Harry's POV
It broke my heart to hear Liam sobbing in the backseat of my car. He was always the strong one out of all of us, and now he was broken. If I had to make a comparison, I'd go for a small bird that had fallen out of the nest, trying to fly but failing because of broken wings and just not knowing how to do it. Niall and I exchanged a few looks through the rearview mirror, and I could tell he was lost as well. He had taken up this role once before, when Nicola died, and he didn't want to do this again. Nobody had expected this. And what was worse: nobody knew what was waiting for us in that hospital. We were lucky enough for traffic to have died down a bit and we reached the hospital twenty nerve wracking minutes later. The parking lot was full due to visiting hours having started, so I just let Liam and Niall out near the entrance to the emergency room and drove off to find a parking space.
Five minutes later I told the tired looking lady behind the glass wall that I came for Louis Tomlinson so she'd let me inside the ER. She told me the others were in the waiting room, and pointed me to the small secluded area. Niall smiled a bit when he saw me coming in, and took his arm from Liam's back. I wasn't sure if Liam noticed though, as he was still sobbing violently on Libby's shoulder. Niall walked up to me and spoke fast but quietly.
"He's been hit by a car that came out of nowhere, according to Libby. She's seen all of it, apparently it was quite a blow. He's in the trauma room, still, we don't know anything else. They wouldn't tell Libby and nobody came out since we've been here."
I put my arm around his shoulder and squeezed his upper arm as we walked towards the others, taking a seat next to Liam. Libby, Carl and I exchanged quick hello's but there was nothing more to say. It was easy to tell we were all thinking the same thing. Hoping that Lou would be okay. Niall's head rested on my shoulder as a young woman came into the waiting room. Her hair was pulled up in a bouncy pony tail, and I was sure she would be very pretty in normal clothes and without the dark circles beneath her eyes.
"Has mister Tomlinson's family arrived already?" she asked, looking around the room to all of us as well as to another family that sat on the other side of the room.
"This is his boyfriend." I answered quietly, gesturing towards Liam who was wiping his tears from his eyes.
"Okay. My name is doctor Verster, I'm an anesthesiologist in this hospital and I work at the emergency room as well. You can come with me sir."
"Can my friends come too, please?" Liam managed to bring out. I could hear his voice breaking and it was easy to tell he didn't want to be alone in there.
"Just one other, I'm really sorry about that, but the trauma room is too small for more visitors."
I exchanged a look with Niall and nodded at him when he asked wordlessly if he should go. I gave him a quick kiss to let him know that I was there for him before I let go of his hand to join Liam at the side of the doctor in her green stained clothes. I didn't want to think about the source of those stains. Was that Louis' blood on her abdomen?
Niall's POV
I really didn't want to be the one to come along with Liam right now. But I knew I had to. I was the one he needed right now, I knew him best, I'd seen him facing drama before. I grabbed his hand as the doctor guided us to a small room, only four dirty looking chairs and a small coffee table in there, and asked us to sit down.
"I'd like to give you a small update on mister Tomlinson's condition before I take you to him. It's been quite a blow, he has major bruising all over his body and we feared he had a severe injury at his heart, but that has been solved by now. We'll have to monitor his heart and keep a close look on him to make sure there's no internal bleeding. He is in a medication induced coma right now, to make sure his body gets some rest from all the stress that the pain would be causing. We'll probably be waking him up at sometime tomorrow, if he stays stable."
I nodded and tried to remember, knowing Liam wouldn't hear half of it.
"You can go see him in the trauma room now, and we'll be moving him to the intensive care unit as soon as there's a bed available, probably sometime tonight of tomorrow. Do you have any questions right now?"
I shook my head and noticed Liam doing the same, his breathing still ragged.
"I will take you to him now. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions that you have now or later. I know it's much to comprehend right now but me or one of my colleagues will give you more information on his injuries and the procedures we've performed in a later stage." She added, a tired smile revealing a bit of her natural beauty.
"Thank you." My voice sounded weird, as if it wasn't mine. She nodded and opened the door, waiting for us to follow her to another room, a couple of doors down the hall. She paused before she slid the door open, turning to the both of us once more.
"I have to warn you, it's not a pretty sight because of all the bruising, but that will heal. You'll find him hooked up to wires and tubes, but once again, I'd like to assure you that he is stable for now, and we'll explain all of it later."
Liam nodded and I squeezed his hand before the door opened to reveal a pale looking man on a white sheet. If it wasn't for the doctor telling me it was Louis, and his hair that fell over his forehead in its usual tousled state, I wouldn't have thought it was him. It was an understatement to say it wasn't a pretty sight.
Liam's POV
I had managed to stop crying by the time the doctor led us towards the trauma room, as she called it, but as soon as I saw him lying there, they sprung to my eyes again, rolling down my cheeks as I proceeded towards the bed in the middle of the room. My eyes darted around to all the machines surrounding him, I recognised a heart monitor, green lines forming a recurring pattern and a small beeping sound reassuring me that he was indeed alive. There was a tube sticking out of his chest, connected to a bottle that hung down from the bed and contained a fluid that couldn't be mistaken for anything but blood. it didn't fill up though, so I guessed that was good news. Other tubes led to his arms and his chest was bare.
Bruises covered pretty much every inch of his exposed skin, including his face. Some of them were lighter blue, but some were a dark purple, almost black. I found myself next to his head after a few steps, and I took a closer look at his face. Bruises covered most of his face, together with some nasty looking scratches, the largest one running from the corner of his mouth to his eyebrow. My hand reached up to his face in an automatic reflex, my thumb brushing over the stubble I always loved so much. He hadn't had time to shave this morning, and the stubble cast a shadow over his handsome face. Even with all this bruising and scratches, he was still handsome. I felt a shiver run down my spine as I felt the short hairs scratch my hand, remembering how I always ran my lips across his cheeks when he didn't shave. How I loved doing that so much before I kissed him sofly.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when Niall put his hand on my shoulder, making me look up at his tear stained face. He looked tired as well, and I knew this got to him almost as much as it got to me. I leaned into his touch and let my head rest against his arm as he squeezed my shoulder.
"He's going to be fine Liam," he said softly, and I knew he couldn't be sure about that, but nodded anyway.
"He'll be fine." I answered, grabbing Louis' frail looking hand with mine and stroking the back of it while I mumbled incoherent sweet things close to his ear.
Niall pulled up another chair and sat next to me for a while, until I felt more at ease and I told him I would be fine on my own for a little bit. His hand rested on my back while he put the chair back in its place and pressed a kiss on my head before he walked out of the room, back into the waiting area where he'd probably have to explain what was going on to Harry, Libby and Carl. The thought of having to call Jay and bring her this terrible news shot through my mind but I pushed it away as soon as it came up. I didn't want to think about that right now, I needed to focus on Louis, let him know that I was here for him. I didn't know if he could hear me, but I needed to believe he did.
"Hey baby. I'm here for you. The doctor said you're not in any pain right now, because of the medication you've been given. You'll be alright Lou, i'm sure of it. You have to be. I need you, you know. I wouldn't know what to do without you. I love you so, so much BooBear. You know that, right? I hope you do, and if you don't I'll be telling you for every second of every day when you wake up. Baby, please, be okay?" I rested my forehead on his hand and let tears flow freely, unable to bring out any more words. I suddenly noticed how tired I was. It wasn't even nine, but it felt like the middle of the night. Being scared and sad was exhausting. I gave in to sleep tugging on me and closed my eyes a little later.
Harry's POV
Niall had returned to the waiting room a couple hours earlier, leaving Liam alone in the room with Louis. Libby and Carl had returned home and Niall and I had taken turns in taking short naps, not really wanting to fall asleep in case something happened. His head rested on my lap and my hands crawled through his hair. I loved how the silky strands slipped through my fingers, it calmed me down, even in the worst of times, like now. We had witnessed the hospital quiet down, apart from a few incoming emergencies that always caused a lot of uproar, and now the pace was picking up again. The clock in front of me said it was now early morning, almost seven, and soon enough the night shift workers would go home and be replaced by their colleagues. And Louis would be brought to another room outside of the emergency room. We hadn't heard anything from nurses, doctors or Liam, so we just assumed everything was okay. I'd have to go and pick up the moving van I'd rented for the day soon, but I didn't want to leave before I'd seen Liam and Louis. I didn't mind if Niall stayed here, as I had also some other friends who would come to help me.
I had just started to wake Niall up when I saw the doctor walk into the waiting room again.
"Good morning. If any of you would like some coffee, just ask the nurses, they'll give you some." I smiled gratefully. I would need some coffee to survive the day ahead. "We'll be moving mister Tomlinson to intensive care any minute now. He's been stable overnight and we don't really expect any problems, but we'll have to keep a close eye. Depending on how he makes it through the morning we'll be waking him up sometime in the afternoon."
I nodded and thanked her before I fully woke Niall and shared the information I'd just gotten with him. We got up and went in search for some coffee, which a friendly looking girl went to retrieve from a kitchen in the back. The door to the trauma room opened when we were waiting at the desk, revealing a hell of lot of machines, drips and tubes, Louis laying somewhere in the middle, Liam asleep by his side. I handed Niall both our cups as I asked the girl for another one, feeling a bit elated to do so, but she didn't seem to mind. Niall went inside and shook Liam's shoulder after he'd put the cups down, handing one to Liam as soon as he woke up. He spoke for a couple of seconds and I saw Liam nod before they both came out. They looked exhausted, but I probably looked the same after a long night in the waiting room.
Waiting, waiting and more waiting, it was all we could do. I said my goodbyes and left to get the van, instructing Niall to keep Liam company and let me know as soon as anything changed. They rolled Louis' bed past right as I turned towards the door. He looked terrible, black and blue bruises all over his face and uncovered chest, scratches everywhere, and a dark stubble gracing his cheeks. For the first time since NIall had come back from that room, I was actually a little scared that he might not be okay, but I shrugged it off, needing to be strong, to not think about that option. It simply wasn't an option.