meandfriends44 - thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it! And don't worry, I'm not stopping any time soon, I've got at least 80 more chapters to post and I'm nowhere near done writing!
19 Harry's POV
"What the hell is going on in there?" Dougie asked at 2am, when Buzz had been crying for a solid hour with no let up. We weren't baby experts, but was that normal? Possibly, but still, surely there was something to stop him, so we could all sleep for a while? Buzz had the energy to be up half the night and still run around like a maniac the next day, the rest of us didn't.
"No idea. Teething issues?" I suggested, not having a clue.
"Tom usually sorts that easily enough." Dougie mumbled into his pillow, voice muffled.
"He does, do you think something's wrong?" I started to worry that maybe something was going on. Something serious, that was causing Buzz to be in this much distress.
"Maybe." Dougie sat up, "Should we check it out?"
"Probably." I got up, throwing on a dressing gown. Tom wasn't going to like the intrusion into his parenting, but when the baby had been crying for this long, we kinda had to check it out.
Padding down the halfway, the crying got louder, as did the voices.
"Tom I genuinely don't understand, why do you think this?" Danny was asking, what was he doing in Tom's room?
"She, she... I... I..." Tom was stuttered, sounding so distressed. What the hell was going on?
"Everything alright?" I stepped in first, Dougie poking his head round the door gingerly.
Inside the room, Tom was backed against the wall, clutching Buzz incredibly close to him as the baby cried hysterically into his shoulder. A bag was half packed on the bed, clothes were strewn across the floor, and Danny looked incredibly confused and scared.
"I, I... please, I, I can do better. I-I can look after him! I can take care of him! I just, just need some guidance, I can do it." Tom pleaded... huh?
"Look after who? Buzz?" I was confused; then again, who else would Tom be talking about?
"You don't have to do better Tom; you're doing well as it is." Danny stepped closer, Tom pressed more against the wall, panic spreading further across his face, if that was possible.
"N-No, no don't lie. Please, please don't lie." Tom was crying, "I, I'm not. I-I can't, I'm not, I'm not capable."
"What? Of course you are!" Dougie spoke up, still only just standing in the door.
"That's not, that's not what she said. She, she warned me, made sure I knew you would take him from me, because I can't do it myself." Tom shook his head. Tom thought that we were going to take Buzz from him? How could he even think that?
"Who warned you?" I really wasn't getting this, who was saying that to Tom? Who was making him think that he couldn't look after his son by himself, to the point where he thought that we would take Buzz from him? Who could be so cruel?
"S-She did." Tom glanced at his bedside table, where he had a photo from his wedding day. A photo of him and his wife. His now AWOL wife.
"She told you that we would take Buzz from you?" I couldn't... she had said that? She had told Tom that? How... he could not be serious.
"She, she said that I wasn't, I couldn't do this by myself. That I was useless with Buzz, that I-I'd screw him up. A-And that you would see how useless I was at everything, t-that I can't do anything right, and then you would take Buzz away, and leave me alone." Tom whispered, looking down at the floor in shame.
"But I can look after him, I can do better! I can raise him right I swear! I just need some guidance, that's all! I just need some guidance, a-and I'll get it right in the end. I just, I just need guidance, a-and patience. Please, just don't take Buzz away from me; I swear I can do it." Tom panicked, begging over and over that he could do this, that he could really look after Buzz, he just needed guidance and patience.
What the hell had his wife done to him?