Epilogue

I never thought I could be happier. I thought my life had all fallen into place and I wasn’t missing any special pieces. But it took 21 days in hell for me to realize that I was missing the most important piece of all- a future.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Horan,” Louis Tomlinson teased as he came gallivanting into the apartment.

“Ha-ha,” I laughed dryly. I was standing above the kitchen table, wrapping favorite plates in newspaper and packaging wrap. But I had to say… the title was fitting me nicely.

The other boys all piled in after Louis, each wearing a smile on his handsome face. Harry had put on muscle and some stubbly facial hair. Louis was tanner than usual. He had a bright color to his cheeks. Liam was as bulky and fit as ever before. His thick arms almost ripped the sleeves of his shirt. And Zayn was dressed in loose jeans and a new shirt- a shirt that proudly showed his new tattoo. The tattoo that spelled out the number 21- for the number of days we were all in isolation.

Liam came over to kiss the top of my head.

“Thanks for coming, guys,” I said.

“Of course,” Zayn replied, “We’re your Directions. We’ll always show up when you need some help.”

“And when you have free food,” Harry added with a shrug.

I scrambled over to where he was peeking inside the fridge. “Not yet,” I giggled, “You have to wait until everyone gets here.”

“Everyone?” Liam repeated. He raised two thick eyebrows at me. “I thought we were everyone.”

“No…” I said, my voice raising a suspicious decibel.

Before anyone could ask what the hell I was up to, Niall came bursting into the room. Our dogs were yapping at his feet- begging to be played with.

“Heeeey!” They all hollered in sync. I rolled my eyes. I swear, those boys act as if they’re twelve years old most days than not.

“Good of ya to show up,” Niall announced in his thick accent. It was almost as if the warm weather brought out some more Irishman in him, if even possible.

I smiled at the lot of them proudly.

“So,” Louis said, “Where do we start?”

“You can start taking boxes out into the trucks.”

“Yes, mam,” Harry saluted. I laughed as he picked up a stack- making towards the door. No one was quick enough to warn him when he almost collided with someone coming in to say hello.

“Oh!” A giggly voice gasped. She held onto the other end of the boxes, keeping them from hitting the ground.

Harry peered around to find himself face to face with Emily Marie.

“Hello,” Emily said softly. She blinked her two bright green eyes.

“Uh… uh, hello,” Harry stuttered. He gulped.

I believe everyone rolled their eyes at that point.

“Do you need help with those?” Emily asked him.

“No,” Harry said unsurely.

“Yeah he does,” Louis offered. “He doesn’t have very good upper body strength.”

Emily laughed- like little bells twinkling through the room. “Alright,” She said, “I’ll help.”

I watched her walk away with Harry, and felt Niall come up behind me with open arms. He wrapped himself around my neck, resting his hands on my own. He liked to trace the place where my gold and diamond ring set. He liked to remind himself that I was his- he was mine- until death do us part.

I waited until the rest of the boys filed out of the room to say anything. “Niall,” I said.

“Mhmm,” He replied with a hum.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Niall sighed into my ear. Goosebumps appeared on my pale skin near my cheek. “Oh course I want to do this,” He said. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time now.”

“But your family…”

“My family can take a vacation every now and again to see us. It’ll be alright.”

I sighed, remembering the teary and heart wrenching reunion between Niall and his family. I was standing nearby before his mom pulled me into her arms- kissing me on the top of the head. I’ll never forget what she said- “Promise me you won’t ever scare us like that again. I thought I’d lost a son and a daughter.” I could feel her tears on my cheek. I could smell the strong scent of hospital in the air.

“Hey,” Niall drew me out of my day dreams by twirling me to face him. His bright blue eyes searched me frantically. “Are you okay?” He whispered. “You have that look on your face again.”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to draw myself out of a nightmarish flashback. The therapist told him to watch me closely- but I never thought he’d catch things before I did. The nightmares were regular- and at first, I was even having them during the day. I would break down into a flashback and go glossy eyed and numb. It’s been better since the wedding, since we decided to move.

“Don’t black out on me today,” Niall said as he stroked my hair. I closed my eyes and leaned into his warm touch, wanting to smell his soft cologne.

“I was just thinking,” I started to say, “I was just thinking… we still don’t have a toaster.”

Niall smiled down at me goofily. “Wow, you’re right. I never did get you one, did I?”

I shook my head.

“Well, I promise our dream house will have a million toasters, then. How’s that sound?”

“Like a freaking fire hazard,” I replied.

Niall smiled softly before kissing me gently, just quickly, before pulling back and resting his forehead against mine.

“We’re going to move to America,” Niall said, “Where we’re going to have a bunch of cute kids and animals and get old and fat, and have a library full of books and a yard full of roses and we’ll go to Disneyland every weekend and probably spend our life savings on toasters but that’s okay- because everything is going to be more than okay while we’re together.”

And after he spoke, a smile appeared on my face. He stared at my dimples.

“HARRY BROKE SOMETHING!”

Niall and I both turned our heads, looking to the doorway where a tattle tale Lou came running in in front of a frantic Hazza.

“It- it was an accident, I swear!” Harry explained in a tizzy.

Niall laughed, “Whatever, Styles. You break it- you buy it! I expect a full refund.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, “We don’t have anything too important.”

“What about my guitars? And the amps? And the drums?”

“Like I said,” I continued, “Nothing important.”

Niall rolled his eyes but kissed me on the nose none the less. I smiled to myself proudly, going back to wrapping plates and stacking them oh so carefully.  I looked around the house silently as the boys and Emily continued to drag things outside. These things were our life. It was scary, it was scary- starting over was.

“It’s a new chapter,” I spoke to myself softly as I methodically wrapped a wine glass in a thick sheet of a magazine. “It’s the next step. Our happily ever after. A new chapter.”

And I was right. It was the calm AFTER the storm, it was the resolution after the conflict. That move brought us our happily ever after that we had been searching for for so long.

All the sweet, loving words of our story could fill a thousand books- pages tattered and smelling of his soft cologne. We went from being strangers that lived across the globe to star crossed lovers who traveled the globe. We went through hell together and lived to tell the tale. But somehow, sitting here now, I know that it wasn’t our happily ever after. It was our beginning.