Niall and the rest of the boys were there in record time, the long drive only taking four hours. It was filled with panic, tears, and halfway through, a breakthrough with the Harry-Louis problem.
It had started simply. The boys has loaded into the car, after a brief fight about who would drive (Liam won) and started to drive, as fast as the law would allow. They soon got comfortable, Liam playing his music, Niall tapping away on his phone, and Harry and Louis purposely ignoring each other. After a few hours, Niall finally calmed down, telling the boys to behave before going to sleep. Liam had tuned the boys out, looking immensely worried as he drove and nodded his head to the music.
"I wonder what happened." Harry said after awhile, his voice raspy as if he had just woken up.
"I want to know what happened with Zayn." Louis replied, not taking his eyes of his phone.
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Did you see the lady in the truck?"
"No." Louis shook his head.
Harry snickered. "She literally wore an all purple pant suit."
Louis gasped. "The injustice."
"The rage!"
"The depressing truth." Louis managed to giggle out.
They stopped talking for a few minutes, stealing glances at each other. Finally, they both started to speak at the same time.
"Look, I-"
"Hey I'm really sorry ab-"
Louis recoiled slightly, as Harry blushed. "You go first." Harry said.
Louis sighed, and tried to look anywhere but Harry. "I'm really sorry about, you know, everything. You know I don't think you're a whore."
Harry nodded. "It's cool. I defiantly shouldn'tve brought-en up the gay factor."
Louis snorted. "But you're right. Also, I really am sorry about the hit."
"And I'm sorry about the kiss."
"But are you?"
It was Harry's turn to snort. "Hell nope."
Louis laughed -a sound Harry would never get used to-. "Well if it makes any difference, I enjoyed it."
Harry's head shot up. "Really?"
"Really."
Harry's face was completely red as he looked at Louis. "Would you mind if I did it again?"
"Hell nope."
And that was it, really. They entered their own little love bubble that covered them completely, making them invincible. It was only broken when the car jerked to a stop, and they realized they had arrived at the hospital.
"We're here!" Liam yelled, finally tuning the rest of the boys back into his mind.
NIall sat up quickly, before jumping out of the car, running in, the rest of the boys following him.
As soon as they had gotten Hope's room number, they were bolting to the elevator, trying to get to floor three as soon as possible.
Finally, they stood in front of her door, wondering what to do.
"Do we just go in, or..." Louis trailed off.
Luckily, a doctor came out of her room just then, and answered their questions for them.
"Which one of you is Niall Horan?"
Niall gulped, then raised his hand. "That's me."
The doctor nodded at him. "And these are...?"
"The rest of Hope's sort of family."
"Alright. Well, you were right under Lou Treasdale on emergency contacts, and Mrs Lou did not answer. So we called you."
Niall nodded again. "So what exactly was I called for?"
The doctor sighed. "It's complicated."
Niall laughed. "It can't be that complicated. Just tell us the story and the damage doc. It can't be that bad."
"Well." The doctor sighed. "She was shot in the back of the head."
There was a moment of shocked silence before Louis started to laugh. "You're joking, right? Is this some kind of prank? I mean, who would want to shoot Hope fucking Stillwell?" He laughs turned into sobs as he grabbed Harry's arm for support. "This isn't real, is it?"
"I'm afraid it is. She's in quite the coma right now, and we fear for her life. See, usually, when shot in the back of the head, your brain fluid is most likely to leak out, killing you instantly. But the bullet was never taken out, so instead of no brain fluid, we fear she has lost a lot of brain cells. We had to shave her hair to see it, so please do not be surprised when you see Miss Hagerddy bald."
"This is too much to process." Liam mumbled. "And what do you mean by Hagerddy?"
"Well that's her birth last name."
"Who shot her?" Liam finally spoke up, his entire body visibly shaking.
"A man by the name of Bill Hagerddy."
Niall gasped as Louis cried out. "All my fault." Niall started to mumble, over and over again.
"Do you know this man?"
"I set them up to meet. He's her father, she had told me she hadn't seen him in a while." Niall replied, through tears.
"Has she in any way in the past spoken of any other kind of abuse from this man?" The doctor asked.
"She's told me that he wasn't the best kind of person, but she never spoke of abuse or anything like that." Harry mumbled.
The doctor nodded. "Well, he is in a jail at this moment, so we do not need to worry about him."
Louis snorted through his tears. "I wasn't worried about him. I'm worried about Hope. Do you know if she's going to wake up? Or live?"
The doctor shook his head. "No."
"Let me see her." Liam finally whispered. "Let me see her now."
The doctor simply nodded, before opening the door.
One by one, the boys walked in, Liam in front and Harry and Louis holding hands.
Now most people have an avid imagination, one that will never fail to make something look more intense, or worse, than it already is.
But even with all the boy's imagination combined, there was no way to make the sight in front of them any worse. It was already horrible.
Laying on a sad looking hospital bed, was a fragment of Hope Stillwell. Her famous silver locks were gone, and replacing them was a bandage stained with blood. Battered and bruised, there was almost no white skin left on her body. Her right eye was swelled shut and her left eye had an ugly gash under it. Her raggedy breathing was slow and unsteady, and even though most people in comas look peaceful, she looked as though she was reliving a nightmare.
Liam choked out a small cry, holding her bruised and small hand.
Suddenly, her eyes fluttered open drowsily as she smiled at him. "Zayn?"
Liam shook his head. "No baby I'm so sorry I'm not Zayn."
She smiled. "Zayn I'm so happy you found me." She made an effort to grab his hand.
"Babe I'm not-" Liam started before being cut off by Louis whispering.
"Just go along with it mate."
Liam nodded, and started to stroke Hope's hand absentmindedly.
"You know," Hope started to say, her voice cracking half way through. "He said you weren't going to come for me. But I know that wasn't true. I love you."
Liam shook his head. "I can't do it." He mumbled, pulling his hand away from her. "I can't."
Hope started to cry. "Don't you love me back? I need you to love me back! Everybody I've ever loved has left, you can't leave me." Her entire body started to shake as she sobbed.
Slowly, Liam backed out of the room, Niall following to check up on him.
But HarryandLouis stayed, holding onto each other as if the world depended on it as Hope continued to cry, their world shattering in front of them.
"Hope." Harry murmured, resting his free hand on hers. "You don't need to be sad. We're still here. We won't leave you."
"Please babe." Louis sobbed out. "Don't do this. Look-" he held up his intertwined hand. "We made up! You don't have to worry about us anymore! You don't.." He seemed to trail off as she went silent, almost looking like she was dead. The only reason he still had hope was because of the still beating heart monitor.
----- Two days later -----
Zayn woke up to the same sound he had fallen asleep to. Nothing. In fact, his habit of punching Niall for waking up was what really made him wake. Or more tellingly, the fact that it was ten and Niall still hadn't jumped on his bed, screaming. And just like the previous mornings, he sighed, got up, and started to paint.
He painted everything, from lights to rivers. He painted a picture of his childhood room, filled with comic books and fake weapons. He painted his dog, he painted Louis and Harry's hands.
After a full day of this, he would retire for the night, grabbing an apple before going to sit on the couch (it was a very well furnished cabin) and then he started to think.
He thought about how many different ways he could tell Hope he loved her. He thought about the way her hair always looked, and how no one would ever be as close to an angel as he was because he was convinced she was a goddess sent from above. He thought of the boys. Were Harry and Louis HarryandLouis again? Was Liam still obsessing over muscle mass? Had Niall written any new songs?
Before he knew it, he was back at the drawing board, grabbing his most precious silver paint, and picking out his favourite brush.
Luckily, the woman had given him an MP3 player to keep him sane, complete with a few Hope singles she had allowed. He breathed in the paint, and pressed play on her famed song Royals.
Nodding his head to the music, he mouthed the words and started to paint. He painted slowly, and instead of painting on one of the many canvases they had provided him with, he chose to paint on the wall next to the couch. This line here, that line there, some silver to fill in the gap there, a hint of light blue here.
When he checked the clock again, five hours had gone by and his masterpiece was finally finished. he stood there, looking at it for a few minutes. He sighed, feeling tears run down his cheeks.
He had finally drawn a face.
------ A week later------
"In non local news, Hope Stillwell seems to be in a tight spot." The woman on the tv continued.
Hope jerked up. "Turn it up." She instructed Anne, her assigned nurse. Once they had realized she wasn't getting any better, they quickly assigned her one, and now Anne was with her at all times.
Anne did as she was told. "Yes she has, Carol. Multiple reports have come in telling many different stories. One claims that they live in California, and they had seen Hope Stillwell there, with an unidentified man."
Hope shivered as a picture of Him came up on the screen, sitting with Hope at the resteraunt. Niall hugged her.
"Another story is accompanied with this alarming picture." A picture came up of Hope getting carried into the hospital, her entire body slumped as blood dripped out of her head. Hope let out a cry, and put her head on Niall's shoulder, trying to block out the blare of the TV.
It didn't work. "What we think we're looking at here is a classic Rihanna/Chris Brown case. Obviously it looks like Mrs Hope here is cheating, and she seems to have payed the price."
Hope yelped as Niall screamed out a string of cuss words and turned off the TV.
"Why would they say something like that?!" Hope sobbed out.
Niall hugged her for a few minutes, before she pulled away. "Turn the Telly back on." She ordered.
"And we also have some great footage of Zayn Malik!"
The screen cut to a video of Zayn in the shirt Hope had bought for him, hounded by paparazzi. They continued to ask him questions, as he ignored them. Then, one interviewer could be heard above the rest.
"Zayn! What happened with Hope?" The man yelled. Slowly, Zayn turned around to face the man. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but instead he grabbed the man's microphone and threw it to the ground. "Fuck off." He growled, before stalking away.
Hope moaned in sadness as she gripped onto Niall. "I can't believe these people."
Niall turned to her, his face red. "It's fucking bullshit, that's what it is."
As Niall continued to curse and Hope continued to hug him, Doctor Nybo walked in,turning off the TV today.
"How are you doing today, Ms. Stillwell?" He asked calmly, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"I'm doing okay. When I move my head too much, I feel like I'm about to die. Also, I accidentally reopened my scar under my eyes which looked pretty punk but hurt like hell. And Zayn still isn't here which makes me super depressed and sad. Also, I'm allergic to daisies and the people in the next room over have daisies so I'm super sick but I didn't want to ruin their moment so I didn't say anything and-"
"Hope. We need to talk about something." Dr. Nybo cut off Hope's mini rant. "We got your x-rays back."
Hope gabbed onto Niall's hand, desperatley praying he would turn into Zayn. "And?"
"If we take the bullet out, you will die instantly." Niall gasped. "But if we keep it in, the longest you have to live would be around two weeks before ultimately, your brain won't be able to handle it anymore and you will experience servere pain. I am so sorry."
Hope sniffed. "Everyone dies anyways, right?" She hugged Niall closer. "I guess I just get to leave sooner."
"My deepest-"
"It's fine." Hope cut the doctor off. "I'm fine. We're fine. It's all good. Now if you two could excuse me, I'd like to make a call."
Dr. Nybo left quickly, followed by Anne, but Niall stayed. "Hope." He rasped, tears streaming down his face. "I'm so fucking sorry. This is all my fault, I literally killed you."
"Shut the fuck up." Hope replied lovingly. "I'm gonna be fine. Now go tell the boys."
Niall nodded, staring at her for a few minutes, before finally leaving.
As soon as he was gone, Hope started to breath harder, violently searching for her phone. Finally, she found it, and dialed the number.
As the phone rang, it got harder and harder to breath, as if her lungs were shrinking, like an elephant was sitting on her chest, killing her.
"Hello!" The voice answered, chirpily.
"Zayn! Why aren't-"
"This is Zayn!"
"And this is Hope!"
"We can't come to the phone right now,"
"We're probably too busy making out or being better than everyone else!"
"So leave a message after the beep, and we'll get back to you!"
Beep
And that was it, really. Hope began to sob, as she tried desperately to leave a message.
"Hi. I know you're probably off somewhere with someone better than me, and that terrifies me. I just wanted to hear you. You know usually when you're dating someone and they get shot, you go visit them, maybe even bring them flowers. But not daises. I'm allergic." She laughed, trying to stop the tears. "You know, I always thought death would be more.... flashy. I mean, I don't know what I was expecting but it was actually kind of underwhelming to get the news. I mean, the news itself was just wonderful, but I always thought it would be more dramatic. I guess I get that from Louis." She laughed again. "I miss you like crazy. Why aren't you here? You said you'd never leave me, but I'm pretty sure this counts as leaving me. Please come back. I can't do this without you." She sighed, getting ready to hang up. "I love you. Please come back. Bye."
And with that, she started to die.
------- Meanwhile -------
"That's fucking it." Zayn mumbled, sick of staring at his large portrait of Hope. "I'm leaving." He grabbed his jacket, and the few thousand dollars he had, and prepared to bust out of the cabin. Taking a running start, he threw himself at the door, only to be alarmed when it burst open instantly.
"Wow." He rubbed his arm. "If I had known it was unlocked, I would have done that a week ago."
And he was on his way. Trekking his way through a forest, finally ending up in a quaint little town, with not many people out. He sighed in relief (he didn't want to be mobbed, again), and quickly walked to the first store, which happened to be a small coffee shoppe.
The shoppe itself gave off a calm aura, like a home away from home, from it's maroon walls to it's wonderfully un-matched rugs and chairs.
"I've gotta bring Hope here." He mumbled under his breath, before making it to the counter.
"Hello sir! What can I get for you today?" A chipper voice said, as Zayn got out a few dollars, not bothering to look up.
"The strongest caffeinated thing you have. And if I could borrow a computer, that would be great." He replied.
"Zayn?!" The voice answered, forcing him to look up. His eyes were met with a familiar boy's smile.
"Troy, right?" He asked. The boy nodded. "How did you get here? And why are you here? And where exactly is here?"
Troy laughed. "Calm down, Tiger. Let me get you your coffee first, and then we'll talk, okay?"
"What about your other costumers?" Zayn asked.
"Does it look like there's any other customers?" Troy laughed again. "Just wait here. I'll grab you caffeine and my computer."
Zayn sighed, before sitting down in what he found to be one of the most comfortable chairs he had ever sat in, and almost let out a groan as he finally relieved his feet of their duty.
"So" Troy started, sitting down, handing Zayn his drink. "what brings you here? Also, here is Portland, Oregon. Well, a town right outside of it."
Zayn almost spit his drink out. "Oregon? That's fucked up. I mean, I've always wanted to visit here but-"
"Yeah, because you're a pothead." Troy mumbled.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Oh shit, I shouldn't have said that." He blinked. "You're famous, I really shouldn't have said that."
Zayn sighed, for what seemed like the hundredth time today. "Well, I guess it used to be true. I mean, now that I'm with Hope, I get high by just being around her."
"That's fucking gross, man."
"Shut up." Zayn took another sip of his drink. "Good coffee, by the way."
Troy smirked. "No shit. That's why I'm employee of the goddamn month. But speaking of Hope, why aren't you her?"
"What, is it illegal to take some time away from each other?" Zayn snapped.
"Well, no. But right now, it sounds like she really needs you."
"What do you mean?"
Troy gasped. "You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?"
Troy sighed, and opened up his computer, typing 'Hope Stillwell" into the search bar. "I don't want to be the barer of bad news but..." and with that, he slid an article of to Zayn.
As Zayn read, growing more and more panicked, Troy tried to break it up for him. "Basically she's saying her dad (nasty man) shot her. Also, they're saying she's only got like two weeks to live. The press are having a field day, and the fans are going fucking insane. I don't blame them. She's like a fucking female Jesus."
"This can't be true." Zayn whispered, tears already coming out. "This can't be."
"I'm 'fraid so, buddy." Troy replied, putting a protective arm around him.
After what seemed like hours, (You know how usually this phrase is followed by "but was only a few minutes"? Yeah, well, this isn't one of those times. It was literally two hours), Zayn finally pulled himself together enough to look at Troy again. "I need a ride to L.A."
Troy smiled. "I know just the place."
---------------------------------------------------
WOW. THAT WAS A LOT. A LOT OF TYPING WENT IN TO THIS. LOVE ME. IT'S FOUR IN THE FUCKING MORNING. (also, I ship ship Zayn and Troy so hard. #Tayn5evabitches)
peace out
- c.a reynolds