She's nervous this day for his arrival home. Usually, she's excited and full of anticipation, but she's quite literally so nervous to see him that at this very moment, her hands are shaking. She sits in the living room, glancing at the door every five seconds, wondering if she's done enough.

She's cleaned the whole house, top to bottom, and it all smells like cinnamon, which she knows he loves. She's made a wonderful dinner, full of specialties from his home country that she had to spend hours slaving over. She's dressed in his favorite dress, the green one that matches her eyes. She's sent the children to their grandmother's, just for this one night. She just wants him to be happy when he sees her, that's all.

She sees the doorknob turn and she stands up, straightening out her dress and waiting anxiously to see his face. When it appears, he looks sad. Well, she expected that, it's a sad day. Maybe the saddest of his life so far. After twenty years, yes of course, it's a sad day.

"Welcome home, darling," she says, approaching her husband carefully. She knows him inside out, but even she does not know how he'll react to this.

He manages a smile but she knows he doesn't want to. She kisses his cheek and takes his hand, leading him to the kitchen. "I've made dinner, you must be hungry."

"Yeah," is all he says as they sit down across from each other. Usually she asks him about his day now, but it doesn't really seem right. If he wants to tell her about it, then he will. Since he isn't, he probably doesn't. Instead, he asks her about her day, and she talks about cooking the meal and having to call his mother for help. He chuckles over this, and she's happy to see him chuckling. Afterwards, she tells him to go on and shower up, relax, do whatever, and she cleans the kitchen and puts the leftovers in the fridge.

She changes into her night clothing in their bedroom and sits on the edge of the bed. He comes into their bedroom stark naked and looks at her for a moment. There is sadness in his eyes. She can't help herself.

"Darling, how do you feel? Tell me, please."

He sits down next to her. "Sad. Just, sort of empty a little. At least, I did. When I left, when we all left, I just thought about what I'm supposed to do now. Where am I supposed to go. I felt a little lost and then... well, I realized how absurd that was when your Mum called me because Jeffin wanted to tell me goodnight. And I could hear Ariana in the background, she was giggling about something. And they made me think of coming home to you, us having a night alone and I realized, even if the band is over now, they're not the most important part of my life anymore."

He can't know how much his words mean to her in this moment. How they're making her heat beat faster and her face go red.

"You're my whole life, the kids are my whole life. The hours dedicated to work, they're all yours now. We can go on trips more often and just spend so much time raising those kids as best we can, and just being with them. I can take more time with you, to love you and make you happy and... this is a blessing. It really is."

She bursts into tears and he looks shocked as he takes her into his arms. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"No, no," she shakes her head on his bare chest. "I'm so happy! I've been panicking about this day for months and now, I just... I never imagined. Oh, Niall, I just love you so much."

He chuckles and tips her chin up so she looks at him. "Annie, no tears. We need to start being happy... right now." He wiggles his eyebrows and she catches his drift.

They have a whole, new lifetime of happiness ahead of them, and she's never been happier in all her life.