(gif to the side of niall hugging his twin ellen)
Before you start reading this, I'd really appreciate if you read this small note.
It's been almost 2 weeks, and I'm honestly sorry for that. I've been extremely busy lately and when I'm home I just like to chill out and enjoy it. It's hard to explain to you guys that I do have a life outside of writing because then people say "you're bragging" when I'm actually not.
I've been recieving hate as well for not updating, as well as not responding to people's inboxes. Right now I've got school and work and things I do with friends and on top of that, I'm sick. I want to say thank you to the people that are patient and understanding. Also, to the people who are messaging me rude things because I haven't gotten back to their p.m- I currently have 327 messages and can't be expected to read them all, although I wish I could.
I just felt like those things needed to be said.
Happy reading!
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Avery Holmes
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The ride in the ambulance was silent. Not only was I feeling extremely uncomfortable because I was in a stretcher without injuries, but I had just witnessed the father of my child shoot himself. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wrap my head around it.
After a half an hour ride of being completely stiff, my stretcher was lifted out of the ambulance and wheeled toward the same hospital that we visited Marcus in. I couldn't exactly crane my head around to see, but I could see the same familiar white building that we had been in only weeks before.
"Just hang on, ma'am, we'll get a room for you and Mr. Horan to share." The paramedic said. I only nodded because I was speechless, I had so many thoughts running around in my brain but I couldn't focus on a single one. There was just so many questions that I had that could never be answered.
"Hey Avery," I heard a husky voice, and when I looked up I saw Zayn holding Aimee, walking alongside my stretcher. Aimee had a frown etched onto her face and by the red streaks on her cheeks I could tell that she had been crying. "Your mum's okay, see?"
Aimee hiccuped and nodded, sticking her thumb in her mouth.
"Is she sick?" I heard her faintly whisper.
"No, she's okay. They just want to make sure she didn't get hurt." Zayn assured her as he tried to keep up with my stretcher that was moving down the white halls. "Avery, Niall is going to be put in the same room as you. Ollie is going to be in the room next to you."
"Ollie's alive?" I gaped.
"Shot in the leg. He lost some blood, but he'll be alright. Kate doesn't have that good of an aim." He smiled. I had so many more questions that I wanted to ask, but right at that moment I was being wheeled into a dimly-lit room and could hear Niall's voice in the background.
"Avery," He croaked. I couldn't raise my head because it was basically locked into place and my view was blurred by the tears welling up in my eyes. I blinked them away quickly and was met with Niall looking down on my stretcher.
"Don't scare me like that again." He said sternly, cupping my face in his hands and bending over to kiss me hard. It made me cry even harder- a half an hour ago I thought I would never get to feel this ever again. A half an hour ago I was supposed to die.
"We're okay." I said, my voice scratchy.
"Natalie and Kate are both in jail." Niall said, smiling so hard with a blush forming on his cheeks. "It's over, baby. All of it is over."
"We're okay." I repeated. I couldn't form sentences in my brain properly, I was completely shocked. I closed my eyes and tried focusing on the erratic beating of my heart, willing myself to calm down.
"You're going through shock." Niall whispered, pushing back a strand of my hair. "The paramedic told me that when he went to help you up you cowered away from him. You don't have to be afraid anymore, Avery." He squeezed my hand.
"Why aren't you feeling like this?" I asked.
"The doctor said that it all depends on the person. He also said that it could have been because my most dominant emotion in that situation was my anger and yours was fear. He told me that when someone encounters a near-death experience like you did they can be traumatized by it. But me and the boys and Aimee are here now, okay?"
"Mhm." I smiled. "Can I please get out of this stretcher now? I have a wedgie."
Niall chuckled and glanced over to a nurse, who came to my side quickly. I hadn't even realized that there was someone else in the room because of the inability to move my head. She undid the straps on my arms and legs and then something that felt like a pillow around my forehead.
"We're just going to walk you over to your bed, Ms. Holmes. Dr. Sander is in with your friend Oliver at the moment and will be in as soon as he can." The nurse informed me. Both her and Niall helped to scoop my shaky body out of the stretcher and I walked myself to the hospital bed.
"I've been in hospitals far too often." I commented.
"Hopefully the next time you'll be in with twins." Niall smirked. A spark of excitement coursed through me, know that this was all getting put behind us, we could actually pursue a future together. The fact that Niall talked about it often reassured me that he wasn't going to leave me.
"Still stuck on Football and Derby?" I teased.
"Well, I like the name Elise for a girl." Niall shrugged, blushing. "It's a long way off though and we don't need to worry about baby names anytime soon." He stroked my knotted hair with his hand and delivered a kiss to my forehead. "Once the doctor checks you up, we're gettin' out of here."
"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Just tell me where you want to go and it's done."
"China."
"Sure." He smiled.
"It was a joke!" I laughed, scooting over as much as I could in my hospital bed and patting the white sheets next to me. The nurse blushed a bit and exited herself from the room as Niall hopped into bed with me, pulling me toward his chest.
"Cause nobody loves you, baby, the way I do." He sang into my ear, sending shivers down my spine.
"I like that." I smiled. "What is it?"
"Just somethin' I've been working on." He shrugged, pressing his lips to my hair. "It's about you." My blush deepened and he started to laugh, cuddling into me and keeping me warm.
"I just can't believe it." I said. "Jake shot himself."
"I watched it happen." NIall mumbled. "His hands were shaking when he was aiming at you. I tried so hard to get to you, and then he just turned the gun on himself and shot."
"It makes me curious." I said, deep in thought. "That there was some part of him that still cared. And when he told Kate to not kill Aimee..."
"I know." He whispered.
"Do you think that it was because of what I said?" I asked sadly. "I was trying to convince him that he could have stopped being such a bad person. I'm so scared that something I said just made him feel like he didn't have any other option than to kill himself. That wasn't my intention at all."
"You're right, it wasn't." Niall agreed. "You can't blame yourself for somethin' like that, Ave. It was his choice."
"It makes me sad, you know?" My throat started hurting- the familiar pain I felt when I tried to keep tears down. "He was a monster, but he was once good. I just wish that he could have found that again and stayed. Not because I'd ever want to be with him again, but I would want him to turn his life around for his benefit."
"I understand." Niall uttered. "But what's done is done. As much as we could hope for something to have gone a different way, there's nothing that can be done."
I nodded wordlessly, taking in the strong scent of his cologne and burying my face in his chest. He rubbed my back as we laid in silence, reminiscing what had happened just an hour ago. Even though we were in the hospital without any injuries, I wasn't annoyed, because I knew that after this we would have to face reality.
"You're really beautiful, y'know?" He said. "Today showed me that I never want to lose you."
"You won't lose me. Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily?" I teased.
"I hope not." He said, hovering over me and kissing me quickly before rolling back over to his side. I just wanted to lie here forever. Knowing that my friends and family were no longer in danger lifted a huge weight off of my shoulders.
Before he could reply, there was a soft knock on the door. Niall yelled for whoever it was to come in, and the door burst open- revealing some our friends and family. Harry was the one holding Aimee now and her eyes didn't seem as red as before. She clutched onto Teddy the Turtle with one thumb in her mouth.
"The doctor said we'll all be free to go soon." Liam said, a huge smile on his face. "Can you believe it's all over?"
"Hardly." I admitted. "I'm still trying to process it all."
Harry, Liam, Zayn, and Aimee all piled into the small room. I figured that the others were probably with Sam or Ollie, or possibly talking to police already. I wondered what the One Direction fans were thinking, or if they had heard the news at all yet.
"Mommy!" Aimee smiled, running toward the hospital bed at full speed, her sneakers lighting up at every step. She grabbed the air when she got to the bed that Niall and I were sharing and Niall pulled her up to sit on his lap.
"You're okay!" She said.
"Yeah, we're okay." Niall laughed.
"I had found her hiding in a bush." Harry explained, sitting down on the bed meant for Niall. "She had sneezed right when I walked by and so I took her back to the Motel. There were already police showing up by then."
"Thanks, mate." Niall said. "Where had you and the other boys run off to?"
"We lost you guys, so we stayed together and kept moving for a long time. It was when we came back toward the motel that we found Aimee. We had somehow avoided the clearing you two were in without knowing it and found our way back."
"I got to sit in the back of a cop car!" Aimee exclaimed.
"Look out, we've got a criminal over here." Niall joked.
"No I not." Aimee pouted. "Stop it."
"I'm kidding, baby girl." Niall assured her. He took the Hello Kitty clip out of her hair and fixed it for her as she pulled a face. It was strange to me that she was completely unaware of what had just happened.
"Ollie got a boo-boo." She said. "He needs a big bandaid."
"He'll be okay." I told her. "We can bring candy and a card to his room soon." She nodded in agreement and laid back on Niall's chest, heaving a great sigh.
"Police have already talked to us." Zayn said. "They just asked us some questions about what happened. Our management team wants us to get together to talk about how to tell the public. They suggested something about Avery speaking out, but it's completely her choice."
I frowned, a bit confused. I didn't understand how this all worked- the press, the media, all of it. It was such a strange thing to me and I knew that it would be a hard adjustment if people found more out about Niall and I, but I decided to take it in stride and figure it out as I went.
"I'm gonna need three tickets to Mullingar before we do anything." Niall said. "Avery and Aimee need to meet my family." I smiled and looked down at Aimee, who was barely paying attention anymore. It was already her nap time and she was starting to drift off.
"I hope Aimee doesn't do anything embarrassing." I said.
"She can play with Theo. He's the sweetest little boy in the world." The way he spoke about his family made my heart swell. Even though the thought of meeting his family made me incredibly nervous, I was excited.
And I knew that, whatever came our way, we could face together.
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a/n:
i'm so sorry this was a crappy chapter. i just wanted to get something for you guys because it's been so long.
BTW, IF YOU LIKE LUKE HEMMINGS, READ THIS: http://www.wattpad.com/69232596-ignite-luke-hemmings AND COMMENT. PLS COMMENT. OH AND CLICK THE EXTERNAL LINK IF YOU WANT TO GO RIGHT TO IT.
soooooo i'm in love with fireproof and i'm so excited for four like IAENRMFINMAD
- DELILAH