Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Forty-One

And as to why he hadn't told Niall, there was no easy way to say 'I didn't tell you because I didn't want to have to tell you I'd be going because I don't want to think about spending so many months away from you' without actually saying 'I didn't tell you because I didn't want to have to tell you I'd be going because I don't want to think about spending so many months away from you'. And the reason why Liam didn't want to think about spending so long away from them was very simple.

Well...it was kind of simple. The word itself was simple, four little letters. But it meant so much more, and could be so, so fucking complicated. He loved Chloe. It was hard not to love the seven-year-old, she'd even wrapped his dog around her little finger, and Liam was incapable of not loving her. Chloe...she was his daughter. He might not have been there for her for very long, but that didn't change how he felt about her.

And then there was Niall. Niall. Who he'd been arse over curls for when they were young, and now...now, well it was hardly rocket science, was it? Niall was Niall, with the same accent, same gorgeous blue eyes, and the same ability to reduce Liam to a fumbling, flailing idiot.

Only, Niall had just left, taking Chloe with him, and Liam wasn't sure what the fuck he was supposed to do now. He had a feeling the correct thing to do would be to let him cool off, or calm down or whatever it was that Niall needed, space away from him, probably, but something made Liam want to run after him.

Which he did.

He grabbed his keys as he left, not bothering to wait for the lift and running down the stairs two at a time, only pausing as the buildings concierge gave him a polite smile, holding out his hand as he told Liam, "You're too late, sir. They, the young man and your...the little girl, they left several minutes ago. The bus they would have been on, the one he asked me about times for, will have already left."

Liam didn't bother to ask how he knew that, knew who Liam had been running after or who Chloe was to him, after all, the building's various concierges were always in the know about more matters than Liam cared to remember, instead giving him a grateful nodded as he headed out towards the building's underground parking, struggling to remember in which spot that was not his allocated parking space he'd parked in for a moment before he found his car, parked in what he thought was the spot belonging to the french politician's aide who lived below Liam.

That wasn't the most pressing issue at the moment, though, and neither was the angry letter stuck beneath the windscreen wipers that Liam chose to ignore as he began to drive, already thinking about what the hell he'd say to fix things with Niall and trying to account for whatever curveballs would be thrown his way. He hadn't even really expected Niall to leave, he'd expected him to want to shout, to fight until Liam found the guts to explain, not to give up and leave, so many words between them needing to be said.

He ended up parking a few streets away, in a relatively safe car park, considering what Niall had told him and warned him about the area at night, and walking over to Niall's block of flats. The door still hadn't been fixed, the lock that was supposed to only open to residents with a key fob was still defunct, and he made his way inside easily, about to take the lift before he noticed the 'out of order' sign, sighing as he headed towards the stairs.

Taking a deep breath before he knocked on the door to Niall's flat, Liam shifted his weight from one foot to the other, biting his lip before he knocked again, trying not to automatically jump to conclusions when no one came to answer the door. He waited a few seconds before knocking again, the frown on his face fading slightly as the he heard Chloe call out through the door. "Who is it? I'm not tall enough to see through the peephole and Daddy says I'm not allowed to use a chair."

"It's me, Chlo." Leaning by the wall against the door, Liam was glad there was no one else around at that moment, the corridor blessedly empty asides for him, his relief disappearing as Chloe let out a quiet 'oh' that was barely audible through the door before falling silent, prompting Liam to knock again. "Chlo? Are you there? Chloe? Can you let me in, please?"