One Adoption... Sorry, Direction (1D Fanfic)

Chapter Thirty

Chapter 30

"It's been a while," Niall commented. "Uncle Si, this is Jasmine, Jennifer and – girls?"

He looked at the door. The boys had moved into the room, but there were no girls in sight.

"We seem to have misplaced our kids," Louis commented.

"What do we do now?" Harry whispered.

The other boys looked around, unsure of where the girls were. This was the first time they had lost them.

Outside the three girls were pressed against the wall, terrified.

"This guy is their boss," Ali was whispering. "He could make them return us."

Jasmine was falling into a panic attack, sitting hugging her knees as her back rested against the wall. She struggled to keep her breathing even as her chest tightened and her mind narrowed to only thinking of danger.

Jennifer was pacing. "We've got to go back in there – we're dead if we don't. You know what they were saying about perfect behaviour. But we can't go in. They'll kill us. But we can't stay out here. Maybe we should go home. How would we get there? I could text someone. Zayn might drive us. We should probably just go in and meet Mr Cowell. We are so dead though. We promised we'd behave perfectly," she was saying, her voice growing high and higher pitched and faster and faster as she walked up and down the corridor.

None of them looked up when Simon's office door opened and five boys poured out.

"Oh God, they're here. What the hell?" Liam asked. Harry spied Jas and crouched in front of her, rubbing her shoulder as he tried talking quietly to her. Zayn stopped Jeni in her pacing and placed his hands on her shoulders. Niall went over to Ali and heard what she was saying before rolling his eyes and wrapping her into a hug.

"Jas... Jas, it's me. It's Harry. Jasmine, honey, you're safe. You're okay. I'm here. Jas, it's Harry," the boy said softly. Shakily she looked up at him and stared into his eyes, watched his lips move. "Copy my breathing," he prompted, breathing slowly. "Good girl."

"Stop!" Zayn said to Jeni. "Stop talking. Listen. You too, Ali. When are you girls going to stop thinking that you're... that you're like items from a shop that can be returned? You need to realise that we may get mad, we may screw up sometimes, but we love you and we're your family. And this is not your fault, what's happening – we rushed you. We get it. We're sorry. But you have to stop with this idea of 'returning' you. We don't need perfection, love. We want you – with your imperfections and stuff ups. Okay?"

The girls nodded slowly, calming down, as the boys hugged them. Jasmine, still on the floor, reached her arms out toward Harry, and he helped her stand. She leant against him and he wrapped his arm around her.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"No we're sorry," Liam replied. "I guess meeting Simon's a bit much for you at the moment – we promise, he's a teddy bear."

Glancing at her sisters, Jas took a deep, shaky breath and looked up at Harry.

"We'll meet him," she whispered.

"You sure?"

"Yes."

The girls all grouped together and followed the boys into Simon's office.

"Hi ladies," Simon said.

"Hi Mr Cowell. Um, I'm Jasmine, this is Jeni and Ali."

"First, call me Simon. Secondly, hi, come in, take a seat – can we get you anything to drink?"