They held a funeral for Harry because somehow it was the easier thing to do than to tell the truth. Knowing he was still out there but unreachable was somehow worse than thinking he was gone and at least having a fighting chance of moving on.
Louis wore his wedding suit and he still cried, even though he wasn't crying for a death. Liam was holding onto him for most of the ceremony, resting his chin on Louis' shoulder as Louis tried to pay attention to the church babble that didn't make any sense to him. He'd carried the same headache with him for days, splitting through his whole body and refusing to be dulled by any combination of pain medication.
They had nothing to bury, and Harry barely had any relatives, so it was in essence, a short, formal crying session between some of the townspeople.
"Are you holding in there?" Anne asked, coming up to him once everyone had filtered out of the hall.
Louis just nodded.
"You're such a fighter," she said. "Everyone's hoping you recover soon. Look at all the people who came here for you. We know you still have more life in you."
"Thank you?" Louis said, brows scrunched together before scurrying away. It was an odd way to put things, but everyone dealt with grief differently and maybe Anne was just mixing up her words.
Time without Harry had floated by like some sort of terrible fever-dream.
Louis went for a walk along the beach that night, trying to clear his head of the splitting migraine and trying to clear the memory of the funeral he'd attended for his still-alive husband.
As he walked along the beach, he could feel the sand in his toes, the sunset washing across his skin, the air between his fingers where Harry's should have been interlaced.
Louis swallowed thickly, prepared to turn around and head back home, hoping that Liam or Niall would fall asleep next to him that night so he didn't have to feel the empty side of the bed when he woke up.
But something caught his eye.
Red sea glass. Resting right in the spot where Harry had originally gone missing.
And it was basically a rock, but it was a small sign that Louis knew was from Harry and somehow everything felt a little more peaceful. Louis smiled a little and picked up the smooth glass to hold in his palm.
"I think he blinked," Niall said, interrupting his thoughts.
Louis turned around, his heart jumping. He knew he came to the beach alone today. He thought about the weird things Anne had said to him at the funeral, the strange things Niall had said to him that he swore he didn't... the way things just seemed muddled lately and people's mouths didn't always move at the same time their words came out. Louis took a slow breath. He wasn't crazy. He was handling things well, he was dealing with Harry's fate, he was...
"How the fuck would he be blinking? His eyes are closed, you twat."
"What?" Louis asked, turning around to see where the voices were coming from. He was definitely alone on the beach. He patted his pocket for his cellphone, thinking maybe the guys had pocket dialed him or something, but the screen was dead.
He felt his hand muscles go slack and the sea glass dropped back to the sand. He looked down at his hand in confusion, feeling betrayed by the movements that didn't seem to belong to his body.
"His hand's twitching, should we get a nurse?" Liam's voice.
"I don't want to miss this," Niall said. "You go."
"Isn't there a button to press? Shit, I knew they thought it would be soon but I didn't think it would be today."
"Nghhhhh," Louis said. He was trying to form words but his mouth wasn't moving anymore.
"Shit, what's he saying?"
The beach was so bright.
Louis didn't know what was happening but he could hear Niall and Liam and Zayn and he thought he sunk down to lie on the beach but he couldn't feel the sand beneath him.
He groaned. His eyes were closed because the light was just so bright.
"Louis!" Niall was yelling. "Holy shit. Holy fucking shit."
Louis started crying and he felt drool pooling out of his mouth. He was having a hard time moving, but he managed to rock his head from side to side. He didn't know what kind of messed up hallucination seizure thing was happening to him but he wanted Harry. Maybe he could pull some sort of Little Mermaid style rescue and come out of the sea to same him.
"Hmmffffyyy," he groaned. He was scared. Terrified. "Haaannnssyy.... haaa... haaaz... reee..." He didn't know why his words weren't coming out properly. It felt like he had cotton stuffed in his mouth.
"The fuck is wrong with him?" Niall hissed.
"Shit, the fuck do you think is wrong with him you idiot," Zayn snapped. "We've just been chillin' here for months because Louis felt like a change of scenery?"
"Shut up!" Liam cried. "He's trying to say something."
"Haaarnnsyyy," Louis said. He thought he could feel someone's sweater sleeve wiping the side of his mouth, and he sobbed, not understanding where the voices were coming from and too scared to open his eyes.
"What are you trying to say, love?" Liam asked. "The nurse is on her way. Trust me, the whole goddamn hospital is probably on their way."
Louis kept crying and slowly started to blink his eyes open. It was most definitely not a beach and he moaned out in panic again, surrounded by white hospital walls that seemed to close in around him. He shook his head back and forth, not understanding where the beach went.
"I think he's trying to say Harvey," Niall said unhelpfully.
"I heard Harry," Zayn said. "Who the shit is Harry?"
The boy in the bed next to him popped out an earbud shyly, clearing his throat a little. "I think, um. I mean, that's my name but I...? I'm sorry, this is your moment, I didn't mean to like... interrupt it." He talked slowly, and it wasn't clear whether that was just his way of talking or if it was so he could pause to draw in more oxygen from the tube that were resting under his nose. Despite the slow pace of his talking, he seemed to talk a lot when he was nervous. "I mean, it must be exciting, he's been out since before the time I got in here... and it's been a while."
"Why does he get to be Louis first post-coma word?" Niall grumbled. "I wanted to be his first word."
"Sorry, I've been- well, we've been sharing the room for a few weeks now," Harry said. "They usually put the curtain up but I um, I think he must have heard the nurses saying my name a lot or something. He's probably just trying to repeat it, I'm sure he's really confused right now."
"What are you in for?" Zayn asked tactlessly, rubbing Louis' arm to try and comfort him. He'd just been desensitized too much to hospitals after this year. He'd gone off to school in New York after a huge fight with Liam and Niall where he insisted that Louis was just going to be stuck in the small hospital forever and that Louis wouldn't have wanted him to waste his chance to go to art school to be stuck in the hospital with him. But he dropped out and came back when he realized he genuinely couldn't focus on anything while Louis was hurt.
"Zayn!" Liam hissed, smacking him on the arm.
"What?" Zayn muttered.
"It was, um... it was a fire?" Harry said shyly. "I got trapped when some furniture fell on me and my legs got burned up pretty badly. They look awful," he sighed, "They barely even look like skin anymore. Nerve damage too... and then this from all the smoke inhalation," he added, pointing to the oxygen tubes in his nose. "Just wasn't my day I guess," he laughed softly. "I take it he had some sort of brain injury? It's Louis right? He always seems to have visitors."
"A building collapsed on him, poor thing," Niall said. Louis could feel gentle hands smoothing his hair. "Missed his own graduation."
"The one in Birmingham?" Harry asked. "I think I heard about that on the news."
Liam nodded. "Five dead, and millions of dollars in a lawsuit, and our lucky Louis survived it, didn't you, buddy?"
"Ha-rry," Louis groaned, slightly more coherent this time.
"It's Niall," Niall replied. "Ni-all. Your best friend who was here almost every single day, remember?"
"Niall, hush," Liam said. "The boy hasn't talked in months."
"Pretty impossible for Louis," Zayn laughed, relief coming through his words as Louis started to stir a bit more.
"Harry," Louis said, still crying. Niall wiped his nose with his sweater sleeve.
"Yeah, there's a boy named Harry right over there," Liam reassured him. "We just met him, he's very nice. You can talk to him when you're feeling better, okay?"
"Husband," Louis mumbled while crying. "Married... married mermaid." He tried to touch where his rope tattoo was to show Liam, but there was just an IV drip and his blank wrist. Liam gently moved his hand away so it wouldn't mess up his IV.
"Aw shit, that's cute, Lou, were you dreaming?" Zayn asked. "Did you dream something good about me?"
Louis shook his head a little, still dazed. Zayn looked like he had a halo from leaning over Louis' bed and having the hospital lights behind him.
The boys laughed around him, clearly finally letting out some of their tension and Louis finally started to feel a little better.
"You dreamed that I was a mermaid?" Harry asked, his expression soft and curious as he looked over at the other boy.
"Mmmhm," Louis hummed, so much he wanted to say, but struggling against the aching disuse of his vocal chords and the sluggish pace of his brain.
"He also apparently dreamed that you were his husband. So you know, if you're into that, might want to follow up on things when he's less drool-y. My boy's unconscious and he's still got game," Zayn said proudly.
Harry just blushed. Louis was staring unabashedly at him now, his eyes still teary and heavy lidded, but very bright blue and very scared.
"Hi, Louis," Harry smiled softly, waving a little bit.
"Mmmm," Louis moaned, pouting a bit and shifting uncomfortably in his bed, his whole body aching. He wanted to ask Harry how he didn't remember anything, but all he could do was give a pained look to the other boy. He wasn't a stranger, he was the love of his life. How could he not remember the road trips and the sleepover night with the mattresses piled up together, and the surprise wedding, and meeting at the dry cleaners when Harry had dyed Louis' shirt blue... red... it was his shirt, right? What was the name of the dry cleaners? Louis shifted around again, frantic as he felt things start to slip away from him. A few things started to slip back into his memory as the others faded. Senior year with Niall and Liam and Zayn, college applications and dreaming of renting a place together, spending hours looking up apartments online.
"I'm really sorry, Lou," the green eyed boy said. "It sounds like a really nice story, promise me you'll tell me the whole thing when you're feeling better, okay?"
His voice was just as gentle as Louis remembered it to be.
Louis just nodded, absolutely captivated by the boy in the other hospital bed.
The nurses had rushed in by this point, happy but a little panicked as they made sure he was coming back to consciousness properly.
They quickly shooed Louis' friends out of the room so they could check his vitals and snapped the curtains shut that divided the two boys.
Louis started crying again when the nurse left him alone to go get more painkillers.
Harry's voice called out softly from across the room as though he wasn't sure if it was his place to comment or not. "It's okay, Lou," he said hesitantly. "I'm still right here, okay?"
(hopefully no one hates this ending too much I was sooooo nervous about posting it, bc I know two major plot twists in a row is a bit Extra, but I really really wanted to do this anyway)
There should be one more chapter and it'll be up very soon :) thank you to everyone who's still reading <3