London

72 - "It is time."

- The Final Chapter -

...Many, many years later...

Alex

Having three children is everything you think it will be, and everything it won't. There's certain things that have happened in my life that I would have loved a warning for. Like how heavy it is to carry two baby's in your stomach for eight long months. And how it can actually surprise you when the birth goes right instead of what a mess it was the first time. 

But then it only begins. The first years are a bliss. You see them grow up, love each other, play with each other, fight each other, resent each other, but through it all we've been a tight family. And now we're going to be split up in different countries, something that with a father and mother like Harry and I maybe was inevitably. I thought that I could take it, but I have been a mess since she broke the news that she was going to Palas. A place where my life started and it brought me mostly good things, but I still fear for her. 

Bobbie has grown up to become a smart, quiet and timid young girl, but with a restlessness in her that I recognize from Harry. She wants to explore, find herself and she can't do that in the beautiful city of London. At least, that's what she feels like. Since she's my only daughter I feel very protective over her and I have had trouble with her decision to lifeguard like her parents at the beach. Making it strain our relationship. And now it are her last moments her in London as we all came to give her a good send off. So different than mine or Harry's when we left London to go to Palas for the first time. 

Eli is as happy as ever. He's a kid at heart still, even in his late teenage years. He's grown up to be an almost exact copy of my late father inside and out. The only difference is their hair. Eli's hair is lighter, but holds the same structure as Harry's. But he's just as care free and funny like my father was. That's probably why even now we're all a bit grave, he's still able to make everyone around us smile.

Ed, or Eddie as I still like to call him, is a true mixture of both Harry and I. I see in him my younger struggles, wanting to please everyone around me but also fighting against everything mostly himself. He's got a big mouth that has gotten him in trouble multiple times over the years, but he always regrets it. There's not a bad thing inside of him. I guess out of the three of them he's the less unfortunate, always struggling in school and his jobs, but I'm so proud of him. He's following in his father's footsteps as he's just as creative and good with a tattoo gun. It gives Harry so much joy that he can support him in that dream. Because he's able to give him the childhood he never had. 

But Bobbie is different than all of us. That's maybe why I worry so much. If it were Eli or Eddie who decided to be a lifeguard for a long summer than I wouldn't have raised a brow. I somehow expected them to do that, but not Bobbie. 

"She will be alright," Liam says more to me than anyone else. "We all survived it."

"She's different than us."

"Yeah," he mumbles, watching her talk to Fleur, Liam's one-year younger daughter and one of her closest friends that she'll have to miss. "It is that she came out of you with Ed or I would believe she at least has a different father."

"She looks exactly like Liz though. No question about it that she's a Styles."

"How's Harry about it?" Liam wonders after he sips his coffee. 

"He's, of course, not as stressed out as I am, and tries to act cool, but I know better. He fears she'll meet a boy like himself there."

"But you two turned out okay, so why worry?"