Save you (boyxboy) LiLo Paylinson (One direction fan fic)

Chapter Thirty - Ignorance is bliss

Liam's POV

Louis had been transferred to a room at the intensive care unit, where he would have to stay at least until he was completely awake and until his doctors were absolutely certain that he was stable enough to go to a normal room.
Harry had left in the early morning to move his stuff into our flat but Niall had stayed behind with me. He was really the very best friend I had, apart from Louis, he always knew what and what not to say, when to hold me, when to let me be. I'd heard his stomach rumble a couple of times before I'd sent him out to go and get some food. Nialler needed to be fed at regular intervals. I was halfway through the morning, and although we normally wouldn't be allowed to be here with Louis, outside visiting hours, the staff had taken pity of us and let us stay as long as we remained quiet and didn't disturb anyone.

I sat down on the edge of Louis' bed, careful not to pull on any wires or tubes, and tried to lay down next to him but pretty much failed, so I just put my head down on his chest. If I ignored the constant noises coming from the hallway, the alarms going off in other rooms and the beeping of his own heart monitor, I could pretend everything was alright and he was just sleeping. His heartbeat was steady as ever, his breathing made his chest rise slowly up and down, and I almost felt comforted by all of it. Until I opened my eyes and saw the mess of wires and the bruises all over his skin. I sighed and sat back up, my fingers running through his hair after I had pulled up the covers. It was pretty warm in this room, but he never liked to be without covers, even in France when it was really hot, he always wanted some kind of sheet on top of him. So I covered him with the hospital sheet and blanket. I had hoped the white colour of the sheets would have made him less pale, but it didn't, it actually accentuated how his face was drained from colour, apart from the black and blue bruising. The scratches were already healing and weren't so bright red anymore, making him look like he had been in a bad fight and lost. 

I smiled at Niall when he came back into the room, munching on the remnants of what looked like a chocolate chip muffin, judging from the smears and crumbs on his face. He smiled back and handed me a paper bag, where I found a similar muffin. "Sorry Li, food is really, really crappy here, this is the only decent thing they have."

"Doesn't matter, I'm not really hungry anyway. You can have it if you want."

"Nah. I already had four. And you have to eat, even if you're not hungry."

I chuckled softly as I took a bite from the muffin. Ugh, if this was the best they had, I didn't even want to know what the other things were like. I went to sit next to Louis' head again once I'd finished eating, and let my fingers run through his hair. It was greasy and had dried blood in it in some places, but it didn't matter. It was pretty much the only part of him that still felt normal to the touch. Niall and I talked softly about everything and nothing, we'd started by telling memories of Lou, but then it felt like he was dying or already dead and I didn't want to continue, so we went on about uni, our families, and everyday life. It was cute to see how Niall's eyes lit up whenever Harry was mentioned. They were really the picture perfect couple, they worked so much better than Niall and I, because even if we loved each other dearly, which we did and still do, there was always a glint of disfunctionality in our relationship, and now we could honestly say we were better of as friends than as boyfriends. Way better. 

Shortly after noon we were startled by a beeping noise that went off right next to Niall's head. We both looked up in alarm, but when the nurse came in soon after she explained that it was an alarm to indicate one of his bags of fluid was empty. She pressed a button to shut the sound down and said she'd be right back with a new bag. A couple of minutes later, she walked back in, followed by a man in his thirties that presented himself as the doctor. He explained how they were going to change his fluids but there wouldn't be as much medication in there, so Louis should slowly wake up through the afternoon. He explained that we should call a nurse as soon as he woke up, and whenever Lou was in pain. He could still have more pain medication, and there was no need to have him suffer too much. I just nodded and went back to holding Louis' hand when they had left the room again, Niall gone as well to go and call Harry to let him know.