United We Live

Four

Zayn awoke the next morning with a killing headache, sprawled across the duvet. His stomach tinged from reminders of last night, how long had he heaved the contents of his stomach after that phone call?

Blearily, he glanced at the bedside table where the clock rested, its digital green letters glowing in the dark room.

1:22 PM.

It was already mid-afternoon. He had slept through the whole morning without even realizing.

Exhausted, he tumbled from his perch upon the motel bed. He ruffled his hair as he stumbled to the bathroom to assess the damage.

He was unnaturally pale, dark circles forming from lack of proper, uninterrupted sleep. If he didn't know better, Zayn would have believed himself to be suffering from some illness. Had it been that easy of an explanation, he would just return to bed after downing some pills.

But it wasn't.

Running through his morning routine by the motions alone, his mind meandered numbly to anything that may distract him from the notion of uncertainty that still hung in the air.

Dressed snuggly in multiple layers of shirts, hoodies and rain jackets; Zayn made his way to the motel's main office building, noting the dull grey light of the sky outside. A light drizzle patted against the windowed walls, distorting the view of the parking lot just beyond.

A small breakfast buffet lay barely touched in the lobby area. It was long past serving hours, but the staff seemed to make an exception to this particular day.

He snatched a couple of muffins and fixed three travel cups of coffee in silence, listening to the news drone on in the background.

Packing the meager meal into a paper bag and balancing the mugs in his arms, Zayn walked back to the motel rooms before stopping in front of the room diagonal from his own.

It was a moment before the door opened but eventually one of their personal guards Preston answered the door and eyed the teen in his state.

"I want to go to the hospital where Harry's at," Zayn explained simply. "Now, actually."

"Zayn, the roads are still dangerous-"

"I don't bloody care if I have to walk there. I'm going. Be grateful I'm even giving you a heads up."

The guard gave the teen a wary eye, knowing full well that this particular singer wasn't one to leave much up to debate when he finally made a decision. At this particular point it would truly be safer to get the boy to the others before something even more devastating happens than a simple demand.

"Alright," He relented, turning around back into the room to retrieve his coat and personal items. "But you're going to have to be patient for more security to arrive. That's not negotiable."

Zayn figured he can take the small victories where he could get them.

He attempted to call Louis once more, but was sent to his voicemail for the eighth time.

0o0

Liam hadn't gotten any proper sleep.

The hospital's employees had been running ragged all night due to the Tornado warning, which had started as a Code Grey for the hospital and eventually got upgraded to a Code Black only a few minutes after Harry had arrived.

Surrounded by seemingly never ending chaos, hospital beds being moved to the hall, running and frantic nurses and the sounds of hospital machinery had pretty much guaranteed no peace.