"What do you think the doctor wants to speak to us about?" Nikki asked Harry worriedly, biting her lip and looking at the baby that was laying on the special cushion on her partner's lap. They'd got there to visit their son and the nurses had told them that the doctor would be in in a little while to speak to them, but there was nothing to worry about and they should spend some time with their son. Nikki had let Harry sit with Albert on his lap first this time, holding the baby's teddy that Leo had brought him before he had been born against her chest as she looked out of the window to the sky outside.

"Probably about his care" Harry shrugged, smiling at the baby on his lap and touching his little hand, letting Albert grip his finger as he looked up at Nikki "You know they give us updates all the time"

"I know"

And each time she worried that the doctor was going to tell them something that they didn't want to hear. There was the time two weeks after he had been born that he had developed an infection in his chest, and Nikki lived every day in fear while he was ill that it would take him from them. He was so delicate and still so little that any infection he got could be deadly to him. They couldn't have got this far for something to take him from them. She turned when the door opened and their doctor walked in, smiling at them both.

"Nikki, Harry, how are you both?"

Nikki couldn't help but smile at the older woman, Dr Carnegie had been the one who was their son's main doctor since he was a few days old, and she and her team had been amazing all that time. There had been nights when Nikki had laid awake in bed and had requested a video or picture of Albert, and the request had been answered straight away. The people working on this ward were so dedicated and amazing at what they did that Harry and Nikki would be forever grateful to them.

"You wanted to speak to us?" Nikki asked, stepping away from the window and keeping Albert's stuffed bear against her with one arm, moving her other to put it on Harry's shoulder "Is Albert okay?"

"One of our tests has showed up an abnormality" Dr Carnegie told them, seeing the panic on their faces, but she had been in this job long enough to know what she was doing "In his ears, we will have to conduct some more tests designed to make sure, but we do have evidence to believe that Albert is deaf"

Nikki swallowed heavily when she heard those words, sitting down slowly on the chair next to where Harry was sitting and looking at the baby, reaching over to touch Albert's little head with her fingers, seeing that they were shaking. She then looked at Harry who was watching her, giving him a small smile and leaning over to rest their heads together, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, keeping her fingers against their son's head.

"That's okay, isn't it, sweet-pea?" Nikki whispered after a few more seconds, looking down at Albert and running her finger lightly over one of his tiny ears, then over his delicate little cheek, smiling when he made a little noise and leaned a little bit into her touch "That's okay, we can do things with that can't we? It's not the end of the world"

Harry nodded, leaning down to kiss her head and closing his eyes, they both knew the vague risks of what could happen to babies that were so premature, and Albert being deaf was probably one of the better outcomes. They both knew that their son wouldn't come out of this unscathed, and they had prepared for it as much as they could mentally by talking about everything that they knew. Hearing that his son was deaf though made his heart ache for his boy, he didn't know what sort of obstacles he would face, but he knew that they would be there with him every step of the way.

"When will you do the tests?" Harry asked while Nikki was distracted by Albert, looking at their doctor who smiled and perched on the edge of the seat she had brought over from the other side of the room.

"We have him booked in for tomorrow afternoon, we've got the best team here who will look after him while they do the tests"

"Will they hurt him?" Nikki asked quickly, looking up at them both and keeping her hand on Albert's head.

"Not at all, he'll be in the safest hands Nikki I can assure you of that" Dr Carnegie smiled at them both and looked at Albert "This little man probably won't even know we're there, he's such a good handsome boy"

"Takes after his dad" Harry smirked and Nikki rolled her eyes at the other female doctor, earning a smile from the older woman.

"He wishes" Nikki whispered loudly, looking down to Albert once more and stroking his little cheek "Can we still visit him tomorrow?"

"Of course you can" Dr Carnegie assured them both and nodded "We've booked the tests for two o'clock tomorrow afternoon, and you'll be able to sit with him before and afterwards, so just come whenever you want okay?"

Nikki sat on the edge of her and Harry's bed while her partner pottered around the room getting ready for bed. It had been a few hours since they had left the hospital, and every time she left her baby boy there on his own she felt like she had left half her heart there with him, the other half laying with the teenager who was currently in his room on his pc talking to his friends.

"Nikki?"

"He couldn't hear us every time we spoke to him or told him we loved him"

Harry sighed, putting his t-shirt on and moved to kneel down in front of her, taking her hands from her lap and kissing her knuckles.

"You don't know that, I firmly believe he heard us"

"He's deaf"

"They don't know how deaf, Nikki" Harry reminded her and gave her a small smile as she nodded and sniffed "But whatever happens, I know that he knows we love him. There is no way that he doesn't, because I've seen the way that he reacts when we're both around and we've got him on our lap. He knows we're there and he knows we love him more than anything"

Nikki swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, smiling down at Harry and squeezing his hands tightly, stroking his knuckles with her thumbs and letting out a loud sigh.

"We'll bring him home one day Harry, we'll wake up and he'll be in there" she nodded to the bassinet that was in the corner of the room, folded up still in the packaging "I can't not think about it now, before when he was first born I couldn't..." she trailed off and sniffed, blinking away her tears and letting out a breath again "I couldn't think about it because I thought if I wanted it too badly then it would be taken away from me. Now every time I look at him and he opens his eyes and looks at me I just imagine him here with us finally, with Niall too. I know Niall shows him off to his friends"

"Ah yes, the boys" Harry laughed, making Nikki giggle at his words, Niall always liked to play it cool when it came to his friends "One day we're going to have them both here with us, and we'll wake up and we'll have breakfast with them, and one of us will take Niall to school and he'll moan at us because it's not cool to have his parents drop him off" he felt his throat close up and he kissed Nikki's knuckles softly, closing his eyes and moving from his place in front of her to sit on the bed as well, wrapping his arm around her back and letting Nikki lean on him, kissing her head. "But he'll be more than happy to get a lift when it's raining"

Nikki laughed tearfully at that last part, nodding against his shoulder and wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her dressing gown.

"I want to start the adoption process" Nikki told Harry, looking up at his face as she spoke "I think it's time to try it again, without any distractions this time, I want Niall to be ours properly before we bring Albert home too"

"We can call in the morning, but it's time for you to sleep"

"I'm going to check on Niall first" she shook her head, kissing Harry and stroking his cheek with her thumb, feeling him smile against her lips "I love you"

"I love you, Nicola Alexander"