Cold fear spiraled through the nurse, her heart thumping violently against her ribs as the barrel of the gun pressed harder against her skin. "Put the phone down" Zayn repeated, his voice very calm but with a faint chill.

The nurse drew in shaky breaths, trembling with fear, and hung up, before placing the phone on the table beside them with a shaky hand. Then Zayn turned her around to face him and saw her eyes burning with tears. "Look, we just want you to treat the baby and we will be gone. Do you think we would have bothered bringing a sick child to a clinic if we were bad guys?" He asked, pointing the gun directly at her chest.

The nurse sniffles, shaking her head.

"Help us and I won't have to kill you alright?"

She nodded, tears seeping down her cheeks.

"Now let's go and check on the baby and if you're thinking of doing something stupid, I will blow your fucking brains out"

Choking down the fear, the nurse nodded again then Zayn nudged her with the gun for her to start walking out, before hiding the gun in his back pocket. "Act normal" He whispered behind her and the nurse wiped her tears before he opened the door for her and followed her back to the OPD.

"Did she call the police?" Louis asked the moment they entered.

"Yeah, but I got there before she said anything" Zayn replied then Louis sighed in relief and gave the baby to the nurse for her to do her job. As the nurse was taking the baby's temperature, Louis took pictures of her with his phone and sent them to Ezra for him to do a background check on her. Within a few minutes, Ezra texted back the information he got and attached it with photos of her family.

After the nurse concluded the medical examination on the baby, she gave him back to Louis and spoke.

"He-he has started teething, that's why his body feels warm which is normal for babies at this stage, thankfully he's not experiencing other symptoms like diarrhea and rashes. His gums are tender and he must be feeling slight pains, so I will prescribe acetaminophen to relieve the pain and if his symptoms persist after two days, bring him back but I'm sure he will be fine"

"Do you have the medicine here or do we have to get it at a drugstore?" Louis asked.

"You can buy it here or the pharmacy, whichever you want" She replied.

"Alright, we will buy it here, let's go" Zayn muttered and followed the nurse out of the room. After getting the baby's medicine at the clinic pharmacy they came back inside, then Louis passed the baby to Zayn, whispering his findings about the nurse to him and how he's thinking of using the photos to blackmail her to keep her mouth shut.

As they were whispering to each other, the nurse cleared her throat loudly, pulling their attention back to her. "Um, have you given the baby a bath yet?" She asked, her tone sounding nervous and tentative.

"Do you have any idea the kind of baby food to buy, how to prepare it, the size of diapers he wears? Do you have any clue how to take care of this baby in general?"

Louis and Zayn stared at her like she had asked a million-dollar question and stood in silence, exchanging glances, knowing she's right. The thought of bathing the baby hasn't even crossed their minds, let alone know the size of diapers he wears, the only thing they're relying on is their little knowledge of feeding the baby and changing diapers, that's it.

Louis slowly walked towards her and stood in front of her. "No we don't, but you'll teach us and be the baby's nurse in the meantime. We will pay you a lot of money and not kill your family" He said, showing his phone to the nurse with a picture of her family on the screen, causing her to gasps in horror.

Louis smiled and shoved the phone in his pocket. "Now that we understand each other, teach us everything we need to know"

The nurse skin clammy with nervous sweat, as she began teaching them the most basic things they needed to know, like how to bath the baby using the right water temperature, and other important things they had no idea of. They didn't even know they had to powder the baby bum before putting a diaper on him to prevent nappy rash.

Afterward, the nurse wrote down the name of baby food, size of diapers, and few essentials they needed to buy for the baby, and gave the paper to Zayn since he claimed he's the father.

"How old do you think he is?" Zayn asked.

"He should be five to six months old, most baby's start teething around that age"

"Okay, so we will contact you tomorrow and remember to keep your mouth shut, or else we will kill your family" Louis said narrowing his eyes at her.

"Sure" The nurse swallowed nervously as Louis opened the door.

"Wait, one more thing" She said hesitantly, stopping them in their tracks. "Can you two stop cussing in front of the baby? You don't want fuck to be his first word, right?"

Louis and Zayn's gaze bored into hers, with no emotions showing and she hastened to explain. "I-I mean I realize you two cuss out a-a lot when I was teaching you.....

She immediately stopped talking when something in their expression gave her the feeling that they were getting annoyed.

"We will see you tomorrow" Zayn murmured and she nodded frantically. "Yeah su-sure tomorrow" She said then they stepped out of the room and shut the door behind them.

One their way home, they went to a supermarket and Zayn went inside, leaving the baby with Louis and bought everything written on the paper by the nurse. As he was pushing the cart towards the cashier, he spots a big basket full of stuffed soft Spongebob toys and smiled, remembering how obsessed the baby is with Spongebob. He walked towards the basket and picked one then wheeled the cart towards the cashier and paid for the items.

When they got home, Louis went straight to his room while on phone with his girlfriend Sarah, then Zayn also went to his bedroom and proceed to bath the baby. He had initially wanted to sit the baby in the tub and bath him, but the fear of the baby drowning made him change his mind.

So he did what he thought was the safest and prepared the bath then stripped down to his boxers and undressed the baby before stepping in the bathtub, and sat inside with the baby on his lap. He lathered shampoo over the baby's hair and quickly washed it, afraid the foamy soap will get into the baby's eyes. Afterward, he washed the baby and himself then carefully stepped out of the tub, drying themselves with a towel.

He then maneuvers the baby to his right arm and removed his wet boxers, then wrapped another towel around his waist before walking to the bedroom, where he powder the baby's body and put a diaper on him. He dressed the baby in pajamas and carefully measured the medicine just like the nurse had taught him and gave it to the baby.

The baby swallowed the medicine easily in one gulp than he had anticipated, causing him to lift the baby in the air and peppered his face with tiny kisses for being such a good boy.

He then placed the baby on the bed and put on some shorts and a t-shirt before leaning against the headboard with pillows supporting his head and placed the baby in a vertical position directly against his chest, above his breastbone, and began speaking to the baby like an adult, telling him about his childhood in the orphanage and everything he and Louis had to go through before they started their business of stealing cars.

The baby babbles with a slight frown after he finished talking and Zayn let out a sigh, his lips curling slightly.

"Yeah, I know it's bad but we are planning to stop soon and I'm planning on settling down and.. hey can you do me a favor, when we drop you home tomorrow, can you put in a good word for me to your mummy? God, he's so hot, hopefully, he's single and your daddy and he have broken up"

The baby expression changed as if he was displeased with Zayn's words.

"No, no that's not what I meant, I mean I will be glad if they are still together but if they are not, then I will love to be your other father. I will buy you a lot of toys, ice cream and I will let Ezra make you some of the coolest gadgets. I will be a good father to you and I promise to love your mummy very much, and I will make sure within a year of getting together with your mummy, you will have a little sister or brother to play with"

"So what do you say, deal?"

The baby's green eyes blinked owlishly, staring at him and then smiled a little, flashing his two pearly white.

"Yes!" Zayn pumped his fist in the air, his smile widening as the baby giggled.

"So tomorrow" He whispered softly then his gut twisted at the idea of never holding and seeing the baby's bright smile again.

The baby reached out its chubby little fingers, trying to grab Zayn's nose ring. "You like my nose ring huh?" He chuckled softly. "Wait till you get older, on your eighteen birthday okay?"

The baby responded by gurgling back at him.

Unknown to them, Louis and Mary were leaning by the door, staring at them in shock.

Mary cleared her throat then Zayn averted his gaze to her, surprised to see her since she said she wasn't coming home tonight.

"Wow, I thought you hated babies?"

"Not this baby" Zayn answered with a wide grin and glance at the baby, who's staring at Mary with a curious look.

Mary hums in responses, folding her arms across her chest. "So Louis was telling me that you decided to name the baby Michael Jackson"

Zayn rolled his eyes, his lips quirking into an amused smile, and rose from the bed, adjusting the baby on his hip.

"No, it's just MJ"

He said, then the baby babbles with expression to get his attention. Zayn hums in responses as if he knew what the baby meant and grabbed the SpongeBob toy he bought at the store and gave it to him before putting a pacifier in his mouth.

"If MJ is not Michael Jackson then what the fuck is MJ?" Mary asked.

"Malik Junior" Zayn uttered with a shrug and the air around them suddenly became awkward.

"Why would you name him Malik Junior when he's not yours?" Louis asked with raised brows.

"I don't know, it just slipped out of my mouth when the nurse asked, I-I didn't think much into it when I said it, I just.... Zayn let out a loud breath at the end.

"Maybe because we the same raven hair" He added.

Mary flickered her eyes to Zayn's hair than to the baby's hair. "Yeah you're right, he does have your hair and he kind of looks.........

She frowns, pressing her lips together, and then she shakes her head, dismissing the thought.

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I hope you like it 😊

Thoughts on the chapter

Thoughts on Zayn

Thoughts on Louis

Thanks for reading. Stay safe ❤️