Hey There Delilah (Sequel to Not The Same)

Stay With Me

>Liam's POV<

I felt milacious and evil as I sang to my Delilah on stage in front of the world but everyone knew. It was an elephant in the room. The elephant that I had tried so hard to deny. I acted as if I was singing to my curly-haired girl but even she knew that I was looking passed her. I stared right into the bright blue eyes that I had loved for so long. They were wide and her mouth was pressed into a line. It wasn't a frown but it wasn't quite a smile. The silence in the huge auditorium was scary considering it was so rare. I didn't really know what I was doing maybe proving a point. She'd thrown me out of her life officially and given the role as her father to Louis; it stung. Maybe it stung because I'd felt that slap before. It was how her mother had left me, standing there with a broken heart unsure of what I thought and what I was supposed to do next. I guess Delilah got that from her mother: the ability to almost effortlessly break my heart. I finished with one last strum of my guitar, my eyes not straying from that girl on the side of the stage. The audience replied with an echoing dead clap that meant nothing. 

Her face. It was all I could think about. That raise of her eyebrows with the slight par of her lips. Then her eyebrows scrunched and her lips pursed. She licked them as her arms wrapped around her waist. I knew it. That feeling, I knew it so damn well. I knew that her skin was prickling and she was getting goosebumps, her mouth felt dry because she's trying not to cry. She doesn't want to be the center of attention right now, rather she'd like to disappear. Awhile back, I felt that painful feeling and my own eyebrows scrunched together in pain because I was fighting fire with fire. I was burning the same person twice. Because I'd felt that feeling before I knew what was coming next. 15 years ago, I ran from a situation just like this, from the defining silence that felt like your life was over so I knew what she was going to do before she even did it. Quickly I set my guitar down and ran after the now fleeing Delilah and her mother, everyone else quickly caught on and followed.

We chased after her and the entire time we ran I thought, for once, about how Delilah's my daughter. In my other three kids, I saw Danielle in absolutely everything they did. The way they talked, acted, dressed, danced, cried, laughed, smiled, and loved. They were her and almost none of me. Except for a few similar features, they even mostly looked like her. I liked observing those similarities. However, I don't see much resemblance to Audrey in Delilah. Why was that? I thought about Delilah. I thought of how she could command a room with her voice. How she would scrunch up her eyebrows and stick out her lip if she heard something that she didn't necessarily like. How when her and Roman had troubles, she'd try and move on just for him. How when she got upset, she didn't like to show it so she'd push everyone away. How if you asked her to do something, she'd try, not matter what. How she tried out for X Factor on a complete whim and how giving up didn't really seem like an option, except for right now. So as she flew away from us the same way I had, I came to my realization. She wasn't much like Audrey except for physically because she was me. I saw myself in her. Maybe that's why I criticised her, maybe that's why I didn't realize how much I loved her. Maybe that's why I wanted her to get hurt and learn her lessons and figure this life out on her own. It was because she was a smaller, younger, female me. Maybe that's why when we finally stopped and I had to stand there and watch that car hit her, it felt as if I was the one getting hit.

>Audrey's POV<

Here's the problem with life: you think it can't get worse. That morning where you spill coffee on your shirt, trip on the way to your car, and then get yelled at by your boss, you think that it can't get worse. That day where you see the guy you think you love, kiss his girlfriend in the hall, get into a fight with your parents and then discover you can't go to that football game friday night, you think it can't get worse. That week where your grandpa dies, your boyfriend breaks up with you, and your best friend gets in a fight with you, you think it can't get worse. The month that I got hated on by the entire world, lost my family, my best friends, the love of my life, and my entire future, I thought it couldn't get worse than that one month. But that was because I thought I would never love anyone as much as I loved Liam Payne. In the past 15 years of my life, I've learned one thing and dedicate the rest of my life and all of my heart to that one thing. It was how to love a daughter.

I understood, as I ran into that hospital, tears not just streaming down my face but cascading, why mother bears became a symbol of motherhood. It's because in that moment, you're not about to let anyone stand in the way of your child.

"I need to see my daughter!" I yelled at the lady at the front desk. I looked passed the desk down the hallway and through the glass at the end of the hall to see my mangled and beaten daughter laying on white. There was no hesitation, I began to run down the hall, my hand covering my mouth. All of a sudden I felt to hands grasp my arms roughly and pull me back with force. The strict nurse from the front desk appeared before me but my eyes were on no one but Delilah.

"I'm going to need your name ma'am."

"Audrey Kane!" I answered her harshly, "LET ME SEE MY DAUGHTER!" I yelled, shaking from rage. I tried to free myself from the two male doctor's grasps. But they would not let go. So I stopped my struggle and stared at the nurse waiting for her okay.

"Are you her legal mother?" The lady who was really begging to get on my nerves looked at me with a confused but stern face.

"Yes, of course!" I answered without thinking.

"No. You're not." And she directed me and my "doctor escorts" back to the waiting room. My very being broke in half.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" I screamed in complete outrage. I lashed out at the nurse and put every amount of strength I had in me towards freeing myself from the restraining hands. Eventually I did and I grabbed the nurse as she started yelling for help. Two very big strong hands pulled me off of her and turned me around. I can face to face with the man who had given me my daughter in the first place.

"There's nothing you can do." His eyes were big and sympathetic to me. Not one tear in sight while I was losing myself. That look on his perfect face fed to the growing fire of rage within me.

"HOW COULD YOU?" I screamed as he began to drag me back to the waiting area. "HOW COULD YOU TAKE THEIR SIDE?"

"Mr. Payne, we're going to need her to leave if this keeps up." A different nurse told Liam. I kept pulling away from him to no avail. It literally felt like I was going to pull my arms out of my sockets but I'd do that I see my daughter right now.

"It's gonna be okay." He told me in a calm voice.

"NO! IT'S NOT! THAT'S MY DAUGHTER IN THERE! DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME ITS GOING TO BE OKAY!"

"SHE'S MY DAUGHTER TOO!" He screamed.

"YOU DON'T EVEN WANT HER!" And for one moment, I swear to god I saw pain in those brown eyes. I saw a heartbroken father. Behind Liam, Eleanor and Louis began approaching and I didn't hesitate for one second. I marched up to them and went off again.

"LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" This time I grabbed Eleanor and instantly felt hands pulling me back, more than just one set. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" They pulled me back and believe me, I fought. I fought with every ounce in me because that's what you do when you're a mother. You fight till the very last second. "IF I NEVER GET TO SEE MY DAUGHTER AGAIN," The waiting room doors closed behind us, but I kept going, "I HOPE YOU NEVER FORGIVE YOURSELVES." I watched those two people walk into the room way at the end of that long hall and they pulled up chairs next to MY daughter, laid their hands on MY daughter. I fell to the floor in a fit of tears and didn't think I'd ever come back up.