Prequel to Dec and Ali's Wedding

Chapter 7

It was at 3am when Dec started to stir from his sleep. He found Ali sleeping half on top of him with her arm over his stomach and their legs intertwined. He slowly started to wake up and reached over with his free arm to the bedside table to take a sip of water, trying to be as subtle as possible to not wake up Ali. He found though that as soon as he moved, he had the urge to throw up. He stayed still for a while, but soon found that that didn't help his nausea either. He removed Ali's arm from around him and tried to get out of bed to head to the bathroom, but everytime he felt a weight pulling him back down.

In the end, he decided that he had to brave his nausea and pain to head to the bathroom as quickly as possible before he threw up. He flung the quilt back, which made Ali stir, and somehow got his legs hanging off of the bed. He knew he didn't have long before he was going to throw up so he stood up quickly, but ended up collapsing onto the carpet and everything turned black.

Ali shot straight up as soon as she heard a thud and padded Dec's side of the bed to find that he wasn't there. She gradually started to wake herself up properly, realising that it was probably Dec that created the loud noise. She flicked on the lamp on her bedside table and saw Dec lying face down on the floor.

"Shit!" Ali half shouted, and she rushed out of bed to reach Dec, "hey Dec. Wake up for me please." She placed her fingers on his neck and was relieved when she found a pulse, even though it was faint, "come on now Declan, please wake up." She rolled him over and  rubbed his sternum hard and quickly.

Soon she heard a knock on the bedroom door, "Ali? Dec? What's up?"

"Ant, please! Please help!"

As soon as Ant heard Ali's cries for help, he opened the door immediately, "Declan! What happened Ali?"

"I-I don't know. I heard a thud and woke up to find him on the floor. He's breathing though. Can you try get him to wake up or something while I grab a sick bowl. Please, Ant, do anything."

"I'll try Al. If he doesn't wake up soon, we'll have to call for an ambulance. No matter the suffering we'll get after."

Ali rushed downstairs and into the kitchen to grab a large bowl for Dec to use once he woke up, knowing he probably would throw up. She rushed back upstairs, passing Lisa at the top of the stairs as they both made their way into the bedroom.

"What's going on, Al?" She walked into the room in her dressing gown, rubbing sleep from her eyes, "what have you done Deccy?"

Dec was starting to stir as Ali raced back towards him and thrusted the bowl under his chin when she knew Dec was going to vomit. It wasn't long before he did, and Ant managed to sit him up so he was no longer lying on the floor.

"What happened?" Dec was swaying while he was sat up, so Ant sat behind him to grab onto his chest. Dec was taking really deep breathes, but they sounded shallow.

"We found you passed out in the floor Deccy. What do you last remember?" Ant rubbed both of Dec's arms, feeling him start to shiver.

"Erm, not much. I remember waking up to grab a drink, then feeling sick so went to stand up, and that's it. Is everyone ok?" Dec spoke in an unusual nasal tone. His breathing was slowly deteriorating.

"Trust you to worry about everyone but yourself, Declan." Ali kept the bowl under Dec's chin as he soon threw up once again.

"It's fine Deccy, you're not well. I think you need to be seen to now though." Lisa sat down on the edge of the bed.

"No, I'm fine. Please, just leave me be."

"No!" Both Ant and Ali said at the same time.

"I'm taking you up to A&E now Declan, and I don't care what you think or what anyone else thinks. You're not talking properly, you passed out, you're throwing up, something isn't right." Ali put her foot down.