She's Not Afraid (Harry Styles )

Chapter 14

Harry

  I had been trying to call Autumn for the past 20 minutes. After her text telling me her day had gone well I sent her another one telling her I was coming to New York for a few weeks to spend some time with her. I had expected to hear back right away and when I hadn’t I tried calling. At first it would just ring and ring, then right to voice mail. Now it was straight to voice mail. I was starting to get worried that maybe she didn’t want to see me. “Mate we have to go, we have the last show to do” Louis said. I just nodded and shut my phone off.

I wasn’t all there during the concert and I couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. Once we were done I rushed back to our dressing room and turned my phone on. As soon as it turned on I saw that I had several missed calls from Kat. I frowned, Kat hardly ever called me. I was about to call her back when my phone went off and her name appeared on the screen. “Kat?” I answered. “Harry thank god you answered. You need to get here as soon as possible, Autumn is in the hospital, she’s been badly hurt…..”

The next few hours were a blur. I remember her vaguely telling me what happened, and dropping my phone. I remember Louis picked it up, asking Kat what had happened and watching as his face went white before he hung up my phone. I remembered the whispers as he told the other lads and then the rushing to get us all to the airport. Some how we managed to score seats on a last minute flight from Miami to New York. I remember the plane landing and someone, Liam I think, talking to management, telling them to cancel all of our up coming interviews and then very quietly explaining why. I remember Niall in tears on the phone, first with Lexi and then arranging for her to fly over on the soonest flight from London.

It took far too long to get to the hospital. I rushed out of the elevator and into the room that Kat had texted to Louis that she was in and stopped dead in the doorway. There was Autumn, my Autumn, laying on a hospital bed with machines around her. She had a tube coming out of her mouth and her face was covered in scratches. Her right eye was swollen closed, hell the whole side of her face was a massive swollen mess. Her right arm looked like it was in a cast and they had a neck brace on her.  I  went top rush to her side but Kat stopped me. “Harry you need to listen to me, and you need to listen well. I need you to look at me” She said, her voice calm. I turned my face to look down at hers. “I called her mom, and she is on her way, she also has an idea of who did this. Two years ago her boyfriend at the time beat her up pretty bad. She managed to hide in the bathroom and call her mom before she blacked out. Thankfully her mom called the cops and the got there as he broke the bathroom door down. She pressed charges and he was put in jail. He got out a week ago on parole. Her mom just found out today and tired to warn her but I guess she got the message too late. She’s been hurt pretty bad and they are keeping her sedated to help with the pain. They aren’t too sure if she has any brain damage as it looks like she may have received a kick to the head.” She said. I stared at her in shock. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I’m going to fucking kill him. He better watch his fucking back” I growled, turning to walk out of the room and hunt down the bastard that did this to my girl. “Harry stop. You need to be here for her right now” Louis said, stopping me. I looked at him and he had this apologetic look to his eyes, one that took me a second to place. “You knew? You knew about her ex didn’t you?” I asked. He sighed and looked away. “Harry…” he started to say before I cut him off  “No! You knew and you didn’t fucking tell me!” I screamed at him, trying to push past him in my rage. It took both Liam and Zayn grabbing my shoulders and holding me there to keep me in place. “It wasn’t my place to tell any one Harry. It was something she needed to tell you. She didn’t even mean to tell me, it just kind of spilled out one night when she had a night mare.” He said before he started to cry.

I didn’t know what to do. I turned and went to sit beside her bed, gently holding the hand that wasn’t in the cast. I reached up and softly stroked her hair. “Please don’t leave me” I whispered in her ear. “I need you, please baby don’t leave” I said as I started to cry. Kat came over and rubbed my back “She’s going to be okay. When they think she’s healed enough they will let her wake up. But she needs to heal.” She said. I looked at her and simply nodded, but didn’t move.

I sat with her for a few hours, the other lads coming and going. Niall said Lexi should land sometime in the afternoon. I just nodded, unable to look at anyone. “Harry?” I heard a womans voice say and I looked up to see a woman who I had never met, but I knew who she was. They looked so much alike that it would be hard not to. “You’re Autumns mum aren’t you?” I said, my voice still a whisper. She nodded and I got up to let her sit with her daughter. She took hold of the hand I had been holding and I could see the tears fall from her face. I knew this wasn’t the first time this woman had had to deal with this. “I’ll find the bastard that did this to her.” I said, my voice sounding more like a growl. “Don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want to have to tell her you’re in jail when she wakes up” her mother said softly and I nodded. “Don’t worry, I won’t end up in jail.” I said before walking out of the room.

I took out my phone and placed a call. Being a celebrity I knew people who knew people who could find anyone. “It’s Harry. I need someone in New York found, and found soon.” I said.  I gave the person the name of Autumns ex, and explained what had happened. I knew these people didn’t take kindly to men who beat women, and the growl from the other end of the phone was enough for me to know I would be getting a text soon. “Don’t touch him, just let me know where he is and I’ll deal with it.” I said before hanging up. “What did you just do Haz” Louis said as he walked up beside me. The other lads where there and I just sighed. “don’t worry about it Lou.” I said, trying to brush him off. “You’re going to go after him aren’t you?” Leave it to Niall to state the obvious. “What would you say if I said yes?” I said, glaring at them all. The next reply came from the most unexpected source. “Go with you.” I turned to look at Liam. He was never one for violence, but the dark look in his eyes told me he was beyond pissed. “I can’t ask you to do that.” I said. “You don’t have to. We are doing it because we love her too. Plus it will be all of our words against his” Zayn said. “And mine” I looked up and saw Kat standing off to the side. “I have no problem telling anyone that you five were here all night.” She said. “I’m not supposed to do this but I’ll vouch for you boys as well, if you find him” I looked up and saw a nurse looking at us with sympathetic eyes. “My sister went through the same thing. And the doctors won’t be in to check on her for a good few hours.” She said. “Thank you” I told her and she just nodded before walking away.  “I will call John and tell him to come take some pictures of us in the coffee place across the road. He owes me a favor and wont object to saying he took the pictures at the time when we find the bastard.” I said before pulling out the phone and calling the photographer.  He was one of the few nice paps who always gave me space when I needed it, in exchange for me calling him from time to time to tell him where I would be. I usually only did it when I was in town and the heat needed to be off one of the other boys. After talking to him he agreed to help. He would get to use the pictures he took of us and sell then as he saw fit, in exchange he would say they were taken when we gave him a time.

We left then and went to the coffee place, grabbed coffee and headed back to the hospital. John met us at the entrance. “I got you going in, ordering, a few of you with the fans who stopped you, and going back to the hospital. When you find the guy just text me a time frame so I know how to date the photos.” He said. I told him I would before my phone buzzed. I looked down and saw a text from a number I didn’t recognize. “We found him.”   It said, followed by an address. “lads we got him” I said before hailing a cab. The bastard would be lucky if he survived.