Rose

Figuring that I could leave the department behind for a while as I had a phone with me, which would notify me if someone called for help- I decided to follow Zayn. It would make this night shift much better as I liked having company around, especially his.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked as he was taking the lead and walking up, for what it felt like, a thousand stairs.

He licked his lips, "To a better place."

"Well does it have to be so far? We can just take the elevator or something you know." I mumbled while panting like a horse, wondering when we'd finally arrive at this better place.

He chuckled. "Hey, who's the sick person here? I'd have expected better from you, Rose." He playfully raised his eyebrow at me and I rolled my eyes in response, chuckling after that.

"Whatever." I smiled and followed him, anyway, secretly curious about what he wanted to show me.

We walked four floors up until we reached the eighth floor, which was also the highest floor from the hospital and he stood still before entering the department through the official door.

He looked at me, "Okay, when we step inside you have to follow me all the way to the left, okay? If they ask us what we're doing there don't answer, just pretend we know what we're doing."

I gulped, "Why? Is it a forbidden place?"

"Maybe." He grinned, his expression playful when he looked at me. It reminded me of when my brothers had done mischief and the face they'd pull at my parents when they questioned them about it. It made me smile.

I didn't reply, I just laughed a little but became quiet when he opened the door. I instantly saw a nurse walking around, but she luckily didn't notice us. I wasn't quite sure what kind of floor this was, since I didn't see any patients as it was night, but before I could even think about that- Zayn grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the left.

"You were staring." He whispered, shaking his head to pretend to be disappointed as he just told me to walk to the left and not care about my surroundings.

I chuckled, "Sorry."

He gave me a smile and he continued to walk into the, for what it looked like, endless hallway. It was getting colder the further we walked but also darker and that didn't really please me.

I frowned, "Seriously, Zayn. What is this?"

"Don't ask. Just follow me." He chuckled while pulling his beanie further over his head, covering his ears and almost his eyes.

I stayed quiet and we walked for a few more minutes, until he stopped, looked around and opened a door. It was really dark in the room and before I could even doubt if I wanted to go in or not- he already pulled me inside.

He closed the door behind him and switched on the lights, which looked extremely unpleasant compared to the lights they had in their rooms.

He sat down on the bed and looked at me, "Ain't this sick? A super old hospital room. I love it."

I looked around me. Everything was indeed very old, so that was probably the reason why no one was allowed to come in here. Old chemicals and cracky furniture wouldn't do anyone good, yet Zayn was the one who found out something like this and apparently spent his time here more often.

The furniture was mostly brown while in the newer rooms it was all white and the room smelled funny. It was cold, humid and draughty, but that made the experience more exciting.

"It looks amazing here." I agreed. I smiled slightly and looked around the room, seeing old paintings and such on the wall. Walking over to one of the small brown cabinets, I opened a drawer, finding an old picture from 1976. "This is really old. Who are they?"

I gave the picture to Zayn and he shrugged. "I don't know, but I do know that one of them was in this room. I saw papers once, but I was too stupid to show them to someone and they took it. When this hospital was built, they only had these rooms. Later they started building more and more, like my room and they kind of abandoned it. They were supposed to demolish or restore it, but they never did."

I sat down on the bed and looked at him in admiration, "How do you know all of this?"

He laid down on the bed, his hands behind his head and his knees pulled up. He looked at me, "Boredom."

I smiled. "Wow. Well, I love history. It's quite cool to know that this was once a very alive hospital room." I said quietly, my hand moving over the covers of the bed, the dusty nightstand after that.

"You don't know the best part of it." Zayn stood up on the bed and I cringed by hearing a loud cracking noise. Zayn didn't seem to care, which made me wonder if he was used to it.

He opened some blinds and a skylight appeared, making my mouth fall open in amazement. "Wow.."

I looked up through the window and saw stars shining brightly. When I looked back at Zayn he was already staring at me with a smile on his face.

"This is so pretty. So they did have some good stuff back then. Wow." I stared at it again and couldn't help but smile. I had always loved staring at the sky in general, if it was nighttime or daytime, but seeing the stars like this.. nighttime might become my favorite thing to look at.

"Yeah. And it's the least dusty thing in here as I open the blinds every time I'm here." Zayn chuckled while his eyes were still glued to me, his cheeks a light pink colour.

I looked at him. "How did you find this? And how often are you here?"

He patted on the bed on a spot next to him. I sat down on it and turned my face to him as he spoke, "I used to lock myself up in my room as I hated it here. Then I realised locking yourself up isn't an option as it wouldn't make me feel better at all, so I started exploring the department and when I was done I did the same with the other floors and then I came here."

He slowly licked his lips, "It was dark here and I liked some adventure so without anyone noticing it I walked towards here and found these old interesting rooms. I had spent my time well up here until they found me somehow. They told me it was forbidden but the view I got from the sky from up here never left my mind so I kept coming back when I had the chance to." He chuckled. "I fell asleep in this bed a few times."

"You did?" I laughed softly.

"Yeah." He smiled. "I'm not here as much because I met Sarah but I felt like I needed to show you. No one knows this place, except you now. It's like my little escape, even if it's still in the hospital."

Zayn lied back down again, placing his hands on his stomach and I copied his action, lying down beside him. "I get that." I said quietly. We both stared at the sky through the skylight above us and we remained quiet for a while.

It was peaceful. I knew he was thinking and I had time to think too. I could understand why he liked this place. It was artsy, old and quiet. Even the smell of dust couldn't ruin the vibe.

Zayn parted his lips and his eyes roamed over the small skylight window. "I sometimes wonder what it's like up there."

"You do? What do you think it is like?" I turned my face to him.

He smiled a little and looked back at me, "Pain- free, Tyler, my grandparents. I'll meet them. Heaven." He shrugged then turned his face back and stared at it again. "Or maybe that's what I hope for." His smile faded, his eyes averting to somewhere I didn't know. It made me feel sad.

"Do you believe in God?" I questioned quietly.

He nodded. "I do. Do you?"

"Yes. I'm Christian." I smiled. I was a faithful girl, something a lot of people couldn't understand or appreciate.

"My dad's Muslim and my mum's a Christian. But I don't like to put myself in one of those terms or boxes, just how you like to call it. I don't think I have to be defined by a religion, you know? I hear beautiful things from both and I take them all with me. But after all I believe in a God who can heal me, but doesn't have to. A God who loves me and takes care of me, even when I'm sick. A God who has room for me in Heaven." He spoke quietly.

His words touched me and I felt warm by hearing him say those things. I started to appreciate this guy more and more each day.

"Do you think you'll die?" I whisper- asked him. I was curious about it, but I also thought he basically said that with the last sentence he spoke.

Zayn looked at me, "My sickness is unpredictable, Rose. I don't know. But what I do know is that when I die, I'll be okay with it. It's not that I want to die, not at all. I love my life. I love my job, my family, my friends.. but.." He hesitated.

"But what?" I scooted a little closer to him as I was starting to feel cold and his body brought warmth. I didn't lie against him, but close enough to feel his body heat.

"I have accepted it. I know it can happen, so I have peace with it." He smiled at me but it made me feel emotional.

I looked up at the sky. "You're inspirational, you know? You take everything so positive."

He kept smiling, but didn't answer. We stared at the sky for another while in silence.

He laid his arm next to his body, close to where my arm was laying and I felt his hand coming nearer to mine. He slowly placed his finger on top of mine and brushed it so softly that I could barely feel it.

Blood was raising to my cheeks and for a moment I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if he meant anything with it but the gesture was making me blush anyway. It was so sweet but intimate at the same time for me.

He broke it off quickly though. He sat up and grabbed my hand gently to pull me up as well. "There's also a balcony. Let's go to that." He got out of bed and I agreed to it as I needed some fresh air because my cheeks were still super warm.

I jumped out off the bed as well and followed him towards the balcony. He opened the door and the cold air hit us right away.

"Oh uh, it's cold." He chuckled.

"Yeah it is." I sighed dramatically and shivered slightly as I went to stand outside on the balcony. The view was absolutely outstanding because we were so high and we could see London from down. All the lights, cars, streets and houses were visible and it was amazing.

Zayn plucked a flower, which was growing on the wall and balcony as no one had taken care of the nature here since a long time, and stuffed it inside his jacket.

"Why do you do that?" I asked him, frowning in confusion.

He shrugged. "Just because." I shook my head but smiled at him. He was amusing.

Way too amusing.

After we went back inside we went down to our own department again but he didn't leave me sitting there all alone in the living room for the whole night. He stayed with me, chatted, laughed and fooled around until it was almost seven am.

I forced him to sleep a little as he had been awake for the whole night and his eyes were almost closing. He thanked me for the fun night, but I thanked him for it.

Because I did have fun. A lot.