Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

one.

the way I love you is the way you love me  

||☤||

“Tomlinson!”

Louis rushes into the E.R., blindly grabbing a yellow contact gown on his way in like a reflex. The air is charged and buzzing, as it usually is at this time of night. The collective adrenaline courses its way through the space as though it possesses its own raging heartbeat.

Techs urgently shuttle patients across the floor to their next destinations. Nurses scramble to dispense medications and collect timed lab work. Traumatized patients scream out in pain, cries of agony and pleads of mercy boomerang in tragic waves across the halls to every far corner. All the while, loved ones and family members emotionally hound the unit secretary for answers about their person’s condition.

Names are being called out overhead through the P.A. system, announcing arriving traumas, broadcasting rapid response alerts and paging specialists to various urgent locations. So many voices barking out orders and screaming lifesaving commands, so many that they all easily begin to blend in as one. Down here, everything hangs in the balance, always on the precipice of death, the edge of hope.

“Coming through!” A team of doctors and nurses zip a gurney right past Louis, and he steps out of the way just in time to narrowly avoid getting his toes run over.

Between the high energy, non-stop bustle and the ever-increasing noise, it can be nearly impossible to focus a functional thought down here. Not when you are hardly afforded the time or space to spare a moment to breathe and compose yourself. When the difference between a minute and a second is so precariously critical. When every single decision made in these rapid moments could alter the swinging pendulum of life towards a vastly alternate outcome, creating a cascading effect of not only the fragile life on the medical table, but all the lives of those who surround them, those who love them.

It’s nothing but pure stress, absolute chaos. But for Louis, it’s a little bit like home.

“Get me Tomlinson, now!”

“I already paged Neuro.” One of the unit secretaries reports in a rush, juggling multiple charts and stacks of paperwork in her hands. “Twice.”

“I didn’t page for Neuro, I paged for Tomlinson. You know, The Chief of Surgery.” Niall snaps, without lifting his head, preoccupied by the screaming child on his exam table that he is attempting to secure a subclavian line in. He’s clearly not in any mood to have his patience tested today. To be fair, he hasn’t been in a while, a very long while. Not since the unimaginable became his reality, leaving Niall and his wife grappling with the wreckage.

“I’m here, I’m here.” Louis rushes into the trauma bay, contact gown barely secured to his shoulders. “What’s going on?”

The trauma nurse assisting Niall immediately hands Louis fresh scans. “Six-year-old male. GCS of 14. Brought in via EMS after being accidently shot in the back by his brother.”

“Found their father’s gun.” Niall adds wearily, holding the bell of his stethoscope to the child’s chest. “Fired it twice. No exit wound.”

“Oh my god.” Louis gasps, feeling a shiver run down his spine at the thought. He holds the X-Ray film up to the light, studying it as quickly as possible. It doesn’t take more than a moment for him to identify the two bullets lodged within the child’s spine at T12 and L2 resulting in a compression of the nerve bundle.

“Already given five milligrams of morphine. Two units of O Neg currently infusing. Vitals are holding stable for now, but we can hardly maintain his blood pressure.” The nurse reports, and from that Louis already knows that the child is hemorrhaging internally. No amount of blood they give him will solve the problem, he needs surgery. “The parents are on the way.”

Louis hates guns, fucking hates guns. And he’s sad to say that over the many years in his surgical career he has removed more bullets and repaired more bullet related injuries than he can count. And he’s even sadder to say that many of them were minors, and even more were left critically paralyzed, if not dead.

The child on the table is crying uncontrollably, screaming actually. From excruciating pain and sheer terror and everything in between. God, and he’s so very young—his small body barely takes up half of the adult sized exam table. Everything about this breaks Louis’ heart and his chest clenches thinking about how he would react if it was his own child on the table.

“What’s his name?” Louis asks as he quickly slips gloves onto both of his hands.

“Tyler.” Niall replies as he assesses the boy’s distended abdomen.

Louis goes up by his head, bending down a bit to the child’s eye level. “Tyler, hey, hi. I’m Louis, I’m here to help you, ok? I know how scared you must be, but I’m here with you and I’m going to do everything I can to get you better.”

“I want my mommy.” The little boy cries. His reddened face is soaked with tears, as if he hasn’t stopped sobbing since he was first brought in. Louis wishes he had time to comfort him more, to hold him and make him feel safe until his parents arrive. But his first priority is saving Tyler’s life and he will do everything within his power to do just that.

“I know, honey. She’s on her way.” Louis soothes, sliding both of his gloved hands into Tyler’s shaking ones. “Tyler, can you squeeze my hands for me?”

Tyler manages to give his hands a squeeze, although his small grip is quite weak.

“Okay, good.” Louis nods, letting him go for a moment as he quickly moves towards the end of the exam table. “Now I just need you to push your feet against my hands. As hard as you can, okay Tyler?”

Tyler nods, more tears streaming down his ruddy cheeks. And Louis can tell that the boy is attempting to follow his request, but his legs don’t move, not even a slight twitch of a muscle.

Nothing.

“Tyler, can you feel my hands on your feet?” Louis questions next, quickly assessing the paleness of his legs and the diminished temperature of his skin.

The boy shakes his head, and Louis’ initial suspicions are beginning to be confirmed. And Louis wanted to be wrong—fuck, he wanted to be wrong so badly. He wanted this to be a simple fix, an easy surgery, a surgery that didn’t require the high level of care of two experienced surgeons.

“Can I get a Doppler please?” Louis asks the nurse, while he moves his fingers across the dorsal surface of Tyler’s feet, trying to find any trace of a distal pulse.

“Here you go, doctor.” The nurse hands Louis the wand of the Doppler before squeezing gel onto both of Tyler’s feet to get a good reading.

Louis glides the wand against the cool gel, only to be meet with silence instead of the much-welcomed pulsating sound that would indicate some kind of perfusion.

Louis sighs, silently wishing that the results of his assessment weren’t true. But the facts are: Tyler has no motor or sensory response and his legs are rapidly growing more dusky and pale by the minute. Not only are the nerves not signaling, but there is also no blood flow to his lower extremities which means they need to move, and they need to move now.

“Okay, we can’t wait for the parents. I have to get him up to surgery right now. Call the O.R. and tell them we’re coming.” Louis orders in urgency. “Dr. Horan, are you good to transport up now?”

Niall nods, pressing down on the foot pedal to get the gurney moving. “Yes, let’s go. I’m right behind you.”

And so it goes, rushing up to the surgical floor, scrubbing in as fast as safely possible. The O.R. team working against the clock to get the patient sterilized and draped, then comes intubation and anesthesia. And while the patient is being prepped, Niall and Louis each gown and glove up, securing their masks as lightscopes are placed on their heads. Soon enough they are in position, facing each other across the surgical table, with Tyler lying still between them.

“I’ll run the Time Out.” Louis announces.

The surgical Time Out is an extra safety check to designed to decrease the likelihood of an avoidable error occurring causing unneeded harm to the patient, such as operating on the wrong patient or cutting open the wrong place all in a mad rush to get started with the surgery. Each member of the surgical team is to be a part of the verification process, further ensuring that every individual in the operating room is on the same page about the surgical plan for the patient and also aware of the potential risks to be prepared for. The protocol has been statistically beneficial in decreasing surgical errors since being enacted at SSMC. A good Time Out can take up to a few minutes to go through properly, but in emergency situations like this when every last second counts, Louis can’t help but rush through only the key components.

“Dr. Tomlinson, lead surgeon. Dr. Horan, first assist. Dr. Taylor, anesthesia. The patient is Tyler Myers, age 6. Prepped and draped in prone position for an emergency spinal nerve decomposition at T12-L2. Confirmed with imaging. Anticipated critical events likely, patient is not hemodynamically stable. RBCs infusing. Crash cart ready. Defibrillation pads in place. Airway managed with ET intubation.” Louis lists rapidly in clipped sentences, while the lead surgical nurse verifies just as quickly. “All agree?”

The fellow doctors, nurses, and techs each briefly nod, offering quick approval.

“Let’s start the clock.” Louis states next, not missing a beat as he extends his dominant hand. “10 blade.”

The surgical clock starts, and the surgeons get right to work. Unlike scheduled surgeries where each surgeon has the opportunity to develop a game plan before making the first cut, Niall and Louis are having to make a plan as they go. Adjusting and adapting with each and every move all while working as fast as humanly possible. After so many years of working together, their biggest and maybe only advantage in this situation is that they each know exactly how the other moves, able to anticipate and support each other as a unified team. All Louis and Niall can hope for is that the seamlessness of their surgical rhythm is enough to beat the clock. With all the vascular and nerve damage Tyler presented with, time is definitely not on their side and the immense pressure of that fact hangs over them both like an ominous cloud ready to storm.

“I can’t gain control of the bleeding.” Niall says, worry evident in his tone as he applies more suction to lower quadrant. “It’s his abdominal aorta…it—I think it may have dissected completely.”

No sooner than the words have been spoken, the monitors begin to beep urgently in alarm. Niall and Louis’ heads immediately whip towards the screen, watching in horror as Tyler’s blood pressure falls rapidly, his heart rate inversely escalating towards dangerous levels.

“He’s in SVT.” Louis analyzes the rhythm, quickly turning back towards the surgical table. “Prepare for a synchronized cardioversion.”

“Heart rate synchronized, currently at 200 BPM.” The nurse reports.

The goal of cardioversion is to manually override the electrical impulses of the heart, reverting the arrythmia back towards a normal rhythm, sort of like an external pacemaker. If it works, they will be able to decrease Tyler’s dangerously high heartrate back to safe speeds in hopes of resuming the surgery and further saving his life.

But it’s not working. Despite the synchronized pacing attempts, Tyler’s heart refuses to slow down and respond to the artificial electrical current, remaining wildly irregular and tachycardiac.

“Let’s bolus more blood!” Niall barks urgently as he watches the heart rate continue to climb towards 220 beats per minute. “Push 6 milligrams of adenosine now! We have to slow down his heart!”

Louis looks down at the sterile field in front of him, Tyler’s open body cavity precipitously filling with blood, obscuring the entire surgical field. The child’s heart beats so fast that it easily pumps out what’s left of his blood volume, his body trying so desperately to reperfuse traumatized vessels, all to no avail.

Administering more blood will only result in that very blood being pumped right out of his body by his tireless, overworking heart. And even if they somehow managed to momentarily slow his heart down enough to hinder the rapid bleeding, they still have no way of repairing the critical damage to such a vital artery. And without the abdominal aorta supplying blood and oxygen to his organs and extremities, Tyler’s body has no other option but to shut down completely. What’s worse is that it will only take a couple of mere minutes from this point out.

“We could try um—we could…Louis?” Niall rambles as he racks his brain for a solution, looking to his colleague for ideas, for a plan, for hope.

Louis meets his gaze slowly, sadly. Wishing beyond his own limits that he had the power to change this, that there was something more they could do. But Louis knows his wishes are all in vain, the irreparable damage from the bullets has already been done and they are utterly powerless to stop it.

“We’ve lost all traces of bilateral motor sensation.” The anesthesiologist, Dr. Taylor, somberly reports next. “There is no remaining nerve function.”

It’s like it was all over before it even got started. And it’s not fucking fair.

The telltale, eerie flatlining beep echoes ceaselessly throughout the operating room. Louis and Niall stand over the table in silence, bloody hands hovering over the open body of a still six-year-old child. Someone’s baby.

The surgical nurse reaches to silence the machines and even when they are completely turned off, the air in the room remains eerie, the lingering echo of the alarm still ringing hauntingly in their ears.

One of them still has to call it.

One of them has to officially pronounce the time of death.

Niall looks pale, as though he very well might pass out. His eyes are glassed over and unfocused and considering the impossibly rough year he’s had, how much he and his wife have been through, Louis doesn’t blame him.

Louis takes in a deep breath, gradually lifting his heavy head towards the digital clock mounted on the far wall of the operating room.

“Time of death: 2137.” Louis utters quietly, barely a whisper, although his voice rings out clear in the still room.

A heavy silence falls over the entire O.R. for several moments. It always does when it’s such a young, undeserving, innocent kid. No one wants to believe that these things happen, no one wants to accept that despite their best efforts, despite how quickly they acted, these things still happen, and they will never be fair.

“Fuck.” Louis curses as he hastily strips the soiled surgical gown from his shoulders, pushing out of the O.R. to the hallway. He leans back against the cool wall for a second, closing his eyes before bending down with his hands balanced on knees as he breathes in and out repeatedly.

Niall comes out slowly and joins him, looking just as dazed as before and even more distraught.

They don’t say anything to each other, just silently breathing and processing what just happened. What still needs to happen.

“Doctors? The family just arrived. They’re waiting in the lobby.” A nurse informs them gently.

Those parents never even got to say goodbye to their child. They didn’t get to hold him one last time or hear his voice or look into his eyes. They didn’t even get to tell their baby how much they love him and remind him that no matter what, everything was going to be okay. Those parents in the waiting room have no idea what is about to happen to them. Their lives are never going to be the same after this moment. They will remember this one, broken moment in their life forever and Louis feels absolutely sick thinking about it.

“Thank you.” Louis nods up towards the nurse, although he is still leaning over, not ready to stand up just yet.

Louis and Niall share a small look and Louis knows Niall is thinking all the same things he is, the devout devastation of the situation evident in even the air that flows between them. They hold each other’s gaze for several drawn-out beats before righting themselves.

“Hey, Ni…I can do it alone, you don’t have to—”

Niall shakes his head, avoiding the worry in Louis’ gaze. “I’m okay. I can do it. I should be there—I’m fine.”

“Niall.” Louis calls gently, knowing this all must hit far too close to home for him. He rests a comforting hand on his best friend’s shoulder.

“I’m fine.” Niall stresses again, saying it a bit louder this time as if he is trying to get himself to believe it.

Louis doesn’t believe him though, but he won’t argue anymore. He’s been doing this job for enough time to know that it won’t do either of them any good right now. Instead, he gives Niall’s shoulder another reassuring squeeze. They each take in another deep breath, steeling up to face Tyler’s family, before starting to walk down the hall together.

It may be part of the job, but it never, ever gets any easier.

||☤||

The scenic drive home from SSMC feels longer than usual, maybe because Louis doesn’t feel all the way present for it. Like functioning on autopilot, Louis navigates through the illuminated streets of downtown Seattle all the way to the quiet suburbs without recalling a single turn of the steering wheel. His mind is still in the operating room, playing over every last move they made during that brief, but critical surgery. His heart is still with the distraught parents whose lives will be forever changed from this night on.

All Louis can see is their emotional faces, horrified and stricken with sorrow. Louis can’t stop himself from replaying the way the mother fell to her knees and hysterically begged him to tell her that her son was still breathing. He can still hear the father’s weak voice as he tried to reason with his wife and calm her down somehow, despite barely being calm himself. And then there was the brother, terrified and sobbing by himself in one of the waiting room chairs. He couldn’t have been much more than a year or two older than Tyler, but the expression etched across his traumatized face aged him far beyond his years. Louis had sat down next to him for a while, trying to assure the child that this wasn’t his fault. But still Louis feared that the young boy may never forgive himself for this, for the loss of his little brother. It pained Louis’ heart to think of how hard the rest of his childhood will be, let alone the guilt carried into adulthood.

Louis steers his Audi into the free slot of the four-car garage, shutting the engine off with the push of a button. He makes no move to get out of the SUV right away, instead taking in a long breath as he gradually slumps forward, his head resting against the cool, leather lined steering wheel. He allows his eyes to fall closed, but with it all he feels is more drained. His whole body feels heavy, not just physically heavy from being on his feet all day, but emotionally heavy. Which Louis has always found to be far worse than any other kind of physical exhaustion. The last few hours took everything out of him, and it somehow feels like it’s still taking.

Louis blearily opens his eyes and glances at the screen positioned along on the vehicle’s dashboard, noting the late hour for the first time. He’s way later than he had told his husband he’d be home. Hopefully Harry didn’t wait up for him. Although a growing part of Louis sort of hopes that he did anyway, because admittedly, Louis really needs him right now.

Louis forces himself out of the car, trudging slowly through the garage and into the house. He makes his way into the kitchen, finding a few of the overhead lights left on for him.

The house is quiet, a true rarity, but it is just after midnight and the kids should long be asleep since it is a school night. But even with a quiet house, there is still something so comforting about just coming home in itself. There’s such a calming warmth to this house that never fails to ease Louis’ spirits after a hard day.

Louis mildly wonders if he’ll feel any better if he eats something. Truthfully, he doesn’t remember when he last ate something today—or should he say yesterday now. It was just one of those days where he ended up squeezing emergent cases in between his already scheduled surgeries causing him to jump from surgery to surgery all day long with barely a moment to stop and catch his breath.  

He opens the fridge and finds the leftovers his family must have had for dinner. It looks delicious, although he doesn’t have too much of an appetite. The thought of food sounds wholly unappealing right now. But then again, he probably should eat something—Harry would make him eat something if he were down here. He probably wouldn’t even let Louis argue with him about it.

He’s still internally debating with himself, when he recognizes the familiar scamper of little feet against the hardwood floor, disturbing his thoughts.

“Psst!” A tiny voice whispers, coming from behind the opened refrigerator door.

Louis finds himself already starting to smile as he peeks his head around the stainless-steel door, only to find a curly headed little boy grinning up at him with a snaggletooth smile.

Casey is all dressed for bed in his favorite Spiderman onesie that truthfully, he would happily wear in public if his parents allowed him. Half of his floppy hair is lopsidedly pulled up and away from his face with a bright yellow scrunchie, something he only recently starting mimicking from his dad. But Casey is always so proud that he can do his hair all by himself now, even if it’s crooked. Louis swears he is the most adorable thing ever.

“Papa!” Casey hugs his small arms around Louis’ legs.

Louis looks down, unable to keep his lips from tugging into a fond grin. “Casey, darling, what are you doing up?”

“Well…I couldn’t sleep, so I waited for you.” Casey answers simply, eyes wide and sincere. “I miss you when you don’t come home.”

Louis crouches down and pulls him into his arms, right to his chest, hugging his son tightly. He should probably be upset that his six-year-old is up on a school night at one in the morning, but right now after spending hours watching another six-year-old child suffer, all he wants to do is hold his son.

“Um…Papa?”

“Yeah, love?”

“You’re squeezing me.” Casey whispers back.

“I know, I’m sorry...” Louis apologizes quietly, but still doesn’t let go, can’t let go. With all he’s seen today, he can’t explain how blessed he feels to be able to simply embrace his child in his arms. “Can’t I have a cuddle from my favorite little cuddle monster?”

Casey is by far the most tactile of his children, the love language he responds to best has always been physical touch. If he’s not encased in someone’s arms, he’s most likely not content. He’s always climbing in laps, or popping up in between Harry and Louis in their bed. Casey takes his title of baby of the family very seriously, often literally. Absolutely loving whenever his parents coddle and fuss over him, which admittedly they do quite often, not exactly ready to let their last child grow up just yet.

Casey smiles, nodding his head causing his floppy curls to bounce around, nearly slipping from his loose half-ponytail. “I’ll always cuddle you, Papa.” He nuzzles his head against Louis’ shoulder, short arms squeezing as tight as he possibly can.

Louis’ heart practically melts in his chest, a little bit of the heaviness he feels diminishing. “I love you so much, Carebear.” He tilts his head so that he can leave gentle kisses all over the little boy’s face. “So much.”

Casey giggles happily as Louis’ lips tickle his dimpled cheeks, but it’s beyond clear that he absolutely loves the attention. “I love you! Much, much!”

“Much, much.” Louis repeats, finding it beyond cute. He swears he could stay right here and snuggle Casey all night, he’s the sweetest boy. But they will all come to regret that in the morning when it’s time to get Casey up and ready for school. “Let’s get you to bed, okay. It’s way past your bedtime.”

He nods and Louis lifts him up and begins carrying him through the house, up the stairs to his room. Casey keeps his head rested down to Louis’ shoulder, both arms wrapped around his neck.

“You smell good, babe.” Louis comments, nose nuzzled near the crown of his son’s head.

“Raspberry shampoo.” Casey grins proudly, leaning back to pull curiously at his own curls, trying to sniff them himself.

“Your sister’s?”

“No, mine.” Casey claims, frowning. “It’s mine now.”

Louis eyes him in fascination. “Is that right?”

“Mhmm. Mine.”

“And does she know that?”

Casey stays quiet only offering a mischievously guilty smile.

“Sneaky boy.” Louis laughs lightly, pressing his lips to Casey’s nose.

When they reach Casey’s bedroom, Louis tucks him right into bed, before leaving a final kiss to his forehead. “Goodnight, darling.”

“Wait!” Casey calls out urgently before Louis can leave the room.

“Yeah baby, what’s wrong?”

Casey wiggles his small arms free from the blankets only to hold them up to Louis. “One more.”

“Okay, one more.” Louis smiles softly as he pulls the small boy right back into his arms for another cuddle. He presses his lips to his raspberry scented curls, before tucking him in once more. “Sleep tight, my love.”

As Louis leaves Casey’s room, he can’t deny that he already feels a little lighter, the fresh ache in his heart still present but lessened by the innocently pure love of his youngest child.

Louis slowly walks the wide halls, lined with dozens of family pictures spanning the years. From birthdays to holidays, graduations and get togethers, anniversaries and vacations, moment after treasured moment that serve to remind Louis of how truly grateful he is for all the love he has around him.

Rounding the hallway, Louis stops at another bedroom door to check in on each of his twin daughters. Although when he enters the room, he is unsurprised to find it completely empty. While the twins have separate bedrooms that they begged Louis and Harry for, it’s not uncommon for them to be found in one room sleeping together in one bed. They’ve been doing it since they were little toddlers, especially when one of them was scared or lonely. Now, despite being fourteen years old, the girls still do it out of comfortable habit.

But try to helpfully suggest that maybe they should just share a room and watch all hell break loose. The harmless discussion never fails to launch a full blown argument about how they are each their own person and deserve to be seen as individuals. Louis and Harry have decided to leave the topic alone for their own sanities’ sake.

Louis turns and walks through the bathroom that connects the two bedrooms, having to stumble through it because of how messy his teenage daughters can be. He nearly trips over a loose hairdryer only to narrowly escape falling after colliding with several pairs of discarded shoes. He makes a mental note to remind his girls that they absolutely need to clean up this weekend. Oh, they’ll just love that, he’s sure. Louis can already hear their complaints and ample protests ringing in his head.

He finds them both already fast asleep together in one bed. Despite being pretty wild sleepers, they look so sweet and serene, tangled up in each other’s arms like they’re keeping one another safe. Without waking his daughters, Louis sits alongside their bed for a few minutes, watching their relaxed faces as they sleep. There isn’t a single day where these two don’t stress him out, but god, he loves his girls so much. He leans over each of them and leaves soft kisses to their heads, quietly whispering his love to their temples.

Louis makes his way to the master bedroom next, finding his husband sitting up in their bed, back rested against the plush, velvety fabric of the headboard. Although he is sitting up, Louis soon realizes Harry is completely asleep, reading glasses still perched on the bridge of his nose with a disregarded book flopped over his lap. His head is downturned to the right, causing his hair to fall over his face.

♫ 

A gradual, uncontrollable smile pulls at Louis’ lips at just the sight of him and he feels a familiar rush of warmth flood his chest. There really is nothing like coming home. Louis doesn’t waste another moment before crossing the room and snuggling up next to his husband in bed, tenderly pressing two kisses in succession to his temple.

Harry stirs slowly, straightening up as he blinks several times in a daze. Although he looks a bit startled at first, his face relaxes into a soft smile once he recognizes Louis’ face. “Lou, you’re home.”

His deep voice washes over Louis like a gentle, warm blanket and all Louis wants to do is cocoon himself in it and hid away indefinitely. “Hi, darling.”

“I was waiting up for you—well, trying to anyway. How are you, baby?”

Louis gently brushes stray tendrils of Harry’s hair from his face, tucking the strands behind his ear. “Happy to see you...”

Harry hums, leaning his face into Louis’ touch as their eyes meet. “Did you get stuck at the hospital for a late surgery or something?”

Although his spouse’s question was innocent, it instantly brings up a lingering sense of dread in Louis’ chest. He visibly deflates, flopping down on his side of their king-sized bed, not too far from Harry though. His head is cushioned by a ridiculous number of pillows and he practically sinks into them as he scrubs both of his hands over his face.

“Are you okay?” Harry worries instantly when Louis doesn’t offer a verbal answer. Harry adjusts himself on his side, searching his husband’s face. He lays a gentle, comforting hand on Louis’ stomach. His fingers span out, beginning to trace soft, soothing patterns.  “Louis? What happened? What’s wrong?”

Louis exhales heavily as finally allows himself to begin internally processing the tragic events of the evening. He tries to uncloud his mind and breathe slowly through each emotion he feels, just like his therapist reminds him to do. The mindful practice stops him from bottling up his feelings, as he is instinctually inclined to do. He takes one of the pillows from by his head and hugs it to his chest, remaining quiet for a few more moments before speaking. “It was a little boy…”

Harry pauses momentarily, still categorizing Louis’ movements. “Is he okay?”

Louis shakes his head once more, forsaking the mild comfort of his chest pillow completely only to sling his forearm over his face. He inhales a few more times slowly, but each time he hears that mother’s anguished cry ringing in his ears and he can’t help but wince against the haunting echo.

“Oh, Lou…” Harry draws his husband even closer, in a protective sort of way. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was me and Niall in there—and we tried…we tried everything—but there was nothing we could do and when we lost him...I just…I—he was only six, Harry. Six.” Louis’ voice shakes slightly as he says it. “And then…telling his parents—it was awful. I know that I should maybe be used to it by now…giving people horrible news, but…I couldn’t stand it, H. When they first saw me, they had so much innocent hope in their eyes and I saw the exact moment when they realized what was happening and…” Louis shakes his head again, fighting the wetness growing behind his eyes. “Their faces…they were so…heartbroken. They begged me not to tell them…over and over again…they couldn’t even believe it was all real. It was unimaginable…”  

Harry drops his gaze sadly as though he can’t even comprehend it. His strong arms tighten around Louis providing a sense of security and comfort.

Louis lowers his arm and turns his head slightly towards his husband. “And I felt even worse because the whole time I’m thinking about our kids, you know? How we would feel if we were those parents and it was—” Louis shuts his eyes, cutting himself off abruptly without uttering the words floating around in his head. Instead, he roughly slides both of his hands over his face once more. “Fuck, I just…”

♫

Harry cups Louis’ cheek, the coolness of his wedding band hitting Louis’ skin as he tilts his face toward him. He carefully searches Louis’ eyes, a growing sense of worry in his intent gaze as he gently thumbs over his cheekbone. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?”

They ask each other this all the time, a simple diagnostic they picked up in therapy to determine what the other needs in this moment. When it all gets to be too much, when memories feel stronger than usual, when grief is triggered by the lives of those around them and it suddenly feels like he’s just trying to keep his head above water, to keep from drowning.

Louis constantly feels for his patients, for their families, for their stories, for their lives. And when things go wrong, when the life he is trying to save slips from his grasp—god, does he feel it. After spending a good portion of his life dodging every last emotion, now that he allows himself the space to recognize his every emotion, he can’t help but become hopelessly intertwined in them. He possesses a devout sense of responsibility, taking every loss personally with a lingering trace of failure, despite knowing that he gave it his very all.

But beyond the heavy burden of accountability, most of all there is just sadness, a sea of all consuming sadness deluging Louis’ entire being. Sadness for the person’s whose life was ended, for the story they no longer get to tell, for all the things that may have gone unsaid or uncomplete, for all the love they leave behind.

It aches, it fucking aches deep down in every chamber of Louis’ beating heart. Each and every time it happens, each time he watches a patient take their very last breath on earth, it just…aches. No matter the cause, no matter the reason, no matter how long he knew them or how hard he tried to save them, it hurts all the same and Louis can’t resist deeply empathizing with all the pain that surrounds death.

And Louis has found that the sincere empathy he has within his soul has only grown in strength as his family has grown. His family stands to remind him of all he has to live for in this life, all the joys and all the love. And he knows that other people feel the same about their families and loved ones. He can’t avoid stepping into the shoes of a parent who now has to deal with the severe pain of losing a child, or looking from the perspective of a sibling losing their brother. Maybe it’s because he’s been in these positions in his life, maybe it’s because he knows exactly how much it hurts on such a raw, intimate level that now that he wears his heart out, open, and exposed on his sleeve, Louis can’t stop himself from feeling it all again as he watches someone else suffer through that same kind of misery.

Some patients trigger emotions right out of him, some cases pull at whatever lingering aspects of grief he has in his in soul, some stories chip away at the anguish lying in wait beneath his scars, some final moments prove to be far too much to handle alone, leaving Louis reeling over how cruel life really can be.

There is so much pain in the world, underserved, overwhelming pain. And being routinely faced with it can wear heavily on your spirit. Overwhelmed with emotion, with feeling, with nowhere to put it. And you can’t take everything home with you. In a job like this, it’s not healthy or wise to take home all the vicarious trauma that you’ve unavoidably borne witness to. But Louis takes more home with him than most, keeping each loss close to his heart. He’s been told time after time that he cares too much, he’s been told that he gets more personally invested than what’s actually necessary, but despite knowing this, Louis can’t at all help it. It’s just who he is.

All the time he’s strong, for himself, for his family, for his patients, but if he’s learned anything in life, it’s that there is profound strength in emotion, in feeling, in loss. And while losses like the one tonight might momentarily shatter Louis’ spirit as he takes time to process them, he knows he doesn’t have to brave the storm completely alone. His husband is always there to pick up the pieces and be whatever he needs.

Louis can get so lost, lost in himself, lost in his oscillating emotions, leaving him disoriented and unsure of himself. If he isn’t careful, it’s so easy for him to allow his grief and empathy to swirl into a vast ocean of terrifying darkness, threatening to pull him below the surface and drown him completely.

But even in an ocean of uncertainty, Harry has always been a safe place for Louis to land.

“Eight.” Louis eventually whispers, still staring up at vaulted ceiling of their bedroom, the rims of his eyes welling up quickly with unshed tears.

“Do you want to talk about it more?” Harry offers softly, still holding Louis’ cheek in his palm.

“No.” Louis answers quietly after a few beats.

Harry presses a bit closer, dipping down to leave a lingering kiss to Louis’ neck, murmuring his next words against his skin. “Do you want me to take your mind off of it?”

Louis shakes his head, his strained voice barely a whisper. “No.”

Harry pulls back and raises his head up, eyes imploring. “Do you want me to leave you alone and let you sleep?”

Louis turns on his side to face Harry fully. The building tears lining his eyes finally begin to trickle down his cheeks as he gradually tosses his head. Never ever that.

Harry cradles Louis’ head, drawing near to him once again. “Do you just want me to hold you, baby?”

Forgoing an audible answer, Louis buries himself against his husband’s chest, climbing into his lap with his face tucked near Harry’s neck. That’s all he wants, all he needs. To crawl into the safety of Harry’s arms and fold himself there as he falls apart. And Harry doesn’t just hold him, he holds onto Louis with his entire body, encasing his frame. Louis doesn’t ever want Harry to let him go.

“It’s okay.” Harry whispers to his ear, as he runs his fingers along the length of Louis’ spine soothingly. “You’re okay. I’m here.”

Louis feels himself fully let go, the emotion he was holding back in that fated surgery, the tears he hid while being a strong source of support for Tyler’s family, he lets all of it go. He clings to Harry the entire time, and his husband never wavers, braving the storm with him.

“That’s it, get it all out, baby.” Harry comforts softly, rocking Louis slightly as he starts to calm down. “Just breathe, you’re okay.”

Louis takes in several deep, centering breaths, although they morph more into stuttered hiccups as the last, lingering sobs leave his chest. And although he is slowly beginning to settle, he is still unwilling to release his hold on Harry yet, clinging tightly to him like a lifeline.

“Hey, look at me.” Harry uses both hands to guide Louis’ chin up to meet his eyes. “I’m going to be right back, okay? Don’t move.” He kisses Louis’ temple before beginning to untangle himself from Louis’ body.

“No Harry, don’t leave please.” Louis protests right away, his vulnerable voice coming out as more of a hoarse whisper than anything else.

“One sec, okay? Trust me, Lou.” Harry reassures gently, leaving another tender kiss to Louis’ forehead. “Trust me.” He says again and Louis finds himself nodding, before Harry scampers off out of their bedroom.

Louis drops himself back against the pillows, in no way liking the fact that their bed is becoming increasingly cold without Harry to warm it. He sniffles to clear his nose before swiping repeatedly under both of his eyes, knowing that he probably looks like a horrid mess with red, puffy eyes and a rosy nose to match. He reaches to his left and grabs another pillow to hold in the meantime, but it doesn’t feel anywhere near as comforting as Harry’s weight pressed against him keeping him safe.

Harry reappears in their room three minutes later with a pint of ice cream and two spoons in his hands. He holds the items up with a small hopeful smile.

“We don’t have any wine in this whole house.” Harry says regretfully, biting his lower lip. “But I can run out right now and get some for you. I’ll be quick, I promise.”

Louis just stares up at him, red-eyed and emotional, and all he knows for certain is that he loves this man so much. What did he do to deserve such a sweet, understanding husband? Harry would willingly go out at nearly one in the morning on a wild goose chase to find an open store just if it would make Louis even marginally happy. Louis swears he adores him with his entire heart.

Louis sits up slightly in bed, extending one arm out to Harry. “Come here.”

Harry smiles but obeys, setting the ice cream down on the bedside table before climbing back into bed next to Louis.

“Thank you.” Louis staddles Harry’s lap yet again, looping both of his arms around Harry’s neck before kissing him slowly. “This is…beyond perfect.”

“You sure, Lou?” Harry asks quietly in a voice that’s only for Louis’ ears. “I’ll do it for you, I promise. Ice cream isn’t the same without wine.”

“It is if I have you.” Louis answers, closing the small gap between their lips again.

“Can’t get drunk off me though.” Harry murmurs against his mouth.

“Oh, I absolutely can get drunk off you.” Louis kisses him a few more times as his lips morph into a slight smile.

“Mmm, perhaps you’re far more talented than I thought.” Harry teases lightly. “Turning your husband into wine.”

An unexpected chuckle escapes Louis’ mouth, so unexpected that he’s almost caught off guard by it.

“Do they teach that in medical school? Or did you just pioneer the technique all on your own?”

Louis laughs again, this time louder with his eyes crinkling in the corners. And Harry just watches him with a soft, fond expression coloring his face.

He is without a doubt Louis’ favorite person on earth. He knows he’d be lost without him. Louis may not be totally happy right now, but he’s definitely a lot less sad and it’s all thanks to the impossibly sweet man in his arms.

“Harry, I love you.” Louis throws both of his arms around his husband, crashing against him again. He hugs Harry with his whole body, arms, legs and all, just wanting to be as near to him as possible.

“I love you too, baby.” Harry tucks his chin and tightens his hold on the small of Louis’ back. Louis can’t even express how utterly safe he feels in his embrace. “I’m so sorry you had a hard day.”

“You always make my hard days better.” Louis whispers against his neck.

“Us.” Harry says simply, something proud in the cadence of his voice. It’s something they’ve been repeating back and forth to each other since they first got married. In fact, it was part of their vows to each other during their wedding.

all I want is us. when nothing makes sense, when everything is wrong, when there are no answers. it’s just us, always us. us against the world.

Although such a small word, it contains so much meaning because at the end of the day, when all is said and done all that matters is them.

Louis smiles gradually, cuddling closer, before answering back. “Us.”

||✚||

The morning comes far too soon for comfort, especially since they stayed up pretty late. But it was well worth it because by the time Louis started gradually nodding off in Harry’s arms, he was perfectly content. Albeit, still clingy and quiet, as he usually is after losing a patient and making it through a taxing, highly emotional day. But Harry still tried his best to coax a smile out of him, a laugh even. Louis gives so much of himself, time and time again bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders, while still brave enough to leave his heart out and open on his sleeve. Beyond anything, Harry hates seeing his husband so upset.

Their scheduled alarm blares loudly through their once quiet bedroom. Usually, when Louis doesn’t have some kind of emergency paging him to the hospital early, the two of them wake up and go for an early morning run together, followed by a cup of tea while watching the sunrise from their favorite view in their kitchen at their breakfast nook.

It’s a welcomed routine, allowing them a little quiet time together before it’s time to get the kids up and officially start the day. Sometimes it’s the only real moment they have together, depending on Louis’ varying surgical schedule. But surprisingly ever since Louis has become The Chief of Surgery at SSMC, his schedule has been a little more consistent. Of course, he still gets emergency pages in the middle of the night or ends up having to stay overnight from time to time. But he isn’t actively on-call anymore like he used to be and the times when he is paged are usually saved for when his staff are completely over their heads and desperately need him.

Harry reaches over blindly and silences the alarm, sighing to himself as he gradually blinks awake. He turns to his side and notices that Louis hasn’t even stirred, continuing to sleep soundly as if nothing has happened. Not unusual for him, he easily sleeps through all of his many alarms and Harry is usually the one to hit snooze on all the ridiculously early surgery related alarms that aren’t even meant for him. But he doesn’t ever mind, knowing his husband would far rather be woken up by him than by anything else.

“Good morning.” Harry murmurs softly against the nape of Louis’ neck, strong arms circled around his middle. He continues to kiss along his skin, nuzzling his nose against the sharp lines of Louis’ clavicle.

Louis stretches slightly before twisting around in his arms groggily. Only partial glimmers of his bright blue eyes are visible, eyelids still heavy with sleep. But he is still and always will be the most beautiful thing Harry has ever seen. “Mmm…morning, love.”

“Only two more days.” Harry reminds happily.

“Less than two days if you really think about it.” Louis replies, lips upturning into a knowing grin. “More like 36 hours.”

Ever since she left, Harry and Louis have been dutifully counting down the days until she comes home. Apart from a few grainy, pixelated FaceTime calls at odd times of the day and night, they haven’t seen their eldest daughter since her graduation from medical school earlier this year. In a move that was so characteristically Avery, she decided to spend her summer months providing medical relief and aid to an impoverished village in Haiti devastated by tropical storms. She’d gone to the island in the past during undergrad to help set up the initial clinic, but this time she said she’d have so much more to offer the village now that she has substantially more medical training.

Of course, Harry and Louis are the proudest parents, but they’ve missed her terribly. Quite miserably, actually. Their home is just not the same without her and all summer everything has seemed unbalanced. For the entire first week Avery was gone, Harry only listened to a sad self-curated playlist of old classics like Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine and Hall & Oates’ She’s Gone to drown out his sorrows. Louis repeatedly called him overdramatic, but he looked just as depressed and would routinely sing along with Harry. But now she’s finally coming back home, just in time to start her surgical internship at SSMC.

Avery could have chosen to become anything, absolutely anything at all and Harry is beyond certain that she would have been exceptional at it. Harry wasn’t shocked in the slightest when Avery told him of her potential career ideas. But when she first officially told Louis that she was going to pursue a career in medicine just like him, because of him, Louis cried for hours. Literal hours, he was a complete and utter, inconsolable mess. It just meant so much to him, it still does. Harry is fairly certain that if he brought it up even now, he could easily get Louis misty eyed; that soft, emotional side of him taking right over.

But despite following in Louis’ footsteps, Avery has never let him pull a single string for her, always saying that just having his name is a leg up enough. He supported her, guided her, and routinely answered the phone in the middle of the night when she had a breakdown over a test she was certain she was about to fail. But still, Avery worked hard and got through both college and medical school, landing a coveted surgical internship all on her own merit. The word proud doesn’t even begin to cover it.

“I can’t wait to see her.” Harry’s smile grows even more as he thinks about it.

“I know love, me too. I can’t believe we actually survived the entire summer.”

“82 days have never passed so slowly.”

“Practically a lifetime and I th—Sebastian!” Louis blurts out in total dismay, as heavy, blundering dog paws come into contact with his abdomen. The dog doesn’t even react to Louis’ outburst, instead he makes his way across their bed as if he owns it.

The dog in question is an 85-pound Bernadoodle that Avery named after Sebastian Stan. She had a very intense Marvel phase during her teen years, and she swore up and down that the dog she was so excited to adopt looked just like him. Of course, Harry had completely agreed with her, but Louis still claims he doesn’t see it.

Harry knows that Louis is still a bit partial to their first dog, Benedict, habitually saying that his favorite lad could never be replaced after he died of old age. They were all so heartbroken over losing their family dog, the house felt unusually quiet for months and months. But then Avery came to them and gave a lengthy, drawn-out speech about how she couldn’t possibly go on without having a dog in her life, in fact her entire childhood would be hopelessly ruined forever—she was also quite the drama queen during her teen years.

Needless to say, they caved within days and adopted a brand new member into the family.

“Aww, it’s okay, Sebby.” Harry coos, welcoming the dog with open arms. “Come here, boy.”

Sebastian happily hops over to Harry, pouncing down on top of him. The dog’s massive paws laying across Harry’s chest.

“Why do you continue to encourage that dog to jump in our bed? Why?” Louis frowns in offense, eyeing the dog that just took his spot next to his husband.

“Because he gives me the sad eyes and I can’t say no. Look at him, Lou.” Harry pouts back at the dog, while fervently scratching his oversized, fluffy ears. “Aww hi Sebby, baby.”

Admittedly, Sebby is the biggest baby in this house, worse than their own kids at times. Harry can’t even number all the times he’s woken up and found the dog lying on top of him or squeezed in between him and Louis and sometimes Casey too. Between Sebby and Casey, there is always someone in this house vying for constant attention.

While he’s technically Avery’s dog, Harry probably does the most for him out of any member of this family, especially since Avery went on her trip. And Sebby knows it, because he absolutely adores Harry. Following him around the house dutifully, like a shadow that can’t be shaken. Where there is a Harry, there is a Sebby.

Louis refuses to entertain Sebby most times, demonstrating his undying loyalty to what he refers to as the best dog to ever live. Actually, that’s not entirely true, Louis pretends not to entertain Sebby, but he does. Harry has seen it. Louis will sneak him extra treats or invite him on their morning runs or even play fetch with him in the backyard from time to time. But when Harry catches him doing it, Louis will deny, deny, deny. Harry lets him though, because deep down he knows the truth. Louis loves Sebby just as much as Harry does.

“May I have my spot back please?” Louis grumbles, eyebrows furrowed.

“Jealous?”

“Yeah…okay? Maybe I am?” Louis keeps frowning adorably, still eyeing Sebby as if the harmless dog has somehow deeply wronged him.

Harry grins at him, giving his loyal pup a final pet. “Okay Seb, get down before you get me in trouble. And no more sad eyes, alright?”

Sebastian makes a whimpering sound, but obediently jumps off the bed, only to settle down on the floor by Harry’s side of the bed.

“Yeah, beat it, dog.” Louis mutters as he takes his rightful place back, which only makes Harry chuckle.

“We have to get up anyway.” Harry reminds, snaking an arm back around Louis’ waist.

“Let’s skip the run today.” Louis suggests, entombing himself within Harry’s arms, snuggling closer to his chest.

“What? And risk my cardiovascular fitness? I think not. I’m on a streak.”

“One day will not kill you.” Louis mummers contently, eyes already falling closed again.

“You don’t know that. I’m trying to keep myself young and fit. I can’t just go around skipping days because my husband is lazy.”

“I’m not lazy!” Louis frowns with his eyes still closed, defensive even in his sleep. “I’m just warm and cozy and tired and I’d rather stay in bed with you for a little while longer.”

“Mhmm.” Harry kisses the top of his head. “My lazy, lazy boy. I ate a whole pint of ice cream with you in the middle of the night. We are going for a run.”

“We are not.” Louis argues, one eye popping open.

“Don’t make me drag you out of bed.”

Louis perks up at that, squinting his eyes at Harry. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh really?” Harry raises his eyebrows in challenge.

Louis narrows his eyes to slits before conceding with a knowing huff. “Okay, you would. But if you don’t…I could make it up to you…”

“Ooh? How’s that?”

“Well…maybe we could be fit in other ways this morning…”

“Ooh?” Harry repeats with growing interest, grinning as Louis rolls on top of him.

“There’s more than one way to get that heartrate up, you know.” Louis leans in and attaches his mouth to Harry’s exposed neckline, starting to suck a bruise against his skin.

“I’ll show you fit.” Harry takes Louis by complete surprise and flips them both over suddenly so that he is lying on top.

Louis laughs in surprise, far louder than he probably should at this hour. And although Harry could listen and revel in that lovely sound forever, it won’t do either of them any good if the whole house wakes up too early.

“Shh, Lou! You’re so loud.” Harry scolds weakly as he tries to hold back his own laughter. He holds his large palm over Louis’ mouth. “You’ll wake the kids up.”

Louis puckers his lips behind Harry’s hand, leaving little kisses to his palm as he giggles.

“Are you going to be quiet?”

Louis nods compliantly as Harry gradually removes his hand. “Mhmm, I promise.”

“Good.” Harry slides down Louis’ body disappearing under the covers. He lifts the hem of Louis’ tee, pressing his lips to his pelvic bone, one of Louis’ sensitive spots.

And he must be especially ticklish today because he squawks loudly at the contact, the sound echoing though their bedroom.

“Okay, that’s it, big mouth.” Harry pokes his head back up from under the heavy duvet. “We are running.”

Louis puts both of his hands on Harry’s shoulders, trying to force him back under the layer of sheets where he came from. “No, go back down there. I’ll be good.”

“It’s too late, you ruined it. We’re going for a run.” Harry flings back the duvet, exposing them both to the morning draft of air.

Louis instantly curls in against himself, wincing against the sudden change in temperature. “Oh my god—it’s freezing! You demon!”

“It’s really not.” Harry grins, amused. “But maybe if you start moving, you’ll warm up.”

Louis cuts his eyes up at Harry irritably, looking very disgruntled, but also very cute.

“Come on, babe, let’s go.” Harry encourages, taking hold of both of Louis’ arms. He has to practically pry them away from Louis’ tightly tucked in frame.

“Ugh, nooo, Harrrryy.” Louis groans dramatically as Harry tugs him up from the bed like a ragdoll. “You’re torturing me.”

“Lou, I would never. I’m helping you.”

“I don’t see the difference.” Louis grumbles, allowing himself to just be dead weight as Harry hoists him up.

“You’ll thank me when we’re done.”

“I’d thank you now if you let me stay in bed.” Louis counters with a huff.

“Good thing I’m a patient man.”

“Patient my ass.”

||✚||

♫

Despite Louis’ initial complaints, the run is as good as Harry promised it would be. The brisk, fresh air surrounding his senses. The patterned feel of his steps paced against the familiar dirt trail that winds throughout the forest. The welcomed company of his closest companion by his side.

It was just what they both needed to jumpstart the morning.

But this part, the part that comes after…this part is always so much better than running. This part makes it all worth it, pulling everything into perspective.

Louis is sat beside him on the curved bench of the breakfast nook, cuddled close with one arm looped through Harry’s. Louis leans his weight against Harry as he sips quietly on his mug full of hot tea. His free hand aimlessly running along Harry’s thigh with no real purpose. Harry’s got his own cup of tea resting idly on the tabletop, while his fingers graze Louis’ scalp. They don’t even need to talk, content just to be near one another.

It’s always so wonderfully quiet this time of morning. Serene, like the entire world belongs only to them.

And the view, god, the view from their house is incredible. At all times of the day there is quite a scene laid out before them, but there are certain key times of the day where the view leaves Harry absolutely speechless. And sunrise is one of those times. The way the sky manages to form an enchanting mix of brilliant hues, swirling oranges with pinks and reds with yellows like a painter’s palette. The early morning sun gently kisses the rooftop’s outline, peeking over the horizon just east of the mountain skyline, bathing the entire house in a warm glow.

It’s breathtaking.

So yeah, Harry is a little bit in love with their house. Truthfully, it’s more than a little bit, he adores it. The hearth sits right in the middle of their picturesque, memory filled meadow like it was always meant to be there. And there is still plenty of the original meadow surrounding the house, stretching even further back behind the property itself, before giving way to a scenic forest of fresh pine.

Although the two-story haven is quite spacious with six bedrooms and a separate guest house, it still manages to feel homey, cozy and so very warm. Every single detail that went into the design of their home was tailormade to suit them. Everything from the open layout to the wood flooring to the exposed beams of the high vaulted ceilings is exactly how the two of them designed it, how they dreamed it. It’s home, in every last sense of the word. They have made this place their home.

Looking back, Harry never imagined that Seattle, Washington of all places would be where he eventually settled down, but now it just makes sense. In his lifetime, he has been privileged to travel the world and see quite a few places, but nowhere has ever come close to feeling as close to home as this place does. This has become his favorite place on earth.

But within his favorite place, this little breakfast nook has to be Harry’s favorite spot within the house— well, he has multiple to be totally honest, but this one in their cozy nook has the dearest place in his heart. Maybe it’s his favorite because of what it means. Not just the incredible view, but this treasured time between him and his husband.

Harry loves it, he loves this time together. No matter how short it may be. It’s always nothing short of wonderful. And he knows he will have it again tomorrow and again the day after that and again and again and again into the future as they continue to share this extraordinary, indescribable life together. Against all the odds that were stacked high against them, they’ve been able to build this entire home together and it’s been the most beautiful journey anyone can hope to take with another person.

He just feels lucky, so unbelievably lucky. Every single day, Harry wakes up and he can’t believe how so incredibly lucky he is. Lucky to be alive, lucky to be in love, lucky to be loved.

And just when Harry thought the morning couldn’t be any more perfect, the telltale sound of screaming echoing through the large house promptly pops their little perfect bubble.

“Right on schedule.” Harry laughs, lifting one hand to point upstairs.

“Here we go.” Louis chuckles along knowingly, lifting his head from Harry’s shoulder. “The day has now officially started.”

“I wonder what the issue is today.”

“Oh, who really knows, love. A better question would be, what isn’t the issue?” Louis asks, taking a final sip from his mug. “With our girls everything we do is embarrassing and everything is a dire emergency. We really can’t win.”

“Teenagers.” Harry sighs heavily.

“Teenagers.” Louis repeats, shaking his head with a sigh of his own. “I’ll talk to them.”

“No, I got it, Lou.”

Louis looks back to him in surprise. “Really, babe? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I got it.” Harry answers easily with a shrug. “You did it yesterday, it’s my turn. I got it, don’t worry about it, Lou.”

Louis drops his head down to leave a soft kiss to Harry’s left shoulder. It’s one of those affectionate Louis-isms that Harry completely melts for. Louis will kiss him wherever is closest, whether it be Harry’s shoulder or the center of his chest, his inner arm, or the palm of his hand. Sometimes it means thank you or I love you or sometimes it’s nothing more than a tender, reassuring touch to remind him he’s there. But regardless of the reason or the placement, it’s always sweet and gentle and so very Louis.

When Louis raises his eyeline back up, the sunlight dusts his freckled skin golden. The way the light catches makes the brilliant blue of his eyes appear even clearer, almost iridescent in how they seem to reflect each individual ray. Harry swears, as he sworn a million times before, that he’s never seen anyone so breathtakingly beautiful. He is always falling just a little more in love with him with every day that passes.

“You’re the best.” Louis’ face somehow softens even more as he leans in close to press their lips together briefly. “I suppose in that case, I’m going to go take a shower. Tag me in if you need help. Good luck, my love.”

“Thanks, I’ll need it, I’m sure.” Harry teases as he reluctantly releases his husband so that he can get up from the bench.

After Louis leaves, Harry takes a moment or two, or three, to inhale deep, steadying breaths, mentally steeling himself up for whatever his children have cooked up this morning. He shuffles through the house, making it to the grand staircase and gradually ascending the steps. As he does, the noise only grows in intensity. Harry barely makes it but two steps down the opening hall on the second floor before his senses are assaulted by even louder, high pitched screaming directly into his ear.

“Ryaaann!” Noah yells throughout the house. “Ryannnnn!”

“Please stop yelling, honey. It’s barely six in the morning.” Harry wearily says to one of his fourteen-year-old daughters, rubbing his temples as he feels a headache coming on already.

“Dad, she stole my lip gloss!”

The bathroom connecting the twin’s adjoining Jack and Jill style bedrooms abruptly swings open, the door nearly hitting Harry in the face. But instead of the door itself, he is hit with a mouthful of hairspray, wafting out of the bathroom in quantities that cannot be normal or safe.

Harry gags on the thick mist, coughing as he waves off the lingering spray.

“No, I didn’t!” Ryan argues, emerging angrily from the cloud of hairspray. “It’s my lip gloss. You stole it from me!”

Harry manages to revive himself and clear his lungs after another coughing spell and then finds himself face to face with two still yelling, blue-eyed, freckled, curly-headed teenage girls, each trying to outtalk the other. “Girls, can we take it down a notch, please?”

“Give it back, Ry!”

“No, because it’s not yours!”

“Yes, it is! I bought it at Sephora last week, you weren’t even there—it’s mine!”

“Uh yes, I was there, Noe, because I bought that new eyeshadow palette from Urban Decay! The one you’re wearing on your stupid face right now!”

“We have the same stupid face!”

“Hey, hey—okay, enough!” Harry positions himself in between them, towering over his petite daughters as they both stand at only 5 feet and 2 inches tall. “Why can’t you just share it?”

Both girls stop their arguing to look up at their dad in utter disgust, gasping at the sheer notion.

“Dad, what?” Noah frowns, opening her mouth dramatically in apparent disbelief that he would even dream of suggesting such a thing.

“You’re joking right.” Ryan eyes him flatly, arms crossed over her chest. “You have to be joking. Honestly, that is so gross!”

Harry sighs, quickly realizing he said exactly the wrong thing. “Does it really matter? You’re sisters for god’s sake.”

“I’m my own person.” Noah declares adamantly, flipping the cascading curls of her high ponytail over her shoulder.

“Right! Just because we’re twins doesn’t mean we are the same.” Ryan asserts, although she poses in a similar fashion to her sister, swinging her equally long caramel-colored tresses behind her back.

“Yes, I’m well aware of your autonomy as individuals. And I completely respect it.” Harry nods in understanding, breathing out through his nose as he feels his impending migraine ebb on. Fuck, raising teenage girls—twin teenage girls can be the most headache inducing experience. They’re argumentative, opinionated, and hell bent on doing things exactly their way. And when they team up with each other to gang up on him, it’s impossible to even have a conversation.

“Thank you.” They both answer in unison.

“Although…you do realize you are both dressed identically right now. By choice.” Harry adds cautiously, looking between them.

“Don’t worry about that.” Ryan waves off.

The twins give each other a knowing look, communicating silently through whatever silent modes of telepathic communication twins possess. It honestly creeps Harry out sometimes, although he finds it completely fascinating at the same time. They’ve been mastering it since the day they were born, maybe even before, Harry is almost certain of it. He can’t even recall the number of times he’s watched his daughters essentially have an entire conversation without uttering a single word aloud. Creepy, so creepy. But beautiful too, he supposes.

“Besides, we wear uniforms to school.” Ryan reminds, breaking eye contact with her twin to look up at her dad again. “It’s not like we have a wide selection of choices.”

“Right, but in the ways where you could potentially show your individuality, like your hair or your makeup…your socks even, you have willingly chosen to look exactly the same…Just saying…” Harry continues, still exercising the utmost caution in his word choice.

“Daddy, don’t worry about it, okay.” Noah reiterates, patting his arm for good measure.

Harry just rolls his eyes, knowing they have some scheme in the works. Because they always, always have a scheme.

“Alright, well…” Harry shakes it off, choosing to move on now that at the very least they are no longer arguing. “Ryan, you have a dentist appointment today, so I’m going to pick you up early from school.”

Although Ryan seems to disregard everything that Harry has just said and instead schools her features into a look of offense. “Dad…I’m not Ryan, I’m Noah.”

“Yeah, I’m Ryan.” The other twin chimes in, making the exact same expression as her sister.

Harry looks between the two of them several times, narrowing his eyes at his girls as he studies them momentarily. But then shakes his head, knowing that he is right, and he correctly identified Ryan the first time. If there is one thing Harry knows, it’s his daughters. “Okay, I don’t know what you two are planning, but you can’t fool me.”

“Obviously, we can because I’m Noah. She’s Ryan.”

They love to play this game. They love to try to trip people up. They’re quite mischievous things. Cunning and smart and so very clever. They’ve been at it since they were just three years old and somehow gained an eerie, well-defined sense of self and exceeding awareness and soon realized just how simple it would be to deceive everyone, whenever they wanted.

Well, to be fair, at the ripe age of three years old, they mostly just found it absolutely hilarious much to Harry and Louis’ frustration. They would do things that blew Harry’s mind like go behind his back and switch Ryan’s lavender hair bow with Noah’s green one before he would drop them off at daycare. Only for Harry to receive frantic calls that the staff couldn’t keep track of his daughters and both girls were claiming each other’s identity causing the staff to begin questioning their own sanity. There was an incident once when they were still three where even Harry and Louis had to take pause in determining who was who. They were that good. Of course, Harry and Louis don’t speak of that incident—ever. It never happened as far as they are concerned and from that day on, they have never once faltered in successfully identifying their mischievous twins.

Now though, now they’ve completely evolved. They’re good too, they’re really good. And they know it. Ryan and Noah constantly switch up their mannerisms, alter their vocal cadence, modify their personality, all just to carry out whatever plans they have. But you can’t outsmart a parent, and while they’ve evolved in their schemes, so have Harry and Louis in their parenting skills.

Harry offers them a mildly amused smile, even bringing his hands together in short applause. “Very funny, girls. You’re hilarious.”

With that Harry heads towards the stairs, knowing he needs to pull together something for his kids’ breakfast or they won’t get out of the house on time. Maybe they can just do breakfast to-go? He could make them all a quick breakfast sandwich or something, that should work. Although Casey hates those for some reason, so Harry will have to figure out something else for him. Speaking of Casey, Harry should probably start trying to wake him up. Because that in itself, is an ordeal.

“It’s true!” Noah and Ryan adamantly insist at once, following after him down the stairs towards the kitchen.

“Mmm, I’m sure it is, loves.” Harry hums over his shoulder, paying them no mind.

“I’m sorry Dad, you’re just wrong sometimes.”

“Is this really how we’re going to play it today?” Harry asks, descending the wide staircase. “That I’m wrong sometimes?”

“You are wrong sometimes.” Noah replies matter-of-factly.

“I know you both like the back of my hand. You can wear the same outfit and make the same faces at me, but I know my daughters. You can’t trick me.”

“But Dad, how do you really know I’m Ryan?”

“Yeah, what if you and Papa mixed us up when we were babies and never figured it out?” Noah proposes.

“I could be Noah this whole time.” Ryan boldly claims. “We could have been switched at birth!”

“Oh my god.” Harry laughs to himself at the ridiculousness of it all as he pulls ingredients out of the fridge.

“I can just picture it.” Noah starts, looking off into the distance dramatically. “Papa working for, like, 50 hours straight doing surgery or something and you staying up that whole time because of two screaming babies. You’re both totally delirious and poof! Baby swap!”

“One honest mistake and just like that our whole life is a lie.” Ryan continues.

The twins turn and shake their heads at each other. “How traumatic.”

Harry rolls his eyes fondly. “You’ve got such an imaginative mind, Noah.”

“I told you I’m Ryan.” The fourteen-year-old corrects.

“Right.” Harry nods sarcastically as he begins cracking eggs into a bowl to be whisked.

“Morning, Noe.” Louis strides into the kitchen, freshly dressed in a suit with his hair still a touch damp from his shower. He sweetly kisses his daughter’s cheek on the way to the cabinet where he greets the other twin similarly. “Morning, Ry.”

Both twins start sulking after being once again correctly identified by one of their parents and Harry smirks at them, shrugging knowingly.

“What?” Louis looks between the three of them in confusion as he fixes his tie. “What’s going on? What’d I miss?”

“Oh nothing, Lou. Just our ever so charming girls trying to trade places. The usual.”

“Hmm. Well, no use trying, loves. I’d know you two apart in my sleep.” Louis shrugs easily. “We’re your parents, it’s instinctual.”

“Apparently, word on the street is that we switched our babies at birth and have been cluelessly wrong for the last fourteen years.” Harry recounts, dropping English muffins into the toaster.

“Oh, because that makes sense.” Louis grins sarcastically.

“It does, Papa.” Noah argues adamantly again. “Just think about it. There’s no way that you and Dad kept track of us properly with all that you had going on. I’m sure you’ve mixed us up several times actually.”

Louis smiles fondly, looking utterly amused as he drapes one arm around his daughter’s shoulder. “Oh NoNo, how I love you.”

The phrase “Noah, no!” became such a commonly uttered expression in their house during Noah’s key developmental years that it soon contributed to her nickname, NoNo. More so than Ryan, Noah was always putting things that didn’t belong in her mouth, pulling on things she had no business touching, and climbing on things that Harry and Louis were sure was going to result in her falling and splitting her head open. There was always panic, so, so much panic in those days, bordering hysteria.

“I’m Ryan!” She protests yet again, pouting up at him.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Tell me, babe, why are you switching places this time?” Louis asks, eyeing her closely.

Her face morphs suddenly and she offers him a bright smile before reaching up to gingerly pat his cheek. “Papa, the less you know the better.”

“Noah Anne.” Louis narrows his eyes at her, his voice a touch more serious than before.

“I haven’t done anything!” Noah defends, bright blue eyes widening in dramatized innocence.

“Ryan Jay.” Louis grills next, offering the other twin the same expectant look. “Anything you want to tell me?”

“Um…what answer were you looking for here exactly?” Ryan avoids eye contact as she busies herself stealing one of the newly made breakfast sandwiches.

“The truth would be nice.” Louis supplies, eyes shifting suspiciously between his mischievous daughters.

“Wouldn’t it?” Harry nods, quickly assembling the remainder of egg, sausage, and cheese sandwiches.

“Umm…” Noah drags out, looking up at the ceiling while Ryan stuffs half of a sandwich in her mouth to avoid talking.

“Please don’t do anything illegal.” Harry requests wearily.

“Daddy, me?” Noah gasps, as if she is in no way capable of such things. “Not your sweet little girl. I would never.”

Harry releases another long sigh. “That somehow doesn’t comfort me at all.”

Louis shakes his head, confusion on his face. “Yeah, no, I feel worse actually...”

They’ve had their hands full with these two since the day they were born. Nonstop. But god, do they love them. Life would probably be exceedingly boring without them at this point. Harry and Louis wouldn’t know what to do with themselves.

Noah reaches up on the tips of her toes to pat the top of Louis’ head. “Don’t you worry your pretty head over it, Papa.”

“Oh, well thank you, Noe. I suddenly feel soo much better now that you said that.” Louis teases, making a face at her. “Crisis averted.”

“Again, I’m Ryan. Please stop embarrassing yourself.”

“Okay. Alright.” Louis rolls his eyes and sighs heavily, expressing Harry’s exact sentiment. Who knows why, but for some reason these girls will not let this go. It’s unclear what exactly they are trying to prove.

“What must we do to end this?” Harry questions in utter exasperation. “Prove it to you?”

“Yes!” They both exclaim at once.

And then, without another word, the two of them scurry after each other out of the kitchen, leaving Harry and Louis mildly confused about what the hell is going on. But before they can even begin to discuss it, the twins come marching right back in the kitchen. They walk side by side, hands clasped together, with the exact same expression locked on their faces. They look objectively identical and to anyone outside of their home, it would be nearly impossible to distinguish them from each other. Making a decision would only cause anyone to suddenly question themselves further the longer you spend staring into their mischievous eyes.

“Okay, who is who?”

“Ryan. Noah.” Harry points at either girl, hardly even breaking a sweat to do it. As his husband said, he truly could do this in his sleep.

They both scowl, glance at each other, and then leave the kitchen yet again without a word.

“Oh my god. Seriously, girls?” Harry sighs, throwing his hands up exasperatedly.

“As if we wouldn’t know them apart.” Louis scoffs, borderline offended. “It’s insulting.”

When the twins return, their tactics have changed. This time they are each making minor expressions, so very minor that they’re hardly discernable attributes. Little things that Noah characteristically does, like slightly smirk her lips to the right in concentration or the way Ryan blinks a bit slower than her sister does, fluttering her long eyelashes. Just small, hardly perceptible traits that are identifiably reminiscent of one of them.

It’s mastery level deception, but still deception, nonetheless. Despite what they would have Harry and Louis believe, the twins are simply mirroring each other’s natural tendencies to fool their parents towards accepting that they are who they claim themselves to be. It’s clearly a trap and Harry is offended that they seriously think their parents of all people would fall for such blatant trickery.

“How about now?”

“Ryan. Noah.” Louis correctly identifies this time, recognizing their hoax as easily as Harry did. “Are we done? I have a meeting this morning and I can’t be late. You two have five minutes to get it together.”

They just stare at him, clearly unhappy that their useless ploy didn’t work out as they planned.

“Now please.” Louis urges, shooing them into action. “I mean it, you two. If you want a ride to school with me then I suggest you get moving.”

The twins usually like to catch an early ride with Louis in the mornings because Casey doesn’t have to be at school for a whole hour after them and he’s often late, making them even later. And since Noah and Ryan can’t stand the mortification of being late, they’ve learned to tag along with Louis if they can. There are some mornings where Louis has to leave extra early at 4 AM and the girls have no choice but to hope their brother gets up on time so that they won’t be late by the time Harry drops them off.

“Is Casey up yet?” Harry asks, busying himself with packing up the sandwiches.

“I woke him up. Twice.”

“So he’s probably back in bed then.” Harry surmises.

“Oh, 100%.” Louis grins.

Never have Harry and Louis seen a six-year-old so dedicated to daytime sleep. The kid is a total night owl, he will happily stay up all night, every night. But try to get him to wake up at a reasonable hour in the morning? Now that is the ultimate task.

“We’ve really got to stop letting him nap during the day.” Louis glances at the Apple Watch on his wrist, lighting up with notifications. “If we don’t get him going soon, he’s definitely going to be late today.”

“Ugh, and we were doing so good this week.”

Essentially, Casey is late to school at least three out of the five days of the school week. But believe it or not, that is actually quite an improvement, because it was consistently four out of five for the longest time. And it’s not as if Harry and Louis haven’t done everything they could think of to get their youngest child to school on time, Casey just happens to have other plans.

For one, he is impossible to get up. They actually start waking him up from the time they get up for their morning run, sort of coaxing him into the idea that the day is about to start. But the boy loves to sleep, and he will do anything to stay asleep, much to his parents’ frustration.

Beyond that, Casey is also a bit forgetful at times. Or all the time, really. Louis thinks it’s a phase, but Harry is pretty sure this is an integral part of his personality at this point. He forgets his backpack, his shoes, his toys, his homework, his lunch; Harry is certain he would forget his own head if it wasn’t attached to his body. Harry and Louis are always running behind him, trying to gather everything he leaves behind. Because if they don’t anticipate the things he forgets, they will be far worse off when Casey remembers again and it’s way too late.

All in all, a very sleepy boy, combined with a knack for innocent forgetfulness makes for a routine pattern of tardiness that seems impossible to break.

“I’ll try to wake him up again in a minute.” Harry says next, holding up a neatly packaged paper bag with Louis’ name scrawled on it, a heart dotting the ‘i’. “Breakfast to-go?”

“Aww thank you, darling.” Louis briefly pecks his cheek as he takes the bag. “That was so sweet of you.”

“You’re more than welcome, babe.”

“Now where are those girls?” Louis wonders again, before being distracted by another influx of notifications to his phone. He sighs to himself, starting to answer a few of the messages.

Harry takes the moment to go chase after the twins, knowing that their time is dwindling. He heads back upstairs and finds one of them exiting the bathroom.

“I suggest you hurry it up, sweetheart.” Harry warns. “I’m pretty sure Papa is being paged right now and he’s about to leave.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Ryan promises as she shoulders her backpack.

“Don’t forget, I’m picking you up early.” Harry reminds her, leaving a kiss to her forehead. “I love you, Ry.”

“I—”

“Nope.” Harry interjects before she can try to claim that she is actually her sister. There’s no need to start up the whole twin debate again.

Ryan frowns up at him. “I was going to say I love you too. Jeez Dad, chill out.”

“Oh. Sorry, babes.” Harry laughs, wrapping both of his arms around her for a hug, rocking her side to side. “Have a good day, honey.”

“Um, excuse me?” Noah appears in the hallway, arms crossed. “Where’s my hug? Where’s my ‘I love you’? Do you have a favorite twin? Because it should be me.”

“Oh stop.” Harry tugs her into his welcoming arms next and she goes easily. He gives her kisses and holds her tight, just as he did her sister. “I love you, NoNo. Have the best day, sweetheart.”

“Girls!” Louis calls from downstairs. “I’ve given you as long as I possibly can, but I have to get to the hospital. I’m leaving with or without you.”

Harry nods, expecting it. “Told you.”

“Coming!” They both answer in unison as they quickly head down the stairs, Harry following behind them.

Harry finds Louis leaning casually against the island counter of the kitchen, attention zoned in on the message he’s intently reading from his phone. Even though he’s standing in their kitchen and not somewhere in the hospital, Louis still exudes such a powerful presence, like he runs the whole damn world. And maybe he does.

Between his tailored, charcoal grey suit that hugs every last curve of his trim frame and his all-business stance, Louis just looks like The Chief of Surgery and it’s probably the hottest thing Harry has ever seen. Second only to Louis in those fucking navy blue scrubs that Harry swears he will never stop drooling over. Harry is so gone for his husband, it’s not even funny.

Harry walks up to him, draping both arms over the tops of his shoulders. Louis lifts his gaze and the calculated, professional side of him fades completely away as his face softens into a warm smile. He looks at Harry with his undivided attention, like he is the single most important thing in this moment, like nothing else could even begin to matter. He sets his phone on the countertop and lets his hands fall naturally to Harry’s waist.

“Are we dancing, darling?” Louis wonders through quietly whispered words as he leans into Harry.

“Mmm, I wish we were dancing.” Harry grins slowly, swaying his hips side to side and moving Louis along with him just for the fun of it. Dancing in the kitchen is nothing new for them, the ritual having such commonplace that it’s practically expected. “I just wanted to say goodbye, wish you well, send you off with my love. All that good husbandly stuff.”

“Well, isn’t my husband just the cutest?” Louis beams, eyes crinkling as if he’s just so endeared. “Have a wonderful day, my love.”

Harry cups Louis’ cheeks in his palms before kissing him intently. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Louis answers against his lips.

“Gross.” Ryan gags as she passes by her loved-up parents, heading towards the door to the garage.

“So gross.” Noah agrees, right behind her sister. “Oh my god Ry—are you wearing my shoes?!”

“Give it up Noe, not everything I wear is yours!”

“Are you serious right now!?”

And just like that, the twins are back at it again. Harry and Louis have learned from previous experience that if they don’t break them apart now, this little squabble is going to end up making them all late.

“Okay, okay, enough, let’s go.” Louis says over them. “Please. Now.”

“But Papa—”

“With or without you.” Louis reminds, keys in hand as he exits through the garage door.

Noah eyes Ryan irritably. And Ryan simply shrugs with a smirk as she follows after Louis.

Harry chuckles a bit to himself as the heavy door to the garage closes behind them, the house returning back to quiet with all of them gone. He glances at the digital clock displayed on the microwave, realizing time is quickly getting the best of him as well.

It’s been an adjustment getting back into the swing of school, with every member of their household seeming to have their own unique schedule. Their family had quite a hectic summer with not only Avery’s medical school graduation, but also the twins from eighth grade and Casey from kindergarten. And of course, each of them wanted to feel special in their own right, so Harry and Louis tried their very best to celebrate each one of them individually, highlighting their accomplishments. Although they did also have a joint party as well in honor of the four of them. The pictures came out so cute, his four graduates in their various graduation gowns all huddled together. Despite each of them being at very different developmental stages with varying achievements, Harry is so incredibly proud of each one of his kids.

Harry opens the door to Casey’s bedroom, unsurprised to find him fast asleep as if the day belongs solely to him. “Casey, hon, you’ve got to get up, kid. I’ve let you sleep in as much as possible.”

“Nooooo.” The little boy murmurs into his pillow, cocooned with blankets.

“Yessss.” Harry copies, sitting down on the bed next to him. “But good news, it’s Friday so after today you can sleep all weekend if you want to.”

“Nooo. Now.” Casey mumbles in his sleep, tossing his head full of messy, tangled curls.

Harry hoists the little six-year-old up, attempting to tickle him awake. Maybe Casey will respond to his other favorite thing besides sleep: attention.

Harry presses light kisses to his cheeks as he tickles under his little armpits. “Come on, Caseadilla.”

“I gotta sleep!” Casey squirms around, still trying to fight it as he resolutely keeps his eyes squeezed shut. The kid is determined, Harry will give him that.

“Are you awake now? Huh? What about now?” Harry continues to attack him with soft butterfly kisses.

Casey starts giggling uncontrollably as he begins to give in, opening his eyes. “Okay, okay! I’m awake, Daddy! I’m awake!”

“Oh, there he is. There’s my boy.” Harry smiles brightly at him before setting Casey back down. He ruffles his already tousled hair, pecking his temple softly once more. “Get dressed please.”

“Uh huh…” Casey mumbles through a yawn, flopping back onto the bed. He grabs his blanket and yanks it over his head as he instantly starts to get comfortable again.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Harry pulls back the covers yet again.

“Okay!” Casey huffs, pushing his wild hair out of his own face in frustration. And now he is clearly grumpy, a slight frown pulling at his disgruntled features. This boy really does not play when it comes to his sleep.

“Do I need to stay in here to make sure you get ready?”

“No…” Casey sulks again, pouting his bottom lip. “I will…I promise.”

“Okay.” Harry decides, not fully believing him but he’s willing to take a chance. “Cereal for breakfast?”

Casey brightens slightly at the prospect of food. “Pancakes!”

“Babe, you don’t have time for pancakes.” Harry informs him gently.

“Why not?”

“Cuz you’ve been sleeping in all morning and we gotta go soon. We are not going to be late today.”

Casey huffs, his pouty bottom lip returning. But he does actually get out of bed, or more so, he slowly rolls himself off the mattress onto the floor. Then he essentially army crawls over to his closet instead of standing up normally. Harry watches in fascination, but for the life of him he couldn’t possibly explain what’s going on in that little head of his.

Harry shrugs, leaving the bedroom with only a mild confidence that his son will finish getting himself dressed on his own. But Harry really can’t afford to linger around any longer when he hasn’t even begun getting himself ready for work.

Harry takes a quick shower, throwing on a button up shirt and trousers. He’s just about to head back downstairs when his iPhone vibrates from where it’s laying on the bathroom countertop, Frankie’s contact picture lighting up the screen.

“You’re throwing off my morning rhythm.” Harry answers the call in lieu of a normal greeting. But it’s Frankie after all and this is their version of normal.

“Please. I am your morning rhythm.” Frankie tosses back right away.

Harry smiles, never unamused by his best friend. “Either way I’m already behind schedule for the day. Noah and Ryan had their typical antics going this morning.”

“Fourteen is a rough age for a girl. A very transitional time. They’re figuring out who they are while testing boundaries and asserting their developing independence.”

Harry wedges the phone between his ear and shoulder, freeing his hands. “Ooh yes, I forgot, you are the twin whisperer.”

Frankie laughs lightly. “Well, if you remember correctly, I did carry those little monkeys in my womb.”

When Louis and Harry decided they were ready to expand their family beyond just the three of them, they had the hardest time finding the right surrogate. Almost like when they were looking around for the perfect house, nothing really clicked, no one stood out to them as the potential birth mother of their child. It soon became more stressful than exciting. They browsed hundreds of profiles of suitable donors and even met a good amount of them in person, only to be met with repeated doubts. Having a baby was not a small feat by any means, no one could blame them for being cautious. They decided that they weren’t going to force it, agreeing that when they found the right person, they would both know it and it would be a unanimous decision.

The biggest possible surprise came when Frankie volunteered to be their surrogate and carry their child. Little did she know it would turn into two babies at once and later on a third. But their dear friend was more than happy to do it, continually saying how they were already family. And it’s true, they were already family and that is exactly why Harry and Louis didn’t even need to think about it any further. They knew right away that she was always the perfect person.

From the moment Harry first met Frankie they instantly connected, and he knew in his heart that she was going to be an important person in his life. She came into Louis’ life in such a strange way, an unplanned, unpredictable way. But it was right when they needed each other most, even though neither of them even knew it. She is a godsend, and they couldn’t possibly thank her enough. Frankie surpassed all levels of friendship and bore their children and it meant absolutely everything to Louis and Harry. Saying that Harry loves her to death feels like an understatement. He swears he will be indebted to her for the rest of his life.

Frankie and Harry oddly share so many similar physical features that Casey just looks like Harry’s miniaturized, baby-faced clone. He’s got his floofy, unpredictable hair, although it hasn’t yet fully darkened into the same rich brown that Harry’s is, more of a light sandy color. Casey also has the sweetest, most expressive, green eyes that take up a good portion of his already endearing face. He’s got the trademark dimples too, the right one creasing deeper in his round cheeks than the left giving him the most adorable lopsided smile.

As for the twins, their features are beautifully balanced. They’re such tiny little things with the brightest, sapphire blue eyes framed by gorgeous, wildly curly hair. Delicate facial features accented with dimples and faint freckles. They’re gorgeous girls and the terrible thing is that they know it.

“And by the way…” Frankie starts up again. “I clearly remember saying back when I was pregnant with them that with my personality and Louis’ personality combined these babies are sure to give you hell in their teen years.”

“I don’t recall that at all.”

“Well I said it, bitch. Read it and weep because it looks like I was right.”

“They may give me hell on a daily basis, but I love my girls. They’re so smart, you know. And they’re funny…and loud, fuck, are they loud.” Harry describes in a fond sort of way. “Honestly, they are exactly how I picture Louis was as a teenager, if not somehow more dramatic. I’m sure that’s where you come in.”

“No, I’m pretty sure that’s all him.” Frankie assures.

Harry makes his way to the kitchen, phone still balanced against his shoulder. “Don’t let him hear you say that.”

“I’ll say it to his face, I don’t care.” Frankie teases lightly. “I don’t work for him, so I have no reason to be scared of him. That softie can’t scare me.”

Harry smirks, knowing there’s a truth to her words. “Well anyway, the fact remains that my life is currently consumed by adolescent drama. Casey is my sweet, saving grace right now.”

“Casey is six.” Frankie reminds. “And let me go on official record and say that our sweet baby Casey is also going to give you and Louis one hell of a drama ride in a few years.”

Harry automatically frowns at the concept. “What makes you think that?”

“Harry. Sweetie. Have you met yourself? Have you met me?” Frankie emphasizes. “The dramatics, love.”

“I’m not that dramatic.” Harry denies as he retrieves milk from the refrigerator. “You on the other hand, yes absolutely.”

“Dramatic and stubborn. A deadly combo. Poor Casey won’t even know what hit him when puberty comes around.”

“Françoise!” Harry gasps in dramatic offense, closing the fridge with a heavy-handed slam. “Don’t speak that shit over my child. Keep that to yourself. My cute baby cuddle monster will always be sweet and pure. I refuse to hear anything else about it.”

“Alright. If lying to yourself is the plan, I’m game. That’s very Aquarian of you.”

Harry sighs, walking into the pantry to find Casey’s favorite cereal. “Do you only call me just to read me for filth or what?”

Frankie openly laughs through the phone. “I keep you humble. You and your big head would be lost and overly confident without me.”

“I hope you know that at this point I keep you around simply because you are the biological mother of three of my children.”

“Can you believe my uterus has held the embryos of three different men?” Frankie contemplates. “That’s powerful, even for me.”

Frankie’s son Louis David, mostly known as L.D., is sixteen years old and he’s essentially an adopted member of the Styles-Tomlinson clan. Frankie never remarried, repeatedly saying that she already had her one great love in her life and now her son is her biggest love. Harry understands where she’s coming from because if something were to ever happen to Louis, he knows he would never want or try to find love again, that would be it.

Even though Frankie is a single parent, Harry and Louis refuse to let her feel like one, supporting their dear friend in every way they can. Louis and Harry are like surrogate fathers to L.D., treating him like their own son. Despite each of them coming from tragedy, they now have a beautiful, blended family.

“You’re a mess.” Harry answers, setting out a bowl and a spoon for Casey’s cereal.

“Honey, this is me at baseline. I’ve only had one cup of coffee, I’ve barely even woken up yet.”

Harry cackles, shaking his head. “As much as I love talking with you, I really gotta go or my kid is going to be late.”

“I don’t quite see how that’s any different from normal.” Frankie quips knowingly.

“Shut up please. We are making minor improvements daily.”

Frankie starts laughing again. “Tell my favorite sleepy dwarf good morning for me.”

The boy in question makes a timely appearance, climbing up onto the kitchen barstool. “Case, Aunt Frankie says good morning.”

“Hiii Auntie Frankie!” Casey beams, reaching across the countertop and making grabby hands at the phone. “Daddy, can I talk to her? Pretty please!”

“Not right now babe, we are going to be late… see Frank, you really are messing our morning rhythm up.”

“It’s clear that it was already beyond redemption before I called.”

“I’m hanging up now.” Harry answers flatly.

“Fine, whatever. But just text me when Avery gets in tomorrow, okay? I’m just dying to see my girl.” Frankie makes a kissing sound through the phone. “Bye, love you!”

“Love you too, Frannycakes.” Harry singsongs, knowing how much she despises cheesy nicknames. But he finds it funny and maybe he’s still a touch bitter about being called dramatic this early in the day.

Frankie makes a sound of utter disgust. “I told you, never call me that!”

“And I told you I don’t give a F-U-C-K.” Harry spells out for his child’s sake.

“Daddy! That’s a noddy word!” Casey gasps with his spoon hanging out of his mouth. “I can spell noddy words!”

“It’s naughty word, honey.” Harry corrects, looking guilty. “And I know it’s bad, but um…Aunt Frankie made me spell it out to her.”

“Oh, well you should tell her it’s not a very nice word.” Casey suggests innocently.

“I absolutely will, Case. You’re right. Thank you.” Harry grins, nodding as if he totally agrees and is equally appalled by such language. “Frankie you shouldn’t encourage people to use naughty words, okay? It’s just not nice.”

“You shithead, don’t you dare blame things on me when I’m not there to defend myself!”

“Okay, well byyye, FranFran!” Harry talks over her growing complaints echoing over the speaker. “Thank you sooo much for calling.”

“Harry, you fucker—”

And that’s when Harry hits the red end call button on the screen. He tucks his phone back in his pocket, focusing his attention back on Casey. “Alright then, Caseadilla. Almost ready to go?”

“Yep!” He nods, setting down the spoon in the near empty bowl. “Just gotta brush my teeth.”

“Me too.”

It’s a mad dash of collecting everything Casey needs for school and making sure he also doesn’t forget anything for himself. He doesn’t exactly know how, but Harry manages to successfully get Casey in the car with a whole twenty minutes to spare. In a shocking turn of events, they might just make it to school on time today.

That is until Harry hears a sudden, tiny gasp come from the back seat.

“Oh no...” Casey mumbles to himself, eyes going suddenly wide.

“Oh no?” Harry repeats but with mild alarm in his voice, eyeing his son in the rearview mirror. “Why oh no?”

“Um…Daddy?” Casey has the guiltiest of looks on his face, chewing on his inner cheek anxiously.

“Casey…” Harry squints back at him through the mirror.

“Well…um it’s just that uuuhhhh…” Casey draws out, kicking his little, dangling legs around in his booster seat. “Well, I gotta bring donuts for my class today. It’s Astronaut Day!”

Harry frowns, beyond confused. “Astronaut Day? What? That sounds made up.”

“It’s not, Daddy! It’s real!” Casey defends adamantly. “I signed up and everything!”

These elementary schools are really on some next level bullshit. Every other day is some special Fill-In-The-Blank Day that must be celebrated at all costs. If the school would only spare a thought for the poor parents who either have to spend hours baking treats for two dozen kids or go out of their way to buy overpriced treats. Oh, and don’t forget that it must be nut free, gluten free, and dairy free to cater to the various allergens of the class. It’s all fun and cute when you have one kid, maybe two kids, but if you are a parent of four trying to balance all of these made-up celebrations, it easily gets out of hand.

What was once cute and fun, gets old really quick. Harry and Louis have passionate rants about this all the time. Honestly their vent sessions are the only things that keep them sane. And don’t even get them started on the bureaucracy that is the Home and School Board. Harry really used to kiss their ass back in the day, but over the years he’s gained some perspective, i.e., the twins.

When Noah and Ryan hit elementary school age, all pleasantries went flying out of the door. Harry felt like he lived at that goddamn school, like he might as well set up permanent residence in one of the classrooms. Having two daughters in one class meant that the Home and School Board expected double the effort in half the time. They had to sign up twice for every last thing, everything was in double time. Harry and Louis were there helping out with nonsense activities more than any other set of parents and they were initially happy to do it until it began to feel like they were being taken advantage of. They have since had to put their foot down. As working parents, it was utterly ridiculous. And the question remains, what is the fucking point of having all of those parents who make up the Board if they are just going to stand around and dictate things instead of actually doing anything to pull their weight. It’s a whole joke.

“Case, we are literally two minutes from school.”

“I gotta bring it! I gotta!” Casey says urgently, eyes widening even more so.

“Why couldn’t you remember this last night? Or even thirty minutes ago?”

“I dunno?” Casey shrugs cutely in his booster seat, giving Harry an innocent expression. “I forgot, I guess? I’m sorry, Daddy!”

Harry sighs, glancing at the time. “Oh, what am I gonna do with you, my Spacey Casey?”

And after all that, they’re definitely going to be late this morning.

||☤||

“So what, Malik? Are you planning to grace us all with your presence and attend my morning debriefing or what?”

Zayn takes all the time he wants leisurely strolling up to Louis at the nurses’ station. Of course, he has his usual morning latte in hand, using his other hand to scroll on his phone.

“Aww Louis, good morning!” Zayn offers Louis a wide, genuine smile, pocketing his phone in his lab coat. “Don’t you look rested and well this morning. How’s the family? How’s the husband? You know he didn’t answer my text about scheduling a playdate for Lila and Casey. He probably forgot. No worries, I’m sure he’s busy—I’ll see him this weekend and ask.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Louis brushes off, refusing to be distracted. “You are very good at diverting conversations. Answer the question, Malik.”

“Okay, to be completely honest, I probably would have skipped it if I didn’t run into you. Not probably, I’d skip—I was actively in the process of skipping.” Zayn further clarifies, pulling a slightly guilty but unashamed face.

Louis disapprovingly crosses his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed. “Zayn, you’re my Head of Plastics.”

“Okay, but, you know I hate meetings, Lou. Like really fucking hate meetings.” Zayn groans dramatically as he lifts his latte back up to his lips. “Just send me a long email…”

“That you won’t read.” Louis finishes knowingly.

“That I won’t read.” Zayn repeats with a smirk, nodding slowly. “Correct. Also, it’s Friday! Who has meetings on Friday?”

“I do, because I can.”

“That’s an abuse of power.”

“To be honest, I like it just as much as you do, okay.” Louis admits reluctantly. “It’s really just because the interns start Monday and I need to remind everyone about The Intern Mixer on Sunday and about adhering to the upcoming surgical rotation schedule.”

“Okay, all that…”  Zayn waves his hand loosely in Louis’ direction. “Definitely could’ve been an email.”

“It is an email. One that I already sent.”

Zayn scoffs as if Louis has just further made his point. “So! Why are we meeting? Louis, you are literally making my case for me.”

“Because, attendings like you don’t read my detailed emails and the only way that I know that you understand what’s expected of you is if I see you and tell you explicitly myself.”

“Ugh.” Zayn sighs heavily, head thrown back. “Well, it’s different for me because Li tells me all the important stuff anyway. He’s one of the suckers who reads those emails and replies. I’m embarrassed for him, truly. If he wasn’t the father of my children and the love of my life, I swear I wouldn’t associate with him at all.”

Louis chuckles. “If there is anyone who I can always count on to be at my Chief of Staff meetings, it’s your husband.”

“Exactly. He’s my eyes and ears, it’s like I’m there. You know, now that I’m really thinking about it…since we are married and all, I think it seems fair that only one of us needs to be there anyway. It’s so redundant for us both, don’t you think? Yeah.”

“You run different departments.” Louis reminds flatly.

Zayn shrugs unbothered. “Ehh… close enough.”

“How come when I compare Ortho and Plastics you get downright offended. But when it benefits you it’s close enough?”

“Because it benefits me. Obviously. Come on, Louis.” Zayn laughs as if the notion is ridiculously clear.

Louis rolls his eyes fondly, always appreciating the good-natured banter that flows between them. Zayn has mellowed out quite a lot since Louis first met him as a twenty-something year old intern. There’s always been a softer side to him, but now with fatherhood and marriage, he’s really just a big old softie. But he’ll always love to joke around, that will never change.

“Zayn, you are making my job so much harder than it needs to be. You’re practically aging me.”

“Well, fifty is creeping up on you...” Zayn points out with a shrug.

“Shut the fuck up. You’re right there with me!” Louis answers back defensively. “Do I look fifty to you?”

“No, not even close. You look incredible. Honestly, if I didn’t know you, I’d guess you were a solid thirty-seven. You’re like the Paul Rudd of surgeons. Of course…you don’t hold a candle to me, the J.Lo of surgeons. I don’t look a day over thirty.”

“That’s very on brand for you, isn’t it?”

“It sure is. That’s why I tell all my patients my age without hesitation, so they can gasp and be like, ‘no way!’” Zayn pulls a mockingly shocked expression, framing his face with both hands. “Ugh, I live for it and then I just stand there like, yes eat it up, bitch. This is what forty-eight should be.”   

Louis laughs outright, endeared by the never-ending nonsense that comes out of his best friend’s mouth.

“You would probably look as good as me if it weren’t for the melanin. I got you on that one, bro. But it’s a close second, so don’t feel too bad.” Zayn taunts with a smirk. “I promise you I will be walking around this hospital at eighty fucking five looking undeniably forty.”

“I don’t have the slightest doubt in that.” Louis grins.

“You’d be a fool if you did.” Zayn starts to laugh again right as his pager begins going off from his lab coat pocket. “Ooh—oh no, would you look at that? An emergency page. Wow, looks like I can’t make the meeting. Shame…gosh, what a darn shame.” He lets out a drawn out, clearly fraudulent sigh as he slowly shakes his head side to side dramatically. “And to think I was just oh so excited to sit in your very informative, very necessary meeting this morning…”

Louis purses his lips, eyeing his friend flatly.

“I’d like to reiterate that I have no control over the fact that I’m needed elsewhere right now. I have a responsibility to my patients and their well-being that I simply can not ignore. I took an oath, you know.”

Louis’ face remains unchanged. “Right…”

“Thanks for understanding, Chief. You’re the best.” Zayn claps his hand on Louis’ shoulder, smirking knowingly.

||☤||

“Good morning, everyone.” Louis walks into the conference room full of his surgical attendings, Chief of Staff and Unit Managers. He smiles in acknowledgement, lifting his right hand in a wave as he addresses the staff. “I know you all are busy, and I appreciate each of you taking the time to be present this morning. I promise I won’t keep you long.”

The conference table is covered in a wide assortment of delicious, baked goods and treats, all courtesy of Louis. Yes, he knows it sucks to be in meetings and it usually causes his staff to have to play catch up the rest of the day, so that is why Louis tries to show his appreciation for their continued support and presence. Hence the abundance of food.

At the start, Louis was so nervous about becoming Chief of Surgery. Steve left some impossibly big shoes to fill when he decided to relocate to Boston to pursue a higher position. Before he left, Steve sat Louis down and told him how proud he was of Louis’ career and that there was no one better suited to be Chief of Surgery than him. Louis couldn’t believe it at first, there were plenty of other attendings gunning for the role. But the fact that Steve hand selected him and furthermore believed in him, gave Louis all the confidence to give it a shot.

As Chief of Surgery, Louis tries his best to always keep his staff engaged and involved in the care model of SSMC. He has always believed in an interdisciplinary team-based approach, utilizing the unique skillset of each health professional to produce the best possible care outcomes. Every discipline has a voice that is highly valued. Louis goes the extra mile to make sure everyone feels appreciated, nothing going unnoticed. 

And because of his approach, all of his staff no matter the discipline, from the attendings to the residents to the nurses to the physical, occupational, and respiratory therapists, all respect him. He’s got an open-door policy and always encourages feedback and suggestions from all levels about how SSMC can improve.

During his seven-year reign as Chief, Louis has made quite a few changes that have not only increased the productivity of the hospital and O.R. board, but also increased patient satisfaction. His vision for how healthcare should be has propelled the medical center to the very top ranks of healthcare institutions, not just as a trauma center but also as a teaching hospital. As a household name in the medical world, Louis has been able to use his impact to bring in new funding, which has expanded grant proposals for research and paved the way for medical innovation at every level of care. He’s quite proud of what he’s been able to accomplish so far with the help of his dedicated team and somehow, he knows it’s only the beginning.

As the meeting progresses, Louis goes over the monthly goals for each unit, areas of concern for each of the departments and outlines the hospitals trajectory for meeting the quarterly goal, allowing for discussion and suggestion on meeting the initiatives.

“Well, I’m sure you all are sick of hearing me talk by now, so before I let you go about your day, I just want to remind you that this year’s new batch of interns will be starting on Monday.” Louis announces, reaching his final topic. “The rotation schedule has been sent to your emails and I expect you to review it and be prepared with an appropriate assignment load for your assigned intern in the coming weeks. I also would like to remind all of you that it is the purpose of this program to provide our new doctors with a well-rounded, comprehensive surgical education. The majority of the hours logged for each intern should be comprised of General Surgery. However, each intern’s time spent with an elective surgical specialty should be equal and unbiased. We wouldn’t be one of the top programs in the country if we didn’t foster the best learning environment possible.”

“The Intern Mixer is on Sunday evening. If you do happen to have the time, I would like each of the Department Heads to be in attendance. If not, an attending from each department will be required at the very least to represent your specialty. And please don’t scare the interns during the mixer, they are scared enough as it is.”

The seasoned doctors in the room all laugh, knowing from real life recollections of their own how true that really is.

“You can scare them when they officially start on Monday though, but no sooner.” Louis continues, teasing lightly. “Any further questions about the new interns, the rotation schedule, or the residents in general may be directed to Dr. Payne, our incredible Residency Director.”

Liam, sitting in the chair nearest to Louis in the front, nods in acknowledgement. He took over the residency program last year and has already completely overhauled it. The annual evaluations have never looked more promising, and the intern exam scores have never been higher.

“Alright then, that’s it from me.” Louis claps both of his hands together, smiling. “Thank you so much for all that each of you do to make our hospital run smoothly. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of your hard work.”

The room floods with ample applause, which Louis just shrugs off humbly. In his opinion, they should applaud for themselves not him.

“Oh! And please, please take food with you.” Louis adds quickly, gesturing to the leftover spread. “I really don’t need the extra donuts lying around my office.”

The staff chuckle as everyone moves to disperse from the conference room. Louis begins gathering his tablet and notes that he brought with him, when he feels a tap on his shoulder.

“Question for you, Tomlinson.”

“Well, good morning, Wesley.” Louis smiles warmly as he tucks his tablet under his arm, coffee in his other hand. “Walk with me.”

Louis ducks out of the conference room, Charlie following right behind him.

Ever since Charlie returned from her leave of absence earlier this year, Louis always wants to be careful around her. But Louis also knows that Charlie would absolutely despise being treated any differently, especially from him of all people, with the two of them being so close, both professionally and personally.

He’s seen exactly how many of her colleagues have put the safety brakes on when talking and interacting with her, approaching her like she’s either made of glass or a scared caged animal. And every time it happens, Louis has seen how angry it makes Charlie, basically resulting in the exact reaction everyone was trying to avoid.

But Louis gets it; if it was him, he’d want everyone to leave it alone and treat him the same way as before too. He’d want a sense of normalcy, at least at work anyway.

So that is exactly what Louis provides for his friend. Normalcy.

“So, what is it then? Need me to look over a case of yours? Feeling a little uncertain, are we?” Louis teases, not at all serious. Charlie is very capable, as she should be, he trained her himself. And now it is an absolute pleasure to be collaborators in their practice. He’s watched her grow into the wonderfully gifted neurosurgeon he always knew she could become.

“No, I’ve got all my cases handled, thank you very much.” Charlie holds her head up high. “I am Chief of Neuro you know.”

“Well, I’m The Chief of motherfucking Surgery, who the hell do you think made you Chief of Neuro?” Louis tosses back with a grin.

Charlie bursts into unexpected laughter and it’s so good to see her laughing again, even if only briefly. “Fair enough.”

“Now your question Wesley please. I’m a very, very busy man.” Louis stresses, sounding urgent but only in teasing.

“Since technically you are a neurosurgeon attending who can represent our department at The Intern Mixer, that means I don’t really have to attend right? I mean two birds with one stone, you know?”

Louis pauses, turning to face her. “Um, remind me of what you just told me not minutes ago?”

Charlie sighs reluctantly, tossing her head to the side as she prepares to meet defeat. “…I’m The Chief of Neuro.”

Louis smiles widely, nodding his head as he winks. “Precisely. That you are. So, I guess that answers your question then?”

“Mmm.” Charlie nods, lips upturned into a smirk. “I guess it does indeed, Chief Tomlinson.”

“Thought so.” Louis’ grin doesn’t faulter. “So I’ll see you proudly representing our glorious department at The Intern Mixer, then.”

“Yeah…um…” Charlie’s amused expression suddenly evaporates into thin air as she notices Niall approaching from down the hall, having just emerged from the lift. The friendly banter and warmness between them leaves her completely as her face turns serious. She ducks her head and starts making a few hurried steps backwards, clearly planning to avoid her husband. “I’ll um…I’ll see around, Louis.”

Charlie leaves so quickly that Louis doesn’t even have a moment to say goodbye. He watches after her for a moment, feeling a deep sense of worry. This isn’t the first time Louis has witnessed Charlie bend over backwards to avoid so much as making eye contact with Niall. It’s clear that there is so much left unsaid between them. The situation itself is so precarious, Louis still doesn’t know exactly how to navigate it.

And now, Niall looks as though he is about to pass by Louis completely without even saying hello. Not that Louis would ever allow him to do that. No matter what Niall is going through, Louis has sworn to himself that he will be there for his friend, even when he continually tries to pull away.

“Morning, mate.” Louis greets warmly as he positions himself purposeful in Niall’s path.

“Hey.” Niall answers quietly, head bowed.

“Sleep okay? I mean last night was…” Louis’ voice drifts off as he thinks of Tyler and his poor family. A wave of sadness comes over him as he remembers the horrible events that took place in not only the O.R., but in the family waiting room. Louis knows he probably would have kept himself up all night torturing himself over it, if it wasn’t for Harry grounding him enough to fall asleep.

“Yeah. Fine.” Niall replies shortly, but from the looks of him, the last thing Niall did was sleep and he is far from fine. Dark, heavy bags pull at his downcast eyes, while his usual cleanly shaved face is lined with stubble. His shoulders are slumped over himself, and it makes Louis question what is even keeping him standing upright.

“Hey Niall, lad…if you need to talk or…” Louis pauses, considering his words only for a moment not wanting his friend to pull away even more. It’s like clearing a mine field, every word with the capability to blow. “I’m here for you.” He decides on after several beats, placing a comforting hand on Niall’s slouched shoulder. What he really wants to do is pull him in for a hug, but Louis doesn’t think Niall would be receptive to that right now.

Niall doesn’t lift his head or give any eye contact, but eventually nods. “Thanks…hey um…I’ll see you later, okay?”

But just like his wife, Niall doesn’t even wait for Louis to respond, instead taking off down the hall without another word. Louis sighs heavily as he watches him go, feeling even less assured that his friend is okay. But he just doesn’t know what he can do that would actually help the situation.

Louis makes a mental note to remember to bring it up to Liam and Zayn later, before heading towards the elevators. He downs the rest of his coffee while waiting for the lift to arrive, tossing it in the nearest bin. Louis digs around in his lab coat pocket until he finds the fresh packet of Skittles he picked up earlier in the gift shop. With stress comes Skittles. And with Skittles comes little bits of joy.

“Skittles for breakfast, I see.”

Louis lets out an exasperated groan, not even needing to turn around to know exactly who said that. “Every morning we go through this. And every morning I beg you to please give it a fucking rest.”

The elevator dings as the doors slide open, both Louis and Liam stepping in.

“It’s just so concerning to me. Like, you’re a doctor.” Liam emphasizes, pressing the button for the sixth floor. “You should know better. A healthy breakfast is an important start to every day and yet here you are choosing processed sugar and empty calories.”

“Oh please.” Louis scoffs, unbothered as he pops several candies in his mouth. “How many doctors do you know that are actually the epitome of health?”

“I am—or I try to be?” Liam defends. “I want to be a good example.”

Louis leans back against the side rail of the elevator, pouring more Skittles into his hand. “Well, you are the exception, my friend. Not the standard. Anyway, if it makes you feel better, I ate a ‘real’ breakfast too.”

Liam eyes him flatly, arms crossed. “Coffee?”

“No, actually.” Louis scowls, lifting his chin defiantly. “My lovely husband made me a breakfast sandwich. And! I had fruit too!”

“And what would your husband say if he saw you now, binging on Skittles at 9 AM?”

“Nothing, because he understands and accepts me for who I am. Skittles and all.” Louis raises the candy packet in cheers.

“How are you a grown man and a father of four and yet still eating like a big kid yourself?”

“Will you let me fucking live, Liam? Oh my god—I’m under a lot of stress! I know I make it look easy, but I’m running a whole hospital! This is how I cope, let me have this, okay! Goddamn…”

Liam just starts laughing hysterically as Louis continues to scowl defensively at him. Somewhere along the line, Liam discovered that he could have just as much fun at work riling Louis up as Louis has riling Liam up. All the years Louis spent messing with Liam are now coming back to bite him. Oh, how the tables have turned. “Some things never change do they.”

“For good reason.” Louis quips, throwing a few more loose Skittles in his mouth. “Want some? They make a premixed pack now you know.”

Liam looks fascinated, eyeing Louis curiously. “Do they now?

“Yup. My influence.” Louis smirks. He’s half kidding, but also mostly serious. He is the pioneer of mixing different Skittles packets. So yeah, if you ask him, he did in fact influence the start of premixed packs and no one can tell him otherwise. “Told you it was brilliant.”

“Apparently so.” Liam laughs openly as the elevator arrives at their floor. “Anyway Lou, I wanted to run some things by you about the Intern Mixer. Do you have a minute?”

“Yeah sure, Li. Follow me to my office. I’ve got some time before my first surgery. Plus, I have more Skittles in my desk. I’m running out.” Louis waves his nearly empty packet.

Liam shakes his head in a fond sort of way. “Oh, Louis.”

||✚||

Career wise, Harry has taken a few winding turns in the road over the years. More like sharp course corrections if he’s honest, but altogether for the better.

Around twelve years ago, Harry felt increasingly conflicted and unsatisfied with his job at the marketing agency. He had already drastically reduced his hours in favor of spending more time at home and less traveling to and from Los Angeles.

The job was fine before, a way to make ends meet and provide a respectable life for his young daughter. But there was never much passion behind it. Yeah, he was rather good at it, and he appreciated some aspects of the marketing world at times, but Harry was never in love with his job or even that particularly happy to do it. He just saw it as something he had to do to survive. There wasn’t a genuine sense of satisfaction or even purpose.

And more and more as time went on, Harry began to crave passion. For some people, the crossroad between career and passion overlaps and they are able to give everything inside themselves wholeheartedly because of how much they love what they do, how much it inspires them. Louis, for example, is one of those people; someone who continues to push the bar of his career higher and higher, motivated to see a change in the world around him.

Harry admits it’s quite inspiring to know someone like that, but he never thought he could ever be one of those people. But as he really started examining himself and his life, he came to the realization that he had never actually tried. He’d never sought after a real passion in his life or explored the key tenants that internally drive who he is. Still, there was this growing, nagging feeling building inside of him that there was so much more he could be doing with his life, and he felt compelled to figure out what it was.

So, he quit. Twelve years ago, Harry woke up and got on a direct flight to L.A. for a scheduled business meeting with a client. But instead of meeting the client, Harry walked straight into Adam’s office and handed in his resignation on the spot with not a clue what would come next for him.

It was exhilarating at first. The sudden freedom and prospect of being able to start again and do whatever he wanted made Harry feel like he was floating on air. He was thrumming with excitement for a dream he didn’t even have yet. But it didn’t take long for the oh shit, what the fuck am I doing moment to hit him like an oncoming train.

Harry had just checked in at LAX for his flight home when the real panic settled in. By the time he got to the terminal he was completely shaking, on the verge of an anxiety attack. The questions of doubt were endless. Was he too brash to quit suddenly like that? Was this a stupid mistake? What is he even going to do with his life? Should he go back to the office and beg for his job back? Would it be better if he found another marketing job? Should he be a stay at home dad instead?

The crippling doubt consumed Harry to the point where he felt like he couldn’t breathe. So he did the only thing he could think to do and he ducked into the furthest bathroom stall and urgently FaceTimed his husband. He started rambling through distraught tears the moment Louis’ face appeared on the screen, so unsure of what he should do.

Louis was so calm and reassuringly sweet over the phone, expressing his complete support right away. In fact, the very first thing he said after listening patiently to Harry vent his anxieties for ten minutes straight, was that he was proud of him. The second thing was that he loved him and he wished he was there just so he could hold him. Third, Louis told him that he thought Harry was so brave for following his heart and he was certain Harry’s next steps would come to him if he would only trust himself more. Then, finally, Louis promised that he would be behind him 200%, no matter what Harry decided to do.

The validation and encouragement from the man he married meant everything to Harry, and it calmed him down enough to board his flight home. When he landed in Seattle, Harry drove around the city aimlessly for awhile, just needing more time alone to think and reflect on his life.

Somehow, he ended up at his sister’s grave. It seemed only right that he would feel compelled to return there when reflecting back upon the experiences of his life. Her death completely changed his life. It was a pivotal turning point for Harry that ultimately altered the trajectory of his path. It was the source of his pain, the root of his grief, but also, the beginning of his every joy. It’s how he became a father, how he met the love of his life, how he found home.

Things work together for a reason and his life has been a testament to that very notion. Although it was impossible to see that when he was going through the darkest, most trying moments. The very darkest of all being when he thought he was going to lose Avery forever. As long as he lives, Harry will never forget the absolute misery of watching his child start to fade away and being totally helpless to stop it.

And beyond that, the whole experience forced him to see firsthand how hard it really is to manage the care of a sick child. Beyond the raw, emotional pain and constant turmoil, the growing financial burden that accompanies healthcare is enough to completely devastate anyone’s mental stability.

The bill he got for Avery’s first hospital stay and surgery totaled over $700,000 before insurance. The second bill for when she was admitted over several months added another $1.2 million to the pot. The utter absurdity of that number nearly gave Harry a heart attack on the spot when he read over the bill. And that didn’t even include the additional medications and supplies he had to get outpatient for her recovery process. He didn’t have the best insurance package at the time, so after the deductibles he still owed a whopping sum of $20,000.

Imagine if he was unemployed and uninsured, he would have easily gone bankrupt. Harry would have lost it all, his house, his livelihood, with no earthly way of providing for the child all that was for to begin with. As an immigrant to this country, the whole experience shocked Harry beyond belief.

Expecting families who are barely coping with the uncertainty of being faced with terminal illness to also be subjected to the constant hounding from insurance companies to pay exorbitant amounts of money, it’s barbaric and cruel. People shouldn’t have to put themselves through financial ruin just in the hope that they or their loved one can live to see another day. It angered Harry to think about parents having to chose between putting food on the table to survive or paying for life-saving medical treatment. Or single parents with no option but to work themselves to the bone day after day, all the while losing out on precious time with their sick child who needs them most. Backed into a corner, forced to make unconceivable choices as if there is really much of a choice to begin with.

It hurt Harry’s heart to think about because he’s been there, he’s lived through it. And he knows he was one of the lucky ones because without Louis and his generosity, who knows what he would have been forced to do back then.

And that’s when the idea first dawned on him to start a nonprofit foundation. A foundation whose sole purpose was to provide resources and support to parents and families grappling with the prospect of terminal illness. A foundation with the ability to link patients with the very best healthcare providers and specialists no matter what their income level or socioeconomic status was. A foundation that could take away some of the worry, ease some of the burden.

In her namesake, Harry named it The Hidden Gem Foundation, in honor and legacy of his late sister.

Over the years, Harry has put so much of himself into Hidden Gem, working harder than he ever has to make the foundation a success. Although a daunting endeavor, starting a company from the ground up allowed Harry to still put his business education and marketing experience to good use but in a way that had the potential to make a personal difference, a lasting impact. It initially started off as a small startup that he ran tirelessly from his office at home and now he has an entire commercial office space downtown, fully staffed and efficient.

Louis was instrumental in getting Hidden Gem off the ground, seeing the same immense need for the foundation that Harry did. Not only did Louis log hundreds of hours doing pro bono surgeries, he also wrangled his staff into helping out and donating their time to save and change someone’s life. He would run around the hospital with pictures of sick children tucked in his lab coat, showing them to his colleagues while telling their stories, determined to get them the help they needed to survive. His big heart couldn’t stand to take no for an answer, refusing to let these kids and their families down. Then Louis took it even further and personally petitioned The SSMC Board of Directors to agree to officially partner with Hidden Gem for grant funding, which opened doors for countless patients to receive treatment and undergo surgeries they never dared hoped of happening.

They’ve hosted dozens of fundraising galas and annual charity events, they’ve funded lobbying efforts for healthcare reform, but most of all they’ve provided hope and relief to so many people who thought they’d never see it again.

And he loves it. For the first time in his life, Harry finally feels like he’s doing what he’s meant to and he loves it. Through the foundation, Harry tells his story, a story he was once so afraid of. Now he tells it proudly, honestly, and emotionally, in hopes that maybe someone will be touched enough to join the cause and offer donations or support that can be used to help reach even more people in similar situations. He’s making a difference and he’s proud of the growing impact his foundation has.

And that’s why Harry can now say with total confidence that he is happy to come to work everyday.

“Gloria, good morning.” Harry greets cheerfully as he walks towards the front desk where his assistant sits. He slides a fresh iced coffee her way. “I brought you coffee. Oat milk, two sugars, and a pump of vanilla, just how you like it.”

Gloria lifts her gaze up from her desk in surprise. “Oh Harry, you didn’t have to do that, you’re too kind. I’m your assistant, I should be getting you coffee.”

“Oh please, you do enough for me as it is.” Harry reminds easily. “I just like to show my appreciation every so often.”

“Well, thank you. I really do appreciate it.” Gloria thoughtfully expresses, blushing slightly. “Did your youngest one give you trouble again this morning?”

“Oh, you know it.” Harry laughs to himself before sighing. “He forgot that it’s ‘Astronaut Day’ and he needed to bring donuts for his class. Of course this was after we were already minutes from the school about to actually be on time. For once.”

Gloria shakes her head knowingly. “He’s lucky he’s cute.”

“He is very lucky he’s cute.” Harry emphasizes with a grin, starting to make his way down the corridor towards his office.

“Oh, Harry!” Gloria hurriedly follows after him towards his office with a stack of envelopes in her hand. “Before I forget, I’ve got your mail.”

“Oh, my love notes!” Harry beams happily, taking the stack in hand as if worth its weight in gold.  

Harry’s love notes, as he’s grown fond of calling them, are filled with personalized thank you letters and photos of appreciative families and sometimes even hand drawn pictures from the kids themselves. Harry loves going through each one, it’s probably his favorite part of the day. Seeing the beautiful pictures of the kids and how they are now healthy and growing up as they should, fills him with the greatest joy. As much as he can, Harry keeps in contact with the families he’s been honored to meet along this journey.

With all the many photographs he’s been sent over the years, Harry has designed a picture mural as an accent wall. It’s the first wall facing the entrance to the Hidden Gem building, so it’s at the forefront whenever anyone comes in. It’s filled from top to bottom with lovely pictures of now healthy and healing kids. Some smiling happily, some laughing with their families or cuddling with pets, some hanging out with friends, some doing the things and hobbies they love, some of graduations and treasured milestones they didn’t know they would get to see. But all of the pictures, no matter how simple or grand, are touching in their own right.

There’s also a memorialized picture of Gemma in the very center of the mural, her smiling portrait surrounded by the montage of kids. And Harry sometimes likes to think that she’s watching over them in a way.

“Thank you so much for these.” Harry hugs the stack to his chest. He moves towards the open door to his office, heading towards his desk. “Any appointments for me today, Gloria?”

“Yes, quite a few actually. I already placed a copy of your schedule on your desk, and I made sure to schedule a few breaks in between. I know how much your attention starts to dwindle during meetings when you have to pee and we can’t have that.” Gloria teases, with a grin.

“You’re wonderful.” Harry chuckles appreciatively. She has been his assistant for about five years now and not only is she fully aware of his many quirks, Gloria embraces them and adapts to them. She is absolutely irreplaceable to Harry now.

“Just doing my job.” Gloria replies easily. “You have a meeting about the finalizations for the gala coming up. And one with, Julian from the Peterson account. Also, a last minute meeting with potential new investors.”

“Busy day, then.”

“It seems so.”

“But it’s a good thing.” Harry reminds, smiling as he leans back in his desk chair. The more the foundation grows, the more people he has the chance of reaching and that is the point of it all.

“It really is.” Gloria matches his expression genuinely. “Oh! One more thing, I know you’ll be quite busy today but if you have time, a woman named Diane would like to speak with you over the phone. Her son had surgery a few weeks ago.”

“Oh, okay, yes of course. I’ll make time for her. Thank you, Gloria. I think we’re going to have a great day today.”

||✚||

Although busy as promised, it was still a pretty great day, made even better by all the love notes he got to read in between meetings. Harry feels rather accomplished that he was able to get everything he needed to done and still make it out early for Ryan’s dental appointment. It’s really all thanks to Gloria and her tight schedules keeping him in line.

Harry exits the building, walking towards the parking spot where his pristine white Mercedes-Benz G-Class SUV is parked. Louis used his yearly bonus to buy it for him earlier this year as a surprise for his birthday. The first time he drove it, Frankie proceeded to tease him shamelessly about how he now drives a G-Wagon just like every Beverly Hills housewife. She also claimed that Harry is spoiled by his husband to an embarrassing degree. That part is true though, Louis does love to spoil him, but Harry is not at all embarrassed by that. He loves his husband, and he loves the car, and she can tease all she wants but nothing Frankie ever says will change his mind.

Once buckled up in the driver’s seat, Harry starts the car in the direction of the twins’ high school. But before he gets to the school, there is still one thing on his to-do list for the day that Harry needs to check off. He uses his car’s intuitive handsfree dashboard to pull up the phone number that Gloria sent him earlier. It rings over the car’s speaker system, until a woman’s voice answers the call.

“Hello?”

“Hi, yes, may I speak to Diane please?” Harry addresses cordially.

“This is she.”

“Oh! Hi, Diane!” Harry greets again. “My name is Harry Styles-Tomlinson, from The Hidden Gem Foundation.”

“Yes! Hi, Mr. Styles-Tomlinson!” Diane returns, sounding surprised that he actually called her. “I know exactly who you are.”

“Oh please, Harry is fine.”

“Harry, right—of course.” Her voice sounds nervous somehow, as if unsure of what to say. “Thank you so much for taking the time to return my call—I um…I didn’t know if…well I didn’t know if you’d have time.”

“It’s not a problem, Diane.” Harry assures easily, navigating his car onto the highway. “What can I do for you?”

“You’ve already done it.” Diane says, and there is an emotion building behind her voice that Harry can’t quite identify yet. “I just really wanted to personally tell you how thankful I am for everything you and the foundation did for me and my son. It was all so scary, you know? Getting the news that Max was sick and I…I didn’t know what to do? I felt so overwhelmed—there’s no way I would have been able to afford a procedure like that with all the highly specialized doctors it required and then the hospital stay and…and I—” She cries over the phone, suddenly too overcome to continue further and it immediately goes straight to Harry’s heart.

“Diane, you are more than welcome.” Harry answers gently. “I’m just happy to know that Max is doing well and you both got the help you needed to get through this.”

“Yes, he’s doing so well now, his recovery has been so smooth. And you’ve been so supportive and kind the entire time—since the very beginning. It’s been so helpful and comforting knowing someone who really understands. I really can’t thank you enough, Harry. From the bottom of my heart, I’m so thankful.” Diane repeats in earnest and she has such a tenderhearted voice. “Oh, and please pass on my love and thanks to your husband, Dr. Tomlinson for me. He is such a wonderful man.”

“Well, I’m certainly quite partial to him.” Harry smiles fondly.

Diane laughs over the line. “I’ve thanked him before, but it will never feel like enough, he gave me my son back—you both did. I’ll forever be grateful to you both.”

“I promise he will be so thrilled to hear from you.” Harry assures, smiling. “We’re both happy that we could help in any way.”

“Oh, I think it’s just so wonderful what you’re doing with your foundation. It’s beautiful, really. I wish you all the best.”

There will never come a time when Harry’s heart doesn’t nearly burst hearing back from people who can finally rest a little easier knowing that their child is going to be okay, that they are going to be okay. It makes everything worth it. “Thank you so much, Diane. Please reach out if you ever need anything else or even just to talk. I’ll be here for you.”

“Thank you, Harry. I will.”

“Take care, alright. Say hi to Max for me.”

The phone call ends just as Harry is pulling up to the front of the high school to pick up Ryan for her dental appointment. He couldn’t have timed it better if he tried.

But the girl who enters the passenger seat may look like the person he is here to pick up, but Harry is not so easily fooled. “Hey, Dad.”

“Oh, no. No.” Harry shakes his head immediately, pointing at the car door his daughter just came through. “Get out of the car.”

“Daddy?” His daughter mopes at him, schooling her face into a look of what could be described as genuine confusion, as if Harry was born yesterday. “What are you talking about?”

“Nice try, Noah.” Harry sighs, eyeing his daughter flatly. The wrong daughter.

“I’m Ryan!”

“Okay, well, Ryan, go back inside and try again.”

Noah keeps frowning at him, seeming irritated that he saw through her so easily. “But I have my um…doctor appointment, so…”

“Dentist appointment.” Harry corrects pointedly. Teenagers are the worst listeners, especially his teenagers. “Come on, Noah. Go swap with your sister. I don’t have time for this. We’ll be late for her appointment.”

Noah huffs in exasperation, throwing her head back against the leather cushion. “I can’t just go back now, it’s the middle of sixth period. Everyone will know we switched! It’ll be mortifying!”

“Tough break, sweets.” Harry shrugs. “No one told you to swap places.”

“Dad, please.” Noah leans over the center console of the car only to pout up at him in the same way she has since she was a little toddler. She holds her bottom lip out, blinking her gorgeous eyes. Louis makes the same face at him and Harry is characteristically a sucker for it nearly every time whether it’s his husband or his girls. “Can’t I just come along at least?”

Harry continues to frown at her, remaining silent.

“Please don’t make me suffer social suicide by going back inside that building! I’m begging, Daddy! Literally begging. If you love me at all, you won’t do this.”

The dramatics with these girls, it gets worse and worse every year.

“Fine.” Harry finally caves with a heavy, drawn-out sigh. “But we aren’t telling Papa about this.”

Louis is always saying that Harry gives in to the twins too easily. And maybe that’s true but they’re his babies. Are they manipulative? Yes. Does he love them with his whole heart? Also, absolutely, yes.

“Deal.” Noah beams, hugging him and kissing his cheek. “Thank you, thank you! I’ll text Ryan.”

“Did you switch phones too? Because I definitely texted your sister.”

“Shh, Dad. Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to.”

Harry sighs again, rolling his eyes.

“Do you think maybe after we could stop by Target?” Noah asks casually, still occupied by her phone in her hand.

“Why? What do you need at Target?”

“Things.” Noah says, lifting her head from her phone. “Girl things.”

“Girl things like what?” Harry questions openly. “Tampons? Pads? Because I literally just bought 3 new boxes of those yesterday and a fresh jar of peanut butter and Oreos that I know you like when your period comes and you get cramps—”

“Dad, enough! Oh my god! You’re always so on top of everything we need!” Noah sighs in apparent mortification. “You’re making this so much harder than it needs to be. A girl should be able to just say ‘girl stuff’ and know that her dad won’t question it. But you actually know all the girl stuff, so there’s no way to trick you! God, other girls don’t know what they have.”

“What?” Harry frowns, totally lost this time. He’s not sure if that was a compliment or something else. He’s gone through this many a time, he is no stranger to the intricacies of raising a house of girls.

Noah sighs again, flipping her hair. “Fine. I just need a new nail polish shade for my outfit on Monday.”

Harry is again at a loss for why that was so difficult to say in the first place, but no matter how close he gets to his daughters, he still may never truly understand the mind of an adolescent girl. “And in that disastrous nail salon you and Ryan call a bathroom, you’re telling me you don’t have a single color that will match your outfit?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” Noah nods, widening her eyes. “Daddy, of all people, I expect you to understand.”

Harry blinks, this whole conversation has been a whiplash since it began. “Honey, you wear uniforms to school. There aren’t many outfit choices or colors for that matter.”

“Accessories, Dad! Accessories!”

Harry can only shake his head. “You need to get a job, sister.”

Noah pulls an appalled expression, brows furrowed closely together. She is just about to argue his claim when the rear passenger door swings open and in climbs the real Ryan.

“Oh fuck, I forgot my geometry book.” Ryan groans to herself.

And now it is Harry’s turn to make a face of pure offense, forehead creased in reaction as he turns around in the driver’s seat towards his daughter. “Hello?”

“Oops, sorry, Dad!” Ryan bites her lip in apology. “It just slipped out I swear! Sorry…”

“Who did you pick up that habit from?”

“Papa.” Both twins reply easily in unison.

“And you’re just as bad.”  Noah adds knowingly, side-eyeing him.

Harry narrows his own eyes, but doesn’t refute his daughter’s claim. They aren’t wrong. He and Louis are known to drop a well-placed “fuck” around pretty casually. Although they really do try not to do it around their kids, they aren’t perfect, and it does happen more than he or Louis would like to admit. It was really only a matter of time before they picked it up.

“I’m an adult.” Harry reminds.

“And we will be adults some day…” Ryan counters.

“But that day is not today.”

“That’s what you think.” Noah contends next.

“That’s what I know.” Harry emphasizes.

“Do you though? Do you know? Do you really?”

“What? What are we even talking about? What is this?” Harry clears his head, choosing to just move on for sanity’s sake. “Alright, let’s just be on our way, shall we ladies?”

“To Target!” Noah cheers from the passenger seat.

Harry exhales heavily, gradually rolling his head towards her. “To the dentist. For the millionth time today, Ryan has an appointment. Do you think I pulled you out of school for an adventure to Target?”

“Oh, that’s where we are going?” Ryan asks next. “I couldn’t remember what you said this morning.”

“No one listens to me.” Harry sighs, mumbling to himself as he starts up the car.

||☤||

As much as possible, Louis tries not to over schedule himself on Fridays. At the most he slots in one or two uncomplex procedures that he knows he can knock out quickly and still leave the hospital by early afternoon. Being Chief of Surgery allows Louis the flexibility to do a lot more of the things he cares about outside of work, like picking up his kids from school a few days out of the week. Obviously, there are two sides to every coin; being Chief also comes with a lot more responsibility, and meetings—so many fucking meetings. But the tradeoff is worth it, Louis thinks. 

Louis climbs out of his black Audi pulled up to the roundabout in front of Casey’s elementary school. He walks around the front bumper and leans against the side of his car facing the school to wait for his son. It’s only minutes later when he recognizes a little mop of curls bouncing among the parade of first graders. They’re all holding hands with each other, a few of them skipping along happily as they follow their teacher out of the building towards the awaiting line of parents. Their backpacks are almost too big for their small shoulders, making it hard for some of them to keep up. It’s such a cute age, filled so much innocence and curiosity about the world.

Louis finds it all so endearing. He’s trying to savor every last bit of this stage of his youngest child’s life. It all goes by so quickly and before he knows it, he and Harry will have another angsty teen storming through their house.

Louis shudders at the thought.

When Casey spots him, he waves enthusiastically, bouncing up and down on his toes, somehow ridiculously excited over such a small thing as being picked up from school. The six-year-old isn’t yet embarrassed of being fussed over or showered in kisses and affection. Louis really wants it to stay like that forever because he can’t possibly imagine parting with it.

“Carebear!” Louis squats down and opens both of his arms for him.

“Hi Papa!” Casey runs right into Louis’ embrace, small arms hugging around his neck. “I missed you all day! Did you miss me?”

“Did I miss you?” Louis grins happily because it’s only been a few hours since he last saw him at home, but even still the boy is teeming with excitement. He pulls back gently brushing Casey’s loose curls away from his face. “Oh, of course I missed you, love.”

Casey smiles wide with his missing tooth on display. “Look what I made at school today!”

“Let me see.” Louis encourages, waiting as Casey digs around in his backpack.

“It’s space and rockets and astronauts!” Casey proudly displays a mural he painted, holding it up so that the picture is obscuring most of his face. It’s quite imaginative, Louis will say. Casey definitely took his own creative liberties with his abstract artistic style.

“Oh, it’s so amazing, Case. You are so amazing.” Louis scoops him up and peppers his entire face with affectionate kisses. “My brilliant, amazing boy.”

The lopsided smile never leaves his face. “That’s me!”

“That’s definitely you.” Louis grins, hugging him closer. “Have you got everything, love? Shoes on your feet? Backpack? All that?”

Casey’s face flickers with remembrance. “Oh no…”

“Oh no.” Louis repeats, tilting his head at Casey gently. “What did we forget, baby?”

“Cecil!” Casey exclaims urgently. It’s his little turtle that he brings with him everywhere he goes. He picked it out at an aquarium gift shop when he was two. Actually, he inadvertently tried stealing it from the gift shop, not exactly realizing that things in stores cost money. He cried his curly head off when Louis tried explaining to him that it wasn’t his, wailing about how the plush turtle was his new best friend. So, of course, Louis did what any parent would do and bought the ridiculously overpriced stuffed animal to make his child happy. He couldn’t bear to needlessly separate Casey from his best friend.

Louis nods, already anticipating this. There has never been a day that Louis has picked up Casey from school and he didn’t forget at least one item. He sets his son back down on the ground in favor of holding his small hand. “Alright, let’s go inside and get her.”

“Okay!” Casey happily swings Louis’ hand, skipping along as if he has no real cares in the world. Which, at six years old, why would he.

||☤||

Louis grabs takeout on the way home. It’s something he got into the habit of doing on Fridays and now it’s become a bit of a tradition and the kids always look forward to it. But to avoid the “where do you want to eat? I don’t know, where do you want to eat?” fiasco that always arises whenever he asks his kids such a simple question, Louis always decides on the restaurant, making it a surprise every week and they never complain. This week he went with Thai, a fan favorite in their house.

Entering the kitchen, Louis finds Ryan perched on one of the barstools, hunched over a bowl of cereal. Or more accurately, multiple bowls of cereal. She has every box in the house strewn out on the counter in front of her.

Louis sets the bags of takeout containers on the counter before pressing his lips to the top of her head. “Hi sweetheart, how are you?”

Ryan looks up, clearly stressed as evidenced by the tense creases to her face. “Hi, Papa…”

Louis glances around at the array of cereal boxes scattered out in front of her, from Lucky Charms to Frosted Flakes to Cocoa Puffs. She’s a girl after Louis’ own sugary cereal obsessed heart and she also loves to mix things together. It’s beautiful. “Darling, do you have enough cereal or…?”

“I’ve had a day.” Ryan mumbles around the spoon in her mouth, mouth full of colorful cereal. She is well on her way to undoing everything that was just done at her dentist appointment.

“I see...” Louis nods slowly. “May I join you?”

Ryan shrugs as if she’s indifferent about the idea, but then places her father’s favorite cereal box, Cocoa Puffs, in front of the seat next to her. Basically, the biggest olive branch one can receive from a moody teen.

Louis gets settled on the barstool, pouring a small bowl of cereal for himself to eat in solidarity. “Ry, what’s wrong, babes?”

She huffs out loud, shoulders slumped in obvious frustration. “Nothing.”

Louis drapes an arm around her, playfully leaning his weight against her. “Oh please, it’s clearly not nothing. Talk to me, Ryanasaurus Rex.”

Ryan tries to make a face as if she’s annoyed by the nickname but if anything, she relaxes a bit more against Louis. She had a very cute, but intense dinophase when she was five and Louis would constantly tease her and say her full name was actually Ryanasaurus. She loved it at the time, but now that she’s older this is allegedly, “completely embarrassing to a colossal degree” and she’s practically forbidden Louis to call her that, especially in public, because the risk of permanent mortification is far too high or some such teenage mellow drama. But Louis knows she secretly still loves it.

“Papa.” Ryan sighs, attempting to furrow her brow as she looks up at him.

“What, my love?” Louis makes the same face back at her, mildly teasing. “Am I embarrassing you? In front of all your many admirers.” He gestures around to the completely empty kitchen. “We’re at home, Ry. No one here to witness your overwhelming humiliation.”

Ryan huffs a heavy breath out yet again, eyebrows remaining wrinkled together disapprovingly.

But Louis couldn’t be less bothered by that, and he simply hugs her a bit tighter to his side. “Come on then, out with it, Rex.”

“Alright…well…”

Louis remains quiet, allowing her a moment to gather her thoughts. She’s a lot like him in that sense; it’s always best to give her a second to respond instead of hounding her further.

“I fucking suck at math!” Ryan blurts, before clasping a hand over her mouth, giving her father a guilty look. “Oops...”

“Aah! Paaaapa!” Casey comes running in, screaming his head off like some sort of siren that’s been set off. “Ryan said a noddy word!”

“It’s naughty not noddy.” Ryan grumbles at him irritably.

Casey scowls even more, building frustration evident on his small scrunched up face. “Papa! Ryan is being mean to me!”

“Case, love, how about you go find Daddy and show him what you made at school.” Louis suggests easily, redirecting his attention. “I’m sure he’d really love to see it.”

Casey instantly brightens again at that, dimples appearing in both of his flushed cheeks. “Ooh, oh yeah! Okay!” Then he takes off running as if nothing happened at all.

“So, you suck at math, huh?” Louis turns his attention back to Ryan. “Funny, because your geometry grades show otherwise.”

Ryan bites her lip, nervously avoiding his gaze as she looks down to her lap. “You’ll be mad if I tell you.”

“No, I won’t. Just tell me the truth, love.”

Ryan continues chewing on her lip. “Noah and I switch places at school whenever there’s a math test. She’s so much better at math than me.”

“Mmm…” Louis listens, not too surprised though as he suspected as much. “So what does she get out of this arrangement?”

“I help with her English essays.”

“Help?”

“Okay—I write them. It’s easy for me.” Ryan admits, avoiding eye contact. “But it was all Noah’s idea!”

Obviously, Louis knows that isn’t true. The two of them share one big brain and if Noah had the idea, then Ryan came up with the execution of the plan. “Well, this can’t keep going on, Ryan.”

“I know.” She bows her head down, stirring her spoon around in her now soggy cereal. “Are you going to ground me?”

“I’m going to talk to your dad first and we’ll decide what to do together.” Louis tells her honestly. “But more importantly, how can I help you, Ry? How can I best support you?”

That’s what matters most to him. Of course, as a parent it’s important to appropriately discipline his kids in a way that helps guide them towards better choices in the future. But at the end of the day, Louis always wants his kids to know that he has their back. That he’ll fight for them and support them. This is something that Ryan is clearly struggling with. Yes, she and her sister made the wrong decision, but it’s equally important that he finds a way to help her, so they don’t feel like the wrong decision is their only option in the future.

Ryan shrugs, downcast. “I don’t know…”

“How about we get you a math tutor?”

“A tutor?” She scuffs in distaste. “How embarrassing. I’ll look dumb! Papa, do you think I’m dumb?”

“No, Rex, never. Not at all.” Louis assures, sliding his palm comfortingly along her shoulder. “The smartest students get tutors. Because smart students realize that they don’t know everything and know when to ask for help.”

Ryan looks unbelieving and still mildly offended at the suggestion.

“I had a tutor.” Louis reveals.

“You?” Ryan questions in clear disbelief.

Louis chuckles a bit, smile. “Yes, me!”

“No way.”

“It’s true! I wasn’t always a doctor, you know. I had a few rough spots on the way. Organic chemistry almost took me out. God, I hated it.” Louis groans. “All science is not created equal, don’t let anyone ever tell you that. Ochem blows.”

That somehow gets a genuine laugh out of Ryan.

“But anyway, I didn’t have a twin to take my tests and do all my lab projects, so I got a tutor and I worked really hard and I made it out with an A-, and I was more proud of that A- than any other grade.”

Ryan is quiet for a moment before considering her father once more. “Fine, I guess I’ll maybe get a tutor or something…Maybe…”

“That’s my girl.” Louis smiles, leaning in to press his lips to her temple. “Well, we can talk about it more later. I’ll leave you with your cereal. But please don’t finish my Cocoa Puffs.”

“I won’t, Papa. I promise.” Ryan smiles up at him.

Louis pecks Ryan’s cheek once more before leaving the kitchen to seek out her twin. He finds Noah in the living room, lounging on her back horizontally along the main couch. She’s scrolling on her phone, the device lifted above her head. Sebastian is curled up contently, laying across her feet.

Louis leans over the back of the couch. “There she is, my dear sweet mastermind child.” He dips down to kiss her forehead in greeting. “Hello love.”

Noah briefly glances up from her phone. “Hi Papa—wait, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, nothing really…I hear you are quite the math wiz.”

“She told you!” Noah gawks, throwing her arms up dramatically in defeat as she abruptly sits up. The messy bun full of curls crafted atop her head flops around with her movements, several strands falling loose.

“Mhmm.” Louis nods, elbow rested on the back of the couch, propping his chin up. “Care to explain yourself, Noe?”

Noah tucks a few stray hairs behind her ears. “Papa look, I was trying to help out a sister in need. What kind of twin would I be if I sat by and watched my other half fail?”

“Mhmm, right.” Louis eyes her, still nodding.

“It looks bad on me too, you know?” Noah eyes him seriously. “We’re a team. Her failures are my failures and vice versa.”

“Mhmm.” Louis hums again.

“And the girl writes a mean essay.” Noah adds. “Really, top notch.”

“Oh Noah, what are we going to do with you?”

“Love me forever and ever.” She smiles brightly

“Oh of course, my love.” Louis grins fondly. “And maybe ground you forever and ever too.”

“I may be the mastermind but if you are going to ground me, you have to ground Ry too because she conspired and plotted with me and no matter what she says she’s not innocent.”

“Oh, I’m aware. You two just feed off of each other and I’m certain you’re both guilty of far more crimes than I ever want to be fully aware of.”

“Papa, me?” She bats her eyelashes at him. “Not your sweetest daughter.”

“Uh huh…right…” Louis sighs, shaking his head. “Have you seen your dad around?”

“He’s in his office I think?” She answers offhandedly as her attention returns back to her phone. “Probably. I dunno…”

“Right. Thanks, love. You’ve been so helpful.” Louis teases a bit, before heading down the far hallway towards Harry’s office.

Louis finds his husband with their son on his lap, the boy talking animatedly, a mile a minute. And Harry to his credit, seems to be completely engrossed in the six-year-old’s story, following along diligently. Louis leans against the doorway and just watches them together, completely endeared by the two of them.

“And then what happened, Case?” Harry wonders.

“And then! I searched the whole entire playground to find my favoritest pencil cuz I couldn’t do any work with it gone. It just wouldn’t be right.” Casey describes, talking with his outstretched hands. It’s like he can’t sit still, he’s always moving. Except when he’s asleep of course. “But you know what, Daddy?”

“What?” Harry asks eagerly, watching the boy in fascination.

Casey widens his already large eyes, as he starts to giggle to himself. “It was in my pocket! The whole time! With me!”

Harry gasps dramatically purely for Casey’s amusement, eyes going wide. “That’s crazy, Caseadilla!”

Casey continues to laugh happily as if it’s the most amusing thing ever and Harry hugs hum close, tucking his head down against him. After a moment, Harry lifts his gaze up and sees Louis, his smile filled with warmth as their eyes meet.

“My silly boy.” Harry pats Casey’s tummy. “Hey, how about you go play with Sebby? No one’s played with him today and he’s probably sad about it.”

“Okay, Daddy!” He agrees easily. “I’ll make him happy!”

“Love you.” Harry drops a kiss to his cheek and fluffs his already wild curls before Casey jumps off Harry’s lap.

“Love you!” Casey calls over his shoulder as he starts to take off, passing by Louis on his way out of the office. “Hi Papa! Bye Papa!”

“Slow down, love.” Louis watches him run in bewilderment. He does everything with such an odd urgency that Louis can’t help but find amusing.  As Casey disappears down the hall, Louis straightens himself up from the doorway, gradually moving into the room. “Mind if I take his seat?”

“He already warmed it up for you.” Harry opens his arms, welcoming Louis in.

Louis laughs softly, dropping down in his husband’s lap and slipping his arms over his neck. His legs are straddled along either side of Harry’s hips as he leans in to press their lips together in greeting, a short but sweet kiss hello. “Hi, baby.”

“Hi.” Harry kisses him once more, hands coming to rest comfortably on the dip of Louis’ spine. “How was your day?”

“Busy. The usual, meetings and surgeries, but I got out on time.” Louis describes briefly, all the while Harry traces his fingers along his back. “How about yours?”

“Busy too. Meetings, no surgeries though.” Harry jokes lightly. “Oh, that reminds me, I spoke to Diane today. You operated on her son a few months ago, remember?”

Louis’ face lights up with recognition. “Ooh Diane, yes! How is she, how is little Max?”

“Really good actually, that’s why I spoke with her. She was so grateful that her son is doing so well, she got emotional a few times as she was explaining how much the help we gave her really meant to her and Max. She’s such a genuinely sweet person.” Harry smiles softly as he talks. “Anyway, she asked me to pass on her thanks to you as well. She called you a wonderful man and I’d have to completely agree.” Harry grins knowingly, tightening his arms around Louis. “My wonderful man.”

Louis’ face colors with a slight blush. “Oh, that is so kind of her. I’m happy they’re doing well.”

“I know, me too. I’m just really glad we could help her, Lou.” Harry smiles widely and his eyes are shining bright. “I love being able to help people like that. It means something, you know? Like we made a lasting difference in her life and…I don’t know, I’m honored to be a part of it. Be part of something bigger than me.”

Louis just listens to him in awe. He knows exactly how hard his husband has worked at starting the foundation. He had a dream and he put his whole heart and soul into making that dream a reality. It’s just so astonishing to watch; he swells with pride just hearing Harry speak about it.

“Darling, you’re amazing.” Louis holds his face with both hands, beaming. “I’m so proud of you, you’re doing something that is so incredible.”

“Well, you’re the one doing the actual saving, Louis.” Harry reminds modestly with a shrug.

“No Harry, that’s’ not at all true. This was all your idea, your vision for making a difference. You’ve already helped hundreds of people with your work at Hidden Gem and who knows how many more.” Louis praises wholeheartedly. “You know Gemma would be so proud of what you’ve done in her name. You’ve given her a legacy, a voice and now it can reach so many people who need it. You put your whole heart into this and I’m just…I’m so proud of you, babe. Really, I am. Just, like…in pure awe of you.”

Harry still looks doubtful of all Louis' praise. “But I never would have been able to do it, any of it without you, Lou—”

Louis shakes his head, pressing a finger to Harry’s mouth to silence him. “Please just take my compliment, H.”

“Okay, I will…but it’s still true. You’re as responsible for the success of the foundation as me. You inspire me, baby. Thank you so much for supporting me.”

“I am going to respectfully disagree with that.” Louis adamantly denies. “But you know I’d do absolutely anything for you, my love.” He pledges openly, hands still cupped around Harry’s face. “Always.”

Harry beams, his entire face alighting gradually, starting with his dimples and traveling up to his eyes. He’s beautiful and all Louis wants to do is kiss him anywhere his lips will reach. So, he does just that.

“Anything else about your day, love?” Louis wonders, kissing softly along Harry’s jaw.

“Oh, well here is a fun fact for you, Lou.” Harry starts, sitting up a bit. “Did you know that it’s Astronaut Day? And that little children are encouraged to celebrate this at school with donuts? Because I didn’t, and it made me late this morning.”

Louis also straightens up, brows knitted together in a frown. “What the fuck is Astronaut Day and why does it call for donuts?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Who comes up with this shit?”

“Probably the housewives of The Home and School Board. Because you know, who else would have zero regard for anyone’s time?”

“Right, like we are just sitting at home twiddling our thumbs just waiting for the next chance to bend over backwards in the name of Rice Krispie Treat Awareness Day or Colored Pencil Appreciation Day or any other bullshit, nonsensical day.” Louis exaggerates with a huff. “I suppose Astronaut Day is the most valid one we’ve seen in a while.”

Harry inhales suddenly, seeming to remember something else. “Oh my god and you would not believe the passive aggressive email Nancy sent me about the ‘quality’ of the donuts I bought for Casey.”

“She did not.” Louis gasps, expression twisted up in utter offense.

“Oh, but she did.” Harry confirms, reaching in his pocket to retrieve his phone. “Mind you, I didn’t even know Casey needed to bring anything until this morning. And I’ve been saying for fucking years that it would be helpful if maybe they would send out a conclusive list to the parents about this shit, so I know every single day I need to bring something instead of being ambushed with the news by a forgetful six-year-old when I’m already pulling up to the school.”

Louis is shaking his head, blowing out a long stream of air with his eyes closed. “Please baby, don’t get me worked up. I’m trying to destress right now.” But it’s only seconds later when Louis lets out an annoyed sigh as he reaches for Harry’s phone. “No, never mind, let me see the email, I wanna be mad.”

“Brace yourself, Lou. It’s ugly.”

“To the parents of Casey Styles-Tomlinson, please be advised, that the baked items brought to school today were deemed unacceptable. We have a standard at the Academy that requires a level of quality remain upheld. In the future, I recommend that you be more selective in your choice and adhere to the baked good policy guidelines to ensure standards are upheld. Kind regards, Nancy Jameson, Home and School Board President.” Louis reads aloud, using an uppity, snouty accent to his voice. “Oh, this bitch. Get a life. A standard at The Academy? A donut standard?” He scoffs, growing more bitter. “What the actual fuck. Honestly, I dare her to say this to my face. Who does she think she is? Talking about baked good policy guidelines—what is this, Food Network?”

Harry chuckles at Louis’ response. “Apparently so. It’s the most ridiculous thing my inbox has ever received. And they were organic, gourmet donuts, at that! They cost me like $3 each! If that’s not ‘quality’ I don’t know what is.”

Louis shakes his head, fuming over the email. “She has some fucking nerve. I’m gonna write her back.”

“Are you really?” Harry’s eyebrows raise curiously.

“You know it. I can’t stand for this shit.” Louis remarks determinedly as his fingers furiously type out a response. He works on it for a few minutes, before smirking to himself, looking back up to his husband. “Would you like to hear the draft of my humble reply so far?”

“Oh, of course, babe.” Harry grins in amusement. “I’m dying to hear what you have to say.”

“To the Home and School Board and all its members, please be advised, suck my ass.” Louis reads aloud, talking slowly as he angrily emphasizes each word. “In the future, I recommend that you remember that we are talking about donuts in a first-grade classroom and not The Great British Bakeoff. The six-year-olds do not care and therefore neither do I. Kind regards, Dr. Louis Tomlinson, A Parent with a Real Fucking Job.”

Harry cracks up laughing. “I’d love it more than anything if you sent that to her.”

“Ugh me too. But Casey loves that school and we pay too much fucking tuition money to let it go to waste by getting him kicked out over baked goods.” Louis admits with a sigh. “But I swear if Nancy ever says that to my face…I can’t promise I’ll be able to bite my tongue. I’m still pissed as fuck about the time she told me I didn’t bring enough chocolate chip cookies in comparison to sugar cookies. When guess fucking what? I brought the same damn number of each cookie. It’s like she’s asking me to be mad. Like a personal invitation to make a scene.” Louis narrows his eyes suspiciously. “Like…like she’s daring or some shit…”

“I told you we’re being targeted.” Harry adds warily, his own eyes squinted. “I doubt any other parents got an email about the quality of their Astronaut Day food. She doesn’t like us, I think I might know why, but it’s beyond clear she doesn’t like us at all.”

Louis’ eye twitches as he ruminates on it further. “Harry stop. Because I will pull up to that school and start shit on a weekend. Don’t tempt me. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

“But it’s just like? Who gave her the right?” Harry questions further, the tempo of his voice picking up as he rants. “What makes her think she can just bully us about fucking donuts and cookies! It’s so uncalled for!”

“That’s it! I’m sending the email.” Louis decides abruptly, fed up. “I don’t care.”

“No! Louis, don’t!” Harry snatches his phone back from Louis’ grasp.

“Please!” Louis begs urgently in frustration, sulking as he reaches for the phone. “Please, I need this. I don’t like being fucked with. I’m bothered, genuinely bothered! This woman has got me fucked up over some damn donuts and I hate it, Harry. I hate it!”

“Okay, okay…” Harry concedes slowly, looking just as eager to put Nancy in her place. “But at least edit out the ‘noddy’ words, as Casey says. We have some class.”

Louis takes a deep breath, settling himself. “Okay fine, I can do that.”

Harry waits patiently as Louis makes adjustments to the drafted email, tapping quickly across the touchscreen keyboard.

“Okay H, how’s this…” Louis clears his throat as he prepares to read. “To the Home and School Board and all its members, please be advised that as far as I’m concerned there is not a baked goods rubric in which to score the food brought to the classroom. The policy you so helpfully referred to only requires adherence to the listed allergies, not subjective preferences of alleged “quality”. In the future, I recommend that you remember that we are talking about donuts in a first-grade classroom and not The Great British Bakeoff. The six-year-olds do not care and therefore neither do I. Kind regards, Dr. Louis Tomlinson.”

“Approved.” Harry says with a nod. “Send that shit.”

“Sent.” Louis sighs in satisfaction, smiling as if redemption has been offered, balance restored. Sometimes he really needs to have the last word, simple as that. “Wow, see? Don’t you feel better? Don’t you feel vindicated? Don’t you feel like a fucking weight has been lifted?”

“Yeah, actually. Thank you for venting with me, Lou. I didn’t even realize how much I needed that.” Harry admits, relaxing. “I was holding it in all day and I don’t think that was healthy for me.”

“Baby, I got you. If you can’t vent with me, who can you vent with?” Louis circles his arms over Harry’s shoulders. “I don’t care if it’s in the schoolyard or the office or the bakery. Bullshit is bullshit.”

“So true, babe.” Harry exhales a heavy breath.

Louis breathes out similarly, now relaxed enough to get back to what he was previously doing: sucking on his husband’s pretty neck. “Anyway love, how was the dentist?”

Harry gets slightly distracted by Louis’ mouth for a moment, humming as he allows his head to gravitate to the side. “Oh, with Noah and Ryan? It was fine, no cavities, so that’s a win.”

Louis frowns, sitting up gradually. “I thought it was just Ryan?”

“Right, well…” Harry looks as though he’s been caught. “Um. Yeah, so…it was supposed to be?”

Louis sighs, unsurprised. “Those girls, I swear.”

“The way they frazzle me…”

“Oh I know, love. I know.” Louis shakes his head in complete understanding. “That reminds me, we have a bit of an issue to discuss.”

“Do we? No, please don’t tell me. Let me remain blissfully ignorant.” Harry pleads, tossing his head to the side and closing his eyes jokingly. “I’m too worn out.”

“Sorry love, it’s important.” Louis replies, tilting Harry’s head back towards him. “So Ryan apparently fucking sucks at math.”

“Lou!” Harry gasps, looking absolutely appalled that his husband could say such a thing. “Don’t say that about our child!”

“No darling, those are her exact words to me. She literally told me she fucking sucks at math.”

“Oh. We really need to do something about her language.” Harry sighs. “Okay and what about it? That can’t be it.”

“So, because Ryan sucks at math, Noah has been taking all of her math tests.”

“Oh god.” Harry groans, rubbing his temples. “We have criminals for children.”

“And Ryan writes all of Noah’s essays.”

“Jesus. What is wrong with them? Who raised them?” Harry tosses his head all the way back. “It stops there right? You don’t have anything else to say like they are secretly laundering money or something?”

Louis laughs a little at that. “As far as I know it stops there. But I’m sure if we dug deep enough, they have far more skeletons in their closet.”

“I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know any more.” Harry grumbles, still slouched back in the chair.

“So, I told them that I would talk to you first and decide what we would do.”

“Okay, but you already know what you want to do right?”

“No? That’s why I’m talking to you first! My husband and fellow parent.” Louis reminds, staring at Harry expectantly.

“What! Louis!” Harry bursts, sitting all the way back up. “You think I know? I’m no disciplinarian!”

“And you think I am?”

“Yes, that is your role.” Harry explains as though it’s obvious. “I’m the fun, easygoing dad and you’re Mr. Tough Love—excuse me, Dr. Tough Love.”

“What?” Louis laughs with an air of mild confusion. “Since when?”

“Since always.” Harry grins, shrugging easily. “It’s like an unsaid thing.”

“But we’re a team, H.” Louis reminds.

“We so are, babe.” Harry nods proudly. “A team that knows each teammate’s strengths and limitations.”

“Alright then teammate, what do you think we should do about this?”

“Well, we can’t tell the school.” Harry starts.

“Oh, absolutely not. It was hell just getting them accepted into that high school and with all the shit they’ve pulled and gotten caught for, it’s a fucking miracle they’re still enrolled.”

“Exactly.” Harry agrees. “So, we have to handle this inhouse.”

“It’d be so much easier if we could just tattoo their names to their foreheads so everyone will know them apart besides us.”

Harry giggles at the thought. “You know they’d find some way around that.”

“God, you’re right. It’s hopeless.”

“Beyond hopeless.”

“Okay, I say we hit them where it hurts and take away their phones and laptops.” Louis suggests. “Because if we only ground them, they’ll be still perfectly content in their room because they can still be abundantly social on the internet.”

“Ooh there he is, Dr. Tough Love.” Harry nods slowly as he eyes Louis appreciatively.

“You aren’t going to let that go, are you?” Louis laughs, eyes crinkled.

“No, I don’t think I will.” Harry chuckles happily. “For how long though?”

“You decide that part.”

Harry blows out a long stream of air as he considers. “Three weeks? No—two weeks? Um, five days.”

“Five days!?” Louis frowns disapprovingly. “Babe, you’re making us look weak. Stop.”

“Okay, but I was just thinking about how unbearable it’s going to be for us too!” Harry lets out a groan, closing his eyes for a moment as he shakes his head. “Can you imagine, three whole weeks of the two of them being so bored that they channel all their evil powers towards us. I won’t survive that. We won’t survive that.”

Louis thinks on it further. “Okay, that’s true, I do see your point. But anything less than two weeks is a fucking joke.”

“Okay, two weeks then. But we’ve got to pack their schedule full of shit so they’ll be too worn out to wreak havoc on us all.”

“They’ve both got footie practice starting Monday and Ryan is going to start math tutoring and this would be the perfect time to push French lessons on Noah.” Louis reminds. “She’s been wanting to learn anyway ever since she found out that you traveled through France and romanticized the idea for herself.”

“Right, okay, that should work.” Harry decides, thinking it over. “And when we tell them, I’ll break the news about the internet lockdown, but you have to do the We’re-Very Disappointed-In-You speech, to drive it home.”

“Perfect, I can do that.” Louis agrees. “See that wasn’t so hard. Look us, parents.” He lifts one of his hands for a high five.

“Parents.” Harry meets Louis’ hand. “What a team we make.”

“The best team.” Louis smiles with an air of pride in his tone. “It’s all us.”

“Us.” Harry matches his grin.

“Okay, but between you and me…” Louis starts, leaning in a little closer. “I think it’s kind of badass how cunning and sharp the two of them are.”

“Oh my god, Louis.” Harry shakes his head disapprovingly.

“I’m serious, Harry. Like…I know they’re wrong...so very wrong, but...” Louis shrugs, an oddly guilty look stretching across his face as he grins. “I’m proud to call them my kids. They’re kinda cool. I would never, ever tell them that to their faces but…it’s true.”

“Woooow…” Harry drags out, clicking his tongue judgmentally.

Louis tilts his head as he gives Harry a questioning look. “Tell me you don’t think they’re kinda cool. Honestly, Harry.”

Harry sighs reluctantly after a few moments. “Fine…they’re pretty cool…”

Louis nods proudly, grinning again. “I love them so much.”

“I know, I love them too. I want to be mad, but most times I’m just a little in awe of them.”

“They’re gonna be great one day.” Louis sighs wistfully. “One day when they aren’t overly dramatic, constantly embarrassed, screaming teenagers.”

“Ahh, one day.” Harry sighs dreamily along with him. “Will we make it that day, Lou?”

“It remains to be determined. Everyday my patience is tested beyond what I thought I had within me.”

“But everyday you’re a little stronger for it.”

“We both are. We’re gonna make it. I believe in us.” Louis leans in to kiss Harry’s lips. He meant for it to be a short kiss, but they both seem to get a little lost in in it. Harry brings Louis closer, both arms curled around his lower back, while Louis holds Harry’s face steady, licking into his mouth.

It probably would start to escalate further but there’s a knock on the closed office door that serves to break Harry and Louis apart, although not by much.

“Um…excuse me, parental guardians?” Ryan’s voice questions from the other side. “Is it safe to come in or are you sucking face?”

Louis and Harry share a look of exasperation, both exhaling a slow sigh.

“Why yes Ryan, please do come in and join us.” Louis answers, an air of mild sarcasm in his tone.

Ryan eyes her parents cautiously as she enters the room, observing Louis still perched atop Harry’s lap. She’s holding a bowl of cereal in her hand, walking and eating at the same time. “Definitely not as safe as I would have liked, but whatever…anyway, I was wondering if I can start eating the Thai food you brought home.” She lifts her spoon to her mouth, the milk dripping over from the silver edge. “You know, before it gets cold…”

“Why are you walking around my house with cereal?” Harry questions, zoning in on the mess she is bound to make.

“Dad, I’m being careful, I swear!” Ryan defends, holding her bowl closer to her chest, causing the contents to sloosh around the rim.

“Ryan Jay Styles-Tomlinson.” Harry calls disapprovingly, eyes narrowed. The girl is a habitually messy eater, leaving crumbs and stains everywhere she goes, routinely driving Harry mad.

Ryan huffs at the calling of her full name. “Fine, I’ll go eat it in the kitchen. But since I’m headed there anyway, can I eat the Thai food or not? I’m starving.”

“You are literally eating as we speak, how can you be starving?”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Papa. My body wants what it wants and right now I would like to eat Thai food before it gets gross and cold.”

“Well, we need to talk to you both first anyway.” Harry replies.

“Now?” Ryan groans, looking like she’d rather do anything else.

“Yes, now.” Louis extracts himself from Harry’s lap and Harry stands up after him. The couple lock hands as they follow after Ryan to the living room to find her sister.

Noah is exactly where Louis left her on the couch, only now she’s turned on the flatscreen TV mounted above the fireplace. There is some kind of dramatic reality TV show playing and her attention is completely glued to it.

“Noe, why are you watching this dumb show?” Ryan reclines on the couch next to her sister.

“Oh my god girl, it’s absolute garbage and I cannot stop watching it.” Noah admits, not even turning her head from the screen as she says it.

“Oh, let me help, love.” Louis grabs the remote and presses the power button, the screen instantly turning black.

“Dr. Tough Love.” Harry whispers behind Louis. And Louis has to fight the urge not to start laughing, because he needs to be serious right now or his girls will see right through them and they will lose all power in this discussion.

“Papa!” Noah whines as she sits up abruptly on the couch. “It was just starting to be decent.”

“Aww, what a shame, babe. How will you ever survive missing your almost potentially decent show?” Louis wonders sarcastically.

Noah mopes up at him, slumping down on the couch with her lips pursed and arms crossed.

“Sorry, Noe.” Harry offers with mild sympathy. “But we need to talk to you both.”

“Please just let them say whatever they need to say.” Ryan says to her sister. “I really wanna eat.”

“Ooh, is there food?” Noah’s face brightens, expression moving quickly towards excited as she perks back up. “Oh yeah, it’s Friday! What did Papa bring home?”

“Thai, girl.” Ryan reveals with an equally eager grin. “So that’s serious to me.”

“Oh yum! I thought I smelled something, but I didn’t want to get too excited and—”

“Hey, hey, hi, hello.” Harry waves at them repeatedly, finally grabbing their attention. If he didn’t, the two of them could easily go on chatting with each other all day and who has the time for that? “Can we do this please?”

“We’re waiting on you, Dad.” Ryan replies.

“No, we were waiting on you.”

“Um, no. Actually—”

“Alright, it doesn’t quite matter. We can move on.” Louis interrupts, his voice growing serious as he addresses them. “Girls, your dad and I wanted to talk to you about this whole cheating by switching places thing. We are very disappointed in you and the choices that you’ve both made. We are raising you to be respectful, honest young women and we would hope that by now you would know the difference between right and wrong, but it seems as though you do not. You are very intelligent girls and I know that you know better than this. In life you’ll find that you can’t always take the easy way out, and there are certainly consequences when you do. Which is why there must be consequences for your chosen actions in this case.”

The twins have their heads hung, neither of them liking the feeling of being chastised by their parents. To be honest, Louis doesn’t enjoy doing it either, but it has to be done if they are ever going to learn.

“Papa, we’re really sorry.” Ryan mumbles genuinely. “You’re right…we knew we were wrong, but…um…”

“But we didn’t mean to disappoint you.” Noah finishes, sounding just as remorseful.

“I know that, loves.” Louis kneels down in front of them, meeting their eyes. “But it’s not just about disappointing us. We love you both so much, but you have to start being more responsible and wise about the choices you make. You are always reminding us that you aren’t little kids anymore, and you’re right. You’re growing up and that means that we expect a higher level of maturity and responsibility from you.”

They both nod slowly in understanding and Louis stands back up to his feet, taking Harry’s hand again in a united front.

“So all in love, your father and I have discussed that for the next two weeks we are confiscating your phone and internet privileges.” Harry says next, delivering the consequential blow.

“Daddy, no!” The twins exclaim at once, displaying the same shocked and appalled face.

“You’re officially grounded.” Harry continues on despite their protests. “No phones, no computers, no TV, and no internet—outside of homework, of course. You should take this time off the grid to reflect upon your actions and think about the kind of people you want to be in the future.”

“But…but—you can’t do this to us.” Ryan whines. “We have lives to uphold!”

“We’re freshman in high school! It’s not at all easy! Do you realize how far you are going to set us back?”

“We were just starting to really establish our place in the world!”

“Don’t you care about us?” Noah drones on dramatically. “Don’t you care about our suffering?”

It’s amazing to Louis how these girls can go from apologetic and contrite to begging towards a lesser punishment in seconds flat. Louis doesn’t even think the punishment is all that harsh, they’re getting off rather easy this time around in his opinion.

But Harry is actually listening to their nonsense, looking back and forth between them as they try to sucker sympathy out of him. It’s literally been this way since they were toddlers throwing tantrums over the snack they got for snacktime. It doesn’t happen every time, but if any parent is more inclined to give in, it’s 100% Harry and the twins know it.

Louis wastes not a moment more, holding his hand out to them. “Alright, thank you both for your candor. We heard you. Now, phones please.”

They look at each other, doing that twin telepathy thing that they do so often. Then Noah and Ryan start making hopelessly distraught faces, as if on the verge of tears. But Louis knows this game, in fact he knows this game very, very well. And he is not playing today.

“Please spare us all our time and don’t start up the fake waterworks, loves.” Louis advises. “It won’t work.”

“Ugh fine.” Ryan gives in, her face easily returning back to normal as she drops the act.

“It never works with Papa.” Noah huffs, crossing her arms over chest.

Damn right it doesn’t, Louis thinks to himself. He knew exactly how to get his way when he was their age and he used everything he had in his wheelhouse to his advantage. Louis sees so much of his teenage self in his daughters and it’s utterly terrifying, but also quite amazing at the same time. 

“Come on, then. Hand them over.” Louis wiggles his fingers, urging them to cough up their iPhones.

“Can I just make a final post before my jail sentence begins?” Ryan asks hopefully, clutching the glittery case of her phone.

“Nope.” Louis denies, as he collects the devices.

“Papa, don’t be cruel!” Noah complains, eyebrows furrowed together. “This is my life we’re talking about!”

“It’s two weeks, Noah.” Louis reminds rather flatly. “Be grateful that it’s not longer.”

“Daddy?” Ryan tries, looking up at him with big blue, please save me eyes.

Harry bites his bottom lip anxiously, but then glances to Louis for support. Louis nods at him in encouragement. “Well honey, your father and I have agreed already and—”

“But Daddy pleaasseeee.”

“Please don’t do this to us!”

“It’s done, ok? We’re done.” Louis interrupts in finality, saving his husband. “It’s over.”

The twins huff and puff as they dramatically slink further into the couch like their entire life is truly and wholly over. But they can huff and puff and throw a fit all they want, they need to learn to face consequences.

“Now what are we supposed to do?” Ryan grumbles.

“Die of boredom, obviously.” Noah mumbles back.

“Well, I suppose your thrilling options for the night include, doing the dishes, walking the dog, or maybe even doing your homework. And if you’re still feeling full of energy, I would like to highly recommend that you clean your bathroom. It’s shocking.”

Truly, the twin’s bathroom is an utter disaster that they have created themselves. Harry and Louis both refuse to clean it for them, let alone even set foot in it unless completely necessary. Really, they were holding out for the day when Noah and Ryan realize they can’t live like this anymore and then responsibly decide to clean their bathroom. But the more time that has passed, the more it is looking like his children are perfectly content to live in a pigsty of filth, much to Louis’ further disappointment and disgust. On the brightside, they do keep their rooms pretty clean.

“Clean our bathroom?” Both girls gasp at once as if it’s the most preposterous thing they’ve ever heard. “Are you serious, Papa!”

“He’s totally serious and so am I.” Harry speaks up. “Your bathroom is disgusting, and I want it spotless before the end of the weekend. You’ll have plenty of time now.”

“I guess that’s that on that.” Louis smiles cheerfully at his daughters.

The girls remain unamused. Ryan and Noah both glare at him, icy blue eyes that match his own, reduced to narrow slits of passive aggressiveness.

Louis narrows his eyes back, unaffected by their looks. His spouse however looks moments away from cracking under the pressure, so Louis knows they need to make their exit while they’ve still won.

“Again, we love you very much and we only want what’s best for you.” Louis links his arm with Harry’s again, starting to lead him out of the living room. “You will survive this.”

“We really do love you. Enjoy your food!” Harry tells them over his shoulder, following after his husband to the next room. “Lou, maybe we were too harsh?”

“Harry, please don’t let them manipulate you. As a former teenage manipulator myself, I know exactly what they’re doing. You are their only hope, but you can’t let them break you.”

“I know.” Harry eventually nods. “They always get me. I hate saying no to them.”

“And sadly, they know that.” Louis reminds gently. “But you stood your ground about the loo though, nice one.”

“God, Lou that fucking bathroom makes me want to die. I’m honestly mortified that it exists within the walls of my beautiful home that you built me. I’m personally offended by that bathroom.”

“You’re quite passionate, love.”

“Yes! It disturbs me, Louis.” Harry’s eyes intensify, widening. “Deeply…”

“It’s good to know that all I need to do to rile you up about lecturing the twins is mention their bathroom.”

“I’m pretty keyed up right now just thinking about it.”

“We can go back in there.” Louis offers teasingly. “We can reprimand them some more if you have more to say.”

“Once again this exactly why you are—”

“Dr. Tough Love, I know.” Louis shakes his head, but smiles.

Harry laughs, pulling Louis in for a warm hug. “My Dr. Tough Love.”

||☤||

♫ 

When his morning alarm goes off, for once Louis is actually awake to turn it off. Although this alarm has nothing to do with work or the hospital or emergency surgeries, it’s just as important, arguably more important as far as Louis is concerned. Today is the day that his oldest daughter finally comes home.

Louis quickly flips himself around in bed, only to find that his husband is also already awake.

“Today.” Louis smiles, unable to physically contain his growing excitement. He doesn’t think he could stop smiling if he tried.

“Today.” Harry says back, repeating the countdown with the exact same eager look painted across his face. “I wish I could go with you to the airport to pick her up, but I need to start on Saturday Brunch. We can’t not have brunch on the day she comes home, that also happens to be a Saturday. It’s kismet.”

“No, of course we can’t. It’s tradition.” Louis agrees wholeheartedly. In this house they’ve never, not ever, skipped a Saturday Brunch together. They've had to have a late Saturday night Brunch a handful of times only due to medical emergencies Louis couldn’t avoid, but the tradition has never been skipped altogether. Of the many traditions in their household, Saturday Brunch is a universally beloved favorite among the members of their family, each looking forward to it at the end of the week. “And I’m sure it will make Avery so happy.”

“It will, wont it?” Harry’s face splits into a thrilled smile. “I’m going to make all of her favorites. It’s going to be extra special—our biggest Saturday Brunch yet to make up for all the ones she missed with us.”

Louis leans in to brush their lips together briefly. “She’s going to love it, H.”

Louis hardly completes his sentence before their bedroom door bursts open and a tiny voice shouts, “She’s coming today!”

It must be a big deal if the heaviest sleeper in the house is willingly up and awake before 10 A.M. Something that almost never happens. Not naturally, anyway.

“Caseadilla!” Harry sings animatedly, sitting up in bed to greet his son. “You’re awake!”

“I gotta be! Avery is coming home today!” The little boy enthuses, still dressed in his Batman onesie that Liam and Zayn got him for his last birthday. “I gotta be ready for her!”

“Come here, Carebear!” Louis pats his hand on the bed next to him, before opening his arms. “I need my morning cuddle.”

Casey agrees easily, hopping up onto his parent’s bed and crawling across just to practically hurl his small body into Louis’ welcoming arms. Louis laughs happily as he hugs his son close to his chest, cherishing the simple moment between them. For as long as he lives, Louis knows he will absolutely never get tired of this.

“What about me, babe? Where are my cuddles?” Harry pouts next to Louis, looking left out.

“I’m coming, Daddy.” Casey promises adorably, rolling over in between his parents to snuggle up to Harry next.

Harry squeezes him, rocking back and forth, which makes Casey giggle against his chest. “Case, are you going to help me make brunch this morning?”

“For Avery?”

Harry nods silently, wiggling his eyebrows in a goofy kind of way that serves to make the little boy laugh some more.

“Yeeeees!” Casey answers eagerly in song form, dragging out the word. He absolutely adores Avery, practically idolizing his big sister, especially with the age gap between them.

The door cracks open again, and against all odds and predictions, the twins appear in Harry and Louis’ bedroom next. Sebby trails in by their legs as they stand a few steps into the room.

“What is this?” Louis gasps dramatically, sitting up against the pillows. “You two up early on a Saturday? H, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“I don’t believe my eyes.” Harry answers just as theatrically as his spouse. “Lou, we must still be dreaming. Our daughters would never be up at this time.”

“Okay, okay, we get it. You’re shocked.” Ryan says flatly.

“You really think we’d sleep through our big sister coming home?” Noah asks next.

There’s no denying that Avery really is the missing piece of their family. She’s kind of like the glue that completes them. There isn’t one member of this family who isn’t overly excited about her homecoming today.

“Come on, darlings.” Louis pats the bed again just as he had for Casey, smiling warmly at his kids. “Let’s not pretend that you don’t want to join in too.”

Harry lifts his arms and holds them open to his middle daughters, grinning knowingly. “You know you want to.”

The twins don’t even try to fight it, climbing right into their parent’s bed. There are days when they act like they are over it all, too cool for school and all that, and then there are others, like today, when they love being wrapped up in their fathers’ arms. Noah tucks herself under Harry’s wing, head rested on his chest, while Ryan squeezes in between both of her parents, leaning against Louis.

Harry and Louis shower all three of them with ample morning kisses and cuddles. With all of them snuggled up together, it’s nearly perfect, save for the one missing member. But that will all be rectified today.

||☤||

When Louis arrives at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he can hardly contain his growing anticipation. As he parks in the Arrivals section, Louis feels a thrumming enthusiasm building inside him to the point where it’s physically hard to keep still. As ridiculous as it would look, he feels like he could literally start skipping across the walkway to the inside waiting area of the airport. He’s just that fucking excited.

Louis adores each of his four children, he loves them and he loves them and he loves them some more. They fill his heart to the brim more than anything in the world. While each individual relationship with his kids is unique in its own right, he cherishes every single one wholeheartedly. As his oldest child, his relationship with Avery is not only the longest, but also the deepest. She is his first love and his partner in crime, always has been since the beginning. There is a special bond the two of them share that could never be broken. And as she’s grown up, they’ve only grown that much closer.

Louis pauses in the arrival waiting area of the airport, reaching into his pocket for his vibrating phone. He thought it might be Avery messaging him, but no, it’s actually his equally overeager husband repeatedly asking if Avery has arrived yet. Louis can’t seem to answer the texts fast enough, the text boxes filling his screen back to back before he’s even drafted a reply.

After attempting to keep up with the onslaught of texts for a solid minute, Louis gives up and just calls his spouse. Of course, Harry picks up on the very first ring.

“Lou, did you get my text?”

“What? You texted me? When?” Louis asks, sounding genuinely shocked.

“Yes and—oh, you’re being sarcastic…” Harry realizes mid-sentence and Louis can practically see the exact frown on his face.

“It’s why I called you, love.” Louis smiles.

“Or maybe you wanted an excuse to hear my voice.”

“As if I need an excuse.” Louis says, the smile having not left his face. “Anyway, to answer your many, many questions: Yes, I’m at the airport now. No, she’s not here yet. Yes, I promise I’ll come straight home with her. Yes, I do know where your favorite spatula is. You left it out on the deck last weekend. And no, Avery doesn’t like cucumbers.”

“I love you.” Harry answers softly in response. “What would I ever do without you?”

“Probably the same thing I’d do without you.” Louis replies. “Good thing we don’t have to ever figure out what that is.”

“A wonderful thing.” Harry agrees. “But wait—Lou? I really thought that Avery liked cucumbers?”

“No, baby, that’s Noah. Avery hates them.”

“See that’s why I ask you, because you two have the same taste in food.”

“Oh? You mean things that aren’t gross?” Louis chuckles. “Yeah, Avery and I definitely have that in common.”

Harry laughs with him. “Cucumbers aren’t gross.”

“Harry, the real question is what the fuck are you doing with cucumbers in relation to brunch?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Louis frowns, only thinking about it more. “Oh, but I am worried about it. Very worried actually.”

The sound of urgent high pitched, incessant voices grows steadily in the background paired with the urgent and repeated calls of, “Daddy!”, definitely coming from their daughters.

“Yes Ryan, I told you I will, give me a second.” Louis hears Harry say over the phone. He can hear Ryan and Noah pestering Harry even more in the background. They are so loud, those two. “Um—anyway Lou, don’t worry. I’ve got to go, hurry home. I love you.”

“I love you too. Burn the cucumber.” Louis adds before the phone call ends.

Louis can’t imagine what kind of nonsense food Harry could have concocted that requires the unnecessary use of cucumber, but it sounds disgusting and tragic. Maybe Sebastian will like it so at least Louis will have something to feed him under the table.

Louis doesn’t get the chance to ruminate on the matter much longer because he gets a text from Avery telling him that she’s landed. The message itself, in all caps and littered with heart emojis, is enough to make Louis break into an uncontrollable smile. He can feel his heartrate quicken in anticipation, the eager energy picking up again inside of him, causing him to pace back and forth to pass the time.

♫

Louis ends up hearing her before he actually sees her, recognizing the distinct echo of her voice calling him. He lifts his head at the familiar sound, searching it out in the crowd of newly arrived passengers. And when he finally spots her, the world seems to slow for a moment. Their eyes lock and her face splits into the widest, most beautiful smile, a smile that could break any heart it wanted.

“Papa!” Avery shrieks with excitement from the top of the escalator, giddy and bouncing. She waves at him with frantic excitement, her gorgeous smile only growing.

“Aves!” Louis beams up at her, eyes crinkled as he happily waves back.

She’s probably the loudest person in the whole airport right now, still screaming enthusiastically as she makes her way towards her father. In all of her excitement, Avery earns several curious looks from surrounding travelers, but she doesn’t even seem to notice or care, and it just makes Louis laugh. His daughter has never been one to care what anyone else is thinking about her. She takes the steps on the descending escalator two at a time, her backpack bouncing around wildly behind her.

Louis is waiting for her near the bottom of the escalator and once her feet touch stable ground, Avery doesn’t waste another second, practically flying right into Louis’ awaiting arms. When he catches her, Louis pulls his daughter as close as humanly possible, one hand cradled to the back of her head, the warmth of the embrace radiating throughout his entire body. And there is really nothing else like it.

“Aves, my darling. It’s so good to see you.” Louis draws back slightly, only to softly kiss her cheeks several times. “How are you, sweetheart? How was your flight? Are you hungry? Let me look at you.” But then Louis gives up on all that and just settles for hugging her close again. “I’ve missed you so much, love.”

“I missed you too.” Avery squeezes him back, her face buried in his neck. “I really, really missed you, Papa.”

The two of them stay like that for a while, content to simply be wrapped in each other’s arms. In fact, it’s making Louis rather emotional the longer he holds her. Louis closes his eyes and breathes her in, categorizing the moment in his memory.

“Papa, are you crying?” Avery asks as she pulls back slightly.

Louis smiles softly, saltwater lining his eyes. “I said I missed you, love. You know it’s not the same when you’re not home.”

She smiles back, her own eyes wet with happy tears. “Well, I’m home now.”

“You are.” Louis has his palms curved to her cheeks, thumbing her tears away. He studies her face, taking in all the minor ways she may have changed since the last time he’s seen her. She stands just a few inches shorter than him, which she has since she was in high school. Gemma’s necklace hangs from her neck along with several others she’s layered along with it. Her hair frames her face, coming down to her shoulders. “You cut your hair.”

Avery nods happily, her face instantly lights up in a smile again, seeming excited that he noticed. She flips her shoulder length waves, golden blonde highlights coloring the ends of her deep brown hair. “Do you like it?”

“Oh, I love it, darling. It’s lovely, it suits you.”

“Just thought I’d try something new. You know me, I get bored easily.”

Louis just keeps smiling at her, he can’t even help it. His eyes are still wet, and he can’t really help that either. “God, it’s so good to see you. I’m not going to get over it anytime soon, don’t mind me.”

“Papa.” Avery grins back warmly, a genuinely warm fondness in her tone. “I love you.”

“And I love you. So, so much, Aves.” Louis’ heart feels whole and complete again. A piece of his heart back safely in his arms. He probably could have a good long cry right now if he let himself.

Avery leans up to kiss his cheek, before embracing him again, resting her head down to his chest.

As much as he could stay like this forever, Louis reluctantly leans back, swiping under his eyes. “Okay, we better get going—your dad literally won’t stop texting me.”

Avery beams again, enthused. “I can’t wait to see him—and the twins and my little bubba—Oh! And Sebby!”

“They’re all waiting for you.” Louis assures. “Supposedly your siblings are helping to make brunch. But I have a very strong feeling that your dad is the only one actually contributing.”

Avery laughs. “Why am I not at all surprised?”

They pick up Avery’s luggage from the baggage claim carousel before heading out to his awaiting car in the lot. The whole time Avery stays tucked under her father’s protective wing, holding on to his waist like she doesn’t want to let him go either.

“So, talk to me—tell me everything.” Louis says after they’ve settled into the SUV and have gotten started on the road. “I want to hear it all.”

“I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start anywhere.” Louis encourages, glancing at her. “At the beginning, at the end? I don’t care, I just want to hear about it, about you.”

“Alright…” Avery’s face turns reflective for a moment, before her golden eyes widen excitedly as she perks up in her seat. “Oh! I got another tattoo while I was there!”

“You did? Can I see it?”

She nods, beginning to roll up her sleeves and Louis catches a glimpse of the walrus tattoo she has on her left arm. Her very first tattoo, that he took her to get and also has an identical one on his own arm.  Louis remembers how excited nineteen-year-old Avery was to have a matching walrus tattoo with him. It’s one of his favorite memories between just the two of them.

“I just wanted something to remind me of my time there.” Avery points to the still slightly reddened new ink on her skin. It’s a small cursive script tattoo of the word Espwa right along the line of forearm.

Louis reads it thoughtfully before bringing his gaze back to the road. “What does it mean?”

“Hope.” Avery answers with a gentle smile. “It’s in Creole, the native Haitian language. There was this family I met—they lost just about everything in the storm, it was so heartbreaking. I felt so useless, like I couldn’t fix the devastation of losing their home—I didn’t even know what to say…I had nothing to offer them.” She describes, sounding genuinely upset. “I noticed the youngest child in the family was limping, it was clearly painful for him to walk and when I examined his foot, there was a large shard of glass embedded in it that was starting to get infected. All I did was debride the wound on his foot and bandage all the other cuts and scrapes on his legs so they wouldn’t get infected too. It was nothing extraordinary, nothing all that special, really. Anyone with the right tools could have done it. But the little boy…he was just so? Thankful.” Avery recounts, her voice sounding utterly mystified and confused by it. “And he started repeating that word, Espwa, to me over and over and I didn’t understand at all. Then one of the translators told me that he was saying that I gave him hope.”

Avery shakes her head, clearly still emotional about it. She hikes her knees up to her chest in the passenger seat. “It was…I don’t know, Papa— it was like the most surreal moment of my life because I knew I was right where I was supposed to be in that moment, but I also knew that it wasn’t even close to enough. I know I can do so much more. And I want to. I want to do more, there are so many people in different parts of the world that are really hurting and need so much help and support and I just…I want to do more for them.” She says determinedly. “I’m going to do more for them.”

Louis couldn’t possibly be any prouder of his daughter if he tried. “I know you will, sweetheart. I’m so proud of you and I’m so glad you had that experience. From how you speak about it, it sounds like it all really changed your life.”

Avery nods repeatedly and she looks so openly appreciative, her hazel eyes practically sparkle. “It did, it really did. I’m so happy that I decided to go. It was everything.”

“Oh my god, you’re so grown up.” Louis smiles in a mix of awe and utter disbelief. He swears it was just yesterday when she was just a tiny baby. And now here she is a grown woman with her own thoughts and ideas and opinions about the world and her place in it. It makes absolutely no sense how this happened, how time somehow flew by without his consent.

“Well, I am 25 and I was also 25 when you saw me last for the record.” Avery teases.

“I know but…you’re…” Louis sighs, not even knowing how to say what he means. “You’re a real proper person now.”

Avery laughs, giving him a look. “What does that even mean, Papa?”

“I don’t know.” Louis shakes his head, feeling overwhelmed and emotional if he dwells on the topic. “I don’t want to think about it.”

||✿||

As they near the end of the winding road that leads up to their gorgeous home on a hill, Avery is practically bouncing out of her seat as she looks out the car window. She has that familiar, warm, cozy feeling bubbling over inside her chest, a lingering sense of longing that serves to remind her just how much she really missed home.

The garage opens from a distance and Avery sees her car, parked right where she left it several months ago. It’s a yellow Volkswagen Bug that her parents bought her after graduating from college. It wasn’t really a surprise to anyone when she decided to name it Lemon. But in Avery’s defense, it looks exactly like a lemon and she’s pretty sure her parents knew that when they bought it and were trying to be funny. But regardless, Avery loves that car. They’ve gone on quite a few adventures and hopefully many more.

Her papa hasn’t even pulled the SUV into the driveway yet, let alone come to a full stop and Avery is already twisting around in the leather seat eagerly, only seconds from leaping from the car. “Can I?”

“Go, go.” Louis chuckles with an understanding smile, nodding his head towards the house as he stops the Audi early. “I’ll grab your bags.”

Avery hops out of the car, too excited to even close the passenger door behind her. She sprints up the long driveway towards the front door, rushing into the house. “Dad! Daddy!”

Her dad is already there waiting for her in the foyer of the house with the biggest smile on his face. He has his usual Saturday Brunch apron tied around his waist, traces of sugar and flour speckle the material and trail up towards his tousled hair. It’s all so familiar and heartwarming.

“Munchie!” Harry opens his arms wide for her and she throws herself right into them. And it’s one of the safest places she’s ever known. He breathes her in, sighing contently as his embrace settles around her. “My baby is home.”

“I’m home.” Avery exhales against his chest, holding onto her dad and she feels her emotions beginning to rise again, just as they had when she was first reunited with her papa. But the moment seems to also be affecting her dad.

“Dad, are you crying? You and Papa are exactly the same.” Avery notes with a gentle fondness in her voice.

Harry pulls back marginally and he’s openly crying. “I…I don’t know—I can’t help it, Avie.” He tugs her right back towards his chest, unwilling to let her go just yet.

Avery lets out a watery laugh, hugging him tighter. “Aww Dad, it’s okay.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to start crying like this…I just—you’ve been gone so long. You’ll never know how much I missed you, sweetheart.”

Avery has fully formed tears lining her own hazel eyes, matching his teary green ones. She tilts her head to sweetly kiss his cheek. “I never stopped missing you, Daddy.”

“I love you, I love you, I love you.” Harry peppers her face with soft kisses just as he always would when she was a little girl.

It brings an instant, dimpled smile to her face. “I love you so much.”

Similarly to her other parent, her dad also takes a quiet moment just to gaze at her, tracking all the subtle changes since the last time he saw her. And his expression seems to soften in silent awe.

“What?” Avery frowns slightly at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s just…with your hair cut like that…you are the spitting image of your mother.” Harry smiles softly, cupping her face. “You’re just…beautiful.”

It’s true, Avery thinks. When she looks at pictures of her late mother, who was near Avery’s current age when she died, she can clearly see little aspects of her mom’s features reflected in herself. Her dad always says that she has her mother’s smile, but most importantly she has her heart.

Suddenly a big ball of fur is interrupting them, jumping up on Avery impatiently while doing his adorable little doggy whine. The pup practically loses his mind with how excited he is to see her, torn between running in nonsense circles or attacking her with his oversized paws.

“Hi Sebby!” Avery coos happily at her dog. “Ooh, how’s my big baby?”

“He really missed you, you know.” Harry comments as he watches them reunite. “He was such a sad boy for weeks after you left. He would just mope around the house with no purpose, I felt so bad for him.”

“Is that true, Seb? Were you lost without me?” Avery hugs his fluffy, curly neck. Sebastian continues to whine and howl, not even knowing what to do with himself besides fall over and allow Avery to love up on him with a belly rub. “Well, I missed you too. Yes, I did, big baby. Ooh, I just love you sooo much.”

“Are you hungry, Avie?” Harry wonders. “Please say you’re hungry.”

Avery rights herself, much to Sebby’s dismay. “Starving, actually. It smells amazing in here.”

“Well, it’s Saturday, and Saturday means…”

“Saturday Brunch.” Avery finishes with a knowing grin. She’s been looking forward to this for weeks now, there is nothing like it. In her opinion, it is their very best family tradition.

“I wanted to make it special for you. I made every one of your favorites and I even got you donuts from that place you and Papa love. I really hope I didn’t forget anything.”

Avery smiles wide, standing up on her tiptoes to throw her arms around his neck and hug him. She feels so incredibly loved and sufficiently welcomed home. “Aww Dad, you’re the best! Thank you so much.”

“You know I couldn’t let you come home without a proper welcome, Munch.” Harry answers, kissing her forehead lightly. “And I thought that—”

“Ryannnn!” A loud shout comes echoing throughout the hall, interrupting Harry.

“What!” Ryan answers back from what sounds like the living room.

“Did you drink my tea?”

“Hmm?”

“My tea!” Noah yells even louder. “My earl grey tea with a splash of milk in it! It was on the counter and now it’s not!”

“That was yours?”

“Are you serious right now!” Noah screams. “Dad just made that for me!”

There’s a bit of a pause, the house falling silent for once before Ryan’s voice answers again. “And it was really good!”

Noah screeches dramatically, the sound reverberating against the walls. “I can’t believe you!”

Harry takes a deep breath, offering Avery an exhausted look as he slowly begins to smile. “Well, as you can tell your little sisters are as spirited as ever.”

“It’s like I never left.” Avery laughs happily, seeming to find it all so endearing.

“Daddyyyyyy!” Noah calls next, her voice growing louder as she rounds the corner. But her frustration melts right into excitement as she spots her older sister waving at her. “Ree! You’re home!”

When the twins were just learning to talk, Ryan couldn’t pronounce the word Avery to save her life. No matter how many times Harry and Louis said it to her or even Avery herself, it just would not compute. So she started shortening the name to only the ending syllable. Noah and Ryan were constantly parroting each other so it quickly caught on between the two of them and thus they both still call their big sister Ree to this day.

“Nacho!” Avery greets enthusiastically, using an old nickname she has for Noah. Very old actually, one she made up when she was 11-years-old and discovered that the word nacho consisted of all the letters of her new baby sister’s name.

“Oh my god! She’s here!?” Ryan screams eagerly from the living room somewhere. And it’s only seconds before she also makes an appearance. “Ree!”

“Hi, French fry!” Avery beams just as animatedly. Again, the mind of an 11-year-old found it amusing that Ry rhymes with Fry. Plus, she couldn’t call one of them something food related and not the other.

If anything, they are a family that is not shy of nicknames. They seem to be full to the brim with cheesy monikers and fond expressions, each and every one special in their own unique way. The number of random nicknames surrounding their household is like a running inside joke at this point. And while these unique names may appear random and unnecessary to anyone outside of their family, none of the members of the Styles-Tomlinson gang would have it any other way.

There is a good amount of overly excited screaming coming from the three sisters as Avery yanks both twins against her. She tucks one of her younger sisters under each arm as she hugs them impossibly close. “I missed you two troublemakers.”

“We missed you too.”

“It’s been so lame without you, oh my god.” Noah groans dramatically.

“Ugh yes, beyond lame.” Ryan agrees instantly. “Please don’t ever leave us again.”

“Oh! Now we don’t have to beg Dad or Papa to take us shopping anymore!” Noah realizes excitedly.

“Can we even go shopping?” Ryan questions. “We’re grounded, remember?”

“As if I would forget, Ry. Like, my life is actually ruined, I don’t need reminding.” Noah huffs.

“It’s my life too, Noe. Okay? It’s my life too.”

“Hey, you two, shut up.” Avery says, talking over their bickering. “This is about me.”

Noah and Ryan start laughing and Avery joins them, snuggling them closer.

“Aww, all my girls together again.” Harry hugs his arms around all three of his daughters.

Louis appears in the foyer, coming from the far side of the house where the garage is. “Oh? Are we cuddling? You know I love a cuddle.”

Harry welcomes Louis into the cuddle circle, the two of them surrounding their three beautiful girls in a warm group hug.

“But where’s my little bubba?” Avery wonders, it’s definitely not a cuddle if Casey isn’t around.

“Probably napping.” Louis supplies easily.

“Correct.” Harry confirms with a grin. “He woke up really early for you, but he ended up falling asleep on the couch.”

“Aww.” Avery pouts, totally endeared by her baby brother.

Avery was nineteen when Casey was born so in many ways, he feels like her baby too. She’s adored him since the second she laid eyes on his cute chubby cheeks. When she’s home they are practically inseparable, Casey always finding a reason to follow Avery around like her shadow.

As if he heard them discussing him, the little boy in question makes an appearance in the hallway. His already unruly head of hair is sticking up in ridiculous directions, a usual occurrence for him. Casey rubs his eyes sleepily as he shuffles down the hall wrapped up in the sherpa blanket he stole from the couch.

“Hi bubba!” Avery crouches down and holds her arms out to her brother. “Come here, sleepyhead!”

The small boy smiles wide as ever as he realizes who is standing before him. He throws down his blanket haphazardly and he skips over to her in a rush, falling into her outstretched arms. Avery lifts him up in her arms and blows kisses to his cheeks, which easily makes him giggle adorably.

“Avie! I missed you! Much, much!” Casey announces, arms held wide in demonstration.

“You missed me, did you? Cuz I missed you, like, tons more.” Avery widens her eyes, grinning. “Much, much, much!”

 “No, I missed you tons and toooons more.” Casey describes in urgency. “And! I got lots to tell you!”

“You do?” Avery gasps in surprise, bringing an even bigger smile out of him.

Casey nods, pulling his lips up with his fingers to expose his teeth while still trying to talk. “I wost a ‘ooth!”

“You did!” Avery smiles fondly. “Look at you, you’re so big! How’d you get so big so fast?”

“I eat a lot and I sleep a lot a lot.” Casey explains seriously. “So yeah, I’m big.”

Avery laughs, pinching his round cheeks before snuggling him. “Mmm, you’re so cute, I missed you.”

||✚||

Harry holds Louis’ hand in his as they quietly watch their four kids reunite with each other. Even with the wide age gaps that separate them, their children are still so incredibly close and it warms Harry’s heart to see how much they really love each other.

“You know what it’s time for?” A slow grin spreads across Harry’s face as an idea forms in his mind.

“Brunch?” Noah questions hopefully. “Because I’m so hungry, I could die.”

“I’m literally moments from passing out.” Ryan adds, throwing her head back exaggeratedly.

Louis eyes her flatly. “Dramatic much, Rex?”

“Catch me, Papa. I’m feeling faint from starvation.” Ryan mimes fainting, letting herself fall back against her father’s chest.

Louis slings one arm over her, leaning down to kiss the top of her head before looking back to Harry curiously. “What are you thinking, H?”

“If it’s not food related, I don’t want to hear it.” Noah starts again before Harry can get a single word in.

Louis pulls Noah in towards him with his free arm, holding the twins close. “Will you both hush and let your dad talk please.”

“Thank you, Lou. So, I was thinking it’s time for a family tradition.” Harry’s grin only grows wider and wider as he starts to wiggle his eyebrows.

“Awh no…” Ryan groans as she seems to understand where this is going, leaning more of her weight against Louis. “Please just let us eat, Dad! Come on!”

Louis also gets it right away, a knowing smile appearing on his lips. He looks between his daughters, giving off an easygoing shrug. “If you can convince these lot to do it, I’ll be impressed.”

One by one, Avery, Noah, and Casey also catch on to exactly what their dad’s goofy grin means, and it’s almost like a visible lightbulb appearing over each of their heads.

“You can’t be serious, Daddy!” Noah complains next, casting her head back exasperatedly against Louis’ shoulder. “What about my stomach? I told you, I’m starving! I didn’t even have my tea!”

“We have to do it!” Harry retains adamantly, unbothered by the complaints of his children. “What’s the point of having a family handshake if not for moments like this?”

“I wanna do it!” Casey enthuses, eyes wide with excitement, the usual response from him. “Yay! I love the handshake!”

Ryan rolls her eyes. “Of course you want to do it.”

“No surprises there.” Noah agrees, huffing.

And not moments later the three youngest are all bickering over each other, arguing their points of view on the subject. The twins deadset on the only thing that currently matters to them, food; while Casey adamantly maintains that they should do it because memories are very important. Harry has never been prouder hearing him say that all on his own. Clearly, he will be the one out of all their kids to keep traditions alive for years to come.

“Okay, alright, enough. How about we let Avery decide.” Harry suggests.

“Fine.” Ryan allows after a beat. “Don’t fail us now, Ree.”

“You know what’s right.” Noah adds, narrowing her eyes pointedly.

They all look to her in anticipation, five sets of eyes. Avery, who has been quietly, but amusedly observing the family dynamics, looks back in surprise.

“Oh, okay? So much pressure.” Avery laughs to herself. “I say that we…” She bites her lip as she contemplates her options, then slowly begins to match the same dimpled grin Harry had. “…do it!”

“Yes!” Harry fists bumps her in triumph. “That’s my girl!”

“Ugh, I am so disappointed in you. My own sister…” Noah sighs, shaking her head as though betrayed. “Let’s make it quick please.”

“My stomach is eating itself as we speak.” Ryan grumbles to herself.

“At least you had tea.” Noah snaps bitterly.

“Oi, chill out, you two. You’re both being ridiculous.” Avery tells them in a way that is very reminiscent of Louis and to Harry’s surprise they actually listen to her. Not without one last extravagant huff though.

The Styles-Tomlinson Family Handshake was originally created when there were only three of them, Harry, Louis, and Avery. Of course, once the twins were of age, five to be specific, Harry integrated them into the time-honored ritual. Casey actually joined much earlier in his life, only because he literally begged to be a part of it and didn’t want to be left out anymore.

Creating a six-person handshake is truly Harry’s magnum opus, his finest hour, his proudest moment. They’ve actually gone viral for it. Louis filmed the whole thing once and posted it on social media and since he has quite the following in the medical community, it didn’t take long for the video to pick up traction on a viral level. Noah and Ryan were mortified of course, but eventually they got over it.

It starts out by the six of them forming a tightknit circle, all facing each other in pairs. Louis with Harry, Ryan with Noah, and Avery with Casey. Essentially everyone in the family interacts with each other in pairs at some point during the group handshake. Each pair is synced up so that as a group they’re all doing the exact same thing at the same time. Then at the end of a sequence, the pairings switch, moving to pair up with the person on their left until they come full circle and end up back with their original family member partner.

With each pairing swap, the movements get a little faster, which makes it really fun, each of them adding their own unique personality to the routine. Although it sounds challenging to anyone outside of their family, the Styles-Tomlinson’s have the timing down to a science.

And even though it might have been like pulling teeth to get them to do the handshake at first, by the time they all really get into it, there isn’t one of them that isn’t smiling happily or laughing hysterically as they move through the practiced family ritual.

Harry always tells them that when they’re all grown up, they’ll look back on this and remember it as one of their most fond, vivid memories and maybe one day they’ll even want to continue the legacy and start a handshake of their own with their future families.

It comes to what Louis’ refers to as the very best part of their little dance, where they go around their circle and pass along a kiss on the cheek. Louis always starts it out, bending down to leave one on Casey’s cheek who then passes it to Noah then Harry then Avery then Ryan and when it gets back to Louis, he turns and sends it right back around the other direction.

Similar to how it started, The Styles-Tomlinson Family Handshake ends in a big, warm family hug. They all stack their hands atop each other, starting with Casey’s small hands at the bottom and going up in birth order. At the end of the countdown, all four kids crowd together in the middle, with Louis and Harry’s hands clasped to form a tight circle around them. It’s seriously the best thing ever as far as Harry is concerned.

“Mmm.” Harry hums contently, his arms outstretched around his and Louis’ babies. “I love you guys so much.”

||✿||

Avery knows she’s probably eaten far too much for one sitting already but that doesn’t stop her from putting together another plate full of food. She has been missing Saturday Brunch since the day she left months ago and she is determined to enjoy every single minute of it now. But it’s not just the food she missed, it’s the company, the warm fellowship around a table full of her favorite people.

“So Ree, did you find someone to date yet?” Noah questions, looking across the table expectantly.

Avery nearly chokes on a hefty forkful of blueberry waffle, caught off guard. Nothing like little sisters, loving to stir the pot. And to think Avery just referred to her as one of her favorite people. Shame.

“Noah. Come on, seriously.” Harry chastises.

“What?” Noah shrugs innocently. “It’s just a question…”

“I would also like the answer to the question, for the record.” Ryan pipes up.

Harry gives his middle children a disapproving look. “Would you two worry about yourselves. Just eat the food you’ve been begging me for all day and leave your sister alone. She just got home.”

Avery looks to her dad thankfully, managing to swallow down the rest of her food. It wouldn’t be that awkward of a question, if it weren’t for the fact that she’s just starting to finally get over the worst breakup of her life.

And it was bad, just downright awful and embarrassing. At the time she felt totally blindsided, but when Avery thinks back on it now, she still feels a bit dumb for not having seen it coming sooner.

They’d been dating for two years, her and Drew, coming up on their third anniversary. They met through mutual friends and hit it off pretty easily; he was smart and charmingly funny. Drew wasn’t in the medical world at any capacity, he was an elementary education major working on his master’s degree. But Avery kind of liked that about him, their differing career passions, well she did at first anyway.

Although he didn’t truly understand the rigors and demands of a medical career, Drew always said that he supported Avery. He assured her that he wasn’t bothered by the fact that she would eventually surpass him in both education and earning potential, he promised none of that mattered to him. But his actions didn’t match that sentiment. Avery put so much of herself into their relationship, which wasn’t easy as a medical student with hardly any time to begin with. But Drew was never that appreciative of her efforts, always passive aggressively insinuating that there was more she could do, more time she should spend with him.

In the biggest dick move, Drew dumped Avery on her birthday weekend while they were out at a nice restaurant to celebrate. As he was explaining himself, he told her he was going to wait to do it, but he just couldn’t take it anymore. Avery didn’t know what was worse, that her boyfriend was planning to keep on pretending with her for god only knows how long or that he was selfish enough to ruin her 25^th birthday.

Drew told her that she wasn’t fun anymore, too career minded, too independent, too ambitious, too this, too that, basically berating her about why Avery wasn’t good enough. And by the third minute of his tirade, Avery had more than enough, splashing a full glass of red wine in his face and hoping it would irreparably stain his shirt, as she stormed out of the restaurant and didn’t look back.

She hasn’t talked to him since, but she cried on and off for weeks when it happened, unable to stop herself from feeling so heartbroken. It was her first major break-up and it hurt like hell. So much so, that it became the main driving force for her to get away after graduation. Of course, she wanted to do something good and help, but she also desperately needed time away from it all.

Her parents, god love them, were absolutely livid on her behalf. So protective of her heart, they couldn’t stand to see her hurting in any capacity. Her dad never really liked Drew to begin with and after hearing the story of how he publicly dumped and humiliated her, Avery had to beg him from furiously going over to Drew’s apartment in her defense. And although he never flat out said it initially, Avery knows her papa wasn’t the biggest fan of Drew either from the start. But he made it perfectly clear that any man who was threatened by her ambition was not worth her time and that she was better off without an, “insecure, insignificant fuckhead” holding her back.

Anyway, Avery has sworn off men for the time being. She literally cried for weeks over that guy and for what? He definitely didn’t have her best interest at heart, and he couldn’t have respected her much to end things so immaturely. Now that she’s had much needed time away, Avery knows she deserves better, and she also knows that she deserves the space to take time for herself for a while.

“No, I’m not, thank you for asking.” Avery answers, now that she’s properly cleared her throat of the rest of her waffle. “I’ve got more important things to worry about and I can’t be bothered with dating right now.”

“Sounds lame.” Ryan comments, unimpressed.

“Yeah, like, super lame.” Noah coincides. “Like the kind of lame a lonely person would use as an excuse.”

“I really think you should get back out there, Ree.”

“Yeah…because nothing would help you get over whatshisface faster than dating someone new.”

“Right, thank you both for your input on your sister’s love life.” Louis intervenes for Avery’s sake. “I’m sure she appreciates advice from two 14-year-olds.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she does, Papa.” Noah nods proudly. “Because we give great advice.”

“Girl, we give the best advice.” Ryan corrects.

“Okay, loves. Sure.” Louis nods, ready to move on to a different conversational topic. “Anyway Aves, everyone is dying to see you, so we thought we’d have a little welcome home party later. Well, not a party, really…but you know.”

“Aww, that’s really sweet.” Avery smiles, touched that her extended family missed her so.

“They all promised to come.” Harry adds. “Your uncles and your Aunt Frankie—”

“Oh my god!” Ryan blurts out suddenly, drawing everyone’s attention to her. “That means L.D. is coming too!”

“And if he’s coming, that means so is his best friend!” Noah gushes, finishing her twin’s thought.

“What does that—”

“Alex!” They scream in the highest of pitches right into Harry’s ear, squealing with glee, which leaves Harry wincing while rubbing his temples.

“Um probably yes, because as I was just saying, both of his parents are coming.” Harry reiterates.

L.D. and the twins are really close, have been since they were little toddlers. In early development, most sets of twins tend to be each other’s best friends and don’t often bond with other children until later in adolescence. That wasn’t the case with L.D., Ryan and Noah welcomed him into their tight circle from the very beginning. Yes, they tease him and play tricks on him, but they also adore him completely and look up to him.

L.D.’s best friend happens to be Alex Payne-Malik who is also sixteen. He was adopted at the age of two, right around the time the twins were born. The four of them have all grown up together.

“So you two like Alex, now?” Avery question in confusion. “Since when?”

“You missed a lot this summer.” Noah declares as she gets up from the table. “If you want to talk about this you need to come up to our office.”

Avery looks up at a loss for what on earth that could mean. “Your what?”

“Our office!” Ryan repeats, joining her twin. “We can’t discuss this under prying ears…”

“But I’m eating.” Avery complains, not wanting to get up just yet. “And I’m sure Dad and Papa know all about whatever this is with Alex.”

Their parents nod silently in confirmation, expressions flat and mildly exasperated. Avery can only imagine the utter nonsense her younger sisters have been up to while she’s been away.

“They only think they know.” Noah claims as both twins glance across the table to their unamused parents.

Oh, to be fourteen and naïve again. Thinking you know everything and somehow have secrets from your parents. It’s quite an insult to their parent’s intelligence, really. But Avery is rather curious. Of course, realistically she knows there probably isn’t much to know, but it’s still entertaining regardless.

“Well, excuse me, I guess.” Avery sighs, gradually forcing herself up from her seat. “Dad, don’t get rid of my plate. I’ll be back for it.”

“It’ll be here waiting for you, honey.” Harry promises.

“Have a good secret chat, loves!” Louis waves them off, knowingly. “We’ll just be here blissfully unaware.”

“But haven’t you heard, Lou? Ignorance is bliss.” Harry teases and Louis laughs lightly, the two of them grinning stupidly at each other.

“Ree, come on!” Each twin takes one of Avery’s hands impatiently, dragging her up to their rooms.

“So this is your ‘office’?” Avery questions as she finds herself being ushered though Noah’s bedroom door.

“Yes, Ryan’s room is the one we sleep in and my room is our office.” Noah explains as though it’s obvious. “Keep up.”

“Right.” Avery plops down on Noah’s hardly used bed, still confused as to why these two need an office in the first place but that’s a question for another day. “Okay. Well, as I was saying downstairs, Alex is like family. He feels like my baby brother, they both do.”

“Um no Ree, we share no bloodline with Alex.” Ryan reminds.

“L.D. yes, he’s legit family, basically our fraternal triplet—but not Alex.” Noah sighs his name dreamily, falling back against the bed near Avery.

Avery still doesn’t see it, maybe because she used to babysit him and change his diapers. “Yeah, but—”

“No buts!” Ryan interrupts, holding a hand up. “You haven’t seen him all summer, but he is just beautiful now.”

“Like stunning, Ree. You would not believe...like, god’s gift honestly.”

Avery can’t help but roll her eyes at the histrionics put on by her siblings.

“So here’s some backstory so you can catch up.” Noah starts, leaning in on the bed. “Alex and L.D. play on the soccer team together.”

“Right, so that explains your recent obsession with soccer.” Avery surmises with a nod.

“Um no, actually we started playing for Papa.” Ryan corrects.

“Exactly, you know how much he loves his precious ‘footie’.” Noah reminds. “He set up that whole thing in the backyard and he’s been so excited about it.”

“Yeah, like, what were we supposed to do? Tell him no thanks?”

“That would break his little British heart.”

“And we love him too much for that. Obviously, we had to start playing.” Ryan continues, playing with her hair as she talks. “Alex just so happens to also play. Total coincidence.”

“It’s fate, really.” Noah decides wistfully, smiling. “He’s a dream.”

“He’s my dream.” Ryan insists, looking just as ridiculously spellbound.

“Wow. Alright.” Avery looks between the twins curiously. “So what? Are you two going to share him or…?”

“No, he’s mine!” They both say at once before whipping around to glare at each other in offense. They sit up on the bed, mirroring each other with their arms crossed defensively over their chests.

Ryan narrows her eyes, lips pursed. “Noe, we talked about this, okay? Alex and I…we have way more in common. It just makes more sense.”

“As if.” Noah scoffs with an eyeroll.

And that’s all it takes for the two teenagers to start bickering again, not that it ever really takes all that much. Avery can only lay back and watch the two of them duke it out.

“Well, I’m older so he should be mine!” Noah claims boldly.

“Oh please! You’re delusional! You were born one whole minute before me and somehow you think that gives you some sort of birthright.” Ryan argues, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. “Get real, Noah.”

“No, you get real! I am older and it matters!”

“It has never mattered, and you know it!”

“Don’t tell me what I know, Ryan!”

“I’ll tell you whatever I want!”

“You two are really too much.” Avery laughs, shaking her head. “No wonder Dad and Papa are so tired.”

Ryan and Noah seem to come to a momentary truce, stopping their arguing at least for the time being. Although they still continue to eye each other closely.

“We keep their lives interesting.” Noah comments as she returns her attention back to her older sister. “Anyway, Ree, now that you’re home again, maybe you can help us.”

“Yes, please help us!” Ryan begs with widened eyes. “It’s what big sisters are for.”

“Um? Help you with what?”

“Avery, have you not been listening!” Noah bursts, tossing her hands up. “Getting Alex to not see us as little kids anymore, duh.”

They’re all little kids in Avery’s mind, but alright.

“The plan is to go to prom with him.” Ryan reveals, getting that same awestruck grin on her face.

“You’re only freshmen…” Avery points out.

“Yes, we know, but he’s a junior!”

Avery takes a deep breath, trying to wrap her mind around this without bursting into laughter. “Again, I’m still a bit lost around the part where there are two of you and one of him. Clear that up for me maybe?”

“Don’t worry about that.” The two answer simultaneously.

“Uhh…” Avery’s mouth hangs ajar as she glances back and forth between them, clearly missing something. It’s also creepy when they make plans and decide stuff telepathically in their heads and then just start talking in sync.

“Please be more hopeful, okay Ree? We don’t need the negative energy right now.” 

“Positive vibes only.” Ryan reiterates. “Now please, let’s have some constructive thoughts on the matter, shall we?”

“Oh my god.” Avery sighs heavily, there really is no discouraging these two. They are a mess, that’s the only way to describe them. A hot mess. But aren’t all teenagers to a certain extent?

||✿||

Avery spends the rest of the afternoon having a perfectly lazy Saturday. After listening to the twins draft up multiple preposterous plans to romance Alex for another hour, Avery hangs out with her dad in the kitchen. They catch up as she finishes her food, which she can hardly manage because her dad has her constantly laughing with his lame but endearing jokes. Then she spends some time chasing Sebby around in the backyard with Casey, the three of them playing a thrilling game of hide and seek together.

And now she’s reclined on one of the couches, snuggled up to her papa under a warm blanket as they wait for everyone to arrive. Casey and her dad ran out to the store to pick up a few things, Ryan and Noah opting to stay behind to nap on the couch. They had the right idea, Avery definitely falls asleep on her papa at some point, completely exhausted from her flight and way too cozy to fight it. But he just holds her against him, petting her hair softly as she nods off.

Avery startles awake at the sound of the doorbell ringing, adjusting her head against her father’s chest.

“I’ll get it!” Both twins shout, leaping up from the adjacent couch like their lives literally depend on it. They shove each other on their race to get to the front door first, fighting tooth and nail every step of the way.

“Ryan!” Noah hisses when her sister sidesteps ahead of her.

“Oh my god—you’re literally trying to trip me!” Ryan huffs in frustration.

“No, you’re just in the way!”

“How can I be in your way, if you’re in my way!”

Avery sleepily giggles at them, rubbing at her eyes. “They never change do they.”

“Oh, never.” Louis grins, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. “Welcome home, love.”

“Ugh, it’s just you.” Ryan sighs in disappointment as she realizes who is at the door.

“What a waste of energy.” Noah sulks, turning her back on the teenage boy following them inside the house.  

“I know you’re so happy to see me, Big Head One and Big Head Two.” L.D. smiles wide, teasing them just like an older brother would. His dark curly hair is stuffed under a backwards baseball cap, the ends coiling wildly around the edges of the hat. “Don’t try to hide it.”

“Shut up.” Ryan shoves his shoulder playfully. “You’re the one with the big head, L.D.” Noah quips back. “I’m surprised that hat even stays on.”

“Noah, cut it out.” Louis frowns, having gotten up to give L.D. a welcoming hug.

“Thanks, Uncle Lou.”

“Don’t mention it, lad.” Louis claps his hand to L.D.’s shoulder supportively. “Ignore these two, alright?”

“This is how we show our love, Papa.” Noah defends. “L.D. understands that I basically just gave him a compliment. Right, L.D.?”

“No, my ego is completely shattered, I’ll never recover from this.” L.D. holds his heart as if wounded, his jokester spirit coming out. Noah and Ryan only eye him flatly as he smiles back in amusement.

“So…do you know if Alex is coming over?” Noah manages to ask in a way that actually sounds normal and light.

“Nah, he’s got PSAT prep—”

“On a Saturday night?!” Ryan bursts, a lot less cool than her twin just was.

L.D. considers her oddly for a moment. “Um...yeah I guess? Our test is in a few weeks and he said he’s behind, so…”

“I’m going to bed.” Ryan sighs heavily in defeat.

“A waste of perfectly good makeup.” Noah grumbles under her breath.

L.D. frowns at their reactions, totally clueless as to what they could mean, but clearly offended regardless. “Aren’t I enough? What is with you guys?”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I’m genuinely happy to see you.” Avery comes up to him, opening her arms for a hug. 

L.D. gives her one of his characteristically shy but sly grins, before hugging her back. “Avery, you know you’ve always been my favorite.”

“Obviously.” Avery teases. “Hold on, why are you taller than me now? This isn’t right.”

L.D. blushes, standing a bit awkwardly as he slouches over himself in a bashful sort of way. He fiddles with the cap on his head, trying to avoid the attention.

“And oh my god! Is that a baby hair on your chin?” Avery gushes, making a big fuss over the poor boy. But how can she not? He’s basically her other little brother and she will always make a fuss over her baby LouLou.

His cheeks somehow flourish an even brighter shade of red as he grows more embarrassed. He slaps both of his hands over his face, obviously mortified.

“Aww Louis David!” She pries his hands away only to squeeze his flushed cheeks, tilting his head from side to side. “You’re a little man now!”

“Avery!” L.D. whines, his voice cracking slightly, literally begging her to stop.

“Okay, enough embarrassment for one day, I guess.” Avery concedes, reluctantly letting him go. “I’ll leave you alone for now.”

“Sorry—got stuck on the phone with a client.” Frankie announces as she finally makes her way through the front door. Her attention goes straight to Avery and her face immediately lights up animatedly. “Ah! There’s my girl! Come here, babe!”

“Aunt Frankie!” Avery enthuses just as excitedly, hurrying across the room to hug her.

Frankie sways Avery back and forth in her arms for several moments and Avery goes easily. “God, I’ve really missed you.” She reaches to touch her hair, lovingly tucking a strand behind Avery’s ear. “Ugh, and the hair—ah! You look so wonderful, dove. Getting away did you well.”

Apart from her parents and her friends, her Aunt Frankie was the one who really helped her process through her emotional breakup. She held Avery as she cried and got angry along with her when all Avery wanted to do was bitch and complain about the whole thing for the twentieth time. She even took Avery out for a weekend spa retreat to help get her mind off of things and made sure she had all of her favorite comfort foods and comfort movies. Her aunt is really like a mother figure to her and Avery has a love for her that runs so very deep in her heart.

“I think it did.” Avery nods a little, smiling.

“It’s so good you’re home, you know your parents were losing their minds missing you.”

“I was missing them too. I missed all of you, really.”

“There’s that sweetness I love so much.” Frankie grins fondly, seeming unable to keep herself from embracing Avery again.

Noah and Ryan make another appearance, but only to greet their favorite aunt. “Hi, Aunt Frankie.”

“Well, hello my little monkeys.” Frankie brings them both in, leaving her arms wrapped around them.

“Aunt Frankie, when are we going for a girl’s day?” Noah wonders, tilting her head up at her. “I really need one.”

“Me too.” Ryan agrees with a nod. “It’s been a while. A long while.”

“And our schedule recently opened right up.” Noah adds.

“Oh yes, your dad told me all about your recent antics and how you had to be grounded.” Frankie purses her lips disapprovingly at them. “What have I told you girls about switching places?”

“To only use our powers for good.” The twins repeat in unison, hanging their heads.

“Exactly.”

“But Aunt Frankie, this was the greater good.” Ryan insists.

Frankie tilts her head, listening. “How so, babe?”

The twins look around suspiciously, lowering their voices. “We’ll talk later, okay.” Then they scurry off as quickly as they came, leaving so many questions unanswered.

Avery and Frankie share a look, before laughing together. “Your little sisters are something else.”

“That’s putting it mildly. I don’t know how my parents manage them.”

“Oh, they don’t.” Frankie decides in certainty. “It seems to me that those girls are actually the ones doing all the managing.

Avery laughs in agreement. “I think you’re right.”

||✚||

Harry pours Liam a glass of white wine before filling up his own glass. The two of them have been talking casually in the corner of the living room while the family get-together continues on around them. Although the living room is expansive, it’s still quite loud with all the different conversations going on, not to mention all the kids running around.

“Harry, can I ask you something?” Liam questions suddenly, leaning against the mantle of the unlit fireplace.

“Of course, mate. Anything.” Harry answers straightaway.

“Okay, tell me if this is too personal, but we’ve been friends for so long—and I promise there is a real reason as to why I’m asking but—”

“Out with it, Liam.” Harry encourages, taking a sip from his wine glass.

“Um, okay so…” Liam starts slowly, looking awkward in how he talks. “How often would you say that you and Louis…you know…have sex?”

“All the time.” Harry replies easily, not thinking much about it.

“Yeah, okay...but, like, seriously how often?” Liam probes again.

“I’m serious. We do it all the time. Literally whenever we get a chance—I mean to be fair, we have lows like every couple where we’re just really busy but then we have like?” Harry pauses, thinking about it a bit more. “I guess you could call them “phases” for lack of a better word? Yeah, phases…where we get really horny for each other. I mean I’m always horny for my husband at any given moment but sometimes it’s like…intense.”

“Like how intense?”

“Extremely.” Harry emphasizes.

“Give me a number, Harry. Like in one extremely horny week you go what? Twice? Maybe three times?”

Harry lifts his glass back to his lips and takes a long, avoidant sip.

“Four times?”

Harry averts his eyes, remaining quite.

“No…five? Six? More than ten? What the fuck…” 

“I love my husband very much, okay.” 

“But how do you find the time? Zayn and I are so busy, we hardly do it once or twice in a month.” 

“Oh god, Liam, that’s sad.” Harry winces as though genuinely in pain. “Like, really sad. You’re breaking my heart. I don’t know if I even want to be around you right now, it’s making me depressed.”

“I know, ok!” Liam scowls, blushing with a bit of embarrassment. “Stop judging me!”

“I’m not!” Harry defends. “I’m just…a concerned friend. And anyway, you brought it up!”

“Ugh, there’s literally not enough time in the day.”

“Make time.” Harry suggests simply.

“Make time? Make time!” Liam scoffs, angrily taking a sip of his own wine as he shakes his head. “How? How do you ‘make time’, Harry?” He puts it in finger quotes. “Louis is literally The Chief of Surgery, you have active kids and your foundation to run and—”

“Make time.” Harry repeats, interrupting Liam’s rant. “Yeah, we’re busy, but we need that time together. It’s a high priority. I show up to Louis’ office and tell him to fuck me all the time. And most times it’s exactly what we both needed. How do you think we deal with all those things without sufficient stress relief?”

“More like excessive.” Liam grumbles.

“Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, friend.”

“Zayn and I used to have sex all the time.” Liam recounts longingly with a sigh. “Like, all the time.”

“I remember.” Harry nods, having vivid memories of the times he’s actually walked in on the couple on accident. Louis warned him that sometimes things done in on-call rooms can’t be unseen and god, was he right.

“Right, yeah…but then we had Alex and we both became heads of our respective departments and then Lila came around—I mean she didn’t magically come around, we decided to have her—you know what I mean…anyway, there’s always something going on in our house and now I’ve taken over the Residency Program which is great, but a lot of extra work and we hardly have time to just? Connect. You know?”

“Maybe you need to take a break? You know go off, just the two of you. No kids, no work, no distractions.”

Liam considers this, eyebrows furrowed together in thought. “It has been awhile since we had a vacation.”

“And you know the kids are always welcome to stay with us. Casey loves playing with Lila and I think we are all well aware of how my girls feel about Alex. They’d probably combust at the idea of him being here.”

“Are we really sure that’s a good idea then?”

Harry shrugs, not exactly sure of the answer. He’s pretty certain the twins are mostly harmless, but who really knows at this point. “Well, there’s always Niall and Charlie or Frankie. My point is, you should get away. You’ve got more than enough capable babysitters at your disposal.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll talk to Z about it.” Liam decides slowly. “I’m sure he won’t need much convincing.”

“I mean…if it’s really been a whole month since you had sex with your husband, who would?”

“Shut up!” Liam sighs, expression a combination of frustration and embarrassment. “Okay, but seriously—in a not horny phase, just a regular week, you and Louis go at it at a normal rate, right?”

Harry just chuckles, shaking his head as he seals his lips around his glass. “I’m not talking about this anymore, Li.”

“Ugh.” Liam grumbles as Niall passes by them. He reaches out and grabs his arm lightly. “Hey, hey Niall, what about you?”

Niall meets Liam’s gaze in confusion, entering the conversation with no context. “What about me what?”

“How often do you and Charlie have sex?”

“Uh…what?” Niall blinks, taken aback.

“Come on, just answer honestly.” Liam encourages. “Harry and Louis are apparently rabbits and I need the answer of a normal couple.”

“Hey…” Harry frowns at Liam. “I resent that, Liam.”

“Um…” Niall looks completely distracted, his eyes categorizing his wife’s every move from where she stands alone across the room. His brow pinches and an expression of distress colors his features.

“Niall, are you okay, mate?” Harry asks in concern, leaning a bit closer.

“Yeah…um—excuse me.” Niall takes his leave without another word and heads over to Charlie.

Harry and Liam share knowing, equally worried looks. This has been going on for awhile, Niall is barely present most days, actively avoiding any sort of confrontation or even friendly conversation. Harry can’t help but be deeply concerned for his friend.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have asked him.” Liam comments regretfully.

“I don’t think it’s you.”

Harry watches across the room as Niall and Charlie have what is shaping up to be a heated debate in the back corner. Although he can’t make out what they are saying, both of their stances are clearly defensive. It’s clear that whatever they are saying can’t be too good.

“Hey, what’s up with them?” Louis asks as he slides in next to his husband’s side.

“The usual. I try to stay out of it. Last time I tried to help, Niall chewed my head off.” Zayn says, joining the group. “I feel for them though…it’s so awful what happened.”

“I know.” Louis nods sadly, leaning further against Harry and wrapping his arm around his waist. “They really haven’t been the same since.”

Charlie walks off towards the kitchen suddenly with a drink in her hand, leaving Niall staring at the floor for a few moments. He seems to refocus himself and looks up to notice his friends all watching him with the same fretful expression. The four of them try to quickly look away once he notices them, but it’s clearly too late. Niall sighs and slowly crosses the room to rejoin the group.

“You two okay?” Louis asks lightly, but still in a way that shows how genuinely worried he is.

Niall still looks disoriented, eyes sort of glassed over before gradually shaking it off. “Um yeah…yeah, fine.”

Louis looks at him seriously. “Well…just with everything that happened—”

“Fine, Louis. We’re fine.”

“Okay.” Louis drops it, shutting his mouth. Harry tightens his hold around him in reassurance.

There is a tense silence that falls amongst the group of friends, everyone silently thinking of ways to salvage and refocus the conversation in a more positive light.

Zayn clears his throat first, breaking the stilted moment. “So uh…our little Avery is an intern. How proud are we?”

“Beyond proud.” Louis beams instantly. “It feels kind of surreal you know. Like yesterday we were dropping her off at elementary school and now…she’s a doctor.”

“I still can’t believe it.” Harry shakes his head. “In my mind she’s still Casey’s age.”

“Any bets as to where she’ll end up?” Liam wonders.

“Obviously, I’d love for her to join me in Neuro, but I’d never pressure her.”

“She’d be great in Peds. A natural.” Niall comments rather quietly.

“We definitely need more women in Ortho.” Liam reminds.

“Or what about Cardio?” Harry suggests. “That’s pretty badass.”

“Don’t cut Plastics out.”

“Oh, Plastics is out.” Louis confirms immediately, shutting down Zayn’s dreams right there on the spot. “No way is my daughter joining that circus.”

Zayn rolls his eyes, looking affronted. “Come on, don’t hate on The Plastics Posse. We have a good time, and we do good work too.”

“Sure.” Louis nods, his tone loaded with sarcasm. “Anyway, it’s her choice. Whatever she decides, we’ll be happy with as long as she’s happy. And she’s got loads of time. Hasn’t even had her first day yet.”

“I’m sure whatever she picks, she’ll be brilliant.” Harry says, which is ultimately true. Even if Avery woke up tomorrow and decided that she didn’t want to even be a doctor anymore, they would always support her.

“Exactly. You’re so right, baby.” Louis smiles up at him. “And we will be equally proud of her regardless.”

||✿||

Avery sits on the main couch in the living room, reclined back against the cushy pillows. The party has died down, most of her uncles and aunts having already gone home. But still, Avery finds comfort in just being here in the moment with her family. The house is so full of life. It’s what she really loves about it. There is never a dull moment.

Currently her parents are totally doting on each other as they clean up the lingering plates and dishes spread across the main table. They’re doing more giggling than cleaning truthfully, like they’re in their own little world. They probably are, it’s always like that when they’re together, it always has been.

Avery can’t help but smile as she watches her dad sweetly wrap both of his arms around her papa from behind, blowing affectionate kisses to his cheeks. He retaliates by pretending to swat him away at first as if he is so interested in actually cleaning up, but then he just melts against her dad and his entire face lights up with a glowing smile.

“See what we have to deal with all day.” Noah comments, nodding her head towards their swooning parents.

“They’re cute though.” Avery awes quietly, pulling her knees up to her chest on the couch.

“Ree, they’re embarrassing.” Ryan chimes in.

“Soooo embarrassing.” Noah groans in agreement.

Avery turns her attention towards her sisters, “You know, we’re lucky to have parents that really love each other.”

“I guess.”

“If you say so.”

Avery remembers as a young girl how she knew even then there was something special about them, something so rare about how they love each other. Now that she’s older, having experienced her own relationships, both failed and successful, she can appreciate it all that much more. How hard it is to make a lasting relationship work. How much continuous dedication it takes. How much mutual understanding and acceptance of each other’s flaws and strengths it requires. How much her parents have had to sacrifice and compromise to make their marriage so strong. How no matter what, they continue to support each other in everything whether it be at home or at work or somewhere in between. They’ve set such a good example of what love really is and how far love can go.  

“I’m serious!” Avery defends. “Can you imagine having parents who didn’t really care about each other? Or ones that argue and fight all the time?”

“Not really.” Ryan admits gradually in consideration.

“I can’t even picture them seriously fighting.” Noah adds contemplatively.

“Exactly. Even though they can be little too much sometimes—they really love each other, and they love us and we’re...we’re just so lucky.” Avery says. “I promise you guys, it’s not as common and normal as our parents make it seem.”

The twins both nod slowly, watching their parents with what appears to be new, albeit mild, appreciation.

Harry comes over to join them once he’s done in the kitchen, collapsing down on the couch next to Avery. He slings both of his arms around her shoulders, pulling her towards his chest. “Oh, my sweet Munchie. I’m so, soooo happy you’re home.” He coos, squeezing her tight with his cheek pressed together against hers.

Avery curls against him, giggling as his lips brush against her cheek with butterfly kisses. “Hi Daddy.”

Harry doesn’t let her go one bit, but sighs contently. “Balance has finally been restored to our home. You’re our peacekeeper, you know?”

Avery lifts her head up to him. “A referee you mean?”

Harry laughs loudly at that as Louis crosses the living room space to join them.

“You’re hogging our daughter.”

Harry still doesn’t budge on his hold, looking up at Louis. “And your point is?”

“I’m jealous.” Louis admits with a sheepish grin.

“Well, we can’t have that. You are more than welcome to join us, Lou.” Harry invites, adjusting his position to make room for his husband.

Louis happily takes his place on Harry’s lap leaning back against him. Harry slips his hands around his waist, clasping them together around Louis’ middle. Avery remains to their left on the couch, huddled close.

“You can’t forget about us now that Avery is home.” Noah says as she takes the free spot on the couch to her parents’ right.

“What? Forget you?” Harry lifts his right arm to curl around her shoulder, dipping down to kiss her temple several times. “Never, sweetheart. No one could ever replace my girls.”

“Promise?” Ryan asks next from her cozy new position nestled in Avery’s arms.

“Of course, love.” Louis assures wholeheartedly, reaching to cup her chin. “You each have a very special place in our hearts.”

It doesn’t take long for Casey to make his way over to the family pile up, looking left out and pouty. “I wanna sit with you too.”

“Oh, you do, do you? Let’s see if Daddy can handle that.” Louis lifts the little boy into his lap while also remaining balanced on Harry’s.

Harry harrumphs in response, adjusting to the additional weight resting on his lap.

“Doing okay there, babe?” Louis wonders, patting Harry’s thigh.

“Oh, anything for my boys.”  Harry stretches his long arms to wrap around them both.

Soon, the six of them are all heaped on top of each other, yet they’re the most comfortable. Avery leaning partially against Harry and Louis. Casey held against Louis’ chest, seated on his lap. Noah tucked under Harry’s other wing while Ryan lays across Avery’s lap.

It probably should feel cramped and maybe even overbearing, but Avery thinks it’s absolutely perfect.

“Aww, you guys are just too cute. The sweetest family.” Charlie notices as she passes through the living room. She’s been absent most of the night, avoiding conversation and now she appears to be on her way out, purse and keys in hand. “I have to get a picture of you together before I go.”

“Leaving already, Aunt Charlie?” Avery asks lightly. “I didn’t get to catch up with you.”

“Oh, we’ll have plenty of time to catch up. I promise.” Charlie smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes despite how hard she tries. Her red-lined eyes depict clear exhaustion, even with how she hides them behind the frames of her glasses. And Avery wishes she could take her pain away. “You’re a baby neurosurgeon in the making, right Louis?”

“Charlie, I told you…we can’t force her to join us in the best, most advanced surgical department in the hospital.” Louis emphasizes teasingly, winking at Avery. “We just have sit back and let her decide for herself.”

“Right, right.” Charlie nods obligatorily, grinning. “Well, regardless Avery, I’ll be seeing you every day now and we’re all so excited to have you at SSMC.”

“I’m just as excited.” Avery smiles genuinely.

“Alright, I’ve got to get home. I’m on-call starting at 3 AM.” Charlie shoulders her handbag, after pulling her phone out of it. “But I’m serious about that picture. You’ve got to see how cute you all look right now.”

They all smile, but end up partially laughing as the picture is taken because Sebby surprises them by jumping up on the couch. Or maybe it isn’t much of a surprise considering how that dog hates being left behind when it comes to family affairs.

Charlie promises to send the pictures to them as she makes her goodbyes and hurries towards the front door. She leaves as she came, alone and unaccompanied by her husband, something that never would have happened a year ago. But she sends the pictures right away as promised and Avery has to admit they really are quite cute together.

“I think we’ve found our annual Christmas card picture.” Harry enthuses, already pumped for the holiday despite it still being months away. “Good work, gang. We didn’t even have to try.”

Louis openly laughs, leaning back against his husband and petting his face. “You’re so ridiculous, H.”

“What? I’m serious. That’s a true hallmark moment right there.” Harry defends, pointing proudly to the family picture.

“Dad, please.” Avery rolls her eyes fondly.

“Okay, would you rather have me dress you all up and take a formal picture then?” Harry questions. “Because I’m always down to do that. I was trying to give us a little break this year.”

“Oh, thank god!” Ryan praises.

“We’ve been saved!”  Noah cries in relief, reaching to high five her sister.

Harry looks at his twins in offense, voice sounding wounded and betrayed as he speaks. “Noe? Ry? You don’t like our annual Christmas outfits? They’re adorable! It’s our thing! Right? Our thing…”

“Oh Daddy…” Noah winces painfully, as she shakes her head with secondhand embarrassment.

“Help him, Papa. Please help your husband.” Ryan begs.

Harry just sits there pouting as if his daughters have seriously wounded him. Louis can’t stop laughing and neither can Avery, both of them easily amused.

“I like them, Daddy.” Casey smiles genuinely.

“Aww Caseadilla, I love you.” Harry leans up to kiss him. “Please never change.”

||✿||

It’s only an hour into The Intern Mixer and Avery can’t stop sweating. Honestly, it’s becoming so much of a problem that the urge to compulsively stuff napkins under her armpits to soak up the outpouring of sweat is growing harder to resist. But she brought this upon herself, she supposes. 

For hours—literal hours, Avery had gone back and forth with what dress to wear or if she should even bother to wear a dress at all for that matter. What makes a better impression? A basic black, but professional knee length dress or a strapless floral sundress that shows a bit more personality.

Yeah, she went for personality. A real winning decision that was.

And now she feels ridiculously self-conscious in a room full of business casual attire. At least in the future she won’t have this problem because the choice will be easy, it’ll always be scrubs. Thank the surgical gods for scrubs.

Ugh, she was really feeling herself when she was getting ready too. Dancing around her room, taking her time doing her make up, practicing her smile in the mirror and trying out potential introductions. Yet now, she’s surprised to admit that she’d give anything to be wearing that ugly, boring dress that frankly does nothing for her figure.

Avery doesn’t even know why she’s so nervous, it’s not like this is her actual first day. Truthfully, she should feel less pressure because she knows most of the attendings already. This should be fun, mingling with fellow physicians, meeting new people—she should be enjoying herself.

But the thing is, Avery feels like all eyes are on her. And it’s not in her head, she knows for a fact that it’s not. From the moment she first walked in the room, she’s heard her name whispered back and forth between her peers and future colleagues alike. And it’s not the dress either. Yeah, the dress is making her stand out more than necessary, especially in a sea of neutral, muted colors, but it’s not even the real topic of discussion.

It’s her last name, the distinguished name that proceeds her and the curious inquiries wondering if she can live up to it. And although it’s been an hour, the questioning whispers still haven’t stopped as Avery hoped they eventually would.

Regardless, she’s been trying as hard as she can to ignore it and enjoy herself. So that’s why she’s made friends with the cupcake tray and the fondue fountain, because who better to turn to when feeling insecure than to food. She’s ventured around the room a few times to mingle with the attendings, mostly her uncles—but that’s beside the point, the point is she tried. But in the end, after taking a tour around the room, Avery continues to return to homebase. Homebase being the wonderfully reliable table full of decadent, nonjudgmental food.

From where Avery lingers at the refreshment table, she overhears bits and pieces of her fellow intern class whispering over to her left.

“I just don’t get how she is already getting on with all the attendings?” A blonde girl comments under her breath. “I can barely look them in the eye without totally freaking out.”

“That’s because she’s Avery Styles-Tomlinson.” Another one with a pixie haircut whispers back and the way she says it makes Avery’s entire body stiffen instantly.

“Tomlinson….as in?” A dark-haired guy chimes in with sudden interest.

“As in Chief Tomlinson. Exactly.” 

“Holy shit…she’s legacy.” The blonde girl awes.

The group of interns clearly don’t know that she can hear them. And Avery really wishes that she couldn’t. It’s bad enough that everyone already knows who she is, on top of finding out that she’s apparently the biggest piece of intern gossip.

“Do you think she’s going to be as good as him?” Dark hair wonders next. “Chief Tomlinson literally put this hospital on the map. He’s brilliant.”

“No one is as good as The Chief.”

“But…she’s gotta be good right?” Pixiecut assumes, cutting her eyes across the room. “She grew up with a surgical legend at her disposal at all times.”

“Not to mention a whole village of attending surgeons.”

“God, what I would give to be her…”

The more they talk and assume things about her, the more anxious Avery feels. Maybe she should introduce herself? She’s gotta start making friends here anyway. And since they already seem to have preconceived notions about who she is as a person, she should meet them so they can stop jumping to conclusions and actually get to know her.

“Talking about The Protégé?” Another guy with slicked back auburn waves joins the conversation, seeming eager to add his take on the matter. “I heard she’s already performed surgery before. Solo.”

“What? No way.” The small group of interns all gasp in shocked disbelief. Avery can still feel their eyes locked on her and she feels like some kind of exhibit on display. Honestly, it’s making her feel itchy all over. On top of the increasing sweat. Wonderful, it’s all wonderful.

“Yeah, it’s totally true!” Auburn confirms confidently. “She’s basically got up to the skill level of a fourth-year resident.”

Avery cringes to herself, it’s absolutely not true. How would that even make sense? She’s fresh out of medical school same as them. If she was already performing solo surgeries at such a high level, then why would she be here as an intern. Make it make sense.

“God, I’m so jealous.” Pixiecut sighs, downing the rest of her drink. “It’s not fair.”

“Like I said, legacy.” Blondie concludes with a shrug.

Avery can’t just listen to this anymore, any minute now she is literally going to break out in hives if this continues. She finishes off the rest of her third cupcake, but then has to chew awkwardly for several long minutes to actually get it and the frosting all the way down, which then requires her to chug an entire flute of champagne, which only makes her stomach churn. And although she may feel totally sick right now, Avery still forces herself to bravely turn around. She takes a deep breath and schools her face into something pleasantly neutral, hoping to god that she doesn’t have frosting still stuck in her teeth, before beginning to make her way over to the group of interns.

“Hi, I’m Avery.” She offers her warmest, most dazzling smile, holding her hand out in greeting.

The four of them only stare at her with unimpressed expressions, rudely ignoring Avery’s outstretched hand. A few awkward beats of silence pass between them before the dark-haired intern speaks up, “We know who you are.”

Avery retracts her hand back slowly, a blush creeping up from her neck and coloring her checks red. But she remains poised, readjusting her posture as she readdresses the group. “Oh, okay. Um—I’m sorry? Did I do something to offend you?”

The group of interns fall silent once again, exchanging wordless glances with each other. It’s odd to be an outsider among a group of people that she doesn’t even know, who are also meant to be her peers.

The blonde woman purses her lips with her arms crossed over her chest. “We all worked our asses off to be here and here you are just getting it handed to you.”

“It must be so nice to not have to worry about impressing The Chief.” Pixiecut bites rather harshly. “The rest of us have to hustle just to get him to remember our names. Lucky for you, you have the same name.”

Avery falters slightly, feeling those cupcakes churning around with a vengeance in her stomach. She doesn’t even know what to say, taken aback by the blunt and unnecessarily rude way they tried to cut her down without even knowing anything real about her. Contrary to the beliefs of her peers, she has never used her father’s influence to get ahead. But one could argue that although she never used it directly, the name she bears proceeds her and that in itself provides a level of privilege whether she acknowledges it or not.

“At least we won’t be surprised when all the first surgeries go to her.”

The group of new interns walk off, leaving Avery feeling even more self-conscious and flustered than she was moments ago. She would be lying if she said that she hadn’t worried about something like this happening. Avery has always been someone who likes to be prepared for what she is getting herself into and because of that she’s spent an embarrassing amount of time imagining possible scenarios for how things could go wrong at the start of her internship.

Of course, the most terrifying scenario would be to make such a grave mistake that it resulted in losing the life of a patient. And following that chain of events, she would ultimately disappoint her father which is something she couldn’t begin to live through. No one’s opinion means more to her than his. He is her role model, her hero, her best friend and her biggest supporter.

But still among the top worst-case scenarios, Avery did imagine how awful it would be if everyone in her intern class despised her. But she told herself she was being ridiculous and overdramatic, that it’s not even probable, that people would at least try to get to know her first before making any drastic assumptions.

Well apparently, not so much. Apparently, people are very much assholes.

“Ignore them.” Someone speaks up from behind her, interrupting Avery’s internalized crisis.

Avery turns around to find the most stunning woman she’s ever seen in her life. Is that dramatic? No, it’s not—it can’t be, not with how her bright smile contrasts beautifully with the rich brown hue of her flawless skin. And her eyes, textured deep like ocher, vibrant like the embers beneath a fire, but kind like no other. She’s a new intern too, Avery noticed her earlier, socializing throughout the night, but has yet to formally meet her.

“They’re just a bunch of jealous heifers anyway.” The young woman continues with a smirk.

Avery snorts a little at that, but then goes beet red at the awful realization that she just snorted out loud in front her new colleague. God, what is wrong with her today.

“I’m Leo by the way, Leo Woods. Well—Leona Woods, but everyone calls me Leo.” Leona holds her hand out, her vivid smile widening.

“Avery Styles-Tomlinson.” She reciprocates, taking Leo’s extended hand.

“Very nice to meet you, Avery.” Leo smiles genuinely. “I suppose we can be pariahs together.”

Avery furrows her brow, confused by what she could possibly mean by that. Why would Leo be a pariah?

“You know they just keep calling me a diversity hire.” Leo elaborates further, rolling her eyes in annoyance as she says it.

“What?” Avery’s frown only deepens, a flash of anger comes over her at the insinuation. “That’s not true.”

“Oh, I know it’s not. I was first in my class at Duke, I worked harder than anyone and earned an MD after my name same as they did. But people always need to place a modifier on the success of a black woman otherwise their tiny minds can’t understand it.” Leo’s expression falls further and there is such a heavy disappointment laden behind her eyes. “I’m either a diversity hire or a slut who slept her way through the admissions office. Anything else like hard work and drive and god given talent couldn’t possibly be the case.”

Avery falls quiet again at a loss, feeling deeply saddened by the truth she knows Leo is telling. She is well aware of the privilege she possesses not only as the daughter of the Chief of Surgery, but also as a person who has never once been marginalized because of the color of her skin.

Although she was lucky to have been raised in a home by parents who encouraged conversations and awareness about implicit bias and systemic racism, the fact of the matter is that bias and hateful prejudice still sadly run rampant across the world. Simply embracing and accepting people of differing ethnicities isn’t enough, not when people of color are still suffering and dying at disproportionate rates. Avery was never so acutely aware of the privilege her own whiteness affords her until she came face to face with it during her travels. Watching her friends of differing races face situations and navigate obstacles that she has never once had to so much as think about it.

It angers her, but not more than it angers the people it directly affects. She may not have the power to fix everything, but in every way she can, Avery is committed to doing her part to close the wide disparity gap in healthcare.

“Leo, I’m...I’m so sorry.” Avery starts, unsure of what exactly to say, but feeling that same rush of hot anger on Leo’s behalf regardless.

“Don’t be.” Leo tries to shrug it off, but it’s clear that it affects her in so many ways. “Well, unless you share the same weak mindset as those dipshits.”

“No, not at all.” Avery assures genuinely. “You don’t deserve to have anyone say that about you or your accomplishments. I know you worked just as hard, if not even harder for everything you’ve achieved so far. You should be proud, fuck them.”

“Fuck them.” Leo agrees, her face brightening once again as her beautiful smile gradually returns to her face. “So, Dr. Styles-Tomlinson, tell me…what was it like being raised by god?”

Avery laughs a little. “Well, Dr. Woods, it’s probably not what everyone expects me to say.”

“Oh, really?”

“I know kids who are raised by surgeons always talk about how tough their parents were on them and how unsupportive and cold they were but my Papa he…” Avery smiles to herself as she thinks about it. “He is honestly the kindest man… he never once pressured me or forced me into medicine, or any career, really. He always supported whatever I wanted to do, no matter what. I know I wouldn’t be who I am without him. And I definitely wouldn’t be here without him. He’s my best friend. Always has been.”

Leo looks at her in disbelief. “And here I thought you were about to unload your deep seeded trauma on me as essentially a total stranger.”

“Well, if I did that you wouldn’t be much of a stranger anymore.”

Leo laughs brightly. “I suppose that’s true.”

||☤||

As the mixer draws to a close, all the young, hopeful interns begin to call it a night in preparation for the early morning ahead of them. Louis waits off to the side near the exit for Avery, gingerly waving off some of the new interns as they pass by him. As expected, they’ve been kissing Louis’ ass all night long, sucking up in any way they possibly can in hopes of scoring some brownie points with him.

Unfortunately for them, Louis has never responded to sucking up, instead taking into account a person’s character and work ethic, what drives them, how they relate to people, and the level of care and compassion they provide when no one else is watching. Anyone can suck up and proudly recite his methodology and surgical technique in hopes of impressing him. But it’s utterly baseless and will get them nowhere in his book. But they’ll learn that soon enough.

All night, Louis has purposefully left Avery alone, allowing her the opportunity to mix and mingle with her new peers on her own. He’s never been the kind of parent that hovers anyway, knowing that his kids trust him enough to involve him in their lives willingly.

He spots Avery walking out, waving goodbye to one of her fellow interns, whom Louis recognizes to be Dr. Woods, a very promising surgical candidate. Avery notices him right away, crossing the hall to meet up with him.

“Ready to go home, love?” Louis asks, slipping his arm around her.

“I’m ready if you are.” Avery nods easily, tucked under his wing.

The two of them walk out to the parking lot together towards Louis’ car, their steps in sync as Louis keeps his arm balanced over Avery’s shoulder.

“So, are you excited?” Louis wonders, glancing towards his daughter curiously.

Avery tilts her head towards him. “Nervous…but yeah excited too.”

“Nervous?” Louis scuffs. “Why are you nervous? You’re going to be great, Aves. I already know it.”

Avery grins up at him, but still looks unsure. “Were you nervous? When you first started out, I mean?”

“Oh, beyond nervous. I puked three times the night before and again in the morning. And then when I got to the hospital, I ended up getting so lost that I was twenty minutes late.” Louis recounts, wincing to himself. “Ugh, I was an utter disaster as an intern.”

“But look at you now.” Avery teases, tensing her hold on her father’s waist. “They let you run the hospital.”

“And I’m damn good at it too.” Louis grins. “Anyway, you have a leg up, you already know this place, so there’s no way you’ll get lost.”

“That’s true, I guess. Puking is still on the table though.”

“I can’t help you there.”

Avery chuckles a bit, but she still looks unsure as her gaze lowers once more. And Louis can easily sense that she’s overthinking, he can practically see the gears of doubt and uncertainty turning in her head.

Louis stops walking suddenly, tugging on his daughter’s hand, prompting her to turn and face him. “Follow me, love.”

“What?” She frowns in confusion. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” Louis answers simply, giving nothing away. “Have I ever led you astray?”

Avery doesn’t think on the question long as she shakes her head. “Never.”

“Alright then.” Louis smiles, leading her back through the staff entrance along the east side of the hospital.

He leads her through the various corridors of the medical buildingl, taking the shortcuts he’s got hardwired in his mind after using them for so many years. Eventually they make their way to the intern locker room, currently deserted and empty in preparation for the new class tomorrow.

The locker room has been remodeled a bit since Louis was an intern, but the overall vibe is the exact same. The lockers themselves are also the same, just repainted for a fresher look. Louis leads his daughter through the stacks to one locker in particular.

“This was my locker when I was an intern. Mostly it housed all my many snacks—you know I can’t live without snacks.” Louis laughs to himself, before his expression turns more reflective as he gazes at the locker reminiscently. “But also…for a good portion of my intern year, I kept things in here for you.”

Avery smiles softly, glancing towards the locker as she gives his hand a squeeze.

“I had all kinds of bottles and diapers and toys—your uncles never stopped teasing me for it.” He chuckles again at the memory. “But I was always so worried that I wouldn’t have what you needed. Even with all of the craziness going on, you were my top priority. And you still are.”

Louis reaches to open the locker and takes out the pristine white coat hanging inside, embellished with the SSMC emblem and Avery Styles-Tomlinson, MD over the left breast. He was going to wait and give it to her tomorrow, but he thinks that she needed a little bit of a boost now.

Avery sucks in a breath, looking at it with wide eyes, like she can’t quite believe it.

“You’re my daughter and you have my name. But this?” Louis proudly holds the coat out to her. “This was all you, Avery.”

It could very well be one of the proudest moments of his life. To have the honor of watching his oldest daughter take up the same mantle he has, carrying on a legacy.

“I have a gift for you.” Louis announces, opening the locker again to pull out a case. He opens the case to reveal the velvet lining the inside, cushioning a shining, black stethoscope. “This was my very first stethoscope. It’s seen a lot with me over the years, I had it when I was on your mother’s case and yours...so it um…it means a lot to me…” Louis pauses as he looks down at the piece of equipment. “When you graduated, I had it refurbished and engraved with your name because I want you to have it.”

“Papa...” Avery softly whispers in disbelief, tears springing to her wide, hazel eyes. “I don’t know what to say…I…” She shakes her head several times, clearly both overwhelmed and touched.

“Hey, look at me, love.” Louis lifts her chin gently, gazing down. “I know you’re nervous and that’s perfectly okay…but I want you to know that you are…” He searches her face, getting emotional as he takes her in. “Brilliant. Everything about you amazes me, Aves. Everything. There are so many things you’ve had to overcome in your life. And each and every time you’ve risen to the challenge and faced it head on and that just…it amazes me. I’m honored to call you my daughter and I’m so happy that I get to watch you change the world. You are going to smash it, I have no doubt. Not even one.”

Avery has ample tears running down her cheeks as she rushes to fold herself into his arms. “Thank you so much, Papa.”

Louis holds his daughter tight, chin tucked down against her. “I love you, baby.”

The emotions easily get the best of both of them, and they’re left crying in each other’s embrace. Louis hadn’t really planned on crying tonight, but it never fails to happen when he starts thinking about the amount of fucking pride he has for Avery. He can’t believe how full circle life has come, and he’s so excited for this next phase of life they get to share together.

“Okay, enough crying.” Louis laughs through a sniffle, swiping under his teary eyes as he pulls back.

Avery lets out an equally wet laugh, sniffling. “We should probably get home. Early morning and all that.”

“Right.” Louis agrees, taking her hand in his again as they begin to head out of the locker room. “You know, it’s so nice to have you back at home. We can carpool together to work every day…it’s perfect.”

“Um…about that...” Avery starts, biting her lip awkwardly. “I think that um…well, I think it would be best if I um...you know, if I…moved out…”

“Moved out?” Louis frowns, halting in his tracks in the midst of the empty hall.

“Yeah, and it’s not because I don’t love being home—I do, of course I do…I just—”

“Is this because of a boy?” Louis interrupts, narrowing his eyes.

“No!”

“A girl?”  

“Papa…” Avery groans.

“A nonbinary person that you like? Maybe?”

“No!” Avery denies. “It’s because the other interns are already treating me differently because I’m your daughter and if I ever wanted to have them over to study or whatever I’d be inviting them to the Chief of Surgery’s house.”

Louis waits expectantly for more. “And?”

“And you know how it is, Papa.” 

Louis pauses for several moments in consideration then nods his head slowly. “Okay.”

Avery blinks, seeming doubtful that he would just accept it so quickly. “Okay?”

“Okay.” Louis repeats with a sense of understanding and acceptance. “You’re an adult, I trust that you know how to make the right decisions. It’s not easy as an intern and I get that you just want to make a good impression and stand on your own two feet so…okay.” He says with another nod. “I will say that you’re going to break your poor dad’s heart. He’s been talking about you living with us again nonstop. Literally nonstop.”

“Aww don’t tell me that. You’re guilt tripping me.”

“It’s true!” Louis emphasizes. “All day he’s like ‘Do you think Avery will cook with me again? Do you think she’ll have time for movie nights like when she was little?’ On and on and on he goes. He thinks I get to spend tons of time with you here at work and so he was looking forward to having you at home. He’s going to be heartbroken over this.”   

“I’ll come over all the time! I promise.” Avery pledges wholeheartedly, looking forlorn over the idea of doing anything that makes her dad sad.

“Don’t tell me, tell him.”

“Papa, stop.” Avery whines, moping at him. “You’re making me feel so bad.”

Louis shrugs knowingly. “If anyone feels bad, it’s your poor dad.”

“I’ll talk to him.” Avery promises. “Let me be the one to tell him first, okay?”

Louis nods his head slowly, laying it on thick. “I think that would be best.”

“Ugh, you really think he’ll be upset?” Avery worries again.

“You know your dad, Aves.”

Avery sigh heavily, chewing the inside of her lip. “Well, it’s not like I can stay home forever. I’ve got to move out sometime.”

“I know.” Louis nods. “And he knows that too. But you still have to tell him.”

“Right…”

“Also, if you did want to move out because of a special…someone in your life…” Louis pauses, giving her a knowing look. “You could tell me.”

“I know.” Avery gives him an obvious look. “And you know I would, if there was someone. But there’s not. So…”

“Okay.”

“I would!”

Louis nods his head again, watching her closely. “Okay.”

“Okay!” Avery bursts, hazel eyes widening. “Why are you okay-ing me? I’m telling you the truth, Papa!”

“And I said okay!” Louis grins, biting back a laugh. “What do you want me to say?”

Avery just looks at him pouting, her brow furrowed slightly.

“When you make that face you look exactly like how you did as a kid.”

“Well, I have the same face basically so…”

“A super cute face.” Louis pinches her cheeks playfully, pouting back at her. “My cute little baby.”

Avery giggles, cheeks coloring with a blush. “Get all that out now because we’re not doing this tomorrow.”

“Why? I just want to gush over my little love.” Louis teases affectionately, planting the most over the top kisses to her dimpled cheeks. “I love you, my sweetest darling.”

“You can’t treat me differently at work, Papa.” Avery tells him seriously once she’s stopped giggling.

“Oh, I know Aves. I promised I wouldn’t. I’ll just treat you like any ole, useless intern. I can ignore you, call you the wrong name, drown you in scut work…” Louis jokes, arm slung over her shoulder as they walk together in stride. “It’ll be fun, we’ll have fun.”

Avery looks up at him, grinning. “I can’t wait.”