All I Ever Wanted

I leaned back in the uncomfortable waiting room chair and focused on the ceiling. I hated hospitals. The smell burned my nose and the thought that people died in places like this sent shivers up my spine. Harry sat next to me, focused on his phone. We’d been waiting for almost an hour. Niall and Emma were in a room with the doctor, getting their blood drawn and being given information on the process.

As time passed, I thought Niall and Emma would never emerge from the room. I looked over at Harry, who was now dozing off, with his head propped on his hand. I looked up when I heard a door open. I elbowed Harry, waking him up and we both stood to greet Niall and Emma. They were both expressionless.

“Guys, we wanna talk to you.” Emma spoke first. She and Niall took a seat across from Harry and me in the waiting room, causing Harry and me to sit back down. “The doctor ran the tests. He said odds weren’t in Niall’s favor after we explained everything to him. While we waited on the results, Niall and I decided that we don’t want to know. We want the doctors to know, in case of any kind of medical emergency, but we don’t care. This baby is Niall’s to us, anyways.”

She gave him a warm look.

“Yes, I consider this child mine. The idea that he’s not kills me. I’d rather be his father, than tell him he doesn’t have one. No matter if he’s biologically mine or not, I’ll be the one taking on the father role, so why make everything complicated? It doesn’t make sense.” Niall cleared his throat. “I just want to give this child all that we can.” He smiled at Emma.

Harry looked at me, and I looked back at him, neither of us knowing what to say.

“Thank you for being here to support us. I’m sorry we didn’t give you any answers. We just know that this will be better for everyone. And no one knows that there’s a possibility I’m not the father. We trust you’ll keep that for us.” Harry and I nodded as Niall continued. “And we have one more thing…”

Emma looked as though she was going to burst with excitement. “We want you two to be the godparents!” She squealed, causing the nursing staff to stop and look in our direction.

Harry and I shared another look.

They trust us idiots with their – their child? What the hell are they thinking? We can barely take care of ourselves.

I could tell by the look on Harry’s face that he was thinking the same thing.

“We’d love too!” I gave Emma’s hand a squeeze. “Baby Horan, you hear that? You’re half ours!” I laughed.

“You have the best godparents, ever!” Niall spoke to Emma’s belly.

“I know we may not be the most experienced godparents, but I love babies and I cannot wait to meet this little one!” Harry hugged Niall.

Despite the fact that Harry and I thought they were crazy for choosing us, we both adored kids and were insanely excited to get to spoil this child. I hugged Emma as we all began to leave.

“Harry, wait, I need to find a restroom!” Everyone turned to look at me. I shrugged. “Too much soda while waiting on you guys.” I grinned as I motioned towards the drink machine. I pulled Harry back by his sleeve and waved to Emma and Niall as they left.

“Do you really want to know about the baby?” I whispered.

“Well, yeah, but they don’t want to, so we kind of have no way of knowing.” Harry looked puzzled.

“Follow me.” I turned and made my way to the nurse’s station. “Excuse me!” I flagged down an older nurse who I’d seen go in Emma and Niall’s room. She turned to me. “Can you tell me the results of that paternity test? The mom is my best friend and she wanted me to find out so that I could break it to her the easy way. She’s afraid of doctors.”

I heard Harry snort behind me and then felt him leave my side to try and hide his laughter. The nurse forced a smile.

“Nice try, but that information is confidential.” She turned and hurried off to another room. The nurses’ station only had one young nurse attending it, so I went to Harry.

“Distract her.” I commanded, motioning towards the young girl who was keeping guard over the paperwork that I desperately needed to see.

“What the hell? Maybe you are psychotic.” He joked, referring to the first time we met. I scoffed.

“Really, Harry. Someone needs to know. We won’t tell them we know, we’ll just know. Now hurry. You distract her and I’ll grab the chart.”

“How am I supposed to distract her?” He put his hands on his hips like a moody teenage girl.

“You’re Harry Styles, for Christ’s sake! Flip your curls, use that rough British accent, flash her a cheeky grin – dammit why are you so hot?”

I got flustered, thinking of all of those things – they are what won me over. No girl could possibly deny a flirty Harry. Harry licked his lips, making me turn red, on purpose. Then he laughed.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.” He winked at me. I rolled my eyes and counted to ten to calm myself down after that little fiasco. I tried to look like I was looking for a patient, giving Harry time to get the young nurse completely distracted. As soon as he had her giggling, I snuck over to the counter that I’d seen the doctor set Emma’s file on. I skimmed through the other papers that were on the counter until I came across the file that read “Emma James.”

Bingo!

I flipped through it, landing on today’s date. I scanned the page.

Where is it?

There was a blue sheet stuck in the file.

“WARNING: CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION! Paternity test: blood drawn and sent to lab; results were rushed due to certain circumstances”

Pop star Niall Horan is a possible father – that must’ve been the certain circumstance that was referred to.

I continued reading.

“DNA sample from possible father was a match. Please keep this information confidential. Results should not be given out, unless a request form is approved. This information is for medical use only.”

Niall and Emma’s blood information was at the bottom. I squealed with excitement, forgetting I was supposed to be sneaky, causing the young nurse to break her attention from Harry and see me staring into an open file.

“Ma’am, that is confidential!” She came after me.

I closed the file and ran towards the exit, with Harry hot on my heels. We rounded the corner and took the stairway, just in case anyone tried to find us. We rushed out of the hospital and hopped into the car. Harry was bent over laughing as he started the car, while I was bent over breathless.

I really need to start working out.

“I can’t believe you screamed!” Harry laughed.

“I can’t believe I did either, I was just so excited!”

“So he’s the father, then?” Harry asked as he pulled out of the parking lot. Thankfully no one had followed us out.

“HE IS THE FATHER! NIALL JAMES HORAN IS THE FATHER!” I screamed out of my window. Harry rolled his eyes at how dramatic I was being.

“I can’t wait! This makes me so much more excited about being a godparent. HARRY WE’RE GODPARENTS!” I screamed out the window again. Harry rolled the window up.

“Let’s not tell the whole world all of our secrets, okay?” He giggled.

“We’re so rebellious. I feel so badass right now. Like fuck yeah, I just stole private information from a hospital! FUCK WITH ME!” I bucked at Harry, and tears filled his eyes, he was laughing so hard.

Once we both calmed down a bit, he turned to face me. “So, are you going to tell Emma?”

“No. She’d hate me for going behind her back.”

“But it’s the results she wanted. The only reason they didn’t want to see the results is because they were afraid that Niall wouldn’t be the father.” Harry had a good point.

“It could save her a lot of worry. She’d know and be happy and then they wouldn’t have to worry about secrets or the child not looking like Niall. You’re right! I need to tell her. So what if she gets mad at first, she’ll thank me in the long run, right?”

“I mean I would want you to tell me that Niall was the father of the child I was carrying, instead of some arse of a college idiot who drugged me.” Harry casually said. I looked at him funny, then we both laughed.

“I hope I never have to tell you that anyone’s the father of the child you’re carrying.” I giggled. “I’ll tell her this weekend!”

We drove to the airport to catch a flight back to LA. The boys continued their US tour tomorrow in San Jose, CA and I didn’t have to be back in the studio until Monday. It was going to be a good weekend.

Notes