Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixteen

Liam

"I'm a dad."

Liam had to practically force the words the words out as he said them, not looking up at his bandmates once he'd said them. He'd shifted away from Louis as he'd erupted in laughter and, tearing at the label on the bottle still in his hands, tried to ignore a fresh wave of nausea as he repeated himself. "I'm a dad."

Kicking Louis in the shin, Harry shot him a warning glare, looking down at Liam and joining him on the floor before he asked, "Really? But I thought, I mean, Sophia's just.... She's just a friend, right?"

"Of course she is. It's not... Not recent. You all know that Soph is just a friend. She's not... She's... The kid. If she's mine, she's seven, seven and a half." Really beginning to regret the previous night, Liam figured he should have held onto the box of paracetamol he'd been given earlier as his his headache began to get worse, letting his bandmates throw various questions at him until he'd had enough, dropping his water bottle and looking up at them, running a hand over his face before he began to tell them the whole story.

Louis had been shocked.

Harry had been less surprised than Louis but still not exactly supportive.

In all honesty, Liam didn't blame either of their reactions. They hadn't ever known Niall, he'd mentioned him once or twice in passing, and, by the time Liam had confessed to them that he was gay, he was already rumoured to be dating Danielle which, as a rule, was something they didn't talk about often. He could easily see why they were shocked, it wasn't everyday that Liam fell apart in front of them and, since he was still trying to wrap his head around what the maths meant, he really didn't blame them.

But Harry could still have said more to him than just 'shit'.

Zayn had simply given Liam a hug, gestured for the person sent to herd them all back to the meeting to leave before letting Liam to continue spilling his guts.

When Louis and Harry were done listening to Liam, Louis had given him a tight, forced smile before saying, "Not a fuck up. Okay... What do you call this then, Li?"

Throwing his shoe at Louis, Zayn picked Liam's phone up from where it had ended up, discarded under a chair, and pressed it into his hand, refraining from offering him a cigarette or anything that might be useful or taken as advice as he looked at Liam, wrinkling his nose slightly before pointing him in the direction of the ruined wastepaper basket. "If you're gonna puke again... Wow, Li."

Shaking his head, Liam clutched his phone in his hand, briefly considering calling Niall there and then as he looked at his bandmates, resting his head against the wall as he counted to ten, waiting for the wave of nausea to dissipate before shrugging, choosing to go for the lie instead of continuing with the truth. "I'm fine. We... We should go back into the meeting. They'll only reschedule or continue the meeting and let it run over. Really. I'm fine."

All of them looking like they wanted to argue, Louis and Zayn briefly considered arguing, forcing Liam to talk more, but decided otherwise once they saw the frown on his face that they all knew so well. He'd worn that frown when they'd tried to talk him out of proposing to Sophia when he'd been told to do so by their old management. He'd worn that frown when they'd tried to make him see sense about the whole beard/cover up thing in the first place. He'd worn that frown when Louis had been forced to go along with a number of ridiculous PR stunts with various people and Harry had gone along with it, supporting Louis, both of them reminding Liam of wha he was missing out on by being in a forced relationship with someone he didn't really want to be with

Harry, on the other hand, was more than willing to leave the conversation at that, holding the door open for a second and giving him a tight smile before leaving the room, Louis following after him, leaving Zayn to pull Liam from the floor and haul him back to the meeting.

*************

Locking his door after Paddy dropped him back at his apartment, Liam sank onto his kitchen floor, petting Loki as the dog came and sat next to him, resting his head on Liam's knees and looking up at him, whining softly as Liam sighed. He'd sat through the rest of an afternoon of meetings, only paying attention whenever Zayn or Louis had kicked him, making him focus, however briefly, on whatever issue they were being told about.

Back in his own flat, Liam was trying to work up the courage to call Niall, steering clear of the bottle of vodka he'd found abandoned by his sink, instead chasing down more paracetamol and glaring at his phone, almost wishing Niall would call him or that the phone would somehow call Niall without any decision on Liam's part.

Eventually, he left his phone on the worktop and turned his attention to Loki, running a hand over the dog's fur before grabbing his lead and a packet of treats, leading Loki out of the building and taking the dog out for a longer walk the he usually would, Loki tiring before Liam and prompting Liam to cut the walk shorter than he would have liked. The exercise having done little to clear his head, Liam turned to catching up on some of the mindless TV shows he was behind on, watching through half a season of Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D before giving up after realising he hadn't taken in anything.

Unable to sleep, Liam had gone out to the gym as soon as he figured it would be open, stumbling through his run and returning to his apartment before the time he was usually even awake and turning to his coffee maker. Somewhere between his third and fourth cup of coffee, he finally found himself calling Niall, running a hand through his hair as Niall answered. "It took you long enough."

"Yeah, well. Maths... Wasn't exactly my strong point. We need to talk... About this. You can't just drop this on me." Leaning forward against the edge of the worktop, Liam was sat on the edge of his stool, one hand gripping his mug of coffee, the other gripping his phone as he heard what sounded like Niall counting to ten. "I didn't just drop this on you. If that's how you feel... Then... Never mind. I'm still at work... My shift doesn't end until twelve but I can meet you after."

"I didn't mean it like that. But that'd be fine. I can meet you,, if that's easier. We do need to talk, Niall. About this. About Chloe." Reaching down and petting Loki as the dog reached up, pawing at his leg, Liam ruffled the dogs fur as he waited for Niall to reply. "Okay. Okay... I'll text the address and you can meet me here. I... I know we need to talk. Look, I'm meant to be working, my boss gets in at eight and I need to finish restocking before he gets in. We'll talk later, Liam."

Niall hanging up before he could reply, Liam was about to set his phone down when Niall sent him the address of the music store he worked at, the address not too far from the gym he went to, Liam saving the address before turning his attention back to Loki, playing with the dog and distracting himself for the better part of the morning. 

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So... I've had to say this way too much with my writing recently but I am so sorry this took so long. It's kind of a filler chapter but it's quite important and does give you guys some insight into how the boys reacted. 

Next chapter will probably be quite a big chapter... Hopefully it will take me less time to update, a day or two max.

Dedicating this chapter to kadiebmore  because she has so much support for this fic and her amazing long comment made me smile. Also, kinda unofficial dedication to anyone who reads this and votes and comments because, whilst I'm shitty at replying to comments, I read them all and I'm really grateful for everyone's support.