Eleanor and Louis : together.

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Louis sat numbly for a foggy moment and swallowed, staring at her.

"I--I'm Louis," he choked, tears of shocked realization dawning on him and threatening to spill down his cheeks.

Eleanor shook her head softly, pressing her hand to her temple and trembling.

"I-- I'm trying so hard to remember... You look familiar, but my head hurts.."

Louis let out a whimper.

"Why are you crying? Tell me what happened! Who are you..?" Eleanor shifted.

"We're going to be married in less than three months!" Louis sobbed, "We're engaged, and... And you got hit by a car over a stupid fight we had because you ran out, and..." Louis gaped helplessly, hiccuping with the sobs as they took over his body.

Eleanor tried to weakly sit up, propping herself on one elbow, her eyes tearing up.

"I believe you," she whispered. A single crystalline tear rolled down her face and landed on her pillow.

Almost as if it were an afterthought, she happened to glance at her hand.

"Wh-where's my ring?" she asked.

Louis slid his hand into his pocket and grasped it by the diamond.

"Do you remember?" He leaned over quietly, beginning to hand her the ring.

She extended her hand wordlessly, stretching until Louis pushed the band onto her thin, pale finger.

Eleanor watched languidly.

"It's gorgeous-- I'm so sorry that I don't remember, I..." she reached up and wiped her tears with her arm.

Louis sat up quickly, "Wait, I need to--" he reached over the bed and pushed the button resolutely. He opened his mouth to begin to explain, but the nurse barreled through the door, wringing the curtain open with such force that it rattled.

Louis cringed. "She's awake, miss--"

"Eleanor!" the nurse almost shouted. Eleanor cowered.

The nurse pushed a ton of buttons on more machines, adjusting tubes and taking notes.

"How are you feeling?" the nurse asked, not really paying attention. "Can you move all your limbs, remember everything from before..?"

"Frankly, no," Eleanor confessed. "It feels as if I've slammed my head against a wall every time I try to remember something, and everything's foggy. I feel like in being crushed between two stones."

Louis felt another flood of guilt. Eleanor had just gained consciousness, for crying out loud, and he was bombarding her with all these emotions and trying to make her remember. It was without a doubt unimaginably strenuous in Eleanor's position.

The nurse set down a monitor on the plastic table near the bed and walked out quickly, her white sneakers squeaking against the linoleum floor. "You should feel better now," she said, "but I need to bring in some other nurses and run tests, but just sit tight for about twenty minutes, alright?"

Eleanor almost imperceptibly nodded her head and sat still for a bit until the nurse left.

"Can I call the boys really quickly?" Louis said emotionally, "are you okay for a while?"

"Who are 'the boys'?" Eleanor asked curiously; Louis could tell she was getting slightly frustrated and he needed to tread carefully.

"They're my-- our--" how to explain this? "They're like my brothers. There's four of them..? Um, it's hard to explain." Should he say they were famous? "We're really close; in a band. Pretty well known."

Eleanor's brow knitted as she concentrated. "Everything's blurry," she said, "but something's tugging at the back of my thoughts. Uh, how well known, are you guys?"

"World famous," Louis admitted, his cheeks flushing a light scarlet. "One Direction," he stated. For some reason, he became modest (pun not intended). "It-- it doesn't really matter, but,"

"I'm your girlfriend?"Eleanor asked again suddenly. She was considering something, trying to piece something together in the hazy mist of her mind.

"Fiancé," Louis corrected, "but yeah, you were- are--why?"

"Did I get bullied by your fans?" she inquired.

"A little, but most of them liked you, even idolised you." Louis was uneasy. "El, you just woke up. Let me call the boys for a moment, okay? Do you need anything?"

Eleanor shook her head and primly took 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from her bedside table to try to read it as beat as she could.

Empathetically, Louis took his phone and walked down the hall and down four flights of stairs. Three missed phone calls and about six text messages later, he finally got Harry to pick up the phone. Typical.

"Harry, Eleanor woke up." Louis took a deep breath as Harry began cheering. "No, listen. She-- she can't really remember anything and we've had a pretty emotional morning. I was thinking you and the lads could come over for a light tea here and a quiet little visit?"

Harry stopped cheering.

"I'm so sorry, Lou." he said carefully, softly. He knew not to push it. "Are you thinking us being there will jog her memory a bit?"

"I don't know." Louis sighed heavily, running his hand through his tufted, bedheaded hair. "Just, tell the rest of the boys and be here before visiting hours are over, please?"

"I will."

"Oh, and Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"Love you too, mate."

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Within twenty minutes, the four boys had noisily clomped upstairs and into room 412.

"Eleanor!" they all cried elatedly when they walked in, engulfing her in a big bear hug.

"I appreciate this, really I do," said Eleanor under them with a muffled laugh. "But I can't say I know you very well."

Louis felt helpless and desperate.

Would he ever get the Eleanor he knew and loved back?

Would he ever hear her darling tinkly laugh again?

( this is the end of HALF of chapter ten; the next is gonna be 10 1/2 kay)