~For reasons we don't understand~

AUGUST 15TH

Louis rested his forehead against the door with a small thump. Then he knocked again, to no answer. It was possible that Simon had fallen asleep at his keyboard, since he wasn't in his room. He felt defeated standing there, like he had failed himself as Harry's boyfriend and foremost, as his best friend.

"Is someone knocking?" Simon yelled, so Louis opened the door. No, he wasn't sleeping, he was listening to rock music in his earbuds. He could tell because it was so loud that Louis could hear it across the room. "It's late, Louis."

"We need to do something about Harry," He crossed to the other chair in the room and spun around before coming to a dramatic halt facing his boss and perhaps friend. "I can't get through to him. And if I can't, who can?"

He was utterly defeated. Weeks of the man he loved isolating himself - talking to no one and seeing no one except Fin, who was technically also his daughter. "I have a plan," Simon said simply, and immediately Louis' anger was rising.

"You have a plan, huh?"

"I took the liberty of calling Gemma in." Simon turned the music off.

Louis knit his eyebrows together and tried to unclench his fists. "Gemma is in New York. And she can't fly because she's too sick!"

Simon smiled back at him like he had a secret to tell, and that he did. "She's been in England for several months now." He didn't wait for Louis to exclaim in confusion, and kept rolling. "And she's coming in tomorrow."

"Why is she in England and Harry doesn't know about it?" He stood up and started moving towards the door, desperate to tell his boyfriend whatever he was about to find out. "Simon, tell me now!"

"Sit down," Simon voiced in his polite tone, and Louis walked over to the chair and placed his small hands on the back of it. "I decided several months ago that it would be pertinent to see if I could find out who works for Nicholas."

Louis held his stomach. "Oh no. No. Gemma's evil?"

"We're all evil in this game, Louis," was the rebuttal. "And yes, I found out that Gemma has been working for him for many years."

He began walking back towards the door, with a look of understanding beginning to dawn on his face. "And Harry doesn't know? I have to tell him. Now."

Simon stood to try and block the door. "She wants to tell him tomorrow, when she gets here. It's not my place to get into their relationship."

Angrily, Louis slammed the chair full force into Simon's desk. "I'm calling Gemma when we're done here, but I need to know everything you know first." He pulled it out again and sat down, trying to ignore the feeling that one of the legs was about to fall off. "Is she sick at all?"

Simon shut his desktop up and rolled his earbuds around his fingers. "I don't know anything about that."

"Why is she coming here if she's evil?" He wasn't giving up the good and evil contrast. "We can kidnap her to stop whatever job she's doing. Despite whatever Harry would say about that. But they've tried to kill us, and we should retaliate if we have the opportunity!"

"She's my double agent that I've been talking about," He finally said, which he should have said first. Louis was silent for this revelation, and just continued to stare. "I contacted her when I found out, told her about Harry, and that if she wanted to keep him safe, we had to work together to get him out of this business."

"How did two siblings get drawn into the crime world?" Louis' hand rested on the pack of cigarettes in his pocket, and he desperately wished that this room had a functioning window so that he could light up and find some meaning to his question.

Simon realized the look in his eye, but also knew the question to his answer. "I think Nicholas pushed me towards pulling him in." Louis' looked up in surprise. "Nicholas wants to create situations and drama if the two groups ever met. He pushed me towards Harry, and I'm still uncomfortable about it."

Louis laced his fingers and crossed his legs, leaning in. "Do I have to worry about Lottie being evil? My parents? Anyone I know?"

He shook his head. "I know everyone who Nicholas knows now. Gemma is the only one he got too." Simon seemed hesitant, but Louis had never not trusted him before. "And she's his right hand. More than you've ever been mine. I'd suspect the two of them being romantically involved if not for the age difference," He looked off into the distance. "Not that that's ever stopped him before."

"Ok, ew," Louis looked at his suggest with disgust.

"Ed was the one who looked it into all the team members. And I'm pretty sure they know all about us. More than I'll ever know about any of them." Louis knew that there was more than he was letting on, but he had enough information to go to Gemma about.

"So she has information for us?" A cross of the arms.

Simon shuffled some files and started organizing his cluttered desk as the conversation wrapped up and it was time for bed. "She's confirmed the type of safe for Niall, has camera information for Zayn, and the overall security procedures for the whole group to be aware of. She wants Harry to be safe, and out of this business, as much as you do, Louis."

Louis began to pace anxiously, back and forth down the length of the room that wasn't covered with files or the desk. "I have a lot of questions." At the end of his sentence, he stopped with a glance at Simon, who yawned.

"Tomorrow you'll just need to get Harry to talk to her, and she'll explain everything to him. I promise. I trust her." And if he trusted Gemma, Louis trusted this evil Gemma for which he was going to grill in a moment. With a nod, Simon opened the door and went off down the hall. Louis took a place in the chair behind the desk and took his phone from his jumper pocket.

Gemma contact information was under, "Sister-in-Law" although Harry and Louis weren't married. And if the curly one wasn't coming out of that room, it didn't look like they would ever be. Louis would become a hermit, living in Doncaster with his daughter and always reliving the glory days.

"Louis, it's late," She answered with.

He clucked back. "I know."

That wasn't enough for her. "What are you talking about?"

Through gritted teeth he replied, "About the new medication you're taking." There was no time to tell if she thought that he was serious, because her reply was immediate.

"Did you tell Harry?"

"No, you can tell your brother yourself," It was easy to tell that he was treating her and the conversation with disdain.

"I want him to understand." Her tone was small, and very quiet, as if she wasn't alone either. There was no way that they could talk openly on an unsecured line, and apparently, the both of them knew it.

Louis screamed. "He needs you. Now. I haven't seen him out of that room in weeks." Why would he give up power to Harry's evil sister? It was angering him more than the fact that she was evil.

"It'll all be better tomorrow."

But that wasn't soon enough. Louis angrily hung up the call and began stripping off his jumper and shoes. Because while there was a gym with a couple of perfectly-working treadmill, the yard had breathable air and mud to be covered in. He threw open the backdoor, stalking past Liam who questioned how the meeting went.

He didn't get an answer.

The lawn was still destroyed from his soccer game in the rain, and he wanted to feel the mud under his feet as he ran laps around the backyard and tried to feel like he wouldn't fall apart from all of the emotions he was feeling. The squishing was uncomfortable and only rose the anger levels. Everything was so much more complicated without Harry there, placating his raging mood swings with a smile and a juice box like he was a toddler. And Infinity wasn't even a toddler.

Louis slipped and promptly landed on his back, effectively destroying a pair of joggers and his hair. He didn't get up, choosing to stare at the stars for a moment with no thoughts except the ones about his racing heart to accompany him.

Then Zayn stepped into his field of vision. "He's going to be ok," He wasn't talking to someone else, this was about Harry. "September 2nd, and it'll all be over. We'll move to Mars to get really far away."

"There are no Adidas stores on Mars," Louis insisted. "How would I survive?"

He laughed and extended his hand down to his friend, who took it and nearly pulled Zayn down when he tried to get up.