Count On Me | Niam

Epilogue

The voicemail Jessica had left played over the speakers of the car as Liam struggled with the car seat, physically incapable of getting it to behave, even with the instructions Niall was suggesting as he stood back, cradling the baby and watching Liam's struggle with a critical gaze.

Eventually, a nurse on their break volunteered to help, and they were then on their way within five minutes, heading home almost thirty hours after they'd originally left. Their journey would have been relatively easy, had the baby not screeched for most of it.

Something about the car had set him off, and Liam was trying to concentrate on the road, grimacing when his cries kicked up a gear. Niall was ineffectively stroking one tiny hand, unable to do anything else whilst in the car. Eventually, thirty minutes into what should have been a fifteen-minute drive, they pulled over in a side street and tried everything they could think of, though there wasn't much it could have been.

Walking him up and down the street helped, though, or maybe it was just the increased physical contact, but he quietened, and Liam and Niall leant against the car in relief. Looking up at Liam, Niall risked a smile. "I'd forgotten they could be like this."

"Like what?" Liam asked with a grin, huffing out a breath of laughter as Niall elbowed him awkwardly, careful of both his stitches and the baby. They got him back in his car seat and were moments away from being back at their building when he began to cry again, and this time he didn't stop, not when he was picked up, not when they got back into the apartment and were met by Chloe.

Amazingly, Chloe was not put off by the whimpering emitted the bundle Liam was cradling and she peered at her brother, nose wrinkling before she grinned.

She ended up sat next to Niall on the sofa, watching him and her brother carefully, eyes wide as she ran a finger along his arm and squirmed, prompting her to do it again. She was still grinning as she looked up at Niall and asked, "What's his name?"

**

"Give us a call, Liam, when we can come and visit. We want to see our newest grandchild sometime soon, love. Thanks for the pictures, though. He's lovely. And tell us how Chloe's doing? How's she liking Cameron?"

His mother's voice ringing out across the kitchen, Liam sighed and rested his head against the cool surface of the breakfast bar, making no effort to call his mother, or even stop his phone from rattling through the old, saved messages. Niall was slumped next to him, a mug of tea in his hand and one eye on the baby monitor as though he expected it to go off any moment.

It didn't, remained quietly blaring static, and they both just sat there. Technically, it was eleven am, and before, they would have had things to do, but they'd both ceased functioning for the time being. The only thing they'd really done in the past few days was keep things ticking over, collecting Chloe from school and remembering to cook meals at appropriate intervals. Other than, they just...existed. From one bottle of formula and dirty nappy to the next.

Although, to give credit where it was due, they had decided on a name. Then decided again. And again. And then they'd registered it before they could change their minds any further. That, and release one photo of Cameron and Liam asleep on Instagram, with a few words, and that had been it for functionality.

They were awake, and that was currently a victory.

One they were celebrating with silence, and maybe a round of toast each in half an hour if the bread wasn't stale.

Sure, there was cleaning to be done, since Liam's housekeeper had offered to give them privacy, and basic laundry needed doing and Loki had to be walked, but all of that just happened, generally when Cameron would sleep or when Jessica showed to kidnap Chloe, and Loki by extension, for an hour voluntarily.