A/N: Hello :) finally, I've managed to put a new chapter out!! How are you all?? <3
~Harry~
"Jeffrey. We need to talk," I told my manager as soon as I heard him pick up the phone, "can you meet me at the studio?"
"What? Now?" He asked.
"Yes, now," I said, "it's important."
"Jesus Christ, Harry, this is earlier than the times I usually ask you to meet me," he sighed, "and it's a Saturday, for God's sake. How important is it?"
"Very important," I said seriously, "I'm already dressed, and I'll be out the door as soon as I end this call."
"Seriously? I haven't even had my breakfast, yet!"
"Neither have I, Jeff. But the studio's got a kitchen, and we can talk in there over some toast and coffee. Alright?"
Jeffrey sighed again. "Alright, Harry. Fine. I'll meet you there."
"Thanks," I said, "see you soon."
I quickly ended the call before I stuck my phone in my back pocket and grabbed a jacket out of the wardrobe. However, just before I could leave the room, I heard the soft shuffling of bedsheets behind me – and I turned around to see that Leah was stirring in bed, and I immediately broke out a smile as I walked over to her.
"Hey..." she greeted me with a sleepy smile as soon as she saw me, "where are you off too so early..? I think you might even be up earlier than Piper."
I chuckled. "I want to tell Jeffrey about the baby as soon as possible, love. Yesterday, when I said I'd speak to him first thing in the morning, I meant it."
"Oh...OK," She yawned a little, "hey...I think when you come back...we should probably talk about...telling Piper about the baby, too..."
"Yeah, sure. We can do that," my smile grew as I kissed the side of her forehead, "go back to sleep. Sorry I woke you up."
"It's alright..." she yawned again, "bye, Harry..."
"Bye, Leah. I'll see you soon."
Her eyes drooped as she nodded at me – and I saw her head settle back against her pillow as she drifted off once again. I chuckled once more and crept out of the bedroom as quietly as I could, before carefully sneaking past Piper's room to make sure I didn't wake her, either. And when I finally made it downstairs, I went straight outside and rushed to my car so that I could get over to the studio as soon as possible.
***
"Alright Harry, what is it?" I walked into the studio kitchen and saw that Jeffrey was already waiting there, "I really don't see why we couldn't have done this at a café or something."
"Because I don't want to discuss this in a public place," I replied as I sat down opposite him at the table, "Jeff, we need to talk about the tour."
"What about it?" He asked, "You're not bailing out on me, are you Haz? You were so excited to do this tour, so I'd be really surprised."
"No, I'm not gonna cancel it," I assured him, "I just...I want to make a few changes."
"Changes?" He was already starting to sound suspicious, "What types of changes?"
"Well, first of all, I don't want to do the 10 months, Jeff. I can't," I told him, "I can't be away from home for that long. Not when I have Leah and Piper to think about."
"Harry, you know you could always take them on tour with you, right?"
"Yeah, of course," I nodded, "but...I can't do that, either. Piper can't miss out on 10 whole months of school. If she does that, she might have to repeat the whole school year. And because of that, Leah can't leave her anyway. And besides, she..." I bit my lip, "I wouldn't feel comfortable with her flying from country to country so often. Not in her condition."
"Her...condition?" Jeffrey frowned, "What condition?"
I sighed. "Jeff...Leah's pregnant."
His eyes immediately widened at the words. "Wait...what? Since when were you two planning to have a baby?"
"We weren't," I replied with another sigh, "it came as a surprise for both of us."
"Oh...unexpected, huh?" Jeffrey nodded slowly, "So...are you gonna keep it?"
"What do you mean 'are you gonna keep it'?" I frowned at him, "Of course we are."
"Alright, alright. I was just checking," Jeffrey said, "and you're sure she didn't get pregnant on purpose or something?"
"What? What exactly are you accusing her of?" I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Well, you know...maybe she wanted to make sure she could lock you down. Stop you from going on tour and meeting other people, perhaps?"
"What the fuck?" I snapped, "For your information, Jeff, she kept the news of the pregnancy from me for nearly two weeks, because she was afraid that it would stop me from going on tour! If she wanted to 'lock me down', why the hell would she keep it to herself for two weeks?!"
"Hey, I'm just asking 'cause I'm concerned, and it's my job, Harry! It's my job to worry about your career!"
"Well, that doesn't mean you get to accuse Leah of doing things like that," I told him curtly, "There is nobody, who cares more about my career than Leah does. Not even me, or not even you, Jeffrey."
"Alright, fine. Whatever you say," Jeffrey said, "so...how long are you planning to make the tour, then?"
"Jeffrey, if I go on this tour, I have to be home in time to be there for Leah when the baby's born. There's no question about that. That's why I refuse to even consider doing 10 months now. I am not missing the birth of my child."
Jeffrey shrugged. "Alright. That's fair enough, I guess."
"Also, I want to stay with Leah for at least the rest of her first trimester. After the morning sickness and all that starts to die down a bit, I'll be more comfortable with leaving knowing that she's feeling better."
"How far along is she right now?" Jeff asked.
"We still need to see a doctor about that, but Leah's pretty sure she's at 6 or 7 weeks right now. So, she's already past the first month of her first trimester. So, I'll only need to stay here for another month and a bit," I explained, "unless..."
"Unless?" Jeffrey looked at me carefully.
"Well Jeff, I'd really love to be there to find out the baby's gender, y'know? I know it'll have to mean staying with Leah a bit longer, but it will be worth it if it means I can go on tour knowing our baby's gender."
"What?" Jeffrey shook his head, "No, Harry. No way. I'm sorry, but if you want to be home in time for the baby's birth, then staying home until you can find out the baby's gender would mean you'd be staying past the second trimester. Sometimes, you don't even get to find out the gender even at 18 weeks if the baby is in the wrong position. And if that's the case, you'd probably have to wait another two weeks or something to find out, meaning you'll still be at home when Leah is already 20 weeks pregnant."
"So what?" I frowned.
"So what? Harry, that's already halfway through the pregnancy, meaning you'd only be able to go on tour for another 20 weeks before you insist on going back home. It's useless to have a tour that short, Harry. Absolutely useless. You may as well not be going on tour at all."
"A 20-week tour is better than nothing, right?"
"Harry, I'm perfectly fine with you staying with Leah for the rest of the first trimester – because at least you'll still be able to go on tour for about 6 months – which is at least a decent length for a tour."
"But 20 weeks is around four and a half months, isn't it? That's still long enough," I argued.
"Not as long as 6 months," he replied matter-of-factly, "plus, you'd probably want to stop touring at least a week before your baby's due, meaning I'll still have to chop off a week or so from the 20 weeks, which just makes it an even more useless length. At least with 6 months, chopping a week or so off that won't mean that much. Do you see where I'm coming from, Harry?"
I immediately deflated at his words, but I let out a long sigh before finally giving him a slow nod.
"Yeah, Jeff. I see where you're coming from," I replied quietly, "whatever. It's fine. I'll just stay until the end of the first trimester, then."
"I know you're disappointed, Harry, but look on the bright side. You'll still be there for other things, like the all-important 12-week scan. That's still in the first trimester, so at least you'll be able to see your baby before you go."
"Yeah. I guess that's true," I nodded again.
"And besides, I'm sure Leah will be more than happy to tell you the gender of your baby when she finds out."
"But that's not-" I began to protest, but I ended up cutting myself off with another sigh, "nevermind. Yeah, I guess she can."
But it's not the same.
"Do you have any more conditions about the tour?" Jeffrey asked.
"Yeah. I do," I crossed my arms, "you don't want me to stay until the gender reveal, then fine. But I still want one more thing, and you are not changing my mind about it, Jeff."
"What is it?"
"I want to take breaks from the tour to visit Leah. Regularly," I leaned across the table and gave him a look, "'I'm not negotiating about that."
"How regularly?" Jeffrey rose an eyebrow.
"Every fortnight," I said.
"Every fortnight?" Jeffrey looked shocked, "Harry...that's a little obsessive, don't you think?"
"No it's not."
"Yes it is, Harry. And besides, flying back and forth from your tour destinations and the UK every two weeks would be costly, not to mention tedious. And all that frequent flying can't be good for your health, either. You already have to fly a lot during the tour, but adding lots of extra trips back home every two weeks would be too much for you. You'd be exhausted," he said, "look...how about every month instead? It's much more reasonable."
"Every month?" I frowned, "That's not enough."
"Yes it is, Harry. You'll only be gone for six months, meaning you'll get to visit her six times. That's plenty, and it'll still be a regular pattern."
I let out a long sigh. "Ugh. Fine. I guess you're right."
"Yeah, of course I'm right," Jeffrey nodded, "trust me, Harry. You're getting too paranoid. And I get it, but Leah's gonna be fine."
At his words, I couldn't help scoffing and shaking my head in amusement.
"You sound just like her, you know," I told him with a soft chuckle.
"Well, she's right," Jeff smiled, "and hey – I know that your time with Leah, Piper and your baby is limited. So, what I'll do is, I'll let you spend your last couple of months with them, and handle the rest of the tour prep myself."
"Really?" My eyebrows rose.
Jeffrey nodded. "If I need your opinion, I'll call you. And I'll only ask you to meet up with me if I really need you to. Otherwise, starting today, your time from now up until you leave for the tour will be yours to spend with your family."
"Oh wow...thank you Jeff," I immediately felt myself beginning to smile, "thank you so much."
"No problem. I know I've had to drag you away a lot lately, but no more of that. Now that I know about all your preferences regarding the tour, you don't need to be with me so often anymore," he smiled back at me, "thanks for letting me know, Harry. And congratulations on the pregnancy, mate."
"Thanks, man," my smile immediately grew, "you know, I'm actually so excited to become a dad, that part of me just wants to announce it to the whole world."
"Er, hold on there," he held his hands up to me, "I know it's an exciting time, Harry, but for your sake as well as Leah's, hold off on a public declaration about the pregnancy for now," he warned me, "you know what those paparazzi are like, mate. They could easily start mobbing Leah with questions about her pregnancy while you're on tour, and that might really stress her out. I'm sure you don't want that to happen."
"No, I don't. Of course I don't," I replied without hesitation, "I won't declare anything, Jeff, don't worry. The only way anyone's finding out about this pregnancy is if they somehow figure it out themselves. Otherwise, nobody's knowing about it until me and Leah are ready."
"Good man," Jeffrey nodded at me, "alright, I know you're dying to get back home to Leah, so off you go. Go make her some breakfast, or whatever."
I chuckled. "Thanks, Jeff. And thanks for being so understanding about my changes. Kind of," I joked.
He laughed. "Yeah, well, you probably wouldn't have given me much of a choice, anyway."
I chuckled again. "True. Alright, Jeff, I'll see you later."
***
~Leah~
I was putting away the empty bowl that had Piper's cereal in it when I heard Harry coming back home. And as soon as I heard him enter the front door, I put the bowl in the dishwasher as quickly as I could so that I could greet him, but it seemed that Piper had beaten me to it.
"Daddy!" I heard her excited voice and her small footsteps running across the dining room as she rushed over to him, "Daddy, you're home! Where did you go?"
I entered the dining room just in time to see Harry chuckling affectionately at the way Piper was hugging his waist.
"Sorry, Piper. I had somewhere to be this morning, but I'm back now," he told her, "have you had your breakfast?"
"Uh-huh!" She nodded and smiled at him, "Mummy gave me cereal!"
"Oh, good," Harry smiled back at her and stroked her hair, "and have you also drunk some water?"
"Yeah," she nodded again.
"Good girl, Piper," Harry kissed the top of her head before he turned to me and smiled, "hello, love. How are you? Are you feeling OK?"
"Mm...a little bit nauseous, but it's tolerable," I replied, "probably because there's no bacon cooking this time," I gave him a cheeky smile.
Harry chuckled and kissed my lips softly but tenderly. "Sorry about that. I won't cook any more bacon, I promise."
"I appreciate it," I told him with a giggle.
"What does 'nauseous' mean?" Piper seemed to have overheard our conversation and was curious.
"Oh...'nauseous' is a big word for 'feeling sick', pumpkin," I told her.
"Sick?" Her blue eyes widened, "Are you sick, mummy?"
"No, I'm OK, sweetheart. Don't you worry," I told her with an assuring smile.
"Piper, why don't you go to your room and get ready to see your dad?" Harry suggested, "You can choose what you wanna wear, and then we'll come and help you in a little while, OK?"
"OK, daddy!" Piper nodded and rushed out of the dining room to go upstairs, leaving me and Harry all alone.
I could tell that getting me alone was exactly what Harry wanted. Clearly, he had a lot he wanted to say about how his meeting with Jeffrey went, and I was more than willing to listen.
"So, tell me what happened with Jeffrey," I spoke up first, "how did it go?"
Harry smiled at me softly before he took my hand and led me to the dining table – helping me into a seat before he sank down into the chair next to me.
"Well...it was mostly a good outcome, I guess. But...there were some things I weren't quite happy with," he replied quietly.
"Like what?" I asked him.
"Well, the good news is that I will get to go on a shorter tour," he began to smile, "Jeffrey's agreed to shorten it from 10 months to 6 months – so that I can still be home in time for the baby's birth. And he's also agreed to let me spend the rest of your first trimester with you."
"Oh, that's great!" I smiled back at him, "It's really good to hear that, Harry."
"Yeah, and even better: he's agreed to let me take regular breaks from the tour to visit you. So, I still get to see how much your bump grows every month," his smile grew.
"Oh my God, that's amazing!" I felt my face light up at his news, "I'll be counting down the days to all of your visits, Harry!"
"Me too," he replied with a soft chuckle.
"But wait...what aspect of your meeting weren't you happy with?" I began to frown a little, "'Cause it sounds like it went pretty well to me."
Harry sighed and began to lower his eyes. "Well, he...he said that he wouldn't let me stay long enough to find out our baby's gender. Apparently, staying until the foetus is developed enough for a sonographer to determine the sex will be too long, and it'll be 'useless' to start going on tour by then – considering how I want to get back home for the birth," he rolled his eyes, "I know it's only one scan, but it's so important to me, and I'm...disappointed that I won't get to be there for it."
"Oh, Harry..." he sounded so sad, and it instantly made my heart reach out to him, "Harry, it's OK. I'm...I'm sure we can find a way for you to be there when we find out the baby's gender."
"How?" He asked me, deflated.
"Well...you said that Jeffrey will let you pay me monthly visits, right?"
Harry nodded.
"So...think of it this way," I began, "when I reach 13 weeks, that'll be the end of my first trimester. So, if you leave for the tour at the very start of week 14, then you can come back four weeks after – on week 18 – one of the most common weeks to have a baby's sex revealed," I smiled at him, "so, what I'm trying to say is, you can probably coincide your first visit with a time where we can find out our baby's gender. After that, we can both just cross our fingers and hope for the best."
"Hey...yeah," Harry was starting to smile all over again, "yeah, I can do that," his emerald eyes lit up instantly, "Leah, you're a genius. Our baby is gonna be so fucking smart."
I laughed. "I think you might be slightly exaggerating my intelligence, but thanks."
Without warning me, Harry pulled me towards him and pressed his lips to mine as he kissed me deeply – making me exclaim in surprise a little since the action was unexpected. But, soon enough, I was giggling and smiling against his lips as I happily kissed him back.
"That's such a good idea, honestly," he told me once we pulled away, "I'm gonna call Jeffrey and tell him that in your exact words."
"OK," I smiled at him again, "but...Harry...I'm really happy for you and all, but we have other things to talk about regarding this pregnancy..." I bit my lip a little, "we have to tell Piper. But...when? And...how?"
Harry quickly turned serious again.
"That's a tough one," he said, "but, we definitely can't tell her yet. She's visiting Heath today, and if we tell her now, it might be one of the very first things to slip from her mouth when she sees him."
"Ugh...that's true," I sighed, "so...maybe we should tell her when Heath brings her back, then?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Harry nodded, "and...I guess we should probably try to find a way to tell Heath, too. Piper would eventually spill it out to him, anyway – albeit unintentionally – but it'll still be better if he hears it from us instead of her."
I sighed again. "That's also true...I guess," I stifled a groan, "damn it, I wish we didn't have to tell him. It's not like it's any of his business," I rubbed my eyes stressfully.
"Well, it kind of is," said Harry, "like it or not, Leah, you're still the mother of his child – so that automatically drops him into the picture. He needs to know that you're pregnant. It's just, like...etiquette, y'know?"
"Yeah...I guess you're right," I took a deep breath before chuckling softly, "you're so kind to everyone, you know. I love that so much about you."
"Well...I mean...that could be argued," he gave me a cheeky smile, "after all, I still told your ex-boyfriend to go fuck himself."
Upon receiving the reminder of that hilarious encounter with Curtis, I immediately burst out laughing.
"Oh, man...that's so true," I laughed again, "but he totally deserved it, though."
"Definitely," Harry laughed as well, "I still regret nothing."
After we got the last of our giggles out, we slowly shifted back to the task at hand.
"So...we tell Piper tonight?" I suggested.
Harry nodded. "Yep. We tell her tonight."
***
"Piper, d'you want a biscuit, sweetheart?" Harry offered her as she came into the kitchen.
"Yes, please!" Piper immediately beamed at him as he gave her a chocolate chip cookie from the tin, "Thank you, daddy!"
"That's OK, Piper," Harry smiled back at her, "anyway, your mum and I have something to tell you. So, take your biscuit and come with us to the living room, OK?"
Piper nodded and took a bite of her cookie before she started heading to the living room, with us following close behind.
"Piper, it's very important that you understand us when we tell you this," Harry told her as we all sat down on the sofa together.
"What is it?" asked Piper.
"Well..." Harry bit his lip, "Piper, mummy's pregnant."
"Pregnant?" Piper frowned, "What does that mean, mummy?" She looked at me.
"It means that I have a baby in my tummy, Piper," I replied.
"A baby? In your tummy?" Piper began to giggle, "Mummy, that sounds silly."
I chuckled softly. "Yeah, it does sound a little silly, Piper, but it's true. You can't tell right now, because the baby is still very tiny, but soon, he or she will start to grow. And as baby grows, so will mummy's tummy."
"How did a baby get in your tummy?" Piper asked.
"Er..." I chuckled again – but nervously this time, "that's a bit...hard to explain, Piper."
"Has there always been a baby in your tummy?" She pressed on.
"No, not always. The baby's only been in my tummy for a few weeks," I replied.
"Piper, me and your mum love each other very much. You know that, right?" Harry spoke up once more.
"Yes, I know," Piper said with a smile and a nod.
"Well...sometimes, getting a baby is what happens to two people who love each other," he said, "and you were once a baby in your mummy's tummy too, you know. But now, there's a new baby in there."
"Because you love my mummy a lot?" Piper asked him.
"Yeah..." Harry let out a nervous chuckle of his own, "that's right."
"So, how do we get the baby out of mummy's tummy?"
"Well, first we have to wait for the baby to grow big enough," Harry explained, "which will be in a few months. And once the baby is big enough, we'll take mummy to the hospital so that the baby can be born. That's how the baby will come out of mummy's tummy."
"And then what?"
"And then we take the baby home," I chimed in with a smile, "and you'll have a little brother or sister."
Piper gasped. "I get to be a big sister?"
"Yes, Piper, you do," Harry smiled at her as well.
"Yay!" Piper jumped up & down excitedly on the couch, "Am I gonna be a good big sister, daddy?"
"Of course, Piper. You'll be a wonderful big sister," Harry's smile grew, "because you'll take good care of your little sister or brother, won't you?"
"Yes, I will! I promise!" Piper beamed up at him, "I can't wait to be a big sister!"
"Aw, we're so glad you're excited, darling," my smile broadened as well, "we were hoping you would be."
"Are we gonna know if the baby is a little brother or sister?" Piper asked hopefully.
"Yes, we'll know, Piper," I told her, "but we won't be able to know straight away. We have to wait a little while before we know that."
"How long is a little while?"
"In a few weeks, hopefully," Harry smiled at her.
"I want a little sister!" said Piper.
"Well, we can't promise that this baby will be a girl, Piper," I told her, "you might have a little brother instead of a sister."
"OK, mummy," Piper nodded, "but I really, really want a little sister. Then we can play together, and I can brush her hair and I can give her my clothes when they're too small for me!"
"That would be really nice, love," Harry tickled her cheek – making her giggle, "but let's just wait and see what happens, yeah?"
"Yeah!" Piper nodded again more vigorously, "I'm really excited! I wanna meet the baby!"
"So do we, Piper," Harry kissed the top of her head, "and don't worry – when we finish all the waiting, we'll all get to meet the baby."
A/N: This is gonna be a long ending A/N but I really, really hope you read it.
Firstly, I've just recovered from the flu so that put a delay on my updates. Sorry about that guys <3
Secondly, if you follow my Instagram account, then you'll already know about this, but for those of you who don't know, I'm telling you now. A little while ago, while I was editing this book, I got a pop-up from Wattpad asking me if I wanted to enter this book into the 2018 Wattys by adding the tag #Wattys2018. I ended up thinking 'Why not?' so I added it. However, just this week I was wondering whether I should remove it, but when I asked my readers' opinion on my Insta account, the response was so amazing and supportive and I decided to really give it a go. I probably don't have much of a chance at getting something, but I'm still gonna try.
I've never entered the Wattys before, but I've been doing some reading up about how it works. There's no voting in the Wattys – results are determined by a selected judging panel made up of Wattpad's crew members. But even with that said, reader support is still very important. In Wattpad's words, it's important to 'drive traffic' towards your book.
You guys have been so supportive and wonderful these past four years that I couldn't possibly ask for a better group of readers. I don't really ask you guys to help me win things because I get paranoid that I would make you guys feel obliged to do it, which I don't want to do. But it'll actually be insane if I got noticed by the Wattys. And promotion is really important, so I'll be promoting Piper on my Instagram account and maybe my Twitter (it probably won't help much tho bc I don't have that many followers on them). As for you guys, it would mean so much to me if you continue to be as kind as you always have been during this time. If you have friends who like Harry and read Wattpad books then it would be amazing if you could convince them to check out this one. And if there are some of you who are popular on Insta and Twitter then I hope you won't mind mentioning this book in your posts (you don't have to, of course).
If you guys don't want to do any of this then I completely understand, I still love you guys to death and nothing will ever change that. This is just me trying something new, it's not like it's something I HAVE to get. Regardless of what happens, I gave it a shot and that's all that matters to me.
I'm actually really excited about it, though. Wish me luck guys <3 I love you so much and if you're willing to help, thank you so so much xxx