Saving Grace (Narry)

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Two

When I looked over to Niall I wished that we could have a lie in for the rest of the day but that was the last thing that we could ever do. My eyes found his, my top row of teeth barely resting on my bottom lip as I let out my first deep breath. HIs blue-eyed stare wasn't able to keep me calm like I thought they would when I first opened my eyes to realise what day it was today.

"Are you ready to face the day?" Niall asked me while he turned from his back onto his side to face me. He sent me a small reassuring smile as we took the time to just gaze at each other until we both knew that we had to get out of bed and see Grace in her crib because we wouldn't be having the chance to do that for the next few days.

Her surgery was tomorrow and there wasn't a call for rescheduling, which I selfishly hoped for. Each day that Grace was put down to sleep the night away, I got more and more anxious, counting down the days that would eventually lead up to this morning. I actually was able to keep all of my fear away from Grace, just doing my best to keep light around her and put all my attention onto taking care of her the best that I could. She wouldn't be in either of our safe arms tomorrow.

I shook my head, glancing down at the bottom corner of my pillow for a moment, licking at my lips before I answered Niall. "I don't think I ever will be."

"Yeah, but this is part of the reason why we did all of this, remember?" Niall asked me. "This is our time to really do something good for someone else."

I nodded, slowly closing my eyes as I did, wanting to take the most confident of breath in that I could. "I know but we know that it wasn't going to be easy."

"That's true but we just have to put our faith in Dr. Payne and his team that Grace is going to be just fine, even better than before her surgery." Niall's eyes scanned from the tip of my nose, to my forehead,and then behind me, where a static sound came from the baby monitor on my end table. "She's awake. We can't keep her waiting."

I made a face as I sat up, running my hands through my hair just before I managed to place my feet onto the floor, my warm skin meeting the cold ground that I would have to walk on to get to Grace.

"I'll go prepare her breakfast." Niall promised and I turned my head to nod, seeing that he was getting out of bed as well. "We can do this, Harry. We have to believe that we can."

I never thought hearing Niall speak could break my heart with each word that was said, that reminded me that we needed to be so strong from this day on. If we were like this now, I had no idea how much worse we would be tomorrow.

I left the room as Niall went into the bathroom to go and wash the tiredness from his face. With each step closer to Grace I felt myself turning all my fearful energy change into excitement to see Grace again, no matter how grumpy she would be this morning. The smile on my face was all for her.

"Well, look who's up?" I told her cheerfully as I slowly pushed the door open, walking into the room and over to her crib.

When she saw me, she managed to pull herself up so she could stand up. I couldn't help but chuckle at the way her hair was resting wildly all to one side.

"You have a party in your sleep? Your hair is quite unruly. We'll have to fix that up after breakfast and your bath so you look beautiful when you see your dad later." I told her, resting my forearms against the railing of the crib and looking down at Grace before I leaned in to place a kiss on the top of her head. "Good morning, Little Lady. We have some insane days ahead of us."

Grace let go of the rail with one hand and placed it into my hair, getting a rather tight grip on my curls. She seemed to enjoy pulling on my hair whenever she could actually reach in. One time when I was on the phone with Niall's mum, Grace stood up on the couch right next to me to pull at my hair. Since I didn't know that she was going to get at me, Niall's mum got a little earful that she wasn't expecting either.