Meant To Be

Chapter 33

I woke up to Harry whispering my name in my ear.

"Maria."

"Hmm?"

"It's ten. I didn't know at what time you wanted to go see Eli."

"We can go now. Let me just get ready." I dragged myself out of the bed, missing the warmth of Harry right away. I walked quietly to the door, as to not wake up Niall, and left the room. I knocked on my hotel door, and Mary-Beth opened up.

"What? I was having a really good dream."

I yawned. "I forgot the key." I walked into the room. "Sorry about waking you up. Harry and I are going back to the hospital to hang with Eli for an hour or two."

"Ok," Mary-Beth said as she crawled back into bed.

It took me 16 minutes to do my bathroom necessities, get dressed, and do my hair. I was really surprised at my timing.

I walked out of the room and Harry was sitting by the door.

"Good morning!" I smiled at him.

"Wow. Someone's chippy this morning." Harry pulled me into a kiss.

"Well of course. I have you in my life." We both smiled like idiots then I kissed him again. This time, we lingered there for a minute. Kissing Harry made everything feel better, like the world was alright and we were the only two.

"Ready to go?" I nodded at him and we walked to the elevator, his hand on my back.

Once we got outside, it was still snowing. There was also about a foot of snow on the ground.

"Oh my gosh. It must have snowed all night," Harry said. I looked up and the traffic was even worse than before. We would never get there if we were in a car.

Harry must have been thinking the same thing I was. "We'll never get there by car." He looked at me. "What do you want to do?"

I looked out to the cars then back at Harry. "I wouldn't mind walking it. I mean, you don't have to come with me if you don't want to walk it. I will be fine on-"

"No no. I can walk it with you." Harry grabbed my hand and we started to head to the hospital.

After trudging through the snow and almost falling on our bums while crossing the slippery streets, we made it to the hospital within 16 minutes.

"Hi. We're here to see Eli. I called in yesterday saying we were coming today," I said to the lady at the front desk.

"What's your name?"

"Maria Rose." She typed something into the computer.

"Ah yes. Room 116 to your right."

"Thank you." I smiled at her.

"Oh wait. My daughter's a fan of yours. Would you mind signing this for her?" she asked Harry.

"Of course not," Harry said with a smile.

After he signed for her, we made our way to Eli's room. Eli was laying in her bed, connected to a machine. There was a nurse right outside her door.

"Hi. Is Eli ok?" I asked.

"She's better than before," the nurse said.

"What happened?"

"She fainted yesterday at dinner. We ran some tests, and her cancer is getting worse. We have to leave her on the machine for now so we don't risk anything."

"Nurse Lolly. They need you in room 226," the intercom said.

"Excuse me," the nurse said leaving us by the door.

I looked up to Harry who had worry in his eyes, then opened the door to Eli's room.

"Hey Eli," I said.

"Maria! I knew you'd come." She had a huge smile planted on her face.

"Of course I'd come. I couldn't leave my best friend haning." I went over to hug her.

"Hi Harry," Eli said.

"Hi Eli." Harry gave her a kiss on her head. "How are you?"

"I'm ok. I've been better though, that's for sure." We all laughed.

"So Eli. What would you like to do today?" I asked.

"We could play some games, and we could talk," she said.

"Ok. What game should we play," I asked.

"Charades!"

After half an hour of playing charades, we moved onto something else.

"Maria?"

"Yes Eli?"

"May I do your hair?" I froze from shock, but only for a second.

"Sure." She smiled at me as I moved a chair to the side of her bed and sat down in it.

Harry moved to sit on the edge of Eli's bed to watch her do my hair.

"Am I going to die?" I turned to look at her. Her eyes were big. She didn't look scared or sad though.

I grabbed her hands in mine. "Eli."

"Please tell me the truth. I've been through so much already. I've had people keep so many secrets from me. I just want the truth." She had sadness in her eyes now.

Harry moved next to Eli and held her in his arms, careful not to mess up the cords that were attached to her body.

I breathed in. "Possibly. There's a chance that you might, but there's also a chance that you won't." She started to cry now and I could feel the tears filling up in my eyes. I bit my lip. "You're strong though Eli. You just have to keep that up, and you can fight this."

"I've been strong all my life though. I don't know how much longer I can stay strong. I'm scared."

"I know." I moved onto the bed, sitting on the other side of her. I hugged her.

We sat there crying for some time, then we separated. I wiped the tears from her face, and Harry did the same to mine.

"I need to finish your hair. It's a mess right now," Eli said. I laughed.

"Ok." I moved back to the chair and Eli did my hair while Harry sang some songs.

"Finished." I looked in the mirror, and Eli had done two braides on the side of my hair, connecting into a bun.

"Oh my gosh. You did amazing."

"Thank you. I practice on my big barbie head. It keeps me entertained." I smiled at her, feeling sadness in my heart for the young girl who couldn't even play with her own hair. "You're turn Harry."

"Ok." Harry laughed as he moved to sit in the chair. I watched as Eli braided Harry's hair.

Once she was done, Harry went to look at his hair in the mirror, then he thanked her. Eli let out a yawn.

"You should get some rest," I said.

"No. I can't. You leave tomorrow. I want to spend as much time as I can with you."

"I don't think we're leaving tomorrow with all this snow on the ground and the blizzard on its way," Harry said. I looked over to him.

"Will you come visit before you leave?" Eli asked while rubbing her eye.

"Of course. We'll try for Christmas Eve," I said.

"Ok. Great . I'll go to sleep then. Thank you for coming."

"Anytime." I kissed her forehead, and Harry did the same.

We left the room and made our way out of the hospital.

"So we'll be spending Christmas in New York then hm?" I said.

"Looks like it," Harry said. "But as long as I'm with you, I'm happy."

I smiled up at him then planted a kiss on his lips before we went out into the blizzard.