Spring, 2021
The morning sun was shining bright in the sky as Piper stepped out of the kitchen and onto the back patio. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes and searched the large backyard for her husband and her daughter, wondering what they could possibly up to. She'd woken not long ago to an empty bed which wasn't too much of a surprise because it was nearly 10:30 and Sara never let them sleep in that long. Harry must have taken one for the team and kept her busy to give Piper a chance to sleep in.
Bless him.
She finally spotted her husband's head over in the far corner of the yard, his hair curling under the brim of a big brown hat. As she crossed the grass barefoot, headed in his direction, she finally spotted her two year old toddling around him, wearing a pair of jean shorts and a sleeveless flannel shirt, a little hipster hat stuck over her red curls. It was no surprise to Piper that when she finally caught sight of her husband's body, he was wearing an identical outfit. She wasn't sure why but Harry seemed to love matching Sara's outfits with his whenever he could. She liked to call it classic narcissism; Harry insisted it was a bonding technique.
"You'd both better be wearing three layers of sunscreen," Piper called out as a greeting as she sauntered over the grass toward them. Harry glanced up at her and while he was wearing aviators that blocked off any view of his eyes, his cheeks dimpled under the pressure of his smile.
"Morning, petal," he greeted warmly. "Have a nice sleep?"
"I did. Thanks for —"
"Mummy! Mummy!" A small little body crashed into Piper's legs, Sara's arms circling as best as they could around her knees. When Piper glanced down, Sara was staring up at her with a big smile to rival her dad's. Piper had to reach a hand out to snatch her hat before it went tumbling off her head. "Look, flowers!"
"They're beautiful," Piper said indulgently as she eyed the collection of flowers that were littered across the grass in front of the garden, which looked like it had just been turned over. Every colour and type imaginable seemed to be present in some form or another — brightly coloured perennials and lush green annuals to offset them, big blooming petals and thing reedy leaves. It looked like Harry had bought half the flower shop. "What's all this?"
"Just thought the garden was looking a little bland," Harry said with a shrug from where he was sprawled out on the ground, his legs stretched out in front of him so his bare heels were tickled by the grass. "I thought it would be a fun family project for the weekend."
"I have a shovel!" Sara interjected, waving her cute plastic trowel around in the air. Piper noticed for the first time that she was wearing her wellies and that she had little gardening gloves on her hands.
"That's a lovely trowel," Piper corrected gently, knowing that Sara probably wouldn't care what the proper name for her tool was as long as she had a chance to use it. "Did daddy get you that?"
Sara nodded vigorously, almost upsetting her hat once more. "At the store. I saw lots of flowers."
"Did you?" Piper asked as she crouched down and then plopped onto her bum beside Harry. He shuffled himself a little closer so they were sitting thigh to thigh and then leaned in to kiss her temple gently. Piper reached over to pat his thigh appreciatively but kept her attention on Sara who was standing in front of her now. Piper placed her hands on Sara's hips so she could drag her forward and press quick kisses to her cheeks that made her giggle. "Did you help daddy pick out all these lovely flowers?" Sara nodded enthusiastically, obviously quite proud of herself. "Which ones are your favourites?"
"Yellow!" She was off like a shot, rushing over to the coreopsis flowers that were already blooming in their little plastic boxes. She struggled to pick up the moderately sized box with the weight of the soil and chose to drag it over instead. "Daddy, these ones?"
Harry smiled warmly at their daughter as he rolled sideways onto his knees and then shuffled over toward the garden, helping their daughter tug the flower box over. "You like these ones then?" Harry asked her, to which she nodded. "Alright then, why don't you start digging a hole for them and I'll get them out of the box, okay?"
Sara loved to play and was quite rambunctious but when she was given a job, she took it very seriously. Piper often used that to her advantage, making her 'mummy's little helper' when they needed to tidy up and get chores done. She suspected her daughter would be studious and focused as she continued to grow up — just like her dad.
It didn't surprise Piper when she began to dig her little plastic trowel into the loose soil, flicking it away as she attempted to dig a hole. She was crouched over with her bum hovering just over the ground, the way she always used to do when she was first learning to stand and walk, and Piper was embarrassed to feel tears pricking at her eyes. Damn hormones.
Harry sat back down beside Piper with his legs spread out and got to work tipping the flower box segments over one at a time to shake out the soil and roots. "Did you have breakfast?" he asked casually as he worked, his eyes focused on his task. "I left a plate in the warmer for you."
"I saw it," Piper told him. "You're too good to me, saving me some of your eggy bread."
"More like I'm a very smart man. If you'd found out I'd made eggy bread and didn't save you any, you'd probably have killed me."
"And I know at least ten ways to do it," she joked which made Harry snort a laugh.
"Only ten?"
"Do you want me to try them all out on you now?" Piper quirked her eyebrows up challengingly but had to stifle a laugh when Harry smiled broadly.
"I'll pass," he said. Piper had no doubt that he knew she could take him down if she wanted. He'd trained her well enough for that. They were a pretty even match on the mat at this point and she could tell that Harry was equal parts proud and put off because of it. "Let's keep this little family activity of ours PG for the sake of our gingersnap, hmm?"
Sara's head shot up when she heard her dad's nickname for her and she watched Harry curiously from under her hat for a moment before standing up. "I'm done, daddy."
The hole she'd dug was shallow and it seemed that halfway through she'd become more engrossed in arranging the misplaced soil into a pyramid than she was in actually digging. Harry came to the same conclusion and sighed before plastering on a smile. "Well done, love, but I think I'll just shape it up a bit. Will you hold these flowers for me?"
She dropped her trowel immediately and carefully held her hands out, ready to receive the flowers. Harry handed them over and Piper couldn't help the smile that snuck onto her face when she saw how carefully Sara was handling her newfound duty, being especially careful of the flowers cupped in her hands. "You're doing a great job with those, darling," Piper said encouragingly when she saw Sara's face scrunch up with concentration. "Maybe you'll be a botanist when you grow up."
Sara gave her the dirtiest side eye, obviously not understanding what that meant whatsoever, and Piper vowed to give Louis a good smack when she saw him next. She could only have learned that look from him. Piper was going to have to ban him from babysitting duties for a while.
She heard a snicker and saw that Harry was looking over his shoulder and smirking at her, obviously catching the look their daughter had given her. In retaliation, Piper reached her leg out and gave his bum a shove with her foot, seeing as it was sticking out in front of her since he was on his hands and knees. He wiggled it teasingly before going back to digging a proper hole for the flowers.
Piper leaned back on her hands and stuck her face up toward the sun, listening to Harry's low voice as he coached Sara as to the proper way to plant a flower. She would let her eyes drift over to them every so often, delighting in the sight of Harry kneeling beside their daughter, helping her pat soil around the flowers.
He was amazingly good with her, which shouldn't be a surprise but still sort of caught her off guard sometimes. She'd always known there was a gentle side to Harry but she'd also appreciated the fact that he was a spy and that he could be lethal when he wanted to be. He'd been nervous when she first got pregnant that he'd be a bad dad because he'd never had one around and that his spy training had sucked all the compassion out of him. She wished she could have shown that Harry the way that this Harry was with their little one — how he was patient and caring and always up for some fun; full of cuddles and kisses; how he was the best at checking for monsters; how he was authoritative when he needed to be but always disciplined Sara with the right amount of kindness so that she loved and trusted him. She thought he was a superhero. And most of the time, so did Piper.
"You planning on helping or are you just going to sit there?"
Piper glanced over at Harry wiping the sweat from his brow, his hat pushed back on his head. She just shrugged. "You're doing such a good job without me."
Harry just rolled his eyes and turned to Sara instead. "Want to help mummy pick out the next flowers we plant?"
"Yes!" She jumped to her feet excitedly and rushed over to Piper, collapsing in her lap until the two of them were both giggling. Even Harry was cracking a smile as he got busy digging the next hole in the soil a little bit to the left of their newly planted coreopsis flowers.
Piper helped Sara sort through the flowers they had picked up and choose the next set they wanted to plant. They ended up picking some lovely violets that were vibrant purple and cheery yellow. Piper helped Sara turn the little planter box over and shake out the plant, careful of the roots as they shook off a bit of the soil. She ended up covered in dirt but it was a small price to paid for the awed look on her daughter's face.
"Bloody dog."
Piper glanced up just in time to see Harry toss something over his shoulder that he'd found in the soil. She took a closer look — bone.
"Where is Bertie?" she asked with a laugh as she handed the first set of violets over to Sara to deliver to Harry. He took them from her and set them in the hole and then let her pack in the soil while he leaned back on his heels for a break.
"In the hall closet." It was Bertie's hiding place when he was devouring a treat so Piper wasn't surprised when Harry added, "We got him a bone while we were out so he wouldn't bother us while we were planting. You know he'd be kicking dirt up everywhere."
"Smart thinking." Bertie loved running wild in the backyard. While it was nowhere near as large as the grounds of HQ, it was still pretty big and he had space to roam. She'd found him burying things and digging them up in the garden more times than she could count. If he'd joined them, the whole garden would have been a mess.
"You know, you really chose some lovely flowers," Piper pointed out as she emptied out another box of violets in preparation, watching as Sara dug a hole with Harry's proper trowel (she seemed much more satisfied with the strength of his compared to her plastic one and Piper knew Harry wasn't getting it back any time soon). "These will look beautiful in bloom together."
"I let Sara choose most of them," Harry admitted with a shrug as he shuffled over so he was sitting on his bum once more, leaning back on his hands as he watched Piper work. "She just liked the colours I think. I was the one picking out the soil and the mulch — boring stuff."
"Important stuff," Piper corrected as she handed the violets she'd been holding to Sara who seemed satisfied with her hole. Harry leaned over a bit to watch and make sure she did it right but she was a smart kid and she'd picked up the simple task pretty quickly. She only sort of squished the flowers as she packed the soil and Harry was able to fix them so they weren't crooked when she began digging the next hole.
Piper plucked up another box of violets to empty out because it made her feel like she was contributing even though she hadn't actually moved all that much. As she fingered the petals on the flowers, she smiled to herself. "You know," she said conversationally as she loosened the roots from the soil, "Violet would be a lovely name for a girl."
"Hmm, probably," Harry agreed as he leaned in to supervise Sara's digging. He gave her one of his fond smiles over his shoulder before going back to work. "We'll have to keep it in mind for the next one."
"If it's a girl," she countered, rubbing her stomach with one hand as she held the violets patiently with the other.
"I hope we have another girl," Harry mused to himself as he smiled down at Sara. "I like my girls."
Piper grinned as she patted her stomach gently. "I guess we'll know for sure in a couple of months."
"Yeah, but I still — wait." He spun around so quickly that he toppled over a bit and had to catch himself on his hand, planting it in the grass. He reached up to slide his sunglasses off so he could see her properly, his wide eyes focusing in on the hand she had laid over her stomach protectively. "Are you saying you're — we —"
"We're having another baby, Harry."
Harry scrambled over to her quickly, his arms wrapping around her and yanking her up so they were pressed chest to chest, the violets abandoned on the ground at their side. He released her only to place his soil covered hands on either side of her head and drag her into a heated kiss, his lips pressing firmly against hers. When he pulled back, he was grinning from ear to ear and his eyes were practically sparkling with excitement in the bright sunshine.
"Are you serious?"
"You think I'd joke about having to carry around another baby for the next seven months?"
"Two months along then?" Harry asked as his hands found her stomach naturally, imprinting her nice baby blue t-shirt with aggressively large soil handprints. "Oh petal, that's wonderful news. Is that why you went to the doctor this week?"
She nodded as she grinned up at her husband. "Just wanted to be sure before I told you 'cause I knew you'd get all worked up and freaked out."
Harry totally missed the subtle teasing because he was too busy staring down at her stomach, his cheeks dimpling as he held her gently. "We've got to tell your mum," he said, his speech hurried compared to his normal drawl. It got like that when he was very excited which was not very often. It made Piper snort a laugh. "We've got to tell my mum. She'll be over the moon. And we have to tell all the boys and El and Marlow and Perrie — they're going to be fighting to be godparents again."
"I think we have someone we have to tell first," Piper interrupted, pointing over Harry's shoulder to where their little one was making little piles of soil with the trowel.
"My darling gingersnap," Harry called gently over his shoulder. When Sara glanced up curiously, Harry smiled over at her. "Did you hear what mummy said?"
"No," she replied curtly, already distracted by her trowel once more.
"Mummy said that we're going to have another baby," Harry explained carefully though the happiness was evident in his tone. "You're going to have a little baby brother or sister."
She considered it for a moment and then bent back over the garden. "No thank you."
Harry seemed perturbed by the answer, clearly not expecting it. Piper had to hold in a bark of laughter at the perplexed expression on his face and instead snaked her hands around his waist to pull him closer. He shifted so he was sitting and then pulled her between his open legs, letting her comfortably nestle herself against him as he wrapped his arms comfortably around her shoulders.
"We'll work on her," Piper muttered to him as she eyed her daughter flattening out her soil piles. "I just don't think she understands the concept."
"I'm sure you'll find her a book all about it," Harry muttered, wincing when she jabbed her elbow into his side. "Only joking, petal. And besides, she'll love her new sibling just as much as we do once she gets here."
"Convinced it's a girl already?" Piper asked as she lifted her head to look up at him. She let out a little squeak when Harry swooped down and surprised her with a kiss, a sweet and gentle kiss that left her lips tasting like spearmint.
Harry's hand found her stomach once more. "I am. I don't know how but I just know we've got another little flower growing in here."