"Mr. Tomlinson, I will have to ask you to go home. It's past the visiting hours." the nurse said when she entered Harry's room.
"I know it is, but couldn't I stay with him? I will sleep in the chair, you won't even notice I am here." the despair was evident in his voice.
"Mr. Tomlinson, we are taking Mr. Styles to the oncology ward and I really have to ask you to go home. You need to rest. You can come to see him right in the morning, yes?" she gave him a small smile.
"Louis." Harry reached out to take his hand.
"I will be okay, yeah? Go home and rest, you must be tired. You were here for me the whole day, go home please." Louis' eyes began to water.
"I dont want to go without you." he whispered, his voice trembling.
"I will see you tomorrow morning, right? It's like when I was still living with- with my mum. Pretend i am with her instead, yeah?" he always tried to make Louis feel better.
"Okay." Louis leaned down to give the boy a long sweet kiss on his lips.
"You have your phone with you. Just in case that anything happens."
"Thank you. See you tomorrow?" Harry questioned.
"Of course. I will be here right when the visiting hours start."
"Okay." the green eyed boy smiled.
"Sleep well."
"You too." and with that Louis walked out of the room.
He made his way towards the entrance door of the hospital with slow steps.
When Louis was finally driving away in his car he felt alone as never before. He got used to his boy very quickly. He saw him at school and everyday at home. They were together practically all the time.
As he kept driving along the dark road he switched on the radio, letting the lazy tones of quitar fill his car and ears.
When he arrived 'home' he locked his car and just stood there in the parking lot for a moment.
He brought the half-empty package of cigarettes out of his pocket, searching for a lighter as well.
In the end he found it, bringing it up to his lips so he could lit up the cigarette he had previously put between his lips.
As soon as he could feel the smoke and could take his first drag he relaxed a little.
So Louis stood there, underneath the sky, like this. He was smoking the cigarette, that according to some scientists, was stealing his time away from him.
•••
Louis has been lying in bed for hours now, unable to fall asleep. He sat up eventually, turning his bedside lamp on. The bed was empty. The whole place was empty.
And then Louis got the worst possible idea. He reached out for his phone and searched for things about leukemia. Although he knew practically all the information he felt like digging even deeper. It wasn't really the best thing to do...
It could be something around four in the morning when a message popped up in the upper half of his screen.
Harry: We miss you.
The fact that he used the word we made Louis even softer than he was before.
Louis: How come you are up at this ungodly hour?
Harry: And why are you up? I told you to rest.
Louis: Shouldn't I be the one telling you this?
Louis: I miss you too, but please try to get some sleep now, yeah? For me.
Harry: I will try. Good night.<3
Louis: Good night.
Louis put the phone down, trying to fall asleep. He needed energy for tomorrow- actually today.
Harry was lying in his new room at the oncology ward. It was on the other side of the huge hospital complex.
Since he was in high school and practically still a teenager they moved him to the children ward. He didn't mind it, he was actually maybe even a bit happier they had sent him there.
Now he was just ticking around the room with his eyes, trying to process everything once again.
The doctor, which was taking care of the patients here, had a little talk with him when they brought him in.
He told Harry he will be just taking some medicine to support his ability to fight infections, because as Harry realized infection is a bitch.
In the end Harry's eyes began to close and he finally fell asleep after hours of staring into the dark that was surrounding him.
•••
When Louis woke up the second day he quickly made his way into the kitchen where he made himself a cup of strong coffee and a quick toast to go.
He took a shower and dressed into some proper clothes before he grabbed his essentials and left the flat.
At 8.34 he was finally on his way towards the oncology ward.
He had studied it at night since he realized they moved Harry somewhere he didn't know.
He found out that oncology has it's own parking lot, so he was currently on his way there.
When he arrived he saw a medium modern building with white facade. He entered through the automatic door, seeing all the inscriptions on the wall in front of him.
Sadly, Harry didn't tell him where they took him, so Louis had to ask someone from the staff. The nurse he approached was nice and she kindly helped him out.
Louis was now standing in the elevator that was supposed to take him to children oncology ward.
He kept touching his hair and rearranging his fringe constantly. He was very nervous, yeah.
When he was finally at the third floor the door of the elevator opened, letting him take a look into the hallway.
It was morning, time for breakfast. Few nurses were walking around, preparing everything they needed for their young patients.
Louis didn't know where to go, he was completely lost. Suddenly he could hear a voice speak from behind.
"Hello? Are you looking for someone here?" he turned around to see a sympathetic middle aged doctor.
"Good morning. My omega should be here somewhere."
"Oh, I know, Mr. Styles." since there wasn't anyone else, who would have an alpha, it was pretty simple to guess.
"Yes."
"I am doctor Graves, you are?"
"Tomlinson." he shook hands with the doctor briefly.
"You are here early. I was just about to check up on him." the doctor led him in the direction of Harry's room.
When they arrived they could see he was still peacefully sleeping.
"We will have to wake him up eventually. I want him to start taking the medication we agreed on. For now, would you like to come to my office for a bit?"
"If I won't bother you. There is for sure a lot of work you have to do."
"I would actually like to speak to you Mr.Tomlinson."
"Alright then." Louis nodded, taking one last longing look at his omega before they left to go to the doctor's office.
As they walked through the hallway Louis could see all the ill children, some of them were awake, some of them still asleep.
There were pictures hanging all around and also a room with tables and corner full of various toys.
How could children get this ill? How is this fair?
•••
"Tea?" the doctor asked when Louis sat down.
"No, thank you." he looked around himself with curious eyes.
The doctor's office looked welcoming. There was a lot of drawings and toys as well.
"Mr. Tomlinson, we both know Harry is expecting." he sat into his own chair.
"Yes, he is." Louis nodded his head while playing with his entwined fingers in his lap.
"But, I also know who you are." that made the alpha swallow harshly.
"What do you mean?" his heart was beating in his chest loudly as never before.
"You are teaching at the same school where Harry is studying."
Louis looked away, feeling like it couldn't get any worse now.
"That's true." he nodded, feeling goosebumps appearing all over his back.
"Will you call the police now?" Louis asked in small voice.
"No. It's really none of my business since Harry is 18. I would just like to know if it wasn't rape."
How could he think he would rape him? Rape him!
"I would never do something like that to anyone."
"I am sorry about this Mr.Tomlinson. I am a doctor, nothing more. Often when young omegas at this age get pregnant I suspect things. I have nothing against you." the doctor explained.
"I- understand."
"I won't spread this information anywhere unless I will see Harry uncomfortable."
"Alright. And how it will be with him? How long will he stay here now?" he rather took the attention back to Harry's health.
"Is his mother around?" the doctor obviously wanted to tell her first but... she didn't even know.
"No, she is not. They lost contact."
"Mhm. Well, I would like him to stay here till the end of this week. We will give him some medication and also folic acid becuase of his pregnancy. That way there will be much lower preposition for the baby to develop leukemia."
"Yeah, alright. And chemotherapy?"
"I want to start the treatment as soon as possible. As I can see in the medical report from doctor Dean, he should be already in between week 8 and week 9 of pregnancy. In three weeks we will start the induction, which is an intensive chemotherapy, usually lasting about a month."
"Yeah." Louis knew that.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
"Doctor Graves, Harry is awake. Should we prepare something?" the doctor got up from his seat, making his way towards the nurse to tell her something. Louis of course couldn't make out a single word of their conversation.
"I think Harry is ready to see us." Louis got up from the chair that he was seated in, making his way out of the office.
The nurse and doctor let him walk first. Mr.Graves wanted to see Harry's reaction to Louis. He still found this connection beyond weird and suspicious.
As soon as they walked through the door and Harry's eyes laid on Louis, the doctor could see for himself.
"Louis." his eyes were sparkling, his hand reaching out for the older one to take.
"I am here love." he came up to him, taking his hand into his and bringing it up to where his heart was.
"Good morning Harry." the doctor stood on the opposite side of the bed as Louis.
"Good morning." he greeted both, the doctor and the lovely nurse that he had talked to some time back.
"How do you feel?"
"I feel alright. Will I go home?" the boy knew it was unlikely, but he still felt like he had to ask.
"You will stay here because we need to stabilize you."
"Okay." he answered sadly.
"I will give you the medication we agreed on yesterday, yeah?"
"Okay." the boy said once again, nodding his head slightly.
"You can eat your breakfast some time later."
"I am not hungry." he shook his head.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I don't want to eat now."
"Alright, then- then you will have lunch later, okay?" the nurse left to take the medication that they had to get into the boy's system.
After it was done they decided to leave the pair alone.
The doctor made sure to remind Louis that Harry needed to rest, which Louis obviously was well aware of before.
"What about school? I haven't-" Harry began to pour out.
"Don't worry about that, hmm?"
"My mother. What about her? She doesn't know anything."
"Haz, you need to keep calm. Don't stress yourself. I could perhaps talk to her?"
"You would do that after what she had said the last time?"
"I would do that for you, yeah. I don't care she is against me. This is about you and you are still her child." Louis caressed the boy's curly hair.
"Yeah..." Harry turned to look outside the window with cold expression plastered on his face.
Louis leaned down and kissed the boy's exposed cheek before he let go of his hand.
He brought himself a chair and situated it right next to Harry's bed.
He decided it was for the best to give him some space now. He knew he was thinking about his mother.
Harry kept staring outside without uttering a single word for some more time, his expression still cold as ice.
"Do you think butterflies are already flying outside?" this question left his mouth a bit later, and it certainly surprised the older one.
"Some kinds are for sure."
"I like butterflies, they have pretty wings." the boy tapped the duvet with his fingers.
"They do. Morpho menelaus is my favourite." Louis kept staring at Harry's face, happy to be able to see him, happy to be by his side.
Harry's face expression warmed up after Louis mentioned that.
"Which one is that?" the green eyed boy turned his head back to Louis, curious about which butterfly was Louis talking about.
"That one with blue wings." he devoted the younger boy a small smile.
——————————————————————————
A/N
Hello my lovely people!
First of all, I want to say that I am sorry if any of the information I use will be incorrect. I am pretty interested in learning about this topic, so I am trying to gather as much valid information as I can. It's all very individual though.
I am sure you understand.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Make sure to stay hydrated and eat something if you haven't.
Take care, love you!<3
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜