as it is || harry styles au

forty-six

tw // light mention of rape, violence

h a r r y

I woke up when Nurse Andi came to check on Ivy.

     "Her vitals look better. Blood pressure's good. The blood transfusion seems to be helping. Her red blood cell count is much better."

     I smoothed my thumb across Ivy's knuckles.

     Come on, baby. Keep healing.

     "She's benefiting from your presence," Nurse Andi said, a fondness in her tone. "I'll make sure the floor staff knows you're not to be asked to leave once visiting hours are over."

I dipped my chin, refusing to look away from Ivy, not wanting to miss a single twitch of her features. "Thank you."

The door closed at the same time my phone chimed with a text message.

Em: hey, will booked us a hotel room at the end of the street to shower and sleep a little. let me know if you want to do either, and one of us can switch out with you. <3

I felt a ghost of a smirk touch my lips. I sent back a heart. My little brother was pulling out all the stops for Em, eh?

I set me phone down. "Looks like Will booked a hotel room for Em. For us, actually, but you and I both know he did it for Em."

I waited for a reaction from her. A nose scrunch. A twitch of her fingers. A quirk of her lips. Anything. Very quickly, I realized there was little to nothing that I wouldn't do to hear Ivy's voice.

"Where are you going?" Mum called out.

I stopped short of the front door. "I'm going to see Ives at work."

"Oh! This late?" Mum was curled up on the couch with a blanket, book, and a glass of wine. It was her wind-down time after the last showing at Lonely Cinemas.

"Yeah, she's closing tonight for the first time. Both Dena and the normal closer are sick, so she's covering for them. I don't want her to be there alone so late."

"Ah, that's very nice of you, love. I brought Dena some soup this afternoon. She didn't look good at all."

I blindly searched for the door handle behind me, hoping I wouldn't be stuck chatting with Mum for too much longer.

"Yeah, she's pretty sick."

"How late will you be?"

I tried to hide the annoyance in my tone. "I don't know, Mum. They close in an hour, but I don't know how long it'll take Ives to clean up and stuff. I can text you."

"Are you coming straight home after?"

I groaned. "Mum, why all the questions?"

I didn't mean to be rude, but I wanted to get to Ivy before she was stuck alone with the weird ass customers I'd listened to her complain about.