Cracking the door open she peaked in seeing the five boys sleeping, smiling she pushed the door open and stepped in the room to check on Liam. The door shut behind her making Louis jump in his sleep his head rising off the table as he wiped the drool from his mouth.
He looked around at Pretty Blue Eyes as she changed Liam's bandages around his head. Louis smiled as he caught sight of Niall and Liam snuggled on the bed. He dropped his feet off the chair they were resting on and sat forward stretching out his back muscles.
"How is he looking this morning?" Louis asked running his hands through his hair. Pretty Blue Eyes smiled as she finished writing in something in Liam's chart.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" She said.
"Oh yea why don't do that. What, wait?" Louis said confusion on his face.
"That's what." Pretty Blue Eyes smiled and pointed to Liam who was stirring in his sleep, his eyes fluttered open revealing his big brown eyes. Louis stood beside the bed his mouth practically hitting the floor in surprise.
"Lou? Earth to Louis? Loowwweeee? Liam smiled at the dumb look on Louis face.
"LIAM!" Louis whispered rushing to his side pulling him into a one armed hug. Liam winced in pain at the embrace.
"Easy there tiger!" whispered Pretty Blue Eyes as she pulled Louis back off of Liam, who looked grateful for the relief.
"Oh sorry mate, forgot myself for a moment." Louis apologized with a smile on his face.
"It's alright Lou, I’m happy to see you too mate." Liam assured him smiling through the pain. Pretty Blue Eyes changed the IV bag drip as Lima and Louis caught up with each other, Niall continued to sleep on Liam's chest.
"Alright Mr. Payne, I will be back to check up on you later today. Don't overdo it when the rest of the boys wake up." She smiled as she talked mentally laughing at the pile of drool beginning to form on Liam's chest from Niall's snores.
"Yes miss, but please just call me Liam." He smiled flashing his pearly white toothy grin as Louis rolled his eyes amazed at his level of charm.
She laughed pausing for a moment before she spoke saying "OK Liam, I will be back in an hour or so." Then Pretty Blue Eyes crossed the room as quietly as she could so to not disturb the sleeping boys and exited the room.
"Smoooooth Payne. Getting your flirt on, Dani is going to be mad!" Louis mocked as the door shut behind Pretty Blue Eyes, keeping his voice down to a whisper level.
At the mention of Danielle's name Liam suddenly remembered what had gotten him here in the first place and his smile faded from his face. He felt ashamed of himself, felt guilty that he was the reason the lads were here worried about him.
Seeing the worry on his face Louis placed a hand on his shoulder and said "I was only kidding mate." But Liam didn't respond, he couldn't find the words right now, he felt so tired.
"Jesus Payne, what is going on? What happened last night?" Louis looked at him right in the eyes, his blue-green eyes searching for answers, Liam looked away hanging his head feeling the emotions of last night begin to take him over again.
Zayn's leg slipped off the couch as he slept, the rubber base of his shoe slapping the linoleum floor with a loud smack. The noise made both Harry and Zayn jump from their sleep, Zayn so much so that he rolled off the couch onto the ground. Niall continued to sleep, the noise only making him cuddle deeper into Liam's side.
Groaning Zayn lifted his body off the ground as Harry shook his head trying to fix his bed head. Liam and Louis both laughed drawing the attention of Zayn and Harry, who both looked toward the bed shocked that Liam was awake.
"Liam?" They chorused together, Harry even pointing at Liam in shock as they rushed over to his side.
"Hey fellas. Quite and entrance you just had there." Liam smiled as he recalled the abrupt wake up call.
"Li! When did you wake up? How are you feeling? What happened" Zayn shot out the questions at random, not waiting for the answers.
"Um, last night. Feel pretty beat up, and I’m not sure." Liam said checking off the answers on his fingers.
They talked for a moment all standing around the bed before Niall opened his eyes. He looked around at their faces smiling down on them, then felt Liam squeeze his hand discreetly under the covers hoping that the rest of the lads wouldn't see. Niall applied the same pressure back to Liam's hand and smiled knowing that it hadn't just been a dream.
"Morning sunshine! You look quite cozy." Harry said a cheeky grin on his face. Niall smiled a moved his body away from Liam's as he scooted toward the edge of the bed. Liam didn't let go of his hand forcing him to not move very far.
"Shut up!" Niall laughed as he brushed his hair with his free hand.
"Ah! You're all awake now! I was worried that I was going to have to rescue Liam from the massive amounts of drool soon." She joked as her blue eyes twinkled matching the smile on her face. All the boys laughed at the joke.
"Alright Liam, time for your check up." She moved closer to the bed as the boys all backed up. Niall tighten his grip on Liam's hand before he let go and moved to the edge of the room in front of the windows. Liam balled up his fist under the covers in the absence of Niall's grip. Pretty Blue Eyes worked quietly as she checked Liam's body. She paused a few times as Liam winced in pain. Her stethoscope hovered over Liam's torso as she listened to what his body was telling her.
"Hmmm..." she hummed under her breath, making the lads look around in fear. She continued working without and explanation, then finally wrapped her tool around her neck again and picked up his chart jotting down some notes.
"Alright Liam, so I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that your broken ribs, while still painful are healing up nicely. The bad news is that it looks like you have suffered some extensive damage to your kidney from the excessive level of alcohol consumed," She spoke slowly keeping her voice light and a smile still on her face.
"Now we are going to be watching you closely but, I am a little worried about your kidney function right now, if it doesn’t heal up own its own, we are looking at surgery or kidney loss." She finished her spiel letting the words fall over Liam and the boys.
"What does that mean?" Niall asked his voice shaky.
"Liam's kidney function right now isn't stable and could drastically decrease at any moment, now there are ways to treat this but without surgery those ways are no more effective than putting a band aid over a bullet wound." She explained.
"So Liam is going to have to have surgery?" Asked Louis.
"It is his best option right now." She said her voice calm and steady. Liam felt a rush of panic flow into his brain, felt his heart begin to beat faster with every word spoken.
How could he be so carless to let this happen to himself? His head began to spin.
He could see the rest of the lads conversing with Pretty Blue Eyes but his brain wasn't formulating the words for his brain to hear. He watched as their lips moved without sound as he felt his stomach lurch.
The room was silent, Liam opened his eyes slightly, hoping that the room was empty. He had been pretending to sleep ever since Pretty Blue Eyes had told him the news. The room looked empty, and Liam rotated his head to the other side of the room to find Niall sitting alone, by the window.
The movement of Liam's head caught his eye as he looked into his eyes from across the room. He stood and walked over the bed as Liam gingerly pulled himself into a seated position, fluffing up the pillow behind his back. He felt the soft embrace of Niall's hand in his own and relaxed slightly at his touch.
"How are you doing?" Niall looked up into his puppy dog brown eyes.
"I'm sore, and thirsty, but fine, I guess." Liam looked at a fixed spot on Niall's forehead avoiding his eyes.
"Don't do that Li, not to me. How are you really feeling?" Niall pressed him for more information.
"Niall, trust me I’m fine." He looked right into his ocean blue eyes and knew instantly he wouldn't be able to sneak a lie past Niall. He turned his face to the window, watching the birds fly against the light blue sky, he watched the birds for a minute or two then spoke.
"I fucked up, Ni..." Niall said nothing but continued to hold Liam's hand. "The other night, I went to go meet Danielle." Liam paused and steadied his voice fighting the urge to cry. "She, she br-broke up with m-m-me."
Liam felt the air go out of his lungs and a rush of pain rise back to the surface. He could feel the drops of his tears land on his cheeks and closed his eyes embarrassed.
"So I got completely plastered at the pub. I don't really remember much but there were these blokes across the pub being loud and massive gits. I was trying to watch the TV and our Pepsi commercial came on, then they started mocking us calling us fags and saying how bad our songs were and I lost it mate. So I punched one of them out, and the rest of them beat me up in the alleyway. I blacked out after that." Liam finished his story, his hands shaking from embarrassment.
"I was in so much pain from the breakup, I just wanted to not feel anything for a little while. I couldn't face you guys like this, I wasn't strong enough." Liam whispered through the cascade of teardrops falling from his eyes.
Niall listened quietly to the story and felt his own heart break, he reached up and brushed the tears from Liam's eyes and then rested his hand on the back his neck pressing his forehead to Liam's.
He wasn't sure why he felt compelled to do this, just knew that in that moment he wanted to hold Liam until he was sure that all their problems disappeared. Their foreheads still resting upon each other’s, Niall felt Liam's tears subside and his breathing return to a normal rate.
Not sure of how much time passed, nor did he really care, Niall kept his head resting on Liam's forehead until he drifted back off to sleep. Then he kissed the top of his head and sat back down in the chair by the bed, happy for the first time in a long while.