Look East | A Hozier Fanfiction |

49

FOUR WEEKS LATER

MID-SEPTEMBER, 2025

"Sweet suffering Jesus and all his fucking disciples," Andrew muttered, throwing the instruction booklet down on the floor in frustration. 

"Alright there, love?" Molly asked, swinging her head around the door frame from the corridor.

"Yeah. Its just...this fecking crib. I can't sort out how to build the bastard thing," he sighed. 

Molly walked over and held her hand out. "Show me the instructions." He put them in her hand. After a second, she smiled. "I didn't know you spoke Dutch," she smirked. 

"Huh?" 

"The instructions are in Dutch, you idiot," she teased. "Didn't you notice?"

"I was looking at the pictures, not reading the damn words," he replied, taking the booklet back from her and flipping through the pages until he saw the English instructions. 

"That would be really helpful if you were building a LEGO," she joked. "This is a crib. For our baby. Don't fuck it up."

"A LEGO would be easier to understand," he said under his breath as she left the room. 

Molly dipped her head into the nursery next door. The walls had several swatches of paint on them that she'd been considering for the last week. She had been leaning toward a soft sage green for a couple days until the light had come through the large windows and hit a swatch of creamy yellow just right and her mind changed. Andrew preferred the green. 

Things had slowly taken shape in preparation for the baby's arrival in eight weeks. She had successfully thwarted any plans for a baby shower, much to Caroline's disappointment (and Andrew's joy). Still, John and Raine had insisted on buying the crib - despite Andrew's extreme arguments against it. Molly would have picked something cheaper, but by the time she heard their plan, it was too late. 

Raine had done several small paintings on canvas of leaves and trees and they hung in a trio over where the crib would eventually go. A changing table took up the other side of the room and several boxes took up the rest of it. Andrew had been pretty good about getting things organized, but the nesting instinct had taken over for Molly and no matter how many times he arranged things one way, she inevitably came through and changed things again shortly after. 

Not that it really mattered what state the nursery was in; the baby was probably going to sleep in their room for quite a while. But it felt nice to Molly to know that something was complete, something she had total control over would be done and ready in time for their child's arrival. That even though she'd been working herself to the bone, at least she'd done that.

"When do we need to go?" she called back through the house. A loud thump precluded Clementine darting out of their bedroom and down the corridor to safety. "Love? You okay?" she asked, coming back to their bedroom. 

"Yes, I'm fine," he answered. To her surprise, it looked like he'd finally started making progress. 

"When do we need to leave?" she asked again. 

He glanced at his watch. "Ehm...an hour, I'd say," he said. 

"Fine. I'm going to get ready. Please try not to hurt yourself," she said, walking past him into the bathroom. 

They were headed over to Jon and Lindsay's rehearsal dinner that evening. The wedding was the following afternoon. Despite his dislike of a large wedding, Jon had agreed to most of the pomp and circumstance to appease Lindsay's family. They were getting married at Killruddery House - where Molly and Andrew had originally planned to marry before they essentially eloped in Los Angeles. Even though rehearsal dinners weren't a common thing in Ireland, Lindsay's family wanted one last chance to ensure everything would be perfect the day of.