Waiting For You (A Louis Tomlinson Fan Fiction)

Chapter 19

"Cassie, you need to rest before you can get up. Give it a few days." Clipboard's voice is unapologetic.

"How can I sit here doing nothing while people are partying elsewhere without me?" I cross my arms.

"Cassie, it's three A.M."

I stare at him. "Have you ever been to a party, Clipboard?"

Clipboard looks insulted and I feel a thump on the back of my head from my mom. "Ow, geez. What am I supposed to say if I don't know his name?"

"I'm Doctor--"

"Pepper. Doctor Pepper." I grin.

Clipboard looks annoyed. "Actually no it's--"

"I'll stick with Clipboard." I cross my arms and my smile grows wider.

Niall's giggle is heard throughout the room and Clipboard looks like he's had enough of me. "Just go to sleep and wait a few days to leave, okay?"

"Fine." I slide down in my bed and try to emphasize my arm cross with a facial expression that probably makes me look mentally unhealthy.

"Cassie," Erin whispers to me. "You look like a lunatic."

I throw a pillow in a random direction and shove myself under the blankets. "Everyone go away. I'm sleeping."

"Keep an eye on her, will you?" I hear, along with feet shuffling and a door shutting.

***

I wake up to the sound of soft breathing next to my bed. I peel back the bedcovers a tiny bit just so I can see who's there, although I should have been able to guess. "Why are you here?" I whisper.

"Because," he whispers back. "The doctor said to keep an eye on you."

"And you plan on listening to a guy who doesn't go to parties? Or you just wanted to be alone with me?" This draws a laugh out of him. "Let's get out of here." I smile.

"Cassie--"

"But Louis!" I widen my eyes. "Pleeeease?"

He grimaces and then sighs. "Fine." I squeal and sit up. Immediately my head begins to spin but I steady myself and stand up, with Louis' help.

I make an ugly face as I rip tubes out of my arms. "Time to go. What floor are we on?" I look out the window to find that my original plan would not work.

"Let's just act like we're supposed to be there and walk out."

I smile. "Okay. But avoid Clipboard at all costs."

"Good plan. Let's go."

Louis helps me keep my balance as we walk out of the room past a whole lot of nurses and doctors, but no Clipboard. Good. We go down the elevator and when we reach the lobby we tell the guy at the front desk that a doctor told me to get some air. He believes us and lets us go.

As soon as we step out of the building, I glance down at what I'm wearing. A gray paper shift and bandages all over. "Uh, Louis? Am I tied up back there?"

"Um..." Louis moves to behind my body and ties the back of the shift together as best he can. "Nice underwear, Cass."

I blush, knowing I look ridiculous. Louis hands me his waist- length jacket that goes down to my knees when I put it on. "Now you're covered."

"Okay... where are we going?" I ask.

Louis taps his chin before saying," Umm... let's just run around town and figure it out."

We walk around to quite a few places and for so long I think my feet will burn off. My favorite place was the children's park we're at on the way back to the hospital. We used to go there all the time when we were younger. Louis and I sit in the grass skipping rocks in the pond and imitating duck calls and rolling down hills, laughing like we hadn't in years.

"This is just like when we were kids," he tells me, and I couldn't agree more. "Cassie, once, I told Eleanor that I was I the clouds with her. I thought that was what love meant. But truthfully, you can't stay on a cloud forever. Eventually you sink through the layer of sickly-sweet wisps of white and you either hold back from the inevitable, or you jump. Cassie, I jumped. I jumped into a never ending free fall. I didn't know where I was going until you caught me. You caught me and steadied me until I found my reality. Thank you, Cassie, for showing me who I am."

A tear drips down my face. I brush his cheek with my hand and kiss him. "Just to think; little over a year ago you were off to see the world with your new bandmates, with limited contact with the outside world. I used to think that I was waiting for you to come back from touring for a just few months. But, now I realize that I've been waiting for you my whole life. Not just waiting for your body to come back from across the world. Waiting for your whole self to come out of the dark. Now, I'm not waiting for anything. I have, in all entirety, completely and wholly, you."