Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Fifteen

Liam

His head hurt.

Half an hour into the latest meeting about merchandise, promo interviews and tour set up and Liam was struggling to focus on anything but the headache torturing him into sobriety.

After spending the evening drinking with people he couldn't remember, for a reason he'd managed to temporarily forget, his head hurt, he wanted to throw up and he was seriously considering giving up drinking forever. He'd woken up with a headache far worse than the one he'd gone out with and the sinking feeling that he'd fucked up massively somehow.

The last time he'd done multiple days of heavy drinking, he'd woken up on the floor of Zayn's hotel room with Louis' feet in his back and Harry's hair in his face, safe in the knowledge that he'd have the next eighteen months to recover from the hangover from hell, caused by Louis' determination that they were going to celebrate the end of their fourth tour with the biggest and longest party they'd ever had.

Back then, they'd all been left to sleep for as long as they'd liked and were eventually met by hotel staff carrying coffee, aspirin and one of the best hangover remedies Liam had ever tried. This time, he'd woken up on the floor of his bathroom to face a particularly unsympathetic Paddy. He'd then had to face his disgruntled bodyguard, thank him for calling Loki's dog walker and try to explain what had happened the night before whilst asking what had happened the night before.

All whilst fighting the urge to fall into his bed and not get out of it for the next eighteen years.

He'd been thrown a box of paracetamol and a bottle of water before being told to change his clothes and be ready for the meetings he'd managed to forget about. Three hours later and he was sat behind a table, occasionally kicking Zayn in the shin to keep him awake as he listened to a bunch of people who reminded him a hell of a lot of Magee and Richard Griffiths from Modest! nag about inconsequential things that surely could have been sorted by someone else.

It was only during the short break they were provided with for lunch that Liam's condition changed from being near death to actually feeling somewhat human and he was able to answer questions about why he felt like the night before had been a good opportunity to break Louis' record for most bars visited in one evening, despite having been notified about the impending meeting for over a month. The short answer being that he couldn't find any alcohol in his own place and had so gone out.

The long answer being — fuck.

Slumping into his seat, Liam ignored the sandwich thrown at him by someone and let out a barely disguised swear word, running a hand over his face as he realised why he felt like he'd fucked up. The long answer as to why he'd taken it upon himself to beat Louis' record of fourteen different clubs and bars in one evening being the result of his phone call with Niall.

Niall's daughter was seven in April. Seven years back took him to 2011. Another nine months back took him to July. Apparently it took him all the way back to the party his parents threw when he got through to Judges Houses and he went home for the weekend, the one where he and Niall had waited for everyone to go home or to go to bed before they snuck up to his room and... And the maths worked out. Fuck.

Ignoring Louis as he threw another sandwich his way, Liam pulled out his phone, checking to see if there were any new messages from Niall, deleting the email regarding the next stunt with Sophia and re-checking his messages only to find nothing. It was almost as if Niall had decided to drop a bombshell on him and then pretend he hadn't.

If Niall had really been telling the truth, the maths meant that he... He was a dad. The maths meant that there was a seven-year-old girl out there that he'd never been there for. That he'd never had the chance to be there for.

Fuck.

The realisation that he had a daughter making his head spin, Liam dropped his phone and leant forward, holding his head in his hands and swearing, not caring that his best friends were still around and were staring at him like he'd lost his mind. Liam didn't really care, though. He probably had lost it and was still lying on his bathroom floor, all of this being a hungover hallucination.

Struggling to ignore the wave of nausea hitting him, Liam dropped his phone and collapsed onto the floor in front of the wastepaper based in the corner of the office, retching and coughing as Harry sat down next to him and handed him a bottle of water and a tissue. Taking the tissue offered, Liam shook his head as Harry shoved the water back at him, wiping his face and wincing before saying, "I'd rather have a whiskey."

Raising an eyebrow, Harry didn't say anything as he stared at Liam, pushing the bottle of water at him only for Liam to shake his head, remaining resolute. "I need a drink. Please."

"Here? On the bi-monthly day of meetings? Whilst you're hungover? Right, Li." Standing up, Harry frowned as he glanced inside the wastepaper basket, kicking it further into the corner before he pulled Liam to his feet and forced him to take the bottle of water, stumbling backward as Liam pushed him away.

Leaving Zayn alone, Louis stopped trying to annoy him by stealing his phone and, after sharing a look with Harry, sat on the floor next to Liam, both of them leaning against the wall and staring out of the window. Refraining from sighing as Louis said nothing about Liam's treatment of his boyfriend or his behavior today at all, Liam rested his head against the wall, picking his phone up from where he'd dropped it and flicking through his messages one last time before pocketing it. Playing with the label on the bottle of water, Liam shook his head before he swallowed a mouthful of water, having the grace to shoot Harry an apologetic nod. "I've fucked up, I think. Not fucked up, fucked up, but there's something..."

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I'm not sure if I like this chapter or not.

I'm still not finished writing about Liam's reaction. There may have to be another chapter about it. And at some point, Niall and Liam have to talk.

My original idea for this was no more than forty chapters but since we're at chapter fifteen and we're still miles away from an actual, happy, fluffy chapter, I already know it's going to end up much, much longer.

How do you think Harry, Louis and Zayn will react? And, yes, Zayn is still a part of one direction in this. 'cause why the hell not?

Thoughts on the chapter?