*Zayn’s POV*

Hazel’s progress with her memories only seemed to progress throughout the next two weeks upon her being home. You could usually tell when she was in the process of remembering, she became thoughtful and she picked up the habit of playing with her nails as she did so. Of course, it wasn’t me who picked up on these little details. It was our good old boy Liam Payne.

I found it kind of strange how much attention he was paying to her. Maybe not surprising, but still strange. Of the most of us, he felt the worse, which I could understand to some extent. The boy spent the first four years of his life pretty much in the hospital, receiving shots to bear with pain from the kidney problems he had. He could relate to Hazel and he wanted to be there for her, helping her through everything.

“Guys, it’s been a month.” Harry spoke up. “We go back to our tour here in four weeks. Don’t you think we should go home for a bit? I mean, I get the whole Hazel issue, but with the progress she’s making, we don’t even need to be here.”

The boys and I stared at each other. I heard Niall sigh some. “I still feel kinda bad though, but I miss my family too.”

We could all agree to that much.

I found my gaze lingering towards Liam. He was rubbing a thumb across his lips, thinking. “I think she’s got the strength now to be on her own.” I added also. Liam looked over at me and I stared right at him as I spoke. “We don’t need to be by her side 24/7 like we have been.”

Liam let out a slow breath, he knew I was talking about him especially. “How about it? We’ll go home for a few weeks and come back to finish the tour.” Louis asked, mood perking up some.

We all agreed we wanted to go home, except Liam couldn’t bring himself to say anything. “I think I’ll stay behind for a couple of more weeks.” Liam said, looking at us boys.

“Do what you want, mate.” Harry said, smiling at his friend. “Just make sure you at least go see your family once. You know how much your mom misses you all the time.”

With not much more to discuss we started packing our bags. It didn’t take long before we were set. “I want to say bye to Panda and Haze.” Niall stated. “Maybe they should see us off at the airport.”

“You know they can’t. The pap will go crazy if they saw them.” I said.

Niall pouted some, then his mood suddenly perked up. “What about food? Can we take them out?”

We shook our heads in disbelief at him. Always, it never failed, but he would come up with some kind of excuse when it came to his stomach. But it wasn’t a bad idea either way. It was almost noon and we haven’t eaten yet.

We crowded on out of the hotel rooms we were staying in and made our way into our rental SUV. Niall texted Pandora, telling her of the plan. “Where we eating at anyways?” Niall asked, looking up from his phone.

“Good question.” Louis said. “Do they know a place?”

“I’m asking now.”

A few moments later.

“She says there’s a diner off the side of town on Bearcat Street. There shouldn’t be many people now if we were up for it.”

“Sure. I’m in.” Harry said.

Our voices of agreement soon followed. We met the girls at the diner, Pandora doing the joy of picking Hazel up at her house. We all crowded in, taking over two booths. Four in one and three in the other. I sat with Hazel and Liam, while Pandora sat with Niall, Harry, and Louis. We sat round and talked for a bit, telling them the news of us leaving. The two girls were a little upset, but they understood. “I hope you have fun with your fam.” Hazel smiled at me. “I’m sure they miss you.”

“Thank you.” I smiled back. I looked over, clapping a hand on my friend’s shoulder. “Don’t let her get too lonely, ‘kay, Lili?”

My eyes gazed back over to where Hazel was. Her face was scrunched up in confusion with a finger to her lip. If I caught on, I would’ve thought what I said brought back a memory. “You okay?” Liam asked, concerned.

“Yeah…” She said slowly. “It’s just that hearing Zayn calling you Lili sounds very familiar.”

“You think you’re starting to remember us?” I asked, slightly excited to hear. These past few weeks she did have a few flashbacks about us, but mostly us singing our songs.

“Ah, no, I meant to say that it’s just the nickname that sounds familiar. I didn’t have a flashback or anything. How long have you been called that?”

Liam thought for a moment. “I remembered being called Lili since I was little.”

“Hm…” She said, still thinking. “Strange. Pandora said I only found out about you guys last year, yet I feel that I’ve known you longer.”

She looked up at Liam, staring him down. “I must be thinking of somebody else.”

“Maybe from your old hometown?” I asked, throwing in suggestions.

Hazel slowly shook her head slowly, looking down to stare at the table. “My old hometown I only remember Mom and Dad…”

A sad look came over her face. The mere thought of her father made her sad. She wasn’t sure why, but all she knew was that she remembered her dad and he wasn’t around. I heard of stories where father leaves the family, but it seemed strange myself. I witnessed her asking her mother where he was at. She refused to answer, the only thing she replied was the fact that it was nothing but a tragic story to tell.

Maybe he really did leave the family behind on their own. It would make sense. That was the whole reason why she moved here in her current town when she was five. It was actually kind of sad to think this girl grew up without a father.

“It’s really going to bother me until I find out.” She sighed. “Oh well, guess I won’t worry about it now.”

She looked between the two of us, smiling. Louis and Niall behind her suddenly started laughing loudly, making her jump some. “Guys!” Pandora scolded. “Chill out before someone spots you.”

I watched as both of their heads fell onto the table, banging and shaking the table some. You had to love those two. I sometimes wondered how a shy guy like me could ever be with them.

Notes

Ello Directioners :) Just a fair warning, but I don't think my range of POV's are going to go much past Liam's and Hazel's. I'm still not sure yet, but just a fair warning. I want to put outside input into the story, but I'm still not sure how I'm going to go with this story so just keep a look out :)