Got Me on My Toes

When Harry was running towards the waiting area at the end of the hallway he was shouting “HE’S AWAKE! HE’S AWAKE!” The elevator doors opened and he saw Louis’ Mum, Dad and Simon stepping out.

He grabbed Louis’ Mum’s shoulders and shouted “HE’S AWAKE!” The boys were now rushing to meet them in the open space near the elevators.

“What? When’d he wake up? What happened?” Mrs. Tomlinson asked Harry.

“Well first Louis’ breathing was slowing down and the nurse put the oxygen mask on him. Then the doctor ran in and Louis had stopped breathing all together, he had gone into cardiac arrest. The doctor had grabbed those paddle things and shocked Louis. He didn’t wake up. He did it again. They weren’t going to try again. They were going to call time. I ran over and I told him how he couldn’t leave. I - I- ” Harry didn’t know what to say. Should he say he kissed him? No he couldn’t. Not with Simon standing there. “I just kept telling him how he couldn’t leave all of us, and how we all love him so much. I guess I got through because after being out for about a minute or two he woke up. The doctors and nurses were surprised. They started doing standard check up things. Louis is sleeping now. He’s not in a coma, just sleeping.” Harry said the last part as if to let the realistation settle with him more than the other.

Everyone was speechless. Before anyone even tried to think of anything to say they saw the doctor walking down the hall.

“Well, I’m guessing Mr. Styles has already given you the news that Mr. Tomlinson has woken up by the expressions on your faces.” he said meeting each of their eyes. “We’re not sure why he went into cardiac rest. He had gone flat line and we tried to revive him twice. We were going to call time when Mr. Styles ran over and -“Harry shot the doctor this pleading look asking him not to tell them what he had done. He must have understood because all he said was, “He ran over and started to talk to Mr. Tomlinson and he woke up. It is defiantly a miracle. He’s sleeping now. He’ll probably be in and out for the next 3 or 4 hours with all the medication and shock his body has gone through but you guys can see him whenever you’d like.” He finished off with a smile and walked off as his pager had started to beep.

Louis’ parent’s didn’t say a word they simply started to walk down to the room their eldest and only son was in. Harry and his three band mates, his three best friends, his three brothers all looked at each other and without any words gave each other a group hug.

“Boys, I’m sorry to interrupt this joyous moment but we need to record the update. It shouldn’t take long. I know you all want to get back to Louis.” Simon had said.

“Come on let’s go into the waiting room.” Paul said gesturing for them to walk.

They did. Arm in arm they had walked. Liam at one end, Harry next to him, Niall next to Harry, and Zayn ending the line. Louis might not have been fully awake but this was one of the happiest moments of all of their lives. Just knowing that they had almost lost him to him being conscious and well was quite wonderful.

They all sat on the couch in the waiting area. This time with Liam in the middle; Harry on his left; Niall on his right along with Zayn. Liam was going to do the talking of course. He was the best at it. No matter the situation.

Paul was holding the camera. Simon started to tell them the key points that should be addressed, “Let them know that Louis has only been in here for the last day. Tell them that he’s on medication and the doctors said he should be making a speedy recovery. You can tell them he’s awake if you’d like.” Liam nodded taking in the information, and figuring out what he was going to say before nodding to Paul to hit record.

“Hi everyone, as you all have probably heard Louis is in hospital. He had a nasty virus from rotten food he ate. He’s only been in here since late Wednesday night.” As everything that happened in the last 24 hours rushed back into all of their memories their eyes started to swell with tears. “The doctors have him on medication and have told us he should make a speedy recovery. And he has just woken up from the coma he was in. We’re all very happy he’s awake now. Please keep Louis and his family in your thoughts. And we ask all the fans to not come to the hospital. We know how concerned you all are, and we understand how much you care about Louis, but it’d be easier and safer for everyone if the hospital was clear at all times. We’ll keep you updated on the official site, and twitter. We love you all.”

Paul turned off the camera and handed it to Simon, “All set?” he asked. Simon nodded and said,” I’ll be back in the next two days to see Louis, until then if he wakes up make sure you guys give him my best wishes, and get well soon.”

The four boys nodded at the man who gave them the life they were now living, and who gave them each four wonderful brothers.

Monday, 23rd of October 2013, 12:08 pm

In the last 5 days Louis had made a great improvement according to the doctor and the nurses. He was back eating normally, he was regaining his strength and could stay awake multiple hours at a time now.

“Lou, I’m going to run down to get tea and coffee. Would you like something?” His mother asked him.

“Tea with light cream, honey, and 1 spoon of sugar. Please.” he said.

“What about you Harry?” Mrs. Tomlinson asked.

“The same as Louis but with 2 sugars instead of one.” he said with a smile.
Louis’ mum walked out of the room leaving the two boys alone for the first time since Louis’ collapse.

All the two could do was look at each other and smile. Harry was so happy that Louis was getting better, he was almost at full recovery and hadn’t had any other complications since the night he died, and Harry had brought him back to life with a kiss. It was like a fairy tale.

“Harry, have you been home since that night?” Louis asked with pure curiosity on his face.

“No..” Harry said while blushing. “There was no way I was leaving knowing the condition you were in. I think I left the room maybe twice while you were in the coma.”

Harry could see the love in Louis’ sky blue eyes.

“How’d you eat? Or sleep?” he had asked.

“Well, when your Mum was here she would run down and get something or one of the boys. And sleeping was the hardest of all. I didn’t sleep a wink the first 24 hours you were here. After you woke up from the coma I did sleep.”

“Where?”

“Right here.” Harry said gesturing to the chair he was sitting in.

“You slept in that uncomfortable chair for the last 5 nights?”

“Louis I would have slept on broken glass if I had to.” he said smiling at his best friend.

The next thing that Louis asked was the question everyone, especially Harry, was dreading the most. “Harry what happened that night? From the moment I got to the hospital, to the moment I woke up.”

No one had told Louis because no one wanted him to get overwhelmed and maybe start seizing again. He did have a right to know, and everyone kept telling Harry that he was the one that had to tell him because he wouldn’t be mad at Harry for keeping it from him.

Harry took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

“We were at my flat as you know. You were about to tell me something and then you just collapsed and started to have a seizure. I didn’t know what to do at first, but I grabbed the phone and called 999, they were at the flat within 10 minutes. When they got there they put you on the stretcher and before we even got into the ambulance you started to have another seizure. When we got to the hospital they brought you inside. I stayed outside of the room they had you in, and called your Mum, Paul and the boys. After they did blood tests on you they had told us they were almost certain you had Viral Meningitis but needed to do another test to make sure. That’s the test they had to put in the medical coma for. Even though you were already in a coma, they wanted to make sure you wouldn’t wake up and maybe paralyze yourself because they had to take fluid from your spine.” Harry took another breath and looked at his friend.

“Go on tell me more.” Louis said.

“Well they already pretty much knew that you did have the Viral Meningitis and moved you up into this room. When the test came back backing up the doctors assumption, they started you on the medication. By this point everyone was here except your parents they were on their way. Me and the boys were in the room with you, Paul was in the waiting area on the phone with your Mum, keeping her updated. Niall was hungry of course so he and the boys went down to the cafeteria. I was just sitting here, holding your hand, and talking to you. I had gotten up to kiss your forehead and I squeezed your hand like this..” he said doing the action,”.. That’s when that monitor right there..”he said pointing to the one with the heartbeats on it, “.. Started to beep, I ran out and got the nurses, the boys literally had to drag me out of the room. Paul had gone and talked to the doctor and he said they had given you to high of a dosage of a vitamin, they fixed that and you were back to normal.”

Harry paused again looking into those blue eyes, he was still so happy to see.

“About two hours after that your Mum and Dad showed up. They told me, the rest of the boys, and Paul that we should go home and try to get some rest. I refused to leave, so they didn’t fight it but the rest had left. Later when they had all came back the doctor told us you were reacting to the meds really well, and should make a speedy recovery because of that and because they had caught it right at the beginning. A few hours after that they had come in to reverse the medical coma. Of course you didn’t wake up right away. Then a few hours after that me, the boys and Paul were all here, your Mum and Dad had gone to rest and check on your sisters. That’s when your breathing started to get slower and slower. The nurses rushed in and put the oxygen mask on you, they asked us to leave, I had no choice this time, it was really serious. We had gotten not even half way down the hall when I started running back to the room.” Harry’s eyes had started to fill with tears at reliving this horrible memory.

“When I got into the room the doctor was pressing paddles to your chest trying to revive you. You have gone into cardiac arrest. You didn’t wake up. I was shouting at you not to leave. The doctor did it again. You still didn’t wake up. I was clenching my stomach, kneeling on the floor but I ran up and I- I-“

Harry wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t sure if Louis remembered what he had said after he woke up. He wasn’t sure how he would react when he told him how he had basically brought him back to life.
“Go on Harry tell me.” Louis said grabbing Harry’s hand, as a tear fell.

“I just ran up to you and kissed you.. on the lips. I know it sounds silly but I thought it would work. At first it didn’t but then I started to talk to you again, telling you how much I ….. how much I love you… and how I know you love me too.” Harry was staring at their intertwined hands and didn’t look up to see his friend starting to blush.

“I told you how if you were gone then I would be gone too. I was begging you to wake up. The doctor was about to call time when the monitor started to beep , recognizing there was a heartbeat. The doctor and the nurses were surprised. You woke up for about 30 seconds and said something…” Harry had stopped again.

“What did I say Harry?” Louis said in a very soft, easing voice, as if he knew what he had said.

“You..you.. you said that you would never leave me and that you loved me.” Harry said meeting his eyes this time, with another tear falling down his cheek.

Louis took his free hand and wiped away the tear.

“Harry, I do love you. I have always loved you. You’re my main reason to live. This may sound a bit odd and crazy but I think, no I know, I saw you when I flat lined. I saw how you ran over and kissed me and told me what you told me. I couldn’t leave you like that, I never wanted to, I was fighting so hard. I guess there was a moment when I thought that it was worthless that you would never love me as much as I love you, but when I saw that I started to fight again and was literally sucked back into my body.”

Now they both had tears in their eyes.
Harry got up to sit on the side of the bed, and brought the hand that wasn’t holding Louis’ up to his face to brush back his hair before leaning in and giving him a kiss they both had been waiting so long for.