Chapter 88
I was woken up by the sound of someone clearing their throat and the hospital chair next to my bed creaking as someone sat down. I pulled myself up and looked to see who it was. The cougher was Inspector Morris, his orange curls were glowing in the artificial hospital light. I rubbed my eyes, took a sip of water and greeted him. He was alone this time.
'How are you?' He was as blunt as I remembered.
'Um, better thanks, sore sometimes but it's not so bad.'
He nodded at me. 'Good. I think you're about to feel a bit better again now' He rummaged in the pocket of his uniform trousers and pulled out a notebook. He cleared his throat and as he was about to talk Bo and Rose burst into the room chatting loudly about something. They stopped walking when the saw the Morris and quickly shut their mouths.
'Sorry. We didn't know you were here.' Bo said and Rose tried to hold in a laugh but couldn't keep a straight face.
'No, no, that's fine I was just about to tell Aria that,' he looked at me 'we've caught the person who shot you.' All three of us gasped in shock. Bo and Rose all rushed over to the chairs by the windows and drew all their attention on Morris.
'Really?' I gripped the edge of the bed so hard my knuckled turned white. I wished Louis was with me. 'That's great news.'
'Yeah, who was it?' Rose said impatiently.
'Well it appears you were right, it was the brother of the defendant in your case. He seemed to think that your client was going to win and that his brother would be having a very long jail sentence. To quote him 'if she wasn't on his case he might not go down. So I took her out' He openly admitted to doing it once we had him, which saved time.'
'Why that sneaky little-' Rose started but Bo nudged her in the stomach.
Morris continued talking to me. 'I'm sure you're aware of what happens now, as a barrister.'
'Yeah. Trial, verdict and hopefully a life sentence for attempted murder.' I nodded. I knew the deal.
He smiled at me for the first time ever, which was more of a shock than finding out my attacker had been caught. 'I thought you'd know. Basically, you're safe now, he's being detained until his case, probation was denied.' I heard the girls sigh.
'Good. That's good.' The relief I felt was immense. I didn't have to worry anymore.
'We'll inform you of when the trial is etc, but it won't be for a while yet, but we'll get back to you.' He stood up from the chair. 'I have to go now, but I'll no doubt see you again soon when the trial is here.' He nodded once and left the room.
'Gee, I can't wait to see you again either.' I said sarcastically once he was out of ear shot.
'Bye' Rose put up her hand to wave but Bo slapped it down.
'They caught him. It's over now.' I said more to myself than to the girls. They both got up off their chairs and walked over to me.
I picked up my phone and ring Louis. I waited for him to answer but he didn't, which was unusual as he always answers. I left him a message: 'Hey Lou it's me. They've caught the guy who shot me. It was the brother of the defendant in the trial. He admitted to it and everything. Everything's okay now. Love you.'
I then called everyone that knew about what had happened and told them the good news.
...
'I'm back!' Spencer called as she strolled through the door. She ran over to me and pulled me into a hug. Rose and Bo who were already in the room with me jumped up and joined us in a hug as well.
'Group hug!' Bo called.
We all broke apart laughing. Glad that we were all back together, 4 sisters reunited.
'They caught him!' She was laughing with happiness. 'That's awesome!' I was so happy to see her. I hadn't seen her for ages, she'd been back in Ireland visiting family. She dumped a load of magazines on the bed next to me, there were tonnes of them, and flopped into the empty chair by my bed and Bo and Rose sat in the ones by the window.
'How are you guys? I've missed you so much!' She said in a cheery tone.
'Good.' Bo, Rose and I all said at the same time and then burst out into laughter.
'How was Ireland?'
'Meh, not bad. Mum's still doing my head in. She seems to think that because I've decided to write I've thrown my whole life away! Pfft.' She rolled her eyes as she dumped her bag onto the floor.
'She'll come around.' Bo said.
'Yeah. How's the book going?' I asked.
'Amazingly!' She gasped. 'I've been getting loads of idea, I've had to resort to carrying a notebook with me everywhere so I can write my thoughts down.' She leant forwards in her chair with eagerness. I love hearing about her writing, she gets so excited about it.
'Have you decided if you are going to do a dystopian or a thriller yet?' Rose asked.
'Nope. Not yet. Can't choose.'
'Why don't you just do a dystopian-thriller?' Bo asked like it was the simplest answer in the world. Spence gasped.
'That's an amazing idea!' She said. 'Thanks babe, you're definitely going in my acknowledgements.' She told Bo.
We all laughed.
'She'd be lost without us.' I said to Bo and Rose and Spencer looked up.
'Yeah. I so would.'
'It's going to be a great book Spence!' Rose smiled.
'When did you last see Niall?'
'About three weeks ago.' She sighed, not smiling at all.
'What's wrong?' I asked.
'I don't know what's going on Aria. We hardly ever see each other and we hardly talk either.' Spencer said. 'I just wish things were the way they used to be.' She looked down at the ground.
'It'll get better. Honestly. It's because they're working so much.' Bo said.
'Yeah, once the tour is over things will get back to normal.' Rose reassured her and I patted her hand.
'You and Harry don't have these problems,' she said to Bo, 'or you and Liam,' she looked at Rose, and then to me, 'and especially you and Louis. He phones you all the time, Ari.' I just looked at her, not knowing what to say. 'When I ring Niall he's always busy or something. We talk for about 5 minutes and then he's gone.'
'That's what it's like with Louis.' I told her. 'We talk everyday but not for long. It's just the way it is.' I said honestly and Rose nodded in agreement.
'True.' She huffed and changed the subject. 'Have you seen the articles about you Aria?' she gasped, back to her excitable self within seconds. When Bo saw she was ok again she wandered back to her chair. 'You're in every single magazine!'
'No' I frowned. 'I haven't read any magazines. What are they saying?' I eyes the pile of magazines on the bed warily.
'I thought you wouldn't have. Flick through; they're all near the front. It's big news.' Bo and Rose looked at each other and got up and grabbed a magazine. They handed me one and I opened it up.
She was right. The second page of the magazine had a large photo of Louis outside the hospital holding a bunch of flowers and in the corner, slightly smaller was a photo of Louis and I that had been taken just before Christmas. The headline said 'One Direction Wife Shot!' and had a picture of the court house where I was shot in the corner.
'Aria Tomlinson, the wife of One Direction band member Louis Tomlinson was shot on the 16th of January outside the court house where she was working, the day after their third wedding anniversary.
Sources say Louis was 'cut up' and 'absolutely distraught' when he heard the news. Witness have spoken and said he was on a plane to Ireland at the time he discovered the news. One says 'He ran to the front of the plane followed by the rest of the band and demanded they let him off the plane. Eventually they did.'
There's no news as of yet about who did it but Louis told the world via twitter: 'Thanks for the concern, Aria's okay, just had some serious surgery but will be fine.'
We're glad she's okay and hope whoever did it is found soon!'
'They all say the same thing basically. Same pictures and everything.' Bo said as she flicked through her third magazine.
'What did people tweet when they found out I was the reason the Ireland dates were postponed?' I asked nervously, suddenly scared that I'd get a load of hate.
'Um...' Spencer looked uncomfortable which confirmed my doubts.
'Hate?' I asked.
She smiled sadly. 'A little bit. Not too much! And the boys all tweeted about it. It's stopped now; it only lasted about an hour or so.'
'I knew that would happen.' I shook my head and reached for my phone. I was going to brave twitter for the first time since the accident. I saw the amount of notifications I had from it and quickly changed my mind. I couldn't deal with that at the moment.
'Don't worry about it. You didn't choose to get shot and you didn't make the boys postpone, they wanted to. It's not your fault.' She patted my hand this time.