Little Misunderstandings [Sequel to Little Steps]

I entered the doctor’s office feeling incredibly nervous. My heart was racing and my hands felt a bit cooler than normal. Niall didn’t know I was here. He thought I was at Corryn’s place, hanging out with her like I normally do.

After I had checked in, I made my way to the waiting room. I remember the first time I had been here. It was when I suspected I was pregnant with Nate and Colette. Doctor Feingold and I had become great friends over those past nine months, up until the birth of Nate and Colette. I had zoned out for such a long time that it took me a second to register that my name was being called.

I looked up to see the familiar bright smile of Dr. Feingold, holding a clipboard with her eyes on me. I stood up and grabbed my purse, making my way toward her.

“Nice to see you again, Aria.” She smiled as we walked down towards her office.

“It’s been a while. “ I agreed, following her into the familiar room. She told me to pull up my shirt and ran a few tests after taking some blood. She ten told me to lay back so she could apply some of that blueish gooey substance that made me shiver like crazy from how cold it was.

As Dr. Feingold rubbed it on my belly, she started asking me questions. “So, what symptoms of pregnancy have you been getting?”

“I’ve been vomiting a lot. I’ve been incredibly bipolar as well, and tired more than usual. I also missed my period and I’m currently still late by just over two weeks as of today.”

Dr. Feingold nodded. She did her magic with all the different machines surrounded the bed, then pressed the monitor to my belly. I watched the monitor move around until Dr. Feingold interrupted me.

“Look at the screen,” she grinned. “There’s your baby.”

All I could really see were some grey circles and blobs but in the center, it looked like a bean shaped object. That was my baby.

I knew I was grinning from ear to ear as Dr. Feingold moved the monitor on my belly. A third child. I couldn’t be any happier.

Dr. Feingold took me to some other rooms and ran some other tests on me to make sure my body was healthy and I was capable of carrying another baby. She asked me various questions on previous children and certain questions regarding my monthly cycle. She talked more about the symptoms and gave me a small bottle of medicine to help cope with the morning sickness.

Dr. Feingold also gave me tips on what I could and couldn’t consume. No alcohol, not that I drank too much anyway, and low levels of caffeine if at all.

By the time I left the doctor’s office, I was feeling confident. Now there was one thing left to decide:

How would I tell Niall?

When I was pregnant with Nate and Nicolette, Niall was at the first appointment with me, so I didn’t have to tell him. He already knew. Now though, it was different. Seriously, he thought I was at Corryn’s house.

When I got home, Niall and Nicolette were on the sofa watching television while Nate sat on the floor, coloring in his coloring book.

“Hey, Ari.” Niall smiled when I walked into the living room. “Did you have fun?”

“Yup,” I grinned, opening the cabinets to decide what to make for dinner. My eyes fell to the Prego brand spaghetti sauce and I got an idea. I took the bottle of sauce out of the cupboard and snuck it upstairs to the bedroom. I grabbed a small sticky note from my desk and wrote the words “Your princess is Prego!” on it, before opening the jar of sauce and placing it right on top. It was the perfect way to spill the news to Niall.

Being careful not to shake the jar too much, I closed the cap around it and hid the jar under my shirt, then headed back downstairs. Niall was too into the television show to notice me making my way into the kitchen. I placed the jar of spaghetti sauce back in the cupboard and smiled contently.

When it came time to make dinner, I suggested spaghetti to the kids. I already knew they’d be fine with it. They
loved spaghetti and meatballs.

“Hey Niall, can you help make dinner?” I asked as sweetly as possible. He sighed and made a pouty face, but eventually joined me in the kitchen. Nate and Colette went upstairs, probably to go do their own things. Nate would probably continue coloring and Nicolette would make some sort of classic mess.

“What should I do?” he asked, leaning against the kitchen island.

“Can you take care of the meatballs? Just pour the sauce into a saucepan and add the meatballs in later.” I instructed. Niall nodded and grabbed the spaghetti sauce from the cupboard. He set it down on the counter and bent down to grab a saucepan from the lower cabinets.

As I broke the spaghetti noodles into half I watched Niall carefully. He twisted the top off of the jar and set it down, and was about to pour the sauce into the pan when he stopped. From the corner of my eye, I saw him slowly take the piece of paper from the spaghetti sauce. His eyes move across the paper as he read it, and he was grinning from ear to ear within the next second.

He turned to me, to see me grinning just as wide as he was.

“Is it true?”

I nodded slowly, trying to keep my grin stable.

“No way!” Niall grinned even wider, I it was possible and ran towards me, picking me up and spinning me around in my arms. “I’m going to be a daddy of three!”

I laughed and leaned in to kiss him. We shared a passionate lip lock. All the while I could feel him smiling against my lips. When the kiss broke and he pulled away, he was still grinning.

“I’m assuming you’re happy.” I giggled, draping my arms around his neck.

“The happiest man in the world.” He admitted, a tint of red appearing on his cheeks.

“Aww,” I cooed and hugged him again.

As Niall held me in his arms, his lips tickled my ear. “It’s going to be a boy.”

“We’ll know in a few weeks,” I rolled my eyes, pulling away. Niall laughed loudly and went back to the spaghetti sauce. He poured it into the saucepan and tossed in half a bag of meatball as well.

I poured some water into my pot and set the pot on the stove, setting the fire on high. Once the water began to bubble, I placed the spaghetti noodles in and left them to cook.

Niall and I didn’t really touch the topic of my pregnancy again. Instead, he brought up how the kids would be celebrating their birthdays soon, in three weeks to be precise. We wanted to give them a surprise party. Nate would definitely want Zayn and his family to be there, and Nicolette would love me forever if I made sure that William and Valerie, Louis’ children were invited.

“Nicolette would definitely want Will there,” Niall smirked, walking over to stir the meatballs and sauce.

“I swear, they are crushing on each other.”

“No one is dating my daughter until she is twenty one.” Niall turned to me with a stern look. “No matter what you say.”

“Oh, come on Niall,” I snorted. “They’re four years old. The most romantic they’ll ever get at this age is a kiss on the cheek.”

“Even a kiss on Nicolette’s cheek from Will,” Niall said, “and Louis and I are going to have a very serious talk about our children.”

“You can’t be serious.” I smirked. I hadn’t realized Niall laws so serious about our children. But apparently he was.

“I’m more serious than you think.”

“What?” I whined. “I think it’s really cute how they fell asleep together and how excited Nicolette was to see him. Did you see Will’s face when they hugged? He looked so happy to see her.”

Niall shot me a glare and I realized I was pissing him off.

“Nobody touches my princesses,” he established. “By that I mean you and Nicolette.”

“And what about Nate?” I laughed. “You don’t think he’s capable of attracting the ladies?”

“Oh I know he’s capable,” Niall smiled a little. “But he could care less about the female population. Give him a coloring book and some crayons and he’ll spend the entire day in his room.”

“Just watch. When he starts school he’s going to have a million girlfriends.”

Niall rolled his eyes at my fantasizing and dabbed the wooden spoon on his hand to taste the sauce. After licking the sauce on his hand, he turned to me and nodded.

“I think it’s ready.”

I walked over to him and dabbed a bit of the sauce on my hand, just to be sure the sauce and meatballs were truly cooked. Seriously, Niall thought everything tasted good. It was a bit annoying sometimes when he didn’t know the difference between disgusting and delicious.

“The spaghetti probably almost finished too,” I remembered, peering into the pot of cooking spaghetti. I swirled the spoon around the noodles and lifted some from the pot to make sure they were tender enough. After confirming to myself that the food was ready, I turned off the stoves. Niall helped by taking the pot of meatballs and sauce and started pouring them into a nicer glass bowl. I did the same for the spaghetti, focusing on not dropping any of the noodles. I looked up when a heard a splat-like sound, followed by Niall cursing.

“What the hell?” I yelled, putting down the bowl of spaghetti. I freaked out when I saw sauce dripping down the cabinets and onto the floor. “Ugh, seriously Niall?”

“Geez, I’m sorry,” he held his hands up, staring at me with wide eyes. “It was an accident.”

“You could’ve been a little more fucking careful.” I snapped, grabbing a washcloth. I wet it and bent down to collect all the sauce and wiped it all up, soaking the washcloth under the water of the sink.

“Shit, I’m sorry but you don’t have to be so mean about it.” Niall frowned, picking up the pot of sauce to finish pouring it into to bowl.

“No,” I stopped him, grabbing the pot of sauce from him. “I can do it. You’ve caused enough mess here.”

Niall looked like he was about to fire some harsh comment at me, but then I watched his muscles unflex. He ran his hands through his hair and stepped back.

“Sorry.” He sighed. “I kind of got pissed when you were being so pissy. And then I remembered the reason why you were being so bitchy and pissed was because you’re pregnant.”

“Did you just call me bitchy?” I looked up at him. His eyes darted around nervously.

“That’s not what I meant.” He said quickly. “I swear. Wrong word choice.” He chuckled nervously. “I meant that you just got mad for something you normally wouldn’t give a shit about.”

I finished pouring the sauce into the bowl without answering his comment and placed the pot in the dishwasher.

“Sorry,” I whispered after a while. “I totally over reacted on something extremely ridiculous.”

“Nah,” Niall shook it off. “You’re good.”

I sighed, sinking down to the floor, back against the cabinets. “No honestly. Since when did I ever care about sauce on the floor? What is happening to me?”

“You’re pregnant, princess.” Niall got down on his knees to slip his finger under my chin. I smiled at how big and bright his blue eyes were. He was always such a happy-go-lucky person. That was definitely one thing about him that kept me so down to earth when I got stressed and I loved that about him. His smile could make my heart flutter even when I was utterly pissed at him and wanted to rip his balls off and shove them up his butt.

Damn. I am bipolar when I’m pregnant.

“So I’m guessing you lied about going to Corryn’s?” Niall asked, bringing me back to his blue eyes.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “I wanted it all to be a surprise, you know. Sorry I lied.”

“S’alright,” Niall smiled warmly leaning in. His lips brushed against mine and my heart beat quickened like it always did. “That time, the lie was worth it.”

My hormones kicked in in an instant when I realized he wasn’t going to make a move. My hands moved to his jawlines and I pulled him forward. Our lips collided with such eagerness, his lips massaging mine roughly. I had never gotten over how giddy and amazing I felt when kissing Niall. It was just too great of a feeling to ever get used to. His tongue grazed my bottom lip but I teased him, not granting entrance into my mouth. His hand dropped to my butt and he squeezed it. I gasped and his tongue entered my mouth.

Huh, clever.

His hands slipped under my shins and he carefully lifted me up, his lips connected to mine. I remembered the first time he had tried to lift me up. I had a large bump on the back of my head for months. Niall set me down on the counter and moved in between my legs, pulling away but stay close to where his lips were brushing against mine again.

“It’s going to be a boy.” He whispered against my lips. His hands moved to my belly and he left them there. “I can feel it. He’s sending me a signal babe.”

I grabbed his face in my hands and gave him a huge grin. He started to grin to, but then I dropped the smile and gave him a disgusted look. “You’re a dork.”

“I’m a dork who is a very good kisser.” He smirked, crushing his lips against mine once again. His lips were so addicting, so soft, so pink, and so perfect, they made me forget everything. I let out a soft moan when his lips moved down to my jaw, then my neck. My eyes fluttered open to see him smiling against my neck. His hands were still on my belly, and I began to feel a bit insecure.

“Niall?” I gasped out as he sucked on my sweet spot. “Niall the food is going to get cold.”

He mumbled something into my neck and moved farther down towards my collarbone.

“Ni, seriously.”

He stopped me from talking when his lips met mine again. He groaned against my mouth, trying to say something. Part of me was telling me to get it together. I had two children to call down for dinner. The other half of me was all hormones, and all this half could think about was Niall. Pretty soon he was picking me up, my legs latched around his torso.

“Bedroom?”

I muffled a “yes” against his lips.

Guess my hormone half was bigger than the other half. Oh well.

We were almost to the stairs when we heard the sound of glass breaking. Followed by that was a loud scream that most definitely belonged to my daughter. I shot Niall a startled look and the two of us darted up the stairs.

“Nicolette?” Niall shouted as he neared her room. “Nicolette, where are you?”

Niall kept his arm out so I would stay behind him, being the protective gentleman that he was. He stuck his head in Nicolette’s room and I covered my mouth at what I saw. My daughter was on the ground, arm cute from the glass of her broken window. Niall rushed to her side, placing her head on his lap. I knelt down beside her and tried to calm her down. She was crying like crazy. Her arm Her arm was cut pretty badly and I wanted to kill whoever had got the fucking idea to break the window of my daughter’s room. Niall grabbed a random shirt lying on Nicolette’s floor and wrapped it around her arm. She screamed at the contact, causing tears to develop in my eyes. Her blood seeped right through the shirt, which was now completely ruined. Niall cursed and looked up at me.

“Go get Nathan,” Niall instructed. He only used Nate’s full name when he was being very serious. “Make sure he’s okay. I’m going to call an ambulance.”

I nodded in a rush and ran into Nate’s room. He looked up, startled by my entrance. I grabbed him and hugged him so tightly.

“Mum, what happened?” he asked, blue eyes wide. “Why are you crying?”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” I whispered into his hair. “Nicolette got a big booboo and she’s bleeding. Do you think you could stop coloring for a bit and come to the hospital with daddy and me?”

Nate gave me a confused nod. I picked him up and kissed his forehead before taking him to Nicolette’s room. She had stopped crying but whimpered in pain. Nate nearly jumped out of my arms, rushing to her side. Niall was on the phone, probably the paramedics. His eyes were on Nicolette as he talked. I had only seen that dark glaze over his eyes one time in his life. It was when he had saved me from my father.

When he got off the phone, he scooped Nicolette up. Her skin was turning pale at the loss of her blood. She shouted at the pain of her arm moving around.

“I’m so sorry, princess.” He whispered, kissing her forehead. He turned to me and told me he was taking her downstairs.

“Mum?” Nate tugged on my shirt. I looked down at him. “Is Colette gonna be alright?”

“Yes, baby.” I whispered, holding his small face in my hands. “She’s going to be fine.”

“But what if she bleeds too much?” Ah, smart kid.

“Don’t worry. The doctor’s will fix her up very quickly.”

Nate sighed and nodded holding him arms up as a sign for me to pick him up. I took him downstairs and into the kitchen. Niall had Colette laid down carefully on the floor. He was pressing a wet cloth to her deep gashes, trying to soothe her by whispering happy things to her.

“I swear, if the freaking ambulance doesn’t come soon, I’m going to fucking kill someone.” Niall muttered to me under his breathe.

Right on cue, the sound of sirens grew on us. Pretty soon, we could see lights flashing brightly outside our house. The doorbell rang and I told Nate to stay put. I opened the door and led the paramedics to Nicolette. Her eyes were starting to close. She was going to pass out.

One of the paramedics came in rolling a stretcher. Nate looked incredibly frightened by the strangers in our house. He hid behind the kitchen island and peeked out as the paramedics did their work. After they had wheeled Nicolette out on the stretcher, Niall turned to me.

“I’ll take the ambulance. Can you drive with Nate?” he asked, approaching me.

“Niall, there’s a freaking hole in the window of Colette’s bedroom. I can’t just leave the house like that.”

Niall sighed, deep in thought. “How about you send Nate over to Chrissy’s house? You stay here. I just don’t want Nate to get hurt.”

Christina, Chrissy for short, was the college going daughter of our front door neighbors. She had babysat the kids a few times when Niall and I had business to attend to.

“Alright.” I sighed, nodding my head. I looked towards the front door, thinking of Nicolette. “I just hope she’s okay.”

“She will be.” Niall whispered, kissing my lips quickly. He squeezed Nate in a tight hug and then vanished out the front door.

I walked Nate over to Chrissy’s house and rang the doorbell. Christina opened the door. She was in her pajamas, and I felt incredibly bad for butting in on their time.

“Hey, Aria.” Chrissy said, eyeing the ambulance near our house. “What happened?”

“Someone broke the window of Nicolette’s bedroom.” I explained quickly. Chrissy gasped.

“Is she okay?”

“Colette got cut really badly. She’s nearly on the verge of passing out.” I answered. “Listen, do you think you could take care of Nate until tomorrow morning? I just don’t want him to be in the house after what just happened.”

“Of course,” Chrissy smiled. She leaned down and grinned at Nate. “How are ya?”

“Good,” Nate smiled softly, taking her hand.

“Don’t worry,” Chrissy winked. “I’ve got him covered.”

“Thank you.” I breathed out. “I owe you one.”

“No problem.” Chrissy smiled and closed the door.

The ambulance left shortly after, Niall inside the accompany Nicolette. I entered the house and locked the front door. This house seemed way too big when it was only me inside it. I made my way up to Nicolette’s room. A cold draft of air way making its way into the house because of the broken window. I walked over to the window sill and noticed something lying there. It was a piece of paper. No, not a paper.

A picture.

I gulped and stepped over the glass to get to the picture. I didn’t touch it; it could be evidence of who had done this. But when I saw the face of the picture, I gasped.

The face on the picture was me.

I was holding a knife with my tongue sticking out in a punk sort of way. Clearly this picture was photo shopped. I wouldn’t dare take a picture like this. Using a bobby pin, I flipped the picture over in hopes of finding some sort of message. Indeed, there it was in the awfully familiar handwriting.

Have you forgotten about me? I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Ri, I can make your life a living hell. I can make you go what I had to go through. Don’t forget me. Find me. Open the scrapbook. I know you found it. Look for the secret page.

Shit. The scrapbook.

How the hell did Scarlett know I found it?

Notes

Another chapter for you all! Hoping I get some votes and comments! Enjoy!