Chapter Seventeen

                                    

                                          
JACKJACQ-
So when I first started writing this chapter during early June, I had a reason for why updates were so slow: finals and my job. Now it's three (now five as of November) months later and I have no excuse for why I didn't update! Whoop whoop!! (:
                          
Sorry for the wait, but here's a new chapter.
                          
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Niall sighed, wobbling slowly down the hall, his hand pressed against the wall for balance. He'd lost a bit of stability on the left side because of his injury, but Liam'd told him that would solve itself as long as his condition improved. 
                          
Actually, he wasn't even supposed to be out of bed yet, but his health was a lot less important than Louis'. After he'd heard what had happened, he felt horrible. None of them would be in this situation if Niall had taken more precaution and had not gotten hurt. Instead, a simple stab wound caused Louis to suffer a lifetime of injuries. Niall frowned, disgusted at himself. 
                          
As he turned the next corner, Louis' room came up, door firmly shut. Niall hobbled the rest of the way over and turned the handle. 
                          
"Hey, Louis." Niall sighs, almost collapsing into a chair. "Sorry about all this. I'm not even sure if you can hear me, but this is really all my fault. If I hadn't been so careless--" Niall sucks his teeth. "Just. . .get better soon, and fast. Harry's going crazy even if he doesn't want to admit it. Someone's gotta get him to go to sleep." 
                          
Niall laughs to himself and leans his head against the wall. "Even if it doesn't seem like it because he closes himself off so much, he does care about you. At least, a lot more than the rest of us. We're expendable, but you're. . .special. So wake up quicker." 
                          
A knock on the door jam startles Niall. Liam walks in, clipboard in hand. "That's not how it works, you know." Liam smiles. "If only we could snap our fingers and click our heels and heal things--"
                          
"Well, any of y'sure you didn't?" 
                          
Liam and Niall both turn their heads towards the bed. Louis sat there, eyes only slightly open with a small smile on his lips. 
                          
Niall gasped. "Holy shi--"
                          
"Niall, shut up." Liam says, too busy flashing a light into Louis' pupils and checking the monitors.
                          
"It's a fucking miracle." Niall whoops. Meanwhile, Liam alerts the staff to go tell their Boss that Louis'd woken up. Louis is mumbling incoherently to himself the entire time, swaying between awake and asleep. It's only when Liam returns to the room that he's shaken completely awake. 
                          
"Let's get you up for a few tests, okay? The Don will see you in just a moment." 
                          
Liam then goes about checking Louis' injuries, applying balm on his scalp, and giving him another does of pain medication. 
                          
Just as he finishes redressing a bandage, the door suddenly slams open, letting the light from the hallway flood the already bright room. Harry stands there, hair in a wild disarray and chest heaving from the sprint two stories down from his office on the second floor -- although he'd never admit he was in such a rush. 
                          
When Harry sees Louis sitting up in the hospital bed he slumps against the doorway. "You're awake," he sighs happily. Louis, still drowsy, gives him a pillow soft smile. 
                          
"'s what everyone's been telling me," Louis sighs back. He pauses only a second before he waves Harry beyond the threshold. 
                          
Harry steps inside, not bothering to spare Niall or Liam a glance. "How are you feeling, duckling?" 
                          
Louis looked around at the ceiling. "Tired." He closes his eyes. "Never been this tired before. Think I'll sleep again soon." 
                          
Harry chuckles despite the worry lines between his brows. "Sleep? Again? Even though you've been asleep for so long?" 
                          
Louis yawns. "Yeah, think so." 
                          
Harry smiles and glances up at Liam and Niall who are still occupying unnecessary space. "Why are you still here?" 
                          
Niall, who was watching Louis and Harry's conversation, abruptly stands up. "Yep." And then he's gone. Liam takes a bit longer as he fumbles with his clipboard but, eventually, he's gone and out the door in a flurry too. 
                          
Harry turns back to Louis. "Before you go to sleep, babe. . .how are you?" 
                          
Louis, slightly loopy beforehand, suddenly breaks into shuddering breaths. "It hurts, Harry." 
                          
Harry stands up, knees almost knocking into the metal frame of Louis' hospital bed. "Where? I'll go get Liam, get you more medication. I swear, I told him I didn't want you--"
                          
Louis places a weak palm on Harry's wrist. "I'm not taking about physical pain," Louis gulped. "I'm talking-- I'm talking about. . .about the. . .I just woke up and I can't stop thinking about what's happened to me. Can't stop thinking about what it felt like, Harry, you don't understand what the reminder of what they did on my skin feels like because if you did--" 
                          
Harry shushes Louis' frantic voice, trying not to choke on the ball in his throat preventing him from speaking. "Louis, my love. I swear. I swear to you that I'll find whoever the hell did this to you-- to us-- and I swear I'll make what they did to you seem like a walk in the mother fucking park." Harry grabbed Louis' hand, gripping it tightly. 
                          
Louis let out a deep sigh. "Y'promise?" 
                          
"I would die for you, duckling. I swear this to you." 
                          
"You swear it to me?" Louis blinked one watery eye open to stare at Harry. He waited until he got a nod until closing his eyes again. "You better not break it," Louis grumbles softly. Harry then watches as the dilaudid IV Louis was injected with made him drowsy enough to fall back asleep, and waited until he could see the soft slow cadence of Louis' breaths in his chest before leaving to go find Liam. 
                          
When he does find Liam, he's speaking with another nurse about some other patients, and he quickly cuts in. "Meeting. My office. Now," Harry glares. Liam merely nods his head, hands the nurse the clipboard, and follows behind Harry. 
                          
By the time they've reached Harry's office, the Consligiere and his remaining Capos await them. 
                          
"Alright," the mafia Don says, walking behind his desk. "We're going to find these sukinsynów and we're going to find them by the end of the week. Or I'll find them myself, and by then, you'll all be fucking dead." [Cock suckers] 
                          
Harry looked upon the room and was met with determined, hard faces, all of them ready to exact their own revenge. "Well, then," Harry smirks. "Let's get started."