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London Calling

AM (One Direction)

Epilogue
“Get some sleep you two,” Kim called. “You’ve got brunch before footie in the morning.”
“Don’t listen to her. Go home and make love to your wife, man,” her husband Nate added.
“You two are hilarious,” Harry said.
“I love you both. Thank you so much for everything you did today. It wouldn’t have been perfect without you,” Annie said as she hugged Kim and Nate. She was visibly intoxicated. Her perfectly curled hair from her wedding having gotten a bit disheveled from a night of fun with her friends. She still had her bouquet of flowers in her hand. She didn’t want to leave them at the pub, she had actually stolen a pitcher normally reserved for beer or water and filled it with enough water that her flowers would make it home okay.
“Get yourselves home. It’s time we all leave,” Nate said. Maggie watched the four people sneak out the front of the door. Most of the rest of the group that had been in O’Brien’s that night had already left. All that remained were Frankie, Lizzy, Maggie and Jane. Maggie had worked at O’Brien’s for a long time, she’d started back when Annie was still working occasionally, she obviously knew this group of people well. This however was Jane’s first week.
“Will you two be okay closing up without us tonight?” Frankie asked.
“Of course boss,” Maggie replied. “We don’t have a ton to clean up from. The average Saturday would’ve been more trouble. You guys were relatively tame considering I know how you can all behave.”
“Are either of you working tomorrow?”
“I open,” Jane said. She was still relatively quiet, wasn’t sure what her place was here yet.
“Same here. It was supposed to be Cam but I told him to spend the day with all of you. Celebrate those two for an extra day. I heard Kim mention brunch and I know that Alyssa and Cam rarely like to miss those.”
“That is true,” Lizzy said. “Brunch at Kim and Nate’s is my favorite meal of the week. And Cam doesn’t like to miss it or the boys footie games. He has tried so hard to convince Christine that she likes footie but she’s her mother’s daughter. She’d rather play around on their piano. And there little brother Alfie is just far too little to play footie yet, even though he tries.” Alfie was a few months away from turning two. On Sundays while everyone gathered together for the boys’ footie games he would run around with his mini football kicking it to his Mum and Dad. “It’s so cute.” Lizzy had enough to drink tonight that she was becoming giggly.
“Well, have fun with that and tell Little Patrick good luck in his footie match,” Maggie said.
“If you need anything tomorrow, don’t hesitate to call, Ok Mags?” Frankie asked.
“Of course.”
“Are you okay to drive?” Lizzy asked Jane. She opened her mouth but hesitated to answer. She’d had a few shots with the group as they did them tonight.
“She’s staying upstairs with me,” Maggie said. “Since we both open it only makes sense.”
“Good call. We will probably have most of the group back tomorrow after the boys’ footie match. Need to feed the kids lunch,” Frankie said. “Have a good night.”
“Get home safely,” Maggie said. As the door shut she turned to pour herself a pint. “Want one?”
“Sure,” Jane responded.
“That was a fun night.”
“It was, clearly not a normal Saturday though.”
“No, absolutely not a normal Saturday. Though that group is often here on a normal Saturday.”
“Really?” Jane was shocked that this little Irish pub in Camden was a normal hang out for the guys who made up One Direction.
“Yeah, Annie used to work here. It was the first pub she wandered in to after she moved here from the States.”
“That’s cool. I didn’t know that. It was sort of cool to witness a wedding for people I don’t know, I mean outside of what the gossip rags say about them, which I only read when I’m getting my hair done.”
“They pretty much are the exact opposite of what you’d expect. Annie still comes back and works every St. Patrick’s Day and when Harry released his first solo record he did a party here to support it. This has been the place that they hung out at since the very beginning of their relationship. Annie blogs about everything and has since she moved to London like eight years ago.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, you should read it. Since you just moved here it might give you some insight in to some cool things you didn’t know. I think the funniest thing I’ve ready of hers was when she first started here she did an entire blog on how to understand what British men say when they are hitting on you. It’s totally based on Cameron,” Maggie said laughing.
“Cameron?”
“Yeah, they dated when she moved here. Before she started dating Harry. And then she brought her best friend over for a week and introduced her to Cameron. He and Alyssa have been together ever since. Their friendship is pretty funny. I figured you’d read it. From everyone I’ve met that comes over here from the US her blog, London Calling, is like the most suggested thing to an American ex-pat before moving.”
“I think someone suggested it but I just thought it was a blog about the girlfriend of one of the guys from One Direction.”
“Far from it, though she does talk about their life together obviously. They’ve been together for seven years. Hard to leave him out. He was just mentioned in sort of code for a while and then she spilled the beans after their first date because it was this beautiful and thoughtful thing.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, he planned the perfect day for her. I’ve never heard of a more romantic first date.”
“Seriously?” Jane was a little surprised.
“Yeah, Harry’s a total romantic. For their anniversary one year he brought her here for a few drinks like they normally would’ve done and in the meantime had Kim and Alyssa at their house filling the entire thing with candles and flowers. Everyone was worried that he was going to set the place on fire.”
“That’s sweet.”
“Well so for their first date he planned an entire day. She loves photography so he planned a photo tour of London to show her things he thought she should see.The London Eye, the River by Parliament and Big Ben. He took her to Saville Row because they are both Beatles fans. He queued up a recording of the final concert The Beatles played on the rooftop of Apple Records which was on Saville Row and they listened to it together as they stood on the sidewalk. At the time the place was an Abercrombie and Fitch store or some rubbish. He took her to Hyde Park because of the Peter Pan statues, she has a tattoo for Peter Pan. It’s one of her favorite books and stories from when she was a little girl. And if I remember correctly their final stop was Westminster Abbey.”
“He took her to a church on their first date? Is he fucking crazy?”
“Not completely. There are a lot of amazing people in history buried there or at least memorialized there. He took her to Poets Corner. Her number one passion when she moved here other than photography was writing, thus her blog. He wanted her to be in the midst of brilliant minds like Dickens and Chaucer. He wanted to give her inspiration to keep writing.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s romantic.”
“Yeah, it is. He’d been chasing her for several months by the time she agreed to their first date. She’s 10 years older than Harry. She was very hesitant at first but they are pretty much the definition of relationship goals at this point. Legitimately for a while I tried to rate the first date a man planned versus what Harry did for Annie. He finally told me to stop comparing and the right guy would come along when it was supposed to. And I waited and it did. And of course then Harry did the ‘told ya so’ song and dance.”
“That’s funny. So they’ve been together for seven years and just got married?”
“Yeah, when they first got together everyone thought that they would get married quickly. I started here to replace her when she went on tour with him. There was a week that we were literally running on a skeleton crew because he flew everyone to Italy so they could be there while he proposed to her. They just never rushed to get married, which is sort of cool. They have this completely solid relationship and it’s inspiring to see. They’ve been through a lot. But why am I telling you? You should read her blog. It’s awesome.”
Without his knowledge, Harry’s initial dream about he and Annie’s relationship was coming true. He told her on their first date that he dreamed that some day a girl in a pub somewhere would tell of their love story the way she had of Patrick’s with Catherine and Frankie’s with Lizzy. This wasn't the first time and likely wouldn’t be the last time that someone who knew them or read Annie’s blog recounted their love story for a friend. It was the thing of romance novels. Two people who completely gave their heart to each other, were there for each other through good and bad, and who supported each other 100%. The story of Annie and Harry Styles wasn’t one that they would one day tell their grandchildren unfortunately, but was one that their friends would tell to theirs. The story of a couple who met in an unlikely way who were able to look past all of the reasons why they shouldn’t work and focus on the reasons why they did work.
Maggie and Jane finished cleaning up the pub before heading up to the flat above the bar where Niki had once lived and Nate before her. Maggie was currently living there while waiting upon the house she would be moving to with her fiancé. Harry had been right, when she least expected it she met the man of her dreams. He was originally in England studying for his masters degree, another American to add to the group. He had been forced to return until just before their wedding, which was scheduled for the end of summer. So to save money, she had moved in to the flat above the pub. Maggie helped Jane get settled on to the couch before heading in to her own bedroom.
Still too wired from the fun night at work, Jane pulled her cell phone off of the table and opened the internet window. She typed in the search window ‘London Calling blog’ and there it was as the first result, Annie’s blog. She opened it up and saw that the website had beautiful photos featured prominently on it. Including a few from the recent trip to Paris that Annie, Harry, Kim and Nate had taken. Jane clicked the first blog post and began to read.

Love Will Keep Us Alive (The Eagles)

Bonjour lecteurs!
Look at me attempting French, H will be BEYOND proud. We’ve been here since Thursday and I’ve fallen in to my old ways and let him to all of the talking. What can I say? Seven years later and there are still few things as sexy as the sound of his voice speaking in French.
So yes, we are in France. Well sort of. We are actually on the train headed back to London as I write this and will hopefully be at home in bed asleep for a week as you read this. The last several months have been near constant travel. Since November we have been back to Iowa, then up north for Christmas with H’s family, then back to Los Angeles for work (for both of us this time), then the surprise trip to Fiji for the birthday trip I planned for H before heading back to Los Angeles for more work. Our annual Paris trip that we’ve been taking for seven years to celebrate my birthday had to be pushed back a few weeks.
This trip was a little different for us though. On our first night in Paris we told Kim and Nate our plan for the trip. Harry and I had decided to get married. Yup. You read that right. After seven years of dating and six and a half since he proposed, we finally decided the time was right to get married. This decision came in Fiji. Let me fill you in on how that happened.
So my usual day in Fiji was wake up, eat breakfast, drink some amazing coffee like thing that they fed me. H tried to tell me it was made of like coffee beans digested by cats or something, he’s a jerk so I just ignored him. If this is true please refrain from including that in the comments as I’d like to not imagine one of our cats eating my coffee beans and then having H brew me coffee with things he pulled from the litter box. Nope, not gonna hear it. Just no. Then I’d find whatever book I felt like reading that day and take up my normal spot on the deck of our cabana which was OVER THE FREAKING WATER, just in case you missed that blog. This was about the third day we were there. Harry couldn't stand to not get a work out in while we were there (weirdo, right?) so he’d hop in the ocean and swim for a while. On this day he jumped out of the ocean, blocked my sun, dripped water ALL OVER my book and then told me he was done waiting for the right time, that we were getting married. Not gonna lie I was surprised and then when I realized he was serious I started bawling. It was nearly as hard as I cried the night he proposed in Italy. He was right, the time was perfect. And we wanted to do it in Paris.
So fast forward to Thursday. We are at dinner at the restaurant where Nate proposed to Kim and we told them we’d decided to finally get married and we were doing it Saturday morning. We wanted to elope and to have just Nate and Kim, our best friends, with us. There were tears and cheers and SO MUCH champagne. I maybe forgot what water was over the last three days. Friday we shopped until I found the perfect dress, which at the request of my groom was black. His exact words ‘When I think of the woman I want to marry, she’s still in that black maxi dress she had on the day I met her. The one with the slit up to her thigh and her tattoos on her shoulder showing.’ Yeah, that pretty much won me over and as the person who’s wardrobe consists of like black, light black (gray), and negative black (white) with a few added additions from H’s side of the closet it was only appropriate that I wore black. It was the perfect dress and that French speaking man of mine helped me find the perfect flowers at a little florist.
Then this morning we woke up in basically the middle of the night to start getting ready. We spent the whole morning together while we got dressed and ready. The only time we weren’t in the same room was when I put my dress on. The photographer wanted the chance to get a photo of him seeing me completely dressed for the first time. We got in a limo and headed to Trocadero Plaza.
We shared our vows this morning as the sun rose over Paris. It was the most beautiful experience of my life. We picked this place and this time of day because during our first trip to Paris we spent the whole first night walking around the city together and talking. We’d been dating for a while and I’d just moved in with him the week before but it was still early enough that we were learning the important stories that made each of us who we are. It was as the sun rose in Paris that first time that I realized just how in love I was with that man and that I was going to do whatever it took to have him in my life forever.
Our vows were something we each crafted from the heart. I’d practiced mine repeatedly so that I could memorize them. To tell him how he taught me about a love I never dreamed existed and in doing that showed me the world. That when I moved to London nearly eight years ago that I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for other than a fresh start and that he turned out to be what I’d actually moved to London for. That the greatest honor I would ever be given in life was to be his wife and share his name.
And then he started. I may be the ‘writer’ between the two of us but that man puts some of the best words I’ve ever heard to some of the most beautiful music. And you could’ve soundtracked his vows today. He spoke of how my strength during a lot of the troubles in life inspired him. Of how he knew from the first moment he met me that I was going to change his life. That I was his muse, his partner and the love of his life. And how the greatest honor I could give him was to share his name. But that he never wanted me to stop being Annie Catalano because she was the girl he fell in love with. Let me tell you that line….phew. I sobbed, like literally let out the loudest sob I’ve ever made in my life. Even Kim cried.
We shared rings and a kiss and that was that. We were married and I was Annie Styles…sort of. More on that later.
We spent the remainder of the morning running around Paris and taking pictures at some of our favorite places. It was just how I would want my wedding to the love of my life to be. Now a lot of people will say ‘why elope’? We knew we didn’t want a large wedding and with our family being located in separate countries and both of us being children of divorce, the logistics of even planning a small wedding was difficult. So we told our families in advance and after a lot of discussion with all of them they agreed with us. We agreed to send them a video of the wedding along with as many pictures as possible. As the pictures ended we hopped on this train and headed back to London. Our friends at O’Brien’s have been told to gather together at 7:00 so we can tell them all together (as of writing this they don’t know what we are married). I’m excited about that celebration.
Okay so now on the married…sort of. Well France doesn’t recognize anything other than a civil marriage and the list of things we’d have to comply with to have that done was longer than we wanted to do. Well, I suggested moving to Paris for the time period required but Harry didn’t want to do that. So we decided we’d have the ceremony we both wanted and return to London Monday to get married in our home country so that it’s recognized legally. We wanted the intimate elopement in Paris more than a legal wedding, but to have my name legally changed, which I am going to start the process of doing, we needed the legal ceremony.
Well, you can’t hide anything like this from Nate. The dude is an attorney. So this next portion I’m actually not writing from the train. I’m hiding in the kitchen at O’Brien’s and typing this out on my cell phone so forgive me if this is a piece of rubbish. Nate knew that our marriage in Paris wasn’t legal and mentioned that to both of us while we were still there. We got back to O’Brien’s to tell all of our friends and begin celebrating, until Nate spilled the news to all of our friends. Which meant that rather than being able to wait until Monday we were getting married in the pub, which happens to be the same location that Alyssa and Cameron got married nearly six years ago. I thought out ceremony in Paris was perfect and it was, but getting married with our friends and family surrounding us at O’Brien’s was just what our wedding should’ve been. Half of the room was FaceTiming our family wherever they were in the world so that they could witness the wedding. The other half were taking pictures or video of the wedding so we could remember it forever. Our friends chimed in with what they thought our vows should be. Some funny, like Nate asking for meatballs and Niall asking for red velvet cupcakes. And some full of love, like Alyssa telling us to say I love you when we first wake up in the morning and last thing before bed and night, or Patrick asking Harry to promise to always look at me the way I was in that moment, which just so you know is like there isn’t another soul in the room. It was the most beautiful moment of my life. And while I thought I wanted a wedding of just us, having our closest friends with us was perfect.
So now I start the process of changing my name and adjusting everything I have in the world to reference that after seven years I am finally Annie Styles. This is a notification to my editors that my book needs to be published as Styles as well. I want to carry this man’s name along with me forever. He is the greatest thing in my life and I’m going to love him until the end of time.

Jane was amazed at how much detail to something that was traditionally for a celebrity so private that Annie shared. It had truly been one of the most beautiful weddings she’d ever attended. And Maggie had been right, it was fun to read what Annie had written. Maybe she was right and she should’ve read this blog before she moved to England a few weeks ago. She clicked through the website until she found the very first blog. Where better to start than at the very beginning.

15th July 2013 – Landing In London (3 Doors Down and Bob Seger)

I woke up today in London
As the plane was touching down
And all I could think about was Monday
And maybe I’ll be back around

If this keeps me away much longer
I don’t know what I will do
You’ve got to understand it’s a hard life
That I’m going through

And when the night falls in around me
I don’t think I’ll make it through
Ill use your light to guide the way
Cause all I think about is you

Well L.A is getting kinda crazy
And New York is getting kinda cold
I keep my head from getting lazy
I just can’t wait to get back home

And all these days I spend away
Ill make up for this I swear
I need your love to hold me up
When it’s all too much to bear

And when the night falls in around me
I don’t think I’ll make it through
Ill use your light to guide the way
Cause all I think about is you

And all these days I spend away
Ill make up for this I swear
I need your love to hold me up
When it’s all too much to bear

When the night falls in around me
I don’t think I’ll make it through
Ill use your light to guide the way
Cause all I think about is you
I did it.
I sold my belongings.
I packed my bags.
I said my goodbyes.
I did it.
This morning I woke up as the pilot came over the PA announcing that we were landing at London’s Heathrow Airport.
I fucking did it.
No one thought I would. And in reality they still could be right. I could give up and come home. I could get scared and not make it. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. This is the most confident I’ve ever been with a decision. I spent time thinking about if going to London was going to be the right thing. I truly believe it will be.
I debated for a while whether I should do this. Whether I should just drop everything and go. It wasn’t the safe decision. Or the logical one. Or honestly the smart one. But it was the one Jason would’ve made.
Jason was a lot of the reason I felt inspired to do this. He jumped at opportunities and adventures in a way I only wish I could. I sat talking to CJ for hours. We were debating my decision to go. She’d been home for a few days visiting her Dad. He didn’t care we sat in his basement and didn’t sleep all night. There were tears, laughs, hugs, and cupcakes. We watched Sex and the City for hours upon end. And when we were both in the middle of a sugar coma she looked and me and said ‘He’d tell you to get off your ass, get on a plane and live.’
She was right. He would’ve. If it was possible to come back from Heaven just to kick someone’s ass for being afraid, Jason would’ve done it. This fall will be three years that he’s been gone. But there hasn’t been a single day that I haven’t thought about him, wished I could hug him or ask him if I was totally fucking up my life. And it was CJ’s words to me, telling me that I needed to get my ass on that plan and live because Jason would’ve wanted me to do it, which convinced me to sell everything, book the ticket and go.
Jason was never afraid of anything. Even death. We didn’t realize how sick he was. We didn’t realize that he was going to be taken from us so quickly. And I still don’t understand how someone so generous, loving, caring and special was taken. But he was and it would be wrong for me not to live by the example he set. To take life by the balls and just live. So that’s what I’m doing. I said my goodbyes at the airport. I cried hugging my parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and the few friends that came to bid me farewell. And I got on that plane.
I met Kim in Chicago and we settled in for a long flight that brought us to our new home. We started to unpack some of the things that were shipped here to our flat before we arrived. But now we are realizing that for us to get tired at a reasonable time we might need a few drinks. So welcome to my blog and my new life in London.

xx Annie

Notes

And there we have it. The end of London Calling.

Thank you again for sticking with me through all of this.

Just as an insight in to the title. I felt that the lyrics to AM from Made in the AM fit so perfectly to this group of friends and the way Annie and Harry fell in love.
All my favorite conversations always made in the AM

I hope you've enjoyed taking this journey with me. You can continue my journey in to my next fic and my normal ramblings on my
Tumblr . And I'd love to hear what you thought of London Calling as a whole. So feel free to comment. I try to respond back to everyone. :)

Comments

@raybansncoffee
Yes I'm interested in Nialls story

@honeymystic @xXFluffy_GruXx

I've opened requests on my Tumblr for standalone pieces. My first one will be Niall and Lyla's story. But I'm interested in seeing what people what to read sooooooo if you're still interested in standalone stories connected with this let me know what you want to hear and they will be posted likely on tumblr and potentially on here!

@raybansncoffee
Personally, I would do standalone, just because London Calling is really about Harry and Annie. The others will be about say... Niall and Lyla. It's a different love story that is just intertwined... does that make sense?

@xXFluffy_GruXx
Awesome. So here is my big question. Do I need to start another story for the standalone fics connected with London Calling or do I just add them as chapters to this story?

@raybansncoffee
Thank you! Same goes for you! :)