My arms were full as I carried a sleeping Gracie and Ashton carried a sleeping Ender through Heathrow airport. Despite the fact that it was 3:00 A.M. London time, fans were still lined up to see us inside and outside of the airport.
Gracie was completely knocked out in my arms, her light blue onesie on and bunny slippers on her feet. Ender was a little more awake but Ashton still carried him as Ender rested his head on his shoulder.
We got them into a car and buckled Gracie in her car seat, the child not even waking up, before the guys and I got inside to go to our hotel.
The moment we arrived, checked in, and got
to our room we flung ourselves on the bed, falling asleep instantly.
When I woke it was three in the afternoon.
Ashton was awake in bed next to me, scrolling on his phone.
"Hi." I breathed before yawning into the blanket.
"Hi." He smiled down at me. "You get enough sleep?"
"I can never get enough sleep."
"I know." He chuckled. "So I liked your birthday post to me."
"Oh yeah?" I laughed.
While on the plane I had shared a photo of him that I had taken a while ago while we were on the boat. He was facing away from me, shirtless, holding Gracie in one arm, her legs around his torso and arm on his back, her wet hair in a ponytail and Ender standing next to him while he pointed at something on the horizon.
'Happy 21st birthday, Ashton! You are such an amazing person inside and out and I'm so excited for the lifetime of birthdays we get to spend together. I love you.'
"It was sweet." He smiled at me.
"Come cuddle me." I said and he laughed at my childish attitude before moving down in the bed to envelop me in his arms.
He kissed my forehead, holding me tightly.
"I like your cuddles." He murmured as I wound my arms around his neck and smiled in contentment.
I tilted my head up where his lips met mine for a kiss, and then I closed my eyes as I melted into him.
We laid together for a long while until I knew I had to get up and start getting ready.
"So what are we doing today?" I asked Ashton, glancing at the kids still asleep in their bed.
"I thought we'd go out for birthday dinner tonight." He said as I approached my suitcase.
"Exciting." I turned to give him a smile and then began to dig through the contents of my bag to find what I wanted to wear.
I found some shorts and slipped off my pyjama bottoms to put them on when I felt Ashton's hands land on my waist and then slide down to my bottom.
"Why are you so cute?" He whined as he placed his head in the crook of my neck.
"Why are you always so touchy." I smirked.
"Because I like touching you."
"Wow, I couldn't tell." I laughed as he squeezed my skin, rubbing his hands down my sides as I took off my shirt to put on a bra.
I focused on my breath that he was taking away as I did the clasp on my bra and slid the straps up my shoulders.
"I have to get dressed now." I told Ashton who whined but released me.
The two of us got ready and I had left the bathroom after brushing my teeth to see Gracie and Ender awake, Ender playing on his phone and Gracie sitting up in the blankets.
"Hello princess." I smiled at her and she crawled out of the covers and scaled down the bed, running over to me so I could pick her up.
"Good morning, Mommy." She grinned at me, hugging herself to me.
"Morning? It's not morning. It's afternoon." I smoothed my hand on her cheek before kissing her forehead.
"Is my little girl awake?" Ashton then walked in from the closet and came over to us. He wrapped his arms around us, kissing her cheek.
"Daddy!" She giggled at him.
"Come on, let's go get you dressed." He took her from my arms and went over to her bag to find her something to wear while I went over to the bed to sit down, taking my phone and going to my crowded messages folder that I hadn't checked in a couple days.
I had a message from Ann telling me to give Ashton a hug and kiss from her for his birthday, two from Ari asking me my opinion on flowers, and then one from Harry.
'Are you feeling better?'
That was sweet of him to check on me.
'Yes. I'm feeling a lot better. Thanks for asking.'
Not a minute later he replied.
'Of course. Are you in London?'
'Yes.'
'Are you doing anything tomorrow? If not I could show you around. I mean if you want.'
'I don't know yet, but I'll get back to you.'
'Okay. '
I smiled at my phone before going over to my Instagram to look at things.
"Gracie, come on baby, you have to put your clothes on." I heard Ashton say and I started laughing, looking up to see him struggling with her.
"No!" She protested and ran across the room in only her underwear over to me.
"Gracie." I warned her as she climbed up into my lap.
"No!" She whined, hiding beneath the blankets and I gave an amused smile to Ashton.
"That's all you. That is all Chase blood right there." He pointed at her.
"Nope. That's definitely all Irwin." I smirked back.
"I know you're right but I'm going to ignore it." He said before coming over to the bed next to me and throwing the covers off Gracie. "Gracie I'm going to count to three and if you're not out of this bed and ready to get dressed then you're going in timeout." He told her and that seemed to work because she scrambled from the bed and ran over to her suitcase.
"Nice job." I smiled at him.
"Daddy had to get tough." He said, rubbing his hands together.
He went to get her dressed once and for all and I had Ender get ready as well.
"Ash, come here." I said after everyone was dressed and lazing around around the hotel room.
"What?" He asked as he sat down next to me.
"So if someone were to get you something for your birthday, what would you want it to be?" I asked him and he laughed.
"I don't want anything." He chuckled.
"That's not fair, you got me something for my birthday, so I'm going to get something for yours."
"Okay well your birthday present wasn't really a present."
"Well I think of it as an amazing gift my loving fiancé gave me." I smiled up at him. "Now tell me what you want."
"I don't know!" He laughed.
"Well is there anything you need?"
"Well I need a new hair brush because mines about to fall apart. I need some new black boots and I was going to get a new wallet."
"See, that's the type of answer I needed, thank you."
"I'm hungry!" Ender whined from him bed.
"We'll we're going out for a nice dinner tonight so we'll find a snack to hold you over until then." Ashton said and then stood up. "Come on bud, let's go look.
Ender left with Ashton, leaving me with Gracie, and I found her colours and letters books to go over them with her.
"Now what is this colour?" I pointed to a blue page.
"Blue!" She smiled.
"Good job." I kissed her cheek. We went through all of the colours before going to letters.
"Tell me what this letter is." I pointed at B.
"Big B!" She clapped her hands together.
"And now this one." I moved to b.
"Little b!"
I kissed her cheek after every question, smiling at how intelligent she was becoming.
Ashton and Ender came back from their snack safari and we had a couple to fill our stomachs until dinner, me leaning over into Ashton's side.
I had closed my eyes for a few moments before Ender asked a question that made my eyes fling open.
"What does it mean to love someone?"
"What?" I sat up to look at him, Ashton doing the same.
"Well like what does it mean? You guys say I love you to each other all the time, but how do you know you love them and why do you?"
"Uh..." Ashton and I were at a loss for words, but Ashton got it together quicker than I did.
"Well End, I think it means that the person is worth something to you. It means that you value their friendship and love and that they mean something to you."
"So how did you guys know you loved each other?"
"We just knew." I said. "It's not really a decision, it's a feeling and you can't control it. When you're in love with someone you just know."
"So what would happen if one of you died before the other, would you love someone else?" He asked and my jaw dropped open.
"Ender!"
"What? I'm just asking."
"Ender that's a very loaded question." I shook my head.
"Not really." Ashton looked at me. "I wouldn't."
"This isn't a discussion we should have in front of our kids." I looked at him.
"He wants to know, Carter."
"Well I don't want to talk about it."
"We can at least answer the question."
"No! I'm not talking about this!" I sat up and stormed away from them.
"What the hell?" Ashton said. "Carter!"
"I'm not talking about this, bye!" I said before I opened the door and left, walking across the hall to the boys room.
I knocked on the door and Luke answered.
"Hey, what's up."
"Can I stay in here for a few minutes please?" I asked him and he nodded, opening the door for me to come inside.
"Is everything alright?" He asked me.
"I don't know." I mumbled as I went to sit on the couch.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't know." I sighed. "Ender just asked us what we would do if one of us dies and it just made me angry that he asked that."
"Well, I think he has a valid reason for asking that. I mean when your parents died you stepped in to take care of him, and now that you and Ashton are his parents, he's probably just wondering what would happen if it were to happen again."
"But I don't want him to think that! We're here to stay."
"He just wants assurance Carter."
"I honestly can't even think about that."
There was a knock at the door and I knew it was Ashton by how loud it was and Luke answered again.
"Carter, seriously?" Ashton walked in.
"I don't want to talk about us dying Ashton. I won't."
"He just wanted to know if something were to happen to one of us if we would do anything drastic."
"No because we are not dying on our children!"
"He wasn't saying that!"
"Well I am!"
He sighed.
"Okay, answer me this. If I were to die, what would you do?"
"I'm not answering that."
"Why?"
"Because I can't!"
"Carter we should make a plan."
"No." I turned away from him.
"Ashton." I heard Luke say and looked from the corner of my eye as they stepped aside. "It reminds her of her parents, stop pressing it."
"I-" Ashton said then paused. "I didn't think of it like that."
"She doesn't want what happened to her to happen to Ender and Gracie again."
Ashton sighed then walked over to me.
"I'm sorry." He placed his hand on my shoulder.
"I just wish that if you knew something upset me you'd stop pushing it."
"I do it because I want you to tell me what's upsetting you."
"Well maybe I don't want to talk about everything Ashton. I know you think that's the way to fix everything but sometimes we aren't as broken as you think."
"I don't think we're broken." He responded. "I think we have some areas of our relationship we need to work on."
"Then let's work on them privately, not in front of our kids or friends."
"Fine." He replied.
I turned to look out of the window.
"Can we go back in there and try to calm Ender down because he's freaking out in there."
I nodded and began to walk away before I turned around.
"Luke was right, so maybe you should listen to him and maybe you'll understand why I am the way I am. Maybe then you'll get over this whole me not telling you anything thing."
After I spoke I left the room and walked into our hotel room, calming Ender down.
Ashton was quiet when he came back in and I knew he was obviously thinking about what I had said to him.
Finally I had had enough of him sulking and sent the kids over with Luke.
"You were right." He said when I sat down on the end of the bed. "I always try and fix us even when nothing is wrong. And I tell myself I listen to you when I don't, I listen to myself and think I know what's best for you or know what's actually going on when I don't."
I raised the right corner of my lips into an expression that meant "I know".
"I should have understood why you were upset but I didn't and I'm sorry."
"It's okay." I gave him a little smile. "I don't make it any easier on you by freaking out and leaving."
"I'll try to start listening to you better." He reached over for my hand.
"And I'll try to stop storming out every time I get mad."
"Sounds like a plan." He smiled.
He and I spent a few minutes hugging (and kissing) it out and then went to get the kids so we could get ready for our nice dinner.
I curled my hair and Gracie's hair then did my makeup nicer than I normally did it,
I found a nice white dress that had lace at the bottom and wore that with a pair of black lace heels that Becca had picked out.
For Gracie I dressed her in a long sleeved red dress that went to her knees and put on her shiny black shoes. I kept her brown hair curled around her face.
Ender and Ashton dressed alike in black shirts and jeans and I smiled as I watched Ashton help Ender fix his hair.
Once they were done and we were all ready we left the hotel and were greeted by fans and paparazzi as we got into our car.
We were taken downtown and got out of the car at a corner where flashes blinded us again and we got out of the car.
Gracie held on to both mine and Ashton's hands as we walked, the little girl smiling widely as the people took her picture.
"Daddy we take pictures?" She grinned up at Ashton.
"You want us to take one?" He asked her and she nodded so Ashton stopped walking and kneeled down next to Gracie moving in to kiss her cheek.
She smiled as he did this and the paparazzi took pictures as we laughed at the scene.
"Mommy kiss!" She then looked up at me.
I smiled at her before gracefully bending down in my dress to kiss her cheek as well.
We continued on our way to the restaurant and sat down at a table in what was clearly a five star restaurant, Ender's eyes widening.
We ordered our drinks and I helped find something suitable for Gracie on the menu. Ashton and I settled on grilled chicken for her and then moved on to find what we wanted.
After ordering and then eating our meal, the restaurant brought out a cake for Ashton's birthday. I took a picture of him as he blew out the candles on it and then we all had a slice.
"You're going to be so hyper later." Ashton said to Gracie as she took a bite of cake and I laughed.
We spent the rest of our amazing evening taking photos and then going back to the hotel.
"Oh my god, no." Ashton said as he was on his phone and looked up as Gracie was running in circles screaming in our room.
"Gracie, stop screaming." He set his phone down and went to settle her down which ended up being a team effort.
Eventually we got the kids into bed (thank god) and then got ourselves in bed as well.
I rolled over in the blankets and watched Ashton post photos from tonight of him and Ender, him and Gracie, and him and I then like the photos I had shared as well.
"Come to bed." I said after a bit and he put his phone on the charger and moved down to wrap his arms around me.
"Goodnight, love you." He kissed my cheek.
"Love you." I melted into his warm body and fell asleep.
The sound of my phone going off at 8:00 in the
morning was what woke me up and I reached across Ashton, squinting my eyes in the dark as I read the message.
'Are we up for today?' Harry had texted me.
'Sure.' I sent back. 'I'll let you know when I'm ready.'
I set my phone back down then flopped my head on Ashton's chest, feeling his arm come around my shoulders.
"Are you awake?" I asked.
"Yeah." He mumbled.
"It's eight, we need to get up."
He whined at this.
"If we get out of bed now maybe we can give the kids to the guys tonight and you and I could have some "us" time." I suggested and he sat up.
"I like that idea." He smiled and I giggled at his cuteness and kissed him good morning.
"So I have a writing session today, what are you doing?" Ashton said as we stood side by side at the bathroom sink.
"Harry is showing me around. Ender is staying here with his tutor and the boys along with Gracie." I said while applying concealer to my face.
"Sounds fun." He smiled.
I finished getting dressed and texted Harry that I was ready to leave and gave him the name of our hotel before kissing both kids and Ashton goodbye.
I walked down to the lobby and waited until a car pulled up and Harry texted me that he was here and I went outside to the car, getting inside.
"Hey." I smiled at him.
"Hey." He smiled back. "Ready to go explore London?"
"Yes!" I laughed.
"Ah, I see my coat has made a return." He nodded at me and I laughed again.
"Well it's pretty chilly today."
"So is there anywhere you have in mind?" He asked.
"I need to do a bit of shopping if that's alright?"
"Sure. I know some good places."
"Oh and sorry for not texting back yesterday. With two kids and a fiancé things get a little crazy."
"It's no problem. I'm glad we are able to spend time together." He smiled at me before telling the driver to take us somewhere.
He took us to an uptown shopping district and we got out of the car, walking down the block towards the shops.
"So what are you shopping for?" Harry asked me.
"Ashton's birthday gift. He needs a new wallet, black boots, and a hair brush." I read off my mental list.
He nodded as we continued walking and I looked across the street to notice a girl taking pictures of us.
"I don't think we will be alone for much longer." I said and Harry glanced over to where I was looking and sighed.
And I was right.
As we walked and entered shops more and more girls showed up.
They began to follow us, walk beside us, and even in front of us.
"Can we go, please?" I asked Harry frantically. I didn't like being in this situation without Ashton.
"Yeah, the cars over there." He pointed to our left and I nodded.
"Here." He put a hand on my shoulder to lead me out and away from all the people but as soon as we turned the corner we ran right into another group of girls who when they saw Harry absolutely freaked out.
They began to scream causing the girls behind us to scream and then they all rushed forwards trying to get a picture with Harry and in the chaos I was pushed and pulled around.
"Ladies! Ladies, relax!" Harry said but this only enthused them more and in a sudden turn of events I was pushed and knocked backwards, falling onto my side, my head and body hitting the ground.
"Carter?!" I heard Harry exclaim and my eyes fluttered around as I tried to see what was happening. The world was spinning too slowly and all of the voices around me sounded even slower and deep, which was impossible since they were all fifteen year old girls.
They made a path for Harry to get through and he crouched down over me.
"Are you hurt? Did you hit your head."
Slowly I nodded.
"Bloody hell." He said and I closed my eyes as Harry did something on his phone.
"Yes, I need an ambulance to the corner of Rosland and 8th." He said and I felt the world get really really dizzy.
Then everything went black.
--
Uh oh!
More drama coming your way soon guys!
Much love xx -M