"Help!! HELP!! SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE!!" Harry kept shouting while running in the ER.
After Louis fainted he wasted no time getting up from the floor, keeping the beautiful boy in his arms, and rushing to the hospital, knowing that since his mom and dad worked there a few people might give him the precedence.
And surely enough as soon as he yelled he saw a familiar face running to him.
"Harry what is going on?" his dad rushed out.
"He- he was hugging me and he fainted and- and I don't know- mom said he would feel weak from the infection he has but- he shouldn't have fainted. This is not okay, something is wrong. Please, please, please help him dad. He's only seventeen, he can't die." Harry's voice was so concerned it pained everybody who was able to hear him. Well, except his dad of course.
"Stay calm, breathe and tell me what happened slowly." his dad demanded.
"H-he-he passed out and he, umm, has an inf-infection on his right ankle. Mom said he would be fine but he's not and please, please, cure him." Harry blurred out.
His dad started giving orders to some nurses nearby to get him a barrel and prepare everything for an x-ray exam and keep an OR ready if needed.
As soon as Louis was placed on the barrel the nurses started moving him, Harry following.
"Son, what are you doing?" his dad rightfully asked. "Everybody knows, even the dummies, that you can't get pass the ER unless you are a patience or either a doctor or a nurse."
"I can't leave him dad. He's a minor and right now he's under my responsibility. I am not leaving his side."
"Well too bad, 'cause you won't be surpassing this line. If you became a doctor everything would have been easier, this is your fault. Now, if you don't mind, I gotta go take care of that boy toy of yours. I'll get a nurse to update you on his status."
And with that Harry's dad left.
If you know how hospital dynamics work, you surely know that he isn't doing his job right. For a starter he didn't ask about the basic information needed to correctly visit a patience and perform a surgery if needed, for example how Louis got hurt, if he has any medical conditions and\or allergies, how old he is and so on.
Not that Harry would know how to answer but still.
Harry and his father had a falling out a few years aback but it doesn't give the latter an excuse to act this way. I mean, c'mon! It's unfair in so many ways!
Harry was well aware about how unprofessional his dad could be whenever it came to anything related to him. And it scared him to no end.
***
"Styles?" a nurse called a little bit after 30 minutes of Harry dying with nervousness.
"Yeah? How's Lou? Is he alright? Does he need to be operated?" he rushed out.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Styles, but I don't know who 'Lou' is. Doctor Styles told me to let you know the kid is okay, he just needs to go to the OR to get some iron pieces in his ankle out." The nurse recited.
"Courtney, the kid's name is 'Lou'." Harry sighed while pinching his nose. He always knew the girl could be a little bit of a dummy, but he never reflected about how much it could affect everybody's life. And right now it's affecting his life by making him lose the non-existent patience he has.
"Oh okay." she replied in a very awkward voice.
"I need access to the OR's gallery Louis is being operated in. And before you say anything, just remember my father is the residence chief and he already specified that I can use the galleries whenever I want if it helps me 'realize studying medicine is better than going to law school'."
It's always been like this, but Harry never once agreed for two reasons:
1. He finds organs kinda disgusting
2. It's highly unfair that since his father is the chief than he can do whatever the fuck he wants to do in the hospital (he could literally ask to be in the room and no one would bat an eyelid)
But now he had a boy counting on him (or so he liked to think) and he was so curious to know everything about his history and he wanted to know oh so much what's the reason why those bright blue eyes seemed so sad and tired and hopeless and... his mind just kept going, but I gonna be nice and I'll save you a three-pages-long description on how Louis' eyes looked.
That's why, going against the hospital rules and the majority of his moral values, he started walking towards the OR board, not even waiting for an answer from Courtney.
In case you don't know the OR board is just a huge white board with all of the information needed regarding surgery, such as what ORs are in use, when and who's the surgeon in the room.
When he arrived in front of said board, Harry started looking for the beautiful boy's name but he soon realized his father has no idea that he's operating a boy named Louis.
Therefore he started looking for a 'Doctor Styles' but he realized another thing: his parents were both known as 'Doctor Styles' and that explains why there could be a Doctor Styles in both OR₃ and OR₄.
Harry started panicking when he heard the voice of one the best person in the whole hospital, maybe even in the whole world.
"OR₄, you can thank me later, now go before someone sees us."
Harry's childhood friend is the kindest person on the planet, truly.
The two of them basically grew up together but after a "little accident" they could not talk to each other for any reason. Yeah, life really does suck.
Therefore, Harry smiled, knowing that maybe, just maybe, the age difference really was helpful.
***
It took him around twelve minutes to get to the right gallery (in his defence that hospital is huge and he doesn't know much about the way hospitals in general work).
When he got there Louis was laying down on the operating table and he was already drugged up.
Just as he sat down he heard his father saying: "Okay people, let's get started. We've got some iron pieces stuck in this boy's right ankle and, you'll never guess, we gotta remove them!" his voice full of sarcasm.
Harry could say whatever he wanted about how much of a shitty person his father was, but he could say almost nothing about what a good doctor he is. Almost (I mean, we've seen how unprofessional he was a while ago).
As soon as the operation started, Harry zoned out as he focused on the beautiful boy's face.
He, once again, started wondering what secrets were hidden behind those blue sapphires, alongside with asking himself if he had any interests in common with the boy (Harry really hoped so since he really didn't have anybody to discuss them with).
While he was busy noting to himself to ask Louis if he liked any of the MCU movies, he noticed something on the blue eyed boy's arm: scars. Lots of 'em. Some were really white, indicating they were either healing or they're so deep they couldn't heal more than they already did, whilst others were still fresh. But what Harry found the weirdest was this burn mark that looked so extremely familiar, he knew he had already seen it somewhere, but where?
He knew he couldn't ask Louis to show him his limbs and he also knew that if he asked Louis an explanation he was not only going to get none, but he was surely going to be hated by the beautiful boy.
He was now thinking about so many things at once (Louis self-harming, that damnly familiar mark, the (for a change) pain Louis had to go through growing up,) and he was so deep in thought he didn't even feel the first of many tears slip out of his eye, a sob soon following, just imagining all of the shitty things that could have lead to using this as an escape from the psychological pain he was suffering. Harry knows what it feels like to not see an end to all of that's bad in your life, as do I, and I can understand perfectly how much pain the discovering of such a hurtful truth can bring along and poor Harry was suffering so much right now because of it.
"Shut up, you idiot, I just got out on uni and I'd like to guess what they're gonna do before they actually do it since I'm aiming to become a better doctor than the Styles combined." An unknown voice said annoyingly.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Harry replied, tone just as annoyed.
"I'm Luna and I'd really like if you could kindly shut the fuck up." the really irritating girl replied.
"You know, you're a real bi-"
"Oh my God! You're Harry Styles, right? The son of the two greatest doctors to have ever walked this planet, innit?" A different voice, again unknown, interrupted Harry's French reply.
"Uhmm... yeah...?"
"Oh my God, I can't believe this. I'm finally meeting the Harry Styles! It's such a pleasure to meet you, sir. My partner talks about you all the time! They're gonna be so happy when I'll tell them I have had the honour to meet you. Could I get a picture so they'll believe me?" the unknown voice asked, whilst vigorously shaking Harry's hand.
"Yeah, su-"
"They? How many partners do you have? Ten? God, you must be a slut." Luna, once again (Jesus, I forgot how bothering she was at the beginning of this story) interrupted Harry.
"Luna, that's so fucking rude. Maybe his partner is non-binary or genderfluid or maybe just not cisgender. And even if he is in a polyamorous relationship, what would the problem be? It's none of our business who other people are dating, and furthermore we shouldn't judge their decisions. That being said, hey, what's your name?" he reasoned while turning back to the unknown lad, "And why don't you tell me more about your partner? I'm assuming you aren't in a polyamorous relationship considering you used the word 'partner' singularly."
"They're non-binary, favourite pronouns are they\them but they don't mind the he\him ones as long as you use them once every blue moon" he ended with a chuckle.
Harry was about to ask the lad about his partner's name but before he could do anything Luna talked first.
"Wait a second, what is your full name again?" she asked while looking at Harry.
And yeah, he was gonna have some fun with it.
"I'm Harry Edward Styles, son of Anne and Desmond Styles" he answered with a smirk, adding "and I think I'm going to tell my parents how a wannabe doctor just told me, and I quote 'to shut the fuck up' and we all know how no doctor should act like that with anybody. I think they'll find hilarious making your life a living hell, and I will surely love watching that happen."
As an expert in people who are hateful and decide to become bullies, I know how this behaviour is wrong and absolutely unacceptable, but I cannot find it in myself to be offset by Harry's response. I just can't.
Firstly because he isn't hateful in the slightest, he's just been through a fairly rough childhood, implying he can be a little bitch sometimes but it's kinda normal. I too had to suffer a similar fate and I understand how in a certain context a traumatized person can lose the control they have gained over themselves and just snap, proceeding with acting like an arrogant son of a bitch.
Secondly because why would he be a bully? Both him and I know very well what if feels like to be on the other side of an answer like this, so why would he hurt someone else in the exact same why he has been hurt in oh so many times growing up.
But I'm honestly proud of him getting his little revenge, even if it's just wrong, on so many fucking levels.
I know Luna's story too, and she has been a bully for the quite a while now, but she hasn't always been like this. This isn't about her though, considering what Harry is about to witness.
"N-no please, don't do that, yo-you'll be ruining my- my career, please I can't-" Luna was replying when Harry (for once) interrupted her, saying "I was just kidding, Luna" while laughing his ass off, the lad (whose name we'll later on learn is Julian) laughing too, saying something along the lines of "damn, this guy keeps getting better and better".
He was about to add something when he heard his father say: "Courtney, vitals are dropping. Start CPR right now."
Here it is, the feeling of having fucked up way too much by doing something that felt so easy and common. He wasn't planning on getting distracted, he didn't want to unfocus on Louis' operation but it all happened so fast.
He felt like a piece of shit for putting Louis' health aside.
He watched petrified as the heart monitor showed flat, lifeless lines.
And after that, it was all just a blur.
***
"Boobear, where are you?" his mother called.
"I know you're hiding here somewhere, Louis." she said smiling and chuckling.
"Surprise momma!" he screamed, jumping out from under the table and hugging Johannah.
"My little baby. Come on, we need to get you all cleaned up for the ceremony." she said with a sad tone.
"But momma, I don't want to." Louis whined, tears forming in his eyes.
"Oh my boobear, I know, but it's what we gotta do to survive, yeah? I'll be right there throughout all of it, making funny faces."
The little Louis laughed, "Yes, I love funny faces!"
And for just a little while all that could be heard was mother and son laughing together.
***
The room was very quiet, the heart rate monitor was the only sound that could be heard in the room, indicating Louis was still alive.
It had been five hours since they got Louis out of the OR and he hadn't woken up yet.
The waiting was killing Harry.
He hadn't left his side, not even for a second. The only thing that could get close to it is when he bought a bottle of water from the nearest vending machine he could find when they were moving Louis in his current room.
He had the irrational fear that the moment he got out of that room the beautiful boy would have a some sort of crisis that would end up killing him.
He knew it was stupid but still, the fear was there.
he could also spend his time thinking and thinking and thinking about that mark. He was sure he had already seen it, and trust me he did, but he couldn't understand where.
Harry was so deep in his thoughts he didn't notice Louis' fingers moving slightly, his heart rate picking up and his head shaking, somewhat gently at first but soon ending up shaking pretty violently.
He woke up from his trance when he heard the door open with way too much force. He was about to ask what the fuck was going on, when he became aware of the situation: Louis was waking up, not in the nice, easy, movie like way but still, he was waking up.
He knew what was going on, it was actually pretty common: in the patient's coma-induced state, his traumatized mind started either creating false scenarios that would represent the trauma the patient has suffered, or his mind would be showing memories associated with said trauma.
The nurse that had barged in started replacing the IV bags with ones that had tranquilizers in them. It took two minutes for them to start working, Louis calming down and Harry both relaxing and getting more anxious at the same time.
"Hey, I've never seen you before, are you new here?" Harry wondered. As much as he hated hospitals in general, he had spent a majority of his life constricted in this sad white world. He basically knows not only every soul that works there but also some of the patients that have been recovered for more than ten years, and he had never seen the brunette lad that was now looking at him with embarrassed red cheeks.
"Yeah, I started my trial a 8 days, 14 hours, 37 minutes and," he checked his watch,"46 seconds, not that I'm counting" he awkwardly chuckled, "I'm Niall, by the way. Niall Horan." the boy answered while shifting uncomfortably on his feet.
"Nice too meet you, Niall," he extended his hand, "I'm Harry Styles." He introduced himself.
"Styles? Like the two greatest doctors in the entire state if not the entire planet Styles!?" Niall asked incredulously.
"Why does everybody know my name!? Like, what the actual fuck!? I ain't my parents for fuck's sake! I just wanna live my fucking life in fucking peace goddamn it!" Harry, angrily, let out. He knew he was wrong and he was about to apologize for letting his frustration and his hatred for his parents get the best of him, when he felt something tugging at his hand.
"Har-ry wa-ter, ple-a-se." Louis' feeble voice was barely heard.
The kind stranger was quick to grab his water bottle, open it and give it to the younger lad, helping him out.
As soon as he finished drinking (and Niall was done checking if Louis' values were alright) the two lads were left alone in a cutthroat awkward silence.
The one to break it was the beautiful boy.
"You saw them, didn't you?" he whimpered.
It was kinda obvious that he was talking about his self-harm scars and, you see, Harry had two choices here:
1. Act like he didn't and take something away from the huge pile of worries Louis already had, even though he was very worried and some answers would be very welcomed (and he 'low key' hoped he's want some cuddles and comfort from him and Harry wouldn't think twice before showering the blue boy with as many cuddles as he'd like)
2. Tell Louis he did and proceed to ramble about how he didn't have to worry and he would be there for him and ask him what had made him doing (specifying the fact he didn't have to say shit if he didn't want to or he was uncomfortable) or ask him how he could help him and that he would do anything to make him feel better and so on with questions and statements that can make a self-harmer go crazy and feel like shit about themselves.
And I am forever grateful for what he chose to do.
"Saw what?" he whisper-asked.
For the first time ever both Louis and I genuinely smiled.
I had never ever smiled in my entire life. It isn't in my DNA, my nature. I was build to feel all of the most awful feelings, and to see the stories of the ones that have to suffer through them.
Au contraire, Louis had never had a reason to smile, not truly at least, fake smiles were needed on a daily basis to just get through. And the feeling he just got made him feel some kind of tingling in his stomach, a very weird heat spreading on his cheeks, a very uncommon acceleration of the heartbeat and the forceful need to smile. I too felt all of that, apart from the heartbeat part since, well, I don't have a heart.
"Never mind, stupid question. Oh and could you tell me what happened, please? I blacked out after embarrassing myself with my mad attempt to reach the bathroom." he kept smiling, thinking that maybe, just maybe, Harry might want to help him, and not trick him. It'll be short lived, but for that little while he got he couldn't bring himself to complain. For once he was feeling okay.
"Don't worry, you weren't embarrassing, you just had a very high temperature caused by the infection that must've hurt like a stinging bitch, not to mention you were clearly dehydrated and not well fed. Not saying this to make you uncomfortable, in case you're thinking so, just saying it 'cause I don't want you to be embarrassed about what happened and oh gosh I should stop talking." Harry finished with red cheeks and with Louis looking at him with a puzzled expression.
They were back to silence before Harry distractedly let something out, busy observing how beautiful Louis' smile was and how different it was from the one he gave him the other day, and without noticing a little "Damn, you're gorgeous," slipped out of his mouth.
"What?"