little love

42

when calum woke up again, it took him a minute to process where he was. he blinked a couple times, then looked up, and saw a bed-

"a-ashton," calum gasps, quickly pushing his exhausted body up off the floor. luckily there was a couple blankets under his body, but he didnt even think about that. calum was worried about ashton.

when calum pushed himself off the floor, all three pairs of eyes turned to look at him.

"a-ashy!" calum cries, and holds ashtons face in his hands, "how d-do you feel?"

"im fine, love," ashton says, and calum can hear how weak he is, "how do you feel?"

calum just starts to sob. he was tired, stressed, scared, and everything in-between. all he could think about was how ashton was alive, and talking.

"what do you remember, cal?" michael asks softly, and reaches over to start petting his hair. calum has to gulp, and pull himself together for this conversation but he needed to know what exactly happened and what he could've done differently to help.

when he finally calms down, he frowns and feels more panic flare in his system when he sees all the wires and machines that ashtons connected to. it frightened calum.

"y-you..." calum trails off, laying one of his hands on ashtons chest, "you had a heart attack?"

"yeah," ashton whispers, and lays his hand on top of calums.

"is that all you remember?" luke asks, making calum nod. ashton takes a deep breath, and raises a hand to calums cheek so he can wipe away calums tears.

"it was a minor one, calum," ashton mumbles, "they caught it pretty early."

"it was still a heart attack, though," michael says, staring at ashton, "and you will rest for the next several weeks."

ashton just hums, and looks at calum, "babe?"

"how did you have a heart attack? was it my fault?" calum asks, and he starts to overwork himself again. tears cloud his eyes as he starts to panic.

"no, no," ashton says, trying to reassure calum, "it had been slowly happening all day. after the pain didn't fade i should've called the doctor."

"are you sure?" calum whispers.

"you did not cause my heart attack," ashton says with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"how about, we'll talk more about this later," michael says, interrupting them, "ash, you need to rest. i don't want you to overwork yourself by explaining this much."

"im not-"

"no, he's right," calum says, taking a deep breath, "you need to rest, ash."

"you're gonna stay?" ashton asks quietly, moving his hand to cup calums cheek, making calum sigh and nuzzle into the touch.

"we're all gonna stay," luke says, "now quit eye-fucking each other. mikey and i are here and its gross."

"too bad they won't be able to-"

"don't finish that sentence," calum says, then looks back at ashton, "how long will you be in the hospital?"

ashton sighs, "about a week."

"a week?"

"the doctors want to monitor him," michael says, deciding to explain it since he was there and fully conscious when the doctor explained what was going on, "even though they caught it early, they want to make sure all of his levels stay normal since it could still progress to a deadly heart attack. they have him on a bunch of pain meds, and they want to keep him as comfortable and pain free as they can. once he's good to go home, he'll be on a couple weeks of strict, did you hear me ash? strict bed rest. he'll be taking blood thinners, blood pressure meds, clot busters, and other medications to help."

calum nods, trying to take all the information in.

"how about you both rest?" luke asks softly. he knew they were both tired, and calum especially was stressed. they needed to sleep it off, and digest everything that had happened within the past twenty four hours.

calum pulls a chair up by ashtons bedside, sits down, and lays his head by ashtons waist.  within minutes of ashton running his hand through calums hair, the boy was fast asleep.

it was a long road of recovery with his heart attack, ashton knew that. there was going to be lots and lots of resting, and ashton wasnt sure what was going to happen. he was going to need a lot of help, and he was going to need more than what calum had.

not that he was pushing calum aside, he would never, but he knew he'd need all the help he could get.

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poor ash
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unedited
love u!