Striking the Match Pt. 03

"Wow, she's gorgeous. Lydia you did an incredible job well done."

"Thanks Noah, I-" but Lydia broke off, because there was another person appearing around the door, but it wasn't Alice.

"Hi," Ricky came into the room awkwardly, shuffling towards Lydia's bedside, holding an enormous stuffed elephant.

"Hey," Lydia whispered her voice cracked, reaching for him. "You came."

"I only just got your texts... is this?" He looked at the baby in Charlie's arms.

"Rosie," Lydia said, taking her back into her arms and showing her to Ricky.

"As beautiful as her mother," Ricky smiled and Lydia blushed.

"We'll be outside," Noah said tactfully, pushing a reluctant Charlie from the room. He stood outside listening as Noah rolled his eyes but grinned.

"I have been missing you, so much since our fight," Ricky said. "It's like I couldn't get you out of my head whatever I did. And then when I read your texts it was like it all made sense. I think you are the most beautiful, courageous and incredible woman I have ever met and-"

"Oh shut up and kiss me already."

When they had given Lydia and Ricky some space, they went back into the room and took it in turns cooing over baby Rosie. Charlie particularly enjoyed seeing her in Noah's arms, a tense feeling in his chest as he felt like his heart would explode with the pain of it. He knew there would be hours, and days, and months, and years of this. And that knowledge made him truly happy. Everything was perfect, better than perfect. Lydia was happy, Ricky holding her hand and kissing her cheek, he had Noah who was looking at him in a way that made him feel like he could fly to the moon and back, and he had Rosie, a daughter. His daughter.

He grabbed his phone and snapped a selfie with her, sending it to Elliot.

-Sorry to bail on your party early, meet my daughter Rosie.. -

He responded- OH MY GOD. Congratulations!! I can't wait to meet her. -

Later that night they left Lydia to sleep, she was allowed one guest to stay with her and Charlie insisted that Ricky stay.

"She needs you," he said, delighted to see the relief on his face.

He, Noah and Alice stepped out into the night and Alice breathed out heavily.

"What a night! How does it feel, you're fathers."

"Oh no, Charlie is the father. I'm not-"

"You are going to be a father to my child whether you like it or not," Charlie interrupted and Noah smiled, putting an arm around Charlie and kissing him on the forehead.

"What a lucky girl, three fathers to deal with!" Alice mused, "God bless the poor boy or girl that tries to take her on her first date."

They all laughed, and perhaps if they hadn't kept walking one of them would have noticed. If they had seen it, they would have stopped, tried to help, cried, done... something. But no, they continued on down the street, their happy euphoria staying just a little longer.

As the three happy people walked away, laughing at some joke the girl had made, an ambulance had pulled up by the entrance and on the stretcher was a barely conscious and bloody young man. He was pale, and had a bruised and swelling face just visible in the neck brace.

The EMT jumped down from the ambulance and spoke to an ER doctor who had run to meet them. The doctor shone a light in the mans eyes who winced and groaned.

"Hello, my name is Dr Sheridan, can you please tell me your name?"

It seemed a great effort as the man opened his mouth, his lips quivering, his voice rasping, but he was at last able to croak out a name before slipping into unconscious oblivion.

"Ben Mosley."

This is the end of Charlie and Noah's story, I hope you enjoyed it, I struggled a little dealing with the realistic length of a pregnancy and also keeping it not too long but I hope it was still a fun read!

I have plans to continue the series with a substory about... what the fuck happened to Ben??! As you probably guessed... And of course crossovers with the favourite characters from this series.

Please let me know if you would like to read this, otherwise I have other ideas away from Matched that I am excited to try as well that will be coming soon :) I hope you all are having a wonderful August!

Please say hi in the comments, I love hearing from you and knowing there are actually real people out there reading this!

See you soon,

Daisy x