Harry's POV
"Who died?" he asked. Great choice for your first words after a 24 hour coma, Lou.
"You, almost, moron. But other than that I'm glad you're back." I smiled and untangled my hand from Niall's before I got up and walked to Louis' bed.
"You all look terrible."
"Look who's talking. I should go and get you a mirror Lou."
"What happened? Why am I here and why do you all look like I've died?"
I sighed and took a look at Liam who was still sound asleep. He was obviously exhausted and although he would be mad that I hadn't woken him up the second Louis opened his eyes, I wanted to give him a couple more minutes of sleep. "You had an accident on your way home yesterday. It must've been quite a blow because they kept you in an induced coma up until now."
"Oh. That explains why I feel like this." He looked up and saw the wires attached to his chest, flinching as he noticed the bruises and the tube sticking out from between his ribs. "Ugh, looks nasty. Does my face look as bad as my chest?"
"Worse, to be honest."
"Oh crap." He looked down at Liam and smiled before he put his hand on his shoulder and shook it slightly, although it was easy to tell that it took a lot of effort. Liam's head shot up and his eyes widened as he found Louis awake. He got up from his chair and launched himself into Louis' arms.
"Oh Lou, thank god, you're awake. How do you feel, do you have any pain? We should let the nurses know that you're awake! Do you need painkillers? The doctor said you should ask for them if you needed any." he rambled, and I needed to focus hard to understand what he was saying.
"Liam. Shut up. I feel absolutely terrible, and yes I have pain, but it would be a bit better if you could get off my chest. But I'm still here, so calm down."
It was good to see his sassy side was awake also. Liam stood back, looking ashamed for crushing Lou and tears streamed down his face once more, but at least he smiled this time.
"I'll go find a nurse and ask for some pain relief." I smiled at them, Liam stroking Lou's hair while Louis held his other hand.
"Thanks." Louis said softly before I closed the door behind me, relief flooding through my body now that Louis was awake and seemed reasonably okay.
Louis' POV
I smiled gratefully at the nurse who put some painkillers in my IV drip and told us the doctor would come to see us first thing in the morning to explain what had happened and how things would go next. Niall had been woken up by Harry and he was quiet, but it was obvious that he was happy I was back. Liam hadn't moved away from my bed ever since I had woken up, and his eyes never even left my face. It was easy to tell he had been scared and was now afraid that if he looked away it would all be a dream and I would've died or something.
"Bambi, go home and sleep, please?" I asked him for the sixth time since I had woken up. He shook his head and repeated his earlier answer.
"No, I want to stay."
"Please Liam? I'm going to be sleeping anyway, I'm exhausted and the medicine is making me a bit drowsy. I promise I'll still be here in the morning. You look like you could use a good night's sleep. You look horrible. And I mean that in the nicest possible way." He sighed and looked over to Harry and Niall, who tried their hardest to look everywhere but at us.
"Are you sure Boo?" he finally asked, to which I nodded.
"Yes, Bambi, I'm absolutely positive. I'll see you in the morning when the doctor comes to talk to us. Now just go home, and don't forget to call my mum to assure her I'm doing okay before she goes crazy."
Liam hugged me once more and I waved a hand at Niall and Harry before I was left alone in the room. Alone with the weird noises of all the machines surrounding me. They would've made me uneasy if it wasn't for the fact that I was completely worn out. Even from being awake for about an hour. I don't think I lasted another minute after they left and just fell into oblivion.
I was woken up the next morning by a cheery nurse who announced she would give me a bath, although that turned out to be a big word for soaping me up in between the tubes and bandages and rinsing and drying me afterwards. I was slightly embarassed of not being able to do this myself but even lifting my hand hurt like hell, so I just tuned out and let her do her job. Half an hour later she brought me breakfast, a cheese sandwich, a glass of milk, a cup of tea and a banana and announced the doctor would be here to see me soon. I thanked her and ate the food, although I wasn't really hungry and it all just tasted like dust.
"Bambi!" I exclaimed as I heard the door to my room open again, revealing my handsome man standing in the doorway. He looked better than yesterday, and he flashed me a genuine smile before his eyes darted over the bruising on my chest and the tubes still sticking out of me all over my body.
"Hey Boo. How are you feeling?"
"Aching all over, worse than the first few days I met you, but better now you're here." I smiled softly as he walked over to my bedside to take a seat.
"How are you still so cheesy when you've been run over by a car?" he replied, rolling his eyes. "Niall and Harry will come by this afternoon. I told them to unpack Harry's things first, but that was really just an excuse to have you all to myself for a while."
"Now who's cheesy?" We kept on talking and joking around, staying away from the subject of my health and the accident until the doctor came in. She was a friendly looking lady, somewhere in her early thirthies, I think, her hair pulled back in a ponytail to reveal her pretty freckled face. Apparently Liam had met her on Fridaynight in the emergency room.
"Hello mister Tomlinson, I'm glad to see you're awake again!" she greeted me cheerfully as she walked inside to shake my and Liam's hand.
"You won't believe how many times I've heard that since yesterday evening." I muttered, but she just smiled and started explaining what had happened. Apparently there had been a hole in my heart, causing the membrane around it to fill up with blood and compromise the function of my heart, but they managed to fix it by sticking a needle into my chest and draining the blood from it, leaving the tube that entered between my ribs to apply suction so it wouldn't happen again.
It sounded kind of scary, so I was pretty relieved that I had been totally out of it at the time they did all this. The rest of my aching was just caused by severe bruising and a fractured toe, but it would take quite a while for my body to recover. If nothing went wrong by noon I could be hooked off the heart monitor and about half of the other machines and then be transferred to a normal ward.
"Alright, so now we've got that covered, are you in pain?"
"Yeah, my body aches all over, really." I nodded, but even that hurt.
"That was to be expected. Alright, what we'll do is hook you up to a pain pump for a couple of days, just until the worst is over and you can get along with some paracetamol. There will be a small tubeplaced under your skin and the drip attached to it will deliver a small dose of pain relief every time you press the button. Don't worry though, there's a maximum dose you can't overrule, so it's not dangerous in any way. I'll be back in a minute to hook you up to it." She smiled and turned around to leave the room again.
"Uhm, wait, doctor... Verster, was it?" she turned again to face me, a questioning look in her brown eyes. "Is it morfine we're talking about here?"
"Yes, but like I said, there's a maximum dose so it won't be dangerous or anything."
"Then I don't want it. Just give me some paracetamol and aspirins and I'll be perfectly fine." I said decisively, turning to Liam who just looked confused at my refusal of pain relief while I had just said I was in a lot of pain.
"Mister Tomlinson, I assure you there is no danger to this morfine pump, and it will help you far better than just paracetamol and aspirin. Those will never be able to relieve your pain." she answered sternly, although she never lost her friendly tone.
"No, really, I don't want it." I answered and sighed as both her and Liam looked at me like I'd said I could walk on water. "Look, I've been addicted to heroin, not that long ago, and I've been fighting real hard to be where I am now, and I just don't want to risk losing all of that because of a little bit of pain I'm sure I can handle if I try. So please, don't give me the morfine."
She wanted to protest but I repeated again that I didn't want it, so she just nodded and told me she'd get the nurse to put some harmless painrelief in my IV drip, as well as some ibuprofen pills to help me as much as possible. I smiled at her back as she left the room before I turned to Liam, who had an unreadable expression on his face.
Liam's POV
I didn't know what I heard. Sure, he had been an addict and I knew it wasn't always easy, but he did a marvellous job at fighting it and I was pretty sure having some pain relief wouldn't kill the effort.
"Lou, are you nuts? I can see you're in pain, and yet you go and refuse pain relief? I know it's morfine and therefor dangerous, but they would monitor it, and you won't get addicted to it over a couple of days!" I exclaimed, standing up from my chair and waving my arms around in desperation.
"Liam, sit down please, and stop yelling at me, I have enough of a headache already without it. And this is not up for discussion. I won't have it, period." he sternly replied and stubbornly turned away from me.
I sighed and sat down again, playing with my fingers before I grabbed his again, squeezing his hand to tell him I was always there, no matter what. He remained stubborn and refused to look at me until the nurse walked in, adding something to his drip and offering him some tablets. He muttered a thanks and swallowed them, his hand clenching around mine as he moved his other arm.
"I just hate to see you in pain Boo." I muttered as I put my forehead against his arm.
"I know babe, I know." was all he replied.
We spent the rest of the morning talking softly, or I just watched him sleep when he dozed off mid sentence. I'd called Jay yesterday to tell her Louis was awake and she'd said she'd come down here in the afternoon to visit.
They came in to fix his wires and transfer him to another ward around one in the afternoon, so I left off to find me some lunch while I waited for him to arrive in the other room, where Harry, Niall, Jay, Zayn and Helen joined us later on. Lou was clearly exhausted by the end of the afternoon, so all of us left with a promise to return the next day. I hated leaving him, but at least I was sure he'd be okay. He should be able to leave the hospital in a couple of days, if he promised to rest some more once he was at home. I knew that would be a challenge, but at least I got to have him with me.