The Wolf In sheeps clothing

Don't You F.cking Dare!

He felt warm at first, almost floaty. It was like he was drifting in warm water. Then the pain hit. He started to moan in distress then he felt himself float away into blackness, into peace. Nurses and doctors moved around him, adjusting the flow of the iV and monitoring the various items of medical paraphanalia attached to Niall's frail body.

Louis paced nervously as he listened to Doctor Jozuka's quiet voice listing Niall's injuries."He will be OK, won't he?" Louis asked anxiously. He felt he had aged ten years in the time he and found Niall had gone missing until he was told that his friend had been found and was currently being cared for in the  ICU of the local hospital. "Can I see him? Please?" Louis begged quietly.

"Not yet, Louis, I'm sorry" The pretty Janapese doctor was apologetic. "The team looking after Niall are very skilled but they need to focus on him. It's touch and go, Louis. You need to be prepared."

"NO!" Louis turned and screamed at her. "NO! Not Niall! He has to make it. He's got to. He f.cking has to be OK." He slamed his hand down on her desk, the sound reverberating through the quiet room. ." Make him be OK, please?". His voice faded from anger into despair. Emiko Joozuka felt her heart crack as she took in Louis broken expression. She only wished she could make his friend be OK but it was out of her hands. It was out of any human hand now.

The lights had been dimmed in Niall's room and the medical staff moved in and out on almost silent feet. The room was so quiet that the constant beep of the heart monitor sounded almost thunderous. Niall himself was so silent, so still, he might have been the waxwork model he looked like. His blue eyes were closed, long eyelashed fanning cheecks so drained of color that his face looked almost translucent.

"No change" the doctor who had been bent over Niall said quietly as he straightened his back. "This is not looking good. Are his parents on route?"

"Yes, doctor. They are flying in from Ireland. They expect to be here late tomorrow night." the nurse responded.

"If he can hold on that long" the doctor shook his head. "If you believe in prayer and miracles, nurse...start praying." He looked down at his patient then left the room. He hated it when his patients lives were so much in the balance. They were  all doing their level best but so far there had been no improvement in the condition of his young Irish patient. He sighed heavily.Sometimes he hated his job. Those times when all his skill was for nothing and he had to say "I'm sorry" to familes that would be so broken at the loss of their loved one.He just needed a miracle and they were in short supply. He signed again then mentally shook himself. He had other patients to work on, he'd no time to stop and brood. That could wait until he was home and alone.

Soft voices, sweet lilting tones. Home. Even locked in his dark, painridden world, the gentle sounds of home penitrated his mind. He could hear them...his Ma, his Da, his Grannie even. Greg's voice, laced with pain. Niall frowned then the sounds faded and theneven sound disappeared.

"Can he hear us, you think ?" Maura asked tearfully. "We keep talking but he's not so much as moved a finger."

"We don't know, to be honest Mrs Gallagher. Hearing is, we believe, the last sense to go, so we can only hope he does hear you." The nurse spoke gently. "Just keep talking, it may just help.."

"I can't do this" Greg suddenly said and stood up, pushing his chair aside. "You're all talking like he's going to die. He's not! He can't." He slammed out of the room, almost knocking aside the small, pale young man who was just entering the room.

"Ummh" Louis spoke hesitantly. "They said it would be OK for me to come."

"Come in, come in." It was Niall's grannie who reached out a hand and pulled Louis down into the chair Greg had just vacated. He sat and stared horrified at his close friend. Niall looked as if he was already dead and Louis felt a wave of despair wash over him. He'd already faced the loss of his adored mom, he didn't want to go through it all again. Not again, please, not again. The room grew silent.

Niall just wanted to let go. The pain was too much. He wanted to go to those soft voices he had heard earier. The voices of Ireland. He wanted to go home. To be pain free, to be at peace. The heart monitor slowed down. Slower and slower....and.......

"NO! Don't you f.cking die on me, Niall. Don't you f.cking dare!" Louis screamed as a nurse firmly pulled him from the room. He found himself outside in the corridor with Niall's family as medical staff raced into Niall's room, instructions being called. Louis fell to his knees as Bobby hugged Maura. Greg still missing after his outburst.

'He's still with us...barely" the doctor stook before the family. "Nurse will come and get you when you can go back to your son." He nodded gravely and turned away.

"NO! Don't you f.cking die on me, Niall Don't you f.cking dare!" the words rolled around in the fog that swirled in Niall's brain. That wasn't the voice of home. Yet the voice was home. So familiar, so compelling. Who was it talking? And why were they yelling at him. Don't die. He wasn't dying was he? Niall tried to focus on the words. Don't die? Whoever it was told him he mustn't . Niall sank back into the blackness and  the voice, along with thought, disappeared into that warm and floaty cocoon of silence.

Ireland. He was in Ireland. He could hear the voices of his parents, his grannie. They were calling to him, begging him to come back, to open his eyes. Another voice, a strong Doncaster accent, so different to his own, joined in the pleading. Niall tried to reply, he really did. His eyelashes fluttered as he fought to open eyelids that seemed to be held closed by heavy weights. He focussed all his strength and made another effort.Niall's blue eyes, dulled by pain, finally opened.

"Niall!"

A/N. I am going back to my Community for a few weeks so the next update will very slow. I hope you all have a good time, whatever your religious beliefs.