Zayn and Niall: Everybody Needs Somebody Sometimes

Stabbed

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"Stabbed."

Niall stared up at the doctor, eyes widening. The word was clanging in his head, almost like it was trying to convince him to believe it. "What?"

"What d'you mean, stabbed?" Louis asked, one hand pulling Eleanor tightly against him. Harry shifted uncomfortably in the other side of the room.

"Stabbed?" Liam repeated.

"Yes," the doctor said. "Right in the hip. And the knife tore an artery under his skin."

"But - but -" Niall stammered. "They found him alone!"

"Its very possible that the attacker ran off before they found your friend," the doctor said. "Once he realized how much damage he caused."

"How much damage is that, exactly?" Liam cleared his throat, face pale.

"Destroyed a right artery," the doctor said. "He's undergoing surgery now with a specialist, and he's going to need a blood transfusion immediately."

"Are there any donors?" Eleanor gasped.

"We're trying to find one with the same blood type, but if we can't do that in fifteen minutes we'll just take an O," the doctor said. "O blood types are international donors, so it'll work too, but his own blood type is definitely more effective."

"Why do we keep ending up back here?" Harry murmured, his back pressed hard against the wall, at least four metres of space between him and Louis.

"Your friend's in the ICU," the doctor said. "But thank heavens he was brought here so quickly. Any more time wasted, and he wouldn't be alive."

Niall felt the breath leave his lungs in a sudden, crippling swoop.

"Oh, and one more thing," the doctor said, staring directly at Niall. "While performing the medical exam, we found mysterious scars all over his body. We're not sure what they are, although we do have our suspicions. Do you have any idea as to where they may have come from?"

The air suddenly got harder to breathe, and in that instant Niall didn't know where to look. Of course he knew the scars. He knew them all too well. The scars were the reason that any of them were here at all - and it had been going on for too long, hadn't it?

"If you would like to discuss this more confidentially, I can take you to -"

"Zayn has issues with self-harming." The words blurted themselves out before he could hold them in.

"What?" Louis sucked in a sharp breath, eyes swiveling to burn directly at Niall. "What the fuck is going on?"

Beside him, Eleanor's face was ashen, clinging tightly onto Louis' arm like she was holding a lifeline.

"He cuts himself," Liam said, his voice clearer than Niall's had been.

"You knew?" Harry sounded incredulous, turning on Liam. "How do you know? Why didn't the rest of us - he could've said something -"

"It was private for him," Niall said flatly, the words cold and bitter like wet sand in his mouth. "He promised he wouldn't do it, but he's a liar."

"I told him to talk to me whenever he felt like doing it," Liam breathed out slowly, frowning and running a hand through his hair. "He just never listened."

Harry's face was getting paler every second. He seemed to be floundering for words, and Niall didn't blame him. "God - Zayn, why? Why would he ever even think of -"

"Is that why you were so mad at him the other day?" Louis asked quietly.

Niall nodded, suddenly reminded of that day, which felt like forever ago. Him screaming, shoving Zayn and yelling at him. The dash in the car, the cookies, the accident. The coma and then the things Zayn had told him. The kiss. Everything.