Chapter Ten and a Half

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The boys pushed themselves off of her and each other, dusting each other off in a flurry of coughs and the clearing of throats.

"I'm sorry--" Harry apologized, "it's just.."

"Hard." Liam finished. "We missed you."

Louis smiled sadly. Such girls, he chuckled. He noticed Zayn sitting forlornly, ruffling Niall's hair. Niall was glumly folded up in the cracked blue chair, his head down.

Louis paused. He knew that Niall had always been one of Eleanor's best guy friends, and that this had to be especially hard for him.

"Niall," Louis called softly.

Niall lifted his head from his hands and looked at Louis, shrugging away from Zayn's grip a little as he shifted.

"Do you wanna--"

Surprise, surprise, a couple nurses barged in, startling Eleanor and sobering the boys.

Loudly, a large nurse in purple scrubs announced that she was taking Eleanor to another unit to make some assessments and do a multitude of tests. Louis wasn't allowed to go, and neither were any of the boys.

"You'll be okay?" Louis asked Eleanor seriously, his ultramarine blue eyes making Eleanor redden. "Yes," she blushed, "I am."

The rest of the boys were already halfway out the door before Louis bound forward and snatched Niall's corduroy shirtsleeve.

Zayn, Harry and Liam halted. "You guys go without us," Louis encouraged. Niall didn't argue; just scuffed at the floor with his shoe.

"C'mon mate." Louis resolutely grasped Niall and the two of them took the elevator four floors down, and went to the comfortable and neat little library on the first floor.

At the front of the library, Louis bought them both coffees and sat down in a burgundy easy chair with Niall opposite him.

"You probably think I'm being stupid and immature," Niall said slowly, his eyes tracing patterns on the crumb-littered carpet, "having Eleanor be in such a bad position but having to worry about me. I'm... fine."

"No, Niall, it's just that--" Louis halted. Deep down, Louis and Niall felt the same way, but Niall always had his heart on his sleeve and showed his emotions plainly. Louis, on the other hand, hated showing when he was in pain or stress... But this whole Eleanor thing was tearing him apart inside. He wished he could just let it all out of his system, but --

I love her, Louis realized. The thought surprised him. Sure, he'd been telling Eleanor he loved her for years but this cinched it. He would never have been so crushed over a girl like this if he didn't truly love her.

For a moment, he felt smug, finding the one that was right for him. His soulmate.

Then reality crashed in. She didn't remember who he was or what they'd shared, except maybe the fact that he caused her to be where she was now.

Louis burst into tears.

Awkwardly, Niall smiled and leaned across his chair to pull him in for a snuggly embrace.

"You see," Niall murmured, soothingly running his hand up and down Louis's trembling back, calming his shaky sobs, "Don't worry about me when we should be concerned over you. We can get through this. We've made it work through thick and thin before, we'll do it again."

Louis cried into Niall's shoulder, not bothering to let the sobs subside. He knew he needed to get it of his system if he wanted to put up a controlled front before the boys and Eleanor.

"It's so scary to think that everything me and Eleanor have worked for, everything we've been through, might get thrown away. And-- and it's all my fault. I messed up so bad, Niall, and I just know Eleanor's the one. If something happens between us and she doesn't love me anymore, there isn't gonna be someone else, and--"

"Louis, it's going to be okay. Everything just takes time... Don't beat yourself up over it. You said it yourself that she's the one, and if its really true than everything will work itself out. If she loved you before, once everything comes back to her she'll realize that nothing's changed between you two."

"But what if she DOESN'T remember, Niall?" Louis scrubbed a shaky hand down his tearstained face.

"Then she'll fall in love with you all over again."

And that was all Louis needed.

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When Eleanor returned, the doctors concluded that she was completely fine now, and that certain things should trigger her memory-- which should, if there were no complications, return gradually.

Louis wasn't consoled. The phrase "if there were no complications" bothered him. What if there were complications?

The boys, on the other hand, picked up on the phrase "certain things should trigger her memory" and decided to tell her every memory of her they knew.

Louis and Eleanor's mother, Deborah, joined in. Every hospital visit rang with laughter.

"I remember when you were just eight years old and thought you were higher above the salt than your father," Deborah had said one day, her nostalgic smile filled with sadness.

"Well I remember the time we all went to the Starbucks on 53rd and Harry ended up spilling a whole iced coffee down my shirt," Zayn pointed out, prompting a laugh from Eleanor and a snort from Harry.

Louis pitched in, too, trying to jog Eleanor's memory with stories of their dates and such.

"I can remember the time we went to the Topshop Unique fashion show," Louis recalled, one particularly jovial August day when they were both alone. Greatly aware that their wedding was approaching, he had once told her of his proposal. While she was flattered, it was to no avail because she still hadn't remembered.

Louis deliberated the time Eleanor had asked him about what happened the night she was put in the hospital.

"Well, you had ran out because of an argument we had gotten into," Louis began slowly.

"No--" Eleanor interrupted, "I know what happened then. Why did I run out? What happened that was so bad it made me want to leave?"

Louis sat still. He decided to just come out with it. Omitting not a single detail because he felt she had a right to know.

"And then-- and then you ran out," Louis concluded, his hands fiddling in his lap.

"Oh!" Eleanor cried quietly. "Oh, Louis, I remember!"

Louis looked up uneasily. She was acting... Weird. Unsure.

Louis wanted to cheer, but stopped when he saw Eleanor's face redden.

"That's a good thing!" Louis smiled and stood up to hug her. He stopped when he saw her tremble. "What's the matter?"

"Why would you do that to me if you loved me?" Eleanor asked quietly.

The speakers buzzed overhead announcing visiting hours were over.

Louis pulled Eleanor in for a stiff hug as he was pulled out by a nurse."

"I love you, Eleanor," he called behind him.

But Eleanor was silent.

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