A day late, but here it is. I feel much better now.
•••
Harry was tired, but he enjoyed what he did so he continued his work. His prosthesis lay on the floor as he continued his work. He was honestly appalled by the coding used in the company's servers. Whoever created, and maintained them had left so many gaps, and loopholes that would have been big liabilities.
Harry got to work on cleaning all of it, and changing the codes, using better firewalls. Every hacker or coder has their own watermark, and Harry was no different. He left his mark when he worked. Arnold took everything away from him, but he never forgot his coding. That was the only fruend he had when he was growing up apart from his family and his cat, Dusty. The first week he was in London, he got back into the hang of it, and updated himself on the new tricks.
Harry rarely used someone else's coding. He always used his own so looking at the messy coding used, he grimaced as it was extremely amateur. He was in for a long day, but his mind kept circling back to Harlow although he did not need to worry. His mind, and omega eased upon remembering that she was in Louis's care and he knew the alpha would look after his little Harly.
»»----- ★ -----««
Louis had Harlow seated on his lap. She was finally awake, but extremely quiet. She would look at what Louis was working on, but did not make any effort to communicate with him. "You have to eat, Harly," he said gently, grabbing the omega's bag and pulling her lunchbox out. She nodded, and accepted the food.
She was silently eating her food, when Louis smelled two people approaching. He sighed. The door was swung open, and Zayn rushed in followed by his alpha, Liam.
Harlow started shaking out of fear. Louis placed the lunchbox on his desk, and held her closer. "Can you not do that?" He glared at Zayn.
The omega stared at Harlow, having stopped dead in his tracks. "Who is that?" he asked, slowly taking a seat.
Louis stroked Harlow's hair. "This is Harlow," he informed him before directing his attention to the shaking omega. "Hey, Harly, he is not going to hurt you, okay? They are not going to hurt you. I'm here," he soothed her.
She nodded belatedly, and remained quiet as Louis wiped her tears away. "Why don't you finish eating?" he asked, as he handed the lunchbox back to her.
She accepted it once more, and continued eating. "Answer Zayn, Louis. Who is that?"
"I told you. This is Harlow,"
"Who is she?"
"I don't know how to answer that question. Now why did you so rudely barge in, scaring Harlow?" Louis shot daggers at the mated couple.
"Zayn was on his computer, then he started crying, and insisted that we come and see you," Liam explained, looking just as confused as Louis.
"Well, Zayn, care to tell me why you decided to scare a five-year old?" Louis directed at Zayn.
The omega sighed. "She is not your child, Louis. Stop acting so overprotective," and for some reason, Louis's eyes flashed red before returning to its original blue colour, scaring Liam, and Zayn. Zayn cleared his throat a bit fearfully. "Did you hire someone new in the IT department?" Zayn finally asked.
"Yes, I did," Louis replied, furrowing his brows.
"I need to meet him. It's urgent," Zayn insisted, eyes going glossy. Zayn was always a very calm omega so Louis nodded, concerned as to why he was getting emotional over Harry being employed.
He pulled his phone out, and dialled Harry's number. "Hello? Louis? Is everything okay?" he asked, already pulling away from his desk.
"Calm, omega. Everything is okay. I want you to come to my office as soon as possible," Louis tried to calm the omega down through the call using a calm tone.
Harry sighed. "Sorry, yeah, I'll be there. Just give me a minute to put my prosthesis on," Harry said, feeling embarrassed.
Louis frowned. "Don't be embarrassed by it," His fists clenched. "I wish I could bring him back, just to hurt him for what he did," Louis gritted out.
Harlow had finished eating so she closed her lunchbox, and wordlessly leaned against Louis's chest, and watched Liam, and Zayn.
Louis spoke a bit more, and ended the call. "Uhm why do you have an employee's number on your personal phone?" Liam asked.
"Because he is not just an employee," is all Louis said. "How are you feeling, Harlow?" he asked.
Harlow attempted a half smile. "It was scary. He was back. He was hurting mama," she whispered.
Louis held her tightly against his chest. "He will never touch you or your mama ever again. No one will," he said firmly.
"Pinky promise?" she asked, holding her tiny pinky out for Louis.
Louis connected his own pinky. "Pinky promise," he promised. When he looked up, Zayn, and Liam were staring at him, amused. "What?" He snapped although that was not his intention.
Zayn's lips curled into a smile. "You are fond of her," he stated.
Louis did not deny it. He would not deny it. "Why do you want to speak to the new IT guy?" he asked instead.
"I recognize his coding. I just want to see if it is who I think it is," Zayn said, eyes holding unreadable emotion.
A few minutes of silence prevailed before a knock was heard on Louis's office door. "Come in," he said, holding Harlow who was playing with his tie.
The door opened, and Harry stepped in. "Is everything alright?" Harry asked, fully stepping inside. Zayn's head whipped around, and stared at Harry, tears making an appearance on his face.
"Uhm yes, this is-" Louis started, but Harry cut him off.
"Zayn?" he asked, voice a whisper, tears pooling in his waterline.
"Harry," he breathed out. "I knew I recognized your coding," he let out a watery chuckle as he stood up to embrace the omega.
Harry was very rigid when Zayn hugged him, unable to hug back. Even though Zayn was an omega, there was an alpha, an unknown alpha in the room, and Harry was extremely aware of it.
Zayn moved away; eyebrows furrowed. "Is everything alright?" he asked.
Louis who had been observing the interaction, set Harlow down in his chair after placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, and approached Harry. He placed his hand on Harry's scarf covered neck, and pulled the material off. He placed his hand on the bare skin of the omega's neck, and rubbed at the failed bond mark. "Liam is not going to hurt you, and neither is Zayn, okay? You know Zayn, right?" Louis asked, and Harry nodded in response.
Zayn furrowed his brows. "Harry?" The omega looked at Zayn. "Are you okay?"
Harry sighed. "Sorry, I get scared easily," he said.
"But, you were never scared," Zayn said, confused. "I thought you were dead," Zayn's voice is shaky. "Arnold, a hacker on the web kept saying that he would destroy you, and then you disappeared. You were inactive, and you were never inactive. Not even when you exposed the government," Zayn whispered.
Harry's entire being went rigid. Arnold was a hacker. Arnold knew. How did Arnold figure out who he was? It meant that all the chocolates, and flowers, and praise in the beginning, was a lie. Harry's last remaining good memories shattered. He was tricked. His mind went blank, and a high-pitched ringing was all he heard until the hand on his neck squeezed softly. Harry blinked a few times. "Oh," he managed to say.
"I-I can't believe it. Y-You're alive. Liam, he's alive," Zayn cried into his alpha's chest.
"May I ask what's going on?" Liam asked.
Zayn wiped his tears away, and motioned to sit down. Louis led Harry to the sofa, and sat down after him. Harlow hopped off of Louis's chair, and raced towards the sofa. She held her hands up. Despite all the pain coursing through Harry in that moment, he smiled at her, and gently placed her on his lap. "Is that your daughter?" Zayn asked.
"Yes," Harry answered simply.
Louis cleared his throat. Zayn looked at him before nodding. "Right, so Harry isn't just some random omega. He was the person everyone wanted to be in the hacking community. He is the person everyone wants to be in our community. Harry is the legendary 'blue butterfly.' " Zayn explained in awe.
Harry was always proud of what he did. He was the best, and he knew it. He was so confident back then, before Arnold took his life and turned it upside down.
"Then one day, he disappeared. There was an alpha on the web who went by his actual name, Arnold. He was mediocre at best. He always threatened Harry. Then one day, he said that he destroyed Harry. It was suspicious, and I got scared. At first, I didn't believe him, but then Harry went missing for years, but I guess you settled down. You found yourself an alpha huh? That little girl's papa-" that made Harlow start crying.
"You promised!" She sobbed. "No more papa. You said he w-won't," he kept saying to Louis, and Harry. Harry wanted to cry. He wanted to punch himself for doing this to his daughter.
"He won't hurt you baby. I promise, Harlow. He can't hurt you anymore," Harry soothed her. "He's gone."
"Promise?" she asked, her lips wobbling. Harry wipes her tears away.
"I promise," he replied before hugging her.
Zayn stared wide eyed, realizing what conspired. "I-I'm sorry," he apologized.
"It's not your fault," Harry shrugged. "Arnold did find me. His full name was Arnold Caprese. He's gone now," Harry said, letting out a relieved sigh.
Zayn stares at him. "What?"
"What I said. He found me, treated me nicely for a whole year until he married me, but then he changed. I thought I did something wrong. He was so bad. I would say no, but he would never understand. He never listened. He never listened to us. His will was written to some other woman he had on the side because I was never good enough for him, but I don't want anything from him. I just want to sleep. I'm so tired," he explained, suddenly feeling extremely tired. His bones felt heavy, limbs exhausted after thinking of all the fake smiles Arnold gave him, all the hurt that came afterwards, the self-doubt caused because of Arnold. He lost a limb because of him. He became an incomplete omega.
He remembered Arnold's words to him when he first woke up in the hospital. 'No one will ever want you again.' He remembered the smirk on Arnold's face when he spoke those words. He remembered attempting to get to his daughter without a limb once he got home upon seeing Arnold hit her. He remembered her dropping.
"Need to uhm.....need to get home," Harry knew his words come out slurred. Louis looked at Harry, alarmed.
"What's happening? Harry? Are you okay?" The alpha rushed out.
"Shit," Zayn mumbled, just as terrified. Louis's head snapped in his direction.
"What's wrong? Tell me," he urged. Harry leaned towards Louis's tantalizing scent.
"He's dropping," Zayn's face paled.
"No, c-can't drop. W-Will hurt," Harry fought, a pained expression etched into his soft features.
Zayn sympathized with him. "He will continue to refuse dropping if all he has had are bad experiences with it, but if he does not, it will take a massive toll on his health condition," Zayn explained to Louis who hung onto every word coming out of the omega's mouth.
Louis's eyes went steely, and unreadable. "I will help him. You two might need to leave," he added.
Liam nodded in understanding knowing exactly what it felt like when the omega you like was dropping. "We will get going then," Liam said as he stood up. Zayn, albeit reluctantly, stood to his feet, and the couple left the office.
Louis turned his attention to Harry. "Harry?" The omega's eyes were swirling, his scent dripping with exhaustion. "Where do you live? I need you to tell me," he coaxed, gently.
Harry opened his mouth to reply, but only a small whimper made it past his lips. "Shit," Louis muttered. "Do you trust me?" he asked.
Harry did not know why he did it, but he nodded his head. Something in him, his inner omega, his brain, his heart, everything was telling him to trust Louis so he did exactly that. A small smile worked its way onto Louis's face. "We're using my private elevator. We don't want unnecessary questions, and I cannot deal with that omega who is always in the elevator when I get in," Louis scowled. "Harly, hold my hand, love," Louis instructed as he held his hand out for the little omega after he stood to his feet.
She held onto Louis's hand with a worried expression. "Is mama okay?"
Louis gave her a reassuring smile. "Your mama will be okay," he promised as he supported Harry's weight. The omega who was taller than Louis curled into his side, and did his best to cooperate, and stay awake.
Harry let Louis bear his weight. Halfway through their journey to Louis's private elevator, he let go of Harlow's hand. "Stay close to me," he instructed her. She nodded, still worried about Harry. Louis gave her a firm look before placing his hands under Harry's knees and picking him up, bridal style.
"No, 'm heavy," Harry protested, words slurred, but still aware of his own weight and the fact that the alpha was carrying him.
Louis frowned. "No, Harry, you are not. You will not argue with me on this," Louis said firmly. Harry sighed before curling into Louis, and inhaling his scent, trying his best not to drop in an unsafe environment. "Harly, press the button for me," Louis told her once they were inside.
She does as told. "Mama," she whimpered.
"Your mama will be okay. Do not worry him by crying," Louis told the young omega, gently, not wanting her to cry.
She nodded, and inhaled deeply. "For mama," she muttered.