Remember When ↠ l.p.

Bearer of bad news

"No, I'm going to stay here for at least another hour." I tell my mother. It's been thirty dreadful minutes alone in Liam's room with Dr. Madison and I've stepped outside to make some phone calls. Before I left the room I asked Dr. Madison if they had contacted Liam's parents already. He managed to be almost polite and said that they had. Almost, because he would have pulled it off but at the last minute added a comment about how frail Karen sounded and how badly she took the news. I wanted to smack him. And that's just to begin with... 

"So what happened, you tore off without telling me any of the details. I understand of course, you wanted to get there as quickly as you could...but what's happened to Liam?" She asks, sounding both curious and concerned. I can hear the girls or a movie murmuring in the background.

"He's alright, sort of. The short story is that-" my voice breaks and I have to take a minute before I try to speak again. I need to get this over with now or else it'll be just as hard later on and in the next few phone calls that I need to make. "Liam tried to commit suicide and is now in the recovery section of their medical ward here. He's in a coma and they're not sure why he hasn't woken up yet."

"Oh Izzy!" I hear my mother gasp "That's terrible! Do they have any idea when he might recover fully?"

"No, they don't, at least not yet. And oh mother, there is this doctor they've brought in who is absolutely horrid. He's the only one I've talked to so far, the others are supposed to be getting back from their lunch break and coming to talk to me at some point, but for now I'm stuck with him and it's just making an already terrible situation three times worse!" I groan and lean against the wall outside of Liam's door. "And seeing him in this bed and with all of the wires connected to him and the IV...I've seen people in hospitals before, but this time is different-"

"You're in love!" My mother breathes out in excitement. I can't tell if she's excited and getting giddy about love and men like she will do at times or if a realization has come upon her. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bring that up again today."

"Dear?" 

"Sorry, I just hadn't considered that. I mean I might have but it didn't hit me until now." I take a deep breath, covering my mouth with the hand not being used to hold my phone. I move my hand down to my chest, over my heart. "I was going to say he just looks so small and vulnerable and it's so unlike him and it's so unfair. You're right though, I have some level of deeper feelings for him whether I want to accept it or not. And that certainly would change things a little...or a lot."

"I'm sorry, I am...look we'll talk more when you come home. I'm sure you want to get back to him. If you're going to be longer than you've told me just call again. Don't worry about us, we're doing fine here. Did you want to talk to talk to either of the girls?" She offers, no doubt beckoning them away from their toys or the TV screen.

"No, no, let them be. I'll try to be home in an hour or so. I'll talk to you then." I'm now walking back and forth in front of Liam's door, just to have something to do.

"Okay then, goodbye dear." She hangs up and I listen to the dial tone for a minute. Then I slowly pull the phone away from my ear and scroll through my contacts. It's true that I could just call Karen now and ask her to call the others. But there's at least one other person that I need to personally call to tell them this news. Besides, I want to put off crying for as long as possible and if I call Karen I doubt I can make it through the phone call without the both of us ending up in tears. Even if she already knows, you see, I want to let her know that I'm here and that I'm with him. And that he's doing okay, just not awake yet. I scroll until I've found Louis name and press the small icon with the picture of the phone on it. 

After a few rings the line clicks, indicating that it's been picked up. "Hello?" I voice drawls over the line, very British and quite a deep voice. "May I help you?" he asks.

"Harry? Hi this is um, Isabella? Theresa's nanny sort of person? Hi, I've got some news for Louis and I was wondering if he was there?"