Adopted

Just Visiting

The boy decides he likes Grammy already. She has a comforting aura to her, nothing like the fearful feeling be had when he first saw her.

"Hi," Louis whispers.

The woman coos and sits next to the them, wrapping hands around his torso and pulling him into her lap. Liam and Louis exchange shocked looks that she can't see.

"You're a little cutie pie, aren't ya?"

"So," Liam says awkwardly. "How'd you even get in the house?"

"You're father made a copy of the key last time we were here."

"Seriously?"

"Yes," she nods. "He kept going on about emergency situations and what not."

"You've got to be careful, mum. Wouldn't want to see the security system off."

Maria runs her fingers in a ticklish manner over the boy's stomach. Louis giggles a little, but groans because laughing just makes him feel dizzy and nauseous. Liam's mother coos and boops his nose. "Don't understand why you need a security system in the first place. This seems like a safe enough neighborhood," she remarks.

Liam doesn't respond. He doesn't want to reveal too much or set Louis off. It's not like he can tell his own mother that it's to keep the boys in and not really keeps others out. Besides, he quite likes Louis in his little headspace and losing that now after all of this adjustment would be awful, though he's sure Louis would never run off.

"Where is my little cloud," she asks.

"Harry's upstairs, still asleep with Z. He's got the flu as well and we were up for a good bit of the night bathing and changing him," Liam says.

Louis' eyebrows shoot up and he turns to Liam. "Hazza's sick?"

The man nods. "But don't you worry, Lou. He's gonna be fine."

That doesn't calm his nerves at all. It's one thing for Louis to be sick, but it's another for Harry. Harry's already soft and fragile as it is, and knowing there's a nasty virus in him, kicking his immune system's butt is upsetting. And to top it all off, Louis is the one who got him sick. He really should've tried harder to stop him yesterday in bed.

"Oh, poor little dear. What a shame that they're both sick the day I decided to come," she says.

"That's okay, mum. Why don't you just go on home for now and come back another day when they're feeling better? Bring dad along with you," Liam says, hoping his mother doesn't want to stay.

"Nonsense. God must've sent me here for a reason," she says, always the kind church lady.

"What?"

Grammy thinks for a second. "That's it! I need to help them get better! What've you tried doing to help them," she asks.

"Uh...just light foods and some medicine," he says.

"Liam," Maria gasps and reaches over and slaps her son lightly on the back of the head. Liam groans and Louis giggles at their relationship dynamic. "You foolish boy! What've I taught you about illness?"

"Mum, I really don't think your treatment can top what I learned in med school."

"Med school, schmed school," she sing songs. "No amount of scientific cures would ever beat a mother's cure. You know a nice hot bowl of chicken noodle soup is the cure-all!"

Louis' daddy groans and puts his hands over his face. The boy decides he's let the woman hold him long enough and crawls from her lap over to his. Liam wraps his arms around the little and gives him a kiss on the middle of his crown. He still feels warm, but maybe not as bad as yesterday. Louis cuddles into his bigger body and brings the neck of the sweater he's wearing over his mouth and bridge of his nose, inhaling the scent that all of Liam's clothes have stuck to them. He feels at peace and like there are no problems in the world while he's in his warm little cocoon.