Unknown Letters (A Harry Styles FanFiction)

Chapter 22: Hospital

Lara's POV:

It's 3 in the morning and my phone starts buzzing under my head.
I frantically get it and answer "Hello" I sigh into the phone.
"Lara..I ne-eed you." It's harry, and he's crying.
"Harry, what's wrong?"
"Just come here fast."
"Where are you?"
"At Marty's Bar, it's 45 minutes away."
"Okay." I hang up.
Why the hell is he at a bar at 3 am, and why is he calling me.
I quickly slip on navy skinny jeans and a plain gray sweatshirt.
I go outside and walk four blocks until I'm in in the city. I stand on the side of the road and get a taxi.
"Marty's bar." I tell him and hand him 25$ so I don't forget when we arrive.
After about 30 minutes, he pulls into the parking lot.
"Thank you, have fun." He mumbles and drives away when I'm out of the taxi.
I step into the bar and immediately spot harry sitting at the bar on the far side.
I walk up and sit next to him.
"Oh thank god you're here." He says and leans over and hugs me real tight.

"What's wrong Harry?" I question.
"It's my mom."
"I figured, what happened?"
"She started puking up blood every five minutes. She couldn't stop." He continues, "So Grace called 911."
"Oh my god, do they know why?"
"They did a bunch of tests on her. They think she has Gastritis and Duodenitis."
"I've never heard of that before."
"Yeah it's not very common. It usually happens to people with bike reflux, extreme stress from surgeries, were put on a breathing machine, and people who used to or do excessively smoke or drink."
"Oh, what is it?" I question.
"Gastritis is inflammation of the stomach lining and Duodenitis is inflammation of the small intestine."

"Oh my god, what does that do to her?"
"Makes her, well anyone vomit, burning or cramping in the stomach, feel full when they've just begun to eat and a lot more."
"Why was she puking blood?"
"Internal bleeding. Her shits black from it too. At first Grace said she was puking what looked like used coffee grounds but now it's full on blood."

"I'm so sorry Harry." I say as tears start streaming down his face again.
"Can you take me back to the hospital? Grace is still there."

"Yes come on." I put my arm around his back to steady him. I'm pretty sure he's not drunk but he surely isn't well.

We make it to his car and he gives me directions to the hospital.

"We have to go to the third floor." He tells me.
I start to head towards the elevator but then he simply says "stairs."
I follow him without questioning.
We make it to the third floor, and he runs towards the waiting room. At first I don't know why but then I see a really tall doctor talking to a little girl. I assume that's Grace.

I quickly walk into the waiting room and stand off next to Harry.

"You must be Harry, I'm Doctor Shall." He puts his hand out and shakes Harry's.  "I was just telling Grace how brave she is and how big of a help she is." He smiles down at her.

"Yes she is a huge help." Harry agrees and rubs Grace's back.

"And who are you?" Dr.Shall asks me.

"My name's Lara, I'm uh, I'm.." I glance over at Harry, he quickly finishes for me, "she's my girlfriend." He says with a smile.
"Well nice to meet you Lara." He says.

"Okay if you guys would please sit down so we can discuss what's going on with Ms. Cox."
We all sit on a couch against the wall and Dr.Shall pulls up a chair infront of us. He looks down at his papers on his clipboard.
"As you all know she has Gastritis and Duodenitis. Sadly we did not catch it in time, so she started to bleed internally. We did try and do an Endoscopy but the inflammation was too great to great through. We put her on Antibiotics, Acid Reducers and Antacids. We also have a breathing mask on her because she wasn't having difficulty breathing on her own."
Harry is staring intensely, you can tell he's listening to every little detail Dr.Shall has to say.
"Why isn't she on a breathing machine?" Grace asks.

"Well Hun, that would make it worse. That's one of the reasons she has this disease, she's been on them too many times."  She just nods her head, I'm sure she only understood half of that.

"We want to keep her here for four days to make sure the treatments are working greatly on her. You can go in and see her in the morning. She's still in a deep sleep." He says, and starts to stand up.
"Have a nice night." As he walks away, harry quickly gets up and chases after him. I decide to stay with Grace.
I look over to her and she's crying again.
"Hey sweetheart, it's going to be okay. Harry and I are here." I say and start to rub her back. She latches on to me right away, so I pick her up and rock her back and forth.
After only a couple minutes, Harry slowly walks up to us.
He kisses us both on the head. And whispers in my ear "She only has two weeks."
"Oh Harry, I'm so sorry."  I glance up and see tears streaming down his face for the millionth time tonight.