Once. (Larry Stylinson)

Through the dark.

If I could go back and change the past
Be a little brave than I had
And bet against the odds
Would I still be lost?
Even if I woke up in my dreams
Would there still be something I'm missing
If I had everything, would it mean anything
To me?

6 June, 2015.

Louis wakes up with a start.

With dried tears still stuck to his face, he opens his eyes to find himself curled in next to Niall, who also turns out to be the source that was trying to get him to wake up. He jumps and accidently knocks his head into Niall's jaw. "Sorry." he mumbles as he rubs at his eyes, chasing away every trace of sleep that came without knowing Harry's well-being.

"The doctor's here." Liam tells him softly and he quickly checks the giant clock situated on the far side of the waiting room. After discovering that it's been more than seven hours since he first arrived, he scrambles to get to the doctor. 

"How.. how is he??" he asks, his voice shakes with fear and emotion. He clenches and unclenches his fist, desperate to find out how his boyfriend is but at the exact moment, terrified of what he might have to hear and what his baby was facing behind those sanitized, hospital doors.

The doctor takes in and releases a long breath before he opens his mouth to answer, "Yeah so, that boy of yours suffered from multiple concussions that ended up leading him to a long unconsciousness, he returned back to his senses and not long after he began vomiting heavily and suffered acute headaches. There was a lot of blood loss and his nose and left arm got fractured by the impact. Other than that, he is pretty stable now.." the doctor pauses and yet again, takes a long breath, as if preparing for bad news and the bubble of anxiety that was slowly deflating inside Louis after hearing that Harry was stable, just inflates again.

"We had to run a CT scan for internal head injuries after he complained of severe headaches." He stops for effect and Louis wants to strangle him. "We discovered a cerebral aneurysm at the base of his skull." 

A silence falls over everyone and for once, Vik is too stunned to speak. Liam gets his senses back first. "That explains his headaches, nose bleeds and vomiting." Liam starts and when no one makes a move to speak, he voices the question that runs in everyone's mind. "How can his... condition be helped?"

"There are medicines that can help dissolve it but.." the doctor once again pauses and Louis snaps. "But WHAT?"

"But if the medicines don't work at a steady pace, I'm afraid we will have to operate."

"You mean, cut into his SKULL??" Louis shouts this time, almost loosing his sanity but quickly gains his composure back as he pinches the bridge of his nose while taking deep slow breaths through his mouth. He has to stay calm, for Harry. All for Harry. Anything for his boy.

"How is he right now?"

"He is resting and before any of you asks, yes you can see him but one by one and only one of you can stay the night if you're planning on it." Louis takes a shuddering breath at the doctor's words. For apparently everyone, it was clear that Louis was gonna stay the night since it'll be quite some time before Anne reaches so Niall informs the nurse that Louis would be staying.

He is the last one to see Harry.

After hearing and witnessing everything, Louis was terrified at what he might see... he was scared to see his baby so hurt, so vulnerable... so fragile. When he steps inside with the doctor, he almost forgets himself at the overwhelming feeling of death the place gives off. 

"Is he going to stay here tonight?"

The doctor nods as he makes his way towards the room, behind whose doors, was Harry. "He will be soon moved to another room but for tonight, yes, he'll be staying here, maybe tomorrow night too. We'll be needing to keep track of his injuries, just in case something happens..." Though Louis nods in understanding, he barely listens to what the doctor is saying as he enters the room to find the hospital bed pushed against a cold blue wall and his Hazza looking smaller than ever. Tubes surround most of him and sure enough, his left arm is all bandaged up. Looking at Harry in this condition makes Louis' mind flash back to every time Harry had been hurt and somehow all of it feels less painful than what just happened. It didn't hurt as much because he didn't have his left arm in a cast, or the side of his face swollen with cuts and bruises or the tubes that were fixed inside his nose back then. Louis stumbles before his legs give out and he just stays on the floor, his hand covering his sniffles as he stares at Harry's still form, desperately needing the boy to open his eyes just so Louis could be sure.