Saving Grace (Narry)

Twenty-Two

"Now, Grace," I began to explain to her, "I don't think Niall's gonna find me attractive anymore if you give me a bald spot." I gently found her smaller hand with my larger one, trying my best to untangle her strong grip from my hair so she didn't pull any of it out.

Once I was freed I ducked my head away from being close to her. Then she started getting a bit whiny and she made the motions with her hands that she wanted me to pick her up.

"Okay, I'll pick you up if you promise that you won't tug my hair. Do we have a deal?"

In response, she kept on getting fussy with me. As much as I wanted to comfort her, I couldn't let her get away with everything either. The first few times I definitely had gone right over to Grace at any sort of sound that she made. Now, I've gotten better at picking and choosing my battles with her. The one's after she's just woken up were often the most difficult.

"Grace, Niall's making you a special breakfast downstairs. I think he'd rather serve up a young happy lady with pancakes than a grouchy one." I tried my best to reason with her. I seriously never thought I'd leave my job to bargain with a one year old, but I wouldn't lie and say that I missed work more because I loved every part of being a parent.

To be honest, I've started to think about whether or not I wanted to work at my company anymore. I felt like my place was more at home. I'd have to have a chat with Niall about leaving work if we ever had children of our own because I couldn't make a decision like that without having a discussion with my family.

"So, what's it gonna be?" I asked her.

She rubbed her hands over her eyes and sat back down into her crib, rolling onto her stomach to hide her face from me. I think she wanted to go back to sleep.

"All right, enough of this." I told her as I picked her up, letting out a dramatic sigh of defeat as I held her against my side and fixed her sleeping onesie. "If Niall asks, I won this time." I let out a quick chuckle before kissing the side of her head and patting her bottom with my hand. "You're gonna be just fine."

After I checked to see if she needed her diaper changed, I carried Grace down the stairs, instantly being able to smell the breakfast that Niall was cooking up for us. We thought we'd give Grace a surprise of pancakes for one of her last meals before her surgery. We had received the call yesterday about the appropriate pre-procedure care that we would have to work on with Grace. One of them was not feeding her or give her any fluids past a certain time. I wasn't a big fan of that one because I didn't want to leave her starving or dehydrated. I had no idea how cranky Grace would be and I didn't want Louis to see her in any distress when we saw him on the webcam later today.

Louis was super excited about getting to see Grace. I had called him up after getting the call from one of the nurses at the hospital, letting him know that the date for her surgery wasn't changed yet and all of the things Niall and I were going to have to do for her beforehand. We set the time to chat with him just before Grace would be put to bed early so Louis could tell her to have a goodnight and blow the webcam hundreds of kisses, as he put it.

"Smells good in here, babe." I commented to Niall as he flipped a pancake in the pan while I assessed Grace by putting her in her high chair.

Then I walked over to one of the cupboards to get Grace some oat cereal to pour on her eating tray so she wasn't fussy while waiting for Niall to finish up with the pancakes.

Niall began whistling some song to himself while he continued cooking and I couldn't help but watch him do a little dance as he did, which I didn't think he knew that I was watching until I started chuckling.

"Niall's a silly fool, isn't he?" I asked Grace as I sat down next to her and started lining her oat cereal up in a line. She seemed to be very focused on what I was doing.