Swapping Spit (Nouis) [under editing]

Chp 24-Food Stop

Liam's POV

After Niall's meltdown, he basically falls asleep in my arms. I carry him to the car and lay him across the back seats. Even in his sleep, he looks exhausted and worn out.

John arrives and checks out Louis' phone.

"I'll send this to the lab. Maybe we can find something useful," John says. He carefully bags it up and hands it to one of the cops. The cop rushes back to his car and drives off.

John turns back to us. His eyebrows have wrinkles of worry, but he speaks with composure.
"Let's keep looking. We're getting closer with every clue." He forces a smile.

"Ok, let's go," I wave the crew back into our van.

Maura peers in at her sleeping son. "We should leave him asleep."

"Would he be okay if we didn't wake him to help?" I question.

Maura looks conflicted. "Maybe we should wake him..."

"He'd be pissed if we didn't," notes Karen.

I climb into the car and gently shake Niall on his shoulder. He grunts and tries to turn away, still asleep.

"Niall, you gotta wake up, bud," I say softly.

"Hmmmmm..." he mumbles.

"Niall," I repeat.

His eyes flutter open, "Liam," he groans.

"We're going to keep searching. You can sleep if you want," I offer.

At that he rushes up and blinks rapidly. "How long was I asleep?" he asks hurriedly.

"Not that long," I chuckle. "Calm down, Ni. We're starting looking again."

He nods and scootches closer to the window. Karen revs up the engine and we pull onto the highway.

With every passing minute, my fear of the worst increases.



Harry's POV

My phone buzzes suddenly in my pocket, recieving a text from Liam. It says "Found Louis' phone by exit 58. Gonna keep looking"
"They found his phone," I speak up.

Zayn, Tricia, Johannah, and even Anne from the driver's seat turn to look at me with a mixture of shock and hope.

"Where?"

"By Exit 58. I'll call him."

I dial his number and within seconds he answers, "Hello?"

"So you found his phone?"

"Yeah, it was a bit broken but it's definately his. They're taking it to the lab to see for more evidence."

"Hopefully there's something..." I note.

"Yeah, John said to keep looking. He doesn't know how much longer but we're getting closer."

"Hopefully not long. Thanks for keeping me updated, Li," I say.

"No problem. Talk to you soon."

"Bye, good luck," I press end and stuff my phone back into my jeans pocket.

Tricia speaks, "Then let's keep looking."

The car goes silent as we look out the windows. My fingers drum a simple pattern on my leg and I lightly hum to myself. We haven't sung in a while, I sort of miss it.
I find that I have to squint as the sun slowly sinks lower in the sky, darkening the highway. The lights on the side of the roads flick on, illuminating small sections, not as well as the sun itself, but better than nothing.

My stomach lets out a low grumble. I glance at the radio clock. It's 8:32...no wonder I'm so hungry-we skipped breakfast because we discovered Louis was missing before Maura made it, and that would have been lunch time also. So really, none of us lads have eaten anything all day. The mums probably only had breakfast.

"Should we stop and eat something?" I ask.

Zayn groans. "Yes! I'm starving!"

"But we have to keep looking," Johannah says desperately.

An idea pops into my mind.
"How about we make a quick stop, eat fast, and spread the news that there's a missing person at the restaurant."

I lean forward and whisper into Johannah's ear so that only she can hear me, "And we can talk about Richard."

She immediately agrees. "Okay, sounds good."

"I'll text Liam the plan," Zayn says.

Within minutes we decide on stopping at a McDonalds at a nearby exit. Liam texts back saying they'll meet us there.
When we park in front of the door, we hurry out and get in line behind a few other people. I post pictures on the door and hand some out to every customer.
Liam, Karen, Liam, and Maura walk in soon and join us.

"Should we just order 10 burgers?" Tricia asks.

"9...because Lou..." I say in a small voice.

She coughs. "9 burgers."

I turn to Niall, "Don't you want like 3?" Knowing he loves to eat.
His face pales and he shakes his head. "Actually, my stomach kinda hurts so I'll just have one."

"Oh, are you okay?" I ask. When Niall turns down food, something must be seriously wrong.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Probably just nervous."

I nod, agreeing at the probable cause.

"And drinks? Waters?" Tricia asks.

We all nod and she gets in line with Anne, Karen, and Maura. The lads and I and Johannah sit anxiously waiting at a couple of the tables pushed together.

Silence looms over the air, even small talk ceases to exist. I make eye contact with Johannah who motions towards the door. We silently excuse ourselves.

Once outside in private, may I add finally, I speak.

"It's Richard. He has Louis. I'm sure of it."

She opens her mouth to speak but closes it. Then she says, "How do you know?"

"The facts are all there. When Niall got punched in the face, he said the man had a scar across his forehead. Are you going to tell me that's a coincidence?" I look her in the eye.

"Well that means he's back. How'd he get out?"

I shrug. "I dunno. There's lots of ways to get shortened time. Behaving well, proving that you've changed-"

"Which obviously he hasn't," she interjects.

"Maybe he escaped. I don't think his times up for another 6 years."

She stops to think. "Yeah, because it was four years ago..."

I keep talking. "Louis has his number."

"He WHAT?" She practically screams.

"He said he looked it up. Obviously a lie but what was I supposed to do? He was about to call him after Niall got punched, but I didn't let him."

"Good. That would have really been a bad thing. But then how did he find us?"

"We are in a world famous band."

"But don't you have security and stuff? What about Paul?" She scratches her head.

"Simon gave us a break from all that." I wave my hands around the air. "Even security and Paul. He could have been watching, waiting for the perfect time."

"Which was when Louis was at the club, drunk."

"Exactly."

With all that put out in the open, it takes a while for it to register. We stand thinking.

Then I speak, "Wh-what did he even to do Louis?"

"He hasn't told you?"

I shake my head. I know a bit about Richard and Louis' past, but not much. Only really that Richard did something to Louis and Louis did something back to Richard. And Louis is scared shitless of the man.

Johannah looks me in the eyes. "Richard is a bad man, Harry. But back when I first met him, he seemed like a really nice guy. I met him at a bar and we started talking. It was after I had divorced Troy, Louis' biological father, and Mark, Louis' stepfather. Instantly, I grew a liking for Richard. We went out a few times after that, and then I introduced him to Louis and the girls."

"Louis liked him because he could see that I liked him. But there was some part of him that felt uneasy about Richard. He told me, too, and I payed no mind." She whipes under her eyes as emotions threaten to leak out.

"One night I had him over, just like any other time. I planned on cooking a meal instead of ordering out as usual, except-"

"Did you ruin it?" I ask.

She lets out a small laugh. "Yeah. So I went to the store to pick up a pre-made meal. The girls trusted Richard, I trusted him. But Louis didn't. I thought it would be fine if I left for a little time."

"I had only been gone for a half hour, but I got a call from the police station. A million possibilities of what might have happened went through my mind, but when I answered it, it was nothing like what I guessed."

"Richard, h-he had tried...to," her voice drops into a whisper. "He tried to rape my girls."

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Ta daaaaa! Some of Louis' past has been revealed!!! Please comment what you think, and vote! Even though it's not 200 votes yet, I decided to update! Thank you for 197 votes!! It's so much votes...Gosh! Next update when I have 215 votes! I think that's reasonable, right?