pieces of you |t.h. au|

xvi.

Epilougue coming  Thursday, June 19!

WC: 2.3k

Friends are supposed to be by your side forever, at least, they should be.

"Thomas stop worrying! I am going to be fine." Ellie's pleading lie and use of his full name caught Tom's attention immediately.

Tom had refused to leave her side for the last week, and frankly, he needed a shower, desperately. Ellie watched as Tom clasped and unclasped his hands in a nervous fashion his brows knitted together with worry. She didn't want him to feel that he had to stay here with her, and honestly, some alone time to let everything sink in would be nice.

Tom looked up at her fragile figure sitting on the hospital bed wrapped with blankets. She was merely a shell of the girl he loved. Her face was pale and her eyes sunken, filled with pain even though she tried to hide it. Her body was bony and frail for all the muscle she used to have dissipated from not being used. Her voice was now flat, lacking the energy it used to have, and her smile wasn't as bright, especially when she tried to smile through the pain. She was sick, really sick, yet she wanted to hide it from her friends. Outside thunder cracked, and lightning split the dark sky in two as the rain started to pour in thick, massive sheets. Harrison and SJ were supposed to be back by now, but they weren't, they hadn't answered Tom's calls or texts.

Tom stood up and paced around the room, so many things were racing through his head. He worried about Ellie tremendously, he worried about his best friends getting stuck in the storm somewhere, he feared that he would lose his job because he had missed so many shifts so he could be here for Ellie, he worried he would lose his best friend. It felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He felt like the weight would crumble him to nothing more than dust. (IW throwback anyone? I swear that scene gave me PTSD. I wrote this paragraph literally months ago.)

"Hey," Ellie started, concern lacing her voice.

"I'm fine." Tom lied as he ran a hand through his messy curls pacing around the small room for the thousandth time.

"You're not, and that's okay. How 'bout you go for a walk, get some food, maybe? I can't remember the last time you ate."

"I said I'm fine, alright!" Tom yelled his voice reaching decibels he didn't mean it to. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you." He said quietly as he looked down at his feet and ran a hand through his unruly curls again.

"How 'bout you take a walk." Ellie said. Tom could tell from the way she said it that it wasn't a suggestion, it was more of an order. He took a deep breath before heading towards the door.

"I'm sorry, its just-all of this is-"

"It's okay, bring me back a muffin?" Ellie said with a faint smile.

Tom nodded and shut the door behind him. Ellie let out a breath, and her forced smile was immediately wiped from her face. Putting on her brave face was taxing, even though she had been doing it since the age of four or five.

However, this was different. It felt like her entire body shutting down, cramping from the lack of oxygen, and she was tired, so damn tired; It was like she hadn't slept in months even though she spent the majority of her days lying in bed doing absolutely nothing. The doctors and nurses held sympathetic smiles on their faces, but even they found it hard to smile when they compared the numbers on her chart taken only hours ago to the ones being displayed on the monitors.

Ellie knew that Tom was worried about everything, and she didn't blame him for losing his cool. She would have done the same thing if she was in his shoes. The storm that raged outside was intensifying by the minute, and Harrison and SJ were still out driving, not answering her nor Tom's calls and texts. They could be stranded in a ditch somewhere, or worse with no way to contact anyone. The cell towers in the area were already down thanks to the numerous trees that had fallen in the strong winds, and the roads were atrocious.