[Cries a river because it's over. My baby is finally completed. This momma is so proud. :') I hope you all enjoyed the story, I'll be writing an author's note in the next chapter/part-thingy. :) -M]
Louis' mother slowly sat in the chair next to her son and reached out to grab his hand. Her whole body was shaking, trembling from the sight of her baby boy in such conditions. She rested her head on her extended arm and sobbed, wet tears hitting the cool floor. She then laughed at herself and raised her head, wiping away a few tears with her free hand.
"It's funny that I haven't talked to you in years, yet I can cry for hours seeing you like this. I wonder if it's that way with all mothers," she smiled weakly, "I've missed you, baby. I wish you would come home sometimes. I wish you'd come home for Christmas, we'd really like you there. Your siblings miss you, they're in need of a big brother's guidance. Please, I just want to know if-if you can hear me. Can't you—give me a sign or something."
Johannah wasn't sure what to expect, but she was definitely glad when one of Louis' fingers moved. She grinned from ear to ear, "come on baby, you can wake up. You're okay. There's no one here to hurt you."
Louis started to mumble just as Harry and Lottie walked back into the room, laughing at a lame joke Harry had told. When Harry heard Louis' little murmurs, he raced toward the bed to stand on other side across from Johannah.
"Lou? Lou, baby, wake up. Come on, baby, you can do this. Just open those pretty eyes of yours," Harry encouraged, "I've missed those pretty blues of yours. Please wake up for me, darling."
Lottie smiled at the way Harry tried to wake Louis up and so did
Johannah surprisingly, "come on, you bastard," Lottie spoke, trying to get Louis up like she had when he lived at home with her, "wake up
before I throw a bucket of water on your head."
Louis' eyes opened and closed repeatedly as he mentally cursed the bright lights for being mini suns that were out to blind him.
"H-Harry?" Louis called out as he began to squirm in his bed.
Harry beamed, "I'm right here, Lou," he reached out to gently caress Louis' cheek, "can you please open those eyes for me, darling?"
Ever so slowly, Louis opened his eyes to look at Harry. The taller man smiled and Louis spoke softly, "I've missed you, you big dweeb."
Without even thinking twice, Harry leaned down to kiss Louis, silently thanking God for saving his one and only.
Lottie let out an awe and laughed when Louis' cheeks went red and he gave her a nasty glare. His mother simply smiled, happy her son was finally awake.
"You've been crying, mom?"
"Just a little," she lied. She laughed, "did you get a lot of sleep?"
Louis shook his head, "nah, I think I need a nap," he joked.
Harry laughed, "well it's great to have you back in reality. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we've missed you."
"Well of course you have, I'm the life of the party," Louis replied, getting a few laughs from the three other people in the room.
Harry kissed the top of Louis' head, "I'm never gonna lose you again," he whispered in Louis' ear.
"I wouldn't want you to," Louis whispered back.
Just when it seemed everything was okay, there was a loud noise that sounded like a gun being fired and a bunch of chaos outside Louis' door. All four of them turned to look outside the door window only to see nurses and doctors running past it quickly. Louis turned his head to look at Harry, but the detective was already halfway out the door.
Harry maneuvered throughout the crowds of screaming children, worried mothers, and furious fathers just as there was another shot fired. He quickly ran toward the room the sounds were coming from and the sight surprised him.
"You're a good-for-nothing fool!" the blonde man yelled, standing off to the side of the hospital bed, "you—you're a fucking bastard!"
Harry drew his gun and carefully stepped forward, "NYPD turn around and put the gun down," Harry ordered. When the shooter didn't obey Harry decided to take a different approach. He slowly lowered his gun and put it back in its holster, "Niall, you don't want to do this. It's not going to do any good. He's a bad man, don't let him make you a bad man, too."
Niall rapidly shook his head, his hands visibly shaking, "he hurt Lou. He hurt Lou so he deserves to be hurt, too."
Harry took a few steps forward, noticing his scared mother in the corner of the hospital room. "I want you to look at him, Niall. He's already hurt that's why he's here in the hospital and not running away. He'll be punished for the crime he committed, so save yourself and put the gun down."
Niall was crying, fat tears running down his cheeks and snot running out of his nose. It was obvious he had never done this and Harry was surprised he'd even think of doing something like this. He wondered how Niall found out about the incident, how he even found Louis' attacker. He was honestly worried about the young man, feeling as though the boy was showing symptoms of psychosis.
"The police are on their way, Niall. They'll kill you if they think you're trying to hurt someone else. You're lucky it's just me right now and I know that you wouldn't want to hurt anyone, would you?"
Niall shook his head again, "n-no. I wouldn't hurt anyone."
"Then you need to put down that gun, because it's very dangerous and you could hurt someone with it. Do you think you could do that for me? Do you think you could put the gun down and your hands on your head?" Harry asked.
Niall then nodded, carelessly dropping the gun to the floor and shakily raising his hands above his head. Harry quickly went to slid the gun out of the way and handcuffed Niall just as a handful of police officers made their way into the room, one of them picking up the gun.
"H-he hurt Louis. I saw him hurt Louis. He had a gun, too and-and he shot Louis," Niall rambled, "he deserves to be hurt, too. Louis needs justice."
Harry handed Niall off to one of the officers, "take him back to the station, I'll want to ask him a few questions. If anyone asks any questions he's under arrest for the attempted murder of Desmond Styles."
The officer looked at Harry with a worried expression, "your—that's your father?"
"Yes, officer, now please just focus. I need him down at the station. I'll be there as quickly as I can. Thank you."
With a deep sigh, Harry turned around to take a look at his father. There weren't any wounds, so he looked around the room to find two bullet holes in the wall across from where Niall was standing. Harry nodded, relieved that his dad hadn't died in such a way.
"At least you weren't shot," Harry commented, causing his father to chuckle.
"Yeah, could have been worse."
Harry's mother finally stood up, "I think it's time you tell him."
"What's wrong?" Harry questioned, feeling the tension build around him, the suspense a growing killer.
"It's nothing you want to hear right now."
"Dad, come on," Harry tried to encourage, although he was kind of epically failing.
His father sat up in his bed, "I'm really sorry for what I did, Harry. It was extreme and wrong and I shouldn't have done it at all. I'm not sure what I was thinking."
"Des, you know that's know what I meant," Harry's mother commented, "tell him the truth, he has the right to know."
The older man exhaled, "Harry, I'm dying." He took another deep breath and exhaled, "I-I went into see the doctor a while ago since I had been losing a lot of weight for no apparent reason. They ran some tests to see how everything was doing. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer."
Harry shook his head in refusal, "dad, no. No, you aren't—you can't be dying. You're lying to me. This is all just a lie."
Harry's father shook his head, trying not to cry in front of his son, "I am. I'm trying to get through it, to kick it's ass, but there's only so much I can do at my age, Harry."
As if Harry hadn't cried enough that week, he was given more terrible news. He leaned down to hug his father, a tear coursing down his cheek. "We'll get through this, we have to. What about Gems? Does she know? Why isn't she here? Why am I just now realizing she's not here? She should be here. We all should be here. We need to come and be the family we never were. We need to come together and fight this thing, kick it's ass like you said."
"I love your enthusiasm, Harry, but I just think it's too late. We'll try, but I'm not getting my hopes up."
Harry took his father's hands in his, "this is our second chance," he started off saying, "this is our opportunity to get to know each other and accept each other for who we are. I know you don't think I'm 'just a fag' and I know you aren't 'just the guy that tried to kill my boyfriend'. We're two completely different people from who we think the other is, if that makes sense. So let's take this as the chance to re-introduce ourselves, except without me coming out of the womb and all."
Harry's parents both laughed at that and his father nodded, "okay. Alright, then it's a deal."
"Great," Harry said with a wide smile, "now, it's a good thing you're in the city because this hospital has got to be one of the best there is. Not to mention there's a frozen yogurt place like just around the corner of this place so I can sneak in some fro-yo for you while you're going through chemotherapy or whatever. I'll even read you books and tell you stories, maybe I'll tell you some stories from work. Things get pretty interesting here in the city."
And with that it seemed like the past was finally put in the past and they could finally move on to the future.
.
Harry wasn't going to lie, it was extremely awkward having to get to know his father to late in life, but he was glad he did before he passed away. His father wasn't a bad guy, just a good guy who's made bad decisions. He was helpful, friendly and encouraging. He liked to volunteer, which was something Louis really liked about him.
Eventually, he got used to the idea of Harry and Louis being together, he even began to invite Louis to family events like picnics in the park and dinners. Louis really liked joining the Styles because he'd always get to enjoy embarrassing stories about Harry, much like Harry learned of embarrassing stories from Lottie.
It was a hard day for Harry when his mother called to say his father had died after being on bed rest for several days. It was hard for him to think about how he saw his dad the day before and now he would never see him again.
Louis was there though. He was Harry's shoulder to cry on and even offered some helpful advice when given the opportunity. He smiled whenever Harry looked at him and gave Harry kisses whenever he looked sad. "It's just a little storm that will pass eventually and when that time comes, there will be a rainbow waiting for you," Louis had told Harry to cheer him up. Harry honestly had no idea what Louis was trying to get at, but he still smiled and thanked Louis for everything he's done.
After a few weeks, Harry was doing well and it was back to food fights and tickle contests for the lovely couple.
Harry would often times come into the kitchen when Louis was cleaning the dishes to pick him up and lead them off to the bedroom where he'd tickle Louis' sides and leave love bites all over his skin.
Eventually, Louis got to the point where he was so comfortable with Harry that he offered Harry the chance to move in with him (to which Harry happily accepted the offer). Harry moved in a few weeks later, bringing along only the things he needed since Louis would have killed him if he tried to bring that"ugly" lamp of his. (It was his favorite lamp.) But Harry would sacrifice any lamp for Louis, because that's what true love was all about.
It felt as though everything was okay and that it would stay that way.