Walking In the Wind // 1D AU ✓

Chapter 11

~For reasons we don't understand~

AUGUST 15TH

Louis rested his forehead against the door with a small thump. Then he knocked again, to no answer. It was possible that Simon had fallen asleep at his keyboard, since he wasn't in his room. He felt defeated standing there, like he had failed himself as Harry's boyfriend and foremost, as his best friend.

"Is someone knocking?" Simon yelled, so Louis opened the door. No, he wasn't sleeping, he was listening to rock music in his earbuds. He could tell because it was so loud that Louis could hear it across the room. "It's late, Louis."

"We need to do something about Harry," He crossed to the other chair in the room and spun around before coming to a dramatic halt facing his boss and perhaps friend. "I can't get through to him. And if I can't, who can?"

He was utterly defeated. Weeks of the man he loved isolating himself - talking to no one and seeing no one except Fin, who was technically also his daughter. "I have a plan," Simon said simply, and immediately Louis' anger was rising.

"You have a plan, huh?"

"I took the liberty of calling Gemma in." Simon turned the music off.

Louis knit his eyebrows together and tried to unclench his fists. "Gemma is in New York. And she can't fly because she's too sick!"

Simon smiled back at him like he had a secret to tell, and that he did. "She's been in England for several months now." He didn't wait for Louis to exclaim in confusion, and kept rolling. "And she's coming in tomorrow."

"Why is she in England and Harry doesn't know about it?" He stood up and started moving towards the door, desperate to tell his boyfriend whatever he was about to find out. "Simon, tell me now!"

"Sit down," Simon voiced in his polite tone, and Louis walked over to the chair and placed his small hands on the back of it. "I decided several months ago that it would be pertinent to see if I could find out who works for Nicholas."

Louis held his stomach. "Oh no. No. Gemma's evil?"

"We're all evil in this game, Louis," was the rebuttal. "And yes, I found out that Gemma has been working for him for many years."

He began walking back towards the door, with a look of understanding beginning to dawn on his face. "And Harry doesn't know? I have to tell him. Now."

Simon stood to try and block the door. "She wants to tell him tomorrow, when she gets here. It's not my place to get into their relationship."

Angrily, Louis slammed the chair full force into Simon's desk. "I'm calling Gemma when we're done here, but I need to know everything you know first." He pulled it out again and sat down, trying to ignore the feeling that one of the legs was about to fall off. "Is she sick at all?"