to clear things up, they've known each other for about three and a half weeks c:

______________________________

  Avery Holmes

  "Get over here," Jake growled, grabbing my arm. I whimpered, my eyes wide with fear. He was drunk again, but this was one of the first few times. He had been physical with me a few times before, but each time always felt like the first.

  "Jake, please tell me what I did," I pleaded. "I didn't do anything, I swear!"

  "Shut up!" He grumbled, trying to hit me. I dove and managed to 

  "Stop." I croaked. "Jake, whatever I did, I'm sorry... I don't know what you're talking about..." I rambled, scrambling back onto my feet and backing up against the wall. I didn't want to wake our newborn baby, Aimee, so I spoke in a hushed tone.

  Jake cackled, terrifying me.

  "You're a liar!" He raged on, grabbing my flower pot and smashing it on the floor, the shards of glass going everywhere, a few hitting me. 

  "Please don't to that, it's not safe for Aimee." I started to go over to the coat closet to grab a broom and clean it up, but when I was halfway there he grabbed my arm again and stopped me in the living room.

  "This is my house! My rules!" He roared in my face. From the other room, I could hear the faint crying of our baby. Tears streamed down my face and I shook my head, but he held my face still.

  "Please, you're upsetting Aimee." I cried, my bottom lip wobbling uncontrollably.

  "Aimee doesn't even matter." He rolled his eyes, stalking over to the kitchen. I sighed, relieved that he was going to leave me be for the moment.

  Suddenly, as Jake turned back around to face me, his face twisted and contorted into someone else. I laid there, on the ground, my jaw practically hitting the floor. What a second ago was my boyfriend was now Niall.

  He stepped back once and then charged me, attacking. 

  "Niall!" I screamed. "Don't do this, don't do this.."

  I woke up in a sweat, and now instead of the living room of my old house, I was in an unfamiliar, dark room. It took me a few seconds to realize that we were in Niall's motel room, and I was safe. In the bed next to me was Aimee, still clutching onto her turtle.

  There was a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I immediately sat up and slit out of bed. I felt my forehead, I couldn't tell if I was actually sick or just sick of that crazy dream that I had. It was weird, half memory, half crazy dream.

  I looked over at Niall, who's features were calm and peaceful. I didn't want to wake him up, but I really wanted to talk to him right now. It was only the middle of the night and I was afraid that in this sleepy state of mind I might accidentally say something that I didn't want him to know.

  Like Jake, for example. I would never, ever want to tell him something about Jake. I wanted to leave him in my past.

  I grabbed my phone off of the nightstand and looked at my recent messages, all that were from Jake. Should I look at them, or should I just delete them like usual?

  Deciding to just check them and delete them, I clicked on the first one, which was from yesterday.

  From: Jake

  babe, i'm sorry, i acted like a jerk and i'm sorry

  Frowning, I deleted that one and moved to the next.

  From: Jake

  i don't know how you expect to survive without me. i gave you everything and you still complained about me.

  Shaking my head, I deleted that one as well.

  From: Jake

  youre so dumb. if i were you id come home now before you get yourself into any trouble.

 I didn't hesitate to delete it, wanting to get those threatening words away from my view. The last one, however, wasn't a text message, it was a phone call. I didn't know whether I wanted to answer it or delete it, did I really want to hear his voice?

  Hesitating, I clicked on the voice mail button and put the phone up to my ear and waited to hear his voice.

  "It's me, Jake," He said. "I just want to let you know that you won't get away with leaving me. You were always so air-headed. You never really knew much about technology, did you? Well, let me explain it to you. You see, my friend Kate showed me a way to track someone down by their cell. Looks like we'll be seeing each other very soon, huh?"

  With terror in my eyes, the line went dead. For about thirty seconds I stared at the phone in horror, before grabbing my flip flops and dashing out the front door. I had no idea what I was doing but I had to get rid of this phone before he tracked me down.

  I was afraid that if he did he might actually kill me this time. In fact, there was no doubt in my mind that he'd kill me for this. He'd end me, right in front of my daughter, and then kill her next. I didn't want to put her in jeopardy.

  Running down the stairs and onto the street, I thought of places around here that I could dump this thing off. But even if I did that, he'd know that I was near here, and obviously I'd be staying at a motel. 

  I quickly threw my phone down on the concrete and it smashed immediately.

  "Cheap thing." I muttered, picking it up and dropping it a few more times just to make sure it was really broken. I stomped on it a few times, looking at it closely under the orange street light. Then, I ran across the street where there was a small creek (I'd only seen it while driving by) and dumped the contents of my phone into the small stream.

  Even though I knew it was really busted and there wasn't any way for him to track me with it, I was terrified. I'm normally afraid of the dark, but it was only then that I realized I was outside, alone, in the middle of the night.

  I quickly ran back into the room and closed the door behind me.

  There was something weird with the room when I came back, I could have sworn that I didn't turn on any lights when I left, but now the main living space was lit up. I frowned and slipped off my flip flops, walking towards the bathroom and seeing Niall in the kitchen.

  "Oh, thank god!" He sighed, hugging me tight. "I was so worried you left, but your car was in the drive, so I was afraid someone kidnapped you, or maybe you sleepwalk and left, or-"

  "So you're making eggs?" I chuckled, raising my eyebrow. He still held onto me, his breath ragged.

  "I was trying to distract myself with something, I had no clue what to do."

  "Niall, it was only, like, two minutes." I shook my head.

  "Well, when you left it woke me up and I didn't know how long you'd been gone. It just freaked me out, like what if the girl that was coming after me kidnapped you?"

  I smiled and let go of him, taking the eggs out of the microwave.

  "Then I would have hoped you'd call the cops, not cook eggs." I laughed. He was still trying to calm down, and I genuinely felt bad for him. "Look, I'm sorry. I just went on a little walk. I had a nightmare."

  "Oh." He said, sitting down at the small table as I brought the eggs over to him, splitting them onto two plates for the both of us. "Well, ya want to tell me what was so terrifying that you had to get up and take a walk?"

  "I don't remember." I lied mumbling. Jeez, Ave, you have got to stop with the lies. "But I just needed some air, I guess. I can take care of myself, you know. I'm nineteen years old."

  "Nineteen?" He mused. "I thought you were twenty like me."

  I shook my head. "Nah, I'll be twenty on February 15th."

  He nodded, smiling. "We've gotta do something special for your birthday. Any restaurants you like? Movies?"

  I shrugged. "I don't really go out much, to be honest."

  "Well we've got to change that." He insists. "I think that for your twentieth birthday we should do something like go out to eat, and then take Aimee to build-a-bear or something."

  "She's never been there, you know." I said. "As long as I pay for it, then we're good."

  "Sorry Avery, no can do." Niall insisted. "C'mon, it's your birthday! If you paid I'd feel bad for the rest of my life, I could never let you pay for your own birthday."

  "Well you pay for everything!" I groaned, eating some of my eggs. "And you've basically taken me in, and tuck in my daughter, and cook me eggs in the middle of the night..." I list, making him chuckle.

  "What kind of man would I be if I didn't take care of you guys?" He questioned. I bit my lip and nodded, he had a point there. It made me question if this was how men really treated women, if this was how they were supposed to act. I guess.

  "Thank you, Niall." I smiled. "For everything, really. Why do you do it?" 

  "I just told you, I wanna be a gentleman." He blushed a bit and I smiled some more.

  "No, I know that's one thing, but there has to be some other reason. Why do you want to help us out so badly, and why are you actually caring about us? I'm genuinely curious." I admitted. He sighed and didn't look at me for a moment, like he was gathering his thoughts.

  "I dunno..." He started off, scratching the back of his neck. "There's just something about you and Aimee. Something that told me that I needed to help you guys. And in return, you've been helping me. I mean, you make dinner, and you keep me company, and I have someone to eat eggs with in the middle of the night."

  I smiled and nodded.

  "And look, about last night, I'm sorry if I hit a nerve. Sometimes I talk without thinking first." He added. I shook my head. 

  "No, you didn't do anything, really. I guess I just get a bit overly sensitive sometimes and break down like that." I admit. "Girls are more emotional than guys, you know." He nodded, and then his eyes got a bit big and his face turned a bit pink.

  "Oh, you mean like... like your period, or something...?" He said. I threw my head back and laughed.

  "No, I'm not on that now. I'm just saying that sometimes, when stuff is brought up, I react weird. I dunno." I laugh again at his now reddening face. "Oh my gosh, Niall..." I laugh again.

  "I thought you were hinting at that, I didn't know!" He insisted, raising his hands in his defense. Even though I felt bad about it, I kept on laughing, making him turn even redder.

  "Ah, stop!" He chuckled. "If you don't stop laughin' at me, I'm gonna have to do something about it." He warned. At first I felt a bit threatened, but I told myself that I trusted him. He would od anything to hurt me.

  "Oh?" I teased. "Like what, Niall? I think I can take you." I joked. He raised an eyebrow and stood up over me, picking me up. I giggled and screamed, kicking him with my foot.

  "Put me down!" I squirmed. "Niall, you're going to drop me!" I laughed.

  "Fine, fine." He set me down on the couch, laughing. "I told you I don't know a lot about stuff like that! I never had any sisters or any cousins I was close to, in my defense."

  "Yeah, yeah." I shrugged, still smiling. Niall sighed and pulled out his phone, looking at his notifications.

  "Crap!" He said, frowning at the screen. "I've got like a million miss calls from Modest! Crap, crap, crap..." I saw him open his texting app and send something to someone. "Crap, crap..."

  "Crap!" A tiny voice behind me giggled. Niall's eyes went wide and he looked behind me at the tiny girl. "Crap, crap!" She reppeated before sticking her thumb in her mouth.

  "Ah, shoot. Um, let's not say that okay baby girl?" He shot me a worried look. "Your mummy probably wouldn't want ya saying that." I smiled, just watching the two of them. I still couldn't get over the pair.

  "Baby, it's only... one in the morning. It isn't time to wake up." I told her as she crawled up into my lap. I patted her hair in an attempt to tame it down.

  "I not sleepy." Aimee insisted. "I wanna stay up like a big girl."

  "You already are a big girl." I promised her. "Now, can we go to bed? It's the middle of the night, hon." I smiled at her and she frowned, glancing between Niall and I.

  "No!" She said, crossing her arms over her chest. I rolled my eyes and then smiled at Niall.

  "Welcome to parenthood, Niall."

a/n:

  ooh so Jake and Kate are coming after them! ;o

  Quick question: If I posted a new Harry story, would you read it?

  And thanks for all of the feedback on the last chapter, you're all amazing!

  - delilah