while ago that Harry would quit his job, to start working an independent architect, but he hadn't done it so far. And it was understandable, the Connor situation had practically consumed their lives during the past months.