Stumbling through the dark

"Stop What?"

"Ni still sleeping ?" Louis asked Harry as soon as they got back to the house

"Yeah, he must be exhausted. I've been reading some of the info he was given on MS" Harry held up  a large sheaf of papers "We're going to have to make sure that we don't let him get overtired. It can make his condition worse."

"Good luck with that, mate" Liam put in. "He's a stubborn "b*st*^d. and  won't do as he's told normally. He's not going to change in a hurry." Liam sat down opposite Harry and leant his head back, closing his eyes as he rubbed his temples.  His headache still hadn't gone away despite the pain killers he took earlier.

"How'd it go?" Harry was keen to know. "What did Management say?"

"The usual 'you are under our command' cr*p Louis said. We've been told what we are going to tweet and what we're  say at the interview we have to attend tomorrow . Harry rolled his eyes. "But Uncle Si suddenly appeared while we were there" Louis had Harry's immediate attention.

" Simon? What did he say" Harry was  burning with curiosity.

"Told Li and I to get lost, basically and that he'd talk to us all later. He wanted to talk to Stephen. I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. Hey Li ? ". Liam opened one eye and looked at Louis who continued "What was your plan for getting information?"

Liam sat up straight, seeming suddenly more awake. "Well, we need to know where the leak came from. Obviously it wasn't from us. Zayn wouldn't say anything...look how he kept the last one secret.. Neither Bobby nor Maura would let that slip and , even though he's not been on the best terms with Niall lately, I don't think  Greg would do that to him either."

"So, where does that leave it" Harry was really puzzled as all the likely people had been eliminated.

"Maybe someone overhead our conversation at the restaurant. It's the only other thing I can think of, to be honest"

"But, who would know we were there that day. We managed to evade the fans completely. The only people who knew where we would be that day was Niall's family and Manage..........................." Louis' voice trailed off.

 Liam looked stunned. Management? he thought,  Would they really do that? Management did  seem to know a little too much and it didn't all come from the media. Had someone from Modest engineered the leak? Liam pondered the idea. He had thought that perhaps it was probably a case of someone overhearing and thinking they could make  a fast dollar by selling the story to the papers  of Niall's suicide attempt ,and Zayn's timely intervention . But what if  it  was someone hired by Management to spy on them? Liam was pretty sure that it wasn't obvious that it had been Louis and Zayn in the photograph that accompanied the article but were there other, separate photographs that Management had seen? Had Zayn been seen at LAX as he left to fly over to the UK? It didn't bear thinking about. 

"Why?" Harry frowned as he considered what Louis had almost said.  " They are always on about band image so why deliberately drop that bombshell?"

"There you have me.I don't know what their motive would be but I am going to see what I can find out. I'm going to ask Greg if there is any way he can find out who was dining in that restaurant at the same time we were there. " Louis had the light of battle igniting in his eyes. "Li, what was it you wanted to do?"

"Well, you beat me to it on one thing, Lou. I was going to ask Greg to do a little sniffing around. But I've just had a horrible thought. Remember Zee told us that Management said they would cause major trouble if Zayn contacted us in any way after he left the band? What if they found out that he had?" Liam looked very troubled.

"F.ck" was Louis' simple  response. He sat staring out of the window as he thought about what Zayn had said and whether this  could possibly be an act of retribution from Management.  Then he remembered Liam saying about his other plan. "Li, what was the other thing you thought might help?"

 The other idea I have is to use Twitter" Liam 

"You are not  going public are you ?" Louis asked worriedly

"No, but seeing as  our phone calls and texts are being ignored, I am going to send a few DM out. I might get lucky. Harry,  if that fails, maybe you could use one or two of your contacts to see if they can get help?"

Harry grinned " I know just the right people. I just hope that it doesn't happen though. Niall doesn't want it to happen . He doesn't think he deserves anything like that. And the fans will riot. I don't think the fans can take any more drama. I know I can't. Harry stood up  as he spoke and went to answer the ringing of the doorbell .

"We may not be able to stop it, Hazz" Louis  said seriously. 

"Stop what?" Simon wanted to know as he walked towards them.