~But it's not the end,

I'll see your face again~

AUGUST 5TH

After it was clear that Harry wasn't going to be saying much of anything about what had happened that day, or technically the day before as the time crept closer to midnight, Zayn decided that it was prudent to call Simon. He answered almost immediately, with a million questions coming out of his mouth. "What happened? Are you all okay?"

He had no idea what to say to that - he himself was feeling woozy, while Niall needed an ice bath and Harry a therapist and a hug from Louis. So he stuck to the facts. "We are all alive. We need new plane tickets. Harry, nearest airport."

"I'm going there," Harry snapped, probably onto the anger stage of whatever he was working through.

"What happened?" Simon asked again.

"We need to come home. Make sure Louis picks us up." Zayn promptly ended the call, and Niall scoffed. "I could've explained everything, yes, but it'll be better when we're in person."

There was silence as Harry drove, and the lights blurred together as Niall looked out the window, mocking Zayn under his breath. They parked the car a couple blocks away from the airport and then walked in. He had had the insight to go back to the hotel for their things, most likely when his thoughts were coming back to him again.

So they walked up to the ticket booths and the machine spit out the pieces of paper that the needed to get onto the plane. Niall was fidgety, as he always was around security, and they all knew that the guards would be staring at them a little more suspiciously with the bruises and the dark blood on Zayn's black pants. Hopefully it wasn't too obvious.

"Sleeping pills?" Harry questioned, stopping past a booth as they got past security. Zayn silently shook his head. "Over your fear?"

"He's going to crash," Niall noted. "So am I, and so are you. We'll wake up at Heathrow and we'll be back into relative safety." There was an hour before boarding, and he kept talking as they sat down with their respective carry-on bags. "Are we going to talk about what happened today? It wasn't cool to abandon us, Harry."

"I know," Curly crossed his arms. "Please, stop talking, Niall."

There was an uncomfortable tension between the three of them that made them quiet. It was a wonderous thing that Simon had gotten three tickets so quickly, and with them right next to each other. Zayn got the middle seat, and immediately rested his head on the tray in front of them and was asleep before the flight took off. True to Niall's prediction, the other two were also out like a light within moments.

After a couple of hours, Zayn woke with a start after a rush of air came from his left. Sitting up, he saw Harry zip around the row that they were in and make a mad dash for the bathroom, hands clasped around his mouth. He didn't look green, like some people are said to be before they throw up, but it was clear that he was going to do. Throwing up the tray that he had been resting his head on, he jumped up and ran after his friend.

Thankfully, the bathroom had been unoccupied, and Harry was able to immediately hit his knees and throw up whatever was in his stomach. The cool hands of his friend touched the sides of his face as his hair was pulled back. "It's okay, it's okay," Zayn murmured to him.

"Do you need anything?" A flight attendant came up behind them and asked. Harry didn't hear what Zayn replied, as he heaved once more and then laid onto the cold floor. He grasped Zayn's hands and held them to his open skin to cool down. Then a glass of ginger ale was given to him.

"Thank you," He said, swishing the puke out of his mouth and then drinking most of it to try and settle his stomach as fast as possible. The two of them sat there for about an hour before someone else came by and needed to use the facilities. So Zayn stood Harry up and pushed him back to his seat. "You're limping," He whispered.

"Bullet grazed my leg," Was the reply. "I'll get it checked out when we get back. Get some sleep." Throwing the complementary blanket on top of his friend, Zayn got himself settled again too. Then he noticed that Niall was awake and silently questioning what had happened. "He threw up. Don't think he's doing well." He didn't have anything to say in response, so the two of them just worriedly looked over at the curly one who was already fast asleep again.

---

"Harry!" Louis screamed, running at them in a full sprint the second they came down the escalator. The group moved to the side so that other people could come down, and then Harry was dropping his bag and walking towards Louis, sobs erupting from his chest.

Liam was jogging at a slower pace, but wrapped his arms around Zayn when he got to him. "We didn't know if you were okay," He said, sounding emotional. "Alive, yes, but that's different from okay." Lifting his head, Liam nodded to Niall, who grabbed Harry's bag and advanced towards the doors, where Simon was bound to be waiting with a car.

Louis let Harry cling to him, even though his boyfriend was getting his shirt wet with his tears. "It's okay," He told him. "You aren't hurt, are you?"

"He puked on the flight, but that's it," Zayn said. "Let's get in the car. It isn't safe."

Liam clung to Zayn as the four of them walked to the car. Harry walked on his own, hiding his face with his hair while Louis took his hand and sped walked them to the doors. "Simon came too. Didn't know what was going to be up." Liam announced to the two that were unaware.

A stretch limo was right in front of the doors, where no one was supposed to park. Niall was about to shut the trunk, but Zayn lunged forward to throw his bag in quickly. Then the group all piled in and they could all see the worry in Simon's eyes. "When did you fly back?" Niall questioned, throwing a seatbelt on.

"Got in a couple hours ago. We were supposed to be on the same flight. Connect in New York, but that didn't happen. Do we need a hospital visit anyone?" He looked around at the trio. Harry was still sobbing into Louis, Zayn was clutching his thigh, and Niall looked on the verge of death.

"We'll be fine with whatever's at the house," Niall smiled.

"Good. Now tell me everything that happened. Declan attacked you?"

Niall turned his head to inspect some of the controls, so that meant that Zayn had to tell the story. About the smoke and psycho twins, the gun and Declan's brains ending up on the hallway floor. He left out the part about Harry abandoning them because he didn't think that it was relevant to the story.

"Oh my god," Louis said, and grasped Harry tighter.

"He's definitely dead, and I wiped his prints off the gun." Liam took his hand away for a moment to wipe the sweat off of it, but then he grabbed it again.

"You shouldn't have tried to dig him up again!" Niall yelled at Simon.

"I didn't want to risk your safety, Niall. There was no telling if breaking you out would be successful, and if it was, I don't want you going away again. Being caught, anything like that. So I knew that I had to find Declan." Simon grabbed his Blackberry and started typing, ignoring the emotional aspect that Niall was trying to communicate. It was Simon's fault that Declan was now dead, and Niall was pissed about it. "You'll have to work hard to do what he would have done, but you're good so I wouldn't worry."

Niall turned red and started muttering under his breath, but there was no one in any position to listen to him or give him a therapy session. Besides, Harry's trauma was bound to be more pressing at the moment. He was likely to be severely devastated.

Simon lowered the window between the driver and the rest of the car, and whispered something to him. This resulted in an abrupt change in lanes that made Simon smack his head on the ceiling as he sat back down. "I'm sorry that all of this happened. There was no way to predict it. Above all, I want to keep you guys safe. You've become some sort of family to me. More than my own brother."

Louis looked up and saw the sincerity in Simon's eyes. It was hard for him to say something that genuine and real, but it was easy to tell that he meant it. They were in a tough situation. "I know, Simon," Niall rolled his eyes, still filled to the brim with anger.

The car pulled into a parking space. Or several of them, because it was a limo, not just a normal car. Simon smiled all of them. "This is an ice cream place. It's a bad apology, but its the best I can do on short notice."

With no warning, Harry lunged across the car and wrapped his big hands around Simon's throat. His voice was raspy as he started screaming at him. "I want out! We're done with this job! I didn't sign up for people trying to kill me and the people I care about!"

Simon struggled to grab anything, and everyone else was too in shock to register that Harry was violent. His hand wrapped around the door handle, and he pulled it. Simon fell back onto the cement, smacking his head, and causing Harry to lose his grip and fall on his butt in the car.

They were stopped at a strip mall, essentially, with just a couple shops and a long stretch of grass in front of them. Families sat at the tables outside the ice cream shop and stared in shock as a man in a black suit started running down the grass, chased by another tall, angry, curly-haired man. Then another guy got out of the limo and sprinted to jump on and tackle the curly one.

Simon collapsed to his knees, finally taking a second to catch his breath. Harry squirmed under Liam's successful pin to the ground. Louis came out to make sure that he would be calmed down enough before he was let up. "I understand that you're upset," He started. "But you can't strangle Simon! We're doing the job! We're in too deep already. Don't hurt his arm, Liam."

Five minutes later, they were all back in the car. Harry had his arms crossed and Louis had a firm grasp on his waist in what looked like a loving gesture but functioned as a restraint. "Fine, no ice cream then," Simon remarked, trying to be funny. It didn't work.

They were in for a long drive back to the safety of the mansion on the outskirts of London. The group all piled out of the car, and Harry immediately ran upstairs and locked the door to him and Louis' room. Perrie smiled back at them from the kitchen table where she was having some mid-day toast. "Wow, he's doing better than the first time I killed someone," She giggled.

Louis and Liam glared at her, while the others simply sighed and tried to recover from a wild three days on the East Coast.