Twenty-Seven
With my head rested against Niall's bare chest, I slightly turned my face into him to place a quick kiss on his skin, turning my head back with my eyes closed and a smile on my face when I felt Niall's fingers comb through my hair.
"Today's going to be the day." I told him. "I can feel it."
"Yeah?" Niall asked with some curiosity. "What makes you feel like that?" His fingers continued their lazy motions through my hair.
I craned my neck so I could look up at him, my tongue wetting my lips. "Because I just do." I said with a chuckle as Niall rolled his eyes at me. My morning was already waking up to a great start, feeling so connected to Niall and just feeling really happy. "All right, I just think that Grace should come home with us already." My reply was lame, not filled with as much excitement that it should have had.
Niall shrugged his shoulders before reaching over to his end table to pick up his phone. "You never know. The doctor's going to run his tests on Grace and get her some x-rays. It'll sure be a busy one at least."
I nodded my head in agreement, dragging my arm the was loosely draped across Niall's waist back, my body rolling away from him a bit so I could sit up. I let out a relaxed sigh. "Just think tonight the three of us can sleep in comfortable beds and we'll be home." I stretched my arms up over my head, looking up to the ceiling of our hotel room, which had a coloured stain on the ceiling. That must have been why I was able to get a room on such notice, because if we weren't desperate for a place close to the hospital we would have looked into this room and decided we were better off somewhere else.
"I definitely wouldn't mind being home in my own bed." Niall said as he pulled the covers away from his body, his briefs covering himself up. He stood up from bed. "We're leaving in 15 minutes so get your arse up."
"Usually, I'm the one who has to get your lazy one to hurry up." I called to him as he walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
"Don't get used to it!" Niall responded before I heard the shower go on.
I sat around for just a couple of minutes before I got myself up and out of bed, my mind generating good and positive thoughts that Grace would pass all her tests so she could be discharged from the hospital today. Selfishly, I thought that four days in the hospital were more than enough. I knew there were ore serious cases in the world where patients were stuck in hospital rooms for longer and four days was probably nothing in comparison.
I dressed myself in the same black jeans that I wore yesterday. They were my most comfortable pair I had. Plus, I wasn't doing much but sitting around in them so they were practically clean to me. Then I put on a long white t-shirt and sat on the bed to my socks and shoes on. All I really had to do was brush my teeth, which I did while Niall finished up in the shower.
We left our hotel room about 10 minutes later than Niall had said. It wasn't my fault at all. I was ready with time to spare so I had watched some TV before Niall came out in just a towel, not bothering to bring his change of clothes in with him to get ready in the bathroom. Then I knew he'd be doing his hair as well. That seemed to take him the longest when he didn't do much to it anyway. As soon as Niall came from the bathroom again he announced that we were leaving.
"We're back!" I said and Grace's face lit up without a smile. I walked over to the bed and greeted her with a kiss on her head and then her cheek.
"Not to spring you from here though." Niall joked as he came in after me.
I had made the same joke in the car that if Grace wasn't going to be allowed back with us that we should rescue her ourselves. Of course, Niall pointed out all the faults in my plan. I sent him a look, like he wasn't allowed to use my material against me when he didn't even like the sound of it.
Niall sent me a smile as he checked behind him to see if the nurse was around.
"You've got a big day today." I told Grace as I sat in the bed next to her. "It won't be as fun as having the dog here with you but you might get to be released today."
"I don't think she understands what that even means." Niall commented as he sat down in the chair that he usually sat it. It had been moved away from the bed sometime after we left.
"My voice should be proof enough that today's going to be a great one." I had been the boy with the most doubts ever but I wasn't going to let any of that get me down today. I had my hopes and that was all that mattered to me.
Grace was improving a little bit each day, at least from what I could see. I'm sure Dr. Payne and the nurses can easily tell all the signs of a patient recovering on track or if they needed extra care still. I wasn't going to argue with them if they did say that it didn't look like Grace could leave. Then I would be bummed but I wasn't going to show much that I was, or at least until we were away from the hospital.
I wasn't going to think of that, only if that actually happened.
I wondered how long it would take for Dr. Payne to come up to see Grace and perform his tests on her. As a heart surgeon, I knew he could easily have a number of emergencies come in and I understood that those cases must come first before anyone else. I could never imagine a doctor who wouldn't do that for a patient that really needed to be saved from death.
It was the sitting around that I got really bored of very quickly. At home, I had some time during the day to sit around but I still had Grace with me so I was still busy with things I had to do during the day while I cared for her. Being in the hospital, the nurses were the ones who did most of Grace's care. We've changed diapers, fed her, and changed her dressing, but everything else was all up to the hospital.
I felt a bit useless and that I should really be doing more. Niall told me a few times to try and not get in the nurses' way. I even wanted to clean our hotel room up because I haven't done anything in a few days besides try to sleep and spend all my time with Grace in the hospital.
I took my phone out from my pocket to check on my emails, seeing if I've heard anything from Zayn. Last night I had sent Zayn an email to update him on the progress, which I didn't know if Louis had already done that but I liked keeping in touch with everyone so we were all on the same page. As soon as my phone screen lit up, Grace took immediate interest in it, she leaned over and started to touch the screen as I tried to put my passcode in it. I failed on that with help from Grace.
"Hold on, you." I told her, gently shooing her hand out of the way. I could still hear her getting grumpy because she wasn't getting her way. She just had to be patient. "Grace, you're way to young to be having a phone."
"Didn't you bring her toy one along?" Niall asked.
I glanced up from phone and shook my head. "I don't think so."
Niall shook his head and snickered and I wished I had brought it to toss it at him.
The last time I let Grace play with my phone, she managed to get into something that she wasn't supposed to. I bought her some dress-up princess game so she could play that on my phone but for some reason she wanted to have more liberty and do whatever she wanted with it.
Grace was still trying to get at me so I made the choice to stop being on it myself and put it away. That way neither of us could have it and I could offer Grace one of her own toys to play with. I think she's had enough of Baa for the past few days.
I picked him up anyway and looked at his smiling face. Then I thought back to Grace's first night ever staying with us and how she couldn't sleep wihtout all of her favourite stuffed animals in one corner of her crib. Has she been sleeping all right in the hospital without them? I had no idea what the nurses did to get Grace to sleep or if she fell asleep only because she was so tired.
I bet all of Grace's scheduled have been ruined due to her surgery and staying in the hospital. Hopefully, we'll be able to set her back on the schedule she used to follow.
"You know," I leaned into Grace gently while looking down at her, "I wish that you could talk. I think conversation would make time pass by much faster. The only person that I can talk to is Niall or your dad really." I told her, pausing to think of who I could call on my phone, which I had just put away.
"There's nothing wrong with talking with me." Niall added in.
"Of course not, love." I said to him as I chewed at my lip. "I think I might step out to call my mum though. I'm sure she'd want to hear how things are going with us. You'll be okay with her?"
Niall nodded. "Course! She's my little buddy. Aren't you?" He sent a wink over to Grace, who turned her head away after Niall had done it. That soon turned into a game of them trying to look at each other and turning away, Niall playfully gasping each time one of them were able to catch each other.
I walked over to the specified cell phone area by the lifts, usually just standing outside of Grace's room. I didn't need to disturb everyone else's privacy by chatting with my mum.
I decided to stay standing tall due to all the sitting I've been doing lately. I paced around as I waited for my mum to answer her phone, hoping that she even would.
"Hey, mum, how are you?" I asked her once she greeted me. A small smile spread across my lips when I heard her voice. I missed chatting with her after I've gotten busy being an adult.
"I'm good. How about yourself? I know you've got your hands full now that you've taken that girl in. She still with you?" She asked.
"Yeah, she still is and she's not really in my hands right now." I told her while I looked down to my free hand and started picking at my fingernail.
"Don't tell me you've stuck her with Niall all day?" She lightly teased at me.
"I haven't. Her surgery was a few days ago and she's just in recovery. It's the hospital who's got their hands full."
"Harry Edward," I raised my brow in question as her tone scolded me like I've done something terribly wrong. "Are you telling me that she's already through with her surgery and you haven't called me until now?"
"Mum," I gave her a similar firm tone I sometimes use to get Grace to pay attention to me. "I had a lot to deal with and other people to keep in contact with. For starters, her father is at the very top of that list."
I heard her breathy sigh through the ear speaker. "I know. I just thought you would have called me on the big day. I feel a bit out of the loop on your life. One day I hear you have a baby with a heart condition and the next thing I hear is about the surgery."
I nodded, understanding that my mum must have been a little hurt herself that her son hadn't called her enough through this. It was different because this child wasn't her grandchild or anything. She's never even met Grace. I didn't know if that was my fault or not but I'd rather save all of those things for when we had a child that would always be ours.
"I'm sorry, all right? I didn't know it meant that much to you."
"What you do in your life always means something to me. I am you're mum, in case you've suffered a head injury and forgotten. You might want to get that checked out while you're at the hospital." She let out a small laugh.
"I'll see if I can get a brain scan." I said back to her.
"Good. Now, how are you? You feeling all right? It must have been tough going through that."
I nodded. "At first I was a wreck but once I heard she was in recovery I slowly was able to calm down. I'm not alone though. I have Niall, the people at the foundation, and you." I couldn't help but chuckle as I added her last. That wasn't a smart move on my part.
"We're so, so, proud of you, Harry. The both of you have come a really long way in your relationship and you're doing an astonishing thing with this baby. I can't believe that one of my own children have reached out like you have to help out another." I could hear her emotions start to stumble in through her words. "The next time I see you I'm going to trap you both in hugs and you're not allowed to get away."
I smiled again at her promise. "We look forward to that, Mum."
_______
After I came back from my phone call, Niall decided to occupy my spot on the bed and was watching Grace sleep. When I announced my arrival, he put a finger to his lips to get me to hush down.
"How long has she been out?" I whispered to him, trying my best not to be a disturbance.
"A few minutes now. Sherry came in for a bit to tell me that the doctor had an emergency call come in so he won't get around to us until this afternoon. She also ordered Grace's breakfast. That should be delivered soon." He explained to me and I can't believe I had missed all of that.
Niall nodded. "How's your mum doing?"
"She's well. Not very happy with me from not calling her about the surgery and all sooner."
"That's not a surprise." He commented, knowing my mum quite well.
"Yeah," I shook my head. "She wants me to get a brain scan while we're here."
Niall smiled over to me slyly. "Anne still has her spunk. Always will, I think."
"You two together is just a disaster." I said as I looked at Grace's dropped head as she slept, turning my own to the side to admire her.
We woke her up a few minutes after her breakfast was delivered to her room, the cafeteria employee setting it all up on the table for us. I let Niall feed her this time and Grace wanted me to do it so she cried for the few first spoonfuls that Niall tried to get her to eat. She wouldn't even let Niall wipe at her face. I felt a little guilty about that since I usually fed her for breakfast. It wasn't that Niall has never done it but Grace was so used to it being me. Maybe she liked me after all.
I made the joke that she was now Team Harry but Niall was determined to change that back to her preferring him.
Before opening up the menu to order Grace some lunch, Sherry and another nurse came into the room, telling us that it was now time to take Grace down to the x-ray room and then they'd bring her to an examintation room with the doctor
We said our goodbyes to Grace before Sherry picked her up from the bed and carried her, the other nurse taking her IV bag from its stand to carry that behind her.
Niall and I went to the cafeteria to get lunch to keep ourselves occupied while Grace was being tested. We've eaten so many meals at the hospital that we actually had 'usuals'.
There was still a lot of waiting that we had to do once Grace actually returned to the room with us. The result had to be looked over by the doctor first before he could come to see us. That took about an hour.
Dr. Payne wished us a good evening as he walked over to the white board in Grace's room, picking up the black marker and beginning to draw something on it. "So, what I'm drawing up right now is the results of Grace's x-ray just so you can get the idea of what it looks like inside with the wiring and the patch."
I had to move from resting against the wall so I could see it better, studying it the best I could as Liam pointed things out and explained everything clearly to us as he possibly could.
"Now, she passed her stress test and her blood pressure was in the normal range for someone her age and size. So, I'll give the okay to Sherry to start getting the discharge papers ready." He said with a smile. "You guys will be taking her home tonight." He walked over to shake our hands and then offered his larger hand to Grace. She stared at it before placing her much smaller one in his like she was giving him a soft high-five. Liam chuckled before seeing Sherry.
Niall let out a sigh of relief, coming over to me to pat me on the back. "We did it, Harry. We really did it." He left his hand rest between my shoulders.
"I heard the good news." Sherry said as she came in with papers and extra dressings for Grace, which took longer than we expected. "Now, the part of going over everything and signing off." She said with an amused sigh as she laid the papers out, pointing to the one with the directions of how to change her bandage first. Then she moved to the home care instructions, keeping her diet and making sure she doesn't overdo anything regarding physical activities. There was also a list of the pain medication that she would still need to take, a fax was already sent over to a pharmacy nearby that should be ready for pick up soon.
"Okay, you can look those over and I'll start removing her IV." Sherry said, waling over to Grace, talking to her in a calming voice and telling her, "I'm sure you can't wait to not be connected to this, huh?"
While Niall was reading over some of the papers I immediately sent Louis a message, excitedly getting to share with him that:
Grace is free!! :)
Then I brought my attention on the papers as well, Niall signing his name and then dating the paper. I looked to Grace and smiled at her while Sherry did her job. Grace's face looked worried but soon she'd be happy to know that she was leaving the hospital.
I couldn't wait to get her back in the car with us. I hoped that she was excited to finally be out of the hosptal and going back to a place that was familira to her. In just two more weeks she'd be all packed up in the car again. That time she had no idea that she would be seeing Louis again, The look on her face when she recognised Louis again was what I was looking forward to the most, just from seeing the love in a child's eyes as she's reunited with her father and hoping that Niall and I could get a look just like that one day.
Thank you to Adoringthose1D for making a trailer for this story! It's the link above :)