Authors Note: Firstly, I must apologise for my absence. I had an accident which saw my shoulder completely taken out of action. I won't go into the grissly details but I'm not going to argue with a piece of staging again lol. Also, I'm not fully better yet so my typing will be ridiculously slow, which will, in turn, mean slower updates until it is healed. If you've messaged me over the last few weeks I will probably reply soon - had to stay at a friend's flat to recuperate (as my parents were on holiday) and she has no internet connection. I got home last night and saw my inbox is scarily full. This chapter will probably be re-edited again soon but I thought I owed you something so please excuse any major typos or grammar fails x
United Fronts - Newborn
BANG BANG BANG!
Harry awoke with a start, sitting bolt up-right in the bed. Beside him, Louis groaned loudly and stirred too. What the fuck? Harry thought, completely disorientated. He was so tired; his eyes started to droop again.
BANG BANG BANG!
Harry’s eyes flew open again. Jesus, was that someone at the front door?! Harry glanced at the alarm clock, good god it was only 7:03 am. It had only been three hours since he’d last got up – to change Jonah’s nappy. What the hell was this person playing at? Didn’t they know they had a four-month old baby? At this rate the idiot was going to wake Jonah up too - if they hadn’t already! Before he could even think to move, the pounding started up again.
Harry frowned. Clearly it had to be something important since the person was being persistent. The person obviously had access to the building too, which narrowed it down to one of their friends or a neighbour. Maybe there was a fire? Whining, Harry climbed out of bed and tugged on a pair of trousers over his boxers – he winced, they were cold and clammy from lying on the bedroom floor all night. As he stumbled out of their room he picked up the baby monitor. There was no noise coming from Jonah’s room, not that that was an indication of the kid being awake. Jonah was really quiet – happy to just watch the world go by with his big, wide, awestruck eyes.
The flat was chilly this early in the morning and Harry shivered as he nipped across the living room to the door. Now he could hear a voice, “Harry! Louis! Wake up! It’s important! Come on, answer the door! Please!”
It was Liam. At the same time he noticed that their answering machine was blinking furiously. Frowning even more, Harry increased his pace and promptly tripped over one of Louis’ trainers and swore bitterly as he stubbed his toe off the side-table.
“I’m coming! I’m coming!” He called out irritably, “Stop pounding on the door! You’ll wake Jonah!” The pounding stopped.
Harry grabbed the keys from the mantelpiece and fumbled clumsily with the lock in his haste to get the door open quickly. Finally it clicked, “What the bloody hell do you think…” He began to admonish as he yanked it open, only to be barrelled backwards by Liam and Niall forcing themselves inside. The door slammed shut behind them. Almost like they were trying to hold back some kind of advancing attack.
“What the…?” Harry began in bewilderment. Liam rounded on him and Harry stuttered into silence at the sheer panic in his bandmate’s expression. In a heart-stopping moment, Harry knew that something was terribly wrong.
“Where’s Louis?” Liam hissed.
“In bed,” replied Harry quickly, thinking the answer was obvious at this time of day, “what’s going on?”
Liam licked his lips and then held something up. It was a familiar tabloid and as Harry focused on the main headline his stomach lurched violently. Oh fuck no… no! No, no, no, no… He snatched The Sun out of Liam’s hands, his own shaking badly.
