Dolly

Seventeen

Niall

It was terrifying. I woke up to her breathing being frantic and her body sitting at the edge of the bed. She kept repeating my name over and over every time a new wave of pain hit her. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten up to be at her side that fast. I didn’t even know I could move that fast.

I paced the waiting room for what felt like hours before my friends finally showed up with Tony.

“So are you a father yet?” Harry beamed and patted my shoulder.

I shook my head and bit at the skin of my bottom lip. “No, but the doctors said any time now, which makes me so nervous you don’t even know.”

“But Mary said you two have been doing major preparation. What do you have to worry about?” Diana chimed in from behind Harry and gave me a quick smile.

“I mean yeah we have been preparing. Like we have the bedroom ready, there are little basinets in every room, we have endless amounts of diapers, and baby food. But you know what I wasn’t prepared for? Holding my own child. I’m not prepared. What if I break my own baby? What if I accidentally leave the baby at home or what if I forget the baby in the car? I didn’t think about these things till now. I’ve been staring at this gross colored floor for almost two hours and all I can think about is that I’m going to mess up at some point. What if I’m not as good of a father as Mary hopes I’ll be? What if I’m not as good of a father as I think I am?”

Tony put his hand on my shoulder and looked up at me. “Take it from me big brother. You will be great.” He assured me. I took in a deep breath, soon letting it out into the air around me.

I shoved my hands into my jean pockets and plopped down onto the cushioned bench. Being in a hospital probably doesn’t bring good memories back to Mary’s mind. Although I doubt she’s even thinking about that right now. Today will bring nothing but good memories for both Mary and I. After all—we are becoming parents.

“Do you guys have names picked out yet?” The room had been completely silent until Diana spoke up again.

“Yeah. If it’s a girl, her name will be Arabella Rose. If it’s a boy we decided on Aiden James.”

“That’s cool. I like that you used your middle names. Most parents use their full names.” She nodded. The silence faded its way back into the air making my nerves go crazy again.

It was coming on to five o’clock in the morning. I have already spent four hours here waiting for the nurse to come tell me that I was a new father. That my child was here and that Mary was doing just fine.

I heard footsteps come into the threshold of the waiting room, making me advert my gaze to the older woman dressed in all white. “Mr. Horan?”

I quickly stood up and wiped the sweat off my palms and nodded.

“Congratulations. You’re the father a beautiful, healthy baby girl,” she grinned, “You can visit Mary now.”

I looked back at the three people sitting in the waiting room behind me. A wide smile spread onto my lips as I nodded and followed the nurse to the room that was occupied by Mary. “She’s a little tired, so please be a little quiet. She might even be sleeping when we get there. Right now your daughter is in the nursery already. That’s just down the hall from Mary’s room if you fancy seeing your creation.”

I cleared my throat and nodded before I pushed through the white door of Mary’s room. She turned to look at me with a tired smile playing on her pale pink lips. “Hi momma.” I kept my voice low, like the nurse warned me to try and do. A smile still fresh on my lips.

“I’m so tired.” She mumbled and scooted over in the bed to make room for me to sit down. “Lay with me?”

“Did you get to see her yet?”

She nodded against my shoulder. Not bothering to lift her head to look at me. “She has your blue eyes and your lips… but my brown locks.” She laughed slightly before sighing.

“It’s too late to turn back now, Mary. Are you sure you want me to be the father of your child?” I joked. I wrapped my arms around her a little tighter and scooted lower into the bed so she was a little more comfortable.

“More than sure.” She mumbled. “Did you go and see her yet?”

“No, I wanted to see you first. The nurse told me you were tired so I thought I’d come see you first then go down and see Arabella with Harry, Diana and Tony.”

“Harry and Diana are here?” she tilted her head up to get a look at me. Her eyes were a dull blue, which told me she was exhausted.

“Yeah, they brought Tony so I didn’t have to leave.”

“That was nice.”

“Yeah, but I also think they wanted to see you and the baby a little bit too.” I added with a sigh, “I’m going to let you rest baby. I’ll go get something for breakfast with Diana, Harry and Tony and be back in a little bit. Okay?”

“She’s really cute.” She mumbled back.

I let out a little laugh and placed a quick kiss on her forhead. “I love you, darlin’. I’ll be back later with our friends. When you’re not exhausted.”

“I love you too.” She sighed. She finally let her eyes close so she could fall asleep after the long four hours she had. I was surprised that it only took four hours. The nurses and even the doctor warned me that it could take longer than 12 hours, a few days even. They had told me to go home and sleep but I refused to leave.

I walked down the large window that looked into the nursery. I scanned all the names on the little clear beds, looking for my last name. As soon as my eyes landed on the letters that spelt Horan, I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. I thought my lips were going to fall right off face. She was fully awake and looking around to her best effort. Mary was right—she did have my blue eyes and the same lip shape. But you could clearly tell she was going to have Mary’s beautiful brown hair. She was our good thing from this point on. I had two really great things that would outweigh the bad by a ton.

“I’m never going to let anything hurt you, Arabella.” I whispered.

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Ahhh this warms my heart *heart eyes* Niall is daddy! Mary is a Mommy! 

Good tings are happening.