Hidden Beneath Brown Eyes (A Zayn Malik Fanfiction)

Chapter 51 - Memory Lane

I extended my arm out, stretching it across Jack's body, and pointed out the window. The sun was up and shining bright as ever in through the small oval shaped window. The sky was a soft shade of baby blue, and surprisingly the clouds were scarce and scattered. We were flying over Ireland. It appeared to be a beautiful day, and whether or not the weather would still be so once we landed in London remained to be seen.

"See that spit of green down there? That's Ireland." I told Jack as we cuddled together, faces pressed against the window.

His smile grew and grew until it became too big for his face and I was almost afraid that his jaw would break. His eyes were shining with a light that put the sun and the stars to shame. He simply gazed out the window in awe, an expression similar to the one I'd had on my face the first time I saw this, only his was far more precious. He was seeing all of this through the eyes of a child and allowing me to catch a little bit of that.

Although I'd already seen this scene before, I felt like I was seeing it for the first time. It didn't look the same as it did five years ago. I don't know what made it different, and I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about it, but I was just happy to be having this experience with my son.

"We're almost there. You ready to meet daddy, baby?" I asked with a slightly shaking voice, running my fingers through his hair.

My words pulled me out of my childish spell and back to the reality of the situation. It was like a cold, hard slap to the face. I was reminded of why we were even having this experience to begin with; to tell Jack who his father was. Jack and Zayn were going to meet for the first time as father and son, and I suddenly realized that I still had no idea how we were going to go about doing this.

Zayn and I had never formulated a plan. We kind of just bought plane tickets and I guess we assumed that the rest would just fall into place, but here we were, fifteen minutes from landing, and nothing had come together at all. I didn't know what I would say, or what Zayn would say, or when we would do it, or how we would present it. Just the uncertainty was starting to make me feel panicked and anxious, but I knew that I had to keep a brave face for Jack.

He was a little boy, he didn't understand the stress that this trip was putting on his mommy, and I didn't want him to. I wanted him to enjoy this as much as he could, at least before we traumatized him for life.

Just then, the pilot's voice sounded over the loud speaker. "Good morning passengers. We are currently flying just over Ireland. We'll be beginning our descent into Gattwick International Airport in about ten minutes so we ask that you return all dining trays and seats to their upright positions and fasten your seatbelts. It is currently twenty-one degrees Celsius and partly cloudy in London. On behalf of British Airways, we sincerely hope that you have enjoyed your flight and thank you for flying British Air."

The pilot ended his announcement and I turned around and noticed the flight attendants making their way down the aisles and collecting any remaining trash and checking that all passengers were obeying the pilot's orders.

"Okay, time to buckle in." I said as I gently pulled Jack back down into his seat.

He struggled to get away from me, but I'm stronger and I won in the end, stilling him long enough to buckle his seatbelt.

"Ha!" I boasted in triumph while Jack pouted his lips like Zayn and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hmph. I wanted to look, mommy." he whined.

"But you did." I said, grabbing hold of his nose and tugging gently. He giggled as quietly as he could, not wanting me to know that I had succeeded in making him smile.