chapter forty-two

N.J.H.
When I wake up, I'm in an extremely comfortable bed. Maybe even to much to get up. I smile, sinking further into the sheets and turning. To my surprise, Harry is lying there next to me, his arm draped across my body. I hadn't even noticed until I was face to face with his bare chest. I trace the indents of his body and the outlines of his tattoos until I come across something I never expected to see.

N.J.H. is tattooed on Harry's ribcage.

I turn his body around to get a better, and he begins to wake up.

"You're awake?"

"Harry," I stare at the tattoo in awe, "when did you get this?"

"Hmrgh?"

"Harry. The tattoo. Of my initials?!"

He scrunches his face before realizing what I was talking about,

"Oh..."

"Well?"

"Uhm, awhile ago. Zayn went to go get a tattoo after my first night at the kickboxing lesson, and I felt like getting one. So I decided to get your initials."

"Oh..."

"Do you like it?"

"I...I love it," I confess, "I just wish you told me."

"Why hm?"

He rubs my hipbone and kisses my nose as I continue,

"I would've gotten one with you."

He stops his loving touches and laughs quietly,

"You? A tattoo?"

"Yeah!" I say defensively, "A fucking tattoo, you twat! Right on my chin!"

"Your chin?"

"Well, no... that was just me getting defensive."

Harry grins and leans in to kiss my lips softly,

"Ready to see your nan?"

He asks me cautiously, knowing that it's not a light topic. I nod, sighing before I get out of bed and take his hand, dragging him to the shower,

"Get clean with me Styles."

"More like dirty," he rolls his eyes and chuckles, "I can't seem to keep my hands off you."

He grips my waist before picking me up with his two hands and carrying me to the bathroom. When he kicks the door open, we're fairly surprised at the size of the room.

"Every single time we go to a hotel, you somehow manage to get a gorgeous room. Please, let's not let this habit die."

"What, only with me for the nice hotels?"

"Oh hush," I stop him, "let's shower. And please; we need to get to the hospital. Don't fondle me."

"No promises."

•

The hospital my nan is in happens to be four hours away from the hotel we're staying at, so when Harry and I decide to take the bus, we're in for a surprise when we hear the length of our journey.

"Oh well," Harry shrugs, "we can sleep."

"Yeah, but the thing is, I slept a lot," I sigh, "It was my first night without a nightmare."

"What?" He looks at me in disbelief, "Niall this is great! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh," I'm the one shrugging now, "I don't really know... I was planning on it, but once I saw you next to me I got distracted."

"Oh," He smirks, "Yeah, okay. Like I'm gonna believe that."

"It's true!" I exclaim, hitting his arm. Someone taps my shoulder right after my loud outburst and I turn to them,

"Could you quiet down?"

Before I could even attempt to say anything, Harry is already talking for me,

"Could you turn around?"

The buff man snorts, turning around and putting his headphones in,

"You know," I mutter, "I could've said something."

"I know," he replies, "but I wanted to."

The bus ride from there consists of Harry napping and me on my phone. I still stay curled in his embrace, but mind my own business. He's snoring away as I text Louis, his concern shooting through the roof. It's not like we told him we were leaving ahead of time, so I gave him this freak out.

The one thing I wasn't talking about was the proposal. I wasn't even sure about that.

We're coming up on five months of dating. Five. Months. There's no way he can be so in love with me after so long. It's uncharted, uncommon. It's crazy, but it's Harry we're talking about so I guess it's okay.

For now.

I watch the world fly by as the bus speeds down the highway. Just looking at the scenery makes me sleepy all over again. Cars 2 is playing in the speakers for the children on the bus as their parents snore their lives away like there's no tomorrow. I stretch my arms out before throwing my sweatshirt over my head and finally caving into exhaustion.

I wake up three hours later, cutting off the time on our trip.

"I hate Cars."

I take the one earbud that was playing The Weeknd out of my ear groggily, slowly coming to from my slumber. Harry is awake now, watching the movie on the screen in front of us.

"Huh?"

"I don't like Cars. I think it's the only kids' movie I never liked."

"Really?" I rub my eyes and Harry gives me a late 'welcome back from your sleep' kiss. He nods and I roll my eyes,

"You hate everything."

"I love you."

"I know," I whine playfully. He smiles and leans down, biting my lip,

"Don't whine, you know what happens when you do that."

"Do I though?" I ask innocently. He looks to the other chairs, seeing that people have moved around and away from us since a couple stops have passed. Turning back to me, he climbs over to the window seat before pulling me onto his lap,

"Kiss me," he says, leaning up and I oblige, pressing my lips to his and holding his face. His hands sneak down to my bum as we kiss each other into that fantasy world where nothing seems to matter.

If I had come here without Harry, I don't think I would have made it.

•

The bus stops a few minutes later and once we get off, there's a car already waiting or us. Which I find strange, because my mom isn't that type of person. Nevertheless, we enter the car and partake in the short drive to the hospital.

"You okay?"

He asks me for the hundredth time and I nod emotionlessly, knowing that I could be too late already. It's then when my mum calls me. I fish my phone out of my pocket and answer almost immediately,

"Mum?"

"Niall she's losing oxygen we--we don't know what's happening."

"What!?"

Harry looks at me with concern and I move the speaker from my mouth,

"Tell him to drive fucking faster."

Harry knocks on the little window and calmly requests a faster pace as I listen to my mum's stammering.

"She I...she--"

She's trying to find words and tears are streaming down my face as Harry takes me into his arms, rubbing my shoulders. When I see the front of the Credit Valley hospital I almost fly out of the car, bursting through the hospital doors. Harry follows close behind, taking my hand tightly.

"Mum--mum I'm coming. We're here now I'm coming."

I stop at the front desk as I hang up, screaming for the lady at the front desk,

"Yes sir? Is everything alright?"

"I need to know what floor my nan is on," I can barely breath as I beg her to help me, "my mum's up there, and probably my entire family and--"

"Oh," she smiles calmly before searching through some files, "they're on the sixth floor. Best of luck."

"Thank you," I smile gratefully, my next step towards the elevators. Harry presses the 'up' button and we wait for it to come down. My fingers are shaking and my breathing is erratic but Harry still squeezes my hand softly before whispering a quick, 'It'll be fine' in my ear.

Once I hear the ding I'm bounding in with him dangling at my side, pushing my thumb against the '6' and thrusting my thumb onto the button again to close the doors right after.

We begin to move up and I try to breathe. Everything is going to be fine; it's always fine. No matter what, things eventually work out. I mean, look at Harry and I. We worked out, right? Why wouldn't this work out?

My hopes are almost restored, but then I hear a loud bang and feel the elevator jolt down. I know almost instantly what that means.

"No..." I mutter quietly, "god please no...not this."

I'm almost sprinting around the small space, trying to find some insane way to break free from the small box. There's no way this is happening now. There's no possible way that of all times, now the elevator had to break down.

"No please god please no!" I shout, slamming my hands against the metal walls, "Not now!"

Tears are falling rapidly from my eyes and my heart is tearing apart at the seams. Harry is trying to use the emergency contact button whatever it is on the elevator but I almost don't hear him when he says that the power must be out. The emergency light shines dimly in the dark space and I drop to my knees, screaming.

"God fucking DAMN IT!"

I cover my hands as I can't control my tears, falling back and curling into myself on the floor. I probably look like a complete idiot, but I'm not stupid enough to look past what must be happening.

Without power, there's no way for them to support her breathing quickly enough in order to have her vitals stable. Without the power, she's dying.

Or she's dead.

I wouldn't know anyway; I'm the one stuck in the elevator.

i. am so sorry. i will update next week too bc this was pretty damn short.