It was hours later.  The sun was going to be coming up soon, but no one left Harry's room.  Slowly everyone started to fall asleep, all around the room. 

Harry was out on the balcony, and Niall was the only other one still awake; when he had an epiphany.  He thought about the last time Julie had a complete breakdown, and where she ended up.  He didn't want to get Harry's hopes up, or his really; but he got up slowly to not wake Amanda, and quietly left the room.  He made his way up to the roof.  The last time she felt like she lost her mind, she ran to the roof.  He could only imagine how much worse things were in her head after tonight.  He quietly walked onto the roof.  He looked around and was about to give up, when he finally saw her.  He watched her once again, perched on the edge with her feet hanging over.  Only this time the hotel was twice as high.  He definitely didn't want to scare her.  He wished she would stop climbing out on ledges.  He walked up towards her, but stayed far enough away so hopefully he didn't scare her.  "JJ?  I really wish you'd come down from there."

Julie closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  "Niall, should have known it would be you that would figure it out.  Apparently I need to figure out a new place to run."

"No, you don't.  I like knowing where to look.  After I thought about it, you don't know Vegas, and the last time you went through something slightly similar to this, you ran right to the roof.  It took me awhile, but I figured this is where you would be."  Niall slowly walked next to her and grabbed her around the waist and lifted her down.  "I'm sorry but I can't watch you up there."  He hugged her.  She didn't hug him back but she didn't pull away either.

"Niall, I just need some time alone."  She said to him.

"No, and I know that's really pushing my luck with you, but you do not need to be alone.  You need your friends.  And right now your friends need you."  He said.

"What do you mean?!  All I do is cause trouble and drama for everyone.  I'm the last person you should want around."  She said.

"No JJ.  You didn't cause anything.  It's not your fault.  Not everything is your fault."  He held her arms and looked at her.  "Amanda needs to see you.  She needs to make sure you're ok.  She blames herself for not protecting you when he was there.  That she was distracted and didn't realize you ran.  Harry's a mess.  He's angry he let his spite get to him, and that he didn't comfort or protect you first.  Zayn is kicking himself for not getting out there sooner.  Liam wanted nothing more than to let Harry loose, but could tell it's not what you needed.  Louis wished he would have never left your side to let you disappear.  And I..."  He lifted her face to him.  "I can't stand seeing the emptiness in your eyes over clear and utter lies."

"Niall."  She stepped back and turned away from him.  "He's always going to find me.  My choices when I was younger clearly weren't great.  But it's going to follow me around for the rest of my life.  He found me from a stupid picture online; because they recognized Amanda.  What are the odds?  I'm never going to completely get away from it.  I don't want it to keep affecting my friends."

"So what?  You're just going to break up with Harry, move out of your apartment with Amanda, and end your friendship because of some jerk?"  He asked.

"Yes.  If that's what I have to do to keep them safe and away from him.  Then yes, Niall, I will.  Do you think I set out to get everyone involved in this mess?  I thought it was over.  I thought I just found a peaceful, safe, boring, existence with Amanda.  I thought LA would be big enough not to have to worry about running into people, who may know me, for it to get back to him.  And then we met you.  And then you turned our lives upside down.  And then Harry.  And stupid me, thought I could separate it.  If Harry could keep it quiet, then no one had to know, and it wouldn't get back to Johnny.  But it did.  From some stupid paparazzi photo posted of Amanda going to meet you in a hotel.  He didn't even know about Harry and I.  It will never end Niall.  Never."  Julie said finally crying.

Even though he didn't want to see her cry.  Niall knew the tears were a good thing.  Any emotion was a good thing.  He took her hands.  "And we will always be there to protect you.  JJ, you just do not get how important you are to us.  All of us.  Yes, Amanda and Harry especially, that's a given.  But myself and the rest of the group.  We want nothing more than to help you through this."  He hugged her.  He relaxed a little when this time she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.  "Please, come down to the room with me.  Please?  Let's show them you're safe.  I'd say ok, but I know you can't be after that."  He stepped back and when he did the light hit her face.  "Oh Jesus."  He gently touched her cheekbone and the side of her eye by her temple.  She had a black eye.

She turned her head away.  "It's nothing.  I wasn't going to let him hit Panda.  I've had worse."

He couldn't stop the tears. "It's not nothing.  I swear to you, it will never happen again."

"You can't make that promise Niall.  No one can."  She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Well, I'm gonna damn well try."  He took her hand and slowly walked her to the door to leave the roof.  Her feet were dragging, but she was going with him.  He had to get her to Amanda and Harry.  When Amanda said that she could sometimes feel JJ ready to run, he never understood; until now.  He could feel it in her muscles and see it in her body language.  He swore he could almost hear her thoughts about it.  If she ran again who knows where she would end up.  When they got to Harry's door, he took the room key from her.  "You ready?"  He asked.  He knew she wasn't, but he had to ask. He opened the door slowly and stepped in.

Harry looked at him.  "Where did you go?  Did you hear anything?"

Niall stepped aside.  When Julie didn't move to walk in he grabbed her hand and gently pulled her into the doorway, and then into the room.  He moved out of the way so Harry could get to her.

Harry fell to his knees in front of her and buried his head in her stomach.  "Oh thank god.  I was so scared."  He was full out crying.  He wrapped his arms around her and just cried like that for quite some time.

Julie took a deep breath, and it took a minute, but she put her hands on his head.  Tangling her fingers in his hair.  She looked around at everyone sleeping.

Niall went over to Amanda.  He would love to let her sleep, but he knew she would want to know.  He squatted down in front of her.  "Hey babe.  Amanda."  He said quietly.  "Hey, I found JJ.  I know you'd want me to wake you for that."

She opened her eyes quickly and looked at him.  "Really?  You found her?  Where is she?"

"She was on the roof.  I figured it out after thinking about it for awhile.  I brought her back down here.  She's by the door.  Harry hasn't let her go yet."  He almost fell backwards when she stood up quickly.  He watched her hurry towards JJ.

"JJ!  Oh thank the lord!"  She stopped dead when she saw her face.  "Fuck!"

"Its nothing.  Really."  Julie said.

"It is not!  You have a black eye!"  Amanda exclaimed.

"I wasn't going to let him hit you."  Julie said.  "It's fine."

When Harry heard Amanda he stood up quickly and looked at her.  "Oh god.  Julie, I'm so sorry."  He gently touched the bruise.  He couldn't believe what happened.

"I've had worse.  Please just let it go."  She stepped back from him.

"You want me to just let go what happened?  Are you serious?"  Harry asked as she walked away.

"Yes, I do. And yes, I am."  She said going to her bag.  "But why would anyone listen to me?  No one ever does."  She went through her bag looking for something to put on after her shower.

"What does that mean?"  Harry asked her.

"I seem to recall saying over and over again, that everyone should just stop.  But not one single person listened to me.  Not once."  She took her things and set them aside.  "So why start now."

"JJ, that's not fair.  It was not a normal situation."  Amanda said.

"You talk to me about fair Amanda when its you in the middle of a living hell."  She picked up her things and went to the bathroom to shower.  She shut and locked the door.  She turned on the water and sat down on the floor and cried.

Harry and Amanda looked at Niall.  They didn't know what to do.

Niall took deep breath.  "Yeah, kinda saw that coming.  She says that she's willing to give up everything, so that especially you two, don't have to go through another night like last night."

Everyone started to wake up.  Liam asked.  "Any word?"

Niall nodded.  "Yeah, I found her on the roof.  Can't believe it took me so long to realize she would probably run there since she did the last time things went bad.  She's in the shower now."

"Why didn't you tell me where you were going?"  Harry asked Niall.

"I didn't know for sure and I didn't want to get your hopes up."  He said.

"What are we going to do?"  Amanda asked.

No one knew what to say.  How do you know what to do when no one's ever been in the situation before? They all waited for her to come out of the bathroom.

Julie finally got in the shower, she stayed in there quite some time.  The hot water felt good on her sore body.  She got out of the shower and looked in the mirror.  With her make up washed off her eye looked ten times as bad.  She looked at her hip she had a huge bruise on it from falling twice.  She couldn't look in the mirror anymore.  She now remembered why she hated mirrors so much.  She knew she couldn't avoid any longer. She had to eventually leave the bathroom.  She got dressed attempted to apply make up to her eye to cover up the bruising but it just hurt too bad.  She brushed her hair, gathered her things, took a deep breath, and slowly opened the door.  She took her things back to her bag and just acted like nothing else was going on.  She could feel everyone's eyes on her, but she didn't want to address it.  Before she knew it, she felt fingers under her chin.  Liam lifted her chin and looked at her eye.  "I'm fine Liam."  She put her hand on his arm and stepped around him.  She got the emergency credit card from her hand bag.  She pulled out her phone and called the airline.

"JJ what are you doing with the emergency credit card?"  Amanda asked.

Julie turned away.  She stepped out onto the balcony.  "Hi, I would like to know when your next available flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles is please."

Amanda and Harry went directly toward her, but Louis got there first.  He quickly took the phone and card from her hands.  He handed them to Amanda, took her by the shoulders, and walked her back into the room.  He took her over to the chair and said.  "Sit your ass down."

Everyone stared at him.  They were shocked.  "Louis."  Harry started to say but Louis put his hand up.

"Sit down."  He gently, but forcefully, sat her in the chair.  He sat on the table in front of her.  "No kid gloves.  You're a strong woman and I'm going to talk to you like one.  Stop the crap.  Your ex.  He's an asshole.  Plain and simple.  It's not your fault he's one.  He just is.  You used to think you were alone.  Maybe you were for awhile.  But you're not now.  Maybe we didn't handle the situation the best, but we were gonna handle it.  You aren't leaving.  Not one of us will let you get very far."  He reached out and lifted her chin.  He gently rubbed his thumb over her swollen and bruised eye.  "Talk to your boyfriend and your best friend.  Or don't.  But don't run from them.  As much as you need them, they need you."

Julie took Louis' hand off her face and stood up.  She was caught slightly off guard when he told her to sit her ass back down.  She did though.  "Not one of you needs this.  He will never stop looking for me.  If I've learned anything from this, I've learned that."

"Let him."  Zayn said walking over to her and Louis.  He squatted in front of her and put his hand on top of hers.  "Because every day one of us will be here for you.  You will realize that you can get past it and that we will protect you.  I am so sorry I didn't get out there fast enough to stop this."  He said also gently touching the bruise around her eye.

"It's not your fault.  That's my point.  It's not your fight.  None of your fight."  She said looking at the ground.

"Baby, any fight of yours is my fight."  Louis and Zayn got up and let Harry sit in front of her.  He took her hands in his.  "I am sorry that I didn't listen, and I am truly sorry I let my emotions trump what you were going through.  But I couldn't handle the lies and the complete insanity coming from his mouth.  And him touching you.  I lost my mind.  I've never felt that way before."

Julie looked at his hand.  She took hers and gently touched his bruised knuckles.  "Harry."

"The door and I had a disagreement.  I may not have reacted well when I realized you left the club."  He said to her.

Julie ran her hands through her hair took a deep breath and stood up.  "Ok, everyone out.  Go to your rooms and get some sleep.  I know some of you have long flights tomorrow, or today rather.  I'm fine.  Or I will be."

Liam walked up to her.  He touched her bruise gently and kissed her cheek.  "You will you got the best on your side.

"Do you people think its going to heal if y'all touch it?  I think that's just about everyone.  I'm really sorry you had to see that."  She said.

Zayn was next he hugged her tightly.  "If you ever need someone to talk too.  I'm willing.  And I really wish I would have gotten there sooner.  No matter what you say."

"Thanks Zayn, but its not your fault.  Safe travels and say hi to Perrie for me."  She hugged him and kissed his cheek.

Louis walked up to her.  He looked at her eye and shook his head.  "Ya know Rocky, I think you're taking this a little too far.  You don't have to live up to the nickname."  He put his hands on her hips to pull her into a hug.  She grimaced and gasped when he did.  He pulled up her shirt and moved the waist of her jeans slightly.

"Louis what the hell are you doing??"  Harry asked.

"Son of a bitch!"  Louis exclaimed, turning her slightly towards Harry.  He saw the big bruise appearing on her hip.

"Its just a bruise.  Its sore.  My whole body is sore, but I will be fine."  Julie said pulling her shirt back down over her waist and covering the bruise.

Amanda couldn't take it anymore.  She went past everyone and just hugged Julie.  And cried.  She thought she knew before what Julie was feeling.  She thought she knew the pain after she told her what happened.  But that was nothing.  Now she felt it in her heart.  She witnessed a small amount of it and she could barely take it.  She couldn't stand the thought of her friend dealing with that for 2 years.

Harry ran his hand through his hair.  He couldn't stand this.  "Alright, let me walk you guys out."  He and Niall walked Liam, Zayn, and Louis to the door.

They all hugged Harry and told him if he needed anything to call.  Louis put his hands on Harry's shoulders.  "I'm sorry you have to go through this, and I can't even imagine what's going on in your head.  But I believe if anyone can get her through this its you.  Just be you."  He hugged him again and walked out with the others.

Niall looked at him.  "Are you ready for this?  I have a feeling now that everyone else is gone..."

"She will let her wall down a little?  Yeah, not sure what's going to be harder, if she stays unemotional, or if she breaks down."  Harry said.

"Hate to say it, but I hope she breaks down.  At least she's dealing with it then instead of pushing it all inside.  And it means she trusts us."  Niall put his hand on Harry's shoulder.

Amanda backed up and took Julie's hand.  She pulled her to the bed.  "I need you to snuggle with me."  She knew Julie would never admit she needed her right now.  And it wasn't a lie.  She needed Julie to be there with her.  To know she was ok, but Amanda felt just as lost right now.  When Julie slowly gave in, and reluctantly climbed on the bed, she was relieved.  She wrapped her arms around Julie, and when Julie laid her head on her chest the tears started flowing again.  She tightened her arms when Julie's body started to tremble.  She knew she was crying without even looking at her.

Harry and Niall stood back and watched the girls.  When Julie reached her hand out to Harry he gladly went to them.  He wrapped them both in his arms.  Julie then reached her hand out to Niall.  It made Niall smile.  He went to the other side and laid down with all of them.

"I'm so sorry."  Julie said.  "So sorry."

"Baby, you don't have to be sorry."  Harry said kissing her head.  They all fell asleep cuddled together in Harry's bed.

*if you are enjoying the story please vote/comment/share. I would love to be able to respond.

*the story is complete fan fiction