London Calling

“Holy fuck!” Jen screamed and jumped into Niall’s arms. He stumbled a little, taken by surprise but quickly regained his balance. Jen pointed to the ground with one arm as the other went around his neck. “Kill it! Kill that son of a bitch! It touched me!” she shrieked.

The remaining four boys looked at each other and then down at the floor. Upon their inspection, they found a tiny black spider on the floor. Harry and Louis immediately began laughing while Zayn tried to suppress a smile. Liam was the one who took charge and actually smashed the spider with his sneaker. “He’s gone love, no worries,” he told her once he had completed the mission.

“When you told me that you were afraid of spiders, I didn’t think it was this much,” Zayn mused before raising an eyebrow, “I think you can get off Niall now, yeah?”

“Hell no!” Jen wailed, “What if there’s more?”

This time Zayn couldn’t contain it and let out a chuckle as he took her into his arms and she buried her face into the crook of his neck. He gave her a reassuring squeeze to comfort her, but still she would not stand up on her own. “That was an excellent execution of the Scooby Doo and Shaggy moment where one of them jumps into the others’ arms though,” Louis complimented.

“Thank you,” she mumbled against Zayn’s olive skin. He felt her warm breath on his neck. He bent his head down and kissed her forehead. She sighed and looked him in the eyes, “Is the coast clear?” He simply nodded and let her down and out of his arms.

“I guess now wouldn’t be the time to tell you that you swallow eight spiders a year when you’re sleeping?” Harry asked innocently with his signature cheeky grin on his face.

“I hate you Harold,” Jen said as she glared at him from beside Zayn.

Harry simply shrugged in response and sat down on the couch in the conjoined living room/kitchen area.

“Where are El and Dani?” Liam asked as he finished picking up the spider with a paper towel and threw it in the bin.

“They are down in the hot tub. They said they are waiting for you lot to go down and join them.”

“Why aren’t you with them?” Louis asked her. Zayn knew that Louis was just worried that Jen and his bird weren’t getting along. He honestly wanted everyone in the One Direction clan to get along and if that wasn’t happening, he would be upset.

“I didn’t feel like swimming and I didn’t know if Zayn would want to go to the pool anyway,” she said trying to convey a nonchalant attitude, but her cheeks betrayed how embarrassed she felt admitting to waiting up for Zayn.

“Aw, young love. Such a cute thing to behold,” Louis smirked.

“Well if I were Zayn and you pushed me in when I didn’t know how to swim and you almost drowned me, I wouldn’t want to go down to a pool with you either,” she replied smartly while crossing her arms over her stomach.

Louis rolled his eyes, “Babe, he’s fine and happily smitten with you. He’s let it go, isn’t that right Zayn?”

“For the most part as long as you don’t try it again,” Zayn replied in a neutral tone. He wasn’t angry with Louis for pushing him in; mostly he was just embarrassed that it took all his friends to dive in and save him. He wanted to learn how to swim, but every time he got into the water, he just panicked. His brain short circuited and he lost control of his body due to paralyzing fear and he quickly sunk under.

“There, now that’s settled, are we going for a swim?”

Zayn looked down at Jen who was already looking up at him for an answer. He found it very sweet of her that she was willing to stay behind if he didn’t want to go. He looked at Louis and nodded, “I’m going to stick my feet in the hot tub yes.” Jen nodded in agreeing as well. The other boys left to change. Jen went into the bathroom with her suit and Zayn quickly changed and announced that he was decent and she could come out as he put on his flip flops.

She came out in an orange cover with an orange swimsuit straps coming out under spaghetti straps of the cover. She put on some black flip flops and they made their way to the elevator to ride to the third floor where the pool area was. Zayn opened the green door and let her step in first before following her. He expected her to put her cover with the other girls’ but she instead went straight for the hot tub. She ditched her flip flops and sat down while putting her feet into the water. Zayn followed suit, but felt kind awkward. He didn’t want her to sit on the side with him if she didn’t want to.

He didn’t get to say anything before Harry was on her case, “Are you afraid of the water as well?”

She shook her head in the negative and replied, “I’m content to stay where I am. I don’t feel like getting in.”

“You do know how to swim don’t you?” he asked her with a sly grin.

“Yes Hazza, I know how to swim. I just really don’t want to go all the way in and boil my organs,” she told him with an air of annoyance.

“Harry, leave her alone,” Danielle told him like he was a little child.

“Don’t let him bother you love,” Louis told Jen as Zayn saw the mischief in his blue eyes and his hand moving below the water. Zayn immediately knew what Louis was up to. As discretely as he could, Zayn put his arm around Jen’s waist to keep her in place when Louis tried to pull her in. Zayn was already leaning on his arm that was positioned behind Jen, so all he had to do was straighten himself and lightly wrap his arm around Jen’s waist. “He just wants to see your bikini body!” Louis exclaimed as he tried to pull Jen into the water.

Zayn was ready for it and held on to Jen tight as she screamed and held on to him for dear life. She tried to kick the brunette boy away without hurting him, but Zayn knew the panic was setting in. He could feel her breathing pick up and her eyes glaze over as she lost her sense of reality. It was like her mind was somewhere else altogether.

*******

The helpless feeling of being dragged against her will was just too familiar. The feeling of a strong hand trying to pull her back as she fought with all her might to get away was too close of a memory for her to cope with. She lost her grip on reality and she felt the memories taking over her brain.

Jen screamed at the top of her lungs for help, as she reached desperately to get to her phone that was just out of her reach. She tried to kick out at the man as his strong hand gripped her thigh and roughly pulled her back closer to him. “JON!” she screamed. “JON!”

Her brother was miles away from Winnipeg, he was in America for his first season as a Blackhawk Captain. She knew he was powerless to help her but she needed him. She needed him to tell her that he was there and she would be all right. She needed someone with her in that moment or else she knew she wouldn’t be able to fight his disgruntled ex teammate off. She needed reassurance, a crazy thing to need at a terrible time like this, but being the baby of the family she had always needed a confidence boost from her older brothers. “FIGHT BACK JEN! FIGHT BACK!” he screamed desperately.

She sent a powerful kick to the stomach of her attacker and threw him back as she got up and ran as fast as she could to the opening of the alley. She didn’t get far before she was roughly tackled to the ground and thrown on to her back, screaming as she felt searing pain in her abdomen. She was still for a moment and looked down to see him retracting a bloody knife before plunging it back down just below her ribs once more. She let out a guttural scream as the knife was pulled out again. She knew he had aimed to make her suffer and stay still, not to kill her, but at this point death would have been better.

The knife came up to her throat and she felt her vision blur as a hard punch was thrown to her cheek. He was a hockey player; he knew how to throw one of the best punches around. She had no choice but to try to scramble her consciousness back as he tore her shirt, bra, pants, and underwear from her body, her last hope falling with her shredded clothes to the filthy, dirt ridden floor. Though she supposed that was poet justice since she was about to become as dirty as the ground she suffered on.

“Stop!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as her body convulsed. She was no longer in control of her muscles and was flailing about trying to get away from everything that held her. “NO!” she screamed. She briefly thought she heard something shouting with her, but she was too far gone to react to it. Suddenly she felt a mouth at her ear and a soft voice filled her senses.

Your hand fits in mine like it's made just for me
But bear this mind it was meant to be
And I'm joining up the dots with the freckles on your cheeks
And it all makes sense to me

She didn’t know how these simple words had the power to calm her down so fast, or even how she got to laying on her back with her head in Zayn’s lap. She just had enough time to look into his amber eyes before the exhaustion took over and her mind drifted into darkness.

Blinking her eyes open a few times, Jen finally awoke. She looked around and realized she was in her and Zayn’s room. She sighed and burrowed into the covers, not ready to get up. Her entire body felt sore and achy like she had just ran a marathon. She vaguely remembered what had happened, but when she went into her panic she didn’t remember much. She was about to close her eyes and go back to sleep, but she heard a faint melody coming from the other room. At first she had no idea what it was, but once the melody reached the chorus, she immediately knew someone was out in the main room playing How to Save a Life on the piano. Her eyebrows knitted together because she didn’t know that Zayn knew how to play the piano.

Groaning softly, she sat on the bed and slowly put her feet to the floor. Once the blurry vision went away, she stood. She looked down and realized that she was still in her bathing suit and cover. She changed into a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and one of Zayn’s zip sweatshirts. Wrapping the material around herself, she walked barefoot into the main room. She was surprised when she beheld Louis sitting at the bar table playing a keyboard. Her stomach grumbled and she shook her head from questioning why he was in this room when no one else was. She and Louis were friendly, but she didn’t usually go out of her way to talk to the eldest boy, she was closer to Niall and Liam. She stepped into the room and made her way in front of him to the frig on the other side of the bar. She peered inside and looked for something to drink.

Louis stopped his playing and asked, “Do you want me to make you some tea?”

“No thank you,” she responded softly and took out a bottle of water from the black frig.

“I’m so sorry love, I didn’t mean for you to freak out yesterday,” he said with sincerity seeping out of his bright blue eyes. “I thought it would be all right since you know how to swim.” If she had any doubt that he meant what he said, the completely remorseful tone he used made her forget it. Louis really didn’t have any reason to be sorry, he had no idea she would go crazy and had he pulled her from any other spot, everything would have been fine. She had only been bothered because of the horrible memories resurfacing. She tried so hard to repress them, but they always found a way to never let her forget. She knew she would never completely forget what happened to her, but she needed to make peace with it or she wouldn’t be able to get on with her life. She was letting the past hold her from her future and she didn’t quite know how to stop that from happening.

“I’m not mad Louis. It wasn’t your fault that I went bat shit crazy. It’s no one’s fault really, I just get these crazy panic attacks sometimes.”

“How are you feeling now?” he asked.

“Sore from how tight my muscles got, but otherwise okay. Where’s Zayn?” she asked as she unscrewed the lid to the water bottle and took a sip.

“He had to do a one on one interview before we go to the XM Studios to play our set later in the evening,” he informed her. He switched the keyboard off and stood. “You must be hungry. Shall I gather Dani and El to accompany us to get some lunch?”

“Sounds good, you get them while I locate my shoes.”

Louis nodded and left the hotel room. Jen went back into her room and found some socks in her bag and slipped on her tennis shoes. Before Jen even got back into the main room, the door to the room slammed open and Eleanor can running into the room and tackled the shorter girl to the floor. Jen let out a strained groan before rolling on her side and staying there. She elected to have a slightly pained pity part for herself on the ground to recover from the hit. With that hit, the model shouldn’t have been a model at all but a linesman with that hit. Louis and Danielle came running into the room and saw her on the floor in the fetal position. “El,” Louis whined, “Zayn’s already put out with me, don’t kill his bird before he gets back.”

Danielle remained silent but helped Jen to her feet. Jen thanked her and rubbed her abdomen. “What’s wrong with Zayn?” she asked Louis.

“You’re his bird and someone hurt you, he wasn’t just going to take it,” Louis told her, shrugging his shoulders.

“Zayn’s been giving Lou the cold shoulder until you forgave him. If you haven’t gathered, Zayn’s pretty protective.” Eleanor told her softly.

“I’ve noticed. I’ll text him.” She walked over to the bedside table and grabbed her phone, while they were in the elevator going down to the main floor where the hotel restaurant was, Jen texted Zayn.
I’m alive and well. El, Dani, Lou and I are grabbing a bite in the
hotel restaurant. See you soon babe. 

******

Zayn was in the middle of the interview when his phone chimed, signaling he had a new message. It was a radio station interview so he didn’t hesitate to check his phone while the host was talking. He saw that the message was from Jen and he immediately opened it. He smiled as he read the message. He was relieved that she was awake and feeling better. He was also glad that she and Louis were getting along and there was no tension between them.

He may have been a little unfair to Louis, but he had been extremely worried about his girlfriend. He got extremely frazzled when she had gone into a panic attack. He had only been through one of them with her before and he had let Jonathan handle it. He was scared that she would hurt herself and he wouldn’t be able to break her out of the panic. His nerves had been shot when the drama had ended, and he lost his temper on Louis because he just needed to release his own panic. It had been a volatile mix and Louis had the unfortunate position to be on the receiving end.

“Uh oh the ladies are blowing up Zayn’s phone. Who was that?” the interviewer asked with a smirk while wiggling his eyebrows dramatically.

“Uh,” to spill the beans or not to spill the beans, that was the question. “That was Louis. Eleanor came with us on the trip and she fell sick, so I asked Louis to update me if they needed me to pick anything up before I came back to the hotel.”

“That’s a good man looking out for the fam.”

Zayn simply shrugged and replied, “I try.”

An hour later, Zayn made his way back into the hotel and found everyone gathered in his and Jen’s room. The group sat in the main room scattered on the couches and the floor watching a movie on the HBO Channel. Jen was sitting with Danielle, Liam, and Niall on the couch. Both girls had their heads on Liam’s shoulders, however when Jen heard his footsteps she looked up and sent him a bright smile. He made his way to her as she stood up and gave him a tight hug. Instead of having a talk about what set her off, Zayn just sat on the couch and pulled her into his lap. She curled into him and rested her face in the crook of his neck. He kissed her on the forehead and held her close.