Nightlight (on hold)

Chapter Twenty

a/n: whos all watching the fifa world cup? i am!

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Chapter Twenty:

Then, the girl’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body went limp.

As soon as the girl’s frame hit the ground, Eleanor let out a loud scream. Louis acted on instinct and rushed over to his fiancée. That meant he had to let go of me. I used the momentary distraction to my favor and ran towards the girl.

Liam said she was one of the slaves. One of the sex slaves. She needed help and she needed care

“That’s enough.” Zayn stepped in front of me, and we collided harshly. I was sent stumbling back and had to work to keep my balance. “She could have a weapon. And she’s scared and alone so you don’t know if she’ll use it on you.” He snarled. His hand reached out to grab me and he pulled me back to him.

“SHE’S NOT EVEN CONSCIOUS!” I yelled. I fought against my husband, desperate to help out the girl. I had no idea how sick she was, or how hurt. But I could understand how alone she must feel in a country she had no friends in, or afraid she must feel as rape victim.

“I don’t care!” He shouted back at me. “She could wake up and do something rash out of fear! She doesn’t know you want to help!” In the corner of my eye, I saw Louis leading a hysterical Eleanor out of the alley. I watched Liam pick up the girl and place her against the wall gently. Then he walked away, while pulling a cigarette out of his pocket. Harry began to tug Clair behind him, but she pulled away defiantly.

“What the-”

“We can’t just leave her. She needs help. She needs medical attention. And- and whoever took her can just find her…. She could die.” Claire spoke loudly, but with a shaky voice.

“Shut up, Claire. This isn’t the time or place-“

“I’m not leaving without her.” I announced, supporting Claire.

“Fucking hell.” Niall cursed. Before I could guess what he was doing, he crouched down in front of the unconscious girl and scooped her up in his arms. He held her bridal style and began to walk down the alley.

“Niall-“ I called after him.

“I’ll be responsible for her, so you lads don’t need to worry about that.” He called back.

“Fuck.” Zayn growled. With a tight grip still on me, he rushed us away, Harry and Claire were close behind us.

“She can- she can stay with us!” I called out as Niall tried to settle her in the back of his car. Blue eyes peered at me over his shoulder.

“Absolutely not.” Zayn intercepted.

“Well, she can’t wake up with Niall, she’ll be totally afraid and psychotic because she probably distrusts men.” I reasoned, coming up with an explanation faster than I thought possible.

“No.” Zayn pushed me towards his car.

“Please, can we talk about this?” I begged him. “I can take care of her, Eleanor can stitch her up, Claire can be her friend. We can help her.” I promised. I could finally do something meaningful with my life.

“Get in the car with the other girls and shut the fuck up.” He demanded. I almost protested, but then I saw him step towards the other guys.

They were going to talk about it.

So I nodded for Claire to follow me and we slid into the backseat of Louis’s car. Eleanor turned around with tear stained cheeks and looked at us questioningly.

“We want to help that girl. I can house her in Zayn’s ginormous house and you can help her feel better and-and Claire is on board. Don’t you see? We can make a difference.” I leaned forward eagerly.

“I’m in.” She nodded quickly.

“We can help other girls, too. You know, have the guys keep an eye out and stuff.” Claire added in. I turned to her in surprise.

“That’s a great idea.”

“The boys won’t be on board with that.” Eleanor shook her head sadly.

“Worth a shot.” She shrugged. I nodded in agreement. The car door opened and a hand reached in to pull me out softly. Zayn wrapped an arm around me tightly.

“Let’s go.” He murmured under his breath. He walked with me to our car, where I found Niall and the girl in the backseat.

“What’s going on?” I asked as Zayn helped me in to the passenger seat. He didn’t answer me as he shut the door and walked around the hood of the car. He climbed into the driver’s seat and turned on the engine.

“Liam is taking Niall’s car back. Niall will be staying with us for a bit. Louis, Harry and the girls are coming over in the morning.” Zayn muttered. He switched on the radio, signaling he didn’t want to talk.

But I did.

“Is she staying with us?” I pestered. Golden eyes glanced over at me before they returned back to the road.

“Yes.” I let out a squeal in delight, which startled Niall in the back, but he didn’t say anything. Zayn let out a groan, and rubbed his jaw with his left hand. “Thank you.” I cleared my throat, and offered him a small smile.

He responded by moving his left hand to my thigh.

When we arrived at home, there were dozens of cars lined up in our driveway. I didn’t get out of the car, because I knew that when there were a lot of members over, I had to shut up and do as told. Zayn came around to open my door.

“They’re here because of you.” He said quietly. I looked up at him questioningly. “We don’t know that girl at all, so I have extra protection for you.”

“She won’t hurt me.” I countered. His eyes flashed with ferocity, but he shook it off.

“Darlin’, you don’t know that.”

“Thank you, Zayn. Thank you for doing all this. I love you.” I leaned up to kiss him, but when I tried to pull away, hands grabbed my waist and held me tightly against him. I heard Niall mutter curses at our show of affection, but proceeded to scoop the girl up and carry her inside.

“I don’t know why you want to do this. You don’t know her.” My husband grabbed my hand and led me inside.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” I shrugged. A bitter and wicked smile crossed over his features.

“The right thing to do isn’t my forte.” I rolled my eyes and let go of him so I could show Niall our biggest guest room. He set the girl on the bed gently and made a move to go sit on the big arm chair, but immediately came back to stand by me as she started to make noises.

“She’s waking up, stand back.” Zayn demanded from the doorway. I hadn’t even heard him follow us.

“But-“

“Hannah, if I’m letting you do this, you’re doing this my way. Do you hear me?” He snarled. I stepped back.

“M’Aidez! M’aidez! (Help me! Help me!)” The girl woke up screaming and thrashing about. Zayn was in front of me in an instant and shoved me further back. Niall quickly climbed on top of the girl to restrain her, but that only made it worse.

“You’re scaring her!” I screamed at him.

“S’il vous plait! Je suis désolée, je suis désolée! (Please! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!)” She cried.

“What the fuck?” Niall shook his head and scowled.

“She’s French?” I mused. A French sex slave? I thought they would’ve brought in girls from a third world country, like Eastern Europe.

“What?” Zayn knew it didn’t make sense either.

“Arrêtez! Nous essayons de vous aider! (Stop! We are trying to help you!)” I struggled to speak to the girl, I had taken French all throughout high school, but two years without practice was a long time. She calmed, though. Her frantic dark eyes shot over to me.

“Quoi? (What?)” She gasped.

“Mes amis et moi, nous essayons de vous aider. Pouvons-nous vous aider? (My friends and I, we try to help you. Can we help you?)” She looked up at Niall pleadingly, and he immediately got off of her.

“Personne ne m’aide. (Nobody helps me.)” Her voice was so raw and raspy, not at all feminine.

“Nous pouvons. (We can.)” I countered.

“What are you saying, Darlin’?” Zayn asked me. I was pressed up against his back and on my tiptoes to look at her over his shoulder. I clumsily stepped around him, and he let me get close to the bed, but as soon as I tried to sit down next to her, his hand shot out and kept me standing.

“I’m just assuring her that we’re trying to help her. But she’s skeptical because no one has helped her.” I explained.

“Comment vous appelez-vous? (How do you call yourself?)” I asked her softly.

“Je m’appelle Madeleine. Et vous ? Qu’est-ce que c’est votre nom ? Et les noms de vos amis? (My name is Madeleine. How about you? What is your name? And the names of your friends?)” She returned the question with her husky voice.

“Je m’appelle Hannah, et ça c’est mon mari, Zayn. Et mon ami Niall. (My name is Hannah and this is my husband, Zayn. And my friend Niall.)” I gestured to each boy as I told her their names.

“Pourquoi est-ce que vous m’aidez? (Why did you help me?)” She demanded. I knew she didn’t trust us, and she had every reason not to. The girl had probably been through hell and back.

“Je ne sais pas. Mais je pense qu’est parce que j’etait comme vous. Et je comprends votre peur et tristesse.(I do not know. But I think that is because I was like you. And I understand your fear and sadness.)” I spoke slower, and I could hear how poor my french accent and grammar sounded, but I was sure she could understand what I was trying to say.

“Her name is Madeleine.” I told the boys, “and she is really afraid, so please go slowly.”

After talking to Madeleine for a little while longer, I managed to get her to eat something, even though she was sure I was drugging her. She finally declared she had nothing to lose and scarfed down an entire meal. I didn’t want to ask when the last time she ate was.

I also told her about Eleanor, I called her my nurse friend even though she wasn’t officially a nurse. She had been in school but dropped out when things got serious with Louis.

I also managed to convince her to get some rest. She was so worried, especially with Niall and Zayn in the room, but she didn’t want me to leave. And I knew that as long as I was in the room, Zayn and an extra One Direction member or two would be accompanying me. I promised I’d stay awake and protect her.

Zayn was furious at me for that one.

“Why throw away your good health for her?” He had demanded sharply. I had informed him that I had slept enough over the course of our marriage to survive an extra ten years without sleep. All of my depressed feelings had left me lethargic and sleep prone. I was ready to never sleep again.

Niall had dozed off somewhere around three in the morning, and I’d convinced Zayn to let him sleep, because Zayn had evil plans to wake his friends up.

“I’m proud of you.” Zayn said to me, out of the blue at around four thity.

“Why?” I shifted around so I could look at him. The only other free piece of furniture in the room was a plush chair, Niall was asleep on the other one of two, so I was on Zayn’s lap. He wanted me to take it and he would go on the floor, but I felt bad. If it weren’t for me, he’d be fast asleep in our cozy, way too expensive, king bed.

But he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of me chilling on the floor, so we compromised.

“Because, you’re so set on helping this girl, on making a difference. It’s endearing how selfless you are.” He nuzzled his head against my side, tickling me with his stubble.

“We just couldn’t leave her.” I shrugged. Anyone would have done the same thing.

“I would’ve.”

“No you wouldn’t have. You would’ve tried, but you would’ve felt guilty and turned around to help her. I know you.” I whispered.

“I was annoyed at first, that you were being so disobedient and obnoxious about this, because I told you many times to back off.” I sighed at his words. “But then I thought, this girl has a family somewhere. Maybe even a boyfriend who’d kill to have her back. She could be to him what you are to me and-and I thought what if it were someone else who had the opportunity to help you when you were in a similar situation and… and they didn’t. I think I’d kill them. I know I would.” He rested his head back so he could look at me.

“You’re a good man, Zayn. I know you don’t think so, but you are. And I think you would’ve helped her because it was the right thing to do.” I kissed him softly. “And I love you more than anything in the world.”

“You’re such a sap.” He complained with a smile.

“I am NOT!” I laughed, but instantly covered my mouth when Niall started to stir.

“You try to hide it, but you’re the biggest sap.” He held me tighter into his chest.

“You love me for it.” I retorted.

“Did she tell you who did this to her?” His eyes flickered over to the small sleeping girl.

“I didn’t want to make her relive it. And I doubt she knows the masterminds behind it all.” I whispered, following his eyes to look at Madeleine, who seemed so small and frail.

“Yes, but if she tells us who her captors or rapists are, we’ll hunt them down, force them to tell us who sold her to them.” He reasoned. I shuddered at the thought of it all. What kind of sickos could be behind it all?

“Zayn… Claire and Eleanor and I… we- we know we can help these girls. We can make a difference and help them return home or find their families.” I placed my hands on his broad shoulders.

“What do you mean?” His eyes glinted.

“We want to take in more girls. Our house is so big, we can fit a ton. And… and it’s not like we have jobs to maintain. It’s something we’re passionate about.” I explained. I had the whole thing mapped out in my head.

“No. Hannah, absolutely not.”

“I relate to these girls in a way that not many others can. You want to shut the trafficking down, that’s all fine and dandy, but what happens to the girls? They’re left alone, Zayn. I can help them.”

“Hannah, not all of them will transition as smoothly as Louise, and she still doesn’t trust us! Other girls you bring in could flip out and hurt you or worse.” He shook his head. He was putting his foot down, but I couldn’t just give up on something so important to me.

“Zayn, please. I need to do this.”

“I can’t just expend all of my men as guards for months to help you with this. We all have actual shit to do.” I bit my lip, knowing that he didn’t mean it to be so harsh.

“I have Claire and Eleanor.”

“You’re fucking stupid if you think that I’ll leave you alone with a bunch of mentally unstable girls with only Claire and Eleanor for protection.” He snorted. I rolled my eyes and shuffled off of his lap. Of course, he only pulled me back to him.

“Stop.” I hissed.

“Are you cross with me?” He questioned.

“Yes, now let me go.”

“Because I won’t let you do this?” He continued, obviously not hearing the pissed off tone.

“Yes, and because you’re being a dick about it, too.” He chuckled humorlessly at my words.

“According to you, I’m always a dick.”

“That’s true, but you’re being an extra big dick.” I made a move to stand again, but I was restricted. His hands held my waist firmly and I wasn’t able to make it off of his lap.

“Your safety comes first.” He reminded me, “but at least give me time to think about it and talk it over with the boys logistically.”

“Thank you.” I kissed his lips softly.

“I’m fucking whipped, aren’t I?” He groaned.

“Just the way I like it.”

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