Take Me Home

Chapter Seventeen

Zayn was almost finished with his shift when another stretcher was wheeled through the doors of A&E.

He wouldn't have thought much of it if his eyes hadn't landed on Harry, the curly haired boy who was following beside the paramedics, his face plastered with an expression that Zayn couldn't quite read as he hurried over.

A million thoughts raced through his head as he wondered why the boy was here when his eyes landed on the small, blond haired boy on the stretcher. "Ni," Zayn murmured, wincing at the bright red cheeks and oxygen mask on the kid. He turned his attention to Harry, who looked more than a little relieved to see him. "Haz, what on earth happened? And where's Liam?" he added, suddenly realising that the other man was nowhere to be seen.

Harry looked a little lost at where to begin. "Liam's out looking for Lou, he ran away again. But Ni's been really sick and he had a seizure and now he won't wake up," he told him, breathing a little heavily.

Zayn wanted nothing more than to hug him, but he knew that for now, he had to focus on his patient - Niall.

"Alright, deep breaths Haz," he instructed gently, before directing the paramedics to push the stretcher into the first bay.

Harry leaned against the wall inside the cubicle, chewing his lips as he watched Niall with silent green eyes as the kid was moved across from the stretcher to the bed.

"Okay, what do we have?" Zayn asked, knowing he had to follow normal procedure, despite how much it pained him to see Niall like this.

One of the paramedics stayed behind.
"Seven year old male, was seizing for about three minutes, he's running a high fever. It peaked at 106.3 in the ambulance, but we've started him on some fluids, it's just a matter of keeping it down. We've been told that he's been ill since yesterday afternoon, but it was believed to just be a virus until now," she told him, before he nodded at her in dismissal.

He allowed one of the nurses to hook the bag of fluids onto an IV stand and tried not to focus on the worrying stillness of the small boy. He put his stethoscope on and unbuttoned Niall's pajama shirt, revealing his chest, before listening to his heart.

He sighed, glancing at the boy's rosy cheeks. "What're we gonna do with you, hm, kiddie?" he murmured, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

He turned to the nurse as she finished hooking him up to a heart monitor. "Can we run bloods? I think I know what we've got but I want to make sure it's nothing more severe."

The nurse nodded, hurrying out of the room to get her equipment as Zayn set about taking off the boys pajamas and replacing them with a much more lightweight hospital gown, setting down the cooling pads that the paramedics had left him against the boy's skin to try and bring his fever down. He smiled slightly when he saw the kid's eyes roll beneath his lids. "S'okay kiddo, I'm just trying to bring down that fever of yours. We don't want anymore seizures," he murmured, stroking his hair away from his forehead gently.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

Zayn almost jumped at the sound of Harry's voice, having forgotten he was even there. He held his arms out to the teen, who shuffled towards him and rested gently against his chest, allowing the man to wrap his arms around him and give him a soft squeeze.

Zayn was a doctor, and seeing a patient seize was never easy, let alone someone he cared about like his own child. He knew Harry must've been pretty shaken up.

He let the boy go as the nurse walked in and began to take Niall's blood from the crook of his arm. Zayn smiled at her.

"Make sure you get them done quickly. I want to make sure he's okay," he said, softly. She nodded.