Reason To Be (A Zouis Family AU)

Inrerlude One, Chapter Three

"That's it, baby, let it all out."

Louis winces as the eight year old gags again, bringing up stomach acid at this point. He keeps his hand on his forehead, holding his hair away from his face as he leans over the toilet.

The boy had stumbled into their bedroom just an hour ago in the middle of the night and promptly vomited everywhere. Now Zayn is in the hallway on the phone to non-emergencies whilst simultaneously trying to get the other boys back to bed.

What worries Louis the most is that Harry isn't even crying or reacting to the gags and heaves that strike through his entire body. He hates being sick, they all know that from the sickness bugs that the boys had all managed to catch in the past. Now he just falls back against Louis lethargically, pyjama shirt all twisted and sticking to his cold, clammy skin, head lolling back against the man's collarbone like his neck is refusing to hold it up.

"Harry, sweetie?" He hums, trying and failing to disguise the panic in his voice. "How about we try taking your bg again, hm?"

The boy lets out a low whine at that, the most he's responded in the past thirty minutes or so.

Zayn cracks the door open, eyes concerned as he glances at their middle son then speaks into the phone again, seemingly answering the operator's questions.

Harry's breaths rise and fall in short, quick pants and he looks up to Louis with his green eyes half lidded. "M'tired Daddy. S'all - hm - no," he slurs, and Louis looks up at his husband desperately as he continues to talk to the dispatcher.

The taller man holds the phone away from his ear for a moment, nodding at Louis. "Get him in the car," he instructs, and Louis winces, nodding back before he returns his attention to Harry.

The boys breath smells fruity and almost sickly sweet with each exhale and Louis knows from all the pamphlets and brochures handed to him by the doctors that that isn't a good thing. The opposite, in fact.

So he wastes no time hoisting the boy around on his lap to face him, forcing a small smile at him despite the fear brewing in his chest. "Hey buddy. We're gonna go get you checked out, okay? Get you feeling all better," he soothes, looping an arm around his back and another beneath his butt and standing up with him, trying not to panic further when the child makes no move to hold onto him.

Zayn is is still busying around trying to collect up the boy's bg reader as well as the first aid kit containing his emergency insulin and a packet of sweets. One that seems very empty compared to how it had been the last time he checked, but in the midst of his concern and with a barely conscious Harry in his arms, he pays no mind to it.

"Stay awake for me baby, okay?" He says softly, glancing down to where the eight year old looks ready to drift off.

The boy's blood sugar levels had skyrocketed seemingly out of nowhere in his sleep, and after emptying his stomach and being so out of it, Louis doesn't want to think about the dangers that might come with him drifting off.

Thankfully, the words seem to get through to the child, who mumbles something incoherent and blinks his eyes open wider sluggishly.

When he gets to the front door, Liam is there with his coat on over the top of his pyjamas, the twelve year old holding Niall in his arms. The smallest of the boys is asleep again against his brother, and Louis knows that in any other circumstance, he would find it adorable.

Now, however, he just frowns at the sight. "Liam, what are you doing?" He says.

Liam eyes Harry nervously for a second before he looks back up to his Dad with eyes still slightly squinted from sleep. "Papa said we have to come too. Because you're not allowed to leave us at home," he says, and Louis sighs, wanting to smack himself in the forehead.