Harry’s P.O.V.
Two more days until we leave for London. Only 2. Stephanie seemed much better last night after downing about a dozen cookies in one sitting, but yesterday will always be one of the darkest days of our lives. I really hope nothing bad happens in these next few days before London because I definitely don’t want the trip to be a disaster. We’ve been through a lot, lately; we needed this vacation anyways.
Once everyone was calmed down yesterday, I made a plan to sort out Stephanie’s living situation today. I remember her saying she didn’t want to live in America because she’d miss me too much, but she doesn’t want Anne becoming her legal guardian because that would make us siblings and we’re in a relationship right now, so that would be weird. I wanted to figure all of this out and get it done because she was freaking out about it and I don’t like seeing her like this. So, I called Elijah last night and asked him to come over today. He would be the only one who would know if they had relatives here who could become Stephanie’s legal guardians. It was worth a shot.
A knock on the cottage door brought all of our attentions to the guest, who opened the door with ease and walked in.
“Eli!” Stephanie screamed and ran into his arms. “What are you doing here?”
“Harry called and asked me to—”
“Ssh!” I scolded. “She doesn’t know!”
Eli’s mouth formed an “o” shape whereas Stephanie’s face turned to confusion.
“What don’t I know? Guys, I thought we agreed not to keep secrets from me anymore!” she shrieked.
“Calm down, babe, you will get to know. I just thought it would be nice if Eli surprised you,” I explained. Her face softened and I relaxed.
“Shall we get down to business then? I don’t have much time,” Elijah suggested.
“Yeah, um, go to the house because my mum’s sitting in on this, too,” I directed. “Come on, Steph.”
All 3 of us exited the cottage and walked the short distance to the house. Stepping inside, I could still smell the scent of cookies from the kitchen and now I was craving more. They were really good for my idiotic, but lovable, friends.
“Mum?” I called out, wondering where she was.
“Upstairs, I’ll be down in a few!” she responded, her voice echoing throughout the house.
“Okay!” I replied.
“Should we just sit in here and wait?” Elijah offered, pointing to the living room.
“Yeah, sure,” I said. Leading us in the room, I settled myself on the couch with Stephanie right next to me and Elijah on the couch opposite me.
“What is this all about?” Steph asked.
“We’re going to find you a home,” I replied, smiling.
“Really?” she exclaimed.
“Mmhmm,” I answered.
“Wait, it’s not going to be with…with…you know…” she trailed off, looking at Elijah.
“No, no, no, I wouldn’t do that to you,” I chuckled. “Eli’s just here to give information about other relatives you might have throughout the area who would be willing to take you in.”
“Yup,” Elijah confirmed.
The sound of footsteps told me my mum was coming down the stairs and she appeared in the doorway to the living room just like that.
“Hi, Eli, nice to see you again,” she greeted, sitting next to him.
“Nice to see you again, too, Mrs. Styles,” he answered.
“Alright, so Steph, what’s your position on this?” my mum questioned.
Steph took a deep breath and explained the situation again, this time adding in that she wanted to go back to America just to finish out her senior year and then live here in England after that. The only problem she fears is that she’ll leave Rachel behind if she comes back to live here, since she wasn’t sure what her plans were after high school.
“Okay, well, I know Rachel’s mum said that she would take you in, so maybe just for this next year, she can. She wouldn’t be your legal guardian, but basically just a ‘host mum’ for you, as if you were a foreign exchange student,” my mum suggested.
“That could work,” Steph delivered. “But then who would be my legal guardians?”
“We have 2 uncles near here, Steph,” Elijah contributed, causing us to turn our heads to him. “One lives in Middlewich and the other lives in Manchester. The only thing is, one is Dad’s brother and the other is Mum’s,” Eli said.
“Mum’s brother, hands down,” Steph immediately replied.
“I kind of figured,” he chuckled. “Okay, so that would be Uncle Harvey and his wife, Aunt Christina. The good thing about them is that they used to check on me when everything was going down. They wanted to take me in, but my Dad fought to keep me in his hands, for reasons I still don’t even know. They are sweet people, really kind. I’m positive you’ll like them.”
I looked over at Steph and her face was lit up in such a way that it rebounded onto me and I felt so happy for her, not only the fact we’re figuring this out but also because I haven’t seen that smile in weeks.
“Do you think they’ll take me in?” Steph questioned, the grin wiping off on her face.
“I’m pretty sure they will in a heartbeat,” Elijah answered, reviving the smile. Steph returned it and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“So now what happens?” she asked.
“Well, now we have to visit Uncle Harvey and introduce you to them since they haven’t seen you since you were like, what, 2? And then we have to explain the situation to them. I’m almost positive they will say yes right away, but they will probably need some time to figure this out, so don’t be downhearted if we don’t get an answer the first time we visit,” Elijah explained.
“How do you know all of this?” I curiously questioned.
“Research, Harry. She’s my sister and I care about giving her a home,” he shrugged, keeping the mood light.
“Aw,” Steph smiled. “So when are we visiting them?”
“Preferably soon,” Eli responded. “I will also need to call them to tell them we’ll be coming.”
“We’re going to be in London for the next couple of days,” I pointed out.
“Then it will obviously have to be after London,” Eli replied. “When are you getting back?”
“We’ll be back around Sunday,” I answered.
“Does Monday sound alright to go then?” Elijah asked Stephanie.
“Yeah, sure,” Steph said.
“Then I guess I’ll see you Monday,” Eli delivered with a wink, standing up.
“Wait, you’re not staying?” Steph questioned.
“I’ve got stuff to take care of,” Eli answered and I knew what he meant. Glancing over at Steph, I could tell she understood, too. My mum raised herself off of the couch and gave Eli a hug, leading him out of the house.
“I don’t know how I feel about this, Harry,” Steph admitted.
“What do you mean? You seemed so happy before,” I asked.
“It’s just, I don’t know, I don’t ever want to be near my…my…dad,” she confessed.
“Steph, trust me. He will never come near you and you will never be near him. I will make sure of that,” I confirmed.
“But what if—”
“Stop it right now. Don’t go thinking into the unknown, especially about things that don’t need to be thought of,” I interrupted. “Everything’s going to be fine, trust me.”
She sighed and smiled at me while I put my arm around her and cuddled her into a hug.
“Thanks, Hazza,” she whispered.
“Now, we should probably start packing for London, shouldn’t we?” I said, eyeing her. Her smile revealed that she agreed and we headed back to the cottage.

Rachel’s P.O.V.
It felt like I had been packing so much that summer. First, the original trip to England, then a false alarm when Helen wanted us to come home, and now to London. Thank God my foot was healed by this point because Anne wasn’t letting me go to London if I was still in a wheelchair (then again, that was weeks ago, I just got off my crutches last week).
Eli’s arrival caused all of us to pause our packing and look towards the door as he entered. Stephanie screamed when she saw him and then her, Eli, and Harry literally left like 30 seconds after he came in. Elijah also looked like he meant business. Oh well, I’ll hopefully get the details later.
I don’t even know how long I had been packing for when I faintly heard the sound of guitar strings strumming through the open window. Glancing around the room, I realized Niall wasn’t in the cottage anymore. Everyone else was, except Harry and Steph. Curiously, I got up and walked out the door, following the sound of the guitar. I walked across the grass, searching for a sign but I couldn’t see anything…
…until I looked up and saw a tuft of blonde hair peeking out of the wooden window of the old treehouse.
I smiled and began climbing up the ladder, humming along to the very familiar song. My head peeked over the dirty floor and my eyes were instantly connected with Niall’s, his hands continuing to dance along the fret and his cheeky smile lighting up the treehouse. As I sat down on the floor opposite him, he looked back down at his guitar and finished up the song. I watched him intently and I realized just how much I have fallen head over heels for this blonde haired, blue eyed, gorgeous, clumsy, crazy, idiotic Irish fool. There was just something about the way his head nodded slightly to the beat of the music, the way his fingers naturally slid over the strings, the way his body was curled up and how the guitar was positioned. It was something I had never seen before and I am forever glad for discovering this.
“I needed a break from packing,” Niall explained when he ended the song.
“That’s okay, no need to to explain,” I told him in a hushed voice. He smiled and put his guitar to the side. “Keep playing! That was good!” I urged.
“Do you wanna play something?” he asked.
“I don’t know how to play,” I confessed.
“Here, I’ll teach ya,” Niall said, grabbing the guitar and shifting himself over to me. He put the guitar in front of me while he sat behind me, reaching his arms over to position my hands on the strings, arranging my fingers on the fret to play a G chord. He led my other hand and we strummed the chord together, producing a heavenly sound.
“See how easy it is?” he chuckled.
“Yeah, for you,” I responded.
“That’s a G chord, one of the easiest chords to learn,” he informed. “Now we’ll learn the A chord, another easy one.”
And again, he positioned my fingers on the guitar and strummed the chord. He continued teaching me a few more chords until my fingers began hurting.
“You’ll get used to it,” Niall laughed, releasing his arms from around me and scooting back to the wall behind us. I fell back into his side and he immediately cuddled me, laying the guitar against the wall.
“How did I get so lucky?” I whispered.
“You mean how did I get so lucky,” he corrected.

I don’t even know how we fell in love with each other, it just came naturally. We’ve known each other our entire lives but only seen each other a few times throughout that. I’ve never had any good luck with guys in my school anyways, but maybe it’s because I’ve always had Niall in the back of my mind. I don’t think I’ve really ever thought about him romantically until now, but he was always there, unconsciously. I will always thank God for bringing us together again because I’ve realized how much he means to me, even if we never spent a lot of time together in the early days. And I wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.

Notes

This chapter is so cute :) I was getting Niall feels towards the end (then again, the SMG music video came out today, so I already have all feels). And also, we found out the boys will be playing in Milwaukee next summer which is amazing because we live in Wisconsin and this will be the first time they've ever played here!

Rachel and Stephanie :)