ChapterFourteen – Liam
Liam's going over a few contracts for an important meeting he and Niall have tomorrow, making sure everything is right, and benefits them, in the long run, while being fair. His phone starts ringing in his pocket and Liam frowns pulling it out to see who's calling him, seeing it's Zayn he quickly presses accept, deciding he can ask to call his boyfriend back in a few hours, "hey, Zayn" he murmurs into the phone eyes still scanning over the contract. "Hey, Liam, I'm sorry to bug you while you're working but..." Zayn trails off. Liam furrows his eyebrows Zayn sounds off, like something's wrong, "hey, babe, I'm busy, but what is it, you sound off?" Liam asks. Zayn lets out a sigh through the phone, "um I hate to ask you this, because I know how busy you are, but I can't find Louis and Harry's at work with me, and I can't leave right now, and-" Zayn rambles. Liam shakes his head, "what is it?" he asks concerned and Zayn sighs "okay, well, I guess my mum blacked out, and Waliyha took her to the hospital, but someone needs to go and pick up Bella, and I know it's not a great time but" Zayn explains quickly, cutting off to breathe deeply and Liam frowns at his phone, "are you asking me to pick up your daughter?" he asks confused, "also is your mum okay?" he adds. Zayn chuckles "yeah,Mum's fine, she just forgot to eat all day or summat, but yes I am asking you to pick up Bella. I would but, my boss won't let me leave,and I don't have a car anyways" he answers, and Liam can picture him biting his lip, and tugging on his hair. Liam thinks for a second before he makes his decision, it was never a question really, "I'll go get her, but Zee, I don't have a seat for her" he says, Zayn laughs, just take the one from Waliyha's car, I'll take it back to her when I drop Bella off next" he answers. Liam nods and stacks up the papers on his desk, "I'll have to bring her back to the office, I still have a ton of work to do today" he warns. "That's fine Liam, I wouldn't even be asking you if I wasn't desperate, I'll come pick her up as soon as I can" Zayn assures him. Liam sighs, shaking his head, "no I'll bring her home when I'm done here, I could use some Zayn time" he mumbles, Zayn laughs, "deal, I have to get back to work, thank you" he calls, hanging up before Liam can respond.
Liam pulls up to the hospital thirty minutes later, he stops at the reception desk to ask for the room number, "I'm looking for Trisha Malik?" he asks, slowly. The girl looks up lazily at him, "are you family?" she asks, snapping her gum loudly. Liam rolls his eyes, "not really, I'm her son's boyfriend, and they're expecting me" he informs her, she sighs and types away on the computer in front of her, before telling Liam the room number. Liam takes the elevator to the floor and heads down the hallway in search of the right room, "you must be Liam?" a girl's voice asks, and Liam furrows his eyebrows at her, "right sorry, I'm Waliyha, Zayn's sister" she introduces herself. Liam grins and reaches out to shake her hand, now that he knows who she is, the resemblance to Zayn is undeniable, "sorry yeah, I'm Liam" he murmurs, and she grins. "Zayn told me you were coming, but he forgot to mention you were stunning" Waliyha says, blushing lightly, Liam chuckles and nods his head, "thank you?" he asks,more than says. Waliyha blushes, and points towards a room on their left, "Bella's in there with Mum, but I really don't think you want to meet my mum under these circumstances" she sighs, and Liam raises an eyebrow, "why not?" he asks, and Waliyha laughs. "She's upset at everyone right now, doesn't think she needs to be in here, which she's probably right. Also Zayn is a mumma's boy and I know he'll want to be there when you do meet her, so I'll go and bring Bella out here, and then we can go down and switch over the car seat" she says decidedly, before disappearing into the room before Liam can respond. "Must be a Malik thing" he mumbles to himself, before the door opens again and suddenly an energetic toddler is crashing full force into his knees, "Leeyum" Bella whimpers.
Liam realizes with a start that Bella's crying, and he bends down to pull her into his arms "hey, shh, why are you crying, Love?" he asks gently. Arabella shrugs andsnuggles further into his shoulder, "scary, place. Grandma fall down" she mumbles, and Liam understands instantly, "oh, are you scared of the hospital?" he asks. Bella nods in response and Liam instantly feels bad for the toddler, she's had a long day already,and it's barely one in the afternoon. Waliyha appears again, carrying Bella's bag and the three head towards the elevator again, when they make it to the parking lot, Liam realizes he's parked beside Waliyha,"convenient" he chuckles and Waliyha nods, quickly moving the seat from her car into Liam's backseat, since Bella shows no signs of letting go of Liam. "There you go, all set" Waliyha says as she stands back up, "bye munchkin" she murmurs, pressing a kiss to Bella's cheek, who pulls her face out to wave at her aunt "bye Auntie Wali" she murmurs. Waliyha turns and heads back inside,waving to Liam as she does, "alright, let's get you buckled in" Liam murmurs, slowly placing Bella in her seat, and doing up the straps. "We goin' to see Baba?" Bella asks quietly, Liam bites his lip and shakes his head, "not right away, we're going to my office first" he tells her, kissing her forehead when she pouts at him. "Want Baba" Bella whines as Liam slides into the driver's seat, starting the car before turning to face her, "I know sweetie, I do too. But I promise I'll finish my work fast and we can go find Baba, alright?" Liam asks. Bella appears to be thinking about it before she whines quietly, and nods her head at Liam, who nods back and turns to face the road.
Liam's pulling back into his office building's parking lot, before he even really knows it, and Bella gasps from the back looking up at the huge building with wide eyes,"we goin' in there?" she gasps. Liam chuckles getting out of the car and coming around to unbuckle the toddler, slinging her bag over his shoulder as he does, "yeah, I work all the way at the top" he tells her, scooping her into his arms. "Leeyum" Bella giggles as he tickles her tummy, making his way to the elevator quickly, ignoring the confused looks he's getting along the way, setting Bella down once they're in the elevator. "I push button" she demands,reaching up towards him again, "yeah alright" he murmurs picking her up again so she can press the button for the top floor, setting her back down again once she's successful. As they wait for the elevator to climb the floors, Liam crouches down to be closer to Bella's level "alright, when we get up there, I have some work to do, and I need you to be a good girl while I do that, alright?" he asks, Bella bites her lip, nodding slowly. Liam grins, "so you can either hang out with me in my office or you can stay with my friend Elise, okay?" he asks. Bella chews her lip as she thinks, head tilting slightly to the right, "I stay Leeyum" she says decidedly. Liam was expecting that answer to be honest, but he's not sure how it's going to work out, he's never tried working with a bored toddler in his office. He nods slowly as the doors open up on his floor, "alright, but you have to let me work" he warns, Arabella nods giggling, "promise" she says holding her pinky finger out to him.
Liam sighs as he shuts the door to his office behind himself and a giggling Bella, it had taken him twenty minutes to get through Nikki and Elise, both cooing over the toddler, who is loving every minute of it, all while pretending to be shy, hiding in Liam's shoulder. Once in the safety of his office Liam sets Bella down, crouching to look in her eyes, "alright, I need to do some work at my desk. Can you play quietly over here for a little bit?" Liam asks gently. Bella whines, but nods her head, so he opens her bag, pulling out some of her princesses and a colouring book and crayons, once he's sure she's settled, and colouring happily, he crosses his room to the pile of contracts he left on his desk when Zayn called earlier. He's about halfway through the stack of paper when it happens, across the room he hears a tiny gasp, followed by the sound of glass shattering. When he looks over, he sees Bella, surrounded by a pile of broken glass, from what appears to have once been a picture frame. Before he can even completely process what's happened, Bella starts to cry, loud hiccupping sobs, making her body shake, "Bella, please just don't move" Liam says,a little more sternly than he meant to, which only makes Bella cry harder.
Liam's across the room in an instant, pulling the completely hysterical toddler into his arms, and away from the pile of glass. Arabella pulling away from him, and struggling to get out of his arms, "hey, shh. You're okay, we're just getting away from the mess" Liam coos, rubbing her back as he walks back towards his desk. "NO! Leeyum angry. Put Bella down" she exclaims struggling in his grasp, Liam's face falls at her words, but he sets the still crying toddler down in his desk chair, stumbling backwards a little, afterwards. His office door opens and Niall peers around the door, "everything okay in here?" he asks concerned, Bella shakes her head adamantly, "no, Neil, Leeyum mad at Bella" she insists, while Liam shakes his head, "I don't know why she thinks that?" he mumbles. Niall sighs and steps inside, closing the door behind himself, "what happened?" he asks, Liam groans, and scrubs a hand through his hair, "she was playing, and I was going over those contracts, when something broke. I asked her to stay still, because I didn't want her to get hurt, and then she started telling me I'm upset with her" Liam explains. Niall nods slowly, "I see" he mumbles, Bella starts crying again, "no, Leeyum yelled at Bella" she insists, shrinking back into the chair when Liam steps towards her, "want Baba" she mumbles, before crying harder, again.
Liam understands completely then, and Zayn's going to kill him, he thinks back to when he first told Bella to not move, replaying it in his head, before groaning, "I got this Niall, thanks" he mutters, gesturing for his best friend to leave. Niall gives him a small smile, before scooping the leftover contracts off Liam's desk and exiting the room. Once he's gone, Liam turns so he's facing Arabella, but makes no move to step towards her, as much as he wants to, "I didn't mean to yell at you, I promise. I just didn't want you to get hurt, on all the broken glass" he explains. Bella bites her lip and shakes her head at him, "Leeyum not mad?" she asks quietly, and Liam sighs, shaking his head, "not at all" he says. Bella narrows her eyes "but I breaked your picture" she mumbles, sniffling, Liam shakes his head, "I don't care about that, love. I care about you getting hurt" he assures her. Bella cocks her head to the side, before she starts crying again, but this time is reaching towards Liam as she does, Liam doesn't hesitate, but closes the short distance between them quickly and pulls her back into his arms, hugging her close to his chest. Once Bella seems to have calmed down, Liam pulls her out of his chest to look at her,"I'm sorry I yelled at you a little. What do you say we leave here and go get ice cream, before we go and find Baba?" he asks. Bella grins at him, before nodding, "yes, please" she murmurs, and Liam grins,nodding "alright" he agrees.
Liam straps Arabella into her car seat, after asking Elise to clean up the mess in his office, and making his way back to the parking lot. The toddler seems a lot happier, now that Liam's made sure she realizes he's not in anyway upset with her, but he knows he's going to have to tell Zayn about it all, and if he's honest he's not looking forward to it at all. Liam shakes his head as he pulls out of his spot, heading towards his favourite ice cream place, which happens to be close to Zayn's apartment, which he can't decide whether it's a good thing or not. Once they're inside, and Liam's ordered for both of them, he carefully carries, both Bella and their ice creams to a nearby table, making sure the toddler is situated before handing over her vanilla ice cream cone, and sitting across from her, to eat his own. They're both about halfway through them when he gets a text telling him Zayn is home, he replies quickly, before laughing at the sticky mess Bella has become, reaching across to attempt to clean her up a little. "Alright, are you ready to go and see Baba?" Liam asks chuckling when Bella grins and nods rapidly, "yes, yes, yes" she squeals, Liam smiles standing up, scooping her up as well, before heading back out towards his car, and Zayn.
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A/N: Sorry this took a while, this month has been crazy...but you get some fluffy(ish) Liam and Bella time which I enjoy, anyways...
I hope you enjoyed these chapters, let me know what you think (or don't) it's really up to you.
But anyways updates from here on out might be scarce because we just sold our house (that wasn't technically for sale) and we have to have everything packed up and out by the end of August. Which is just nonsense especially with a three year old. I will update if I have time but I'm not sure when it will be, I'm sorry in advance. Also we don;t get our new house for about a week after we have to be out of this one...so we'll be staying in our camper trailer for a week with no internet, and I have no clue when I'll get the internet once in the new house but I'll let you know before I disappear and when I'm back. I'm sorry about all this, and I promise I'll try to update before I'm internetless for awhile.
xoxo