Stumbling through the dark

"It Hurts, Doesn't It"

Liam excused himself and headed rapidly towards the restroom. The butterflies in his stomach had turned into a massive churning mess and he felt it was about to explode. Pushing through the door, he made it just in time for his recent lunch to make a  violent  reappearance . He continued to gag into the toilet bowl until he was ejecting nothing but acid from his tummy. He reached out, flushed away the mess , and stood, feeling limp, before rinsing out his mouth and splashing cool water onto his sweaty face. How did he ever agree to this? They were on dangerous ground that had the power to break under them. And what would be the cost?  Da*n Louis ! He headed back to the joint room the boys used for relaxing , where Louis was sprawled across the couch, playing with his phone. Louis looked up as he entered and frowned at the look on Liam's face but remained silent, looking at his bandmate steadily. Liam returned the look, his face totally blank of expression. Louis sighed quietly then looked back down at his phone and started to rapidly text.

"Li, you OK? You look sick, bro." Harry said in his deep voice, a look of concern on his face as he turned around from grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge, rubbing the ice-cold water over his hot forehead. The room was stiflingly warm, despite the various fans dotted around the place.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just parted company with my lunch" he admitted, in as off hand a manner as he could manage . " It must have disagreed with me" Liam was brushing it off as if it was a mere nothing. Harry didn't say anything but scrutinised Liam's face silently before nodding. Liam breathed out in relief. The last thing they needed now was him sick and the others stressed and worried about him. This was their final show, their swan song , and nothing must go wrong. He felt the butterflies begin to churn again as that thought floated through his mind. 

"By the way, Congrats ,mate" Louis  suddenly joined the conversation, his texting apparently finished.  "Niall told us the great news. I've not seen such a genuine smile on his face since  this part of the tour started. He's like a dog with two tails over it. I just hope this doesn't revive bad memories for him. At least this will all be done and dusted and you'll both be back home when the baby is due. That should help" .

"That was one of the worst times of my life, of our lives " Liam shuddered as he remembered the day that Bobby had flown over to tell Niall about the accident that had  ultimately  ended  with Caoimhe's death.  The days and months afterwards of watching Niall shut himself away, caring for Aoife like a robot, emotionless and withdrawn. "Ni has been through so much that he deserves something to go right for him.Where is our little leprechaun, by the way?"

"He's gone to the bus. He's got  the starts of a migraine  so he's hoping our doc will have something to stop it developing. I guess excitement and stress has triggered it." Harry said as he  finally opened his  bottle of water and took a long  drink. "I guess we'd better start  thinking  about getting  changed soon, nearly time to get this show on the road. I'll see you guys later for the warm-up" " Harry wandered off in the direction of his dressing room. Louis pulled out a packet of cigarettes and went to light one up.

"That's my cue to leave leave" Liam said quickly. "Are you ever going to ditch that habit?" he looked over his shoulder at Louis, who was taking a long pull on his cigarette. Louis just shrugged in response and Liam shook his head and closed the door behind him. His own head started to throb and his stomach felt sore. Maybe he'd follow Niall's example and go see the doc. At the very least, it wouldn't hurt.

Niall had walked slowly over the bus. His head was starting it's familiar one sided pounding . The zigzag flashes that heralded the beginning of a migraine has ended and the pain was kicking in. He stumbled slightly up the steps and went in, calling softly for the doctor. A woman suddenly appeared in front of him and, noting his pale face and slow movements, took his arm and guided him to a seat.