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

“I should have known that question was coming after all the baby pictures your mom showed us,” Ellie smiled to herself in the dark as she and Harry lay in bed together. “But, I honestly hadn’t thought about it beyond thinking that you would ask me.”

“You know me too well.” Harry replied. “But no rush or anything, I was just wondering.”

“Goodnight Harry,” Ellie said quietly and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Ellie and Harry returned from their usual morning run and hopped in the shower. As usual, Ellie took much longer than Harry in the shower, so when she emerged in the kitchen with a towel wrapped around her hair, she was not surprised to find Harry making breakfast for the both of them.

“Here’s your toast, love, just the way you like it,” Harry smiled and set a plate on the table for her, before joining her.

“Thank you,” she sat down and took a bite. “Is this a different kind of peanut butter?”

“Yeah, it’s, um, made with flaxseed oil.” Harry cleared his throat. “Flaxseed has those omega 3’s, and DHA...it’s supposed to be good for, you know, brain development.” He quickly took another bite of his food and avoided eye contact.

“Oh, for the concussion?” Elli motioned to her head. “Thank you!”

“Um, yeah, but also…” Harry bit his lips. “Remember that thing we talked about last night?”

It suddenly hit Ellie what Harry meant by ‘brain development’. She sighed and smiled at his enthusiasm. “Harry…”

“I might have jumped the gun a bit,” his cheeks pinkened a little, but he smiled.

“Just a bit. Don’t you think we should talk about it before you start sneaking pre-natal vitamins into my smoothies?” Ellie was joking, but at the same time, she knew how much Harry loved kids and that he just wanted her to be healthy.

“It’s not like that - I would never sneak anything into your food.” He held up his hands in defense and laughed to himself, realizing how this must look from her standpoint. “I just saw the flaxseed oil peanut butter at the store when I was out doing the shopping last week, and I thought I remembered reading something about flaxseed oil, and development, and babies…”

“Okay, first of all - since when do you go grocery shopping?” Ellie laughed, and Harry pretended to be offended.

“I go shopping all the time! I just wear like a hat and no one questions it,” he shrugged.

“Secondly, you bought this a week ago? So, how long have you been thinking about this?” Ellie asked, trying not to sound accusatory.

“Honestly? Well, there was that workshop the Riveters held for young hockey players this summer, and…” Harry paused. “I just couldn’t stop thinking about how adorable it would be to see you, one day, maybe, teaching our kids to play hockey.”

Ellie stared at him with her mouth half open for a moment, trying to wrap her head around that image. “That was nearly six months ago, Harry; we weren’t even married at that point.”

“I know, and I’m probably getting ahead of things, but that’s why I asked you about it last night.” Harry pushed the food on his plate around with his fork, not really feeling hungry anymore.

“Tell you what,” Ellie started after a moment. “I have a doctors appointment in a few weeks; if she says I can’t play hockey this season, we can talk about this some more then. But if I can, then we’ll have to delay that discussion until the end of the season. Obviously being pregnant does not mix with playing a contact sport like hockey.”

“Obviously.” Harry agreed and nodded.

“Does that sound okay?”

“Yeah,” Harry smiled. He knew Ellie was anxious to get back on the ice after taking the 2017 season off to deal with the concussion she had sustained at the end of the 2016 season. Of course he wanted her to be happy and for her to be healthy enough to play this summer, but he was eager to start his own family. Or at least, to plan on starting it. With his tour ending in mid-July this summer, he will have a bit of time off before starting the second album. But the second album includes repeating the writing/recording process, promoting the album, and probably another world tour. And then he could start on the third album and repeat the whole process all over again.

Of course, Harry loved making music more than anything, but this time around he had different priorities. He knew it was probably not possible (though not completely unlikely) that he would be able to plan his career around his family planning activities, but on top of that, the uncertainty of how much longer Ellie would be able to play hockey without sustaining a more permanent injury, complicated things as well.

Harry reminded himself that Ellie was much more important in this equation than he was, and played a much more crucial role. Technically, they could get pregnant at any point during the album making/promoting/touring process - that part was not difficult. The difficulty came in where they would be nine months from that point. Harry did not want to be on tour when he was expecting a baby - he didn’t think he could handle the stress of that, and he certainly didn’t want to leave Ellie on her own those last few months she couldn’t travel with him.

Most importantly, Ellie needed to be available. The hockey season was so short - just three months - that he wouldn’t want her to miss it. She might have to miss part of it, but if they planned it right, she might be able to keep playing after the baby was born. Right? Harry sighed and reminded himself this was all hypothetical - for now. At her doctor's appointment she would find out if she could even play hockey this season, or if she should consider retiring from playing permanently. After seeing how restless she was after missing last season, Harry hoped that would not be the case. Yet being the owner of a hockey team has its perks, and he was sure he could make her an assistant coach or something like that.

Harry’s question tumbled around Ellie’s head as she sat in the examining room waiting for the doctor. She wasn’t sure why she had needed to strip down and just wear one of those thin hospital gowns that don’t really cover anything, considering she was having her head checked out.

“Is this necessary?” She asked the nurse when she returned. “I thought I was just going to answer some questions about my concussion symptoms.”

“Well,” the nurse gave her a puzzling look. “The gown is so we can do a more comprehensive exam. You said you and your husband were thinking of having a baby…”

“I did?” Ellie sat up a little straighter and suddenly remembered blurting that out while the nurse had been taking her vitals at check in. “Yes, I did say that,” she added quietly.

“So, we were going to give you a more thorough examination,” the nurse explained and picked up her chart again. “Also, you don’t have your husband listed as your emergency contact, would you like to change that?”

Ellie shook her head. Despite there being laws prohibiting medical professionals from sharing patient information, she and Harry had been very cautious about keeping their marriage a secret and didn’t want to risk that information getting out on accident. Marriage records are publicly accessible, but unless they had a reason, no one would consider checking to see if Harry was married (or Ellie, for that matter). But, if he were listed as an emergency contact for a patient, a curious doctor might look up that marriage record, and if they were feeling particularly vindictive, leak it to the press.

Perhaps they were paranoid, but the few times they had been seen together left Ellie terrified at what his fans might do if they found out they were married. Most of them would probably be happy for them and wish them the best. Yet, there were a few more intense fans who might not take the news so gently. On top of that, Ellie did not want to be publicly known as ‘Mrs. Harry Styles’ - as much as was happy to be his wife, she was more than just the spouse of a pop-star.

Most importantly, she did not want to subject her potential future children to that same scrutiny. Even if they were able to keep their marriage a secret, adding a child to that equation complicated things even more. Ellie was almost positive Harry would be the one to accidentally leak that information - maybe getting their child’s name tattooed somewhere obvious, and not be able to stop himself when asked about it. She adored him for this kind of behaviour, though, and could not blame him for wanting to tell the world.

“In my professional opinion, you are in perfect health to try getting pregnant,” the doctor smiled and brought Ellie out of her thoughts.

“Okay,” Ellie sat up. “But can I play hockey?”

“Not while you’re pregnant, not,” the doctor looked surprised she would even ask that.

“No, I mean has the concussion healed enough for me to play this season?” Ellie restated her question.

“I think that’s something the neurologist will tell you,” the doctor answered, and Ellie realized this was the OB-GYN.

“Right,” Ellie nodded and blushed.

“You can get dressed now, and she will be in in just a moment,” the OB-GYN instructed, and Ellie hopped off the table to put her clothes back on.

The neurologists exam was much less awkward, and Ellie made sure to pay closer attention this time. She didn’t want to appear confused or distracted, in case the doctor took that as a symptom of her concussion.

As Ellie drove home, she tried to think of the best way to tell Harry the news. She was pretty sure she knew how he would react, but she still wanted to make sure they were alone - just in case.

Ellie made dinner for the two of them and had just set the table when Harry returned. She had hoped they would maybe eat first, but Harry got right to it.

“How was your doctor’s appointment?” He asked as soon as he saw her.

“It was good,” she his plate at his place and went back to the kitchen to grab something.

“And?” Harry followed her, a smile waiting on his lips for the news.

“Overall, they said I’m healthy, and I met with the neurologist,” Ellie grabbed something from a cupboard and paused.

“And,” Harry asked again.

“And I get to wear this again!” Ellie excitedly held up her New York Riveters jersey and smiled broadly, jumping with excitement.

“I’m so happy for you!” Harry enveloped her in a hug, and pushed away any conflicting thoughts.

‘We’ll postpone that other discussion a few more months, then…’ he thought.

Notes

I accidentally posted this chapter on a different story because I was in a hurry....oops xD
(If you ever see anything weird like that, please let me know!)


This chapter is kind of setting up the mood for the story, so it’s a little more wordy than I would have liked. Next chapters should be more exciting (hopefully!)

Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting! : )