Let Me Fix You (On Hold)

|12| 4 Aussies Walk Into A Bar...

Niall's POV:

I sat Emily down on the couch and sat beside her. Her face was so pale and her expression was blank, as if she'd just seen a ghost. I wrapped my arm around her and I could feel her shaking beneath it. She's had to go through so much already. She had spent her whole life learning to accept the fact she could never have a real father because he's dangerous and now everything she knows is wrong. I couldn't possibly imagine how she must be feeling right now. I felt terrible for her. She didn't deserve any of this.

"I...I don't understand." Harry said, rubbing his forehead. "What do you mean he's not her father?"

"Do you mean he's just some random guy that looks like her father who happens to want to kill us?" Zayn asked, looking just as confused as Harry.

"No that's not the case." Paul said. "He thinks he's her father. Emily's mother thought he was her father too... but their DNA doesn't match."

"Wait." Emily suddenly snapped out of her daze and looked at Paul. "You mean my mom was sleeping with some other guy while she was married to my dad?"

"Now let's not jump to conclusions. We don't know that until we do a little more research. She might have been raped and never told anyone or..."

"Oh wonderful, so either my dad is some guy who wants to kill me and my friends or he's a guy who rapes women. How lovely." Emily stood up and walked out of the room. She walked to the door and opened it.

"Emily, wait..." Katie protested and reached for her shoulder but Emily pulled away and continued walking. Katie looked helpless as she sat back down.

"Emily, get back here! We need everyone to stay together." Paul warned her. Emily completely ignored him, put on her coat, and left.

"I'll go with her." I threw on my coat and ran out the door to catch up with her. I heard Paul try to stop me but at this point, all of his rehearsed phrases like 'get back here' and 'Simon will be upset with this' just went in one ear and out the other. By the time I got to her she turned to me and I saw the tears in her eyes. Neither of us knew what to say to eah other. I wanted to help her, I had to say something. "Emily, talk to me. Please." She continued walking ahead, looking down at the ground and ignoring me. I kept following closely beside her though. "Tell me what you're feeling."

"I'm feeling like I just want to be alone and think for awhile." She looked at me as she spoke. Even when she was mad as hell she was still forcing herself to speak to me politely. "Please, just go back before Paul has a meltdown. I'll be fine. I've spent my whole life learning to be alone and work out my problems on my own." I stopped walking beside her and she walked on ahead without me. Her head dropped and she faced the ground again as she walked away from me. Why did I stop walking beside her? I couldn't just let her carry on like this.

"You don't have to be alone Emily. You had to for all those years because you had to and now you don't have to. If that makes sense?" Emily stopped walking to listen to me but didn't look back at me. "You have Katie, she's your best friend and she cares about you. I don't know everything about your past but..."

"My parents...well Katie's parents...wouldn't let her and I be friends anymore after..." Emily spoke up, turning around to look at me. "I was on my own a lot after that. I could only see Katie in secret for a short time after school. We couldn't talk on the phone like we used to or go see each other whenever we wanted. I couldn't just run over to her house when I needed to talk to someone. You don't know how hard that was. Losing a friendship like that. Having someone that would help you at all times and then being alone."

I walked up to her and put my hands on her shoulders. "But Katie is here for you now. You two are both adults, you were kids back then. I know she wants to help you. And you have me too." I smiled at her and she slowly started to smile. "Let me help you."