☆.｡.:* BABY STEPS .｡.:*☆
act one — the third baby
(💍🕯🏹☁️)

"do you trust me?" thea randomly asked, turning her face away from the window to look at the side of lando's face. the pair had been sitting in a comfortable silence for a few moments, the only noise coming from the music that thea had chosen, adele to be exact.

"with my entire life." lando responded to her question, quickly switching his view of the road to his extra smiley fiancé.

"and you love me no matter what i do?" the blonde asked one more question, watching his face that was now full of confusion.

"you know i do, you alright?"

"okay, that's the answer i needed, thanks bub." thea ignored his question, placing her hand on lando's thigh, the other going to her spotify playlist and finding the specific song that she wanted to find.

"i've just made a massive mistake havent i?" lando laughed, thea giggling before the song started.

"you've got to sing along, lan, it's the rule." one of the songs from nativity filled the speakers of the mercedes, and although the song was from a christmas film, that didn't stop thea listening to it as in her defence, it was a very catchy song.

louis had watched it for the first time in december and it had since become his favourite film, wanting to watch it whenever he could but to save thea and lando from going crazy, they had decided to watch it every other week. both of them had watched the film before but never in excessive amounts, so it had gotten to the point where they both could recite most of the lines and sing every word to all of the songs.

"i sing it everytime with louis, i even had to do it last night to get him to sleep." if he had the choice to never hear a song again, it would most likely be this one.

"and i hope you did it to the best of your ability." thea glared at him jokingly, imagining her son and lando dancing to lando's singing. "one time! come on, come on."

"two time, shining down the light." lando joined in with the song, rolling the windows down to get some air in as it was starting to get warmer.

"you've got to sing the next part, babe."

"peace to the stars." lando lightly punched his chest before pointing his finger to the sky, the two of them chuckling before singing along to the rest of the song.

today was one of the good days in thea and lando's relationship, a day where they actually spent time with each other, and not because of louis. but even though they were in each other's company, it still didn't stop thea from feeling somewhat lonely, her smile getting faker by the day.

she was trying though, desperately trying to push her personal problems aside and focus on improving her relationship with lando. ever since the passing of their daughter and the cheating scandal, the blonde had struggled a lot. she was struggling with the coping process, the messages and questions she'd get regarding her, lando and those rumours and looking after a two year old on her own half of the time, whilst being pregnant.

she changed who she was to put lando and louis first.

as they pulled up to cassidy and tommys surrey home, thea could already see her son stood in the window, him banging on it once he saw his parents arrive. the small smile on her face growing wider by the second as she watched him get so excited, letting out a giggle when she saw cassidy poke her head through the curtains to see who louis was laughing at.

cassidy and tommy hadn't lived in surrey for long, only for about eight months to be exact, as the couple had decided that they wanted a change from living in manchester. having her sister so close to home was very beneficial for thea, anytime that she needed something or the sisters wanted to see each other, it was only a twenty minute drive.

once she had put her bag on her shoulder, thea was already out of the car and ready to see her boy, lando still in the car because of another phone call from zak. and as soon as cassidy saw that thea had crossed the road, she let louis run out to her, the young mother picking him up as soon as he got close enough. "mummy!" the two year old shouted, wrapping his small arms around her neck.

"hi my angel, did you have fun with auntie cass?" thea placed a kiss on the side of louis' head, lifting his leg so it sat above her bump.

"yeah! we made cakes and uncle tommy played fighting with me." he said excitedly before lifting his head to look around. "where's daddy?"

"he's on the phone to uncle zak, he'll come inside in a minute." the young mother told the two year old as placed him back on the ground, holding his hand as they walked inside her sisters home.

"i can't believe you took my scarf, i didn't even realise it was gone." cassidy jokingly huffed, pulling her sister into a quick hug before kissing her bump.

"because mummy is a spy!" louis jumped up as high as he could, which wasn't very high but he still tried, then ran into the living room.

"exactly what he said, where's tommy?" thea giggled, following her sister to the kitchen to find a snack.

"living room, do you want a drink or anything?" the older blonde replied, nodding towards the living room where tommy was sat with louis watching whatever was on the tv.

"i'll have a lucozade if you have any please." thea told her sister, opening the fridge to take one of the chocolate bars in the fridge draw, eating it straight away as she knew that louis would ask for one if he saw it; an already energetic toddler and a chocolate bar would not end well.

"it's not even midday and you're already having a lucozade."

"that's because i'm pregnant and i have a two year old, i need all the energy that i can get."

"you go through, i'll bring it in a second, does lando want anything?" cassidy asked, looking over at her little sister as she got two mugs out of the cupboard.

"he'll probably just have a water, you know what he's like." thea joked, taking off her scarf and coat as she walked into the living room. "tommy fury, i'd love to know why you're teaching my son to fight."

"lovely to see you too, thea greene, how's life going?" tommy said sarcastically, earning a playful punch to the shoulder as thea walked past him. "where's lando?"

"in the car. he'll be in, in a second." thea sat herself on the longer side of the sofa so she could rest her feet, the sound of the front door opening and shutting indicating that lando had just come in. "louis, daddy's here."

"daddy!" louis' head snapped towards the door, running as fast as he possibly could to lando, hearing lando's laugh a few moments later.

"hiya my boy." lando ruffled his sons hair, scratching at his scalp lightly. "where's mummy?"

"in here." louis told him as he ran back into the living room, jumping onto the couch and resting his head on thea's chest.

"you're very clingy today, angel." thea murmured into her sons curls, kissing his head once again as she wrapped her arm around him and pulled him into her. not even a minute later, lando had finally come into the living room, greeting tommy with a fist bump as he got up to help cassidy in the kitchen; lando sitting next to thea and louis on the couch. "everything alright?"

"yeah, i just need to go in for an hour to do some things." he told her, placing his arm on the backrest behind her.

"i'm gonna go straight to your mums from here so you're gonna have to drop me off on your way."

"how come you're going straight there?"

"to spend some time with her and your sisters, and hopefully get louis down for a nap because he sleeps better there." thea didn't want to tell him the true reason why she was going straight from cassidys house; because how would she tell him that she was going to talk to his mother about her feelings and emotions when she couldn't even talk to him about it.

"i'm not tired, mummy, i promise." louis murmured, his voice already sounding tired.

"i know you're not tired yet, my love, but you will be soon." thea turned her attention back to lando. "if it's such a big problem then i won't go until you get back, i'm not bothered."

"it's not a problem-" he was interrupted by cassidy and tommy making their way back into the living room, their hands full of drinks and snacks.

"alright, my darlings, here are your drinks." cassidy have thea and lando their respective drinks just before she bounced down on the couch, letting out a sigh of satisfaction to be off of her feet after a morning of running round after louis.

"thank you for looking after him, we really appreciate it." thea thanked her sister and brother in law, feeling louis nuzzle his face closer into her.

"we've actually had a good morning, haven't we lou?" cassidy asked her nephew, watching as he lazily nodded, making the quartet laugh.

"you've actually worn him out." lando laughed, placing his free hand in louis' hair, lightly scratching at his scalp.

"so, is there any news on baby norris?" the older sister asked, leaning into her boyfriend lovingly making thea's heart hurt slightly.

"the baby is perfectly fine, we listened to her heartbeat and we have the gender." thea told them both, pushing aside her overbearing thoughts, watching as they both started to get excited.

"that's so exciting! what're you having?"

"we didn't actually find out. our doctor put the gender in an envelope because we're doing a small gender reveal."

"okay, fair enough then. what are you both hoping for?" tommy had asked them.

"hoping for a girl but i'm really not bothered, one of each is nice though." lando replied, thinking nothing of his answer before looking down at his son resting his head on thea's bump.

luckily, he didn't see the small nudge that cassidy face tommy to basically tell him to take lando and louis out of the room for a couple of minutes; cassidy had seen thea's face drop at what lando had said and she wanted to know what was going on with her sister.

"louis, go and show daddy the cupcakes you made before." thea jumped in as she could see that tommy was struggling to come up with an excuse, tommy smiling at her gratefully.

"but you haven't seen them yet." louis said, looking up at his mum who simply smiled softly at him.

"i'll have a look soon, i promise, we can take some home with us." she playfully scrunched her nose at him, a habit that she did a lot to him, before louis grabbed lando's hand and took him into the kitchen with tommy following.

"what's the matter, my love?" cassidy quickly got up and went to sit next to her closer, pulling her into a tight hug.

"i'm fine, don't worry about me, cass." thea tried to show that she was alright but cassidy wasn't stupid, she could see that something was deeply bothering her.

"t, i grew up with you, i know when you're not okay." the two sisters pulled away from the hug as cassidy tucked a stray piece of thea's hair behind her ears. "tell me the truth."

"things are just hard for me at the minute and i don't know how to fix it." thea shook her head to try and not cry, but pregnancy hormones were more intense this time than the previous two pregnancies. "and what lando said just topped it off, i guess."

"i know this might not be the best advice you've never heard but bare with me." cassidy joked, trying to get a laugh out of her sister, even if it was a small one but she did. "i know how hard all of this has been on you and you've proven your strength every single day but i need you to know that it's okay to not be okay. it's perfectly okay if you want to curl up in your bed and cry, it's perfectly okay if you want to talk about how you're feeling and it's so fucking okay if you don't know how to deal with it.

you're still grieving your daughter, thea, and grief is something that can't be rushed. you just have to take your time with this because i can assure you that as time goes on, things will get easier to deal with. it may take weeks or it may years but no matter long it takes, i will always be by your side."