Found (a Liam Payne love story)

Chapter 22

***Liam's P.O.V.***

Leaving Megan at the university definitely wasn't a fun thing to do, but I had to go back to London, and it gave me a chance to go talk to her father. That was a conversation that I was more than nervous about. I didn't think that he would have any qualms about me dating his daughter, but then I also had to talk to him about that other thing... I was crossing my fingers and hoping that things went well.

With a slight skip in my step-for now the nervousness was pushed away by thoughts of Megan-I made my way down the familiar streets that led to the modest apartment complexes. It didn't take long to find her family's building, but it did take a little while to get up to their floor because the elevator was broken. When I finally reached the door-it had been decorated with random streamers and I wondered why-I rapped on the wood firmly. There was mumbling from behind the door, and the faint pitter patter of feet grew closer until it creaked open. Mrs. Garr-I mean, Annabel stood behind the door and peaked through the crack to see who was at the door. Once she saw that it was me, the door swung open the rest of the way.

"Liam, how are you doing?" she questioned as she brought me into a hug that could squeeze the life out of anyone. I hugged her back as best as I could through her tight hug.

"I'm doing great," I smiled as the words left my lips, but then the smile dipped a little when I continued, "I saw Megan and she told me about Jeremy."

"Oh, yeah," she mumbled out the words, the sound of her voice kin to one that you would hear from someone who just got done reading the most heart wrenching novel ever written. "He's doing pretty well considering all of the news."

I nodded before speaking, "could I possibly talk to him?"

Her smile returned when she heard my question, "of course-."

"Liam!" the familiar squeal of a little girl rang through the air. I looked beyond Annabel for a moment in order to see Olivia who was running towards us with a huge smile lighting up her face. Annabel moved to the side and I lowered my hands so that I could pick Olivia up off of the ground and place her on my hip. She let out boisterous giggles while she clung to my neck.

"Our bedroom is the last one to the left when you're ready to talk to him," Annabel told me with a grin, and I thanked her before she walked away from Olivia and I.

"Did you come back to see more of ballet dances?" Olivia wondered once she pulled away from her embrace. Her arms were still loosely circling my neck.

"Why else would I come?" I replied which made her smile widen to impossible portions. This child was just a bundle of happiness, and that was great to see when everything around her gave her the right to be sad. I put her down so that she could drag me to her room and pull out the record player like she had all of the other times I had been over to the apartment. It was fun to watch her dance; she would get really into it, and it was nice to see a kid be so passionate about something. When she finished, she stood in front of me and waited expectantly for my response. "Absolutely beautiful," I complimented, and she bounced in her spot, "when will I be able to see more fabulous moves?"

At that, her gigantic smile started to drop, "I don't know; Mummy said that I have to take a break from ballet for a while so that we have more money for daddy to get better." My brows furrowed, and I thought about that for a while. They would probably have to drop a lot of activities that cost money in order to pay for Jeremy's treatment. I knew that they weren't the richest family, but I couldn't bear to hear that. It wasn't much of a surprise, but it only made me that much more sure.

I nodded to her, and then told her that I would have to speak to her father before coming back for the encore. She just nodded happily and let me leave the room in order to walk further down the hallway. When I reached the last door on the left, I straightened my posture and took a deep breath before knocking. "Come in," Jeremy's muffled voice called from inside of the room.

I pushed the door open, and managed to not trip over anything before making my way over to the bed where Jeremy was sitting and reading the newspaper. He looked slightly laid back; it was almost as if his body was swarming with cancer cells as we spoke. "Hello, si-," I cut myself off before I could finish, and he looked to me with a bit of amusement, "Jeremy."

"Hi, Liam, I heard that you visited Megan at the university," he prompted, "is she doing well?"

I nodded before adding onto the gesture, "yeah, she's great, but she's really worried about you." There was a mix between a scoff and a chuckle that left his lips, and he still wore that amused expression. I guess he had been hearing that everyone was worried about him a lot now. "I actually came to talk to you about her and a few other things," those words caught his attention, and he looked up at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What about her?" he questioned.

I found that I had to take another deep breath in order to calm my sudden nervousness. Megan and I had already kind of decided that we were now together, but there was the formality of asking her father that was missing. "Well, I was wondering if I could have your permission to date your daughter," I rushed out slightly, but I knew that he could hear the words. His features scrunched together at first, and then he began to laugh loudly. I didn't know whether to be relieved or saddened by the happy noise.

"Praise the Lord," he managed to get out through the laughter, "I thought that you were going to ask if you could marry her for a second." I smiled after that, knowing that he didn't mean anything malicious by laughing after my words. Now, I just had to wait for his actual answer. "Of course you can date my daughter, Liam," he told me as he continued to chuckle, "just treat her right, okay?"

"Absolutely, sir," I nodded vigorously, and he smiled back at me.

"I trust you, Liam," he admitted with a serious hint in his tone, "I am confident that you will prove yourself to be a better man than I expect you are."

I felt oddly honored to hear that from him; it was as if my own father was saying the words to me. "Thank you." After a very short silence, I brought up the next thing. "That wasn't the only thing that I wanted to talk to you about," I started, and his eyebrows rose once again at my words. He waited for me to go on, and I decided that it would be best to be blunt about it. "I'd like to pay for your treatment."