The Side You Don't Hear (1D)

Chapter 10

Not really happy with how this chapter turned out, but far too lazy to fix it. :) x

Harry's POV

                I paced the room frantically, waiting for Ed to make the drive from his apartment to the motel.  Clark has thankfully been quiet since I made the phone call, but I'm scared that it won't last much longer.  In an effort to keep myself occupied, I checked the baby bag and scanned the room to make sure I had everything packed.  Finally, I gave up waiting inside for cover and picked up Clark to head outside.  I stood right inside the lobby doors for a few minutes when a black tinted car, much like the ones the boys and I are driven around in, pulled up in front.  I was hesitant to go up to it, not knowing if it was Ed or not, but then the back door opened, revealing his warm smile and ginger hair.

                "Come on, mate.  We have to get going!" he said, waving me towards the car.  I smiled, glad it really was him, and took a step forward.  Before I was halfway across the small distance, another similar car pulled up, but this one I definitely recognized.  Panicking, I swiftly walked the rest of the distance and handed Clark over to Ed, along with the bag.  Before climbing in myself, I looked up, needing to see the face I knew would be in the car behind us. 

                The door opened and out climbed Liam, looking anxious.  He stopped, not running after me the way I expected him to do, and just looked at me.  We held eye contact long enough to his face to become sad, almost defeated looking, before I climbed into the car and pulled away.  I looked out the back window, seeing Liam standing behind the car door with his head down.

-TWO WEEKS LATER-

Liam's POV

                I sat outside Alice's dressing room, waiting patiently for her to emerge for her first interview.  I was sitting as close as possible to the door, trying to hear what she was talking about.  From what I could tell, she was running through exactly what she planned to tell the interviewer, but she sounded nervous.  I remember feeling the same way before my first interview with One Direction, but I had five boys by my side who were just as scared as I was.  Now I had years of experience and barely noticed the cameras trained on my face.  Sighing, I put my head back on the wall and closed my eyes, thinking of the craziness that my life has recently become.

                Just after I let Harry drive away in that car, I had gone to management's office, not knowing how to handle the situation and needing a story for the press.  They immediately released information saying that Harry was extremely ill and had been shipped off somewhere to recover privately, something celebrities often did.  I didn't like this, as Harry was technically a criminal, but they had a cover up story for Clark ready within minutes, and forced me to go along with it.  I was to claim to Alice that the baby was taken by some crazy fans who wanted Harry's child, something that I knew she would never believe, as it sounded absolutely ridiculous and improbable.  Even if she had believed it for a second,  management was on her case with her own cover up story right away, saying that she could use their resources to find Clark, on one condition.  They wanted her to tell the truth (weird, right?) about how Harry wanted nothing to do with Clark, and therefore taking him off the list as a suspect in Clark's abduction. 

                I laughed humorlessly at this entire situation.  How did they come up with these convoluted plans and stories?  It truly takes a mad genius to run a boy band's  management company.  But this leads me back to today, sitting here and supporting Alice.  As Peter was still in jail for breaking and entering and beating up Harry, I was who Alice asked to join her today for reassurance.  I probably would have come anyways, as I feel extremely guilty for being the one to allow the horrid situation to happen.  She emerged from the room, causing me to jump.  I stood and turned to face her.

                "You look great," I said with a smile.  It was true, she did, but you had to look past the immense fear in her eyes first.  She looked like someone was on their way to murder her and there was nothing she could do about it.  Without warning, she attacked me, pulling me into a strong hug.  I hugged her back, knowing she was just nervous, and did my best to sooth her as she literally shook with fear.  "You're going to do fine.  Just tell the truth.  Tell the world exactly what you've always wanted to know, even if they hate you for offing Haz."

                "Alice, you're on in three." A stage hand with a microphone said, waiting for her to follow him.  Alice looked up at me and I gave her a reassuring nod.  She took a steadying breath and walked towards the man, disappearing behind a curtain.  I sat in a chair just off stage, wanting to see her real face instead of the live footage on the screen.  Before I even knew it, the camera man had counted them off and the interview started.  After the introductions and apologies about Clark's absence, the interview took the vital turn into serious personal questions.

Alice's POV

                "So Alice, tell us about what happened the day Clark was born.  I hear that it didn't quite go the way Harry made it sound," the fake blonde interviewer, Stacy, asked.  I gave a heavy sigh; this is the moment I've been waiting for going on six months now.

                "That's right.  This is really what I came here to do today," I said, trying to smile even though I was scared to bits, "I want to tell you all the side you don't hear.  Everyone from the fans to the press believe everything that the boys in One Direction say is the truth, but it isn't.  They're human, they lie, and most of the time, it's to protect themselves, but Harry took his lies about Clark-" my voice cracked on his name, I missed him so much, but I had to go on, "way too far.  You all believe that I'm a monster who won't allow Harry to see his only child, but I wanted nothing more than for them to spend some time together.  Harry is the one who left us, at the hospital to be exact, the day Clark was born.  He looked my baby in the eyes and walked out, leaving us without even an explanation!  He isn't this poor sweetheart you all think he is, he's a heartless monster that doesn't give a shit about his child." Tears started streaming down my face at some point during that speech, but I'm not sure when.  All I knew is that they became too much and stopped me from continuing.  After letting me cry for a minute, Stacy called for a commercial break.

                Who was I kidding?  I couldn't do this.  I wasn't a celebrity, no one wanted to hear what I had to say.  'Do it for Clark,' my brain kept telling me, and I knew it was right.  If doing this interview and making a fool of myself and Harry on live television made Clark come home, then I would do it.  Maybe it would talk sense into that crazy fan, or maybe it would persuade other fans to go searching for him.  I tried to compose myself in the few minutes I had, knowing that what I had to do now was beg for help.  The show came back on and Stacy introduced me again, saying that I had a favor to ask of the audience.  I looked directly into the camera, knowing that they would probably be doing a close up of my face, running mascara and all.

                "Please help me.  I ask for the power of all those millions of fans in this world to help me search for my son.  Any tips on where he could be will help immensely.  Please help me bring my baby boy home," I started crying again, the thoughts of Clark somewhere with strangers killing me inside.  Just then, a pair of strong hands were on my shoulders and the audience let out a small gasp.

                "Any information will help.  If you have anything to tell us, please call your local police and they'll direct your call to our hotline.  Please help us bring Clark home."  Liam finished my speech for me, knowing I couldn't go on.  I wasn't expecting him to do this, but I'm glad that he did.  If the fans weren't going to listen to me, then they'd definitely listen to Liam.  The show was again sent to commercials as Liam and I were escorted off of the set to my backstage dressing room.   Once the door closed, he pulled me straight into another hug, and I just cried into his shoulder.  "The press can be a powerful force, and the fans are virtually unstoppable.  Someone will find Clark and bring him home, I promise." Liam whispered into my ear.  I just hope he's right.  I desperately need him to be.