Redemption (L.S)

27

The tension in the room was strong. Louis stood there awkwardly as he watched the intense reunion unfold.

"Harry-" His mother started, but he held up a hand to silence her.

"What are you doing here?" He questioned, clearly not seeming to be too happy to see her.

"I saw you at this restaurant and recognized you. I knew it definitely was you because I would recognize my own son. So I followed you." She explained. Louis thought it was a bit creepy that she had followed him.

"That's surprising how you would recognize me after so long. Though, it's surprising to me how you remembered you even had a son in the first place." He said, almost bitterly.

She could sense the tone of his voice wasn't welcoming. She knew he was angry, hurt, and upset.

Who wouldn't be when seeing their mom again years after she abandoned them?.

"I know you're upset with me and have every right to be-"

"Damn right he does!" Gemma cut her off. She was standing there with her arms folded, an angered expression across her face.

"You think you can just come back and not expect us to be upset? to be angry?!" She shouted. Louis flinched, not noticing Harry flinched as well.

"Gemma-"

"8 years! we haven't seen you for 8 fucking years! with no call, no letter, no nothing!" She yelled. Tears pricked the corner of her eyes as she stared at her mother, with nothing but anger and pain.

"I had to be the one to take action. I had to be the one to take care of him after you left. I have been his responsibility since the day you left! and I still am till this day because I can't leave him alone for 2 seconds, without finding him either drunk off his ass, or high as day elsewhere. We had to move all the way over here just so he can get better help. It has been a hassle trying to raise my own brother, especially after he became the age where he's supposed to be taking care of himself. Heck, he knows how ridiculous it is because he's an adult now. He has told me that many times. He tells me he doesn't need anyone to take care of him and he can take care of himself. He's right. Why? because he's an adult and dosen't need his sister or anyone to keep him as their responsibility and take care of him as if he's a child. Now that would be the case if he had a parent who tried." She finished.

Her mother gaped at her, mouth slightly opened in shock. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"The fact that you have nothing to say, says a lot."

"I understand, okay? I get it. I should have been there. I should have stayed and tried my best as a mother, to help my child. I should have tried harder. I tried the best I could and I made the mistake of leaving instead." She said. She turned to Harry, but he didn't look at her and kept his eyes on the floor.

"I am so, so sorry. You needed me and I failed. I could've done so much more and you would've been so much better today." She said as she held back tears.

"I think you should leave." Harry said, still looking at the floor.

"Harry, please-" He turned around before she could say anything, and ran upstairs.

Gemma walked towad the door and opened it wide. She didn't say anything and was looking straight at her mother.

Her mother got the message and sighed. She wiped the tears from her eyes before slowly making her toward the door.

She stopped and looked at Gemma once more. "I'm really sorry." She said in a choked whisper. Gemma stayed silent. She left and Gemma closed the door the second she left.

After closing the door, Gemma shut her eyes tightly and crawled slowly to the floor. It was then and there that she broke.

Louis watched as she cried, her legs against her chest and face between her legs. He stood there debating what to do. He knew he had to comfort her, but he also knew she was hurting, and there was one thing that his mother told him whenever he was like this himself: "Bare the pain in your heart until all the emotions you feel is all let out." And so he did nothing.

He let her cry for what felt like forever, when really it was only 5 minutes.

She lifted her head back up slowly and rested it above her knee. Her face was stained with tears. She was sniffing and breathing heavily from all the crying. She later calmed down and laid her back against the door.

"8 years," She started. "8 years and she decides to just show up. She should've just ignored seeing Harry and not follow him at all. We've been better off without her anyways." Her voice croaked as she said.

"The first few months, I expected her to come back at least some day. I waited so many days for her and she didn't show." It was then that Louis got on the floor next to her, and motioned for her to rest her head on his shoulder. She did and closed her eyes, sighing deeply.

"After maybe a year or 2, I just accepted it. I knew she wasn't gonna come back and I just assumed we were better off. Both us did. I did everything to help him myself after our dad died. I've taken him to a few rehab centers, the third one I made him spend three years in because I thought that amount of time would help. It didn't." Louis listened as she continued.

"So I made him try therapy. He'd been to a few over the years. Ran out some of them, cursed at some of the therapists, threw tantr- it was basically just difficult with him in general. The best one I could find was the one here. He was doing almost good from it, until of course he had some incidents again." Louis assumed she was talking about now, and what he has seen.

He ignored the reason why they moved, remembering he heard a different story from Harry and was confused about why he said something different.

"But now, he has been doing so much better. He hasn't been drinking for months, hasn't smoked or done any kind of drugs. He's doing much better than I ever thought."

"So the therapy helped?" Louis asked. She shook her head.

Louis looked confused at that. "So what helped?"

She lifted her head off his shoulder. "It's not what helped, it's who." Louis suddenly felt like he knew the answer all too well.

"It was me?" She nodded, smiling slightly.

"And you have no idea how thankful I am. You've helped my brother more than you know. I know we've had this discussion before, but you have no idea just how much you've changed him. Heck, you're the longest relationship he's had." She chuckled. "He hasn't even ran out of his current therapist after last time, and is opening more. I think it was a good idea to move here. Otherwise, we wouldn't have met you. Harry wouldn't have met you." She said, truthfully.

Louis looked down with a smile, thinking about how just meeting one person, could change so much about them. Things like that didn't happen often, and the fact it happened with him and Harry, made him feel some kind of worthiness.

"You don't know how much it means to me to hear that. I never thought I would be so important to anyone. I thought I would never have importance to anything at all." Louis said.

"Everyone has importance to something. There just has to be a reason." She replied. They smiled at each other and Gemma rested her head on his shoulder again. Louis rested his head on her's, and they stayed like that for some time.

Whooooo! finally an update! it has been 84 years, I know😩 but I hope you guys liked this chapter!.xX.❤️