To Be Loved

THIRTEEN

Liam is out of bed and rushing down the dark hallway before he's even fully registered that he's awake. It's pitch black, likely the very early hours, and one of his boys is crying - screaming - from their room.

He bursts into the bedroom with his heart hammering, hand shaking as he fumbles for the light switch, flicking it on just as Zayn crashes into his back.

The screaming has stopped now, replaced by loud, harsh cries and sobs that sound more like pants and wheezes. Harry's bed is empty, his covers hanging half off of the top bunk from where he must have scrambled down quickly, and Louis is sitting bolt upright in his bed, eyes wide and afraid as he clutches at his blankets and looks towards Niall's bed.

Harry is knelt down next to Niall, the boy pushed into the corner of his bed, sobbing harshly, shaking his head and crying out every time the teen tries to touch him.

Liam lets out a breath, hurrying over to the bed and sitting lightly on the edge of the mattress next to Niall, who lets out the most heart wrenching whimper and shoves himself further against the corner of the wall. The poor boy is trembling so hard that the bed is creaking with the movement, his face red and soaked with tears, his every breath hitching.

"Baby, hey, hey, it's just me. It's Daddy," he says softly, though he knows that the boy doesn't call him by that name yet - other than the one time when he'd been so sick and feverish that he hadn't even remembered it afterwards.

Behind him, he can hear his husband ushering Harry back to bed and comforting Louis. He keeps his own focus on Niall, who is still trembling in the corner.

"Hey, honey. Can you look at me, sweetheart?" He murmurs, waiting for the boy to finally glance up at him with his eyes all red and puffy and afraid, lashes thick and dark with tears. Liam's heart just about breaks in half. "There he is. You're okay, you just had a bad dream. You're safe."

The seven year old stares at him for a second more before his bottom lip wobbles and he all but throws himself into Liam's arms, crying in earnest again but thankfully much more coherent now. Liam quickly wraps the child up in a hug, lifting him with one arm beneath his thighs and the other around his back, arm bent at the elbow so his hand can cradle his head against his shoulder.

Niall clings onto him and continues to cry, whimpering quietly when Liam stands with him in his arms.

"It's okay, baby, you're okay," he hushes quickly, bouncing him a little like a baby.

He carries him out of the room, trusting that his husband can handle their other two boys, and begins to walk up and down the hallway with him. Niall continues to cry against him, though he slowly starts to calm down. His sobs turn into hiccups and then sniffles and staccato breaths, his hands shakily playing with the hair at the back of Liam's head in a self-soothing motion.

Liam continues to walk with him, one hand rubbing up and down his spine as he murmurs sweet little nothings to the boy. He and Zayn had planned to tell him about the adoption papers in the morning, but he's beginning to think that the little boy will be far too tired to comprehend much of anything now.

He looks up and stops walking when Zayn leaves the boys' room and quietly clicks the door shut behind him - they catch each others gazes and share a sad smile.

"Harry and Lou are sharing a bed tonight, Lou's pretty upset, bless him. He's back to sleep now, though," he says softly, and Liam nods, gently shushing the seven year old in his arms when he sniffles.

Zayn walks over to them and cups the back of Niall's head, stroking his hair gently and peering at his face over Liam's shoulder.

"Hey, baby. That was a bad dream, huh?" He whispers.