Stephanie’s P.O.V.
The scent of breakfast tickled my nose as we entered in the main house. Clambering through the back door, we made it to the kitchen and I was surprised to see Anne and Gemma cooking again. Honestly, are they going to do this all summer? I’m going to feel bad!
“It smells so good in here!” I exclaimed.
“Why thank you,” Anne replied, setting plates on the table.
“You guys don’t have to do this every day,” Elijah added, thinking exactly what I was thinking.
“You just got here! We like to pamper our guests to make sure they are comfortable,” Anne responded.
“Don’t worry, we won’t be doing this every day,” Gemma said, rolling her eyes. “We have our own lives.”
Laughing at her comment, we settled around the table and dug in. Louis, Liam, and Harry finished quickly because they had to leave for their writing session and they woke up the other boys and Rachel. Rachel joined us at the table once the guys left and we chatted with Anne, Gemma, and Elijah.
“So, Stephanie, how’s it going? We haven’t seen you in forever!” Anne started, sitting at the table.
“Pretty good, found out some interesting news and now I’m here,” I reply.
“Wait, the news? All of it?” Gemma asked.
“What do you mean, all of it?” I questioned.
“Um, just, everything…you need to know,” Gemma covered up.
“Is there more I don’t know?” I interrogated, curious.
“Nothing, nothing,” Anne replied, looking guilty, too.
“Are you sure?” I asked again.
“Yes, I’m positive,” Anne answered.
“I can’t do this, mum,” Gemma began.
“Honey,” Anne warned. “Don’t you…”
“Steph, we knew. We knew all about this before you left. I’m sorry,” Gemma explained.
I froze.
“Wait, what?” Rachel asked, very surprised, too.
“And you didn’t do anything?” Elijah questioned.
“What could we do? Your adopted mum had her ways. We tried to keep you here as much as possible. Of course, Harry had no idea,” Gemma informed.
“What do you mean, you kept me here as much as possible?” I asked.
“I mean, we invited you over loads of times and your mum, well, Helen, was alright with it until Elijah and your father started showing up. That’s when Helen began making up excuses that you had stuff to do and you and Harry hardly had playdates anymore. I started getting suspicious and it was obvious something was up, but we couldn’t figure out what. And then, all of a sudden, you were gone. Just like that,” Anne spoke.
“Just like that,” I repeated.
“It was a shame because you were a delightful child. Well, you still are now, but I had no idea why Helen just bolted and left without any explanation. We knew you were adopted and we knew the whole backstory, but that doesn’t explain why you moved across the world!” Anne continued.
“Trust me, I don’t either,” I agreed.
“I-I do,” Elijah spoke up, and all of us snapped our heads at him, ready for the answer.

Harry’s P.O.V.
The writing session went great and now we had 2 more songs to add to our new album. I was so excited to start recording for it already, but they told us we wouldn’t record until later this year. Oh, well.
We left the studio and headed back to my house and that’s when I remembered I got to take Stephanie around Holmes Chapel now. That got me super excited and as we entered the house, it was a different feel. You could literally feel the intenseness in the air and it didn’t feel good.
“Is everyone okay in here?” I called out from the hallway.
“Hi, Harry, boys. How was your session?” my mum greeted, standing in the open doorway.
“Great…” I answered, curious. “Is everybody fine?”
“Everyone’s okay. We had a discussion and secrets were revealed and,” she took a deep breath, “everything’s so messed up.”
“What do you mean?” Louis asked, coming up next to me.
“We talked about Steph’s adoption and stuff,” she added. “It’s okay, she’s just a little overwhelmed.”
“Let me see her,” I demanded, pushing past my mum. I walked into the living room and saw her on the couch watching TV with Rachel and Gemma. They seemed like they were in good moods, as far as I could tell.
“Hey, Steph,” I said, waving as I approached her.
“Hey, Haz,” she greeted back, smiling at me.
“Are you ready?” I asked, hoping she remembered.
“Oh, yeah!” she exclaimed, an imaginary light bulb appearing over her head. She stood up and slipped on her shoes, ending up in the same doorway that my mum was chilling at before. “I’m ready now,” she said with a smile. I grinned back at her and we walked out of the house.
“So, where are we going?” Steph asked.
“It’s a surprise,” I answered plainly.
I led the way down the block and over a few more to my surprise. As we were walking, I wanted to take her hand again, but I wasn’t sure how she would react to it, so I didn’t. I don’t know if she feels the same way or not. I really wanted to know, but everything has been so overwhelming for her the past couple of days that I just dropped it.
Honestly, I do want her to be mine. My life has gotten so much crazier over the past year and it’s so different. Once I began to get in contact with her again, I felt like I was back in time, before all of this happened. And now that she’s with me again, physically, I’ve never felt more alive. She reminds me of my past and how we were before this “famous” life and I like it.
“I knew you were going to take me here,” Steph declared when we reached the small park.
“It’s where most of our memories come from, so I thought you might like it,” I explained.
“Like it? I love it, Harry,” she replied. She glanced over at the swings and moved over to them. “Wow, these are a lot smaller than I remember.”
“That’s because the last time you were here, you were 8,” I responded sarcastically.
“That’s not my fault,” she said, sitting down in one. I joined her on the swing next to her and rocked back and forth.
“So, how are you taking all of this?” I asked her, hoping it wasn’t too much. She took a deep breath.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Honestly, I feel angry at my adopted mum for not telling me and then not allowing me to go, but then again, she did let me go, but your mum just told me some things about her and now I’m angry at her again.”
“I would probably be angry, too,” I admitted, thinking about her situation. “But, you have the entire summer to be with us here in England, so I would suggest getting your mind off of that and focusing on having the best summer ever.”
“But that’s the thing, Harry. Now that Elijah’s somewhere in the picture, I want to find my dad and catch up with him again, too. There’s no way that this is going to slip my mind for the summer when I’ve got so much to learn about my biological family,” Steph answered.
“Elijah seems pretty cool,” I tell her. “I haven’t met your dad, though.”
“Do you want to?” she questioned, looking over at me.
“I don’t know, maybe. Only if you’re okay with it,” I responded.
“Of course I’m okay with it,” Steph spoke. “I’m going to be nervous anyway, and having you there might help.”
I smiled at her response and realized she needs me as much as I need her. The only problem is what her feelings are for me.
“Well, I will gladly escort you to meet your father,” I said all fancy-like. She giggled and then became silent again.
“I just can’t believe I’m back here. I never thought I would see this park again, let alone with you,” she revealed.
“It’s crazy,” we both said together, then laughed.
“It is crazy, though! I never thought I’d be able to see you again, either,” I repeated.
“Really?” she asked. “I thought you might have forgotten about me,” she added quietly.
“Forget you? How could I possibly forget you?” I questioned.
“I don’t know, like you’ve got so much going for you and all these years must have been insane that there was no way you probably remembered me since our friendship was when we were way younger,” she replied.
“Did you really think that?” I asked. She nodded. “Steph, that could never happen! You changed my life in so many ways when we were younger! When you left, and I remember this day very clearly, I cried for days! I had no idea what was going on and when my mum told me that you were going to America, I didn’t know what was going to happen next. We literally spent every moment together and all of a sudden, you were gone.”
“You really cried?” she questioned.
“Yeah,” I answered. She smiled.
“You wimp,” she playfully said.
“Excuse me?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and grinning at her, too.
“You heard me,” she replied. I rolled my eyes
“Whatever. Anyways, I had a hard time trying to figure out what to do with my life, and that’s when I started singing,” I admitted.
“Wait, what?” she asked.
“I started singing after you left. I began writing songs but I didn’t know what they meant until we started messaging each other, and then I realized they were about you,” I revealed.
“Oh, my God, Harry, are you serious?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I guess I poured out my feelings in songs.”
“That’s amazing,” Steph answered. “I need to hear these songs, now!”
“You will, you will,” I responded. I pulled out my phone and checked the time, realizing we need to get back if we want to go bowling. “Hey, we better get back, it’s almost four.”
“Bowling time!” she declared, getting off of the swing. I laughed at her and slid off of the swing, too. We headed back to my house but this time, she took my hand in hers, relieving the stress off of me on whether I should do that or not. We strolled back, hand in hand, talking and laughing about unimportant things. That was one of my favorite days in my entire life.

Notes

Just so you guys know, Steph and I don't know Holmes Chapel/London/England and even Harry's house, so please don't judge us because it's not how it actually is. I don't know where Harry's dad's cottage is, but I'm placing it on the property of Harry's mum's house, so the cottage is only a few steps from the actual home. Obviously that's probably not the case, but we don't know, so this is how I'm writing it. It's just a fanfic, too, so you can picture it however you want :)

Rachel and Stephanie :)