Emma's P.O.V. December 18th
"George, it's great to see you again!" I welcome my mom and her boyfriend into the house. George checked into his hotel last night and my mom took a cab to pick him up this morning.
"It's wonderful to see you as well," George says, "Thank you for welcoming me into your home for the holidays."
"Of course! We love to have you here with us. Come inside! The rest of the family is in the living room," I tell him and the three of us head to the crowd that's gathered in the living room.
"Oh, Emma she's adorable!" George immediately spots Charlie.
"Thank you," I blush and then start to introduce everyone.
"This is my brother Jared and his two sons, Jamie and Mason,"
"Hello!" Mason looks up from the toys he's been playing with "for Charlie because she's not old enough yet."
"Hello," George greets the boys.
"I'm Annie," she stands to shake George's hand, "Jillian is practically my mother. Emma and I have been best friends since we were five."
"I've heard a lot about you," George smiles, "It's good to finally put a face to the name."
"And this is Charlie," I hold her for George to meet and of course he gushes over her. I'm probably biased, but she really is the most adorable baby ever.
"You look a lot like your mom," he says to her.
"I told you!" Harry speaks up but I just shake my head. I don't see many of my features in her yet. Her eyes are slowly turning green like Harry's, her hair is also getting curlier as it grows, although it's still a light brown, and she even has his dimples. Her nose is still a cute little button, but it sure does look like Harry's from the baby pictures I've seen of him.
"I don't see it," I tell them, and Annie says she agrees with me. She's all Harry's. I don't mind though. I happen think Harry is pretty cute too.
"George, it's nice to have you here," Harry stands to shake his hand next.
"The pleasure's mine. Thank you."
"How was your flight?" Harry asks and they start up a conversation about boring grown-up things. Every day since Charlie was born, I grow more and more conscious of our "parental tendencies." I'm still only twenty-five, almost twenty-six, which is pretty young to be a parent in my opinion.
As everyone else is talking, I notice that Jamie hasn't said hi to George yet, which isn't necessarily a problem, but I thought Jamie was improving a little when it comes to meeting new people. He got along great with Anne and Gemma. In fact, he asked if they wanted to draw with him just like he did with me when we first met. Maybe it's a male thing...
"Hey, buddy," I sit in the chair closest to where Jamie is on the floor, laying on his stomach playing with a few of Charlie's stuffed animals.
"Hi," he doesn't look up to me when he talks.
"What are you up to?" I ask, not wanting to explicitly ask if he's okay with George.
"I was just introducing Golden to Charlie's animals. Do they have names?" he finally looks up from his lion at the end.
"I don't think they do yet. Would you like to give them names?" I ask and his face lights up.
"I feel like this one's name is Sofia because her purple fur reminds me of Sofia the First," he refers to the purple elephant, "And this one should be called Jenny," he holds up the frog.
"Why Jenny?"
"Um... because I have Canyon Moon stuck in my head," Jamie says shyly. I think it's cute how much he loves Harry's music. It took him some time to adjust to the fact that his favorite musician is also his uncle, but now their relationship is one of my favorite things to witness. Harry really cares about both Jamie and Mason, and it just makes my heart swell every time they ask about each other.
"I think Jenny suits her," I say.
"No, Jenny is a boy," Jamie is quick to say, "I don't know why, but I just feel like he is."
"Okay," I nod.
"But if Charlie wants to change their names when she gets older that's okay. I won't be offended," Jamie says next, and I'm honestly surprised at this kid's vocabulary. For a five-year-old, he is very intelligent.
"I'm sure she will love their names. I'll make sure she knows you named them, too," I tell him, "do you want to help feed Charlie?"
She needs to eat and since we're always home, I've been breastfeeding a lot, but I've also been pumping, and I don't want to waste the milk we have in the fridge.
"Okay, I can help," he stands up from the floor, but not before placing all three stuffed animals against the wall, out of the way so that no one steps on them when walking by.
"How about you wait here, and I'll go make the bottle, okay?" I tell Jamie and he nods in response so that I can quickly put together Charlie's meal.
When I'm done, I find Jamie sitting in the chair I left him in and ask if he could scoot over so that I can sit next to him. It's a roomy recliner, so we won't be squished sitting side-by-side.
"Okay, put your arms out like this," I try to gesture but it's hard while I'm holding Charlie already.
"Yeah, just like that. I'm going to help you, but it's important for her head to be supported," I tell him.
"Okay," he says, sounding a little worried, but I tell him that I think he can handle it and that I'll be right here the entire time.
I gently lay Charlie onto his lap and it's the first time he's held her. She looks bigger when Jamie, who's fairly small for his age, holds her compared to when she's in Harry's enormous hands.
"You can pull this arm out from under her... Yup, and here's the bottle. Just hold it like that. Perfect!" Jamie and I watch while Charlie's chubby little cheeks move back and forth, sucking on the bottle.
"She's so cute," Jamie says softly, watching her very close.
"She's the cutest."
"I can't wait until she's old enough to play with me," he says next.
"She's going to love that," I respond, already imagining the trouble those three will get into.
Once she's almost finished her bottle, and only a little bit of milk has spilled down her chin, Mason gets curious and comes over to see what we're up to.
"I want to feed her!" Mason says loudly, startling Charlie.
"Be gentle around her, Mason. Babies gets scared easily."
"Oh, sorry," he whispers.
"You don't have to whisper, just talk in a normal speaking voice," I tell him, "and if you'd like you can hold her once she's done eating.
"I want to," he answers, and gets his wish. Once I pick up Charlie to burp her, Jamie shakes out his arms saying that they hurt a little.
Charlie spits up a bit, to which the boys say is "gross!" but once she's cleaned up Jamie and Mason switch spots. I show Mason how to hold her, just like Jamie was, and he gets the hang of it pretty quick.
"Hi Charlie," he smiles down at her, "I'm Mason... Do you think she'll like soccer when she grows up?" he asks me.
"Maybe," I shrug, "but Uncle Harry will make sure she calls it football," I wink. It's a running argument between the two of them. Harry tells Mason that it's called football, then Mason makes fun of him, then Harry makes fun of Mason back, and it turns into a constant cycle of bickering.
"Nooo," Mason drags out, "Charlie please don't call it football! Football is a different game where you wear helmets and throw a ball. Soccer is better, and it is not called football. Your daddy is crazy."
Jamie and I get a kick, pun intended, out of listening and watching Mason talk to Charlie. She just looks up at him like he's the crazy one, which he is, but he's really into it. Mason is definitely a wild child, so it's interesting to see him be so calm and caring with her, yet still his animated self.
Charlie falls asleep in Mason's arms, although I'm not sure how based on how much he talks, so I take her upstairs to sleep. I turn on the baby monitor and observe her for a minute or so. It's insane the amount of love I have for this little human. I can't believe I grew her inside of me for (almost) nine months, and now at seventeen days old, she's already grown so much. I watch as her little belly rises and falls a few times, and then I head back downstairs where everyone else is.
"Hey, Em," Harry calls out to me once I've reached the bottom of the stairs, "George was just asking about your equipment. I didn't want to show him around your office without your permission."
"Okay, yeah it's right around the corner here," I walk George through the house and into my office. I don't have a ton of my equipment here since I'm mostly based in LA and I don't plan on working while we're in London.
"I don't have much here, but this is my newest slash favorite camera. I brought it to take some nice photos of Charlie," I pick up the camera and scroll through the photos that are still on the SD card.
"These are amazing. You're very talented," George complements as he looks over my shoulder.
"Thank you. I really like doing portraits, that's why I love doing weddings so much," I explain. "What did you say you used to do?"
"Just freelance really—whoever I could book at the time. I wasn't as nearly as talented as you, but I earned enough money to retire so now I just take my camera through a park every now and then to keep up my skills."
"Don't say that, I'm sure your work is great. I'd love to see some it sometime,"
"This one is precious," he stops me at a photo of Charlie's fingers wrapped around Harry's pointer. I agree, it is very precious. It perfectly captures how much of a daddy's girl she already is.
After we've gone through all of the most recent photos I have, we talk a bit longer about work and such. I've learned that George asks a lot of questions. He also told me more about his daughter. Apparently, she was an artist too, but she preferred painting to photography like George. It's oddly humorous how similar she and I seem to be.
George headed out fairly early in the night claiming that the jet lag was finally getting to him. I forgot to ask if he'd been to Europe before, but I don't blame him for wanting some time away from the craziness that is our house right now. Jamie and Mason are also tuckered out, but Charlie is wide awake. Now, Annie, Jared, my mom, Harry and I are watching some special, holiday, Britain's-version-of-a-hallmark movie that my mom forced us to watch.
"Jillian, these movies are shit," Harry finally tells my mom after forty-five minutes have gone by.
"I think they're fun! They might not be the best movies, but I enjoy them."
"No one else does," he mumbles.
"Don't you preach kindness?" my mom raises her parenting eyebrows at him, earning an amusing laugh from me. I'm glad someone else is willing to put him in his place too.
"Okay, okay. I still don't believe anyone else here would like continue watching this movie," Harry says in defense, looking around for support.
"I have to agree with Harry on this one," Annie says, and Jared and I voice our agreements as well.
My mom doesn't actually mind, so we switch to something else. I watch for a few minutes before Annie interrupts and asks to talk to me elsewhere.
"What's up?" I ask as we enter my office after leaving Charlie with Harry, her favorite person.
"I didn't want to tell Harry right away because he might explode, but you should probably see this," Annie hands me my phone and I sit in my desk chair.
It's another TMZ article. How did she see this so fast?
"Annie, I don't really want to read this, it's just going to make me upset. How did you even see it so fast? The article was published minutes ago."
"I still have notifications for a few of these places," she tells me and I'm shocked. Why would she read these?
"I still worry about you. Remember how you first handled the press? Not very well, so I keep an eye out for rumors in case they affect you like they used to. I don't enjoy it, but I'm looking after you. That's all," she explains, and I understand her concern, "but you have to see this."
Ugh, I don't know what could be worse than what's already out there except for a photo of Charlie maybe. There's no way that could happen though, we don't go outside, so I really don't get why she's making me... you've got to be joking.
First look at Baby Styles! Is the headline, but I don't bother reading anything else. My eye is drawn to a photo that I took when she was only a few days old. She's asleep in her crib, wearing a kiwi themed onesie Harry just had to buy her. But how did they get this? I only emailed the photos from this day to a few of Harry's family members, as well as my own and Annie. There's no way someone from our family would post or share this. Has someone hacked my email?
Out of anger, I slam Annie's phone onto my desk and hang my head in my hands, restraining from pulling my hair out. I have to say I'm not surprised, but this is still incredibly disrespectful. Annie is right, Harry is going to have a fit.
"I'm sorry," Annie tries comforting me.
"Everyone says that. You, Mom, Jared, Gemma, Anne, Jeff, Mitch, Sarah, everyone! It doesn't do any good."
"It doesn't fix anything, but it's our way of saying we love and support you," Annie talks in a much calmer tone than I do.
"Thanks," I mumble, "I need to tell Harry." We walk back out to the living room where Annie sits down but I walk over to Harry.
"Hi," Standing behind the couch, I place my hands on his shoulders and rub them slowly.
"Hello," he tilts his head back with smile, then puckers his lips silently asking for a kiss.
"Follow me?" I ask once I pull away to stand up straight.
"Mhm," he gets up and tries to bring Charlie, but I tell him to let someone else have some time with her. He doesn't smother her, but he definitely hogs her.
Holding his hand, I drag him back to my office so we're away from everyone in case he gets loud.
As soon as the door closes, he kisses me, and I'm suddenly pinned against the door. This is not what I intended when I brought you in here, Harry.
"Harry," I turn my head so that his lips collide with my cheek, "I wanted to talk to you."
"Oh," his head hangs low, "I was wondering why we were in your office."
"There's another article," I don't sugarcoat it.
"What does it say this time," he rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, any sign of horniness having been washed away.
"I didn't read it, but look," I give him Annie's phone that still has it pulled up.
"How the fuck did they get that?" Harry grits through his teeth.
"I think someone's hacked my email," I try to stay calm for both of our sakes.
"God," Harry's pointer and thumb pinch the bridge of his nose.
"That's the only way they could have gotten this picture. They probably saw our plane tickets that you forwarded to me too," I say softer.
"Fuck," Harry says louder, not quite yelling yet. "I don't have my phone with me, call Jeff."
Harry gives Annie's phone back to me and I set it down to pull mine out. I quickly pull up his contact and click call.
"Hey," Jeff answers on the second ring. It's not often where I have to call Jeff, so I'm sure he knows something is up even if he hasn't seen the article yet.
"They posted Charlie's photo," I tell him and put him on speaker.
"Shit, already?"
"Yeah, and it's not even like a pap photo, they've been hacking Em's fucking email," Harry spits out and I bring my hand to his bicep to calm him.
"Tristan didn't tell me about that," he says.
"Is that her name? Tristan? What's her last name?" Harry asks and I know where he's going with this.
"No, Harry. Do not contact her. That'll just cause a bigger mess and you're clearly very emotional right now."
"Of course, I am! My two and half week-old daughter's face has been posted all over the goddamn internet without our permission!" well, there goes needing to break the news to everyone else in the house. I'm 100 percent sure they can all hear Harry.
"Baby, I think we should let Jeff talk to her. He knows what he's doing and he's right, I don't think you're far enough removed from the situation to talk to her calmly," I try to console him, knowing I need to be gentle as to not burst his ego right now.
"Whatever," he scoffs, "What are you going to do Jeff?"
"I guess I'll tell her our assumptions that he's hacked Em, which is illegal. So, unless TMZ wants to be getting involved with illegal matters, I would suggest she tells me who this fucker is and cut ties with him."
"Thank you, Jeff. Harry, can we go back out there and try to forget about it until something else happens? There's nothing we can do so there's no point fussing over it."
He still pouts with his arms crossed. I know this is going to cause a big shift in his mood for at least tonight.
"Fine, but Jeff you better fucking get something out of her. I'm sick of this, we're pressing charges and getting a restraining order once we get this bloke."
"I will," Jeff reassures us, and we hang up after that.
I wrap my arms around Harry, and it takes a second for him to give in and hug me back. I know he's hurting but I am too, and I don't know how to help us both.
"Talk to me," I whisper and scratch the nape of his neck.
"I'm so mad at them," he sighs, "She's a baby. Do they not have any decency? A fucking heart?" he gets worked up again.
"Maybe not, but if we get evidence of this guy hacking my email, we can get it taken care of," I kiss his cheek and look at him to make sure he's listening and not stuck in his head.
"We better."
Harry's P.O.V.
I'm fucking pissed, but I can't take it out on Em, and I'd rather not explode in front of everyone here.
I tell Em that I'm going to take a shower to cool off and that she should probably get Charlie ready for bed. She agrees, and I head to our bathroom. I didn't lie when I said I'll take a shower, but I didn't invite her because I need an excuse to sneak off into my office and find a way to contact this Tristan girl. I'm glad she's been willing to talk to Jeff, but if she's trying to help then why is she still letting them publish articles?
I take a quick shower and then before Em gets up here with Charlie, I go into my office and open my computer. It doesn't take long to find Tristan, apparently, she's a writer and has been credited for a few articles recently. None of them report on my family, so that's good at least.
I find her email and type up something I don't think is too passive aggressive, but this is a serious matter and I need her to understand that. To make sure she gives me the information I need and is on our side, I offer her ten-thousand dollars for his name and contact information, as well as all of the pictures and a list of everything he's sold them. She'd be stupid not to take the money, I just hope she responds quick.
After hitting the send button, I close my laptop and head back to our room for bed. I didn't get a chance to say goodnight to anyone, but I'm not upset about it. I'd honestly rather not talk to anyone right now. I'm not in the mood to be friendly.
Just before I get to the bedroom door, my phone lights up with a notification. It's an email from Tristan. That came surprisingly fast.
Mr. Styles,
I understand your concern and I do not stand for the company in relation to this matter. I will see what I can do and will get back to you soon.
Take care,
Tristan
It's not much, but it's enough to settle my tension for the night.
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A/N: heeyyyyyy, something's a little sus👀
It's getting close to the holidays now! They will be celebrating Christmas, but I don't include any religious stuff in the story. Mostly because I'm not religious, but I also don't want to normalize Christianity or any specific religion since not everyone has the same beliefs.
<3 <3 <3