Nathan's POV -

I knocked on Ellie's door, and waited for her to answer, but when there was no reply I decided to see if everything was alright - I only knew I'd be able to get in because, as she always did when we were together, she just left the door unlocked and didn't really care if people could get in.

"El?" I shouted through the house, for there to be no reply.

I looked around the house, being met by nothing other than a silence. I walked into each of the rooms down stairs, finding that there was no one there, so I decided that I was going to check upstairs.

The first bedroom I walked into was designed for a little girl, and I assumed that it must have belonged to Aimee because there were a couple of posters of One Direction and Justin Bieber; and there was even one of us at the end of her bed, so I guess Ellie never really forgot about me. The walls were painted a light pink, and there were some pictures of Aimee with El and James as a baby; she looked just like Jess did when she was a baby and it brought a tear to my eye to think that I missed out on that.

My eyes finally wandered over to the bed where I noticed El was asleep, Aimee cuddled into her chest with a slight smile on her face.

El, on the other hand, had a tear stained face and I could tell that she must have fallen asleep crying; it made me wonder what was so bad that she wanted me to come over and speak to me.

I pulled the covers over the top of both El and Aimee so they weren't too cold when they woke up, and I took a seat on the end of the bed - it might have seemed weird that I was looking at the both of them sleep, but they both looked so peaceful and Aimee looked like she was genuinely happy with Ellie.

I didn't have the chance to watch Aimee grow up, but El had done an amazing job with her and she was an amazing little girl who appeared to love her life and it seemed to me that she loved Ellie as well.

"You're amazing El and I miss you. I mean, I really do miss you and, if we could change everything, then I would do and we'd be happy. I love you." I whispered, placing a kiss on the top of her head before I walked out of the room and went to head downstairs; I was just going to wait for El to wake up.

"Don't leave me Nathan. Please don't leave me." I heard El mumble out of no where.

"I'm only going downstairs. I'll still be here when you wake up." I replied.

"Do you promise?" Ellie questioned me, still with her eyes closed; although she was looking in my direction.

"I promise El. Now go back to sleep." I smiled despite the fact she couldn't actually see me.

With the smile on my face, I walked out of the bedroom and headed downstairs; going straight into the kitchen and putting the kettle on because I hadn't had my daily cup of tea yet and it was something I felt I needed right now.

*

I had been waiting for just under two hours now and was distracted from the TV by the sofa dipping down beside me a little.

"Who are you?" Aimee asked me, taking the remote from me and changing the channel onto something that I assumed she must have usually watched; but she continued to look at me every couple of minutes.

"I'm just a friend." I replied.

"Does mummy know you're here?" she questioned me.

"Yes Aimee. Mummy knows I'm here." I smiled at her, taking in her features and admiring the fact she had the same coloured eyes as me; they seemed to be the most prominent feature of her face and she was going to pull some good looking guys when she was older.

"Are you the same person mummy saw before?" Aimee asked.

"That's me. Did you have fun with Jay while me and mummy talked to each other?" I grinned, but she just nodded at me rather than actually speaking before turning her attention back to the screen; I heard her laughing at some points but, other than that, I didn't even know she was there.

I thought I had better wake El up and see if there was anything I could do for her.

I walked into the bedroom, hearing soft sobs coming from the bed as I entered and I knew immediately that El was hurting and I knew that she just needed a friend more than anything.

"El. Please don't cry." I spoke softly, running over to her and embracing her in one hell of a hug.

"W-w-why? W-wh-why Nat-Nathan?" she cried into my chest.

"I don't know El. He's an idiot and he didn't deserve you, please don't let him get to you." I pleaded with her.

"Bu-but I lov-loved h-hi-him." she answered and I knew how she was feeling because I was feeling the same way about Jade; I loved her as well and she had hurt me too, but this was clearly effecting her way more than it was with me.

El had brought Aimee up with James, and he had told her that he loved both her and her daughter. Now he was acting like this, and he was even going to start a new family with Jade - they had deliberately made sure Jade would get pregnant because she wanted a baby, but she didn't want one with me.

"I know El. I know." I sighed, hugging her tighter than I was before.

"Di-did h-he ev-e-ever lo-love m-me?" Ellie questioned and I wanted to tell her that, at one point, he did love her and he did actually want to be with her; but I didn't even believe that was true so there was no way I could tell her that.

"I don't know, I really don't. I'll always be here for you though, I promise." I whispered to her.

"Bu-bu-but you're lea-leaving to-tomorrow." Ellie replied and, in all this madness, I had actually forgotten we were leaving here tomorrow and we were moving on to Texas to do some gigs over in that direction.

I wasn't going to be here for El when she needed me, I was going to be in another state and I'd be too busy to actually talk to her if she wanted to.

I was such an idiot.

I don't even know how I could forget something like that.

"I'll be back, before you know it. I'll get this tour out of the way and then I'm coming back for you." I said quietly.

"I-I'm so-sor-sorry for all o-of th-this." Ellie said suddenly; her words still falling out of her mouth as she attempted to hide her sobs from me, but it wasn't working because I had always been able to see through her and I knew when she was upset.

"Don't be sorry. None of this is your fault and, when you've got Aimee, you don't need someone like James."

"Is mummy OK?" Aimee spoke from nowhere, as she walked further into her room and over to her bed where she could see that Ellie wasn't OK.

"I think she needs a cuddle from you." I smiled, pulling Aimee up and placing her the other side of El; who immediately wrapped her free arm around Aimee and pulled her into her chest.

"I love you mummy."

"I love you too Ams. You remember Nathan?"

"Yeah. His friend was funny." Aimee giggled.

"What? Jay?" I questioned.

"He kept falling over." Aimee replied, which made El smile as she remembered back to all the times Jay had fallen over something; there were a lot of things which had made Jay either trip or fall flat on his face.

"And what about Nathan's other friend?" El asked her.

"He was funny too. He played hide and seek with me."

"Oh yeah, who won that one then?" I asked her with a slight laugh.

"Me. Max was too big to play." Aimee laughed as Ellie wiped away the last of the tears from her eyes and pulled herself away from me, looking at me with a smile on her face now and then looking back to Aimee; I could see nothing other than love in her eyes when she looked at her daughter. "Can we see them again?"

"Erm, I don't know if that's a good idea Ams. They might be busy packing." Ellie replied.

"Please mummy?"

"Perhaps they can spare half an hour. I'll just go and phone them for you." I smiled, making this the last thing that I would do for Ellie for a while; and I was going to make it something good for the both of them.

I scrolled through my contacts, coming across Jay's name first, so deciding he was the one that I was going to phone and tell him to make sure he was free for the next half hour.

"Alright mate." Jay beamed, not giving me the chance to say anything before he did.

"Alright Bird. I've got a favour to ask, well, not just of you, but the others as well." I replied.

"What would that be then?"

"El is feeling a bit down and, also, Aimee wants to see you and Max again before we leave. I was thinking that, if you can convince the others to put up with her company for a while, that we should all go out to dinner somewhere nice?" I suggested, and I could hear Jay considering what I had just said, but he didn't answer immediately which made me think that he was going to refuse the idea.

"I'll do my best to convince the other boys. Although, as much as Max says he hates Ellie and children, he was having the time of his life playing with Aimee." Jay chuckled.

"Yeah. She told me and El about how Max was too big to play hide and seek, so it meant that she won." I laughed back.

"I got Max telling me that he let her win, so he needs a rematch to prove he's good at the game. I guess we'll see you in about an hour then?" Jay questioned.

"OK. An hour it is. Thanks mate." I said before I hung the phone up and walked back into Aimee's room with a smile on my face; seeing that El was currently tickling the poor little girl who was in nothing other than fits of laughter.

"Nathan, help me out here." El smiled at me, half laughing at the same time.

"No mu-mum-mummy. Pl-plea-please." Aimee begged in between laughter, but I could see that they were having a good time and I didn't see the harm in joining in.

After all, she was my daughter as well and this is the sort of thing that parents did with their children.

"Max wants to see Aimee again to prove he can actually beat her at hide and seek, and then we're all going to go out for something to eat. That OK with you?" I questioned.

"That sounds fine with me. At least I get to spend a little more time with you before you leave me." El smiled back at me as we both resumed with tickling Aimee, leaving her more and more breathless each time she attempted to beg us to stop and leave her alone.