The Short Stories of Harry Styles

Shards of Glass: Part 4

Author's Note:

Mature themes will be discussed in this chapter such as sexual assault (only mentioned for diagnosis purposes nothing explicit is mentioned) and physical abuse will be described later on in this story.

Please note that I have done as much research as I possibly can for this story and hope that I am not dishonoring those who suffer from D.I.D. in any way. I am not trying to glamorize it but to hopefully bring some recognition to it as it is a misunderstood illness. I do hope that again everyone understands that this is a work of FICTION and I am doing my best to be as respectful as possible to those who suffer from mental illnesses.

-Balletclutz

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Your morning has not gone at all how you'd thought it would.

First, your partner was behaving erratically and you weren't sure if this was one of those moments you'd been warned about with men where they finally show their true selves years later or if something was really wrong with him.

Secondly, your lead with the twins did not go as well as you had planned.

You'd driven all the way to Crest avenue just to find that the twins were not home. This disappointed you to no end and you really did not want to go back to the office.

You decided instead to pop in at your friend Niall's workplace to see if he had any information yet.

"Nialler! How are ya?" You yell into the small office and grin widely when you see your friend has a new hair color. You were used to seeing the Irishman with blonde hair but now it is a rather pretty light brown.

"I'm well Theron, how are you? Already hoping I've found something?" He teased and his blue eyes sent you a wink as he tossed his heels off of his desk and rounded the corner to give you one of his hugs.

"Is it bad that I couldn't even wait an hour?"

"No, I get it. Styles is a good guy. I'm here to help in any way that I can." Niall pulled away and escorted you to a chair sitting right in front of his desk while he plopped back down into his own across from you and began clicking away on his computer.

"So, it seems Mr. Desmond Styles has been in the psychiatric ward for about eight years now." Your eyes blinked several times, completely taken aback.

"I'm sorry....psychiatric ward?"

"Yeah, says here in his file that he'd started hearing voices in his head when he was about fifteen after he was sexually assaulted by his father's friend, and that it got worse as he had gotten older so he sought out treatment," Niall clicked a few more times and ran his finger along his chin in contemplation, "and then he apparently stopped taking his meds and sort of lost his mind." Your heart is beating ferociously. This had not been at all what you had anticipated when Harry had mentioned his father was sick and it was causing him stress. The gravity of the situation was a lot heavier than you had first suspected.

"What is his diagnosis?" You are very hesitant to get your answer because you already know what it is.

"Hmm, he's had a couple misdiagnoses in his time but his latest one," Niall clicks again and his eyes zoom in on whatever medical document is sitting on his screen, "is D.I.D."

"Dissociative Identity Disorder..." You knew it. You absolutely knew it. Not just because of Desmond's history but because you'd been having warning bells going off for the last two days and if you were being honest with yourself...for the last year.