Strength Of The World

On the morning of Peyton and Zack’s baby shower, she could hardly contain her excitement. Val and Michelle wouldn’t let her come over early, so she was basically watching the clock. Zack tried to keep her busy, he took her out to breakfast and they hung out with Johnny. When she decided to start getting ready, she chose a white fitted dress that went down to right above her knee and a pair of black sandals. She put a messy braid in her hair, and for makeup she decided to go with lighter tones for eyeshadow and a soft pink lipstick. Once she was dressed she went into their closet to grab her jewelry and sighed. “What’s wrong baby?” Zack asked, leaning into the door frame. “I don’t know, I just have this bad feeling.” She said, putting her bracelets on. “Will you come with me? Please?” Zack walked into the closet and wrapped his arms around her. “Peyton, you’re going to be fine. I promise you. But if you really want me to go then I will. Brian was a little disappointed that he wasn’t invited anyway.” He said, making his fiancée laugh into his chest. “I would feel better if you were there. I can literally feel my anxiety creeping up.” She explained, looking up at him. “Okay. Let me get some clothes on and we’ll go.” Peyton grinned brightly at her future husband and stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss. “You’re the best.” She said as she walked out of the closet. “Yeah yeah, I’ve heard that one before.” He joked. Before finding something to wear, Zack pulled his phone out of his pocket. ‘She asked me to come with her, baby shower surprise is on!’ He pressed send and got dressed with a huge smile on his face.

Peyton and Zack were the first ones to arrive at Matt and Val’s, and her eyes filled with tears when she saw their backyard. There were tables and chairs set up everywhere and tiny lights strung through the trees with little airplanes hanging from a few branches. The tables were covered with gray table cloths, with assorted sizes of vases full of her favorite flowers and there was a banner above the cake table that read ‘Welcome baby Baker’ and had an airplane at the very beginning of it, making it look like the plane was playing with the banner. “This is beautiful, Val!” Peyton said, hugging her best friend. “Thank you so much.” “You deserve it and more, Pey. I love you!” The blonde replied, “But you better not cry before pictures!” Peyton laughed and pulled away from her best friend. “I’m not crying you asshole. I’m just really happy.”

Soon the rest of the guests had arrived and Peyton was looking around Matt and Val’s backyard, feeling a little sad. “What’s wrong babe?” Her mom asked, putting an arm around her daughter’s waist. “The guys should be here. They deserve to be able to celebrate the baby too. Poor Zack looks lost with just dad to talk to.” She chuckled softly. “I wish Jimmy was here.” She whispered, looking at her mom. “He was supposed to be here.” “Baby, Jimmy will always be with you. No matter what. He’ll always be right here.” Becky told her, placing a hand over her heart. “And whose to say the guys won’t be here?” Peyton looked across the lawn and saw the three men she was missing walk through the back gate. A huge smile broke out on her face and she took off across the grass toward them. “You guys made it!” She said, grabbing all of them into a hug. “Did you really think we wouldn’t?” Brian chuckled, kissing the side of her head. “That’s my nephew in there, I wasn’t missing this for the world.” “We were just a little late because we had to get something for you.” Johnny said. Peyton pulled away from them and looked at them in confusion. “What are you talking about?” Matt smiled down at Peyton and opened the gate again, this time a woman walked through. “LEANA!” Peyton shouted, and launched herself into the woman’s arms. “Oh my god I can’t believe you made it. I’ve missed you so much!” She said, tears filling her eyes. “You know I wouldn’t miss this, Pey.” Leana told her, “I know I haven’t been around, but I promise I will do better.” “Shut up Lee. We get it. I love you so much. I’m so glad you’re here.” “I love you too Peyton. But you better not cry because Val will kill you.” Leana laughed.

Peyton never stopped smiling through the entire afternoon. She sat with her friends and family and ate her favorite foods, and Zack helped her open gifts, asking questions about everything he came across. When she opened the breast pump that Michelle had bought her he became very interested. “I’m trying that out on myself when we get home.” He told her. The entire group laughed, thinking he was joking but she knew that he would for sure be taking it out of the box tonight. “Wait? We bought her a boob pump? Gross.” Brian said to Michelle, who rolled her eyes and laughed. Once they were finished opening gifts Peyton addressed the group. “I just want to thank you guys for everything. Val, Michelle, Lacey. Everything looks so good, you guys did an amazing job. I love you three so much. Mom, Dad, Maria, James, we love you guys and can’t wait to see you as grandparents. And to the rest of you guys, we love all of you and appreciate you so much. Baby Lincoln is blessed to have so many aunts and uncles who love him so much.” She watched as everyone’s eyes lit up when she finally revealed the baby’s name to them. “To Zack, Peyton, and baby Lincoln!” Matt said, holding up his beer. “Lincoln is a badass name by the way.” Johnny added, making everyone laugh. The group raised their glasses, bottles, and whatever else they had to raise to toast the couple and their baby.

A few hours later, Peyton and Zack were walking through the door, Brian and Johnny following them with arms full of packages. “Come on, you guys can stick them in the baby’s room.” Peyton said, leading them up the stairs. She had grabbed a few items and started putting them away when Brian grabbed her shoulders. “No you don’t. You sit your little butt right there and let us do it.” He said, pushing her into the glider they had bought for the room. Peyton sighed heavily and told the guys where to put things, propping her swollen feet up on the stool. “Okay. We have one more present for you.” Matt said, walking into the room with Brian and Johnny behind him. “When the fuck did you even get here?” Peyton asked with a laugh. “I just got here.” He shrugged. Peyton grabbed Zack’s hand to pull herself out of the chair to stand. “What more could you guys even get me? You guys got Leana to come today, that was the best thing I could have asked for.” Zack wrapped his arm around her shoulders, knowing what’s coming next. “It’s just one more thing Pey. Trust us when we say you’ll love it.” Matt nodded to Brian, who brought a wrapped package into the room. “Who even wrapped this?”
she laughed, knowing the guys wouldn’t have done such a good job. “Val did.” Zack told her. “Wait why aren’t the girls here then?” She questioned them. “We wanted to give this to you from the three of us. The girls gave you the shower, this is your gift from the band.” Brian told her with a shrug. Peyton looked up at her friends, then sat down on the ottoman to open the package. When she pulled away the paper, her breath caught in her throat. “What? How?” She asked, moving down to the floor to get a closer look. Someone had taken a picture of Peyton and Jimmy on Christmas. He had his hand on her belly, her hand was on top of his and they both had huge smiles on their faces. Peyton remembered the exact moment.

Jimmy had started talking to her and the baby started kicking like crazy. “Holy shit Jimbo he’s going nuts.” She said with a laugh. Jimmy immediately put a hand on her belly and laughed maniacally, “My little knife master in training! You’re learning well little man.” Peyton placed a hand over his and smiled at him. “I can’t wait to meet the little dude, Peanut.” “I can’t wait for you to meet him either, Jim.” Jimmy pulled her into a huge bear hug and kissed the top of her head, “You’ll be the best mom ever.”

Peyton looked up at Brian, who smiled sadly at her. “Guilty.” He said, raising his hand. She looked back down at the picture, and cried. She sobbed so hard her ribs were hurting and Zack had pulled her out of the floor and into his arms. “I miss him so fucking much.” “I know, baby. We all do.” Zack told her. Peyton felt multiple hands on her back and turned to look at the other three guys, who were secretly thinking they fucked up giving her this gift. She pulled away from Zack and wrapped her arms around them, “I love it guys. Thank you so much.” “Anything for you, Peanut.” Johnny said, giving her a squeeze. One by one the guys left, telling Peyton and Zack they would give them some time to themselves. Once Brian had made sure Peyton had stopped crying he kissed the side of her head and told her he would see her tomorrow and left. Peyton sat back down in the glider with a sigh and looked up at Zack, who was smiling down at her. “Today was a good day.” She said softly, “Pretty soon our little guy will be here.” “I know babe. I can’t wait.” He told her. “Now, which one of these bags is that breast pump in?” He asked, looking through the gifts. Peyton laughed loudly and helped him search. The couple spent the rest of the evening going through baby shower gifts and gettig everything organized for their little boy’s arrival.

Notes

So there’s only a few more chapters of this story left! Hopefully I’ll be posting them all in the next few days. Thanks for reading!