Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Twenty-Four

Liam

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

Squinting in the darkness as he answered his phone, Liam glanced at the screen to try and see who was calling and winced, taking a guess as the person continued to speak. "I am so sorry, Liam. Chloe told me what she said to you. She kinda blurted out what she said to you and I wanted to... Apologise."

"It's fine, Niall. I guess... I deserved it." Yawning, Liam tried to sound more awake, looking at his phone to check the time and instantly regretting it, just making out the time before he dropped the phone, fumbling with it for a moment before the lateness of the hour prompted him to ask, "Are you okay? It's just... It's just it's really late and you've never called before, not at... Two am on what I'm gonna guess is a school night."

"I couldn't sleep. And it's not a school night. School's on half term, this week, so it's not. Chloe told me what she told you, about you leaving and me... Being hurt by you. I wanted to check that you were alright, I guess." Sounding as tired as Liam did, Niall stifled a yawn of his own, a ruffling sound that Liam guessed was caused by Niall shifting against his pillows replacing any speech for a moment before Niall said, "You are alright, yeah? I kinda guessed that this was not how you wanted today to go. I wanted it to go better, Liam."

"Don't worry about it, Niall. I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting to be called on my shit by your... Our daughter before she even knows me." Dropping back against his pillows, Liam closed his eyes, trying to block out the light coming from his phone and focus as he thought more about how the meeting had gone. Not that he'd spent the whole afternoon and evening already thinking about it, or anything.

After Chloe had enlightened him about her opinion and how much shit he was responsible for, the day had been pretty much over. Chloe had ended up getting Niall to take her home after lunch was over, awkwardly avoiding a goodbye with Liam but saying goodbye to Loki as though the husky had become her new best friend, leaving Liam with Paddy and a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach that hadn't gone away. Paddy had overheard everything, despite his attempts to be discreet and had mercifully left him alone to wallow in his misery after dropping him at his flat.

His bandmates hadn't, though. Zayn had called him, telling him to 'suck it up' and 'what did he expect' and that 'it sucked' and he was sorry, whilst Harry and Louis had appeared in person, their visit extending an olive branch that he'd ended up grasping like it was a lifesaver and he was drowning.

"She's not allowed to call you on any of that, Liam. She told me what she said because she feels bad for saying it. But I'm dealing with that, she got Chloe Amelia'd and I'll get her to apologise. If there's anyone who's going to all you on all of our past shit, it's going to be me and honestly, I'm too tired to yell at you right now. It's not Chloe's past to be mad at you for." Yawning, Niall sounded distant to Liam, his yawn prompting Liam to yawn again. "Chloe said I hurt you."

Sighing, Niall coughed before he fell silent for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. "You did. But that's not exactly front page news."

"I'm sorry." Letting his apology hang between them, Liam could almost picture he frown he knew would be on Niall's face, running a hand over his face and stifling yet another yawn as Niall said, "Don't. If we're going to do this, and we will, we're going to do it face to face when I'm not trying to stay awake."

"I wanted today to go differently, you know... I'd hoped it would have gone better." Biting his lip, Liam mentally kicked himself for believing that the cosy image he'd replicated in his head could have been made real, feeling more and more stupid for believing that the day could have gone anything but badly the longer he was awake. He'd known that Chloe wasn't exactly fond of him but he hadn't realised that she actually hated him.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious. Niall had warned him but he'd chosen to believe that, because she'd agreed to see him, Chloe would have warmed to him over the day.

"Yeah. I know. But it didn't. Still, you're her dad, part of her life. You know about her now, there's no going back, Li, no matter what. Whether she likes it or not. We can try again, with another meeting. Spend the day together, go to a museum or something." Sounding too thoughtful for two-thirty am, Niall's idea prompted Liam to nod sleepily, humming, his grip on his phone relaxing as he said, "Yeah. Okay. If Chloe wants to. You said, you said she's on half term, right?"

"Yeah. I'm working tomorrow... Today, but any other day for definite. And maybe, maybe we can talk about everything at some point. 'Cause there's a lot of things that need to be said." Yawning again, Niall sighed, the silence between them growing until Liam was forced to break it. "Ni? You still there?"

Humming and muttering something Liam didn't catch in response, Niall let out a whine, the sound causing Liam to half-smile, yawning and muttering something else before he mumbled, "Night, Liam."

"Night, Niall." Listening as the line went dead, Liam dropped his phone onto the bed next to him, yawning and rolling over in bed, slowly drifting back to sleep as he thought about where he could Niall and Chloe in London, feeling somewhat better about the disaster of a fist meeting as he thought about what Niall had said, trying to figure out if he meant it when he said that he'd hoped for things go better too, until he fell asleep.  

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So I'm back. 

Kind of. Not that I ever went anywhere, but I've not updated this for a few days.

Idk. 

But I'm slowly getting batter (again) and despite being on yet another new medicine and having a whole new prescription, I am fine-ish. 

This is slightly shorter than past updates but it's kinda the right length for what it is and, looking through my timeline/idea/drafts things for this, we're not too far away from there being actual niam. 

And, looking through said timeline/idea/drafts things, it looks like Count On Me could be even longer than I actually thought. 

Completely unrelated at the moment, but what do you guys think of the name Caspar, for a little boy, nicknamed Cas for short?

I'd love to see what you guys think of the chapter....