This was requested by janja812 .
Words: 2,701
Harry awoke to a strange sensation in his neck. It was stiff and it hurt to move it. He groaned. Great, I've gotta work with a stiff neck today, he thought. He must have slept wrong. That kind of thing happened to him occasionally. Sometimes he wondered if they needed a different mattress or even a different pillow. Oh, well. He was a doctor and he needed to get to work regardless.
He looked at the alarm clock. There was one more minute until it went off. There was no point in sleeping in for one minute longer, so he turned it off because it would wake Louis up, and Louis didn't get up for another half an hour for his shift. The nicest thing about their marriage was that they both worked as ER doctors in the same hospital, so they just took turns getting ready in the morning. They took different cars, however, because sometimes they got done with seeing patients at different times.
When Harry arrived at the ER, he saw his first patient just ten minutes later. It was a man who cut his finger pretty badly while cooking breakfast. Harry had to sew it up, trying to ignore the ache in his neck. He was having a hard time bending it enough to look down at the task at hand.
"There you go, sir. Be more careful next time you cook," Harry said to him as he left. Harry rubbed his neck and sighed. Maybe Louis could give him a massage at home after his shift. Several patients later, he was feeling funny. Was it hot in here to anyone else? He fanned himself with the papers in his hand.
If he didn't know better, he'd have thought he was running a fever. Before thinking more on the subject, a patient was rolled in from an ambulance. A teen boy had almost drowned in a pool and wasn't breathing. Harry ran speedily towards the stretcher and immediately felt his own heart beating rapidly against his chest. Harry grabbed an AED and attached the pads to the boy's chest. "Clear!"
The boy's heart was zapped but there was no response. He still wasn't breathing. "Clear!" Harry yelled again. This time, the boy began to wake up and there was a slow and steady pulse. Before Harry could celebrate and breathe, another trauma patient arrived that he had to deal with. When that was over and the patient was dealt with, Harry found himself sweating. Was it from the adrenaline? His job required a lot out of him, but then again, so did most days. Today was no different. There was no reason to be sweating like this.
Harry went to the staff bathroom and leaned up against the sink. He was so tired he could hardly stand. His face was red, his hairline damp, and he felt chilled. He must have a fever. He massaged his sore neck as he looked at himself in the mirror. He looked a mess. There was only an hour left of his shift, and he'd just have to suck it up.
Somehow, he got through the last couple patients and luckily didn't run into Louis. He got into his car and drove home and frowned when he thought about how he'd have to cook supper. He wasn't hungry at all, and the thought of food made him queasy. He still had to cook something for Louis, though. He made the quickest thing he could think of so he'd be out of the kitchen fastest: scrambled eggs and raspberry toast.
The minute it was done, Louis had come home. "Hey, love. How was your day?"
"Fine," Harry said. "Made some scrambled eggs." He put the plate on the table.
"Oh, I love eggs. Where's your plate?" Louis asked, looking all around.
Harry shook his head. "I got done with my shift faster than you so I ate my plate already," he lied. He didn't need Louis knowing that he had no appetite. Louis would make a much bigger fuss than what it really was.
He probably had some kind of cold with a fever. It happened occasionally, but it didn't help that he had a bad night that resulted in a painful neck. He decided that he needed to be more careful about the position he slept in in order to avoid it.
"Oh," Louis said quietly.
Harry, feeling like he had disappointed him, added, "Sorry, honey. I was starving."
Louis laughed and then dug into his food. "It's okay. Wanna sit with me then?"
Harry knew he looked like crap and felt like it, too. "Actually, I'm kinda beat. I just wanna take a shower, watch some TV, and go to bed."
"Work was crazy for you, too?" Louis asked and then took a bite out of his toast.
Harry nodded. "Yep. I'm really tired."
Harry left Louis on his own to eat and he took a shower as he said. He felt a little better afterwards, but the fever was still there. He watched some TV and then drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Harry wasn't feeling much better, but he still went to work. To his dismay, his neck was still bothering him. If anything, it was hurting even worse, but he didn't think how that could be. He even found it hard to stand for long periods of time because he felt dizzy. Between patients, he made sure to sit down and rest.
"Are you okay, Dr. Styles?" asked Nurse Karen passing by. She noticed the way he sat, as if tired and drained.
He quickly lifted his head up. "Oh, yes, I'm fine. Just didn't get enough sleep last night I guess, and my neck's been killing me. Time for a new pillow I suppose."
She smiled and said, "Oh, one of those mornings. I understand. We all get them some time or other."
Everyone was very busy and hardly noticed Harry. He even had only seen Louis twice since they started work today. During the assessment of the next patient, Harry could hardly concentrate on what the woman was saying. His eyes kept unfocusing, his head dizzy, and he leaned his back up against the counter to support himself. His fever seemed to be getting worse as well.
It was after he took care of this patient that he decided that enough was enough. He needed to go home and rest. He couldn't risk the health of a patient because he was too sick to help them. He let Nurse Karen know that he was leaving and asked her to tell Louis that he was going home but not to worry.
On the trip home, Harry's head was met with a spontaneous burst of pain right between the eyes. It was the strongest headache he had ever experienced. "Ahh," he complained quietly to himself, rubbing the area gently with his thumb. When he finally got home, he went straight to the medicine cabinet and took some Aspirin for the horrible pain in his head.
He lay on the couch, hoping the medicine would kick in soon. A few minutes later, nausea crept up on him and he ran into the bathroom and threw up, the acid burning his throat on the way out. He hovered over the bowl and another round of sickness fell into the water. When he felt better, he flushed the toilet and washed out his mouth with water (A/N to all of those writers who have the character brush their teeth after throwing up, please stop! It's horrible on your teeth and it (the acid) takes off the enamel. It's bad info for others to learn...same thing about going to sleep after a concussion. Both no-no's.)
Feeling very weak and in pain, he made his way to the couch again, using the furniture as a way to keep himself from falling over.
*
Meanwhile, Louis asked about where Harry was when he hadn't seen him for a while. "Hey, Karen. You seen Harry around lately?"
Karen looked up from her work and gasped. "Oh, yeah, sorry. He left about half an hour ago saying he wasn't feeling well. I'm sorry. He told me to tell you."
Louis's eyebrows went up. Harry rarely left work for any reason, especially sickness. "Did he say what was wrong with him?"
"Well, he said he was having one of those mornings. You know, just feeling tired and he mentioned his neck hurting."
"That doesn't sound like him. I'm gonna go check on him." Louis told his supervisor where he was headed before he went and then drove home to check on him. He pulled up in the driveway and put the key in the lock and opened the back door.
"Harry!" Louis called. "Are you okay?" There was no answer. Louis entered the living room, and the curtains and blinds had been drawn, leaving the area in darkness except for a lamp in the corner. He heard a faint moaning sound. "Harry?"
Louis found Harry lying on the couch, his face as pale as a ghost. He was bundled up in blankets and shivering. Louis bent down over him, concerned. "Harry, what's wrong?" Louis laid his palm against his forehead and scowled. "You're burning up! How do you feel?"
Harry looked into his eyes, but it was like nothing was there. Harry stared right through him, glassy-eyed and dazed.
"Honey, can you hear me?" Louis was getting worried now. Harry wasn't responding and was acting like Louis wasn't even talking to him. He just blinked and shivered, staring at his face as if confused. Louis shook Harry's shoulders and smacked his cheeks gently. Louis was relieved once Harry's eyes fixed on his. "Harry, talk to me. How do you feel?"
"Louis, what? Why?" Harry asked, his mind somehow brought back to reality and his stupor seemed to clear somewhat, at least enough to talk. What he didn't understand was why Louis was there with him right now.
"I heard you were sick so I came home early. Now can you tell me what's wrong?" Louis asked, grabbing his doctor kit so he could examine him.
"C-c-cold," Harry stammered, and Louis could feel the heat coming off of him. His cheeks were pale with no color, and his face and neck were covered in sweat.
Louis began removing the blankets from him and took off his shirt, which was damp as well. Harry was trembling and moaning, and his face wrinkled in a wince, grabbing at his neck. Louis remembered what Nurse Karen had said. "Does your neck hurt?"
Harry didn't answer and placed his other hand top of his head, putting pressure on it. His headache had only gotten much worse since coming home. Louis put a thermometer in Harry's mouth and patted his chest as he waited for the beep.
When he looked at the thermometer as it beeped, Louis read the numbers aloud, "103. Harry, this is really bad." He got out his stethoscope and listened to his lungs as Harry breathed in and out. His heart was beating rapidly, most likely due to the high fever.
He wondered why Harry hadn't told him how badly he had felt. The headache, neck pain, sensitivity to light, high fever. . . it all meant one thing. Louis had to get him to the hospital before his Meningitis got even worse. Leaving it untreated would cause major brain damage or even death. He had to act quickly.
"Come on, Harry. We've gotta get to the hospital," Louis said. He lifted Harry's upper torso up so he was sitting up, only to slump back down again. "Honey, you have Meningitis. You have to help me get you in the car."
The fever and pain was strong in his head, and Louis's words sounded like mush in his brain. Harry groaned again as Louis sat him back up.
"Stand for me, Harry. Let's get to the garage. I know you can do it." Louis slapped his face and made him come back to reality. Harry stood firmer on his feet and somehow, Louis was able to drag him through the house, out the door, and into the car.
As he drove, Louis called up a coworker and told him to expect them to be arriving with a sick Harry in a matter of minutes and to be waiting for them with a stretcher. When Louis pulled up 10 minutes later, Dr. Johnson met them outside.
Louis parked the car and got out and opened up Harry's door. Dr. Johnson heled him get out with Louis's help. "Oh, my, what happened to Harry? He seemed fine at work today."
"I believe it's Meningitis. He's been complaining of a stiff neck and he's got a high fever and seems to have a pretty bad headache, too." Once they loaded Harry onto the stretcher, they wheeled him into an exam room.
Louis performed a spinal tap and a blood test, and the diagnosis was confirmed. Harry, however, was in critical condition. His temperature had risen a degree and was in so much pain that he was crying. He was taken to ICU so he could be monitored very closely.
Louis sat with him in his room. "Baby, I'm sorry," he said, brushing his hair back with his fingers as the tears of pain rolled down Harry's cheeks. They had just started him on antibiotics and pain for his neck and headache. "You'll feel better really soon now, okay?"
Harry knew better than to nod, for fear of hurting his already painful neck even further. Instead, he squeezed Louis's hand tighter. They sat like this, with Louis pulled up in a chair next to him as Harry lay in the bed, for another hour at least before Harry started showing signs up improvement. He had stopped squeezing Louis's hand so hard and the grimaces of pain had lessened.
"Is your neck feeling better and your headache?" Louis asked.
"A little," Harry said softly. His eyes were closed and the tears tracks had stained his cheeks. Louis got up and kissed his warm cheek. "Get some sleep, honey. It's getting late."
Harry stayed in ICU for another day before he was transferred to a regular room. His fever had lessened and his neck pain and headaches were declining. He was on the mend. Louis stayed with him all day, keeping him company. He also took work off. Harry was in the hospital for a total of three days before Louis got to take him home so he could recuperate completely.
"Lou, could I get some pizza maybe?" Harry asked from the couch.
"You're starting to get hungry?" Louis asked. Harry hadn't felt like eating for days, so it was nice that he was asking for food.
"Yeah."
"Well, that's a good sign. How about we order takeout? I'll call." Louis called Dominoes and ordered a large peperoni pizza.
Harry's fever had finally broken and his neck pain was only a slight annoyance as it had lessened considerably. The antibiotics were working to fight off the infection and he was getting better as the days went by. He still felt a little sick, but pretty soon he would feel like himself again.
"Louis, I just feel like an idiot," Harry said out of the blue again.
"Harry, stop. Don't," Louis said. He had gone over with him a million times that it was nothing to be ashamed of that he, being a doctor, didn't know what was wrong with him. Shouldn't he have realized himself that he had Meningitis? "As I've said, when you get sick, you get caught up in the sickness and the pain and don't think straight. Sometimes it takes an outsider to really see the problem."
"I guess," Harry said, unpersuaded.
"And besides, you were like confused and delirious. You couldn't focus enough on making a diagnosis, and to be honest, we do have pretty crappy pillows and I've even woken up with a sore neck before."
Harry smiled and curled up with his blankets. Maybe Louis was right. Thank goodness he at least had him.
I hope you liked it. Leave your feedback! Thanks, guys.