~A necessity for apologies between you and me,

Baby, there is none~

AUGUST 2ND

The next morning, Liam was sleeping peacefully in his room, grateful that the baby in the house was also asleep so that he could finally get some REM sleep. However, the peace was short-lived, as Louis entered and bonked him with a pillow. He wasn't a light sleeper, and immediately sat up.

His friend was in the doorway with a cup that had a lid and a straw. "Coffee?" Liam questioned and reached out for it.

Louis handed it over and kneeled on the bed, his expression showing a delightful smile as Liam took a sip of blended kale and avocado. "Why?" He groaned.

"It's a protein shake. It's step one of my plan."

Liam blinked, knowing exactly where this was going, but he didn't want to wake up and be a part of that world just yet. "Why are you waking me up so early? Surely Simon's plan can wait another five minutes?" Hesitantly, he took another sip.

"You're coming with me to drop Fin off with her mother," The usually informal man spoke with eloquence. "Harry usually goes with me so I don't tear Eleanor's throat out."

Liam raised an eyebrow. "Thought you two were on decent terms."

"Everyday's a new battle," He spoke with cynicism, as if Eleanor and him would never manage a good co-parenting relationship with the infant. "We also need to talk, so get out of bed. We'll be gone an hour, and we need to leave in ten minutes. No coffee stops."

He groaned and threw the pillow that had woken him up back at him. "I'm busy, Louis."

"The changeover will only be three seconds. We're not on speaking terms. Only texting and screaming voicemails. I need your support, Liam." He was begging, and appealing to Liam's savior complex.

"Fine." The ten minutes passed quickly, and soon Liam was leaving the house. The dad was wearing an Adidas tracksuit, as he always did. It was something that was currently unreleased, as he had been in a recent photoshoot and they always threw the newest stuff at him with praise for his beauty and poise in front of the camera. Meanwhile, Liam was wearing the exact same outfit that Luke had been wearing the day before, but it had come out of his own suitcase.

Fin was in the backseat, asleep in her carseat. All of her bags - and there were a lot of them - were in the trunk. Liam opened the back door on the opposite side of where she sat, and Louis glared at him through the rearview mirror. "Get in the front."

"You're going to hit me," Liam protested. Although Louis pouted about that, he knew that he was going to hit him if he had the range and if he was going to say something stupid - which he definitely was going to.

He did jazz hands as he pulled out of the front gate. "Welcome to Tommo's Speed Detox Class! Where you have the wonderful opportunity to have a specialist detox you from ecstasy." Liam had been addicted to the little wonder pills for too long. There had been periods of being clean, but he always went back to them when things got too hard. And after Zayn had well, zayned, and left his friends with all the guilt that they would ever need for the rest of their lives, he had went back to his best friend.

He really didn't want to tell Louis that he had popped a pill as soon as he had left the room after waking him up. "I can't detox and prep for the job. It's not an option. I won't survive. And what are you talking about specialist? You've never touched an illegal drug in your life, Tommo."

"Yes, I'm a good boy." He admitted, driving carefully and not speeding to avoid waking up his beautiful daughter. "But if you want any chance with Zayn, you're going to stop this."

Liam scoffed. "Oh yeah, you're going to ruin me? If I don't? Tell Simon? I'm already a part of the plan. He hates deviating from the plan."

"Worse than that, I'll tell Zayn." At that point, Zayn was mostly blind to Liam's addictive tendencies. There had probably been conversations about where he was in the past, but everyone had thought that he was done. Until Louis found him on a park bench a couple months ago. In the confusion of the wedding and his daughter's birth, he had forgotten about it. But now, he was taking personal responsibility for his friend's health. "I don't think he'll take to it well. You're on thin ice with him and you know it."

"Damn," Louis knew how to hit all of his buttons.

"It's best for my health too. We'll eat healthy, drink enough water, get some good sleep, and working out, yes. That's for the benefit of the job too. I asked Hailee to throw all of your stuff away while we're on this trip."

Liam looked up in interest and anger then. "You have no right to do that!"

"Do not yell at me, Liam Payne. And do not wake up Infinity." There was fire in his eyes and his tracksuit looked rumpled with stress now. "You're my friend, and I'm doing this so you can be happy. With Zayn. This is all part of my master plan."

"Ok, Simon," Liam caressed the cheek of the tiny child who sat next to him, and fell into silence. He knew that he was out of line for being angry that he had friends that cared. It was just such an unfamiliar experience. There was Alex back in the day, who had struggled with him through everything, but even they had gone their separate ways because of the drugs. At least Louis cared about him enough to help him. That was the difference between his past and his present. Yes, there was the continuation of illegal activity, but Simon had really done something magical in creating One Direction.

---

Louis pulled the car into a petrol station. Liam saw Eleanor leaning against a similar car to them. She had on sunglasses and a business attitude. There was no way she was happy to see her ex, but the child she brought to him was all the more precious.

The second that the movement stopped, the driver was getting out of the car. The car seat was unbuckled so fast that Liam's head spun. Then Louis was pulling the bags out of the trunk and walking towards Eleanor with full hands. She took the carrier from him with vicious grabby hands. "Let me kiss her goodbye." Then he said an entire slew of curse words to her.

The bags were safely set inside the trunk, and then he kissed the infant's head. "Bye, lovely." His friend watched the love in his eyes as he looked down at his daughter, who would be gone in a minute. He briefly wondered if there would be tears, but decided against it. Louis was tough and wouldn't show weakness in front of Eleanor.

"See you Tuesday." Eleanor flipped him off and got into the driver's seat of the car. Then Louis did the same, and was peeling away in the opposite direction. He put on heavy metal music and pretended he was his boyfriend - the best getaway driver ever.

"You two have to get better at communicating," Liam called, trying to be heard over the music.

Louis flipped him off and didn't say another word. It was clear that there was going to be no healthy debate about his choices to deal with the mother of his child. Liam was just glad that neither of them seemed eager to take the argument to a courtroom. Then things would be really bad, and there was no telling what would happen.

By the time they got back to the house, it was empty save for Palmer. His crutches were clasped in between his legs on the couch, and he was playing video games and shoving cashews into his mouth. "Hey!" He lightly called as the front door opened.

"Where's everyone?" Liam questioned.

"Luke and Perrie drove your friends to the airport," He said, getting intensely focused on the game for a moment, before getting relaxed again. Louis had spent a lot of the day prior playing with the game systems, and even he had no idea what game Palmer was playing.

"Aren't we supposed to be, you know, working on the plan?" Liam walked towards the kitchen, but still listening.

Palmer shoved more cashews into his mouth. "Simon's plans are too long." Liam looked over at Louis, in shock over that statement of disrespect for the person who would be getting each of them three million dollars.

He just shrugged in response. "It's true. We can keep Simon pacified, but we don't need to be scared until two weeks before."

Liam slammed the cabinet shut after getting some cereal. "So, we're an organized crime unit who procrastinates doing crime?" The other two nodded and then shrugged in unison, despite Palmer not even looking at Louis, who was standing directly behind him and watching the game. "I wish I had narcotics at this exact moment." Louis whipped around and glared at him.