I woke up with a great amount of weight on my body. The sound of Niall snoring softly beside filled the car. The car.

We were still in the car.

I sat up slowly, slipping under Niall’s secured arm and looked outside the window. We were still parked in the field of never-ending grass. I remembered how we had spent the whole night drinking wine and eating and laughing like the old days, and how great that had felt. Apparently, we had crashed in the back of the car, blankets spread out underneath us for comfort.

“Babe?” Niall searched for my body, his eyes still closed. I held my hand out to him and he pulled me closer to him, tickling my skin when he nuzzled his nose in the crook of my neck. “We’re not in our bed, are we?”

“No,” I giggled softly. “Still in the car.”

Niall groaned and sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes and squinting at the bright sun making it’s way through the windows. He looked me in the eyes and poked my nose lightly, giggling to himself before lying back down.

“What?” I frowned. “Is my nose funny?”

“No,” NIall shook his head, pulling me into a tight hug. “You’re so cute.”

“I know.” I laughed. “You told me that like, ten times yesterday.”

Niall laughed at me, running his fingers through my hair. His gaze dropped to something around my shoulder and he reached out, taking hold of my bra strap.

“Wait,” he sat up again, cocking an eyebrow at me. “Are you wearing the lingerie we bought?”

“No,” I said quickly, feeling my cheeks burn up. Niall continued to stare at my doubtfully until I gave in and let out a sigh. “Okay, maybe. Yeah.”

“And why did I not know about this earlier?” Niall grinned, his hand trailing down my arm slowly. I shuddered at his touch, blushing uncontrollably as his fingers moved back up to my shoulder, pulling down the collar line of my dress.

“You never asked,” I gulped, failing miserably at my attempt to sound confident. Niall chuckled lightly and crawled on top of me, supporting his weight with his elbows on either side of my head.

“Well, now that I know, I don’t think I’ll be able to drive correctly.” he whispered seductively, brushing his lips over my ear. I shivered again, my hormones raging with every word that came out of Niall’s mouth. He kissed me roughly, a gasp erupting from my throat. My hands wrapped around his neck and my body pressed longingly against his while I connected our lips again. I let my tongue trace down his bottom lip and he opened willingly. Fisting my hair in one of his hands, he deepened the kiss, our tongues engaging in a passionate dance. I sighed into the kiss, feeling so at ease with him.

His fingers moved down my body towards the bottom hem of my dress whilst hips lips attached to my neck, sucking in one spot. I let out a moan, blushing at how loud it came out. Niall grinned against my skin, continuing his work. He pushed his body against mine, groaning into my skin as I clenched my teeth together, trying to control my ridiculous breathing. Niall pulled my dress up slowly, purposely taunting me. I focused on him instead of his cruel teasing, working to pull his shirt off. He pulled away from me to unzip the back of my dress, then pulled it off my body.

“Oh, fuck.” He took a good look at me, his eyes analyzing every part of my body. I started to feel uncomfortable with each second that passed, but when he met my eyes, he saw it too.

“You are so beautiful.” Niall told me, running his fingers over the thin fabric of the lingerie. He kissed me once on my lips, and again on my nose. “And I’m going to make you believe it.”

---

Niall’s P.O.V.

I sat across from Aria, who kicked her feet back and forth happily underneath the table. I watched her discreetly as she devoured the pancakes, pausing to take a sip of her orange juice. I found it adorable that she was so hungry that she refused to talk to me until at least half her plate was clean.

“So, is the rest of our day going to be as eventful as the morning?” she smirked slightly, meeting my eyes. I’d never get over how gorgeous her eyes were.

“Depends on how things work out.” I grinned, chewing on my pancake. “First, we’re going to have to deal with Cory and Jace. I’m pretty sure they’ll be pissed at us for not coming home last night.”

“Yeah,” Aria giggled, a real and pure laugh. “I have like, ten missed calls from her. And She’s been spamming me with texts.”

“Hey, speaking of Corryn, the weddings down to a month now, right?”

“Yeah.” Aria nodded. “She’s been freaking out alot lately. She keeps thinking that Harry’s going to decide he doesn’t love her and bail on her at the last minute. She’s so fucking delusional sometimes.”

“Sounds alot like someone I know.” I teased. Aria stuck her tongue out at me in hopes of making me feel bad.

“They are literally the perfect couple, you know.” Aria sighed, pausing a little when I caught her feet between mine under the table. I gave her a cheeky grin and waited for her to continue.
“They’re both so worried about each other and they both support each other to the very end. They obviously have their flaws but they just seem to be one of those cute couples who are perfect because they’re a cute couple.”

Aria rambled on and on about Harry and Corryn, and I zoned out, watching her face, and the change in her expressions. The way should would lick her lips gently as she spoke, and push her hair out of her face when the strands got too close to her eyes. When she talked, there were these small dimples that would appear right below the corners of her mouth, defining her lips brilliantly. It seemed that no matter how many times I studied her face, I always seemed to find little things that I’d never noticed before.

“And so I made out with him until we ended up having sex.” Aria said, bringing me back. My eye widened at her words.

“Excuse me?” I coughed out, wishing I hadn’t zoned out. “Who are you talking about?”

“Oh, nothing.” She shrugged, a mischievous grin on her lips. “That was probably the best night of my life, though.”

“What?” I was still confused, and the thought of anyone beside me touching Aria drove me crazy. “Who the fuck did you make out with? God, I’m going to rip his fucking balls off.”

“Woah there,” Aria pressed her hand to mine. “I was kidding. You zoned out so I thought it would be funny to catch you off-guard.”

“Well, it’s not funny.” I pouted. I had to admit though, she got me good. Even more so, I was relieved. No one touches my girl. Absolutely no one. Just the thought of it made me want to rip someone’s head off.

We continued our normal light banter over breakfast, the surrounding of the small yet cozy cafe making us feel content. Aria laughed several times in the course of our conversations. I couldn’t lie, I went crazy everytime she laughed or smiled. She was god damn beautiful, yet she just wouldn’t believe it.

Aria’s phone rang shortly afterwards. She pulled it out of her purse and smirked as she read the called ID.

“Corryn,” she told me, then answered the call.

“Hey Cory.” she rolled her eyes with a large smile on her lips. Whatever Corryn told Aria next must have been bad, because Aria’s expression darkened and she started chewing her lip with no control.

“I-Is he okay?” she stuttered, gripping her phone tighter. I lenaed in, trying to hear what Corryn was saying.

“Oh god,” Aria hissed. “Okay, we’ll be home soon. Thank you for telling me.”

Corryn said something else, and Aria’s lips started to quiver.

“Okay. Hang in there.”

Aria ended the call and immediately stood up, running a hand through her hair stressfully.

“What happened?” I asked as I stood up, still confused.

“Nate’s fever is at 104.5 and Corryn says that it’s only rising. He’s becoming unresponsive to Jace and Harry’s there too, trying to keep him awake.” Aria’s breathing became ragged. I dropped a tip on the table and grabbed her hand without a word, leading her to the car.

The whole ride home, my heart rate quickened. Aria was nearly crying in the passenger seat beside me. I grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. Nate was going to be okay. Nate was going to be fine.

When we arrived home, Aria unlocked the front door in a rush, hurrying inside to the sound of Nate crying loudly. I followed after her, heading upstairs where Corryn and Harry were trying to comfort Nate. Jace was with Nicolette trying to distract her from what was happening with Nate.

Nate’s cries became louder and Corryn looked relieved to see Aria and I walk through the door.

“He won’t answer me anymore,” Harry gulped and Corryn handed Nate over to Aria. “He just keeps crying and crying.”

Aria carried Nate around, trying to calm him down. She pressed a cold towel to his head and pressed the back of her other hand to his neck, then his cheek.

“I think we need to take him to the hospital.” Aria said, looking up at me. “He’s literally burning up.”

I nodded and took Nate from Aria, carrying him downstairs towards the car. I prayed he would be okay. I needed him to be okay.


Aria’s P.O.V.

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” Corryn asked, chewing on his nails nervously.

I let out a shaky breath, forcing myself to nod for her sake. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“We tried to do what we could.” Harry gulped, pushing his hair back. “But then his temperature started to increase and we didn’t know what to do anymore. We’re really sorry.”

“Are you serious?” I raised my eyebrows. “You can’t honestly be blaming this our yourselves.
I’m very thankful for having you two to help out. It was irresponsible of NIall and I to go out when our son was sick.”

“But you guys needed that night out.” Corryn said quietly.

“My child’s health is more important that a date.” I told my best friend firmly. She nodded, understandings my seriousness. I thanked Harry and Corryn once again for having my back, and they left shortly after. I felt bad for them. This really must have freaked them out. They were expecting a child soon, and this was definitely not the best impression. However, it was bound to happen sometime with them as well.

I stepped into Nicolette’s room where Jace and Colette were playing some hand game. Jace looked up at me with concern in his eyes.

“You taking him to the hospital?” he guessed, standing up to walk over to me.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I know you’ve already done so much for me, but could you please watch Nic-”

“Aria,” he cut me off. “Don’t worry about it. Ill take care of Colette until you guys get back.”

“Thank you,” I exhaled, hugging him quickly before pressing a kiss to my daughter’s head. When I got outside to the car, Niall had somehow managed to calm Nate’s loud cries down to mere whimpers. I slipped into the passenger seat, keeping my eyes on Nate until we reached the hospital.

---

Nate was put into an emergency room, fluids pricked into his body to help lower his temperatures. His whimpers resided back into loud cries. Tears threatened my eyes as I stood by his hospital bed. Niall was talking to some doctors who were discussing tests on Nate.

“Nate,” I whispered. “Babe, can you stop crying for mum?”

He just kept right on crying.

They eventually took Nate to another room in the pediatric center to find out exactly what was causing the fever. By then, he had stopped crying. Niall and I sat in the nearby chairs as a specialist looked into Nate’s ears and throat. Her expression changed in an instant.

“I think I’ve found the problem.” she turned to us, gesturing for us to come over. She shone a light in Nate’s mouth and pointed.

“See all that red? That’s the peak to a very bad throat infection. Obviously he hasn’t been getting the right treatment and thats what caused the infection to spread. However, what's worse is definitely the ear infection. It’s going to keep spreading if he doesn’t get treated immediately. This explains his fever quite thoroughly.”

“So can you get the right treatment for him?” NIall asked, stroking Nate’s hair softly.

“Of course,”the doctor nodded. “But well have to keep him overnight to check on the progress. In order to relieve him of his infection as quick as possible, the medicine is quite strong.”

“So will it be risky for him?” I asked, not willing to risk medicine on my son if it was too strong.

“No,” the doctor shook her head. “We just need to keep him close by so we can check for negative side effects. Everyone reacts differently to different treatments.”

“Okay.” Niall nodded, turning to me. “What do you think?”

“I think we should give it a shot.” I said. “There’s not much of another option.”

“Alright,” the doctor smiled and led us back to Nate’s hospital room. Niall put him in bed and left the nurses to start medicating him. I went out after him, pressing my back against the cold wall of Nate’s room. I was trying to keep calm, when in reality I was still freaking out. How could we have been so irresponsible to go out and screw around when Nate was burning up?

“Aria.” Niall said my name slowly. I looked up at him, my head pounding as we locked gazes.”You’re regretting our date, aren’t you?”

“How dare you ask me that?” I hissed at him. “Of course I fucking regret it. We should have been there for our son but no, we were screwing and drinking bottles of wine instead. So yeah, I do regret it a whole damn lot.”

“Screwing.” Niall repeated my words softly. “Is that what you think it was? Is that what it is to you?”

I ignored him, feeling a tad bit guilty for how I worded such a great experience. But the nerve he must have had to ask me that question. I felt so irresponsible, depending on my friends to take care of my son who had previously had a deathly fever. Niall scoffed loudly and entered the room again, leaving me alone in the hallway.

Within a very short and emotionless conversation, Niall and I decided that he would go home and I would stay with Nate. Nate coughed all night, and a few times his heart meter got too high so the nurses had to come in and check up on him. It was safe to say I didn’t get much sleep at all, with the constant interruption of my surroundings.

The morning came quickly, and soon nurses were in the room, trying to get him to eat something as little as apple sauce, yet he refused. His fever had dropped to 100.1, and for that I was grateful. Niall came in at around 9:30 in the morning with Nicolette is his arms. Jace followed along behind him. Niall refused to even look at me, but I was honestly too exhausted to do anything about it. It was Jace who came over to me and wrapped me up in his warm arms, letting me melt into his hold. I was weak from significant lack of sleep and I’m sure the bags under my eyes explained everything.

Niall played with Nate, tickling him until Nate gave into his tiredness and started laughing. Nicolette told Nate about her night with “Uncle Jace”, and how they had melted marshmallows in a pan and created marshmallow smoothies. Jace looked proud that Nicolette liked him, and I was happy of that as well.

A nurse came in and told us that Nate needed to rest in order to recover as fast as possible, so this time, Niall stayed with Nate while I took Colette and Jace back home.

After showering and changing into clean clothes, I found Jace and Colette making random shit out of different Play-Doh colors. It seemed that Colette had already created what she claimed to be a dog, but it honestly looked more like a really small cow.

“Mind if I give it a go?” I smiled, sitting down beside the two of them.

“Yeah.” Colette grinned, pushing a ball of blue PlayDoh towards me. “Make a kitty cat.”

“Aww,” Jace pouted. “I already made the kitty cat, though.”

“The mum can make a monkey!” Colette squealed. Jace winced aat the high pitched tone, but couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his mouth. I honestly shouldn’t have insulted Nicolette’s dog for a cow, because my monkey looked somewhat like a really bloated snake.

Atleast I tried.

I put Nicolette down for a nap, then crashed onto the sofa and switched the T.V. on, channel surfing. Jace came upstairs with a sympathetic smile on his lips.

“I take it you’re not feeling too great.” he said, taking a seat beside me.

“How’d you know?” I laughed humorlessly. “Does it show that well?”

“Unfortunately yes.” Jace answered. “Niall didn’t look all too happy when he came home last night. It seemed like more than Nate’s predicament was troubling him.”

*Things have just been really rough between Niall and I lately.” I shrugged it off, but admitting that outloud felt like a stab in the chest. “I’m sure it’s just another phase. Theres alot going on right now so neither of us can expect our relationship to be normal.”

“He um,” Jace scratched his neck. “he may have talked to me about what was going on between you two.”

I was surprised. I hadn’t realized my husband had grown so close the someone whom he’d pratically hated a few days ago “Oh, and what did he tell you?”

“He said that he was afraid.” Jace said softly.

“Okay…” I frowned at Jace. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Think about it, Ri.”

Jace gave me a quick side hug and left the living room. Afraid. Niall was afraid, but of what? Nate’s fever? The danger that our kids were in? There were many things that Niall could possibly be afraid of, and I was frustrated that Jace had refused to tell me more.

I closed my eyes and tried to think, but my lack of sleep took over me instead.

I stepped into Niall's office to see beer bottles thrown carelessly on the ground. He sat in his chair, drunk as hell. He wouldn't look at me, even when I cleared my throat.

“Leave me alone.” he spat, making sure the back of his chair was the only thing I could see.

“But-”

“You’ve ruined us, Aria. You’re so damn selfish. You never think about how your words will effect someone else. I’m tired of this. I’m tired of you.”

“No, Niall, please.”

“No,” he stood up and faced me. He looked terrible, worse than me. His eyes looked sad, lifeless. All because of me. “You’re a terrible wife. You promised you would love me forever, we promised our love to each other, but how can I hold on when you just keep letting go?”

“I’m not letting go,” I shook my head quickly, tears spilling from my eyes.

“Bullshit.” he snarled, throwing another beer bottle to the floor. “You don’t love me anymore. Our love never meant anything to you. You used me. You made me believe that you lovd me, and now you’re breaking me to pieces. You think you’re going through a lot but you don’t take a fucking second to look at me. We go through hell together in my eyes, but in your eyes it’s only you.”

“Th-that’s not tr-”

“Stop,” he held up a hand. “Just shut up. I’m not going to listen to you again. I’m not going to let you drag me back into your hellhole. Because according to you I’m not part of your life. You don’t need me to deal with your troubles. You just make me go through hell everyday and you have no sympathy for me.”

“Niall, I was trying to-”

“You weren’t trying at all. The only thing you could have possibly been trying to do is break is, piece by piece. Well congratulations, princess, “ he spat my pet name. “You’ve won.”

“I’m not trying to break you,” I cried. “Please, just listen to-”

“Get the fuck out of my office.” he sneered, staring at me as if I were some disgusting animal. I couldn’t hold in any more tears, and soon my vision flooded with the wetness of them.

I had messed everything up.

I woke up with tears in my eyes, realizing that I was the problem in all of this.

---

The next day, Niall and Nate came home. Nate ran into my arms, claiming that he felt better. His eyes had that little sparkle again. I grinned and gave him a tight hug, so happy that he was feeling okay. He still had a brutal cough, but atleast he went straight for the kitchen, begging for food.

I felt Niall’s eyes on me, but as soon as I turned to look at him, he turned away and started conversing with Jace. My friend Jace. Jace, who he had wanted to kick out just a few days ago.

Yeah, I was jealous.

Moreso, I was hurt. But I asked for this. Didn’t I?

After I put Nate to sleep, I came downstairs to see Jace preparing lunch with Niall. I cleared my throat, and both of them turned to look at me. Jace had a smile on his face, whereas Niall just looked disappointed.

“Niall,” I gulped. “May I speak with you?”

“Later.” he answered bluntly, turning his back to me. But then I watched as Jace mumbled something to Niall, elbowing him lightly, and Niall turned around again.

“Fine.” he sighed, clearly frustrated with giving in. I led him up to our bedroom and slowly closed the door. Niall stood in front of me, arms crossed over his chest, looking intimidating. I suddenly felt very cowardly.

“Talk.” he said.

“I’m sorry.” the words came out of my mouth in a barely audible sound level, but I couldn’t bring myself to project my voice.

“Excuse me?” Niall questioned, still staring at me intently. “What?”

“I’m sorry.” I spoke louder, already on the verge of tears. “It was so incredibly rude of me to tell you that I regretted our date when that reality was on the contrary. I enjoyed that night so much, and I didn’t express that to you. I shouldn’t have snapped at you, and I shouldn’t have referred to making love as ‘screwing’ with you. It really does mean so much more than that to me, but I led you into thinking the exact opposite. I’m so sorry.”

“I worked so hard to make that date a night for us to recope.” he spoke firmly, but his voice cracked, showing me he was just as emotional as I was. “I thought everything out and it took forever, yet you have the nerve to get right in my face and tell me you regretted it.”

“I know,” I gulped. “I’m such a selfish bitch.”

“You’re selfish,” he agreed. “But you’re not a bitch. I just wish you would be more considerate of me and my feelings. I understand that you were worried about Nate, but I was just as worried as you. You shouldn’t have gone off on me like that.”

“I know.” I nodded. “You tell me that you’re always expecting me to forgive you after you’ve done something wrong, but I’m just the same. I never think before I speak. I never imagine how my words will affect you. I never pay attention to your feelings. I’m such an inconsiderate, selfish, bitchy excuse of a human being and I honestly deserve you at all.”

“Hey,” Niall stepped forward. “Don’t say that. You’re not a bitch, and you deserve everything great in the world, but I just want you to know that I have feelings too. Can you do that?”

“Yes.” I nodded, my body shaking as Niall pulled me into his arms. He kissed the top of my head and hugged me tighter, holding me close as if if he let go, I’d disappear. Because to him, he was the only one holding on.

To him, it felt like I was letting go.

Notes

Hiii guys. Here is a rather emotional chapter for ya'll :) So, Nate gets sicker but then he gets better (yay!), and Niall and Aria realize they're relationship is much rougher than they thought. What do you think will happen next? And what do you all think about Jace?