Patient Love│Ziall Horlik AU *Trilogy*

Chapter 21 - You're Love Is All That Will Remain

          "That doesn't sound good, Lou," Harry whimpered. The two men were sitting in their room, trying to listen the conversation that Zayn and Richard were having, but it was pretty quite. Then came the noises that were scaring Harry. The thuds and bumps, and then muttered curses. "Louis, please, what if Zayn hurt Richard, we should go check on him,"

          "Fine," Louis agreed at last, grabbing his husband's hand and leading him from the room. When they arrived in the living room, they both froze. Neither man could understand what had happened.

          "Richard!" Harry cried, running forward and dropping to his knees, grabbing his son in his arms and cradling his bloody head, "Shit, Lou call the ambulance,"

          Louis dropped down beside Harry, tears forming in his eyes and he looked at his unconscious son. Zayn hadn't done this, had he? He couldn't have. Zayn was Louis' brother. Richard's Uncle...he would never...

          "Hello, what's your emergency?"

          "We need an ambulance now, our son is unconscious,"

~

          "We are leaving!" Niall yelled, slamming his suitcase down on the ground. Zayn stared at him in disbelief. He and Charlie were both standing by the door, holding their suitcases in their hands and staring at Zayn with hard eyes.

          "Charming, wait," Zayn said, reaching forward to hold his husband. The blonde, however, shied away, not letting their skin touch. "You...you can't do this. Where will you go?"

          "Anywhere but here," Charlie chimed in, looking down at his feet and not daring to look Zayn in the eye. Because this scared him more than he'd like to admit.

          Zayn felt like his world was ending. But then again, who could blame him? He had beat his nephew senseless, he had said the word that he promised himself he would never say, and he was about to lose the love of his life and his beautiful son.

          Zayn knew why he snapped. Who wouldn't go crazy after living in his shoes for years after years? Hell, everyday Zayn cared for two autistic people, taught art classes to a bunch of uni students, slaved over to pay the bills, worried about the well being of his naïve son, and protecting everything that he created, in other words, keeping his family together and strong, unaffected by the outside world.

          But there was no taking that word back, that dreaded word. Retard. Why had he said it in the first place?

          "Please don't go," Zayn whimpered, suddenly feeling like a kicked puppy. His eyes were wide in fright of losing everything.

          Niall's face twisted, seeing his Zaynie like this. But Zayn had hurt him. Really really hurt him, so he grabbed Charlie's hand and pulled him out onto the porch, where they called Liam, begging him to come and pick them up.