Harry Styles-Wilson: Hockey Husband [Sequel to Harry Who?] (Completed)

Ellie brought the last few plates to the kitchen, and put the half-eaten birthday cake in the refrigerator. Her cat Cheddar purred and rubbed against her leg, hoping to get a piece of cake for herself, but Ellie only smiled and shook her head at the kitty. Harry giggling in the other room drew her back to him.

“What’s so funny?” She asked as she entered the living room and tilted her head at him.

He glanced up at her from the couch where he sat near his opened birthday gifts, one of which was in his hand. He held it up and grinned enthusiastically. “This book of dad jokes is, I dare say, probably funnier than it was meant to be.”

“I guess your inner dad is coming out. Aren’t dad jokes supposed to be lame?” Ellie asked, and joined him on the couch.

“Yes, and they are, but -just listen to this one: what do you call a man with a rubber toe?” He paused and glanced at Ellie with an amused smirk. “Roberto!”

Ellie smiled politely and laughed quietly. “Okay, that’s clever; what else have you got?” Ellie asked, now intrigued.

“Okay, umm…” Harry flipped through the pages to find a good joke, eager to make Ellie laugh again as she had been a bit down in spirits with the physical constraints of pregnancy. “Why did the invisible man turn down the job? He couldn’t see himself doing it.”

Ellie bit her lips and shook her head. “Sorry, you’ve missed the mark on that one.”

“Okay, I can do better, let me find one…” Harry quickly read through the jokes until he settled on one. “Okay, this one’s bad - but in a good way. Want to hear to hear a joke about paper? Nevermind, it’s tearable.”

“Really?” Ellie shook her head again, smiling at Harry’s effort.

“Okay, how about this one: how do you make holy water? You boil the hell out of it.” Harry grinned, and turned to watch Ellie’s reaction.

She bit her lip as corners of her mouth curved upward, until she broke out laughing. “Okay, that’s actually kind of funny,” she said between laughs. “God, I can barely catch my breath,” she said, continuing to laugh -far more than Harry expected. “Oh shit.” Ellie stopped laughing suddenly and her face paled as it lost the cheery glow of laughter. She placed her hand on her stomach and slowly raised her eyes to meet Harry.

“What is it?” He asked and dropped the book to put his arm around her.

“Either I’ve accidentally wet myself, or,” she swallowed. “Or my water broke.”

Nothing in their months of preparations seemed to help Harry in this moment. He jumped off the couch and looked around the room, frantically picking up random things and putting them down again. “Okay, we need -no we don’t need that- we need the, um the stuff - the things!” He looked back at Ellie only to find her laughing.

“Calm down Harry, I don’t think we’re in any hurry. If anything, we should get the couch cleaned up first.” She said and slowly, carefully stood up.

“Fuck the couch, we’ll just get a new one.” Harry said bluntly. “We have to get you to the hospital.”

“Just because my water broke doesn’t mean the baby’s going to pop out any second -that’s not how it works. We need to time the contractions, and when they’re close enough together, then we can go.” Ellie explained calmly - which surprised even herself. Perhaps because Harry was freaking out, she found it easier to remain calm.

“You’re having contractions??” Harry gasped and moved closer to Ellie. “Sit down, you shouldn’t be on your feet - probably?” He exasperatedly said and sat her back on the couch.

“Harry, the couch is all wet,” she scooted over to a dryer section of the couch, “and yes, that’s probably what caused my water to break. I’ve been having little tremors all afternoon.”

“Tremors? What?? Why didn’t you tell me?” He sat next to her and felt like he was going to pass out.

“Because it’s nothing; the doctor said little tremors like that is normal at this stage.”

“But your water broke?” Harry repeated like a broken record.

“It’s fine, Harry, we have plenty of time to-” Ellie froze, and her sharp intake of breath caused Harry to reach for his phone.

“Okay, that’s a contraction, I’m marking it on the contraction app,” he said, and opened the app for keeping track of the time between contractions.

“It’s nothing, just a tremor,” Ellie tried to calmly shake it off.

“Ellie, it wasn’t nothing - I know you better than that,” he said, and watched her carefully. “When was the last ‘tremor’?”

“When my water broke, but it was nothing, really.” She took a deep breath and started to lose that calm front she had been putting up while Harry was frantic. Instead, he was now somehow the responsible one, while Ellie mentally freaked out.

Harry shook his head and stood up. “Ellie, we need to get you to the hospital.”

“No, I’m not ready!” She suddenly wailed, and Harry instantly returned to her side.

“It’s fine Ellie, we know what we’re doing, we’ve prepared for this.” He stroked her hair and tried to calm her down.

“I’m not ready to be a mom,” she quietly squeaked between sobs.

“You already are, Ell, and you have been for the past nine months, or so. You’re doing fantastic, and you’ll be a wonderful mom once she’s born.” Harry smiled encouragingly. “Okay?”

She shook her head, determined to stay put, but a much stronger contraction wracked through her body and a shriek of pain left her lips before she could stop it.

“We’re going now, I’ll carry you if I have to.” Harry stood up and held his hand out to help her up, but she wouldn’t move. “Alright, guess I’m carrying you.” He smirked and bent to lift her.

“No, you’ll hurt yourself - I’m massive!” Ellie protested, but Harry got his arms securely around her and hoisted her up, carrying her bridal style out the front door.

“Harry, this is unnecessary,” Ellie again protested as the drove frantically to the hospital. “Could you at least slow down? I’m in no risk of having the baby right here. This thing’s probably not coming out for hours,” she said looking down at her stomach and placed a hand on either side of it. The baby was very active under her fingertips, as if he or she was excited about what was to come. This made Ellie nervous, but also filled her with an enraptured kind of elation for what was to come. She was finally going to meet this tiny human who had been living with her for for the past nine months, growing a connection, a bond, like no other. Today, she was finally going to meet her child.

***

“Where’s my mom? Harry?” Ellie called out and whipped her head around to find him.

“I’m right here, luv,” he cooed, and sat up. “Your mum will be here soon; your parents hopped on the first flight they could when they heard the news. My mom and Gems are here in the waiting room - I can get them now that you’re awake?”

“Awake?” Ellie looked around in confusion. She didn’t realize she had even fallen asleep. Had she been dreaming? She looked down, but of course, it was still there. ‘Okay, so I haven’t had the baby yet…’ She tried to focus her thoughts, but nothing made sense. “How long have we been here?”

“About, uh,” Harry checked the time on his phone, “eight or nine hours. I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake.”

Just as he stood up, a nurse came in to check on Ellie. “You’re awake! Lovely, I’ll let Dr. Allen know,” the nurse said as he checked some of Ellie’s vitals.

A few minutes after the nurse left, Dr. Allen arrived. “How are you feeling, Ellie?” She asked, and sat down at the foot of the bed. “Can you open up, so I can check to see how far you’ve dilated?”

Ellie did as told and tried to answer the question. How was she feeling? Confused. Scared. Lost. “I’m not sure,” she finally said.

“That’s to be expected after the medication we gave you.” The doctor calmly explained, and removed her gloves as she finished up her inspection. “You’re still at eight centimeters.”

Harry seemed to react to this, but Ellie didn’t quite understand. “Medication? I thought we decided not to use any kind of pain medicine?” She looked at Harry with wide eyes.

“It’s not pain medication, luv,” he said, but looked to the doctor for a better explanation.

“You experienced a small seizure soon after arriving at the hospital. We thought it would be safer to put you to sleep for a while until we could find the cause of the seizure, and determine if we needed to perform a c-section or if it would be safe to continue with a natural birth.” Dr. Allen calmly explained, just a hint of worry creasing her brows. “We are not sure the cause, but it might be due to stress, or perhaps from the head injury you sustained playing hockey. It could have been a one time incident, but we cannot be sure.”

“So, do you think we can continue now?” Harry asked, more than a hint of worry in his tone.

“You haven’t had another seizure since you arrived, and your vitals look okay. As long as you are feeling okay, then it is up to you how you would like to proceed. We can wait for you to reach ten centimeters and you can continue with a natural birth, or we can perform a c-section. It is up to you and how you are feeling.” Dr. Allen looked between Harry and Ellie, and decided to give them a moment to talk.

“Ellie,” Harry said in a tone that said the choice was obvious. “It’s up to you, but I think we should go with the c-section. It’s safe, the doctor practically said it.”

“She did not, and you know how much I wanted to do this naturally. My mom’s doctor tried to get her to have a c-section when my brother and I were born, because we’re twins, but she was determined to go through it the old fashioned way. And so am I,” Ellie added.

“Elloise, my love, you are so strong, you have been through a lot, and you are stubborn -and I love you for that- but no one would think less of you if chose the safer option. You are exhausted, don’t put yourself through this, don’t risk it.” Harry pleaded, his tired eyes losing their glint of happiness.

Ellie’s mind was still clouded with sleep and she stared blankly at the wall behind Harry’s head. “When will my mom be here?”

Harry checked his phone. “I think their plane should be landing soon. I’ll send someone to fetch them from Heathrow.”

“I’ll just sleep for now,” Ellie mumbled as she closed her eyes, and Harry stepped out to make a phone call.

***

“Ellie, Ellie wake up!” Harry shook her shoulder.

“What’s happened?” She blinked her eyes open, still heavy with drug-induced sleep. She saw Harry’s face streaming with tears and feared the worse, until her ears were pierced with the sound of a baby’s cry. Ellie’s eyes shot open, her mind now cleared of any tiredness. “Oh! Is it, is it okay?”

“Yes, she’s very healthy,” Harry gushed and blinked tears away as he looked down at his daughter in his arms.

“Oh you were right, it was a girl after all,” Ellie smiled, and thought her heart would explode with happiness seeing her husband hold their newborn daughter. He leaned over Ellie to hand the baby to her. “You want me to hold her?”

“She’s your daughter, after all.” Harry laughed, and Ellie struggled to move her arms up to hold her.

“My arms still feel like rubber from sleeping,” she complained, but held them out toward the baby anyway. Harry placed her in Ellie’s arms, and smiled down at his wife and daughter. “What happened?”

“You had another seizure after you went back to sleep,” Harry answered solemnly. “Dr. Allen, and I, thought we should go through with the c-section. She thought it were best you remained asleep, so we didn’t wake you until after - just now. It all happened very quickly, I’m sorry,” he shook his head.

“Don’t be sorry, Harry, it was probably the best choice. And honestly I don’t care.” Ellie laughed and looked down at her baby. “She’s healthy, and that’s all that matters.”

“Indeed, it is.” Harry leaned over to kiss her cheek. “A happy, healthy, baby Rhiannon Styles.”

Notes

I waited until quite literally the last possible moment to reveal her name (just for fun!). I’ve had the idea for a while to name her after one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, since it seemed fitting for Harry.

This is also, unfortunately, the end of this book. I do have an idea for a sequel (a third in the trilogy) but it will be verrry different. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to write it, but if I do I’ll post another chapter to this story with a link to it.

I’m also thinking of starting a Niall fic, and I’m currently writing a 5SOS 1920’s AU (it’s been fun so far!) if anyone’s interested.

Thank you for reading this story, I hope you all enjoyed it! I am so thankful for all my readers, and I appreciate the votes and comments you’ve all left <3


Ps. I had forgotten about her cat, so I had to include her in this chapter!