Fix You {Niall Horan}

Chapter 5

A/N: I know it's short, but you guys have been sending me the most detailed and loving messages, I decided to update early :') Thank you all for reading!

P.S.: The picture on the side is Adelaide in Niall's flashback, you'll read about it later :)

“And what relation do you have to the patient, sir? Husband? Brother?” the lady at the desk asked. Niall turned to look at Louis, Harry, and Liam, who were scattered around the waiting room, either asleep or on their phones, before turning back to the lady at the desk.

“Husband,” he answered.

“Alright, please sign here.”

“Did he just sign himself in as her husband?” Louis whispered in Liam’s ear. The brown eyed boy sat up a bit, not having heard the conversation between Niall and the receptionist.

“He did what?” he said in a louder tone.

“Shh!” Louis said, covering Liam’s mouth. “I said-“

“I know what you said,” Liam said, pulling Louis’ hand off of his mouth. “He could’ve easily said brother, they would’ve let him in if he did.”

“Yeah, and I can see a resemblance between them,” Louis added, stealing a glance at Harry, who was sprawled across a few chairs, asleep. “But why husband?”

Before Liam could answer back, Niall was standing in front of them with his hands stuffed into his jean pockets, his cheeks tinted a bit more pink than usual. Louis raised his eyebrows and looked at Liam as if to approve of saying something, but Liam just shook his head.

“I’m… Uh… Going to go check on Addie, yeah?” Niall said. Louis and Liam nodded as the Irish boy stalked off towards the exit of the waiting room. He sighed, furrowing his eyebrows to remember the room number that the receptionist had given him.

When he arrived in front of the white door, he looked through the little window at the girl in the hospital bed. She looked so helpless and small compared to how he remembered her. She lay on the hospital bed, asleep, her chocolate colored hair draped delicately on her pillow.

Niall couldn’t wait anymore, and opened the door. He silently closed it behind him and walked over to the hospital bed, pulling up one of the plastic chairs and sitting on it. As he gently held her hand and laced her fingers with his, he recalled a sudden memory at her touch…

“I’ll meet you in the lunchroom, okay?” he told his girlfriend, Marta. She smiled at him, pressing her lips to his cheek before nodding and heading off towards the lunchroom. Once she left, Niall muttered, “There’s something I need to take care of…”

He walked up the hill that was in the school and over it, looking down to find someone lying down in the leaves. It was nearly winter then, so the leaves from the trees had somewhat changed color. As Niall made his way to where the person was and found it to be exactly the girl he was looking for.

She was wearing her boyfriend’s leather jacket, and considering he was a good few years older than her, it fit her like a dress. Her hair was sprawled on the leaves under her head, her blue eyes searching the sky for answers.

Niall stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to her, lying beside her. She didn’t look at him, didn’t even say hello, but just being that close to her made him happy.

“Where’s Marta?” she asked after a while, not taking her eyes off the blue sky. Niall stared up as well, identifying clouds that looked like bunnies, people, and such.

“She’s in the lunchroom,” Niall answered, sighing. “Addie, look…”

“I saw it too,” she interrupted, her eyes watering. “Don’t repeat it.”

Niall sighed, sitting up. She sat up as well, wiping away a stray tear every now and then.

“Screw it,” she croaked. “Screw love.”

“We’re only kids, Addie,” Niall said, looking at her. “Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. He’s older, you know that.”

“But it doesn’t mean he had to kiss her!” she yelled, angry tears pouring down her cheeks. “In front of me too…” she added, her voice low.

“Well he’s an eejit for doing it,” Niall muttered. Adelaide’s eyes widened.

“You just called Stanley Adams an eejit,” she said, her eyes wide.

“Yeah, I know,” he said, taking her hand in his. “He deserved it.”

Niall snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head to get rid of the memory, thinking about how angry she had been when that rightful sod had cheated on her. As he glanced up at Adelaide’s sleeping figure, her head lolled to the side and her eyes fluttered open.

“Hi,” she said.

“Top of the mornin’ to yeh,” he said, smiling.

“Why do you look so sad?”

“I don’t like seeing you here,” he muttered, his eyes darting around the hospital room. He sighed, playing with her fingers.

“I know I’ve said this a million times,” she said, making him look up, “But thank you.”

“And I know I’ve said this a million times, but it’s my pleasure,” he replied, smiling at her. She laughed, and Niall grinned. He missed hearing that laugh. Sure, she had laughed since he had saved her, with the jokes Louis had made, but this one laugh sounded different. Like the old Adelaide.

“So,” he said, breaking the silence that had fallen upon them. “How’re yeh feelin’?”

“A bit better,” she sighed. “They’ve stitched up my cut, and they gave me a bunch of medicines. I don’t really know why, though. It was just the cut I was worried about…”

Niall’s face paled. He thought back to when he had carried Adelaide back to her room once she had fallen asleep in Liam’s, and the feeling of her weight in his arms made him cringe. She was malnourished, for sure.

“I guess they just wanted to fix you up for good,” he replied, holding her palm in between both of his. “I don’t blame ‘em, if a beautiful girl like you showed up like this, I’d want to fix her too.”

Niall realized what he had said, and looked up to see Adelaide with her eyebrows raised at him, as if asking, really? He puffed out his cheeks and exhaled sharply, running his fingers through his dyed, blonde locks. You could cut the awkwardness in the room with a knife.

“Hey!” Harry said, opening the door with a smile on his face, his dimples showing, “You’re awake.”

“Yup,” Adelaide said, giving him a small smile.

Niall let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, and was for once grateful for Harry’s sudden entrance.