After The End: Book 1

18. Unfortunately

If Niall was here then where was Louis? Had Louis died? Had things gone bad after I'd fallen?

"Harry calm down mate," Niall approached me with his hands up as I'd worried I'd strike. I wondered why he was telling me to calm down until I realized all of my senses were expressing distress.

I tried to sit up again, hauling my self up with the bed rails with considerable effort and strain. I winced in pain but kept trying. Niall fumbled with the switches trying to change the bed into a sitting position before I fell back into it.

"What happened to him?" I snapped. My voice sounded like sandpaper.

"Who?" Niall said quizzically. He glanced back at the door as if thinking that my reaction was out of his scope of skill to handle.

"Louis!" I said a little hysterical.

Niall grabbed me by my shoulders and leaned into me so that I was pressed against the sitting back of the bed. I shoved back against him but found myself incredibly pathetically weak by comparison. "Harry you have got to calm down," he said in a level voice without letting me go. "Louis is fine. You are not. Breath mate."

I struggled for one more moment before stiffening as his words absorbed. Louis was alive. I was alive. I was in the hospital. My thoughts were so confusing and circular. I was beginning to think something was wrong. Things weren't making sense.

"I don't know what's happening," I muttered into his shoulder feeling dazed.

He frowned and leaned away, loosening his grip. He looked me up and down again and then met my eyes. He was still making that expression, like I wasn't really alive. "Im grabbing a nurse. Hang on." He let go of me and stepped back. Whatever he was seeing in me was concerning him greatly. "Just breath."

I took a deep breath and had to resist the urge to scream. Was I okay?

Louis POV

I wanted to scream. Any shred of confidence that I had started the previous day with was gone. Every hour came with a new unmanageable revelation. How was I supposed to cope?

I didn't have a chance to process that Naomi was pregnant because as soon as it had been unceremoniously dumped on me by Lux, who was apparently so starstruck by my presence that she had forgotten to hold her tongue, Niall had called and demanded we return to the hospital immediately to deal with the newest Harry development.

The prospect made me want to throw up and cry. Naomi was pregnant. What was I supposed to do with that? How was I to react? I had questions, definitely. How long had she known? A few weeks probably. Probably around the time she started ignoring my calls. What was her plan? What did she want me to do?

I couldn't process all that the pregnancy would entail of me, so I shut the thoughts out completely and focused on the issue at hand. Harolds return to consciousness.

Me and Naomi drove in mostly silence except for the hum of the vehicle. I drove this time. Naomi had tried to bring up Lux's revelation and I had waved her off with a silent not now. She'd respected the hand gesture. I figured that if she could make me wait 2 weeks, then I was entitled to a few minutes to process on my own first.

When we pulled into parking lot of the hospital. I parked the car and paused for a moment before looking at her. "I am not angry with you," I said in a the kindest voice that I could muster.

She nodded as though a little relieved. "I was going to tell you."

I nodded. "I'm just... processing."

"Understandable."

I climbed out of the car and started walking to signal the end of the first of many conversations that would need to be had.