"Do you think you're ready for this, Red?"
Piper eyed Luke warily, her eyes zeroing in on the set of dental pliers that he had just set down on the table. She gulped around the nervous lump in her throat as she nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be."
She wasn't quite sure whether she trusted him yet, but she was running out of options. Niall vouched for Luke, said he was trained in dentistry. But then again, Niall said he was trained in medicine and, while he was proficient based on what he had done for her the night before, he wasn't licensed. She doubted that Luke Hemmings was a licensed dentist.
She couldn't believe she was going to let a man she just met pull out three of her teeth.
The four men who had caused such a ruckus upon their arrival were the four members of 5SOS, the Australian black ops group that both Harry and Perrie had mentioned earlier. Similar to One Direction, they were a specialized group of agents working outside of the ASIS with Australian interests. And they were a bunch of insane motherfuckers.
Piper had been briefly introduced to each of them after she had finished emptying out her stomach and then Luke had stepped forward as the one who was going to be doing her hack dentistry job. Apparently him and Niall had been at the same base in Kandahar for a while which was how the two groups had gotten to know each other. Since then, One Direction and 5SOS had worked together numerous times on critical missions.
Two of them, Calum and Michael, had hung back in the living room with everyone else but Ashton, the other cute blond wearing a ridiculous American flag bandana across his forehead, had flounced after Piper, Harry and Luke into the kitchen. He had hopped onto the island counter top to watch as Luke and Niall both led Piper through the motions of getting herself ready for the traumatic experience of having her teeth removed.
Despite the fact that she didn't think Luke was at all certified for this, he did seem to know what he was talking about. He had brought along a bag with some tools and he pulled out a medical grade mouthwash first, leaning over the sink with her as she washed out her mouth. He placed a hand on her lower back when she winced at the burn of the alcohol on her broken teeth and exposed nerve endings. When his hand landed on the bandage, he lifted up the back of her jumper (uninvited and without permission) and whistled at the extent of the bandaging job. When Niall told the whole story, much more enthusiastically than an attack and attempted rape should ever be conveyed, Luke had clapped her on the back hard as he shouted praise, making her spit out the mouthwash.
Obviously, Luke's and Ashton's (and probably also Michael's and Calum's) personas were more in line with Niall – buoyant, exuberant, fun, and untameable. Harry, on the other hand, leaned against the counter beside Ashton's swinging legs with his arms crossed, looking like he was barely tolerating the personalities around him. Piper was pretty sure that the only reason he stayed was because he didn't want to leave her alone with them. Which she was so grateful for because she'd come close to hitting them more times than she could count.
She'd been instructed to sit down on one of the kitchen stools so Luke could take a proper look in her mouth. Harry had moved forward instinctively to stand behind her back, supporting her with arms around her waist so there wasn't too much pressure on her injury. The morphine was helping but it still twinged a bit.
Luke had told her to open wide in a lewd way that made Harry growl low in his throat, but they had gotten on the same page when she dug her heel into Luke's thigh painfully when he tried to step forward. He'd gotten the message that she wasn't one to be messed with and since then, it had been pretty natural. Luke had the proper tools with him, sticking one of those little mirrors into her left cheek and flashing a little light toward the area. Two broken teeth on the top, one on the bottom, according to him. He thought that the removal would be pretty easy since they didn't look impacted. Piper didn't think teeth removal was ever something easy really.
She hated the dentist. Doctors, fine. But dentists? No way. Ever since she was a little kid, she'd always avoided the dentist. She'd hide in her closet every time she had an appointment scheduled to the point where her dad had to keep the appointments a secret until he pulled the car up outside the office. She wasn't sure what was so bad about them. She'd been in far worse pain coming out of the doctor's office before – there was just something about dentists that set her on edge.
She sure as hell wasn't going to say that out loud, not in front of men who had probably been shot, and knifed, and beaten, and tortured more times combined than she could possibly count. She didn't want to seem like a pansy.
"Alright, Red," Luke said using the stupid nickname he had given her almost the second they had been introduced. Surprisingly, she hadn't heard that one very often growing up. Mostly, it was 'pumpkin'. She hated to admit it, but Red was probably better. "I'm going to numb you up and then we'll yank those suckers out."
Piper swallowed around the tightness in her throat and nodded, because she really didn't trust herself to speak. Luke had already laid out a towel and had stacked a number of scary looking instruments on it. This time when he pulled his hand out of his kit, he was holding a syringe and a vial. "Are you allergic to lidocaine?" he asked as he uncovered the syringe and stabbed the sharp end into the vial.
Because he was focusing on measuring out the dosage, Piper knew a verbal answer was required. She managed to croak out a 'no', which made Luke's eyebrows shoot up his forehead. He seemed surprised that she sounded so nervous.
"You're going to be fine, Red – open up wide," he added offhandedly as he flicked the air bubbles out of the syringe. "Just a pinch, okay?"
Piper let her eyes drift shut as he came closer with the needle. She was fine with needles, normally, just not needles in her mouth. She figured if she didn't have to watch, it would probably go better. She felt Luke tugging her lip out of the way and then the sharp prick of the needle in her top gum, followed by her bottom gum. She waited a few seconds after Luke had let go of her lip before she chanced opening her eyes back up.
She purposely avoided Harry's gaze over her shoulder because she knew he would be all concerned and sympathetic, and she didn't want his pity. She didn't want to need it. She wanted to be strong and brave, but right now, with her stomach doing unsettling gymnastics, she felt anything but strong or brave.
"You don't have anything to worry about," Luke was saying as he finished sterilizing the dental pliers that he had set aside. "I've pulled out tons of teeth before and only one person ended up dying."
"Luke," Harry said warningly, his voice low and lethal.
"It wasn't even my fault!" Luke defended. "The guy had an infection like you wouldn't believe – pus and blood everywhere. His tooth had practically rotted right out of his mouth. I swear, I tried to grab on and it almost disintegrated under –"
"Luke!"
Piper could feel her head spinning and she was sure she was white as a sheet. She curled an arm around her stomach, trying to willfully keep from spilling her guts up. "Give her a break, Luke," Ashton said softly from where he was watching off to the side.
"Sorry," Luke said sincerely, looking a little sheepish. "I'm not trying to scare you. I'm actually trying to reassure you. I am totally capable of doing this."
"I know I'll probably regret asking this," Piper said, her words sounding a little funny because her mouth was almost completely numb now, "but are you actually a dentist? Or are you like Niall, and you got all your training in the field?"
"I went to dentistry school," Luke answered a little too quickly, avoiding her gaze as much as he possibly could.
"For how long?" Piper asked with a sigh.
"About a year before they pulled me out for active duty," Luke said with a shrug. "Which was plenty of time, if you ask me. You learn to pull teeth on day two, I promise. Anyways, if I can give a full root canal in a tent in Kandahar with no running water and no electricity, I can pull out your teeth no problem." Piper obviously still looked wary because he sighed. "Just trust me, yeah?"
She wanted to say fuck no, wanted to demand that they take her to a dentist, but the more she thought about it the more she realized this wasn't actually too bad of an arrangement. Instead of being in a scary dentist office, she was sitting in a warm welcoming kitchen. And she had people who cared for her around her. Niall was watching on closely, his arms crossed and a concentrated scowl on his face as he supervised all of Luke's movements. And of course, Harry was a steady presence behind her, his hands resting lightly on her waist in a comforting gesture. This was ten times better than the last time she'd been to the dentist already.
"Yeah, okay."
"Great," Luke said with a bright smile. "Open up for a second?"
Piper did as she was told and Luke stuck his finger, encased in a latex glove, into her mouth. She could tell he was pressing at her gums but she couldn't feel a thing, which was probably the point. "You frozen?" he asked, to which she nodded. "Right, let's do this then. Harry, could you put your hands on her forehead and hold her head tilted back?"
"Actually," Harry interrupted, stepping back away from Piper, "Niall, could you take my place?"
"What?" Niall said, shaking himself out of his concentrated stupor and quirking an eyebrow up in Harry's direction. "Can't you do it? Don't tell me you've got a weak stomach all of a sudden."
"Niall," Harry repeated, his voice sounding shorter and sterner than before, "could you please just do it?"
Niall gave Harry a look but moved to cross around him, replacing Harry behind Piper's back. Just as Niall's hands were curving across her forehead, lacing together for traction, a large warm hand slid into each of hers. When she glanced over at Harry, standing on her right side, she saw him looking at her with concern. He managed to pull up his lip into a half smile, but without the full dimples it just didn't feel right. "I've got you, petal," he said which made her stomach all squiggly and warmed her heart, "just relax."
"Mouth open, Red," Luke instructed, turning and wielding the dreaded pliers. Piper opened her mouth slowly, watching warily as he held up the shiny instrument which seemed to glint in the light wickedly. "I'm going to do the bottom first because the angle is always harder that way. Best to get it over with." He yanked her lip out of the way gently, fitting the tool into her mouth. She couldn't feel it but it didn't make it any less scary. She squeezed Harry's hands tightly and felt pressure in return, warm and reassuring. "To get the tooth out, I have to wiggle it around. You'll feel some pressure. Don't be alarmed, that's totally normal. I'm going to start, okay?"
Piper didn't think she could handle watching Luke's hand shake around as he tried to loosen the broken tooth in her mouth so she shut her eyes. She could feel the pressure Luke had been talking about and tried to think about anything but that. Things she loved – ice cream, sunny days, snow, George Clooney. She felt Harry press into her hands supportively and brought up a mental image of him, holding onto it until she felt the pressure stop all at once.
She opened her eyes warily to Luke smiling brightly in her face. "One down," he said, waving the bloody tooth in her face. She tried her hardest not to vomit, giving him a deadly look instead. He took the cue and shut up, letting the tooth drop into a bowl beside the rest of his instruments. He picked up a sharp thing and Piper really didn't want to know what he was going to do with that so she slammed her eyes shut. "Just cleaning out the socket," he said casually and she could feel a bit of pressure in her mouth. "This is going really well, Red, I promise."
It wasn't long until Luke had the pliers gripping one of the broken teeth up top. "These might take a bit longer because they're fragmented and harder to hold onto," he explained. "Just hang in there."
It was the same drill, the pressure and the wiggling. Piper was almost getting used to the completely foreign sensation when she heard what sounded like a crack. Instinctively her eyes shot open and she tried to clamp her jaw shut, but Luke was two steps ahead and had curled two fingers from his free hand around her lower line of teeth, dragging her lips back open. "Don't close your mouth," he said sternly, keeping steady eye contact with her. "I know that sounded bad but it's just a broken root fragment, relatively normal stuff, okay? Just take a breath through your nose and calm down."
"C'mon petal, you've got this," Harry coached from beside her. She shifted her eyes in his direction, at the empathetic smile on his lips and the paleness of his green eyes, and did as she was told. She could feel Luke moving the tooth, making a weird grinding sound, but she just averted her eyes upward and tried her best not to start sobbing.
"See? We got this," Luke said when the pressure stopped miraculously. The tooth clacked into the bowl with its neighbour and Luke quickly cleaned out the bone fragment from the root before getting a hold of the last tooth. "Just one more. You can make it."
Piper didn't think she would make it so she closed her eyes once more. It had helped, the first time around, having her eyes closed. The pressure started up and seemed to last a lot longer than either of the other two times.
"Hmm," Luke hummed, sounding a little out of breath, "this one's a doozy."
Exactly the thing Piper didn't want to hear while she was having her tooth pulled out of her head. She tried really hard to press back the tears trying to force their way out of her eyes.
"Niall, hold onto her head for me, yeah? Because I'm going to have to yank this motherfucker out."
Piper nearly lost her head, her hands clenching so hard around Harry's that she was pretty sure she was breaking all of his fingers. He muttered some nonsense to her to try and make her feel better but it wasn't working. All she could focus on was the intense pressure on her jaw, the force of Luke's efforts pulling her forward at the same time Niall's hands were pulling her head back.
When the tooth finally came loose, the inertia sent Piper flying backward into Niall who stumbled back as well. It was only Harry's hands tight around her own keeping her upright, but it didn't stop the pain that shot through her back from her injury as the quick movement tugged on her stitches in all the wrong ways. Piper let out a yelp so high-pitched that it probably carried all the way through the house.
Harry's arms were wrapped around her in an instant, pulling her close to his body and cuddling her carefully. He dropped a kiss onto the top of her head as he ran his palm up and down her arm. "You did great, petal. Absolutely perfect. And it's over now."
Piper nodded against him but it didn't stop the tears from finally spilling over. That was more traumatic than she thought it would be. She wasn't sure if she was crying because of how awful that was or because of how happy she was that it was over. Either way, she had to reach her hand up to wipe off the tears as they started to flow furiously down her cheeks.
"Shh, don't cry," Harry said softly when he noticed, angling his head down so he could look at her. His own fingers joined hers to wipe the moisture from her cheeks.
"Sorry," Piper said stupidly, her mouth feeling like a useless lump and her words coming out all weird. "I don't know why I'm crying –"
"Shh, Red, don't talk just yet," Luke instructed, having abandoned the pliers, the third tooth sitting with the other two in the bowl. He took her elbow gently and used it to lead her off of the stool, her feet landing hard on the ground sending a jolt right up her spine. "We're going to go over to the sink so I can rinse out your mouth. Let's go. Nice and slow."
She had Luke on one side and Harry on the other, each with a hand around an elbow, hobbling along. She felt even more helpless than she had earlier when she had barely been able to walk because of the pain in her hip. This time it wasn't the pain making her feel helpless. It was the light-headedness that had taken over and the nausea still brewing in the pit of her stomach.
Eventually they got her leaning over the sink, the blood dripping from her mouth and into the basin. Luke had a squeeze bottle of sterile water that he sprayed into the left side of her mouth, cleaning it out as thoroughly as he could. Under proper conditions, he would have been using a water pick and suction tubing. Unfortunately they were stuck with what they had so Luke had to just spray down the area and let the bloody water drip from her mouth. Piper had to try her hardest not to be sick as her mouth pooled with blood.
"Alright, lean back up," Luke said softly as he guided her shoulder back up. His hand curved around the nape of her neck, holding her head securely in position. "Try not to lean your head farther back than this for a while so everything has a chance to clot properly. Open up for a minute." Piper did what she was told and Luke began to pack plenty of gauze into the left side of her mouth. "Bite down on that, Red. Keep it nice and secure."
"How're you doing, petal?" Harry asked, his hand drifting up to run through her hair gently. Piper just shrugged but her red-rimmed, puffy eyes probably answered the question for her. "You were so brave, Piper," Harry murmured, leaning over to press his lips to her forehead. They lingered there, feather light and so soft. "You feel warm," Harry commented as his hand drifted over her right cheek. He craned his head around to look at Luke who was washing up his instruments in the sink. "Could she have an infection if the teeth have been broken all night?"
Luke considered it for a moment and then shook his head. "I don't think so. It looked pretty clean in there. Are you feeling alright, Red?"
Piper shrugged because she was most certainly not feeling alright but it nothing to do with a possible infection and everything to do with her legs being so wobbly she wasn't sure how she was still standing. "Just shaken," she muttered around her mouthful of gauze.
"Come and sit down, petal," Harry said then, leading her gently around the island toward the kitchen table. He pulled out a chair for her and she flopped down into it, ignoring the pain in her hip in favour of sagging down with a sigh. Luke, who had been following behind them, put his palm to her forehead, and then to her uninjured cheek, scrutinizing her carefully.
"Yeah, I think you're okay," he said. "Just a little bit of a flush from the nature of it all, I think. You did really well though Piper," he assured her, chuckling when she rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I swear you did. I've seen grown men weep like babies having one tooth pulled, and you managed three like a champ." He patted her cheek gently and then straightened up, looking at Niall who had re-entered the room after disappearing for a moment. "Niall, show me where your magical medical oasis is. I want to get Red an icepack and I want to nick some of your supplies while I'm here."
"Not sure about you nicking anything," Niall said a bit sternly, rolling his eyes, "but come on, I'll show you the way."
Liam waltzed into the kitchen just as they were leaving in the other direction. He took one look at Piper, cheek puffed out like a chipmunk, face flushed from exertion, and he winced sympathetically. "How are you doing, Piper?" he asked as he crossed the room, standing beside her chair and curling an arm around her shoulders in a sideways hug. "Doing alright?"
Piper nodded, smiling a bit but wincing when her cheek didn't cooperate the way she wanted it to. Liam just gave her a supportive pat on the shoulder. "I hate to ask but can I steal Harry away for a bit?"
"What's going on?" Harry asked from Piper's other side, sounding unhappy.
"Something that Michael and Calum were telling us that I think you'd want to hear about," Liam said with an apologetic sort of grimace. It was clear that Harry didn't want to leave Piper's side by the way he was hovering, his hand tangled in hers. Liam looked reluctant to pull them apart which meant that it was probably something serious. Piper waved him off, trying to pull her hand away but it just made him hold on tighter.
"Go on, Harry." It was Ashton's voice that made the decision. The man in question hopped off of the counter where he had been sitting cross-legged, on his phone, while Piper had been having her teeth yanked out and he crossed the kitchen to slide into the chair beside Piper's at the table. "I wanted to have a chat with Piper anyway. I'll keep her busy."
Piper appreciated the fact that he didn't say he was going to supervise her or watch her in any way. That would have made her feel babied and childish. She tried her best to smile up at Harry but she probably wasn't very convincing based on the look he gave her. Still, he disconnected his hand from hers and stood up properly. "Just shout if you need anything," he said sternly in a no-nonsense tone. Ashton gave him a mock salute and Harry just rolled his eyes dramatically before dropping a kiss on top of Piper's head and then following Liam out of the kitchen.
When it was just Piper and Ashton, she let her head drop to the table, resting her uninjured cheek flat on the wood. Ashton smiled gently at her, crossing his arms on the table and leaning forward. "I don't think you're supposed to be lying down yet," he said, pointing a finger toward his own left cheek, puffing it out to mirror her own. She snickered at the gesture and then shrugged lazily because she honestly couldn't find it in herself to care.
"Not a big fan of the dentist, are you?" Ashton asked, practically reading her mind. She actually managed a bit of a smile for him but it was quite pathetic and it only made him laugh a little.
"How could you tell?" she said sardonically, pulling her head up off the table and propping it up on her hand, her uninjured cheek resting against her fist. "Was I that obvious? I was trying to be aloof about it," she joked which made Ashton snort unattractively.
"Oh yeah, the crying made you look totally aloof." Piper's face fell at the mention of her crying and Ashton immediately stopped laughing. "Sorry. That came out all wrong."
"No, it's fine," Piper said, her jaw tensing automatically and pressing the gauze down hard on her wounded side. "So typical, aren't I? Losing my cool like that. I'm surprised I managed to hold out that long."
"You shouldn't say that about yourself," Ashton scolded gently, reaching over to pat her hand genially where it was resting on the table. "I think, considering how petrified you seem to be of dentists in general, that you did a pretty good job of keeping your cool." Ashton smiled to himself gently, glancing off to the side as if remembering something. "You know, we were in Port-au-Prince with Liam and Niall about two years ago, me and Michael, and Liam popped out his knee cap. He made Mike knock him unconscious before he let Niall reset it. Everyone has their limit. For Liam it's bones out of place and for you, it's teeth. That doesn't make you any less strong."
Piper blew out a long breath which dislodged the gauze a bit. She shoved it back down with her fingers, ignoring the twinge of pain she felt as a result. "I just feel so helpless sometimes," she admitted, twisting her fingers together anxiously. She could feel her cheeks flushing with embarrassment and wished that she wasn't so emotional. Ashton was giving her a sympathetic smile which just made it worse. "I look at the boys and I just feel like such a –– like such a girl in comparison. I've never felt like that held me back before. In school, I was the only girl there and it made me feel powerful. Now I'm the only girl and it makes me feel smaller."
"You're allowed to need help sometimes," Ashton told her. "They don't expect you to be some superstar. You're just young still."
"I know I'm young," Piper grumbled because she hated being reminded of it.
"That's not a bad thing," Ashton said with a little laugh. "It just means that you have time to grow. You're crazy if you think any of those guys sitting in that room were super spies the moment they joined MI6. On our first mission together, Louis blew up the laptop he was working on by accident and we almost got arrested by the North Koreans. Liam shot himself in the foot once. And Harry," Ashton had to stop because he was laughing so hard, "Harry used to trip over his own feet just walking around. He once gave secure British documents to an Israeli man he thought was the Mossad agent he was meant to be meeting and it turned out to be the man who owned the fruit shop down the road."
Piper snorted a laugh. She knew she shouldn't be laughing at Harry who was so supportive of her but it was almost unbelievable to imagine the man she knew – suave, powerful, unshakable – making such a rookie mistake. It occurred to her that she shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, he had to have been a rookie at some point. That actually made her feel a little bit better which was probably why Ashton had mentioned it to her.
"You'll get there eventually, Piper." Ashton looked earnest and honest, and Piper felt just a little bit better, a bit more confident. Maybe all this time, that was all she had been waiting to hear. "And even if it seems like you just can't win, you have to remember that you did something right to get this far. You have skills that none of those guys in that room could ever dream of having themselves – that's why they want you on the team. I mean, how often do 15 year olds get accepted to MIT?"
"You know about that?" Piper asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow up her forehead.
"Know about it," Ashton scoffed a laugh, "Harry won't shut up about it. Piper's got a Masters and a Ph.D. Piper was the youngest graduate of the computer science program. Piper's so smart and funny and beautiful. Honestly, we never hear the end of it about you."
Piper flushed, trying to push the stupid grin off her face but it was to no avail. She got the squirmy feeling in her stomach again, the kind of feeling that could only be described as butterflies. How lame was that, honestly. And yet, Piper relished them.
"And it's true you're only 23?" Ashton asked.
"Yeah," Piper murmured because she hated being reminded of it.
"Wow, I can't believe it. You seem so much older."
"Do I?" Piper asked, instantly perking up. Ashton laughed so hard he actually had to put a hand to his stomach. Piper scowled at him, not appreciating being the brunt of the joke. "What exactly is so funny?"
"You're like a little kid dressing up in their mum's clothes trying to look like a grown-up." Piper reached over and pinched Ashton hard in the arm because she did not appreciate that comment whatsoever. "Ouch. Sorry. I'm not trying to be mean. I think it's really sweet."
"I'll show you sweet."
"Why are you in such a rush to grow up?" Ashton asked.
That made Piper pause. Why was she in such a rush to grow up? Maybe because she always had been. You had to be in a rush to grow up if you skipped three grades and went to uni when everyone else still had their head so far up their arse they didn't know today from next week. Sure, being smarter than everyone else had given her a sense of accomplishment, like she had earned something above and beyond what everyone else had. But it had also come with its fair share of complications. Life had been tough for her and the more she thought about it, the more she thought that maybe she had brought that on herself by always trying to be a step ahead.
"It's not that I want to grow up," Piper admitted quietly, averting her eyes so she didn't have to look at the endearing glow in Ashton's hazel eyes. "It's just that I want to feel more, I don't know, congruent I guess. I feel like all the stuff that's up in my head doesn't match what's on the outside. Like, the worst in school was when I was just as capable as anyone else and people thought I must be dumber because I was a couple of years younger. I hate that my age holds me back."
"It only holds you back if you let it." Piper gave Ashton an unimpressed scowl. "Don't give me that look," he scowled, reaching over to press against her nose with his finger, making her scrunch her face up. "All I'm saying is that you've obviously gotten very far just being yourself. Maybe you're the only one who thinks you're too young."
"I feel like if I was older, everything would just make more sense and I would fit in properly. Right now, everything is just all over the place and my life is chaos. I just want normalcy, I guess. I just want to feel more secure."
"Hate to break it to you, Red." Piper looked over her shoulder as Luke's voice echoed through the room. Niall was walking in behind him, distracted by something on his phone. Luke bounded over to the table. "Being a grown up does not a normal person make. I think it actually fucks you up more."
"Something to look forward to then," Piper grumbled.
Luke laughed brightly. "You're something else, Red. Here, got you an icepack to help with that pesky swelling." He placed the cold icepack against her swollen cheek, grabbing her hand off the table and pressing it up against the cool material before dropping his own hand. With that done, he patted the top of her head like he was congratulating his prized dog. Piper scowled at him. "Ditch the frown, babe. It'll give you wrinkles."
"Screw you."
"Sounds like Pips is feeling a little more like herself," Louis called across the kitchen as the One Direction boys, plus Michael and Calum, and Eleanor and Perrie, all crowded into the kitchen. It was certainly a full house. Louis walked right up and tugged Piper into a one-armed hug from behind, pretending to munch on her shoulder before letting her go. "I missed that acerbic wit and general dissatisfaction with the universe."
Piper smacked Louis hard on the arm and then shoved him away from her. He laughed as he stumbled away, dragging Liam and Eleanor with him. On the other side of the kitchen was a door that led to a conservatory and most of the boys made their way there after giving Piper compliments on her fortitude and heartiness, although Zayn did make a joke about the 'yelp that could be heard around the world'. Piper vowed to exact her revenge when she was feeling up to it.
Harry didn't follow the other guys, making himself comfortable in the chair beside hers instead. She immediately felt better, lighter almost, having Harry there. It was like a subconscious feeling of security knowing that he would be able to handle anything that came their way. It helped her to relax. His arm circled around the back of her chair, his hand resting comfortably on her shoulder. He just looked so warm and cuddly that she had to lean over, resting her good cheek on his shoulder. His response was to curl that arm right around her.
"Feeling a little bit better?" he asked her, a proper smile on his face for the first time in ages. Those dimples she loved so much were poking into his cheeks and it made her grin like an idiot. Which actually sort of hurt, a sign that the nice local anaesthetic Luke had given her was wearing off.
"I'm just really tired," she told him as she sighed. "I think I'm starting to get a headache too."
"It's because your brain is too big," Ashton interjected. Piper was going to bite something back at him but Harry interrupted with a loud bark of laughter.
"That's an understatement," he told Ashton with a shake of his head. "I never knew a brain could do so much at once until I met this one."
"You've got to be smart to do what we do," Ashton said proudly, tapping his own forehead and then pointing at Piper.
"Then how did you manage to become an analyst?" Luke joked. Ashton rolled his eyes at his colleague, shaking his head in a superior fashion that made Piper snicker.
"You're an analyst as well?" Piper hadn't known that. She hadn't seen it coming at all, which probably was a bit judgemental of her. She probably didn't look like a computational engineer either, to be honest. Her father had always told her not to judge books by their covers. Considering everyone did it to her and she hated it, she should probably do it a lot less.
"I am," Ashton said proudly. "I like to think I'm the glue behind our organization. Calum's sort of got a brain in his head but if Luke and Mike had to go out on their own –" Ashton left it there, just shaking his head and giving Luke a sympathetic expression, the kind you give to someone who you know is woefully stupid. "You know, I meant to mention that earlier," Ashton added as he snapped his fingers, as if it had just floated into his head. "I wanted to say that if you ever had any questions about the job, you should give me a call. I'd be happy to run you through anything you need help with."
Piper smiled as warmly as she could at Ashton with a cheek full of gauze and a semi-frozen mouth. "Thanks, Ash," she said sincerely. "I think I'll probably take you up on that."
Ashton gave her a broad grin that stretched across his face and pressed into his cheeks, and then turned toward Harry, asking him about how things went in the DRC. Harry complained a bit about all the hassle he had to go through when he got back but by the sounds of it, the mission had been a success. The conversation shifted toward some mission that was coming up, somewhere in Cambodia, but Piper found herself drifting out of focus. She was feeling really tired now and the words coming out of Ashton's mouth were sounding more and more like gibberish. It wasn't until Luke pried one of her eyes open that she realized she had even closed them.
"None of that, sleeping beauty," he said as he began to tap incessantly on her forehead until she dragged both eyes open. "Let me take one last look before you start snoring on us."
Piper made sure to call him a really rude name before opening her mouth back up. Luke pulled all the gauze out of her mouth and then probed around a bit to make sure everything had cleared up the way he wanted.
"You might want to consider dental implants in the future," Luke said as he craned his head, taking one last look at his handiwork. "You won't be able to chew on your left side at all unless you get implants, and it might cause a shift in your other teeth without anything to block it. You might end up with a big beaver gap in your front teeth."
"Oh God," Piper said, horrified. She'd always had perfect teeth without needing braces or anything. She wasn't going to let anything happen to her perfect smile.
"I think you'd look cute with a tooth gap," Harry joked, leaning in to kiss her uninjured cheek when she gave him a dirty look.
"Do you think MI6 has a dental plan that will cover attacks by masked rapists?"
"Might have to look at the policy for that one," Harry chuckled. Piper rolled her eyes. "You look like you're about to drop, petal. How about I take you home?"
Piper could have cried, she was so happy he had said that. All she wanted right now was pain meds, some tea, and her own bed. Harry's bed upstairs was nice and all, but her pillow at home was molded to her neck shape and the quilt on her bed still smelled like her mum's house even after all these years. She didn't think she could manage to tell Harry that without sobbing like a little girl so she just nodded.
"A few things before you go," Luke commented as Harry took her hand and helped Piper rise slowly from her chair, "stick to a liquid diet for the next day or so. No smoking, no vigorous brushing, no blow jobs –"
"First of all," Piper said sternly as she poked Luke hard in the chest, "fuck you. Second of all, if I have questions, I'll google it. I'll probably find more reliable information than whatever you have to say."
"Now that's just offensive," Luke frowned, crossing his arms across his chest.
Despite the fact that he was not a real dentist, he had done a pretty bang up job so Piper reached up on her tip toes to peck his cheek. "Thanks for your help, Luke," she said sincerely. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
She was swept into a bone crushing hug before she could prevent it, and her face was smashed up against a hard chest. "Anytime Red," Luke said with a grin before passing Piper off to Ashton who hugged her a little more gently and considerately.
When the One Direction boys realized she was leaving, there was a rambunctious round of cuddles from everyone and by the time her and Harry were headed for the door, Piper felt like she'd been passed around. It was a bit of a relief when Harry helped her into the Range Rover, making sure she was comfortable before shutting the door and crossing around the car. The silence was blissfully peaceful.
When Harry stuck the key in the ignition, Hozier was playing on the radio and Piper let her eyes drift shut and just tried to relax. The rhythm of the car beneath her was soothing and helped to quiet her busy mind. Harry, acknowledging that she had to be dead tired if she had stopped talking, sat in silence with her and let her have her peaceful moment. She was the one who eventually broke the silence when Harry was pulling the Range Rover into the parking spot beneath the flat.
"I feel like I could sleep for days," she muttered, letting her head roll sideways to look at Harry. He paused with his hands on the wheel, just watching her. His eyes flitted over her, drifting down to the white bandage peeking out from under her jumper and then up to her swollen cheek before finally meeting her eyes.
"You've earned it, petal. Come on," he said as he took the keys from the ignition and opened his car door, "let's get you upstairs so you can have a good rest."
Harry helped her from the car, walking at her glacial pace through the garage door and down the hall. She insisted on tackling the stairs on her own and Harry, being the gentleman he was, didn't insist on carrying her or anything as chauvinistic. Instead, he offered a steadying hand as she climbed the stairs slowly, planting both feet on each one before moving on to the next. She was sure that it had taken them a good ten minutes by the time they got to her flat door but Harry hadn't said a single thing.
Once they were in the flat, Harry took her coat off of her and then guided her down the short hall to her room. He drew back the covers and helped her lie down, pulling everything up to her neck and tucking her in. Normally, it would have made her feel like a little kid but in the mood she was in, it was actually sort of nice. Nurturing almost.
He forced her to drink some water and didn't have to force her to take a couple pills afterward. Once he was sure she had everything she needed, she had assumed that he was going to leave. She nearly cried when he toed off his shoes, shrugged out of his coat, and then climbed into the bed next to her. She didn't hesitate to curl herself comfortably against him, letting his strong arms enclose her in his embrace.
"I'll stay until you're asleep, alright petal?"
She hummed her agreement, her eyes already closed. She felt his fingers carding gently through her hair and focused on the feeling, the gentle graze of his fingertips on her scalp and the rub of thumb on her forehead intermittently. In his arms, it wasn't hard for her to drift off to sleep.