Just Hold On // L.T. ✓

1

~Wish that you could build a time machine,

So you could see,

The things no one can see~

Before Louis was the Adidas Queen, and was verified on Instagram, he worked at his local theatre in Doncaster. Not a movie theatre, but a theatre that put on productions and shows. Louis didn't act - he was even worse at singing, so he thought, so he just did stage management. He was good at it too. But the job didn't pay much money, but what it did went back to Louis' family.

Louis had a big family - five sisters and one brother, and a messed up dad situation. His biological father left when he was a toddler, and he was raised by his stepfather, but eventually his mother remarried again, and had two more children with Dan. Those were his youngest siblings - Doris and Ernest.

And today, they were turning one.

"Louis, take the pie out of the oven, would ya?" Johannah yelled from the backyard, where she was putting up decorations. Louis, who was helping Lottie with her makeup, screamed back that yes, mum, he would do it.

"Lottie, go get those kids dressed." He told her, and she smiled, and continued making her eyes look perfect.

The pie was perfect too, so Phoebe thought as her big brother took it out of the oven. There were two sets of twins in the family - the older ones being Phoebe and Daisy, and with Doris and Ernest being the younger ones. "Don't eat it, yet." He told Fizz, who was just younger than Lottie. She stuck her tongue out at him, but went away to help mum in the backyard, since she was all alone. Dan was picking up the pizza.

Daisy, of course, was sleeping. All Daisy did was sleep - they had her checked out, but she was just tired all the time. No underlying disease caused that, she was just tired.

Louis put the pie up high, out of reach of the children, but it was even too high for him, since he wasn't that tall, either. "Damn you, short legs." He said, getting a stool to put it on top of the fridge.

"I think I'll be taller than you one day, Boo Bear." Lottie said, coming down the hallway with a struggling Doris under her arm. "Ernest is in with Daisy, sleeping."

The house was small. Louis didn't sleep there; he had his own studio apartment in the city, and when he moved out, Lottie and Fizz got his small room. Before, the four girls had shared a room, and that was a nightmare. But now, Phoebe and Daisy had that room, and Doris and Ernest still slept in the walk-in closet in Mum and Dan's room. The custody situation with their dad was fifty fifty. Sometimes they went over for the weekend, or stayed a whole week, and most of the time, Ernest and Doris went with them.

But the only thing that completely sucked about the situation was that there was only one bathroom.

Mum got up at four in the morning every school day to shower, and then Lottie, then Fizz, then Phoebe, then the twins got bathed, and Dan usually showered at the gym. Daisy took a shower before bed, since she was a terror in the mornings.

"Daisy, time to wake up. Party starts in literally ten seconds."

"Go." Ernest said to him. "Sleep." Louis rolled his eyes - Daisy was raising Ernest to be her.

But Daisy started moving, reluctantly. "I'll get him ready, Lou." Leaving the room, Louis padded down the hall and pulled his jacket closer around him. It was a jean jacket with fur inside - his favorite one, but not the most expensive. No, that was an Adidas windbreaker that he had gotten for his 18th birthday. It was the most expensive thing he owned, and he treasured it dearly.

"LOUIS!" Suddenly there was screaming, coming from the direction of the backyard. Phoebe and Louis ran to the back door, pushing through it at the same time. And suddenly, they saw what Fizz was screaming about.

Jay had fainted.

Although her birth name was Johannah, everyone called her Jay. It was just the way things were.

"What happened, Fizzy?" Louis asked, and Phoebe ran back inside to get Lottie and the twins.

"We were hanging the streamers, and she got really dizzy and fell onto the grass. Louis, what do we do? Should I call an ambulance?"

Louis watched his mum's relaxed face. "She's waking up. Get me an ice pack, and go tell Lottie to call Dan."

"What am I doing?" Lottie asked. "Twins have the babies. Mum!"

"She's waking up. Just call Dan." Louis said, noticing the frantic look on the fifteen year old's face as Fizz ran past her.

"Okay." Lottie said, running to get the phone.

---

"It's alright, Dan. Just take them home." Jay told her husband, who anxiously glanced across the room at Louis, who simply nodded. Louis then nodded at Lottie, who was in the hallway, and then Dan gathered them up and left the hospital.

Jay was fine, physically, but she was a bit of a hypochondriac, and wanted to get a few tests done. She wouldn't have done it unless she was really worried, since the more time she was in the hospital was less time she was working, and that meant less income on the table. They didn't have to worry about insurance or medical bills - England had free healthcare.

But it didn't mean that they got the best quality of healthcare at all times. But it was what they had.

"Louis, go on home." Jay told him, noticing that the twenty-year old was still sitting in the chair. "I'll be fine."

"Never. Never leaving you." He said simply, and glanced down at his empty hands. He, like the rest of their family, didn't have cell phones - Mum and Dan did, but none of the others. Mark, who for the story's sake, we'll call Louis' father, was at the moment working to get Louis a phone, and then Lottie and all the way down, since they were good kids, and they deserved something like that. "Are you worried, mum? Do you think something's wrong?"

"I don't know." She said, softly. "But I'm scared. It feels like something is wrong, and I don't know what." She was on the verge of tears, and Louis came to give her a hug. Jay was strong, Jay had never fallen apart once in Louis' life.

It was how he knew something was really wrong.

Even before the doctor came in and told them that she had leukemia.