Remember When ↠ l.p.

Plotting

"What do you think," Mother muses aloud to the rest of the room "should we confront him or contact the police for backup? Is that premature?"

"That's all probably a bit too fast mother," I sigh, as much as I wish we could just have Hector arrested and have this whole ordeal over, it's not realistic. We think he may have done things or been involved in bad things, but what proof do we have? Next to no proof will not be enough to have him arrested and that means we sort of have to do things on our own. For the time being, at least. "All we can do right now is have him meet with Colin and hope for the best. Maybe we can settle all of this outside of court, as much as I want to renew my restraining order and get him put away for how he's hurt me. Is there anything that we could solidly put against him?" I shake my head in bewilderment. "I really need to get together with Colin to understand what options we have."

"The good thing is that we have leverage." Liam reminds my mother and I. "That means we aren't without our own threats to make. If what you say," he glances towards me with a smile, almost as if to remind me that he doesn't mean it to be personal. "that he couldn't have changed and that he really doesn't want to get to know Cailyn for good reasons, then we need to figure out what was truly going on in Australia. Maybe that will help us discern what he's doing here."

"We can't ignore that this might be a distraction, can we?" Dad comments, joining the conversation when he's usually content to sit back and listen as we all throw ideas around, bouncing theories off each other.

"That's something I've been turning over, actually." Louis nods in agreement, from where he and Harry are seated, poking his head around his husband's waist. "One of my best friend's has a degree in Psychology and we've often discussed what he studied. Some of the books they read in his classes he's passed along to me, especially if they were particularly interesting. We," he motions to the man on his lap, humming contentedly. "made good use of some of the things we read in a few of those books when we were in the process of coming out and switching management."

"And your point is?" Liam asks dryly, earning him a glower from Louis.

"The point is that I can easily see this being a distraction, what better way to keep the people who know how disgusting you are off your trail and what you're really doing than by coming by and ruffling their feathers? Unless he has other friends that realized how horrid he was, you and your family were the only ones who would have gone to police or the judge who issued your restraining order to complain about him. So he came here and threatened to sue for custody, wouldn't that make sense? I'm sure there's some sort of study I read about that happened, concerning misdirection, that was similar to what he's been doing. Added to the dirt you two dug up online, I think it's safe to say we shouldn't be nearly as worried about him suing for custody as we have been." He nestles his nose into Harry's back, making Harry squirm slightly, but doesn't pull away.

"Why didn't you mention this before?" I ask Louis, a little upset he hadn't spoken up about this idea of his. If he had told me about this theory earlier it probably would have helped me to worry a bit less, or at least hold onto hope that this distraction theory might be true.

"I was still thinking over whether it made sense or not, I didn't want to say anything and get your hopes up until I looked at it from several angles. This piece of evidence you've found from Australia could be the key to solving the whole mystery of why he's back...or why he even left in the first place." Louis explains himself.

"Well," I mumble "thank you I guess. It is a solid theory."

"I know." He preens, readjusting Harry so that he has an arm around his waist still, but Harry's leaning half on him still but half on the couch. Harry adjust himself, throwing an arm around Louis's shoulders and letting his hand play idly with the hair on the nape of Louis' neck.

"Cocky bas-"

"SHHH!" Mother hisses at Liam, stopping him from saying anything. "The girls are just down the hall!" Louis makes a rude gesture towards Liam in retort to his unfinished sentence...well a gesture that would be considered rude if he were overseas. So mother doesn't comment on it, but continues to frown at Liam. He settles down next to me, burying his face in my neck among my hair and wrapping his arms around my shoulders.

"I just want this to be over as quickly as possible." I reiterate what I've been saying ever since H showed up in front of my apartment. "I'm getting stressed out."

"We know how you feel," mother consoles me. "and it will be over soon. If your lawyer is as good as you say he is anyway."

"I'm going to hire some sort of PI as well." Liam says, reemerging from underneath my hair. "I need someone who is a professional at digging up information. I think Louis is right, whatever Hector was doing in Australia is the key to why he's here now." He pauses to look around the room. Mother and dad, listening to what he has to say with hopeful expressions, Louis with an eager and determined look, and Harry and I watching Liam expectantly. "And we need to use that key to open the door that will reveal all. Then we'll have him where we want him, on his way out of our lives." he squeezes my shoulders and pulls me closer to him, so our heads rest against each other. "That's my plan, in any case."

 Really crap, written all at once, I apologize >.< Reminder that I'll be going through and severely editing this story after it's finished.