Remember When ↠ l.p.

Harold

"He's um, actually not here at the moment, do you think I could just, take the message for him?" Harry asks, someone who didn't know him might think he was taking his time, thinking of how to say something. I knew that wasn't the case. He's just a slow, beautiful talker. I feel myself melting a little at the sound of his voice. I remind myself to tell Louis to be thankful for the gorgeous creature that he has as his own.

"I guess? I was going to ask him to tell everyone else who needs to be told because I don't want to burden Karen, er Mrs. Payne, with the whole task of doing it. So please tell him that, after or before the news, I'm not sure which would be best. Whatever you think would make things easier for him." I bite my lip and try to think how to word this. It was easy enough to tell my mother about it, she's only met Liam once, maybe twice. But this is Harry. I can't just spit out the news in plain english. "You might want to sit down for this, I don't know."

"You're not going to tell me Liam has flown off somewhere and died too are you?" Harry asks, almost jokingly. I stand there, mouth open and eyes wide because that is practically what I'm going to tell him. But then I hear him bump into something, which crashes. "Shit, sorry. Just one second, could you hold please?"

"Of course." I let out a silent prayer of thanks. I have a few extra seconds to think how I should break the news to him. It's not like we haven't talked a little before, but I haven't had any real conversations with him and while I know, of course how lovely and sweet he is. I've never really seen him sad or upset. There was the one time in Ghana...but I never saw an actual video. Nor the video of the interview with the red background that gets quoted in pictures so often. Is direct the best route? Or should I break it to him slowly? Should I start off by telling him that Liam is in recovery? Yes, that seems best. I knew right off that he was okay, the woman at the lobby told me that he was recovering. It wasn't until I met Dr. Madison that I knew it was a suicide. 

"I'm back, sorry. I knocked over this lamp and it sort of broke. It's all sorted out now though. What was it you wanted me to do? Sit down yeah? Do you um, do you want me to take down the message on paper or something?" He asks sounding utterly attentive. 

"You're amazing." I burst out. I clap a hand over my mouth, unable to believe that I just blurted that out. "Sorry, sorry, that was weird! Um, you don't need to write it down I'll just tell you. But, please do sit down." I can hear him laughing a little in the background. I know how he'll feel in a few seconds though. His heart will feel like it's dropped to the floor.

"I'm sat down, go ahead." He instructs me.

"Harry, Liam has had a uh...incident." I struggle to find the right word. "However he is in recovery right now and the people I've talked to say he's going to be fine. The thing is, he's in a comatose state at the moment and they aren't sure why he won't wake up." 

"How did this happen?" Harry asks, sounding a little more serious and alert.

"That's the thing that's...it's harder because he...ah, he tried to overdose on drugs." I suck in a deep breath and force myself to keep talking. They found him what they think was ten minutes or so after he lost consciousness and managed to pump the drugs out of him before they could really do any damage. Or so I'm told. He hasn't woken up, they're not sure why. They think it'll be any time now though, because there shouldn't be anything more wrong with him..."

"You're there at the hospital with him then?"

"Well, I'm at this medical ward they have at the rehab Liam is in." I glance around the hallway, which is still empty, with the exclusion of myself. "But it's very similar to a hospital."

"That must be awful, I'm sorry Isabella. You must be freaking out a little," his voice is calming me and I almost start to cry (and here I thought it would Karen who would cause me let loose the waterworks) at his sympathy towards me.

"It's not the best thing ever," I tell him shakily, trying to blink away the tears gathering in my eyes. "but I'm doing alright. There's a rather rude doctor I'm dealing with who won't let me cry over Liam because he refuses to leave the room they have Liam in. I mean it's stupid, I know it is, but I just want a little bit of privacy and he's not very sympathetic and the other doctors haven't gotten back yet. I just-"

"No, listen, what's the phone number to where you are? I'll call uh them and ask them to call him away or something without him knowing it was you. Don't let him bother you, it's fine. You focus on Liam and willing him back to us okay? Now give me the number and don't worry, I'll pass this on to Louis. Stop crying, love, shhhh." By the time he's finished talking I am crying and after I brokenly rattle off the rehab's phone number he's hanging up on me to do as he said he would and call Dr. Madison away.

"I'm a mess," I mutter to myself. "I hate love. And all emotions" I groan and try to wipe my eyes so Dr. Madison won't know that I was crying. Or at least so it won't be as blatantly obvious. Sure enough, not a minute later, just as I've finished dialing Karen's number and have brought the phone up to my ear again, Dr. Madison comes out from the room. He nearly hits me with the door, barely sparing me a nod as he walks down the hallway and turns the corner.

I hurry into Liam's now doctor empty room. I settle back into the chair by his side with a sigh of relief and hold his hand again as I wait for Karen to pick up.