The Ring {L.S}

Chapter 10: Stitches & Surprises

Harry woke up to Jay shaking him in the emergency room chair he fell asleep in. They'd been there all night waiting for some kind of information about Louis' condition and he must've dozed off somewhere around 6:30.

"They've finally got him in a room, Harry, and he's awake." Harry reached for his phone to check the time and it was 11:38am. He had 59 missed texts from the group chat with the boys, 3 from Niall just checking in and two from Michael. He put his phone away and didn't reply to any of them. He would call Niall after he spoke with Louis. His main priority was seeing the man that he let down.

He stood up, gathered his things and followed Jay down the hospital corridor. Harry was nervous to say the least, but once he stepped into the room it was clear that Jay had already been in there and briefed Louis on everything that was happening.

There were two chairs for guests surrounding his bed, obviously Jay figured out that Harry wasn't going anywhere. Harry sat down in one and waited for Jay to sit in the other, but she never did.

"I'll be back, I'm going to check on Niall and the girls. I wonder if they've made him paint with them yet," Harry let out a loud chuckle to which Louis responded with a small smile. It was clear that Jay was just giving them privacy, and Harry was incredibly appreciative. Louis' face was battered and looked broken. Black stitches laced three different areas of his face enough to show Harry how incredibly hurt he was. His eyes were swollen, but he was able to open them a lot more than he could last night. His cheeks were purple and his nose was taped. His hands were wrapped in bandages and right wrist in a cast. His legs were badly bruised, but nothing to make him not be able to walk. He didn't know how much Louis could talk back, but Harry was going to take advantage of this situation and make him listen.

"Louis, I'm so sorry. I knew you weren't going to let me walk you, but I still should've watched you walk," Louis reached his hand over to Harry's knee cap and made him scoot closer to the edge of the hospital bed. Monitors were beeping and there was a long IV sticking out of his arm pumping pain medicine into his body. It broke Harry's heart to see him so vulnerable.

"H," Louis croaked out, and Harry's hand flew up to his forehead.

"Don't talk if you can't, Lou," Louis put his finger to Harry's mouth to get him to stop talking. It made Harry laugh that even in pain Louis was still the sassiest man he'd ever met.

"H, it was the guys we banned," Harry's face hardened. He had a feeling, but it was nice to know for sure. He grabbed his phone and told Zayn who told him he would be in touch with the police as soon as he could be.

"Okay, Louis. Relax, I'm happy that you're okay." Harry let out a breath he didn't know that he was holding and sat down in his seat.

"Still pretty pissed at you," Louis said in what seemed like a whisper. Harry just rolled his eyes and laughed. "That's because you haven't listened to me, Louis."

Harry told Louis about the conversation with Michael, the entire time he was talking Louis left his hand dangling over the side of the bed holding onto Harry's thigh.

"So then he told me that he wasn't in love with me anymore, and I understood. It still hurt to think that someone could just fall out of love with someone else so fast. I get it, we're constantly in two different places. But then I remembered how fast I fell in love with you. I only let myself fall in love with you because I had detached myself from him so long ago, the pain is still there. But there is some sense of relief."

Louis' began to cry as Harry was talking which sent Harry into a quick panic of 'do you need anything?' 'are you hurt?' 'do you want me to get the nurse?' to which Louis let out a small laugh.