I was down early, heading to the van to be shuttled off to another radio interview.

And that's the only reason I saw her.

She was getting into a taxi, her dark hair obscuring her face, a small favor I was grateful for. Leaving without saying goodbye. She might have thought she was disappearing out of my life into parts unknown, but I had already heard the news from Nashville, Ewan's tech.

"Saw her talking to Jonah King's guy," he'd told me late last night. "Signed a bunch of paper with him and all."

Thank god the van left first. I wasn't sure I could handle seeing her drive away.

"Oy."

I turned to see Hudson grinning. "How'd I do?" he asked. "Do I sound like you guys yet?"

"You sound like an idiot," I said, trying to smile.

"So that's a yes, then."

"Did you need something or were you just trying to blind me with your teeth?" I complained.

Hudson looked back over his shoulder. "Fucking sucks, man. That she'd just leave like that."

"Yeah, well, she had her reasons." I blinked to hear those words coming out of my own mouth.

Hudson nodded, then slapped his hand against my shoulder. "It's good you tried again," he said. "You're not the type who's good on his own."

"Oh really?" I wanted to protest but instead I looked down at my hands. "Yeah," I choked.

"But you're not on your own, mate." He grinned to hear that word come out of his American mouth. "You've got me. The boys." He gestured back to Ewan and Jules who were both nodding as they eavesdropped. "And your family..."

"Fucking shite," I remembered. "You just reminded me that Tally called like five days ago."

"Your sister?" He did that little perking up thing again, the one that pricked my big brother senses. "You should call her. Make it a video call."

"You fancy my sister, Hudson?" I wanted to know.

He blinked. "Well that would be pretty dumb of me, wouldn't it?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Yes. It would." Then I sighed. "Can't believe Reese just left. I fucking loved her."

Hudson pressed his lips together. We were slowing down now, nearly at the station. "Is that love-d, as in past tense?"

I opened my mouth. Then shook my head. "No, not past. Love. I still love her."

"Man," Hudson sighed as he stood up. "Then that really sucks." He clapped his hand on my shoulder one more time before heading out of the van into the station. I reluctantly followed him.

The music gods were smiling on us though, however, because the host was clearly just going through the motions. He asked generic questions that any idiot could answer which meant I let Jules do most of the talking. We wound up early, leaving me enough time to find a quiet corner of a closed studio and call my sister back in London before she went out for the evening.

"Hello!" Tallula's disembodied voice came out through the speakers, not matching the picture on the screen.

"You're all funny looking," I told her.

"Why? Is your screen frozen?"

"No, I just mean in general," I teased.

She held up two fingers in the V-sign. "You're a prat," she complained. "I don't know why I bother calling you anymore."

"Because if you enjoy my stories of wild rock n roll antics."

"I actually like Reese's better," Tally said. She peered closer. "Where is she? Working?"

"I don't actually know," I exhaled.

"You don't know where your girlfriend is?"

"I'm uncertain as to whether she's actually my girlfriend anymore," I said tightly.

Her mouth formed an 'o' of shock. "God, what happened?"

"I don't rightly know," I said through tightly clenched teeth. "We had a rather large falling out."

"Oh, Niall," Tally sighed. "Not again. What happened?"

The word 'again' stung. A lot. "I wanted to surprise her," I said vehemently. "She told me all these stories about the town she grew up in, so I thought it would be a good idea to take her to go see it."

Tally blinked, and her picture froze for a moment. When it unfroze she was already talking. "... with her first?"

"What was that?"

"Did you ask her if she wanted to go back?" Tally asked, enunciating each word clearly as if I were hard of hearing.

"No, it was a surprise. Or was supposed to be anyway."

"So you just dragged your girlfriend back to the town she grew up without having any idea what was waiting for her there?"

"Well you when you put it like that..."

Tally rolled her eyes. "So what happened next?"

I held my finger up to my face. Tally leaned forward. "Ah! My god, do you have a shiner?"

I took a deep breath. "So, I met her father."

"Oh." My sister went quiet for a second, and I saw her looking down at her fingernails, her little telltale tic that she always did when she was trying very hard not to say what she really thought.

"Tallula..." I warned in my big best big brother voice.

"Forgive me, Niall," she said rather crisply and formally. "But I think you're being a bit of a berk here."

"What now?"

"You wanted to surprise her with a trip back home, without checking with her first, and then you got punched in the face by the father she's been clearly trying to avoid?"

"How was I supposed to know she was trying to avoid him?"

"Did she ever tell you any good stories about her father?"

"Well no, she barely told me any stories at all. Other then just how nice it was around there growing up. Watching the stars in the back of a pickup truck, stuff like that."

"But nothing about her family?"

"No," I hedged. "She has an uncle she likes."

"And nothing about the nice memories she had of growing up in her house."

I thought for a second. "No," I said, feeling a little bit more deflated.

Tally nodded. "You apologized?"

"I told her I was sorry for having gotten her hurt like that."

"But did you apologize for being such an insensitive twat, is my question."

"I wasn't being an insensitive twat, I was trying to get to know her."

"No, you were caught up in that 'no-secrets' rule that you've been crowing about." She shook her head. "You were wanting to dig into her life like you were some kind of personal investigator. You've got to let people have their secrets, Niall. You can't go poking your finger into every bruise people have just to make yourself feel reassured."

I felt like my sister had reached through the screen and slapped me right in the face. "I think that's a fairly uncharitable description of how I'm doing things here."

"Perhaps. But prove me wrong?" Tally leaned forward. "I like that girl. She keeps you in line, makes you a little bit less of a pompous ass. Don't let her go."

I sighed heavily. "Well she's already gone. She left this morning to join a new tour."

"So find her, then." The screen froze right as she rolled her eyes at me, and then the call dropped out all together.