Niall's POV
I helped Zayn into my flat and into the guest bedroom I had. He was shivering, but I didn't know if it was out of fear or if it was of being cold. He still had some dried blood on him that didn't get washed off at the hospital, but I was afraid to ask him if he wanted to take a bath or something. I was afraid anything I asked him would sound differently to him. I could already tell he read into things in a darker way than anything even ment. Me offering help, he took it like I was going to arrest him. But I saw he wanted to trust me. I saw he wasn't a hard shell. He was ready to break.
"The bathroom is just down the hall if you want to take a bath or a shower. Are you hungry?" I asked him. He nodded slowly and wrapped his arms around his thin self. He followed me to the kitchen then sat down at the table. I got some sandwich stuff out and started making us both a big sandwich.
"Thank you for doing this. Even if I don't trust you, I appreciate this." Zayn said quietly. All I could do was shrug because I didn't want to make a big deal out of this. I just wanted to help him. It's been that way since the day I saw him in the ally way. Something in his eyes showed me he wanted help, but was afraid to accept it. Zayn took a few small bites of the sandwich the second I put it in front of him. I took a single bite, but had to leave the room because my phone started ringing.
"Niall, how is that case going with the man you found?" My dad asked me like he was a little agitated that I wasn't actually at the station. I had called him last night right when the doctors told me that Zayn looked like he was probably a victim of being jumped for everything he had. I felt angry that someone had done that to Zayn even though I didn't even know him, so I called my dad to maybe help me sort this out. That's the only reason I was able to stay with Zayn all day, but I wasn't supposed to bring him home with me or take him to the flat I had just been to last night that happened to be his.
"I'm still getting information from the victim. He might be suffering from memory loss because of how hard he was hit on the head twice." I lied to my dad. The truth was, I'm an idiot. I knew that Zayn wasn't going to tell me who did this to him. I knew he thought it was his fault because it was most likely him who decided to get placed into that situation. However, he is innocent in the sense he didn't ask to be hurt in the ways he was hurt. The reason I'm an idiot is because I knew Zayn was a criminal himself, yet I pulled a criminal case on him where he's the victim. He's not going to talk about what was done wrong to him because he's smart and knows he'll get caught as well.
"Well talk to him some more and see if he remembers enough to press charges. If not, then we'll have to move on from this case and you'll have to get back on your active duty route tomorrow. I hope this will all work out though. Just keep me posted, but I think that this will be a dead end case anyway. Don't get too invested in him, Niall. If you do, you'll become weak for a crime and that's the first thing that will ever set you back from moving forward with this job." My father told me then hung up the phone. I just stood there and thought of his last words. It was a waste of words on his part though. I was already too invested, but I didn't care. I was helping him and for some reason he was the one person I just couldn't shake from wanting to help.
I went back into the kitchen and found Zayn setting down my sandwich I had left on the table. He blushed and swallowed his mouth full as I saw he had taken a few bites out of my sandwich. I giggled at him and pushed the food to him to continue eating. He did just that, but his big brown eyes stayed looking at me like he was seeing if I really ment it that he could eat my sandwich too.
"If you wanted more you could have made another that I didn't eat off of, you animal." I joked to him. He laughed a real laugh and shrugged to me then continued to eat. I made myself another sandwich but got up to get some water. When I came back that was gone too, so I looked at Zayn and saw he was holding it in his other hand like he was going to take a bite of it. My expression must have been a comical one because he laughed again and gave it back to me. Seeing that he was joking around made me happier than he'll ever know. It showed me that he had a lighter side to his dark persona.
"You looked like you wanted to attack me." He pointed out and finished the last bite of his food. I just rolled my eyes at him in a playful manner then finished eating. Zayn sat there looking around my kitchen like he was really impressed with the way it all looked. He turned his head to look at the picture of my nephew, Theo, I had on the refrigerator, but I stopped looking at the way his face was and found a deep purple bruse that showed on his neck and disappeared into his shirt. I also saw the dried blood that was definitely from his hair.
"Is that your little boy?" Zayn asked me, pointing to the picture of Theo. I set down my food because I wasn't hungry anymore after seeing the way Zayn was battered. To me, I think he's very attractive and beautiful in a way. I can also tell he has a kind heart so it made me feel almost sick that there were people in this world that could take full advantage of that.
"He's my nephew. Everyone always says he looks more like me than my brother so they just assume he's mine. I'm only twenty-two, though. I don't want kids right now." I said. Zayn looked back to me and the picture and must have been confused to why my nephew looks so much like me. I think it's because me and my brother Greg don't have a good relationship and never have so he had to have his son look like me just to annoy him even more. I know that's not true and he actually loves his son more than anything, but it's still a nice joke I have with him.
"Do you think I could take a bath? The doctor said that direct water on my staples was a bad idea. I just feel really dirty." Zayn asked on a more serious note. Both of us made our way to the bathroom that was in the hall. He seemed to be feeling weird about just using my bathroom so I found myself once again reminding him that I was helping him and it was okay to use whatever he wanted or needed.
I left the bathroom so Zayn could start getting his clothes off and doing all the things I didn't need to be there for. I didn't know what to do with myself because I was worried he would need me for something if I went too far. So I just sat outside the bathroom door and waited for him. I know it sounds weird, but I just didn't want to leave him in there alone for too long.
Too long came once he was in the bathroom for over an hour. I knocked on the door, but received no answer from him. So I cracked the door open to find he was just sitting there with his skinny knees pulled up to his chest and his face buried in them. I stepped closer and reached out to his wet shoulder. He jumped and looked up at me with sleepy eyes. That's when I knew he had fallen asleep and I need to get him out of the water now before he drown in here.
"Let's get you to bed." I mumbled to him. I helped him out of the tub and wrapped a big towel around him. I tried my hardest not to look at any of his nakedness, but my eyes looked away and landed on the water. It was a pink color that was only from blood. I quickly let the water drain because I didn't want to see that he had washed that much more blood from his body. They already did that at the hospital, so for more blood to be coming off him was just terrible.
Zayn and I went down to the guest bedroom where he was staying. It was only five in the afternoon, but I helped Zayn get into some of my pajamas and into the nice bed. He sighed and pulled the blankets up to his chin. He looked at me like he was seeing if he had to do anything to deserve this bed and pretty much everything I had given him. I just turned off the lights and closed the curtains before going to leave the room.
"My room is just down the hall if you need anything at all. Don't be afraid to wake me up either." I told him before leaving the room.
I sat in the living room watching pointless shows on the telly for hours. I must have even dozed off at one point because I was being jolted away by someone tapping my shoulder lightly. The remote control flew to the wood floor as I stood up. In my sleepy state my hand reached back to where my gun would have been if I were actually on duty and has my belt on. Once the sleep cleared from my eyes and I saw Zayn was standing there with a pale look on his face I pulled myself together.
"My head is really hurting." He whimpered to me. I ran to where I placed his prescribed pain medication. I took out the needed amount then got a glass of water before taking it to Zayn, who was now sitting on the couch like standing hurt too much.
"What is this? I don't want it if it's oxycodone or anything else like that." Zayn said, sounding scared of what I was giving him. I looked at the bottle that was still in my hand and saw it was just like extra strength ibuprofen.
"It's just a higher dosage of regular ibuprofen. I take this for my knee when it hurts. It's not addictive and won't make you feel weird." I assured him. He took the pills from me and looked over it once more before finally actually taking the medication. He drank the rest of the water in the cup as well. I was so confused why he was almost afraid of taking those pills. It wasn't something I expected from him, especially because the doctors found traces of coccain in his blood. I didn't think any differently of him, I just felt confused now why it mattered what he was taking if he had done even worse before.
"Sorry to bother you. Goodnight." He numbed to me before giving back down that hall to his room. I hated the obvious tension between us. I hated he didn't trust me. Why didn't he just accept help? Why can't he let his guard down enough for me to help him? I just stood there and wondered when all my building questions would be answered. I also wondered if I wanted to know that answer to them.
A/N: another one!!!! I hope you like how this is going. I saw Zootopia today and it was a really good movie. It as cute haha If you had to loose a body part, what would it be!??!?!?! Comment/ Vote!
- Bri;)