~You will find me,

And you will find me~

SEPTEMBER 2ND

Simon ran to Louis' side, hands instantly covered in blood. It flowed from too many places to count, but he did his best. From the bottom of his heart, the older man screamed. "HELP!" A sob broke out of his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Louis."

Louis was struggling not to cry out, and his blue eyes started at his boss with the same fire as moments prior. "Niall's in trouble. You've got to send someone out to get them! Save Niall, yeah?"

Two shots came from the interior of the house, heard over the noise of hearts beating quickly, too quickly to mean anything good. "HELP! Please! Someone! Louis, stay with me!" He wanted to press his hand to his cheek, but all of his power was being spent on trying to keep him alive.

Louis squeezed his eyes shut, tears dripping out as his face grew red from adrenaline. As Simon pressed down harder on his abdomen, an ungodly scream ripped out of him. Worse than when the cries of pain in the bathroom at his dad's when their mum had died. Screaming into a pillow so that the girls wouldn't hear him. But they did. His heart was broken emotionally that day, and now it was physically broken.

He managed to take a couple of shallow breaths. "Make sure my family gets the money." Even dying, he was authoritative.

"You're going to be fine." Empty, meaningless words. Blood formed at the corner of his mouth, and Simon's stomach bottomed out. "The job's over. The job's done."

"We're done?" There was hope in his voice, hope that the others would be free of this life. Never doing another job again. "For real this time?"

"You did good, Louis." Simon screamed for help another time, hoping anyone would come near. Finally he began to wonder what the hell Eleanor was doing instead of helping him. "I shouldn't have asked you to protect me at the risk of Fin." His tears fell onto the dying man's face.

Louis screamed again, and his eyes began to flutter out as he lost his grip on consciousness. "Don't come near them again. Not a single one of them. Promise me." He'd come a long way from that antisocial boy in the meeting room, with Simon begging him to play nice with the others and to make a friend or two. He found family, and now his family was going to lose him.

Simon looked up and wiped his eyes on his shoulders. As he did that, Eleanor and Niall appeared in the doorway. She had ran off with the baby to save the safecracker from the psycho twins and had therefore missed her ex getting shot. It had probably happened just as she was clear of the room.

Niall screamed in heartbreak. In agony. Eleanor quickly moved to place the baby in the carrier and help. Niall fell to his knees, clutching his chest and sobbing in earnest. "Please help!" Simon said to them, desperate to try and save Louis.

Eleanor slid towards them on her knees and placed her hands in the mess of tuxedo, flesh, and blood. "Niall!" She demanded, trying to be calm. "Call an ambulance! My phone in is my pocket!"

He must have sensed the urgency, because he managed to walk over and grab the smartphone. The numbers were easily dialed, but his voice was shaky as he spoke. "Hi, we need an ambulance. My best friend's been shot."

"We already have police en-route to your position. Dispatching an ambulance now. What's your name?"

Niall couldn't bare to stay on the line with an apathetic woman who wouldn't understand the gravity of the situation. The best person on the entire planet had their life force seeping out of them. "I'm sorry," He sobbed. "Eleanor, I'm sorry. I'm hanging up now."

"He'll be okay!"

Louis opened his eyes for a moment, not seeing to be out all the way. After screaming again, he looked up to see Niall sobbing into his hands, face torn in helplessness. Louis' face melted, seeing his friend. "One Direction for life, yeah Niall?" Then his blue eyes closed, and the sobbing doubled.

"He'll be okay, Niall! I can't face Fin grow up without him!" Despite all of their bickering, she wasn't going to raise this child on her own. She needed to have both of them - Eleanor to be the mean mom, and Louis to be the caring dad who would spoil her endlessly. "You need to call Harry. Now!"

Simon took one hand away from the unconscious man's chest, and slapped him in a desperate attempt to get him to wake up. If he was awake, he was alive. But now there was just blood everywhere. No startling blue of his eyes to break things up.

"You don't have his number," Niall struggled to speak.

"They should be at the rendezvous point," Simon said, hiccuping through his own set of tears. "Waiting for us. Does she have Gemma's number?"

"Yes!" There was an upbeat of excitement for him to find it, and he dialed the number. But no one answered. Niall couldn't bear to leave a voicemail. What if Harry listened to it forever and ever, knowing the exact moment that Louis died and left him alone?

There was silence. He couldn't say that she hadn't answered. Everyone was suddenly startled by a phone ringing, however. It was coming from Louis' pocket. Getting dirty for the first time, Niall kneeled and grabbed the phone. Now his own hands were covered in blood and Harry's face was on the screen. "I can't tell him that he's dead!"

"He's not dying!" Eleanor's voice broke, and the tears finally slipped down her face. She had loved him once, and everyone knew that he didn't deserve this fate. "He's Louis Tomlinson!" She pressed down harder, letting the sobs break out. "He isn't going to die!"

Niall let the call go to voicemail. He held his blood arm out as he sank to the floor by the wall, crying harder than he already had been, but still managing to speak. "You said...no one would get hurt. Simon."

"He jumped in front of the gun, Niall!" Simon screamed, not caring how angry he sounded. "Like an idiot."

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of crying from everyone, and Louis' ragged breathing. It meant he was still hanging in there, but it was getter more shallow by the minute. Then the baby started crying. "Oh god!" Eleanor sobbed.

"I'll calm her down. I'm the least bloody."

Niall stood up and crossed to pick up Fin, who looked at him with bright blue tear-filled eyes. "She has his eyes. I've never noticed before."

"Get a grip! She won't calm down if you don't!" Eleanor managed to yell at him. "I'm covered in blood and can't...can't let go."

He tried to hold his breath in, to stop the tears and rock her gently. It was clear that the longer this kept on, the more anxious Eleanor got. Until she abruptly fell backwards, holding her bloody hands to her face and sobbing. Her back was in a pool of Louis' blood.

"It's okay, Fin," He said, not believing it himself. "Daddy's okay."Simon screamed in anger, in pain at not being able to do anything. Niall stood again, walking out of the room with the baby in his arms. "Daddy's okay."