Manchester

28

"Afternoon, boys, what brings you two around" Harry asks as he gestures for them both to come inside.

"Afternoon Haz, sorry to just drop in again, Drew is on tonight and I just wanted to check up on you all before I head home" Andy says.

"You know you can drop in anytime, we're just in the lounge room, Edward and Louis are at it in a game of scrabble" Harry says.

"Scrabble? With Edward? But no one will play scrabble with Edward!" Drew says disbelievingly.

Edward is the king of scrabble, no one ever beats him and he has a huge vocabulary, he's always trying to get the boys to play with him but no one ever agrees anymore.

"Well, he's met his match I tell you" Harry laughs out.

The boys make their way to the living room and when they've all said hellos Andy and Drew sit down on the couch, Drew is looking at the scrabble board in interest.

"Who's winning?" Andy asks.

"Me! By 50 points" Louis says excitedly.

Edward rolls his eyes smiling.

"You guys know txt isn't a word right?" Drew says chuckling.

"Yes it is" Louis says flatly.

"Apparently it's now in the dictionary" Edward winks at Drew.

"Ohhh well, I guess I need to buy myself a new dictionary" Drew smiles.

The boys all chuckle

"So any news on the trial?" Harry asks Andy.

"Yeah, it's been pushed back again, we're looking at another month now" Andy says sympathetically.

"We are back at work tomorrow, we don't want Louis here alone" Harry tells Andy.

"I'll have someone at the door, 24/7 now don't worry" Andy says.

Harry nods, smiling in thanks.

"Edward!!! That's not a word you're cheating!!" Louis says outraged.

"Baby, it is, it means love in French" Edward replies laughing.

He loves playing this game with Louis.

"Well we're playing in English, we don't speak French, so that's minus 50 points for you" Louis says.

Drew laughs at what's happening in front of him, Edward is so competitive and would not normally stand for this in a game of scrabble, but it's evident that these boys will do anything for Louis, including letting him win.

"Has anything happened over the last few days that we should know about?" Drew asks the boys.

"No, it's been pretty quiet, the security cameras were installed yesterday and we haven't seen anything out of the ordinary" Edward says.

Just then the glass on one of the French doors opposite Louis is smashed as something is thrown through it.

Glass shatters everywhere and a few pieces hit the boys but the brick that came through the window thankfully didn't hit anyone.

Andy and Drew are up instantly Drew on his radio, both boys produce guns and take off outside.

"You okay Lou" Edward asks as they all get to their feet and Edward and Harry bring Louis in close.

"I'm.....okay, are you?" Louis asks them both.

Both boys nod but Harry checks Louis over anyway. He has glass in his arm but it's nothing too deep, just a few nicks.

Edward turns in search of the brick that came through the window, he sees it and attached to it is another note.

"Decline the statement or NEXT time we won't miss" the note reads.

"Shit" Harry says, the brick only just missed Louis head.

Andy and Drew come rushing back into the room and sirens can be heard in the distance.

"You guys okay?" Andy asks.

Harry and Edward nod.

"They got away, we will need to see those security tapes boys" Drew says.

"Yeah, sure" Edward says.

"What do we do now?" Harry asks as he hands the note over to Andy.

Both boys have a protective hold on Louis and won't let him go.

Andy sighs.

"We'll get the rest of the squad in and scope it all out, get someone in to replace the glass before nightfall and hopefully the cameras have picked up something" Andy says.

Louis is in a daze at everything that's just happened, he was nearly hit in the head with a brick that probably would have killed him.

"Lou let's get you upstairs hey, just for safety" Andy says.

"I'm not going up there alone" Louis says worryingly.

"Its okay, we'll come too, come on" Edward says.

They both take Louis upstairs to their room, he's quiet and hasn't said anything else. The boys turn the TV on in their room and pull Louis onto the bed, they get comfortable and all sit in silence as they let what just happened sink in.