Harry's POV
*One week later*

I sighed and slowly raised my glass from the front of my dining room table, everyone else followed suit as I prepared to say a few last words for the man we had just lost.

"Stan was a great guy, he gave his life to protect the rest of us and for that we will be forever grateful."

The boys all agreed with me as we took a long sip of our whiskeys and Eleanor being the only girl in the room, finished off the last of her wine that was in her glass.

Today sucked.

Our club was attacked in broad day light and I had to some how quickly send Kasey home without her knowing what was going on. Stan was stationed out the front with Zayn and Liam, but despite their best efforts the east side kept coming closer.

But what I found really odd was that once the other gang saw me come up from the basement, without Kasey with me, they backed off.

They were after Kasey and me.

Some took off once they saw me by myself and others threw themselves at me and thankfully everyone pitched in to take them down.

Our only injury was Stan but he didn't make it.

What really got to me was the last sentence he said to me before he died.

'I'd rather it be me than you, at least you have someone to go home too.'

It kind of opened my eyes a bit to see that I was taking my little Bambi for granted.

She had told me a week ago that she didn't want to be here any more. And just like always, I had scared her into changing her mind.

Lately she had been telling me she loved me very regularly, and would do everything and anything I told her to do because she was too scared to disobey me. At first I thought our screaming match was all that had spooked her into this new attitude but the other day when she was getting dressed I noticed a bruise on her shoulder blade from where I had pushed her into the wall.

She hasn't had a problem with changing in front of me for over a good two months so I don't think she really noticed me looking at her when she changed but it made me feel horrible.

I have promised her countless times that I was here to protect her and keep her safe but yet I had caused a visible wound to her that she thought she could hide from me.

I always say I'm going to fix things when I stuff up but this is different.

It was me that caused her pain. I had left a reminder on her of my uncontrolled anger and I knew deep down that I had tricked her into believing she was younger than she actually is.

I had treated her too much like a child.

And it was time to start treating her like the beautiful princess she was to me.

"Hey Harry?" Niall spoke from down the dinning table, making me snap out of my thoughts.

"Hmm?" I replied dryly while running my fingertips along the top of my glass.

"Have you um checked on Kasey since we got here? You know just to be safe?"

I completely hate Niall for taking an interest in my girlfriend.

But we've been friends for so long that it would seem like such a waste to kill him, but I won't keep saying that if he gets any closer.

"I'll check on her soon." I mumbled as I shakily stood up and gripped my empty glass.

I walked over to the cabinet I had pushed up against the dinning room wall that had all the alcohol on it.

"Nothing fucking good to drink." I mumbled to myself.

"What happened to your good bourbon Haz?" Zayn slurred as he stood up too and walked over to me.

I gulped and bit down on my bottom lip as I tried to find a way of answering his question.

To this day I hadn't told anyone about that emotional drunk night that both Kasey and I had.

I drank half the bottle in pity for myself and my stupid choices.

She drank the other half trying to numb her emotions, which it did not.

"Uh I took it to the club." I lied as it was the best I could come up with.

No one seemed to pick up on my lie so I poured myself another glass of whiskey and sat down in my seat at the front of the table.

We all talked between ourselves for hours.

Sharing stories about Stan and just for once relaxing without any worries.

I was just about to get serious and discus our need to tighten security around the club and my house for Kasey's sake but before I could, I heard the sound of small little thuds coming down the stairs.

Kasey's awake.

"Shut up." I whispered.

They all looked at me crazy, as if they hadn't heard what I had.

"Harry?" A small mumble was heard as she walked into the dinning room door way.

She hadn't noticed anyone else as she was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She had on one of my large white shirts over her black tank top and black panties. Her perfect ringlets were falling over her shoulders rather than her normal ponytail.

I loved seeing her hair down, it was just so naturally perfect.

"Yes princess?" I asked as sober as I could.

She whimpered as she had opened her eyes and noticed everyone else. Very shyly she pulled at the hem of the shirt she was wearing. Her bottom lip begun to quiver as she walked over to me and I held my arms open for her while she sat down on my lap.

I didn't know what to say, she looked like she was about to cry which she hasn't done in the past week. She had tried her hardest lately to be strong and act older like the rest of us.

But this was the normal Kasey.

Sitting on my lap right now was a fragile little girl and yet I didn't know how to comfort her.

"I had a bad dream." She finally whispered innocently once everyone had stopped staring at her.

Well almost everyone.

Niall's eyes were glued to Kasey's legs as she snuggled herself further into me, her face was buried into my neck and she didn't seem to notice the blue eyes that were raking her tanned thighs.

I angrily clicked my fingers in front of his face and he shook his head slightly and looked up at me, I made sure not to disturb Kasey as I pointed at Niall's coat that he had draped over his chair. He rolled his eyes before passing me the coat which I placed over Kasey's bare legs.

"I'm sorry Bambi. I should have known something was wrong as soon as you got down here." I whispered softly to her as I smoothed down her hair.

She had given up fighting me about the 'Bambi' pet name about three or four days ago and at first I thought it meant everything was going back to normal but then I realized she was just trying to make sure there was nothing for us to fight about.

I felt a cold tear fall onto my neck and knew she had started crying. I sighed and rocked her back and forth softly and whispered nothing particular in her ear.

"Do you want to tell me what it was about?" I asked her but she shook her head and wrapped her arms tighter around me.

"I love you Harry."

I wasn't sure why she was saying it but one thing was sure.

This time was different than the countless other times over the past week.

It had more emotion, pureness and plain innocence to it.

She sounded so serious and sad too.

"Hey what's wrong?" I asked again as I lifted her head with two fingers so she was looking in my eyes.

"Y-you left me. I was all alone." She whispered before her eyes grew glossy again.

I pray to god right now that she's talking about her nightmare and not me pushing her to go home by herself.

"It was just a nightmare princess, you're okay." I reassured her and she nodded softly before resting her head on my shoulder again.

My arms wrapped tighter around her as I tried to comfort her in the most discrete way possible.

I didn't need everyone else butting in when this was the first time all week Kasey had shown that she needed me.

"You're safe now." I whispered again as I kissed her temple softly.

She didn't smile but but sighed softly signalling that she didn't want to carrying on talking about it any more.

"Um Harry?" Louis spoke up while looking at us concerned.

I shifted Kasey slightly on my lap so she was tucked into my side safely and was facing me rather than everyone else here.

"Yeah?"

"We all think it's about time you put your name back on the roster for club shifts. We're a bit um short staffed now."

Crap.

I didn't even think about that.

"I don't really think that's a good idea." I mumbled as I tried to think of a way to fix the problem that wouldn't result in me leaving Kasey alone all the time.

Before anyone else could speak up, Kasey's soft little voice was heard saying something I had never even thought about before.

"We could do it together Harry?"

I had to scoff at her suggestion.

Kasey knows that she's never allowed to work at night and I'm sticking by that.

"Kasey that's not the best idea." I stated softly and she scoffed this time before slowly hoping off my lap and walking over to the drinks cabinet.

She stood there for a few moments and we all watched her as she mixed something that we couldn't quite tell what it was.

Afterwards she walked over to Eleanor and handed her the drink she had just made. El took a large sip happily and her eyes widened instantly.

"That's one good cosmo!" She cheered and Kasey smiled proudly.

I motioned for Kasey to come back over to me and she obeyed without a word, she sat down on my lap again and I smiled while brushing the hair out of her eyes.

"I still don't know..." I mumbled and went to rub my hands over her shoulders but she flinched and whimpered as my hand made contact with the bruise on her shoulder.

My guilt was still there and seeing the look of happiness completely wash off her face was confirmation enough.

I knew it was time to start bringing Kasey out into the world.

One step at a time.

"Actually I'll think about okay?" Her eyes brightened at my words and she nodded quickly.

"Now why don't you take El upstairs and watch a movie so you're not alone?"

She whispered a shy okay before walking over to Eleanor, she kept her head down and tried to ignore everyone's stares as she gripped Eleanor's hand and lead her upstairs to our room.

"What the hell are you thinking Harry?!" Louis boomed as soon as the girls were out of hearing range.

I jumped slightly not expecting his loud words.

"It's called loosening the leash a bit, and if this brings us closer together again then isn't that a good thing?"

They all glared at me as if I was stupid before Liam sighed and spoke up.

"Look Harry, we've all grown accustomed to having Kasey around but if you start being too careless about her safety and where or when you take her places, then we might have to get use to the idea of loosing her which none of us want. Walden is still out there somewhere and we know he wants Kasey."

What he said practically went in one ear and out the other, because I didn't want to believe it.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes before looking up at them.

"Kasey had a nightmare about me leaving her, and truthfully my nightmares would be her leaving me. This is going to bring us closer, it's going to work, it has too."

Notes

Sorry this chapter kinda sucks. I wrote it in an hour so it's a little rushed.

I'm really not in the mood right now to rewrite it and I'm not going to go on about my problems because I really doubt any one would care...

I promise the next chapter will be better.

Oh and shout out to @PunkRainbows for being the 200th comment on this story!!!