The Night That Changed It All

Lily Ann Comes Home

"Well boys. Ready to head home?" Karen asked on Thursday just as we finished gathering our things together. We'd finally got the go-ahead to go home and we were both delighted because neither of us really liked hospitals and it would be good to finally bring Lily Ann home.

"Yeah; we just have to check out with the nurses station first." I sighed, fiddling with the straps on Lily Ann's car seat as I tried to figure it out.

"I'll go do that while you figure that out, then." Liam laughed, rapping his arms around my waist from behind briefly and kissing my cheek before walking away to the nurses station down the hall.

"Here, honey; let me help." Karen offered with a laugh, joining me in front of the car seat and quickly showing me how it worked. Why those things had to be so complicated was beyond me.

"Thanks Karen." I sighed, smiling weakly at her before carefully taking Lily Ann from her crib and placing her in the car seat even more carefully.

"No problem, dear. Now let's get you lot home." Karen smiled, taking up the car seat and handing it to me as Lily Ann gurgled happily. She really liked to be on the move, so while we were here we'd constantly had to go walking with her; bringing her up close to things so she could look at them and pointing things out to her.

When we got back to our apartment, everyone was there to welcome us home; even our family members who weren't supposed to get here until tomorrow. Before long, Lily Ann had been introduced to everyone, even little Theo, who was only a few months old and seemed confused yet curious about who she was. Lily Ann was just happy to have new people to grab at and prod with her little fingers.

"Bye Niall." Louis whispered as he and Harry left behind everyone else; not wanting to wake Lily Ann who'd fallen asleep in Liam's arms not too long ago. Everyone had taken this as their cue to leave us to get some rest, so I'd said the goodbyes as Liam put Lily Ann to bed.

"Finally back home." Liam sighed with a tired smile as he came out of Lily Ann's room, clutching the baby monitor in his hand.

"What time is it?" I asked as I stumbled forward into Liam's arms; trying to stifle a yawn, but failing as a jaw splitting yawn escaped.

"I don't even care; I'm going to bed." Liam laughed, hugging me tight before leading me to our room with an arm around my waist. It didn't take long before we were both fast asleep, but we were woken again by crying at one in the morning.

"Ugh........I'll go." I mumbled sleepily, attempting to sit up and rub sleep from my eyes, but not getting very far before Liam laid a hand on my chest and pushed me back down gently.

"No; you sleep. I'll go. You need the rest more than I do." He sighed, jumping up to go get Lily Ann back to sleep as I lay in bed; staring at the ceiling and listening attentively. Liam had left the baby monitor on, so I could hear him talking gently to Lily Ann, before he started to sing to her some time later. He was singing a much gentler version of our song; Forever Young, and I soon found myself falling back asleep as he sang. I was asleep again before he came back.

 When I woke up next the sun was streaming in through a crack between the curtains and I was sprawled across the middle of the bed. Clearly Liam had gotten up a while ago. The next thing I noticed was that I could smell something cooking, followed closely by the realization that the baby monitor wasn't on the dresser anymore.

"Morning." I yawned upon stumbling into the kitchen to find Liam standing over the cooker in baggy sweets. Coming up behind him, I rapped my arms around his waist and rested my chin on his shoulder so I could watch what he was doing.

"Morning sleepy head. Have a good sleep?" Liam replied with a laugh, turning off the cooker before turning to face me and bending down to kiss me.

"Yeah; it was great. Is Lily Ann still asleep?" I asked doubtfully; it was eleven o'clock now and babies were usually early risers. Especially our baby, who liked to get up and start moving at the crack of dawn.