Larry One Shots

All: Lightning Strike (3)

 I ended up falling asleep at one point in the wheelchair because I was awoken by a nurse tapping me on the shoulder.

"I have an update on Louis darling and assumed you wanted to hear. Sorry to wake you." The nurse said bringing my chair to Niall's side. Liam was listening as well from his bed, as he was still on oxygen that was hooked to the wall.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"Louis' fine. He's not awake yet, but the surgery was successful. He'll more than likely be very confused and scared when he wakes, so it's urgent that we keep him calm. We want one of you to be there when he wakes so he sees a familiar face. Harry, I'm assuming you want to go?" She asked, looking up from the clipboard.

"Yes of course." I said, eager to see Louis.

"Okay, let's go." She began to wheel me down the hallway towards the ICU. "Oh yes, he is still intubated, but don't worry he can't feel it. It's just to help with his breathing. He'll be on oxygen when he wakes, but he shouldn't move too much, as he just had surgery. Just be there to hold his hand and calm him when he wakes, okay?" I nodded and we approached Louis' room. The nurse rolled me to Louis' side and he looked peaceful, but so broken. He had a tube in his throat, like the nurse said and had a neck brace around his neck. The bandage was still around his head protecting his burn. He also had an IV giving him fluids and pain meds. I held his hand gently and waited for him to wake up.

I had fallen asleep on the side of Louis' bed and was awakened by the sound of the monitor beeping rapidly and two nurses and a doctor coming in and surrounding Louis' bed. They pulled me back so they could do their thing, but I was so confused on what they were doing and if he was okay.

"What's happening?!" I asked moving back closer to Louis.

"It's okay. He's fine. He's starting to reject the tube, which is a good sign as he is starting to breathe on his own and wake up. Don't worry this is totally fine. He can hear you, Harry. Come next to him and try to comfort him as we don't want him moving too much." The nurses took the tube out and he started coughing and went to sit up, but they had to hold him back, careful not to jostle his neck brace. I stood at his side and held his hand as they placed the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. He started to calm slightly, but he still hadn't opened his eyes all the way. The nurses and doctor left us to be alone as he was stable enough.

I noticed his eyes start to flutter a few minutes later when he finally calmed down all the way. I could see the tears falling from his cheeks, so I removed the oxygen mask from his face as he seemed okay.

"Lou?" I wiped the tears from his cheek. "Hey, it's okay don't cry. Try not to move."

"It really h-hurts." He said squeezing my hand and looking at the ceiling, as he couldn't actually sit up to look at me. "I-I c-can't see you and I'm scared." I stood up and got his point of view.

"I'm right here, it's okay. Do you need more pain meds?" He went to nod, but was met with pain in his neck. "Don't move your neck okay?"

"Okay, just go get the nurse please." He said, crying still. I pressed the button and a nurse reappeared.

"Hi Louis. Nice to see you awake." Louis smiled weakly, but still had a painful expression on his face.

"Please it hurts a lot." The nurse nodded and grabbed some medicine for his IV.

"Okay that's fine darling. I have some more pain meds for you. Do you want to try to sit up a little bit? I can put the head of the bed up so you are more like sitting up then lying down?"

"Yea can we try that?" The nurse nodded again and began to reposition Louis, with slight cries of pain along the way, but eventually got to the position he wanted. "Thanks"

"Of course. Now we have to to put this oxygen back on you as your stats are slightly low, but it just goes right under your nose." The nurse placed clear tubing underneath Louis' nose and turned the oxygen on that was on the wall. "Is that okay?"

"Yes thank you." The nurse left. "Are you okay?" He asked, looking slightly towards me.

"I'm fine, please I was just really worried about you." I said grabbing his hand again.

"What about Niall and Liam? Are they okay?" I explained Niall and Liam's injuries and how Louis was the worst out of all of us. I then noticed he went kind of pale and looked scared all of sudden.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked, standing up.

"I-I can't-" He hesitated. "My legs feel numb!" He finally shouted. I ran to grab a nurse and came back into the room to find Louis crying.

"He said his legs are numb?" I questioned as the nurse began to examine him. He tested his reflexes on his knee, which seemed okay. This was a good sign.

"Yup so this is normal after the kind of surgery you had Louis. Your spinal cord is bruised, so the numbness and tingling is normal. It should go away after a few days. We'll start you on some medication to help with that. Just try your best to move your toes and feet gently at first." The nurse explained, putting up a new medication to go into his IV. "We can add some cooling sensations on your legs to increase the blood flow and the movement in your legs. It should help." She said as she left the room. Then a knock came from the door a few minutes later and it was Niall and Liam with another nurse.

"Hey guys come in." I said motioning to Louis' bedside.

"How you doing Lou?" Niall asked.

"Could be better, but it's not too bad when the pain meds kick in. How about you guys? You alright?"

"Yea we are okay. Healing, but good." Liam said sitting on Louis' bed. Louis ended up falling asleep because of the pain meds. "Is he okay Harry? He looked like he could have been crying."

"He was, but yeah he's good. He's still in a lot of pain, but he was just scared when he woke up. Then he has some numbness in his legs, but they said it should go away in a few days. Have you spoken to management yet?" I asked Liam as we still aren't sure about the tour.

"Yea they said they are pushing back the tour. They are setting up a flight for us to go back home once Louis can leave the hospital. Then we will be sent back to London for a few months while Louis recovers. They were actually pretty nice about it." Liam explained.

"Well that's good." I said relieved. The nurses ended up moving two more beds and a roll out chair in the room so we could all be together. We ended up turning in for the night around 8:30pm.

A few days later, all the boys were released from the hospital. They were all basically recovered except for Louis. Louis spent the next 2 weeks in his neck brace on the couch or in bed receiving help from all the boys, especially Harry. After those 2 weeks were up, he got the brace removed and started physical therapy. He couldn't do any strenuous activity for the next 2 months. They resumed touring, about 3 months later when Louis was fully healed.

The first concert back was really hard for Louis as it was still difficult to move his head and neck and it was still quite sore, but he pushed through like he always did.