Saved Me From My Shadow//1D Fan-Fiction

Chapter 9- The Big Question

Niall POV

When I finally felt Olivia's breathing even out and her body become limp from sleep in my arms, I looked up to see 5 pairs of eyes already trained on me, knowing that we needed to talk but I wouldn't do it until I knew she was OK. For now, at least. I continued to cradle and gently rock her whilst waiting for somebody in the room to start talking, but we all seemed too shocked to say anything. In the end, it was Simon who said something.

"Ok, so now that I know why she is here, thanks to Liam, can somebody tell me why she reacted that badly?" We all looked at each other briefly, but all eyes ended up resting on me. After all, I was the one who had gotten to know her personally the most out of the group, so I had the most chance of knowing anything. But I didn't, and it ate me up inside more than it should have seeing somebody I had only just met that morning in so much emotional pain. I shook my head, not wanting to risk waking her up by talking.

"If I had to guess, I would say that she was remembering something when we were too shocked to react to her singing, something bad." Zayn spoke up, telling us all what we knew deep down but really didn't want to believe. This beautiful, innocent girl, damaged emotionally? It broke my heart. "I think that whatever, or whoever, she was thinking of did something bad. So when Simon made his presence in the room known, where everybody else jumped, she was seeing it as a completely different scenario, something that terrified her."

We all went into silence once again, nobody needing to say anything to know that we all believed Zayn's thoughts to be true. It was heart wrenching to even consider, but what could we do about the past. If something had really happened to her, we had to hope she would tell us when she woke up, and then we could help her.

Without warning, I felt water soaking my chest through my shirt, the first sign I had gotten that Liv was crying silently in her sleep. A nightmare. I started rocking her again, trying to calm her thoughts during sleep as much as I could. When her crying stopped, I thought it was over, and looked up again, knowing the boys had watched the whole thing from their seats, trying to figure out what was hurting this near stranger who already felt like a sister to us. Well, to the boys, because to me she was something more, though I would never say.

It obviously wasn't over: at that moment, Olivia whimpered, though it wouldn't have been audible if the room wasn't as deadly silent as it was. She turned her head into me, obviously seeking comfort without realizing, and I held her tighter, rocking her some more like a small child, trying desperately to comfort her whilst she was dreaming, but to no avail. Olivia burst out screaming, eyes blown wide, tears pouring out her eyes silently, arms trying to find something or somebody to hold on to.

Her arms found me, and I wrapped mine tighter around her, tears on the brim of my vision from seeing her so broken, a feeling the rest of the group shared when I looked up at them. We all knew we had to ask her what was going on, but nobody wanted to startle her even more than she already was. Her screams started dying down, turning into sobs and tears onto my shirt, not that i minded: whatever she needed to calm down, I would try and give to her.

It took around 20 minutes for me to get her calm enough to talk to us, or even just eat something. After getting scared by Simon, for reasons we were still unaware of, she had been asleep for around an hour. The silence and thinking of the rest of us whilst she was out of it had been surprisingly time consuming, given that time flies when you are having fun, and we had all been miserable. It was now time for us to eat, and I hadn't even noticed due to worrying, which was new for me, as usually I could eat no matter what.

Olivia refused to let go of me to talk to us, or even to eat, and didn't take any notice of anybody else asking her anything: whether she was okay, would she eat, what was going on, the lot. I couldn't blame her, it was a lot to take in. I could feel her shaking in fear at the noise, so gave a look that said they needed to quiet down, and when they did, the shaking died down. i leaned down and quietly asked if she would at least something for us, and she nodded weakly, but wouldn't let go of to head to the kitchen. She also wouldn't let any of the other boys near her, or Simon.

If what Zayn had said was true, I think she felt that I was alike to somebody she saw as comforting, like her Mum or Dad, and that anybody else was scary. The only person who could get anywhere close to her to give us food whilst I was incapable of doing so was Zayn. olivia seemed to have grown emotional connections to the 2 of us above the rest, but me more than him, which made sense considering how much time we had spent individually compared to her and the rest of the band.

Slowly, we got through our meal, finishing the chinese food that Uncle Simon had brought us for dinner knowing we had had a busy day and wouldn't be bothered to cook. The house was only temporarily ours, fancy as it was, but Louis didn't want his Mum to come back from her holiday with his sisters to a burnt down house, so we avoided cooking as much as possible. Though Harry did make something rarely.

Staying at Louis' until the tour started had been his Mum's idea, and none of us had objected, seeing as splitting off to see our families now would have been too little time to get anything done after getting over jet lag. We had just gotten back from the Australian leg of the tour, and were heading for America only 2 days after, courtesy of having a small break during the time we should have been performing to take Harry to the hospital for a fractured wrist. It had only been a week, but to save more rescheduling, we had just taken it from our break. We couldn't be bothered to remember new dates when we had only just remembered the current ones.

Olivia was the last to finish eating, though I ended up feeding her some of it in the beginning when she was still too scared to release her grip on me, only letting one hand loose later on so that I could eat my own food as well. Even in fear and shock, she still cared about the wellbeing of others over herself. How did I come across such a beautiful, talented soul?

Simon looked over at me, catching my eyes in his, sending a message that he need to talk to Olivia about something, but wanted to check if it was OK with her first. I leant down and asked her, and she quietly told me that it was fine with her, as long as he stayed away. She also said that she wanted to go to Zayn for a bit now that she was feeling a bit better, but not the rest just yet. I beckoned Zayn over, getting him to sit beside me and handing her over, her hands instantly finding their way around his torso once she was safely on his lap.

Zayn was with Perrie, yes, but it was just a gesture of friendship to comfort her and we all knew it, and therefore nobody said anything. Simon looked to me when I tore my gaze away from her. Everybody was still really quiet, unusual for One Direction, but nobody wanted to scare her again. I gave him a small nod that he could talk, but stopped him when he tried to get closer to her. "Liv said that she was feeling good enough to listen, but that she wasn't ready to be near you guys yet." He gave a small smile, understanding that, if we were to start getting close to her in order, he would probably be last. She recognized him less than the rest of us, and their first encounter had obviously shocked her. It was a miracle she would listen to him, though it probably had something to do with the fact that none of us had made him out as a bad guy and he had respected how she felt towards the space and noise.

"Olivia?" She turned her head slightly towards him, acknowledging that she had heard him, still not able of forming words. He continued, "I heard you singing earlier and it was fantastic. When the boys finished in Australie, the opening act had to leave to help their family, so we need a new  one." Olivia looked confused, whilst the rest of us were biting back smiles, knowing what Simon was about to say, as it had been our intention to do the same thing during truth or dare. This would either be really good for her mood, or really bad. Let's hope the former, as it was becoming sad for the rest of us at this point as well.

"Would you like to join the boys on the America, Asia, and Europe legs of the tour as their opening act?"